Rhye's and Fall of Civilization - Malinese strategy
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The Malinese (UHV)
Goals
Goal one: 1st in gold by 1300 AD
Goal two: 5000 gold by 1500 AD
Goal three: 20,000 gold by 1700 AD
Benchmarks
By 1300, I had about 1400 gold, +85 a turn.
By 1400, I had about 2350, +120.
By 1450, I had about 2600, +145.
By 1500, I had about 5300, +185.
By 1550, I had about 8000, +250.
By 1600, I had about 11,500, +285.
By 1650, I had about 15,500, +360.
1700 AD: 20136 gold, +468.
Beginning (Turn 189/980 AD) to 1300 AD
I go slavery/monarch on the first turn. The skirmishers I send with the settlers to guard founded cities (three with Timbuktu).
I found Timbuktu one grid southeast of the starting spot, Accra directly south of Timbuktu on the coast, and Djenne to the west-southwest of Timbuktu, just northeast of the gems spot, not on the coast.
Builds
Timbuktu goes Aqueduct, Market, Mint, all slave rushed. Djenne goes scout, settler, settler, market. Djenne uses two floodplains while Timbuktu is growing, but eventually just goes to one. The scout I send northeast to find Egypt, Greece, Rome, Carthage, depending who’s still around, of course Accra goes fishing boat, trireme, trireme, lighthouse, galley, then caravel, then galley. I slave rush whenever I can.
Science
Science at 100 percent. Get fishing—sailing—compass--optics, then slide science to zero. Later on I’ll bargain and trade for Calendar, Code of Laws, Civil Service and Paper, but I’ll leave my science at zero percent for the rest of the game. I’ll pick up Feudalism and Engineering pretty easily too from trades.
Tactics
I have the three workers build five cottages around Timbuktu, then mine the gold, then the ivory north of Accra, then depending on how far culture spreads, the other two floodplains and the gems. Ivory is the most valued resource, so I develop it as soon as I can.
I emphasize growth in Timbuktu and slave rush the aqueduct, market, and mint as soon as I can. I then let Timbuktu grow to a six and start using merchants. With enough trading for health bonuses, I was able to get Timbuktu to a size 8 with two merchants. I’ll plant three of my eventual great merchants in Timbuktu; the last one I used for banking.
Djenne’s first settler goes east to found Zaria, northeast of the last ivory and just within range of the cows to the east. Zaria goes skirmisher-barracks-military unit ad nauseum.
I upgrade my trireme to caravel when I can and go north to gain contacts with Western Europe and through the Mediterranean to pick up any other missing contacts (like Turkey or Arabia). Vikings, French, English, and Carthage seemed to be the most affable traders. I would trade Divine Right and Theology to catch up to most of the civs’ minor techs and gain some gold too.
In most times I’ve played I’ve been able to avoid war by rolling over every time a civ begs/demands something. Losing 110 gold here or there seems more cost effective than a protracted war, which I got caught in one version with Carthage that ended up losing me considerably more (in upgrades and slave rushes). Spain seems particularly bellicose, so I offer them gifts and play nice.
Trading the crab resource for wheat is effective not only for stability but because the granaries in all the cities make wheat more health-effective than crab. I keep one ivory at all times, but trade the rest as soon as I can for health bonuses and gold.
I usually would end up with Islam in my cities, but I never switched to an official religion. Not only is an extra turn of anarchy a pain, but I wanted to make no civ any more upset with me than I absolutely had to—I never went to war once in my winning game.
1300 to 1500 AD
Timbuktu builds walls-castle and eventually Grocer, once I got the tech. Building a barracks is also a worthwhile investment, as trained mercenaries can yield good money.
While one caravel tours Europe, the other goes under South America and establishes contact with Japan/China/India/Persia and complete the circumnavigation. The circumnavigation bonus comes in handing not only for selling maps but for moving galleys quickly down Africa’s coast to found cities or reinforce them with longbowmen. After the circumnavigation the caravels also contact Aztecs, Incas, and Mongolians, then explore Australian and New World coastline (good for selling maps later).
I have a lot of Impis around Zaria, so I keep a couple of longbowmen around there (Feudalism is usually pretty easy to trade for). They build a lot of explorers, too, as explorers are a popular mercenary hire—I could usually have three or four hired out at the same time.
Around 1430 I gamble with 900 gold and a couple of techs to pick up guilds from the Vikings. This paid off in the long run since with a grocer in Timbuktu I was able to make much more, but it was nip and tuck to get to 1500 with 5000 gold.
Because around 1550 AD Kongo pops up in the bottom west of Africa and starts building up an army of Impis, I pre-empt them by planting a settler there. The city never really amounts to much, but it brings in a fish bonus and it can pay off with a harbor as well.
1500-1700
I got lucky and India traded guilds for civil service. I switch to bureaucracy right away—the last anarchy I’ll have. I found a city in the far southeast corner of Africa, right where gold/sugar/copper/gems are accessible. I built a couple of skirmishers and a work boat here before I started with a worker—Impis are a bear. I usually have to slave rush a skirmisher and keep it pretty well fortified.
The golden age from 1505-1545 is really sweet, and I emphasize commerce as much as I can to take advantage of it.
Between 1550-1600 I sent a couple more settlers to found cities in South Africa, but they never really got anywhere by 1700, so they probably weren’t worth the bother except to create a lot of workers. Accra builds markets/Grocers/settlers as needed; I put the Triumphal Arch in Timbuktu to use by building military units—war elephants and explorers, which I promptly put on the mercenary market.
At 1600 I took another risk and spent a bit (170/Drama/World map) to pick up Paper from the Indians. I then was able to barter for Inca maps, which I promptly sold to other civs.
At 1650 I used my last Great Merchant to find banking. I trade banking for gunpowder and philosophy with other civs, then sell what techs I can to other civs. (By this point, selling Guilds to Aztecs for 10 gold is a bargain). I slave Timbuktu down to 5 for a bank, and as it grows I have it take all the floodplains from Djenne and Zaria. I no longer bother with specialists but throw everything into commerce. I traded away every resource I could spare and just made the 20,000 goal.
Mistakes to avoid
- I went too far along in science before switching to 0 percent science (I only went to Optics in my winning game)
- I switched to Mercantilism (the foreign trade routes are too valuable)
- I sent Skirmishers out exploring, when they should have just been keeping Timbuktu happy.
- I didn’t bother with building Castles (again, the extra trade route in Timbuktu is very nice).
- I sent Great Merchants to foreign countries (better to plug all but maybe the last one in Timbuktu—more gold in the long run)
- I held out on selling maps too late (as soon as a civ picked up paper, I’d sell them my maps)
Malinese UHV (monarch, 600 AD)
by Pacifist. Credits to Zhuge Liang (with the conquering hint) and Riker (who showed me graphically how it's done)
Since Africa in the 600 AD start is just native and independent cities, remnants of the Byzantine Empire and yourself (starting in 980), you cannot rely on trading with close neighbors. Why not take over North Africa and its resources? (in fact this is probably the only way to win). The key to this UHV is ABSOLUTELY NO WAR and NO STATE RELIGION. Any war against you (especially by any of the sea powers) will trash your trade and block your population growth by harbors, and if you switch religions the rest of the world will hate you and not give you open borders.
First moves
- Switch to hereditary rule and slavery (the only civ changes other than bureaucracy you'll ever make)
- settle Timbuktu one block SE of start. Fortify with 1 skirmisher. Send one settler towards Accra with 1 skirmisher. Send other settler with 2-3 skirmishers north towards just west of old Carthage: you want to settle Wadan between the wheat and sheep AFTER you get sailing (so that harbors will be automatically built). The skirmishers should aim to capture Regio Tripolitana with at most 1 lost skirmisher. As soon as feasible use Wadan to whip out a settler towards Morocco: settle on the elephant and get the iron online ASAP (so you can build axemen which are much stronger against impi). You should have 2 workers in North Africa at all times protected by war elephants (camel archers are a pain in the butt, but elephants have a 50% advantage against them).
- research fishing, sailing then cap science at 0%.
- When you meet Spain, you NEED to get open borders. Usually trading Divine Right for something will satisfy them. I once made the mistake of have a negative with Isabella (when she made some unreasonable demand) and I never got to open borders with her again, which sucks as I can't contact the other Europeans until they come to me.
- Accra builds work boat for the crab and trireme (1 to 2 of them), one heading north to contact Europeans, one heading south to reach Arabia. Depending on how lucky you are, Arabia usually doesn't open borders. If not, get their map and head straight back so you can upgrade it to a caravel.
- You need one more city: Daloa on the west coast east of the gems. Build a monument to encompass more sea (unless a religion spreads to it). It's better to found on the coast which gives you much more food (with harbor) and trading routes by sea.
- Workers build cottages first before mining gold and gems and building elephant camps (you want those hamlets to become cities ASAP).
Science
Use Divine Right wisely...it's your only card for getting essential techs. In monarch mode, the AI usually discounts your tech cost in half and trades accordingly. Find Inca, Khmer, and Mongolia in the 1400's and they will still save you some money for trading techs if they don't have Divine Right. After you get your 2nd UHV, you can research one, at most two, techs. I chose Civil Service because most of the other civs will not trade you for it, and you need it as soon as your Golden age is over (don't switch during GA because you lose a turn). The other essential techs are, in order of preference:
- Feudalism (for longbows)
- Guilds (for grocers; this may actually be more important than feudalism for the early 25% gold boost)
- Calendar (really easy to get usually)
- Optics (for caravels)
- Engineering (for castles with 1 extra trade route; you'll probably never get to economics in time)
- Paper
Note I put paper last. The reason is most of the other civs (including Khmer, Japan, and eventually even the previously backward Incans) will have paper, so you don't have to research it yourself to trade map for money. Buy banking from either the French or English for about 1000 gold after your 2nd UHV.
Great merchants
You'll need at least 2, if not 3. Be careful with your cities not to spawn a great scientist or engineer. Your first GM should settle in Timbuktu, second should go to Amsterdam (or other another suitably large city >15 pop) for trade mission in the 1600's. He should net you at least 1500 gold (if not 1700 with the largest cities); let him sit there for a while, and it seems that you get more gold that way. If you don't get hit with plague and can pop a 3rd, and if you are lucky and get paper with minimal cost, he may bulb you economics, but that's really if you're lucky and have enough gold not to use him for a trade mission. The trick to balancing hiring merchants and allowing population to grow is: when you'll building settlers and workers, hire merchants (usually when Timbuktu has 6+ pop), and when you're growing after whipping a major building, turn the merchants down to allow maximal food.
Begging from other civs
If a civ has minimal negative attitude points against you, you may be able to use the "Can't you spare a good friend this?" option to get both a 10 turn peace treaty and money. Be judicious when you use it: 20-30 gold is worth it, while I've got a 60 gold from the Netherlands who was super nice to me. Once the peace treaty expires, you can do this again. NEVER demand any money (if you don't see the question with the word "friend" it means you got too many negatives with that civ; come back when they've forgotten your trespass).
Trading maps for money
Buy or exchange maps with the Arabs as soon as you meet them; you can sell it right back to the Europeans for more than you traded for. Once you get Optics, upgrade your triremes to caravels. You want to head especially east (which the Europeans seem to neglect until the 1500's) to meet the Khmers, Japanese and Mongolia. If the Chinese are still alive they are usually good for trading techs. You want to sell your maps to everybody, every turn possible. Even 5-10 bucks for a incremental increase in your explored area, mutiplied by 5-6 civs, means a 30-60 gold increase. Of course you should get the most for your exploration: if it doesn't look it they'll buy your current map, explore a little more and wait till they have more money. Do this 50-60 times and you'll have about 1000 gold just from trading maps.
Trading resources for money
Don't take the first offer. You should monitor the AI's gold per turn every time. If they have 5+ gold per turn, it is usually a good time to offer them an elephant or gems. (I once got 9 gold per turn for gems to Turkey). You want to get wheat from France, Germany or Russia with your crab (since the health benefits with granaries are good for all your cities, especially Timbuktu). Keep one elephant around until you have built all your war elephants, and iron after you have your axemen/macemen. The AI will usually value iron, horse and elephants more than the others.
Things to build in your cities (everything else is not useful)
Because your production sucks (except in North Africa), you will need to whip all your buildings. Build enough troops to make the people stay happy.
- Library in Timbuktu only
- work boat (for fish), harbor, granary, mint in Regio Tripolitana (this is one good reason why you should not capture any native cities in the south, because they'll be a drain on your economy, besides being very far away)
- every city should have a market and grocer
- big cities (like Timbuktu, Wadan, Accra and Regio Tripolitana) should also get banks. Note that for the smaller cities, do not whip too much after the 1600's, because you want their populations to grow as much as possible, and late banks don't help you much.
- walls, castles for the extra trade routes (and protection against impi)
Plague!
This is going to determine how successful your game is. If you get 2 plagues, it is very unlikely you'll reach your 3rd goal. Timbuktu will die all the way to 1 pop and it'll take 10+ turns to get back in shape. The trick is to move all your troops outside the city, at least 2 squares away so that when plague does hit (remember that reload button?) you do not lose a unit automatically. Workers are especially susceptible and they will die if they even go near a stricken city. If you're close to finishing a unit and plague strikes, better switch to a cheap building (like walls or monuments) so that when you don't waste that unit due to plague.
Impis and barbarian camel archers
Ah, the famous impis. They usually come 3 at at time at the most inconvenient times. They will go for the most vulnerable targets first (usually unprotected workers, then single skirmishers, then other melee units). If they don't find a suitable target they will pillage everything in sight, so move your units accordingly. You shouldn't even think about getting elephants or horses south of the Sahara, they will be eaten alive by impis with 100% bonus against mounts (I never trained any horse archers or knights for that reason). The only exception is in Timbuktu where the camel archers will occasionally come to ravage your hamlets/towns, so 1 war elephant there is useful. On the other hand, war elephants in your North African cities are essential (the impis usually don't venture that far north). When you get iron, you should pump out axemen and leave the skirmishers to sit in the jungle tiles with resources when axemen cannot go. A preemptive strike is sometimes useful if you have enough spare production. I once made the effort to raze Mbanza Kongo with 2 axemen and it paid off: I never saw another impi for the rest of the game.
