Help Winning the Historical Way: Persia 1.17

[ChineseWarlord]

Winning the Historical Way is a series of posts where I ask the community for help with some of the tougher UHVs (for me) anyway with the added caveat that it is EXTRA historical. What these means is that I achieve the UHV required while also trying to achieve these goals in descending order of importance:

Building all wonders historically built by the civilization I'm playing
Not building any wonders not historically built by it
Not Changing to civics that do not make historical sense (no Republic for China for example)
Settling or conquering all historical and contested areas
Avoiding settling or conquering all foreign areas.

So as you can see from the title I'd like to know how to accomplish Persia's UHV. I've tried it before but have gotten stuck on being able to conquer enough territory for Persia while also managing stability and economy, not to mention holding off the Greek and Roman invaders. Building and conquering the necessary Wonders should be a bit easier and having two holy shrines should be child's play.

 

[Just an idea]

For Persia's economy researching Currency ASAP is crucial. Extra trade routes from merchant trade and silk route give you a big boost. Getting enough workers is also very important. If you are not using Slavery to capture them for historical reason remember to build them. Since core cities should be growing for stability's sake, build workers in early non-core cities.

Maintaining stability requires good core population and low non core population. Persian core has enough room for 4 cities. Persian unique building gives big food boost for their capital once Medicine is researched. Non-core cities should be kept small by prioritizing production and commerce over food or by whipping. Other things that help stability are spreading Zoroastrianism and Persian UP giving bonus stability for expanding.

Dealing with Greeks and Romans depends on game speed. On normal one should build walls in their cities to buy time to destroy Greek stacks on at time. On epic and marathon Persia can conquer Greece before Greek conquerors happen. Romans are easier to deal with since their conquerors come in waves rather than all at once like Greeks. Shock promoted Savarans are enough to deal with Legions.

 

[ChineseWarlord]

nfortunately, the game has crashed a few times late in the game as Persia. However, I followed @Just an idea 's advice, and probably would have won anyway barring any unforseen catastrophe. Although I used worldbuilder a few times for defending the Persian Gulf and when BS losses against enemies I should have won against happened, it was never to the point where there was no point in playing.

Whether you are going to play the historical way or not, I would recommend building the Apadana Palace and Mausoleum of Mausolus wonders at some point. The Apadana Palace is useful because it increases worker speed at a time when your empire is filled with uncultivated land and puts a monument in every city. This is actually handy for late game when your empire is stretched to the limit and you can't really conquer any more cities: You can spread your empire's borders through culture as well. The Mausoleum is less effective, only really providing a 50% bonus to Golden Age length, but Golden Ages increase Great Person generation as well, which may very well ensure you can build the Holy shrines in time. Researching ethics in the late game is useful as well: It will give you access to the Monasticism Civic, which also increases GP growth.

From Samarqand to Egypt, from the Western shores of the Black Sea, to the Eastern Shores of the Deccan, Persia stands as the undisputed master of the Middle East. Though the eventual rise of Islam may cause the empire to crumble, its influence in world history will last forever.