Harappa 1.18 UHV

[xerxess]

Finally did it on Monarch/Normal and wanted to share my strategy because it took me quite a few tries.

1. Trade connections: establish a trade connection with another Civilization by 1000 BC (Turn 42)

This one is really easy and can be done with the same strategy as 1.17. Just send your starting militia to explore along the Indus river, then explore the Oman and Persian gulfs, declare on Shushan and stop when you find the Babylonian border. You need to be quick though. If you´re just a turn late, Shushan will have made another militia, attack yours and probably kill it. To prevent this, after reaching the border send your militia to the hill 1NE of the Babylonian border. Research sailing, then seafaring and you're done.

2. Architecture: control three reservoirs, two granaries and two weavers by 1500 BC (Turn 55)

This is the one I struggled with. You need to research masonry and leverage fast enough to build everything. The problem is that with the increased cost of settling new cities you can tank your economy quite easily.

What I've found to be the most effective tech path is masonry » pastoralism » sailing » seafaring » leverage. Seafaring gets done by turn 41 so you accomplish the first goal and leverage by turn 48 so you have time to build the two weavers. You need pastoralism ASAP because the pasture on the cow next to Sibipura is probably the best tile you have.

Settle Sibipura on place. This city makes city builder/worker/city builder/city builder/granary. Then Chandka 1N of the dates but only when you finnish masonry. Build order is worker/granary/reservoir. Then Khokrakot 1SE of the cows because you need access to the hill without a forest. Here you make a reservoir and a weaver. Finally, Pushkalavati 1N of the the marble. Make a reservoir ASAP. Both Chandka and Pushkalavati can make a weaver on 7 turns so is up to you where to build the second one. The key here is to micromanage what tiles you're working so you get the most commerce and delaying new cities until they can be productive enough. The goal is to hit that sweet spot when you can finish leverage by turn 48. On some other attempts I did it on turn 49 and that was just too late. I didn't bother making much of a military other that two militias to grow Khokrakot to size 5 and Pushkalavati to size 4. Your starting militia can come back to guard Sibipura and grow it to size 6. Chandka is fine with size 4.

With the starting worker I farmed the weat, then the sugar, then when masonry was finnished I made a quarry on the salt. This is really important as it gives you 4 commerce which is key to finnish the techs fast enough. I prioritized the camps on the Ivory for the hapiness and on the deer for the amazing 3 food 4 production. Another great improvment is the mine 1S of Khokrakot. Other than that the goal is to improve as much as you can.

3. Urban planning: have a total population of 45 by 800 BC (Turn 97)

Is hard to mess this one up. I settled Debal 1W of the cotton and Tiz 1NW of the fish. Lost Tiz to the Persians when they spawned though so you may want to skip it and grow Debal instead. My strategy was going for monarchy and making a bunch of archers and militias. The archers are useful to deal with the barbarians that spawn. Hinduism spread quite slow so didn't bother to convert. If you can't reach 45 population the best strategy is to settle as many cities as you need on turn 97. Here I settled Jampur, Bundi and Khambat. I even lost Bundi to the barbarians for not guarding it well but it didn't matter. Persia also declared a few turns before I won but didn't make a difference. This is what I ended up with.

 

[FraggleJock]

The new conditions for the Harrapans make the game much harder but still doable.
The pair of Indo Aryan chariots force you to build some defenders (Archers for safety but militia if you want to gamble) for pretty much every city you cant be sure of where they will spawn so the lost time and production is a burden
the new core leaves you heavily over expanded so losing to barbarians stability penalty is a real game over threat. I expanded both north into transoxia and down the indus valley to get the pop done. The Indus valley spawns need a solid defence but the transoxia spawns are pretty handily handled by a single archer in your hill cities.

 

[Publicola]

I just tested out Harappa on 'Heir' difficulty, and it's a very different experience than the tutorial/puzzle civ that it was in 1.17. You have to take a very indirect route with your militia to establish a trade route with Babylon -- first to the Indus river delta, than through the Iranian highlands to Babylon, then back along the coast to establish a sea connection, then back to the border with Babylon so you don't lose diplomatic contact. More importantly, the presence of barbarians forces you to militarize early, with archers (or, on easier difficulty with free barb wins, with militias) in each city.

@Leoreth : was this intended, or is it a side-effect of more barb spawns in the ancient era? My understanding was that ancient Harappa is a bit of an oddball by archaeological standards specifically because there are few if any artifacts or evidence of war or weapon use in Indus Valley Civilization sites, similar to the Caral-Supe and a few other ancient Andean civs. (I also recall there was considerable dispute among historians as to whether the Aryan invasion caused the fall of the IVC, or if it was ecological causes & desertification that caused the IVC sites to be abandoned in the centuries before the Aryan invasion). In previous versions this lack of militarization was reflected in the gameplay -- pretty much the only reason you had to build units was to help your cities deal with unhappiness. In 1.18... archers are either my first or second build for most of my cities.

 

[Publicola]

Finished playtesting Harappa on 'Heir' difficulty: finished all three UHVs on turn 77, with normalized score of 36751. I managed to secure the Great Sphinx, Oracle, and Hanging Gardens, though getting those wonders did mean I had to save-scum my way through the turn 57 and turn 63 barb spawns (2 sets of 2 barbs appearing in the middle of your core? Yeesh).

City locations: settle in place for Harappa, then Mohenjo-Daro (1 N of dates), then Lewan (1 N of stone), then Banawali (1 SE of cow). Banawali will be your strongest production city, so you may want to switch the order for it and Lewan, especially if you're going for the Oracle.

Technologies: pastoralism --> masonry --> sailing --> seafaring --> leverage. Masonry is needed for Stone & Salt, but Pastoralism is more useful right away to get your cow pasture built right away. After leverage, you have basically two paths:

• Smelting: reveals the copper by Banawali, giving it a much-needed boost, and unlocks Alloys
• Ceremony and Divination: enable the 'Monarchy' and 'Deification' civics, and unlocks Calendar

I waited until I could switch both civics before starting a revolution -- each turn matters, and Harappa is pretty easy to destabilize if anything goes wrong. You will also want to switch to Redistribution after discovering Arithmetic, and one of Slavery or Manorialism (I'm not sure which is optimal: Slavery gives +1 production to your three quarries, Manorialism gives +1 production to your three pastures. I went with Manorialism for the worker productivity, since I didn't plan on capturing anyone else's workers, but your milage may vary).

UHV 1: send your starting militia down the river to the coast, then through the Iranian highlands to get to the other side of the desert, then along the coast all the way to Babylon. You'll need to enter Shush's territory to do so, so don't delay and once you've explored the route, back out and go around Shush to the NW side of Babylon to maintain contact. You'll also make contact with Assyria, who don't matter. As soon as you discover Seafaring, bring this unit back home -- though I detoured mine through Central Asia to grab the local goody hut.

UHV 2: You need 3-4 cities ASAP, so that's your capital's job. Here are the Build Queues:
Harappa: city builder -> worker --> city builder --> city builder --> granary (I built Great Sphinx before my granary, which got me a wonder but did delay my 2nd UHV till just before the deadline).
Mohenjo-Daro: worker --> granary --> reservoir --> weaver
Lewan: reservoir --> archer --> archer (you desperately need defenders!)
Banawali: reservoir --> (I built a Vedic temple to get access to the marble ASAP) --> weaver --> Oracle (tech Alloys and Calendar)

UHV 3: You'll want to grow your core a lot, which means a lot of workers (I ended up with 8 total) and a lot of defenders (since barbs love to kill workers). Mohenjo-Daro is mediocre for production but has a lot of food, making it ideal for workers and settlers, while Lewan and Banawali were great for defenders. Your capital should focus on developing itself, as you need that core population to ensure you don't get horrible instability. I feel like Balakot (on the coast, 1E of the cotton) should be a good city, but I didn't get much use out of it -- I completed the UHV before I could finish the workboat for the fish or pearls). Likewise for Rangpur (on the coast, 1E of dye): great site, historical tile, but I barely grew it to size 3 before I finished the UHV. It might have been better to settle Rangpur first: with a pasture on the cow and a farm on the millet (w/ Banawali's culture) it would probably be more usable more quickly than Balakot.

You can finish the UHV quickly by building a bunch of city builders (use Mohenjo-Daro) and settling them all at once to reach the 45 pop mark -- this is how I got the victory on turn 77 -- but it's admittedly more satisfying to build good cities and grow them sustainably.