Diablo III

The cycle has come full circle.
What was once a child has now become a man.
The dream has drifted ageless only to be reborn.
The culmination of the path is tonight.
Let Hell spill forth once again!

Cid Meier's Civilization 5 Mongol Scenario Deity (Hardest) Mode

Since I devoted one whole day to beating this hellish scenario, I felt I need to write a reminder to myself about how fun and stupid and a waste of time this game was.

Mongol Scenario.

You play as Genghis Khan, leader of the Mongols. In 100 turns, replicate the Mongol invasion throughout Asia and Eastern Europe. If you fail to meet the objectives in 100 turns, you lose. On deity mode, I had to conquer every major civilization and cover the entire map, if I was to win. On lower difficulties you only have to conquer 5 or 6 civilizations and you acheive victory. Not so on deity, its Kill, Burn, Pillage, Raze! Them all or lose. The Civilizations were Jin Dynasty (N. china), Song Dynasty (S. China), Persia, Arabia, India, Japan, Russia, Byzantium (Constantinople).

You start off roughly where Mongolia would be on the map, with one keshik (horseman archer), and 4 horseman (melee horse), and 2 workers (for improving tiles). With these units you are out to conquer the world.

Game plan (as posted on civ forums):

1. Send one horse down to meet Western Xia/Jin, trade 3 horse/open borders for roughly 140 gold then DOW (declaration of war) Jin. Put both workers on trade posts.

2. Immediately upgrade 2 horseman to keshiks and send them West towards Ughyr. Furthest east horse send directly towards Ughyr then Almaty for god bonus of (30/15).

3. Horse that met W. Xia/Jin send towards Lhasa then China for gold. Rest of units stomp Ughyr flat. When city state has fallen, get cultural bonus in combat experience and professional army (+1.5 exp/ lower cost of upgrading units)

4. Horse that took Ughyr (low hp) send it West towards Persia/Arabia/Russia/Byzantium/Indian scout, to scout the map and get research agreements later.

5. Rest of units come back to stomp Western Xia for 2 horse. Capital should be producing non stop horseman for upgrading into Keshiks. One worker start road to Beijing. Other worker chop down trees to speed up production of horse.

6. Stomp W. Xia, then stomp Xian, Jin and Song should be at war with one another now.

7. Attack Bejing for Great wall. Then take out Kaifeng which should be weakened by Song China.

8. Trade Xian to Song for 1000 bonus (could do it earlier for luxuries for happiness). Heal up units. Use gold for RA (research) with Arabia and India. Arabia attacks Byzantium. Indian no one touches.

9. Trade for rest of Song gold, then DOW them and take back Xian with 3 keshik/one horse. Another 3 keshik/1 horse takes out XiangYang. Make peace with Jin and take him out later when your tech catches up for the free tech bonus.

10. Army that took out Xian continues onto Chengdu. Army that took out Xiang continue towards Guangzhou and then Huangzhou.

11. By this time you should have 3 generals. One for each army, and one for reserve. Do not make peace with Song China- they get exponentially stronger. Take her out with both armies.

12. Song China has fallen, buy courthouses for happiness and start pumping out scouts and pikemen. Garrison scouts for +1 happiness. Pikemen are for upgrading into rifleman when you get the upgrade. Use that saved up general for golden age production boost.

13. Eastern army that took out HuangZhou go take out Jin then Korea then Japan.

14. Western army heads towards Persia. and rest of Europe

15. Your keshiks should be upgraded and killing cities like a Boss. Keep trading excess luxuries to Arabia for gold/other luxuries for happiness. When Arabia stomps Byzantium, then makes peace, you get a cut of the gold from teh peace treaty.

16. Stomp your way through Persia, while making backup horseman in capital.

17. Build courthouses whenever you get above 10 unhappiness.

18. When Persia has fallen, so has Jin/Korea, and you should be attacking Japan. You should have rifleman, or close to it.

19. Rest of game is trudged through Arabia/Byzantium/Russia with Western Army while Easter Army takes out Japan (4 rifles 2 fully upgraded keshiks)

20. I sent 2 upgraded keshiks into India along with money bought lancers/rifleman to take out India. If you did it right, your Eastern army should have stomped Japan by Turn 33 and come back to help take out India.

Hope it helps.

Lol...what a pointless rant.

Fun point of this long ass scenario. The more cities/population you have the more unhappy your empire becomes. You have to build circus/Colosseum/theaters to keep them happy. If you took a city by attrition, you have to buy a courthouse to legalize the city and make them happy. Since you're the mongols, all your cities are won by attrition and you can't keep your empire happy without razing some cities. When you raze/burn a city theres these little sad/cryign ghost faces that pop up moaning as you burn the city. Hey, I'm the god damn Mongols, what do you expect- if your city is useless (no luxuries like gems/gold/siver/silk/spices) I'm burning your ass.

By the end of the game, the whole map was covered in red dots representing all the conquered cities.

Note to self: if you play this again, burn MORE CITIES,

Descent Into Darkness.

Rage.

There is a difference between holding an advantage and victory. The advantage gives you a slight edge over your opponent and gives you a greater potential towards victory. But, if this advantage is prematurely used, if it is rushed, or disregarded completely- it is worse than having no advantage at all. Your opponent can abuse your advantage for his own gains.

Fear.

Beginning stages of fear are irritation and slight self doubt. You begin to lose confidence. Your actions are unsure. You believe you are still in the game, but a seed of darkness is growing. At this point you stand at a crossroads. Destroy the seed of darkness or be ensnared by it and watch it grow.

Despair.

You are completely unsure. Your actions hold no rational meaning. No matter what you do, it backfires. Fear has completely overtaken you. You can no longer formulate a plan. You are at the mercy of your opponent.

Shield.

What is this shield. If you have embraced death. If you have thrown away all advantages. If you have complete disregard for your own life, what is there left to fear. Death = fear. The ultimate transaction. Greet death as an old friend, embrace the child known as fear. You are unbreakable, your confidence is unwavering, your mind sublime. Ye, who conquered death, knows no fear. You who stare into his face every moment - can now unlock your potential. It is either do or die. Which path do you take.

Seriously?

Seriously? My chest hurts? Wtf. Am I really that insecure and care that much.

Calm the fuck down. Stop caring. Stop feeling so vulnerable. Regrow that outer crab shell.

Never again- do not reveal your inner self, how scared you are how vulnerable you are. Do that when you have all your shit in order, so you can handle additional blows.

Anger.

I will kill him.

I miss her.

The easiest way to lose something is to want it too badly.

Why does it hurt.

Why do I care.

What have I done to deserve her love?

In many ways I destroyed it.

So why do I care anymore- I deserve this don't I? Everything I've done has been wrought by my own hands. The pain, the agony, the loneliness. Sure I can keep around the people I've wronged and forgiven me, but to what end? Every time I look at them I will be reminded of my failure, see the judgement in their eyes.

I think I'm done caring.

Thank you for your love and your support. But I would rather lose you forever and start a clean slate, then to suffer endless longing and caring.

When you read this, a small part of you will try to save me.

But I know that a large part of you has already moved on. We are no longer close. We do not truly know one another like we did so long ago. You are able to befriend and love others and form deeper connections with them than you can with me. Our connections are old and stale. I get maybe 7 weeks out of the year where I can create new memories with you. It is not enough. You need more, you need to live.

I still need you of course. You are my only friend. But in a way, you are also my biggest burden.

I do not know if I was your best friend, if I was your true love. I would like to think it is true, but frankly I don't really think it matters at this point. When I look upon you it is with part joy and love, and part dread and longing. I have you, yet I don't have you.

You are resilient and strong- you will move on and find someone else and he will make you happy endlessly.

When the summer ends, I will visit you. I will hold you in my arms and tell you how much you mean to me. I will hug you. I will kiss you. And I will tell you I love you. Then you will depart on wings of ionized carbon into the horizon and I will stare into the beautiful blue sky and tell myself she is gone. I will tell myself that we shared something special. But it wasn't meant to be- not now. Maybe never. There will be a kernel of hope lodged deep in my heart for us. But I will not force it. Maybe I even want to forget it. But it will be there, for the future.

When you read this, don't think too deeply about it. I'm still your friend. I still love and care about you. I just wanted to tell you how much it hurts to see you live your life and I'm not beside you. To see how you are able to form deeper connections than you can with me (because I suck and I'm a miserable person). Just know that when you go back to school, I will stop thinking about you. I will live my life and try and keep my promise, so your faith in me won't be wasted.

This was our agreement was it not? We are just dating. We can see other people.

But the pain.

When this summer ends.

You will be

Free.