catcassava
Chieftain
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2025
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The Mayan UHV is another one of those “impossible” Emperor level feats under version 1.181 of RFC (which ships with the official version of Civ 4: Beyond the Sword), as dubbed by many hardcore players including “AnotherPacifist”(or “Pacifist”). (see https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/mayan-uhv-at-emperor.267485/ and
https://web.archive.org/web/20100128022357/http://rhye.civfanatics.net/wiki/index.php?title=Rhye%27s_and_Fall_of_Civilization_-_Mayan_strategy )
As explained in the guides, even by spawning strategically, building only libraries, and wrecking the economy to spawn a GS(which is too late to bulb Mathematics, and afterwards bulbs Alphabet instead), will not get you Calendar by 600AD for the first victory condition. The only way is to play another earlier Civ(e.g. Egypt), prevent other Civs from building the Oracle through military, and then switching to Maya. The UHV can be obtained quite easily this way.
Barring from spawning as an earlier Civ, it is possible to achieve the other two victory conditions (building Temple of Kukulcan by 900AD particularly), ONLY if you skip the first victory condition and focus on the economy, AND you have luck. So I decided to see which kind of victory I can achieve with these conditions before the game ends by 2020 (which is still quite difficult), and ended up with Domination.
Founded Oaxaca next to the stone and the other two cities as pictured on Turn 153. Skipped Sailing and Calendar and went straight for Code of Laws (via Writing and Priesthood). I went for Bronze Working afterwards to speed up the temple with some forest chops. The angry faces occurred because I chose “option 3” under the “Healing Plant” random event. I completed the Temple of Kukulcan in 750 AD, just in time before the barbarian Jaguar Warriors came rushing towards my capital.
I holed up to develop miliary technologies (Feudalism and Gunpower) to vassalize the Azetcs and Incans, only to discover that there was no iron in Central America, so no Cannons! (Turn 283)
Vassalized both the Aztecs and Incans on Turn 309, which was 1754AD. Those were the two bottom list weakest AI opponents. How was I supposed to survive (and develop) in a world which was already colonized by European powers?
Stability was already at unstable on Turn 333 (1826 AD), before Printing Press and Education was researched. Because of Maya’s built-in modifiers (as with many earlier Civs), your stability will degrade naturally until the industrial era. Before then, you must research Democracy and build Security Bureaus to prevent your empire from collapsing. This is not possible with resources spent on Gunpower.
By now there are some hard-found truths:
So I reloaded from an earlier save. Destroyed the Aztecs by founding a coastal city next to their spawn zone, and then then declaring war and capturing that city from sea. Assembled my army using catapults and archers, and vassalized Inca in 1465AD (Turn 244).
The quest now is to colonize New England before the English and Americans. America spawns in 1733AD (Turn 292) and will flip any city next to Washington D.C. You want only one city to flip and recapture it from sea, so you must settle on the exact spot NE of Washington D.C. (as pictured) If not, England will settle on New York or Boston and that city will eventually flip to the Americans barring you from rush destroying America. France collapsed due to overexpansion, and England settled in NE Canada instead of New England.
By 1730AD (Turn 301), I have amassed 4 knights (I stole Guilds from Inca), 4 longbowman (attached to 2 generals), 1 archer, 1 galley, and 2 warriors. I also had 2 workers building roads. All units were stationed outside of Washington D.C. (“Mayapan”) waiting for the city to flip next turn.
America spawns in 1733AD (Turn 302) and is destroyed by my warrior from sea!
America respawns in 1736AD (Turn 303) with and 3 muskets, 3 cannons and 3 pikemen! The two armies shall clash in one epic battle! The result is… overwhelming victory for Maya!
I was lucky. Christianity eventually spread in my lands in 1760 (Turn 311).
By 1790AD (Turn 321), my empire was unstable and beyond redemption, I had to brace for a collapse with minimum losses.
I settled as many cities as possible. And after switching to Bureaucracy and collapsing (1829AD - Turn 334), retook the cities using knights and galleys. The new empire will no longer have the built-in negative stability modifier.
By 1921AD (Turn 381), I was still tech laggard #1. Stole Democracy and Communism to help with stability and espionage. Expanded into America’s heartland, at a pace that would deny the Vikings and English from settling, but not too hastily to make myself unstable. I can now afford to play a pacifist game, while picking on easy opponents (e.g. Independents, Mali) to accumulate combat experience.
This is Mays’ RFC stability map. Basically, expansion in any direction (other than those two spots in northern Colombia) results in negative stability. So don’t expand too rapidly. Don’t go for overseas territory until you have State Property and Occupation.
I started overseas expansion in 1944AD (Turn 404), upgraded two warriors to grenadier with two generals while keeping the City Raider promotions.
Then I Declared war on Khmer and Russia (they were at war with every other nation), and liberated central Europe. All 4 of my elite infantry units gained the Commando promotion and were cutting through Russian territory like butter, even with no air support. It was 1992 AD (Turn 452) with only 28 turns left, but I was only 3rd in rank.
After an exchange of nuclear arsenal (the Russians nuked my city with only Spanish troops stationed inside, and I nuked their city with 40 troops inside), Russia capitulated and became my vassal. I am now ranked #2 (1998AD -Turn 458). Attention is now turned to the China-Spain-Japan axis.
With my American industrial powerhouse, I assembled my armies and opened war on all 3 fronts. China, Spain, and Japan collapsed, and Mongolia capitulated. My Erwin Rommel ended up with an experience of 435. I achieved domination victory in 2018 AD(Turn 478), a very late win.
England was close to completing their Spaceship, but I gifted them a dessert city in Mexico, and continuously sabotaged their space projects.
Hope you enjoyed my thread! I have been playing the RFC scenario (ons and offs) for over 15 years. My earliest RFC save was in 2009...
https://web.archive.org/web/20100128022357/http://rhye.civfanatics.net/wiki/index.php?title=Rhye%27s_and_Fall_of_Civilization_-_Mayan_strategy )
As explained in the guides, even by spawning strategically, building only libraries, and wrecking the economy to spawn a GS(which is too late to bulb Mathematics, and afterwards bulbs Alphabet instead), will not get you Calendar by 600AD for the first victory condition. The only way is to play another earlier Civ(e.g. Egypt), prevent other Civs from building the Oracle through military, and then switching to Maya. The UHV can be obtained quite easily this way.
Barring from spawning as an earlier Civ, it is possible to achieve the other two victory conditions (building Temple of Kukulcan by 900AD particularly), ONLY if you skip the first victory condition and focus on the economy, AND you have luck. So I decided to see which kind of victory I can achieve with these conditions before the game ends by 2020 (which is still quite difficult), and ended up with Domination.
Founded Oaxaca next to the stone and the other two cities as pictured on Turn 153. Skipped Sailing and Calendar and went straight for Code of Laws (via Writing and Priesthood). I went for Bronze Working afterwards to speed up the temple with some forest chops. The angry faces occurred because I chose “option 3” under the “Healing Plant” random event. I completed the Temple of Kukulcan in 750 AD, just in time before the barbarian Jaguar Warriors came rushing towards my capital.
I holed up to develop miliary technologies (Feudalism and Gunpower) to vassalize the Azetcs and Incans, only to discover that there was no iron in Central America, so no Cannons! (Turn 283)
Vassalized both the Aztecs and Incans on Turn 309, which was 1754AD. Those were the two bottom list weakest AI opponents. How was I supposed to survive (and develop) in a world which was already colonized by European powers?
Stability was already at unstable on Turn 333 (1826 AD), before Printing Press and Education was researched. Because of Maya’s built-in modifiers (as with many earlier Civs), your stability will degrade naturally until the industrial era. Before then, you must research Democracy and build Security Bureaus to prevent your empire from collapsing. This is not possible with resources spent on Gunpower.
By now there are some hard-found truths:
- With the lack of religions and the prospect of empire collapsing, Cultural Victory is impossible.
- Space Victory is also unachievable. You will be bottom #1 in tech for most the game time (even Inca will catch up and surpass you!).
- The other 4 types of victories: Conquest, Domination, Diplomatic and Time all require you to expand militarily.
- There are only 3 possible candidates for early to mid-game military expansion: Aztec, Inca, and America.
- It is best to vassalize Inca: a) Inca’s unique power allows for more efficient development of Inkaland, and b) Inca is a great candidate for technology espionage.
- It is best to destroy Aztec, because: a) it is not a good vassal with poor resources to contribute, and b) to expand militarily, you will need that extra combat experience in fighting the native American Dog Soldiers, and Aztecs sprawling soldiers will deprive you of those experience.
- It is best to destroy America, because: a) the vast American inland is a valuable source of production for late game expansion. b) if America survives, its unique power will allow them to gradually erode your cultural borders, and your empire will be confined within the Mexico-U.S. border, more or less.
- If you make peace with America, it is possible to survive an empire collapse, but makes late-game expansion extremely difficult. Other Civs in the meantime may achieve a Space victory, or even a Historical victory (like Russia in one game).
So I reloaded from an earlier save. Destroyed the Aztecs by founding a coastal city next to their spawn zone, and then then declaring war and capturing that city from sea. Assembled my army using catapults and archers, and vassalized Inca in 1465AD (Turn 244).
The quest now is to colonize New England before the English and Americans. America spawns in 1733AD (Turn 292) and will flip any city next to Washington D.C. You want only one city to flip and recapture it from sea, so you must settle on the exact spot NE of Washington D.C. (as pictured) If not, England will settle on New York or Boston and that city will eventually flip to the Americans barring you from rush destroying America. France collapsed due to overexpansion, and England settled in NE Canada instead of New England.
By 1730AD (Turn 301), I have amassed 4 knights (I stole Guilds from Inca), 4 longbowman (attached to 2 generals), 1 archer, 1 galley, and 2 warriors. I also had 2 workers building roads. All units were stationed outside of Washington D.C. (“Mayapan”) waiting for the city to flip next turn.
America spawns in 1733AD (Turn 302) and is destroyed by my warrior from sea!
America respawns in 1736AD (Turn 303) with and 3 muskets, 3 cannons and 3 pikemen! The two armies shall clash in one epic battle! The result is… overwhelming victory for Maya!
I was lucky. Christianity eventually spread in my lands in 1760 (Turn 311).
By 1790AD (Turn 321), my empire was unstable and beyond redemption, I had to brace for a collapse with minimum losses.
I settled as many cities as possible. And after switching to Bureaucracy and collapsing (1829AD - Turn 334), retook the cities using knights and galleys. The new empire will no longer have the built-in negative stability modifier.
By 1921AD (Turn 381), I was still tech laggard #1. Stole Democracy and Communism to help with stability and espionage. Expanded into America’s heartland, at a pace that would deny the Vikings and English from settling, but not too hastily to make myself unstable. I can now afford to play a pacifist game, while picking on easy opponents (e.g. Independents, Mali) to accumulate combat experience.
This is Mays’ RFC stability map. Basically, expansion in any direction (other than those two spots in northern Colombia) results in negative stability. So don’t expand too rapidly. Don’t go for overseas territory until you have State Property and Occupation.
I started overseas expansion in 1944AD (Turn 404), upgraded two warriors to grenadier with two generals while keeping the City Raider promotions.
Then I Declared war on Khmer and Russia (they were at war with every other nation), and liberated central Europe. All 4 of my elite infantry units gained the Commando promotion and were cutting through Russian territory like butter, even with no air support. It was 1992 AD (Turn 452) with only 28 turns left, but I was only 3rd in rank.
After an exchange of nuclear arsenal (the Russians nuked my city with only Spanish troops stationed inside, and I nuked their city with 40 troops inside), Russia capitulated and became my vassal. I am now ranked #2 (1998AD -Turn 458). Attention is now turned to the China-Spain-Japan axis.
With my American industrial powerhouse, I assembled my armies and opened war on all 3 fronts. China, Spain, and Japan collapsed, and Mongolia capitulated. My Erwin Rommel ended up with an experience of 435. I achieved domination victory in 2018 AD(Turn 478), a very late win.
England was close to completing their Spaceship, but I gifted them a dessert city in Mexico, and continuously sabotaged their space projects.
Hope you enjoyed my thread! I have been playing the RFC scenario (ons and offs) for over 15 years. My earliest RFC save was in 2009...
