Hi all, I just downloaded rfc dawn of civilization yesterday, and I was wondering if anyone could give me a rough breakdown of how hard it is to accomplish the UHVs of the various civilizations, so I would know which ones would be relatively easy to play as. Thanks in advance!
Difficulty of Civilizations
- Thread starter Winslot
- Start date
Sanguivorant
Submitter
Actual difficulty is really subjective, since what I may find as hard another player might find easy. I have not tried all civilizations, but I will explain to you the civilizations I've completed. Note that I play on Monarch, so that may be something to consider.
Some civs depend on smart decision making. Others could only be won with exact moves, and others depend solely on luck.
Maya: Possibly the easiest one yet, I have completed it on my first try. It should not be trouble.
Some of thoughts in the spoiler below:
Babylon: This one was rather difficult, and it somehow relied on luck for the tech goals. For the population, you should be successful, as long as the Greeks and Persians don't declare war on you. A good build order should allow you to out-culture the Egyptians, which will be your main competitors in that one. The Oracle is a must, and without it, I doubt you can win this one.
Some civs depend on smart decision making. Others could only be won with exact moves, and others depend solely on luck.
Maya: Possibly the easiest one yet, I have completed it on my first try. It should not be trouble.
Some of thoughts in the spoiler below:
Spoiler :
Babylon: This one was rather difficult, and it somehow relied on luck for the tech goals. For the population, you should be successful, as long as the Greeks and Persians don't declare war on you. A good build order should allow you to out-culture the Egyptians, which will be your main competitors in that one. The Oracle is a must, and without it, I doubt you can win this one.
FinalLegendZero
Prince
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2013
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- 548
Babylon is one of the easiest, once you know what to do.
I'd say the hardest is Mali. UHV goal 1 isn't that big of a deal, and goal 3 is doable, but goal 2 is an absolute nightmare. Another civ will usually beat you to the University of Sankore, and even if you get it, generating the Great Prophet in time requires a good bit of luck.
I'd say the hardest is Mali. UHV goal 1 isn't that big of a deal, and goal 3 is doable, but goal 2 is an absolute nightmare. Another civ will usually beat you to the University of Sankore, and even if you get it, generating the Great Prophet in time requires a good bit of luck.
NorwegianSalmon
Warlord
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- May 22, 2013
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- 151
I hear Babylon depends a lot on difficulty. It really is one of the easiest on viceroy, but it's supposedly one of the hardest on Emperor.
Korea is in my opinion the single easiest UHV, at least of the ones I've tried.
Korea is in my opinion the single easiest UHV, at least of the ones I've tried.
Babylonia is a puzzle UHV, the challenge is to figure out the right strategy, not to execute it.
CHEESE!
On a long nostalgia trip
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That's actually really cool. RFC (and, of course, our own DoC) is awesome.
UnholyMudcrab
Chieftain
If I had to pick one, I would say Greece is probably the easiest. You rarely have any competition for the wonders, and it's easy to roll with your Hoplites. The biggest danger probably comes from getting so wrapped up in conquest that you forget about the techs and lose one to China.
My thoughts on some of the main civs:
Egypt - pretty easy. Use slavery to rush the pyramids early enough for the first goal, and use the sphinx to get a Great Prophet for the final goal. The main challenge is being efficient enough in tech to get literature in time for the Great Library.
China - also easy. You have a great location with lots of resources and plenty of time to plan for all UHVs. The main challenge is probably getting eight cities and building temples in time for the first goal.
Babylon - as above easy once you have worked out the best strategy and way to go. Only risk is someone (China!) beats you to writing.
Greeks - again all about working out a strategy that allows you to conquer, research and build wonders all at once
India - can be quite challenging, depending on religions. The first and third goals are easy, but the second goal can be tricky. Try to get a third religion in your cities (conquer Persia for Zoro) to make the temple goal more manageable
Phoenicians - Quite easy, with the only realy challenge being to kill the Romans by 100BC
Persians - Pretty tough. You need a bit of luck with the rolls, and need to hope Egypt and India haven't teched to axes by the time you attack
Romans - Similar to Greece. Just make sure to keep building enough legions to hold the areas you conquer
Ethiopia - You need a bit of luck to get Catholicism (try and get a Great Priest), but after that it's pretty easy
Korea - Fairly easy, the only challenge is conquering / founding four good cities for the first goal
Maya - Easy as above. Found decent cities and you'll get calendar, then no one can beat you to the Temple and a GG is easy enough by 1600
Byzantines - quite tough. Easy enough to get the gold and culture goals, but hard to keep the three cities in all areas with the Arabs, Seljuks, Mongols and Turks all after you. Best bet is to get the gold then ignore research and use the money to get lots of mercs.
Japan - quite easy due to the amount of time you have to complete it, but you need to be efficient at expanding and conquering the desired regions to avoid blunting your tech.
Vikings - Easy enough. Found cities in Ireland and Iceland then pop the borders to get to America, mass Huscarls and conquer England, then send your Huscarls pillaging through Europe for the gold
Arabs - Quite easy, with the main challenge being to capture all the target areas without becoming unstable. Make sure you are stable around 1000AD to avoid Egypt resurrecting
Tibet - Like Babylon, all about the strategy. Conquer the double holy city in India to get the great prophets
Khmer - Similar to the Arabs, easy if you can be stable enough in 1350 to stop the Thais spawning. Make sure to found only four cities to keep the average size up.
Indonesia - Easy. You can settle all Indonesia and Australia unchallenged, and get resources by trading.
Moors - Quite tough. Mainly as you need to build the population and commerce of Cordoba whilst also building armies to defend against the inevitable Spanish attacks
Spanish, French, English, German, Portugal - all easy. Just focus on each of the UHVs and use your strong position to win.
Russia - Quite easy, as long as you don't have too much trouble with the Mongols. The key to the 3rd UHV seems to be choosing five civs, bribing them to adopt communism, then adopting their favourite civics for the "You have wisely chosen your civics" bonus.
Mali - Tough. As above, you struggle to get the University and accumulate gold whilst defending against camel archer barbs with a useless unique unit
Poland - Quite straightforward - the third city should be Kiev and you will eventually need four cities with all three Christian religions to win. I like to found Lulea in Finland as the fourth city, as the fur helps with city size.
Italy - Fairly easy. The main thing is to get GAs in time to make Rome, Genoa and Venice influential in time. Controlling the Med is easy given the time you have - just conquer Greece and Africa
Mongols - Quite tough. You have to rush to get China in time, tho' it's much easier if you play on Epic so you have more time to conquer. Stability isn't an issue, as you can reconquer cities if you collapse and get more Keshiks as a result
Mughals - Quite easy, although you need to go for the culture goal straight away if you're going to make it. Make sure to build theatres and run great artists as quick as you can, even before building temples for the mosques.
Turks - Easy. Conquer Constantinople straight away to get two wonders then build more. The Turks' power makes it easy to conquer the necessary area.
Thais - Quite easy, just make sure to explore the world quickly to find civs for open borders. And you have to kill the English and French in India to meet the third goal.
Congo - Quite easy. Found Durban (on the gold in South Africa) as soon as you can as this city is great for growth and production
Dutch - Easy. Research economics for a free great merchant, and conquer Portuguese colonies where you can as they are less likely to fight back or attack Amsterdam. Build a Trading Company for troops to conquer Indonesia which will give you several spice resources
Prussia - Quite easy. Just make sure not to capture too many cities, as this will hinder your tech and make it harder to finish the tech tree before the end of the game
America - Easy. Plenty of time for everything, great city locations and lots of resources. Try to get great engineers as soon as possible to make sure you get all the wonders in time. There are seven oil resources you can conquer in America, then invade the Middle East for the remaining three. Just make sure to take a big army with plenty of air support and commence Operation Iraq Liberation.
Egypt - pretty easy. Use slavery to rush the pyramids early enough for the first goal, and use the sphinx to get a Great Prophet for the final goal. The main challenge is being efficient enough in tech to get literature in time for the Great Library.
China - also easy. You have a great location with lots of resources and plenty of time to plan for all UHVs. The main challenge is probably getting eight cities and building temples in time for the first goal.
Babylon - as above easy once you have worked out the best strategy and way to go. Only risk is someone (China!) beats you to writing.
Greeks - again all about working out a strategy that allows you to conquer, research and build wonders all at once
India - can be quite challenging, depending on religions. The first and third goals are easy, but the second goal can be tricky. Try to get a third religion in your cities (conquer Persia for Zoro) to make the temple goal more manageable
Phoenicians - Quite easy, with the only realy challenge being to kill the Romans by 100BC
Persians - Pretty tough. You need a bit of luck with the rolls, and need to hope Egypt and India haven't teched to axes by the time you attack
Romans - Similar to Greece. Just make sure to keep building enough legions to hold the areas you conquer
Ethiopia - You need a bit of luck to get Catholicism (try and get a Great Priest), but after that it's pretty easy
Korea - Fairly easy, the only challenge is conquering / founding four good cities for the first goal
Maya - Easy as above. Found decent cities and you'll get calendar, then no one can beat you to the Temple and a GG is easy enough by 1600
Byzantines - quite tough. Easy enough to get the gold and culture goals, but hard to keep the three cities in all areas with the Arabs, Seljuks, Mongols and Turks all after you. Best bet is to get the gold then ignore research and use the money to get lots of mercs.
Japan - quite easy due to the amount of time you have to complete it, but you need to be efficient at expanding and conquering the desired regions to avoid blunting your tech.
Vikings - Easy enough. Found cities in Ireland and Iceland then pop the borders to get to America, mass Huscarls and conquer England, then send your Huscarls pillaging through Europe for the gold
Arabs - Quite easy, with the main challenge being to capture all the target areas without becoming unstable. Make sure you are stable around 1000AD to avoid Egypt resurrecting
Tibet - Like Babylon, all about the strategy. Conquer the double holy city in India to get the great prophets
Khmer - Similar to the Arabs, easy if you can be stable enough in 1350 to stop the Thais spawning. Make sure to found only four cities to keep the average size up.
Indonesia - Easy. You can settle all Indonesia and Australia unchallenged, and get resources by trading.
Moors - Quite tough. Mainly as you need to build the population and commerce of Cordoba whilst also building armies to defend against the inevitable Spanish attacks
Spanish, French, English, German, Portugal - all easy. Just focus on each of the UHVs and use your strong position to win.
Russia - Quite easy, as long as you don't have too much trouble with the Mongols. The key to the 3rd UHV seems to be choosing five civs, bribing them to adopt communism, then adopting their favourite civics for the "You have wisely chosen your civics" bonus.
Mali - Tough. As above, you struggle to get the University and accumulate gold whilst defending against camel archer barbs with a useless unique unit
Poland - Quite straightforward - the third city should be Kiev and you will eventually need four cities with all three Christian religions to win. I like to found Lulea in Finland as the fourth city, as the fur helps with city size.
Italy - Fairly easy. The main thing is to get GAs in time to make Rome, Genoa and Venice influential in time. Controlling the Med is easy given the time you have - just conquer Greece and Africa
Mongols - Quite tough. You have to rush to get China in time, tho' it's much easier if you play on Epic so you have more time to conquer. Stability isn't an issue, as you can reconquer cities if you collapse and get more Keshiks as a result
Mughals - Quite easy, although you need to go for the culture goal straight away if you're going to make it. Make sure to build theatres and run great artists as quick as you can, even before building temples for the mosques.
Turks - Easy. Conquer Constantinople straight away to get two wonders then build more. The Turks' power makes it easy to conquer the necessary area.
Thais - Quite easy, just make sure to explore the world quickly to find civs for open borders. And you have to kill the English and French in India to meet the third goal.
Congo - Quite easy. Found Durban (on the gold in South Africa) as soon as you can as this city is great for growth and production
Dutch - Easy. Research economics for a free great merchant, and conquer Portuguese colonies where you can as they are less likely to fight back or attack Amsterdam. Build a Trading Company for troops to conquer Indonesia which will give you several spice resources
Prussia - Quite easy. Just make sure not to capture too many cities, as this will hinder your tech and make it harder to finish the tech tree before the end of the game
America - Easy. Plenty of time for everything, great city locations and lots of resources. Try to get great engineers as soon as possible to make sure you get all the wonders in time. There are seven oil resources you can conquer in America, then invade the Middle East for the remaining three. Just make sure to take a big army with plenty of air support and commence Operation Iraq Liberation.
I only play 600 AD emperor/normal speed. heres what i think
-england. fairly easy once you try and fail several times and find what works. Hardest part is colonizing asia and getting first to industrial age. Heres what I found works for me every time: I build many cities and colonize iceland asap as well as africa by 1200. I build all the catholic wonders and get free trade before colonizing anything. Also capture alexandria. Then get rifling asap and right after have the india company built to invade mughals. make sure you have like another 10+ units ready to invade as well because the trade company army wont be enough.
-france. Moderate difficulty. Can be frustrating if you want to take rome early and you dont or the italians spawn. CUltural difficulty is pretty challenging as is controling 40 % of europe.
-Spain. Hard difficulty. The catholic religion goal is very hard I think, the rest are easy. I heard some try to found protesntatism with spain?
-Prussia. Very spawn dependent. Meaning the difficulty depends on what the situation is like when you spawn. Sometimes, you could get some very powerful neighbours early on and no place to expand.
-Italy. I find them boring so iam not sure. Theyre also spawn-dependent
-Portugal. Very hard. The diplomacy goal is very very hard and you sometimes get into a war with spain which is bad
-Dutch. Very hard + spawn dependent. You have to think about each step, and not overexpand because you have very limited time. SO expand only where you need to. Each UHV on their own is easy, but combined together they are hard
-Russia. Moderate difficulty+game dependent. Alot of different stuff happens when playing as russia. Such as, mongols may sometimes capture a city, sometimes not. Civs may trade away their techs, sometimes not. Sometimes you might get to liberalism first, sometimes not. Same with lubyanka. So alot of randomness with russia.
-Turkey. Spawn-dependent, moderate difficulty, but I think recently they were made to be nearly impossible because you cant make christian wonders or smth.
-japan. Easy. cultural goal is fairly hard though
-America. spawn dependent. easy
-aztects. impossible
-incas. impossible
-vikings. very easy
-mughals. hard
-indonesia. very easy
-thailand. easy
korea. very easy
the other civs i dont play
-england. fairly easy once you try and fail several times and find what works. Hardest part is colonizing asia and getting first to industrial age. Heres what I found works for me every time: I build many cities and colonize iceland asap as well as africa by 1200. I build all the catholic wonders and get free trade before colonizing anything. Also capture alexandria. Then get rifling asap and right after have the india company built to invade mughals. make sure you have like another 10+ units ready to invade as well because the trade company army wont be enough.
-france. Moderate difficulty. Can be frustrating if you want to take rome early and you dont or the italians spawn. CUltural difficulty is pretty challenging as is controling 40 % of europe.
-Spain. Hard difficulty. The catholic religion goal is very hard I think, the rest are easy. I heard some try to found protesntatism with spain?
-Prussia. Very spawn dependent. Meaning the difficulty depends on what the situation is like when you spawn. Sometimes, you could get some very powerful neighbours early on and no place to expand.
-Italy. I find them boring so iam not sure. Theyre also spawn-dependent
-Portugal. Very hard. The diplomacy goal is very very hard and you sometimes get into a war with spain which is bad
-Dutch. Very hard + spawn dependent. You have to think about each step, and not overexpand because you have very limited time. SO expand only where you need to. Each UHV on their own is easy, but combined together they are hard
-Russia. Moderate difficulty+game dependent. Alot of different stuff happens when playing as russia. Such as, mongols may sometimes capture a city, sometimes not. Civs may trade away their techs, sometimes not. Sometimes you might get to liberalism first, sometimes not. Same with lubyanka. So alot of randomness with russia.
-Turkey. Spawn-dependent, moderate difficulty, but I think recently they were made to be nearly impossible because you cant make christian wonders or smth.
-japan. Easy. cultural goal is fairly hard though
-America. spawn dependent. easy
-aztects. impossible
-incas. impossible
-vikings. very easy
-mughals. hard
-indonesia. very easy
-thailand. easy
korea. very easy
the other civs i dont play
I have recently completed India, Khmer, Japan, Ethiopia, Tamils, and France.
India is tricky. I was lucky enough to manage to found Zoroastrianism, which made the temple goal a lot easier, but it's difficult to get to it before Persia spawns. In a previous attempt, I made the mistake of just developing my land as much as I could for the population goal, trying to achieve it peacefully. But while you will be above 20% for most of the game, the growing and spawning Europeans will probably get you below 20%. In this game, I invaded China with War Elephants through Indochina and took their cities, which easily got me to 25%. (Even though the Chinese cities will lose a lot of pop while conquering them, they'll still be taken away from rivals)
For the Khmer, I rushed Pagan with my starting stack, then instantly sent them back to my capital, where they arrived just about as Indonesia spawned. I got a mercenary to help them and took Palembang, getting to four cities. Sometimes Indonesia will found a second city though, which probably makes rushing them like this impossible. Hanoi is a very nice city that can build the Angkor Wat much quicker than Angkor itself (once you have tech for the Angkor Wat and Drama, turn off the tech slider and go for culture instead). The population goal was quite easy, and once you've completed it (it insta-completes once your average pop goes above 12) you can run as many artists as possible.
Japan is very easy really. You've got oceans of time before 1940 and if you rush for the Internet you'll get to skip a whole heap of techs and focus on the stuff others don't have yet. The cultural goal is the only one with some difficulty.
Ethiopia I dreaded since I remember it being such a hell in vanilla RfC. But the addition of Kongo makes it much easier, since you only have to cover east and south Africa yourself, and the land there is actually quite decent (Zanzibar and the South-African city on the gold are really nice). It also feels as if grabbing Catholicism is easier, but I'm not sure if that's true or I was just lucky. The Incense goal is very easy, since you have two in your core anyway, and the other is in Egypt which you should be able to grab with not too much trouble while the Romans collapse.
I found the Tamils quite difficult until I sent the Settler on the ship west to found the South-African city on the gold. The instant income from the gold easily offsets the maintenance for it and it's a really good production city, something you have a lack of.
France takes city specialisation, as Paris will be busy working on its culture (and the wonder goal; Notre Dame and Versailles there help a lot. Also Sistine Chapel). I rushed Venice instantly, then waited a bit and got some siege weapons before taking Rome and razing Napels (if you don't open borders with Spain and Germany until you get Italy, they won't snatch it away from you). Rome is a good spot for the Statue. Conquering Germany and Spain and vassalising Poland got me above 40% (later Portugal also vassalised for a bit of a buffer); and with Brandenburg razed, lumbermilled Wien makes for an incredible production powerhouse that will make for a nice spot to put the Eiffel Tower in. For the American goal, I went with six cities: New Orleans, the city on the south end of the long one of the Great Lakes, the city one east of the oil on the plains in the central USA, the Canadian city between the lake and the oil, the city on the west coast 1S of the lake, and the city on the west coast 1SE of the clam (I only put the last one for UHV purposes, but it was completely unnecessary in the end and not a very good city either).
India is tricky. I was lucky enough to manage to found Zoroastrianism, which made the temple goal a lot easier, but it's difficult to get to it before Persia spawns. In a previous attempt, I made the mistake of just developing my land as much as I could for the population goal, trying to achieve it peacefully. But while you will be above 20% for most of the game, the growing and spawning Europeans will probably get you below 20%. In this game, I invaded China with War Elephants through Indochina and took their cities, which easily got me to 25%. (Even though the Chinese cities will lose a lot of pop while conquering them, they'll still be taken away from rivals)
For the Khmer, I rushed Pagan with my starting stack, then instantly sent them back to my capital, where they arrived just about as Indonesia spawned. I got a mercenary to help them and took Palembang, getting to four cities. Sometimes Indonesia will found a second city though, which probably makes rushing them like this impossible. Hanoi is a very nice city that can build the Angkor Wat much quicker than Angkor itself (once you have tech for the Angkor Wat and Drama, turn off the tech slider and go for culture instead). The population goal was quite easy, and once you've completed it (it insta-completes once your average pop goes above 12) you can run as many artists as possible.
Japan is very easy really. You've got oceans of time before 1940 and if you rush for the Internet you'll get to skip a whole heap of techs and focus on the stuff others don't have yet. The cultural goal is the only one with some difficulty.
Ethiopia I dreaded since I remember it being such a hell in vanilla RfC. But the addition of Kongo makes it much easier, since you only have to cover east and south Africa yourself, and the land there is actually quite decent (Zanzibar and the South-African city on the gold are really nice). It also feels as if grabbing Catholicism is easier, but I'm not sure if that's true or I was just lucky. The Incense goal is very easy, since you have two in your core anyway, and the other is in Egypt which you should be able to grab with not too much trouble while the Romans collapse.
I found the Tamils quite difficult until I sent the Settler on the ship west to found the South-African city on the gold. The instant income from the gold easily offsets the maintenance for it and it's a really good production city, something you have a lack of.
France takes city specialisation, as Paris will be busy working on its culture (and the wonder goal; Notre Dame and Versailles there help a lot. Also Sistine Chapel). I rushed Venice instantly, then waited a bit and got some siege weapons before taking Rome and razing Napels (if you don't open borders with Spain and Germany until you get Italy, they won't snatch it away from you). Rome is a good spot for the Statue. Conquering Germany and Spain and vassalising Poland got me above 40% (later Portugal also vassalised for a bit of a buffer); and with Brandenburg razed, lumbermilled Wien makes for an incredible production powerhouse that will make for a nice spot to put the Eiffel Tower in. For the American goal, I went with six cities: New Orleans, the city on the south end of the long one of the Great Lakes, the city one east of the oil on the plains in the central USA, the Canadian city between the lake and the oil, the city on the west coast 1S of the lake, and the city on the west coast 1SE of the clam (I only put the last one for UHV purposes, but it was completely unnecessary in the end and not a very good city either).
I've found that India can be quite easy for England, even if you don't bring lots of other armies. If you get the TC early enough then you won't always have to DW on the Mughals as they haven't always conquered the independents by then. And you can build a settler and settle the iron in Sri Lanka for another free city.
With India, I find that you can often wait until Persia collapses and capture their capital for Zoroastrianism, or just rush them with axes and swords as they usually only have archers and spears. For the population goal, as long as you get Pagan and Sri Lanka you are usually fine - just make sure to choose two or three cities and give them as many squares and pop as possible. A city of size 22 and one of size 2 will be bigger than two cities of size 12. Work out which cities have the most food in their BFC and give those all the squares around them.
yeah that would work too. But capturing india early you risk of the indian respawn and you might only get 3-4, not 5 cities, because you wont have an army to invade mughals.
I prefer waiting till rifling because you can basically kick mughals ass and capture some great cities like patna/delhi and you can ensure your permanent stay there for centuries to come.
last time i tried capturing india early with TC at like 1600, the indians respawned right after which is game over basically. But I dunno, maybe things were changed
