Nobles' Club 360: Mansa Musa of Mali

[soundjata]

Deity 1AD

Spoiler :

Nice trolling with the luxury resources @AcaMetis

 

[AcaMetis]

Not going to lie,

Spoiler :

didn't even notice that at all. This is one of those maps where I had some idea of what I wanted the map to be like, then the Civ IV map generator went "actually, here's something that looks like it'll be more interesting" and I, well, went with it .

 

[chinemol]

T52

Spoiler :

I agree with @BornInCantaloup that Ag-BW and 2nd worker would lead to faster expansion. I still have a lot of capital forests. I preferred AH before BW for the production towards warriors (even though fogbusting didn't turn out to be that bad), and to potentially see the horses that are often found with so many cows in the starting area.

Arguably Kumbi Saleh should have been 1E for wheat in the first ring, though I liked additional help for cottage growth, saving worker turns and sharing the wet corn. In particular, I can't grow that fast anyway: happiness looks like the limiting factor for this starting position.

I'm a bit unsure what to do next. The fish/marble/cow city to the north is potentially strong and I can chop the Great Library in the capital. However, am I confined to too small a territory if I don't grab the NE fish spot now?

I have to also hope the trade for Monarchy works out e.g. by partially researching it so an AI would trade it for Aesthetics. Is this a map where you would self-tech Monarchy given how much it helps your growth?

View attachment 698270

Spoiler :

unless ther's an island or a really oddly shaped landmass, if tou settle the northern fish city one south you'llsecure both wheat and a fish

 

[antimony]

Spoiler :

unless ther's an island or a really oddly shaped landmass, if tou settle the northern fish city one south you'llsecure both wheat and a fish

Spoiler :

Yes but I think I want to develop the coast fish before dry wheat no? I guess it depends how soon I will get sailing for coast vs. non river cottages.

 

[antimony]

@BornInCantaloup

Spoiler :

I actually researched fishing before pottery which probably explains part of my delay on writing. My reasoning is that the discount is worthwhile and so far research has not been the limiting factor for anything.

Changed my mind the: next cities, I decided on clam/SW fish for city 4 and NE fish for 5. Eventually settle on marble (I don't care about the quarry yield much) and also have a city on W cows sharing the corn, like you propose, which would be 7. Maybe island cities later...

The problem with the W cows is that it provides neither commerce now does it claim land. I see it could be a good settler / worker production spot while other cities grow cottages, but given the severe happiness limit on growth here it seems I have to build workers in all cities at some point anyway.

 

[aitkensam]

Immortal Domination

Spoiler :

1510AD. Standard-old Cuirs/Cav game. Hannibal was quite advanced so killed off Louis and Monty to be able to reach Dom threshold without the trouble of Hannibal.
Lib->MT was around 700AD. Huayna plotted on me even though same religion. Fortunately could beg when he was on my border and he immediately attacked Willem.
Used a lot more Caste System than normal this game which probably hurt my end date but did help with tech.

 

[Krugi]

Emperor T249 (1695 AD): Domination victory

Spoiler :

Not much to say after the previous reports. Whipping ~10 galleons and mass-producing cannons allowed me to cap Monty and Louis quickly; a Great Artist culture bombed Orléans to speed up victory by a few turns. No need to attack Hannibal or the ridiculous barb island.

Pretty bad result, but I should probably still move back up to Immortal. This game fell into my lap.

Thanks for the map!

 

[CGQ]

Spoiler 1280 AD Demidog I need help :

I managed to get a nice cuir army and took out both Dutch and Incans. Ragnar had Hyuna vassaled so I made peace with Ragnar immediately after killing off Hyuna so I could tech Rifling and get calvary. Problem is, now I got over 72 Cuirs waiting to attack and now Ragnar somehow beat me to rifling. Now he has calvary and I haven't even gotten to rifling yet...

I know I can easily outproduce him but even despite being 2-movement units they still take a bunch of turns just to reach his borders and rifles will just shred through them. What do I do now? Is this winnable? I don't have astronomy to build galleons to attack French or Monty.

I was doing so good but it's crazy how fast I fall behind in tech when I go to war. Is this still winnable? Maybe I should've capped Willem much sooner and went straight for Ragnar/Inca? I just didn't wanna deal with revolts, motherland unhappiness bs, etc.

 

[soundjata]

1280 AD Demidog I need help

Spoiler :

For sure Cuirassiers vs Rifles is not good, unless you have a 3 to 1 ratio or something...
Good news you have 25 cities so your win is unstoppable
Can you gear your empire for research and aim for a fast Physics?
A dozen of Airships + what you have currently would certainly ruin Ragnar chances.
Another tip: When ready to attack Ragnar, DOW him without moving your army first, he should offer his SOD on open terrain => easy whipeout!

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Delighted to see this series still going, hoping to play some more Civ IV until Civ VII arrives as after 4,000 hours in Civ VI I think I'm done. IV is a game that always draws you back!

 

[antimony]

@CGQ

Spoiler :

I agree with @soundjata, try to bait his stack to come out. And then take every border city you can with Cuirs. He only has 9 and every city you take is a big chunk of his unit production lost.

It was probably a mistake to peace and tech when you have 72 Cuirs because you'll never have the money to upgrade that many, better use them while they are relevant even if you can't conquer all of an AI (unless it provokes a stronger AI to attack you, always consider the diplomacy).

Can't open the save now, but I would say with that many cities, if you need to go past rifling to win (i.e. you want infantry and tanks), your next step should be communism for the huge economic boost of state property, blanket the landscape with workshops and watermills and start working towards those techs.

Regarding vassaling vs. elimination: you can basically start capitulating enemy AIs as soon as offered when you think you have enough cities to win the game with respect to research and production capacity, so typically when you're already the biggest empire. Sometimes you can do it earlier if you're worrying they will vassal to someone else instead. In any case, taking more cities in war should be based on the value these cities provide to your empire. Motherland unhappiness is not that bad and a vassal gives you +1 happiness everywhere. With someone like the Dutch, it's tough because their leftover cities will have a lot of culture, so you may need to take all but the more remote outposts to have workable cities.

 

[CGQ]

Spoiler :

For sure Cuirassiers vs Rifles is not good, unless you have a 3 to 1 ratio or something...
Good news you have 25 cities so your win is unstoppable
Can you gear your empire for research and aim for a fast Physics?
A dozen of Airships + what you have currently would certainly ruin Ragnar chances.
Another tip: When ready to attack Ragnar, DOW him without moving your army first, he should offer his SOD on open terrain => easy whipeout!

Spoiler 1545 AD This is Hopeless :

I tried to get physics quickly and built airships. My stack is now nearly 100 Cuirs. Problem is now he's got everything. SAMs, machine guns, artillery, and destroyers. I don't know where I went wrong but it had to be earlier in this game. Time for cheesy reload xD

 

[Implo]

Spoiler Deity 4000 BC to 300 BC :

Hi,
Fun game with some potential to "bust everything".

SiP and Agri - BW. To wiph and chop.

I actually put one chop into 1st and 2nd warrior. Before improving second corn. Just because production is so slow early.
That helped with fogbusting and I had zero to no barb problems. rexed 2 cities.

Then Pottary - AH - Writing.

After seeing how weak William was I decides to do a HA with a math bulb towards William.
He got the GLH and was very slow with only 3-4 cities and seamed rather weak except his easy pillage copper and iron.. and ofc his elephants.
Got some decent trades from math, HRB - Alpha. Self teched currency.

Som furtunate religion got william as only hindu, so i could just attack and CS as i wanted to min/max the attack. Only pain was to kill elephants with HA.. but 1-2 to soften up worked just fine.
Ended with a peace deal with one city left. Got AES and calander.

Now wondering what to do.. guess just finish with some coastal cities. Cottage everything and prepare for currii or cav rush. Can really have a crazy tech game here. So space or even diplo might also be an option.
Read other games, and yeah.. really low happy cap on this map.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

hoping to play some more Civ IV

Prince / Marathon / Huts but No Events

Turn 0/1500 (4000 BC) [12-Sep-2024 16:46:21]
Player Comment Settle in place
Timbuktu founded
Timbuktu begins: Worker (30 turns)
Research begun: Agriculture (19 Turns)
Tribal village results: technology

The Technology being er Bronze Working!!