Squirrelloid
Warlord
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2007
- Messages
- 263
@Mxzs: With the 3.13 patch you can also trade for resources you already have when trading with vassals, even if its not a corporate resource. (I just discovered this playing as Germany, when people kept offering me dye which i already had). So an alternate route for trading for spice would be vassalizing Khmer and India if/when it respawns.
And, without further ado, having noticed the strategy guide for Germany is mostly useless... (I'll note, i haven't actually won the German UHV, but only because i won a cultural victory first. As usual, i play on monarch).
Germany UHV
The Germany UHV is actually remarkably easy, as it gives you plenty of time to acquire the necessary land. The hard part is going to be maintaining a decent research rate in the face of a Giga-empire. The other danger is accidentally winning in another way before achieving the UHV. You will finish with something like 20% of the land area, and will likely be pretty close to a domination victory. You will also have to be careful about culture, as its certainly possible to achieve a cultural victory before 1940.
UHV:
(1) Control Rome, Greece, France by 1870.
(2) Control Russia, Scandinavia, and England by 1940.
(3) Be the first to finish the tech tree.
Note that "Russia" is european russia. Basically, everything to the Urals + 1-2 more tiles.
Opening moves:
While settling Berlin on the spot looks decent, I actually prefer going East one tile and founding Posen. The importance of being on a river cannot be overestimated in BTS, especially since you will get a lot of use out of levees. Further, this will give Mainz and your capitol more room, and these will be two of your best cities. Send your two other settlers towards Russia. I founded Reval on the Baltic and Landau on the Black Sea (2 tiles south of the wheat and one tile east of the iron). This will help keep Russia contained, and mean you'll have to deal with General Winter far less. It also will open Moscow to early assault, which will help force them to collapse. Defend Posen with a longbow and send the other two longbows after your settlers.
Mainz is going to flip to you almost immediately, so don't bother attacking them. Instead, take your axemen and swordsmen and send them down towards Mediolanum. When Mainz flips, grab its axeman and send him south too. Whether you want to keep or raze Mediolanum is up to you, but its going to be boxed in by Rome, Marseilles, and Mainz, and in danger of revolt until you can capture Marseilles from the french. Regardless, after Mediolanum falls, heal up and send your troops (all of them) towards Rome, leaving no defense behind. You should have enough to capture Rome, possibly with some reinforcements built back home. Rome is an incredibly important acquisition - you can build the shrine there for income (allowing 90-100% research for the early game), and it has the Colosseum and great production squares.
During this time, peace with your neighbors is the optimal strategy. Try to cultivate Isabella, Ragnar, and Elizabeth, although Elizabeth is usually frigid and unwilling to be helpful. Keeping Peter happy is a good idea, but not usually possible. Be nice to France until you're ready to strike, then be ruthless.
France:
After Rome is yours, get ready to attack Marseilles. You'll notice that with the fall of Mediolanum french culture spills across the top of the Italian peninsula. This is actually useful to you, as it means they'll send workers there to improve the land. Build catapults, axemen, and swordsmen in Posen and Mainz and stage them on the stone near Mainz. Have Rome build a defensive unit after it comes out of revolt so you can take all your remaining units with you. When you're ready, DOW france and march on marseilles. 2-3 catapults with 5-6 total axemen/swordsmen should be more than sufficient. And make sure you grab all those conveniently vulnerable workers on your way to Marseilles. The reason to move the catapults and some melee units from the north is (1) you won't have to cross teh river, (2) you'll get a nice forested hill to sit on while besieging, (3) you'll cut off Marseilles from the rest of france by sitting on their road, preventing reinforcements.
Once you have Marseilles, you'll also have exhausted most of the french forces not dedicated to defense. If they'll give away tech for peace, make peace (for the moment), but keep producing units for a push on Paris. After you take Paris you can make peace temporarily (possibly again).
The Future:
By about this time you should also be starting to garrison 2-3 troops (preferably longbow/crossbow/pikeman if available - upgrading to muskets as appropriate) in Landau and Reval, as Peter will start getting antsy. Build walls/castles and sit tight - you'll want to deal with him after the rest of France and Greece are yours.
The rest of the game basically plays itself at this point. Finish taking france, grab Greece and Constantinople. Always refuse Congress requests, and strong garrisons in Reval and Landau should hold off the Russians and the Vikings. The Turks never DOWed me, so a smaller garrison in Constantinople is probably acceptable.
I'd take Russia out first. They're more annoying than the other two, less likely to like you, and you can develop that land to help with your tech race (see below). Keep most of their cities, though I razed two that were just within the region of european russia. I'd follow up with the vikings, and save England for last. In Scandinavia I'd raze about 1/2 of the cities - they build far too close together. And with how many cities you're going to have at that point, razing a city you've just conquered is actually a net-positive for stability. Between Russia and Scandinavia, I'd take a break from military production to pump out some workers and develop the Russian land (likely poorly done and sparsely done by the Russians) before getting into your next war.
There are three good reasons for saving england till last: (1) they'll have techs you can steal (see below), (2) you'll want bombers to soften up their cities before invading, (3) they tend to settle all their GP in London, so by all means give them time to generate more. You may also want to take out Amsterdam. Especially if Spain looks likely to do so. Keep the Spanish in Spain, you'll be happier that way. And keep Spain happy. Your empire will be big enough without adding the Iberian Peninsula to it.
Technology:
One thing to keep in mind is tech trading. Always extort techs if you can. Making peace with France for a tech is always worth it. Tech trading stops being worthwhile during the early Industrial Age because the computer wants so many techs per tech they give up. Remember you're going to outproduce virtually everyone, so you should be able to win any military conflicts. (You'll also out-tech russia, which will help a lot).
Make sure you cottage a lot of those grasslands. I turned Reval into a cottage farm, leaving only a few forests to lumbermill later. Chopping the forests let me build up my infrastructure, and the cottages were invaluable in staying near the top in the tech race. As you conquer russia, turn most of its grassland cities into cottage farms. Similarly, Scandinavia should be turned into a windmill/cottage land. This will counter the negative effect being a giga-empire will have on your tech rate.
Finally, prioritize espionage buildings after research and cash buildings. You will eventually generate over 1000 espionage points/turn without any commerce investment, and when you're generating about 300-500 per turn you can supplement your research with tech stealing. Focus your espionage on one opponent - i found that England was the most advanced, followed by the Vikings. I stole 4-5 techs from England over the course of the game, including flight, artillery, and democracy. This will cement your tech lead and give you a jumpstart towards finishing the tech race. Most of the advanced civs are also on your kill list, so they won't actually be able to beat you to finishing the tech tree.
As to which techs to go for, I'd let military concerns and important wonders determine the path. Also, levees and factories (assembly plant) are a huge priority. I didn't actually prioritize Industrialism, but I didn't let it sit forever either.
Civics/Religion:
You'll get Christianity early, adopt it as your state religion. I'd also switch to monarchy/vassalage/slavery/organized religion at the beginning. Later, you'll want to switch to Occupation. Any other changes can wait until you have Cristo Redemptor, at which point you'll probably want representation, free speech or nationhood, emancipation, and possibly free religion. Do not adopt Bureaucracy, you have far too many cities.
Supporting your giga-empire:
In addition to lots of cottages, you'll also want to build or acquire both the Spiral Miniaret and the University of Sankore. Build christian buildings everywhere. Add the Sistine Chapel for good border control. In fact, your production is so amazing, you can probably build *every* wonder that becomes available during the game. Remember to be careful about accidentally winning a cultural victory. (For a similar reason, you'll likely have your choice of corporations - while sid's sushi company and creative construction are almost certainly *better* for you than the non-culture producing equivalents in terms of hammer/food production (marginally, and because of resources available), you might want to take the ones that *don't* produce culture. I grabbed the culture producers to maximize hammers/food... and i won a cultural victory instead).
Also note that your land has few happiness resources. You'll get Dye in france, gems and furs in russia, and silver in Scandinavia. Cultivate India (on respawn) and the Khmer as trading partners, and you'll probably desire their health resources eventually too. Eventually Spain and Portugal will also be good providers of these resources.
Endgame:
I had the 1870 condition done by ~1500 and the 1940 condition done by 1890. After that its just an end-run down the tech tree. Pop golden ages as often as you can manage. You'll probably want to swap Occupation for Viceroyalty at some point - i had 3 vassals (Portugal, Turkey, India) by the end of the game, and had had Portugal since sometime around 1300 or 1400.
And, without further ado, having noticed the strategy guide for Germany is mostly useless... (I'll note, i haven't actually won the German UHV, but only because i won a cultural victory first. As usual, i play on monarch).
Germany UHV
The Germany UHV is actually remarkably easy, as it gives you plenty of time to acquire the necessary land. The hard part is going to be maintaining a decent research rate in the face of a Giga-empire. The other danger is accidentally winning in another way before achieving the UHV. You will finish with something like 20% of the land area, and will likely be pretty close to a domination victory. You will also have to be careful about culture, as its certainly possible to achieve a cultural victory before 1940.
UHV:
(1) Control Rome, Greece, France by 1870.
(2) Control Russia, Scandinavia, and England by 1940.
(3) Be the first to finish the tech tree.
Note that "Russia" is european russia. Basically, everything to the Urals + 1-2 more tiles.
Opening moves:
While settling Berlin on the spot looks decent, I actually prefer going East one tile and founding Posen. The importance of being on a river cannot be overestimated in BTS, especially since you will get a lot of use out of levees. Further, this will give Mainz and your capitol more room, and these will be two of your best cities. Send your two other settlers towards Russia. I founded Reval on the Baltic and Landau on the Black Sea (2 tiles south of the wheat and one tile east of the iron). This will help keep Russia contained, and mean you'll have to deal with General Winter far less. It also will open Moscow to early assault, which will help force them to collapse. Defend Posen with a longbow and send the other two longbows after your settlers.
Mainz is going to flip to you almost immediately, so don't bother attacking them. Instead, take your axemen and swordsmen and send them down towards Mediolanum. When Mainz flips, grab its axeman and send him south too. Whether you want to keep or raze Mediolanum is up to you, but its going to be boxed in by Rome, Marseilles, and Mainz, and in danger of revolt until you can capture Marseilles from the french. Regardless, after Mediolanum falls, heal up and send your troops (all of them) towards Rome, leaving no defense behind. You should have enough to capture Rome, possibly with some reinforcements built back home. Rome is an incredibly important acquisition - you can build the shrine there for income (allowing 90-100% research for the early game), and it has the Colosseum and great production squares.
During this time, peace with your neighbors is the optimal strategy. Try to cultivate Isabella, Ragnar, and Elizabeth, although Elizabeth is usually frigid and unwilling to be helpful. Keeping Peter happy is a good idea, but not usually possible. Be nice to France until you're ready to strike, then be ruthless.
France:
After Rome is yours, get ready to attack Marseilles. You'll notice that with the fall of Mediolanum french culture spills across the top of the Italian peninsula. This is actually useful to you, as it means they'll send workers there to improve the land. Build catapults, axemen, and swordsmen in Posen and Mainz and stage them on the stone near Mainz. Have Rome build a defensive unit after it comes out of revolt so you can take all your remaining units with you. When you're ready, DOW france and march on marseilles. 2-3 catapults with 5-6 total axemen/swordsmen should be more than sufficient. And make sure you grab all those conveniently vulnerable workers on your way to Marseilles. The reason to move the catapults and some melee units from the north is (1) you won't have to cross teh river, (2) you'll get a nice forested hill to sit on while besieging, (3) you'll cut off Marseilles from the rest of france by sitting on their road, preventing reinforcements.
Once you have Marseilles, you'll also have exhausted most of the french forces not dedicated to defense. If they'll give away tech for peace, make peace (for the moment), but keep producing units for a push on Paris. After you take Paris you can make peace temporarily (possibly again).
The Future:
By about this time you should also be starting to garrison 2-3 troops (preferably longbow/crossbow/pikeman if available - upgrading to muskets as appropriate) in Landau and Reval, as Peter will start getting antsy. Build walls/castles and sit tight - you'll want to deal with him after the rest of France and Greece are yours.
The rest of the game basically plays itself at this point. Finish taking france, grab Greece and Constantinople. Always refuse Congress requests, and strong garrisons in Reval and Landau should hold off the Russians and the Vikings. The Turks never DOWed me, so a smaller garrison in Constantinople is probably acceptable.
I'd take Russia out first. They're more annoying than the other two, less likely to like you, and you can develop that land to help with your tech race (see below). Keep most of their cities, though I razed two that were just within the region of european russia. I'd follow up with the vikings, and save England for last. In Scandinavia I'd raze about 1/2 of the cities - they build far too close together. And with how many cities you're going to have at that point, razing a city you've just conquered is actually a net-positive for stability. Between Russia and Scandinavia, I'd take a break from military production to pump out some workers and develop the Russian land (likely poorly done and sparsely done by the Russians) before getting into your next war.
There are three good reasons for saving england till last: (1) they'll have techs you can steal (see below), (2) you'll want bombers to soften up their cities before invading, (3) they tend to settle all their GP in London, so by all means give them time to generate more. You may also want to take out Amsterdam. Especially if Spain looks likely to do so. Keep the Spanish in Spain, you'll be happier that way. And keep Spain happy. Your empire will be big enough without adding the Iberian Peninsula to it.
Technology:
One thing to keep in mind is tech trading. Always extort techs if you can. Making peace with France for a tech is always worth it. Tech trading stops being worthwhile during the early Industrial Age because the computer wants so many techs per tech they give up. Remember you're going to outproduce virtually everyone, so you should be able to win any military conflicts. (You'll also out-tech russia, which will help a lot).
Make sure you cottage a lot of those grasslands. I turned Reval into a cottage farm, leaving only a few forests to lumbermill later. Chopping the forests let me build up my infrastructure, and the cottages were invaluable in staying near the top in the tech race. As you conquer russia, turn most of its grassland cities into cottage farms. Similarly, Scandinavia should be turned into a windmill/cottage land. This will counter the negative effect being a giga-empire will have on your tech rate.
Finally, prioritize espionage buildings after research and cash buildings. You will eventually generate over 1000 espionage points/turn without any commerce investment, and when you're generating about 300-500 per turn you can supplement your research with tech stealing. Focus your espionage on one opponent - i found that England was the most advanced, followed by the Vikings. I stole 4-5 techs from England over the course of the game, including flight, artillery, and democracy. This will cement your tech lead and give you a jumpstart towards finishing the tech race. Most of the advanced civs are also on your kill list, so they won't actually be able to beat you to finishing the tech tree.
As to which techs to go for, I'd let military concerns and important wonders determine the path. Also, levees and factories (assembly plant) are a huge priority. I didn't actually prioritize Industrialism, but I didn't let it sit forever either.
Civics/Religion:
You'll get Christianity early, adopt it as your state religion. I'd also switch to monarchy/vassalage/slavery/organized religion at the beginning. Later, you'll want to switch to Occupation. Any other changes can wait until you have Cristo Redemptor, at which point you'll probably want representation, free speech or nationhood, emancipation, and possibly free religion. Do not adopt Bureaucracy, you have far too many cities.
Supporting your giga-empire:
In addition to lots of cottages, you'll also want to build or acquire both the Spiral Miniaret and the University of Sankore. Build christian buildings everywhere. Add the Sistine Chapel for good border control. In fact, your production is so amazing, you can probably build *every* wonder that becomes available during the game. Remember to be careful about accidentally winning a cultural victory. (For a similar reason, you'll likely have your choice of corporations - while sid's sushi company and creative construction are almost certainly *better* for you than the non-culture producing equivalents in terms of hammer/food production (marginally, and because of resources available), you might want to take the ones that *don't* produce culture. I grabbed the culture producers to maximize hammers/food... and i won a cultural victory instead).
Also note that your land has few happiness resources. You'll get Dye in france, gems and furs in russia, and silver in Scandinavia. Cultivate India (on respawn) and the Khmer as trading partners, and you'll probably desire their health resources eventually too. Eventually Spain and Portugal will also be good providers of these resources.
Endgame:
I had the 1870 condition done by ~1500 and the 1940 condition done by 1890. After that its just an end-run down the tech tree. Pop golden ages as often as you can manage. You'll probably want to swap Occupation for Viceroyalty at some point - i had 3 vassals (Portugal, Turkey, India) by the end of the game, and had had Portugal since sometime around 1300 or 1400.
). Once I got drama, I killed all research and hoofed my culture to 80%..
The main thing in the guide was that I started with India and then I switched to Greece. Sorry I should have said that more clearly (Byzantium -> Byzantium tile) in the guide
