Anybody managed 'Silk Road' achievement?

[Genghis_Sean]

Connect to the Arabs, China, India, Mongols, and Persia at the same time using caravans.

I made a game with exactly those five as my five opponents. I've got trade routes with each of them, but no dice. I've been trading with everyone for about 1000 years, now. I'm beginning to build railroads, so perhaps that will speed things up, but I'm worrying I'm going to win the game without getting it. Anybody else manage to earn it? Would the trade routes have to be all land based? Complete on the same turn? Hope this one doesn't turn out to be a pain.

 

[Svest]

They have to be caravans, trade routes from cargo ships don't count.

 

[Ulthwithian]

'using Caravans' seems to imply all Land Routes, yes.

 

[adwcta]

Yep, I'm in a game now with all those guys (plus Egypt and Byzantine for historical accuracy) in a 8 man game. Hopefully everything stays peaceful so I can actually get open borders with everyone to run those damn caravans through in late game.

 

[slowcar]

get open borders with everyone to run those damn caravans through in late game.

You don't need open borders for caravans

 

[Yzman]

I was thinking about this and it seems like it will be a pain in the ass. Basically I am thinking Pangea map with all of those as my opponents and try to get caravans to each.

The only achievement that will be absolutely rididuclous is the one where you need to have your american archeologist excavate an egyptian artifact within 2 tiles of a german archeologist.

How would you ever get that to happen without totally staging it?

 

[Maledict]

Spawn a three player map with Egypt and Germany as the opposition. Eradicate the Egyptians in early warfare, then wait until archeology and have open borders with Germany would be the easiest way I guess - would take forever to get it normally.

 

[Genghis_Sean]

I've deleted my sea going caravans and made them all land based. I have five trade routes with the five needed civs and still haven't gotten the achievement. Can't think what's wrong.

 

[IAmOzymandias]

do a pangea map with just those civs, the smallest possible size and a quick game. No city states. Build nothing but caravans. Instant achievment.

EDIT: some achievments are pretty silly, not only in CiV but a lot of games. Some of the ones in fallout are goofy too. I'm not talking about the ones like Collect all 130 bobble heads or whatever, but the ones that are like kill 3 enemies with one bullet from an ak47 while irradiated. It's like, what an arbitrary thing to do, what real percentage of people would get that unless they specifically knew what to do.

 

[adwcta]

You don't need open borders for caravans

Your caravans can use AI roads without open borders? =O

 

[Sours and Green]

Your caravans can use AI roads without open borders? =O

Caravans don't use roads in the traditional sense. They make their own path and follow that. No need for any roads to be laid down beforehand.

 

[ahawk]

Some achievements are not very well coded... I got the achievement "Where's the Biathlon?" by an AI Denmark bringing the Norwegian Ski Inf into a snow/hill tile or whatever. Which makes little sense from the standpoint of most achievements needing you to be the one doing something, not an AI.

I wouldn't be surprised if the achievement is just poorly coded and/or bugged out.

 

[adwcta]

Caravans don't use roads in the traditional sense. They make their own path and follow that. No need for any roads to be laid down beforehand.

Yes, but roads extend the range of caravans. Having open borders, lets you use the AI's roads.... which gives your caravans significantly more range (unlimited range on connected landmass maps, where everyone's built railroads).

Or so I thought.

 

[adwcta]

I've deleted my sea going caravans and made them all land based. I have five trade routes with the five needed civs and still haven't gotten the achievement. Can't think what's wrong.

Are they all going from the same city? Maybe try that. Then, try connecting with their capital, etc. Sometimes it's not the coding that's poor, but the phrasing.

 

[dat1337vet]

Roads must do something to caravans otherwise the added UA benefit for the Iroquois does nothing

 

[ahawk]

Roads must do something to caravans otherwise the added UA benefit for the Iroquois does nothing

This is an interesting point.

For a while now, I've been wondering what this means. I haven't played Iroquois yet, but this may be a reason to try them now.

 

[Hyperion529]

Are they all going from the same city? Maybe try that. Then, try connecting with their capital, etc. Sometimes it's not the coding that's poor, but the phrasing.

thats not necessary. i did the silk road achievement in my very first BNW game and had the trade routes to these 5 civs from 3 different cities to foreign cities that included non-capitals. i even had to build an extra city next to persia just to reach them by caravan, because they were so far away from anybody else.

 

[livsbrand]

I was thinking about this and it seems like it will be a pain in the ass. Basically I am thinking Pangea map with all of those as my opponents and try to get caravans to each.

The only achievement that will be absolutely rididuclous is the one where you need to have your american archeologist excavate an egyptian artifact within 2 tiles of a german archeologist.

How would you ever get that to happen without totally staging it?

You wouldn't. Achievements like these seem to unlock in multiplayer however, so the easiest way would be to fire up a hotseat game with you controlling all three civs. With quick speed and Industrial start it should be super fast.

 

[Genghis_Sean]

Finished them game without earning it. All I can figure is that maybe the caravans needed to finish all in the same turn or something. They can't simply be in transit. It was a six player map, so I don't think I can make it any smaller. Still couldn't complete it.

 

[livsbrand]

You wouldn't. Achievements like these seem to unlock in multiplayer however, so the easiest way would be to fire up a hotseat game with you controlling all three civs. With quick speed and Industrial start it should be super fast.

Just unlocked Raiders of the Lost Ark using this method.