Sons of Monarchy I: Mansa Musa

[AbsoluteZero]

Played this one on video:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0098F1BB64BB486A&feature=view_all

 

[JSS]

Immortal/U.N. 1856:

Spoiler :

I axe rushed Joao taking his nice capital plus a barb city towards Saladin. Eventually i got 13 cities without expanding to the northwest and libbed Democracy in 1120:


Took over Genghis and Saladin with cavalry and continued to the other continent and took like half of their cities in total. I took peace and left Gandhi and Isabella with 5-6 cities for both because Isabella vassalled to Gandhi while I was at war with both and airships + cavalry didn't seem like an effective way of dealing with the situation.

I thought I'd complete the domination by smashing Pericles but the stupid AP votes made me lose 4 cities to Gandhi + Isabella and capitulating Pericles left me short of the domination limit. I got bored and beelined mass media and kept hitting next turn and won the U.N. diplo. Pericles was about 30 turns away from culture at the time... Should always check the victory conditions screen before accepting capitulation from a culture whore with a bunch of cities so as to avoid a potential unpleasant surprise.

The end screenshot(s) (I took multiple shots during the later parts of the game) got lost somewhere and there's a file called FrozenScreen.tga in my screenshot folder. What's this about?

 

[Silverbow]

Played this one on video:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0098F1BB64BB486A&feature=view_all

I love your vids, but man, why the settling on the cow? (the 4th city)

 

[i_imperator]

Immortal Normal, UN Win 1866AD

To 50AD

Spoiler :

I settled 1E to get the Gold in my BFC, I missed out on the ivory by not settling in place, but i think the gold is better. Plus i got better tiles in my capital.

I teched to BronzeWorking, Agriculture,AH,then towards shirkishers, I want them to help me defend vs barbs in my rush on Jaou, and become part of the rush as well.

I commenced my rush around 700BC, Jaou's cap lisbon, managed to get stonehenge, so that relieved me the need to build momuments for culture. Meanwhile Salidin decided he didnt like Genghis too much, so he DOWed on him and reduced him to two cities.

My rush ends at 65BC, I have five cities by then, three of which were Jaou's. My research is hurting at this point, but I have pottery and writing so i was able to get to Monarchy pretty easily. I decided to get Aesthetics before going towards monarchy however. I also directed espionage towards Sal, so i knew when he was teching alphabet. Here's my empire at 25AD, and the rush.

Lib: 1300AD

Spoiler :

Man, liberalism did go very late on this map, but I got it first, I decided to tech machinery before completing lib as I wanted to take printing press from it. I believe that PP would be a better choice economically for me due to Mansa's Financial trait.

I made some pretty good trades with the AI. And I expanded my empire to the peninsula. However I failed to get to the edges of it as Sal, took the barb city and Percilies settled a city on the top of the peninsula. I was able to switch into HR/Beau/ and pacifism for the great people points. Sal had spread Hinduism to me so I switched when he asked, and we got to friendly very soon.

He did vassle Genghis though, which made me a bit worried. I did switch into caste system while running pacifism so i could bulb education and set up academies in my Cap and Lisbon. I did get a random prophet which i used for a golden age to push me towards lib and through machinery (a prerequisite for PP) faster. After Lib i teched towards nationlism/Demoracy, built uni/grocer's (traded for Guilds)/Mints. I ths point i met the rest of the nutcases.



I love it when ghandi is in a game full of zealots and warmongers, everybody ends up hating his guts!!!!!!!!! I saw Sal, and Issy Do on him several times. They even asked me to do so, and i did as i wanted the diplo benifit. This was the point of the game where i decided to tech to AssemblyLine/Elictricity_>>>>>Mass Media.

Spoiler :

I did take awhile to get the victory. I rush bought the UN, finished all prodution and focused on wealth. I switched into, PS/FS/EMP/Therocracy. for the civics bonus. I kept gifting the AI's money, resources. I got Issy, and Sal to friendly, Perciles was against me in the vote for the UN, but on the final vote, he ended up voting for me while Sal (who was number 1 in land) voted for himself. However i had enough votes to get the win! It was a fun map, the religious zealots and the rivarly certinaly made it a challenge. And having a close imperlistic neighbour was very interesting.Here are some end game screen shots. Please continue this series, it was a lot of fun to play, and thanks for hosting!

By the way, I've just moved up to Immortal, if anyone who is a more experienced immortal/Deity player, or even lower level players who have questions/advice for me, it'll be very much appreciated and very welcome.

 

[iNerd]

Played this through on video.

Skirmisher rush on Deity : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0ygjNH_0Is&list=PLCBD670F2ACA68262&index=1&feature=plpp_video

Some of the parts are up, the rest are coming over the next few days.

The playlist will be updated with new videos as they are uploaded (which takes a while.......)

 

[kazapp]

Random events are one of the dumbest additions to CIV ever. I don't understand why you would ever play with them on.

Random Events add quite a lot of color to any given game.

I like them and usually leave them on (Being massacred by those Vedic Archers when I have a single Warrior in my capital isn't much fun, though)

I don't mind the randomness, it's random but not too random. (Cf Goody Huts, which I have turned off since it makes starting with a Scout/Hunting too good)

It's possible I will turn off RE in the future: I'm only a Monarch/Emperor player (always playing Marathon speed). It's possible the Immortal/Deity game balance is so finely tuned they become disruptive then...

Just saying to let you know "one of the biggest trolls of Civ" isn't very easy to understand, when one doesn't come from where you come from...

 

[Giant Wolfman]

I won't include random events in the next round, as that seems to be the consensus. I apologize for the less than stellar hosting on my part. Work and real life these last two or three weeks has been very hectic and picked up unexpectedly. I'm hoping to enjoy this one at the back end of this week/weekend, and will post the second game next week.

 

[BigMac1082]

Played monarch/marathon. Turned random events off.
Domination Victory 1590ad

Spoiler :

Settled 1E
Founded second city near copper

1st war:
Axe rushed Jao and took capital in 1780BC, dead in 1710BC
Sal, Ghengis and I are all hindu (sal founded it) so there is a bit of a love fest so I expand rapidly taking a few barb cities in the mean time

2nd war:
Bribe Ghengis to war with Sal in 535ad but nothing really happens, just a few units changing hands. Meanwhile I build up my forces
Gheng asks me to join him in war in 650ad
I accept and roll Sal. Gheng gets a few of his northern cities. Sal dead in 835ad

3rd war:
Gheng declares on Peri in 1434ad and takes the lone city he settled to my west
I decide I have plenty of cavalry and declare on Gheng shortly after. I have about 35 cavs and plenty of cannons and rifleman as a 2nd prong
Gheng dead in 1472ad

4th war:
I build up galleons and go to water against greece. he has yet to tech gunpowder but is fairly advanced in other branches of science.
I DoW in 1560ad with cavs on his shore and take 3 cities
1564ad peri capitulates

5th war:
Izzy is next target. Her and Gandhi hate each other for some reason.
I sail ships over and DoW in 1580ad
Take 3 cities and she caps in 1588ad
This puts me over the land goal for Dom

 

[Krillen]

*sigh* I'm jealous at the early win dates shown by players who have played this map script.

 

[Pengu]

Emp until 475 AD

Spoiler :

Did settle so I got the gold. Met portugal and saw he had a nice capitol.
I still choose to go for the Oracle 1st and took currency which delayed me a bit. Before that I settled my 2nd city on the silk to get the copper and 2nd gold.
After that I chopped out an army of Swords and Axes to attack Joao. Of all the wonders he built TGW . I decided to whipe him out as he had few cities and had almost the same techs as me. Then as Saladin who had expanded really well declared on Mongolia who were weaker I saw no other choice than to attack mongolia as well.Arabia took 1 city and I took 3. With 1 city left I took construction for peace and that is where I am right now. Alot of wars which I saw necessary. Even though noone has feu I am not sure I should march on vs Arabia right now as my economy might suffer. Think I should go for lib and take him out with curs or cavs.

 

[lindsay40k]

Hope this isn't foul of necro rules.

Culture win in 1850.

Spoiler :

Settled 1E because Gold. Teched Hunting > AH > BW > Archery. Barracks was ready on the turn Archery arrived, chopped & whipped 5 Skirmishers and took Lisbon in 2000BC (attacked just after a Settler took an Archer for a walk) whilst getting my first Library online. Boom!

Once three cities had Gold mines and Libraries, nobody could out-tech Mansa. The geography screamed Culture at me, so started getting satellite cities developing Cottages. Olmec barbarians had settled on a good GP farm site to the North, so that saved building a Settler. Built Shwedagon and Glib in my two main cities, wanted Mids for SPI synergy but with Genghis next door an army took priority. Ended up in no wars, but better to have an army and not need it. Had to split the army in half when Genghis took a Greek settlement and threatened two borders, but he never attacked (I even celebrated a marriage to keep him real happy).

Academy in Timbuktu and Lisbon, Sankore & Sistine and Minaret supercharging my Buddhist buildings (for political reasons I didn't convert to self-teched Confu or Islam, often went Free Religion for diplo or teching shenanigans) - built early on in the three big cities to double the Sistine bonus - and Liberalism for Nationalism in 1130.

Timbuktu bagged Taj Mahal. An unexpected GE was burned for SoL. Built Versailles and Forbidden Palace, with all cities on Wealth could go 100% Culture. Not a pure orthodox Culture economy in terms of GPP and Wonders, but the resources available strongly supported Religious Economy elements. 3 GPs were burned for another two GAges, which helped with a GA or two.

Could've improved by relocating cap to Lisbon, and maybe gambling on Parthenon. Noteworthy was a Christian Isabella. Can't remember last time I didn't see her Buddhist!

 

[Izuul]

Nah, i think it's always acceptable to go back and play the old community games.

 

[JSS]

I agree with Izuul.

It's fun seeing my own report from 1.5 years ago and noticing how bad I was. Lib Democracy and go Cavalry...

 

[Manco Capac]

Totally, especially with a dying community.

 

[RagingHordes]

The weak and old are leaving. The young and strong are getting stronger. It's simple evolution and you know it!
This silly propaganda is just a small part in your Master Plan to become the one and only Civ Fanatic. I'm on to your mischievousness, Tachywaxon!

 

[Manco Capac]

The problem with the young and strong people are 10 posts and less user that will never post against. Like a community composed with a bunch of lurkers. No fun at all.

 

[lindsay40k]

Well, I'll be reporting on SoM II fairly soon. Been distracted by another challenge - trying to (1) get the hang of Civ V, and (2) find something I enjoy about Civ V.

 

[rfcfanatic]

It seems that this day is especially filled with tough battles. Tried to play this and hoped for a relaxing game after heavy fighting in the latest NC game, but no... I have to face the greatest of my fears in civ 4. A fear so horrible it's giving me nightmares:

Spoiler :

Longbowmen.Longbowmen! Because of them most of the time I avoid making use of Catapults. Always I stumble upon them when I try to Elepult someone. Always!

 

[rfcfanatic]

Yay, I managed to overcome that fear!

Spoiler :

Well, Catapults do suck vs Longbows, but War Elephants do not suck. After a couple of suicide Catapults, the rest of LB's were easily taken care of by War Elephants.

Joao II is history. Not sure what to do next. To recover the economy or to go for another glorious war, that's the question. Let's see how the question will answer itself.

By the way, I haven't created any GP yet. With this little food I didn't have any other choice but war. Even 1-pop whips were applied several times.