Mesopotamia Conquest

[EQandcivfanatic]

I've been playing the Conquests in order and yesterday i beat the Mespotamia Conqest in 2 hours, 24 minuites, and 34 seconds.

I am a bit curious what stradedgies other people used as I was often behind in technology and was constantly under seige by barbarians.

I played as Mycanae and researched straight to the Temple of Artemis, which i got with a Scientific Leader. I researched then to Statue of Zeus, which i was unable to build as my Ivory city was being attacked by barbs nonstop. Eventually I had to switch my former prebuild for Zues to the Colossus which I got easily.

As time passed I researched Epic Work Projects ahead of the other civs and proceeded to build Worker Housing to increase my production. I also managed to build the Statue of Zeus.

Upon entrance into the Iron Age, I was plagued by the massive uprising of barbarians which nearly looted my lands, proceeding almost all the way to Mycanae itself. When i entered the new age i recieved Mathematics for free which i used to trade to tech parity, lacking only Monarchy. With my new parity I proceeded to research Ship Building, then finally Navigation which allowed me to switch a prebuild to the Great Lighthouse, which was completed the turn after Navigation's discovery. This ended the game in my victory.

I am curious to know how other people's games went and what stradegies they used to beat it.

 

[amirsan]

hey EQ! I started the first game as Sumer in Demigod but I started to get kicked in the butt with barbs and found out that the Eniku warriors weren't that powerful as I thought, I was winning but I lost interest and started a new one as the Egyptians, I am having fun but still didn't beat it, how did u beat it so fast!?!?>!?! Do u MM?

 

[EQandcivfanatic]

I just played it straight the whole time, not taking a single break. kept my interest up.

 

[Dragonlord]

I beat it as the Egyptians on Emperor on the first try...

Built Temple of Zeus with a Scientific Great Leader early on, blocked off Africa with a city on the choke point at Suez, then concentrated on expansion and production.

After a short skirmish with Phoenicia (they immediately attacked that choke point!) I was at peace until the last few turns. Immediately before buiding the last wonder (Great Lighthouse) I attacked the Phoenicians with heavy cavalry, taking their two cities with Great Wonders..

I ended up with 5 of the 7 GWs..

Pretty easy, all in all - I was in front on VP during the entire game; I guess that choke point was the key, giving me all Africa as my undisputed playground...

 

[EQandcivfanatic]

Dragonlord i see a couple points of similarity between our games.

1. we both got major chokepoints, I got Istanbul and you got Suez.
2. We both got a early leader, though i used him for Temples of Artemis

I'm guessing the Scientific leader helped us both quite a bit.

 

[benstandby]

The phonecians are in a bit a tight spot the whole game, and it really makes it fun to play. I played a single player on Emporer and lost to Babylon- who boxed me in and built almost all the wonders.

I played a multiplayer game of it again as phonecia. Egypt, Babylon, Medes, and Sumer are quite powerful and have decent amounts of breathing room. Phonecia does not. I won this one, but I was 5 turns from losing my entire empire to the Hittites, who were at war with me the whole game. I had just lost my serious defensive city, and their infantry and cavalry was about to break out into my undefended empire.


Both times I rushed to get the choke point at Suez established. Both times I got it and Egypt was never a problem for me as a result.

The Hittites would literally give me a city or two for peace, and then- on the turn immediately following- they would attack me without warning. This happenend three of four times before they just refused to talk to me at all. I ended up with 3 of the 7 wonders and a huge pile of VP's as I killed so many Hittite units.

My buddy played Sumer, and he ended up taking Babylon and the mauseleum in the process. He was 5 turns from invading me when I won.

Oh, and to the dude who won by doing nothing but pre-building wonders, you must be very proud. I can't believe that intentional prebuilding is not frowned upon as cheap. Isn't it illegal in GOTM? It should be if it's not, and it should have the same stygma as ICS for all other situations.

 

[Masquerouge]

I won using also Myceane. It was on Regent difficulty.
The starting position is awesome : you've got luxuries right on where your settlers are (wines and dies), and no civ close by to grab your space.
So I built my three first cities, made them build funeral grounds, and with my armed forces went to explore the upper left-hand corner. See, I thought that my starting position allowed me not to defend my cities.
While exploring I discovered the third luxury (furs), and destroyed every single barbarian camp I encountered, because actually at the moment they were the only military threat. Then I stumble upon the chokepoint there is between what would be now the Bosphore Straight. I immediatly fortified some defensive unit there and one warrior went ahead to explore a bit. Sure enough I encountered my first AI civ (hittites), and realized I was way behind in tech.
Then I also realized I had left the science slider at 50% ! Arrargh. Hopefully I was able to raise it at 70% without loosing money. Right then my currack (I went straight for navigation, knowing I was kind of isolated) encountered more civs. Trading world maps and contacts brought me back in the science race, and my capital city was able to finish the Temple of Artemis (a killer wonder in that scenario, free temples and never obsolete !)
Then I got the tech to build Hoplite, and the game was mine. My empire had a bunch of cities that no one could attack without breaking the chokepoint (except barbarians that kept coming, but hplites tokk care of that), and being scientific allowed me one great leader and a free tech in the next age. I was able to build the Temple of Zeus and the Hanging gardens, and my SGL rushed the Pyramids.
At that time 2-3 civs declared war on me, but they were at the other side of the map, plus they had 4 hoplites in a city to beat to break the chokepoint so... I science-rushed to get the tech for the last wonder, and it was built in the middle of the second age, and the game was over, victory was mine, with 4800+ points.

All in all I found it fairly easy ; even with the stupid late start in science, I was able to build most wonders and never had to worry about warmongers...
However, I think Mycaene is pretty powerful in this scenario. My first tries were with Sumer, because I thought having a powerful UU right at the start would mean easy victory, but :
1. the Enkidu warrior is not THAT powerful, especially since by the time you encounter Babylon, they'll have their UU bowmen
2. You start between Babs, Mede and Desert. That's not good.
So I didn't try to get further since this was my first conquest game and I wanted to enjoy myself, which I did