New challenge: earliest possible UHVs

[BurnEmDown]

Works for me, apparantly pku_west likes to conquer and colonize a lot. May I ask how did you get that city in the middle of the Ottomans, and the cities in northern England and Ireland.

 

[Deego3]

1. The links working now.
2.@BurnEmDown: thats Scotland, not north England
3. Hurrah Mongolia finally took over China.

 

[blizzrd]

AP, I don't see your name on this list anywhere. Not up for the challenge perhaps?

 

[AnotherPacifist]

I don't think I can do a record that will stick, and the reason why is that I've played way too many conquest/domination games which require colonization of the Americas, and I really hate to give up that habit. That's not really conducive to a record UHV.

Having said that, it's been a while since I played RFC, maybe I'll do a Germany game this weekend and wait for the next RFCE version to come out.

 

[Virdrago]

I have a Portugal UHV win in the 1900's... I'm not sending it since it can be easily beaten. The main thing is, don't ever let Spain capture Santiago (twice) and Lisboa, even if you get them back immediately. Stability and research drop precipitously. Also, Casablanca (Morocco) does not count as a non-European colony. Maybe I should try a new one.

 

[BurnEmDown]

You should try France, they get to colonize New Orleans as a UHV and then you can settle Denver and Chicago easily if you get there first.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

I've just captured the British Isles in 1 turn and liberated Ireland to my Dutch vassals, and England capitulated. Next turn I get my golden age and China and Inca declare war on me, and I didn't want to play it out since I just declared nuclear arms verboten.
Could have been done much sooner (?1920) if I didn't play it safe and do police state/nationhood after the Turkish/Russian wars to buffer my stability; in fact I switched back to representation and free speech as soon as I was stable.
Having Japan, Portugal, Netherlands and Khmer as vassals means I can direct them to research techs from me (with gifts of prerequisites from me) and Internet/spies did the rest.

Spoiler :

 

[Fierabras]

Arabia, 1685 AD

Monarch level, RFC v1.184, 600 AD start

Screenshot:

Spoiler :

Strategy:

Spoiler :

I basically followed Sedna's strategy as described on the wiki.

Not sure if it was different in v.1.181, but in v1.184 you start without Sailing and because there's nobody around to trade techs with at the start, Sailing comes first.

Tech path up to 1300 AD:

Sailing - Gunpowder - Calendar - Compass - Optics - Civil Service - Paper

Civics up to 1300 AD:

HR and Slavery on turn 1, switch to Islam on turn 2 and later I made a switch to Vassalage and Theocracy.

I took Valencia and Madrid with a small army of cannons and muskets and Spain collapsed. Just before the Turks spawned I took Alexandretta to spread Islam. Oddly enough the Turks never spread Islam to Istanbul and Athens and I never got open borders with them.

In 1300 AD I switched to organized religion 1 turn before the golden age (2/3 UHV) and after that I used Spain to generate missionairies to spread Islam to Portugal, Netherlands, England and Mali respectively. OR also helped with building courthouses all around for stability. In 1500 AD I surpassed 30% Islam spread, but after that it took a long time to get to 40%. I did get the circumnavigation bonus and used galleons to spread Islam to America fast, but somehow it went to slowly with relying just on missionairies. Maybe I should have expanded more with the conquerors event (avoided it) and venturing into Asia (ignored it). I think I was too concerned with stability and lacked focus on the third UHV goal. The Spiral Minaret and the University of Sankore were instrumental, but I also build the Sistine chapel and took constitution from Liberalism to build jails.

1685 AD gave me a decent score (once again a personal high score), but with the 600 AD start pre-1600 AD UHV win should be possible.

 

[Tigranes]

Would you accept Emperor Arabia?

The year is 1585 AD, 3000 BC start, v1.184.

The story (and the 1585 picture) was already posted.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

@Tigranes: But having Christianity eradicated must make the Jslam part easier, no? The only difference is that you can't get gunpowder which isn't necessary if you amass enough troops for Spain. It would be much more impressive if you can do an emperor 600AD start.

 

[Tigranes]

In fact, Christianity was thriving the entire game. Barbs founded it, but France inherited it and she very strong country against Islam, just like in the real life . The Spain was conquered with 2 (two) camel archers.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

But my point is that the 600 AD forces a Christian Europe.
The fact that you have cities to conquer means you don't have to build up the Middle East as each conquered city adds to your population, whereas in the 600 AD start built cities don't get Islam unless you spread it there.
Also, by inheriting some wonders not available to the 600 AD start, you got extra turns of golden age.
I'm not denigrating your achievement, but just trying to state that the 600 AD start is much harder, monarch or emperor.

 

[Virdrago]

Edited post: Babylonians in turn 107 (505BC). Save is from the turn before.

Spoiler :

Restarted a couple times after failing, so the history will show Sessions 2 and 3 at the beginning. Also restarted Session 4 when I stupidly left Babylon open after Hattusas spawned. One chariot vs. defenceless city...

Built three warriors to start then went for the worker. First warrior went to the hut in Anatolia (gave me a map of the hut in Serbia). Went to the European hut, gained XP from hostile villagers. Went back to Babilu. Second warrior went to Kazakhstan, and lucked out by gaining knowledge of Mining. Third warrior went around Arabia, just for fun, and met Egypt.

Researched to Writing, then went straight to Masonry for the Pyramids. After, went to Priesthood and ended with CoL. Monarchy was done through the Oracle.

Third warrior went back to Babilu, first warrior with XP went to India. OB with India with second warrior. Found the worker farming the rice. Moved east of Dilli's borders, declared war, destroyed the farm, went to the forest NW of Dilli, and squatted. Other warrior showed up later.

Built a granary (this was key) after the worker, then Pyramids. Started the library, switched to Oracle, then went back to library (didn't need it for the culture UHV in the end).

Micromanaged Babilu (not too much) to grow to 7, just ahead of Beijing, as well as building the wonders within a decent time. Dilli and Niwt-Rst were pop size 5. Switched to Monarchy asap, so the angry faces wouldn't take from my growth.

Sur and Shush joined me within a turn of each other. Kept Sur (dropped to 80% research, two turn difference for CoL), destroyed Shush. Met Greeks, OB with them. They destroyed Hattusas.

During my Golden Age, got a GP. Settled him in Sur so I could build a library faster, and increased Reasearch back up to 100%. Got my two turns back.

Met Romans, made peace with Indians after getting the UHV, met Persians. OB with all, including Indians again lol. Traded for a lot of techs with Romans and Greeks.

Persians refounded Shush one spot E, declared war near the end. They had already destroyed all their Immortals on Gordion, Yerushalyim, and the various barb chariots attacking Babilu, so I wasn't worried.

My worker cottaged Marble, then built a farm on an adjacent plain, then quarried Stone and Marble. Then just farmed, even on the sheep (didn't need AH), before building a road to Sur. Didn't farm the wheat.

 

[Power_of_Beer]

Don't you need the 3 techs before Persia spawns, as they start with Monarchy?

 

[Wessel V1]

Code of Laws can be researched afterwards. I've got a question: is the Persian UHV one of the virtual UHV's? I guess it is, because of the third goal, but just in case...

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Yeah, but virtual UHVs can be invalid too...you can collapse the turn after.
That said, Turkey could easily get 3 vassals in 1700 or even sooner.

 

[Cethegus]

That said, Turkey could easily get 3 vassals in 1700 or even sooner.

Maybe it could be replaced with getting 3 vassals by 1870.

 

[Wessel V1]

I think that having vassals should not be "by", since it can be abstract and exploitable. However, for a virtual UHV, I think it should count. Actually, would it be possible to have the Aztecs, Incas and Arabia as a vassal and achieve a virtual UHV by 1500 AD? That would be quite amazing.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Could have been done 50 years sooner (and beaten my previous 1703 record with killing Germans first) if I didn't:
1. Get Dutch, Aztecs, Incans, Khmer and Mali as vassals (just LOVE groveling vassals)
2. Keep Tultan, Mexico and Valencia (which eats into Madrid's territory and takes away a hill) and founded all my American cities as soon as possible (instead of just putting settlers at the right places and found when the English show up)
3. Build the damn Wat Preah Pisnulok which helped spawn 3 great priests (even though I deliberately did NOT use priests) instead of great scientists
4. Futz around getting economics/corporation and other useless stuff
5. Should also have kept a great engineer around instead of using him to help the Statue of Liberty, which is not the rate-limiting wonder (the Eiffel Tower is which ended up being built in Madrid)
6. Switch civics 4 times (ended up with rep/free speech/mercantilism/viceroyalty/emancipation/free religion)

First time I've seen the English found Kansas City right in the middle of French culture.

Spoiler :

 

[blizzrd]

First time I've seen the English found Kansas City right in the middle of French culture.

Have you a screenshot of this perhaps? I can't make out from the minimap on your posted screenshot what you are referring to here.