Nobles' Club XL: Mehmed II of the Ottomans

[Amao]

@dalamb

Spoiler :

Thanks for all the edits. I do think those food made the map a lot easier. But I take it as the new year gift.

 

[Ignorant Teacher]

Really nice map dalamb! I'll post a report when I'm finished.

 

[Negator_UK]

Is there are reason there is no emperor map in the basic zip file ??

 

[Ignorant Teacher]

Play the Monarch one. The only different thing is Hunting to the AIs, which you can add if you feel it's necessary.

 

[dalamb]

Is there are reason there is no emperor map in the basic zip file ??

If I understand correctly, the main thing I need to provide extra WB saves for is techs; the units will work out OK once you select the difficulty level. All levels up to Prince use the Noble save. Monarch adds Archery, which should be OK for Monarch and Emperor. Immortal adds Hunting, and Deity adds Agriculture.

I forget where I got this list of techs; if it's wrong, let me know and I'll go back and edit the .zip file.

 

[GGS]

Prince/Epic.
Grand looking start. This Team Ottoman will settle in place for the extra capital hammer; warrior, worker; mining, BW.
@dalamb Health problems, like Civ problems, tend to come in threes. I trust you discover something so modest that it will not compromise the Chinese game your many fans are awaiting.

 

[dalamb]

@GGS: I think I've got the 3 covered, since in addition to the recent back and lung problems, there's the chronic depression. Plus, despite having several recent ancestors who really, really believed in them, I kinda think most of the "3" rules are based on sampling error: we ignore runs of less than 3, and stop counting if we notice we've hit 3.

I'll probably start the Qin map early, though, Just In Case.

 

[Tossa75]

Can't wait for the next NC game, this one seems won @ 1700AD, just janisarry/cannon conquered mansa and moving on to Sitting B.

 

[Groogaroo]

I stopped playing a bit early as I fancy checking others dotmaps and such...

Update - 2425bc - Emporer/Epic

Spoiler :

I've been playing most of my games recently with Huts/Events off. I forgot to disable them this game but decided to carry on anyway... something I later regreted!

Settled in place, couldn't see any reason not to.

Tech path - Mining > Bronze > Animal Husbandry > Mysticism > Pottery > Writing

Not happy with my tech path... could have avoided mysticism & pottery and just gone for writing, using libraries for border pops instead of monuments and to be honest looking at my settling plans most of my early cities won't need cottages. Really early iron working would have been a good idea for settling the sweet jungle lands to the south.

Build order in the cap - Worker > Warrior > Warrior > Warrior > Worker > Warrior > Settler > Warrior > Worker

Why so many warriors?...

3450bc popped a hut for barbs! Warrior dies.



3224bc

Popped a hut for barbs again! Warrior dies.



Also lost a couple to barb bears

Wish I'd disabled huts now although I did get some gold too. Settled my first city, Edrine 2550bc, for horses to get some defense online (fed up of loosing warriors). This city will also make a nice GP farm and I like to get GP going early.



Not sure what the plan is yet, plenty of nice land to settle so I really need to shift into rex mode after an annoying start.

And here's my dotmap...

Spoiler :

North




South

Off to check others updates.

 

[dalamb]

If it was too easy, I'd appreciate advice on what I should have done differently. Vicky was also easy, and Boudica was hard, apparently; I'd like to aim for a happy medium.

 

[Tossa75]

Groogaroo, nice Dot map.
My cities are more spread out, I probably should've split more food...

 

[dalamb]

Groogaroo, nice Dot map.

I agree.

Spoiler :

All those commerce cities to the south -- I completely ignored "Mansa's" territory. Now that I have explored some islands I think I need to make a new one (some of your choices are currently not possible).

 

[Tossa75]

I agree.

Spoiler :

All those commerce cities to the south -- I completely ignored "Mansa's" territory. Now that I have explored some islands I think I need to make a new one (some of your choices are currently not possible).

I agree... I have taken Mansa now, but I think I could cramp in some more cities there. But is it worth settling more at 1700AD?

 

[dalamb]

@Tossa75: I can't comment on your 1700AD situtation because you haven't posted a map. On general principles, though, I suppose it's possible to have too many cities, unless you're going for Domination, and late-game cities may not develop fast enough to be useful unless you need them for building prerequisites.

 

[Gocho]

If it was too easy, I'd appreciate advice on what I should have done differently. Vicky was also easy, and Boudica was hard, apparently; I'd like to aim for a happy medium.

It really is, I'm only up to 1000AD but I'm not good enough to be stomping emperor like this.

Problems I saw will be in spoiler at bottom of this report.

Spoiler :

Silly quiet round, basically nothing happened but tech'd and rex'd reasonably, the other AI's seem to be floundering gotta trade for a world map to see why.

Bulbed Philo/Education/PP

Sent an axeman on an island run hoping to pop astro from a hut, 7 huts later and some gold and heroic epic unlocked so not a total waste. 1 visible island hut left *crosses fingers*, I've always wanted to pop astro from a hut!

In the process of settling islands, the current plan is to try for railroad from lib . This game is playing at least 2 levels below I feel.

The finally settled east.



The south, culture battle with Mansa is won.



Island settling, those 3 will be up shortly as well.







Basically the land around the capital is HoF worthy, the first 3 cities might be enough to win the game all by themselves. Also no military threat imagine if Mansa or better Shaka was to the south!

Basically tons of free land that you don't have to fight for or even hurry to settle and all the land is great.

 

[Groogaroo]

@Tossa75

Spoiler :

Groogaroo, nice Dot map.
My cities are more spread out, I probably should've split more food...

Since moving up to Emporer I've started cramming cities in more as I seem to get hemmed in early without a ruch. for me 1 food recource per commerce city is enough. This map however land doesn't seem to be an issue so maybe spreading out is fine.

@Dalamb, concerning the earlier discussion of your dotmap

Spoiler :

Not sure if this is too late but looking at your initial dotmap the choice between red and yellow as Gp farms yellow is clearly the suprerior (I sound like troy!)

2 fish, irrigated corn and pigs... thats 23 food from 4 tiles.

Red has 2 clams, corn & grassland cow... 19 food from 4 tiles, thats a diiference of 2 specialists.

Plus the yellow site has a rather nice river easier for post biology farms.

 

[L-Plate Ruler]

@ dalamb - No problem, if it's as simple as using the Noble seed and selecting Prince from the wizard then that's easy enough to do. I don't want to create work for you when there is already a Prince series going

 

[KaytieKat]

Hi

Prince, Marathon, 20 AD

Spoiler :

Goodyhuts been nice to me this game. Early on I got myst, hunting and hbr. Which kinda meant:



Mansa gets runover by horsey stampede hehe.

After that a scout on a galley got a WHOLE bunch of goody huts off the islands. MC, Aesthetis, lit, drama, AND music. And since drama already been discovered the GA bulbed monarchy so it wa slike 2 for 1 deal.

At this point now its just trying to expand and fill out my lil island.

My empire at this point:



My main empire



and timbuktu all by istelf.



Demos at this point.

Too early to tell how I really stand. It all depends if I can fill out my island fast enuff without tanking my economy. No plans past that so no idea what kind of vic to try for yet. Hopefully I will live long enuff to have an idea on one soon tho so wish me luck

Oh one other comment. I hope the RNG bought SB dinner and movie or something cuz it looks like he got ROYALLY you know what in his start loc hehe.

Kaytie

 

[dalamb]

4000-3000 BC with dotmap

Made a strategic goof so after getting to 675 BC backed up a bit.

Spoiler :

The strategic error was succumbing to wonderspamming by starting the Hanging Gardens; at that point I really needed more galleys and settlers. Followed advice and moved the yellow and blue cities -- sorry, Groogaroo, but your agreeing with my original plan came a bit late! Current map:


Tech path: I had researched pottery > mining > BW by 3000 BC and picked up Mysticism and Writing from huts (yay! also lots of gold). I finished AW > fish > sail > hunt and started exploring islands with a galley and a scout that popped shortly thereafter (eventually putting a 2nd scout on the same galley when the first popped him; eventually I'll move him to a separate galley). One of the scouts hit two Experience huts to unlock the HE, but I'm still far from getting Literature.

Next was masonry from yet another hut, while researching math > meditation > priesthood to try for the oracle in Istanbul -- which I missed. Fortunately I finished the GLH in Edirne (North at the clams) in 1150 BC. Then CoL (getting Confucianism) > Alphabet; I continued far enough before backing up to see that Mansa will trade some useful techs. Currently 5 turns from Currency, which, with the pile of hut cash, might mean trading fewer techs to Mansa.

My current plan is to expand east a bit:

Light green gives copper access -- and since barbarians are coming soon, that's a high priority. It has 3 floodplains, so might also be useful for some commerce. Light blue has some commerce and some production possibilities, and looks to be about as far east as is useful to go. White is on the river, but if I give that up and move 2E I can fit in both it and yellow. Yellow itself picks up one copy of all the resources in that area, though, so maybe I forget about white until I happen to want yet another city.

I might follow Groogaroo's lead and claim more of "Mansa's" territory -- I'm not as eager as KaytieKat to wipe him out, since I like turning him into a vassal.

Light blue is coastal and gets all that dye. White probably belongs 1S, which keeps it both coastal and on-river and gives more room for light blue. Not sure about red; it needs the fish and gems, but maybe settling 1SW on the sugar is better. Maroon is only useful if I'm going for Sushi; getting it early might be a mistake unless I want to block Mansa from taking it.

The NW islands aren't that good; I'll wait to see if a hidden resource shows up.


Early pottery for an early granary did me no good:

I'm currently focused on infrastructure -- the original 2 cities are working on Hammams for higher population, while the recent two are still on granaries (after monuments). The original 2 will need to build more settlers and defenders, because I want to REX a few more cities.

With the first Great Scientist, in 6 turns, I plan on doing something I've never done in a previous game: bulb Philosophy instead of building an Academy. The reasoning is that I can spread Taoism to a suitable GP farm, switch to Pacifism for +100% GPP, and get a 2nd GS in as few turns as I got the first. I don't expect to do any warmongering for a while so won't have a huge military nor a need for Theocracy. Any advice on post-Currency tech path? I imagine Literature for the Great Library is high priority because I need to start it sooner, given the lack of marble. I could go for Civil Service > paper (Sankore and map trading) > Education: if I get that 2nd GS soon maybe I want to bulb Edu instead of building an academy. Or build an academy somewhere (where?), get city infrastructure as fast as possible in my newly-REXed cities, switch from slavery to caste, and run lots of scientists in a GP farm.

Don't want to study war no more, for a while, so I expect to head for a spaceship victory (finding culture a bit tedious).

Edit: @Groogaroo: on looking at your dotmap for the area south of the start, I realized yours is much better and solves various doubts I had about mine. Consider it copied!

 

[L-Plate Ruler]

Prince/Normal 1050 AD

Spoiler :

Things are going well. I've colonised a couple of the nearby islands and spread out a little futher on the mainland. Commerce was going well but having troops far out popping goodie huts was costing me a little. Then I read KatieKat's post on using a scout, doh! So, I'll recall my horse archers and send out a scout.

Not a huge amount to report. I'm holding off the barbs OK, despite taking an age to hook up the copper (which isn't done yet).

Am spreading Confucianism to all my cities for cheap border pops and of course the other benefits.

I met Catherine circa 800 AD but where she's based I do not know. Hopefully far enough away that I can claim all of this island for myself.

In 1020 AD Sitting Bull declared war on me I don't understand his logic, I beat him power wise and he's got to send troops across by ship to my land. Which he did. The raiding party consisted of a chariot and catapult. Neither of which survived very long. I destroy his galley as well which might criple his navy. Looking at the troops in his capital, Archer x 2 I am thinking about raiding it and taking it for myself. That might teach the little upstart a lesson. Hmm... If I want to remove him fully it should occur before he spreads to neighbouring islands. Some axemen should do it...

I just built the Hanging Gardens in 1020 AD too.

Some screen shots of my progress thus far...