Caliph/Normal Speed UHV Strategies

[Andrrew]

Sindh

UHV1: Most productive civ in 1140
UHV2: Control Sindh, Gujarat in 1200
UHV3: 4 Sufi Shrines by 1330

Civics: Switched to Empire, Caste System. Left OR as need to build a lot of buildings in early game.
Techs: Priorities are Cheque System, Selective Breeding, Music Theory.
Cities: Founded capital 1W of spawn, second city next to Crab/Marble, third on top of northern Cotton. All cities start with a couple of Workers, northern city also built a few Axemen and Horsemen to defend vs Barbs, southern starts with Work Boat as well. Farms and Mines should be priority after improving the resources. Cities also focused on Blacksmith, capital on Tannery and Heroic Epic as well, then science/commerce buildings.

UHV1: Starting Swordsmen (had a few flips) captured Multan immediately and then halted. Multan built 2 Cats and started sieging Lahore, finally captured in 1115. I forgot to build a settler early on for a city b/w Multan and my northern city, but Gaznavids put down a city 1N of Hemp and then gifted to me. I also forgot to build Watermills around Multan which should have been a priority instead of Cottages. Multan was my GP farm city and produced 3 GPs = 2 GAs. The first GA I timed for 1140 for the production bonus; it was tight but for 1 turn I micro'd to work all the tiles with hammers and I slightly beat competition at ~160 hammers.

UHV2: Once I was able to build Lancers my capital started to churn them out (~2 every 3 turns) and quickly captured Gujarat even without siege weapons. I also captured the Malwa city in Gujarat province closer to 1200.

UHV3: After Gujarati conquests I aggressively tech'd / built Wealth and reached Music Theory, and then quickly built Melvana wonder in 1211. Afterwards focused on building Sufi buildings (Monasteries, Churches, Libraries, Universities, Great Mosques) in every city possible. Finally by 1267 I got the 4 Sufi Shrines and won.

Stability: It is actually an issue after Gujarati conquests. I made sure to massacre populations, spread Shia around quickly, and build Mosques early on to avoid a respawn.

 

[Andrrew]

Ghorid

UHV1: Palace in Delhi by 1250
UHV2: Sunni Saint by 1250
UHV3: Control India from Punjab to Maharastra in 1400

Civics: Switched to Empire.
Techs: Priorities are Cheque Systems, Selective Breeding, Cavalry Tactics, Civil Service.
Cities: Founded capital on spot although weak city. I used Peshawar as my military city and focused it on Trebs, then Ghulam units, then HHAs. With starting units I captured the 3 Ghaznavid cities (Ghazna, Qandahar, Querta), then indy Dharamsala, Lahore, Delhi, Multan, Uch. Important to keep the Mujahids alive as they are one 2 eras ahead of everyone else at the beginning. All cities focused on Sunni buildings to become Saint, as well as Market as my economy was in the toilet, and later on Library. Once possible then built Wealth everywhere.

UHV1: Fairly easy within the time frame.
UHV2: I massacred non-Sunni population at each conquest; coupled with some Sunni buildings I quickly become Saint.
UHV3: It is a bit of an art of war to ensure you don't have to fight on too many fronts. I tried to keep Sindh at bay and initially captured Ajmer. Then both Malwa and Gujarat declared war on me, but I managed to make peace with Malwa and focused my full attention on Gujarat, finally capturing their cities around 1290. After I also captured 2 Sindh cities and then paused as my stability was very close to 0. Luckily both Sindh and Malwa collapsed shortly. I mopped up the third Sindh city but waited for Malwa (Foreign Core stability province). Once I got Civil Service my stability jumped to +45 and hence I quickly mopped up the 3 Malwa cities as well as the 3 Bahmani cities in the late 1300s.

Mongols: they are quite nasty, with 2 rounds, one around 1220 and another around 1290. I had to pull back a number of Ghulam units / HHAs from the battle front to manage the situation.

Stability: Occasionally dipped below zero which is risky due to potential respawns. I built Sunni Church everywhere, and once possible also Courthouses.

 

[Andrrew]

Malwa

UHV1: Build 5 Hindu Monasteries and Libraries by 1160
UHV2: 5 different GPs settled in your capital by 1300
UHV3: City with legendary culture by 1300

Civics: Switched to Aristocracy. Once possible, switched to Religious Law.
Techs: Literature, Botany, Water Mgmt, Education, Religious Architecture, then 100% culture.
Cities: Founded capital 1 NE from spot; this is a great production spot with Cow/Iron that can be assigned back and forth between capital and the GP city. Capital should build some military, Barracks, culture buildings including the +100% culture national wonder and the Hindu Cathedral. I captured indy city quickly with a couple of Archers + starting Swordsmen (CR2 as promoted from early barb attack with guaranteed win), and dedicated this city as my GP farm, building Library, Rani Ki Vav, National Epic, Heroic Epic. Other cities are less useful but can build commerce/science buildings and then max out Artists (was able to generate one in Gwalior).

UHV1: Once the indy city is captured, I also attacked Ajmer and captured their 2 cities. Then continued and captured 2 indy cities in the north (Gwalior, Delhi). When Gujarat arrived I attacked them with my experienced units + a Cat and captured their capital, then made peace. With all these cities, some very good production sites, it was easy to complete the buildings for UHV1.
UHV2: Once the GP farm city was up and running I started to churn out first the 4 different GPs to settle (GA, GS, GM; then GP once switched to Religious Law). The fifth one is the GG that I got from my warmongering. Condition completed around 1200.
UHV3: Once the 5 GPs are settled, all cities maxed out artist specialists and culutre-bombed my capital. I achieved legendary status in 1129, hence winning the game.

Stability: No issues here given good economy and mainly border provinces.

 

[Andrrew]

Gujarat

UHV1: Hindu Saint by 1130
UHV2: Control / vassalize Sindh, Malwa in 1200
UHV3: Highest population in 1240

Civics: Switched to Empire. Once possible, switched to Serfdom.
Techs: Priorities are Religious Architecture (Cathedrals for Piety), Cheque System (much-needed boost to economy), Crop Rotation (chop).
Cities: Founded capital 1 S from starting spot as it has a bit more green land in the BFC. Second settler founded Surat 1W of southern silk; later on also founded a city between Salt and Silver (for piety) and another one next to crab.

UHV2: Capital started with a couple of Catapults, Axemen, and I quickly captured the indy Stone city. Afterwards I decided to also capture Malwa early on; this was a pain for my Piety but I didn't want them to become strong. After I mopped up the 2 Malwa cities, I attacked Sindh whose capital was razed by barbs, and captured their 2 cities. I attached a GG to my starting Swordsman who became a beast.

UHV1: After Malwa/Sindh conquered, I built Hindu Temple & Monastery in each city, then once possible also 2 Cathedrals. I built the National Epic in the Stone city and was hoping to get 2 Great Priests but unfortunately the first was a GA which I used for a Golden Age. The GP built the Hindu Shrine (+10 Piety plus helps the economy). It all added up and I reached Saint level around 1130 (would have been much sooner if I had got 2 Great Priests).

UHV3: After the Piety goal I built the Heroic Epic in the Malwa capital and started building a massive Swordsmen/Catapult army. I captured Ajmer's cities, then moved forward to indy Delhi and Lahore. Ghorids beat me to Multan. I also built / captured dozens of workers and started putting farm on every flat tile and windmill on every hill tile (even on resources), and emphasized growth in all cities. I also built Granary and Aqueduct in all cities, as well as Rani Ki Vav early on which helps with health. Either Byzantines or Fatimids were a formidable opponent on pop but I managed to outperform them with ~2.3m pop vs 1.9m for the second player. I had 9 cities between 13-16 pop; could have been even better if I had captured Delhi and Lahore sooner.

Stability: No issues here given plenty of Temples and later on good economy.

 

[Andrrew]

Mughals

UHV1: Build Shalimar Gardens, Taj Mahal, and Red Fort
UHV2: 1 city with Legendary culture
UHV3: Control Hindustan in 1650

Civics: Switched to Meritocracy (my cities lacked GGs), Caste System, OR. Kept Monarchy at the beginning for happiness; at the first GA switched to Empire, Religious Law, Theocracy.
Techs: Beelined for Taj Mahal tech, then for Red Fort tech but using the "upper path" as it has more relevant military techs, as opposed to the "lower path" which is mainly naval technologies.
Cities: Founded capital on spot. As usual Delhi Sultanate had Delhi as its capital so annoyingly it didn't flip. I started with Trebs in most cities, then HHAs or Wealth (most buildings were already constructed in flipped cities). I picked Lahore as my culture/wonder city and started on the Shalimar Gardens after a few military units; Peshawar as my military city and built Heroic Epic and settled all GGs here. Delhi built the +100% commerce and science national wonders; Lahore the +100% culture building as well as Hindu/Sunni Cathedrals and National Epic. I pretty much built Wealth / Science in every city otherwise.

UHV1: I was a bit nervous as sometimes super Delhi / Gujarat / Mamluks get way ahead in tech (in my first roll Gujarat was way ahead and e.g. had Heavy Cavalries of 14 strength already at spawn...) but this time around my wonders were not in jeopardy. In fact I was able to trade away the Shalimar Gardens tech once I built it, to accelerate / catch up in tech. Lahore picked up all the wonders, a fantastic production city.

UHV2: With GP bonus from Meritocracy/Religious Law and National Epic Lahore was very quickly able to produce a ton of Great Artists that culture-bombed Lahore. In fact I overdid it as by 1650 the city had 40k culture instead of 25k

UHV3: I quickly captured Delhi and Dharamshala with starting units, a few flipped Bombards, Trebs / HHAs produced, and a couple of mercs (2 Heavy Lancers, 2-3 Heavy Swords). I wanted to make sure I don't have a multi front war and only declared war on Ajmer once Ghorid was finished. Ajmer quickly fell under my pressure. At this point I paused and focused on tech; got Civic Architecture in 1566 and started a GA with the free GE, as well as declared war on Gujarat (at this point had a sizeable heavily-promoted Armored Elephant stack as well). I went straight for their core cities in Gujarat and soon after they collapsed, although they did put up a decent fight. At this point I started to slowly mop up the indy cities in Gujarat and Malwa, intentionally taking my time so that my science doesn't slow down too much. Finally I discovered Imperialism in 1602, and at this point I unleashed my troops and captured Malwa, the other 2 southern provinces from Portugal/Indy, and Kabul. I also attacked Sindh at the same time as had a second army built in the meantime (with Siege Elephants), and by 1635 I controlled Sindh, and in addition Balochistan, Ghazna, Qandahar just for fun.

Stability: Not a big issue given strong economy, and all provinces are green.

 

[Andrrew]

Timur

UHV1: Raze / massacre 7 cities
UHV2: Samarqand highest culture in 1500
UHV3: 12% land area by 1600

Civics: Switched to Religious Law, Theocracy, Caste System. Kept Monarchy at the beginning for happiness; later on switched to Empire.
Techs: Cheque System, then set my Tech to 0% and put my Culture to 20-40% until I reached 12% land area.
Cities: All cities should start building Siege Engineers in particular (lot of indy cities have castle+marksmen combo...), and also some HHAs. I built National Epic and Heroic Epic in Samarqand. I put my starting settler on top of the northernmost Silk as there was no city there.

UHV1: Very easy as you will do a lot of conquests; just hit on massacre 7 times.

UHV2: When the UHV1-UHV3 GA kicked in (in 1460) I employed 3-4 artists in Samarqand and quickly generated 2 GAs, which was enough to become #1 in culture.

UHV3: Starting units quickly captured the 2 barb city in Kharezm, then with the support of siege engineers also captured Merv, and continued down towards W Khorasan and then to rest of Iran. I eventually also captured Herat, far eastern Silk city, Iraq, as well as almost all the Shahanshah provinces (I think I only missed indy Khuzestan and Omani Fars - I just didn't bother as already hit the 12% goal by then).

Stability: Not a big issue as I spread Sunni everywhere and otherwise massacred a lot of non-Sunni religions; in addition my economy was decent. In the late game I built Markets for economy boost as well as Sunni buildings (Baghdad had the Spiral Minaret) and Courthouses everywhere to further boost my economy.

 

[Andrrew]

Ajmer

UHV1: No Islam in Hindustan (excl. Sindh) in 1200
UHV2: 3 GGs by 1200
UHV3: No Islam in Hindustan, Gandhara in 1400

Civics: Started with Empire, Vassalage, Caste System, OR. Switched to Persecution once possible.
Techs: Machinery (Catapults), Literature (Library), Botany (resources), Water Mgmt (Hindu wonder), Long-distance Trade (trade techs), Cheque System (build Wealth), Religious Unity (Persecution). Later on focused on military techs (Engineering-Trebs, Selective Breeding-Lancers, Cavalry Tactics-Noble Horsemen).
Cities: Founded capital 1 S from starting spot as it has a bit more green land in the BFC. I immediately captured Gwalior with Archer (promoted via freebie barb fight). Capital built Worker, then Barracks, Archers, Cats, and captured Stone city. Conquered cities built Worker, then Archer, then Library. I continued onwards with my Archer/Cat army and captured Delhi, Lahore, and Multan by 968. Malwa also declared war on me so I captured their city Kota (east of my Stone city). I did not found add'l cities to help my economy; Delhi's culture expansion captured the Horse resource in any case which was the only resource I really wanted.

UHV2: Automatic given all the fighting.

UHV1: After the initial conquests I tech'd forward and got Selective Breeding in 1123 and started mass-producing Lancers to welcome the Ghorid. When they showed up I immediately captured Peshawar and also Kabul, then made peace before their larger stack could reach me. They continued fighting with Ghaznavids and shortly after collapsed. I persecuted a few of my cities that got Sunni pre-Persecution, and also captured Sindh's city Uch (SW of Multan). With all that I fulfilled the UHV as Islam didn't spread to Gujarat/Malwa by 1200.

UHV3: I tech'd forward and got to Blast Furnace in 1364. With Heavy Lancers & Noble Horsemen I easily captured Sindh and Bahmani. Unfortunately Gujarat and Malwa each got Sunni in one of their cities (it is really annoying but they won't persecute it, and when I asked them to switch to Persecution civic they just switch back to something else in a few turns). As a result, just before the deadline I had to declare war on them capture their 1 Sunni city each. Given my strong army it was not an issue.

Stability: Around the +10 area for most of the time; built Hindu Churches everywhere and later on Courthouses as well. I killed the Mongol stacks immediately so there was no stability damage from that.

 

[Andrrew]

Oman

UHV1: Convert 5 foreign coastal cities to Islam by 1470
UHV2: 50k gold by 1600
UHV3: No Portuguese cities in Arabia / Africa / Iran in 1600

Civics: Started with Aristocracy, Vassalage, Slavery, OR. Later on switched to Religious Law, Caste System, Market Economy, Theocracy. Once possible finally switched to Merchant Capitalism.
Techs: Stern Rudder (Kizil Kule), Economics, Companies (unfortunately uber Saladin beat me to it), Banking. Then put tech at 0% until I got the 50k. Aggressively traded away all techs pretty much immediately and got the following long list of techs via trade (prior to Portuguese arrival in 1509): Cheque System, Education, Algebra, Guilds, Caste System, Selective Breeding, Medicine, Castle Building, Paper, Alchemy, Crop Rotation, Levy Armies, Asymmetric Warfare, Cavalry Tactics, Civil Service, Finery Forge, Mechanical Engineering, Optics, Religious Architecture. Although you don't really need these techs, just improves your score...
Cities: Founded 3 core cities as usual, and relatively early on founded another one to get the Incense and attract Sufism. Post-Mongols also founded a city with Fish, Crab, Iron. Cities started on Fairground, Harbor, Library, Slave Market, Market, and other commerce buildings. Sur built a couple of Sunni missionaries and later on Sufi as well. Capital should build Kizil Kule, Heroic Epic. I built the National Epic in the Iron city and produced a number of GPs there.

UHV1: I sent around my 2 starting ships and my Caravan to explore. I declared war on Ajmer so that Gujarat OB's with me, and spread Sunni to 3 of their coastal cities. Sindh was also missing Islam in their coastal city which was my #4. Then I just needed 1 Sufi guy to spread it in Malwa's Mumbai. UHV completed around 1320.

UHV3: Around 1440 I built a Drydock in every single coastal city and started to mass-produce Great Galleys. In total I built 53. I eliminated all Portuguese Carracks immediately when they showed up. There are 2 rounds, one in 1509 (Dubai/Muscat/Salalah) and one in 1518 or so (Yemen/Dubai/Qatar).

UHV2: I OB'd with everyone early on for a small gift of gold, to maximize trade route benefits. I captured Shiraz and Siraf around 1280 from Mongol barbs, which was a nice addition to my economy. I aggressively traded away all my excess / not needed resource (Horses for 15g/turn etc), and also gave away techs for a few 100 gold. I generated 3 GAs from GPs, all in the 1400s. Post-Portugal my gold generation was ~600/turn (with all cities building Wealth). I hit the 50k goal around 1560, and after that I just continued to tech away and acquired a ton of additional techs for gold.

Stability: Post Portugal massacre it dipped below -15 or so but generally health given good economy.

 

[Andrrew]

Ak Koyonlu

UHV1: Control Jazira, Azuristan, Azerbaijan in 1440
UHV2: Control Jazira, Azuristan, Azerbaijan, Lesser Armenia, Shirvan, Iraq, Khuzestan in 1480
UHV3: Become Shahanshah

Civics: Used Monarchy (happiness helpful), Vassalage, Serfdom (stable civic, plus surprising amount of land unimproved/pillaged), Theocracy. Switched to Empire later. Did not switch to Sunni early on as my target area was ~50/50 Sunni/Shia, however in retrospect it might make sense to keep your neighbors happy.
Techs: No techs needed. I set my tech at 0% and generated gold, as in late game I was bleeding money even at 0% tech. Sometimes I set my culture slider to 10-20% to support cities with happiness.
Cities: Founded capital on spot, which must be the worst capital spot in the entire game. I quickly captured Indy Edessa, Stone city in Lesser Armenia, and Silvan in Vaspurakan with starting units (in retrospect may make sense to skip Edessa and Silvan). I hooked up Horse ASAP in my Azeri city. I utilized the Brute Force strategy and started building Barracks and then HHAs in every single city, during the entire game. I also built ~8 Trebs early on as I had a somewhat unlucky start with entire Iran well-defended Indy cities, all of them with castle, and multipe CD2-promoted Marksmen... But generally my preference is to barrage cities with Flanking 3 HHAs as opposed to the slow Trebs. In total I built 80 HHAs during the game, and lost 26... I assigned the first GG to my Turkoman Raiders and made them real beasts.

UHV1: This is easy as these provinces are your flipzone - just have to defend from the ocassional barbs around Azerbaijan.

UHV2: Incredibly Yemen owned most of Iraq, except for Bagdat which was owned by Oman! I hence missed out on CotF title unfortunately. I declared war on them and captured their cities by 1455, supported by Trebs and more importantly Flanking HHAs. Then I captured the 2 Shirvan cities from Georgia around 1470. I already had indy Lesser Armenia Stone city from the early conquests.

Intermezzo: Ayyubid, Mamluk attacks from the west...
In 1484 Ayyubids declared war on me and moved towards Rakka with a stack of ~7 units (Pikes, Trebs, HHAs). Luckily at this point my HHA production was really fast, so I was able to redirect a stack of HHAs and eliminate their stack by the time they arrived next to my city. Then in 1494, just when I was about to relax Mamluks also declared war with a stack of ~10 going for Edessa. I was also able to defend (used a GG to boost some of my troops there), but ultimately this intermezzo slowed me down a bit.

UHV3: I started to expand in Iran very quickly in parallel to my Iraq conquests, but I already had a sense that I won't become Shahanshah prior to Safavid spawn in 1501 given all the well-defended Indy cities, and hence skipped Safavid flipzone (Kurdistan, Tabaristan) for now. In slightly better starts it is entirely possible to win by 1500 though. Oman owned the southern Iran cities so I had to conquer these from them; the rest were indy and I was done with it by 1506. At this point I redirected my Massive stack of HHAs and very quickly captured the 4 Safavid cities (which were poorly-defended compared to the Indy cities...), and won in 1510!

Stability: Huge issue, I was around -35 and -40 in the last 2 turns when I captured the 4 Safavid cities. I had massively overbuilt my army in the end; should have started building Churches / Wealth in around 1490 or so, or even earlier. It would have also made sense to spread my state religion in every city (and in fact should have switched to Sunni at spawn as it was slightly better-spread and would have kept my neighbors happier).
I should have also micro'd to generate more GPs and start GAs near the end when I had too many cities. I only started 1 GA with a GP early on, and used the second (a Great Priest) to spread around Shia to my cities.

 

[Andrrew]

Ottomans

UHV1: Roman Emperor Title in 1450
UHV2: First to discover Military Drill, Matchlock, Flintlock
UHV3: Control Anatolia, Thrace, Levant, Egypt, Hejaz, Caucasus in 1660

Civics: Started with Monarchy, Vassalage, Serfdom (stable civic), Agrarianism (stable civic + lot of Farms), Theocracy. Switched to Empire and Religious Law later.
Techs: Beelined for Military Drill, Matchlock, Flintlock. The game is a dance to balance out conquests and tech speed as you have Ghorids / Mughals teching very fast.
Cities: My capital flipped on spawn and the rest of core cities in turn 2. All cities started with Trebs, then HHAs. I dedicated Izmir as my military city and settled all GGs there. I attached my first GG to a Heavy Lancer and got to lvl 13-14 by the end of the game Conquered cities build science / commerce / health buildings, then Wealth. When my stability was dipping below zero I started building Courthouses and Sunni Churches everywhere.

UHV1: I moved all my starting units towards Constantinople, supported by a couple of drafted Marksmen, and immediately captured it (suffering very high casualties, but it is worth it as Byzantion collapsed almost immediately after).

UHV2 & 3: I had a very strong Ghorid so were quite scared they'll beat me to Matchlock, hence I only conquered Thrace and Anatolia ex-Cilicia initially (by 1364) and then built Wealth + started 2 GAs to quickly get to Military Drill (1416 AD) and Matchlock (1468 AD).
After that I unleashed my heavily-promoted Heavy Lancers, HHAs, and Trebs/Bombards and conquered Cilicia, Levant, Egypt (Mamluks were not that strong), and Hejaz by 1550 or so. Cairo's wonders were a nice boost to my economy (esp. the +2 beakers per Sunni building one).
Then gathered my troops and attacked Ak Koyonlu, capturing Mesopotamia by 1565 (mainly using Flanking 3 Light Cavalries and not really bothering with siege at this point), and in parallel reaching Flintlock in 1575. At this point I halted again as my stability was dipping below zero even with all Courthouses/Sunni Mosques built, primarily as my Expansion Stability was -130 or so... I then went for Admin Reforms tech to build Topkapi but unfortunately Mughals beat me to it - this is a huge miss and would probably make sense to prioritize that tech as it could add +30 to your stability.
I managed to keep my stability near zero until 1652, at which point I declared war on Safavids with a massive stack of Light Cavalry, and quickly captured all their Caucasus cities. I saved up 4 GPs and started a GA at the same time to boost my stability in the final turns (which in fact dipped to -39 in 1660 due to the Foreign Core conquests, even during the GA).

 

[Andrrew]

Safavids

UHV1: Make Shia the dominant religion
UHV2: Build 4 World Wonders
UHV3: Become Shahanshah

Civics: Used Monarchy, Religious Law (GPs), Serfdom, Market Economy, OR. Switched to Empire, Theocracy later.
Techs: Depends on the starting situation i.e. which wonders are available. I had a very unlucky start with super advanced Mamluks (built Topkapi in 1498 and Blue Mosque in 1548) and Ghorids (built Bridge33 in 1516 and Taj Mahal in 1559). As a result, I focused on Shalimar and Red Fort apart from the 2 Shia wonders. My tech path was City Planning (1545), Civic Architecture (1561 - this was a waste of time in retrospect as Ghorids beat me to the Taj Mahal), Admin Reforms (1576), Imperialism (1606).
Cities: Did not found any cities as Ak Koyonlu had a city very close to my start. Upon flip Ak Koyonlu, Timur, and Byzantines declared war, which was nice as I got a big stack of bonus units. I built Market/Library in every city, then Science/Wealth. I built the Heroic Epic in Naxchivan (city with 2 Horses, Deer, and Apple), settled all GGs, and built a ton of HHAs there.
Conquests: I captured Armenian capital from Cilicia, then Byzantine-owned Armenian city with Apple/Honey/Wine, then made peace with Byzantion. In the east, I captured indy Hamadan, Tehran, Esfahan (I sacrificed my ~12 bonus Marksmen as they are relatively useless). This was done by 1513. Then I regrouped and captured Iraq (escl. Basrah) from Ak Koyonlu by 1520-1530 or so. I also captured Neyshabur and razed the other W Khorasan city Timur owned. Also captured coastal Fas in Georgia. Then I halted conquests and tech'ed ahead. Later on Mamluks and Sindh declared war but my HHA stack beat them back.

UHV1: My capital Kermanshah produced a couple of Great Priests, and once I got Bagdat (with SM and HoW) I built the National Epic there and ran 7+ priest specialists. In addition I started to spread Shia in Byzantion (who OB'd due to common war) as well as using Sufi missionaries to go to Mamluks and Ak Koyonlu once I made peace with them. Shia was around 19% at start (unlucky roll) but I pushed it up to 30% (I massacred population in all conquered cities, and also used a couple of prosecutors to clean up my starting cities). My coastal and Iraqi cities can grow very big, easily to 15-16 pop. Once Shia was 30% (1556 AD), I used 2-3 Great Priests to spread my religion and it was enough to beat Sunni at 36% vs 35%. Afterwards I started a lot of GAs with my excess GPs which was very nice (esp with the Shalimar's bonus length).

UHV2: Per the above tech path and very aggressive tech'ing (building science in literally all the cities) I got the 4 wonders in 1611. Imam Reza - 1515; Shalimar - 1546, Shah Mosque - 1582, Red Fort - 1611.

UHV3: Once I got Imperialism in 1606, I unleashed my HHAs and captured Yazd, Fars, Kerman provinces from Sindh as well as another indy city in W Khorasan, thereby claiming the title of Shahanshah and winning in 1614!

Stability: Very strong stability during the entire game, given historical conquests and strong economy.