The Almighty Saladin!

[The Almighty dF]

I'm bored, I never do these, so I wanted to give it a shot.
You are Saladin. The map? Big & Small (Islands Mixed In), Temperate, Huge.
I will leave you to find out how many and who are the other AI.

The game settings are Marathon (I know, I know. But, it's what I play at) and Noble, Choose Religions, No Goody Huts. I have -not- opened world builder or changed the map in any way.
Post your results, what you think is the best way of going about the map, etc.
I want to see many a victory with what many consider to be Civ4's worst leader.


Our starting position!



Not bad. Not bad at all.

 

[Fleme]

I can't foresee a lot of participation in a game like this for 2 reasons:

1) People (other than me) dislike Marathon
2) Certain computers (like mine) can't handle Huge past the 1500's.

I'd be interested in seeing a full playthrough of a Huge map though, I can't recall seeing one other than for Earth.

 

[Framesticker]

Never played a Huge random map (only Earth ones). Even if Sal is the game's worst leader, he's Philosophical which is an extremely useful trait. I've never played Marathon, either, but I suppose that's something I'd like to try too.

 

[Framesticker]

4000BC-2935BC

Spoiler :

So Mecca was found on the spot:



Looks like a very decent Bureaucracy site, while I may move the Palace if a better centralized location is found. Research was set to Hunting/AH/Mining/BW for now.

The northeast appears to be full of deserts and deserted of resources.



Seems like settling the south is an immediate priority.

Met this guy fairly soon (for Huge/Marathon, I suppose)



A very desirable trading partner. Not a runaway like Mansa, and is quite peaceful.

After the Worker finished I went for a few more Warriors. Seems like spawnbusting is critical here.

Then nothing happened for a LONG LONG time. Marathon is damn slow.

Found Lincoln



And made a dotmap for the immediate east. Few resources and lots of jungles, so I think going for HR scientists (with possible Pyramids, considering this is Noble) I can get a good tech lead and go after Lincoln once we have a shared border.

So?

 

[The Almighty dF]

First off, apologies: LARGE. Not huge. LARGE.

Also, spoilers ahead:

Spoiler :

Holy crap this map is unfair. I set the game to noble for my first open game, and... it's almost like the game went "Oh, you want to go on an easier mode? Well have a hard map!"
I was wiped completely out by around 850 AD. My longbow stacks weren't enough to protect me from a triple team by Elizabeth, Mehmed, and Charlemagne. I... I haven't -lost- a game like that in a long time, especially not on noble. I'm... I'm just, wow. Seriously. Also, sadly, none of my screencaps seem to have saved. Don't know why. That really, really bites.
I'll give this saved game a second go later.

 

[vranasm]

hmm you say it's tough? ok I will try it even if I dont like mara and nonstandard maps.

huts and events are on?

 

[Jefzor]

I'd participate if i could get my BTS running (gf has the cd, so i'm stuck with no expansions atm).

Isn't noble supposed to be easy to get a point victory? Or did you turn on aggressive AI?

 

[UncleJJ]

You are also using the Bat mod 2.3. I downloaded the savegame and it doesn't load without that mod, you could have mentioned that.

 

[Bibor]

I'd participate if i could get my BTS running (gf has the cd, so i'm stuck with no expansions atm).

Isn't noble supposed to be easy to get a point victory? Or did you turn on aggressive AI?

With patch 3.19 it doesn't require the CDs

 

[CivConVict]

Here's the WB-Save for those who want to play without the BAT-Mod or on another difficulty level.

Spoiler :

Played until 470BC:

Charlemagne really is a major threat in this game. With all that gold near his starting position he managed to get Feudalism before anyone else even got to Alphabet. Luckily he founded Buddhism, so I should be able to keep him happy.


Also Lincoln was kind enough to build the Great Lighthouse and give to me ... well, sort of ...


Nevertheless I doubt I'm gonna win this one, my economy is just too strained right now and no real boost in sight with so few cottages to work.

By the way, I switched random events off and set the level to Immortal, hope that's ok with you.

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

@Framesticker

Spoiler :

I'm not so keen on your dotmap - it seems that you are leaving a big pile of green with no food resource. My suggestion would be to figure out where the Rice city will go, and then work your way north up the center. I think you'll find a stronger position with a city south of the corn, and then another one for the pigs.

 

[Bibor]

Here's the WB-Save for those who want to play without the BAT-Mod or on another difficulty level.

Thanks

 

[LowerIcon]

Saladin on Marathon speed just screams "Cultural Victory" to me. Try to take over one or two islands so you have enough room to build 8 cities, then pump up the Great Person production and hope for the best. Try not to get involved in wars. Let every religion spread into your country (for temples and other cultural things) but be very careful about which one you convert to.

 

[vranasm]

Playing marathon on large map finds someone fun? Well not me.
Btw that events are bleh too.

Played to 1k AD.

Spoiler :

I found that playing on marathon large map even on noble has its share of problems, almost completely other game. But I think I have the map under control.

Funny screenshot at 290BC where I got through trades almost 900 gold to fund deficit research



I played and played and played, gotten tech lead, city lead, probably prod, gnp lead... I have 16 cities peacefully gotten (well some from hands of barbs of course).

2 AIs decided they wont play this game and stuck with 4-5 cities, it was America and Mali. America build a lot of wonders...

As usual with such big blob of AIs together there was needed some religion hopping to avoid early war (that's where you made probably mistake Almighty). That lead to neverending war between Charle and Mehmed.
Well it turned out that Charle is better off and from 11:10 cities they got to 14:9 eventually, I had at one point get in and bribe peace. Last turn Mehmed declared on Charle again! Such stupid AI...

I have teched Lib to 1T finish and slowly tech for taking steel out of lib. Then I will probably wipe the floor with Charle (I started slowly building trebs, I will eventually have around 5 prod. cities, 3 of them are finishing infra). After I get "enough" cannons i will build something to them... it will depend on techs I get until then...it could be muskets/rifles probably

Well that's it.

Some screens

Have some question aimed particulary on marathon speed. And that's about whipping buildings. On quicker speeds (I am mostly used to epic) the units production is relatively reasonably slow compared to buildings, but on marathon building some buildings feels like I will use almost whole game for it (even with OR bonus!).
Do you use on marathon speed even more whipping for buildings or what? It's just painful to see 50+ turns for finishing building...