Civ-Specific Strategy: Arabs

[Mazarin]

do you really think that the Rider influences the strategy of playing with the Chinese that much? In my games its always been the combination of mil/ind. that allowed be being very agressive from the very beginning...something I couldn't imagine with the Arabs as they neither have cheap barracks nor industrious workers that boost productivity from the very beginning. I would't say they are superior to china...I like religious trait much (maybe for other reasons than many others )...but for me industrious is the best. Btw, how often do you have to change governments...even playing with Arabs I only changed once from despotism to rep....and I almost never need to change it again.

[Robber Baron]

Butch'r Bak'r, Part 1

Alright, I've just finished playing a very satisfying game, emperor level, small map, old [edit: new] world (mountainous), dry, continents. And Abu "Butchr" Bakr dominated.
I played with a few internal varient rules for the Arabs: first build in any city founded or captured had to be a mosque (temple); and once a city reached a population of 6 a larger mosque (cathedral) had to be constructed. In fact, these buildings had to be rushed if at all possible.
My people were blessed, quickly amassing major culture. In fact, in the early stages of the game, a Babylonian city actually flipped Arab! (a first for me at this level of play).

[Robber Baron]

Butch'r Bak'r

The second component of my strategy for Arabian splendor was conquest: my holy warriors would be the scourge of a vengeful god, smiting enemies on the battlefield, then converting citizens of captured cities by building mosques. The dominant weapon, of course, would be the ansar. I did not manage to snare horses in my first ring of cities. Capturing a source then became an urgent priority -- a command from God. "Butch'r" Bak'r's first crusade was the Horse War, against the Aztecs.

[Robber Baron]

Butch'r Bak'r

With horses in hand, I had the essential ingredients for civ mastery. I built up hordes of horsemen, and loosed them in a series of pruning wars along my borders.
I kept the strategy simple: religious builds, marketplaces in first ring cities, courthouses beyond .... horses, horses, horses. Rushed the Great Library with a leader. Once monarchy came in, I switched -- and stayed there for the rest of the game. I figured if my people were not at war, they were shirking the command of God that his word be spread.
In the midst of internecine conflict with Babylon, the City of Uruk built Sistine's Chapel. That war then became a Jihad: I resolved I would press the conflict until I had seized this affront and converted it into a mosque.

[Robber Baron]

Butch'r Bak'r, Part 4

In the middle of the Babylonian Jihad, the Library had delivered chivalry. Wholesale upgrades of my horsemen to Ansars made my armies truly fearsome -- and with the golden age boost in production, I became the military superpower of the continent. The key here (and the roleplaying definitely helped) was to apply pressure continuously. I resisted the temptation to stop expanding and build. I think I built no more than 3 libraries, for example -- no universities. Even so, rigorously applying the mosque rule allowed my cultural expansion to keep pace with my military conquests.

Eventually other civs outpaced me in tech. But by the time they began to pull ahead, they were too small to resist my hordes of ansars. This UU is truly potent because it's cheap . I was sending swarms, and taking down large cities defended by muskets. The vikings survived long enough to field cavalry, but by then I was unstoppable.

[Robber Baron]

Butch'r Bak'r Triumphant

Our world had one civ off-continent -- the Japanese. I assembled a fleet of caravels, loaded with cavalry (the first that would ever see use -- ansars had conquered the entire home continent) and muskets.
Even as the fleet set sail, though, Allah declared victory for his chosen people.

[Robber Baron]

Post-Mortum thoughts:

1) Keep it simple. I pared down my strategic objectives to essentials: mosques, mega-mosques, ansars, and an economy to support them. This focussed strategy, coupled with relentless pressure on my AI opponents, kept the initiative in my hands.
I'm still learning how to play competitively at the emporer level, but surely one vital element of any strategy is focus. You can't have it all, so you need to choose what you can have wisely, and maximize its advantages, while being willing to forsake other tempting paths.

2) I now believe the Arabs are one of the most potent civs in the game. The ansar, built in numbers, is very effective -- not just tactically (that 3 movement is very handy) but strategically , since it's cheap to build (both in shields and resources).

3) ansars in combination with energetic mosque builds makes for a powerful one-two combo.

[Charis]

Nice job

A good game and a fine report on the deeds of Bakr! :b

The thing that caught me was the game time. Conquering your whole continent and managing swarms of ansars, and you got domination victory in 10 hrs. I can't get to Monarchy within 10 hours :P
(Heck, my last TWO turns in my latest game together took 11 hrs - but that's modern era and I'm in "deep", a 5CC deity game whose ongoing tale is over at CF Stories forum)

Then you gave your tip of keep it simple and stay focused, and that seemed a good reason for the speed.

I've not gotten to Ansars yet in my Arab game. When I played Mongols though, I found the death rate from counterattacks appalling. Cheap units were nice, but they were getting mowed down in far greater quantities than Knights. Perhaps the greater speed of the Ansars kept them from facing counterattacks as often?

Charis

[Stuie]

Re: Nice job

Originally posted by Charis
Cheap units were nice, but they were getting mowed down in far greater quantities than Knights. Perhaps the greater speed of the Ansars kept them from facing counterattacks as often?

Definitely. They are like Cavalry in this regard. You can move, attack, and retreat if you need to, even if you win the battle. Another nice thing about them is the ability to reach far into enemy territory on the first turn of a war. They can reach established cities even though they have the two square culture radius and attack them on the same turn... very potent. Need to cut off a resource that's a couple squares in? No problem - send in an Ansar. It's also nice moving onto a hill and still having a movement point available - great for scouting out enemy units to direct your other Ansars. True, the defense can be problematic, but with careful planning you can usually get to a hill or forest or behind a river (or some combination of the above) to end your move, thus increasing your defense.

If you can't tell, I'm having a great time with them.

[Robber Baron]

Charis:
re 10 hrs.... I know, it was a very short game. Partly because (and I think I failed to note this above) I played on a small map with only 5 opponents. And partly because my mm was admittedly messy.
re counterattacks .... On relfection, I think under other circumstances the ansars' low defense might have been costly. In this game, as things turned out, the aztecs lost their horse (to me) early; the ottomans I whittled down before knights or sipahi were available, and the vikings used knights/cavalry sporadically and to little effect -- perhaps because they concentrated on berserkers? I saw a lot of zerks. Slow, stout creatures they were, huffing and puffing as they lugged their big axes. My ansars swept across the battlefields and picked them off easily
Now, many ansars did fall (gratefully, of course, martyred to their Lord). But I made up my losses handily.
Under different circumstances, though, against different foes, I probably would have taken a lot more casualities.

Stuie: nice points: ansars do indeed make lethal pillagers, and prime scouts, and they do manage to get to defensible positions much more easily than other, slower units.

[joncnunn]

Yes, since you've built it, try to build the Pyraimds while your in your GA.

Colosus trigures the GA for Irq, Arabia, India, and England.

Originally posted by Robber Baron
I'm playing a game as Abu now, Emporer level. I got a great starting position: river, two wheats. And scouting quickly uncovers two more rivers nearby. Mecca makes a good settler factory. I pop a hut and get a settler within a few turns. This is a fine start! When I get bronze working a few turns later from another goody hut, I decide I will make Medina a wonder city.
When Colossus completes, it triggers my golden age! Ouch! (I probably deserved something unexpected: this start was too good!)
Does Colossus automatically trigger an Arabian Golden Age?

[Robber Baron]

Off-topic, btw, but that 5CC game Charis refers to makes for great reading: a Civ3 infotainment epic of truly heroic proportions! We're talking a deity game, bidding for a conquest victory, with only 5 cities! And an ancient era UU/golden age to boot!
Check it out: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showth...threadid=40040

[Ragnar_84]

Great Idea

I'll look foreward to hearing what other people have done with all the combo's. I give you my input when we get to a civ I've played, I've only tried about five so far, I'm partial to Industrial and religeous traits.

[joncnunn]

On Emperor level with tiny maps:

France: 3 wars against English (Warriors, Horse Men, and Knights) to knock them off my contienant to gain sole control. Game won via Space Race. (A couple of wars against the Russians)

China: Peacefully expanded to 10 cities, 5 river sites, and all but 2 coastal. Didn't fight Japan on my same landmass all game. I did fight a late game war against the Aztecs and took over that entire contienant. Game still ended in a Space Ship victory. (Most Aztec cities were razed and I didn't get around to replacing several of the cities)

Aztecs: Peacefully REXed out to get sole control of the river between me and the Irq. Built lots of Jag Warriors until even under Despotism I was paying maintenance on them. 3 cities in 2 smaller landmasses estiablished just to increase # units I could support. Several Horse Men built following switch to Republic. All of this was simply to insure the peace while the Irq Mounted Warrior was powerful. Afterwords, spent the rest of the middle ages building up my economy including the FP. (Upgrading the Horsemen to Knights and later Calvary.) During the age of defense, the Irqouis attacked me. I drafted a citizen in every city in my empire, upgraded all defenders to Infentry, and sent all military units on the mainland to the two border cities, leaving all others empty. Irqouis Calvary charge broke against my Infentry, but the Irq then sent waves of Riflemen and Infentry in.

2 Military units sent to one slightly further out city, with all others kept devoid of units. AI decided to march next to my 15 unit pop 13 city and keep moving south. When the AI got 2 tiles away from the cloest empty city, a short stack of 6 units sent there. AI decided to move further south thru the jungle outside all Citry Radius.
In the mean time, a few Artilerry units finished completion and a few Irq units outside stacks got weakend enough via bombardment for my Calvary to rush in, finish them off, and return to safety.
Evenually the Irq called up and asked for peace in exchange for 24 of my workers. I counter offered that the Irq give me St Louis & 7 GPT for peace, which they accepted. I then spent the next several turns watching the Irq march back home. Just prior to me getting Tanks, the Egyptains demanded Atomic Theory. I refused and they declared war. I landed 5 Elite Calvary, 2 Elite Infentry, and 1 Vetran Tank onto the island which we shared and sacked the city with 2 Elite Calvary with no losses. (After a bombardment the same turn from the Battleship escort.) I then reloaded the transport and picked up the Egyptian city in the island they shared with the Irq, accomplishing all my military goals, but I need to wait a for more turns before they'll talk. (I'm building tanks, but have far too few for a mainland invasion of Egypt: they are on the same landmass as me, but the Irq own a 2 tile bottleneck between the Egyptians and myself. The Americans were just wiped out by the Egyptains)