How to Win at Mesopotaina

[joncnunn]

Terraign: Pretty much standard what you'd expect

Resources:

Stone Querry: Needed for just about every wonder. Very plentiful, most civs have multiple local sources nearby.
This also has a major shield bonus.

Horses: Needed for the horse and chariot based units you'd expect. Most, but not all civs are near them.

Iron: Needed for Swords / Immortals / Heavy Calvary. Most, but not all civs near this.

Lebanese Forest: This is a landmark; the equivlent landmarks for grass and plains are worse. DO NOT CHOP! These tiles naturally produce 1/3/0 and roading produces 2 commerce instead of 1. (But remember that darn Despotism/ TC penalty)

Cows: What you expect, except that to see and use this bonus, you need the Anamal Domestication tech.

Worker actions:

You may find that your workers initally can do nothing but road, because there is a tech requirement for all other worker actions.

Forest: Choping requires Wood Working tech. This is also at the slow pre-conquest rate

Clearing Wetlands: Requires Wood Working tech.

Irrigation: requires Irrigation tech

Mining: requires Mining tech

Basic Units:

Warriors: 2/1/1
Spears: 2/3/1
Archers: 3/1/1
Swords: 4/3/1
Companian Inf: 5/4/1

Eniuku Warrior: 2/2/1 upgrades to Sword
Hoplite: 2/4/1
Tik Guard: 3/3/1 (This is the Phoenican UU)
Bowmen: 3/2/1
Immoral: 5/3/1. upgrades to Companian Inf

Curragh:
0/1/2 + Transport 1

Fighter: 2/2/1 [Barb only]
Mounted Fighter: 3/2/2? [Barb only]


Civilizations [I have used their common name and not the scenario one]:

1. Egypt (Industirous and Agricultural) Their UU is the War Chariot. The agricultural traight actually makes their start great.
A non-agricultural civ would have severe difficultities with all that desert. Found a city to block off the access into Egypt ASAP. There are some needed resources along the Red Sea. Another needed luxary isn't that far west into the desert, and iron is adviable west as well. Reasonable shot at building all 7 wonders. For them I made only slight shiftings of settlers, founding all along the Nile.

2. Greece (Industrious and Scienfic) Their UU is the Hoplite. For some reason, the AI has severe problems playing them, but a human doesn't. Could be the AI doesn't know it needs to explore east to find anybody. Reasonable shot at building all 7 wonders. I only made slight shiftings of starting settlers here to.

3. Persia (Expanoistic and Religious). Their UU is the Immortal. There is an iron source near them, but it's in a location that humans might not normally plant a city unless they have advance knowlege of the map. You are also pretty much out of the running for Statue of Zeus for lack of Ivory, and probably won't have a coastal city built up in time for the Colosus. And if you miss the Colosus, the only peaceful way to trigure your GA is to build the Great Light House. (Also coastal.) But that will end the game. But the good news is thanks to Expanonstic traight, you can find so many goody huts and get so many contacts and techs that it doesn't matter that you only reached a GA on the last turn of the game. You should also be able to snag three unique luxary types easily. For them, I moved the western tile one over west, and sent the eastern one back to claim the northern shore of the fresh water lake.

4. Summeria (Agricutural and Religious). Their UU is the Enkiu Warrior, which is not quite as good as standard Spear in this game, so you can also build spears. In addition the Enkiu Warrior upgrades to Swordmen. The closest Horses and Iron are both likely to be owned by the Babs. But there are two luxaries south of you which you should be able to grab (most importly Ivory.) They have a great shot at every wonder with the possible exception of Colossus. To grab that one they may need to buy a couple of slaves [one each from two different civs so it doesn't cripple that AI] to augmunt the choping of forest and clearing the marsh on the fish to allow that city site to grow [shifted quite a ways from it's starting].
Also note that their especally marked starting location is on wheat, definately move it one tile, and in fact I moved the western settler one tile as well. If you don't found any cities the first turn there's not going to be any unit spport costs.

5. Phoenicans (Seafaring and Comerical): Their UU is the Thriyon guard. If I recall correctly, they are both iron-challenged and horse-chalenged. Lots of luxaries and they have a deciseve edge towards the Colossus, which will trigure their GA. They also start with three techs instead of two. Shift all starting settlers, one of them starts on a cow. The northern most one in particular should shift back southeast to the fresh water tile because the other direction is very food limited until TC. It's recommended to block off the Egyptians at the one tile choke point. Strong edge towards getting all contacts, even more so than the Persians in a SP game. Would you belive that I discovered in 3200 BC after I have all contacts, that none of the AIs knew each other, not even the Babs & Sumerians which had one tile between their empires. And all but the Hitties had independantly reserached TC; I assume that they were stil working on it. As the Phoenicans you also have a lot less free aquaducts, and in fact should not wait for aquaducts before building your wonders. Choping the forests that are not Lebanese Forest are a very high priority [first on grassland and then after irrigation on the plains, and I also recommend researching Animal Domestion first to use those cows. Also don't forget that Curaghs [you start with two] can transport a naval unit, and there are some islands with goody huts.

6. Hitties (Militarious and Commerce): Their UU is the Three Horse Chariot. Easy access to both Horses, Iron, Ivory. Probably out of the running for the Colossus. Would benifit from building the FP anywhere to help the evenual Light House city.

7. Babs (Scientific and Relgious): Their UU is the Bowmen. Baring a conquest of a neighbor, out of the running for both sea wonders and also out of the running for Zeus. Some competion with the Sumerians for the closest Horses, possible competion with Medes for closest Iron.

Wonders

They pretty much do what you expect, except the costs are lower and they never expire. Also note that the game ends when the last wonder is built, and whoever is ahead at that time on score will win.

One exception: The Statue of Zeus acts like epic Sun Tzu's. It's also the one wonder that's more expensive than in epic, but considering it's really equivlent to Sun Tzus ...

Small Wonders

The usefulness of the Forbiden Palace depends upon your civ, not particularly needed for Greece and probably not Egypt, but very useful for Persia [build it anywhere] for the OCN improvement, which will greatly help whichever coastal city you have building the Light House along that inland body of salt water north of you.

City Improvements

There's an improvement that does nothing but generate one culture unit a turn. Pretty useless IMHO.

Court House also produces some culture. Usual rule about CHs

Worker Housing: Like a factory, I build these everywhere.

City Park: Makes two citizens content and also acts as a Hospital. I end up building them for their happiness effects first.

Libary: It's so late that it doesn't really help much especally if you aren't playing a Sci civ.

The rest are what you'd expect

Goverments:

Everyone starts in Deposism. What you expect.

Tribal Council: If your Religious, it's an excelent switch for reducing corruption. Still has tile penalty. Other wise forget about it. 3 MP as well, but don't get used to that 3rd MP.

Obligarchy: Now we're talking, one of the lowest corruption govts, and we now have standard tiles. Back down to 2 MP. The only down side is it's another pop rush govt, but wonders are the key to victory in this conquest. Everyone will want this govt.

Monarchy: More corruption thatn Obligarchy -> Bad choice for a wonder race. Only benifit is cash rushing. Also kind of late, my last game was the first on this conquest in which I actually got this tech prior to winning, and that was by signing a large GPT payment with an AI the turn before my Great Light House completed.

Republic: Same corruption level as Obligarchy, plus standard tile bonus. Would be the best govt in this conquest, only I've never reached that tech in this conquest.

So, for all civs, try to trigure your GA in Obligarchy.

Tech Research and trade pattern:

I usually go first for techs allowing worker jobs, particarly irrigation and mining, [whichever I'm closer to first] and end up trading for the rest of the first row of techs and usually trade for Tribal Council as well. I then beeline my reserach to Obligachy, switch, and then go to Epic Work Projects. I try not to sell any techs allowing wonders that no AI has until I've built the wonder.
In the second era, I usually just snag the ones involving a wonder first, and then beeline to the Light House tech.

Victory Conditions:

First to 5500 VPs with last wonder cuting the game short.

Wonder VP are given to whoever builds the wonder, something like 2X shield cost.
Tech VP are given to anyone possesing a tech, based on beaker cost. So you can run up the score by buying missing techs the turn before the game ends for large GPT payments.
And there are points for defeating enemy units in battle and capturing cities as well.

I note that the AI behavior ignores the VP rules, and so they are unlikely to win on wonders. (They'll split the ones you don't build fairly evenly.) However at Emperor+ levels, the AI agressiveness can ruin your day if your been busy building city improvements to help wonder builds. and not units. Presumabley, at this level, the AI become a threat to you winning as they start racking up combat victory points against each other as well.

This is definately one conquest that if you find is too easy at one level, you should try at a higher level.

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

If you're playing this one on the higher levels above Emperor, don't overestimate the wonders. Mycene and Phoenicians may grab two (since they both almost for sure get the Colossus in the hands of a human, even on Diety); for everyone else, be happy with one at all. So, it's all about warfare - and here, Hittites and Medes really shine.

Egypt is extremely painful on the higher levels. I'd really advice against playing them - it's not that another Civs hurt, but without a combat bonus vs Barbarians, this is no fun at all; the white folks will flood you. Mycene has similar problems, but at least thier core is safe, and Hoplites help.
Egypt usually looses its Horses and Iron several times to Barbs...

[joncnunn]

As eqypt:

Found one city directly on a Horse, found another directly on an Iron, found one city directly on one of the Incense sources. Build enough cities along the red sea to eliminte the barb risk there.

If your cities are on the resources, the barbs can't cut the resource no matter how large their stack gets. At worst, the city is depopulated down to size 1, current build ruined, and your entire tresury stolen.

Barbs don't usally pillage, they usually just try to go after underdefended workers / cities / colonies and failing to see any of them just wonder around.

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Found one city directly on a Horse, found another directly on an Iron, found one city directly on one of the Incense sources.

Aha. .
The Horses are about 8 tiles in the desert. If you have enough units around to cover the entire road, you have no Barb problem anyway. Incense is no deal, that one is close enough.
The next source of Iron is half a map away in the West. This one is coastal; too bad, Harbors are horribly expensive, come with a second era tech, and you're in a whip gov most likely anyway.
You are lucky enough if you manage to settle the Nile before the era advance uprisings. The Red Sea and the Sahara is a dream pipe - the AI can do that with the Deity growth bonus. Not the human. If you set up multiple Settler Factories, you won't get anywhere - the game is over in this case (and they'd start working in around the era change anyway).
And, the especially annyoing thing is: Since the Southern edge of the map doesn't display correctly, you often cannot notice a new Barb Camp has formed at all...

I've won that conquest with any other Civ at least at DG. But with Egypt, I didn't even manage to complete Emperor - you are so extremely occupied with the Barbs, you need almost the entire second era to get rid of them. And cannot build up any cash reserve.

[justjake73]

Greece (Mycanae) also has a huge problem with irrigation - getting fresh water around those hills and mountains. I played Egypt once, but forgot about barbs (I only use huts in my main game).

It is possible (and very wise to prevent barbs) to irrigate the desert. All you have to do is the "leapfrog road-irrigate-road" strategy. Irr. Deserts are like Plains to Aggie civs.

[joncnunn]

What in the world do you need cash for in this conquest?

There are only two cash rush govts in this conquest. Both are very late. There's more than enough cash for unit upgrades, and this is really a shield based one.

On Greece, I'm not too worried about the irrigation problem. Found more cities than normal on hills instead of grassland. There's enough hills to mine that even if the city is stuck around size 8 or 9 due to lack of irrigation that it's still productive.

[joncnunn]

Doc Tsiolkovski, just played this as Egypt on Empeor level and won, in a peaceful game.

Prior to emperor difficulty level adjustment, my score was 5325. 6/7 wonders completed, only one I missed was Colossus [built by Phoenicans in Tyre.] I guess if I really had wanted to I probably could have captured it and the Gems in the Sinai.

On the Iron, I didn't even bother trying to get it. Instead I built lots of War Chariots to fight barbs which also functioned as an AI deterent. Oh, the barbs also snuck in and ate a stack of three slaves than were roading to the Ivory City. (forunately right after they finished a tile.)

In tech progress, in the second era I was only lacking the cheap optional tech that allows clearing of polution. In the 3rd era I had one tech, philosphacy, aquired in a tech steal the turn before winning from the Babs [who got it when they completed the required techs in the 2nd era]

Land wise, I just settled the Nile, plus the Ivory City west, and to the east grabed the single tile choke point plus three more cities along the red sea. This was enough space for barb camps to form twince in that corner [mostly because the only Temple I built was Temple of Artemis and I didn't build that improvement that just gives culture], but not during the massive barbs like in West Africa.