Adv 41 - TurfIt's Arabian Adventure

[TurfIt]

Adventure 41 - Forbidden Fruits

You have three options for this game. You can play as one of the following leaders:
Isabella (Organized, Protective) - Looks like an Espionage game. Just did that in Adv40, so pass...
Gandhi (Philosophical, Industrious) - The obvious forbidden choice. Looks like a specialist game. Just did that too, so pass...
Saladin (Creative, Charismatic) - Cultural? Been a while so, game on.
"I don't expect many people to select the 3rd option" - even better!


Founded in place, Worker built, Hunting->Animal Husbandry researched.
Scout went off exploring my southern regions popping huts for 52 gold, a map, Mining tech, and yet another map.
Starting warrior went off exploring to the north. Met Zara in 3200BC and met a lion out in the open on his way up to Zaras lands a dozen turns later.
[13]


Buddhism fell in 3640BC (Monty), Hinduism 3440BC (Mansa), and Judaism 2680BC (Elizabeth) setting up the early religious blocs. Monty, Zara, and Adv-41 Buddhist. Mansa and Louis Hindu. Elizabeth the lone Jewish, and Catherine religionless.

Scout finally makes it up north meeting Monty in 2320BC and heads on up into Zaras lands to finish what the warrior didn't. Of course he finds a nice dead end delaying further contacts.
Finally meet Mansa in 1080BC - unsurprisingly the worst enemy of Monty... Confucianism falls this year too but ends up stillborn. The rest are met rapidly after with Louis in 825BC, Catherine in 575BC, and finally Elizabeth in 525BC.

Expansion sees Medina in 1840BC with Damascus right behind in 1720BC. Both future Legendary sites...
[18][19]



[181]


325BC sees the first wonder - The Great Lighthouse in Medina. The Colossus follows closely in Mecca 4 turns later along with The Hanging Gardens in Damascus. A nice start on their way to Legendary.

Zara breaks out of the religion bloc founding and converting to Christianity in 100BC. Catherine follows him into Christianity for her first state religion. So, 2 Buddhist, 2 Hindu, 2 Christian, and 1 Jewish.

Wonders and new cities follow filling out the 12 city dotmap.
The Pyramids in 150AD
Chichen Itza - 580AD
The Great Library - 740AD
Shwedagon Paya - 760AD
The Parthenon - 840AD
Angkor Wat - 920AD
The Sistine Chapel - 1000AD
Notre Dame - 1090AD
The Spiral Minaret - 1120AD
University of Sankore - 1130AD

Medina lost out on The Apostolic Palace by 6 turns in 1000AD to Zara. In an effort to not have Apostolic Palace silliness ruin yet another of my games, I join the Christian bloc. Besides, Christianity had spread better in my cities than Buddhism.
[83]


Finally in 1190AD Monty declares his first war. Target: Mansa. Zara joins the fun a turn later declaring on Monty which of course leads to:
[98]

Way to many votes in Catherine's hands...

Meanwhile Liberalism brings Democracy in 1210AD while Damascus finishes off The Taj Mahal for the first Golden Age in 1240AD. A quick revolt into Vassalage and Theocracy for the war is well timed switching back to Free Speech and Organized at the end of the Golden Age.
Versailles completes in Medina 1270AD as the Aztecs capture Djenne from Mansa who follows up with peace by 1400AD. Louis follows the peace path in 1450AD leaving Monty free to turn his attentions westward.

1525AD sees Elizabeth declaring war. Didn't see that coming. But didn't see a single English unit come by either...

1540ishAD sees the Battle of Medina.
[B9]

The most exciting part of the whole game and my saves/screenshots let me down. Anyway, Monty moved all his troops onto that convenient hill to the NE and proceeded to bombard. Counter attacks out of the city helped whittle him down a bit. Re-enforcements of Grenadiers and Cuirassiers streamed up from the south. And once defenses were down to 20% or so, Monty attacked. Damascus held - barely, but Monty was gassed. Peace and back to Cultural endeavors.

The end of the war sees The Statue of Liberty in 1580AD and the start of the Cultural slider. Creative Constructions comes along and things are looking good.
[124]


1750AD sees Nikolaus August Otto (GE) providing the second Golden Age, and the boost needed for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (GA) to be born. Sir Alexander Mackenzie (GM) yields Sid's Sushi in 1804AD. Raja Todar Mal (GM) teams up with Mozart in 1818AD for the third Golden Age.

The Arabian Empire:
[137]


And in 1830:
[179]


[146]


As for the Variant, nothing particularly stands out about Creative/Charismatic. Monuments end up being built for the Happy more so than Culture. So:

1) Discover why Firaxis decided that the combination of traits you select to play is forbidden - Failed. Surely with more leaders this combo would be in the game.
2) Have fun playing the game - Done.
3) Write up a game report to share with others - Done.

[Ruff_Hi]

Thanks for the report and glad to see at least 1 person play as the Arabs. I was going to comment on your dot mapping and that I didn't think that is part of an RB approved Mod of BtS but I decided not to .

[TurfIt]

But such a nice dotmap it is...
Far better than the alternative. =)