Has anyone here ever tried a serious massive game which is as far away from the UHV AND core area as possible?

For instance, in one game I played Babylon, purposely made my first city Ur, rapidly build up a fleet of galleys with two settlers, two workers, and two archers, set sail for... wherever I wanted to go! The only condition is that you must have your home city destroyed asap after you found your other two cities--Persia tends to be willing to do this for you. In one game I immigrated to Australia, this was before even Persia spawned; in another I tried south Africa; in another I tried, or all places, Manchuria; and in a final, I tried New Zealand. You can guess that those games were very interesting and challenging, especially with how you have to balance stability in this foreign land.

In another I tried getting the Mayan's in Canada--I settled Toronto as the capitol. In my most recent, I settled Carthage in the Balkans--this was one of the better games using this technique, as can be obvious; later on I basically became the Byzantium Empire, and then Austria-Hungary. I once even popped the Aztecs down in Brazil, but that game nearly failed very early--my throw-away capitol in NA almost collapsed before I settled Brazil due to barbarians and a war with the Mayans.

Try it out. Despite the stability issues, most of these are completely possible with some work, and make for some really wicked games. You sort of have to do it with early spawning civilizations--I could see Arabia settling Babylon in the 600 AD start though, or even Mali grabbing southern africa--and you have to mind future spawning areas, as I had to do with Carthage and Germany especially.

Below is a screenshot from my 'Carthage in the Balkans' game, Monarch difficulty. I am fairly powerful, and starting the process of building up to conquer Greece--they're crushed enough as it is.

I guess this counts as a form of squatting. :)
The only problem is that your culture is vastly overwhelmed by "native" civs. I had a Greek city in Kansas and despite 79% Greekness in my northern tiles, they were taken up by the Americans. Similar to your Italian Carthaginian city there.
There's also the problem of not getting the workers in some civs if you don't found your city early enough.
I love the Greeks, they now have a boat and a preloaded settler! :)

Doesn't the distance from core area get a stability hit? Could make it difficult to keep up.

Doesn't the distance from core area get a stability hit? Could make it difficult to keep up.

Well I said there is a stability hit, but that's part of the challenge. The Carthage in the balkans was completely possible--I actually ended up taking over all of Europe. Babylon in Australia was very tough, but as long as you're very careful, you can manage it. I ended up having all of Australia in the end, as well as New Zealand, though I was behind Europe. Stability is slapped, but unless you're new, or a poor player, it doesn't make it impossible.

Unless you do it under Emperor, then it is obviously impossible for most examples. If you aren't sure, then try it under the lowest difficult setting first.

Remember this is supposed to be a purposeful push away from the actual mod's core. The UHV does not matter anymore, and you make whatever goal you want--usually for me it's conquer/settle my original land back, while maintaining my expanding empire; though half of the time I just have it a free-for-all. Since you're breaking away from the actual game-line, you will run across some troubles.

Of course to those obsessed with completing UHVS and playing within the game's boundaries, likely won't care for this idea. I've in fact completed all of the UVS on all difficulty levels--except for those of which are impossible, like Mayan in Emperor--and wanted to try something unique.

I guess this counts as a form of squatting. :)
The only problem is that your culture is vastly overwhelmed by "native" civs. I had a Greek city in Kansas and despite 79% Greekness in my northern tiles, they were taken up by the Americans. Similar to your Italian Carthaginian city there.
There's also the problem of not getting the workers in some civs if you don't found your city early enough.
I love the Greeks, they now have a boat and a preloaded settler! :)

And yes, this does happen. But as you can also tell, Utica--or Byzantion--is dominating Greece. Usually, unless you plop yourself down extremely close to the civilization's spawn area, which I have tried to prevent as can be told by me regularly heading to Australia early, you will be able to manage culture and growth without being retarded too much. And the workers not popping up are just another part of the challenge. I have given in before and purposely threw down the workers in world builder, but lately I have been building them myself.

I once tried that - as Carthage in the Balkans, unfortunately in the new patch Germany will take a lot of the northern Balkan cities due to their expanded core area, Turkey will take the east, so that leaves Greece...not enough to compete against the major powers IMHO. But it is interesting!

I am curious how your game went. from the screenshot it looks like you are clearly behind in techs, and at 0% rate not good. Rome has already out teched you and the Euro civs still have yet to arrive!!!

This does sound like a good idea. I'd like to go to Australia or S Africa to try a game where I can build up alone for a while.

Agreed, great idea.

Greece is very well set up for it, with the [inexplicable?] Galley. I was just thinking about a Greece game with the first city on the Rome tile. If you put your first city in the remote land it's easier and a little different from how you defined it, of course.

And of course, settling close by is not too radical. I have played Egypt starting 1N of Aksum - I collapsed, but I'm not sure if that was the reason, and otherwise I recommend it. I'd like to see Spain with the capital in Lisbon. Babylon with the capital in Turkey (like on the marble tile *drool*) is intriguing.

I'd like to see Spain with the capital in Lisbon. Babylon with the capital in Turkey (like on the marble tile *drool*) is intriguing.

I do a Spanish Lisbon all the time (see my thread on squatting).:p

I tried Babylon at Sogut and Hattusas (which has even more resources) but the problem is that you can't grow quick enough until you have fishing/sailing and a harbor, plus no windmills until feudalism. By turn 80 (Persia spawns) it's too late to send another settler back to Mesopotamia for your original Babylon.

I just cheated and used WorldBuilder to move my starting units to South Africa. It was going well until the Impis appeared :P

I had a game when I started as Rome and made Constantinpolis as my capital, I had all of the Byzantine empire until 1800 when it started to crumble ( Turkish respawn)