Earliest UHVs (or virtual UHVs)

The challenge is to post your screenshots/savegames/replays of your earliest UHVs for each of these civs and provide an overview of the key strategies which you used. The challenge is specific to Monarch level, BTS v3.19 and RFC v1.186. It does not matter if you start from the 3000BC or 600AD start, but these will be recorded in separate lists. I will update this first post as required with each new best UHV date as they are posted in this thread.

Virtual UHVs are listed in italics. A virtual UHV is when you have fulfilled all three of the UHV requirements prior to any deadlines which may be stated with certain UHV conditions. For example, controlling a certain area at a certain date can possibly be virtually achieved at an earlier date. Virtual UHVs should be confirmed with a screenshot/savegame/replay from both the year that all of the UHV conditions were fulfilled and also the actual UHV year, when the game recognises your victory. This will prove that your empire is actually capable of achieving the UHV, without the random number generator destroying your empire or something else generally going wrong along the way.

Previous records set using RFC v1.184 are listed (in brackets). I will remove these as better times are achieved using RFC v1.186.

3000BC starts:
Egypt: 580BC (elnegro)
India: 760BC (Steb)
China: 365AD (usi)
Babylon: 1175BC (elnegro)
Greece: 220BC (blizzrd)
Persia: 130BC (AnotherPacifist)
Carthage: 335AD (Steb)
Rome: 100BC (Zagoroth)
Japan: 1751AD (usi)
Ethiopia: 230AD (TDK)
Maya: 700AD (usi)
Vikings:............................................. (1475AD)
Arabia: 1020AD (usi)
Khmer: 1150AD (Isahn)
Spain: 1200AD (Zagoroth)
France: 1485AD (Zagoroth)
England: 1565AD (Steb)
Germany:.............................................(1832AD)
Russia:.............................................(1808AD)
Dutch: 1450AD (AnotherPacifist)
Mali:.............................................(1645AD)
Portugal:.............................................(1650AD)
Inca:.............................................(1585AD)
Mongolia: 1400AD (usi)
Aztecs: 1703AD (blizzrd)
Turkey: 1510AD (Steb)
America:

600AD starts:
China:
Japan: 1820AD (usi)
Vikings:.............................................(1400AD)
Arabia: 940AD (AnotherPacifist)
Khmer:.............................................(1250AD)
Spain: 1320AD (TDK)
France:.............................................(1540AD)
England: 1445AD (usi)
Germany:.............................................(1876AD)
Russia: 1745AD (blizzrd)
Dutch: 1410AD (TDK)
Mali:.............................................(1585AD)
Portugal:.............................................(1515AD)
Inca:.............................................(1525AD)
Mongolia: 1405AD (usi)
Aztecs: 1685AD (blizzrd)
Turkey:.............................................(1555AD)
America:.............................................(1939AD)

I don't think dates generated from this most recent patch are comparable to the previous one (or all the others, for that matter). For one thing, I don't think you'll be able to do Greece like before, with no metal casting. Heck, I haven't tried for fastest France before with Breme squatting. It might just be better to start with a clean slate.

I vote Clean slate too...

It does not exactly matter. I think these dates should stay up until any new quickest UHV or VV is posted. This would be nice for comparison and is a much quicker way to get the competition starting out strong, as there are dates for which people can try to beat. However, like I just said, any new UHV should trump these ones up now.

The slate is clean, the old dates are only for a point of reference (I removed the player names).

OK, lets kick things off with Greece again.

For 1.186, Rhye saw fit to remove Metal Casting, but gave Greece another Phalanx instead. This doesn't bode well for a quick UHV, but also doesn't bode well for Egypt as now I could attack both Babylon and Egypt from the start.

Flipped a Chariot in Asia Minor to start and then popped Aesthetics. It doesn't get any better than that really, thank you very much Mr. Random Number Generator! Got so many Great People via the early Parthenon, quite ridiculous.

Conquered Baylon with 2 Phalanxes and Egypt with 1 Phalanx and one Chariot. Popped a Scout in Denmark and then toured goody huts in Scandinavia (gold), England (gold), Ireland (Animal Husbandry), Portugal (gold) before heading for a long trip to New Zealand. Much later, this scout also popped goody huts to get Calendar from Java and Construction from New Zealand.

Importantly, India wanted to vassalize as soon as I met them - which was about the same time that my cities started to reach their happiness cap. Demanded Ivory and later Gems from India to keep the citizens appeased.

Had to fight Persia and raze them into the ground, as they started out at war with me. Nothing my triple-city-raider promoted Phalanxes couldn't handle though. The new Immortals looked pretty cool, shortly before I made mincemeat of them. All this meant that I couldn't attack Rome this time though.

I'm pretty pleased to equal my previous best result under 1.184, given Rhye's nerfing of Metal Casting from the starting techs. I don't think I'll ever pop Aesthetics so quickly ever again though, that was insanely lucky.

I do not really know where to start, Blizzrd could you just give me a UHV to attempt?
I was going to do Greece, but I figured you would since AP said on another thread it would be harder to achieve due to no Metal Casting.

The Auto-war option actually piques my interest (very historic too with Persia and Greece, although it might be a little too soon for the Persian War). Maybe I'll try my hand again at something short like the Arabs.
Good job (and luck) with Greece.

about the clean state, here's what the new patch should affect:

- Russia for sure, as one goal changed.
- Netherlands, having now a weaker UU and slower growth
- Portugal, now weaker
- Persia, as starting units changed
- Babylonia, as UU is weaker may have more problems
- Greece, lacking Metal Casting
- Arabia, without Sailing in 3000BC
- Mali, with more barbarians around
- Maya, Inca and Aztecs, which should fight the Europeans without Euro mercenaries for a longer time and face larger groups of conquerors (but with stronger units)
- 600 AD uhv involving techs or wonders by a certain date (France, Aztecs, America), because research is slower.

I think the rest could stay.

So it could become:

3000BC starts:
Egypt: 385BC (Wessel V1, v1.184)
India: 660AD (Zagoroth, v1.184)
China: 1545AD (Zagoroth, v1.184)
Babylon:
Greece: 25BC (blizzrd, v1.186)
Carthage: 335AD (TDK, v1.184)
Rome: 55BC (Zagoroth, v1.184)
Persia:
Japan: 1890AD (AnotherPacifist, v1.184)
Ethiopia: 245AD (Tigranes, v1.184)
Maya:
Vikings: 1475AD (AnotherPacifist, v1.184)
Arabia:
Khmer: 1430AD (Zagoroth, v1.184)
Spain: 1515AD (Zagoroth, v1.184)
France: 1635AD (Zagoroth, v1.184)
England: 1580AD (AnotherPacifist, v1.184)
Germany: 1832AD (AnotherPacifist, v1.184)
Russia:
Netherlands:
Portugal:
Inca:
Mali:
Aztecs:
Turkey: 1610AD (Virdrago, v1.184)
America:


600AD starts:
Japan: 1876AD (blizzrd, v1.184)
China:
Vikings: 1400AD (AnotherPacifist, v1.184)
Arabia: 1040AD (AnotherPacifist, v1.184)
Khmer: 1250AD (TDK, v1.184)
Spain: 1455AD (AnotherPacifist, v1.184)
France:
England: 1530AD (AnotherPacifist, v1.184)
Germany: 1876AD (AnotherPacifist, v1.184)
Russia:
Netherlands:
Portugal:
Inca:
Mali:
Aztecs:
Turkey: 1555AD (Power of Beer, v1.184)
America:


However, I don't want to disturb your own way of organising things, it's just a suggestion. Feel free to decide whatever you like!

And if you want, the record list would fit perfectly a wiki page: adding an announcement and linking the page could bring more casual players to challenge

Rhye said:

600AD starts:
Arabia: 1040AD (AnotherPacifist, v1.184)

Click to expand...

40% Islam by 1040? Wow, I'm very impressed.

Just played a 600 AD start with Arabia just focusing on the UHV which annoyed me somewhat as to get Spain ASAP I had to pretend Baghdad wasn't an important part of the Arab empire and ignore it.

Anyway I managed to rush into Spain and settle Tunis by 1090, I guess I could have cut a few turns with practice but the 40% is what really amazes me.

Meanwhile I'm trying to get Al-Andalus (Spain) to stay Islam but pesky Isabella keeps on converting to Christianity even with her empire unstable

Try the chop-tree-in-Levant-for-galleys and gift-Islamic-cities tricks, you should be able to get the same result I got (assuming that the AI values guilds and free but far away cities like it did before).

Anyway I think blizzrd is a fair arbitrator to post the records, so I think not doing it like a wiki is actually a good thing.

Rhye said:

about the clean state, here's what the new patch should affect:

- Russia for sure, as one goal changed.
- Netherlands, having now a weaker UU and slower growth
- Portugal, now weaker
- Persia, as starting units changed
- Babylonia, as UU is weaker may have more problems
- Greece, lacking Metal Casting

Click to expand...

Heh, just pop Aesthetics and no worries.

- Arabia, without Sailing in 3000BC
- Mali, with more barbarians around
- Maya, Inca and Aztecs, which should fight the Europeans without Euro mercenaries for a longer time and face larger groups of conquerors (but with stronger units)
- 600 AD uhv involving techs or wonders by a certain date (France, Aztecs, America), because research is slower.

I think the rest could stay.

Click to expand...

But there were also changes in 1.185:

v1.185
ADJUSTMENTS
-Tuned Dutch and Portuguese modifiers (should be a little weaker; France, Spain and Germany should have some benefit)
-Less barbarian pressure on Maya
-All starting civs in 600AD are slightly less advanced. This should hopefully keep euro civs from getting more techs from trade and reach industrial too soon compared to 3000BC starts. To be verified.

Click to expand...

The last adjustment could easily mean that none of the 600AD starts is the same as under 1.184.

I'm happy to keep the old records as something to aim at for now, but only for as long as it takes for a 1.186 result to be posted - even if the 1.186 result isn't strictly better than the 1.184 result.

Rhye said:

And if you want, the record list would fit perfectly a wiki page: adding an announcement and linking the page could bring more casual players to challenge

Click to expand...

An announcement/link to this thread on the wiki site would be great!

Is a mirror list on the wiki page possible to establish? I don't know enough about these sort of details to be sure. But I would like to maintain a personal involvement in updating the record list in this thread as I enjoy doing so.

So Willem decided to take up his English throne early since Anne was nagging him to do so. (He decided that the 4 little English longbows were not as formidable as the German or French armies, and Hamburg was going to flip anyway due to Amsterdam's culture). Elizabeth was banished to Scotland and Ireland....more to follow.

(BTW, is Willem William III of England?)

Virtual victory achieved in 200 AD.

I used the same strategy that I have described in the previous Fastest UHV thread. (Founding Lahore and getting the Chinese religions and Christianity via Stonehenge/Castes/Xi Lang something the Scientist/Oracle/St. Thomas Aquinas.) Everything just went so well in this game! From the founding of Christianity through 1200 I just had a smooth growth, except when a plague hit me in the 700's (I quickly recovered).

Ironically, one of the first cities to convert to Christianity was called Pagan.

Also, Buddhism became the major religion, as everyone from Greece to Japan adopted it. When the Khmer spawned they already had the 30% requirement done!

It seems not much has changed for India in 1.186, except for the gems in the centre. Persia has been very friendly, so perhaps it could have posed a bigger threat if it hadn't.

(BTW, is Willem William III of England?)

Click to expand...

No, the Dutch Willem is William I of Orange-Nassau, while the Glorious Revolution one is William III of Orange-Nassau. Both were Dutch, anyway.

Well, you can either count 1470 (when I actually had the spices) or 1475 (when the GA struck). I'm just padding my score now with building wonders and cities. Portugal and China are vassals.

I basically played this game exactly as I played my other Rome game in the previous challenge. I kept on restarting the game until Greece had a city in the Italian Peninsula. This gives me a free city, and if they declare war on me I get three extra Praetorians. They declared war on me. The main difference is that they built Sparta this game. I was annoyed that they did this as I believe a super Athens is better than two weaker Sparta and Athens. After Greece I took on Babylon and sadly the Middle East had an extra useless city, two squares north of Jerusalem. I did not wish to destroy them because of the stability hit, but they also damaged my economy. I just wish Babylon destroyed the city on conquest.

That was the first part of the game. The second was researching Mathematics and Construction. These two techs are the only ones necessary for the UHV. I traded for other techs from the Persians and Carthaginians. I then declared war on Carthage and took two of their cities in North Africa. Then all I had to do was wait, which was not too bad since I still needed to construct some buildings, for the Celts to build my three cities in France. I sent my only built settler to Britannia as well.

I will post the UHV when I finish

wow, nice work Zagoreth, if you can squeeze in Egypt before 400 AD you'll have come the closest I've seen to an actual Roman empire within the historical time frame.

blizzrd, here it is:
http://rhye.civfanatics.net/wiki/in..._Fall_of_Civilization_challenges#Earliest_UHV

manage it as you prefer