Recently completed Rome UHV under Regent/Epic settings. I must say this UHV was both extremely annoying but satisfying at the same time, and so for anyone who dares to attempt this: prepare to lose a few years of your life. With the new map, I don't think Rome UHV is possible under normal speed, as there simply is no time to move units around. For example, it takes about 5 turns to sail from Italy to Levant, and even when you win in combat, healing your units consumes way too much of your precious time. About difficulty, first I attempt with monarch but noticed this as impossible because AI had simply too many and good units that I could not beat up in time. I think Rome UHV would be more enjoyable and less frustrating if there were more turns, as you simply cannot afford to make mistakes at all, or lose any units. Because of this, even if you play perfectly AI may have done something that screws you over. There was nothing I could do when I noticed AI had razen one city in Egypt, and so I had to try again 20 turns earlier. Other frustrating case was barbarian trimere spawning next to my galley, and again I had to reroll.
So, when you dare to try, prepare yourself for a lot of savescumming and rerolling.
Starting moves:
I must say I was rather lucky that AI Greek had already founded a city in South Italy, and that I was able to capture 3 Greek workers almost at the start. This was extremely important and very unfair for rest of you, as you simply I have no turns to gear up production or improve tiles.
When the starts, immediately send to settlers to Spain and legions against Celts. Do not try to take Nemessos, but Burdigala and Paris behind it. They are more weakly defended, and by conquering these your legions gain valuable exp. Remember, you cannot afford to lose a single unit! You do not have production or time to replace them, and make sure you capture both Celtic workers, again the same reason. Meanwhile this wars is going on in Rome build barrack, aqueduct, forum, and arena in this order, and repeat it in all other cities. No workers and what so ever, you don't have time! When you lack tech to build a mentioned building in Rome, build a ballista, you need that against Carthage, and in other cities either workers or legions. Ignore the rest. Techs research order is: law, currency, and engineering. Law is needed for citizenship civic to double aqueduct production, from currency you get both forum and merchant trade to double it's production, and from engineering you get the arena. After taking down Celts you should have 8 cities in total that are required for 1st UHV (8 barracks). Chop forest to rush them when needed, with rest of buildings you can relax a bit, but with war no. Immediately after taking down Celts send now your veteran legions+ballista against Carthage. Land right next to capital, and take it down. Reroll no matter how many times is necessarry. This should very quickly collapse the whole civilization, and congratulations, if you did as I instructed, you have now completed the 1st UHV.
After this you can relax a bit, but again not much, as there simply is no time. Unfortunately, simply too much is up to luck, and in my case I was lucky. Egypt had already collapsed, and when I took down Greek capital the whole east collapsed as well, thus making this extremely easy.
This being said, while you are waging war in Carthage build a new army and without wasting any time, ferry it over to Greek. Take Athens and hope the Greek civilization collapses, because if not you simply cannot get your troops safely to Egypt and Levant, but when it does, immediately send your galleys to Levant and try to snatch whatever cities you can at there. Rush rush rush! Reload if your galley gets sunk, no time as you know by now. Send your veteran African army to Egypt, and with Greek army take the necessary cities at Anatolia. Meanwhile in home build one settler for England, and another just in case you need to settle down cities somewhere in east. This again requires a lot of reloading and save scumming, but eventually you will make it. Congratulations, you completed the 2nd UHV! Now your Empire should look something like this:
After this game becomes much more easier and you can start to make some liberties. You are Rome! Who is going to stop you! Since AI is regent there is no danger AI techrushing over you, but still it is not wise to neglect this. Personally I went scholarships, politics, architecture, civil service and machinery route. When I felt there was no pressure I researched ethics for Orthodoxy. Make sure your first GP is not a merchant, but instead of artist, engineer, or scientist, for merchant does not give you important techs. Techtrade only with civilizations you are going to crush, or civilizations that are hopelessly behind you. Neither of them endanger the 3rd UHV, and out of all UHV this is the most easiest.
Now, as you can see I took extreme liberties, and could have completed Rome UHV much more earlier than I did. In fact I was worried China could research machinery first, but in the end did not and here I am, master of the world. As said, after completing 2nd UHV you can quickly exit the game or do whatever you want, and I decided to larp Roman Empire.
When it comes to wonders, you can ignore them as they are simply too expensive and you don't have time or production to build them. Via Aqua (likely misspelled) is extremely weak wonder, and while Flavian Amphitheatre sounds mandatory, again building it takes so long time that you don't need it for UHV and instead of you should build legions instead of. Of civics, I remained as republic as it was the only way to counter crippling over extension penalty. You really do not need monarchy for happiness, or despotism for hurrying production, but what do I know? When it comes to religion civics, take monastics as you will pop GP faster. Use GP either to delay the inevitable collapse, or bulp techs to complete your last UHV faster. Further to delay collapse, have 4 cities in your core and make them as large as possible to keep stability up, and build prison in every other city to further reduce over extension penalty. Do not raze cities, that gives you unnecessary instability, and only with great engineers hurry build wonders. If you aim for a long game ,Hagia Sophia is probably the best you can get (+1 gold from state religion city), so at least build that. In the end I had something like 3 legions per city, meaning no matter how severe barbarian invasions Leoreth has coded in, you can easily repel all of them. Hunns, Vandals, Ostrogoths, and Visiogiths were all crushed by mighty of Rome. My last advice is that the last tech must be machinery, as that tech will replace your legion with heavy swordman. Basically, if you research this tech before civil service you just hugely nerfed yourself. Heavy swordsman simply is more expensive versio of legion, buffed with tiny +10% city attack bonus, meaning you are paying much more for pretty much the same.
Roma aeterna!
So, when you dare to try, prepare yourself for a lot of savescumming and rerolling.
Starting moves:
I must say I was rather lucky that AI Greek had already founded a city in South Italy, and that I was able to capture 3 Greek workers almost at the start. This was extremely important and very unfair for rest of you, as you simply I have no turns to gear up production or improve tiles.
When the starts, immediately send to settlers to Spain and legions against Celts. Do not try to take Nemessos, but Burdigala and Paris behind it. They are more weakly defended, and by conquering these your legions gain valuable exp. Remember, you cannot afford to lose a single unit! You do not have production or time to replace them, and make sure you capture both Celtic workers, again the same reason. Meanwhile this wars is going on in Rome build barrack, aqueduct, forum, and arena in this order, and repeat it in all other cities. No workers and what so ever, you don't have time! When you lack tech to build a mentioned building in Rome, build a ballista, you need that against Carthage, and in other cities either workers or legions. Ignore the rest. Techs research order is: law, currency, and engineering. Law is needed for citizenship civic to double aqueduct production, from currency you get both forum and merchant trade to double it's production, and from engineering you get the arena. After taking down Celts you should have 8 cities in total that are required for 1st UHV (8 barracks). Chop forest to rush them when needed, with rest of buildings you can relax a bit, but with war no. Immediately after taking down Celts send now your veteran legions+ballista against Carthage. Land right next to capital, and take it down. Reroll no matter how many times is necessarry. This should very quickly collapse the whole civilization, and congratulations, if you did as I instructed, you have now completed the 1st UHV.
After this you can relax a bit, but again not much, as there simply is no time. Unfortunately, simply too much is up to luck, and in my case I was lucky. Egypt had already collapsed, and when I took down Greek capital the whole east collapsed as well, thus making this extremely easy.
This being said, while you are waging war in Carthage build a new army and without wasting any time, ferry it over to Greek. Take Athens and hope the Greek civilization collapses, because if not you simply cannot get your troops safely to Egypt and Levant, but when it does, immediately send your galleys to Levant and try to snatch whatever cities you can at there. Rush rush rush! Reload if your galley gets sunk, no time as you know by now. Send your veteran African army to Egypt, and with Greek army take the necessary cities at Anatolia. Meanwhile in home build one settler for England, and another just in case you need to settle down cities somewhere in east. This again requires a lot of reloading and save scumming, but eventually you will make it. Congratulations, you completed the 2nd UHV! Now your Empire should look something like this:
After this game becomes much more easier and you can start to make some liberties. You are Rome! Who is going to stop you! Since AI is regent there is no danger AI techrushing over you, but still it is not wise to neglect this. Personally I went scholarships, politics, architecture, civil service and machinery route. When I felt there was no pressure I researched ethics for Orthodoxy. Make sure your first GP is not a merchant, but instead of artist, engineer, or scientist, for merchant does not give you important techs. Techtrade only with civilizations you are going to crush, or civilizations that are hopelessly behind you. Neither of them endanger the 3rd UHV, and out of all UHV this is the most easiest.
Now, as you can see I took extreme liberties, and could have completed Rome UHV much more earlier than I did. In fact I was worried China could research machinery first, but in the end did not and here I am, master of the world. As said, after completing 2nd UHV you can quickly exit the game or do whatever you want, and I decided to larp Roman Empire.
When it comes to wonders, you can ignore them as they are simply too expensive and you don't have time or production to build them. Via Aqua (likely misspelled) is extremely weak wonder, and while Flavian Amphitheatre sounds mandatory, again building it takes so long time that you don't need it for UHV and instead of you should build legions instead of. Of civics, I remained as republic as it was the only way to counter crippling over extension penalty. You really do not need monarchy for happiness, or despotism for hurrying production, but what do I know? When it comes to religion civics, take monastics as you will pop GP faster. Use GP either to delay the inevitable collapse, or bulp techs to complete your last UHV faster. Further to delay collapse, have 4 cities in your core and make them as large as possible to keep stability up, and build prison in every other city to further reduce over extension penalty. Do not raze cities, that gives you unnecessary instability, and only with great engineers hurry build wonders. If you aim for a long game ,Hagia Sophia is probably the best you can get (+1 gold from state religion city), so at least build that. In the end I had something like 3 legions per city, meaning no matter how severe barbarian invasions Leoreth has coded in, you can easily repel all of them. Hunns, Vandals, Ostrogoths, and Visiogiths were all crushed by mighty of Rome. My last advice is that the last tech must be machinery, as that tech will replace your legion with heavy swordman. Basically, if you research this tech before civil service you just hugely nerfed yourself. Heavy swordsman simply is more expensive versio of legion, buffed with tiny +10% city attack bonus, meaning you are paying much more for pretty much the same.
Roma aeterna!
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