Nobles' Club 373: Mao Zedong of China

[Izuul]

Finished my deity game

Spoiler :

Ramses did indeed settle east rather than west which explains the location of the holy city in my game vs BIC's game.

Whether or not to research AH was an interesting decision early. There are three nice AH resources so i could see it being a worthwhile diversion, but i chose to skip it and trade for it later. I also went straight for Metal Casting rather than Aesthetics to trade for Alpha which is not a play I normally make, but it worked out nicely here. It's more expensive, but you don't have to put any turns into Alpha to make the trade so it doesn't end up being too much more expensive, and here i obviously wanted MC for the potential CKN attack. Looks like i got MC on turn 74/75 (74 by the log) and was immediately able to trade for Alpha and then IW on the next turn. Not having iron around would've been a bummer. Picked up Machinery around T100 and attacked Ramses on 25BC.

The game went pretty easily from there. There was a moment when Willem and then Mansa both declared war on me (i think literally the turn i finished off Ramses), but neither really had many units. I assume Mansa got bribed in, but i really don't know why Willem declared without a stack. I bribed Monty into the war against Willem which probably made things a lot easier too. I lost two cities temporarily, but got both of them back rather easily when my Xbows got back from the former Egyptian lands, and i even ended up with Willem's dye city to the NE before making peace with both of them.

Tech pace seemed very slow the entire game for Deity so i decided to go for Cuirs/Cavs rather than cannons. I got Lib, but had to take Nationalism with it else lose it to Sury. Picked up MT and won with Cuirs/Cavs, and eventually some Airships. I didn't have to fight against Rifles until Capac at the very end which was pretty bizarre for a deity game. This map seems pretty easy unless you run into very early trouble with Monty. He was at war with others in my game though so that was never much of a concern.

 

[soundjata]

Same here

Spoiler :

Triple golden age.
Warlike civics finally, including advanced monitoring

Capture Willem territory with ease.
Sign peace for Replaceable parts, when he's got 1 city left (Maastricht)

Next turn Willem is gone, Monty stack is in Maastricht and Mansa Mussa peace vassals

We are now at war with Capac and decide to bribe Monty, wishing he will move his stack in a position where we can crush it.

Unfortunately he does not oblige properly.
Instead he gets stuck for many turns
First he heals his troops,
Then he spends his sweet time upgrading everything (horses and phants > cuirassiers)

In the meantime we capitulate Capac and Sury surrenders.

Finally Monty comes nearby and we can partially obliterate his stack.
(Cannons have unfavorable odds vs cuirassiers. Send the cavalry first and destroy his siege with flanking)
Before:

After there is nothing left to throw at it:

Next turn he vassals.
T185 conquest, topping my personal HOF

Great people summary:
1 bulb (engineering)
6 for 3 golden ages = 38 turns!
3 for merchant missions.

Utilizing vassals to get high tech:

Thanks @AcaMetis for the game.
Relatively easy for once

 

[AcaMetis]

Spoiler :

Relatively easy for once

 

[jorissimo]

T102:

Spoiler :

Brief update, will describe in more detail later.

Expanded to 9 cities, got the GL with the GE from the Mids. Now full steam ahead to CS through Currency and CoL and then hard-tech Machinery -> Engineering. I'm #1 in GNP. As far as I'm aware, this is my BPT record at ~T100.
Diplo situation is favorable, with much of the continent at war.

 

[pmarc]

T179

Spoiler :

Following the beeline from Engineering to Steel and Mil.Science, declared on Mansa with 2 dozen cannons and comparable amount of grenadiers in 1000 AD. 19 turns later I have vassaled Mansa and Willem, with a monopoly on Steel and Rifling, so it should be a formality from here.

 

[jorissimo]

Spoiler 1 AD :

Played until 1 AD. Gained almost 100 bpt since the last update. I decided to play a normal Lib game, planning to draft Rifles, as I have land to develop and with this tech rate I don't see why I should attack at Machinery/Engineering. I'm 4 turns away from CS, and Beijing is 4T from generating a GP. If it's a GE, I'll save it for a GA and if it's a GS, I'll bulb Philo with it. Beijing is also close to completing the NE, which has nice synergy with the TGL. I shouldn't be hard to get a second GP out in time. I decided to stay religionless so far, but during the GA I might switch into Juda just for activating Paci. I'm now also starting to scout a little, late, I know, to see how the two wars are going. No cities have been captured yet, but Monty launched a failed attack on Ramesses, who is now stacking troops in his namesake city. I probably also need some more workers (I have 9 right now), as I have 2-3 unimproved tiles being worked.

 

[Izuul]

@jorissimo

Spoiler :

I don't know what tech path you are planning, but the GE could just rush the Taj for the golden age as well if you get Nationalism in time. If you plan to draft you will obviously need it, but since you aren't going MT, you may also want to delay Nationalism until after you've secured RP or Rifling with Lib.

 

[jorissimo]

@jorissimo

Spoiler :

I don't know what tech path you are planning, but the GE could just rush the Taj for the golden age as well if you get Nationalism in time. If you plan to draft you will obviously need it, but since you aren't going MT, you may also want to delay Nationalism until after you've secured RP or Rifling with Lib.

Spoiler :

That's an intriguing suggestion. I think it will depend on how fast I will be able to self-tech Nationalism after bulbing Philo. It would mean having an additional GA, but it could delay Lib/Rifling.