Earliest UHVs (or virtual UHVs)

[TDK]

Revolted to HR and Slavery. I settled Jabuuti on the Cows at the Coast of the Red Sea and sent the other settler south to settle Moyale.

The workboat started fishing immediately and Jabuuti was set to work whipping Galleys. My research was set to 0% to allow me to hire the best mercenaries possible.

In turn 141 my 6 units had landed south of Dilli and taken the city, including a Shrine from the Indians. In turn 156 I popped a Prophet in Dilli and founded Christianity in Moyale.

This strategy will not work every time, but it should most of the time if you see either the Hindu or Budhist Shrine in the Wonder screen at start. These will almost always be in Dilli.
Another variable not under your control is the mercenaries, their quality is quite random, and you will need at least one promoted Sword, Axe or war Chariot.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Oh the poor Indians, now it's the Ethiopians' turn to subjugate them. Weren't the Europeans, Mongols, Persians, Arabs and Khmer enough? What next? Russia? Mali? Incans?

 

[blizzrd]

Excellent use of thinking outside the square strategy.

 

[elnegro]

play using Siwa, Per-Atum strategy. The only annoying thing was second GA generation.
turn 102

Spoiler :

won screen

Spoiler :

 

[AnotherPacifist]

The vizier of Pharaoh was considering executing all people trying to put the last stone first on top of the Great Lighthouse.

 

[Zagoroth]

I was trying to form the French Empire in a play through, and I decided to take the same route I would take when attempting the UHV. It was the same exact strategy I used last time, conquer Spain, Rome, and Britain immediately at the start of the game. Rome had many nice wonders, including University of Sankore and Spiral Minaret.

 

[blizzrd]

Zagoroth, are you still playng through to the actual UHV?

 

[Zagoroth]

I will.

 

[Zagoroth]

I finished the game. Now I just need to settle two cities in North West Africa and take over Khmer...

 

[elnegro]

was pretty lucky at some points: taking shuh on turn 16 by 3 warriors(wo mercenarys), got gerbalist event and capute Dilli on turn 55 by 1 super warrior lvl4.
monarchy

Spoiler :

code of laws

Spoiler :

won screen

Spoiler :

score

Spoiler :

also i think there are possibilitys to improve it about 1or2 turns
sorry for my english=)

 

[TDK]

EDIT2: Okay, so it isn't the fastest date anyway, but still an interesting game.

EDIT: Wrong date, should have been 1475AD.

I tried an unorthodox strategy with England, where I would try to utilize various features connected to Egypt-Palestine area:

-I had noticed in the Rhye Atlas that Asia and Africa settlement areas overlapped, so by settling 2 cities(see pic.1) in that overlapping area I would spare myself the cost of 2 settlers.

-The Great Library of Alexandria, if I could capture it, would help me pop the scientists I needed for a fast Radio grab. Obviously the Great Lighthouse would work great with any England game.

-J'lems shrines would also help my research pace, but more importantly, it's culture would secure an area needed for one of the overlapping settlers, and grant access to Asia for other settlers.

-Finally, controlling the Suez area would allow shipping of settlers to Australia.

With these points in mind, my strategy was clear:
-I would need 3 cities in the British Isles to generate scientists and produce a few buildings and then settlers.
The way to do this is HR and Slavery at first, grow all cities as big as they can while producing about 6 warriors in each for police duty.

-My starting units and Mercs or extra units from Viking attack would walk through/sail around Europe, to give me a strike force of 10 units+3 galleys to secure Egypt and J'lem. In my game, the Viking attacked, giving me the extra units.


Meeting the Arabs, I discovered that one can often trade Calender from them(before attacking them). The trick in the Med is utilize the wars already going on, attacking wounded units and weakened cities.
After taking Alexandria and Cairo, I would whip out a Longbow and Trireme, and then immediately revolt to Caste System and Vassalage, to get the +2xp on your Trireme. Together with your 3 drill 2 galleys and The Roman indy navy, you should be able to control The Byzantine navy.
In my game, when the Turks spawned, the Byzantines collapsed and I would grab (empty)Athens with Parthenon to further speed up Scientist generation.

From here on it was all about balancing Settler production and Scientist assignment. Scientists would now grab Optics, Education, Astronomy, Scientific Method, Physics and Electricty. Radio would come in by Liberalism.
I didn't quite optimize the endgame and I never got Christianity(for Pacifism), so that set me back quite a bit. I might try another one with the same strategy though.

*The red cross on pic1 is where I first settled one of my dual cities, but it didn't count for Africa, so something on the Atlas might be inaccurate here.

 

[blizzrd]

EDIT2: Okay, so it isn't the fastest date anyway, but still an interesting game.

Very interesting.

-I had noticed in the Rhye Atlas that Asia and Africa settlement areas overlapped, so by settling 2 cities(see pic.1) in that overlapping area I would spare myself the cost of 2 settlers.

*The red cross on pic1 is where I first settled one of my dual cities, but it didn't count for Africa, so something on the Atlas might be inaccurate here.

I'm confused. Did you settle on the red crosses or the green crosses or both?

 

[TDK]

I settled both green crosses in the end.

At first I settled red in the north and the southern green one, but the red one only triggered Asia, not Africa. So maybe the eastern border of Africa should be moved one tile west?

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Hey blizzrd (and everybody), if you're interested, Corrosol has done a very well-thought-out modmod of RFC and it's logical and semi-historical. It's still got some kinks (like impossible 600 AD China and some weird bugs with conferences, UPs and water tiles) but very enjoyable. Try it out, you'll like Greece (and beat my time in no time).

 

[Ekolite]

I love that modmod, maybe someone should try to do an earliest possible phoenician UHV?

 

[the_man_]

Spoiler :

This is for India, virtual victory at 325 bc. I'm playing on warlords, and not bts, so maybe this doesn't count, but i'm posting anyways... you guys can decide whether to count it or not.

Basically, the strategy is to found the capital on the sugar in NW India, and take your first two warriors to attack and destroy china. The worker makes his way back to India. The next warrior goes for Europe and the one after that stays home after getting the goodie hut in south India.

For research, go straight to monotheism, then priesthood, writing, then meditation. Build your oracle, and get mathematics as the free tech. Theology is researched with the help of your first great prophet. Before theology pick up agriculture, and any other worker techs are traded with rome and carthage. After that, try and research iron working, then calendar, then code of laws, alphabet construction, currency, and if you have time civil service.

Your capital builds three warriors, then a worker, then Stonehenge, then the oracle. After that is a library, mixed with whatever temples are necessary, as well as any military (probably catapults), and monasteries you can spare. Organized religion is a big help to get all these done. City two is built at dilli right before theology is researched. Cities three and four on the coast shortly after that.

In my first coastal city, eventually I made some triremes to go and harass japan and keep him from expanding, but once theology is discovered, it's pretty smooth sailing.

Also, in my game I got very lucky and popped both fishing and the wheel. Not incredibly useful techs, but they did help a bit.

That's about it.

 

[blizzrd]

The challenge is specific to Monarch level, BTS v3.19 and RFC v1.186.

Very well done on your Indian victory, but as indicated in the OP this challenge is specific to BTS. As such I won't be amending the list in the OP.

 

[the_man_]

Fair enough. I'd do it on Bts, but all I have is warlords. I doubt much of anything would change if played on bts, so feel free to copy the strategy.

At the very least, 200ad would be very easy to beat using the above outlined strategy.

 

[Steb]

Then let me defend my place.

I used a combination of your stategy and the one that already helped me to get 200 AD. In the beginning, I did almost the same as you described in your post; however evrything changed after I built Stonehenge. Getting early Castes and spawning a Great Scientist is the best option to get Math, and with China gone there was no rush to starve Lahore to get the GS. Immediately after this, I built the Oracle to get Theology. As I was first in population at that time, the virtual victory is Turn 90, or 760 BC. Nobody ever catched up on me.

I have to mention I popped agriculture from a hut, but that luck must be counterbalanced by the fact that I got so many events destroying my improvements...

In the screenshot, you will notice the date is wrong (1450 instead of 1200). I don't know what caused this. However, according to the official timeline, turn 241 is indeed 1200 AD.

 

[the_man_]

Very nice. 760BC is quite a bit better than mine. Should be tough to top.