BOTM 249: Mansa Musa, Emperor - Final Spoiler - Game Submitted

[MarleysGh0st]

BOTM 249: Mansa Musa, Emperor - Final Spoiler - Game Submitted



Use this thread to tell us what happened in your game, particularly anything after 1AD

Did you win?

Reading Requirements
If you are participating in BOTM 249 then you MUST NOT read this thread unless

• You have submitted your entry

Posting Restrictions

• Do not post any savegame file from the game. Discussions and screenshots are fine but not actual games.

 

[nocho]

While building up for war, Hannibal declared on me, which he came to regret 2 centuries later by bending the knee. Used mainly maces and trebs for that. Then attacked Zara with knights and vassaled him too. Meanwhile Shaka got himself a vassal too in Egypt. He decided to declare on me before I could do the same. The war dragged on quite a bit as Egypt would never unvassal from Shaka until Shaka was completely conquered. By the time I got Shaka's last city, Egypt was also down to 1 city, but there I tripped domination. A turn later it would have been a toss up with conquest.

 

[Powerfaker]

Since I failed space with Mehmet I tried again with Mansa, and this game went real smooth.

After 1AD 2 more settlements westwards and 2 in the north + conquered a barb city on the river near Zara.
I did a bit of religious gaming, spreading Confu and building Apostolic + Sankore.
I also built MoM without marble, something I hardly ever do. Ramses and Shaka were the most likely competiton for this wonder.
Focused on science + infra development while heading for Edu / Lib=>Communism, run one golden age meanwhile, and such. Next stop right after was MT. I had a set of knights prepped for upgrades and invaded Hannibal.
Warring went on 1100 to 1400AD during which I eliminated Hannibal, followed by Zara. This got me close to the domination limit. Gifted one city to Ramses to keep a decent margin this time.
Reached Assemly Line 1290AD, 3T into the Taj golden age ( started Taj build right after access to marble from Cathage), which was followed by 3 more GA in a row. I launched exactly the turn the last golden age ended, wonderful timing..... (calculate the date if you like ... )

I got some resistance from Shaka when he joined Hannibal in war and later DoWed on his own once. He had decent numbers but no quality, so not a big deal. From 10T before launch Ramses was being annoying with emancipation, frustrating my tech/build ratio a bit.
Funny thing Chicken Pizza got built as late as1310AD. I had been putting hammers on it for a long time in multiple cities for failgold, which happened to build up to 3300gold eventually.

 

[Conquistador 63]

I started playing this one a week ago. As I'm a slow player, I thought I should pursue a quicker peaceful VC, so I could finish before the submission deadline...which I just did.

I should have done as everyone else and settled the PH, but for some reason I did not want the southernmost tiles to be left unused forever, so I settled in place.

That probably hurt my expansion and overall progress. At 1AD I had 9 cities (40 pop), most northbound by the river and then hugging the coast up to the wheat, copper, 2x horses site. But that expansion hurt my economy, techwise I got only up to Alpha, Calendar, Monarchy(trade) by 1AD.

Luckily, Ramesses was diligent to spread his hindu religion to almost everybody, except for Zara who was buddhist, then Taoist and started to run his favorte civic (theocracy). After Ramesses built the AP, I couldn't resist the call to a religious victory.

Unfortunately Shaka won the first resident vote (against Ramesses, the AP owner) and sat there for centuries proposing (unsuccessfully) to stop trading with Zara. When finally the 2nd resident vote came, I was elected (everyone but Zara was friendly with me), then I gave Zara a jungle size 1 city with hinduism, and won a late AP victory on the first available vote.

Funny thing, I teched until I was 1t away from Mass Media in 1360AD (got Electricity from Lib in 1210AD, Radio in 1330AD) but refrained from completing it (to avoid obsoleting the AP) as Shaka had finally DoW'ed Zara in 1360AD, and I was afraid he would overtake Zara as 2nd in pop and therefore become my rival in the UN vote, complicating things unnecessarily. I even got 2 GE's in the 1400's which could have been used to rush the UN, but they were left unused, as 3 other Gpersons.

Thanks for the game! Now waiting for BOTM250 to be announced

 

[kcd_swede]

I had to rush things to meet the deadline, but in fact that just slowed my progress down. I would have won, probably a late domination. But instead I went for a RV, but Ethiopia had everyone else as vassals, and I could not infect Shaka with Confu without OB, so I went to war with everyone everywhere all at once. I would have won, but it would be a long slog... and the deadline is in like 40 minutes, so I will just submit incomplete and thank you all for the game.

 

[Xcalibrator]

Nice to see you again, kcd. I hope to have time in April to try a game.

 

[kcd_swede]

Thanks... it is great to be back, and I am so very grateful for all the people who keep it going!
And yeah... I should have just gifted a confu city to Shaka instead of making war. I have forgotten more than I ever learned, I guess. Anyhow, it is fun remaking all the mistakes.