Which civ has the easiest historical victory? I just won Egypt's historical victory on Viceroy.

The Japanese one can be won by only having cities on Honshu and by razing Seoul quickly.
So it's the easiest one IMO.

How hard is each one? What's the hardest? The next easiest?

How hard is each one? What's the hardest? The next easiest?

I'd rate the Indian (found 5 bloody religions!), Inca (this is much harder than in Warlords with the presence of the nasty Portuguese carracks who settle Brazil easily) and Persian (the wonder one seems impossible) ones the hardest ones.
I would say the Viking one is second easiest. The trick that did it for me was to wait in Scandinavia until you have astronomy (beeline for that) and found a city in Vinland (Newfoundland). In the meanwhile you should build the colossus (if available it will be veery precious) and raid England before the English spawn. 5000 gold should be quite easy to get and so will the "sink 30 ships", you just bring frigates to the Pacific ocean and destroy the Khmer, Chinese and Japanese fleets, the rest will come :)

My favorite though, is playing the Khmer. I usually just settle Angkor, Hanoi and Jakarta and let those babies grow with beelining to calendar, switch to caste system and see those great artists pop out. The leaning tower is precious when playing them, I've found.

Japan is definitely the easiest. Even the AI can win if conditions are right. France and Portugal are next in line, but they do have some tricks involved. For France, it's settling that awesome production city in Germany, and for Portugal, it's culture bombing Lisbon to make sure the Spanish don't steal your production tiles. (I culture bombed it enough to completely block the Spanish from entering the Atlantic without open borders.) I haven't tried the Dutch yet, but it might be hard to beat Portugal in the map race.

Japan is definitely the easiest. Even the AI can win if conditions are right. France and Portugal are next in line, but they do have some tricks involved. For France, it's settling that awesome production city in Germany, and for Portugal, it's culture bombing Lisbon to make sure the Spanish don't steal your production tiles. (I culture bombed it enough to completely block the Spanish from entering the Atlantic without open borders.) I haven't tried the Dutch yet, but it might be hard to beat Portugal in the map race.

The Dutch HV is easier than the Portuguese HV. You start earlier to explore and you need to finish later. The spices thing is annoying, because the Khmer are always settling in Indonesia. Be the first to settle Australia is also very easy.

I am having a hard time as Babylonians.

In addition to the obvious problems with Persia when they spawn...

I keep losing out to researching Code of Laws, Writing, and Monarchy.

I have even cheated my way giving myself extra scientists and an academy but someone is beating me to them still!

Japan is definitely the easiest. Even the AI can win if conditions are right. France and Portugal are next in line, but they do have some tricks involved. For France, it's settling that awesome production city in Germany, and for Portugal, it's culture bombing Lisbon to make sure the Spanish don't steal your production tiles. (I culture bombed it enough to completely block the Spanish from entering the Atlantic without open borders.) I haven't tried the Dutch yet, but it might be hard to beat Portugal in the map race.

Would you recommend Japan 600 BC or Japan 600 AD?

If you plan out what you're doing to make sure you've got the 1st objective (500 culture by turn 86), Egypt's a walk in the park. Get yourself the wonders and a great artist (you get Caste System from Stonehenge) and all you need to do is spam archers and stay alive.

Would you recommend Japan 600 BC or Japan 600 AD?

600 BC is the one I played on. (In the Warlords version, there is no 600 AD start.) I'd say go with 600 BC if you want to see old civs like India and play a longer game. The only reason you'd ever want to start later is if you want to skip the long autoplay.

"Rhye's And Fall Of Civilization" in "Beyond the Sword"

I want to have some of the stuff the developers of RFC smoke.

Seriosly, I am not a bad player (at least not THAT bad - I think good medium is realistic), but playing the medium difficulty Monarch is a bit hard. Viceroy is no fun because you can rush the entire techtree without resistance. But Monarch... instead of a decent raise, you have tripled (!) tech costs. OK, thats not the problem - its a nice game. But I have tried the Historical Victory for twenty hours (distributed to several days) on Monarch with different civs, and I have yet to succeed. One is easy, two is possible. But the third... I think if you script your entire game (lets see - turn 42 - I have to build this settler so the settler is in place in turn 60) it MAY BE possible to achieve it. There are a lot obstacles. (Is my stability ok? Am I beyond my historical borders? Is the pest coming, and do I have enough troops in my citys?*) You can't play your usual way, and thats good. Only growing is dull, but I think they have made a bit to much features that can hinder your growth.

Or am I wrong and I only use bad tactics?

Please state the difficulty you are winning HV in BTS: RFC, how long do you play RFC in hours and what do you achieve and with what civs and tactics.

* One of my first RFC-games: I had ONE military unit in all of my towns (the rest fending of babarians) and usually one and a half times health to unhealth. The plague came. I lost a unit in every town, and with no units present my entire empire stood up in civil war. Now, I always have two units in every town, so when the pest comes, the first unit dies and the second can take over for a while. Since then, no more civil wars following the pest.

Easiest Historical Victory?
Greece definitely. The only difficulty is racing India for the oracle and finishing the wonders in time. The only goals are a joke. Only thing is you have to kiss rome's butt to survive

Raven,

The UHVs aren't meant to be easy. Some of them (Persia) are effectively impossible on Monarch. I think one devotee got the Persian UHV, and it may have been on Viceroy, only after dozens and dozens of tries. In many cases, the UHVs are a lot harder than a standard type of victory.

Stick with it. The mod takes a lot of getting used to but is worth it in the end. Give Greece or England a try; those are easier than most of the rest.

I am having a hard time as Babylonians.

In addition to the obvious problems with Persia when they spawn...

I keep losing out to researching Code of Laws, Writing, and Monarchy.

I have even cheated my way giving myself extra scientists and an academy but someone is beating me to them still!

On Monarch or higher, right? I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who's had that trouble.

According to the wiki strategy guide (http://wikirhye.wikidot.com/rfc-babylonian-strategy), the problem is the Chinese bee-lining for Writing. I guessed it was the Chinese getting something first. And apparently there's always a pretty good chance the Babylonian player will lose that race.

get the patch in the RFC subforum, it will "fix" the Babylonian UHV
here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=204

Having just played the Mayans, I'd say they're pretty easy. The only difficult part is building that Temple before somebody in the Old World beats you to it. After that was done, I built up ungodly amounts of Archers and repelled the Conquerors (whom I later pacified with the Education tech--Yeah, it lost me my Power, but it payed off when I had perpetual peace the rest of the game).

Incidentally, it appears that city flips due to spawning and civil war don't count as "losing" a city for the UHV.

get the patch in the RFC subforum, it will "fix" the Babylonian UHV
here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=204

Ah. Thanks. I hadn't gotten around to patching the game.

Germany is quite easy, too, when you know how it has to be done:
Start 600 AD.

The problem ist that you have to conquer AIs like mad to win and still lead in techs. :crazyeye:
Germany has great land, full of food. You will have to research with scientists.
The Parthenon stands in Athen, which ist very nice because you'll have to conquer Greece anyway.
There is no National Epic, you'll have to build the Leaning Tower. Make your Scientists settle down in any city you like, but dont forget to get Railroad quickly and build the Channel Tunnel in you super science city :)
Don't use Amsterdam, it always flips! :mad:
Russia will attack you one day. Don't conquer them, they cost too much. Conquer France, Italy and Netherlands first. England, Vikings and Russia should to be conquered with tanks between 1850-1940. Its not a big deal anymore by that time.
You will probably be the first to develop all technologies without problems, but if some other civ is a concurrence for that, just build the Internet.

Dont forget to beeline for Nationalism and adopt Occupation before you conquer France and Italy, otherwise you might get serious problems with your stability.
You will probably have to destroy the turks too. Their ability to assimilate cultur is really awful for anyone who shares a border with them! :mad:

I think the easiest are the Turks. I played in every difficulty levels and each time i succeeded. Their power of assimilation makes them to control important tiles and that gives them more growth and production. In an another forum i read that the Turks had to be moved to Turkmenistan because that makes it more realistic. I am so not down with that. That just doesn't make any sense. The Turks moved as nomads from central Asia to minor Asia (Anatolia), which is now Turkey. Just research Turkish history on wikipedia and you will all see.

I think the easiest are the Turks. I played in every difficulty levels and each time i succeeded. Their power of assimilation makes them to control important tiles and that gives them more growth and production. In an another forum i read that the Turks had to be moved to Turkmenistan because that makes it more realistic. I am so not down with that. That just doesn't make any sense. The Turks moved as nomads from central Asia to minor Asia (Anatolia), which is now Turkey. Just research Turkish history on wikipedia and you will all see.

as you did it, why don't you write the Turkish strategy guide?
http://wikirhye.wikidot.com/strategy-guides
I'm sure many would need it

I think China is the easiest (at 3000 BC). The most difficult part of the Chinese is building those 2 academies and 2 pagodas by 1000ad, but still very easy. Meanwhile, I crush the Mongolians on the turn they appear, build the great wall to prevent barbarians, annhilate Japan and vassalizes (willingly) Khmer, India, Maya, Aztec and Inca (I was first to circumnavigate), all on monarch. China has a very solid starting position, good food, production and commerce city sites, what else can be easier?

Edit: I would say any victory is possible for china (except for diplomatic as the new rule wont let you vote for yourself). I could have easily won domination/conquest with china by capitulating everyone.

I would say India is a bit difficult (at 3000BC), founding the 5 religions are managable (except confucian and taoism, even at viceroy the chinese beat me to them). The hardest part is getting the highest population by 1200 AD, because the Chinese always has like at least 1.5 times the pop I have despite ongoing plague that hits him and not me.

I think Japs are the easiest. In fact, they are unbelievably easy...

I played on noble by mistake (I normally can't win on Noble), had a civil revolt, and met like 4 empires over the entire history of my game. However, I won, really easily... almost without thinking about it (I was surprised when I won, as I was trying to STOP everyone else from getting it)

The main problem was unstability. I played the entire game unstable/shaky, and as soon as I colonied in indonesia to try and improve my trade situation (as I wasn't quite sure the commonwealth was doing its job), I decended into civil war, but reclaimed everything really easily :P (One revolting city had only a galleon to defend itself :P

Okay, so Japan's "Never lose a city by 1850" means that you can lose a city via bad stability and still get it?

In any case I saw some post that ranked them all in order. Here were the easiest four.

Japan
Netherlands
Germany
America

What do you think?

Japan is the easiest. The only large problem is being first in score, otherwise it's ridiculously easy. England is also fairly easy.

I'm glad some other people were having problems with Persia. On the middle difficulty (Monarch, I think), I was able to get two holy shrines (I sacked both Jerusalem and Delhi, where the Indians founded Buddhism), I was able to get the wonders in the nick of time (I finished the last one in 680 AD, I think, and the condition requires you to have all 7 by 700 AD), but I was only able to get 4.5% of the globe, roughly, not the 8% required for victory.

It was a fun experience though, even if I only got 2/3.

I haven't played them all yet, but I have achieved a Monarch victory with Egypt, China, India, Japan, Khmer, Vikings, Babylon, Carthage and most recently Arabia.

Babylon was the hardest so far by a large margin. Japan and China were the easiest, probably Japan was easier than China.

But I love the challenge. It is like cracking a puzzle each time, with very little room for mistakes along the way. Sometimes it seems as if just picking the wrong tech to research or improving the wrong tile first will preclude any chance of that particular strategy being successful. I love this mod.

To succeed at all of the civs requires perfecting all sorts of different skills such as warmongering (Arabia), commerce (Vikings), religion (India) and wonder building (Egypt). I have learnt soooo much to improve my overall skill base from playing this mod.

china is theoretically easy, but 120 (or whatever huge number it is) units is insane. at least heir power helps

Concerning the 120 units required for the Chinese, I found that a combination of Hereditary Rule, Slavery and Nationalism (the latter about 20 turns before the 1600 AD deadline) did the trick quite nicely. Near the end I had about 10 cities, 8 of which were a little below or above pop 10, so I did a lot of drafting and whipping, with Hereditary Rule effectively nullifying the unhappiness caused by it. I think I at least doubled the number of units I had within 20-30 turns. The funny thing is that, for some reason I was sure that 160 units were required and I thought I'd lose the race (especially after a conquered Japanese town went independent, taking 9-10 units with it) before I realised that 120 were enough. I ended the game with about 150 units! :D

I think egypt is quite easy to win. at least on viceroy. i must admit i restarted several times, because i hated to overhand my most productive city to the ethyopians. so what i did is to move my settler down south-east to the cost where you´ll find scheep, fish and cattle and founded my capital there, so when the ethiopians spawn, i was not even asked to give away the city. because my capital was so strong in culture at that time, ethiopians didn´t even settle and got whiped out by the zulutribes quite soon.
first thing I researched was buddhism to have early culture, then i buildt the great lighthouse, settled north to original startlocation where marble and stone and copper is, buildt the pyramids and then the great library both in my capital. i buildt an axeman now and then to fight the impi coming from the south.
then i was a bit lucky to get a great artist in time, so i got the 5000 cp i needed.

by the time i won, i had only 2 cities and a handfull of axemen.

I can't tell you who's the easiest, but I've just finished one of the fastest
UHV's possible. Playing on Viceroy as the French I completed the first two
conditions easily. Only the last wonder, Eiffel Tower to go.
I got Radio before 1760 and completed the E.T. in 1778. My UHV came in 1781.
That's only 6 turns after the minimum date.
The normalized score was nearly 6000pts.
I know it was on easy level, but has anybody done it quicker?:)

Babylon and Egypt were pretty easy on Viceroy. Just get Music for the free GA and you have 5K culture.

Has anyone been able to achieve an historical victory on Monarch level for the Ethiopians? You must found a new religion and can't complete Theology before Christianity is founded, so that means you must research Divine Right before the Arabians appear to found Islam. That implies a lot of research and also creating a Great Prophet to acquire the 1000+ research points toward D.R. Even doing all that and maximizing every detail I can think of the best I have done is get within 6 turns before the Arabians establish Islam. Any effective strategies? Any better place than Moyale for the second city?

This Thread (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=228451) is exactly for that purpose. Reading it can give you new strategies, as well as which UHVs have been won on Monarch level.

How specifically does the Turkish victory condition work, specifically the second one?

I have every tile in Mesopotamia, but how does it measure whether or not you "control" the Balkans and Black Sea? I'm pretty sure I'm going to miss it because the Germans founded some city named Zara just south of Vienna, and I'm not going to be able to take it because they are too far advanced of me (just got rifles, I'm still with janissaries). However, I definitely control most of the Balkans with my culture, if not just two or three tiles that are a little removed in the northwest of the region. Otherwise, though, it was easy for the Turks.

What counts are just cities. You need to have x cities in the area and more than any other (read: the "home") civilization. For Mesopotamia it is three cities as far as I know, for the Balkans I am not sure, for the Black Sea you need to have three cities as well (Istanbul does not count) and thus need to have one on the "north coast".

For more detail, go to the RFC forum (Civ IV > Creation and Customization > Modpacks > Rhyes and Fall of Civ) and on one of the stickied threads is an atlas as well as a link to the Wiki where you can read the exact details!

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