[BTS] Nobles' Club 188 - Genghis Khan of Mongolia

[elitetroops]

@InovA

Spoiler :

Ah, sorry, might have misunderstood. So you were not at war when Ragnar peace vassaled? And De Gaulle declared on you for other reasons after plotting for a while? Then forget what I said, that would only apply if Ragnar peace vassaled while at war with you.

 

[Berks]

@Lain (I watched about 1/2 of the first video)

Spoiler :

SIP really seemed to mess up your available land!
You couldn't settle a city south using the Cows because of Saladin, and getting to the northern Cow in time isn't really practical!
Also, it meant you had to tech Ag first, so you found out about Copper and Horse later, and delayed Fishing (you identified commerce would suck on this map - more seafood turns = good)
Please don't take any of this as criticism, none of this you could know about on T0.

Not sure about the Archery decision. The jungle is indeed scary at that point, but I think you could have fogbusted it with aggressive Warriors, you had good production with mined Pigs, and so could afford to lose the odd one here and there? Worst case, you are pushed back to defending on the forests across from the river?

 

[Lain]

@Berks

Spoiler :

Yeah, I would play very differently with the map knowledge I have now. Settle on the corn, settle cow+fish, wheat+horse and go full Keshiks. As it turned out, Saladin and Ragnar completely ruined the settling plan. The spot to the south is totally ruined. But I wasn't even sure if that cow to the north would be reachable pre-sailing.

Archery was a waste, yes. I wanted to settle towards or beyond the jungle (where else would I go at that point?) and it makes sense to defend that. But as it turned out, there wasn't much to settle and there were 100 AI units roaming around everywhere. Thought I had more space than I really did.

I also expected islands and stuff, but turned out that it's just one landmass pretty much. Many not-so-good decisions there. Not to spoiler too much, but it will be a contested game. Maybe the toughest I recorded so far.

 

[Berks]

@Lain

Spoiler :

Definitely no way to know that on T0. I understand wanting to settle up in the jungle, all the visible land was garbage, and you couldn't beat Sal to one of the southern sites, even with a Settler at size 2. Hopefully you can get a good Keshik war going against Sal, or maybe DeGaulle -

Spoiler :

neither of them got metals until late in my game, I think we had the only 2 nearby coppers and they had to wait for Iron

I'll watch the rest on the weekend, I have faith you can win, Keshiks are really good, I almost never lost more than one killing a spear or fortified CG3 archer, and we have tons of food and forests in our start location

 

[enKage]

Hello again after over 1 year of Civ4 detoxication!

This is my very very first game after a long brake so I took emperor SG. Of course many mistakes, as I dont remember everything I used too, so any criticism is very welcomed

Spoiler :

Unlike many I settled sugar. Of course lost I source of food, but It opened me a great GP farms as cities #2 and #3. I also skipped AH because imperialistic + mined pigs are great. I managed to settle Turfan on exact turn Sal's settler was there, with library present and monument it is enough to counter religious culture. Now I plan build up some axes as Degaulle looks nasty and tasty (I hope he will go for NAs), take French land while teching to Alpha/HBr and take the rest neighbours with keshik/Elephant combo, I hope Sal will utilize madrassa and give me a shrine for conquest.
Capital is so-so, The only beauro cap can be dye/gems, but too long to bother it, so probable victory will be domination/conquest.
https://zapodaj.net/83d9fda4dc4af.png.html --->img here

 

[Snowbird]

to T97 (450BC)

Spoiler :

Whipped some more Keshiks and went for France had to move aroud that useless Rheims cause archers joined the mix.
Traded HBR for Iw, Masonry and some religious stuff....
With Sal going for CoL, I think going for few infra instead of even more horsies might have been mistake, however I have close to enough gold to finish CoL (which allows using food for representation scientists). Damascus should be able to overtake first GP to bulb Philo, before APris pool kicks in. If i can sign off France in timely manner one more round of whipping Keshiks and going for Sal's cap might be in order. (10 reasonable cities with the Mids should be the game done, but France might need extra settler (or CoL).)

Wish I could write up in more reasonably manner, but job keeps interfering

pics:

Spoiler :

burned 2nd GG to get free upgrade from warruior to axe -- WIII stuff is just to self-justify it.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7rfsps22xmc3v8k/WTH.JPG?raw=1
they all thing they are winning...

Tech rate and potential hindu lovefest is alarming.

 

[Xpl]

Spoiler :

Been playing a few turns every few days; pace is slowing down as I figure out what my end game is. Started a war vs Victoria since she had the fewest hill cities, which Peter and De Gaulle pile jumped onto as well. Trouble is I've been rolling out knights and my previous Keshiks, which don't have time to wait for the AI stacks to slam in and suicide. De Gaulle had an early engineering which ruled him out. Victoria is about to get Engineering too, which may end my war prematurely.

Also, what is the general promotion line for mounted units? Based off odds early vs archers I went Flanking, but I guess vs pikes combat 1/shock?

The amount of land available has turned this quite challenging it has turned out.

 

[elitetroops]

@Xpl

Spoiler :

I prefer the combat line for mounted. The first attacks might be at low odds, but that means you really want to hurt the top defender to get better odds on your later attacks. Flanking does not increase the damage you inflict to your opponent. If the odds are really low and you give a couple of flanking promotions, there's a good chance your unit retreats without doing any damage at all, which does not help your cause.

 

[Snowbird]

to 100BC t111

Spoiler :

425BC -- Ragnar declares on SB... don't recall red fists...
325BC -- give CoL to France to sign off (one of reasons I prefered having CoL over Currency)
225BC capture Meca consolidating land
150BC swap CoL + 20 gold for maths -- start self searching Currency (maybe should have gone for CS and keep on hoping trade Currency)
100BC capture nice forest in sal's ivory city (I hope to chop out forbidden palace here), sign off Sal for 10 gold

while tempting I think I'll pass on trades with Viky for now, might be actually time to switch to Paci+Caste...
pics

Spoiler :

10cities, on tech parity with mids (Colossus does not hurt either), Ragnar occupied with native america I think the game is done. It's still lot of stuff to be played, but should not require too much effort.

managed to get to 225AD (t124)

Spoiler :

Nothing major, mostly installing basic infrastructure and growing (had to to load of micromanaging around happy cap due to loosing wine to arabian culture). Forbidden Palace to be chopped in one turn. Got the priest from Paris, while I vould get major shrine (probably close to 20gold per turn), but with forbidden palace about to happen, I think I'd rather get golden age revolt to Bureau, bulb Education with the next guy and maybe whip some forges with slavery+org (at least in few places where my next few GP's are not to be born).

Overall I would guess Liberalism to MT and trying to win from where is the plan (rather boring but with France and America Failing to tech and HC and Vicky being rather small it is good enough).

I've been in phony war with Native America for a while... +8 visible on Ragnar (traded him horse for stone and something else -- got some minor failgold from Chitzen, should get more from Maoi)

 

[PsychopathicWarmonger]

I've never played one of these before so I'll give it a shot and see what happens.
Are these maps constructed so to stop them from screwing even any player?

Playing using the Legends of Revolution mod, Monarch, with no huts; vassal states, Revolutions, Legend Units and at Normal speed.

Initial Start

I don't feel like settling in place here. The Corn is too good a food resource to settle on, losing 2 food (Not on a river).
The Cow too looks like it's either on an island or a long ways around the peninsula.
I feel like moving the Settler 1SE and settling there, but I'll move my Scout 1E first to see what's happening over there.

Turn 1

Spoiler :

So I've moved my Scout 1E and found a Sugar resource, aswell as using the extra tile of movement with Morale seeing Fish down by my projected 1st site.
My movement 1SE with the Settler also revealed a Cow resource South-west aswell, but I see more land beyond the Fog so another city there is possible too.

My Capitol will have only 1 river-tile, so I'm hypothesising going for a trade economy with the Great Lighthouse. I'll explore around a bit more though to see what the land is like, and if many of my cities will be coastal or not. But my Capitol is rich in both Food and Hills, having Pig, Corn and Fish - meaning wonderbuilding is viable.

Finding Horse if of course a priority. If we find some, and have a neighbour close by, I can possible have an early Keshik rush - but I won't try and force it.
Growth>Defense>Research is my general plan. We have plenty of food for Growth, and now we have to find some way of defense. If I find Horses then I'll likely be going Archery anyway, but fingers-crossed for Copper.

My planned Tech path will be Agriculture>Animal Husbandry>Mining>Bronze-Working>Fishing. Getting our food online is a must, and because my Fish is Coastal and not Ocean, Barbarian Galleys will be a problem eventually, so I'd rather get my Land Food first. I can chop a Workboat out once I get Bronze-Working, but until then my Worker (which is my first build) will have plenty to do in Farming, Pasturing and Mining.

Turn 20 - 3200BC

Spoiler :

I've met both Saladin and De Gaule, with Saladin being South of me and De Gaule somewhere East.
I've had my Scout do a counterclockwise spin of the bay around my Capitol and have noted a few things about my land.

The land East of my Capitol is rather poor. 1 Wheat resource among a region of river and hill plains doesn't seem too appealing. The heavier Food resources are surrounding Saladin's Capitol. It's likely he'll beat me to them if I don't prioritise a Settler but I could instead move North and see what the land is like there. Although my current Scout is West of the bay I'm settled on so I may need to train another or hope that the land connects somewhere further North. The land West of the bay is choked with Mountains and Plains-Hills, with some scattered grasslands leading into the Jungle further North - but also has a number of tasty Food resources so cities are viable generally everywhere.

I've researched Agriculture, and have my Worker 1 turn away from completing a Farm on the Corn. I'm also 1 turn away from Animal Husbandry, and I have a feeling that my fabled Horses are on the Plains tiles due East. If they are, I will attempt an early war with Saladin, using my Horse Archers.
However I'm unsure if I'll be able to do this and go for the Great Lighthouse at the same time. A Chariot rush might be better - not having to stretch through a dead-end tech tree. Saladin has no early UU (in LoR) so I don't have to worry about him bringing out something tough, although he is Protective so I'll have to be either quick, smart, or brute taking him out - before he has the chance to bring out too many City Defender II Archers.

 

[Snowbird]

to 680AD (t144) - or how to nearly screw up totally fine game.

Spoiler :

Screwing up part one:

Should have preserved for golden age....

Screwing up part two:
with all nice stuff I forgot to account for having no iron...
Well:

Can't spy destroy the fish, so like 2x sabotage the mine (no real espionage spending on Sal either), wait for him to rebuild, trade. HC has iron for trade, so if I had preserved GM I could run GA, switch of religion and try trading (at this point I probably would consider Economics GM if i could trade for banking)

According to the notes (which I totally forgot given playing less then turnset per week), this was my hope for iron

Well, that went to the worst hands possible (I managed to get Vikings to friendly and swap Education for Guilds -- ofcourse NA will vasalize at some point, something like Vicky or Sal would have been fine too)

I have spies running to Sal iron, but honestly I guess, taking two turns of anarchy -- installing Police, state, slavery and free religion (maybe something like vassalage/mercantilism too) and trading with Inca would be faster. Ofcourse, I could try taking something like replacable parts with Lib (only Ragnar has Edu and I can see his research) and aim for Cavalries ()

Techs:

update:

If i thow a bunch of resources, it can probably go to ~50GPT. On other hand I only need to secure iron source so likely attacking France>Russia>Vikings.

to 860AD

Spoiler :

So I teched what was needed to tech, traded for iron and got declared

Well, I was doing with 5 workers for ten cities... 4 left.

With french 'stack' occupied I made some additions. But overall stituation it is quite ugly (Paris is under elephant attack and so on.)

I am a bit worried about Ragnar having hands full, but I guess Vicky classifies as proper target and I also have enough spy points to see border cities (no troop ammasment yet.)

 

[Snowbird]

to 1000AD

Spoiler :

Vassaled France, while

So Ragnar is at 16 cities with two vassals.... while I am beating some stuborn non-factor AI.

made a passable deal, at very least I won't need selftech banking

Terrain like that was one of reasons for slow progress (Peter has grenadiers (and ~7 turns of peace deal left), so my 30 cuirassiers probably can attack Saladin - don't think I have courage to declare on Ragnar)

Overview -- that is just a lot of land

I guess I could try trading for RP? Otherwise I don't have money to get to rifling. (and maybe I should just beat Sal and Vicky while teching towards Communism anyway)

 

[intutama]

Need help!

I wasn't really going for a HA rush and I also completely misplaced the horse town "nin hsia", so I got a probably very late HA rush. I could take 4 of Saladins cities before having to much losses on the last city and trade peace for Currency.
One regret is that I started working GS in my capitol to quicken HBR, then had to continue working them for the GS. This means my cottages are not developped at all in the capitol.

So in the current state of thing:
- First GS next turn
- Will probably make Damascus the capitol, it has 5 ready to use cottages/towns, and 3 more to build (under forest) with access to fresh water; means Academy goes here.
- Will make Turfan (original capitol) a GP city -> national epic or whatever it's called
- Not sure what to tech... Originally I saved all my money to tech Currency after I build the Academy, but I got it for peace. For the moment I'll probably go for CS or maybe Calendar first...
- Also thinking or using my brown towns and chopping left by saladins to finish him with a elepult stack... I can get Contruction in apparently 6 turns.

What do you think ? Go for CS and try to get a tech lead or go for the Saladin?

PS Haven't only 5 Keshiks left I think, one of which is a super healer.

Spoiler :