Genghis Khan - A meandering adventure in glory

[seasnake]

Okay, this is my first time doing a story as well as my first time playing as Genghis Khan. Before we get this going, I'm going to tell you a few things about myself and this tale that's about to happen.

First, I am not an expert player in this game. That means I don't have an optimal way to play the game. I sort of pick a strategy but I don't necessarily try too hard to stick to it if something else starts out. Also, I'm only playing on Prince difficulty so it's not like this is going to be the guide on how to beat this game on Deity or anything. I like to just have an enjoyable game and I prefer role-playing to optimization, I'm strolling through the hills here not climbing Everest or K2.

Second, I'm pretty busy at the moment, Civ V is one of two games I'm playing with any regularity at the moment. This means that this thread will be updated when it is convenient, usually late at night.

Third, I'll spend some time monologuing on these posts and I'll be wondering aloud about my next moves. If anyone is bothering to read and wants to comment or suggest, feel free.

Finally, I hope this forum will be a fun and relaxed place to discuss the game and socialize a little bit. Some off-topic will be fine, but let's just keep it civil and have fun and stay within the general vicinity of Civ V.

That done, let's start this: I'm playing a Large Map, Epic Speed, with Genghis Khan, Continents, all other settings normal. Workers are set to leave forests and old improvements when automated. No mods employed, latest patch installed. I've never played as Genghis before, and I'm usually a peaceful player who loves playing as Siam, Iroquois, Arabia so this is a bit outside my usual style.

My over arching strategy is this: I intend to use Genghis ability to take one city state fairly early in the game once another state has given the "serious disagreement" quest. I'm hoping that way I'll either make friends with a cultured or maritime state while seizing what is, always, a pretty good city site. I only intend to build four or five actual cities in key places. My social policy focus will be maxing out Honor and Autocracy, but I'll probably use Liberty for the early benefits such as the free worker and great person as well as the bonus to worker production and city culture. Everything else is negotiable.

My victory condition will probably be an attempt at space race in the modern or future era.

 

[seasnake]

First off, let's look at the map.



Okay, so the gods have seen fit to start me on the coast, but only one tile of coast (which is optimal in my opinion), with wheat, fish, sheep, marble, and Ivory all nearby. Excellent start.

My first priority is to explore the map for likely victims ... I mean city-state allies. Friends! I come in peace! So I'm building a Scout. Second is finding Horses for the Keshik and the bonus mounted movement, so I'm researching Animal Husbandry while I reveal the map. Let the game begin.



Okay, pretty close by is Helsinki, which is near Cotton. I'm the first they've met and I get 30 gold for my trouble. Here's hoping for their sake that I find something a little more tempting.



Ding ding ding! We have a winner. Kuala Lumpur is pretty darn close as well (note that lack of fog of war at the top, that edge of Karakorum's line of sight), has a source of Pearls, and is the owner of Mt. Fuji, which is pretty much like having a free landmark in your city. So I'm pretty stoked. Helsinki is breathing a collective sigh of relief right now. I'm hoping that since these two are pretty close (note it only took three turns between the time I found one and another) that they'll have a serious disagreement and Helsinki will want me to wipe out Kuala Lumpur, so I can get a Friend and a Natural Wonder.

So, my next moves:
I need to decide what to build next. I'm leaning toward a monument to get some social policy production and then a Warrior.
My research track after Animal Husbandry is wide open. If my capital was on a river I'd move for the Wheel to get the water wheel building, roads and build toward Animal Husbandry, but since it's not I'm leaning toward Masonry and then Trapping to get my Luxuries in my city and start getting golden age points as early as possible. After that, I need to push toward Animal Husbandry and Iron in some order.
Finally, my social policy selection will be tricky. Both Liberty and Honor have a lot more value the earlier you unlock them. Liberty will give me the extra culture points and make subsequent social policies easier to acquire, and then I'll be one policy away from a free worker. Honor will protect my units from Barbarians, make fighting a lot easier and put my one policy away from getting a free Khan. Leaning toward Honor at this point.

I'll be back tomorrow with an update. Maybe I'll even meet somebody!

 

[chrome-rome]

good intro...can't wait for more

 

[DragonHead]

I'll drop in while waiting for maltz.

I suggest looking at a few of his stories- they're awesome- I have started a thingey, for all fans.

Nice start- waitign fro more. (Subscribed)

 

[seasnake]

Part 2: Making Friends and finding stuff

Okay, I confess I'm a junkie for two eras: The early era when you have a few scouts revealing the map and then when you get Embarkation and start scouring the map with ships. I love the feeling of exploration and discovering new horizons, and I love that in Civ V you're exploring for a long, long time. So scouts and warriors are combing the world and low and behold we find some artifacts! We get 45 culture, and we suddenly get to pick our first social policy and we're on our way to the second. Further, Horses are discovered just slightly northwest of Karakorum



The first policy was honor, and just a few turns later we get Liberty, and now Karakorum is producing 4 culture per turn. This also means that on my next policy I will be able to get that free worker plus the bonus to worker production. I'm researching masonry right now with the idea that I'll be building the Pyramids and getting Quarries going as soon as I get that free worker. The city is putting out a few warriors for barbarian cleanup.



A few turns later and I just bought my first tile, the top-right city tile. My plan is to meet some more city-states and then, when I have enough gold, get that tile with the horses. I'm also researching Pottery quickly because I have two wheat in the city radius and after I finish the pyramids I want to crank out a granary and a stable (Animal Husbandry is coming up too). My hope is after I develop my Marble and Ivory that I will be able to trade the Ivory to someone for enough money to buy a settler.

Speaking of friends, I've now met Kamehameha and Darius! Both like me. Kamehameha is closest and I've discovered there's a narrow neck of land separating me and the other civs. Polynesia is protecting Kuala Lumpur, so that may lead to some ruffled feathers when I crush them.



You see in this shot the narrow neck of land that separates me from the rest of the civs. Near it is my next city site: It will guard against land invasion, is near gold and silk, has a river AND a lake, and is near Kuala Lumpur which will be mine eventually. As soon as possible I'm going to settle it and give NO ONE open borders, and just calmly settle the top 4 or 5 spots in my little corner of the world.

Oh, and I've met Isabella and Ramses. Ramses said Hi and then promptly retreated into his own little world again. I don't think he'll remember me tomorrow. Darius and Kamehameha have each asked if I want to declare war on Isabella with them. She just bugs people, doesn't she? I always want to summon my inner John Wayne when I see her and say "Little sister is that empire coming or going?"



So now I have Horses in my city! I bought that tile I've been craving. I got the gold for clobbering a few barbarians and even made friends with Lhasa (which is far from me, but near to where my warrior was exploring). Pyramids are coming along ... slowly. Where's my whip? Oh, they took it, dang.



Here comes my first free worker! And best of all I'll be poised to select a free great person next time or the get the free Khan from the Honor tree. I have no idea what I'll get. But anyway, that worker is now going to give my luxuries than some wheat, and then I'll get the Horses.



Well, I'm now enjoying 15 Happiness per turn and have the wonder build bonus from the Marble. I'm close to getting the Pyramids, which I love because then you can pretty much terraform and piece of land in a few turns. Since you can't worker stack I find the combination the Pyramids and Citizenship is an excellent way to get your cities improved. For some reason the AI rarely prioritizes this wonder.

So, my next moves:
I've got to get two or three settlers pretty darn quick, I need to get a couple of more cities. I'm currently researching Iron and it will be critical to have one city near Iron. Then I want one city to guard that neck of land, probably one more near a couple of extra sources of ivory I've found. I'm considering taking the free settler from Liberty and then trading my Ivory to someone for gold and buying another, then building a granary and a settler. That rapid settler expansion will really hit my happiness, so i think I'll settle near the luxury resources I saw earlier first and sending my worker there to build it up quickly.

My big questions are these: Is it worth the free settler to put off getting my Khan or other Great Person? And what Great Person should I get. My research is really dragging so an Academy would be excellent, but a landmark would also be really useful and a manufactures are really powerful in the early game. Wonder rushing is an interesting idea, but frankly the only wonder I'd rush is Stonehenge and Calendar is far down the list. Or I could take a Khan from Meritocracy and Khan from Honor and have two, which could prove to be a decisive edge in any war.

Right now I want to finish Iron Working and then Horseback Riding, and then grab Mathematics. I want two catapults, two spearmen, three Horsemen and a Khan when I begin my assaults, and I want them soon!

My research track is set, my social policies and great people selections less so. I'll just play it by ear.

 

[seasnake]

Update tomorrow, had a great weekend but didn't really play civ.

 

[Save_Ferris]

Consider me hooked!

 

[seasnake]

Okay, this is a large update which I lovingly call -- From Worst to First!

Okay so when last we left off our hero, Temujin, had some problems: His economy was stagnating, he had only one city, his research was slow and he wasn't sure what kind of Great Person to select when he earned it. His tech path was up in the air and his army had just lost both scouts to Barbs. However, there was some hope on the horizon as well.



First, he has completed the Pyramids! This, coupled with Citizenship policy, means his worker will now be able to quickly access resources in his future cities, once he gets them. Second, he has two resources he can sell for cash if needs be. He's just waiting until he gets that Golden Age dawns, he's close now. Third, he just liberated a Spanish worker from Barbarian hands on the mainland, and he's keeping it! So he now has two workers who move like Speedy Gonzalez.



Temujin decides his next moves are to build a Granary to boost his food in Karakorum and to put off Horseback Riding and Iron Working (which were taking forever) in favor of Writing and Construction. Writing is to get some Libraries going, Construction for the Lumber Mills (which will synergize great with his forest tiles/speedy workers) and Colosseums.



Golden Age Dawns! He can now sell his resources, and he does to Egypt and Persia. Between the two he gets 700 gold up front and 3 Gold per turn.



Drink it in. A rare shot of a friendly Ramses proposing a Declaration of Friendship. Meanwhile Darius remains the good buddy he generally is most games. Relationships with Kamehameha, however, are getting chippy. He's guarded.

By now I've built the Granary and a Settler in Karakorum, and I quickly buy another. Two Settlers! Settling them will delay my acquiring Meritocracy, and thus my free Great Person, but I need to act fast. Kamehameha is encroaching into my little world and he's getting fussy. So I move fast.



Hah! Remember that great spot I saw earlier? Well, we made it, and quickly I purchase a tile that borders between Turfan and Tonga, a tile with Silk! Kamehameha complains, of course, but I just tell him sorry and that I won't settle near him in the future. It's true, I plan to conquer my next city and settle the lands north and west of my capital, now that the border is established.



Just to solidify that border and to get a great tile, I buy the other border tile as fast as possible. This way I get even more horses and there's a two tile land border that needs defense. Meanwhile, Darius has asked if I want to declare war on Kamehemeha with him. The answer is no, until I have Kuala Lumpur taken care of (a Polynesian Ally) and a couple of Horsemen and a Khan, I have no interest in fighting. But still, it's the thought that counts.

Meanwhile my other city was settled near to Karakorum and has three Ivory and Deer nearby, and sits on a River. Between Turfan's Gold and my extra Ivory I've got my happiness back up and some money coming in.



Construction puts me into the Classical Era. My two workers are running wild. I have a library in Karakorum and a Barracks, and I'm working on Monuments in the other cities. My score is creeping upward.



Okay, so I've decided that what I really want is to get Horseback Riding and Iron Working as fast as possible. So, I get Meritocracy and I'm about to select a Great Scientist to grab Iron Working when it dawns on me that I could get a Great Engineer, rush the Great Library, and then I'd get the free tech, extra culture and another wonder to my score. So I go that route, and get the Great Library. Hooray!



I'm now number one! I'm 8 turns away from being able to produce mounted units and my next social policy will get me a Khan for my army. I'm friends with everyone but Kamehameha and Darius is itching to go to war with him.

So, my next moves:

There is no Iron near any of my existing cities, but there is some near ... Kuala Lumpur! None of my friends have Iron to trade, either. So this is the plan.

Build Horsemen.
Build Chariot Archers.
Get a Khan from the next Social Policy.
Conquer Kuala Lumpur.

Research is up in the air after Horseback Riding, but I may go for Optics. I expect things to get more tense between me and Kamehameha and need a way to visit the rest of the continent without begging for his permission. His Wayfinding let's him be a jerk about Open Borders, I'm not so lucky. Finally, I'll try and build 1-2 Colosseums to absorb the Unhappiness after I conquer a Kuala Lumpur.

So, a big update and a big challenge coming. Hopefully tomorrow night we're talking about ... The Fall of Kuala Lumpur!

 

[seasnake]

Oh, and I think I'll try to sell my excess Ivory to buy either Lhasa or Helsinki's loyalty, probably Lhasa. I'm a social policy junkie.

 

[Sparthage]

lurker's comment: Subscribing.

 

[seasnake]

Okay, I'm back. And in this chapter we document:
The Fall of Kuala Lumpur and the foolishness of Kamehameha!

*cues scary music* dun dun DUN!!!



Okay, so we now have Horseback Riding! But we're several turns away from having a Khan to lead the invasion. So for now I'm going to connect my horse resource and build a Stable in Karakorum for the extra production. Also, Polynesia and Persia have announced they are protecting Kuala Lumpur, so I'm going to research Philosophy then Optics so I can use the coastal waters.

I then take 500 gold and pay it to Lhasa, so I start getting 4 more culture per turn. That should speed up my acquisition of Warrior Code.



Some time goes by and I'm able to pick it. My first Khan appears outside my capital. In the meantime a few exciting things have happened. First, I've managed to become Allies of Dublin. I wiped a Barbarian camp to become a friend, and then got enough gold to become an ally by trading away my excess Ivory to Spain and Egypt. They gave me two iron! So I promptly upgraded two warriors to Spearmen. I'm broke now, but it was worth it.

Second, I've built two spearmen, a horseman and two chariot archers. With this Army I am prepared to deal with Kuala Lumpur.



The fight is on! My chariot archers provide effective bombardment while my spearmen launch a couple of safe attacks. They heal quickly because one spearman has a medic promotion and the the Khan is present nearby. So I'm hammering Kuala Lumpur and then Darius and Kamehameha show up to tell me to stop messing with their buddy. I tell them to mind their own business.

Both of my chariot arches earn the city bombard promotion during the assault. this is the first game I've bothered to build them and I must say, I'm impressed. I always went for catapults immediately but these things are dang quick and do a good amount of damage. I think in the future I may skip catapults even with Iron Working and just build a bunch of swordsmen and support with Chariots.



And it's mine, all mine! I annex it because I want control of the city, namely I want someone to work Mt. Fuji for the culture. It drives me nuts when your puppet has things like El Dorado and Barringer Crater in it's city radius and it's working farms and fish. But I guess that's the tradeoff, otherwise you'd just puppet everything. Still, I want the control.



Kamehameha has denounced me. Ramses pops up asking if I want to go to war with Kamehameha and I say yes, but give me ten turns. I need to heal and reposition my troops on the border.



So I'm assembled on the Border. I'm leading with my warriors, there job is to take some of the damage from Tonga, cut the road between Tonga and Honolulu, and then retreat to the coast and sail home, healing in friendly territory. I love combat in Civ V, in Civ IV things like cutting roads and retreating didn't matter, because there were a billion roads and you could sit outside his city and heal (if you had a medic). This should allow my spears, sworsdman, and Chariot Archers to do some damage.

Kamehameha sees what I'm doing asks if I have the guts to declare war. I say yes, and he grudgingly admits that at least I'm honest.

In time, Tonga falls. He manages to kill my warriors but not before the cut the road and the city is almost dead. His Maori (2 of them, pathetic), arrive too late to help. Worse, I use my chariot archers to soften them up and because they're not near a road they can't run away. The die soon.

I puppet Tonga, it's not that good of a city and my happiness is low.

Ramses finally declares war on Polynesia as well.



Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Karakorum has produced the Oracle! For my freebie I select Discipline, so now my troops frontline troops have extra strength.

Darius has decided that I am a villain and declares war on me. He does something kind of clever too. He's been positioning his troops, three immortals and two swordsmen, near where I'm fighting Kamehameha. However, he didn't talk to his diplo advisor and his troops are right next to Dublin, my ally! Dublin promptly declares war, bombards one unit with his city and attacks another unit with it's Swordsmen. So he now has four units, 1 wounded, and he's still too close to Dublin so he'll take some more damage before he can attack me. Too bad, it could have been effective.

Meanwhile I started marching me troops on Honolulu. Once I take it I plan to seek peace, because Honolulu is the last city in the neck of land and I'm not well liked. But Honolulu has Stonehenge, so that would be nice.



It takes a but I take Honolulu. You can see Persia's lone remaining swordsmen running off for home. I let him go. I annex Honolulu immediately, even though it puts my happiness in the toilet, because I want to build a courthouse right away and buy some tiles nearby to expand the border.

I send my workers down to repair Honolulu. Oh, and did I mention Honolulu has a source of Marble and Two Sources of Silk! These I trade to Isabella and Ramses. Eventually, I make peace with Darius and Kamehameha. I get enough gold and tribute to buy a courthouse in Kuala Lumpur, which helps.

All of my fighting has earned another Khan! I use it to spark a golden age, my economy is tanking right now. I also recently finished Currency (or whatever the tech that permits markets is called these days) so I need to get my gold going again.

Okay, so my next moves:
Well, Ramses just denounced me, so that's not good. Isabella loves me. Darius is guarded because he declared war on me and I won. Kamehemeha HATES me because I declared war on his buddy, then on him, then took two cities and made him pay tribute. Understandable.

I need to improve my happiness, so more Colosseums and Circuses are needed, as well as courthouses. I also want to buy some more tiles around Honolulu and build two more settlers to settle some more areas in the Northwest, near Karakorum. Finally, I'm going to select Piety with my next social policy for the happiness and I intend to max that one out. That should be fun, I've never actually used Piety, I always go for Patronage or Commerce once I'm done with Tradition or Liberty.

My cities will build happiness buildings and markets next, to cure my major defects in my civ. Meanwhile I'm going to research Theology, I want more culture buildings and I may go for a wonder like Angkor Wat before buying those tiles near Honolulu.

 

[DragonHead]

Cool.

 

[Save_Ferris]

See if you can get luxuries from Isabella.

 

[Morningcalm]

Nice. What difficulty is this on?

 

[seasnake]

Prince. As I said, I'm just enjoying the role playing aspects and playing my first real game where I intend to mix it up a little. Normally I take a peaceful civ and enjoy it, but I wanted to try something new. To be honest though, I think I need to play the next one on King (Seriously, Kamehemeha had so little in the way of an army that it was sad, but Persia gave it a good try and had a respectable force).

 

[allunderheaven]

Like your to the point style of storytelling. Subscribing.

 

[filli_noctus]

Looks interesting. The only comment I would make is that there's no point in annexing a city immediately after conquering it. Puppet first and then wait until it's out of resistance before you annex.

 

[Civ'ed]

Good job, seasnake! Get rid of those oversimplifiers!

 

[seasnake]

Looks interesting. The only comment I would make is that there's no point in annexing a city immediately after conquering it. Puppet first and then wait until it's out of resistance before you annex.

Well, I wanted to be able to buy tiles around Honolulu immediately if needs be, so I didn't puppet. I also wanted to make SURE the governor of Kuala Lumpur would work Mt. Fuji, my fear was they'd work 50 farms instead.

Update tonight.

 

[seasnake]

Back with the next installment, it's called:
Why do you hate me!!

The major themes of this will be the following: The search for a friend in the international community and pacification of my populace. We need to get the people happy and make a friend or two who will trade with me. I now have multiple sources of Marble, Gold, Ivory and Silk and I want to trade them. So, let's go to the pictures:



First, I'm quickly able to grab a new social policy, and I select Piety. The happiness bonuses and culture from happiness will have a good synergy with my goals for this stage. I'm trying to keep the fighting down and focus on building Colosseums and Courthouses. I'm close to getting one in Honolulu. I'm also delaying building a few settlers, even though I've identified some likely spots, so I can get the circus maximus and national college soon.



Okay, so she denounces me. We were friendly like 5 turns ago, and now she is denouncing me. I have done nothing to this woman. Nothing! But I will do something. She's just signed up to get a heaping helping of Keshik shoved down her throat in a while. I tell her she'll pay for this in time, and I am NOT JOKING.

Strangely, even though everyone on my island hates me, Persia, Egypt and Spain will all sign Research Agreements with me. This is either 1) schizophrenic AI that hates me and likes me depending on things like the weather or whether they saw their shadows this morning, OR 2) clever AI giving me a reason to not attack them for 45 turns. I'll pick clever for now.



So I destroy a barb encampment near Heslinki and now we're friends. Hooray! I now have a Militaristic and a Maritime friend. I quickly pay some gold and we're then allies, which gives my happiness a whopping 16 overall (that courthouse in Honolulu and a Colosseum in Beshbalik really helped).



Here's the official happiness breakdown. Please note -- I hate the last line on this chart. It's full of useful information, but if I can't figure out that "Happiness counters Unhappiness" then I really need to play games designed for preschoolers.



Okay, because I want to max out my research agreements I am researching the cheapest technology available all the time. To speed that research I spend a Great Scientist I built in Karakorum on an Academy. I'm going to build both the National College and an Observatory in Karakorum fairly soon, so that Academy is going to produce a lot of research in time.



Here, you can see I'm just one city away from having enough Libraries to get the National College. Also I'm in line for a great Engineer. I think I'll spend it on Notre Dame for the Happiness. Further, I'm about to get another social policy and I'm going to spend it on Mandate of Heaven, so the extra happiness will give me more culture for Social Policies. After that I'll do Organized Religion, Reformation and then the one that gives you two free policies. These I'll use to complete the Honor Tree, which will allow me to upgrade my army cheaply.



Okay, I don't like these things. Don't patronize with the cutesy talk of Pointy Sticks and Shiny Things, just say "The World's Greatest Builders" and "The World's Strongest Armies", etc. Anyway, Research Pacts pay off in a big way, I get Steel, Education and Navigation! I traded an Ivory source for Peanuts to Isabella, but it was enough that I could quickly purchase a Caravel. I set out in search of new friends, cooler friends who will like me!



Are you my friend? It turns out you have nothing to trade with, so no, you are not my friend. Too bad.



I think I'm in love. Oda had 1500 gold, 10 Iron, and is Friendly and respects that I'm a bruiser on my continent. He quickly trades with me, and 1 Ivory and 1 Gold source net me 800 gold and 5 sources of Iron. We also trade Open Borders. Score!

Meanwhile, I've researched Chivalry and Steel. I use my gold to upgrade my units to Longswordsmen and Keshiks, and I'm building two catapults. I've finished the National College and my Great Engineer has given my Notre Dame. Finally, I have two Settlers waiting in cities for the signal go ahead. They'll make their moves soon, once I have finished the Circus Maximus (currently being built in Honolulu).

So, my next moves:
I've got Iron and an overseas friend. Oda is fighting with Gandhi right now, and I'm going to leave him to that. Meanwhile, I need to get ready to smack around some of my neighbors, I've taken they crummy deals and insults for a while now.

I will first finish my catapults, and hopefully get a fourth and fifth Keshik. This force would have two catapults, five Keshiks, two longswordsmen, a Pikeman, and a Khan.

I need to figure out who to attack: Darius is the closest, but Isabella really annoys me and I want to hurt her before she gets her formidable Tercios. Finally, Ramses is my biggest Rival and he probably has a few nice wonders given his abilities. They've all spat on me at some point or another. Oddly, Kamehameha has been the nicest lately (although he may just be sucking up and hoping to live longer).

So I need a target, and then I'll unleash hell. Thoughts?