Emperor Peter
Warlord
Byzantine UHV strategy, Monarch, Epic, , 600AD start, 1.15
UHV Goal 1: 7500 gold in 1000 AD
UHV Goal 2: Constantinople most culture and most pop in 1200 AD
UHV Goal 3: Reconquer levant, Egypt, Africa
Set the research to 80% and get Crop Rotation since it is most useful, after that set slider to 100% gold. We need gold for the UHV and for upgrading soldiers but we can afford to get 1 tech.
Hire 2 merchants in Constantinople right away. It's annoying since there are improved food tiles to work, but if we don't it will delay our conquest of Buda, Venice and Rome. We need 2 great merchants ASAP to get to Beijing for 3000 gold each. They both need to pass through India. The west of India has the same independents as Buda, Venice and Rome. If we attack the independent Civ before they're through, our GMs won't make it in time (or at all). Remember great merchants don't need open borders, as long as we're at peace we're fine and we can even use roads. If we pop a great engineer instead of a GM, we have to reload.
We march all units in Egypt and the levant up north. There is just enough time to get them all out before the Arabs spawn. Let our cities go, since the tiles are mostly unimproved, it's not worth holding on. We want peace with Arabia.
We need our soldiers to protect workers and improvements in the Balkans and to take Buda, Venice and Rome (has Colosseum) as soon as our 2nd GM enters the safety of the Pataliputra border. We'll need to build 3-4 trebuchets soon and upgrade our units to get all three cities.
Other then 3-4 trebs we also need about 2 workers per city (3 per city would be better), work boats, missionaries for Italy(Ortho buildings give hammers) and after those, orthodox buildings, forges, barracks, some stables and military. Crossbows for garrisons. Heavy spearmen will do fine against Seljuk cavalry, not so much against Mongol cavalry. So we get only a few of them and after that we train Cataphracts, 25-30 of them. We'll probably be building them until the Seljuks, Arabs, possibly Egypt and Ottomans are dead. There will also be Mongols to kill. The time to conquer is right after defeating the Seljuk invasion, Arabia (and Holy Rome, if they crusaded succesfully) will lose cities to the Seljuks. Take advantage of the situation to capture Tabriz, Bagdad, Damascus, Jerusalem and Egypt. This is almost all we need for UHV 3 but the 3rd African city can wait until the Ottomans are dead. Don't forget a little after 1200 the mongols invade the levant. By then you should have Egypt.
Getting Constantinople to high pop (highest AI city I've seen was 19) is easy if we work all the tiles, get our resources and build the right buildings, we only farm the one grassland tile and get cottages and lumbermills on the plains. Keep an eye on the cities info screen. Size 19 is not always necessary and an unhealthy city is not ideal.
Getting most culture has caused me some grief due to AI tendency to pop GA around 1175 and culture bombing with them. I've seen London (3500+ culture), Vienna (3500+) and Hanoi(almost 4000+! culture) beat me. I've had a game where this didn't happen too.
I've been running the culture slider and did some culture building. Running the culture slider right after the Italian and Arab conquest is ideal. You'll want border pops then anyway. But this won't beat a GA culture bomb. Maybe if you get an early Cathedral.
Third goal is easy since we're building enough military to defeat the Seljuks, Arabs, Mongols, Ottomans and possibly the Egyptians. Getting enough military is a matter of conquering Italy, improving all our land quickly (get enough workers, prioritze food and hammers, don't work unimproved tiles!) and not constructing buildings we don't need.
You can go many ways with civics. I switched to Elective the turn after the flip to arabs happens (build wealth in the cities you'll be losing). Later on I got Caste system + Meritocracy. I think Vassalage might be worse than citizenship because we want growth and military at the same time but either works.
I'm having a blast with this mod. I love the new tech tree, the civics and units. I think city and resource placement could be better though. I don't like cities close together or in suboptimal spots.
UHV Goal 1: 7500 gold in 1000 AD
UHV Goal 2: Constantinople most culture and most pop in 1200 AD
UHV Goal 3: Reconquer levant, Egypt, Africa
Set the research to 80% and get Crop Rotation since it is most useful, after that set slider to 100% gold. We need gold for the UHV and for upgrading soldiers but we can afford to get 1 tech.
Hire 2 merchants in Constantinople right away. It's annoying since there are improved food tiles to work, but if we don't it will delay our conquest of Buda, Venice and Rome. We need 2 great merchants ASAP to get to Beijing for 3000 gold each. They both need to pass through India. The west of India has the same independents as Buda, Venice and Rome. If we attack the independent Civ before they're through, our GMs won't make it in time (or at all). Remember great merchants don't need open borders, as long as we're at peace we're fine and we can even use roads. If we pop a great engineer instead of a GM, we have to reload.
We march all units in Egypt and the levant up north. There is just enough time to get them all out before the Arabs spawn. Let our cities go, since the tiles are mostly unimproved, it's not worth holding on. We want peace with Arabia.
We need our soldiers to protect workers and improvements in the Balkans and to take Buda, Venice and Rome (has Colosseum) as soon as our 2nd GM enters the safety of the Pataliputra border. We'll need to build 3-4 trebuchets soon and upgrade our units to get all three cities.
Other then 3-4 trebs we also need about 2 workers per city (3 per city would be better), work boats, missionaries for Italy(Ortho buildings give hammers) and after those, orthodox buildings, forges, barracks, some stables and military. Crossbows for garrisons. Heavy spearmen will do fine against Seljuk cavalry, not so much against Mongol cavalry. So we get only a few of them and after that we train Cataphracts, 25-30 of them. We'll probably be building them until the Seljuks, Arabs, possibly Egypt and Ottomans are dead. There will also be Mongols to kill. The time to conquer is right after defeating the Seljuk invasion, Arabia (and Holy Rome, if they crusaded succesfully) will lose cities to the Seljuks. Take advantage of the situation to capture Tabriz, Bagdad, Damascus, Jerusalem and Egypt. This is almost all we need for UHV 3 but the 3rd African city can wait until the Ottomans are dead. Don't forget a little after 1200 the mongols invade the levant. By then you should have Egypt.
Getting Constantinople to high pop (highest AI city I've seen was 19) is easy if we work all the tiles, get our resources and build the right buildings, we only farm the one grassland tile and get cottages and lumbermills on the plains. Keep an eye on the cities info screen. Size 19 is not always necessary and an unhealthy city is not ideal.
Getting most culture has caused me some grief due to AI tendency to pop GA around 1175 and culture bombing with them. I've seen London (3500+ culture), Vienna (3500+) and Hanoi(almost 4000+! culture) beat me. I've had a game where this didn't happen too.
I've been running the culture slider and did some culture building. Running the culture slider right after the Italian and Arab conquest is ideal. You'll want border pops then anyway. But this won't beat a GA culture bomb. Maybe if you get an early Cathedral.
Third goal is easy since we're building enough military to defeat the Seljuks, Arabs, Mongols, Ottomans and possibly the Egyptians. Getting enough military is a matter of conquering Italy, improving all our land quickly (get enough workers, prioritze food and hammers, don't work unimproved tiles!) and not constructing buildings we don't need.
You can go many ways with civics. I switched to Elective the turn after the flip to arabs happens (build wealth in the cities you'll be losing). Later on I got Caste system + Meritocracy. I think Vassalage might be worse than citizenship because we want growth and military at the same time but either works.
I'm having a blast with this mod. I love the new tech tree, the civics and units. I think city and resource placement could be better though. I don't like cities close together or in suboptimal spots.
