CC Skipper I: Mineless Khan

Checked out the tech tree. The last techs you can research are: Gunpowder, Liberalism, Military Tradition, and Constitution.

.....Ouch. :lol:

Banned techs up until the above: Mining, Metal Casting, Iron Working, Compass, Machinery, Engineering, Optics, Guilds, Banking, Printing Press, Replaceable Parts, Economics.

That also throws out Workshops and Watermills, meaning that Organized Religion, Police State (by Pyramids), Forests, Plains, Hills, Cows, Horses, and Quarries will be your only sources of hammers.
Keshiks and Catapults for the win!!!!!! (though, Cultural is also an option, albeit a tough one).
 
I would not take elephants out of accounts...

edit: doesn't Economics require banking?

Ah, yes. forgot about that one. ;)

All techs banned by Mining (small, blurry pic of tech tree, sorry :()

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NoMining.jpg
 
Well I lost my shadow :(

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Everything was going as planned, unfortunately, I completely blew the diplomatic situation.

Boudica ended up completely killing Zara, so she had more land than me. Not thinking ahead, I didn't get her to pleased before I declared on Justin. She went WHEOOHRN the turn after I declared, so I gifted her CoL and something else to get her to pleased and begged 10 gold to force peace. That gave me enough time to get a respectable defense force in my western cities. She declared when the 10 turns of peace was up, and sent a huge stack of veteran units that I barely held off.

By this time, I had Justinian down to 3 cities, and was preparing to wipe him out when he surprisingly capped to WK. WK must have just gotten feudalism that turn.

Now Justin has longbows everywhere, WK is sending stacks from the east, and Boudica's second stack is too big for me to stop, and she still refuses to talk even though I completely destroyed her first stack.

I can't remember screwing up diplo that bad before. No one left on the map declares at pleased, and I still end up dogpiled by the entire map? Oh well, it happens.


Regarding the challenge:

Spoiler :
Mining is definitely the hardest starting tech to skip, but I don't think it's as big of a deal as it seems. You can easily get a very formidable army with just forested hills. I'm sure someone on here will win a pre-1000AD conquest victory. Just make sure to not get the world to declare on you...
 
I would say build a large army of keshiks and plan to upgrade to cuirassiers when necessary. If you can't hold/pay for the land you conquer, then I would suggest just razing and moving on. If an AI gets rifling on you that could make conquest/dom very difficult to say the least.
 
To 440 BC - The fury of Narantsetseg

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I had to make report from screenshots mainly...

First i got insult from Ethiopia
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Tradeslikethat.jpg

Mongolia will explain them that mining is absolutely stupid... In future.

At moment our gloriuos leader has some other ideas...
First scouting justinian revealed he had metals
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justinianaxes.jpg

We explained their mistakes in short and furious way. Kept two cities i believe with remainng ones being burnt down... And we destroyed all these pagan mines... Wait, a second we are pagan too...

Was not very smooth as they apparently learned to counter horses
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firstspear.jpg

Officially first spear of campaign:lol:

Meanwhiles capital was undergoing some Marble inovation
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Oracle.jpg

We grabbed Code of laws which somehow forced confucianism to appear.
Since Confucius was not propaganding mines Narantsetseg [i was told this is nice Mongolian name] let that be.

Meanwhile western front had big news:
Spoiler :
holyelephant.jpg

It will take time till mongols will learn to ride these beasts, but even now =it caused lots of hapiness.

I also went for Monarchy due to happiness, clear mistake, should have gone for Currency, especially since we traded our law code for ethiopian alphabet...

Meanwhile spies were telling our stupid neigbours koreans finally teched ironworking

Sudenly some grassland started looking rather strange
Spoiler :
suspiciousgrass.jpg

I do believe two iron spots... Wang never made any metal trops, although pro archers were problem... But nothing few Keshiks could not solve.

And i really mean few [<10] of course run was geeting to extreme - I was scouting future enemies with captured workers, had next to zero defenses and at certain cases even was attacking with w=veterans first to get more odds of survival...

Of course this backfired
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backfire.jpg

O our glorious miskeeped city. Took it back next turn, unluckily i did not have an option to raze it... People in Antium were kissing feet of Narantsetseg to save their heads...

Korea was burned to ground, except Seule which i kept
Spoiler :
Seoul.jpg


Well, i am loosing money on zero now, but i can switch in few fresh wate lakes, cottages in Roman land are growing, winery under constructio and of course Caste i alraedy revolted in alllows to run merchants:lol:.

Techwise
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techs.jpg


440BC and three dead AI's with grandtotal of one spear:lol::lol::lol:

Knowing Asoka's unit probability I am sure i can get him excluded with Keshiks, when i can use indian land and one extra city at extreme south to block remaining Ai's form waste land tracts on East.

When elepult... I think i will go on anyway.

When again i do not know last AI - who is budhism founder. very well might be Monty with trillion of trrops blocked by Zara...


about a challenge
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more or less showcase of Keshik power... I'd guess if played optimally it can be pre 1AD conquest. Unluckily i have bad habbit to tech and build wonders...
 
to 5BC - end of era

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Well, i started by gearing towards India... One thing which was bothering was
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handsofAsoka.jpg

That could mean he was building some more troops over his average quantity...

I also had small problem in SE.
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slightproblem.jpg

Well, i learned korean lesson and putted preventive forces...

Zara was teching not bad for Monarch level. Even had Philo in 300BC... This meant i simply settled by GS for beakers [and hammer]
All round i was loosing money at zero %, although i only had short period of having less than 100 in bank...
I simply kept to much cities... Should have geared for conquest and raze campaign...
Oh, well, you live and learn.

Dheli's best protection was ... culture
Spoiler :
Dheliassault.jpg

Not oh so great odds right? Wrong:
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Afterwithdrawal.jpg

I got my withdrawal tickets and took that city without loses. Kept it as it was holy and had some production potential...

I also kept Bombay.
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Bombay.jpg

Well, not for stonehenge but for jumbos. Although Narantsetseg was damn happy to own all world wonders built to the moment.

I took piece after Bombay, cause i could get Maths, which was on path to Construction and made Currency cheaper.

I suffered some more problems with Zara
Spoiler :
gaffeonZara.jpg

Top that with -5 for Declaring on his friends...

Of course i redeclared on Indians. Took last city which i kept
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blockcomplete.jpg

This one completed sealing off eastern lands and ruining economy... I actually was still in loss at zero after Currency...
I also started doubting if i need that block, as Zara was on five cities and in full hand mode...

On other had i had already 30% land
Spoiler :
landgrab.jpg


Few more settlements and some border push with artist probably could put me near domination... But i always thought Conquest earns lot of more stylewise.

I actually managed get Zara to pleased with this:
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foodsend.jpg

Well, i did not like paying but if he was [as i suspected at war with last AI and sealing that one out] i was protecting my homeland very efficiently...

Soon i met our last leader. Well, Narantsetseg said Boudica had neither style nor brains...
Speaking about brains:
Spoiler :
Boudicatechs.jpg

I can bribe her out of Zara. I also used relation screen to figure why Asoka had full hands. Apparently Zara bribed him into war against Boudica...
She hated me even through getting bonus on military struggle vs Asoka.

Speaking about India:
Spoiler :
endofAsoka.jpg

Keshiks found him in last tundra city guarded by elit spearman. If that could help him...
Very soon Narantsetseg got fourth head into her collection.

Well, meanwhile Zara managed to get Construction+HBR+phants:
Spoiler :
phants.jpg


Two sources, pickable from two cities:cry:. That meant end of Keshiks era.

Situation overview -
Zara - 5 cities no metals - horses, cats, elephants, good research with Monarchy already, might tech longbows before my next push. I do have Currency on him, but he won't trade since me and Boudica means he is left with lots of monoply techs...
Boudica - 7 cities backwards, I do believe i saw gallic so metal. Horses, but, no phants, no cats, no HA. can be bribed out of Zara [if she would start gaining too much land over him..]
Narantsetseg - 13 cities, loosing money at zero [well, i can switch one more city to currency to stop this.] about 15 turns till construction - ten till next GP [i will use him on Golden age to get production up]. I do imagine i have 5 production sites - 3 original mongolian cities+Dheli+Rome. That means i can have 10cats +10jumbos in something like 25-30 turns. This should be force for final push.
Currently mighty army consists of 6 warriors [military police] and 8 Keshiks.

Of course there is a question whom to hit first, as remaining one has a chance to expand... Depends on situation... I'd probably go for Zara while building reinforcements... Even if he will have longbows...

I probbaly also will need to cancle all these granaries coming in 30 turns [in cities scrapping ywo hammers] in switch more towards wealth build...
Of course if i will see something not protected by Phants i will use Keshiks...
 
No Melee units (You need mining)

Not excatly hunting+metals for trade= spearmen... Why you should ever build them is another question

Anyway to 880AD - finish

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Well, i started by cancleing granaries and ordering lots of wealth... C'mmon i even managed to get green numbers while having ten percent research.

25AD- mongolian spies detected Zara is teching Feuadalism...

100AD - construction done. Use Great Scientist on Golden Age. Start troop build. start researching Feudalism. Well, i surely could use some capitulations if i want to win in era of phantapult...

265AD - troops are being built and slowly shipped toward Bombay. Boudica has hands full and is annoyed with me, but luckily Zara won't open borders with her so i need to protect small front.
Of course Zara declare on pleased, but he has worst enemy and 90% peace on pleased...

I also do raze barb city - both to prevent Zara getting it and gain some cash. Workers are finishing road works and are being deleted... Well, in end i had zero:lol:
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barbcity.jpg


340Ad - i notice party
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Boudica.jpg

I guessed she was going to declare, but persuaded myself she was on Zara, so i place my slowly growing forces in some fancy positions, so they could come to defend or go join in rampage on Zara.

Very next turn she send that stack on my stack of Keshiks... Result was something like 6:1 in my favour
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soonish.jpg

I finished survivors, picked my elephants+catapults and went on her. Still it was first time AI declared on me in neutral territory...

Zara was continuing insult us with that stupid mining
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moreinsults.jpg


Meanwhile i reached first *celtian* city
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Yeha.jpg

Speed of phants and cats was killing me after that rampage of Keshiks.

City itself was not a problem, problem was Boudica refused open borders all the time and my spy simply did not went into Celtian land in time...

Luckily since Keshiks were iognoring terrain i could use them to move one tile and when catch up stack even in heavily forested area.
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Scoutinginwar.jpg

Tricks like that and seeing dirrection Boudica's counterforce wsa coming was enough to locate source of nonsense

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Capitol.jpg

Well, all that bobardment, stack healing was making me sick...
On other hand soon i saw Bibicrate from inside:
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capfrominside.jpg

Shrine was nice...

I did more scouting and moved towards new cap
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morescouting.jpg

I thought that elephant was pretty much dead, but celts were total chickens... Well, i did not even get that city, just flatened walls, repelled Boudica's suicide attacks [i was actually upgrading archers to longbows on Celtian loot] and she kneeled before Narantsetseg.
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caps.jpg

Adis whatever was not even bad city, but i took poly instead. Not that i would need it, but at least that one was not costing in upkeep.
I also gave Boudica her cities back [except Yeha which she was not taking]. Well, i was approching red zone again...
i had two cities ordered to build cats non stop, and two on phants, while Rome was making longbows... Overall i was getting to unit/per turn...
I also teched Calendar since i had non covered spices and sugar [probably could have got that from Boudica, but i had nothing to research anyway].

Soon i found i could have trade for iron
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irontrade.jpg

Well, again, why i would need spears?

I used Celtian stack to attack from SW while another fresh went from NE and i ordered Boudica attack in NW arrea... Well, ofcourse i attacked Zara. I had no more targets...

Let say he was very angry with his sister in faith... Like that
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Zarasanger.jpg


Well, i also found use for that spy in Aksum
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revoltinAksum.jpg


Well, i was not in mood to protect Ethiopian cities. I razed everything i could.

Not that Zara had lots of troops but things like this were annoying
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bloodbath.jpg

Using siege was preety stupid so i used Keshiks and Flanking II elephant, meanwhile my warlord HA was getting in 70xp department...

To my surprise Boudica really send some trops were she was told to
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Boudicasstack.jpg


Story actually repeated i flatened Gondar walls, Zara suicided few cats and he capped.
I was really close to domination
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But i like Conquest movie lot of better. Especialy since in chess parts black ones win...

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builds.jpg

Add four curthouses, four archers and something like 8 longbows... Apparently that was really skeleton infra game:lol::lol::lol:
Well, Mongolia not having even single library... And i still got my Ceasar's ranking and
148450 score.

Also i believe that is nearly first pre 1000AD finish for me in which liberalism was not even close to being a factor...
 
The spearman would be useful for anti-cavalry situations, unless you happen to be using Elephants instead, in which you won't need spearman really.

This game actually seems fairly historically accurate.. the Nomadic Mongols didn't build mines! They relied on the forests for production! :lol: I think I may try this out on an Earth map..
 
I would say build a large army of keshiks and plan to upgrade to cuirassiers when necessary. If you can't hold/pay for the land you conquer, then I would suggest just razing and moving on. If an AI gets rifling on you that could make conquest/dom very difficult to say the least.

No Iron, no Currasirs.

You can still trade AFter Mining techs right?
 
Not if you need Mining for em :lol:
 
You can trade for resources without knowing the tech for them, so if you can trade (or demand from a vassal) iron, then you can build cuirassiers.
 
Barracks/Ger/14 Keshiks with no mines/chop/whip must have taken a while. Ur lucky u were able to capture all that land.
 
I must say, good sir, you have left this to rot, if I may use such horrid language, for quite long enough, sir! If I may ask, when is the first installment of this fine idea going to be? If it is soon, and I quite hope it is (as, I'm sure, many civ enthusiasts are), I applaud you and wish you good luck.
 
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