Babylonia UHV win

[ledat]

After quite a few map regens and some abortive attempts, I finally managed to get the win.

In normal RFC, stone and marble are very important for the ancient civs. However, as others have observed, the chance for ancient civs to get one of these resources in RFC RAND seems fairly low. The start I got was normal in this regard; I had no stone or marble. What I did have, however, was corn and some plains hills. My strategy was to brute force out a couple wonders

I got a couple of near misses with this start. Persia spawned (with monarchy) a few turns before I was able to complete the Oracle. What put me over the edge for a win was sending a warrior over to visit Egypt (which was fairly close) and bring back a friendly worker. With a second worker, I was able to make some more mines. Working the extra mines, despite the negative in food, was the difference needed to finish the Oracle before Persia showed up.

I did get somewhat lucky, though. India started in a truly abysmal location. They still managed to pop both of their religions, but Dilli never got above 1 pop. India did, however, have marble right outside their capital(!). Perhaps it wasn't a terribly fair test, but I'll take any win I can get.

I must say though, it felt weird winning a Babylonia UHV without knowing Masonry.

The zip attached contains both the initial save and the winning turn.

 

[The Q-Meister]

I've played and posted pics of several starts as India that you can find here and the vast majority of them, in fact all of them, are indeed very poor. Surrounded by massive jungle streches, marsh and few food resources. Dilli might be a culture rival with 2 religions but that's about it.

Also with Persia, maybe I'm mistaken but did they always start out with this many techs?

 

[onedreamer]

After quite a few map regens and some abortive attempts, I finally managed to get the win.

In normal RFC, stone and marble are very important for the ancient civs. However, as others have observed, the chance for ancient civs to get one of these resources in RFC RAND seems fairly low. The start I got was normal in this regard; I had no stone or marble. What I did have, however, was corn and some plains hills. My strategy was to brute force out a couple wonders

You know, having stone (at least this) and marble is key to Egypt, but not to Babylon actually. In fact, while Egypt must compete against time, Babylon competes against other civs, and since the rarity of stone and marble affects everyone, then this becomes a minor problem for Babylon, compared instead with Egypt.

 

[Barak]

The big issue for Babylon is holding down Indian culture due to its founding of 2 religions.

 

[brucedecatz]

Actually, if India chooses to adopt one of the religions (which it does), the second religion is quite redundant for culture.

 

[onedreamer]

well, one religion is already enough since it will be early. And anyways more religions are all but redundant for culture. + temples, + monastries, + cathedrals.

 

[Fierabras]

I have been trying to achieve the Babylonian UHV with RAND 1.14 for quite some time now. The lack of food/health made me miss it most of the times. Today I generated a map which made it possible.



I have added the save for those who wish to give it a try themselves. I also added the fix for the Babylonian UHV (in Victory.py). Just drop and overwrite in the Rand/Assets/Python folder.

 

[HannibalBarka]

Oups, I tried Babylon once. Found a religion (although I wasn't trying to) built the Oracle, but choose CoL as the free the religion, and the new civs beat me to Monarchy, so I lost the UHV. Should I have chosen Monarchy instead and searched CoL on my own maybe?

 

[Fierabras]

Yes, take Monarchy from Oracle and tech CoL. Founding a religion makes the cultural UHV goal easy. Did you by any change play on a smaller map where India is not included?

When India is in the game, it's the main competitor for the cultural and population goal. What I like about playing Babylon in RAND is that you can play different strategies to beat India. Either compete peacefully, which is not easy because you need Stonehenge to switch to caste system to run artists and need food and health to grow to the largest population, or crush India with a mercenary army. For that you need gold, so exploring for goody huts is essential.

P.S. In the screenshot above it's important to settle 1 tile north (or on the stone). It still lacks a food resource, which makes it an interesting challenge

 

[HannibalBarka]

OK, I forgot about the spawning civs so I choose the more expensive tech !!!!
I think it was on a standard or large map since that's what I use usually, I don't think I have the save though. I'll check this afternoon afetr work, it would be interesting to see. I had a lot of culture because I built Stonehenge though (I had stone in the city radius).

 

[Fierabras]

Stonehenge and Oracle are not enough to beat India with it's 2 religions. Artist specialists are the key, but you need to find an optimal balance between running specialists and growing your city. On standard maps, India doesn't always spawn. When I noticed that I began playing Huge and haven't played smaller maps since, because I want all the civs to spawn.