Role Play Challenge: Asoka and the Doomsday Machine

Good work once again.

Just out of curiosity, what was the other religion in the double holy city you razed? One was Judaism...but the other can't be seen...

It was Confisciousism/
 
And I do want to know, what was the motivation for razing Karakorum? I'm fu- , no, curious

Besides being a jerk, there was no way I could hold it versus a counter attack. I was not about to abandon Corith and bring the tank there.
 
Good going with the wars, it looks a lot less crowded down there now
1) have you considered shifting espionage points from Al and JC to stalin?

2) not very far, but enough to trade with him and convert a few cities for gold and hopefully he will be pleased soon, what +/- modifiers do you have?

3) following the CS, engineering, guilds tech path should ensure that you get an up to date army, which looks like being the most important thing in this game
 
Bestie, I believe I have taken AL and JC out of the espionage loop. UNderstand I have yet to get and eps except from the Capital, so a long way to go.

Remember I cannot open border with Stalin until he either adopts Buddhism or switched to FR. ONce he does that I will cater to him, adopting state property in the future to cement bonds.

Stalin is the AI I am most concerned with. I think Kubla has need weakened but still very dangerous. Shaka should be containable either via diplomacy or the sword if he declares again. JC and AL are essentially dead. SB will probably be very behind in tech once I actually find him.

ONe question, do I redeclare on Al and take him out or let Shaka try so to keep him busy?
 
MadSci, this is a really entertaining read. I love this challenge! Might it be worth letting Shaka take on some warring with heathens, while you build some cottages for economy? If you can't keep up somewhat in tech, your units will get outdated and you're going to be relying on your tank to protect a lot of land.
 
MadSci, this is a really entertaining read. I love this challenge! Might it be worth letting Shaka take on some warring with heathens, while you build some cottages for economy? If you can't keep up somewhat in tech, your units will get outdated and you're going to be relying on your tank to protect a lot of land.

Thanks Dex.

Shaka is still ponding Al, so I am not concerned about being attacked by him. I have actually alot of cottages already. What I need are some plantations and courthouses and a little time. I think it is in the Indians long term interests to get the Russians and Mongol at each other's throat for an extended period of time.

Outdated military? Yep that is a problem which is why I am hoping for a GE to bulb machinery, then hit guilds/CS/engineering. Crossbows and the tank probably limit my need for Fuedalism at the moment.
 
Good game so far MS!

Maybe you've already done this, but one thing I would throw in the hat is making buddist missionaries and spreading the religion further in the Zulu empire. That gives Shaka more of a reason to stay with the religion, less reason (more of a penalty) to defy the AP AND it gives more money coming in at the shrine (assuming you've got one)
 
Asoka and the Doomsday Machine: PArt VI

OK, this game is really starting to roll along. No not the wheels of our ultimate weapon, but the wheels of Indian progress. we have ressurected our ailing economy to within striking distance of Stalin and believe it or not well within reach of liberalism. Of course the entire segment ww were involved in war, but we did well and eliminated 2 civs. Which ones you ask, well watch and see. The only issue is costs of our newly expanded empire are a bit high so we must decide what to do economically. Also there was 1 catastrophic event I will go into later.

First of all the techpath

Calender/Currency/CS/engineering/guilds/gunpowder/banking/aesthetics/literature started paper as I expect a GS sometime soo I hope.

We are teching and building cheap courthouses (have I ever told you how much I really really like ORG!). Soo we pop the next Great Person and ...

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Yep, a GE. The Buddhist spirits are truely looking out for Asoka. We bulb machinery giving us crossbows.

To assist our Buddhist bretherin Shaka we attack Kublai again insearch of more razable cities.

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And soon

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We razed it. I really want to concentrate our cities on teching/military.

We found a fairly large Mongol citiy on the north shore

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This one I kept feeling I can hold it as Shaka is starting to show his stuff.

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We finally take peace with Kublai.

Rules state I cannot refuse a Buddhist bother a request

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Which warmed him up to this Zulu heavy trade

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we get a AP request

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And decide to get Stalin to help us dogpile Kublai. This works very well later as those two remain at each others throats

We send out moving stack and find the New Mongol city. Very nice except for one thing

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It's the Taoist holy city. Oh well, another Mongol city up in flames.

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I gotta say Kublai Ain't too happy with us this game.

Since the city had to be razed I moved the stack back west to heal and came across the last Greek city. So goodbyr Big Al, we hardly knew you

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One down 5 to go.

Now this is where a catastrophy, or near one occurred. Shaka settled a city near the Mongol elephants, I accepted a ceasefire (not a treaty) from Kublai, Shaka made peace with Kublai gifting the new Zulu city and............

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We are digpiled from both Shaka and Kublai. Yeah toss in the Roman, he actually sent one Prat this round.

Now we are in trouble. We cannot hold the city of New Sari, so we leave it sending the troops to corinth where the tank is. We send what is left of our stack towards Zulu land. Time to eliminate this northen menace. Buddhist brother, Bah I'll take peace once he gifts me all his cities.

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Those are the new Mongol border after abandoning the city. Soon we got peace with Kublai after he wasted a good stack trying once again to take out Corinth. The tank is up to about 55 XP and is barrage III, Drill IV.

WE took a few small zulu cities which Shaka wasted alot of troops retaking. They were getting obsolete and we have a stronge military tech edge. Maces/knights/trebs/muskets/pikes against HS/swords/axes/longbows/cats. Zulu crossbows were a bit of an issue until I cut off iron.

We finally spent a major force towards the Zulu capital of Ulundi

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and proceeded to take all the remaining Zulu cities. Since they were Buddhist razing is not an option. Very soon Shaka is dead and buried. 2 down, 4 to go.

At this point we saved. Also Kublai decided we were too tough so he went after Stalin. Those two are still at it.

Before we talk strat the situation

Diplomacy

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Techs, note how much we have closed and the economy is really ramping up.

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The all important Powergraph, NOTE WHO IS ON TOP!!!!

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The newly acquired zulu lands. Note there are some more directly north of the core Indian land. Also we are starting to finally border Russia.

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Current civic: HR/Bur./Slavery/Mercantilism/Theocracy

OK the goals

1) Courthouses in the new cities, whip if we can.
2) We have to repair some pillaged improvements.
3) We have Merc/Theo so we can open borders with Stalin to spread Buddhism (if he's not in theocracy which he probably is).

Also looks like the next item is to finish off the Mongol.
 
Maybe it's just me, but the religious aspect of the game seems to be coming a bit short, it just feels like an Always War game with a cheat in the form of the tank. Shaka sure spiced things up again though, how did he go from pleased to annoyed and DOWing again all of a sudden?
 
3) We have Merc/Theo so we can open borders with Stalin to spread Buddhism (if he's not in theocracy which he probably is).

I belive that gifting missionaries is the way to spread religion to someone in theocracy but others should correct me if I'm wrong
 
@ABE: Yes you are correct I could have done that. I assumed I would get the second Prophet after the one for the shrine. Once SB got founded it (he never builds wonders) it was a matter of chopping the AP.

@Juju: Now I did offer Shaka a peace deal but he wouldn't give me all his cities ;) . It was a matter of survival, that 2 fronted war was making survival questionable. Besides, he had it comming to him.

@Merosa: Well, agressive AI with the biggest War-mongers on a Pangea map, what did you expect??? True I really anticipated several Buddhist AIs early but that's the way it worked. The gods gave us that Dommsday weapon, but the Buddhist gods seam more like the old Greek gods rather than modern enlightened Buddhism, go figure!

@Ifinnem: You are correct on that. Open borders with Stalin and gifting Buddhist missionaries like crazy. Stalin is a little more trustworthy than Shaka, but I doubt very much I will be avoiding war.

Yes, the religious aspect has gone in the toilet. Look's like we will have to achieve a good old fashioned conquest victory.
 
I don't think the religious aspect is in the toilet. Look how many religons at some point have decided the best way to spread there faith was to conquer all before them. You've got historical imerative on your side.

If stalin gets enough Buddist cities could you make him convert using espionage? I assume being the Hindu founder he won't switch voluntarily.
 
What happened to rule #6 by the way, "He must try and declare peace ASAP at all costs (short of giving a city) to a Buddhist leader he is at war with." - Shaka wouldn't even talk to you?
 
What happened to rule #6 by the way, "He must try and declare peace ASAP at all costs (short of giving a city) to a Buddhist leader he is at war with." - Shaka wouldn't even talk to you?

Yes, that inconvient rule. Well first of all Shaka did a rather un-Buddhist thing and satbbed me in the back. THen when he finally wanted to talk He would not give me all his cities. Break the rules? Perhaps, but self-survival is the issue. I am tired of that back-stabber on my northern border. I kept all his cities and the zulu citizans are much better off.

Everyone should know though that when he was down to 2 cities he converted to Hinduism so he was fair game for removal from the game.
 
I think fair play to eliminate shaka, he wasn't really into the whole spirit of buddhism
@ifinnem the only way to spread a non- state religion to someone in theocracy is to force them out of theocracy, I think a spy can do this.
 
I think fair play to eliminate shaka, he wasn't really into the whole spirit of buddhism
@ifinnem the only way to spread a non- state religion to someone in theocracy is to force them out of theocracy, I think a spy can do this.

Thanks Bestje!

Note the thugs I added to the game; Al, Shaka, Stalin, Kublai, SB, JC are all noted for being indifferent to religion as well as being war-mongers (and not starting with mysticism). The way the game played out is not really unexpected however I never thought I would have had such a difficult time getting Buddhism spread. Guess that's the penalty of the no open borders.

As far as Stalin I am pretty sure he will take those Donated Buddhist missionaries and use them, but some spy work may be in order.

But the question is, Do we focus on converting the Russians or military buildup to take out Kublai early while we have the military edge.

To be honest there is definitely something appealing about razing the Islam, Hindu, and christian holy cities. Maybe that would make up for exterminating our Buddhist Zulu brothers :D
 
Well I am tired of trying to guess what happens in this game. Here I thought you were making a friend out of Shaka and now he's dead. With all the cities you've razed in Mongolia, Kubla's never gonna be anything but furious towards you, I would up and attack him hard being that he's still your neighbor. (If your rules permit) You get him cleared out of there, you can really start thinking about how to win the game. It ought to be an interesting finish.
 
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