First Domination Victory
As Mongolia, had to restart and do a non-UHV game. Expanded at a slower pace and learned a lot this game, as well as recognizing a few mistakes as well. Really put the espionage strategy to work; the only way I see how a very large empire keeps pace, especially for a non-Euro civ.
Getting land wasn't too hard with Mongolia, population was the issue. Settled 2 wonderful cities in S America and kept 3 in Australia while gifting 1 to the Khmer. Surprisingly my 4 vassals: Khmer, Netherlands, Portugal and India didn't really help me with colonizing as much as I would have liked. Gifting cities are essential here as they improve your stability and still count somewhat towards your domination requirements. Portugal only wanted one of my Brazilian cities, since no one wanted my cities would gift them settlers but all Portugal did was build 2 size 1 cities in the middle of the Brazilian Amazon. Won't have them as a vassal again unless they have Brazil already. Netherlands was better. They did a great job colonizing S Africa, went into S America, New Zealand and part of Australia. India was OK, vassalized them immediately as soon as they respawned. Khmer was OK too, would have like to have seen bigger cities from them. The way I divided up Australia/ New Zealand was neat I think: 4 nations controlling parts of it but all under the umbrella of the Mongol Coalition; meaning either me or my vassals.
If I started the game over again as Mongolia I would done the following differently:
- Started using Espionage to steal techs much earlier. By doing this and manipulating the techs that your vassals research you can at the very least stay on par technology wise.
- Focus more on pop than land. As you can see I built 2 rather useless cities in Northern Siberia and one in the Gobi because at the time I was concerned with land. Well, as long as you settle all the way to the Urals in the West and Samarkand in the South, land will not be a problem for Mongolia. Besides, if you really need it there's always Kamchatka where no one settles. Those 2 cities would have been much better used in South America or Australia for population.
- Sent the Keshiks earlier to Africa. Before this game I never thought about sending the Keshiks to Africa but I did in an attempt to get my 2nd UHV requirement, raze 7 cities. Russia is a pain in the neck to invade and I was waiting for Turkey to collapse; they were Unstable for literally centuries and I had a horde of Keshiks waiting the moment they do to invade, but of course they never did.
The indy cities in Africa are easy pickings for the Keshiks, even late into the game, I razed 2 of them with my Africa Korps of Keshiks but had I been there earlier could have razed at least 2-3 more and got my GA.
- I may have had a change of heart on Japan..it may make sense to try to vassalize them for Mongolia simply for their large cities. True they don't have land but as Mongolia you really don't need it. At the very least they seemed better than Portugal and their idiotic size 1 cities in the middle of Brazil.
But anyway, gotta start somewhere I suppose. Have a few pics attached, one of which is what happens to Mighty Russia when Germany takes Eastern Europe and Mongolia settles past the Urals...the Muscovite Kingdom! They were also unstable for a long time but managed to stick around.
,Arabia didn't even try to attack when I had taken Herat and could not reenforce right away and was vulnerable. Only Japan with their annoying ships did anything offensive against me. I don't think Japan is worth the trouble though... too many troops for too little land. 
