1.16 Paragon/Normal Speed UHV Strategies

[Andrrew]

Byzantines

The UHV conditions are unchanged vs 1.16; the dynamics around the Middle East have changed somewhat though (e.g. Turks separate civ, Arabs have access to more powerful wonders).

UHV1: 5k gold in 1000: (i) researched Alchemy then set tech to zero; (ii) generated 2 GMs in Constantinople (sent to China and Rome) via active GP micro; (iii) built a few turns of Wealth prior to the trigger date.
UHV2: Constantinople #1 in population and culture in 1200: assigned BFC to Constantinople and put farms on all flat lands + built happy/health/culture buildings early on (did not need GA); kept an eye on competition on top cities screen (China/Japan was close), and needed to push pop 1 above happiness limit in the trigger year but it was doable.
UHV3: Control the Eastern Roman Empire territories in 1450:

Apart from Constantinople, all cities build Barracks, then Trebs/HAs/Cataphracts.
Arabs: Moved all units back to Konya from the Arab flipzone then made peace.
Rome: Captured in 970, as it gives nice gold & military production boost.
Turks (aka Seljuks): modest sized stacks appear in Asia Minor around 1150; no major issue with them.
Damascus and Jerusalem: Captured in 1150-1200 after the Turk invasion.
Ottomans: I stacked ~10 HAs, ~15 Cataphracts, and a couple of Bombards in my capital (in the meantime my tech was catching up and reached Gunpowder), and stormed them on the Ottoman starting units when they appeared. However, it was not enough to eliminate them! Their leftover stack started to move east towards Baghdad, with only a few defenders left in Konya and Trabzon --> I used my remaining HAs to capture them, thereby eliminating the Ottomans and their remaining large stack of units...
Mongols: they are also a major risk; very aggressive and attacking with huge stacks. I brokered a peace deal by giving them a tech asap.
Once all that is done, conquering the eastern part North Africa with the remaining veteran troops was easy, thereby achieving UHV3!

 

[Andrrew]

Ottomans

With the re-worked tech tree this UHV seems to be a major challenge this time around in v1.16!

UHV1: Have 4 non-obsolete world wonders in your capital in 1550.
UHV2: Control Ottoman Empire territories by 1700.
UHV3: Have more culture than all European civs combined in 1800.

I gave it a go with the first roll, which had a recently-collapsed Byzantium, and Konya with 2 WWs (Mount Athos and Saint Sophia). Hence, I decided to keep Konya my capital - this is debatable (you lose default access to resources in Istanbul), but on Paragon tech is incredibly slow (and inflation is incredibly high!) so felt like catching 3 wonders at Instanbul is very tricky.
I think you could get lucky with another roll, with wonders in Constantinople, but I gave it a few tries and it didn't come through. One could also have a try with the 3000 BC start as opposed to the 600 AD to see if that comes in better.

Techs/UHV1: Education (Uni of Sankore - built in 1460, not sure how lucky this is), Judiciary (Topkapi - built in 1530 via GE), Academia (Blue Mosque - for Constantinople to draft Janissaries), Firearms (Janissaries).
1300-1550 was a mad tech race (used non-GE GPs to bulb - House of Wisdom a HUGE help) where cities built Wealth while starting troops conquered Greece, Near East, Mecca, and Egypt (I didn't attack Morocco just yet). Athens was my dedicated military city where GGs settled.

Stability: a BIG issue on Paragon; had to focus on food tiles for Konya and Trabzon to maximize population in Core, and halt pop growth in remote cities like Mecca, Egypt, Baghdad. One improvement idea is to put another city in the core, 2 tiles north of Konya.

Expansion/UHV2: UHV2 is an absolute nightmare, as I need to culturally control every single tile that is marked as target territory, as opposed to just controlling all cities in the regions (like most other "control" UHVs).
To secure the tiles, I can either (i) settle northern / northeastern Black Sea very early and build a ton of culture there (which I didn't do due to concerns for science drag), or (ii) conquer Stavropol from Russia ('Foreign Core'), as such a big stability issue and also a military debacle!
Same goes for North Africa where I needed to eat into Moroccan core in order to secure the westernmost tile, as well as Vienna which is naturally foreign core.
In order to avoid civil war / collapse, I timed these 3 conquests (Vienna, Morocco core, Stavropol) to happen simultaneously. I liberated these foreign core cities ASAP afterwards to avoid collapse.
My attacking stack was ~14 Jans, ~8 pistoliers, ~6 bombards, ~8 lancers combined for the 3 targets. It was very tight, but the surprise factor ensured limited defenses.

Culture/UHV3: built culture buildings & then culture in all cities post-1550, with zero tech % & max culture % after Firearms. Maxed out artist specialists, and settled several GAs in UHV2-critical cities (Crimea, Odessa) which ensured I didn't have to conquer Kiev for UHV2.
However, in the end the math didn't add up, and I had to conquer Kiev (2000+ culture) in 1780 to ensure I beat Europe. This was a bloody battle with my units 1-2 eras behind the defenders, but my numbers eventually prevailed!

 

[DanLT3]

Some feedback (I hope you don't mind).
Espionage instead of researching techs yourself would make your tech rate better for both these civs at Paragon difficulty.
For Ottomans UHV3, making your capital a culture booming city, much like making Paris legendary, is a more efficient way to go after the needed culture. That is aim for culture multipliers in one city with alot of base culture.
Not sure if you did this but getting one or more Great Prophets to build the shrines missing in your many holy cities will help your economy alot.

 

[Andrrew]

Ethiopia

The UHV conditions have changed recently (if I'm not mistaken), so it was guaranteed to be an interesting challenge!

UHV1: 3 incense resources by 400 AD.
Founded capital in Djibouti (1W of fish; 1 incense in BFC), 2nd city 1S of western incense. Later on I founded a city on top of the incense next to Mecca in 185 AD, well ahead of the deadline (I let Indies capture this city around 400 AD).
UHV2: (i) Convert to Orthodoxy 5 turns after it is founded, (ii) 3 GPs settled and Cathedral built by 1200.
Limb (i) is the tricky one, as it purely depends on luck. I rolled 4 times, always opening borders with Egypt / Greece / Rome (usual suspects for founding Orthodoxy between 400 BC and 150 BC), and for the 4th time it did spread to me (founded in 175 AD in Abu Simbel).
Limb (ii) is a tech race to Architecture, which is not too easy but with cities building monasteries and libraries, and working the $$-rich tiles (cotton, gem, etc) it can be done. I got Architecture in ~1100 and completed the cathedral just in time. GPs shouldn't be an issue as long as Djibouti and Zanzibar are working 2-3 prophets each.
UHV3: More Orthodox than Islam cities in Africa in 1500 (see below).

Wars:
Egypt: didn't declare war, collapsed after Greek/Roman conquests. At that point I captured Selima (1N of Cotton).
Indies/Barbs: Impis start from around 600 AD; 2 swords per city is sufficient defense. In addition Indie city Barbara popped up 1S 2E of my capital which I had to capture and decided to raze as it had Islam.
Arabs: They declared war and tried to capture Selima. Built Walls there and added several Swordsmen to defend. When Gazirat (city on gold) only had 1 defender I captured it with experienced Swordsmen, allowing me to broker peace with the Arabs for 50 gold.
Ottomans: They didn't get to Egypt by 1500.

Expansion:
Apart from 2 core cities and 2 captured cities, I founded Mogadishu (1S of horse), Zanzibar (2S of gems), and Yeha (2W 1N or gems) fairly early on. At that point stability became an issue, so I had to halt growth at the non-core cities while maximizing growth in core cities.

My cities (7) plus Byzantine legacy cities (4) added up to 11 Orthodox cities, vs 16 Islamic in 1490. Just before the deadline, I built 6 new cities (very close to other cities and in core / historical areas) which ensured my victory!
I used my 4th GP to spread religion to nearby cities, but it didn't seem to work (not sure why). Cordoba / Mali also wasn't willing to OB; one avenue might be to switch to Islam which I didn't try for stability reasons.

 

[Andrrew]

Tamils

With the new set of wonders I was hoping this will be a fun game. Turned out to be easier than anticipated!

Expansion:
Founded capital on spot; 2nd city on iron; 3rd city, Chennai, flipped from India (didn't declare war); 4th was a barb city 1NE of Deccan cow, which my starting Elephant captured.
5th and 6th city I conquered from India shortly thereafter with Elephant & 2 swords (1-archer-defended city 1S of Iron, and no-defense Mumbai). This 6 cities were enough to generate the required culture, as I prioritized Libraries and Theaters (did not need to run artists / generate GAs / build culture).
I also captured Pagan in late game just for fun.
I'm not sure if my start was particularly lucky, I rolled a few and Chennai flip seems very common (in some cases with more developed BFC improvements than in my game).

Tech: Currency (markets -> GMs), Literature (theaters), Generalship (Elephants). The rest actually doesn't matter, but I pushed my tech till the end and had a tech lead (on Paragon!).

UHV1: 3k gold and 2k culture in 800 AD.
Key was to hold off scientist/artists until I had markets built, thereby getting 2 GMs; used in Persian holy city generating 2x1.8k=3.6k, so had some extra cash to buy some techs.
UHV2: Control Deccan and Srivijaya in 1000AD.
The above expansion strategy got me Deccan; in 750 I declared on Indonesia with 4 Elephants and they capitulated after I conquered their capital and Singapore.
UHV3: 4k gold through trade / GM missions.
I remembered this being the tricky one, and since early game I was selling techs for 40-50 golds and resources for 2-3 gold/turn. However, it was totally unnecessary as I didn't realize the GM trade missions count towards this goal, hence I only needed a mere 400 gold in addition! Condition achieved in 630AD.

Stability was not a major issue, with all cities on Historical land and 3 large cities in Core.
To maximize score one could easily capture the northern Indian cities with Elephants / Knights before the 1000AD victory kicks in.
I regret that I was not able to utilize the new wonders more - I simply didn't need any!

 

[BaneFire]

Tamils seem to be super easy. Not complaining because it's super fun and sets you up for a long-term game in which you can conquer India, Myanmar, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, etc.

 

[need my speed]

Or, you know, the world (I never liked expansion stability anyway~):

 

[ozqar]

just... how?????

 

[BaneFire]

How did you manage stability? Mass nationalism/slavery population control?

 

[BaneFire]

I guess it's Marathon difficulty so anything goes.

 

[need my speed]

I painted the entire world as my core (i.e. no expansion stability issues). And it's 3000 BC Marathon indeed (on the middle difficulty), that makes things pretty easy. It's from some months ago actually, I currently have Gunships flying through Russia, nothing can even attempt to stop me.

 

[1SDANi]

I painted the entire world as my core (i.e. no expansion stability issues). And it's 3000 BC Marathon indeed (on the middle difficulty), that makes things pretty easy. It's from some months ago actually, I currently have Gunships flying through Russia, nothing can even attempt to stop me.

That kind of removes the whole challenge of expansion in RFC.

 

[need my speed]

That kind of removes the whole challenge of expansion in RFC.

Sure, but I play for my own enjoyment, and this is more enjoyable to me than micromanaging core population and still having a hard limit.

 

[ozqar]

I play for my own enjoyment, and this is more enjoyable to me

Wisdom.

 

[Leoreth]

It's more enjoyable if you play for enjoyment?

 

[need my speed]

That's not what I said. There are people who play a game as it is 'meant' / designed to be played, and there are people who alter the game to optimise it for their own subjective preferences (i.e. enjoyment). You can see confrontations between them anywhere someone (of the second category) asks for cheats, for example.

 

[Leoreth]

I'm completely agreeing with you if that isn't clear. I just found the phrasing funny

 

[DanLT3]

Not to meantion is extremely offtopic to what the thread creator intended to be posted here.

 

[Andrrew]

Vikings

The Vikings are always fun as there are many avenues to pursue with them! I went with the standard 600AD start to keep things simple.

UHV1: Control a European core in 1050
UHV2: Found a city in America by 1100
UHV3: 3k gold from city conquests, pillages, ships sunk by 1500

Techs: the only required tech is Civil Service (to build Huskarls). Everything else is extra. I nevertheless teched aggressively as I thought I might need some Aztec / Inca conquest gold for UHV3. Got to Cartography around 1300 but achieved victory before I arrived to the New World.

Cities: Founded Oslo on spot, Stockholm 1 NE of lake, and Helsinki 1E of horse. All 3 decent production cities with plenty of food around as well. Cities whipped Pagan temple and a worker, then built library, barracks, and Huskarls ad infinitum.

UHV1: I went for France as I thought England might be a harder nut to crack. Starting huskarls conquered indy Bordeaux and razed indy Marseille. After the 10 turn grace period I declared war on France and razed Bordeaux and captured Paris, then waited a bit and captured Cherbourg and Nantes at the same time in 1050.

UHV2: whipped a settler very early on to found a city in the northern edge of Ireland; whipped a pagan temple and monument there, then built culture until finally I expanded to the ocean tile, which point I sent a second settler to Iceland, and finally a third to Vinland (built in 1030).

UHV3: the endgame is really fun warmongering - basically capture a coastal city with weak defenses, heal troops, make peace, gift city or liberate, then repeat. Having gifted away the French cities to Spain, I attacked London, then Hamburg, then the 3 Spanish cities in France, then Plymouth, then Gdansk (Poland). These conquests were enough to achieve the 3k gold by 1370. In the end each city conquest added 300 gold; I didn't have to focus on pillaging.

Stability: the only tricky part as we are on Paragon; had to maximize growth in Core cities, and avoid growth in all other cities. Around 1050 I founded Malmo (1S of copper) to have +1 city in core. Timed the France conquests such that I captured the final 2 cities exactly in 1050 (at which point the GA helped as I was unstable). Also adopted Christianity early, and switched civics to Monarchy/Monasticism which helped.

 

[DanLT3]

Some slightly different strategy from me for Vikings (Paragon/Normal/600AD start)

Techs: Research Alchemy and Compass (which will open up the passage from Northern Ireland to Iceland) After that Espionage on the new European civs until you catch up on everything. You might even get tech leader (though Arabian and Byzantium are hard to beat).

Civics: Elective, Vassalage, Merchant Trade and Conquest (starting ones). Switch to Clergy and Manorialism on turn 1.

Cities: Oslo on the spot, Stockholm SW of deer and Malmö on south tip of Sweden (all cities inside core which will help you with stability). Build Libraries in all 3 starting cities for culture and science. Let these 3 cities grow big for stability yet help you build up your army.

UHV1: Capture pretty much any civ core you want. I prefer Italy (Venedig+Rome) though as Rome is a good money making city to have. You can later gift Venedig to Holy Roman when you make them vassals.

UHV2: Train a settler when you have researched Compass. Send it to Iceland (along with an archer for happiness) and found Reykjavik. Build culture in this city until you get the whale sea square in culture (first one). Send another settlers to America and found any city there (don't have to be Vinland) close to or at 1100AD. Let the natives capture this city as soon as possible (maintaning this city costs alot, better give it up as soon as you get the UHV)

UHV3: Capturing the hard big cities and sacking them gives the best gold for your goal. Holy Roman is a good but rather hard choice for your first vassal. Keep Frankfurt and gift the other cities back as soon as you can. In my game I made vassals of Holy Roman, Spain and Portugal. But the choice is all yours.

Stability: Not a real problem with 3 big core cities as long as you keep making new vassals and gift back some or all of the captured cities.