You can still conquer a few central america cities (mexico comes to mind) and found 1-2 south africa cities that prosper and grow big.
They are a good base for later producing the settlers you need for UHV2.
UHV3 is easy, at least on Monarch difficulty if you conquer Rome and found Protestantism.
No I have not tried the strategy yet.
Ok, I have to admit that I can't match the UHV technology requests. I always play monarch/marathon and in a flexible historical way, so London-Manchester-Dublin (11th century)-Edinburgh (12th century), don't invade other European territories, I've only tried sometimes to capture Jerusalem before Ottomans spawn.
I've tried different civics set (Monarchy-Vassalage-Clergy or Republic-Citizenship-Monasticism), but they were both uneffective.
I usually go for Firearms first, then Exploration, then again Economics and Sci Method in order to get free GM and GS. I only exchange techs in balanced trade, mainly with Byzantines, Scandinavians or Asian civs.
I settle Charlestown-Anna Regina-Port Royal-NY + conquer Yax Mutal asap, then I rest to improve my UK core. Maybe I rush a bit my colonial empire; I usually have 3 US East Coast towns (NY, Portland, Washington) + 3 Africa towns (Zimbabwe, Kilwa, Mombasa) by early 17th century.
France is usually horrific tech competitor, obtaining Geography before me, but I can mention Mongolia almost always reaching first Logistics, many others (HRE, but even Japan or Mughals) beat me at every humanistic/social techs.
I convert to Protestantism every time.
Ok, I have to admit that I can't match the UHV technology requests. I always play monarch/marathon and in a flexible historical way, so London-Manchester-Dublin (11th century)-Edinburgh (12th century), don't invade other European territories, I've only tried sometimes to capture Jerusalem before Ottomans spawn.
I've tried different civics set (Monarchy-Vassalage-Clergy or Republic-Citizenship-Monasticism), but they were both uneffective.
I usually go for Firearms first, then Exploration, then again Economics and Sci Method in order to get free GM and GS. I only exchange techs in balanced trade, mainly with Byzantines, Scandinavians or Asian civs.
I settle Charlestown-Anna Regina-Port Royal-NY + conquer Yax Mutal asap, then I rest to improve my UK core. Maybe I rush a bit my colonial empire; I usually have 3 US East Coast towns (NY, Portland, Washington) + 3 Africa towns (Zimbabwe, Kilwa, Mombasa) by early 17th century.
France is usually horrific tech competitor, obtaining Geography before me, but I can mention Mongolia almost always reaching first Logistics, many others (HRE, but even Japan or Mughals) beat me at every humanistic/social techs.
I convert to Protestantism every time.
It seems you already detailed both the problem and the solution in your own post: France is a horrific tech competitor, and you also don't invade other European territories... Well, you need to invade France! I haven't played big map England yet, but on the small map, a big key to the puzzle of winning as England was to invade and vassalize France. (If you are having hangups about the historical aspect, remember that had England won the 100 Years War, it would've looked very similar to this strategy.)
I will say also, colonizing early isn't that nessesary. England didn't really do anything major until 1600s and you can sort of keep to that. There will be easy places to settle or conquer in the americas up to the deadline. Also, playing on marathon gives you so much more wiggle room. I feel like it's more important to develop england and not drain your resources over extending.
As for France, I'll need to try again, but I never found them that threatening. Make sure to spy on them and see what they are teching. You could always just declare war and blockade Nantes and Bordeaux if conquest isn't up your alley.
The national college being unlocked at education was a major game changer for the tech requirements.. Oxford University is still lacking, used an engineer to get it just because.. well it's Oxford University! But didn't make a big difference tech wise
Spam Jails and Exchequers? Also, for me, buying a Library on advanced start and slotting a Scientist afterwards helps with UHV3. The first Great Scientist I build an Academy, the second I use to bulb techs (I got it around column 8).
Other things I did: colonize a bit ahistorically early, and found Protestantism. (Think of it as the Anglican Church instead, lol.) I go Firearms > Academia > Exploration > Optics > Geography. I trade for a few techs outside those. I also try to get a bunch of gold trading techs to less advanced civs, just enough to keep me afloat while running the science slider a bit higher.
I'm still trying to do my best to achieve UHV victory; my games are long Marathon ones, so I can give only few attempts.
I decided to found York: it gives more space to my capital, great scientific center with Academia and so on. I agree that Oxford isn't mandatory; i prefer to save an engineer for more valuable late wonders, such as Westminster, a real (late) game changer.
Another trick is to conquer Zimbabwe native town to get many slaves and sell them to fuel your finances.
I was eventually able to achieve UHV1, but I failed 2 because I thought I could keep some valuable Canadian cities (Quebec, Montreal, Missisauga and Winnipeg), but it sank my economy.
I managed to do it on Monarch/Marathon difficulty.
The key not to overextend is to have as few cities as possible outside green expansion areas.
All of India and Australia are all such green expansion areas.
You have to be more careful in America and Africa though.
As mentioned before you should probably somewhat delay you big colony expansion until you have completed UHV3.
If you want to place your NA cities inside Americas core you have to do so a few turns before they actually spawn, as it will be treated as rising civ core area, and settling then will be disabled.
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