RFC RAND UHV Discussions

[Barak]

While we are playing RAND, let's take a look at the UHVs. Many of them changed to be less map specific in a random game. Which ones work? Which need a little tweaking.

In my first extensive game as France, I have had a nice time expanding my empire to the new world. Of course one new challenge is not knowing WHERE America will spawn. Needing to build 7 cities in the new world means one of 2 things. Either spreading my cities all over the place, or building them AFTER America spawns.

Of course the 7 cities needed are more than we needed on the earth map, so perhaps it should be downscaled to 5 or 6 (not a huge difference, but helps stability)

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Same problem with the Russians: how do you found inland cities 20 blocks from your capital when you have Mongolians, Chinese, all the Europeans 20 blocks from you? Unless you found new cities in Africa and the New World, but how to do it without any access to water? If only the 2 away rule for founding cities is eliminated...

I think the Egyptian UHV is impossible currently (no stone means no Pyramids/Stonehenge and 500 culture is impossible). (HR and slavery should be automatically enabled and they are not currently, missing one more move)

Mali definitely needs an overhaul (it's currently overwhelmed by barbs and impi)...it needs to spawn near water (2/3 times I tried no water at all, and cities razed by barbs and impi).

The number of resources needed to win (e.g. for Netherlands and Carthage) should be based on the size of the map (impossible to find 7 spices in a "normal" map).

 

[Spielosoph]

I tried China twice, I was doing well with the 2 pagodas/2 academies thing, but then 2-3 of my cities always flipped to Germany or Russia. It's hard enough to even found 8 cities...

 

[Barak]

AP, another issue with building cities XXX tiles away is that when playing on a smaller earth.... less room.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

AP, another issue with building cities XXX tiles away is that when playing on a smaller earth.... less room.

On the other hand, smaller earth means easier UHV for Aztecs and Incans (smaller amount of space for Europeans to build cities and for you to cover before they show up).

 

[thadian]

Izzy won a historical victory 4 turns after i spawned as america.

 

[kbk]

I successfully did an English UHV on my first RAND game. I think that one works fine.

I came very close to a China UHV win a little bit ago, but lost due to a late plague.

I spawned an Arabia game and already had the first goal completed somehow. I've heard reports of this with similar goals (Like the Mongols), so I kind of think this style of goal is bugged.

I had an American spawn where the statue of liberty was built by France shortly after starting, but that's nothing new. The reduction in the America, Aztec and Incan to only require no cities within a radius of the capitol struck me as a lot easier than RFC, but it may be more difficult on smaller worlds.

I also had a failed Babylon game; Delhi had more culture because I didn't have marble or stone.

 

[MrPopov]

The reduction in the America, Aztec and Incan to only require no cities within a radius of the capitol struck me as a lot easier than RFC, but it may be more difficult on smaller worlds.

That means it is easier for the AI too though remember.

 

[KaiserBenjamin]

I had a go at an Arabian game earlier today. The good news: I was able to quickly conquer Rome and spread my empire to better plots than the virtual desert where I spawned. Overall I think that aspect made it easier than in RFC. However stability was a big problem. I probably needed to build more Courthouses or something, but to achieve the 3 religious shrines UHV I had to conqueror basically two distinct civilizations and the lost stability from that caused me to collapse. I went back and gave myself a golden age but even in the golden age I still had a city go independent on me.

Maybe I just suck at managing stability, but has anyone else noticed a higher difficulty in keeping things in check?

 

[blizzrd]

Maybe I just suck at managing stability, but has anyone else noticed a higher difficulty in keeping things in check?

I'm going to guess that because you relocated away from your spawn area with Arabia that you got stability penalties for occupying too many tiles that were not in your civ's "core area". This may be why your Arabia game was more unstable that you would have been used to in regular RFC.

 

[Zdarg]

I'd suggest to replace Russian "Siberian" UHV with building a transcontinental railroad (connecting western and eastern, or northern and southern shores of your continent). It's historically accurate and would be fun to achieve.

 

[Corm]

'lo folks. Long time since I posted on a Rhyes forum but when this was released I just had to come back.

I *think* in standard Rhyes and Fall the Maya had 2 settlers. They only start with 1 on RAND and it means that so far I have been unable to get Cal before 700AD. Im not sure if thats the sole reason I havent been able to hit the first UHV but with 2 starting settlers I certainly would be able to.

India I have done too and it depends entirely on your start. Took me awhile to get a decent start that allowed me to do it.

Greece I have almost done but everytime I get within a turn or 2 of my caravels meeting the game crashes. I havent attached a save as im not sure if its a bug, my puter or just plain bad luck (just about every 3rd game i try crashes at some point although I can revert by using auto saves).

Khmer. Ouch. Not fun trying to spread their religon around, especially when you spawn surrounded by an Islamic China and Arabia! Mind you I have only tried Khmer a couple of times spent most of my time on Maya and India so far.

 

[onedreamer]

I tried 2 civs so far: Carthage and Egypt.

Carthage is very smooth... easy on expansion and the UHV is very doable. You may need to reroll a very bad start but that's about it.
Egypt is pretty much impossible to win as a UHV but it's also just frustrating to play in general. Since it's born in the desert, there aren't enough food resources around. Food resource also would help with health to fight the unhealthy flood plains. You may have stone with your second city, but that means loosing a lot of turns, too many for the first goal.

 

[Spielosoph]

Greece & Carthage frequently spawn on the shore of an "interior" mediterranean, with no access to the real oceans. That would make it kind of hard to circumnavigate...

 

[thadian]

attempting to play america, while i had about 20 turns left before i go - izzy won a historical victory.

 

[Barak]

It is looking like Spain's UHV is a little easy to accomplish, as the AI keeps doing it.

 

[onedreamer]

Greece & Carthage frequently spawn on the shore of an "interior" mediterranean, with no access to the real oceans. That would make it kind of hard to circumnavigate...

often ? I started 4 carthage games and always had access to oceans. Might happen with high likeliness though, I played on medium, what about you ?

 

[mitsho]

often ? I started 4 carthage games and always had access to oceans. Might happen with high likeliness though, I played on medium, what about you ?

no I had it as well, with carthage you sometimes spawn in an inland lake (sort of caspian sea). I took a picture of my first start (where I only had ~7 tiles of sea... - didn't count them)

 

[Spielosoph]

It was high likeness.
But there was almost always only one or two plots of land between the "mediterranean" and the ocean, so maybe they could have built a channel.

 

[Spielosoph]

Something that just occurred to me when playing the English...
Since there are now several UHVs that involve some distance from your capital, wouldn't it just do to move your capital instead? With the English, found 15 european cities, then build a palace in america or something. And after the goal is fulfilled move it back to London. Would bring some stability issues, but possibly in your golden age.