King of the World #4: Mansa Musa

[civvver]

I think what you do now should depend on what type of victory you're going for. I know, it's very early to pick a victory, but being financial and having most of africa available it seems pretty easy to 1. rex into africa for a huge cottage economy, 2. cat rush hattie to take all of africa. Then with the cottages from your capital area and the production in mid and south africa you'd be very well set up for a space win.

If you want a military win you have more options- take hattie asap and either invade europe through the meditrainian or go through the middle east. At the same time you'd be expanding into south africa to support your wars.

Get those western cities up asap if you're going to go to war with hattie- otherwise I'd just start rex'ing into middle africa with a ton of workers to chop down the jungle. Easy to backfill those western cities later.

 

[Ormur]

The southern part of Africa is very food poor until biology, if you want more land then it's just the jungle, Egypt and beyond.

Nice series by the way.

 

[dutchfire]

Try to block or take out Hatty, so you'll have Africa for yourself.

 

[Kev]

I'd agree with getting the better city spots in Africa now before they are taken by someone else.

With all of the jungle, you might want to even consider Serfdom for a while. Easier to do this with the spiritual trait.

 

[Tommy1234567890]

I think Kev's right, Expand into Africa...cutting Hatty off would be a large bonus to this expantion, and yes serfdom would help a lot.

As for the victories its still kinda early if you were to go military it might be hard at first to fight through Saladin due to his poor lands. I think going into Europe to fund wars into Arabia/India since India has very rich lands

ps. I dont know to me I like the straightforward type it makes me feel like we all have an opinion on what to do like we are yours "council"

 

[Neal]

I played the next round, and I'll try to get it posted tonight or tomorrow. We're expanding into the southern jungles (and the natives are growing more and more sophisticated in their attempts to dislodge us) and we've converted to the Hindu faith, which seems to be turning into the new Buddhism (from last game).

It seems that, at least for a while, this game is going to be much more tame than the rip-roaring crusade that was Tokugawa's world. I'll do what I can to keep things interesting

 

[civvver]

well I wouldn't expect an early slugfest like toko. Toko starts on the doorstep of a world powerhouse, china, with awesome production on his island. Mali has plenty of room to expand, so long as you box in hattie early or beat her to iron working, and mali has poor production to support an early rush. Certainly domination is possible, but they're more suited to other types of games.

I just started a world18 game last night, forgot how much I love the map. I'm playing hattie, going for a cultural win, so far so good, lots of fun (I founded 5 religions on noble lol) but not a lot of warfare action. You can expand pretty well into africa without having to go to war.

 

[Stewie0416]

Take africa for yourself. Depending one what kinda victory you're pursuing Africa can do anyone. Dom or Conquest? Africa is a springboard to 4 continents. Culture? a navy and covering Suez can completely seal you off from war and help you get along with your own business. Diplo? ( I have Warlords only so i don't know how AP works....) Africa is rich in floodplains in the south which could help you get a high enough pop so that you can vote for yourself and win ( with the help of maybe a few vassals...) Space race? Well you could do this on pretty much any con. as long as you have high enough prod and with those floods you might be able to support a few Workshops more workshops without switching to SP so you can go environmentalism to help with your help later in the game.

 

[dankok8]

Just cuz there's no war doesn't mean it's boring... Everyone here is too violent . You really have enough land in Africa for a while so no need to declare on anyone.

 

[Neal]

In this round, we continue down the long, slow road to relevance.

In 50 B.C., we received both good news and bad news:



The good news? We're into the Hindu bloc. The bad? The barbarians got an upgrade. That Spearman managed to raze one of Timbuktu's farms before we managed to take him down like the dog he is.

This almost makes me wish I had been playing with Choose Religions. This would have shaped up to be a perfect clash of Christian Europe vs. the Islamic Middle East and North Africa.

As it stands, it's kind of looking like Hinduism is the new One True Faith. In fact:



In terms of our strategy? Scientifically, I went for the time-honored tactic of beeline-and-trade:







And I continued to REX southward:







Hattie, Cyrus, and Saladin are all Pleased with us, and, for the moment, they're all that matter.



As you can see, technologically, we're getting there. We're still knee-deep in jungles without any real production, and that won't change anytime soon, but in terms of raw cash money, we're doing all right at the moment.

Sorry about the somewhat dull round. We're almost to the point of throwing our weight around, and maybe culling Hattie or Isabella a little bit. But for the moment we're still keeping our head down and dealing with the Axemen bubbling up from the south.

 

[Quotey]

And I continued to REX southward:

325AD? REX?

 

[pindicator]

I'm sure you're thinking it already, but this seems like one of those perfect setups to use Serfdom in.

 

[CLST]

The world is so annoyingly peaceful, can't you stir up some trouble?

 

[BalbanesBeoulve]

Did isabella plant a city in northwest africa yet? There's a really nice spot that has crabs, sheep, wheat, and wine within it's BFC, with an extra ivory in its third ring. If its available you should definitely go grab it.

 

[Shadowcrow]

Did isabella plant a city in northwest africa yet? There's a really nice spot that has crabs, sheep, wheat, and wine within it's BFC, with an extra ivory in its third ring. If its available you should definitely go grab it.

I don't think Issy can. She should be one tile from the cost with no room to place a secon with Louis and Ceaser blocking her in. Hence no galleys. IIRC, Civs like france and spain on this map don't expand untill they can start dropping cities near the Urals.

 

[Belisar]

Izzy is screwed on this map, I call it a scenario bug because the AI will not move the initial settler, so no 2nd city for her.
Paris, however, is on the coast, and in Neal's last game Luis settled Scotland before Lizzy got there, making it a holy city to give Artus something to search for

On the game: The jungle was 2nd priority, the iron was 1st.
The strategy for Mali is to get the northern Iron as fast as possible and take advantage from the fact that Hatty has no metals.

 

[Stewie0416]

On the game: The jungle was 2nd priority, the iron was 1st.
The strategy for Mali is to get the northern Iron as fast as possible and take advantage from the fact that Hatty has no metals.

I just have a question, i dont play Earth 18 civ that much and i'm just wondering, does hatty have horses?

 

[Neal]

Regarding the Iron: It can be claimed, but not in the primo spot. At least not while Madrid stands. Once Isabella gets that shrine up, there's no way a city could survive its cultural barrage. I can place a city to claim the Iron, the Sheep, the elephants, and the Wine, though. That will be my next priority.

We played Tokugawa as an old man with a bad attitude, so I'm trying to play this game as a more enlightened Mansa Musa. Hattie has been nothing but good to us, and besides, our mutual buddy Cyrus is the Pope, and he may try to play mediator if we stir things up. You all are right, though. If anything, this game is proving yet again the benefits of early aggression.

Maybe a Crusade against the benighted Spaniards is in order.

(And yes. Hattie does indeed have Horses)

 

[Pieman]

The world is so annoyingly peaceful, can't you stir up some trouble?

Bit hard to considering his lack of production AND resources...

 

[slobberinbear]

I just have a question, i dont play Earth 18 civ that much and i'm just wondering, does hatty have horses?

Yes. She also has ivory to her south. Hatty has no metal nearby, though; the closest is in the Congo, Morrocco, or Turkey. Because of this, her best targets for early war are Mansa Musa and Saladin, which also nicely secures Africa for her.

Anyway: in this game, I am convinced that Neal's best ploy is to focus on making money and expanding into Africa, going into war only with a tech lead. The best production land in Africa is in South Africa, which would be a great place from which to build your Mansa Musa Military (tm).