Open RPC Challenge: Morgan Kane - Last Man Standing

[CHEESE!]

Michmbk, that game is unutterable awesome. I bow to you.

 

[michmbk]

Ha - that's what learning from others on the forum will do - I learned from TMIT and Mad scientist how to properly execute the keshik romp. IIRC, TMIT had an even more amazing game where I think he built 200+ keshiks and basically nothing else and overran a bunch of protective civs. That along with the RPC was how I learned the power of horse archers.

 

[CHEESE!]

I don't want to break my 1k posts, but michmbk, can you post the score?

 

[michmbk]

I thought I did in my earlier post - I believe the score was 192k, one of my 3 best. Keshik abuse is responsible for 2 of my 3 top scores. Asoka with copper and stone in his capital's BFC was the other.

 

[dalamb]

Ha - that's what learning from others on the forum will do - I learned from TMIT and Mad scientist how to properly execute the keshik romp. IIRC, TMIT had an even more amazing game where I think he built 200+ keshiks and basically nothing else and overran a bunch of protective civs.

Can you summarize "proper execution" for the rest of us? I can think of a couple of things:

• Attack first with Flanking II units, hoping that many of them will survive.
• Finish off cities with Combat-promoted Kheshiks.
• Put some Medic I's in the stack.
• Build lots and lots of Kheshiks!

Anything else?

 

[michmbk]

Can you summarize "proper execution" for the rest of us? I can think of a couple of things:

• Attack first with Flanking II units, hoping that many of them will survive.
• Finish off cities with Combat-promoted Kheshiks.
• Put some Medic I's in the stack.
• Build lots and lots of Kheshiks!

Anything else?

That's pretty much it. I think it's heavily prioritize HBR (I've been going AG/AH/Pottery/HBR the last couple times, that seems to work well - sometimes BW beforehand if needed for your mines). Build stable while teching archery, then go BW and head toward alphabet.

From there, it's the steps you mention, along with one slight modification. I attach the first GG to one keshik for a super medic. Promote about half of the keshiks to flanking II, and the remainder up the strength/melee line to deal with spears and axes in the stacks. You can start on the first AI with 7 or so keshiks. You then try to get the first couple AI to one city and demand peace, preferably after alphabet to backfill.

Keep heading toward COL to try to get courthouses in. At that point, if it's pangaea, you can probably turn slider to 0% awhile - you'll need it to support all the keshiks and all the cities you get. When warring, focus on pillaging metals or taking the metal city as soon as possible, to limit the number of spears. Your keshik stack will get bigger and bigger, and you'll soon be sending stacks of 30-40, even 50 at the AI, even pikes, maces and longbows can't handle that.

 

[dalamb]

You then try to get the first couple AI to one city and demand peace, preferably after alphabet to backfill.

Post-alphabet you're going to extort techs, I suppose, but why keep them pre-alphabet? or when they have no techs to give you?

When warring, focus on pillaging metals or taking the metal city as soon as possible, to limit the number of spears.

I only learned about resource denial strategy "recently" (in terms of games played) but, yeah, it makes a heck of a lot of sense, especially "spear denial".

Also for builders like me: don't sweat losing a lot of Kheshiks. That may be the hardest lesson for me to learn.

 

[dalamb]

@michmbk: Did you stick with the RP requirement (wait until attacked or invited into war) or just romp?

 

[michmbk]

@michmbk: Did you stick with the RP requirement (wait until attacked or invited into war) or just romp?

Ha ha - I must have missed that part of the "roleplay". Oops.

How can anyone play a Khan game without being allowed to DOW first - it seems so un-Mongolian!

I wouldn't keep them pre-alphabet, so depending on when I'm close to killing someone, I may wait an extra turn or two. If I'm 5 turns from alpha, might be worth waiting. If 15-20 turns, go ahead and kill.

In terms of losing keshiks, you just can't sweat it too much - how many did I lose in my game - 150? As long as you still have a force - the AI can't keep up pre-muskets.

 

[Continental Op]

I think it's cool that my original idea has taken a life of it's own. Never mind the rules if you don't wanna - just do what's the most fun for you. I personally found my original settings a bit boring, because the map was too big. I just have to try this with Dalamb's more advanced settings at some point - but now I feel that I just have to try a proper game next. I think I've just learned tons of stuff that could help me improve my game on noble, and I just have to try it.

 

[Ignorant Teacher]

I started to play on Emperor/Marathon and all I have to say is wow! Keshiks are early Cataphracts! Continental Op, I'm sorry but I'm not following the rules. Will post report tomorrow.

 

[huerfanista]

I'm also playing a keshik Smash-n'-Bash (tm) at monarch/marathon. A brief synopsis:

Spoiler :

I settled 3 cities early while beelining HBR: the very strong production site to the east (FPs, wheat, hills), the gold site to the west, and the marble to the south. I also built stonehenge while waiting for HBR to come in. I got 4 very powerful events very early: +2 herbal event at pop 1, free cover and shock for all my axes, and free flanking for all mounted. Ragnar fell first, and I probably kept too many cities. Boudica was next - I took out her cap and a couple of others (kept too many again ), and then extorted techs for peace. Since I was now losing about 25gpt at 0 on the slider, I went into scorched earth mode with Stalin. Meanwhile, I put my pathetic into math and started chopping the mids in Nidaros. I took peace with Stalin so he could build some more cities for me to raze, and went after Napoleon next. The basic pattern became DOW, raze, extort tech, rinse and repeat. The victims were Nappy, Cath, Shaka, Stalin, and Boudica. I was losing 50gpt at 0, with only about 3-4 turns worth of before a strike, so I pretty much had be constantly at war. I took out Shaka, Cath, Boudica, and Stalin when they ran out of techs. Fortunately, I got the mids in Nidaros (which is now a treeless plain ), so I built a couple of libraries, finished math, traded for alpha, built research everywhere to get CoL and currency, switched to caste immediately to run merchants, and now I'm the tech leader with a reasonable economy (over 100 bpt at 0 AD). The big dogs remaining were Izzy, Hammy, Mansa, and Hatty. When I saw that Izzy was researching CS, I DOWed her, razing 3-4 cities and taking Madrid (with the Buddhist shrine!). She's pretty much a non-issue, so I'm thinking about the next victim. It will probably be Hammy - he's 2nd in score and power, and I like to go for the strongest opponents first. C2/F2/shock keshiks laugh at spears, so I'm losing very few units at this point. I can build 13XP keshiks and have 2 GG medics (a w3/c1/m1/cover/shock axe and a c1/f1/m3/tactics keshik). I just finished calendar (monopoly, built MoM) and started aesthetics (nobody else has it yet) to get lit/GL/HE. Lots of fun.

 

[huerfanista]

1388AD Conquest victory:

Spoiler :

What's there to say? 230K points, my 2nd highest score ever. By the end, I had rifling and chemistry and was teching to steel. Karakorum (bureau capital, HE) was popping out 27XP cavalry (barracks, ger, WP, theocracy, 7 GGs). Once I capped Hammi and Mansa, it was just cleanup time. Lots of fun. I even built a bunch of wonders (henge, mids, MoM [48 turns of golden age took me to rifling very quick], ND, GLib, SPaya). I may try this again following the roleplaying rules - it's a very powerful map for the Great Khan.