Earliest UHVs (or virtual UHVs)

I finished the Rome game. This time I decided that I would destroy all the civilizations that would spawn near me at the get go, before they built cities. I did this to Spain, France, and Germany. The Arabs actually left their capital undefended so I was able to take it and a similar event happened to England. By the time Spain spawned I had one hundred legions overall, and maybe a third of that on the Western Front. My stability however was a big issue, which I find strange since it never was in my other Rome game where I let my cities be captured and then recaptured. I collapsed right near the end of the game. This however does not effect the UHV. In fact I was happy to see that I retained some of my cities, as Rhye said would happen in this new version. This combined with the resetting of stability makes collapsing not overly frustrating, but mildly aggravating. I decided not to kill the Netherlands since my stability was hurting by the time they arrived, and I did not see the point of killing the Russians.

Still with 200 years to prove that I won't lose a city, but I think I'll be OK.
Sputnik was launched in 1754AD, recorded as virtual (2/3) UHV in 1757AD.

(NB. I only actually built my 8th Siberian city (the one furthest in the East) after launching the Apollo Program.)

Founded four cities to start and then threw everything at Germany. Killed a Settler with escorts, took Berlin and Aarhus and got capitulation. Liberated Berlin and Aarhus to keep Germany from collapsing - it was touch and go for about 1000 years, but they actually hung in all the way (although they lost cities repeatedly to instability).

I always research Meditation first with Russia, because nobody else seems to want to learn this tech for themselves = cash inflow. Bought Fishing from Germany and Sailing from England whilst researching Meditation.

Once sailing is in, quickly whipped a Galley in Tallin and headed to make contact with Mali. Importantly picked up a Wine trade deal form Spain along the way, to appease the unhappy Russian citizens. Getting early contact with Mali is crucial if you want to try to build the Spinal Minaret, which I indeed wanted.

New requirement is for 7 (as opposed to 3) Siberian cities. Founded my first Siberian city pretty early to get the Stone online so that I could get in the race to build some key wonders. I lost Notre Dame to the Byzantines (even though Rhye tried to prevent this from occurring) but pegged the Spinal Minaret, Leaning Tower and University of Sankore.

Fairly straightforward from there, I got all my vassals after Germany peacefully - Inca, Dutch, Portugal and Mali in that order. Beelined for Rocketry whilst avoiding Scientific Method for as long as possible to get maximum return from my Religious wonders. Losing Monasteries took just less than 10% off my research pace.

Popped a Great Spy as my 2nd great person which was huge, allowing me to steal 3-4 techs from the Dutch. I then switched espionage to Turkey and stole Military Tradition and Military Science whilst I researched my way along the Assembly Line tech path. After those two techs I was the tech leader all around, so I switched espionage to France and eventually stole a whole lot of gold, allowing me to run 100% Science for the remainder of the UHV race.

I plan to recreate the Soviet Union during the next 200 years. I've almost got it already, but need to declare war on Mongolia at some point as they are in the area that Vladivostok must surely be built. I've got Infantry, Artillery and Cossacks. They've still got Keshiks and Muskets.

blizzrd, I've added an announcement. Make sure to update the records

It's somewhat sad that to get the fastest UHV you often have to kill or vassalize other civs early on...even the normally peaceful Dutch have to do this.
Let's see, what's next? We've already done France-everybody, Vikings-England, Vikings-Germany, and other people have done Germany-Russia and Dutch-Germany. Maybe somebody can try Dutch-France next.

Japanese UHV virtually done in 1751, certainly improvable if my vassals were not so stingy or if I properly utilized the Internet.

Strategies:
1) Build Kyouto as the capital, then Edo (where it can have silver in its fat cross) as the second city. I used to think that Edo must be better than Kyouto, but I changed my mind after I checked how useful each Japanese city can be by entering the WB (before generating this game, of course) and giving it some improvements, buildings, 10 cultures, and 20 pops.

2) Send one of the workboats you start with to the West (Greece, Rome, and Carthage). Build another one to ensure that you are also in touch with Persia (and India and Babylon if they are alive) too. With the GL and Currency, trade route income will really rock! Moreover, I got Alphabet, IW, Animal Husbundry, Monarchy, etc via tech trading.

3) After building essential wonders, preapare to invade China (I mean, forget about libraries, markets, and that kind of stuffs for now). You should be controlling all the essential cities at least by 700 AD (see the pic). It's nothing to do with luck - this time when I attacked China, I don't remember winning any < 50% chance battle (OMG, most of my catapults died!), while I lost many > 80% battles. Just whip, whip, and whip from Edo and Keijo (but not from Kyouto). After that, I built Hanoi. Don't do it too early, or it will flip to Khmer.

4) Don't quickly make a vassal of Khmer. This can sometimes prevent you from obtaining European vassals. This time, I got Russia, Viking, and France as my early vassals. Khmer never become my vassal, I don't know why. So much as I know, France, Viking, Netherland, and England are the best vassals. They can research quickly and are not stingy.

5) I gave a lot of techs to my vassals and asked them to research some techs I didn't have. They might trade those techs with me. Also, although I actually forgot to build the Internet before completing the tech tree, it must have been possible to obtain some of those techs via the Internet. Some of my vassals became too strong, so I constantly asked them to change civics, and they soon collapsed.

Other things that might be worth mentioning:
1) Now it is more likely that you can build the Oracle. At least I could build it.

2) New Immortals might be too useful against barbarian horse archers and camel archers. Persia has been very solid/solid for a very long time, while holding a larger land area than I did.

Whas that a 3000 BCE game or a 600 CE game?

Sorry, I forgot to write. It was 3000BC.

BTW, what do you guys think would constitute a Chinese VV?
Something like 2 X 2 cathedrals and 95 military units + 25 war elephants would suffice?
Or, do I need to actually kill Mongols?

I would imagine having the cathedrals and just the amount of units you need for victory(I thought it was 120) would be enough as long as you haven't lost any cities to the Mongols yet. It's just not verified until you prove that you finished the game without the Mongols taking any of your cities.

usi said:

Sorry, I forgot to write. It was 3000BC.

Click to expand...

Had to be, how else would Persia, Babylon and India be in the game during Japan's early years?

The only way those civs could respawn would be if another civ already knew Nationalism, which seems unlikely shortly after 600AD.

usi said:

what do you guys think would constitute a Chinese VV?
Something like 2 X 2 cathedrals and 95 military units + 25 war elephants would suffice?
Or, do I need to actually kill Mongols?

Click to expand...

The key aspect of what defines a virtual UHV is not that the UHV requirement(s) could be met by the actual deadline(s), but that they have been met on the turn at which the virtual UHV is therefore claimed. So no less than 120 units are required, as well as the cathedrals. Then a screenshot of the actual UHV will show that you didn't lose a city (and obviously weren't likely to) along the journey.

Sorry, I was playing my own Japan game and only read his victory date.

blizzrd said:

The key aspect of what defines a virtual UHV is not that the UHV requirement(s) could be met by the actual deadline(s), but that they have been met on the turn at which the virtual UHV is therefore claimed. So no less than 120 units are required, as well as the cathedrals. Then a screenshot of the actual UHV will show that you didn't lose a city (and obviously weren't likely to) along the journey.

Click to expand...

He isn't counting the elephants in the military units. That 95 units + 25 elephants = 120 total units for the VV.

I guess the elephants are for the VV "no cities captured by Mongols".

So following the strategies of others (most recently demonstrated by Power of Beer), I managed to beat the record from before (turn 77). The new problems with this patch is that Indy Sur and Jerusalem will declare war on you soon with warriors (some even promoted with 10% strength). Hiring mercenaries will just drain your gold, so the first warrior went out to the west for all the huts (reloaded if no gold). Got Woodsman 2 from the first hut which facilitated picking up all the other huts.

Research path was Mysticism (earlier Stonehenge), pottery, writing, masonry, polytheism, priesthood, hunting, animal husbandry, archery, then to fill out the GA, mining and fishing.

Built 2 warriors to allow size 2, then Stonehenge. Total of 3 warriors (1 mercenary with city attack) captured Shush, which built 1 warrior then 2 workers (Babylon never built workers--useless until pottery and masonry anyway). 1 warrior went east to Dilli--you only need one with woodsman II fortified in the forest north of Dilli to deter their growth (in fact they stalled at size four, built tons of warriors and even a settler, which made them remain at size 4). Instead of generating my GA in Shush, decided to take a gamble (due to the possibility of a GP from Stonehenge) by hiring 1 artist in Babylon (to increase culture). Unhired him after I got Monarchy from the GA, then everything for Oracle (built in 10 moves) for Code of Laws:


After the Oracle, switched to HR and, guess what, EMANCIPATION (to annoy the heck out of other civs and slow their growth, since none of them have monarchy yet except for Egypt).

In the end, all at the same time, both Egypt and India vassalized (probably because of my large army matching the Persians and the "past events" from the Golden Age--thank you Rhye), and Jerusalem flipped.

blizzrd said:

I plan to recreate the Soviet Union during the next 200 years.

Click to expand...

Well, my plan worked a little too well in fact. Once I expanded to control all of the tundra across to Kamchatka, I got a Domination Victory in 1918AD by mistake.

Too many vassals who expanded (Dutch and Portugal in particular went off).
Appropriately though, I got an "Ivan the Terrible" high score.

That's why you should demand all of your vassals' resources to slow down their settler building...nice job with the empire. (Univ of Sankore + Spiral Minaret = monster techs--I usually try to get it as Germany or France).

Strategies:
1) Send your initial warrior to India after getting two huts in Siberia. On the way, try to fight with barbarian units so that this warrior will have at least WoodsmanII (5XPs). But WoodsmanIII is better (as explained later). Place this unit 2N2W of wheat. Declare war on India, and move the warrior to 1N1W of wheat. See if India has a worker on the wheat tile. If so, capture it. Else, go back to 2N2W of wheat, and try the same stuff every turn. If India has a warrior nearby, and if your warrior is not promoted to WoodsmanIII, the Indian warrior is likely to attack you. So, before getting to India, try to attack bears or barabrian warriors on a hill or in a forest. You can always win a combat against barbs three or four times, so don't ever heal the warrior until then (the weaker your unit is, the better the XP it will obtain from a battle). If the warrior has WoodsmanIII, India is very unlikely to attack it. After capturing an Indian worker, send both your warrior and the new worker to 1N of Delhi. Unless India got a strong mercenary, it won't attack your warrior. Move the worker to jungle (now it's safe), and then send to your land. The warrior shold go back to 2N2W of wheat and do the same stuff over and over. After a while, chariots will appear, so don't end the warrior's move at 2N2W of wheat. Stop first at 1N1W of wheat and check if there's any chariot near 2N2W of wheat. This way, you should be able to capture about 3-4 workers. Make peace with India few turns after Persia spawned. Usually India will OB with you the next turn. Use the warrior to keep in touch with India, Persia, and Babylon (Babylon will OB with you once you gift a cheap tech).

2) I researched AH -> Fishing -> Mysticism -> Sailing -> Masonry -> Mediatation -> Priesthood. . . Why Fishing? It is very importaint to build a workboat and send it to the West (i.e., Rome, Carthage, Egypt, and Greece). This time I got BW from a hut, but actually it was plainly meaningless. I could have gotten this and many more techs (Alphabet, Wheel, Polytheism, etc) through tech trading with the West. Why Mysticism? Early Stonehenge (= early GS to bulb Mathematics). For a quick UHV as China, get Currency from the Oracle. As long as you don't gift Mathematics to Persia, no civ can get Calender before you do, so there's simply no reason to hurry up. Rather, it is more important to improve your economy by having an extra trade route and markets and thereby ensure that your empire can economically hold 120 military units.

3) After a while switch to Slavery and OR. No Monarchy. You'll have enough happiness from resources and buildings. Just whip at a right time.

4) Build most of your cities on the coast. +2 trade routes from the GL is really good, and most cities don't have to have much productivity (only two temples are necessary, and warriors can be whipped). After the cathedrals are build, gift away iron and copper, then build a bunch of warriors.

After 365AD, I removed all workers (no new improvements), did not upgrade units (no better army), did not research new techs, did not trade or sell any techs, and so forth. This way, I confronted Mongols with an empire no stronger than it was in 365AD. The only two differences were: I made a vassal of Khmer (done by an accident because I was clicking stuffs without thinking anything, but I already had ivory from my another vassal, India, way before 365AD - thus I had 9 war elephants in 365AD, so there was essentially no difference by having a vassal of Khmer) and I moved some units. Mongols spawned at war with me, so I attacked them a bit. Then, I don't know why but in the next turn they let their capital empty, so I gave them an early checkout by burning their capital at 1200AD. Mongols certainly won't respawn (no city), and barbs can never beat 8 war elephans (1 died in the battle with Mongols), so I guess there's no reason to continue from here.

After the game I found some things that I could have done to improve the result:
1) Build more cities. More cities = more warriors built at a turn.
2) Less markets. As apparent from the pics, my economy was too good to hold just 120+ military units. Build more warriors rather than markets.

I also attached a pic of my empire at 205BC. If you are trying to beat my score, it should give you a good hint of how well you are doing.

In this game I decided to attempt an early assault on Constantinople.

A catapult from Cairo was immediately whipped to help with the assault and the ground forces marched directly north, while the mounted units detoured into Alexandria(lost one Camel).
Constantinople was captured in 730AD, Athens the turn after.
These powerful cities would serve as a base for training missionaries en route to Germany and beyond. The Hagia Sofia and Parthenon are not to be forgot, very powerful wonders there.

This heavy fighting gave me a great general that took my 2 swords to CR3. Together with 2 C2 Camels they boarded my newly whipped Galleys and sailed for Spain.

Meanwhile, newly built Camels expanded into Persia and India without much resistance.

The conquest of West and East concluded in 960AD. Victory!

I'm not doubting your victory, but I have some questions. So basically you marched all your units in 12 moves to the sheep next to Constantinople, and sacrificed (probably everything) to capture Constantinople. What happened to your other settlers? (The cataphracts or barbs didn't attack? Or did you not found any cities until Constantinople falls?) How did you get to Athens so quickly? (the only place a galley could be whipped is Alexandria, Jerusalem or Sur, and unless you pre-chopped the trees next to Alexandria you couldn't have whipped the galleys until the cities come out of rebellion).

I thought Rhye increased the defensive troops for Constantinople, apparently it's not enough.

AP, remember the Camels now get 25% retreat odds, a huge improvement!

I founded Defzul, which was undefended, but the Byzantines didn't have direct access to it. Dezful is essential because it can build 2 workers in 15 turns and will be really strong later for Sankore, Spiral etc.
I saved the other Settler for Yergögü in the Balkans(later burned by a barb uprising of Spearmen).
I lost 2 Camels, 1 Catapult - an average result - taking Constantinople, which was defended by 2 Longbows and 1 Horse Archer. Athens was taken the turn after Constantinople because there were no units there, and it had some kind of revolt due to collapse.
I killed one Cataphract when it attacked my Spearman in Jerusalem and another was passive in Trapezon. The last one must have died by barbs.
3 Pikes walked around in the Balkans(they have CounterUnit script).

The Galleys were whipped in Alexandria and Jerusalem after building on them a few turns.