Hi all,
Below are some general strategies you might want to use when playing the following civs on emperor difficulty to achieve the UHVs.
Egypt (BTS 3.19 Patch)
Achieving the egyptian UHV is hard since you will need luck. You have to build 3 wonders (technically 4) and have alot of culture which is hard to get (requires alot of luck to get the third condition which is 5000 culture by turn 143). The wonders are hard to build since the AI will get them before you do if they want to get them (especially stonehenge and the pyramids, which are essential). You will also need to pop a great artist that is pretty damn hard to get as your GP pool will be severely polluted.
Ramses starts with hereditary rule and slavery.
-UHV-
1) 500 culture by turn 86.
2) Build the Pyramids, the Great Lighthouse and the Great Library by turn 133
3) get 5000 culture by turn 143.
When you spawn, move your settler 1NW and found your city (You will lose less health and you will reach the corn). Keep your warrior inside the city for happiness.
DO NOT WHIP Never ever whip even though that might seem weird as you start with slavery, but DO NOT WHIP. You need to reach litterature in 120 turns max and every single amount of commerce you can get you gotta keep it.
Build order: Warrior, Stonehenge, Worker (time it with masonry to make sure you have two workers improving that stone ASAP), finish Stonehenge, Pyramids, Settler,*You will probably have to build warriors at some points, and do so, never let your city be unhappy, even when you are 2 turns away from building the mids*, Library, Optional (Walls or warrior for the Impi rush around turn 120ish is a good idea), The Great library, Optional. Your second city should be built 2W of the wheat and should pump out warriors to satisfy the happiness of your two cities (your main being the most important one obviously).
Worker tasks: Improve Wheat (do not road it you do not need to), road marble and stone, improve stone with 2 workers (you built him to be ready the turn you got masonry), improve marble, make roads to connect your city you will build in not too long, cottages starting with the tile 1W of the wheat and all the other floodplains, cottage the green tile 1E of wheat to finish, Chop forests(not too early! or you won't have any production) to hurry the Great Lighthouse.
Tech patch: Mystycism-Masonry-Pottery-Writting-Aesthetics-(see tech trading)Fishing/Sailing/Polytheism--Litterature-w/e.
Tech Trading: When you get aesthetics, trade it for polytheism ASAP (You will probably have to invest 1 or 2 turns in the tech but you'll be able to get it). Trade with Carthage or the greeks, just make sure you have contact when you discover aesthetics. Later you can trade with the romans and get animal husbandry to boost your production in the capital for the Great Library.
Second city: Build warriors then The Great Lighthouse, chop the forests to get it as fast as you can. You should start working the wheat when your main city hits 10 population to work those 3 forest tiles ASAP.
Great Persons: Settle your first great person in your second city to give it some extra production (even if its an engineer), then hope for an artist as your 2nd as you should switch to caste system when you get Litterature, try to play with your food and starvation to get as much artist points as you can. You could maybe get a 3rd person if you have the parthenon. Music is out of reach on Emperor.
Notes:
- Switch to Emancipation as soon as you finish your first cottage
- Switch to caste system when you get Litterature
- Don't whip
- The Impi rush is easy to fend off, just hope they dont destroy too many of your improvements as you will be building the Library at that time
As long as you micromanage your cities well, you will have a shot at winning.
Greeks (BTS 3.19 Patch)
I achieved the UHV using a somewhat pacifist/Wonder spamming strat. I will only give some general ideas for the following civs as in RFC if you get a good start, you will easily achieve the UHVs, even on emperor.
This victory was a little while back so I don't exactly remember but I believe the greeks start with 2 phalanx, 2-3 warriors, 2 galleys, 1 work boat, 2 settlers. The trick is to be able to reach egypt with your galley which contains your settler, unload him on the forest on turn one, and found alexandria on turn two AS YOUR CAPITAL. This is crucial as your workers will appear here on turn 3, and the land before you is very fertile yet unimproved. Found your greek peninsula city on the iron for a 2 hammer city tile (you did switch to slavery on turn one anyways so why stay on a 1 hammer tile).
Invade Egypt on turn 3 and capture the city (what's the name again, Niwt Rzzyt?) on turn 5 with those two phalanx your brought along.
In the game I won I built pretty much ever wonder, even stonehenge (the best wonder in RFC IMO). Every wonder you get, the more powerful you become. I was making about 300 beakers when I got optics with only 3 cities and an astonishing 150 Gp points per turn. Rome will automatically declare war when you complete the leaning tower, just make sure you have your two galleys protecting your part of the mediterranean sea. This is not a war he planned (the game is coded so that he declares on who built that wonder) so he will not send any land troops to attack you. By the way after you defeat egypt you should send one galley towards asia to achieve your 3rd UHV goal faster later on.
Techwise get masonry then beeline for priesthood, get monarchy to grow that monster city of yours, then beeline the techs for the 2nd UHV goal. I settled all of my Gps except for the academy, this is optional though if you wanna bulb go ahead. An easy victory.
England (BTS version 3.0.1 (from the CD))
I enjoyed the english since the UHV requires you to tech and expand at the same time which is pretty challenging on Emperor since the AIs will outtech you easily, even with 2 or 3 cities. This means they will get astronomy early and they will expand as well, taking some good spots and leaving crappy ones for you to create cities so you can achieve the 2nd UHV goal. Let's not talk about the outrageous proposals they make when you want to trade techs and the cost of the techs you have to research.
Found London, that city 1S3W of london, and Dublin (the city that can work the 3 fish tiles with the border pop). Inverness will flip, giving you a worker (not always but in the game I won it did) and a unit (a beserker in my case). When you reach astronomy a good idea is to found the following cities ASAP HIGH PRIORITY: Halifax (won't flip later to the americans and is easily defended with 1 crossbow of maceman against the indians), that city near jakarta (or Jakarta itself) which has 1 spice, 1 fish, 1 crab/clam, sugar? and bananas, the city on australia to the south of jakarta which has fish, gem and iron in the city area which dont require a border pop to work and that city in S. America which has 2 corn, 1 fish, 2 cattle, 1 Deer in it's radius! A good idea is to build Cape Town for the gems (Always bring a maceman or two in Africa those freaking impis .. ..) and the whale is good. Other cities just open the worldbuilder and look for a food source then build one near but always on the ocean except maybe in america since you might run out of room. Vancouver is also a pretty sweet spot. Asia is hard to colonize but you can easily drop 3 settlers north of japan and wait till 1727 then build them only to give them away the next turn when you get your 2nd goal (the Incas actually took 2 of those terrible cities). Give away your cities which arent really developped after 1730 to increase your scientific output. Don't found some too crappy cities and the AI won't take them, I got lucky with the Mayays/Incas. Just make sure you have the most luxury resources you can as you will be switching to representation in 1730 during your golden age and your military units won't count anymore when it comes to happiness!
As with all other civs, the opening moves are the most important. With England, the following needs to happen: Christian AP is built (by the AI, if not, reload), building the University of Sankore and the Spiral Minaret in London (for the Culture bonuses so you can push back both France and the Dutch) and the other obvious bonuses. Spread christianity to your 4 cities and build temples and monastaires while you build those two wonders. Get Sankore first by bulbing paper (hire scientists, will be explained later..) and the Minaret from Mali by trading for Divine right. Paper is easy to get. However, divine right is a little more tricky to get. What you need to do is to send a galley south towards where mali spawns (if Isabella is blocking the way, reload) and wait until he actually spawns. You can trade with Izzy if you want but make sure to meet mali right after they spawn so that you can get Divine right cheaper. You will need to have about 375 gold + all your techs (including the recent calendar you disovered). France always has alot of money so trade your cheap techs like meditation and calendar for money. BTW this is very important in emperor: MONEY. Always make trades for money. Stay at 100% science at all times until you reach one turn of scientific method then expand while you research something else but always trade for money. Who cares if you just gave Wilhelm optics for 50 gold. If you can do these three things you will now have a building that give +2 hammers, +2 science, +2 gold, +1 happiness, for the rest of the game per city (and its not too expensive).
Civics: HR, Vassalage, Caste System, OR.
The reason for Caste system is that the land isn't improved enough and there isnt enough military units to whip all that much. Early GS is key, so is early easy cheap tech. The city west of london isnt great but it can run a solid 10 science without any improvements (not counting the crab tile). First GS bulb paper, 2nd academy London, 3rd academy Inverness, rest settle London. Adopt Civil service when you get it. Switch to slavery/Settlement when you reach astronomy and furiously improve your infrastructure while not killing your economy (it's ok if it takes you 20ish turns to get nationalism)
Stay peaceful, open borders asap with everyone. Build warriors in Inverness early for military happiness (don't improve the iron and dop chop the forest). I never got declared on all game and warriors were defending my cities in England. Beg gold and stuff if youre in trouble.
Techwise I recommend Calendar, Compass, CS, Optics, astronomy, PP, Scientific method (till 1 turn then to constitution or straight beeline to radio). The 1 turn is very important as discovering this tech will lead you to the industrial era and if the AI gets it before you do, you will not be able to achieve victory! Simply reload if you see that the AI got it. Trade for Engineering (Jao with CS and stuff you will have to invest some turns in it but its worth it for castles since you most likely wont have economics before you win) and trade trade trade all the time. The AI is your friend, even if hes ripping you off.
The rest is up to you..
France
France, like England (and Germany), relies heavily on religion to have a chance of achieving it's UHV (IMHO). As demonstrated with England, you will have to build the Minaret and the University of Sankore to have a shot at winning. Unlike England, YOU will have to build the AP, which will be easy actually.
Early game: Adopt HR, Vassalage, slavery, OR. Settle Paris. Send 1 longbow, 1 sword, 1 axe and your other settler east towards that independant city. Raze it asap. DO NOT FOUND a new city until 1 turn after the germans spawn. All your other units (yes, all of them) go towards Rome. On turn 3, Bordeaux and Marseille will flip. Build workers in both cities. Paris builds library (or religion buildings if you have christianity). The goal is to get two scientists runnning asap to get paper with GS bulb for Sankore. Capture Rome and start building the AP. Mainz (city you settled near Germany) builds a worker too when its built. Get temples and monasteries asap in every city, spread that religion. Paris then builds Sankore, Notre-Dame and the Mausoleum. Be careful with culture as you need Paris to be the most cultured city in 1700 so dont wonder whore in Rome even though it might seem ike an obvious choice. Mainz is a military production center (I actually built the Gardens there in 2 (!) turns with chops) but dont spam too much, prioritize commerce as you won't be conquering anymore. Marseille builds workers/settlers (for expansion in Quebec and Louisiana), Rome builds research/wealth/Units, Bordeaux Units, Paris Wonders/Units and of course cottage everything except ressources.
Getting Sankore is easy. Whip a library in Paris and run scientists. Bordeaux also had a library when it flipped but I built a worker instead. Bulb paper then get meditation asap for monasteries. To get divine right build a galley + a unit in Rome after the AP is built and send them towards north africa. Proceed southwards to trade with Mali.
Techs: Engineering, Meditation, Calendar, CS, Compass, Optics, Astronomy, Nationalism, Printing press, Democracy beeline, Radio beeline. Trade for other techs, no matter the price (as long as it dosent cost too much gold).
Stay peaciful and trade here as well and you will steamroll the AI, even on Emperor. I finished in 1824 AD and spent 60 turns in a Golden Age.
Et voîla! Hope you guys enjoy,
BRS, -3 pop
Below are some general strategies you might want to use when playing the following civs on emperor difficulty to achieve the UHVs.
Egypt (BTS 3.19 Patch)
Achieving the egyptian UHV is hard since you will need luck. You have to build 3 wonders (technically 4) and have alot of culture which is hard to get (requires alot of luck to get the third condition which is 5000 culture by turn 143). The wonders are hard to build since the AI will get them before you do if they want to get them (especially stonehenge and the pyramids, which are essential). You will also need to pop a great artist that is pretty damn hard to get as your GP pool will be severely polluted.
Ramses starts with hereditary rule and slavery.
-UHV-
1) 500 culture by turn 86.
2) Build the Pyramids, the Great Lighthouse and the Great Library by turn 133
3) get 5000 culture by turn 143.
When you spawn, move your settler 1NW and found your city (You will lose less health and you will reach the corn). Keep your warrior inside the city for happiness.
DO NOT WHIP Never ever whip even though that might seem weird as you start with slavery, but DO NOT WHIP. You need to reach litterature in 120 turns max and every single amount of commerce you can get you gotta keep it.
Build order: Warrior, Stonehenge, Worker (time it with masonry to make sure you have two workers improving that stone ASAP), finish Stonehenge, Pyramids, Settler,*You will probably have to build warriors at some points, and do so, never let your city be unhappy, even when you are 2 turns away from building the mids*, Library, Optional (Walls or warrior for the Impi rush around turn 120ish is a good idea), The Great library, Optional. Your second city should be built 2W of the wheat and should pump out warriors to satisfy the happiness of your two cities (your main being the most important one obviously).
Worker tasks: Improve Wheat (do not road it you do not need to), road marble and stone, improve stone with 2 workers (you built him to be ready the turn you got masonry), improve marble, make roads to connect your city you will build in not too long, cottages starting with the tile 1W of the wheat and all the other floodplains, cottage the green tile 1E of wheat to finish, Chop forests(not too early! or you won't have any production) to hurry the Great Lighthouse.
Tech patch: Mystycism-Masonry-Pottery-Writting-Aesthetics-(see tech trading)Fishing/Sailing/Polytheism--Litterature-w/e.
Tech Trading: When you get aesthetics, trade it for polytheism ASAP (You will probably have to invest 1 or 2 turns in the tech but you'll be able to get it). Trade with Carthage or the greeks, just make sure you have contact when you discover aesthetics. Later you can trade with the romans and get animal husbandry to boost your production in the capital for the Great Library.
Second city: Build warriors then The Great Lighthouse, chop the forests to get it as fast as you can. You should start working the wheat when your main city hits 10 population to work those 3 forest tiles ASAP.
Great Persons: Settle your first great person in your second city to give it some extra production (even if its an engineer), then hope for an artist as your 2nd as you should switch to caste system when you get Litterature, try to play with your food and starvation to get as much artist points as you can. You could maybe get a 3rd person if you have the parthenon. Music is out of reach on Emperor.
Notes:
- Switch to Emancipation as soon as you finish your first cottage
- Switch to caste system when you get Litterature
- Don't whip
- The Impi rush is easy to fend off, just hope they dont destroy too many of your improvements as you will be building the Library at that time
As long as you micromanage your cities well, you will have a shot at winning.
Greeks (BTS 3.19 Patch)
I achieved the UHV using a somewhat pacifist/Wonder spamming strat. I will only give some general ideas for the following civs as in RFC if you get a good start, you will easily achieve the UHVs, even on emperor.
This victory was a little while back so I don't exactly remember but I believe the greeks start with 2 phalanx, 2-3 warriors, 2 galleys, 1 work boat, 2 settlers. The trick is to be able to reach egypt with your galley which contains your settler, unload him on the forest on turn one, and found alexandria on turn two AS YOUR CAPITAL. This is crucial as your workers will appear here on turn 3, and the land before you is very fertile yet unimproved. Found your greek peninsula city on the iron for a 2 hammer city tile (you did switch to slavery on turn one anyways so why stay on a 1 hammer tile).
Invade Egypt on turn 3 and capture the city (what's the name again, Niwt Rzzyt?) on turn 5 with those two phalanx your brought along.
In the game I won I built pretty much ever wonder, even stonehenge (the best wonder in RFC IMO). Every wonder you get, the more powerful you become. I was making about 300 beakers when I got optics with only 3 cities and an astonishing 150 Gp points per turn. Rome will automatically declare war when you complete the leaning tower, just make sure you have your two galleys protecting your part of the mediterranean sea. This is not a war he planned (the game is coded so that he declares on who built that wonder) so he will not send any land troops to attack you. By the way after you defeat egypt you should send one galley towards asia to achieve your 3rd UHV goal faster later on.
Techwise get masonry then beeline for priesthood, get monarchy to grow that monster city of yours, then beeline the techs for the 2nd UHV goal. I settled all of my Gps except for the academy, this is optional though if you wanna bulb go ahead. An easy victory.
England (BTS version 3.0.1 (from the CD))
I enjoyed the english since the UHV requires you to tech and expand at the same time which is pretty challenging on Emperor since the AIs will outtech you easily, even with 2 or 3 cities. This means they will get astronomy early and they will expand as well, taking some good spots and leaving crappy ones for you to create cities so you can achieve the 2nd UHV goal. Let's not talk about the outrageous proposals they make when you want to trade techs and the cost of the techs you have to research.
Found London, that city 1S3W of london, and Dublin (the city that can work the 3 fish tiles with the border pop). Inverness will flip, giving you a worker (not always but in the game I won it did) and a unit (a beserker in my case). When you reach astronomy a good idea is to found the following cities ASAP HIGH PRIORITY: Halifax (won't flip later to the americans and is easily defended with 1 crossbow of maceman against the indians), that city near jakarta (or Jakarta itself) which has 1 spice, 1 fish, 1 crab/clam, sugar? and bananas, the city on australia to the south of jakarta which has fish, gem and iron in the city area which dont require a border pop to work and that city in S. America which has 2 corn, 1 fish, 2 cattle, 1 Deer in it's radius! A good idea is to build Cape Town for the gems (Always bring a maceman or two in Africa those freaking impis .. ..) and the whale is good. Other cities just open the worldbuilder and look for a food source then build one near but always on the ocean except maybe in america since you might run out of room. Vancouver is also a pretty sweet spot. Asia is hard to colonize but you can easily drop 3 settlers north of japan and wait till 1727 then build them only to give them away the next turn when you get your 2nd goal (the Incas actually took 2 of those terrible cities). Give away your cities which arent really developped after 1730 to increase your scientific output. Don't found some too crappy cities and the AI won't take them, I got lucky with the Mayays/Incas. Just make sure you have the most luxury resources you can as you will be switching to representation in 1730 during your golden age and your military units won't count anymore when it comes to happiness!
As with all other civs, the opening moves are the most important. With England, the following needs to happen: Christian AP is built (by the AI, if not, reload), building the University of Sankore and the Spiral Minaret in London (for the Culture bonuses so you can push back both France and the Dutch) and the other obvious bonuses. Spread christianity to your 4 cities and build temples and monastaires while you build those two wonders. Get Sankore first by bulbing paper (hire scientists, will be explained later..) and the Minaret from Mali by trading for Divine right. Paper is easy to get. However, divine right is a little more tricky to get. What you need to do is to send a galley south towards where mali spawns (if Isabella is blocking the way, reload) and wait until he actually spawns. You can trade with Izzy if you want but make sure to meet mali right after they spawn so that you can get Divine right cheaper. You will need to have about 375 gold + all your techs (including the recent calendar you disovered). France always has alot of money so trade your cheap techs like meditation and calendar for money. BTW this is very important in emperor: MONEY. Always make trades for money. Stay at 100% science at all times until you reach one turn of scientific method then expand while you research something else but always trade for money. Who cares if you just gave Wilhelm optics for 50 gold. If you can do these three things you will now have a building that give +2 hammers, +2 science, +2 gold, +1 happiness, for the rest of the game per city (and its not too expensive).
Civics: HR, Vassalage, Caste System, OR.
The reason for Caste system is that the land isn't improved enough and there isnt enough military units to whip all that much. Early GS is key, so is early easy cheap tech. The city west of london isnt great but it can run a solid 10 science without any improvements (not counting the crab tile). First GS bulb paper, 2nd academy London, 3rd academy Inverness, rest settle London. Adopt Civil service when you get it. Switch to slavery/Settlement when you reach astronomy and furiously improve your infrastructure while not killing your economy (it's ok if it takes you 20ish turns to get nationalism)
Stay peaceful, open borders asap with everyone. Build warriors in Inverness early for military happiness (don't improve the iron and dop chop the forest). I never got declared on all game and warriors were defending my cities in England. Beg gold and stuff if youre in trouble.
Techwise I recommend Calendar, Compass, CS, Optics, astronomy, PP, Scientific method (till 1 turn then to constitution or straight beeline to radio). The 1 turn is very important as discovering this tech will lead you to the industrial era and if the AI gets it before you do, you will not be able to achieve victory! Simply reload if you see that the AI got it. Trade for Engineering (Jao with CS and stuff you will have to invest some turns in it but its worth it for castles since you most likely wont have economics before you win) and trade trade trade all the time. The AI is your friend, even if hes ripping you off.
The rest is up to you..
France
France, like England (and Germany), relies heavily on religion to have a chance of achieving it's UHV (IMHO). As demonstrated with England, you will have to build the Minaret and the University of Sankore to have a shot at winning. Unlike England, YOU will have to build the AP, which will be easy actually.
Early game: Adopt HR, Vassalage, slavery, OR. Settle Paris. Send 1 longbow, 1 sword, 1 axe and your other settler east towards that independant city. Raze it asap. DO NOT FOUND a new city until 1 turn after the germans spawn. All your other units (yes, all of them) go towards Rome. On turn 3, Bordeaux and Marseille will flip. Build workers in both cities. Paris builds library (or religion buildings if you have christianity). The goal is to get two scientists runnning asap to get paper with GS bulb for Sankore. Capture Rome and start building the AP. Mainz (city you settled near Germany) builds a worker too when its built. Get temples and monasteries asap in every city, spread that religion. Paris then builds Sankore, Notre-Dame and the Mausoleum. Be careful with culture as you need Paris to be the most cultured city in 1700 so dont wonder whore in Rome even though it might seem ike an obvious choice. Mainz is a military production center (I actually built the Gardens there in 2 (!) turns with chops) but dont spam too much, prioritize commerce as you won't be conquering anymore. Marseille builds workers/settlers (for expansion in Quebec and Louisiana), Rome builds research/wealth/Units, Bordeaux Units, Paris Wonders/Units and of course cottage everything except ressources.
Getting Sankore is easy. Whip a library in Paris and run scientists. Bordeaux also had a library when it flipped but I built a worker instead. Bulb paper then get meditation asap for monasteries. To get divine right build a galley + a unit in Rome after the AP is built and send them towards north africa. Proceed southwards to trade with Mali.
Techs: Engineering, Meditation, Calendar, CS, Compass, Optics, Astronomy, Nationalism, Printing press, Democracy beeline, Radio beeline. Trade for other techs, no matter the price (as long as it dosent cost too much gold).
Stay peaciful and trade here as well and you will steamroll the AI, even on Emperor. I finished in 1824 AD and spent 60 turns in a Golden Age.
Et voîla! Hope you guys enjoy,
BRS, -3 pop
