Monarch Student VII - Mao Zedong

[Tempesta13]

Emperor/Normal to 1 AD

Spoiler :

Looked like an axerush against Joao was in order since he was so close. I settled the copper to our West just before he would have - and unless i could get a 3rd city up fast to block him completely (wasn't planning another settler anytime soon) the axerush was the way to go.

Took his capital easily with about 10 axemen - he spammed out a couple settlers before i could get to his 2nd city. Soon enough city 3 and 4 were up for him. I couldn't take Oporto (2nd city) when i got there since he managed to get 8 or so archers in there fast. Went and took Coimbra instead since it was only defended by 2 archers. Sent a couple axemen to scout out Guimaraes which caused him to split his defending archers between the two remaining cities. That allowed me to take Oporto and at 1 AD i'm still waiting outside Guimaraes to take his final city. He's got 8 archers in there so i'll have to build up a bit to take it.

I built Stonehenge in my capital only because i didn't have my copper city connected to the capital yet and already had a barracks so i had nothing else to build. When i got the road finished there was only 2 or 3 turns left so i figured i'd delay the axemen a bit to get it. As soon as i captured Joao's capital i started on pyramids - i saw the stone so i just set the build to mids expecting the gold but ended up finishing them around 500 BC with the help of 3 chops. I'm planning on running 2 scientists in my two capitals so the extra 12 beakers will be nice - and the happiness will really help. Cities are just starting to grow due to representation civic. Lisbon needs to finish up its library first though. I'll want to get monarchy soon anyway for the wine - but toku is the only one i know that has it and he's not likely to give it up.

I just traded alphabet for IW and fishing - now i see that i have two iron tiles that can be improved, including one in the already nice capital. In pretty good shape techwise compared to the AI's i've met so far, which is good considering i've been at war all game. With the continent to myself (once i finish of Joao) i should be #1 in land and pull ahead. Although i haven't seen the rest of the map so our continent may or may not make us #1 in land. Really can't make too many plans without knowing more about the map/AI's.

I plan on cottaging the capital as much as possible for bureaucracy, and making Joao's former capital a GP farm with caste. First GP was a prophet (from henge) who was settled in the capital. If both my capitals pop scientists next i'm thinking about putting up an academy in both cities. Each city has a wonder (henge and mids) so there's a chance this won't happen. I'll have marble soon (when i take Joao's last city) so i should look to get Aesthetics and have a go at the great library. That would also be good to trade for math and sailing, though i'll have currency to trade as well - unless they are researching it now also. I'd like to get a couple workboats out to scout the land to the west and see what we're up against. After Joao is finished off i also need to get a few more settlers out to fill out the continent. Research slider is still in good shape, and currency will be in soon so the economy isn't a problem.

 

[Ai Shizuka]

michmbk:

Spoiler :

The rival AIs are not random, I've purposely chosen a nice bunch of jerks to make diplo management difficult. Looks like they did a great job screwing your plans .
Excluding Joao (the obvious first target), all AIs are on the warmonger-ish side of things. And pretty much all of them like to make a lot of requests, giving you diplo hits no matter what you do (with them if you refuse, with their enemies if you give in).

I've considered a "real" diplo win at some point, but then Bismarck switched out of Nationhood/Hinduism and sealed his fate.

Good game anyway, you was in a pretty harsh position.

 

[nanomage]

Emperor-marathon, 1908 conquest.
I have no detailed report for now, but i played slow and so there are plenty of saves.
so if you desire i could make some screenies from them and post a report.
EDIT: Upon reading this, i realize i really should post a report - my game was quite different from others. Well, I'll hopefully post it tonight or tomorrow.
2Ai Shizuka

Spoiler :

Starting position is not bad at all - i'd say it's extremely easy due to both JII and copper being temptingly close Did you consider replacing JII with Hammy or Giggles?

 

[Ai Shizuka]

nano:

Spoiler :

Yes, I was putting Gilga there and editing a hill under his capital .
But then I thought it was a bit too harsh and added Joao, hoping for his usual mad rex. Didn't work out as expected.

Probably Mansa would have been interesting. Not bad as Gilga or Hamm's bowmen, but skirmishers still make an axe rush a bit harder.

edit:

Spoiler :

I'm still a beginner at editing/hosting games. Hardest part is to set the right rival at the right position. Too far away and the game is too easy (a lot of land to settle peacefully), too close and weak and you have an extra capital.

 

[michmbk]

michmbk:

Spoiler :

The rival AIs are not random, I've purposely chosen a nice bunch of jerks to make diplo management difficult. Looks like they did a great job screwing your plans .
Excluding Joao (the obvious first target), all AIs are on the warmonger-ish side of things. And pretty much all of them like to make a lot of requests, giving you diplo hits no matter what you do (with them if you refuse, with their enemies if you give in).

I've considered a "real" diplo win at some point, but then Bismarck switched out of Nationhood/Hinduism and sealed his fate.

Good game anyway, you was in a pretty harsh position.

Ai shizuka:

Spoiler :

I thought for awhile a diplo win was going to be easy. Once I had Toku at friendly and mehmed pleased, figured it was just a matter of sharing religion and vassalage with mehmed for awhile, because me, Toku and Mehmed were all so big it would have been easy. Then Toku starting beating up mehmed, as did bismarck and Genghis, and they wore him down - I never could get him friendly, so had to war. Was nice to get a diplo win without a single vassal and only one AI who liked me!

 

[Ai Shizuka]

Bumping this, in case anyone missed it.

The next leader is Genghis Khan. No, I'm not open to suggestions this time, it's Genghis .
I'll post the game friday.

 

[michmbk]

Oh man, my wife is out of town this weekend - no better time for a Genghis game! I might have to play that at monarch instead of these last three games I've played at emperor because of the sheer joy that comes with playing Mongolia.

Winning this game at emperor was an eye opener for me that i can compete at that level though. The feralminded games are tailored for success, so I've sort of been expecting to win those. Mao is more of a middle to lower tier leader, so nice to get the W in this one.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Bumping this, in case anyone missed it.

The next leader is Genghis Khan. No, I'm not open to suggestions this time, it's Genghis .
I'll post the game friday.

ANOTHER keshik tornado? I don't mind .

 

[Tempesta13]

Emperor/Normal 1 AD - 1640 AD

Spoiler :

Didn't really take screenshots but i'm still going on this game - hopefully i can finish soon. It's going pretty good so far. Basically Mehmed, Toku and Bismarck all had different religions, and were cautious/annoyed with one another the whole game. I was no state religion and had Mehmed/toku pleased so was pretty safe with little/no army.

Finally Mehmed and Toku go after Bismarck (same turn) and he capitulates to Toku after a short war. I decide to do this bribe a little later after i have a decent army of Cavs and some drafted rifles...

Mehmed is the better trading partner - and this way i can take down their power ratings just by giving up a few techs. A couple turns later i attack Toku and take his 4 eastern most cities (3 of which are holy cities - with another holy city further west also...) I also took the city he put up way out east on my continent.

I just declared peace in order to build up a bit - he is still at war with Mehmed and has taken a city or two from him. I should be able to finish of Toku no problem and Bismarck will be easy. Then i plan on warring with Mehmed to have the whole continent to myself. That will probably wait until infantry/cannons.

I should have enough land to tech to space - i have won all diplo or domination victories lately so i figure i'll build a spaceship for once instead of messing around with an overseas invasion or UN abuse.

Probably should have built a caravel or two but never got around to it - only just met the 2 other AI's recently. I'm pretty sure i've never seen Toku with 4 holy cities before. Only the jewish one had a shrine in it - maybe the christian one i have yet to capture has one as well.

 

[Tempesta13]

Emperor/Normal 1640 - 1949 (end)

Spoiler :

Finally got around to finishing this game. Wasn't a very pretty game but i'll take it - especially since i lost the last monarch student game on emperor all 3 times i tried it. Won a late UN vote once i finished off Japan and Germany - i had Mehmed at friendly so his votes gave me enough. It felt like i was doing horrible due to the couple poorly executed wars between 1600 and 1850 and the slow tech rate/late finish date - but i supposed that doesn't matter since i was in a dominate position the whole game. Just needed to manage things a little better to take advantage more. There was virtually no tech trading going on the last half of the game either - only between Mehmed and I, and that was only a couple trades - therefore research didn't go very quick until towards the very end when my beakers went up a lot.

Even with only a few cities Toku was very tough to kill. I took his 4 eastern cities in the 1600's - but it wasn't until mid 1800's i finally could finish him off. I ended up having tanks when i started the war with just rifles/cavs. Once i got Sid's spread around, and the SoL completed along with factories etc. i pulled way ahead of the other AI's. I need to work on city management in order to get the production i need to finish wars faster.

Here's my oxford/wall street capital, and my heroic epic/ironworks production city...

Here's the war statistics - i waited way too long to finish off Japan and Germany. I ended up with 3x their power with tanks vs rifles before i finally attacked. Played it too safe for the last war since the first two didn't go as well as i thought they would have.

Finally, a world view...