Caliph/Normal Speed UHV Strategies

[Andrrew]

Armenia

UHV1: 1 Orthodox Cathedral by 1045
UHV2: Control Greater Armenia, Lesser Armenia, Kars, Vaspurakan in 1200
UHV3: 25k culture by 1330

Civics: Switched to Aristocracy given nice bonus to economy.
Cities: Capital on spot, second city 1S of honey. Third city around 990 1S of iron. Fourth city 2E, 3S of stone around 1100. Fifth city captured from Rum far west 1E of Iron. Initially cities build culture buildings, second city builds Barracks and a couple of Horse Archers, then once possible all cities build 7-8 special Swordsmen to defend against Seljuks / Barbs (good to defend on hills).
Techs: Religious Architecture, Crucible Steel. Rest doesn't matter...

UHV1: You just need 3 Orthodox churches and then the Cathedral (I built in the capital).
UHV3: Capital should build the Narekavank by 1000 and pick the artist. Capital should also prioritize National Epic (+100% birth rate). Then the capital can run 3 specialists, and should very quickly generate 3-4 GAs, coupled with organic Culture generation one can achieve this goal by ~1150.
UHV2: Apart from the 4 settled cities, I captured the Rum city in western Vaspurakan, hence Effective Victory is achieved ~1150. Then you just need to stay stable and enjoy the Golden Ages.

Stability: Not a big issue as all cities core or historical.

 

[Andrrew]

Georgia

UHV1: Control / vassalize Caucasus, Chaldia in 1210
UHV2: Build 5 castles, orthodox churches, monasteries by 1210
UHV3: No non-Christian civ owned city in Caucasus / Lesser Armenia in 1330

Civics: Starting civics are fine.
Cities: Capital 1E of spawn (copper in BFC), second city next to Iron and Apple. Later on another city in the western coast; rest of cities will be conquered. Capital starts with Icon Studio, Narekavank, National Epic which ensures 2 GP-induced GAs prior to 1200. Rest of the cities prioritize military (Barracks, Swordsmen/Horsemen, later Lancers), plus economy buildings when possible (Fairground, Library, Market).
Techs: Long Distance Trade to trade techs, then beelined for Castle Building, then for Selective Breeding (got it in 1187 AD). Byzantines, crusaders good partners to trade techs / spare resources.

UHV1: Armenia's city next to Honey was taken by Barbs at spawn so I quickly captured it. Shortly after I declared war on Armenia and captured their capital with a catapult + swordsmen, as well as their third city in the eastern desert area, after which they collapsed. Close to 1200 I also captured indy city with Pig and Iron, as well as the Byzantine Chaldia city and the barb city in the east next to Fish.
UHV2: An easy one given many GAs and decent production cities. Stone from Byzantine also nice to have.
UHV3: Goal implicitly requires the survival of the Mongols. I massively overdid preps, building 46 Lancers while probably half of that is enough.

Stability: Not a big issue as long as you spread your religion around and build churches.

 

[SanJose]

In SoI cities on resources spot recived full values and save wokers moves.
So capital on horse, second on pigs in Vaspurakan for Armenia best combo.
And there are a sticky thread for strategy discussion in top of page.
For KoGeorgia good trick for capture Baku at start - sacriface 1 archer. Move on forest/hill (other units out of city border), after swordsman kill wounded marksman, as result revo and capture city and build Al-Azhar quicly after work boat.

 

[Andrrew]

Byzantion

UHV1: Constantinople most cultured city in 1000
UHV2: Control 8 provinces in 1290
UHV3: Highest gold in 1500

Civics: Starting civics are fine. I switched to Theocracy, Serfdom when possible.
Techs: Botany, then Crucible Steel, then beelined for Selective Breeding (got it in 1052 AD), then Cheque System (Wealth), then Crop Rotation (chop), then Cavalry Tactics (1150 AD) . Rest doesn't really matter.
I traded techs aggressively when possible, and also stole a few from Abbasides and Cilicia.

Phase 1 (800-1100): Bulgarian raiders, Seljuk barbs, Sultanate of Rum.
Cities: At the start on Caliph your economy is in the toilet and you are in desperate need of workers. Hence I set the tech % to zero, and had each city build a worker (coastal cities work boat first, then worker). Constantinople prioritizes culture buildings, then National Epic (I used all GPs for Golden Ages) and Royal Mint.
All other cities build Market, Library, and Orthodox buildings. Once all that is done I was able to run my tech % at 40-60%.
Military: The first Bulgarian attackers show up pretty quickly, so important to move over some defenders from other cities to the NW city. This city should build a couple of Spearmen and Swordsmen later for defense.
Otherwise, good production cities should start churning out Horsemen and later on Cataphracts when possible (and Barracks / Stables), as well as a few Catapults. I have built 20 Horsemen, 15 Swordsmen, and a couple of Cataphracts by the time the Rum arrived. I quickly captured their capital and then declined to city flip. This means you will get deserters but only as long as you are stationing units on their core provinces. They also get a sizeable stack of additional attackers (regardless of whether you agree to flip or not) that I quickly eliminated with my horses, as well as the few units that deserted. I waited a few turns until the desertion period is over and then captured their city next to Apple/Iron, after which they collapsed.

Phase 2 (1100-1260): Mongols, crusaders.
I had Smyrna specialize on military, built the Heroic Epic and settled all my GGs there. It can build a Noble Horsemen in ~2 turns with 10+ experience. I have built 39 Cataprachts and a few dozen Noble Horsemen (other cities also helped), and killed 45 Mongol Horse Archers.
Having 6-7 catapults in the central desert area also helps, as well as a road on every tile so that you can reach the Mongol stacks.
The crusaders around 1200 are relatively weak.

Phase 3 (1260-1500): Ottomans.
Similar to Rum, I moved my units our of their core provinces before their spawn, and when they showed up I killed all their units (even before founding a city this time). Then I refused to flip again, and quickly killed their bonus stack of units with my army of Noble Horsemen (I have built 66 Noble Horsemen overall so was very well-prepared).
After that, you can sit back and relax. UHV1 and UHV2 is done automatically, and for UVH3 you just need to put your tech % to zero for a couple of turns to amass a few k of gold and win!

Stability: I was +10 and above for most of the game given strong economy and plenty of Orthodox Churches (and later on Courthouses). The worst moments were -10 to -15 but those didn't last long.

 

[Andrrew]

Makuria

UHV1: 6 different happiness resources by 1000
UHV2: No cities lost by 1200
UHV3: Access to Mediterranean and Red Seas in 1300

Civics: I switched to Aristocracy for nice commerce boost (you'll have enough happiness resource anyways), and later on Empire and Theocracy.
Cities: Capital on cow, second city Meroe (iron and ivory on BFC). Third city conquered (indy city to the south, 1 Javelin defender).
Techs: Currency, Literature, Long Distance Trade, then focus on military techs (Horsemen, Lancer, Noble Horsemen). As usual traded techs and resources aggressively. Sent a Skirmisher early on to Byzantines to establish contact.

UHV1: Early on cities built Workers, Settlers, Archers. I built a city on top of Silver (Gold in BFC), and another one with Incense and Spices in BFC. These combined with Hemp and Ivory got me to 6 pretty quickly.
UHV2: Fairly easy to defend from occasional barb raids; no issue with Fatimids.
UHV3: The southern city has the best production (with farms on every tile) so I built a lot of Horsemen / Lancer / Noble Horsemen there. Around 1270 I sent ~15 horses (mix of Noble and Lancer) towards Alexandria along the Fatimid border, and declared war on them just around 1295, capturing it in 1298.

Stability: Very poor stability during the entire game, sometimes hitting -25. I emphasized Orthodox Churches and Courthouses to stay afloat.

 

[SanJose]

Sitting in the corner is boring
Try this: Tungul as capital, 2nd city - Kerora on dates on Red Sea coast. Tech - to recive coast trade, next default. Sometimes slide to 0.
Capital build 3 skirmishers, Kerora dhow and 2 work boats(for Mekkah). Capture Soba, try to steal workers near Axum(burn it if possible, use revolt trick after battlewin near city).3rd city - near stone in Upper Egypt.
Attack Islamic holy city (with 2-3 save/loads), convert to Sunni/Shia, hire all Camel mercs, go to Medinah. Spread shia/sunni to spamwonder city, it possible to steal How and SM from Abbasids.
After prepare to attack Imamat of Yemen(902AD). Kill settler+guard before they found Aden/Tais.
Next city - Duba on coast camel in Hedjaz. Raze or block spawn Aqaba.
For UHV you need to build 2 roads Sana-Medinah, Kerora-Nile but with "free" workers it's not difficult.

 

[Andrrew]

Yemen

UHV1: 3 Sufi Shrines by 1140
UHV2: Control Hejaz in 1250
UHV3: Secure 4 Coffee resources by 1500

Civics: Switched to Theocracy so that I can build CR2 Axemen from the start.

UHV1: I built 1 extra worker and 2 add'l settlers pretty quickly, and founded my 4 cities. Sufism will spread around pretty quickly as long as all that Incense is improved and defended from barb attackers.
UHV2: I built Barracks, 2 Catapults, and 3-4 Axemen in my capital fairly quickly, and sent it to Mecca and Medina, conquering the cities around 1070-1130.
UVH3: With UHV1-2 done, I teched aggressively towards Companies and got it in 1273. There are 2 Coffee resources within core, so I just needed 2 more from Ethiopia. I built up an army of ~10 camels and 2 trebuchets, shipped them to the other side of the Red Sea, razed Makuria's Aksum, and immediately after put down 2 settlers on top of the 2 coffees, achieving victory in 1289.

Stability: Very poor stability during the entire game, sometimes hitting -30. May make sense to gift away Medina after UHV2 is fulfilled, or pick the most stable civic combo, otherwise there is a real risk of collapse. I timed my second GP-produced GA for the time when I attacked Makuria to ensure I don't collapse in the last minute.

 

[Andrrew]

Mamluks

UHV1: Cairo highest pop in 1380
UHV2: Control Egypt, Hejaz, Levant in 1500
UHV3: Sink 5 Portuguese ships

Civics: I prefer Empire, Vassalage, Slavery, Theocracy.
Techs: Interestingly one can win the game without teching at all; but if anything Blast Furnace (Royal Mamluks) and Civil Service (Courthouse for stability) should be priority.
Cities: Coastal cities build Great Galleys for defense, Cairo builds 3-5 Trebuchets, a couple of Marksmen, and later on once possible Horse Archers.

UHV1: I put Farms and Windmills on non-resource tiles within the BFC around 1300. Once the plague is over (~1350), I emphasized growth to ensure I outgrow anybody else (I was 1-2 pop ahead the competition based on the top cities page. If possible useful to get health resources via trade, and also to protect the 3 sea health resources with Great Galleys.
UHV2: Starting units are quite powerful, so as long as you don't lose them and support them with Trebs and Marksmen, you can very quickly capture Palestine, Transjordan, and Hejaz. In my game it was owned by an uber Byzantion but my numbers prevailed. I halted for a bit as my stability was not great, and only continued around 1400 towards Syria, once I had Royal Mamluks.
UHV3: I mass-produced Great Galleys in all southern cities (Mecca, Aqaba, and a Sinai city). Around 1480 I started to move over my ~20-22 Great Galleys towards Oman. When the Portuguese showed up in 1509 with their 6 ships near Oman, I declared war and sank 3. In the next 2 turns they split up the ships and I was able to sink 2 more, achieving victory in 1512!

Stability: Early game was a bit shaky in the -10 to -20 area, but after I built Churches and Courthouses everywhere my stability was super solid. If someone feels aggressive could easily conquer parts of Asia Minor and Mesopotamia in the spare time while waiting for the Portuguese.

 

[Andrrew]

Sultanate of Rum

UHV1: Control 6+ provinces in Anatolia / Thrace in 1190
UHV2: 5 Sufi Shrines by 1290
UHV3: Control Anatolia, Thrace in 1460

Civics: I prefer Empire, Vassalage, Serfdom, Theocracy.
Cities: All cities start with military production (Trebs and Horse Archers). Constantinople should build Market and Royal Mint which is essential to bail out your economy.

UHV1: Byzantion was not too strong and I was able to fairly quickly capture Constantinople, after which they collapsed. I kept the 2 Thrace cities and Halicarnassus indy as my economy was quite weak and I wanted to maximize tech'ing towards Sufi techs, but the other cities already covered 7 provinces.

Intermezzo: Mongols
I built the Heroic Epic in Ankara; other cities with good production also chipped in and overall I built 52 Lancers and 10 catapults, which was enough to fend off the Mongol hordes. This is obviously a huge tradeoff as it slows down your tech / Sufi buildings.

UHV2: The big conundrum is whether one should go straight for Melvana's Tomb tech. I went for Cheque Systems first and built Hans everywhere (which attracts Sufism), but by the time I got to Melvana tech (1225) Ayyubids beat me to it! This was annoying but I already built Hans in most cities pre-mongols, and post-mongols I continued (supported by chopping) to build all Sufi-attracting buildings (churches, monasteries, libraries, universities, great mosques). In the end I managed to get the 5 shrines just in time.
UHV3: When my economy allowed I conquered indy Thrace and Halicarnassus. I also attacked Cilicia and a sole Antiochian city in Lesser Armenia around 1310-1350 with Heavy Horse Archers and Trebs.

Stability: Not a big issue generally. During the last 100 years an aggressive player could easily conquer Caucasus, or even Mesopotamia / Levant.

 

[SanJose]

For Sutanate of Rum also good to take Damascus for incenses, later attack Yemen and pillage plantations.
Konya poor city, so i prefer to attack Tartus immediately for Capital. Also i trying to block Sis spawn.

 

[Andrrew]

Antioch

UHV1: Control Northern Syria and 3 bordering provinces in 1190
UHV2: 6 OBs by 1290
UHV3: 3 Venetian Quarters in 1290

Civics: Switched to Theocracy.
Cities: Do not attack Antioch etc as it will flip. All cities should focus on military: Trebs, Spearmen for defense vs Zengid, and Lancers once Iron is hooked up (I found a city pretty quickly on top of the Iron in the north).
Techs: Doesn't really matter, but I teched towards Guilds and Noble Horsemen.

UHV1: I captured the 2 Cilician cities immediately with starting troops from Rum. Then I moved south and captured indy Lebanon province (did not go for Syria province as was expecting an Ayyubid spawn that never happened). This already got me the required provinces (in fact I got 4 as I also controled Lesser Armenia with the city on Iron).
UHV2: To get the OBs, I made peace with everyone and then declared war on Jerusalem. As a result of mutual military effort all civs at war with Jerusalem will automatically be willing to OB, hence I got to 6 right then (Byzantine, Georgia, Seljuks, Zengid, Fatimids, Abbasids I think).
UHV3: An easy one, Venetians will probably spread to 4 of your cities without much effort. When Ayyubids didn't spawn, I captured Syria province (incense) and also Acre to have an extra coastal city just to be sure.

Mongols: didn't really hit me even though by that time I had Noble Horsemen.

Stability: Surprisingly OK considering all the different religions in my cities. I only managed to spread around Christianity after 1200.

I could have easily captured Palestine, Transjordan from Fatimids or even venture beyond as my stability was decent.

 

[Andrrew]

Ayyubids

UHV1: Control Egypt, Levant, Hejaz, Yemen in 1245
UHV2: Genoans and Venetians present in your cities in 1245
UHV3: First in score in 1500

Civics: Switched to Empire, Theocracy.
Cities: All cities start on military (Trebs, Horse Arches once Horse linked up, Lancers once Iron is also linked up).
Techs: Noble Horsemen tech should be priority. Afterwards prioritized wonder techs to max out score but doesn't really matter.

UHV1: I had a fairly strong Jerusalem which took some time to take on, but afterwards the rest of Levant was easy. Then I sent my troops towards Hejaz/Yemen and got it around 1220. I left Makuria the last as they OB'd and gave me some resources; I timed the capture of those cities for 1240.
UHV2: Easy one as these companies will automatically spread to the Levant cities.
UHV3: The Mamluk arrival is a carnage - I immediately retook Cairo with a large stack of Trebs, HHAs and Lancers. Afterwards, I refused to flip, killed their bonus stack, and moved all units out of their core provinces to avoid deserters. After a few turns I sniped down their last units, thereby eliminating them. From then on, it is a piece of cake, one could expand further in Mesopotamia as my stability was 100+ in the late game. I stole a lot of techs from Ottomans, and built a ton of wonders including Taj Mahal.

Stability: Fine even in the early game, I dedicated one city to build missionaries and spread Sunni to all cities, and massacred non-sunni population in conquered cities.

 

[Andrrew]

Jerusalem

UHV1: Control Palestine, Transjordan, Cyprus in 1190
UHV2: Christian saint by 1290
UHV3: 8 incense / spices / silk by 1290

Civics: Switched to Theocracy.
Cities: Didn't attack Jerusalem as it flips. Jerusalem focused on Missionaries early on, Acre on settlers (Cyprus city, Transjordan city near Stone) while all others Christian buildings first followed by military (Trebs, Horsemen - quicker to move around than Lancer, and can be upgraded to Noble Horsemen).
Techs: Started with Guilds, then Cavalry Tactics.

UHV1: I had a fairly strong Fatimid so Ayyubids didn't spawn. Nevertheless I waited with putting down the Transjordan settler until after it was certain they won't show up. I also conquered Damascus, Homs, and Lebanon cities early on.
UHV2: I used a GP born in Jerusalem to spread around Christianity in Byzantion; in addition all the Churches, Monasteries, massacres, and a little bit of persecution added up and I achieved Saint status quite quickly.
UHV3: This one is somewhat tricky as you need to launch a distant offensive for Yemen while also defending your cities from bully neighbors. They are far out so that's when 3-movement Noble Horsemen come handy.

Unfortunately Seljuks attacked me at Homs with an insane stack of 37 units in 1237, just when half of my army was storming towards Yemen. They had Trebs, HAs, Marksmen, Heavy Infantry all promoted to lvl3 so it looked pretty bad! Luckily I had Castle and decent stack of defenders, and started to snipe down their units slowly with Noble Horsemen while they were bombarding my castle. When they got my castle down to 0% I knew I had no chance defending it so quickly gifted the city to Antioch, which distracted them and allowed me to keep my 2 Incense near Damascus and Tripoli. I continued to snipe down their units without me losing units, and hence in a few turns they agreed to make peace for a tech. In the meantime my Yemeni offensive was successful, I quickly put culture slider up so I expanded to the Yemeni 4 Incenses, plus the 3 Incense and 1 Spice around my Levant cities I achieved victory in 1268!

Stability: Around -10 most of the time, not a big issue.

 

[Andrrew]

Fatimids

UHV1: Control Egypt, Hejaz, Levant in 1160
UHV2: Spread Shia to 30% by 1250
UHV3: Become the Commander of the Faithful by 1250

Civics: I switch to Empire, Slavery.
Techs: Crucible Steel, Selective Breeding, Religious Unity (I thought I will need to persecute but didn't get to that), Guilds.
Cities: I put Cairo 1S; other 2 settlers founded Damyut and southern Egypt city on top of Sorghum. Later on I built 2 settlers and put down another Egypt city on top of Cotton, and the Transjordan city next to Clam. I had some workers flipped from Alexandria and also stole some from Jerusalem, and had them build mines around Cairo. I generally put very little effort into buildings, and only built the bare minimum Barracks and Monasteries to spread around Shia to my cities; otherwise every city was building military (Cats, Swordsmen, Horsemen, Lancers, Trebs).

UHV1: I like to do an early blitz! 3 Egyptian core cities started on Catapults, while starting Horsemen made their way to Lebanon, and captured Sur and Tarabulus from the Abbasids. I also slowly moved a couple of flipped Javelins and Archers towards Abbasid Damascus, which had 2 promoted Archer defenders. I sacrificed my Javelins and managed to capture it with my experienced Horsemen. In the meantime Cats started to break down Jerusalem's walls and by 1015 AD I captured Jerusalem as well. I decided not to go for Northern Syria just yet and only capture it after Antioch spawns.
I sent down 4 Cats and 2 experienced Horsemen to capture Hejaz by 1060 AD.
Then I mass produced Horsemen, Lancers and a couple more Cats to get ready for Jerusalem spawn, which was pretty meager. I refused to flip, killed their bonus stack, and moved all my units out of Palestine province to avoid deserters.
Next target was Antioch, for which I used 3 Trebs and 2 Cats to broke down that hefty +100% defense bonus, and captured it in 1123 AD.

UHV2: I had Alexandria build all temples and run 3 Priest specialists + another Artist / Scholar. Given I captured Damascus early my first GP was a GS, which I used for GA around 1110. I also focused on spreading Shia to all my cities, and massacred non-Shia religions at conquests. The 2 south Egyptian city, Damascus, and Tarabulus focused on Sufi Missionaries and I managed to spread it to all of Makuria and some of Asia Minor / Cilicia (interestingly the Byzantines collapsed and several cities were held by Barbs which was actually slowing me down). When Shia was 25% I used the 2 GPs to spread it around and with that I hit 30% in ~1130!

UHV3: After the fall of Antioch I sent my giant stack of Horsemen across the desert to capture Indy Baghdad. It was well-defended but I didn't bother moving around siege units and just massacred half my Horsemen; however just before capturing Baghdad the Abbasids respawned! This was annoying, as now I also had to capture Samarra and Al-Kufah on top of Baghdad, which I managed by 1151 when they collapsed and my GA kicked in. Then I just enjoyed a few more turns before victory kciking in in 1160.

Stability: Never a major issue as my economy was strong even without building any infrastructure such as Libraries, Markets.

 

[Andrrew]

Abbasids

UHV1: Control 3 shrines in 950
UHV2: First in tech and culture in 950
UHV3: Spread Sunni to 50% by 1250

Civics: I switched to Empire, Organized Religion. Was the 2 wonders completed I switched back to Theocracy.
Techs: Crucible Steel, Astrolabe, Long Distance Trade, Cash Cropping (traded with Samanids), Mosaic Art.
Cities: I put Bagdat on spot, Gundeshapur on top of Barley. All cities start with a Worker, then Monastery, maybe Church, then Barracks and Archers. Bagdat starts on Library, then Spiral Minaret. Damascus builds the House of Wisdom after worker, and runs 2 Priests to ensure GP generation. Bagdat also builds 2 Cats before Buyid arrival.

UHV1: Starting Horseman captured Mosul; 2 Swordsmen and 2 Spearmen made their way towards Lebanon and captured Sur, then later on Jerusalem with support from Horseman. I left 1 Spearman in Jerusalem and continued towards Medina / Mecca with the rest, capturing it around 860. Levant cities built a lot of Archers for defense, as the Barbs are nasty with 3-4 Swordsmen popping up at a time. In fact I had to hire 2 Axemen mercs at some point as it was quite intense. Buyid is also nasty with their UU bonus vs melee, hence the reason I was waiting them with ~9 Archers and 2 Cats.

UHV2: With support from Spiral Minaret and putting cottages on all of Iraq I was first in tech without bulbing. The 2 wonders and Monasteries also ensured cultural dominance.

UHV3: I ran a Priest specialist immediately after conquering Jerusalem, which ensured I got a Great Priest pretty quickly. Damascus produced 3 more by 940, at which point I decided to spread Sunni around with them and see if I hit 50%. I sent one towards the east (almost reaching Samanids), 2 to the north near Edesa, and 1 in the south next to Jerusalem, and when I clicked spread I immediately achieved 52% in 945! Hence I achieved victory in 950.

Stability: Very stable due to strong economy and good expansion.

 

[SanJose]

[KoJ] Use free settler for Duba, also can found Massawa(Mereb Mellash coast), whitch bigcross has clams, incences and spices.
[Fatimids] Damiat worst without Kizik Kule, better to settle Farama(on citrus) 1S2E, also you can check [SoI]Fatimids Cultutal Victory where 2/3 UHV completed as secondary goal

 

[Andrrew]

Khwarezmid

UHV1: Control 5 Silk resoures by 1230
UHV2: Become Shahanshah
UHV3: Never lose a city to Barbs before 1350

Techs: Cheque System, Guilds (Marksmen), Castle Building, then HHA tech.
Cities: I waited until flip so that Samarqand became my capital. I then put down 2 starting settlers in Kharezm province although these are so-so cities. The third starting settler I sent to Stone resource in the northeast. All cities started with worker, then Barracks, couple of Archers/Lancers, Walls, then some commerce buildings. Samarqand become my military powerhouse with Heroic Epic and all the GGs settled there. I used Merv as GP farm as it was nicely developed; built the National Epic here and it generated 3 GPs = 2 GAs.

UHV1: I had a couple of HAs flip to me so I declared war on Seljuks and captured Merv immediately, and soon after Neyshaban as well. Also captured barb Balkh and Otrar in the north. At this point I already had enough Silk so paused.
UHV3: The main threat is the Mongols which is quite intense with stacks of 2x10 showing up in the north, then in Iran as well in multiple spots. I was bored and hence captured W Khorasan and Jibal provinces, as well as Hamadan and Qazvin relatively early on (pre-Mongols). Then halted and focused on having ~5-6 promoted Marksmen in every city, plus my massive Lancer stack moving around to where the next Mongol stack will show up. If you tech'd / traded well you may also reach Castle Building which is very helpful. Also useful to have a couple of Cats as well to cause some collateral damage on them.

UHV2: Post mongols I captured the remaining few cities in Iran quickly + put down a settler for Tabaristan, and hence became Shahanshah. In the last 100 years there is not much happening.

Stability: Fairly stable due to good economy; didn't even have to spread around Sunni. One could easily capture Iraq, E Khorasan, etc in the last 100 years.

Some fun stats:
Built: 65 Marksmen, 55 Lancers.
Killed: 95 Mongol Horse Archers.
Lost: 29 Marksmen, 27 Lancers.

 

[Andrrew]

Samanid

UHV1: Highest culture in 1000
UHV2: Control 8 provinces by 1140
UHV3: Never lose a city before 1070

Civics: Switched to Empire, Vassalage, OR.
Techs: Botany, Long Distance Trade, Cheque System.
Cities: I put down Balkh on spot and second city next to Salt/Gem. These are not very good cities and in retrospect one city should probably be enough for Tocharistan province. I started with a Worker in all cities, then Racing Track/Monastery, Settlers, then Barracks and Archers/HAs.

UHV1: Quite easy as just need 1 GA. I picked Merv for that and built a Racing Track and a Library there, ran 2 artist and 1 scholar specialists, and got the GA fairly early on.
UHV2: I captured indy Zaranj and Herat, which got me to 4 provinces. Then built 4 settlers early on and founded Khavakend next to Wheat (Farghana province), Otrar on Silk in the north (Kyzyl Kum province), Kashgar in far east Silk (Taklamakan province), and Seydi next to Cotton (Kara Kum province); all done by 960.
UHV3: I stationed ~5 Archers in the critical cities, and also built a stack of ~10 HAs for offense against the barbs that start to show up around 980. When Seljuks arrived I agreed to flip (this doesn't count as "losing a city"). Ghaznavids were also fine and made peace after I sniped 2 of their units with HAs.

Stability: Relatively OK; in the late game I was just building Wealth everywhere and tech'ed to maximize score.

 

[Andrrew]

Seljuks

UHV1: 10% of land area by 1200
UHV2: 2 vassals in 1200
UHV3: Highest culture in 1300

Civics: Switched to Empire (# of cities is a bigger issue than distance from palace), Theocracy.
Techs: Cheque System an absolute life saver for your economy... I only got to it in 1130 AD as did a lot of early land grab. Afterwards just beelined for Cavalry Tactics (1205 AD), and generally traded techs aggressively. Afterwards doesn't really matter, but I had a nice tech lead in the end game.
Cities: I put down Rayy on spot even though not a very good city. Most cities started with a Worker. I built a couple of settlers early on and settled in northern Kurdistan on top of Cotton, Tabaristan with Deer/Dye, and 2 in W Khorasan on top of Wheat and Marble. I used Qazvin as my missionary city spreading Sunni everywhere, and Esfahan as my GP/wonder city (it interestingly had Spiral Minaret - not sure how lucky this is, was my first roll). Given SM I built Sunni Monasteries and Churches everywhere which was a major boost to my economy; also built Market and otherwise Barracks/Stable and HAs. I built the Heroic Epic in the W Khorasan Wheat city and settled all GGs there.

UHV1: Buyid was weak as usual and I quickly captured Yazd, Shiraz, Kerman, as well as indy Zaranj. Gaznavids later founded Herat which I quickly captured (I actually had a settler on the way for that). I generated 2 GAs in Esfahan and culturebombed Herat and the Marble city, which got me to 9.3% in 1130. At this point I decided to take over Iraq, declared war on Abbasids who were reasonably strong with Marksmen but was no match for my Flanking powered HAs hence I captured all of Iraq & Khuzestan cities without siege weapons, which got me well above 10%.

UHV2: I quickly stormed Khwarezmid shortly after their spawn and managed to capitulate them (had to actually conquer 3 of their cities so I was worried they'll collapse but quickly liberated them back). The second vassal was Zengid who offered to be my friendly vassal after I conquered Iraq. Later on even Rum also vassalized so I ended up with 3.

Mongols: Before the Mongols came I quickly upgraded my HA army and hence had a stack of 56 heavily-promoted HHAs. I in fact barely lost units as my HHAs were so strong; didn't even use Catapults. Stats: killed 110 Mongol Horse Archers; lost 22 HHAs and 4 Lancers...

Stability: Not an issue as strong economy and religious unity.

 

[Andrrew]

Ghaznavids

UHV1: 3k gold in 1180
UHV2: 1 city in each of Hindu Kush, Tocharistan, Balochistan, Punjab, E Khorasan, Sistan, Sindh
UHV3: 10k gold by 1300

Civics: Switched to Empire.
Techs: Cheque System, Engineering useful; otherwise I kept tech at 0% until I reached 10k gold. Starting techs are quite advanced so plenty of opportunity to trade techs.
Cities: Found capital on spot, military city next to Apple and Iron, another city on top of Horse (very poor city but wanted to get access to Horse asap). Capital is the GM farm, builds Fairground, Slave Market, Market, National Epic, Royal Mint. Military city starts with Worker, Barracks/Stable, HAs, later on Ghulam units which are very useful. All other cities build Worker first, 1-2 spear defenders, commerce buildings, then Wealth.

UHV2: Starting HAs captured Zaranj; Swords made their way to Punjab and captured Multan. Barbs are nasty in this area so had to focus on defense here. When Sindh shows up in ~1010 I declared war and captured 2 of their 3 cities, after which I made peace. Then after Seljuk spawn I captured their Herat and made peace. I then also captured Indy Lahore with my experienced units, which is a fantastic city. I also built 2 Cats and captured indy Bamiyan, and later on also indy Balkh, all done by 1100. When Ghorids showed up I agreed to flip but stationed a massive Ghulam stack 2 tile north of Bamiyan, quickly captured it, then made peace.

UHV1&3: I sent the first 2 GMs to Bagdat yielding 900 gold each. Once Punjab, Sindh lands are developed + building Wealth my empire was generating 350 gold per turn, or 500 or so when I started a GA with my third GM. I quickly hit the 10k goal around 1130, and victory in 1180.

Stability: I didn't focus on it at all but in the late game it started to dip below 0, hence I quickly built a couple of Sunni churches and also spread Sunni around a bit, to avoid a Sindh respawn.