Player Guide

[Autumn Leaf]

=-> WARNING: SPOILERS! <--=​

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Updated 25/10/2020:

This thread contains play-throughs of the various civs as the mod is developed. Spoilers are unavoidable and too numerous to hide them all with "Spoiler" tags. If you don't want to see spoilers, don't read this thread.

That said, since this mod is still developing, UHVs and game conditions may change radically from version to version, so a play-through that worked for (say) version 1.8 may not be valid for (say) version 2.0. If posting a play-through, always identify at least the game version (e.g. 1.8, 2.0 Beta, 2.0 etc) and difficulty (e.g. Monarch).

Your input is welcome, whether you're posting a complete play-through, or just a clever twist on some knotty portion of a particular UHV condition.​

 

[Autumn Leaf]

RFC GW 1.8 - Egypt - Monarch - Historical Victory in 1276 BC - Score 18762, Augustus Casar

UHV 1: 1000 Culture in 2180 BC.
UHV 2: Highest score in 1690 BC.
UHV 3: Control Egypt (Core), Nubia (2 cities) and Levant (Israel & Lebanon, 2 cities) by 1069 BC

I founded Waset on the spot, picked a flood plain for maximum food and started building a Town Guard. Initial Research: Slash & Burn, Beer Making, Mysticism. I left Research at 100% and sent my initial Warrior south to explore Nubia. He found a village and popped a Scout.

I hadn't spent my free Barb wins, so when Tanis spawned and grew to size 2, I used my initial Warrior, back from his Nubian excursion, to capture it, overcoming 3 Town Guards - one in the field and two in town. Tanis is a sweet town, with 4 grassland flood plains (5 Food unimproved), Fish, and Copper in its BFC. It was obvious from the start that to win this game I would have to use Slavery to whip things I needed, and Waset and Tanis offered fertile ground for such a strategy.

When I discovered Mysticism in 2960 BC, I immediately whipped Obelisks in both cities and then, after a long painful period of growth, I whipped Stonehenge in Waset in 2345 BC. Since I had only about 600 Culture, still well short of the UHV requirement, I switched from Slavery to Apprenticeship, set more Artists than my cities could support (3 in Wasit, 4 in Tanis, starving both cities temporarily) and started praying. My prayers were answered when Tanis popped a Great Artist in 2225. Although I probably would have scraped up 1000 by 2180 (I was now making 40 Culture per turn) I took no chances: I culture bombed Tanis, instantly going from from 944 to 4944 Culture and fulfilling UHV 1.

With the UHV 1 presssure relieved, I now had some choices available. I could grow my core, expand into Nubia, or ... do something else. Well, I was running #7 in Technology. I chose to stay in Apprenticeship, running a varying combination of Scientists and Priests to research necessary techs, while building up my cities (thus improving my game score; I ticked off UHV 2 in 1690 BC with a score of 452 to Phoenicia's 247). I didn't beeline any techs, but once I discovered Horse Domestication in 1500 1492, I switched back to Slavery and started building an army to invade Phoenicia. (Edited to add: I forgot to mention that with Horse Domestication, I founded Memphis, 1S1E of the Horse, to allow me to build War Chariots.)

In 1920, Minoa declared war on me. They sent a warship - but I had no fishing boats and I didn't need the fish, so it was futile. In 1510, the Sumerians collapsed. The Bablyonians soon filled the gap.

Although I had plenty of time, I was worried about holdups, because apart from the risk that Minoa might land an army, the game kept spawning barbarian Hyksos, Chariots and Warriors that pillaged my improvements and sometimes threatened a city (usually Tanis). My Javelins and Archers always stopped them at the walls, but I had to replace several Javelins and Warriors (none of the Archers died). I couldn't strip my cities to invade Phoenicia; apart from happy police, I needed to leave the walls well manned against the barbarians. There was thus the risk that my expeditionary force would prove inadequate and I'd need to reinforce it. Uruk's culture had flipped Jericho long ago, so I thought I might be fighting both Bablyon and Phoenicia. Better to know what was what while I had time to rectify any deficiency.

In 1460, Phoenicia declared war on me. Well, OK. It was a phoney war; they sent no soldiers my way, just a Scout out on the edge of the fog of war. I made peace with Minoa.

I launched my expedition in 1380. It was not as large as I'd like, comprising five War Chariots, two Javelins, and a Warrior. It crossed the Nile into Sinai and moved cautiously up the road that my Workers had built in the turns when they were barred from the delta by barbarians. In 1356 it crossed the Phoenician Cultural border, discovering that while I had been busy watching barbarians in Egypt, Phoenicia had taken Jericho, probably when Sumeria's Culture imploded. That was actually a huge relief, since it suggested that I might avoid war with Babylon.

I also sent two Settlers, escorted by Warriors, south into Nubia. Their orders were to find good city sites and turtle on them, waiting for good news from Phoenicia. Funny thing about these four units - I hadn't built them, they just popped up outside Waset from time to time. I suspect this is a game mechanic that was designed to help AI Egypt and shouldn't happen for the human player. Never mind; it saved me having to build my own colonists.

In 1340 my force drew up between Byblos and Jericho. The Javelins and Warrior were exhausted, but the Chariots still had movement. Jericho was defended by a Vulture and three Javelins and looked a bit daunting, but Byblos had only a Spearman and two Javelins. I ordered a Chariot assault! My first Chariot died, but the next three attacks were pressed home with true Egyptian grit, and Byblos was mine. In an excess of optimism my remaining Chariot, rather than reinforcing Byblos, threw himself at Jericho (now the Phoenican capital) - and slew the Vulture without injury to himsef!

Two Phoenician Javelins came out of Aleppo in the interturn, so in 1332 (after promoting all four victorious Chariots) I moved my whole force into Byblos, to defend the city and heal up a bit. The Javelins, faced by suddenly bristling walls, lost their nerve and reteated towards Aleppo.

In 1324 I sent my healthiest Chariots against Jericho, taking it without loss. One Chariot was now down to 0.7 health and another 0.8, so I sent a jaunty Javelin across from Byblos to garrison the newly captured city.

Phoenicia still had at least three cities - Aleppo (the new capital), Phoenicus in Anatolia, and Kition in Cyprus. However, my expedition was sore and tired. In the next move I pulled the Chariots back to Byblos to heal. I noticed that Babylon was at war with me, even though Hammy hadn't popped up to declare it. Huh. Then in 1308 the Hittites popped up, also already at war with me. This was getting worrying.

In 1292 I managed to make peace with Babylon. In 1284, the Hittites also buried the hatchet. My soldiers were now fighting fit and it was time to finish with Phoenicia! I ordered the Chariots north, following them with the Warrior. When the Chariots drew up beneath the walls, Aleppo was defended by a single Town Guard.

In 1276 the Old Assyrian Empire turned up (they controlled Catal Huyuk), already at war with me without a declaration. Also, the Town Guard in Aleppo had been joined by a Javelin. Damn the torpedoes! My veteran Chariots stormed the city without loss. The Levant was mine. Almost as an afterthought, I ordered my Nubian colonists to found Thebes (say what?) and Djerty.

In the interturn I was awarded my historical, I mean, historic victory. So here I sit, in 1268 BC, watching the smoke coil up from Aleppo and pondering whether to make peace with Dido or ... do something else.

Edited to add: A warning. I was startled when I got no Golden Age in 1690. I have checked the Python code and it looks like the 2-UHV-conditions-GA mechanism simply doesn't exist in RFC GW, so don't build a strategy that relies on it.

 

[Autumn Leaf]

RFC GW 1.8 - Sumeria - Monarch - Historical Victory in 1910 BC - Score 11453, Winston Churchill

UHV 1: First to discover The Wheel, Masonry and Cuneiform.
UHV 2: Ur #1 Cultural city in 2000 BC.
UHV 3: Control Mesopotamia (Core, 2 cities) and Levant (Israel & Lebanon, 2 cities) in 2200 BC.

Note: the Pedia describes UHV #3 as "by 2180" but the code says "if (iGameTurn == i2200BC):"

Note too: Ur needs to be founded on the spot. If you build it anywhere else, you cannot achieve UHV 2.

This is a tricky little puzzle and I'm not sure I completely solved it. There are two major gotchas embedded in UHV 1, those being the Minoans (who spawn with Masonry in 2690 BC) and the Babylonians (who spawn with Cuneiform in 1890 BC). This means that you must beeline The Wheel with every beaker you can scrape to get the Great Scientist as early as possible. He can only bulb Spokes, which helps you not at all with Masonry; so you must either settle him in Ur or have him build an Academy there. As a specialist he helps generate more GPs and pumps out 6 beakers, about as many as the Academy, plus a hammer. As an Academy he boosts science 50%, potentiallly more than the specialist, and pumps out a lot of Culture. I tossed a coin and went for the Academy. The rest was city micromanagement, to make sure that Ur and Jericho pumped out every beaker they could. I was still on track to miss, but a cache-of-ancient-writings event in 2840 gave me 70 beakers towards Masonry, which I nailed down in 2750.

In the alarums and excitements of the next few centuries as the barbarians surged and grumbled against my walls, I lost the plot a little. When I discovered Cuneiform it was only after Babylonia had spawned and I saw that I had failed the UHV. Rather than start over, I gritted my teeth and loaded a savefile from the turn when I discovered Trade. I looked at Trade and remembered the lesson from Egypt: specialists! Trade allows Trade Economy, which lets you set unlimited Merchants. I revolted to TE and set three Merchants in Ur, starving the city to squeeze in the extra Merchant that would get me a GM in 10 turns instead of 15. He popped in 1910 BC and bulbed Cuneiform for me. Ur had barely enough food stored for the purpose, and only by chance; and Ur was the only city I had with enough population to support three Merchants.

This UHV is difficult mainly because you are always under such tight deadlines that you literally cannot afford to research any technologies but the ones leading to Cuneiform, so your cities are always small and unproductive. I had Scouts chasing all over the map for villages to fund my 100% research rate. I gave Dido Aleppo in 2180 BC (I had razed Byblos on capture) to reduce city maintenance (I lost two precious beakers, but saved four gold, which allowed me to recoup the beakers by not dropping below 100% research).

The cheesy village gold hunt is why I am not sure I completely solved the puzzle. There must be some way to get Sumeria to Masonry before 2690 BC without relying on cheesy money and ancient caches.

My Stability in 1910 BC was abysmal: -27.

But so what? I won. Sitting on Ur's crumbling walls, with Babylon's swarming armies grinning at me across the flood plains, there doesn't seem much point in playing on past the UHV.

 

[Autumn Leaf]

RFC GW 1.8 - Harappa - Monarch - Historical Victory in 998 BC - Score 11679, Winston Churchill

UHV 1: Highest population in 1500 BC.
UHV 2: Greatest resource diversity in 1250 BC.
UHV 3: Never lose a city to barbarians before 1000 BC.

Biggest headache: those &^%&#@$ raging Aryans. They came in threes, every few moves from about 2000 BC until 1500 BC.

After Egypt and Sumeria, however, this game was comparatively restful. The three UHV objectives supported each other and time was not crucial. Mohenjo-daro had a splendid food supply, even unimproved, so if I could stop the barbs at the walls I would probably cruise to the largest population in 1500 BC.

Stopping them at the walls, of course, was the problem. Aryans (Axemen) have 3 strength and +10% city attack! Town Guards are basically timber for Aryan axes to hew. The mainstay of my defence was Javelineers, who also have 3 strength, have a first strike, cause 25% collateral damage, and come with +20% hills defence. You need Urban Settlement to build them, but you first also need to set Mohenjo-daro on a sound basis to produce them. In the end I went for Beer Making and Mysticism before Urban Settlement; that gave me Monarchy, which let me both garrison the city and let it grow (good for UHV 1 as well as survival).

I founded Mohenjo-daro on the spot, as is my habit. I started by working the Rice to get my population growing ASAP. At pop 2 I added the Cotton square for its two trade. I received a free Worker and sent him out to put farms on the rice and Cotton; this turned out to be wasted effort, as the farms were specifically targeted for pillaging by stray Aryans.

I sent my Warrior out to look for villages. He found only one, which gave me Fishing - a useless tech. Then he had to sprint back home when the first barbarian - a Bandit - spawned near Mohenjo-daro in 2660 BC. Another Bandit came in 2495 BC, and more about every 90 years. My Warrior, suitably promoted with Combat I & II and Formation after a few battles, "took care" of them. About then I got Mysticism and revolted to Monarchy and Deification. My garrison of Town Guard happy-police calmed my unhappy populace and I set a few Citizen specialists to slow down my growth and increase my hammers. I finally got Urban Settlement to build Javelins and a City Builder. I started putting together a colonist party.

In 1990 BC, Independents founded Samarkand to my north-west. My colonists saw the border appear. You really need to get your second city planted before Samarkand appears, as the first Aryans spawn in 1970, just a couple of moves later. My colonists were walking north through the hills at the time, looking for good land for a production city, and bumped the first group of Aryans. Fortunately the expedition had several Javelins and was standing on hills; the survivors promptly built Harappa just north of the blood-soaked battlefield. It turned out to be a pretty good site: a bit food-challenged, but there was a flood plain SSE and a Rice ESE, plus Peaks, with scope to bottle-neck the barbs and keep them away from Mohenjo-daro

The next 400 years were like scenes from The Shining - crash! "Here's Johnny!". Harappa was my only city that made any use of the Harappan unique power (two food and a hammer from Peaks). It gradually built itself up until it could put a veteran Javelin on the hill north of town, blocking the Aryans from getting east of the city. The next veteran fortified on the hill outside the west walls. Once I had three veteran Javelins they all moved north of the city and formed a shield wall, with its eastern end butting against the mountains. After one attack broke through the wall, I doubled up the Javelins. If the Aryans tried to work around the west end of the wall, the Javelins there would attack them on the plains (attacking them on hills always resulted in a dead Javelin). I shuffled my troops around until all had 10 XP (the max XP barbs will give you; I gave the hill guards Combat 1, Shock, and Guerilla I). Towards the end Harappa could build a replacement Javelin in two (sometimes three) turns. This created a safe space behind the shield wall, where Workers could build improvements with some hope of not having them pillaged. Farms first, then Mines, then Pastures, then Ivory Camps, as the necessary techs came in. After I achieved UHV 1 in 1500, the Aryans stopped coming. I finally felt secure enough to build Stonehenge and adopt Apprenticeship (for the specialists, mostly Merchants to stop my economy bleeding to death supporting my military) and beeline for Calendar to bring Spices, Incense, Dye etc online; however, I didn't get there before 1250 BC. Fortunately I had the best diversity of resources anyway and secured UHV 2.

I built my third city on a grassland hill to my southwest, in a nest of Calendar resources. I defended it with Javelins retired from the shield wall. Harappa (pop 10, production 28) started building wonders instead of troops. With Plantations and roads popping up everywhere, my civ finally started to boom. I contacted my neighbours, started trading with them, and eventually opened borders. This part was a little boring, as there were only animals and the occasional Axeman to deal with. Nobody declared war on me. No religions spread to my cities, and I founded none. Finally it was 998 BC, and UHV 3 brought victory.

So now it's 992 BC and I'm looking across my green empire and its three prosperous cities, and you know what? Life is good, but I think I'm ready for ... something else ...

 

[Edmund Ironside]

Really nicely written guides. Look forward to reading some more from you.

Be warned if you are going to try Minoa, they have almost certainly the hardest UHVs of any Civ in the mod currently. Indeed there is a suspicion they may be borderline impossible!

 

[Autumn Leaf]

Be warned if you are going to try Minoa, they have almost certainly the hardest UHVs of any Civ in the mod currently. Indeed there is a suspicion they may be borderline impossible!

Challenge accepted! But first, Elam ...

ETA Later:

Calendar in 1428 BC. I took Tanis on my 2nd turn with my initial Warrior using my guaranteed barb win (Egypt had helpfully killed one of the two defenders between turns), built a Settler there and made another city (Phaistos) on the Wheat on the west side of the delta, grew both cities to their happiness limit (plus a full food bar) while building Stonehenge in Knossos, then switched to Apprenticeship and ran slightly more scientists than each of my cities (4 counting Rhodes) could afford. I generated 1 GS before and 2 GS during this research burst and used them to build Academies in Knossos, Tanis and Phaistos. Man, what a ride! Extremely ahistorical of course, but Egypt was the obvious target - huge food production, close to home, and safe unless/until Egypt collapses and respawns. I was making it up as I went along and sometimes my choices probably weren't the most efficient, so I'm pretty sure someone will/has beat my time.

Score is currently 515 versus 362 for Egypt, with 200 years to run. I'm going to switch away from the tech focus now and build some military, then go kick some arses that deserve kicking (Agamemnon and Dido), so I expect UHV 2 is in the bag.

Knossos has 1176 Culture, still slightly behind Waset at 1220, but there's 400 years to run on UHV 3 and I'll be trying to pop a Great Artist in the meantime. Not worried about that one.

Later: Oh ...


So, you remember I was going to build some military and go kick some deserving arses? I guess my army will be sitting round healing up for a while now. Six Sea People spawned next to Knossos and if I hadn't been assembling my Peloponnesian invasion force there (Stability is -24; I'm worried about secessions), that could have turned out very badly.

 

[Autumn Leaf]

RFC GW 1.8 - Elam - Monarch - Historical Victory in 1570 BC - Score 9292, Charles de Gaulle

UHV 1: Be the first to conquer Ur.
UHV 2: Trade route connection with Indus Valley Civ by 1800 BC.
UHV 3: Control 5 cities in Persia by 1500 BC.

This has a neat little puzzle in it. You start in 2690 BC (Turn 57). You need to establish a trade connection with Harappa by 1800 BC (Turn 117). This looks similar to the Harappa conundrum in RFC DoC, except ... well, you just can't research Sailing (to get trade on Coast) in 60 Turns. Fortunately, you don't need to. Nor do you need to build a long, vulnerable road network. Boat Building (trade on Rivers) is enough, as long as you build one short section of road to connect your capital with the river just north of it, and another short section to connect the mouth of that river with the mouth of the Indus. The clue I spotted was that there is no such river in the real world - it was obviously placed there for just this purpose!

The timetable is still pretty tight, because you also need to research The Wheel to build roads, and maybe Slash & Burn to get access to Workers, then build the Worker and do your roading, all in 60 Turns. Or ... you can do what I did, which was to steal a Worker from someone who already had some! In fact I was able to combine acquiring the Worker for UHV 2 with UHV 1, because I also needed Ur to build enough Settlers to make five cities in Persia by 1500 for UHV 3. I didn't rely on the cheese - true, I stole a Worker from Sumeria, but I also researched Slash & Burn and if things had all gone wrong in Sumeria I would still have been able to build a late Worker to lay down the roads while settling Persia. Fortunately for my blood pressure, the cheese worked.

My research path went: The Wheel, Boat Building, Urban Settlement, Slash & Burn. In restrospect, Boat Building should have come last, because it meant I had very little time to build Settlers at the end; but I was afraid that barbs might pillage the road.

I settlled on the spot, built some Kassu Risa ("KR") and sent them off to look for Workers. The first two got stacked and went into Mesopotamia; the third went east towards the Indus, although I really didn't want to anger Vatavelli by stealing one of his Workers. While tip-toe-ing through Mesopotamia, the stack saw a Worker busy NE of Ur. Instead of rushing straight in - well, actually they did rush straight in, hoping to nab the Worker from the ruins of Ur. The Worker, clearly no fool, zipped past Ur and heel-and-toed south towards Arabia. Curses! So I reloaded my savefile and approached Ur circuitously, dividing my army to catch the city in a pincer. If the Worker went south, I would nab him. This time the canny little beast went into Ur, where I eventually captured him when the city fell in 2330 (UHV 1). City Guards are OK defenders, but I had seasoned my KRs with City Raider promotions by snacking on some barbarians just outside Susa.

One KR fortified in Ur; the other escorted the Worker across the sands to start the road building. Susa worked on Stonehenge, on and off - I would get either a useful wonder or a useful cash infusion from those hammers.

The third KR hung around Harappa, trying to get a glimpse of Mohenjo-daro through the fog of war, but he couldn't get close enough. So he went north around the borders looking for a Worker, just in case. He found one, but since the Mesopotamian quest succeeded I was able to stay in Vatavelli's good graces. I would just have to hope I could see far enough into the fog for the trade route to reach Mohenjo-daro.

At this stage I was still researching The Wheel, but that completed in 2225 BC, shortly after my Worker arrived at the first road site. Boat Building was predicted to take 20 turns; it completed in 1960 BC and I started on Urban Settlement. The road was finished in 1950 BC, chalking up UHV 2 in 1940 BC. I was 13 turns from Urban Settlements, so, hmm, about 1810-ish, right? Tight, but doable. Well, I did get it in 1810 BC but I had forgotten the Babylonians!

Babylonia spawned in 1890 BC, already at war with me because I controlled Ur, and that little jaunt across the eastern Mesopotamian sands suddenly became perilous. Mostly Hammy kept his Spears, his Bows, and his Javelins in Babylon, but he was not above chasing my units if he saw one on his land. His Spearmen and Bowmen were all twice as strong as my KRs, his Javelins 50% stronger. I had no chance in a fight. If he wanted Ur or Susa, he could just come and get it.

Still, to hesitate was to lose by default, so in 1810 BC I started building Settlers in both Ur and Susa. I needed four. The Worker was hurrying back west to build Persian roads to help the Settlers get around.

Settler #1 popped in 1710, #2 & 3 in 1640, but the 1640 Ur Settler caught Hammy's eye and he chased it with a Bowman. The Settler made it into my borders, but obviously the last one was going to take too long if that Bowman waited for it - or came after Ur. Hammy refused to make peace unless I surrendered Ur, which would lose me the game. I had completed Stonehenge in 1910 BC, so now I revolted to Slavery. The Bowman moved towards Ur. I couldn't whip the Settler from 0 hammers, but I had two KRs in Ur by now, so I waited a turn to put some hammers into the Settler. The Bowman reached the walls. I hit the "Sacrifice" button and slew 5 Urians. Another turn. The Bowman killed one of my KRs, but the new-made Settler dashed off along the desert road, safe! I instantly contacted Hammy and sued for peace, including Ur. It was 1610 BC.

The rest of the game was moving my Settlers to their nearest Persian sites and making cities from them. My economy tanked, so I dropped research to 0% - I wasn't going to finish researching Arrowheads anytime soon anyway.

UHV 3 came in 1570 BC. I had a whole seven turns in hand, thanks to that timely whip.

 

[bluepotato]

UHV 2: Trade route with Indus Valley Civ by 1800 BC.

A small correction: you only need a trade connection (like with Harappa in DoC), trade routes require open borders.

The clue I spotted was that there is no such river in the real world - it was obviously placed there for just this purpose!

I have no idea what that river is supposed to represent either, I think it's Rhye's creation. It's definitely placed conveniently for this UHV, though.

 

[Autumn Leaf]

you only need a trade connection

Whoops - phrasing corrected.

Just won Minoa with a pathetic Louis XVI - the Sea People and Camel Archers really tore me a new one. But a win's a win and it was all great fun.

 

[Autumn Leaf]

RFC GW 1.8 - Minoa - Monarch - Historical Victory in 998 BC - Score 6395, Louis XVI

UHV 1: Calendar in 1400 BC. (Note: not "by").
UHV 2: First in score in 1200 BC.
UHV 3: Knossos #1 Cultural city in 1000 BC.

I settled on the spot in 2690 BC, despite wasting the Cow resource (you don't get the full benefit of a resource if you build a city on it in RFC GW, which, frankly needs to change; the resource does at least give you e.g. any health benefits). It was a wise move, as the game checks the city location for UHV 3 - if you do not build Knossos on the Cow, you will fail the UHV.

I was warned that Minoa has the most difficult UHV in RFC GW - "borderline impossible". If you try to play historically, I think that is true. However, I have been playing through the civs in order and I still remember Tanis fondly from my Egyptian adventure. The AI seems slow to nab it, so I gambled. After founding Knossos and setting it to build a Town Guard, I loaded my initial Warrior aboard my Trireme and sailed gaily around Crete, headed for Egypt. I saw a red border, not yellow! Score! (No miracle; if I had seen no border, or a yellow border, I would have restarted the game. As it happens I hit the jackpot on the first try.) Tanis was population 5, still Barbarian, defended by two Town Guards.

I had 102 turns to discover Calendar. It looked impossible, but I knew it must be doable, so I set my research to beeline Calendar, just tweaking the path a little to get a couple of useful techs earlier than the game's default choices. It meant that I would be militarily weak for a very long time, but half my cities would be on islands and the others would get whatever defenders they needed.

On my second turn, Tanis was now defended by a single Town Guard. Say what? My Warrior made a Marvel leap from the ship and squelched the barb, claiming Tanis for Minoa. Ramses' army was waiting on the other side - I guess he was just in the process of capturing Tanis, and had killed the other defender on the previous turn. I don't know why he hadn't captured Tanis - he had a two-unit stack - but one of his units was only a Town Guard and maybe he didn't like the odds.

My Warrior garrisoned the town, while my Trireme went back to Crete, where it picked up a Worker who appeared in Knossos. The Worker couldn't do much for Crete at this point (I didn't even have The Wheel yet), so the Trireme carried him off to explore the Aegean. Meanwhile, I got the technological breakthrough event, cutting a turn off my research for The Wheel.

My explorers found a tribal village at Cape Sounion. After a couple of save/loads due to popping hostile villagers, I scored Animal Husbandry! The Worker reboarded the Trireme and sailed back to Crete to build a Pasture on the western Cow. Being on a Hill it only gave two Food, but Crete was so Food-challenged (max city size four) that I nabbed what I could get. Someday I would get Sailing and build a Harbor, after which Knossos might be able to grow, but in the meantime there were a couple of hills south of Knossos that could deliver a lot of shields.

When Tanis came out of disorder, I built a Monument there to expand its borders, then two Settlers. The first Settler went to Rhodes. In retrospect this was a poor choice, but I was worried that Dido might grab it first. If I could get the Moai Statues in there (probably via a Great Engineer, as its early production was lousy) it would become a powerful asset. The second Settler boarded the Trireme, which carried it west to found Phaistos on the Wheat in the western delta. Between them, Tanis and Phaistos controlled most of the delta in their fat crosses, without interfering with one another. These two cities, with their immense population potential, were to be the cornerstone of my tech strategy. Their production was usually lousy, since Mines and Quarries tended to get pillaged by roaming barbarians (I had no military capable of defending the land yet; it was all I could do to protect the cities), but they were soon able to support large numbers of Citizen specialists. I did keep a Worker busy around each city - even if it only lasted a few turns, a Mine or a Quarry still gave useful hammers. I popped a Warrior from a village in Ithaka, and used him to buff Phaistos.

I grew Tanis and Phaistos to their happiness limits, which was about population 7 or 8 for now. I didn't get ambitious. Meanwhile Knossos built a Town Guard, a Monument, an Apocathary, and then, working Cow, Marble and a Plains tile, settled down to grind out Stonehenge at 10 hammers per turn (completed in 1960 BC, before Tanis and Phaistos were ready).

By 1800 BC, Tanis was working three Scientists and Phaistos was about to start its own collection. Tanis had built two Workboats, one for its own Fish and one for Rhodes'. Phaistos eventually built its own Workboat for its own Fish. The Fish did not siginificanty increase Tanis' and Phaistos' Food supply, but gave more Trade than the grassland flood plains. Money was very tight.

By 1700 BC, Tanis had 4 Scientists and was slowly starving. Phaistos also had 4 and was stagnant (the Wheat under the city gave it one extra Food). Rhodes was gamely supporting one Scientist. Knossos, now population 4, had no food surplus but did run one Scientist briefly. In retrospect I could have added more happy-police and grown Tanis and Phaistos more, but my Stability was already a nasty -19, Shaky (Egypt was outside my historical bounds) and I wanted to avoid going Unstable. Having Tanis or Phaistos secede at this point would be disastrous! I had no military reserve and would be unable to recapture the rebellious city in time to make UHV 1. Every so often I'd add an extra Scientist, then back off before losing population. Then I'd put citizens back on the land to quickly buff the Food storage. When the Treasury was empty I'd add a Merchant. Rinse and repeat.

By 1600 BC I was researching Mathematics, with Calendar next in the queue, but beginning seriously to worry. I was Unstable (-28) and running short of turns. Seven turns for Maths, 23 for Calendar - 30 turns required! I did some maths of my own and calculated I had 20 turns left, so I stacked on the Scientists for one last burst. Five each in Tanis and Phaistos, two in Rhodes, one in Knossos. All four cities were starving.

By 1500 BC I was 10 turns from Calendar and my Stability was -29. I thought I had 10 turns left. It was going to be touch and go, but the cupboard was bare. And then, the miracle. Instead of the expected 1490, the next turn was 1492! I had six more turns available than I'd calculated on.

I cruised to Calendar in 1428 for UHV 1. My Stability was -30 by then, but I still hadn't lost a city, and now it didn't matter if one did secede - the tech race was won. I could lose the entire delta and still win the game, since the two remaining UHVs were Score and Culture. Without those boat anchors dragging me down, my Stability would probably rebound. How hard could it be?

1300 BC. Egypt, Phoenicia and Mycenae had all declared war on me from time to time. Fortunately a Great Mediator stepped in with Egypt; if they had come for my delta cities I was cactus. My Trireme sank every Coracle and Bireme my other opponents sent. Still, it was time to show them the Minotaur's horns. With Calendar in hand I had immediately started researchng military techs and building modern units - first Javelins, then Archers. I upgraded my Town Guards to Warriors. My Trireme was busy ferrying new units from Tanis and Phaistos to Knossos, with a view to using them to capture Pylos to force Agamemnon to the table on my terms.

1204 BC. My invasion force was nearly ready; I just needed to build a couple of Coracles and a couple of Catapults.

1196 BC. Alarms went off in Knossos and Tanis. Enemy in sight! There were six Sea People standing outside Knossos, and two outside Tanis. I'd completelly forgotten about the Sea People. Strength 3, +20% city attack. Unnoticed in the commotion, I achieved UHV 2 with 629 to Egypt's 451. Knossos had 1576 Culture to Waset's 1504, so I was also ahead in the race for UHV 3.

1188 BC. Knossos survived and didn't even lose any units, though several were at half strength. The Sea People outside Tanis didn't suicide on its Archer and Javelin; instead they started to systematically pillage the city's improvements. If I attacked them, it would be across a river and I would lose. So I was forced to sit there, fuming, while my hard-won mines and farms went up in smoke. I did notice that the city was up to 9 population, so I set some Merchants to generate Great merchants that I could settle in Knossos, and started starving the city down. I did the same for Phaistos. I had a feeling that the next century would be ... tumultuous. I didn't want these lovely cities falling full-grown to the barbarians. If I could starve them down I could let the barbs have them, and it would probably help my Stability in the long run.

1100 BC. Assyria collapsed in 1188 BC, Mycenae in 1132 BC, and Phoenicia in 1108. Occasional Sea People were supplemented by Libyan Camel Riders, who came very close to capturing Phaistos. I had forgotten that I had meant to starve Tanis and Phaistos - Phaistos was up to population 9, Tanis 8, and my Stability was -32. I resumed starving them. Knossos was ahead by a couple of Great merchants.

1004 BC. With stacks of 3 barb Warriors and 2 barb Libyan Camel Archers at the gates, the last defender of Phaistos - a Javelin - took to his heels, headed for Tanis to reinforce the garrison there. There was no way I could hold Phaistos, which I had starved down to pop 3 and which was due to shrink to 2 next turn. With my Stability at Collapsing (-42) I wasn't inclined to send military from Knossos to defend a city that was so vulnerable to barb swarms and was anyway making me unstable. Knossos itself had suffered a second six-unit Sea People stack in 1020 BC, though again without losses or even serious injuries (thanks to promotions after the first attack). Just one ... more ... turn!

998 BC. VICTORY! Phaistos had fallen, but I still had 3 cities. My Stability had plunged to -59. Knossos had 2303 Culture to Waset's 1838, so that was that. I hadn't managed to generate a Great Artist, but as it happened one had not been required.

Sitting in my somewhat battered Palace in Knossos, I watched a celebratory Bull Leaping and sipped a horn of wine. The future no doubt contained many challenges, but my kingdom had stood the test of time!

Edited to add: I played on a bit after the UHV. In 950 BC, Phaistos tried to flip back to me. I disbanded the city, gaining a couple of Archers, which I sent to Tanis. Stability up to -20.

 

[Autumn Leaf]

RFC GW 1.8 - Phoenicia - Monarch - Partial solution; abandoned game in 1484 BC.

UHV 1: At least one city in Levant, Cyprus, Nth Africa excl Egypt, Iberia in 900 BC.
UHV 2: Most revealed territory in 600 BC.
UHV 3: Own more resources than any other civ in 500 BC.

I failed this on the first try. More accurately, I got to 1484, got bored, realised I had rowed up a creek and lost the paddle, and quit. I'm not sure when I will try it again. Maybe today, maybe next year.

Phoenicia isn't nearly as straight-forward as it seems. UHV 1 matures IN 900 BC, not BY 900 BC. It says so right there on the wrapper. But I've just played Minoa, so I know that the Levant and Cyprus get absolutely hammered by the Sea People between 1200 BC and 900 BC!

The other joker is that the Forbidden Palace is apparently inaccessible (Divine Right cannot be researched according to the tech tree diagram, although perhaps that's just a bad graphic and it can in fact be reached anyway), while Courthouses and the Forbidden Palace replacement the Palace of Knossos are a long way off early in the game. The moment you drop your colonies in Africa and Spain, your economy will tank and your research wil grind to a halt. A partial soution is to apply cheese: settle them one turn before 900 BC. Put one city in Carthage's flipzone. Trade the other to Carthage when Carthage spawns in 812 BC. To avoid jinxing UHV 3, make sure neither site brings in any useful resources. Let Carthage deal with the fallout.

The problem is, those cities are probably meant to be productive, to provide most of your resources for UHV 3 and to grow your economy. Dancing around Carthage's spawn and keeping them as productive cities would be fun. Building them for UHV 1 in 900 BC, then throwing them to Carthage to save your economy is no fun at all.

UHV 2 means explore a lot and buy everyone else's maps, but never sell your own map before 600 BC. Straight-forward and fun, but you do lose a lot of Scouts!

UHV 3 means that although you have no explicit technological goals, you will need to do a lot of research along the way to ensure as many resources as possible are revealed so you can settle beside them. The worst thing is, many new civs will spawn with the techs you are so deperately researching - but you'll have nothing except your map to trade.

Early moves: As a defensive measure against future Sea People and bellicose Babylonians, I ignored Byblos, moved one square south and settled Sidon on the hill. This turned out to be a poor choice as it put me out of reach of Aleppo's Wheat. I should have moved to the eastern hill where I would still have access to both the Fish and Wheat, and the sea. (Edit: except that hill is wooded and can't be settled till the forest is chopped - which in RFC GW needs a Worker, which you won't get till you settle a city somewhere! New plan - move NE and settle on the hill south of the river; it's a lovely spot, which will eventually have Wheat, Fish, Olives, Sheep and two Dye in its BFC - if you can keep them out of Babylonia's grasp.)

I settled Kition on the south-eastern hill of Cyprus where it would protect my Copper supply, once I discovered Copper. Until you have access to Harbors, Kition can't grow except by stealing Sidon's Fish, which is a lousy strategy. It can be a good city in the late game, when it has Dye and Wine and a fully developed Town, but it's a drain early on. The only reason to settle it early is to deny it to your neighbours and secure your future Copper supply. Cyprus is an island crying out for a good early food source of its own; the real Cyprus was never such a wasteland - that is why it has been a bone of contention for thousands of years! Give it some Crab off the south coast, say.

I sent two Warriors (Edit: the second Warrior turns out to have been a flipped unit - on my second game I got a Vulture instead) and my Spearman to capture Aleppo, which had two Town Guards. I led the actual attack with my Spearman, followed with one Warrior. The other Warrior became the garrison while the two attackers came back to Sidon with their valuable promotions. I should probably have razed Aleppo, as the Hittites, Babylonians and probably Assyrians would want it and its only useful square was the Wheat. It could perhaps serve as a border fortress but Phoenicia simply doesn't have the economy to support cities that don't bring in more money than they drain (except Kition, which has the Copper). Better to be a friend to all the world; all we want is to trade wit' youse guys!

The Warrior from the Bireme hit Cyprus's tribal village, then reboarded and the two set off on an expedition around the Mediterranean, popping villages for whatever good things they might bring and spying out good city sites. Later I built a Coracle, put the Warrior aboard (let's just call him "Hanno" shall we?) and sent it to find the edge of the world.

Jericho was captured by barbs, then tried to flip to me. I burned it, because it had no growth potential, cramped Sidon's BFC, and Babylon would want it.

I actually built Settlers and ferried them out to the toe of Sicily and the south-east corner of Spain to wait for 900 BC, but then I realised how terribly dumb this was and pulled them back. Building Settlers isn't required for hundred of years; you have better uses for those early hammers.

By 1484, Exploration for UHV 2 was going well and was the most fun part of the game. I had mapped half of Britain and most of western Europe, and I was starting in on the far North and the East. The East was the most dangerous part. The Aryans had destroyed the Harappans (scratch my main competitor for UHV 3) and by 1500 they had also stopped coming, but Vatavelli hadn't done a good job of extermination so there were still dozens of them wandering the east edge of the map. A Scout has no hope of surviving an encounter with an Aryan, especially as they tend to roam in threes.

Gold from villages was keeping my three-city economy afloat, allowing me to maintain research at 60-70%. (My main expense was military, necessary to keep my neighbours polite.) It was begnning to look like I might get to Courthouses by 1000 BC, which would actually make a colonial empire for UHV 3 possible (so the game was by no means lost, just boring and bogged down due to my poor early decisions).

Minoa declared war on me at some point. I scraped my garrisons to the bone, dodged the Minoan Trireme, dropped an army on Crete, and annihilated them (it helped that Knossos had only one population point and self-razed when captured; I didn't have to decide whether to keep it). RL ancient Crete was actually within the Phoenician sphere; in the game it isn't, but should, be within Phoenicia's historical Normal area (but with no AI values on the Settlers map). In the game Crete gets regular stacks of barbarians from 1200 to about 500, but a Phoenician city on the Marble hill might be very profitable, if you can defend it. Crete has two Cow, so it can grow, and Marble is very useful to have.

Normally I don't post my failed games, but this one was so instructive to me that I thought it worth sharing with you.

Yeah, I did think about the Tanis option. It would have been viable - Tanis was still barb when I spawned and i could have captured it easily - but frankly, except for Egypt and as a cheesy way out of Minoa's technology bind, it's not a well I want to keep going back to. Tanis needs nerfing - in fact the whole Nile delta needs nerfing.

 

[Autumn Leaf]

RFC GW 1.8 - Phoenicia - Monarch - Historical Victory in 500 BC - Score 7265, Henry VIII.

UHV 1: At least one city in Levant, Cyprus, Iberia, Nth Africa excl Egypt, in 900 BC.
UHV 2: Most revealed territory in 600 BC.
UHV 3: Own more resources than any other civ in 500 BC.

OK, got it on the second try.

Went for Aynook (modern Arwad, Syria), one square NE of the starting point. This spot has an absurd number of advantages over Byblos, between being on a hill, having a magnificent range of resources in its BFC, less contention with Kition for squares, and so on. Kition goes on the south-eastern hill in Cyprus, which has Copper in it. Your first technology is Mining (for early production). After that, research whatever seems best to you.

Raze Aleppo. Ditto Catal Huyuk, if you can (it flips to the Hittites later and then becomes a source of barbarians when the Sea People take it). When Minoa eventually declares war on you, raze Knossos if you find yourself in a position to do so - Kommos on the Marble is significantly superior for defence and growth.

Don't expand early - Aynook and Kition will be all you need for a long time. You need to develop a profitable, powerful core to be able to support your later trading empire. You won't need Africa and Spain until 900 BC; if you settle too far from your capital too soon, the maintenance costs will kill you.

You can work on UHV 2 from the very start - churn out Scouts. Send at least one into Africa, one into Anatolia, and one into Persia. After that, they keep on going till they run into something that kills them. If one dies, train a replacement. Micromanage them - you need to get the best results from tribal villages that you can. Your primary focus is cash, but if you pop another Scout, that's good too - you'll lose a lot of Scouts and it can take a long time for a replacement to get out from Aynook, assuming it doesn't get eaten on the way. Having a spare already in the vicinity is worthwhile. Technologies are also good. Warriors, hostiles, etc, are wasted opportunities. Buy maps when you can, but never sell yours before 600 BC.

Keep up your military, with an eye to the period 1200 BC till 900 BC, when you will be forced to sit and watch your lands pillaged mercilessly by hordes of Sea People. You need an Axe, a Spear, a Javelin, and at least three Archers in every city. If Tanis falls to the barbs (and it will, if you don't own it) and you don't have Spearmen, you will see Libyan Camel Archers gleefully disecting (or perhaps should that be "bisecting") your Archers. Towards the end, bands of Axemen will filter down from Anatolia. Having a good military will also help keep your neighbours poilte.

Try to get the technology and resources to build War Elephants. Persia spawns with a bunch of them and if you don't have some of your own, Persia's will go through you like a dose of Epsom Salts when Cyrus inevitably declares war on you.

To get resources I settled Jeddah in Arabia, two squares north of the Peak. Clam, Horse, Sheep, two Incense, two Gold. Nice. Put a couple of Spearmen in there - Camel Archers are frequent visitors. The road link to Aynook gets pillaged regularly; repair it as you can.

Settled Motya in the toe of Sicily and Abdera in Spain for UHV 1. Neither flips to Carthage. Later settled Murustaga on the iron in western North Africa to get a last burst of resources for UHV 3. Hannibal didn't like that and declared on me. After 500 BC, I gifted it to him, which made him Pleased with me.

Near the end I noticed that Persia was expanding my way and I still didn't have War Elephants. Sumeria had somehow defeated Babylonia, so I declared war on Gilgamesh and grabbed Ur and Babylon off him. Cyrus declared on me meanwhile, and I bought peace with him by including Babylon in the deal. Sumeria survived in the rebuilt Jerusalem (Solomon was ashes and dust), and Gilgamesh capitulated to me. I found Ivory near Babylon and Murustaga, and used the peace to train some jumbos.

Edit: A note on Javelineers. They upgrade to Swordsmen, and then to Heavy Swordsmen. Veteran Heavy Swordsmen eat War Elephants for breakfast and use the tusks as toothpicks. Promote your Javelins accordingly.

At the end I owned 7 cities (Aynook, Kition, Kommos, Jeddah, Motya, Abdera and Ur) and Babylon was likely to flip back to me soon. If Cyrus objected, too bad; I now had at least as many War Elephants as he did, and if I had to I could train a new one in Aynook every three or four turns.

My Stability was a very satisfactory +15.

I sat on the newly rebuilt walls of Ur, looking out across the Mesopotamian sands towards Babylon, where a ragged Archer and a hungry Light cavalry looked fruitlessly east for reinforcements from Persepolis. Ur's climate seemed absurdly hot and dry; so bad for the complexion. I decided to leave it and summer in island Aynook, where the breeze off the Mediterranean brings the scent of Olive and Wine.

 

[Autumn Leaf]

RFC GW 1.8 - Babylon - Monarch - Historical Victory in 1148 BC - Score 10806, Nelson Madela

UHV 1: Six Wonders in Babylon @46,22 by 1000 BC
UHV 2: First to discover Code of Laws
UHV 3: Kill three or more other civs by 600 BC

Note for complete openness: After I had killed Sumeria, Elam and Phoenicia in my first attempt, and Sumeria, Elam and Assyria in my second (barbs eventually killed Phoenicia in my second attempt), the game would not acknowledge that I had completed UHV 3. In the end I temporarily enabled cheatmode and used the Python console to set UHV 3 as complete. I have raised a bug report about this; it's not yet clear if it's a bug in the mod or just something weird in my copy of the game.

The game I am reporting here was my second attempt. In my first, I got as far as Assyria's spawn and realised (quite apart from the UHV bug) that I had stuffed it up. So I restarted from the original savefile.

Spoiler Fixing UHV 3 :

I played the game as usual; the only out-of-game intervention I made was as below, after I had killed Assyria, so that it would display the victory cutscreen when I completed the 6th Wonder in Babylon a couple of moves later.

I flipped some nice extra units at the start - a Warrior and three Town Guards to my east, a Town Guard to my north-west, and a Worker to my west. I settled Babylon on the spot, as the city location is checked as part of UHV 1. Besides, it was easily the best location in sight.

My research path was Masonry, Mythology, Pottery, Herbalism, Priesthood (via Polytheism), Alphabet, Writing, CoL. This gave me my six Wonders reasonably quickly yet also got me to CoL well before Persia could spawn with it in 674 BC.

All my military from Babylon except a Javelin and a Spear immediately headed south towards Ur. I figured it was overkill, but I wanted to be sure. As it happened, Ur was protected by only a couple of Town Guards. The bodies of two other Town Guards encountered along the way were left to dry on the desert sands. My Bowmen walked into Ur with only minor wounds. One down. When they reached Babylon I sent a couple of the flipped Town Guards south to become the permanent garrison.

My biggest early problem was keeping research at 100% without draining my treasury. Once out of disorder, 8-population Ur immediately set up several Merchants, and trained two Scouts. One Scout (esorted by a Bowman as far as Tanis) made his way past barb Tanis into Africa; the other went east to meet with Vatavelli and see what tribal villages might be here. (As it happened, Mohenjo-daro was a pile of rubble, guarded by glowering Aryans; Vatavelli was moldering bones. This did not bode well, and indeed, the Aryans began to filter west and soon became a huge nuisance. For centuries, three Aryans spawning every five turns and then wandering west tied down a large part of my military in defending Susa.)

My units returned to Babylon as they healed up. When I judged that I had enough healthy units available, I invaded Elam. Susa was on a hill, defended by a Warrior and a Town Guard. My first Bowman screamed "for Hammy!" as he threw himself upon their weapons, causing collateral damage even as he died. The next two Bowmen butchered the defenders, and 2-population Susa was mine. Two down.

In my first game I rested up and replaced my lost units, plus some, then declared war on Phoenicia. I won that war, but only two wounded Bows, two limping Spears and two hobbling Javelins ever returned from Phoenicia. When Assyria spawned later, I was too weak to oppose them. So in this game I schmoozed Dido instead of invading her realm, offering her a juicy exchange for several useful technologies I lacked. In the end it was a very profitable relationship, and I even declared war on Minoa when she asked me (I never saw a Minoan soldier). Unfortunately she was unable to hold off both Assyria and the Sea People; Phoenicia eventually went down in a storm of bloody brown and red swords. Such a waste.

Babylon spent its efforts on Wonders and buildings; Ur and Susa built my military. As soon as I could, I started training Axemen - along with my Spearmen these were the best counter I could offer to the Swords and Chariots that Assyria would spawn with.

Assyria spawned with seven Swordsmen, three Chariots, five Spearmen, a Battering Ram, and lesser units. They got reinforcements later. Ashurbanipal brushed me off - "Leave me alone!" Me, a Great King, a brother to Ramesses himself! I swallowed the insult, biding my time. For all his military might, he would find Babylon a hard nut to crack. He demanded Susa, claiming that it wanted to flip to him. I rejected his boorish demand. Still, I recalled the garrison from Susa - those units would be more useful in Babylon than thrown away on some scrubby outpost. It was a shame that Susa controlled my only source of Copper, but resources ... can be reclaimed. I set Susa and Ur to building Axemen, in case my Copper should be cut off. Ur was also stripped of all but a single Town Guard. All the strength I could muster in Babylon might be needed in the days ahead.

I did not let the war disrupt my construction schedule. Stonehenge, the Pyramids, the Lion Gate were already in place; the Oracle was one turn away. Plans for Luxor and Yasilikaya were well advanced. Six wonders were prophesied, six I must have! At night I worked on my law code, till my fingers bled. And one day it was complete, and I had it carved in stone to inspire a thousand generations with my magnificence.

Over the next few years, the dark red stain of Assyrian tyranny spread over the once-sunny lands. Aleppo fell, and other towns I could not see off in the fog of war. I learned that the Hittites were fighting a deperate rear-guard action to keep Ashurbanipal from their capital. Once three Assyrian Swordsmen arrogantly tried to cut across my land to reach undefended Susa. My Axemen sortied. One brave Axeman fell, but all the Swordsmen were slain. I recovered their swords, with some notion of melting them down to make a throne, but my chamberlain said to me that it had been done before, and did I really want to associate myself with that madman?

One day, looking across the northen sands to the alien city, there seemed to be fewer weapons on the battlements. It was true! Most of Ashurbanipal's force was gone, off on some adventure. But the garrison was still too formidable for me to have any hope of breaking it. So I waited, and watched. And my moment came. One Archer, two Javelins, a Worker! Most of the former garrison were already two squares north-east, headed for some destination off in the fog.

1236 BC. Ashurbanipal's army had vanished in the fog. I hastened down from my tower, shaking my commanders awake. And lo, we sallied in all our might from Babylon and we took that abominable city, and we razed it to the ground! Not one man, woman or child was spared (though many were speared, ho ho).

Issuing orders from the ruins, my main force I sent north-west following the trampled path of Ashurbanipal's armies. A select force of veteran Axes I sent to Aleppo, to liberate it, if they could, from the tyrant.

Who knows what tales of valor Ashurbanipal's men might have told us; but they were silent, alas, except for a wandering and bewildered Battering Ram we found near Hattusa. The Hittite cities, save for Catal Huyuk, were occupied only by barbarians; the fate of Ashurbanipal's once vast armies we could only speculate upon. We found two Swords and a Chariot quivering in Catal Huyuk, and we rooted them from it and we razed that city. My prophets were gazing at the portents in steaming livers and warning of a red tide in the years to come. We wanted no indefensible cities.

My Axemen reached Aleppo. The madmen there - two smoke-stained Archers - refused to let the city go, so the Axes delivered their quietus, and the city's. And with that the war was over.

Two years later, to the cheers of my people, I personally oversaw the ceremony that opened the Yasilikaya and crowned my reign with glory.

 

[Autumn Leaf]

RFC GW 1.8 - Hittites - Monarch - Historical Victory in 1300 BC - Score 8931, Simon Bolivar

UHV 1: Conquer Babylon by 1400 BC.
UHV 2: Control Levant in 1300 BC.
UHV 3: destroy 15 units using Chariots by 1200 BC.

We had a good start - we flipped three Warriors (probably a barb pack) NE, and a Worker west, of Catal Huyuk. We got another Worker NE of our starting point. The Warriors weren't much cop for anything but happy-police, but they freed up better units for other duties.

Our inclination was to move one square north of the start to what looked like a better site, but unless you settle Hattusa on the initial spot, Catal Huyuk flips on your second turn and becomes your (very vulnerable) capital. We immediately built a Huwasi in Hattusa, then started on Stonehenge. The nearby Worker Roaded the sheep, then Mined the Copper. The other Roaded his way towards Hattusas. Later the Workers Pastured the Sheep and the Cow. That set Hattusa up for the run to the UHV; thanks to starving itself to beat Babylon to Stonehenge it was still only pop 3 in 1300 BC, but was about to grow.

Technology was Horse Domestication, but our best efforts only got us there in 1308 BC. We should probably have picked something else.

After a quick sortie west to capture Troy and secure it against the first wave of barbs, our four Chariots, now all lightly promoted, clattered back to Hattusa to heal up briefly before beginning the invasion of Mesopotamia.

A lot of our military was permanently tied up defending Troy against barbs (Axemen, Chariots and lesser units) coming down through the Bosphorus. Perhaps we should have focused on the east instead of settling Milawanda with our second Settler. But the good sites in the east all flip to Assyria.

Pro hint: that patch of forest NE of Troy is your friend! Build a fort there and keep at least two or three strong units ready to see off intruders. It would be an ideal post for a couple of Chariots, but we started with only four and could not build more until discovering Horse Domestication. We needed the Chariots for conquest. If Troy fell - well, too bad.

Catal Huyuk was set to building an Axeman, later earmarked for the western wall. We needed our Javelins freed to come east!

Taking Babylon turned out to be easier than expected. We lost one Chariot in the assault, but in 1460 BC it was ours. Our Stability was plummeting (-22 and headed down) and we knew that if we kept the city, Assyria would just take it away from us in half a century or so, so we made peace with Hammy and gave him back his erstwhile capital. This was possibly a mistake - we should immediately have pivoted west and taken Jericho before making peace. But our Chariots were all wounded, we had no unit on hand to garrison Babylon if they moved west, and we had ticked off UHV 1. Jericho seemed somehow more appropriate to the Phoenician campaign. It wasn't till later, when we were in Byblos gazing SE at Jericho, which was protected from us by the enforced 10-turn peace treaty, that we realised the opportunity we'd missed. Our Chariots would have healed just as well in Jericho and would have been poised to swoop on Byblos while our Javelins, upgraded to Swords, tackled Aleppo.

Instead we took a 3-turn revolt into Monarchy, Vassalage, Apprenticeship, Isolation, Deification (though we still had no religion in any city) and Client States. We hadn't had the breathing space until now, as we needed to beat Babylon to Stonehenge. But we didn't collapse, and it took a lot of pressure off the empire. Our Stability plummeted to -33 in 1356 BC, then began to rise. (By 1300 BC it was up to Shaky, -15.)

The Chariots went north to heal up. We achieved UHV 3 in 1444 BC, then took Aleppo in 1436 BC without loss, healed again, and took Byblos in 1396 BC. We made peace with Dido, who still had Cyprus. After that - we were stuck, for a while.

The barbs took Jericho in 1380 BC, and that event along with pressure from the Assyrians, was probably what tipped Hammy into collapsing in 1372 BC. This distracted the Assyrians for a few turns while they absorbed the remnants of the Babylonian Empire, which let us take Jericho away from the barbs and raze it in 1364 BC. Assyria wanted Aleppo for peace, but would probably have settled for Jericho (if we hadn't razed it) or Byblos. It didn't matter; we needed to control the Levant in 1300 BC to get UHV 2, so we could not trade cities for peace. If the barbs hadn't taken Jericho off Hammurabi, we would have taken it from him a couple of turns later, as as the peace treaty with Babylon was due to expire about 1380 BC.

Byblos and Aleppo brought Baalism into the empire, so we revolted to that even though most of our cities didn't have it yet.

Our soldiers managed to kill a stray Assyrian Sword in 1332 BC, and that finally persuaded Ashurbanipal to make peace without demanding territorial concessions. He had a huge stack of Swords and Spears on our border, which we had little hope of defeating at the time, so the peace came none too soon.

After that it was simply a matter of waiting for 1300 BC - while keeping the Bosphorus closed against barbs, killing the odd barb Warrior near the site of future Trapezium, and building up the empire's cities and military. Baal's seers were warning me of a looming danger in the next century, and I wanted the people of Hatti to make ready for whatever form that danger might take. Besides, Ashurbanipal was still down there in Mesopotamia, now in full control of the massive production of Babylon and Ur, and he would probably declare war on us again soon enough.

 

[Autumn Leaf]

RFC GW 1.8 - Mycenae - Monarch - Historical Victory in 998 BC - Score 7181, Henry VIII

UHV 1: Build three Tholoi by 1300 BC.
UHV 2: Build the Lion Gate by 1100 BC.
UHV 3: No barb cities in Anatolia in 1000 BC (not "by")

Mycenae is the last civ with defined UHVs available in RFC GW 1.8. The UHV definitions contained several bugs, which I reported to bluepotato and corrected in my own copy of the game, with the result that all three UHV conditions were winnable.

This was the one civ that I really, really wanted to play, but which initially had a bug that discouraged me. Having now played the rest, I took the time to work out a fix for the original issue (the Mycenaean Galley usually gets sunk by a Minoan Trireme during auto-play) and the UHV bugs that I encountered or observed.

You start in 1600 BC and have two good sites in Greece: Mycenae and, three squares directly north, Thebai between the twin peaks. Your initial Settlers take both sites. Drift a single square east or west, and the city will someday flip to Athens or Sparta. Not within your UHV period, but if you have no intention of playing on past the UHV, go for it!

Anyway ... settle on the spot. It's a sweeter location than it seems, with some nice resources that you'll see pop up later. But your first priority is to research Masonry so that you can build that wretched Lion Gate. Immediately switch to Monarchy, isolationism and Deification. Spread Hellenism in Mycenae and convert.

Mycenae builds a Tholos tomb, a Work Boat, a Granary and the Hellenic Oracle. I discovered Masonry in 1412 BC, when I was a couple of turns from completing the Oracle, so I queued up the Lion Gate to start after the Oracle. Your free Worker Mines the Copper and Silver, builds Roads and other improvements, and Cottages the "empty" plains because you will often be desperately short of money. We're talking a 10% Research rate here. Eventually some of those "empty" squares will develop Sheep, after which Mycenae can start to grow. By then the Lion gate will be done.

Thebai builds a Tholos.

Your first adventure is to get your Chariots and a couple of Eqetoi over to Troy. Take the Archer and Spearman off the Galley and load two of your Eqetoi; the Chariots set off overland - once they get out of mountainous Greece they will move faster. Capture Troy - but do not raze the topless towers of Ilium! It will become your fortress in Anatolia, controlling the Bosphorus and providing a place where injured units can heal. Anatolia, for the purpose of the UHV, stops one square west of Hattusa. If you can only stop the barbs from entering Anatolia from the north, your UHV 3 is 90% done as the Hittites will take care of the rest. Independent Gordion will spawn late in the UHV 3 period; it doesn't count as a barb city, but it is a wild card controlling territory you cannot enter, so raze it.

For now, Troy builds your third Tholos, then focuses on building Eqetoi and, later, Archers and Spearmen.

I had one Eqete guarding Troy and another ("Achilles") fortified on the forest, to at least make the barbs fight for it. My Chariots lurked in Troy, venturing out to slay intruders when it was safe (the Chariots were irreplaceable, so I didn't risk them far from the city). Occasionally Troy had to withstand assaults, and sometimes I had to send a replacement Eqete from Troy or Mycenae to the forest.

With the Tholoi UHV settled and the Lion Gate well in hand, I looked for something else to do. There's a nice spot just north of a lake in macedonia, but that site is earmarked for Macedonia's spawn. I didn't like the third Mycenaean site near Thessaloniki (three squares north of Thebae), so I settled Larissa on the hill two squares north again. Short on industry, but it has good food. It will someday flip to Macedonia, but as I plan to Borg Macedonia and incorporate its superb capital into my empire, that will be an acceptable and temporary loss.

I also settled Miletus, south of the Wheat in Anatolia; it filled a gap and will eventually steal all of Catal Huyuk's best resources. Build a Tholos, then a Worker.

That was it; except of course for the wretched three-century Dark Age from 1200 BC on when the Sea People came visiting in groups of four. Fortunately they all tried to pillage the cottage on the plain west of Mycenae; and that is where I killed those who didn't suicide against my defences. Later, Sheep appeared on that plain, no doubt drawn by the well-fertilized land.

I made a nice exchange with Phoenicia, before they collapsed, for Animal Husbandry and Trade.

I had completed my three Tholoi by 1404 BC, and the Lion Gate finished in 1172 BC. Mycenae promptly switched to military building for a while, as the Sea People and other barbs had been making nuisances of themselves in the Peloponnese. By 998 BC my cities were becoming rich and large, preparing for the arrival of the upstart Dorians. I was Unstable (-21) but that can eventually be remedied.

 

[Edmund Ironside]

How useful did you find the unique powers and particularly the unique units of the various Civs? I was particularly concerned that the Mycenae unique unit of Equeta might be outdated. I kept the unit as it was originally designed as being a replacement for a warrior, and buffed it up a bit, but I wondered if it would be more useful as a replacement for a spearman.

 

[Autumn Leaf]

The Eqeta is slightly underpowered considering some of the units available for the period and the weird "free Anatolia from the barbarians" mission that Mycenae was given. I mainly found them useful as fillers for places where a more powerful unit would be wasted. In Greece they provided a good city defense but overlapped somewhat with Archers (the backbone of defense against the Sea Peoples). In Anatolia they were cannon fodder that I used to force invading barbs onto the killing ground, while the Chariots did most of the actual execution. Remember that the barbs in the Bosphorus come in groups of up to four Axemen or three Chariots or Warriors; I was deathly afraid of leaving an irreplaceable Chariot exposed on the field after battle. Covering one with an Eqeta was a desperation measure. The only saving grace was that due to the sheer number of barbs, any of my units that didn't die young were soon buffed with Combat I & II and Shock, which made even the Eqeta dangerous - except that Chariots butchered them regularly.

There was a distinct progresson of power from civ to civ in a particular area. Thus the 3-point Vulture of the Sumerians and the 2-point KR of the Elamites were fine for their time but totally overshadowed by Babylonia's 4-point Bowman super-archer, which in turn fell to Assyria's unique Battering Ram + regular Swordsman combination.

The clear intention was that the older civs should face an uphill struggle to compete militarily with rising civs who start with better weaponry.

The Minoans had a powerful early naval unit to keep the enemy off Crete, but their land units were unimpressive. The Mycenaeans were the first mainland civ in the Balkans and except for the needs of the Anatolian expedition, the Eqeta would be pretty well suited to their location and era. I haven't played the Greeks or Spartans yet but their units are buffed versions of the basic 6-point Hoplite, which is your super-Spearman. The 7-strength Athenian and Spartan units are a brutal jump from the 3-point Eqeta or the 4-point Spearman or Axeman.

Either the Eqeta should have 4 strength or else get a 25% buff against Chariots (on top of their existing buffs). Discovering Citizenship, to build 6-point Hoplites, requires too many technologies that their early challenges force the Mycenaeans to ignore. They are going to have to fight the Dorians with hopelessly outmatched units, which does kind of reflect history. For all their Cyclopean walls, the Mycenaeans were unable to survive changes in the real world. The only saving grace is that Mycenae city bottlenecks the upstarts in Attica and the Peloponnese respectively. A human player, with units buffed by the endless Sea People raids, should be able to hold out whereas the AI should usually fail. It's just as well that units can only get to 10 XP from barb fights, otherwise my Mycenaean soldiers would have developed into true heroes!

Actually ... Heroism (unlimited XP from barbs) would be a cool unique ability for the 3-point Eqeta and totally in line with Homer. You, too, could become Achilles, my son! The right promotions can make even an obsolete unit powerful, and the low base means that even a super-promoted Eqeta (Level 6 or 7) would not be totally OP. The survivors from the endless barb fighting would provide a limited pool of veteran Eqeta to confront Phalanxes and Spartan Hoplites. Eqeta upgrade to 4-point dead-end Auxillia, not to Hoplites, so all those super-promoted Eqeta would lose their special power (but keep their XP and promotions) when upgraded, and would eventually become obsolete.

On the whole the UUs available to each civ seem well enough balanced; so far I've been able to work with each to compete with its neighbours during its time. Unless there is a ridiculolous power disparity, pretty much any unit can work as long as you use it within its design, its time and its region. One amusing/frustrating thing about the original RFC is how often the UU is mis-matched to the environment.

I am less impressed with some of the Unique Powers (UP). The Assyrians have the Aztec power to enslave (make Workers from defeated units). The Harappans have the Incan power to draw food and hammers from Peaks. Really? This is laziness on Rhye's part. How about if some defeated units could be impressed into the Assyrian army (we already have code to flip units). That would make the Assyrians resemble their RL counterparts. How about if you could draw hammers from Jungle and extra food from Hills? (I've visited both Moenjo-daro and Harappa. The environment was surprisingly Nilotic, except that the confinement was by jungle, not by desert.) The sub-continent has been doing more with less for millennia.

I enjoyed the little puzzles presented by several civs. It's nice not to always have to expand like a cancer or hold unrealistic territories through unhistoric periods. Of course, once you figure out the "trick", such puzzle civs offer relatively little reward for repeat play, but the change of pace is good.

 

[Autumn Leaf]

RFC GW 1.8 - Assyria - Monarch - PLAYTESTING UHVs - Historical Victory in 908 BC - Score 21979, Augustus Caesar

UHVs tested here (results may not be comparable if UHVs change):

UHV 1: Control Subartu, Levant, Sumer and Elam in 1250 BC.
UHV 2: Discover Construction, Record Keeping, and Military Science and retain control of the above areas, plus Cyprus, by 900 BC.
UHV 3: Control all territory included above and either control Egypt (2 cities minimum), or vassalise Egypt, by 900 BC.​

This game is somewhat messed up because I was trying various UHV combinations throughout and was a bit relaxed on some of my usual rules because I wanted to see if the objectives were even possible, but it does give an idea of what the Assyrians are like to play and what they are capable of. I was fortunate near the end in being able to select Military Science as my free tech after discovering Philosophy. Although I still would have made it to MS before 900 BC, I had something of a dream run tech-wise. Still, it may be wise to dial the tech requirement back from MS to Tyranny but require it by 950 BC in compensation. But maybe forcing the player into a teching tech race is desirable.

I settled Ashur on the spot. I flipped three Aryans and a Town Guard near Susa, a Scout near Van, a Sword in Subartu, and a couple of Workers on separate squares near the site of Ashur itself. My main army - 7 Swords, 2 Spears, 5 Battering Rams and 2 Archers - immediately moved south towards Babylon. I kept one Archer, three Spears and three Chariots in Ashur for now. The Chariots went south to catch up on the next turn. The Aryans and the Town Guard converged on Susa. The Workers went into Ashur for safety. Ashur worked on a Monument till it reached 2 population, then switched to a Settler.

At the 7-population city-state of Babylon, two of my Rams bombarded to reduce the defences and then three Rams made a suicide run at the defenders, mainly to weaken the Bowmen. Two Rams died, one withdrew and survived. I lost only one Swordsman, but most of my units were injured.

After healing up, the army moved south again, leaving an Archer and a Spear in Babylon. While the army was on the way to Ur, Elam collapsed. I waited so that I could capture Ur and settle Nineveh on the hill SW of the lake in Subartu first, then sent in the Aryans and Independent Susa (now Shushan) was mine. Actually, I cheated just a little; I abandoned training the Settler in Ashur and instead WB'd a Settler on the Nineveh site, several moves earlier than I otherwise could have got one there, so that I could have my four main cities in a nice Ashur-Babylon-Ur-Nineveh sequence instead of having other cities popping up in the middle. In a previous playtest (in which I collapsed), the cities were "out of sequence" and with all the other hassles of playtesting and bugfixing I was irrationally annoyed whenever I cycled through my cities and got to Shushan, Byblos and Aleppo before Nineveh. So shoot me.

(My cycle, later in the game, was to check Ashur-Babylon-Ur to make sure they were researching at peak, not getting unhealthy or unhappy, and didn't have useful buildings to construct. Then check Nineveh to see if it was time to stop building units and refill the food bar, or if barbs were approaching from the north. Then if I had the inclination, I'd make sure Shushan, Byblos and Aleppo were working on the right buildings, hadn't messed their diapers, and whether a new stack of Sea People had appeared near Byblos yet.)

At 10-population Ur, still controlled by Sumeria (who also owned Jerusalem) I bombarded again, then captured the city without loss. I now made peace with Gilgamesh.

After healing up, my army moved north-west to take on Phoenicia. I captured Byblos and Aleppo by 1276 BC, then made peace with Dido (who had Cyprus), extracting Fishing from her as part of the deal. Peaceful contact with Minoa. About this time, Suppiluluma became willing to talk and I made peace with him too. In 1276 BC, my Stability was Unstable, -39, and by 1268 BC it was Collapsing, -41, which was rather concerning. I'd been down there in a previous game, and in that game I ultimately collapsed. However, in this game I did not collapse, and by 1252 BC my Stability was back up to -35. In 1204 BC it was -25, with an up-arrow, and I stopped worrying. However, it's very clear that although the Assyrians are a really wonderful military machine that can expand very rapidly, rushing to grab UHV territory without giving your Stability time to settle is a fraught strategy. Everything was going right for me in this game; in a previous game I had to raze two AI cities from my Big Cross before they could flip to me, which bollixed my Stability forever. I think I'm going to move the first territory test to 1200 BC for my next playtest, to give the player some breathing space in case of a less than perfect start.

Sumeria collapsed in 1260 BC. By 1204 BC I safely owned all the territory required for now, and had settled down to developing my cities and preparing for three centuries of barbarian invasions.

The Assyrians are as good at tech as they are at war. Babylon and Ur are natural research machines. Ashur was too, once I built Farms on some flood plains and it had sized up; but after that I built Cottages instead of Farms and converted most of the Farms back to Cottages. A big population becomes unhappy and unhealthy, but it's hard to have too many Cottages, as long as you have the population to work them. In previous games I've noticed that even under the AI, Assyria tends to be a, if not the, technology leader. I suspect Persia will have great difficulty bringing them down unless measures are taken to collapse the Assyrians at about the time of the Persian spawn.

Nineveh became my military powerhouse. Its science output was dismal. It couldn't get as big as the other cities, but by borrowing Ashur's Wheat it could sustain 9 population and put out as many hammers as Ashur. With Windmills (Machinery) it might grow to size 11. Drop in all the military buildings, plus the Flavian Ampitheatre (Construction, one of your UHV goals) and a Military Academy (Military Science, was another UHV goal), and it can churn out a Level 4 veteran unit every turn. Fortunately the AI doesn't recognise this and ignores the site.

Somewhere in the 1100s, after Dido was long gone and I could build Coracles to ferry units across, I captured Kition to fulfil the territory requirement for UHV 2 (all of UHV 1's territory plus Cyprus). Oddly, there were no Sea People on the island at the time but six appeared soon after I captured Kition.

My army was busy putting down barbs for 200 years, until around 1000 BC I realised I still needed to annex Egypt by 900 BC for UHV 3. I had intended to include Arabia in the requirements for UHV 3, but forgot. Fortunately Petra spawns in the desert south of Israel, and while my main army targetted Ramses, I sent my Chariots to take Petra even though technically I didn't need it for this game.

I had foolishly signed some agreement with Ramses in the meantime, overlooking the fact that it implied an automatic 10-turn peace treaty, so after capturing barb Tanis my army had to cool its heels at the edge of Egypt's Cultural border until the agreement expired. Then I rushed down (at one square per turn - five turns from memory) and nabbed Wasit. Egypt collapsed and bingo, UHV 3 in 908 BC. In 902 BC my Stability was Shaky, -1, with an up-arrow; which made a pleasant change after a previous game (prior to devising UHVs) in which invading Egypt had put me close to Collapsing. Since Egypt had collapsed, I was stuck with the unwanted Egyptian cities until I could palm them off on someone. Fortunately that wouldn't take long - Israel had peace-vassaled to me on their spawn and would have regarded the gift of both the Egyptian cities and Petra as "Liberating" them. The Hittites, the only other surviving civ I was in touch with, would also accept them, though not as "Liberation".

So here I am: King of the Universe, King of Assyria, King of All the Four Corners of the World, King of Sumer and Akkad. The world lies at my feet and my foot is on its neck.

 

[Autumn Leaf]

RFC GW 2.0 - Israel - Monarch - Historical Victory in 16 AD - Score 1235, Dan Quayle

UHV 1: King David's Empire: Control Palestine and Phoenicia by 587 BC.
UHV 2: God's Chosen People: Spread Judaism to 30% of the world by 63BC.
UHV 3: The Abrahamic religions: Be the first to found Judaism and Christianity.

Israel's UHV conditions complement each other well. Jerusalem is never going to be a big city, so conquering Phoenicia (specifically Byblos) will help train all those Missionaries for UHV 2, and the city has good trade to help research technologies. If you're lucky, Phoenicia will be Barbarian and you can use your free wins to capture Byblos and raze Ugarit, while the other civs are AI players so you don't get crushed by an all-powerful Barbarian empire. If you're not lucky, Phoenicia will be stable and strong and you'll neeed to build up and hope to take them by surprise.

UHV 1 is thus relatively easy. Palestine is your core and you only need to control Phoenicia for one turn. Burn Ugarit (too far away, too exposed). Jericho is likely to be razed already. You just have to build an army that can break into Byblos.

UHV 2 requires playing nice with everyone (except Phoenicia, when you need to complete UHV 1). Make peace with everyone, always, and research Spokes early so you can open borders. It's worth remembering that many later civs do not found a religion when they spawn. Spreading Judaism in a city without existing believers has an outsize effect on your world share of religions, as you get credited with 100% of the population instead of 50% or less.

UHV 3 is badly phrased. If you found a religion then by definition you're the first. This should be "The Abrahamic religions: Found Judaism and Christianity." Since you start with a Jewish Missionary, you can instantly tick Judaism off the list. You must then research at least 10 techs to discover Theology to nail Christianity (in practice you'll also need other techs that are not in the beeline). Start with Pottery (beeline), then Spokes (for Open Borders), then then Masonry (for the Stone) or Agriculture and Animal Husbandry (for the Cow). Consider Logging, Copper Working and Mythology -> Storytelling. That should set you up to focus on the beeline to Theology, but you may need more digressions along the way. There's no specified deadline to discover Theology; the first civ to spawn with it is Byzantium (286 AD), but Athens starts with Philosophy and several (including you) start with Priesthood, so you can't neglect it forever.

Work the Dead Sea to grow, then add the Stone. You can try mining the Stone, but if there are barbs around your mine will probably get pillaged repeatedly. By the time you have Animal Husbandry you may be strong enough to protect your Stone, Copper and Cow. Israel starts during the age of the Sea Peoples and is therefore very vulnerable to early barbs. There's a little luck involved. Your early focus has to be on getting your defence in order, because otherwise rampaging Sea people can totally ruin your day. You start the game with a Maccabee and three Warriors. Warriors are chaff to Sea People axes, so that Maccabee is priceless. It would require less luck if one of the initial Warriors was replaced by an Archer.

I settled on the spot . Phoenicia dominated my northern horizon; Assyria and Egypt were at war with me. I converted to Judaism and started building a Bakery, switching to an Archer when that completed. I started mining the Stone. A foursome of Sea People appeared outside Jerusalem just as I completed the Mine and I burned my free Barb attacks, earning all of my initial units Combat I promotions. My Worker started on a Road.

In 962 BC Paphos went Independent. Checking in the WB, I saw that the Hittites were dead and Ugarit had been captured by the Barbs. The Assyrians and Elamites were hanging on, but Assyria had lost Babylon. Were my neighbours thinning out? Soon after this I made peace with Assyria (paying 10 Gold) and Egypt (paying 45 Gold).

Ramses popped up offering Cunieiform and 40 Gold for Alphabet. Deal. I then swapped Agriculture, Spokes and Warrior Code for Writing, and we opened borders. Ashurbanipal had Archery, Animal Husbandry, Logging and Fortification but was Annoyed with me and wouldn't trade even with a 20 Gold gift sweetener, but then I swapped Polytheism and Alphabet to Hiram for Logging, Fortification and 10 Gold. I switched to Oligarchy (+1 free Specialist, +3 happy faces), Vassalage (+5 free units, new units +2 Exp pts), Temple Economy (unlimited Priest, +25% building, +1 Gold per Specialist). I was tempted to go for Trade Economy instead (unlimited Merchant, +1 Trade Routes) but clearly I currently needed Great priests - to research Theology and to build the Temple - more than money.

Kindattu of Elam also dropped in to chat. We opened borders and exchanged Animal Husbandry for Polytheism. Woohoo! I noticed Phoenicia had recaptured Ugarit. In 806 BC I finally managed some trades with Ashurbanipal: Copper, Archery and 50 Gold for Priesthood and Masonry; Bronze Working for Alphabet and 5 Gold. We opened borders. My way was now clear to beeline Theology: Mythology -> Storytelling -> Herbalism -> Code of Laws -> Tyranny -> Citizenship -> Philosophy -> Democracy -> Theology. There might be some digressions along the way, but Storytelling would let me train Maccabees. However my first GP was due soon, so instead of Mythology I started researching Herbalism. I got my GP in 752 BC and he bulbed Mythology.

Time to take out Phoenicia. I was afraid they were getting too strong for me; an expedition that they had sent south was returning home and would probably put Byblos beyond my strength. By declaring war and closing my borders now I could trap those units in the south; by the time they worked their way north to my walls, the war would be won - or lost. Ugarit had been destroyed, so I had only to capture Byblos. First I made a disadvantageous trade - their Celestial Navigation for my Writing - calculating that they would not have time to profit from Writing.

When my army reached Byblos, the city had 3 Archers defending it and the combat odds were not good. In 704 BC I suicided my Warriors to soften up the defenders, then stormed the city. I was left weak as a kitten militarily, but UHV 1 was done and now I controlled two cities and could settle down to peacefully researching towards Theology and spreading my religion. I brought just one Archer and my Maccabee back to Jerusalem.

My Stability was Shaky, -3, due to -10 on Cvics and -10 on Economy. I had +6 for Cities and +11 for Expansion.

When I discovered Storytelling I breathed a sigh of relief. Maccabees > Warriors! I upgraded my surviving Warrior to Maccabee and sent him to reinforce Byblos. I started my Worker on finishing a Road to Byblos, to connect up all my resources.

In 626 BC, I spread Judaism in Byblos, giving me 3% worldwide - still only 10% of the way toward 30%. As for foreign religions, I had Pesedjet in Jerusalem and Baalism in Byblos. I set two priests in each city.

In 572 a volcano erupted and destroyed a Pasture and a Mine - across the border in Assyria

In 518 BC I spread Judaism in Ur; 5%, and in 512 BC, Babylon; 7%. In 506 I got my 2nd GP. I was 2/3 the way to Code of Laws, so bulbing CoL was not economical; I went for the Temple of Solomon instead; I now had enough Judaistic cities to make the money worthwhile. I switched Jerusalem to a single Scientiist but left Byblos working two Priests. I inserted Sailing into my research after CoL - Byblos population growth was Stagnant; it needed a Harbor.

In 500 BC, Kush appeared. They had Metal casting but wouldn't trade it (probably because of the Colossus). I was not focusing on Wonders at all; I needed to spread my religion and research Theology.

In 476 BC, Macedon popped up to declare war on me. Hmph. In other news, the Etruscans were destroyed by the Romans.

In 464 I spread Judaism in Ashur; 12%. I also contacted the Persians and opened borders with them.

A Missionary headed for Egypt discovered that carthage had taken Tanis. Voluptuous, bikini-clad Dido opened her borders invitingly but wouldn't trade Sailing, probably because of the Great Lighthouse. In 434 BC I spread Judaism in 3-population Tanis (still only 12%; what a waste). I started building a Coracle in Byblos to spread the Word to the Greek world.

In 392, I spread Judaism in Nubian Heraclion; 14%. Nearly half way but I was running out of good targets. I contacted and opened borders with Sparta and Athens. Traded Priesthood and Alphabet for Metal Casting. I swapped Storytelling and 245 Gold for Iron Working, then revolted to Caste System and Client Kingdoms.

In 350 BC my 3rd GP appeared. He bulbed Tyranny (22 turns saved). I piled on the Priests in Byblos - I might be able to use another GP to bulb Theology once I got within reach.

332 BC saw Judaism spread in Memphis and Waset; 17%. I made peace with Macedon for 90 Gold. In 290 BC, I spread Judaism in Larsa; 18%. I was beginning to doubt I could get to 30% by 63 BC. Every large city was further away, the nearby cities were all too small, and I could have only three Missionaries at a time.

Corinth, around 248 BC; 19%. In 230 BC a Missionary reached 14-population Harappa - and couldn't spread Judaism. Asoka was running Persecution! I gifted the unit to him, hoping for the best. In 224 BC, Harappa showed Judaism; 23%. Better still, Mauraya converted to Judaism! That might win converts in some far-away city I didn't even know about

212 BC, Judaism in Napata; 25%. In 206 BC, Carthage collapsed. A Coracle on its way there had to divert to Italy. This was good news because it reminded me that Rome starts without a religion. In 200 BC, I met Caesar and opened borders with Rome.

My Missionary in Panormus couldn't spread Judaism. Like Asoka, Caesar was running Persecution without a religion! I gifted the unit to him. By 188 BC, Judaism had spread in Panormus, 28%!

A Coracle Panama'd the toe of Italy via Thurii and dropped a Missionary in Rome. I gifted it to Caesar. In 164 BC, there was Judaism in Rome; 30%!

158 BC came and quietly, without fanfare, UHV 2 was marked complete. Now there was just Theology left. Time to reconfigure my cities for knowledge.

In 152 BC a GS was born in Jersalem. I built the Academy, which gave a dozen beakers versus the 6 from a Scientist. I was working on Philosophy, and by the time I got there Byblos was due to pop a GP.

Grrr, my 74 BC GP in Byblos could only bulb Literature. I put him to sleep instead. In 68 BC, Philosophy gave me a free tech. I chose Democracy, woke up the GP, and put 1030 bulbs towards Theology. Now just 15 Turns to Theology, and I doubted anyone could beat me to it. [ETA: Not sure how I got the free tech as Athens had spawned and I thought they spawned with Philosophy?]

16 AD: Theology - and with it, an ISRAELI HISTORICAL VICTORY.

My Stability was Solid, +24: Cities +7, Civics 0, Economy -25, Expansion +11, Foreign +31.

I led a shabbat in the Temple of Solomon. We were a tiny people, two small cities cramped between the mountains and the sea, but our Lord's name was mighty in all lands! The only distraction was those few wretched Christians, yammering and arguing with the money-changers without the doors.

 

[Autumn Leaf]

I'm not sure that Athens UHV 2 is possible at Monarchy difficulty.

Whoever wrote it, did you/how did you test it? After several tries I am at 650 BC, 100%, researching Tyranny, and still need more than 100 turns to get UHV 2. Also, UHV 3 makes UHV 2 even harder by increasing maintenance costs and forcing the research rate down. I haven't even bothered thinking about that one yet (I have three cities - Athens, Mycenae and Pylos. I razed Sparta). I'm hardly the best player around but I didn't think I sucked this badly.

In short, if you think your Athens UHV conditions are OK, please post a game or screenshot showing you winning at Monarch and I will apologise handsomely. Remember, Monarch is the default difficulty. If you tested it on Viceroy, I shall laugh at you cruelly.

UHV 1: First to discover Drama, Democracy and Engineering.
UHV 2: Build the Oracle, Parthenon, Colossus and Temple of Artemis by 450 BC.
UHV 3: Build 7 Harbors by 400 BC.