Mansa Musa Immortal Cookbook

[obsolete]

I guess you need the save after all too....

 

[_elf_planator]

This will end quickly for me...

 

[bobbyboy29]

Looking forward to this one. Hopefully i'll be able to see it through. The best part about playing mansa IMO is that it means that you don't have to deal with an AI Mansa! Having a mansa AI out of rushing distance makes the game at least 20% harder. My latest Justinian Immortal game saw me, mansa, hatty, wang and cyrus on one continent in one religion. He got lib in 460AD....

Anyway my set:

To turn 70

Spoiler :

Same as everyone else it seems (read others' turn reports before this post but not before playing). Settle 1N, tech fishing, microed so I could be at size 2 and get the workboat out at turn 15. My main difference is that I got the second city out before going GLH (due in 2 turns, can switch to slavery and whip it this turn if need be). So Djenne is reasonably well established and has a border pop.

I also did a pretty good job scouting out all the available land with my woody 2 warrior and i have 2 skirms+4 warriors on barb busting/killing duty.

My main gripe with this save is that whilst being a fun and engaging start, a cookbook is supposed to be about playing your turnset and seeing someone else take a different path (often yeilding much better results). This start offers basically a non-choice. Only 1 viable spot to settle the cap, and the GLH is a no-brainer as:
a) you're pretty much guaranteed to get it and more importantly...
b) Building an early wonder is a trade-off of expansion vs. the benefits of your shiny. Here there's no tradoff as we have plenty of land to settle. The only contested land we wouldn't want to go near because the jungle would take too long to clear. Plus I probably wouldn't settle there anytime soon anyway as shaka's eventually going to come a-knocking.

 

[vranasm]

hmm mine favorite leader... I think I should give it a shot...
The starting area seems veeery interesting...

 

[Fleme]

What a horrible looking start. Clams don't exist in the ocean so that's handmade!

Anyhow, obvious choice is to settle 1N and play forward 70 turns:

Spoiler :

Fishing while building worker, proceed to AH through Hunting followed by Archery for Skirmisher access and follow suit with BW. The moment I saw it was MM we're playing with, I decided that I will Skirmisher rush whoever or die trying and that's what I set out for so that's what I did.

Surroundings seemed awful. Brown with next to no food and a vast jungle belt. Meh. As if it wasn't enough, Shaka. Well, I decided this time it was bad for Shaka to meet me.

So, Timbuktu built Worker->Barracks->Skirmisher* with aid of whips and chops. Went out with what I think was 10 (8+2 following) and made way to Zulunda.

First city, Bulawayo, fell with 2 casualties and earned some cover skirms + a medic. I then healed and proceeded on to Ulundi (which has Stonehenge!)

Here is where I'm at on t70:

And here's what Shaka has in Ulundi:

Back home I have a settler ready on the clam/rice spot waiting to settle with a couple of skirmishers patrolling on barb/stray Shaka duty.

Plan ahead: Take Ulundi, secure Iron and Copper -> Wipe out Shaka -> Cottage everything -> Win. Ulundi alone has such huge production that Timbuktu can be reassigned to infrastructure and proceed on with the rush from this excellent site. Sailing would be in order to connect cities.

Recap of units/techs/infra

1 Barracks
11 Skirmishers
1 Warrior
1 Settler
1 Worker
Size 4 Timbuktu, Size 1 Bulawayo

Fishing, The Wheel, Mining, Hunting, AH, Archery, BW, IW, Writing, working on Agriculture

and here's what happens on t71:

Spoiler :

Ulundi falls at the cost of 3 skirmishers, lose Bulawayo to barb archer due to no garrison. Won't be hard to retake as coverskirmishers eat archers for breakfast

 

[hexem3117]

@Fleme

Spoiler :

That's pretty bad arse right there.

 

[Fierabras]

A Coastal start, huh? I can guess which Wonder GKey will be beelining!

I wonder if Dhoomstriker will attempt a worker-steal in this game

 

[ahcos]

i see obsolete

Spoiler :

working a cottage. WTH

 

[GKey]

Only green lands for cottages games get boring. Hammer games are harder to start off but are so much more powerful from t100-t200...

Seriously? And you are too busy with SGOTM to show us, I guess.

 

[GKey]

A Coastal start, huh? I can guess which Wonder GKey will be beelining!

Continents = 1,2 early neighbors = GLH is less effective then that on fractal. Oracle or early rush are in option.

 

[kossin]

Kossin, why did you not re-roll when it was apparent this was going to be another cow-glitched map?

A warning to others, not only is there the infamouse no-food bug for BFC in this start, but there's another bug where we are missing the guaranteed 3-hill minimum requirement by the normalizer. There's a few other things that seem wrong there too but that's the main couple that often break the early game.

Like I said, the map generator was really bad on this one. I could have re-generated a few more times but I preferred to make it a bit easier.

What a horrible looking start. Clams don't exist in the ocean so that's handmade!

Like I said, I made the map easier... there were no clams there originally... could have given you Fish I guess... nah.

@Archredbeard

Spoiler :

You know the worst part, I actually opened up that mountain area. Yes that's right, it was sealed off and only accessible via galley.

 

[CivConVict]

Continents = 1,2 early neighbors = GLH is less effective then that on fractal. Oracle or early rush are in option.

Depends on whether or not you are willing to beeline Astronomy.

 

[kossin]

Seriously? And you are too busy with SGOTM to show us, I guess.

Ever seen some old games by U_Sun? That guy is a wizard of the non-cottaged games.

 

[obsolete]

i see obsolete

Spoiler :

working a cottage. WTH

Spoiler :

From past experience, if I don't build a cottage, this is no way the AVERAGE player is going to vote for that save... So it's out of my hands.

 

[GKey]

Ever seen some old games by U_Sun? That guy is a wizard of the non-cottaged games.

Link please! Its best time now to read some no food start walkthrough.

 

[Fierabras]

BOTM 10 by U_Sun:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=7299912&postcount=45
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=7343891&postcount=50

Justinian university:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=242211

 

[GKey]

None of these is food poor...

 

[Kid R]

T70

Spoiler :

Techs:
Fishing, hunting, AH, archery, BW, mysticism, agriculture, pottery, sailing, writing, IW (just started)

Builds:
Worker, work boat (built out of 100% solid gold, don't know how it floated), warrior, skirm, skirm, settler at size 3, skirm, skirm, whip granary, overflow into worker, workboat for city 2, garrison warrior, finish worker, library (just started)

City 2 builds:
monument (whip at 2), granary, workboat to explore (but mainly for something to build before library was available).

Plans:
2 libraries. Scientists immediately in city 2. Settle rice/cow hammer city in south. Get a 4th, 5th, settlers ready for Shaka block, or iron, or both. Barracks, more skirms from capital and city 3. Even if iron I don't fancy a sword+catapult war, but a few axes to help the defensive skirmisher army would be nice. Otherwise continue measured expansion and generally make sure to tech faster than the big guy. Literature a priority for marblized heroic epic, consider glib if available.

Advantage of this save:
The initial warrior is woody 3. (Went south which was the "wrong" way in a sense but got a load of experience from animals down there. There was a great moment when Leonard Nimoy says "if you chase two rabbits you will lose them both", just as the warrior fights two wolves .... and BEATS them both - ha!!)

Disadvantage of this save:
No lighthouses built despite sailing tech. No GLH obviously - I disagree with the idea it's essential though.

Turn 69 screenshot. Nothing interesting happened on turn 70 except OB agreement.

Spoiler :

Save:
View attachment Mansa Musa Immortal Cookbook BC-1200.CivBeyondSwordSave

 

[obsolete]

@ Fleme (& pissed off too)

Spoiler :

A very unorthodox opening for Immortal... very high risk, but interesting reward. As this map goes, it was a game-breaker reward

BTW, I am a little pissed after seeing the enemy capital in this map. Let me tell you why, I built many skirmishers too, and sent them all far wide away to scout all the precious sites to settle for resources. Believe me, I scouted far and deep all over the map. And I couldn't find a f*cking horse to save my life. I teched bronzeworking, couldn't find any god damnned copper anywhere. At this point I was quite suspicious... I then sinked tones of precious beakers into iron working.... yup. Just as I feared, all iron deposites had been removed from the map.

Now I look and see Shaka has EVERYTHING either right in his BFC, or right next to it. Are you F*cking kidding me!?

This is why I always avoid these TAMPERED maps, anyone who plays optimal gets burned, but those who play bad seem to end up in a winning position. NOT that I'm trying to say you played bad, I'm just talking about how these types of edited maps turn out in general. Usually the only thing you learn is how NOT to play.

Anyhow, without a doubt I think your save will be selected as the one to continue with. After all, you got all the resources in one spot basically, and killed the only guy on our continent, what else is there to do? In fact, I don't even see the point in any of us continuing from here on, as it's already a foregone conclusion.

Perhaps it's best to just re-roll now, but with the promise not to edit a god damned thing. Not even a plains-cow glitch, just reroll it!

 

[kossin]

I never said anything about food poor in those comments.

Turning food into hammers vs turning food in commerce being stronger from t100-t200 is what I meant. Sorry if you thought I meant something different.

Cottages help the economy early on but while you wait for Emancipation/US/gold multipliers, they depreciate... you can usually acquire a military lead in this era and take advantage of it against the neighbors... hammers will fare better. That's all.

Don't worry, I'll give you a food'o'rama capital next time