Zhuge_Liang
The greatest strategist
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Do somebody has a tip on Mali?
-
Civilization 7 has been announced. For more info please check the forum here .
Strategy discussion
- Thread starter Rhye
- Start date
Zhuge_Liang
The greatest strategist
- Joined
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Oh yeah!
I now have a companion,
On getting the Malian UHV.
Introducing Riker!!!!!
General tip: Use the iron to build units and conquer cities.
I now have a companion,
On getting the Malian UHV.
Introducing Riker!!!!!
General tip: Use the iron to build units and conquer cities.
Rhye
's and Fall creator
we've now got only Ethiopia, Netherlands, Portugal, Inca, Mongolia and America lacking a guide
And a paragraph on Plague.
I'd love to collect them to a single document that could be easily downloaded and printed
And a paragraph on Plague.
I'd love to collect them to a single document that could be easily downloaded and printed
Zhuge_Liang
The greatest strategist
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2007
- Messages
- 734
Rhye, you have mali already?
Rhye
's and Fall creator
there's a guide already, could possibly be updated
Zhuge_Liang
The greatest strategist
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2007
- Messages
- 734
Well, portugal is kinda easy. Unlike the netherlands, the time in this CIV drags so slow like a snail. You can plan well because the extra ten colonies have no time limit other than 2050.
Rhye
's and Fall creator
mmmm i might add a time limit then
Rikard78
Chieftain
I've just finished a German UHV victory on vanilla but it was really, really painful to get it. And I got a terrible Dan Quail score in 2030.
I was lucky enough that when Germany spawned, Rome had already collapsed. With my initial axe and swordsmen I took rome. Berlin was settled on site. Two great cities are Salzburg and Budapest - the production is simply fantastic. I founded another on the shores of the black sea to get horses and to stop the russian expansion.
One piece of advice: Keep isabella sweet! she's fantastic to help weaken the french and you don't want to have her as an enemy as well as Russia and England.
I dived in with mace and cats when France was weak and took Paris and Aix la chappelle/aachen pretty easily.
Then it was a pretty peaceful strategy to beeline to liberalism and consolidate tech lead.
Spain had taken bordeaux... my strategy was to take that by culture flipping having massive culture in Lyon and Paris via religious upgrades and loads of farms to turn France into a GA production site. I'm sure that would have worked but around 1800, France re-spawned and I didn;t need to declare war on Izzy to get Bordeaux.
The only other thing I did was to get hold of Scandinavia - that was achieved through a couple of international congresses from the barbs.
Greece had also collapsed so taking her was simple. Gaining the 1st uhv is a piece of cake.
Next beeline to Industry building up large numbers of bowmen and attack russia and england in that order but don't leave it too late! I started attacking Russia in 1912 and although they were dead by 1928, I started taking Britain and Ireland in 1922 and only just wiped them all out by 1940. Start against Britain earlier
That gives you 2 of the uhv's and then it's just a straight tech run. I decided to give England back all of its cities as I couldn't afford to keep them. However, I think I still had too many cities; I had all of europe except Spain and all of Russia up to Afghanistan. I've never looked into the research multipliers but I was absolutely crippled on tech even though I was running at 80% and had loads of uber cities.
Apart from a scare towards the end where it looked like the americans might get to space race victory at about the same time as me, that was it. Really tedious ending to the game, I'm afraid.
I saw an earlier poster that souded like they'd destroyed the whole world with the germans. I think I'll go back and try again with them and look at trying his strategy. This way was not so much fun in the end.
Rikard78
Chieftain
apologies for rambling btw
Zhuge_Liang
The greatest strategist
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2007
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- 734
Pls. have mercy, Rhye!
I've been playing with Egypt quite a bit recently, and have used a lot of the tips offered in this thread to polish up a strategy that is peaceful, pretty hassle-free, and seems to work much more often than not at getting an easy UHV win on the Monarch level. On the theory that there's nothing wrong with adding another strategy to the already copious number of Egypt strategies in this thread, here is mine.
Summary: You must surmount four tasks in order to win the Egyptian Historical Victory. You can win the first (getting 500 culture by 700BC) by building Wonders early (Stonehenge, Pyramids, Oracle). You can win the second (building the Pyramids, Great Lighthouse, and Great Library by AD 250) by bee-lining the appropriate techs. You can win a decent shot at the third (getting 5000 culture by AD 450) by switching to Caste System and hiring two or three Artist specialists in your capital. The (unofficial) fourth task is to survive an onslaught of barbarians and Impis. You can better your chances here by building the Great Wall.
Details:
1. Move your initial Settler two squares northwest to settle at Siwa, which is relatively healthy and has access to the Stone, Marble, and population-supporting Wheat squares. Your initial build order (once appropriate techs have been researched) will be Worker-Stonehenge-Pyramids-Oracle-Settler. Initial tech path will be Mysticism-Masonry-Meditation-Priesthood-Writing.
2. Send your Warrior to pop the African goodie huts. If you're lucky, you can get all of them and their benefits, and if you're really lucky your Warrior might even make it back to Siwa. It's probably a suicide mission, though, and there's a good chance you won't get the hut down near the Cape of Good Hope because of all the durned wildlife. Well, c'est la vie.
3. Once your Worker is built, have it farm the Wheat square, then move down to quarry the Stone and then up to quarry the Marble. He should also build a road from Siwa to Per-Atum (the hill on the Red Sea that has/will have Bronze in it). It's also a good idea to build a road down to the Stone quarry, so that you can get troops down quickly to fight Impis later on. You will have three forests within your borders, eventually, and after you get Bronzeworking you can chop these to rush some stuff. If you run out of stuff for your Worker to do, no worries. Farming, quarrying, and road-building are the important things.
Side note A: If you're nervous about getting the Oracle (which is one of the key bits in this strategy), you can interrupt Pyramids to build it. But if you do this, be sure that the Oracle isn't built until after you get Writing. That's because you will use the Oracle to get Mathematics as your free tech, and Mathematics isn't available for discovery until after Writing. (You want Mathematics because it will make reaching Constructionand the Great Wallmuch easier.)
Side note B: If you get your Warrior back from his expeditions, well, three cheers and a tiger for youhe can keep Siwa from getting an angry citizen or two. Otherwise, you might have to build another Warrior before you build your Settler.
5. After you get your three initial Wonders builtand maybe after you get the Settler builtswitch to Caste System. You will not have whipped anything, and Siwa should be size 6. At this point you can throttle growth back. Put the extra population (2 or 3, depending on how big you let Siwa get) to work as Artists.
6. You will probably get a Great Prophet as your first GP. If so, put him to work as a super-specialistthe extra hammers are good, and you can probably get Polytheism (the only religious tech worth getting) from one of your neighbors later on. If you're lucky and get a Great Engineer, save him to rush build one of your later wonders (any that you're nervous about getting). Having Artists at work in Siwa, though, will give you a solid shot at getting a Great Artist as your second GP. You will also probably get a third GP before time runs out, so you will have two shots at getting a Great Artist. If and when you do, have him create his great work. That by itself will get you 80% toward meeting the third UHV.
7. After you build your Settler, move it to the Red Sea coast. I like to build Per-Atum, on the hill with Bronze, so as to save the trouble of building a mine on that hill. Have that city start building the Great Lighthouse as soon as you get Sailing. The hill in Sinai either is or will quickly move within your cultural boundaries, and you can use your Worker to mine it (once you have Mining; see below).
8. After you have built your Settler and gotten Writing and Mathematics, you have a lot of leeway in what you build and what you research. In Siwa, you should build a Library and maybe a Barracks. If you get Bronzeworking quickly (see below) you can also start building Axemen. (Alternately, if you don't get Bronzeworking but do get Archery or Hunting, you can build Archers or Spearmen).
9. For techs: You will have made contact with the Greeks, and will eventually make contact with the Carthaginians and Romans. They will have or will quickly get Alphabet, so you won't have to research that tech in order to trade with them. Use the opportunity to secure from them some of the following: Sailing, Bronzeworking, Polytheism, Mining, Fishing, Hunting, Archery. (The price will be steep, but worth it.) The first four techs in that list are the key ones to get. You need Sailing for the Lighthouse; Mining to build a mine in Sinai; Polytheism to get to Literature; and Bronzeworking to build Axemen. You need Fishing only if you can't get Sailing directly; and you need Hunting and Archery only if you're feeling extra nervous about your neighbors. Whatever you can't trade for, you'll have to research. Except for Bronzeworking, though, most of these techs are pretty cheap.
9. But Construction is what you should be concentrating on after getting Mathematics. It won't be a quick research, but it won't take inordinately long to get, either. As soon as you get it, start building the Great Wall. Before you can win a Historical Victory, there will be about 20 turns during which you will have to defend your cities and the Wonders they contain from barbarian Camel Archers, and the Wall will solve that problem nicely. The Wall won't protect you from Impis, but that's why God created Axemen.
10. After you get Construction, beeline Literature and build the Great Library. If you haven't gotten a Great Artist by this point, you can continue on to Music. You should be able to get that tech and its free Great Artist before time runs out.
From that point on, it's mostly just a question of protecting yourself from Impis and any neighbors (most likely the Romans, but occasionally the Carthaginians or the Ethiopians) who get randy. I rarely have any problems with my neighbors, but even when I do, they don't do much. The barbs usually show up at about the time my competitors would be getting aggressive, and that keeps them busy while I'm snug behind the Great Wall. Anyway, if you've timed it right, you will have built the Great Library about 10 to 20 turns before Turn 143 rolls around, and you can use that time to churn out Axemen. Siwa will probably be able to kick a new Axemen out every 2 turns.
This strategy isn't foolproof. One of your rivals might get the Oracle or the Pyramids before you do; less likely, but still possible, they might snag the Wall or the Lighthouse. You might not get a Great Artist. You might also have the really bad luck to have a unit-killing plague hit just as hordes of Impis come up from the south. (In one of my tests, I had a trifecta of bad luck: hordes of Impis, a plague that killed all my units, and a mediated treaty between the Natives and the Ethiopians, who are usually a bit of a buffer. That game got ugly at the end.) But I've found that I have an excellent shot at fulfilling the Historical goals with this strategy.
Summary: You must surmount four tasks in order to win the Egyptian Historical Victory. You can win the first (getting 500 culture by 700BC) by building Wonders early (Stonehenge, Pyramids, Oracle). You can win the second (building the Pyramids, Great Lighthouse, and Great Library by AD 250) by bee-lining the appropriate techs. You can win a decent shot at the third (getting 5000 culture by AD 450) by switching to Caste System and hiring two or three Artist specialists in your capital. The (unofficial) fourth task is to survive an onslaught of barbarians and Impis. You can better your chances here by building the Great Wall.
Details:
1. Move your initial Settler two squares northwest to settle at Siwa, which is relatively healthy and has access to the Stone, Marble, and population-supporting Wheat squares. Your initial build order (once appropriate techs have been researched) will be Worker-Stonehenge-Pyramids-Oracle-Settler. Initial tech path will be Mysticism-Masonry-Meditation-Priesthood-Writing.
2. Send your Warrior to pop the African goodie huts. If you're lucky, you can get all of them and their benefits, and if you're really lucky your Warrior might even make it back to Siwa. It's probably a suicide mission, though, and there's a good chance you won't get the hut down near the Cape of Good Hope because of all the durned wildlife. Well, c'est la vie.
3. Once your Worker is built, have it farm the Wheat square, then move down to quarry the Stone and then up to quarry the Marble. He should also build a road from Siwa to Per-Atum (the hill on the Red Sea that has/will have Bronze in it). It's also a good idea to build a road down to the Stone quarry, so that you can get troops down quickly to fight Impis later on. You will have three forests within your borders, eventually, and after you get Bronzeworking you can chop these to rush some stuff. If you run out of stuff for your Worker to do, no worries. Farming, quarrying, and road-building are the important things.
Side note A: If you're nervous about getting the Oracle (which is one of the key bits in this strategy), you can interrupt Pyramids to build it. But if you do this, be sure that the Oracle isn't built until after you get Writing. That's because you will use the Oracle to get Mathematics as your free tech, and Mathematics isn't available for discovery until after Writing. (You want Mathematics because it will make reaching Constructionand the Great Wallmuch easier.)
Side note B: If you get your Warrior back from his expeditions, well, three cheers and a tiger for youhe can keep Siwa from getting an angry citizen or two. Otherwise, you might have to build another Warrior before you build your Settler.
5. After you get your three initial Wonders builtand maybe after you get the Settler builtswitch to Caste System. You will not have whipped anything, and Siwa should be size 6. At this point you can throttle growth back. Put the extra population (2 or 3, depending on how big you let Siwa get) to work as Artists.
6. You will probably get a Great Prophet as your first GP. If so, put him to work as a super-specialistthe extra hammers are good, and you can probably get Polytheism (the only religious tech worth getting) from one of your neighbors later on. If you're lucky and get a Great Engineer, save him to rush build one of your later wonders (any that you're nervous about getting). Having Artists at work in Siwa, though, will give you a solid shot at getting a Great Artist as your second GP. You will also probably get a third GP before time runs out, so you will have two shots at getting a Great Artist. If and when you do, have him create his great work. That by itself will get you 80% toward meeting the third UHV.
7. After you build your Settler, move it to the Red Sea coast. I like to build Per-Atum, on the hill with Bronze, so as to save the trouble of building a mine on that hill. Have that city start building the Great Lighthouse as soon as you get Sailing. The hill in Sinai either is or will quickly move within your cultural boundaries, and you can use your Worker to mine it (once you have Mining; see below).
8. After you have built your Settler and gotten Writing and Mathematics, you have a lot of leeway in what you build and what you research. In Siwa, you should build a Library and maybe a Barracks. If you get Bronzeworking quickly (see below) you can also start building Axemen. (Alternately, if you don't get Bronzeworking but do get Archery or Hunting, you can build Archers or Spearmen).
9. For techs: You will have made contact with the Greeks, and will eventually make contact with the Carthaginians and Romans. They will have or will quickly get Alphabet, so you won't have to research that tech in order to trade with them. Use the opportunity to secure from them some of the following: Sailing, Bronzeworking, Polytheism, Mining, Fishing, Hunting, Archery. (The price will be steep, but worth it.) The first four techs in that list are the key ones to get. You need Sailing for the Lighthouse; Mining to build a mine in Sinai; Polytheism to get to Literature; and Bronzeworking to build Axemen. You need Fishing only if you can't get Sailing directly; and you need Hunting and Archery only if you're feeling extra nervous about your neighbors. Whatever you can't trade for, you'll have to research. Except for Bronzeworking, though, most of these techs are pretty cheap.
9. But Construction is what you should be concentrating on after getting Mathematics. It won't be a quick research, but it won't take inordinately long to get, either. As soon as you get it, start building the Great Wall. Before you can win a Historical Victory, there will be about 20 turns during which you will have to defend your cities and the Wonders they contain from barbarian Camel Archers, and the Wall will solve that problem nicely. The Wall won't protect you from Impis, but that's why God created Axemen.
10. After you get Construction, beeline Literature and build the Great Library. If you haven't gotten a Great Artist by this point, you can continue on to Music. You should be able to get that tech and its free Great Artist before time runs out.
From that point on, it's mostly just a question of protecting yourself from Impis and any neighbors (most likely the Romans, but occasionally the Carthaginians or the Ethiopians) who get randy. I rarely have any problems with my neighbors, but even when I do, they don't do much. The barbs usually show up at about the time my competitors would be getting aggressive, and that keeps them busy while I'm snug behind the Great Wall. Anyway, if you've timed it right, you will have built the Great Library about 10 to 20 turns before Turn 143 rolls around, and you can use that time to churn out Axemen. Siwa will probably be able to kick a new Axemen out every 2 turns.
This strategy isn't foolproof. One of your rivals might get the Oracle or the Pyramids before you do; less likely, but still possible, they might snag the Wall or the Lighthouse. You might not get a Great Artist. You might also have the really bad luck to have a unit-killing plague hit just as hordes of Impis come up from the south. (In one of my tests, I had a trifecta of bad luck: hordes of Impis, a plague that killed all my units, and a mediated treaty between the Natives and the Ethiopians, who are usually a bit of a buffer. That game got ugly at the end.) But I've found that I have an excellent shot at fulfilling the Historical goals with this strategy.
Squirrelloid
Warlord
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2007
- Messages
- 263
Mxzs:
Great Artists aren't necessary for Egypt's UHV. You can get it by wonder-whoring basically all the early wonders (which is actually pretty easy to do so long as you keep in mind which ones the computer is likely to go after). In fact, I don't think i got the Oracle when i did it. I did GE the Great Lighthouse, but i don't think i needed to.
I think Egypt is also capable of UHVing even when building on the starting spot, but i haven't given this a true test. I just know i made the first one when playing egypt to screw around before switching to the civ i wanted to play. (Waiting for autoturns is boring). You build your second city at Alexandria (West of the wheat, forget what the egyptian name is). This version probably needs Caste System for GAs, because it probably will have a harder time getting the Colossus before Japan builds it, and production in your capitol will be lower.
(And of course, the third way to do the UHV is to warmonger with the Pyramids, and let Nwt-rst start wonderwhoring after you've got other cities doing your producing for you. Remarkably effective - i made the first UHV totally by accident doing this once).
Great Artists aren't necessary for Egypt's UHV. You can get it by wonder-whoring basically all the early wonders (which is actually pretty easy to do so long as you keep in mind which ones the computer is likely to go after). In fact, I don't think i got the Oracle when i did it. I did GE the Great Lighthouse, but i don't think i needed to.
I think Egypt is also capable of UHVing even when building on the starting spot, but i haven't given this a true test. I just know i made the first one when playing egypt to screw around before switching to the civ i wanted to play. (Waiting for autoturns is boring). You build your second city at Alexandria (West of the wheat, forget what the egyptian name is). This version probably needs Caste System for GAs, because it probably will have a harder time getting the Colossus before Japan builds it, and production in your capitol will be lower.
(And of course, the third way to do the UHV is to warmonger with the Pyramids, and let Nwt-rst start wonderwhoring after you've got other cities doing your producing for you. Remarkably effective - i made the first UHV totally by accident doing this once).
Yeah, there are a lot of ways to skin the Egyptian cat. I like going for a Great Artist because there are lots of ways of snagging one (either through GP generation or by getting Music). It also means you can direct your building queue toward other stuff than just wonders.
wr4th
Warlord
So here's my guide to mongolian uhv.
Mongolia, 600AD start, monarch
Since you start out very late (1190AD) and all you do is conquer, it is all based on luck in combats and how china has evolved since the start. The game can not be planned like other uhv, so take this as advice but be flexible in your game.
Goals
Control China by 1300 AD
This is fairly easy, although you only have 10 rounds to acomplish this. Just rush into china with all you've got and see them fall.
Raze at least 7 cities
This goal is closely connected to your UP. If you raze a city all smaller cities of the same civ within a few tiles (4?) flip to you within the next two turns. So you have to sacrifice a big city to get all those small cities for free, but good spots for the use of this UP are rare. In china you dont want to lose any city, because its your base of operations. The only usefull spot seems to be turkey where a lot of cities are close together. Remember there is no time limit for this goal so go for it after the third one...
Control 10% of world territory by 1500 AD
This is the hard one. But since its been lowered to 10% its doable. Of course you want to control all of china and mongolia home lands which is about 5-6% for the rest there is pretty much only one choice. Khmer disquallyfies because of the small area and those annoying elephants, India is hard to access because of the jungle and for japan you need ships. So the horde needs to head west. Thats why the silk road is already built. Take Afghanistan, Persia, Mesopotamia and Turkey to complete the 10%.
Techs
First your economy will be crap, but you only need two vital techs:
- calendar for getting all these resources in china. You need them to compensate for the massive whipping that you are doing.
- engineering for +1 speed on roads to get reinforcements by the silk road to the middle east. This can wait until you have conquered china.
Civics
In my game i used vassalage/slavery. You can also ad hereditary rule but it will give you one more turn of anarchy and since you will never have more than one troop in each city its rather pointless.
You dont have religious civics at the start and you should never use them later since must not have any state religion. Any non-state religion in your towns gives you -1 stability and in the end its most likely that you will have all 7 religions somewhere in your empire, which would kill you and it also means there is only small profit from any religious civic.
There might be one exception, if you conquer the swedagon, free religion (then together with hereditary rule) is an option.
China
After the auto turns save, make it a habit to save when achieving important goals on your conquest. Found Karakorum on spot, switch civics and start teching towars calendar. All your troops head towards bejing. Settle Turfan S of the iron, Ulan Ude N of the horses, Ning Hsia on the river (doesnt matter actually) and Sanchu W of the fur.
On the next turn all chinese towns north of bejing will flip to you. I got two Baotou in the destert (useless) and Jinzhou (really good). Distribute the troops you get from flipping within your towns. I also got a settler in Jinzhou which went north to found Kazan. Usually you have to built this settler which is no problem since the southern chinese towns have massive food.
It is extremely important that china declares war on you uppon flipping, so you get extra keshiks. If its not -> reload.
Crush Bejing and it becomes Khanbaliq and your best production city. Together with Jinzhou (or the town somewhere there), Karakorum, Ulan Ude and Turfan it will built an endless supply of Kheshiks. But first these towns build barracks and ger and after that ONLY Keshiks. Your other towns start of with a settler, then build courthouses and after that one longbowman for happyness reasons. If no religion spreads to them build a library to expand your culture/empire.
Split your troops 2 Keshiks head to Korea, 4 to tibet, the rest goes south. Look what troops are defending. In my game Hangzhou was defended by 2 pikemen, thats the time to bring in your crossbows. Qufu should build market and grocer to maximise output of the shrines. Hangzhou and Gangzhou build workboats and build settlers if needed.
Scout for workers. China has massive amounts of workers running around, gotta catch em all You have vast terretories to improve.
In my game i also took Hanoi and razed it to found another town north of it. Taking complete khmer empery costs to much troops and time and is not advised.
If you think you lost to much troops or to much time, just reload and do it better, its just a few turns to conquer china but it determines your whole game.
Consolidation
Get your workers to work. Connect those happyness resources (dont forget the fur and gold at Sanchu). One worker heads to each settled town and builds a road, together with the built one you have two workers per town, which is a good rule of thump. Build 2 or 3 improvements per town, after that focus on chopping. More wont work anyway since you whip them.
Karakorum gets irrigation and mills on all tiles.
Start moving your forces down the silk road to smarkand which will usually be arabian.
Final Conquest
At around 1400AD you should have a nice amount of keshiks on the borders of Smarkand, the earlier the better of course. Take something like six workers with you to build roads and then let the horde rush into the middle east. Take those persian/afghan towns parallel and after that collect your troops to declare on turkey. If you can do it, trade maps with turkey before, to see which town is best to raze.
I razed Bagdad which made Iskenderum and Konya flip on the next turn. In that turn i also took Trabzon and Sögüt, which left Turkey with only 2 towns after 2 turns of invasion. On the next turn the turks had gone to civil war. Most of his troops were in Kudüs/Jerusalem, so i didnt dare to conquer that. I took Tebriz and so controlled all of Turkey, Mesopotamia and Persia, which gave me around 9.5%.
I then conquerd the still independent towns of constantinople and athens to expand my borders.
At around 1450 stop sendind keshiks to the middle east, instead take the single japanese city of kisi with 4 or 5 Keshiks. After that send them west.
With this territory you should have around 11% of the world which is comfortable to hit the goal at 1500AD, which will be only few turns after you take Athens. Enjoy your Golden Age!
Razing towards UHV
Heal and split your troops, which should be plenty at that moment. You still have to raze another 5 towns.
One part goes to the arabian peninsula, the other to India. In India you will have only few resistance, raze everything. In Arabia its the same except for Mekka, so spare that and raze the smaller towns. You should hit the UHV within your golden age.
Conclusion
Your time is pretty short, so if something doesn't work out as intended load and do it better. There is no time for a second try.
You will loose a lot of Keshiks on your conquest, but your massive production compensates for that. Always make sure to have twice the number of Keshiks than defenders ready.
With barracks, ger and vassalage your Keshiks come with a nice 9XP. I always promote combat since you mostly deal with longbows or other cavalry. Put in a medic sometimes.
You will produce two to three great generals, settle them in Khanbaliq, Jinzhou and Karkorum (according to production and availability of food for whipping) to make your keshiks lvl 3 when spawning.
As in every other UHV, the key is good micromanagement especially make constant use of whipping and chopping.
Have fun with the horde!
Mongolia, 600AD start, monarch
Since you start out very late (1190AD) and all you do is conquer, it is all based on luck in combats and how china has evolved since the start. The game can not be planned like other uhv, so take this as advice but be flexible in your game.
Goals
Control China by 1300 AD
This is fairly easy, although you only have 10 rounds to acomplish this. Just rush into china with all you've got and see them fall.
Raze at least 7 cities
This goal is closely connected to your UP. If you raze a city all smaller cities of the same civ within a few tiles (4?) flip to you within the next two turns. So you have to sacrifice a big city to get all those small cities for free, but good spots for the use of this UP are rare. In china you dont want to lose any city, because its your base of operations. The only usefull spot seems to be turkey where a lot of cities are close together. Remember there is no time limit for this goal so go for it after the third one...
Control 10% of world territory by 1500 AD
This is the hard one. But since its been lowered to 10% its doable. Of course you want to control all of china and mongolia home lands which is about 5-6% for the rest there is pretty much only one choice. Khmer disquallyfies because of the small area and those annoying elephants, India is hard to access because of the jungle and for japan you need ships. So the horde needs to head west. Thats why the silk road is already built. Take Afghanistan, Persia, Mesopotamia and Turkey to complete the 10%.
Techs
First your economy will be crap, but you only need two vital techs:
- calendar for getting all these resources in china. You need them to compensate for the massive whipping that you are doing.
- engineering for +1 speed on roads to get reinforcements by the silk road to the middle east. This can wait until you have conquered china.
Civics
In my game i used vassalage/slavery. You can also ad hereditary rule but it will give you one more turn of anarchy and since you will never have more than one troop in each city its rather pointless.
You dont have religious civics at the start and you should never use them later since must not have any state religion. Any non-state religion in your towns gives you -1 stability and in the end its most likely that you will have all 7 religions somewhere in your empire, which would kill you and it also means there is only small profit from any religious civic.
There might be one exception, if you conquer the swedagon, free religion (then together with hereditary rule) is an option.
China
After the auto turns save, make it a habit to save when achieving important goals on your conquest. Found Karakorum on spot, switch civics and start teching towars calendar. All your troops head towards bejing. Settle Turfan S of the iron, Ulan Ude N of the horses, Ning Hsia on the river (doesnt matter actually) and Sanchu W of the fur.
On the next turn all chinese towns north of bejing will flip to you. I got two Baotou in the destert (useless) and Jinzhou (really good). Distribute the troops you get from flipping within your towns. I also got a settler in Jinzhou which went north to found Kazan. Usually you have to built this settler which is no problem since the southern chinese towns have massive food.
It is extremely important that china declares war on you uppon flipping, so you get extra keshiks. If its not -> reload.
Crush Bejing and it becomes Khanbaliq and your best production city. Together with Jinzhou (or the town somewhere there), Karakorum, Ulan Ude and Turfan it will built an endless supply of Kheshiks. But first these towns build barracks and ger and after that ONLY Keshiks. Your other towns start of with a settler, then build courthouses and after that one longbowman for happyness reasons. If no religion spreads to them build a library to expand your culture/empire.
Split your troops 2 Keshiks head to Korea, 4 to tibet, the rest goes south. Look what troops are defending. In my game Hangzhou was defended by 2 pikemen, thats the time to bring in your crossbows. Qufu should build market and grocer to maximise output of the shrines. Hangzhou and Gangzhou build workboats and build settlers if needed.
Scout for workers. China has massive amounts of workers running around, gotta catch em all
You have vast terretories to improve.In my game i also took Hanoi and razed it to found another town north of it. Taking complete khmer empery costs to much troops and time and is not advised.
If you think you lost to much troops or to much time, just reload and do it better, its just a few turns to conquer china but it determines your whole game.
Consolidation
Get your workers to work. Connect those happyness resources (dont forget the fur and gold at Sanchu). One worker heads to each settled town and builds a road, together with the built one you have two workers per town, which is a good rule of thump. Build 2 or 3 improvements per town, after that focus on chopping. More wont work anyway since you whip them.
Karakorum gets irrigation and mills on all tiles.
Start moving your forces down the silk road to smarkand which will usually be arabian.
Final Conquest
At around 1400AD you should have a nice amount of keshiks on the borders of Smarkand, the earlier the better of course. Take something like six workers with you to build roads and then let the horde rush into the middle east. Take those persian/afghan towns parallel and after that collect your troops to declare on turkey. If you can do it, trade maps with turkey before, to see which town is best to raze.
I razed Bagdad which made Iskenderum and Konya flip on the next turn. In that turn i also took Trabzon and Sögüt, which left Turkey with only 2 towns after 2 turns of invasion. On the next turn the turks had gone to civil war. Most of his troops were in Kudüs/Jerusalem, so i didnt dare to conquer that. I took Tebriz and so controlled all of Turkey, Mesopotamia and Persia, which gave me around 9.5%.
I then conquerd the still independent towns of constantinople and athens to expand my borders.
At around 1450 stop sendind keshiks to the middle east, instead take the single japanese city of kisi with 4 or 5 Keshiks. After that send them west.
With this territory you should have around 11% of the world which is comfortable to hit the goal at 1500AD, which will be only few turns after you take Athens. Enjoy your Golden Age!
Razing towards UHV
Heal and split your troops, which should be plenty at that moment. You still have to raze another 5 towns.
One part goes to the arabian peninsula, the other to India. In India you will have only few resistance, raze everything. In Arabia its the same except for Mekka, so spare that and raze the smaller towns. You should hit the UHV within your golden age.
Conclusion
Your time is pretty short, so if something doesn't work out as intended load and do it better. There is no time for a second try.
You will loose a lot of Keshiks on your conquest, but your massive production compensates for that. Always make sure to have twice the number of Keshiks than defenders ready.
With barracks, ger and vassalage your Keshiks come with a nice 9XP. I always promote combat since you mostly deal with longbows or other cavalry. Put in a medic sometimes.
You will produce two to three great generals, settle them in Khanbaliq, Jinzhou and Karkorum (according to production and availability of food for whipping) to make your keshiks lvl 3 when spawning.
As in every other UHV, the key is good micromanagement especially make constant use of whipping and chopping.
Have fun with the horde!
It is possible--I've done it on monarch. Beelined music instead of switching to caste system, though, and built the second town on the desert hill SSE of the copper hill (I forget what the city was called).
wr4th
Warlord
and now my guide to ethiopia
Ethiopia UHV, monarch
Goals
Found one religion
I consider this the ONLY goal for ethiopia, the rest is pretty much straight forward.
No European colonies in east and subequatorial Africa in 1500 AD
No European colonies in east and subequatorial Africa in 1910 AD
These go together, just settle all of africa south from your starting position to make sure nobody gets there (check the rfc atlas).
Found one religion
As i said before this is EXTREMELY difficult to achieve. The only possibilities are christianity and islam of which i only did it with christianity.
In order to get this it must be a rather perfect game until you spawn.
Jerusalem must not be independent most likely taken by babylon
No one should tech for theology this is somehow hard to see, in most games it gets discovered by Rome, followed by Greece and China, rarely in Babylon and even one time it was founded in carthage...
From my experience you need a LOT of tries to get such a game. I tried at least 20 times, while reading a book since there are quite some autoturns.
The fastest way to actually get theology is researching it right away. Found Aksum on spot. Do NOT switch to any civics yet (safe 1 turn). Build library. Use both workers to pasture the sheep and then one cow. After that chop the forrest with one worker and pasture the other cow with the second worker. When the library is done build research until you found christianity.
If possible send the missionary to europe via open borders.
Where to build the second town?
The best spot near is for sure moqdisho E of the horses, but it's not so good for the first few turns. Instead found Gondokoro 4 S and 3 W of Aksum on the nile. There are severall reasons:
- you have more commerce for research from the water tiles
- you create a nice choke point for the impis
- when christianity gets founded there it can spread through the nile and mediteranean to all of europe.
Also build a library here and speed it up with the two chops. Build a road to Aksum to get a trade route.
Techs
Those are the vital techs to get
Theology well you know why
Feudalism you need Longbows because you have no iron or copper
Gunpowder you REALLY want those sweet Oromo Warriors
Biology This turns your towns into huge cities. Until that time growth will be a big issue.
Civics
As i stated above only switch civics after founding christianity. Use Slavery/Organized Religion first. State religion will give you many enemys but you definately don't want to miss the 25% production bonus, since this is what you are most lacking. I used judaism since christianity will take its time to spread and most other civs in the mediteranean where jews at that point, so i had more friends to trade techs.
When getting feudalism adopt vassalage and hereditary rule.
Defending from the impi hordes
If you really made it to this point, then prepare for an endless number of impis coming from southern africa. To defend it needs a lot of micro. Because of the impis 2 movement they like to pillage or capture your workers, so take care.
Your two archers stay in your towns, the sword- and the axeman are defending your tiles whereever needed. Thats why roads are so important. Archers get guerilla promotions and your melee get combat I and shock, which will give you a nice 90% odd when attacking them even on hills. Also build a wall at least in Gondokoro since there will be most of the action.
DON'T lose your melee troops, since you don't have copper or iron yet ther is no way to reinforce.
Egypt
Egypt is a nice place and you definately want to have it. The problem is you most likely won't get it with your troops yet. So you should wait until it falls to the barbarians and/or goes into civil war, thats the time to attack. Take 3 or 4 Longbow and take over the egypt towns. Afterwards build walls and a second defender in every town, only then buildings and workers to improve the land. Make constant use of the whip.
Settling Africa
The first town to settle (after your initial two) will be moqdisho E of the horse. With the fish it has nice food production and also nice production. Also build a workboat for Aksum.
Aksum is your military base, build barracks and with vassalage or great general produce nice guerilla II longbows and defend at several choke points from the impis.
Next city to found is Zanzibar 2 S of the gems. Maybe i was to quick since a few turns later Mombasa spawned on the gems. I invaded it and it got destroyed.
Quelimane and Zimbabwe are independant and you can take the easily with your two promoted melee units.
Found two more towns in south africa to deny it from the english and dutch. This should be done before 1500AD to be safe. Short after you should build two more towns on the west coast to have no free space to settle within the uhv area. In the centre there is room for at least two more cities, but thats not so urgent.
Important is to get your state religion or one cultural building to the newly founded towns to close the 'gaps'. Also build courthouses everywhere to keep your stability high. Anyway you will be shaky most of the time.
Improve all tiles with irrigation/mills to have growth and be able to whip. Only after biology turn the mills into mines and thus turn zimbabwe into a production powerhouse.
Economy
Your economy will be really weak. To research at all Aksum should switch between building troops and building research. The towns in Egypt might also house some scientists.
Make sure your christian holy city has market, grocer and a bank (if you can trade for the tech). If you are lucky judaism was founded in egypt, another reason to take it. If you have both holy towns they can give you like 50% research, which is a lot
Be nice to all other civs, you definately want no war and you want as much open borders as possible for trade routes, since you have many coastal towns you should also build lighthouses for that reason.
When you reach biology you will most likely be the only one to have it. And since you are lacking behind in all other techs you can trade it to at least 10 civs for some nice techs. Try to get constitution to build jails for more stability. Also get nationalism and build the olympics to increase your stability with a second golden age.
If you are not shaky you might consider switching to free market/bureaucracy (makes aksum spawn a drill IV Oromo every 1 or 2 turns).
I always had 10 Oromos ready in Aksum to counter the losses of plague and thus making your undefended towns split when you are shaky.
Conclusion
After reaching the first goal, which is pure luck and needs a lot of tries and surviving the impis until you settled all spawning areas its a pretty peacefull game with a really weak economy to deal with. So the problem is not to reach the last two goals, it is to reach them without becoming unstable.
For those who dont want to try so many times, here is my game right after founding christianity in turn 133.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploa...nded_christianity_turn_133.CivBeyondSwordSave
Ethiopia UHV, monarch
Goals
Found one religion
I consider this the ONLY goal for ethiopia, the rest is pretty much straight forward.
No European colonies in east and subequatorial Africa in 1500 AD
No European colonies in east and subequatorial Africa in 1910 AD
These go together, just settle all of africa south from your starting position to make sure nobody gets there (check the rfc atlas).
Found one religion
As i said before this is EXTREMELY difficult to achieve. The only possibilities are christianity and islam of which i only did it with christianity.
In order to get this it must be a rather perfect game until you spawn.
Jerusalem must not be independent most likely taken by babylon
No one should tech for theology this is somehow hard to see, in most games it gets discovered by Rome, followed by Greece and China, rarely in Babylon and even one time it was founded in carthage...
From my experience you need a LOT of tries to get such a game. I tried at least 20 times, while reading a book since there are quite some autoturns.
The fastest way to actually get theology is researching it right away. Found Aksum on spot. Do NOT switch to any civics yet (safe 1 turn). Build library. Use both workers to pasture the sheep and then one cow. After that chop the forrest with one worker and pasture the other cow with the second worker. When the library is done build research until you found christianity.
If possible send the missionary to europe via open borders.
Where to build the second town?
The best spot near is for sure moqdisho E of the horses, but it's not so good for the first few turns. Instead found Gondokoro 4 S and 3 W of Aksum on the nile. There are severall reasons:
- you have more commerce for research from the water tiles
- you create a nice choke point for the impis
- when christianity gets founded there it can spread through the nile and mediteranean to all of europe.
Also build a library here and speed it up with the two chops. Build a road to Aksum to get a trade route.
Techs
Those are the vital techs to get
Theology well you know why
Feudalism you need Longbows because you have no iron or copper
Gunpowder you REALLY want those sweet Oromo Warriors
Biology This turns your towns into huge cities. Until that time growth will be a big issue.
Civics
As i stated above only switch civics after founding christianity. Use Slavery/Organized Religion first. State religion will give you many enemys but you definately don't want to miss the 25% production bonus, since this is what you are most lacking. I used judaism since christianity will take its time to spread and most other civs in the mediteranean where jews at that point, so i had more friends to trade techs.
When getting feudalism adopt vassalage and hereditary rule.
Defending from the impi hordes
If you really made it to this point, then prepare for an endless number of impis coming from southern africa. To defend it needs a lot of micro. Because of the impis 2 movement they like to pillage or capture your workers, so take care.
Your two archers stay in your towns, the sword- and the axeman are defending your tiles whereever needed. Thats why roads are so important. Archers get guerilla promotions and your melee get combat I and shock, which will give you a nice 90% odd when attacking them even on hills. Also build a wall at least in Gondokoro since there will be most of the action.
DON'T lose your melee troops, since you don't have copper or iron yet ther is no way to reinforce.
Egypt
Egypt is a nice place and you definately want to have it. The problem is you most likely won't get it with your troops yet. So you should wait until it falls to the barbarians and/or goes into civil war, thats the time to attack. Take 3 or 4 Longbow and take over the egypt towns. Afterwards build walls and a second defender in every town, only then buildings and workers to improve the land. Make constant use of the whip.
Settling Africa
The first town to settle (after your initial two) will be moqdisho E of the horse. With the fish it has nice food production and also nice production. Also build a workboat for Aksum.
Aksum is your military base, build barracks and with vassalage or great general produce nice guerilla II longbows and defend at several choke points from the impis.
Next city to found is Zanzibar 2 S of the gems. Maybe i was to quick since a few turns later Mombasa spawned on the gems. I invaded it and it got destroyed.
Quelimane and Zimbabwe are independant and you can take the easily with your two promoted melee units.
Found two more towns in south africa to deny it from the english and dutch. This should be done before 1500AD to be safe. Short after you should build two more towns on the west coast to have no free space to settle within the uhv area. In the centre there is room for at least two more cities, but thats not so urgent.
Important is to get your state religion or one cultural building to the newly founded towns to close the 'gaps'. Also build courthouses everywhere to keep your stability high. Anyway you will be shaky most of the time.
Improve all tiles with irrigation/mills to have growth and be able to whip. Only after biology turn the mills into mines and thus turn zimbabwe into a production powerhouse.
Economy
Your economy will be really weak. To research at all Aksum should switch between building troops and building research. The towns in Egypt might also house some scientists.
Make sure your christian holy city has market, grocer and a bank (if you can trade for the tech). If you are lucky judaism was founded in egypt, another reason to take it. If you have both holy towns they can give you like 50% research, which is a lot
Be nice to all other civs, you definately want no war and you want as much open borders as possible for trade routes, since you have many coastal towns you should also build lighthouses for that reason.
When you reach biology you will most likely be the only one to have it. And since you are lacking behind in all other techs you can trade it to at least 10 civs for some nice techs. Try to get constitution to build jails for more stability. Also get nationalism and build the olympics to increase your stability with a second golden age.
If you are not shaky you might consider switching to free market/bureaucracy (makes aksum spawn a drill IV Oromo every 1 or 2 turns).
I always had 10 Oromos ready in Aksum to counter the losses of plague and thus making your undefended towns split when you are shaky.
Conclusion
After reaching the first goal, which is pure luck and needs a lot of tries and surviving the impis until you settled all spawning areas its a pretty peacefull game with a really weak economy to deal with. So the problem is not to reach the last two goals, it is to reach them without becoming unstable.
For those who dont want to try so many times, here is my game right after founding christianity in turn 133.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploa...nded_christianity_turn_133.CivBeyondSwordSave
Zhuge_Liang
The greatest strategist
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2007
- Messages
- 734
I can admit that Ethiopia is difficult.
Zhuge_Liang
The greatest strategist
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2007
- Messages
- 734
Whu wantz guides in portugal?????!!!!!!!?????
Squirrelloid
Warlord
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2007
- Messages
- 263
@wr4th:
Stability problems? Ethiopia? Nah...
Ok, that's after I industrialized and not too long before winning a UHV. My economy was total crap until then, and my stability pretty bad. Also note i had like 5 defensive pacts... But its the first time I've ever been "very solid" in RFC. I also managed to be rather competitive on technology, but i turned Egypt into cottage land. (Egypt having founded Buhen really helped, as it flipped to me and made them DOW me).
Edit: Can't seem to actually get it to display the images... oh well, clicky the linky.
Stability problems? Ethiopia? Nah...
Ok, that's after I industrialized and not too long before winning a UHV. My economy was total crap until then, and my stability pretty bad. Also note i had like 5 defensive pacts... But its the first time I've ever been "very solid" in RFC. I also managed to be rather competitive on technology, but i turned Egypt into cottage land. (Egypt having founded Buhen really helped, as it flipped to me and made them DOW me).
Edit: Can't seem to actually get it to display the images... oh well, clicky the linky.
Attachments
Rhye mentioned that the Netherlands still needs a Strategy Guide. I used my own recent experiences and the many helpful tips in this thread to make a very general discussion of the Dutch Historical Victory.
Unlike many other civs, whose UHV conditions can often be met only with some very narrow and mutually exclusive strategies, the Dutch have conditions that can be met with a wide variety of tactics. Basically, as long as you know what you're trying to do, you stand an excellent chance of getting a Historical victory. So, I didn't prescribe any particular research-build-settle path in the guide. I just laid out the basics and mentioned some of the various tactics the player can use.
Comments, corrections, and suggestions welcome, of course.
* * * * *
The following Strategy Guide is intended for AD 600 starts.
Overview
The Dutch spawn after the Vikings, Spanish, French, Germans, and English, but before the Portuguese. They appear with a few techs that will be new to their neighbors, but they will not have much room to expand on the continent itself. This can put them at a somewhat of a disadvantage later in the game, after the French, English, et al, begin leveraging their larger empires into faster research speeds.
But that's okay. When going for a Historical Victory, the key is to expand overseas, not in Europe, and to do that you only need a few key techs up front.
The Dutch UHV conditions:
1. Have the most extended map of the world in 1600.
2. Be the first to found a city in Australia.
3. Secure or get by trade 7 Spices resources by 1775.
It is most important to note the manner in which the third condition is calculated. To meet it, you do not need to actually draw Spices from the resources you "secure." This means you do not need to build roads and plantations on those Spice resources. It is enough to put a city on the same landmass as the resource and bring it within your cultural borders.
Because the Dutch goals require you to found several settlements in widely dispersed corners of the globe and to have a large map, you need to prioritize getting Optics (for Caravels) and Astronomy (for East Indiamen). After that, it is little more than a race to explore and settle the world by the time limits indicated. This is not difficult.
There are many tactics to use in going for a Dutch Historical victory. In what follows I will lay out the basics while noting places where different tactics can be employed. Most of the alternatives are drawn from the RFC subforum at civfanatics.com
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is a rich location—with a Fish, a Clam, a Wheat, and a Cattle square within its fat cross, it has the potential to grow very large. Health and happiness, not food, will put a limit on how large you let your capital grow. But it is not necessary to absolutely max it out in population. A size of 13 or 14 can be quite sufficient for winning a Historical victory.
To offset Amsterdam's production weaknesses, you can build Workshops on available land tiles and then run Caste System and Bureaucracy as Civics. (The former is available at the start, but you will have to research Civil Service to get the latter.) Alternately, you can ramp up food production even further with Farms and generate Great People who, as super-specialists, can provide hammers and other benefits.
Your continental base is very small: you will probably be squeezed in closely by Hamburg. There is a chance that Hamburg will flip to you early on; there is also the chance of conquering it early with your starting Crossbowmen. (There's also the chance that it will not have been built.0 If you take Hamburg early, you can use it for extra gold and production; if you take it late, you can raze it so as to give Amsterdam maximal room. You also have an early Settler that you might put in Denmark. That second city will add land to your European base, secure a Pig resource, and put greater cultural pressure on Hamburg.
Against these possibilities, you need to consider the tension with Germany that would result from a war for Hamburg, and the cultural tension with the Vikings that would come from settling in Denmark. While it is certainly possible to survive and even win wars against your neighbors, such wars at the very least can be a major distraction from reaching the Historical goals. Moreover, it is quite easy to get a Historical Victory without ever taking Hamburg or settling in Denmark.
That's because Amsterdam itself is remarkably powerful. It will quickly grow to size 12 or larger, and when you bump up against the health and happiness ceilings, you can turn off growth by hiring specialists. This means that the city is a terrific Great Person farm that you can run in whatever manner suits you. Each player has his or her own preferred GP style, and Amsterdam is a lovely playground to indulge yourself.
Going for Wonders in Amsterdam is a debatable strategy. There is much to be said for getting Notre Dame and maybe one or two other Wonders early on. Against that, though, is the opportunity cost of adding smaller, non-Wonder buildings. Also, if you like to plan your GP production you may not like unwanted Wonder modifiers interfering with the odds of generating the GP you are aiming for. In any case, it is quite easy to win a Historical Victory without building a single Wonder.
Do remember that a Castle can generate an extra trade route.
The Empire
After Amsterdam is up and running (which will hardly take any time at all), you will need to turn your attention to getting your empire going.
Besides Optics (and its prerequisite Compass) and Astronomy, there are a number of techs that will be highly useful: Civil Service will enable the highly efficient Bureaucracy civic; Gunpowder will give your cities more protection and help deter aggressors; Paper will enable map-trading; Chemistry can improve the output of Workshops. Beyond these, it is probably best to tailor your research as circumstances require. You are unlikely to get Steam Power and Dikes, though, long before you win the Historical Victory.
As the Netherlands is small, it is generally a good idea to stay on good terms with your neighbors. This primarily means the French, Germans, English and Vikings. A little judicious tech gifting early on can earn you points. You can also win points by staying on top of tech developments in other countries and trading for what you need and what they want. A strong defense will deter them from treating you badly. If you're willing to pay the price, an early conversion to Theocracy can help keep the ever-aggressive Isabella off your back and keep your defenses strong.
When you spawn you will have two Settlers. One will found Amsterdam. What to do with the other one? If you don't use it for a city in Denmark, you can send it to Australia, build a city in Africa, or do an early settle near a Spice resource.
The last is probably the least good idea, unless you build in India as a staging area for attacking the Khmer later in the game. There will be time to grab Spices later in the game, after you have Astronomy. If you send the Settler to Africa, you have two good locations. On the northeast coast, you will find Iron, Ivory, Wine, Horse, and Sheep (though the latter run some risk of falling under Spanish control later in the game). In the southeast, near Madagascar, you can find Sugar, Gold, Gems, and Iron. This location, however, is close to Native cities. The units these produce can be useful for generating a Great General if you have good protective units properly stationed, but they are a nuisance or a danger otherwise.
If you send the Settler to Australia (which you can reach with your Galley), you again have the choice of settling on the northwest or southeast coasts. In the northwest you can find Gold and Fish, along with two Iron and two Gem resources; in the southeast you can find Silver and some very fertile countryside.
Settling in Australia (especially the northwest) will give you some badly needed resources and meet one of your UHV goals; it will also act as a happy staging ground for settling in the Spice islands of Indonesia. Africa, however, will provide a quicker return of resources. Probably there isn't a wrong answer to the question of which you should settle.
(There are also two Spices and several other resources that can be found in southern Persia. You can try taking these, if you don't mind having Saladin as a neighbor.)
Once you have Optics, you shouldn't miss the chance to visit the Aztecs to try to get the Adventurers spawn. You can use that army to conquer the Aztecs (and thus secure a Spice resource); you can transport it off for use elsewhere (in southern Africa, for instance); or you can gift it to the Aztecs for use against your European rivals when they show up in the Americas.
Once you have Astronomy, don't forget to switch to Resettlement.
UHV Conditions
1. Australia: This might seem the most dodgy condition to try to meet, as you have no way of knowing if or when one of your rivals might blunder onto and settle Australia while you're distracted elsewhere. Often, though, the other civs are slow to find and settle Australia. While you shouldn't let this goal slide too long, you don't have to lunge for it right away. If you don't use one of your starting Settlers to colonize Australia, you should probably wait until after you have secured some of the more important Spice locations before sending a Settler down under.
2. Map Quest: This is probably the easiest goal to meet. After getting Optics, you can build between two and four Caravel-Explorer pairs and send them off to sweep out the various continents and oceans. (Be sure to pop every goodie hut you come across.) Before you start exploring in earnest, you can trade your map for that of your rivals so that you are not exploring redundant space, but after that you should guard your map jealously. Instead, you can add to what you know by buying maps from your rivals for between 5 and 50 gold coins at a pop. It is an especially good idea to make one final round of map purchases on the turn before this condition is to be met. That way, you will have much of what your rivals will have discovered, plus the discoveries you've made and not shared.
3. Spices: Spices are mostly clustered in the East Indies and the West Indies. The first is an arc stretching from Indochina through Sumatra and Java to New Guinea; the second is an arc stretching from northern Mexico through Cuba and down to the northeast coast of South America. In addition, there are Spices in Madagascar, southeastern India, and southern Persia.
The greatest priority should probably be on the Spices in South America. There are two there, and the Portuguese will try to take both almost as soon as they get Optics. If you do go for those Spices it is probably a good idea to plant two cities down there instead of one (though both resources can be grasped in one city's fat cross)—one of your rivals might try snagging one of your Spices by building a city right next to it. Cuba's Spice is also easy to get, provided you get there before Chichen Itza's cultural boundaries expand to take in the island's one buildable spot. (Ignore the one other Caribbean spice; it's impossible to get that one before Biology.)
If you dawdle, the Khmer will slowly expand to take the Spices in the east. The great prize in that region is New Guinea, which has two Spices that can be taken with one city. Java is also fairly easy to get, provided you move more quickly than the Khmer.
The above locations will give you six of the seven Spices you need. For the last one, you can simply take whatever locations are still free. The Spice condition will probably be the last goal you reach, and building the last city next to a Spice will likely trigger the Historical Victory.
In order to meet this third condition, you should probably count on needing at least three East Indiamen. These are cheap to upgrade from Galleys, so you can anticipate the acquisition of Astronomy by saving your two starting Galleys and building a third.
If you have doubts about getting all seven Spices, you can hedge your bets by trading for one of the Spices you need. If you do, be sure to trade for it before you get access to your own Spice by building a plantation on your resource(s). (Again, it is not necessary to build a plantation on your Spices in order to meet the third Victory condition, but you can work them anyway for the benefits they bring.) You can pick up extra Spices from other civs, though, if you vassalize them first.
You also shouldn't overly worry about fighting a war to get a seventh Spice. If the city you conquer is right next to the seventh resource you need, it will fall inside your cultural boundaries as soon as the city exits disorder. Depending on the city size, then, you will win the game only a few turns after going to war, which will likely not be enough time for your enemy to regroup and strike back.
Unlike many other civs, whose UHV conditions can often be met only with some very narrow and mutually exclusive strategies, the Dutch have conditions that can be met with a wide variety of tactics. Basically, as long as you know what you're trying to do, you stand an excellent chance of getting a Historical victory. So, I didn't prescribe any particular research-build-settle path in the guide. I just laid out the basics and mentioned some of the various tactics the player can use.
Comments, corrections, and suggestions welcome, of course.
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The following Strategy Guide is intended for AD 600 starts.
Overview
The Dutch spawn after the Vikings, Spanish, French, Germans, and English, but before the Portuguese. They appear with a few techs that will be new to their neighbors, but they will not have much room to expand on the continent itself. This can put them at a somewhat of a disadvantage later in the game, after the French, English, et al, begin leveraging their larger empires into faster research speeds.
But that's okay. When going for a Historical Victory, the key is to expand overseas, not in Europe, and to do that you only need a few key techs up front.
The Dutch UHV conditions:
1. Have the most extended map of the world in 1600.
2. Be the first to found a city in Australia.
3. Secure or get by trade 7 Spices resources by 1775.
It is most important to note the manner in which the third condition is calculated. To meet it, you do not need to actually draw Spices from the resources you "secure." This means you do not need to build roads and plantations on those Spice resources. It is enough to put a city on the same landmass as the resource and bring it within your cultural borders.
Because the Dutch goals require you to found several settlements in widely dispersed corners of the globe and to have a large map, you need to prioritize getting Optics (for Caravels) and Astronomy (for East Indiamen). After that, it is little more than a race to explore and settle the world by the time limits indicated. This is not difficult.
There are many tactics to use in going for a Dutch Historical victory. In what follows I will lay out the basics while noting places where different tactics can be employed. Most of the alternatives are drawn from the RFC subforum at civfanatics.com
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is a rich location—with a Fish, a Clam, a Wheat, and a Cattle square within its fat cross, it has the potential to grow very large. Health and happiness, not food, will put a limit on how large you let your capital grow. But it is not necessary to absolutely max it out in population. A size of 13 or 14 can be quite sufficient for winning a Historical victory.
To offset Amsterdam's production weaknesses, you can build Workshops on available land tiles and then run Caste System and Bureaucracy as Civics. (The former is available at the start, but you will have to research Civil Service to get the latter.) Alternately, you can ramp up food production even further with Farms and generate Great People who, as super-specialists, can provide hammers and other benefits.
Your continental base is very small: you will probably be squeezed in closely by Hamburg. There is a chance that Hamburg will flip to you early on; there is also the chance of conquering it early with your starting Crossbowmen. (There's also the chance that it will not have been built.0 If you take Hamburg early, you can use it for extra gold and production; if you take it late, you can raze it so as to give Amsterdam maximal room. You also have an early Settler that you might put in Denmark. That second city will add land to your European base, secure a Pig resource, and put greater cultural pressure on Hamburg.
Against these possibilities, you need to consider the tension with Germany that would result from a war for Hamburg, and the cultural tension with the Vikings that would come from settling in Denmark. While it is certainly possible to survive and even win wars against your neighbors, such wars at the very least can be a major distraction from reaching the Historical goals. Moreover, it is quite easy to get a Historical Victory without ever taking Hamburg or settling in Denmark.
That's because Amsterdam itself is remarkably powerful. It will quickly grow to size 12 or larger, and when you bump up against the health and happiness ceilings, you can turn off growth by hiring specialists. This means that the city is a terrific Great Person farm that you can run in whatever manner suits you. Each player has his or her own preferred GP style, and Amsterdam is a lovely playground to indulge yourself.
Going for Wonders in Amsterdam is a debatable strategy. There is much to be said for getting Notre Dame and maybe one or two other Wonders early on. Against that, though, is the opportunity cost of adding smaller, non-Wonder buildings. Also, if you like to plan your GP production you may not like unwanted Wonder modifiers interfering with the odds of generating the GP you are aiming for. In any case, it is quite easy to win a Historical Victory without building a single Wonder.
Do remember that a Castle can generate an extra trade route.
The Empire
After Amsterdam is up and running (which will hardly take any time at all), you will need to turn your attention to getting your empire going.
Besides Optics (and its prerequisite Compass) and Astronomy, there are a number of techs that will be highly useful: Civil Service will enable the highly efficient Bureaucracy civic; Gunpowder will give your cities more protection and help deter aggressors; Paper will enable map-trading; Chemistry can improve the output of Workshops. Beyond these, it is probably best to tailor your research as circumstances require. You are unlikely to get Steam Power and Dikes, though, long before you win the Historical Victory.
As the Netherlands is small, it is generally a good idea to stay on good terms with your neighbors. This primarily means the French, Germans, English and Vikings. A little judicious tech gifting early on can earn you points. You can also win points by staying on top of tech developments in other countries and trading for what you need and what they want. A strong defense will deter them from treating you badly. If you're willing to pay the price, an early conversion to Theocracy can help keep the ever-aggressive Isabella off your back and keep your defenses strong.
When you spawn you will have two Settlers. One will found Amsterdam. What to do with the other one? If you don't use it for a city in Denmark, you can send it to Australia, build a city in Africa, or do an early settle near a Spice resource.
The last is probably the least good idea, unless you build in India as a staging area for attacking the Khmer later in the game. There will be time to grab Spices later in the game, after you have Astronomy. If you send the Settler to Africa, you have two good locations. On the northeast coast, you will find Iron, Ivory, Wine, Horse, and Sheep (though the latter run some risk of falling under Spanish control later in the game). In the southeast, near Madagascar, you can find Sugar, Gold, Gems, and Iron. This location, however, is close to Native cities. The units these produce can be useful for generating a Great General if you have good protective units properly stationed, but they are a nuisance or a danger otherwise.
If you send the Settler to Australia (which you can reach with your Galley), you again have the choice of settling on the northwest or southeast coasts. In the northwest you can find Gold and Fish, along with two Iron and two Gem resources; in the southeast you can find Silver and some very fertile countryside.
Settling in Australia (especially the northwest) will give you some badly needed resources and meet one of your UHV goals; it will also act as a happy staging ground for settling in the Spice islands of Indonesia. Africa, however, will provide a quicker return of resources. Probably there isn't a wrong answer to the question of which you should settle.
(There are also two Spices and several other resources that can be found in southern Persia. You can try taking these, if you don't mind having Saladin as a neighbor.)
Once you have Optics, you shouldn't miss the chance to visit the Aztecs to try to get the Adventurers spawn. You can use that army to conquer the Aztecs (and thus secure a Spice resource); you can transport it off for use elsewhere (in southern Africa, for instance); or you can gift it to the Aztecs for use against your European rivals when they show up in the Americas.
Once you have Astronomy, don't forget to switch to Resettlement.
UHV Conditions
1. Australia: This might seem the most dodgy condition to try to meet, as you have no way of knowing if or when one of your rivals might blunder onto and settle Australia while you're distracted elsewhere. Often, though, the other civs are slow to find and settle Australia. While you shouldn't let this goal slide too long, you don't have to lunge for it right away. If you don't use one of your starting Settlers to colonize Australia, you should probably wait until after you have secured some of the more important Spice locations before sending a Settler down under.
2. Map Quest: This is probably the easiest goal to meet. After getting Optics, you can build between two and four Caravel-Explorer pairs and send them off to sweep out the various continents and oceans. (Be sure to pop every goodie hut you come across.) Before you start exploring in earnest, you can trade your map for that of your rivals so that you are not exploring redundant space, but after that you should guard your map jealously. Instead, you can add to what you know by buying maps from your rivals for between 5 and 50 gold coins at a pop. It is an especially good idea to make one final round of map purchases on the turn before this condition is to be met. That way, you will have much of what your rivals will have discovered, plus the discoveries you've made and not shared.
3. Spices: Spices are mostly clustered in the East Indies and the West Indies. The first is an arc stretching from Indochina through Sumatra and Java to New Guinea; the second is an arc stretching from northern Mexico through Cuba and down to the northeast coast of South America. In addition, there are Spices in Madagascar, southeastern India, and southern Persia.
The greatest priority should probably be on the Spices in South America. There are two there, and the Portuguese will try to take both almost as soon as they get Optics. If you do go for those Spices it is probably a good idea to plant two cities down there instead of one (though both resources can be grasped in one city's fat cross)—one of your rivals might try snagging one of your Spices by building a city right next to it. Cuba's Spice is also easy to get, provided you get there before Chichen Itza's cultural boundaries expand to take in the island's one buildable spot. (Ignore the one other Caribbean spice; it's impossible to get that one before Biology.)
If you dawdle, the Khmer will slowly expand to take the Spices in the east. The great prize in that region is New Guinea, which has two Spices that can be taken with one city. Java is also fairly easy to get, provided you move more quickly than the Khmer.
The above locations will give you six of the seven Spices you need. For the last one, you can simply take whatever locations are still free. The Spice condition will probably be the last goal you reach, and building the last city next to a Spice will likely trigger the Historical Victory.
In order to meet this third condition, you should probably count on needing at least three East Indiamen. These are cheap to upgrade from Galleys, so you can anticipate the acquisition of Astronomy by saving your two starting Galleys and building a third.
If you have doubts about getting all seven Spices, you can hedge your bets by trading for one of the Spices you need. If you do, be sure to trade for it before you get access to your own Spice by building a plantation on your resource(s). (Again, it is not necessary to build a plantation on your Spices in order to meet the third Victory condition, but you can work them anyway for the benefits they bring.) You can pick up extra Spices from other civs, though, if you vassalize them first.
You also shouldn't overly worry about fighting a war to get a seventh Spice. If the city you conquer is right next to the seventh resource you need, it will fall inside your cultural boundaries as soon as the city exits disorder. Depending on the city size, then, you will win the game only a few turns after going to war, which will likely not be enough time for your enemy to regroup and strike back.
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