Emperor/Normal Speed UHV Strategies

[Andrrew]

Morocco

UHV1: Control Morocco, Marrakesh, Fez, Tetouan, Algiers, Oran, Ifriqiya, Andalusia, Valencia in 1248.
UHV2: 3 cities with 5k+ culture in 1465.
UHV3: Destroy or vassalize Portugal, Spain, Aragon by 1578.

Civics: Switched to FM/FL. Later on switched to OR/Apprenticeship.
Techs: After Chivalry (Knights), I beelined to Drama. Got Drama in 1374. I traded techs aggressively with everyone (even for cash) except with the Iberian nations. After drama, I put science to 0% and maximized Culture at 60-80%.
Cities: Capital on starting spot, second settler 2W 1S of Horse. Later put down another core city 1W of Wheat, and also created a settler for the Oran city.
During the early game, it is a balancing act of building Stability buildings vs. Islamic Temples (so that you can build 3 Great Mosques in the 3 target cities) vs. economy / science buildings to help the science push.
After UHV1, all cities should build economy / science buildings and then Wealth to support maximizing the Culture slider.

UHV1: This is fairly difficult on Emperor due to stability issues.
I moved all my starting units to Tangier. Cordoba declared war on flip, which got me a meager +1 extra Armored Lancer. After a couple of Workers, I started with 2 Cogs in Tangiers and 2 Catapults in Fez. Then I launched my invasion of Andalusia. I brought with me the stack of flipped Archers / Spearmen as well which was useful to sacrifice. Cordoba was not very strong, but my issue was stability (their cities were 6-9 pop and I had limited happiness resource). I quickly took 1 Cog towards Byzantion and then Arabia to establish OB trade routes, and traded away my Stone and other excess resources for many Luxury resources (later cancelled and re-traded giving excess resources instead of Stone). Even then, I had to move very slowly and gradually, one by one and wait until the newly conquered cities go down in population to manageable levels. I captured 5 of the 6 Andalusian cities by ~1135 and then made peace to reduce unhappiness in the conquered cities. I was hoping Cordoba would collapse but they didn't. I waited until the PT expired and then attacked again, capturing the last Andalusian city as well as Valencia, at which point they finally collapsed. I did not capture indy Toledo as I was minimizing non-core cities as much as possible. Once this was done, I took my veterans quickly to the 3 indy/barb cities in Tunisia / Algeria (ALs upgraded to Knights). I also captured the Balearic city of Aragon with 1 Knight, just in time for the UHV limit, and founded the Oran city similarly on the UHV limit. I let this Oran city go the first time the rebels wanted to take it, as it actually helps my economy to remove some of the less developed cities.

UVH2: This one is also relatively difficult, mainly because GAs only give 2k via culture bomb. So you need to either organically get to 3k and bomb once per city, or alternatively bomb twice per city.
My main GP city was Cordoba, with Marrakesh also supporting. Fez supported with military during the early game. Marrakesh quickly built Dome of the Rock, which actually gives you the wrong GP points (theologian), however the GA bonus is very helpful. More importantly Cordoba got all the GA bonus buildings: Heroic Epic, National Epic, Alhambra, and additionally Summer Palace (even though this one gives Spy points). I got 1-2 GAs pre-Drama in Cordoba, and then once I got Drama I built Theaters everywhere and emphasized GA points. Cordoba was generating 1 GA every 5-7 turns which was nice.

I picked Cordoba, Marrakesh, and the Horse city in core as my target cities (the latter city had a lot of nice Cottages built up so it was generating a lot of Commerce). I built the Great Mosques there early on (with Marble support from Aragon), as well as other Islamic Culture buildings, then in the end built Culture. At peak these cities generated ~70-80 culture per turn, and under Golden Age 100+. I reached 5k with only 1 bomb in Cordoba/Marrakesh and 2 bombs in the Horse city. I got 2 non-GA GPs which I used for Golden Age.

UHV3: This is not difficult as the deadline is far out. To make it more interesting, I have decided to aim to finish it by the UHV2 deadline (it is a "by" condition not an "in" condition). After UHV1, I kept an eye on my stability and when it was comfortably high single digit, I declared war on Aragon with Trebs + heavily promoted Knights and Macemen. I captured 2 of their cities without losses, at which point they capitulated around 1330. I did the same with Spain around 1380. I only attacked Portugal very close to the UHV2 deadline when it was clear that I will meet the UHV2, at which point I was able to build Knights everywhere (instead of Wealth) and declared war on them with a big stack of promoted Knights + Bombards. They had their own big stack of Knights and tried to attack me, but my numbers ultimately prevailed, and I was able to make them capitulate 2 turns before the UHV2 deadline.

Stability: I had to slow down my conquests, and build almost every single stability building early on. My stability never dipped below -2 or -3. Around -6 there is a very high risk of cities declaring independence.

 

[Andrrew]

Portugal

UHV1: Settle 3 cities in Azores / Canaries / Madeira, and 2 in Oran / Tetouan / Morocco.
UHV2: 5 Colony projects.
UHV3: No cities lost by 1640.

Civics: FM/FL/Serfdom/Manorialism/State Religion/Militarism at beginning to support stability. Later on switched to OR/Guilds/Apprenticeship/Imperialism.
Techs: Chivalry (Knights) is early priority, after which I focused on science-booster techs and Optics and eventually Astronomy, after which focused on the nearest colony techs. I traded techs early on when I could to catch up.
Cities: Capital on starting spot, second settler 1S of Salt. Cities built stability buildings and then commerce / science buildings. Cordoba was my military city with Heroic Epic supported by others as needed.

Conquests: With starting units + 2-3 Catapults (later upgraded to Trebs) built quickly, I immediately attacked Cordoba. I moved gradually so that I don't collapse. I got some limited support from Pope 2-3 times which helped a bit. I made peace once to recover and improve stability, then attacked again. By 1290 I captured all of Andalusia cities only (orange stability) and left the rest for Aragon / Spain to grab.
Then around 1370, by which point I eradicated Islam from my cities and had strong stability, I declared war on Spain and captured 5 of their cities (Toledo, Valladolid, Galicia city, and 2 Leon cities). They collapsed and I left the 2 northeastern cities Indy.
Note that these conquests are optional and it should be possible to win without them. However, for UHV1 (ii) I needed to conquer Moroccan lands and I wanted to have a strong military base with Gunpowder (Spain had the resource).
Then around 1450 I launched my invasion of Morocco with a massive stack of heavily-promoted Knights/Bombards/Gun Galleys, and captured 2 cities (Tanjah and Fez). I stopped there as I only needed space to put down 2 settlers there in 1640.

UHV1: The first leg is relatively easy. Aragon tried to go after Canaries but I beat them to it (put 2 cities there). If need be that's enough and you can put a 3rd dummy city in 1640 to win, but I also put down Ponta Delgada with Whales once I had the tech to go there.
The second leg is a bit odd, and requires space in these usually already heavily-populated regions. So as above I captured 2 Moroccan cities and put down the 2 settlers 2 tile away from Tanjah in 1640 to win.

UVH2: With the above conquests, my only competitors were France and England. I had a very strong tech base and hence I didn't have to resolve to Piracy / Atlantic Access pillaging. I got all the colonies except for one by 1640. Cordoba and Leon city built the colonies as they had best production base.

UHV3: Just need to keep stability above 0 to make sure no secessions (which also counts). I did not go for founding Protestantism as wanted to delay it. When it showed up I started a GA with GPs and made sure that by the time my GA finishes I'm Ok on stability. Castles and Night Watches were essential to balance that period.

 

[Andrrew]

Aragon

UHV1: Control Valencia, Catalonia, Sicily, Balears in 1284.
UHV2: Control 12 (UB) Lighthouses and 30 naval units with at least 1 unit transport space in 1444.
UHV3: Control Aragon, Valencia, Catalonia, Sicily, Balears, Sardinia, Corsica, Apulia, Calabria, Provance, Thessaly in 1474.

Civics: FM/FL/Serfdom/Decentralization/State Religion/Militarism. Switched to OR/Guilds/Apprenticeship/Imperialism during GA.
Techs: Chivalry (Knights) and Gunpowder are the key techs, however my tech was very slow so only got to Gunpowder after UHV2.
Cities: Capital on starting spot, second settler on Marble; boat settler made its way to Sicily. Quickly built another settler for Balears. Capital built Heroic Epic. Early on all cities build military units (Trebs + special Guisarmier + Knights), supported by stability buildings as needed. Later on all cities built Wealth.

Conquests: I immediately captured indy Pamplona with starting units (sacrificing Crossbows). Then I attacked Valencia, and continued gradually to conquer Cordoba's cities in Andalusia province (fully controlled by 1320).
Once I had 2 CR2/CR3 Guisarmiers from the war, I sent these to capture the second Sicily city, as well as poorly-defended 2 Geonan cities in Sardinia (attacked amphibiously), and finally also Apulia city (which built a settler for Calabria).
At this point I had 13 coastal cities (and still did not have Corsica, Provance, and Thesally for UHV3).

UHV1: Conquests as above.

UHV2: All 13 coastal cities prioritized the Lighthouse. Once done, I built a lot of War Galleys with the special promotion to increase transport capacity such that it counts towards the goal.

UHV3: With a very large stack of Knights and Trebs, I declared war on Burgundy around 1370, and captured the 2 Provance cities as well as Toulouse and Lyon so that I have some cultural space (Burgundy actually collapsed shortly after). I did the same quickly with the well-defended Genoan city in Corsica. That meant I only have Thessaly (Athens) left to conquer from Byzantion. I moved a large stack of troops towards them, declared war on them in 1473, bombarded via Gun Galleys and captured amphibiously.

Stability: very strong (20-40+) for most of the game due to good provinces, good economy (all cities building Wealth), and good civics combo.

 

[Andrrew]

Sweden

UHV1: Control 6 cities in Karelia / Norrland / Osterland in 1323.
UHV2: Raze 5 Catholic cities while being Protestant by 1660.
UHV3: Control all Baltic coastal cities in 1750.

Civics: FM/FL/Serfdom/Decentralization/State Religion/Militarism. Switched to OR/Guilds/Apprenticeship/Imperialism during GA. For late game, switched again to Constitutional Monarchy / Common Law / Free Labor / Religious Tolerance.
Techs: Generally focused on science booster techs, stability techs, and military techs.
Cities: Capital 1E of Iron. Denmark had an odd city on top of Barley so I put the second Settler 2S of Copper. Settler in the boat went to found Abo (1W of Horse). Early on focused on building a couple of Settlers and founding Norrland city (2S of Timber), Helsinki (1E of Cow), and another Osterland city (1N of Silver).
Cities started with building 3-4 Trebs. Later on I built the Heroic Epic in the flipped Barley city, and settled all GGs there.

Early Game Conquests: Upgraded AL to Knight, and attacked Denmark once I had 1-2 Trebs. I captured Kristiansand, Amber island city, and Copenhagen, after which they capitulated and shortly after collapsed.
With my veterans + newly produced Knights, I shipped over to Finland and attacked Novgorod, gradually capturing 5 of their cities (2 in Karelia, their capital, 1 in Estonia, and another SW of their capital).
I also captured indy Visby early on.
I built up an even larger Knight + Bombard force, and attacked Prussia next. I captured their 4 coastal cities, after which they capitulated.

UHV1: As above.
UHV2: Once I got Protestantism I converted. I gifted away the Novgorod capital to Moscow, declared war and immediately captured it back, and razed it. This was #1, and also gave more space to my east Estonian city.
Next I attacked Poland with a big stack of Knights+Bombards, captured their coastal city, and continued south and razed their capital (#2). Then I attacked 2 indy catholic cities in Lithuania and razed them, on top of another small Polish city in the region (#3-5).
War declarations were Ok (Arabia, Ottomans, England, Aragon). I forced a PT with Novgorod just before so that they won't cause any headache.
To manage stability, I timed a GA with GPs during the razing period.

UHV3: Late game is a bit boring as it is not a "by" condition. I clicked away until it was finally 1750. I only had 2 German cities left, so I attacked them in the last turn and captured their cities amphibiously with a massive stack of Line Infantry and Frigates.

Stability: I only dipped to -1 once during the city razing period. I built all stability buildings everywhere, and also persecuted non-Protestantism from most cities. My economy was also a big boost to stability. Late game was 70+.

 

[Andrrew]

Poland

UHV1: #1 in Food production at some point between 1500-1520.
UHV2: Control 12 cities in the following provinces: Bohemia, Moravia, Upper Hungary, Prussia, Lithuania, Livonia, Polotsk, Minsk, Volhynia, Podolia, Moldova, Kiev.
UHV3: Build 3 Catholic, 3 Orthodox, and 2 Protestant Cathedrals, and have at least 2 Jewish Quarters.

Civics: FM/FL/Serfdom/Decentralization/State Religion/Militarism. Switched to OR/Guilds/Apprenticeship/Imperialism during first GA.
Techs: Priority is Blast Furnace, Chivalry, Gunpowder, Printing Press. I traded techs aggressively and managed to get to close to a tech lead by late game, vs. being massively behind in the first few hundred years.
Cities: Capital on spot; coastal city on top of Salt, Silver city 1NW of Silver. Early on I put down a few additional cities: 1SW of Dye, Galicia 1SW of Deer, Sulvakija 1SE of Deer.
All cities build a couple of Workers, and a few more once chopping is allowed.
Krakow builds HE and then builds military for most of the game (Armored Lancers / Knights / Trebs as needed).
I also captured indy Prussian capital with starting units just to have some extra production (few more ALs until Prussia shows up). Same thing with Prague, using them for military only and then agreed to flip.

Mongols: I used my Galicia city for active defense. I just got Chivalry in time and was able to kill them off. There are a lot of them (I killed 19 Keshiks in the second half of the 1200s).

UHV2: Once I felt secure from Mongols, I declared war on Prussia, then Lithuania, and then Kiev, conquering them between 1270 and c. 1450. I built a lot of stability buildings and balanced progress with stability, keeping it in +5 or so ideally.
In total I captured 3 Prussian, 3 Lithuanian, and 8 Kievan/indy/barb cities, of which 13 qualified for the UHV2 (1 didn't qualify as was in Galicia). All these cities are Orange stability except for 2 Prussian ones in Baltics.

UHV1: As per above conquests, I was head-to-head with Arabia at c. 550 food production. Note that I built a lot of Workers and put Farms on every possible tile, and traded all my excess resources for happiness / health (esp with Arabia). In 1500 I clicked on emphasize Food on every city, and became comfortably the #1, after which I switched off emphasize Food.

UHV3: The Polish UP is quite cool so from very early on I focused aggressively on spreading Orthodoxy, and also built the Kazimierz wonder. In my first GA I already had the 3 Catholic cathedrals, and hence I switched to Orthodoxy (you have to switch State Religion to build the Cathedrals). Once I got to Printing Press I started another GA and switched to Protestantism, quickly spreading it to the required number of cities. I wanted to time it so that I win in 1568 but was a bit slow and only achieved victory in 1578. The 2UHV war declarations were painful (super Germany and super Hungary) but I had massive stacks of heavily-promoted Knights and some Pistoliers as well, so had no issue defending.

Stability: No major issues as I only expanded gradually and built all stability buildings (incl. Castles) everywhere.

 

[SebastianP]

Thanks so much for sharing your strategies with us. I thoroughly enjoyed reading them. The one thing I'm wondering is - how often in a game do you reload (e.g. when a city declares independence?). Given some UHVs seem to require a near-perfect start, I'm having a hard time without. Even though it feels like cheating.

 

[Andrrew]

Thanks so much for sharing your strategies with us. I thoroughly enjoyed reading them. The one thing I'm wondering is - how often in a game do you reload (e.g. when a city declares independence?). Given some UHVs seem to require a near-perfect start, I'm having a hard time without. Even though it feels like cheating.

On Emperor the room for error is slim indeed! I reload often in the early game, especially when I lose to a 50%+ odd critical battle. I wouldn't say it is cheating as 'new random seed on reload' is disabled, which means the random generator that determines a battle's win/loss won't change upon reload; all you can do is delay the battle or sacrifice a non-essential unit.

After the first c. 20 key turns, I tend to reload less. Also, I tend to be paranoid about stability and never let it dip below zero. As a result, sometimes I 'play it safe' and slow down conquests to avoid secessions; some of my victory dates could probably be improved. In addition, I've also played each civ several times so I know what to expect (this is the first time I'm writing it down though).

Is there a particular UHV that you find difficult to achieve without a lot of reloading / luck?

 

[Andrrew]

Kiev

UHV1: Build 8 Orthodox Monasteries and 2 Orthodox Cathedrals by 1250.
UHV2: Control 10 of the following provinces in 1288: Kiev, Podolia, Pereyaslavl, Sloboda, Chernigov, Volhynia, Minsk, Polotsk, Smolensk, Moscow, Murom, Rostov, Novgorod, Vologda.
UHV3: Generate 25k food by 1300.

Civics: Switched to Militarism/State Religion once Orthodoxy spread to me (immediately OB'd with all Orthodox civs so it was quick). Switched to FM/FL once possible. Otherwise kept Manorialism/Serfdom given all the farmlands.
Techs: Key priority is Blast Furnace (UU Armored Lancer). I traded techs aggressively to advance (immediately sent 1 HA to meet Venice etc), and later on also for cash. You don't really need Knights so otherwise I switched tech to zero. Actually I also went for Castles tech but it was not necessary as I was doing active defense against Mongols. I had a cash burn at 0% for a while as I overbuilt my army and overextended; after deleting some Workers and obsolete troops I managed to break even.
Cities: Capital on starting spot, second settler 1W of Deer, third on top of hill next to Barley and Honey - this is a key chokepoint for passive defense at the beginning, so this city should build Walls. Each city built 1-2 Workers and then I let them grow a bit, after which I built a couple of Settlers. Here's where I placed them: 1E of Dye, 1W of Cow (in Podolia), 1NW of Stone, Murom city with Iron/Pigs/Horse, city on top of Sloboda Wheat (this one also built Walls just in case), another Murom city 1N of Pigs.
Conquests: I immediately captured indy Kharkov with starting units. Once I had ALs, I captured indy Smolensk and Galich, as well as indy Yaroslavl up north. I also captured early on indy Minsk, then agreed to flip, then once the Lithuania cooldown ended, I recaptured it alongside another city in Minsk province they founded, then quickly made peace. Also attacked Poland, captured their poorly-defended Brest city, then made peace.
This got me to 16 cities and also fulfilling UHV2 by controlling actually 11 of the target provinces.

UHV1: this one is easy, Orthodoxy spread automatically without the need of Missionaries, so I just prioritized Churches and Monasteries early on, as well as 2 Cathedrals (boosted by Stone and Chopping). It is fairly easy to achieve this by ~1180.

UHV2: As above.

UHV3: OK so this is the trickier one. Even without UHV2 you'd need to expand extremely aggressively to achieve this Food production target.
Over the course of the game I built 11 workers (on top of a few more I conquered and started with), and used them to chop all the plain forests and put Farms everywhere. Also put a few mines to support production of buildings but the main focus is Farms.
Each city built Happiness and Health buildings and I also traded resources aggressively (e.g. once I didn't need Stone I traded it away). I got Wine, Gold, and Salt from Hungary. I also bought Luxuries from Byzantion for cash in late game. Then I balanced unit production and building construction to ensure my cities were as much as possible at peak population. I had to micromanage a lot to ensure they don't become unhappy but they are working the food-rich tiles. At peak, I was generating 400+ Food per turn.
I decided to use active defense against Mongols, so built Barracks everywhere and built in total 38 ALs.
Over the course of the game, I killed 67 Keshiks and 87 Horse Archers. Victory achieved in 1293.

Stability: 5-10 during the entire game. As I used active defense there was very limited pillaging (I kept the SE of my border cities unimproved. I also built a Manor Houses everywhere once I felt like my AL army will be sufficient.

 

[SebastianP]

Good to know it's not just me considering reloading if I lose yet another 90% chance of success battle ;-) ... I had given up a game with Bulgaria last week. Managed the first UHV last-minute (turn) but acquiring the required faith points proven far harder than I thought. Started with France yesterday but guess I'll have to restart again. The first UHV seems almost impossible unless you carefully plan for a perfect execution. Gotta read your guide again as an inspiration before I set out again

 

[SebastianP]

So instead of France I decided to try Poland this time. Just from the description, the UHVs seem do-able. Keep in mind I'm playing on Viceroy as I'm a much worse player than you are. (to my defense, I'm not a "pro-gamer" and I just starting to play Civ IV)

Started out and founded Poznan (starting position). Then founded two cities to the west, Wroclaw and Szczecin (on the coast) to block Germany from expanding east and to get a harbor with Szczecin. Cracow joined me thereafter. I decided not to found Gdansk on the north coast (maybe I should have?) but instead planned on conquering Prussia asap.

Meanwhile expanded to the east, founding Warszawa and Przemysl. The latter finished city walls and a Guisamer just before the Mongol onslaught. I was able to hold the city against the Mongol Keshiks with 2 Knights & 2 Guisamers, only lost a few farms (which my plenty of workers kept building everywhere with UHV1 in mind)

After the Mongols, the Prussians came into being. We were at war from the beginning. I quickly grabbed their cities, starting with Konigsberg, then Windau, Riga and up to Reval.
Big mistake in hindsight, as my stability really took a heavy blow for the expansion. I ended up gifting Reval to Sweden to avoid a collapse. I'd be interested in how you kept stability high enough with the expansion eastwards so early? I try to build as many castles, manors, courts etc. but always just seem being able to keep it at around 0, sometimes in the minus even? (I did not change my policies)

I tried to secure my borders by staying on friendly terms with Hungary (South), Denmark (North) and Latvia (East). Open borders, trade etc.
Germany resisted my flattery and was aggressive from the start. Around 1400 they DOWed me and attacked but my knights destroyed their stack after a little pillaging on both sides. We made peace. I keep getting DOWed by nations such as Norway or England but that merely results in some sea battles. I wonder if I'm wasting resources by building ships to defend fish resources. But then I need the extra food for UHV1, don't I? What did you do? Did you care about the sea at all?

Playing as Poland has this "I'm encircled by enemies on all sides" kind of feeling. Naturally you'd like to play defensively because of that but then there's the crazy UHV2 that requires the conquest of huge chunks of unstable lands to the east.

I just finished building Westminster Abbey in Cracow which will hopefully add stability to my multi-religion cities and allow me to build all required religious buildings. Is that an alternative to switching religions as you did? (= does it also allow for cathedrals? I haven't tested)

Getting a stone resource is a problem in my game. Tough to build wonders without and the needed city walls / castles for defense / stability. There is one stone between Prague and Wroclaw but independent Prague was conquered by Germany very early and expanded borders very quick to cover the stone. No one seems to be willing to trade it either.

Also, how did you manage to capture indy Prussian capital with your starting units? They have 2 crossbowman + 1 bowman in there in my game. I figure these things vary whenever you start a new game?

What did you do about the Crusades? They start right about the time of mongol invasion and steal some very valuable units from you unless you decrease science and go for money to buy yourself out ...

 

[gilgames]

stone in prague! conquer and raze plus settle city with in bcf the srone. ship is to make contact. forget fish. and expand southeast, not northeast.

 

[Andrrew]

So instead of France I decided to try Poland this time. Just from the description, the UHVs seem do-able. Keep in mind I'm playing on Viceroy as I'm a much worse player than you are. (to my defense, I'm not a "pro-gamer" and I just starting to play Civ IV)

Started out and founded Poznan (starting position). Then founded two cities to the west, Wroclaw and Szczecin (on the coast) to block Germany from expanding east and to get a harbor with Szczecin. Cracow joined me thereafter. I decided not to found Gdansk on the north coast (maybe I should have?) but instead planned on conquering Prussia asap.

Meanwhile expanded to the east, founding Warszawa and Przemysl. The latter finished city walls and a Guisamer just before the Mongol onslaught. I was able to hold the city against the Mongol Keshiks with 2 Knights & 2 Guisamers, only lost a few farms (which my plenty of workers kept building everywhere with UHV1 in mind)

After the Mongols, the Prussians came into being. We were at war from the beginning. I quickly grabbed their cities, starting with Konigsberg, then Windau, Riga and up to Reval.
Big mistake in hindsight, as my stability really took a heavy blow for the expansion. I ended up gifting Reval to Sweden to avoid a collapse. I'd be interested in how you kept stability high enough with the expansion eastwards so early? I try to build as many castles, manors, courts etc. but always just seem being able to keep it at around 0, sometimes in the minus even? (I did not change my policies)

I tried to secure my borders by staying on friendly terms with Hungary (South), Denmark (North) and Latvia (East). Open borders, trade etc.
Germany resisted my flattery and was aggressive from the start. Around 1400 they DOWed me and attacked but my knights destroyed their stack after a little pillaging on both sides. We made peace. I keep getting DOWed by nations such as Norway or England but that merely results in some sea battles. I wonder if I'm wasting resources by building ships to defend fish resources. But then I need the extra food for UHV1, don't I? What did you do? Did you care about the sea at all?

Playing as Poland has this "I'm encircled by enemies on all sides" kind of feeling. Naturally you'd like to play defensively because of that but then there's the crazy UHV2 that requires the conquest of huge chunks of unstable lands to the east.

I just finished building Westminster Abbey in Cracow which will hopefully add stability to my multi-religion cities and allow me to build all required religious buildings. Is that an alternative to switching religions as you did? (= does it also allow for cathedrals? I haven't tested)

Getting a stone resource is a problem in my game. Tough to build wonders without and the needed city walls / castles for defense / stability. There is one stone between Prague and Wroclaw but independent Prague was conquered by Germany very early and expanded borders very quick to cover the stone. No one seems to be willing to trade it either.

Also, how did you manage to capture indy Prussian capital with your starting units? They have 2 crossbowman + 1 bowman in there in my game. I figure these things vary whenever you start a new game?

What did you do about the Crusades? They start right about the time of mongol invasion and steal some very valuable units from you unless you decrease science and go for money to buy yourself out ...

Answering your questions:
- Stability during expansion: this is tricky, I expanded Very Slowly and Gradually, stretched across ~200 years (1270 to 1450), and always kept my stability at least at plus 2-3 ideally. If it was approaching zero, I paused and built all Stability buildings everywhere. Important to run stable civic combo and of course adopting Militarism. I didn't go for Reval btw (too far and unstable).
- Attacks from the sea: If I remember correctly England did try to attack once, but they just pillaged my Fish and then made peace a bit later so I just rebuilt. Generally it is enough to have 1-2 War Galleys to defend. The Prussian capital has good production so it shouldn't be a big distraction to rebuild a Fishing Boat from time to time I guess.
- Aggressive neighbors: Germany is a common riks factor, however I usually just let them have Brandenburg province (in previous tries whenever I put down a city in that province they just go crazy early on and attack until they conquer it); you have put down Szczecin which must have triggered this aggression. Generally I didn't have big issues with either Germany or Hungary as my city placements try to ensure not a lot of Close Borders penalty.
- Westminster Abbey: Not sure it is worth the hammers; I'm fairly sure you still need to switch religions to build the Cathedrals. I just used Krakow for non-stop military (Knights mainly).
- Stone: If Germany captured Prague before your spawn that's very bad luck and you may want to reload. Important to capture the city as it gives you access to Stone up until Austrian spawn (or maybe as per gilgames suggestion you raze Prague and put a city outside of the flipzone although on Emperor I generally avoid razing cities...).
- Capturing indy Prussian capital at start: I had 2 Crossbow defenders, so I just sacrificed my 2 Axemen (relatively useless units) and captured with the 2 Swordsmen.
- Crusades: I never join Crusades with Poland as I really need my troops for Mongols and then for expansion / defense. If I have Teutonic Knight units I tend to pay the Pope so that I don't lose them; otherwise I just don't participate and accept the drop in Faith Points, which is not a big issue.

If you want a few easy UHVs, I would say Burgundy, Hungary, Genoa, Lithuania, Byzantion, Germany are the easier ones based on my recollection.

 

[Andrrew]

Muscovy

UHV1: No barb cities in Russia/Ukraine in 1482.
UHV2: 25% of land area.
UHV3: Control Constantinople or an Atlantic Access resource.

Civics: With my Brute Force strategy, you stay on the second of each Civic category, except for Militarism. No need to change civics later on...
Techs: With my Brute Force strategy, you only need to beeline for Drama (1504) and Gunpowder (1512), then just max out the Culture slider.
Cities: Capital 1N of Horse (need to start building those Boyars ASAP...), second city 1S of Moscow province Fur. Other cities depend on what is pre-built, but I like Donets city (4 resources) and also Sloboda city.
During the early game, I built a ton of Settlers and Macemen/Arquebusiers, and filled up all the empty land, including the northern wastelands. Also built a ton of Workers to improve the land (Farms and Mines everywhere pretty much...).
Early cities should build Wharf which really helps your economy. Also, all cities should build Theaters once possible. Otherwise, it pretty much every city constantly just builds Boyars... (after Stable). Also a bit of Orthodox buildings here and there to boost culture. Capital built HE and I settled all GGs there.

UHV1: This is the easy one; your starting units plus perhaps a few more Boyars should get you there. In my game, Kiev was alive and annoyingly their capital was in my flipzone and hence didn't flip. I quickly built 4-5 Trebs (chop) and broke down his castles in his remaining core cities, after which they collapsed.

UVH3: After Kiev/barb/indy cities, I went for Novgorod, which was relatively easy; mopped up their cities by 1550. After Novgorod, I went for Constantinople with my veteran troops of Boyars + Bombards. I had OB with Bulgaria (Hungarian vassal), so I could just go through the lands to get near Constantinople. Unfortunately Hungary had DP with Byzantion so my troops would fly out at declaration, so I first declared war on Ottoman and moved my huge stack on Ottoman land, to ensure I don't get pushed out. Captured Constantinople in 1588.

UHV2: With every free land area covered with cities / culture, I was getting close at this point, around 20%. With the 2UHV war declarations, I was at war with Sweden so captured their Finland city. Unfortunately I made the rookie mistake of friendly-vassalizing Lithuania - their territories don't count towards the 25%, so this significantly delayed my progress. After mopping up Finland, I declared war on Teutons and captured all their cities, with massive losses. At this point I didn't bother with siege, I just sacrificed ridiculous stacks of Boyars against Pike defenders. I was still only at 24% so I had to attack Hungary / Bulgaria and capture an ex-Polish city and a Norther Bulgarian city to get to victory in 1628. FYI I was unlucky and didn't get a Great Artist despite 70% odds but ultimately you don't need one as you can just put a Settler everywhere.

Stability: Early game is very comfortable even without building Courthouses; once I started conquering Unstable provinces in the end, my stability was dipping so I quickly stopped building Boyars and instead built all stability buildings everywhere. Barbs are very annoying; you'll need to keep a couple of Boyars near your capital and also near Donetsk.

Stats:
- 13 cities built
- 56 cities controlled in 1628
- Units built: 141 Boyars, 31 Arquebusiers, 20 Workers, 15 Missionaries ...
- Units lost: 74 Boyars, 5 Arquebusiers ...
- Units killed: around 250 units in total

 

[Andrrew]

Arabia

UHV1: Control the land from Levant to Tunisia in 850.
UHV2: Control Levant and Egypt and be #1 in tech in 1291.
UHV3: Islam to 35% of Europe.

Civics: I kept it on starting civics (Religious Law, Trade Economy, Theocracy) as these help with persecution and economy. During first GA, I switched to Feudal Monarchy and Militarism.
Techs: Generally went with the cheapest tech. Did not prioritize Farriers too much as it triggers stronger barbs from Arabia. Delayed Education until 1291...
Cities: Capital on spot. Second settler built Aqaba (core province, hills, with Copper, Sheep, and oasis). My capital was the military city (HE, all GGs; mass producing Ghazi / Knights), while Jerusalem also supported with military. Sur was my Settler factory while Alexandria built a couple of wonders. Beyond stability buildings, cities emphasized House of Wisdom and Bazaar, as well as Health (and later Happiness) buildings.

UHV1: Starting units should capture the 2 Byzantine cities in Antiochia province. You have a chance to find some injured defenders (eg from Plague or barbs), or otherwise rely on Horse Archer retreat odds to minimize losses to ideally not more than 1 HA (and a few spears). Then the promoted and healed HAs should capture Alexandria. Sur should build 2 Galleys, and also 2 Settlers (perhaps Jerusalem can build one of them; they take a long time) and asap position the 2 Settlers in Cyprus and Crete (only put them down in 850 as otherwise they might secede. You probably won't get Farriers in time so you need to rely on your veteran HAs + more built by capital / Jerusalem to capture the 4 cities between Egypt and Tunisia + also the city in Sicily. Time is tight but so are your units; you need to be very careful and try to not lose too many units. The biggest issue is stability; all your cities should ASAP build Manor House and Courthouses everywhere to stay afloat. I timed the last 2 city conquests in 850 (Sicily and Carthage). Afterwards my stability hovered between -9 and -5, but very luckily did not get any secessions (in any case would have been easy to reconquer them). It might be more feasible to rush for Farriers and switch to Militarism before you start the conquests (assuming the 1 turn of anarchy doesn't get you secessions itself).

UVH2: Once my stability was above +5, I started to both Persecute non-Islam from my cities and also aggressively found new cities to fill up the empty space between Tunisia and Egypt. In total I had 4 cities in Egypt, 3 in Cyrencia, 3 in Tripolitania, 3 in Ifriqiya, and 1 in Algiers. Given strong civics + House of Wisdom, I was able to get a tech lead (although it was tight).

Crusades: Important to ASAP build Castle in Jerusalem (crusaders have a turn advantage so you need defenders not just Horses) and put in at least 6-7 passive defenders (combo of Guisarmier / Crossbow / Longsword). When the attackers appeared, I used heavily promoted Ghazis as well as Flanking Ghazis/HAs to quickly eliminate them, without any losses on my side. At this point France agreed to Capitulate! Funnily enough the same thing happened with Burgundy and Venice (but not with Aragon).

UHV3: I sent a Galley around early on and met Denmark who friendly vassalized. He is too far though so inconvenient to spread Islam there. My cities alone got me to ~25%, and I started to aggressively spread Islam to my vassals (France, Burgundy, Venice) as well as Genoa (who OB'd). I bribed them to switch for ~500 gold each, however they like to switch back 10 turns later which is incredibly annoying! While under Islam, they persecuted Christianity but after they switched back, they persecuted Islam! In any case, my relentless Missionary production prevailed (used my 2 Tunisia cities with strong production); I used a string of Cogs to transport them in a single turn to Provance. I also conquered Apulia city and gave it to Venice. Finally hit 35% in 1368 and won!

Stability: Early game is extremely challenging, possibly the most difficult UHV stability situation (maybe comparable to Byzantion UHV #1). Once you are past 850, you will be very comfortable with 20-30+. I used active defense against Seljuks (with Ghazis) so there was no pillaging.

Stats:
- 16 cities built
- 26 cities controlled in 1368
- Units built: 26 Knights, 25 Missionaries, 16 Ghazis built
- Crop yield: 702 (vs. #2 at 207)

 

[Andrrew]

Ottomans

UHV1: Control Egypt, Levant, Anatolia, and the Balkans in 1517.
UHV2: Build the Blue Mosque, the Selimiye Mosque, the Tomb of Al Walid, and Topkapi Palace by 1616.
UHV3: Control Pannonia, Austria, and Lesser Poland by 1683.

Starting situation: The Ottoman's late start mean there is a wide range of potential outcomes when you start to play. I compared ~5 starting positions to determine which start could lead to the most likely victory. The "perfect" start would be a world as unstable and as backwards as possible, with as many major civs and Islamic civs collapsed as possible. The general tech level of the world is also key to understand ASAP - if Gunpowder is already widespread (e.g. to Cordoba / Arabia / Morocco) there is a very high probability that the roll is not winnable (e.g., in one instance Blue Mosque was built by Cordoba around 6 turns in; impossible to generate a GE fast enough beat that). Also, if England / France seems particularly ahead in Tech (even if the Islamic nations are behind), it is very likely that the roll is not winnable either because England likes to build the Topkapi (which doesn't need you to be Islamic); in one of my play-throughs they built it around 1517 when I just got my UHV1 and was still a bit away from Flintlock... From a city layout standpoint, if you don't have a reasonably well-developed Izmir and Eskisehir (Pig city in NE part of your flipzone) then you need to restart (former is your military city and latter the wonder building city given usually forests around that you can chop).

My winning roll's starting situation actually didn't look particularly amazing - Byzantion was alive and reasonable well spread out including controlling Bulgaria, although they did not have Chivalry tech. I was also lucky that they just got the Plague in turn 3! It literally halved the lives of every single defender they had so I could capture Byzantion and Hadrianopolis without bombardment. In retrospect, not having a reasonably strong Bulgaria with big Knight stacks (or an Uber Hungary with even bigger Knight stacks controlling Bulgaria) to fight early on was a huge benefit.

Civics: I intended to change from Despotism to Feudal Monarchy in turn 1, but in retrospect looking at my saves I forgot to do the switch initially, and only did it during my first GA. Otherwise kept Religious Law, Apprenticeship, Guilds, Theocracy, Militarism.
Techs: Beelined for Flintlock. Traded with distant backwards civs (eg Denmark, Genoa, Spain, Portugal) for a few techs such as Patronage, Optics, Banking. Got Chemistry in 1507 and Flintlock in 1530. Initially you need to put your tech slider to zero (I was even bleeding cash at 0% at some point in the initial expansion phase) and gradually increase it over time while staying in the green.
Resource trading: I tried to trade any excess resource for happiness initially, and later on also for health, and in a few cases for gold as well, as I was losing money at 0%...

Initial moves: I found my capital usually on spot; 1SE would be marginally better but I would only do that if my starting spot already has a road built on it (otherwise starting troops lose a turn). Initial few turns are key to conquer Constantinople and you don't want to lose a turn. My entire stack started moving towards Constantinople (without crossing over to Europe, i.e. on the "southern path"). My bonus troops I got in turn 3 went towards Hadrianopolis.

My initial build order was:
- Gelibolu: Missionaries plus stability buildings
- Eskisehir: Hammam, Guild Hall, Tomb of Al-Walid, Blue Mosque, Selimiye Mosque, then stability buildings
- Izmir: 3 Cogs, 2 War Galleys, Hammam, Guild Hall, Heroic Epic (once I finally had a Level 4 unit...), Knights ad infinitum
- All other flipped (and later conquered) cities pretty much just built Hammam and stability buildings initially

It is important to really let your cities starve until they are happy, otherwise if they stagnate with 2-3 angry pop that will get you collapsed. The above build order means you don't really start producing units until quite late, i.e. you need to make do initially with your starting / flipped units! This is however doable as long as you can avoid a direct confrontation with any local power with huge Knight stacks (such as Bulgaria or Hungary).

Eastern strategy / Timur: In one of my earlier (unsuccessful) attempts to win, I split my starting troops 50/50 and started advancing East in Anatolia immediately; this is a huge mistake as Timur's barb attacks are absolutely insane and will destroy your troops! In the unsuccessful attempt I actually killed 48 Keshiks by 1450 or so! Mainly by defending passively on Paphlagonia / Anatolikon cities, while also suffering extreme stability penalties due to Pillaging. The correct strategy is to simply not advance at all towards East until Timur's attacks are done, and just let the collapsing Byzantines or the subsequent indy cities absorb those attacks. I just put 6 defenders each in Eskisehir and another flipped city in the SE part of my flipzone (this city also built a Castle quickly just in case). Around 1415 I conquered Ras and Antalyia (just with a few Bombards + Longbows); these cities are less exposed to Timur. Around 1440 I slowly started progressing East, only attacking non-Keshik cities (indy Paphlagonia city, Arabic Sinope, later on Arabic coastal Colonea city - the latter two had Castles and big stacks of Arquebusiers so I needed Bombards + Janissaries). The Keshik-controlled 2-3 cities in Charsianon and southern Colonea I only conquered very late, near 1517.

Balkans: with your Eastern front only defending, you have a sizeable starting stack of Bombards + Knights + Longbows/Macemen + HAs, which is more then enough to quickly conquer Greece + Bulgaria + rest of indy Balkans (you can split your troops into 2 or 3 stacks and go very fast). I avoided a war with Hungary so did not go for Raguza yet; same for Venice who had 2 cities in target provinces. This way I was able to conquer these lands fairly quickly which also increased my Janissary generation. I was done with Balkans around 1420 (save the 2 Venice cities + Raguza blocking Bosnia), which allowed me to transfer all my Veteran troops to the Eastern front at that point.

Egypt land grab: Alexandria and a city west of it was indy, so I decided to attack it very early on, almost immediately. I put 6 (flipped) Trebs + 2 Longbows onto Cogs (once I made peace with Arabia from the initial Auto War) and conquered these 2 indy cities pretty quickly. Later on I used these as landing zones for my Southern front of the dual-front invasion of Arabia, including reinforcing the troops with Knights and HAs (plus also upgrading the Trebs). My Arabic invasion started around 1430, initially only capturing Cairo and Dumyat, then waiting to heal / reinforce (Arabia was reasonably strong and mass-producing Arquebusiers and Guisarmiers, spiked with a few Knights and Ghazis). Arabia even had cities west of Egypt so I had to defend my back with Castle + defenders.

Levant: As mentioned above, I declared war on Arabia around 1430, and attacked them on 2 fronts (Egypt + Cilicia). They put up a good fight, but ultimately my Bombard + Janissary + promoted Knights strategy prevailed. I also used some Flanking HAs which are actually extremely helpful (they are very cheap to build and quick, but can cause some serious damage to even strong defenders while staying alive ~70% of the time). My 2-front assault finally prevailed and I captured their last city on 1508.

Finishing off UHV1: around 1510 I declared war on Hungary, razed Raguza (without losses; CR2/3 Janissaries had 95%+ odds), then built a Bosnia city and immediately made peace. I also declared war on Venice, and conquered their 3 cities (including a Greek island city annoyingly built by them recently that I razed), then made peace quickly. Also important to build any Settlers that are needed for provinces with no cities, and position them on time. I also timed a GA to cover the last couple of turns before 1517 as I was worried about stability, but ultimately my stability was pretty good at this point.

UHV2: For the first 3 wonders, as above you just need to make sure none of the Islamic countries have Gunpowder (or if they do, pray that they won't beat you to Blue Mosque...). I was panicking a bit and micromanaged/rushed a Great Engineer in Constantinople (in fact got 2 of them, but only rushed the Blue Mosque as from prior rolls it seemed like the AI likes to build that more often). Otherwise, assigned the BFC to Eskisehir and chopped around 7 forests to acceleratethe Tomb and the other Mosque wonder. Completed the first 3 in 1398, 1401 (rush), and 1446.

Re Topkapi, this is where my initial comments on general advancement of Western civs (particularly England) is key. From early on, all my cities focused on science / commerce buildings (Guild Hall, Bank, Wharf, Market, Lighthouse, Uni, etc.) as long as my stability was OK, and only switched to building Castles if my stability dipped below 6-7 (I built Manor House and Courthouse as a given everywhere as first 2 builds). I didn't really have to supplement my Izmir city much with Military, maybe just with a couple of Knights and HAs built by Istanbul or Eskisehir. Around 1500 I just started building Wealth with every city of mine, including clicking on Emphasize Commerce and Emphasize Science. By 1518 I was generating over 550 beakers/turn with breakeven treasury. At this point England already had Flintlock however it seems they first focused on Colonies instead of Topkapi. I was panicking a bit and sold a couple of techs for 200 gold each to anybody other than Hungary/Austria/Poland, to make sure I can run my science at 100% for a few turns instead of 60%. Finally got Flintlock in 1530 and rushed Topkapi with saved up Great Engineer.

UHV3: This one is just pure fun, in 1530 I started building Stable + Pistoliers with Every Single City of Mine (each getting at least 16 XPs due to the wonder that doubles XP during GA, and Izmir ones getting 40 XPs!), and unleashed my insane stack to Hungary / Austria / Poland, capturing the 5 relevant cities and reaching victory in 1546!!!

Stability: Early game is challenging, although with no barb pillages + also no pillages from Arab ships (built a couple of ships for defense in Izmir), extreme micromanaged focus on Manor House / Courthouse early on (don't trade for Paper...), spreading Islam around ASAP, and delaying the Eastern conquests, my stability was OK and I did not have any major risks of secessions (maybe only had 1 or 2 really tight turns in the early Balkans phase).

Stats:
- 4 cities built, 2 razed
- 47 cities controlled in 1546
- Units built: 97 Pistoliers, 28 Knights, 22 Missionaries, 6 Arquebusiers, 6 HAs, etc. (+ circa 30-40 Janissaries "generated")
- Units killed: Over 260
- Top buildings constructed: 39 Courthouses, 38 Manor houses, 36 Guild Halls, 28 Hammams, 21 Castles, etc.