Mongolia Scenario

[Gwenwyn]

I never got round to playing the Rise of the Mongols scenario when it was released, and finally played it for the first time a week or so ago. After beating it convincingly on king and emperor, and much to my surprise, winning at my first attempt on immortal, I decided to try deity...

My immortal win went as follows:

• Conquered Western Xia, Jin, China with 5 keshiks + 1 horse
• Meanwhile built up a second army of 3 keshiks + 1 horse, went northwest to Russia
• Allied Almaty, took main army down the silk road to Persia
• Once Russia was conquered, allied Hungary and attacked Byzantium. Killed many units, got Thessalonica in a peace deal. Healed up army 2 and waited...
• Main keshik force conquered Persia, allied Abbasids and took out Arabia, leaving the two armies ready to carry out a pincer attack on Byzantium
• At this point I was DOWed by Oda and Gandhi... allied Korea, who took care of any invasion attempts from Japan, and later Dali, who prevented any of Gandhi's army entering China
• With 6 civs down, I split the army into two groups and sent them through the two mountain passes into India, winning with 6 turns to spare.

As I'm normally a king/emperor player I was pleasantly surprised by the win on immortal. However, the step up to deity was too much. I managed to take out Jin, China, Persia, Russia and Arabia, but this time, the AIs teched noticeably faster and had more units, cities had higher defence and took longer to fall, and I started to run into way too many cannon and rifles towards the end.

So... any tips for when/how to take Japan? I guess it's best to go for the Jin and China first in any case.

Also, the only city state I conquered was Western Xia for the 2 initial horses, leaving the rest of the city states alone. Is it necessary to take out more city states on deity or are allies more useful than units/policies?

Also, I'm a bit puzzled by the Khaaan! achievement. I ran out of time in my deity attempt, although I did have the highest score at the end of the game. I guess the Ghengis Khan achievement is purely for winning by conquering 8 civs, and Khaaan! requires an outright loss through both score and lack of conquests. Can anyone confirm this?

 

[Ravellion]

Also, I'm a bit puzzled by the Khaaan! achievement. I ran out of time in my deity attempt, although I did have the highest score at the end of the game. I guess the Ghengis Khan achievement is purely for winning by conquering 8 civs, and Khaaan! requires an outright loss through both score and lack of conquests. Can anyone confirm this?

You are right. If you want the achievement, easiest is to give all your cities away to a remaining AI one turn before the end of the scenario, then press end turn.

 

[Gwenwyn]

You are right. If you want the achievement, easiest is to give all your cities away to a remaining AI one turn before the end of the scenario, then press end turn.

Thanks for that

 

[Ravellion]

how did you deal with happiness? what policies did you take in turn 1 and over the course of the game?

 

[Gwenwyn]

The only way I could keep above -10 happiness was to raze pretty much every city I could. The only non-capitals I kept were Chengdu (as it has 2 luxuries), Thessalonica as a base for 'Round 2' with Byzantium and Mecca for the pearls. I also annexed and bought courthouses when I had the gold.

Even then, staying above -20 was problematic at times, mainly whilst waiting for cities to burn down - this was an issue in particular when conquering China due to the number of cities and the rate at which they fell. I'd imagine managing happiness in this scenario was easier before all the patches...

Policy-wise, I took Professional Army on turn 1 to get more keshiks asap. May have been better to go with Military Tradition and get to logistics sooner - I'll have to try it. After finishing Honour, I went for Patronage, Aesthetics, Philanthropy. The reason for taking Aesthetics rather than Philanthropy first was because I'd been at war with allies of some of the city states previously, so having all the anger neutralised before I threw money at them saved me quite a bit of gold.

Research - initially went towards construction to enable colosseums, then headed for rifling. I did get rifles although it was pretty late - maybe it'd be worth throwing in a RA or two to speed it up (science rate was abysmal - don't think I even built a library...).

 

[killerloop]

Hi Gwennyn,

search the forum, there's a recent thread from Silverfuturist something called like: "Mongol Deity scenario way different after the patch". You will find several tips how to win on Diety.

Japan:
I signed an RA with Japan mid 30, to get Rifling around turn 65-70. After that taking Japan is easy, you bombard the small island from Korean peninsula (ally or conquer) with a Keshik or 2. Then use this beachhead to take on Oda "mainland" from the west with 4-5 Rifles, flanked by some boats and 2 keshiks. Around turn 85 Oda should be finished.....

Happiness you manage via annexing (after revolt period) and buying a Courthouse. Keep only the cities with a lux. In the early truns when you conquer Siam and Wu happiness dives below 25, because of the revolt periods of 5--6 cities. After that you should be cruising netween -5 and +5.

Policy wise: directly take the 1.5x XP, this will get your KEshiks up with double shooting earliest. Money is not an issue. By turn 30 nine Jeshiks should be running around.

 

[Gwenwyn]

Cheers killerloop - I shall definitely revisit this when I've got a chance - surprising just how big the gap between immortal and deity is. Much more noticeable than on going from emperor to immortal.

This scenario has given me a new appreciation of warmongering... I tend to favour tall, peaceful empires but Genghis is changing all that