Monarch Student^ XXXI Shaka

[BigTime]

Welcome to the 31st edition of Monarch Student Prime! Who shall we use to smear away the AIs this week?

Yes, our favorite warmongering psycho. Probably the number 1 human killer, he means insta war if you spawn next to him. His traits are OK, with aggressive obviously helping war and expansive allowing quicker setup of cities. The best news about using him? You won't have to spawn next to him!

His UU is the Impi:

A spearman replacement that has two movement points and has mobility. It's really not that great. I've done an Impi rush before, and it worked out OK, but it's just not as effective as other rushes. First, you need to have easy access to copper, which is kinda rare. Then, your opponent cannot have metals or you're screwed. It's really a hit or miss UU.

His UB is the Ikhanda:

A barracks that reduces maintenance by 20%. Great UB. Acts like a super-early courthouse that is also cheaper due to aggressive. Really great for recovering from REX or early war.

The Start:

Corn, and a lot of calender resources. Looks like calender will certainly be an early priority! Pretty strong as a bureaucracy capital as well. Decent start.

Another fractal map...

Huts and Events are OFF, add events in the custom scenario if you wish. (just make sure to cover the top part with your hand so you don't see the AIs )

And a cut-and-paste from Meatbuster's Monarch Student games:

Save the file and place it in your Documents/BTS/Saves/WorldBuilder folder. Then unzip it into your Documents/BTS/Saves/WorldBuilder folder. Then use Playing a scenario to play your desired level. Or use custom scenario if you want to remove huts and/or events.

Recommended Checkpoints:
*1000BC or 1AD
*500AD
*1000AD or Liberalism
*Victory!

Please remember to put the journals of your adventures inside spoiler tags.

For Monarch+ players please try to add archery back to the barbs in WB. If you don't, AIs will capture cities with archers very early in the game, which is no fun. If you prefer easymode barbs, that's fine too, just don't go wondering why an AI captured a barb city in the very early BCs!

Thanks go to TMIT for making an excellent map creation guide and to mjg5591 for getting this series back on track!

 

[stimpyhoek]

Spoiler :

All I wanted was civil service so I held off attackin the barb cities to the east. I thought if I take another city it will be more maintenance and slow down my tech. MORON. I forgot u get money for smashing up barb town so I guess I lost a few turns there....Just got civil service and mono. 5 towns. Floodplains to the north r the best(with expansive). Oh yeah oracled 4 monarchy. No war yet.

 

[stimpyhoek]

Spoiler :

In every one of these I played I get a peace vassal, I read these aint common but always happens to me. I chose wrong religion like normal, so it was only me & mansa and hated by everyone. Im playing this totally different to normal, I would usually have education going 4 lib now but I went for engineering and got machinery off mansa. China was logical as he has space to expand into. I had to tech awhile to get feudal so I could vassal him then Mansa immediately offered his services. This seems harder than pericles game. Met America who r pig ignorant.

 

[stimpyhoek]

Spoiler :

Never saw this religious rubbish before. I killed everyone except america then I won before I got domination which isnt cool. Capac was last, I killed em as I went east and he had longbows and airships. I had a lot of infantry and cannon. He wanted to capitulate but I wanted his land for domination. Then as I said I got this victory type I have never seen. I can only put it down to I forced everyone jewish just coz it seemed fun and gave Mansa more tech power. Think I would have won normally in next 10 turns.

Another great game, thanks to Bigtime.

 

[CaF]

Well, screw this. I had 3 easy shots at diplo wins and they didn't come. One around 1200 AP, UN at 1750 and now I'm just stuck due to bad luck.

Spoiler :

First game where I rush courthouses to work spy specialists ON PURPOSE! Stole like 15 techs from Mansa playing switching between self-teching and then 100% espionage, then self-teching again, etc.

Mansa Musa underexpands ( 3 cities!), builds AP while waring Pacal (who I bribed). Everyone loves me. So I get voted chairman, can't select diplo win because Washington is not jewish. I can't open borders with him because he is annoyed. By the time he gets judaism I can't get voted chairman anymore because i'm at only 6 cities and everyone else spammed Judaism around. Probably should have conquered AP at this point.

Ok, screw AP, beeline UN. I build it, it's me vs Washington. Vote comes up. NO. it's me vs Qin. Screw this garbage. Washington was always first in the population. I don't understand this. I CHECKED THE TURN BEFORE! Must be some rounding thing. Well, can't win against Qin because Washington abstains with his 170 votes. Qin has like 171. I'm around 10-20 votes short from winning.

Situation before the first vote me vs presumably Washington.

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

Just pure diplo art.

Ok 3rd try: I try to nuke Washingtons abstain votes. Save, Declare, Nuke. Not enough. Next election... not enough... 4 elections later... Enough, but GILGAMESH NOW CONSIDERS WASHINGTON A FRIEND. God damnit. I don't have enough rushbuy power. No techlead anymore to bribe Giggles around. I didn't get Kremlin, didn't get Banks etc. because the game was an easy win. Kinda.

In the meanwhile I lose tiles to Qin Sistine Chapel, even though I have Hermitage + Broadway in my border city. Once ag ain proves my rule #1: You can't beat Sistine without war. I lose votes to Qin, too, because he has Sushi.

I'm not annoyed, I'm furious. Adding save of 1878 AD in case someone finds a reasonable way beyond buying nukes and pressing enter.

 

[BigTime]

Immortal/normal to 75 AD

Spoiler :

Settled in place. Mining- BW- TW. Capital will be amazing when calender is in. We're smushed between Mansa and Qin who run different religions. Oof. Expand to 5 GOOD cities, then put 1 crap one so I can get the national wonders. Tech pace is fast with Mansa Pacal and HC.

Lands/Tech:

Plan is to try and tech up to a lead and smash Qin then turn around and go for the rest of the continent. Four different state religions by everyone, and yet Mansa is the world's biggest villian

Still no wars however, and as long as I can keep Qin off my back I can get some good tech going with the nice cottage land we have.

 

[Danelius90]

Monarch/Epic
4000BC ~ um 670ADish? I'll check...

Spoiler :

Noticed there was coast so moved the scout to check for seafood, none. So SIP.
Worker first, and will tech mining. No reason to go for anything else yet, and considering BW for chops and copper.
Met Mansa with a skirmisher? Whats he scouting about for.. prediposed to be pleased with me and met Qin after just 11 turns.

Techs: BW > Wheel > pottery
Thinking about settling a city somewhere on those coast tiles, bit of overlap with Ulundi. However expanding outwards is more important at the moment, to prevent my close neighbours spreading. Warrior is next build, maybe another then settler
Agh scout vs bear = dead ---- wait he lives!!

There's copper close to mansa's borders, so I think I will stick a city up there and backfill for some cottage sites.

Plan for city sites nearby? What do you think



actually the hammer city is going one W of the pic. I changed it then changed it back it will have plenty of food settling on the plains and leaves more space for the gems city, if I get there first.

In two minds where to go for techs now. I have writing, I'm thinking about mathematics, + for chops and leads to calendar or IW, but I have copper and Axes will provide most of the benefit I need for the time being. Or maybe masonry and go for the mids. which maths might be good for because of the chops. Or alpha for trading (although its still early) or maybe oracle... urgh...
Mansa has already got alphabet (1300BC). Have been espionaging him for the intent of stealing techs
Traded some techs with Mansa, not sure if it will turn out to be a mistake, mathematics for a bunch of early techs (actually made up within 50 the cost of maths)

Captured a barb city near the gems. Saves a settler.
Screenie.



made a good go at the pyramids, 6 turns left, 1 turn left to be able to whip, and they were built

researched calendar, get all those dyes up!
guess the only real option now is to declare on someone. contruction soon it must be then..
turns out it was the inca's who built the pyramids. Only just met them though.

Got construction, traded for ivory with friendly pacal, forgot you need HBR again.

 

[BigTime]

Immortal/normal to Liberalism:

Spoiler :

Just peaceful teching. Tech pace was really fast with Mansa and Pacal, and led to a pretty early lib date for me:

Techs/Land:

I'm liking the way a peaceful UN win looks. I'm heading to Democracy to power the cottages, then might just straight shot the UN. Washington is #1 pop, and he is basically hated by everyone besides Huayna. FR is looking good, and I might just run HR once I get close to the vote due to the fact that 3 AIs have it as their fav civic. If not, I can just go standard warfare route to get some land and win a Dom/Diplo that way.

 

[huerfanista]

Played thru 1220AD, emperor/normal:

Spoiler :

SIP, chopped out the GLib, put together a late phantapult army and capped Qin, even though he had pikes/maces. Lib was long gone by the time I got to edu/philo. I've got a bunch of land, but I'm pretty backwards. Well, I guess I've internalized the Shaka approach. I'll just head for cuirassiers and see what happens. Pacal, Qin, Mansa, and I are hindus, I think everyone else is buddhist. Gilga is doing great, as usual.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Immortal/Normal

1926 Domination

Spoiler :

Settled 1N for the extra commerce city tile. Wheel/pottery while working corn + cottages. Then went towards IW and construction. I got 4 cities placed (iron, some riverside with some sugar, and a bunch of forests near silk). Once I hit construction I chopped, chopped, chopped swords, catapults, defensive archers and hit Qin (he had pyramids, a lot of land, is a backstabber, and taking him out would solidify that border). It was a tough war and I couldn't end it right away, took feud and CoL off him for peace once I had most of his good cities. He peacevassal'd to Capac so oh well. Using the newly acquired noobphants I joined a war with Pacal vs Mansa, too 2 cities (including a 40 shrine area) and capped him. This all obviously ruined my economy, BUT

This is the cottage rush build. You spam cottages, and largely rely on trees for military (with math boost). Chinese trees were chopped as captured for more units; this is how I beat protective longbows (after initial 3 city captures) with sword/cat. The other benefit is that the cities work the cottages. You might have 0 infra but you have cottage growth and you don't strike. That raw commerce is a few multipliers away from solid soon enough.

I tried to get back into the tech game but the big AI group hug (despite some heathens, almost everyone was pleased with everyone) made it hard. Pacal declared on me with infantry/arty just after I hit infantry of my own in the late 1600's AD. He took 2 cities then I bought out. He and HC were going culture; this didn't stop HC from declaring on me @ pleased from across the map (I walled it and paid him 80 gold for an out). Meanwhile, I'd built up the infra and had infantry/arty/rocketry (traded from mansa), and with gobs of cities just spammed out 250 infantry and 150 arty or so en route to a domination win. I intercepted HC culture when he was about 20 turns out after taking my cities back from pacal, taking his capitol, and capping him. I capped HC after I took one of his top 3 cities, pushing his culture win time to > 100. It would have to be good enough, I needed to cap gilgamesh before washington won!

It was close.

But a simple sniping of the junker tundra city in the south flipped the culture I needed for a win.

And just to throw some salt in the AI wounds:

TWO victories before you, so suck it AI.

 

[TCMIV]

Monarch/Epic to 55ad

Spoiler :

Played to Civil Service. Went for fairly early alpha then math while settling just 1 extra city north for copper. Traded for IW and settled pigs/iron, kept settlers at the double bananas and spice/silk areas, settled those soon after when I reached calendar. Whole known world except Capac were Jewish at this point, easy diplo so I begged lots of gold and gave in to a few requests early on. Happiness was no problem and I whipped every city except the cap(except maybe twice).

Camping my last settler at the gems area waiting for the barb city to be weak enough to kill. Teched to Civil Service and went bureau with a fully cottaged capital for some huge commerce(also running 2 scientists there).

First Gsci in 5 turns will bulb philo(or academy maybe, with the bureau capital), teching paper which will be done in ~10 turns, lib should come easily. I'll probably go for rifles and kill mansa first since he's got good land, if I don't decide to go for a diplo victory.

 

[Danelius90]

I notice my save has 2 views, just want to check can you load them? I usually use BUG+BULL. You probably would have said, but just in case you didn't

 

[Zx Zero Zx]

Well I have started to play this map and it has only gone to affirm my belief. Pangaea maps suck. Will finish it later when I'm not to annoyed with it, maybe I'll post.

 

[ston]

Quite a different game than what I was expecting, this one.

From reading some of the other posts, it's amazing how differently the same start can turn out!

Another space win, 1929. I took a few more screenshots than usual this time, too.

Thanks to all involved for another very interesting game!

(edit: Monarch, Normal btw)

Spoiler :

The sun rises in 4000BC and the settler approachs the great Zulu leader, dressed in the skins of lions, with his fine headband of shredded wheat atop his crown, to discuss the creation of their Civilisation.

"What's up, my lord? You seem a little sad"
"Shaka tired, tired of fighting, tired of war..."
"Well, you do have a certain reputation you know..."
"Shaka get bad press. Shaka want study zen flower arranging. Shaka learn Ikebana from good friend Toku"

...and with that he presents an eloquently arranged bowl of petunias!

"My lord, that's...surprisingly beautiful! But, if I may, perhaps lose the severed hand?"

"Remember", said Shaka, "No fighting".
"It shall be so, lord"

Shaka grunts his approval and gestures to the settler to found their first city, right on the very spot they stood.

The first AI encounter in this game was with Mansa Munchbunch, so I quickly pumped out a very early 2nd city (2600BC) to grab the wheat and copper to the North and block him out.

I also settled the horses near Qin pretty early on, and managed to find a nice, compact shape for the civ which could be filled out to nine cities.

Munchbunch was the early tech leader (no surprises there), but what really caught my attention in this game was the effect that a stone-wall trade embargo can have.

Gilly, Qin and Pacal had all adopted Buddhism pretty early on. I could see which way the wind was blowing (Munchbunch was Jewish) and switched myself. It seemed certain to become the AP religion, so Monasteries, Temples and Cathedrals sprang up everywhere.

All the buddhist nations shut borders on Munchbunch. Qin, Gilly and Pacal were all at friendly. A little later on in the game, I somehow found myself in charge of the AP and each time a vote came up, it was "stop trading with Munchbunch". The rate at which he dropped down the leaderboard really was an eye-opener!

From looking at the land, it was pretty clear that there wasn't much production to be had initially, but omg how much riverside grassland?!?! Every city on a river too.

I turned the cottage spam dial up to 11 (known as the the 'Spinal Tap' gambit), and let the game unfold...

After the usual early tech stuff, I first bee'd CS with some help from a GA; in the end I managed to hit CS with one turn of GA left, so switched without anarchy and at least got a turn of CS in the GA:

Spoiler :

An overview of the 9 cities' locations, 840AD:

Spoiler :

Next, bee'd printing press. Next, bee'd Democracy; if this isn't a Universal Suffrage/Emancipation game, I don't know what is! With each city having maxed-out buddhist buildings and all towns adding hammers, I finally had some decent production.

Next up, levees in all cities in 1540:

Spoiler :

... then factories (circa 1730), then hydro plants for all. It was just a few turns to tech from factories to hydroplants, which were all built in a GA, so I didn't consider coal plants for a change.

It's quite impressive what a city that can only work its small cross and which has no resources to work can produce:

Spoiler :

By 1860 or so, the game was well in the bag:

Spoiler :

1901, spaceship parts nearing completion:

Spoiler :

1917, launched the ship w/ 1 engine:

Spoiler :

1929 - we reach alpha!

Yes, that is an archer in the capital. I did build a mace or two I think...

I really like this particlular pic

Spoiler :

Some final pics...

Pacal built the Space Elevator, way to go, Einstein!

Spoiler :

Whilst we're talking about the Space Elevator, not only does it make no sense to build it in the game, but also, the carbon nanotube fillament would need to be deployed down to Earth from space, i.e. to create it, you'd already have had to have built a spaceship! Doi

Shaka's mighty power rating!!

Spoiler :

This nicely shows the introduction and effect of forges, US, levees, factories and hydroplants (and the GA in which the hydroplants went up):

Spoiler :

Finally, the almost unimmaginable scale of the wars which Shaka found himself in!

Spoiler :

The game did not think I deserved 20,000 points:

Spoiler :

Wow, a game with Shaka with no military at all. In total, I defeated 2x barb warriors and a panther. I lost no units. Munchbunch was completely and horribly destroyed by a trade embargo.

There were some minor fisticuffs between Pacal and Washy/Muncher, Muncher sadly capping to Pacal towards the end of the game.

I was considering going for a diplo win at one point, as my relationship with all the major players, HC included, was very good. Gilly then started swithing into Christianity from the mid 1600's. I got him back to Buddhism a couple of times, but he was generally at pleased rather than friendly due to the religious differences.

 

[Capellan]

Monarch/Normal. 1933 Diplomation.
"Easy" Barbs, since I'm lazy and also figured it'd probably help the AI as much as me, if not more.

Spoiler :

SIP. Met neighbors. Settled six cities and spammed cottages. Tech rate good, but production limited.

By 1 AD, my three closest neighbors were all Jewish. So when Pacal asked me to join the club, I accepted.

That put them all to Pleased, and let me do some begging:

Used my first GS to bulb Philo.

That let me found Taoism, which wasn't a big deal, but also hopefully would give me a leg up on the Lib race.

I took Printing Press since it would boost my towns and villages, and swapped into Free Speech for the town boost.

Finally, my low-hammer cities got enough troops out for a war.

And since Mansa was willing ...

He wasn't much help, losing and then retaking one of his cities, but he gave me the chance to take two of Pacal's cities, and then extort techs for peace.

I waited about 15 turns, then declared on Pacal again. Alas, he immediately bought in Huayna and Qin. Inca wasn't a threat; I saw a couple of archers from him, but that was it, and got 20 gold for peace a while later. Qin was more worrying, as his power was higher than mine and we had plenty of border.

So after I grabbed Mutal:

That freed up enough troops to kill a couple of small stacks from Qin - luckily I saw no large ones - and get a small payment for peace.

I was focussing my research on techs with military value, which surprisingly on this map meant I went for Democracy pretty early, both to kill Emancipation anger and for the US hammer bonus on towns.

This was a real shot in the arm for my production.

Meanwhile, Wahington declared on Qin, and bought in Mansa (talk about your bad choices for an ally). This was an opportunity too good to miss, especially as I'd had my eye on Mansa for a while - his culture was a real pain.

Qin took 1 city; I took 3. That left him with only two, so he couldn't sneak a culture win, so I capped him.

By now I was churning Infantry and Arty out in big piles, so I turned on my recent ally. Qin's power had taken a hit from the Washington war, and I was able to catch a big stack of his troops in the citry he'd taken from Mansa, where they lacked any cultural defense.

I razed the ex-Malinese city, then captured four Chinese cities, including the capital. Qin capitulated.

I checked the victory conditions and saw that Huayna was going culture. Pacal has vassaled to Gilgamesh and neither liked me, so there was only one way to get to the Inca before he got his 3rd city to legendary ... well, I guess I could have built a navy, but I didn't

I took two Mayan and three Sumerian cities, and Pacal broke free.

Of Gilgamesh, anyway

Speaking of old fancy-beard...

Which put me on the Incan border. Tanks with fighter and spies in support, vs rifles and cavalry. That's the risk of going culture, Huayna!

Inca's 3rd culture city fell with 37 turns to go until Legendary.

I was about 3% short of the land for Dom, and started building that navy after all, so I could attack America, but old Washington had been good enough to build the UN while I was conquering the Inca. I'd won the leadership vote easily, and that was before Huayna capped. So when the choice of motion came up:

 

[FlyingSwan]

started this game a few days back even though ive not finished the pericles monarch student game...yet.

Monarch/normal

Spoiler :

Settled on a dye for the extra coin,went MIN/BW,okay Impi rush is on,built 3 workers,another city and lots of Impis.Its now turn 75/1000bc and Mansa,s out the game.

Quite a tough fight agaist skirmishers-8 impi casualtys-but I think mansa capital with the gold/sheep/horses,religions and production potential made it worth it.Unfortunately his 2nd city I had to raze as it was a dumb Location.

With HBR the plan is to role the world asap just using HAs and Impis for as long as possible.I want to get currency,CoL and calander,after that I,l turn research to zero till the wars are over.View attachment Monarch Student Shaka BC-1000mansa wipeout.CivBeyondSwordSave

Update to 500ad

Spoiler :

another tough fight agaist Pacal-them pesky holkans wiped out a fair few HAs but the battles won and got some nice new citys(pacal built the mids in Mutal for me).

Next stop is Giggles I think,after that I might have to switch tactics to take out Qin.Im hoping that for this war I can manage with just HAs and Impis while I build up a force of Elephants and cats to take the next civs out.

 

[i_imperator]

Sigining in, Emperor/Normal. I still have to finish Percelies though.

 

[Heliac]

Monarch / Normal

Update 1AD:

Spoiler :

I built 4 cities and started prepping for an Impi Rush. Decided to attack Mansa instead of Pacal, because he was higher up on the scoreboard. Those skirmishers were a b!tch! I captured all but one of his cities - didn't have enough Impi's, because he got a third Skirmisher just before I wanted to attack. Made peace instead (got 3 techs for my troubles), waited 10 turns, then took him out with fresh troops. A nice stroke of luck was one of his cities became the Confucianism HC a turn before I took it, w00t!

You can see from the image, Pacal has the Hinduism AND Judaism HC's very close to my borders; I'll first build some infrastructure, spread Hinduism, then Build loads of Impi's for Pacal to chew on. Just got Mathematics, going for Currency next to try and support my strecthing-at-the-seams empire. Yay, Ikhanda's!

Loss 1160AD (Gilgamesh AP Diplomatic):

Spoiler :

Shortly after 1AD, I converted to Hinduism to join the club. I was mostly building infrastructure and Hindu Priests, while building up my army for an attack on Pacal. Unfortunately and despite all my efforts, it came down to a vote between me and Gilgamesh, and everyone already loved him. That was the earliest AP Diplo Victory I had ever encountered.

 

[FlyingSwan]

@Heliac

Spoiler :

WOW thats alot of citys by 1AD!I,l be interested to see how your economy pans out by the next checkpoint.I went a similar route to you but took Mansa out alot earlier-about 1000bc.Just wondering as you left the rush till later did you use axes as well as Impi?

 

[BigTime]

Gave up even though I probably could have won.

Spoiler :

Teched Democracy and went into cottage civics. Everybody was pleased with me. Qin daggers, with two other cautious targets...

In all honesty, I probably could have walled his attack and recaptured my cities, but I do not like game BS and was getting quite bored with this game. Oh well.