adhiraj.bose
Deity
This was an accidental domination victory as the Mongols on eunuch :
I played the Chagtai UHV which means:
1) Make Almalik your capital and the most important city in Asia.
2) Build 25 Islamic buildings and the Jamia Masjid
3) Control 25% of Asian territory including 50% of India.
Of these the last one's the most difficult.
1) First phase :
In my earlier tries I took the whole horde West to conquer the Gokturks and Ghaznavids. I managed to take out around 2/5th of India by 1300 but in the next two or three turns I'd collapse. So this time, I took the horde East to conquer the Jin. Simultaneously I'd send the second starting settler West to found Almalik. The first settler of course builds Karakorum otherwise you can't unlock the UHV goals.
The Keshiks are terrible, and I wiped out the Jin in a few turns. As a buffer to the Manchurian conquests, I took out some Central Chinese cities and Beijing/Khanbaliq as well. Using this base I went Westward having founded Almalik already. My horde was larger as a result of a series of successful conquests. My one mistake though was to leave the Manchurian and Chinese cities undefended which allowed the Koreans to take Beijing after they DOW'd me. (Korea never DOW'd me in my earlier Mongol game, which is why I didn't expect them to DOW me this time either.) I kept building Karakorum and prepared to build the Tumen Amugulam in Almalik.
Next steps :
While moving West, the one thing to keep in mind is stability. In every other Mongol game I played with the Ghaghtai UHV stability would ultimately get the better of me and I'd collapse shortly after my conquests. So I devised a counter-strategy. In my other UHV game in the previous version for the Yuan campaign, I put every city I conquered to building magistrates . Soon my stability would be balanced. I did the same for this game, and it worked for me.
After the 10 turn peace treaty was ended, I pounced on the Gokturks with my enlarged horde and conquered every Gokturk city I could lay my hands on. Before long they were done for. The Ghaznavids seeing my horde in action vassalized peacefully. That gave me a base to start off my Indian campaign. At first I let my troops heal, then I marched them on Delhi and other North Indian cities. Soon I had carved out an empire in india which ran from Delhi to Varanasi. For India, it is wise to excersize some restraint in conquering since this region isn't within the stability zone for the Mongols.
The Tumen Amugulam is essential to counter the draining stability hit you'd get from trying to conquer India. In retrospect, I'd say this should be saved up to the very end of the campaign. In addition it also helps for making Almalik an important city.
Goal 1 :
Almalik is not in a very good spot in the map. There's not much production and very little scope for growth. At the end Almalik didn't get beyond a size 8 population. To improve the city, what I did was build a theater in Karakorum and train Great Artists from there. The Silk Road bonus helped as well. I kept culture bombing Almalik till it became the most cultured city in Asia with over 17000 culture points.
I build the palace only after the Tumen Amugulam. Other buildings built there were the usual islamic buildings and stability buildings like magistrates and court houses.
Goal 2 :
Now I had the bad luck of seeing a predominantly Buddhist Central Asia with only a handful of islamic cities. So I started spreading islam through missionaries as soon as I got a Madrassa built in one of my cities. The silk road plus my missionary activities ultimately led to islamizing the Western Empire. At this stage, my Chinese cities developed and became production centres.
The culture development of the cities enveloped the whole region in one continuous empire from the Westernmost city till Karakorum uninterruptedly. I built a connecting city between Almalik to Karakorum as well.
A Great Prophet spawned at Changan which I used to build the Jamia Masjid Almalik. The second goal was no problem as long as I could hold my empire together with golden ages and stability buildings.
Goal 3 and my 'accidental victory' :
The first component of the goal i.e. controlling 25% of Asian territory was achieved early on by conquering a chunk of China, Manchuria and Central Asia as well as a rather slim holding around India *( and my Ghaznavid vassals controlling North Western South Asia ) . The second component was impossible for me due to stability issues.
So I decided to change tact at that point and go for a domination since I was very close to attaining that victory condition, which became only easier after the Ming spawn. I settled around 4-5 cities connecting Karakorum to Manchuria and a few Siberian cities.
The Silk road mechanism helped tremendously due to the large number of Caravans available there.
Ultimately I won the game at 1388 with a domination game.
*( bug issues : Almalik had to be named so. The city founded around the area demarcated was "hartal". But it seems renaming it to Almalik is good enough for the UHV to check. Almalik never got to number 1 position in Asia but still it figured as such. Pyongyang with a chalk full of wonders was at number 1 position. Just as insurance I sent a horde to conquer it but that proved unnecessary. )
I played the Chagtai UHV which means:
1) Make Almalik your capital and the most important city in Asia.
2) Build 25 Islamic buildings and the Jamia Masjid
3) Control 25% of Asian territory including 50% of India.
Of these the last one's the most difficult.
1) First phase :
In my earlier tries I took the whole horde West to conquer the Gokturks and Ghaznavids. I managed to take out around 2/5th of India by 1300 but in the next two or three turns I'd collapse. So this time, I took the horde East to conquer the Jin. Simultaneously I'd send the second starting settler West to found Almalik. The first settler of course builds Karakorum otherwise you can't unlock the UHV goals.
The Keshiks are terrible, and I wiped out the Jin in a few turns. As a buffer to the Manchurian conquests, I took out some Central Chinese cities and Beijing/Khanbaliq as well. Using this base I went Westward having founded Almalik already. My horde was larger as a result of a series of successful conquests. My one mistake though was to leave the Manchurian and Chinese cities undefended which allowed the Koreans to take Beijing after they DOW'd me. (Korea never DOW'd me in my earlier Mongol game, which is why I didn't expect them to DOW me this time either.) I kept building Karakorum and prepared to build the Tumen Amugulam in Almalik.
Next steps :
While moving West, the one thing to keep in mind is stability. In every other Mongol game I played with the Ghaghtai UHV stability would ultimately get the better of me and I'd collapse shortly after my conquests. So I devised a counter-strategy. In my other UHV game in the previous version for the Yuan campaign, I put every city I conquered to building magistrates . Soon my stability would be balanced. I did the same for this game, and it worked for me.
After the 10 turn peace treaty was ended, I pounced on the Gokturks with my enlarged horde and conquered every Gokturk city I could lay my hands on. Before long they were done for. The Ghaznavids seeing my horde in action vassalized peacefully. That gave me a base to start off my Indian campaign. At first I let my troops heal, then I marched them on Delhi and other North Indian cities. Soon I had carved out an empire in india which ran from Delhi to Varanasi. For India, it is wise to excersize some restraint in conquering since this region isn't within the stability zone for the Mongols.
The Tumen Amugulam is essential to counter the draining stability hit you'd get from trying to conquer India. In retrospect, I'd say this should be saved up to the very end of the campaign. In addition it also helps for making Almalik an important city.
Goal 1 :
Almalik is not in a very good spot in the map. There's not much production and very little scope for growth. At the end Almalik didn't get beyond a size 8 population. To improve the city, what I did was build a theater in Karakorum and train Great Artists from there. The Silk Road bonus helped as well. I kept culture bombing Almalik till it became the most cultured city in Asia with over 17000 culture points.
I build the palace only after the Tumen Amugulam. Other buildings built there were the usual islamic buildings and stability buildings like magistrates and court houses.
Goal 2 :
Now I had the bad luck of seeing a predominantly Buddhist Central Asia with only a handful of islamic cities. So I started spreading islam through missionaries as soon as I got a Madrassa built in one of my cities. The silk road plus my missionary activities ultimately led to islamizing the Western Empire. At this stage, my Chinese cities developed and became production centres.
The culture development of the cities enveloped the whole region in one continuous empire from the Westernmost city till Karakorum uninterruptedly. I built a connecting city between Almalik to Karakorum as well.
A Great Prophet spawned at Changan which I used to build the Jamia Masjid Almalik. The second goal was no problem as long as I could hold my empire together with golden ages and stability buildings.
Goal 3 and my 'accidental victory' :
The first component of the goal i.e. controlling 25% of Asian territory was achieved early on by conquering a chunk of China, Manchuria and Central Asia as well as a rather slim holding around India *( and my Ghaznavid vassals controlling North Western South Asia ) . The second component was impossible for me due to stability issues.
So I decided to change tact at that point and go for a domination since I was very close to attaining that victory condition, which became only easier after the Ming spawn. I settled around 4-5 cities connecting Karakorum to Manchuria and a few Siberian cities.
The Silk road mechanism helped tremendously due to the large number of Caravans available there.
Ultimately I won the game at 1388 with a domination game.
*( bug issues : Almalik had to be named so. The city founded around the area demarcated was "hartal". But it seems renaming it to Almalik is good enough for the UHV to check. Almalik never got to number 1 position in Asia but still it figured as such. Pyongyang with a chalk full of wonders was at number 1 position. Just as insurance I sent a horde to conquer it but that proved unnecessary. )