Immortal University IX - Gengis Kahn of the Mongolians

[silverbullet]

I am glad to see that there is still a lot of interest in these threads.

The start:

My thoughts on this start:
you cannot complain about the start when you have the 2 best food resources in it, but it is annoying to be 1 tile away from the coast.
I am thinking either to settle 1S to be near a river (but I am afraid there are more plains there) or settle on top of the wine hill, getting the benefits of a coastal city (but less production).
Settling in place is also a valid option

 

[mystyfly]

woot, a leader that will definitely make a funny game

I don't love the start too much, too many plains tiles and few hills plus you're not on a river. Will move the scout and look for seafood and consider settling on wine/plainshill. 2N of settler looks like a resource - AH first me thinks.

 

[Rusten]

Yay for Temujin!

I'll probably move the scout onto the corn to check for seafood. Doesn't appear to be a commerce-ish capital so maybe I'll look for a different spot. Corn and Pigs is great though--an early library should be strong here although it depends on what's nearby.

 

[DMOC]

Genghis Khan...

Maybe I'll give this a go after the weekend (too busy at the moment). I will probably make this capital a commerce center.

By the way, it's one tile off the river, not coast.

 

[futurehermit]

it looks to be one tile off the coast to me...

definitely looks like moving the scout to get a better sense of things before settling would be a good idea, probably onto the corn or 1N of the corn

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Scout onto corn makes sense to me too - I'll get to this once I finish my work here...

 

[patagonia]

Spoiler up to 150BC:

Spoiler :

This is a very interesting map - not at all what I was expecting for a romp with Temujin when I booted up the game.

Report to follow in the morning.

 

[Rusten]

4000 BC -> +/- 800 BC.

Spoiler :

Sent the scout onto the corn but didn’t find anything of importance. I decided to settle on the wine regardless for early access to coast, a 2 hammer centre (4 hammers when working the silk meaning good for IMP) and because the health is going to be helpful later on if/when I turn it into a base for specialists.

Popped gold from a lot of huts+1 map. Research was AG -> AH -> archery -> mining. Decided to make an early second city. There’s a bunch of riverside tiles and it’s not covered by forests which means I can improve it right away—no need to wait for BW.

Decided to settle here:

1N would get crabs, but the city would be stuck between the corn and the crab and thus get off to a much slower start. I’ll claim the crabs with a city to the NW later on anyway (fish outside of the screen to the north). If only I was creative—then I could grab everything right away with no strings attached, oh well. Another bonus was that everything I needed (even after the corn) was in the first ring so I could postpone researching mysticism.

My scout died pretty early so I decide to whip out 2 work boats—1 from the capital and 1 from the second city. I’ll scout in opposite directions to map out land while sending a couple of archers inland. By turn 53 I met Hannibal to the west and on turn 55 I meet Izzy.

It didn’t take long for me to notice the unclaimed floods to the south. Being IMP I decided to gamble on REXing. I made a couple of settlers and on turn 68 I’ve settled 2 cities down there.

It was really painful, I was wondering whether I had pushed it too far at one point but my calculations were successful—I managed to keep my finances afloat once I cottaged the floods. I guess many people will go for the GLH on this map. I wanted that wonder too, but unfortunately I had to make a choice between grabbing those spots early or getting the wonder because I simply didn’t have enough science to get the required techs. I picked REX after pondering for some minutes as it felt safer (would suck to aim for the GLH and somehow lose it) and because it had synergy with our traits.

900 BC: Taoism founded in a distant land—Bah!
875 BC: Mansa Musa appears. I met many leaders, but he deserves a notice.

As you can see below my early expansion had some consequences—I’m currently behind on research, but no pain no gain. Things should pick up soon once my libraries are up and scientists have been assigned. Mansa Musa is as far as I can tell the one who fouded Taoism too, so his tech pace is (as usual) very fast.

Shortly after Izzy asked me to convert to Buddhism (agreed) and Gilgamesh+Hannibal followed making Mansa Musa a lonely Hindu.

 

[Rusten]

+/- 800 BC -> 100 BC.

Spoiler :

Gilgamesh has an extra marble resource so I decide to trade for it and aim for the GL/NE asap—Mansa Musa’s presence and his current tech speed (philosophy 900 BC) means I need to be careful regarding Liberalism thus I need the scientist GPP.

Victoria declares on Gilgamesh on turn 94. I finish part-researching Alphabet on turn 95.
- aesthetics to Izzy for alphabet
- aesthetics to Victoria for mathematics
- aesthetics to Gilgamesh for IW

Spawn my first GS 425 BC. My science slider is low here due to the REX and Mansa Musa has researched Philosophy already so I strongly considered settling. However, given that I’m getting the GL and going to run 2 scientists I decided to go for an academy after all. While I’m not going to cottage this capital it will at least have trade route income and the silk when bureaucracy is available so an academy should be the better move here.

(Turn 100 / 375 BC) Victoria constructs the GLH--about frggin’ time. If I had known it would go this late in the game I could’ve squeezed it in after the early settlers.

Finish the GL on turn 107 / 200 BC and immediately start on the NE (chop that one as well).

Empire at 100 BC:

My economy is starting to shape up (about 115-120 BPT when breaking even) and the REX is showing results. My expenses are still very high, but as you can see I have enough gold to rush CoL so it should improve further once courthouses are up. Coming priorities is to whip courts/markets, hook up my silk and to spread Buddhism and revolt to OR.

 

[Monsterzuma]

----------
My game turn out to be something of an embaressing failure, my empire having largely succumbed under maintenance cost.

 

[Dirk1302]

This might be a good TGL start if we settle on the wine hill, i'd hate to lose the wine square though, moreover if there is to be any early rushing settling on the wine hill'll cost. First scout to corn to check for seafood,probably settle in place. Time to start playing.

 

[oyzar]

wine on a hill is nowhere near a good title to work anyways so it is not a huge loss.. 3 commerce 2 hammers and 1 food is nothing to scream hurray for...

 

[mystyfly]

I don't know what you have, just mine it .

BTW I myself abandonned the game pretty early as I (in short) don't like the map. No luck again I guess though I was really looking foreward to playing Gengis.

 

[Dirk1302]

wine on a hill is nowhere near a good title to work anyways so it is not a huge loss.. 3 commerce 2 hammers and 1 food is nothing to scream hurray for...

Hmm,i thought wine was somewhat better than that,so i may change my mind about settling in place yet. I still haven't started playing because my comp has developed some serious trouble that'll probably need a windows reinstall to fix.

 

[ungy]

up to 860AD:

Spoiler :

I move the scout to the corn and decide to settle in place. Although I thought about the wine hill, I worried a bit about lack of hammers settling there, and also w/o seafood the coast lost some appeal. What swung me against it was giving up the fresh water (which of course you don't).
Anyway partly because of that I scout poorly and am late to find contacts--I didn't get WB out until the AI found me. I also had barb trouble which hindered scouting. So thinking I'm alone at 2000 or so I decide on the 'mids, pick up the Glib and most of the continent but I settle much of it late.
The world is pretty divided but nobody dominates, and I'm about to pop lib here:

the tech screen:

I've got the 2 dominant religions, including the AP one.
Should be pretty trivial to bring this one home--not sure whether to go the peace route or the war route. The up to now unused jungle will rock later on, or the rifle rush should also be doable.

 

[Rusten]

100 BC -> 1170 AD

Spoiler :

Mansa Musa constructs the AP 325 AD--too bad, I was hoping Izzy would get it (she's has had theology for some time).
Between 400 and 500 AD somewhere I've managed to become friendly with most of my fellow Buddhists via civics or other means.

It seems I won't get to make proper use of the traits/UB this game--it would be counter-productive. I still have a lot of land to settle peacefully, I'd have to use boats for a war and I'm on very good terms with my neighbours so teching peacefully should be superior to attacking.

Finish liberalism 560 AD and pick nationalism (I re-trade for Gilgamesh' extra marble for the Taj Mahal). I lightbulb printing press a couple of turns later and once it's in I'm a fair bit ahead tech-wise.

As I have been relying on cottages this game due to the nature of the map I decide to go for Democracy and the SoL to aid my research further. I use the Taj GA to swap civics--I go HR -> US during the GA (-> REP last turn), bureaucracy -> FS and slavery -> emancipation--as I'm in no danger here I can put down more cottages. I will probably pursue a diplomatic or space victory. This map is very generous, pretty much the opposite of the usual university thread with a lot of land to settle peacefully and no opportunity for a rush.

 

[Dirk1302]

Until 1260 AD

Spoiler :

Finally got my comp healthy again,this is the easiest map we've had sofar in this series. I reconsidered starting in place, partly because of Oyzar's comment that wine hill doesn't do that much, also settling on it gives us a 2 hammers directly which helps.

Main reason, coastal is good for a capital especially if it's a TGL map. I was lucky to pop AH and BW from huts (both partly researched at that moment) then went straight for TGL, getting it around 1500 BC. Settled 6 cities quickly on coast, couldn't settle more because of a barb city near the flood plains.

Missed parthenon but got GL in northern city with the crab/fish. Research was over 100 bpt around 300 bc already, lib finished 500 ad took Nationalism. could have waited for steel but research is way ahead of production at this time so i go for Taj to give production a boost.

Cleared the barb city on the floodplains around 600 AD and some others around 800 AD.

Stopped 1260 AD having won physics race, researching communism now. I have physics, steel and rifling on MM, a load of techs on all the others.I break even at 600 bpt now (70% slider) though it's generally higher because of AI gold. Could have been much higher if i had cottaged everything, instead half of the squares are workshops now since i plan an attack on the other continent.I could do it with cannons but i think i research artillery after communism and upgrade my cannons. Should be fun rifles/artillery vs longbows. Production is strong now with workshops and all the modifiers in place (sp to come in some 5 turns).

But maybe i leave it here, there's no challenge left in this game. TGL is just a beast on this sort of maps, you get to compass earlier with TGL which allows you to build early harbors, which strenghtens the TGL which makes you get CS earlier etc.... i think it's much more of a game breaker than pyramids . Actually it think the wonder should be 150 instead of 200 hammers and give 1 extra route instead of 2 since this feels kinda cheap.

 

[JBossch]

Just spotted this thread. I was hoping for another IU. After my embarrassingly disastrous Holkan rush I am looking for redemption. Can't wait to read the spoilers.

Btw, on the issue of the wine plains-hill, I will probably try not to settle on it so it can be mined until monarchy.

Hopefully I can post some progress by tomorrow night sometime.

 

[JBossch]

to 825BC:

Spoiler :

Genghis, eh? I don't have a ton of experience with him, probably because I like creative and so probably tend to pick Kublai. However, I have come to be a huge fan of imperialistic for 2pop settler whips after only 1 turn of work so this should be exciting if REXing is the name of the game. Aggressive is also a favorite trait of mine as it often allows me to rely on warriors and put off archery even longer than normal. Because of the obvious synergy between the Mongolian UU and UB it would seem like a horse-based army is the way to go in the long term even if Keshiks get minimal use (which I hope won't be the case).

And away we go...

Initial tech order: Ag->AH->(popped mining) BW-> Writing
Initial build order: worker->warrior(partial)->scout->warrior(finish)->worker

4000BC: After moving the scout to the corn and not seeing any seafood I decided to settle in place and trust the start. I considered the wine for awhile but I was concerned about a lack of hammers until workshops, even as much as I hate settling 1 away from the coast. I am still not sure if the wine would have been better long term but whatever.

3640BC: I pop the last of three huts, all in fairly short order. The first two gave maps and the third gave mining just as I started on AH.

3240BC: My scout is killed in the first of many flukey combats. Unsatisfied with his short run, I switch build to scout and max hammers in the capital.

2480BC: 2nd scout killed by barb archer. I did manage to scout a lot more (popped another map) but still haven't seen any AIs or the end of my continent.

2240BC: Beshbalik founded.

With no AIs in sight I am not yet worried about losing cites down south and I want to get this spot up quick with scientists ASAP. I thought about building 1 north to share the crabs with my future horse city but this way it will get corn in the first ring and let me put off mysticism. Also, 1N would have left a riverside grassland unused for the rest of the game.

2040BC: Writing is in and I switch research off (thanks to Rusten for this trick). I will deficit tech when I get some libraries up (or in this case, slightly earlier because I needed some stuff).

1720BC: Izzy's WB reaches me from the southeast. She has founded Buddhism.

1480BC: Turfan is founded 1S of the stone. I turned research back on to get masonry, myst, and fishing. I want to get started on the mids so I can start running Rep scientists ASAP and because GW was built pretty early. Could be an industrious civ out there or one with stone or (yikes) both.

1280BC: Hannibal shows up. He hasn't found God yet.
I continue to have flukey fights with the barbs which are forcing me to warrior spam a little more than usual. Typically, combat1 warriors are a bit more sturdy than they have been for me thus far in this game.

1160BC: Ning-Hsia founded in the north for horses fish and crabs.

1040BC: Fishing is in and I turn research back off (I can't really afford it anyway). I start on HBR which will let me get control of my continent from the barbs. I also hope to be able to trade it to the AIs for something. Izzy has alphabet and I am already quite backward comparatively.

950BC: The barbs are setting up shop.

The southern city was just founded during the IBT.

825BC: Mids are in and I decide to take a break after revolting to Rep.

The northern lands:

All three cities will be hiring scientists at the first opportunity.

The southern lands:

I have a settler in place to build the flood plain city. The only problem is I'm currently losing 3gpt at 0% research. I will probably try to improve my econ a tiny bit before settling since I am not at any risk of losing the spot.

My current priorities (in no particular order) are:
1) Finish scouting my continent and send some boats east. I figure the ocean is right past the eastern barb city but we will see. It does seem certain that we are isolated except by coast, however.
2) After HBR I am hoping to get sailing by trade or self-research. Along with some WB or galley scouting and open borders agreements this should improve my econ a bit. Also, GLH still hasn't been built. It is probably out of the question because my capital is inland but maybe I will take a run at it in the south flood plains city. This idea could get scrapped pretty quickly if things change, though I built it pretty late in the Hannibal IU.
3) Get some Keshiks built and knock some barb heads. With a continent likely to myself I should be able to take my time but the loot will help me do some deficit teching.
4) I have to figure out how to get alpha, probably by trade.

Any advice is appreciated. I haven't seen an immortal game with this much land for grabs in a while. At least if I screw this one up I won't know for a while longer than I did on the last IU. Perhaps my ignorant bliss will allow a few extra hours of fun.

 

[ABigCivFan]

@Jboss

Spoiler :

It is interest you chose to settle Beshib there as you 2nd city. If there are strategical resources around (Metal/Horse/Stone/Marble) I normally settle those first.

In this particular game, i settled the Stone as 2nd city for GW and mids(got both), then the copper for barb-busting Axe. With Copper, you dont really need Keshiks to fight barbs, CR Axe are better anyway. HBR is very expensive at this point, I wonder how much Keshiks could help you in this game.

How many gold are your Units cost you per turn? I had the GW, so minimized # of defenders to save gold.

with Mids enhanced scientists, you should be fine.

This looks to be a good game for an aggressive REX strategy.