The great DoC 1.8 UHV challenge

[strijder20]

iOnlySignIn, it's not impossible to get MS before 1500 AD. I could have gotten it together with Astro in 1480 AD if I would have turned slider to 100 (but I was going for the UHV).
By the way, are cuirassiers (AI France and England) in 1450 normal? England had only two cities

 

[Fresol]

Are you talking about Emperor difficulty? I find it very very hard to play on Emperor level with my current skill level, no fun.

 

[morff]

Are you talking about Emperor difficulty? I find it very very hard to play on Emperor level with my current skill level, no fun.

If you looking for fun don't play as emperor It's kind of fun, because it's challenging, but it's also pain in the a**.

 

[iOnlySignIn]

iOnlySignIn, it's not impossible to get MS before 1500 AD. I could have gotten it together with Astro in 1480 AD if I would have turned slider to 100 (but I was going for the UHV).

I did get Astronomy via Liberalism in 1464. As Vikings you should go directly for MS after that. As England though you should prioritize Rifling/Economics before MS in order to conquer India, and Constitution/Corporations to keep your economy afloat. By the time you finish all those it will be past 1650, and you could trade for MS from France or Prussia.

By the way, are cuirassiers (AI France and England) in 1450 normal? England had only two cities

AIs love Military Tradition. Especially the French and Chinese AIs - I think it's understandable. The English AI should be tweaked to favor Rifling instead. Alfred also likes to build large amounts of Knights which are completely useless IMO. Instead they should be spamming Crossbows and Longbows.

 

[strijder20]

Civilization: Vikings; Speed: Epic; Finish date: 1592 AD; Difficulty: Monarch, 600 AD scenario; score : 6361.

I settled Oslo, the city on the northern tile of Ireland, Kopenhagen and Lindisfarne after English spawn. I used the Iceland trick to get to the Americas in the 11th century. It's fun to settle Chicago in 1085 AD, believe me

Spoiler :

I didn't expand that much, by the end I had 10 cities.

Spoiler :

England was a very decent trade partner and ally in this game, together with France, HRE and the Mughals. Weird, as I started at war with them. They were techmonsters, too! They only had two cities but were first in tech in 1600 AD

The key to the second (gold) goal, which is by far the hardest IMHO, is trading (read as :begging) a lot and getting a couple of GMerchants. Whip a market in one of your cities, start running two merchants, beeline Guilds and get a grocer in it too. In this game, I was lucky to get first to economics, but it's not sure you'll be.

Spoiler :

An Aztec jaguar accidentally stumbled on Chicago, triggering the conqueror event. I disbanded all of my troops with the exception of the knights, the Huscarl and the pike, and pillaged them perpetually for 400 years.
The UP is X5 gold from pillaging, which has great synergy with the gold goal, of course. Get some Huscarls/Knights to India as soon as you can (it has lots of independents). Russia might also collapse from the Mongols, so you can pillage there too.

Spoiler :

My stability was enormous for the largest part of the game. By the end, it dropped to +10 though, I have no clue why.

Spoiler :

After reaching 1500 AD and teching MS in 1540 AD, I switched to FM/Capitalism and rushbought about 20 privateers, winning me the game about 10 turns later. Oh, and a suggestion for what to do with any GGs you get :

Spoiler :

My score was a bit low, I guess I should try earlier civs if I want a high score.

Spoiler :

 

[iOnlySignIn]

Oh, and a suggestion for what to do with any GGs you get :

Spoiler :

It's Captain Jack Sparrow.

 

[strijder20]

It's Captain Jack Sparrow.

I also did the Korean UHV on the 600 AD start, Normal, Monarch. My shortest RFC game so far (45 minutes). Score: 2282.

I rushed China on spawn to get the Cathedral goal easily. The Mongols started at war with me, however, and took all my cities Then China respawned, but because of the massive amounts of foreign culture (mine) in their cities, they collapsed soonly after, and I took their cities again.

PP was easy, just beeline it. For the ships I just killed a bunch of Japanese triremes - they declared war on me. I also went MS, but ultimately didn't need it anyway.

 

[strijder20]

United States of America: Monarch/Normal, 600 AD, 2929 score.

The start was quite normal : independent Nieuw Amsterdam and British Boston flipped to me. France owned some colonies in southern Louisiana, Texas and Mexico, Spain had a Carribean city and Yucatan while Britain had colonised England. I had no trouble with kicking them out of America after a quick AL beeline, but I ended up at war with almost the entire world thanks to DPs

I read iOnlySignIn's description of his America game, and decided to follow his advice and run a specialist economy. It works mightily! I stayed in Mercantilism to stay away from Great Depressions and because I was warring almost everyone anyway, and ran Representation and Egalitarianism. Aside from the normal SoL-Pentagon-UN trio, I also built Hollywood (Graceland and Wembley got snatched by Korea and England ), the Eiffel Tower and Lubyanka (went communism for the free GS). The last wonder really gave me an espionage edge, running a specialist economy.

Spoiler :

Aside from the USSR, who was probably spending commerce on espionage, I was really leaving everyone in the dust.

The last goal is the hardest, IMHO. Three oils are almost certainly yours, for the Mexican one you can get unlucky with a respawn. I warred Spain to get Caracas's and the Brazilian oil. I also settled SE of Mali for the African Oil. The Dutch had conquered the northernmost Indonesian city (Sukadana) wtih their Trading Comp. armies, and then collapsed, so it was independent and I took it for it's naval Oil.

An invasion of the Middle-East was required to complete the UHV. I built some Jet Fighters and Navy Seals and took the independent - it used to belong to Persia/Iran, which collapsed because of Mongolia - city which claims three of them. I also took Mecca, just to alleviate Independent cultural pressure.

Spoiler :

Some civilizations really got a bit too big for their breeches. Someone would have got hit hard if I didn't launch two Tac. nukes at Mongolia's armies (not me, the Turks were conveniently sitting in the way).

According to the end-game screen I owned 135 levies, while building only 25 of them. Strange, I never saw one in my entire game, and levies go obsolete with engineering.

Spoiler :

Top 5 cities of the world: the somewhat small, but energetic town of Frankfurt; two of America's greatest cities, holding many wonders, and the illustrious cities of York Factory and Fort St. Louis-au-Texas. Wonder how those got in there? I guess it's because I got a free 5000 culture right after conquering them... I think there is a little bug there, Leoreth.

Spoiler :

America's core. Is this settling pattern conventional, America experts? This is the first time I played this civ, so I had no clue what I was doing

Spoiler :

Oil colonies all over the world.

Spoiler :

 

[hoplitejoe]

You normally settle NW of Oklahoma on the oil.
Good to see the Mongols as strong as ever

 

[Fresol]

Never played an America game myself, no idea how to play it. And this is SVN version right? Maybe we need a new thread.

 

[iOnlySignIn]

You normally settle NW of Oklahoma on the oil.

Yes. It may sound counter-intuitive, but Denver on the Oil gives you better Food in the city. Denver/Oklahoma's problem is lack of Food - it's Production is monstrous regardless of what you do. So you actually want one extra Farm instead of a Well in it.

Also, it seems San Diego could be moved 1N to the River. Rivers = Levees = good. Disregard the Wine - late game Windmill > Winery (just like late game Watermill > Horse Pasture). Otherwise everything looks great.

I'm actually considering doing a pure Cottage America to test out the new CE mechanics. Glad to know SE America still works.

 

[Tomorrow's Dawn]

Never played an America game myself, no idea how to play it. And this is SVN version right? Maybe we need a new thread.

Yeah, I think Leoreth has gotten all the mileage he needed out of this thread.

 

[Leoreth]

Regarding most civs, yes, but there are still some that haven't been played yet.

 

[outofthebox]

Finaly finished Greece in 610 AD after 20 tries emperor level, normal speed.

Omg that was tough!

What i learned:

1) Bulb Mathematics, before doing Oracle to get Metal casting
2) Start attacking the persian no matter what from turn 85+ so you have time to complete the conquest uhv in time!
3) try have open borders for trade with 1 partner as long as possible
4) garrison middle east with spearmen. the barbs spawn rate is just outrageous!!
5) Korinth+Ephesos+Epidamos as main cities.
Egypt city engineering wonders, Koritnh scientists, Epidamos wondercity spam, Ephesos Troop spam!

In the end i had to give up egypt, babylon and phoenicia to the barbs... Never ending camel archers, horse archers, axemen, impis... is just too much!

Final score 9000 something Shaka Zulu

 

[King Coltrane]

Egypt: M/N, virtual victory turn 129, final score of 7327

early exploration for the gold, rushing obelisks, timing wonders, building capital 1 N of start, and a little luck and you can really do well.

tech order: myst-> masonry-> poly-> priest-> writing -> fishing (if you cant get it from a hut, which i didnt this game sadly) -> aesthetics (oracle sailing) -> lit.

builds: 1N niwt-rst: worker, obelisk, sphinx, pyramids, settler, HG, prebuild oracle; leave it at one turn, library (rush turn before fishing is done), finish oracle, parthenon, etc

xou: obelisk (can be rushed when city grows from HG), use GE for GL, prebuild temple of artemis for the gold from not finishing, library, cothon, GE for Great Library, etc

GP: Engineer, Scientist, Engineer, Artist

if you can switch to republic, you get that massive GP boost from golden age and the civic, which cuts the artist time from ~30 to ~15

(i also got SoZ, Ishtar, and Colossus with the time left over)

 

[King Coltrane]

Babylon: M/N, victory turn 94, final score of 10828

this (as was always the case) was very much a matter of luck

start by sending warrior NW for huts, while building another to go east. I got lucky in anatolia and got another warrior, so i sent him back towards babylon for defense. the danube hut gave me mining, which was a huge boon. the 'stan hut gave me like 60 gold. I then sent the eastern warrior to prevent indian city spawn. western warrior made the rounds to denmark, portugal, sweden, and then russia, getting experience, hostile natives, gold, and fishing (not big, but cant complain!)

i also managed to get the event that promotes all melee units to cover, which was huge for harassment .

meanwhile, i used my gold to get a chariot merc and sent him SW to egypt (he had cover [amazing luck!] so the indies didnt attack when i declared war) and blitzed through. so with egypt and india (whom i later declared on) paralyzed with fear i was free to pursue the following strategy:

tech: writing -> myst -> masonry -> poly -> priest -> monarchy, bulbed math, oracled CoL.

build order: warrior, worker, library, granary, zigg, HG, oracle, (then ishtar gate cause why not)

the key was to mine the hill 2N of babylon after the sheep are set up so the library can go up fast. then run one scientist to get the GPP started. then let the city grow until you can run 2 scientists without starving. (obviously hook up nearby resources too though) hanging garden allows you to still grow your pop (to combat china) through production so you can focus on science. you need both scientists the whole time in order to research monarchy before persia spawns. i got the scientist/CoL like 2 or 3 turns before oracle finished, which was about 2 turns before persia spawned. my pop of 7 was enough to win, so i just rode out the end with bowman for happiness.

(btw i disbanded the merc chariot after i got the HG and never heard from egypt again)