[SoI] Samanid Religious Victory

[Jusos2108]

Turn 0 (188) So we have all that choppable forest around Farghana and not a single worker in sight -> workers started. As gracious act, we liberate the crappy desert town of Farah to Khwarezmia, who reluctantly approve. Trade copper to Abbasids for Cotton and +2gpt and Deer to Fatimids for 4gpt. Trade Levy Armies and Asymmetric Warfare to Abbasids for Economics and 220 gold. I am dissappointed to see that we haven't switched our civics to Religious Law and Empire, don't bother to do it with anarchy. We improve from 196 gold -40gpt to 416 gold -25gpt.

Spoiler :

Turn 1 Kerman finishes Guilhall, next Sunni Madrasah. Quetta Guildhall -> Blacksmith.

Turn 2 Herat University -> Pottery Workshop. We start to sell Sorghum to Byzantium for 10gpt. Our army lands next to Mecca.

Spoiler :

Turn 3 Khavekend Worker -> Worker, Khwarezmia takes Nishapur (Western Khorasan) from Seljuks. Mecca's defences down to zero. Khwarezmia gives us Caste System when I ask for it.

Spoiler :

Turn 4 Kerman Sunni Madrasah -> Sunni Mosque, Zaranj Guildhall -> Blacksmith, Marv University -> Karimi Funduq. We capture Mecca!

Spoiler :

Turn 5 Khavakend Worker -> Confectioner, Herat Pottery Workshop -> Slave Market, Farghana Worker -> Worker.

Turn 6 Gwadar university -> War Galley, Mazar Walls -> Castle. We conquer Ghazna, so that it can be pacified before the Ghorids spawn.

Turn 7 I settle our Relic and GG in Farghana.

Turn 8 Gwadar finishes war galley, next Karimi Funduq, later switched to Minaret of Jam (8 turns). Farghana worker -> Heroic Epic! We trade Castle Building for Religious Unity with Khwarezmia.

Turn 9 Kerman Sunni Mosque -> Library, Quetta Guildhall -> Blacksmith, Samarqand worker -> BS.

Turn 10 We research Cavalry Tactics, next Paper. We get a nice event! We meet Gujarat and trade fur for 3gpt with them. I queque Soltaniyeh in Gwadar.

Spoiler :

Turn 11 Khavakend Confectioner -> Butchery, Herat Slave Market -> Walls, Quetta BS -> Sunni Madrasah.

Turn 12 (200) Another event that gives +1 gold Khavakend's tannery! Mazar Archery Range -> Marksman. I end the set by collecting some tribute from the AI.



Notes and suggestions:

-Finish Minaret of Jam and Soltaniyeh asap in Gwadar
-Tech towards courthouses, then maybe for Kizil Kule to Gwadar.
-Farghana will soon produce 10exp HHAs in no time at all; slowly prepare for Mongols Invasion.
-Don't forget the Ghorids.
-We shouldn't expand too much, India (Sindh, Multan, Lahore!?) could be viable at some point though.

 

[rrosen]

Just a heads up: If Blizzrd finishes today, I will be able to play tonight (in about 12 hours time). Otherwise, I won't be home until sunday evening, in which case we may want to rearrange the order? By the way, when is it that the Ghorids spawn?

 

[blizzrd]

Turn 0: 1127AD
322g -39gpt @ 60% science. Trade Cow to KoJ for 1gpt. Upgrade deal with Seljuks from 3gpt to 4gpt. Trade Fur to Sindh for 1gpt. Upgrade our L3 Javelinmen @ Herat to Marksman. Dismiss a couple of unpromoted-spare-obsolete units. Shuffle some defensive troops around in Afghanistan. Move our siege troops and swords out of Mecca towards Medina for some target practice, to help generate our next Great General.

Turn 1: 1129AD
Meet Zengids (Cautious). Gift them 10g (Pleased) and open borders. Marv finishes Slave Market and starts Pottery Workshop. Khavakend starts a Sufi Missionary. Trade Silver to Ajmer for Rice. Trade Castle Building to Byzantines for 240g. Upgrade deal to Byzantines from 10gpt to 11gpt. Trade Crop Rotation to Yemen for 50g. Trade Crop Rotation to Armenia for 60g.

Turn 2: 1130AD
Kerman finishes Library, starts Pottery Workshop. Barb Afghan Axeman approaches Qandahar and is killed. Trade Silk to Armenia for 3gpt.

Turn 3: 1132AD
Khavakend finishes Sufi Missionary, starts another. Make contact with Makuria again. 552g -27gpt @ 60% science.

Turn 4: 1133AD
Trade Castle Building to Rum for Cheque System.

Spoiler :

Merv finishes Pottery Workshop, starts Confectioner. Blacksmith finished in Zaranj, start Madrassah. Minaret of Jam built in Gwadar, next Soltaniyeh.

Spoiler :

Heroic Epic finished in Farghana, next Sufi Shrine. Pottery Workshop done in Kerman, next Fairground. Madrassah in Quetta, next Mosque. Spy steals 54g from Abbasids (Wasit) and returns to Kerman.

Turn 5: 1135AD
Our 2nd spy is caught approaching Wasit. Mazar finishes another Marksman, next Royal Archives. Khavakend finishes Sufi Missionary, next Inn. Castle finished in Herat, next Confectioner. Barb Archer approaches Mecca and is killed by our Marksman who promotes. Spy promoted in Kerman and heads back to Iraq. Siege troops bombard Medina.

Turn 6: 1136AD
Samarkand finishes Blacksmith, starts Madrassah. Siege troops attack Medina to gain experience. There are 4 defenders though (more than the number of our siege units) so our Sword kills one of them and promotes. Trade Asymmetric Warfare to Byzantines for 200g. Trade Castle Building to Fatimids for 60g. Trade Silk to Yemen for 2gpt. Trade Levy Armies to Makuria for 80g.

Turn 7: 1138AD
Paper is learnt, next Civil Service. Fairground finished in Kerman, next Walls. Great Engineer is born in Marv. Prioritise Priest specialist in Marv to encourage (as best we can) a Great Saint as our next Great Person. A stack of 4x Rebels approaches Ghazna and is killed for no losses. A Great General is born in Khavakend, he heads for the port of Gwadar and eventually Mecca. More siege experience at the battle of Medina. Demand 2gpt from Georgia. Upgrade our deal with Fatimids from 4gpt to 5gpt. Trade Camel to PoA for 1gpt.

Turn 8: 1139AD
Madrassah finished in Zaranj, next Mosque. Inn finished in Khavakend, next Brothel. Sufi Shrine finished in Farghana, next Stable. Walls finished in Kerman, next Castle. Mosque finisehd in Quetta, next Fairground. Upgrade our remaining Horse Archers to Heavy Horse Archers (after promoting in the recent battle near Ghazna).

Turn 9: 1140AD
Stack of 3x Rebels attacks our fortified Marksman in Makkah. They all die. Work Boat finished in Makkah, start another. Yemen has captured Jerusalem, KoJ becomes KoAcre. We spread Sunni Islam in Neyshabur.

Turn 10: 1142AD
Marv finishes Confectioner, starts Butchery. Rani Kav is built far away. Karimi spreads to Herat. We declare war on KoAcre so that we can open borders with Fatimids and Yemen, which we then do.

Turn 11: 1144AD
Brothel finished in Khavakend, start Spy. Castle finished in Kerman, next Slave Market. Madrassah finished in Samarkand, next Mosque. Blacksmith finished in Ghazna, next Madrassah. Confectioner finished in Herat, next Karimi Funduq.

Turn 12: 1145AD
Mosque finished in Zaranjm next Fairground. Stable finished in Farghana, next Tannery. Load Great Spy and Great Engineer onto boats near Gwadar. Our Spy (currently our only one) arrives back in Wasit. Request 20g from Yemen, which they freely give.

To do:
- Suggest we don't actually take Medina. Plenty of experience and Great General points to be had from pounding on the Rebel defenders ad infinitum.
- We need to generate a Great Saint and a Great Artist, need to change civics soon to hasten this process.
- Ghorids are about to spawn.
- Keep spreading Sunni and building Sunni buidings, our piety is still rising and only needs a further 17 to reach Saint (currently Blessed).

 

[rrosen]

Should we perhaps just bite the bullet and do the civic change now? About the Ghorids, should we have peace for the time being?

 

[Power_of_Beer]

Should we perhaps just bite the bullet and do the civic change now? About the Ghorids, should we have peace for the time being?

We could do the following: switch to empire+rel.law; then hire priests in Mazar, as it has accumulated quite some GP points with 100% Priest, from the Spiral Minaret; maybe cancel the National Archives, and build them in Gwadar/Merv. Mazar would definitely be the best location for them, but they pollute the GP pool.

About Ghorids, I don't know if they spawn with auto-war.

 

[rrosen]

Turn 0 1145: We convert to Empire/Religious law.

Turn 1 1147: I manually add 4 priests in Marv. A great saint will spawn in 19 turns (with then a low probability of of being a great artist). Siege weapons continue to bombard Medinah, though their spearman is killed, leaving a single archer. Fleet with engineer and spy sent to Mecca.

Spoiler :

Turn 2 1148: Ghorid spawns, war with us. Khavkend spy -> spy.Quetta fairground -> market.

Turn 3 1150: Herat Karimi Funduq -> butchery.

Turn 4 1151: Marv butchery -> national epic (19 turns). Zaranj fairground -> market. Khavkend spy -> heavy horse archer. Samarkand mosque -> fairground. Two ghulams and two heavy horse archers engage the Ghorid army of three Mujahids, two lancers and one catapult. HHA win at 77%, second wins at 65%, ghulam dies at 65%, and the second ghulam dies as well at 80%. Pretty bad RNG, but Ghazna should hold.

Spoiler :

Turn 5 1153: Civil service is discovered, next religious architecture (3 turns). Farghana tannery -> HHA. Mecca work boat -> courthouse. Kerman slave market -> courthouse. Ghazna madrasah -> mosque. Retreating, hurt Ghorid army is ambushed by reinforcements from Mazar. Mujahid killed at 87%, for the second time, their defending lancer wins an attack we had 80% at, but now they are out of unhurt units and the rest mopped up.

Turn 6 1154: Ghorid archers out of Kabul are destroyed (98%).

Turn 7 1156: Oman spawn, we open borders. Mazar royal archive -> sufi shrine. A horse archer is lost to a Ghorid archer, though we kill two archers. We trade copper for sugar to Fatimids. Khavkend HHA->HHA. Herat butchery -> courthouse.

Turn 8 1157: Religious architecture -> Music theory. Gwadar Soltanieyh -> karimi. A Turkoman horse archers is outside Bukhara. Our sufi spreads sunni in Esfahan.

Turn 9 1159: Seljuks are no longer interested in deer for 4 gpt. Farghana HHA->HHA. Kerman courthouse -> Market. Samarkand fairground -> wall.

Turn 10 1160: Khavkend HHA -> marksman (for Samarkand). Madinah revolts, we gain a relic. The city is disbanded. We are now the Sherif of Hejaz. The army is sent towards a rebel city in Sinai. A Ghorid mercenary is killed.

Spoiler :

Turn 11 1162: Yemen converts to Sunni for engineering. Makuria end their 3 gpt. We sell deer for 4 gpt instead. Mazar sufi shrine -> sufi. Gwadar karimi -> sunni great mosque. Farghana HHA -> HHA. Samarkand walls -> castle. Ghazna mosque -> guild hall. The fleet arrives in Mecca, and the engineer + spy is settled.

Turn 12 1163: Zaranj market -> wall. Khavkend marksman -> marksman. Quetta market -> courthouse. Cow -> citrus trade with Yemen. Sindh convert to sunni for engineering, we open border.

Spoiler :

The situation:
Ghorid refuses to make peace. They lucked out and got an extremely upgraded city defender marksman mercenary.
Marv is 8 turns away from a great saint (83-17% for saint vs artist now, with artist decreasing). Marv is decreasing in food, so we should manually change back once their food supply is low.
After music theory, we could go for stern rudder and Kizil Kule.

 

[blizzrd]

Did disbanding Medina hurt our Piety, just out of curiousity?

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Lol a Sunni religious victory with disbanding the second holiest city of Islam.

 

[blizzrd]

Our Spy should steal from Abbasids. We are unlikely to ever need to steal a tech from them. We could almost certainly trade for any tech that they learn that we do not already have.

 

[rrosen]

I don't think it did so. We had 92 piety when it was disbanded, we ended with 96 (and I only did a few more things to increase piety after that).

 

[Power_of_Beer]

Turn 1 1165 AD

Herat Courthouse -> Stable; Farghana set to infinite HHA-production; Quandahar Blacksmith -> Guild hall; Zaranj Walls -> Shahnameh. Sell deer to Khwarezmia for 3gpt. We learn Music Theory, research set to Stern Rudder (5 Turns). Our spy steals ~40g, but gets caught.
My 2 cents about spy promotions: "Use enemy roads" is only useful when you move on territory of someone you are at war with. I'd rather take the increased escape chance and detection evasion; chances for succesful (minor) missions are ~98% then and one can slowly gain exp and form super-spies.

Turn 2 1166 AD

Khavakend Marksman -> Courthouse. Some pillaging in Ghorid lands, who are still unwilling to make peace. The blessed Mantle (great pries points) ist loaded on Dhow which heads towards Gwadar.

Turn 3 1168 AD

Samarkand Castle -> Courthouse; Mazar repeats Sufi Missionary. Barb Afghan Axeman killed. Sheep to Fatimids for 6gpt. Some Javelinmen deleted.

Turn 4 1169 AD

Just some more killing&pillaging in Ghorid lands. Sell pearls to Seljuks for 5gpt.

Turn 5 1170 AD

Peace with Ghorids, we instantly open borders. Khavakend Courthouse -> infinite HHA; Kerman repeats Missionary. No Ayyubids in this game.

Turn 6 1172 AD

Stern Rudder learned, Medicine next. Quetta Courthouse -> Library; Herat Stable -> HHA; Mazar Shia missionary -> Pottery Workshop. We spread Sunni Islam in Yazd and become a Royal Saint! Production in Gwadar set to Kizil Kule. Al Aquabah is used as a training yard.

Turn 7 1174 AD

Mazar Pottery Workshop -> Slavery Market; Kerman Missionary -> Karimi Funduq; Ghazna Guild Hall -> Courthouse; Mekka Courthouse -> Market, we should build the Royal Mint afterwards. Reroute camel deal with Normas to Chauhans for 2gpt.

Turn 8 1175 AD

Al-Farabi, a Great Saint, is born in Marv! He makes a pilgrimage to Mekka (via Gwadar ofc). Unhire 1 priest in Merv to prevent starvation, I'd say we go for the second one too, as we still have Syncretism for the Artist.

Turn 9 1177 AD

We steal 30g from Abbasids. Samarkand Courthouse -> Pottery workshop.

Turn 10 1178 AD

Medicine is learned, research set to Finery Forge. Trade around some semi-useless techs like Religious Architecture for ~400g in total, and force Makuria to adopt other civics (do they get anarchy?).




Next:
- Send Sufis to Hindu civs and spread Sunni Islam, nonstop
- Bagdad looks juicy. Maybe we can manage to collapse the Abbasids with Espionage, and capture it before the Mongols

 

[blizzrd]

Why would we want to research all the way to Syncretism for our Great Artist when we can generate one much earlier the usual way with specialists?

I took the Spy promotion for use enemy roads because it is a pre-requisite for the +1 movement bonus. Agree that on its own enemy roads is not very useful. But our cities are quite some distance from the Abbasid cities that we are trying to complete espionage missions. The steal gold mission worked without getting captured on what would have been your Turn 0 btw. No need to hit End Turn automatically when it's your turn to play a set, I often take a good look around on Turn 0.

Our fleet should now be upgraded.

 

[blizzrd]

It doesn't look like anyone has built Al-Ahzar yet? We should spread Shia in Gwadar and build it there after Kizil Kule.

EDIT: scratch that, we are too advanced to build Al-Ahzar it would appear.

 

[Power_of_Beer]

Why would we want to research all the way to Syncretism for our Great Artist when we can generate one much earlier the usual way with specialists?

Sure, it's just a backup, if things go completely downhill

 

[Science Rules]

Great! Expect an update from me within 24 hrs

 

[AnotherPacifist]

I hope you guys are ready for the Mongols.

 

[rrosen]

I think we will be ready, still quite some time until they come, and we have been building forces for quite a while. I think we should unhire all priests in Marv and generate an artist the normal way.

 

[Science Rules]

Sorry about the delay, but I'm playing now.

 

[blizzrd]

Are you still playing?

 

[Jusos2108]

Good question.
Anyways, I'll play tonight, whether Science Rules reports back by then or not.