The Great DoC UHV v 1.10 challenge

[SultanRedSnake]

This was my 5th try at the Dutch on monarch, and after rolling a lucky start and adjusting my strategy I was able to pull off an early victory.

First, starting situation: All of Europe is Catholic, with England discovering Printing Press on the next turn and being left alone to embrace Protestantism. Montezuma (vassal of Spain) traded me two slaves for Feudalism after a few turns, and Peru (vassal of Portugal) traded me one slave for the same tech. I sent my three settles to found Adriaanz Fort for 2 spices (slave plantations), Van Dyke in the West Indies for another (build a fort), and Madagascar (third slave). On the way around the Cape of Good Hope I met an alive-and-kicking Abbasid Caliphate (score leader) and traded for Liberalism.

With the first goal in mind, I switched to Scholastism and Republic and kept Amsterdam running 4 merchants and 1 engineer. First merchant bulbed Economics, settle the other three. NOTE: While its possible to run more specialists in Amsterdam, be reminded that a single failure to pop a GM will probably cost you the first goal, so play it safe, cap your growth and either work extra tiles or run citizens for a few hammers.

Next stroke of good luck: the HRE collapsed and granted me a Horse tile plus a town in Denmark, which shaved many turns off building the East India Company, which was began as soon as Economics completed.

In the meantime, a meeting with Iran (vassal of Russia) allowed for trade for a Fish for Spice (you don't need the extra health), van Dyke produced a settler that was sent toward Ceylon with an additional slave and worker in tow, and most of my military units were shipped from Amsterdam to Adriaanz for a coming showdown with the Portuguese, who had one colony a few tiles to the north and another to the south (Recife).

With 6 Muskets and 2 Bombards in Adriaanz, I seized the opportunity to DOW Portugal, razed the northern city (worthless) and held onto Recife. An Apostolic vote ended the war.

After settling Ceylon and building a slave plantation, I had 6 spice resources before the Trading Company was complete. I opted to buy the cities from Indonesia but, being a vassal of Arabia, they refused. Instead of a futile assault against Palambang, I shipped the units using East Indiamen I had waiting in Ceylon and took an undefended Makassar and a lightly defended Jakarta, for a total of 8 spices by the 1720s. About this time I settled my third GM in Amsterdam.

Golden Age! The AP-enforced truce with Portugal expired, my always-wandering caravels spoted two poorly defended cities in North Africa, troops landed and victory was won.

Luck isn't crucial to a Dutch victory, but it sure helped.

EDIT: After playing the Dutch numerous times in original RFC and the many versions of DOC, a few general rules for 1.10 became apparent. #1) Tech: For the UHV you need Economics for the Trading Company and Liberalism for Republic (which combines with Scholasticism). Economics you'll have to combo research and bulb, Liberalism has to be traded for to make the civic switch in time. #2) Production: That is, you won't have any, so don't bother with extra buildings or units. You can only reasonably produce settlers and workers, and of these you only need a few. Only Amsterdam has any production capacity and most of that will be going toward the Trading Company, though you'll want to slip in an extra East Indiaman or two. In previous versions, South Africa could be settled as a secondary production city, but the late start in 1.10 simply doesn't allow it. #3) Conquest: This is the one UHV that depends on luck, namely whether the Portuguese acquire enough colonies for the player to reach in time. I've seen situations in which the English and Spanish offer tempting targets, but their naval superiority (usually they discover Military Science) will make your other operations rather difficult if not impossible. French colonies are out of the question. #4) Civics: If you can get Liberalism early, the double switch to Scholasticism/Republic will guarantee the first UHV since you can run only merchants. If you can't, you'll have to roll the dice by running more specialists to increase GP points. If any but a GM pops, you lose.

 

[Barbuesque]

Rome, 600 AD finish, 21010 score at monarch/normal

It took me many tries but I finally managed to do it...

First off, I don't think this is possible if the oracle has already been built. There's no time to research both construction and currency and have time to spare to build the related infrastructure (markets, amphitheatres). The oracle is usually built at least 1 times out of 2.

I also don't think this is reliably doable if the greek hoplites are on defense duties instead of roaming around, even worse if Greece has iron working.

I settled the capital on the pig, SE of the starting spot (Antium). I sent 2 archers and 2 settlers to Spain. I loaded up the galleys with legions and sailed for carthage.

I landed south of the city, there's 3 archers in the city and a war elephant to the south - ouch. But I was real lucky and won over the jumbo. I then took Carthage without losses. Unusually good combat rolls, but unusually strong opposition too.

I healed up in Carthage then sailed for Greece. Greece was poorly defended, 1 archer and 1 warrior, hoplites nowhere to be seen. I razed Olympia and took Athens (with 1 harbor and 1 granary), then Greece collapsed. I healed up then took independant byzantium, losing 1 legion and 1 archer.

I then built up a barrack in Athens, and produced catapults and legions. Once I was up to 5 units I ferried troops to Jerusalem and attacked Tyre from there, finishing the Phoenicians. Then with more reinforcements I invaded Egypt, took 1 city north of the copper (with Great Lighthouse and Temple of Artemis). Then bad combat results almost bogged down my invasion, but Athens was producing 1 unit every 2-3 turns working all mines and I managed to finish them off.

Meanwhile the capital was building samples of every building, and Mediolanum built the Oracle, a few legions, then the Colosseum. Mediolanum's culture popped before lugdunum could spawn, meaning I had to build 1 extra settler later on.

I stayed at 9 cities after that (losing the former egyptian capital flipping to independents), focusing on the infrastructure. I'm pretty sure that for some odd reason, the cutoff is actually between turn 146 and 147. If you finish the buildings during turn 147 it won't work. You won't get a an error message yet, but when you end turn 148 you will. That's really odd.

At that point research output really soared, it really helped that my first GP was a great merchant, from my egyptian city.

I moved troops into positions near the celt cities, moved 4 settlers (1 on the east bank of the rhine, 1 in algeria (Rusadir), 1 in the balkans (on the copper), 1 in Britain. I captured/built all the cities on turn 161 so they wouldn't drag me down too long. I then promptly ceded 6 cities to Persia the next turn. Most of them got razed by barbarians, but somehow Persia didn't collapse before the game's end, which was somehow my intention as they were really strong and my eastern cities were vulnerable.

The rest was just killing double digits barbarians pretty much every turn and researching the techs, which isn't a hurdle at this point with 10 developped cities on premium sites. The tech penalty beyond 10 cities for romans is particularly hurtful so make sure you finish the expansion UHV as later as possible and to immediately get back to 10 cities right when the golden age kicks in.

 

[Barbuesque]

Phoenicia win at monarch/normal, score is 16113 and virtual win was achieved at turn 143.

A lot hangs around wether or not the oracle has been built, or will be built before you reach the classical era, as this means an early currency or not. In this game, I got the oracle.

I didn't found a city in Phoenicia so I didn't have to build the capitol in Carthage. This also meant not needing to build an additional settler for Spain. I figured this was a fair trade off for not getting the 2 free workers. I loaded up in the galleys and sent one settler to Carthage, and another to Spain, to settle on the silver.

I hired up mercenaries as soon as Carthage was founded, 4 of them. Along with 2 regulars, they sailed for Greece and promptly conquered it, Athens and Constantinople. This made for a pretty good start with 4 cities. I then sent the survivors to Egypt, along with newly hired troops. They did manage to conquer the capital along with 2 workers, but unfortunately Egypt hooked up the bronze meanwhile, converted it's warriors into axemans and took back the city. I did manage to flee with the 2 captured workers, so it wasn't a total loss.

Meanwhile I researched Horseback riding - Alphabet, and cut short the research by trading horseback riding + archery to the romans for alphabet. I then completed the oracle in athens to grab Currency. I then set to research mathematics for catapults. The great cothon also got built in Carthage 1 or 2 turns later. I whipped a marketplace in Byzantium as soon as I could and set 2 great merchants specialists.

I then focused on building war elephants and catapults to invade rome. I landed 6 units from the south, and invaded with 6 more by land up north, easily overwhelming the romans to complete the 2nd uhv at turn 124.

A few turns later I got my great merchant in Byzantium at 100% chance, pretty much ending the game. It reached the buddhist/hinduism holy city for 2K gold, while I got the remaining 3K by setting the slider at 100% and building wealth. I even spawned a 2nd great merchant in Athens, at roughly 60% chance over a prophet, but this was overkill. It did allow me to run 100% research the last 10 turns or so to pad up my score with additional techs.

It's certainly possible to win as Carthage without the oracle, but it's definitely harder. I would suggest looking again into how the oracle works, or into the Greek/Rome/Phoenicia UHVs as they are heavily affected by it's availability.

 

[calad]

Note: you can also be incredible lucky and be able to trade currency, calendar and monarchy when playing Rome.

 

[jammerculture]

Poor Greece, if everybody needs the Oracle to survive, they don't stand a chance

 

[Barbuesque]

Greece, turn 137, 23821

This could probably be improved as I spawned zero great scientists (3 prophets, 3 merchants).

I invaded Egypt with 3 hoplites and a warrior. As I was about to finish them, they produced 1 archer, but I won with bad odds, probably saving one hoplite for future uses.

I hired mercenaries (2 chariots) and along with 1 flipped huluganni, conquered babylon around turn 60 or so, and they collapsed the next turn.

I moved the hoplites around Babylon, hired some more mercenaries (2 impis), and waited for turn 76 (to invade phoenicia), sitting 1 hoplite and 1 impi in anatolia to prevent the indep city spawn there and deny the persians 1 city. The phoenicians had 2 spears outside sur, which was great as my hoplite made short work of them and this made it easier for my suicide chariot mercenaries to do some damage on the next turn, sweeping the damaged survivors with regulars.

Research was real slow at this point with so many mercenaries, but it gradually picked up as population rose and tiles were improved. I finised the oracle (egypt) on the turn aesthetics was researched, picking up metal casting. The temple of artemis had already been built a while back in corinthos, so it was just 2 wonders to work on, the colossus in korinthos, and the parthenon in egypt, finished on turn 122.

I popped maths from a hut in britain, which allowed me to build catapults for the next round with Persia. I captured their capital at around turn 110, and their last city in northern persia a few turns later. I gave them back the city when the UHV was checked, since it's pretty useless and just slowing down research.

I just focused on the last uhv and defense from then, built the great library and set 2 scientists in corinthos. With my first great merchant netting 2K gold, I was at 100% research so it was rather fast even with no great scientist, wrapping up the uhv at turn 137.

 

[Barbuesque]

Rome, 26911, 455 AD

This was pretty much the same as my previous attempt with rome, except I rushed much fewer units from the get go, as I figured an early conquest of Egypt isn't necessary, allowing for greater economic growth early on and less whipping to do for the 1st UHV. Really if I don't get sucked into building winders before the first 2 uhvs are done, it's much easier than I initially thought.

Athens focused on building units for the invasion of egypt, but without whipping except for extra citizens with no improved tiles to work on.

Carthage and ethiopia were willing to vassalize after I wrapped up uhv #2, so I gave them the extra cities to get down to 10, and accepted them as vassals after. I kept troops there to protect their cities and they padded up my final score with land and population.

Ethiopian France and Britain!

 

[Barbuesque]

In the hope of getting this challenge going again...

Portugal, Monarch, normal, 6985 with a virtual win in 1650.

The 2nd settler was sent down to south africa, along with a flipped worker, a longbow and a crossbow as escort, to settle on the gold in south africa. Meanwhile the missionary was sent east to make contact with the asian civs for open borders and tech trade.

First building was a courthouse, whipped ASAP then a single spy specialist was set to work, targetting France, and after many turns the first GP was a great spy .

Tech order was meditation - Civil service (switch to absolutism) - optics (compass was traded for), then astronomy but the research was cut short when France discovered it, sending my Great Spy that was waiting in Lisbon in France for EP and stealing it right away.

I got the conquerors in the americas, and moved them out for future use in Africa. The south american conquerors saw some extra use when they captured a french colony that was settled in Brazil, losing one knight in the process. The Aztecs conqueror were shuttled to Portugal, then to invade north Africa when the moors collapsed: Marrakesh first, which was surprisingly hard to take as the Moors left a sizable army as inheritance, and then to Alexandria once Egypt collapsed.

On the east african flank, troops built in South Africa captured Quelimane, then combined with Incas conquerors shuttled from South america, razed Mombassa, captured Aksum, then invaded Egypt from the south after they collapsed. I settled colonies in Zanzibar, Mogadishu, and a colony 1 east of Al Uqsur in Egypt after razing it.

I settled 3 colonies in Brazil, to cover the food and trading company resources, in addition to the french colony I captured. I also founded a colony in Cuba to grab the Tobacco, since I miscounted the resources available to me after building the Trading company. This turned out to be a good thing, as will be explained below.

The Trading company netted San Salvador de Congo, Singapore, and Canton.

I reached 13 trading company resources in 1620 or so, but the UHV didn't trigger. When I peace vassalized China in 1640, my borders in Canton expanded into former chinese territory and grabbed the tea for a 14th resource and the UHV triggered. I saved, then reloaded and experimented with the world builder to figure out that it's indeed 14 resources that are necessary, so the UHV tracker is wrong.

I reached 15 colonies in Asia/Africa/Brazil in 1650 and then waited until 1700 for the win.

 

[Barbuesque]

Italy, 7909, virtual win in 1706.

Details here:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=12310697&postcount=363

 

[VSarius]

Well, ever since early vanilla-RFC I've loved the Babylon UHV, guess just to bring out the inner Micromanager in me. In regular ole Civ I'm pretty lazy on optimizing, but here, it's all there is to do. Now, as for this particular UHV.

I'm sure everyone is well aware of how brutal the Babylonians are on Emperor, it seems impossible to beat the first 2 goals. Culture is easy thanks to Ziggurat but landing both top pop and Oracle+GS is rough, namely due to how limited you are on happy on Emperor. Only size 4 without Zigg is awful however landing Monarchy by t131 is possible, the issue really lies in India and Egypt. It is impossible to beat Egypt to the Hanging Garden, or even fit it into the build order really. With HG+a solid second city, you are looking at size 6, which you can't beat. India is even worse, size 7-8. Chang'an can also reach 7 but is more of a wild-card since it seems quite whip-happy. What we can deduce from this, is that the two independent Indian cities, Egypt, and for an assured win, Chang'an, have to go.

How to achieve this:
Tech wise, we go Writing->Mysticism->Polytheism->Masonry->Pottery->Code of Laws
There is no room for deviation, Mysticism before Writing is utterly pointless and delaying Writing by two techs is not possible.
Build wise I may be misremembering slightly over whether the Granary or Ziggurat are built first but basically you prioritize the Zigg over Granary so if the tech for it is in you begin building it, Worker->Granary till 2 pop->Worker->Library->Granary->Ziggurat->X->Oracle->Spam Archers for defense
The main luck/strategy comes in with the starting Warrior, you need to pop 3 huts before heading home. So the Anatolian, Balkan, and German. Obviously if one of those pop a Scout you can accumulate more huts, namely the Iberian and Scandinavian, if early enough also the Persian. I wouldn't bother with the Siberian simply because wasting 2 free Barb Wins is ill-advised with how ridiculous the goddamn barb chariots are. With the first 3 huts, you need to pop gold, a solid amount. At least 100, preferably more.

Now, with the gold you need to hire an Egyptian War Chariot, around the time you pop the third hut, maybe 2-4 turns later. Declare war on Jerusaleum and move unto the hill, next turn move towards Egypt. Wait a turn for full movement so you can be next to their capital in 1t, declare. Ideally they will have a worker, which allows you to cancel yours and continue on the granary. Kill egypt. Now move the Chariot back home, the most Jerusaleum will do is send a warrior, easy exp for a War Chariot. About 6-7 turns before the independents spawn, send the War Chariot over to India. As soon as they appear, sack both. This prevents you HAVING to keep the Hindu holy city and eliminates the two fastest growing cities on the planet.

The great chariot of doom now heads over to China, here the situation may become dicey but you should have tons of promos by now so all that's left is to kill and raze Chang'an, followed by dismissing the merc.

Meanwhile, the city needs to be optimized for tiles and worker turns. Worker 1 cottages the stone and then improves Sheep followed by cottaging the flood plain between stone and sheep, second worker assists him on this and then both waste turns building another cottage on the floodplain closest to Shush. Done, now road 2 tiles, and you should get a border pop close to the time they are done. Improve and road wheat, then just build cottages or sit on marble waiting for masonry. Building cottages is probably more productive since you will need them for CoL.

Tile wise, grow to 4 on Sheep-Cottage-Stone Cottage, then work the forest hill till Library is done. Run scientists for awhile, slow building the Granary until you can build a Zigg. Work forest hill again, once Zigg is in, maximize growth to size 5 and then.. here it get's rough to remember, because you want a GS 1t before Oracle, and both before 131 while growing to size 6, you change tiles around a lot, but all 3 should come in on the same turn-ish. I think you can win with size 5, but I'm not sure. From here it's just spamming Archers and praying that Persia decides to sit on the copper instead of wiping you out or pillaging everything. Of course, barb pressure, namely from the Anatolian Chariots can be an issue as well, which is why it's smart to position the free sush Archer on your sheep, or maybe even the warrior. Honestly, it's probably best to reload if barbs mess with you, it's very close as is. As for that -3 per turn, no clue why that stuck around, but I may have messed up by just delete uniting the chariot or something, suffice to say if that hadn't happened I would have finished earlier. Screens+Save are also from a game where the Persians did pillage me slightly so tech was slower than I would have wanted, and yes I have played several to make sure it wasn't a fluke

 

[youtien]

Congo 1736, about 2700 points(forgot to take screenshot)

9 cities in Africa, 10th in Brazil on jungle gem. Bulbed scientific method by half and bought it from Mughals (with astronomy I researched myself), then researched physics to meet UHV #3.

 

[SheaferDaDawg]

Not that I doubt you, but I'm sure that a save would be useful for whoever is running the thread.