Any tips for "Reconquista Who?" achievement?

[The Massacrerer]

Having difficulty with this achievement which requires you win as the Almohads (i.e. - Harun al-Rashid) on Emperor setting or above in the "Into the Renaissance" scenario.

Essentially, it seems as if you are stuck in a corner, your Holy City (which you are supposed to control or ally with) is on the other side of the map, miles of desert to your N.E., and a ridiculous (and I mean RIDICULOUS) amount of never-ending Barbarians to fight off.

Just sent off my first Caravel to the "New World" (with only 45 turns left), and am now pounding the crap out of my biggest rival (Spain) with my Frigates, but I only have enough Horses for 4 Camel Archers.

Any tips would be appreciated!

 

[joncnunn]

If the victory condition logic is similar to Korea; the entire bonus goes to the current holder so if you don't control it now (either directly or as an ally), you can get a large number of points when you do.
If it's still an independent city (NOT conquered by any other civ nor married to Austria but an ally), you just need to pony up the cash. I would guess a variant of the UN trick the turn before the vote would work. (The turn before the last turn take out loans from that AI, become the ally & DOW him to ensure he can't get it back as an ally.)
If however it was conquered, you'd need a force that can conquer it if its actually worth it at all; much easier targets)

The standard Honor opener and ranged units in cities and other safe tiles should be able to handle barbs. If you get Spare Great Generals; a citadel two tiles in front of one of your cities (DON"T keep a unit in it; instead you want the barbs to send units thru it and take the damage)

Killing enemy units (whichever AI is easyist too reach) is likely to be your biggest source over the span of the game. But you need to do so in a manner that anyone close to you in score (or worse yet ahead) isn't killing your own. (This normally means ranged units in safe tiles)

I doubt your civ was intended to be able to discover the new world; but if you can, it's worth points. (That was more intended for Western Europe)

 

[Maxym]

Please post a screen or two and I should be able to help you out. How did you open the game? Was your caravel first to new world, if so send another 4. Don't worry about holy cities, it's hard to get them as Almohads, just keep taking catholic cities.

I usually open with a scout or two, buy it for cash if you can. Since you are isolated u might have to build 1st one. Send him north to meet Europeans. Then another to the east to meet Muslims, Byz. Take liberty to get free worker, improve one lux, by the time u meet Europe u have something to sell. After scouts build NC and get free. Settler. Open honor even b4 finishing lib. U don't need a golden age too early.

Settle a GE or GS. Turn barbs to your advantage. Hunt them with chariots as u want camels later. Keep settling cities near strategic Rez they will be crucial. Sign RAs with Muslims, denounce whomever is flavor of the month and keep expanding. You have room like Rusia but without the Mongol menace.

Game is won late with conquests of opposing religions, so it's ok to be well behind with 45 turns to go. If you need more VPs let AI retake their cities after you conquer. You can take them again for some extra points and make the happy hit easier to deal with. After lib and right honor, if you need happy then I usually do right commerce and then order opener. Depends how fast you conquer. Build mosques as soon as you can, you will have surplus faith later, use it to buy units in a catholic city, don't waste it on missionaries.

 

[Halcyan2]

Ignore the Holy City points. You get the most by conquering anyway.

Aggressively settle the Iberian Peninsula ASAP and beat up Isabella. Then France if you can.

Most of the time, your biggest competitor in points is Theodora (because she starts in control of her Holy City). So by mid-game, you might want to consider sending an army/navy to attack Byzantium.

You probably aren't going to be winning any HRE elections. You are positioned to pick up some caravel points. But focus mainly on conquering cities of another religion and you'll be set.

 

[Maxym]

I find that Ottomans always overtake Byz later, they control their holy cities and end up beating on Theodora with their superior UU for mad VPs. Since fighting them gets you nothing, maintain good relations and keep fighting Catholics. You can easily get all caravels to NW, if you keep AI fighting each other, and steal their caravels or CS ones with privateers even before you tech for it.

When you get a spy, cycle it through few likely targets to get fastest time. You can leverage spying to close the tech gap, Europeans will tech faster than you. But here tech is not king like regular game, eventually everyone will have tech parity.

 

[The Massacrerer]

Ignore the Holy City points. You get the most by conquering anyway.

You probably aren't going to be winning any HRE elections. You are pousitioned to pick up some caravel points. But focus mainly on conquering cities of another religion and you'll be set.

This.

Turn barbs to your advantage. Hunt them with chariots as u want camels later.

Game is won late with conquests of opposing religions, so it's ok to be well behind with 45 turns to go. If you need more VPs let AI retake their cities after you conquer. You can take them again for some extra points and make the happy hit easier to deal with.

This.

First off, thanks for all the tips guys! Much appreciated.

Without boring everybody with all of the details, here is essentially how I beat this scenario (with many of the tactics quoted above):
I think I over settled, and if I had to do this again I would probably settle 4 to 5 cities maximum. The science will eventually come, so I would focus on building my cities taller. Make a beeline for the Camel Archers, and then for the Caravel, and lastly the Frigates. The Caravels should net you about 1000-1200 points total, as it seems that the other civilizations don't focus on sending off Caravels themselves until you have started doing it. Taking over City-States nets you a huge amount of points left (450), so conquering a couple of those was very helpful. With the Military Tradition policy in the Honor tree, I was quickly able to build up my four Camel Archers to double-shot, ranged beasts in not too long a time. My Frigates patrolled the waters outside of the coastal cities I was going after on my landmass, decimating all reinforcements and building themselves up to the range promotion in the process. Once both my Camel Archers and Frigates had the Range promotion, it was game over. I was having a major issue with many hills surrounding the cities I was taking over, so I started using the unassuming Scout to take over the cities once the defenses had been whittled away. They never shoot at him, and he is able to make it over the hills into the city whereas my Pikeman would have difficulty doing so before getting crushed. So essentially I went from 250 points with 40 turns left, to about 5200 points by games end. That being said, I only actually took over about six cities. They were just the right type and size of city, and the Caravel did the rest.

Thanks again for all the time and tips guys! I hope somebody else can make good use of these tips and claim this achievement themselves

 

[Maxym]

And after a break you can go for the other achievements, they were fun too. Or try a Domination victory, I have posted a rough strat/description somewhere in this forum, but have not heard of anyone else attempting it.