Saladin: Shrine + ToA + Madrassa + Temples + Angkor Wat = ???

[futurehermit]

Ok, I've started a thing where I'm going to try and get a win with each civilization (not each leader necessarily). I got a very nice domination win with Roosevelt.

Now I'm on to Saladin. I must say he is a bit frustrating to play. After a few failed games, I've given up on trying to beeline his UU. It's quite hard to beeline and really, is it worth it? I don't really think so.

So, I've tried to think: How can I best leverage this guy's subpar (imo) qualities?

Here's what I've come up with:

-His UB gives you the ability to run two priests.

-He starts with mysticism, so if you don't go for a religion, it's a bit of a waste imo. A shrine allows you to run three priests.

-If you go for hinduism, you have polytheism, which allows you to build the ToA. The ToA gives you a free priest.

-Saladin is spiritual. Each cheap temple allows you to run a priest.

-To top it off, Angkor Wat allows you to run priests as well and gives you an extra hammer for each one.

Angkor Wat and ToA are two wonders I pretty much never build, so I figured this would be try something new, which is pretty much why I'm doing this.

So, what can you do with prophets???

Shrines: Good for cash and allows more priests.

Lightbulbing: Theology is good, good civic and another religion. Divine Right is ok, couple decent wonders and another religion. Civil Service is obviously good. Then it's probably music...meh. So, lightbulbing probably ends with CS since it's too much of a pain to open up decent stuff after that. That makes 3 lightbulbs.

3 lightbulbs, 3 shrines (hinduism, christianity, islam). After that could settle them or else by that time you should have a properly set up gpfarm and you can start triggering golden ages...

It would probably tie up your capital as your gpfarm until a lateish CS, but then you could hunker down to work cottages after that.

Just wanted to post here to see what people think about the strat, and Saladin generally.

 

[r_rolo1]

Well, settled GPhophets give 2 and 5 . With them raining on you ( yes, you would need a a heck of a food city to fully use your idea, but but these places appear in maps sometimes) probably it would be a nice idea to settle them in the future ironworks city or in the wall street one.
Your idea seems feasible ( at least in Monarch, my current level), but it could be hard to place the founding of a religion exactly on the city you want ( someone knows how to do that?) and requires a substancial amount of in a food-rich city..... Nothing like a test game to see if is feasible.

 

[InvisibleStalke]

Lightbulbing Theology leads to paper which can be lightbulbed with a GS and divine right which can be lightbulbed with another prophet. Both have wonders which give gold and science for temples which Saladin can build cheaply.

With lots of shrines and temples, you can fund a lot of early expansion. It would be a pretty good option for a culture win with three holy cities as your culture cities - this may be better than getting lots of religions in one city. You need lots of temples anyway so that is a good fit. And with three religions which you spread you can change sides easily being spiritual to choose your allies.

Protective helps you turtle for a culture win and early Theology lets you build the Sistine chapel which gets you more culture. Lots of gold from shrines helps you rushbuy your temples for the final cathedral rush.

The UU is nothing special, but at least you can build it without resources which might be helpful for your defense when you are turtling if you don't have horses or iron. But being protective you will probably be better off defending with muskets or grenadiers anyway.

 

[kniteowl]

Personally I generally ignore his Protective trait and his UU and generally focus on his UB and Spiritual Trait.

These two combined make a very good strategy aiming for a cultural victory as you can lightbulb those religion tech early with your Priest and especially the wonder that comes with Theology.

Remember if you have Thelogy but not Monarchy, you can't lightbulb Divine Right which is a good thing if you have COLs and Mathematics, your GP can lightbulb CS instead.

If you want Angkor Wat in your Strategy, you should have at least one GS saved somewhere... I generally like to beeline to Philosophy first to switch to Pacifism and generate those GPs faster.

His combination also leans towards a Religon Economy(UoS & SoM), Cheap temples and early Divine Right and possibly paper.

 

[Thedrin]

Well, settled GPhophets give 2 and 5 . With them raining on you ( yes, you would need a a heck of a food city to fully use your idea, but but these places appear in maps sometimes) probably it would be a nice idea to settle them in the future ironworks city or in the wall street one.
Your idea seems feasible ( at least in Monarch, my current level), but it could be hard to place the founding of a religion exactly on the city you want ( someone knows how to do that?) and requires a substancial amount of in a food-rich city..... Nothing like a test game to see if is feasible.

With an Angkor Wat prophet settling strategy (and I consider Saladin one of the best for this strategy) I would tend to settle great prophets in the city that will one day contain both Wall St. and the Iron Works. This would usually be the city that contains Angkor Wat, has a large food surplus for running priests, and contains the shrine for my most prominent religion. I'm not certain that the capital is the best place for such a city (though bureacracy plus all those priest hammers is nice) so I usually go for a later religion but it is a viable location.

A second city can contain West Point and the Heroic Epic. A third high food city with a shrine can contain the National Epic for generating more prophets. Build cottages in most other cities for 100% science (your shrine/prophet settling/food consumed by priest specialists/Wall St. city will keep you in a surplus as well as probably out producing your heroic epic city).

 

[oyzar]

i played saladin in a no TT game and went with mostly the lower range of techs(i also got oracle for feudalism so it was kinda wierd). Won a conquest game(i had domination same turn from vasals so it was kinda waste and prolly not optimal). conquesred civs(made them capitulate with longbowmen/cats then xbowmen/cats then camelriders and finaly some gunpowder troops.

 

[Khanate]

Something similar could be done with Egypt. The Obelisk can turn two citizens into priests. Hatsepsus is great for culture win, and Ramssess II is industrial to get the needed wonders.

 

[Azander]

Sounds like a good strategy for him. I might try this out myself.