The Indians
Overview
The Indians have a very poor starting position, full of jungle. There are only a limited number of sites to build cities, and even the capital has health issues. Until Calendar, many of these sites have little potential. Fortunately, the UHV only requires two cities for a long long time.
The Unique Historical Victory
The Indian historical victory consists of three parts. The first requirement, to found Hinduism and Buddhism, is easy. Unfortunately, if you go straight after this goal, you will find that the second, to found five religions, has just become impossible. It is not possible to consistently steal a religion from the Chinese, especially if you start with the Indian ones. Therefore, you must found all of the other five. Furthermore, if you do not for after Judaism immediately, you will lose as it will be founded in Jerusalem.
Therefore the order of founding must be Judaism Hinduism Buddhism Christianity Islam. Unfortunately, it is impossible to research either Theology or Divine Right in time. They must be gotten by other means, namely the Oracle and Great People. Thanks to
Nitrojay for providing an understanding of this.
He suggests building three wonders, Stonehenge, The Oracle, and the Parthenon to get to the goal. I have experimented with methods based on the Oracle and one of the other two. They also work. But, in fact, the only one you really need is the Oracle. Remarkably, it actually gets to the goal far faster than combo schemes and with much less damage to the economy.
Research Sequence
The Sequence required is quite precise. The objective is to Get Religion
I mean to Get Religion
s! Lots of them. Go straight for the goal.
Masonry (quarries, pre-req for Judaism)
Polytheism (pre-req for Judaism)
Monotheism (Judaism)
Meditation (Hinduism)
Priesthood (Buddhism)
Bronze Working (slavery, chopping)
Agriculture (because we can fit it in)
Monarchy (pre-req for Islam)
Opening Moves
Delhi is founded on the spot and starts by building two warriors, timing the second to arrive just as the city reaches size two. Next it builds a settler and a worker. Train a second worker to arrive at the same time as the Bronze. Beyond that, the capital is yours to do with as you like. If you train a settler, dont found any new cities. There are no good commerce sites (or rather none that are good from the moment you build the city), so that is simply out. It is a drain on the economy which you cannot afford. Your worker should quarry the marble. After that, it can mine the hill southeast of Delhi.
Your three warriors can explore the sub-continent. One should head off to Europe to meet the new advanced civs who will found there. If the warrior dies on the way, train a replacement and send him off. In fact, its a good idea to send off a replacement (or even two) right away. After all, there are goody huts in Bulgaria, Sweden, Denmark and Portugal. There are also two locally and one near the stone to the far north-west. Who knows? You might get something good.
Make sure, though, that at least one warrior gets to Europe. If only one gets there, the safest place to wait is in Italy. First hang out in the heel of the boot to meet the Greeks, then the toe for the Carthaginians. Finally move north to greet Caesar. There is a barb chariot in Anatolia and it may attack if you hang around the Balkans. If you do meet the Greeks in their homeland, it is safe enough to wait for the other two in south-eastern Spain if you like.
Make two or three more warriors to protect the entrances to your realm in the west. You are safe in the other directions. There are mountains to the north. Nothing comes from the east. Barbs dont. Even if the Chinese declare war, the jungle stops them from sending anything other than scouts. The odd animal might appear in the south. So?
Takshashila
Your second city is the key to gaining victory. It must be founded north of the Marble at the Takshashila site. You can build what you want there (I just train a few warriors) but emphasize food. Push the button. You want to grow as fast as possible. The alternate Multan site southeast of the marble will not work. It does not grow as fast and is less healthy. Health is something else which is essential to success.
Once you have Priesthood, drop everything and build two temples as fast as you can. Whip out the first for two pop. Dont reach size five until you have control of the
. The city becomes unhealthy at that point and you do not want to waste food. Chop to get more hammers. Do
not chop more than two of the forests in the citys fat cross, as otherwise it will become unhealthy at size three. Instead chop the ones further out to the northwest and southwest. Try to time the citys return to size four with the completion of the second temple.
Once it gets to that size, hire two priests. In twenty-five turns you will have a Great Prophet. Guaranteed. At the same time, start building the Oracle. It will be slow but with the double-speed build from the Marble, it will be sure. The objective is to finish the wonder the turn after you have your Prophet. You can slow it down by putting it aside and building something else instead (maybe you can finish whatever you were working on before the mad temple rush). You can speed it up with the whip. You shouldnt have to fire a priest. It is also important not to finish it before you know Monarchy as well. Once you learn Agriculture, your priority is to irrigate the wheat to restore the citys health. Its all right if it starves a little while waiting. Just dont lose a pop point.
See how Monarchy, the Prophet and the wonder are all scheduled to arrive at about the same time. The Oracle will speed up a little once the wheat is farmed.
Meanwhile, your warrior in Europe has been waiting for Ham and Salad to appear on the world stage. Remember? Youll be able to get several nice techs from them but the one that you absolutely must have is Writing, the last piece to this little puzzle. After you learn Monarchy, a good choice for research is Math. Youll have everything else you need within a few turns anyway.
Cyrus
Cyrus is not likely to bother you this early in the game. But just to be sure, be nice to him. He will almost certainly convert to one of your religions. Adopt the same one. If he asks for a war or Open Borders, agree. Hes Da Man. Later you can get your revenge. Remember that hill you mined because your worker had nothing better to do? It turns out to have Iron on it.
Dénouement
Occasionally (perhaps one time in twenty), the Greeks will beat you to the Oracle. If so, have a good
and get on with your life when its over. It is not possible to guarantee victory. In my various attempts at this UHV, I once tried a strat in which Takshashila built Stonehenge from the moment of its founding and Delhi built the Oracle. I lost Stonehenge to Egypt.
If the AI decides to go straight for a wonder, it will beat you.
If you get the wonder, Divine Right can be had around 300BC. You now have 1500 years to get to be number one. There is little left to learn besides Calendar. You can get Iron Working, Metal Casting and the rest of the worker techs in exchange for your religious techs. Currency and Construction would be nice too. But they're not essential so it's not important to keep your economy in shape. So long as you don't go negative, you'll be fine. Fill out your continent and beat up on the Persians a little.
- however, Greece decided to go around via Land and try for Yeruselum 
, but I was able to fend them off with 2 Axemen and a few chariots I sent that way vs. 4 of their Axe and 3 Phalanx total 
.
Thank goodness the win came then, as I'm not sure I would have fared well against those maurading horse archers and the camel archer that just invaded my lands.
