The Great DoC UHV v 1.10 challenge

[Barbuesque]

Russia, monarch, normal, score 7915, finish date 1846

600 AD start, not much to write about the start, just a stack (3) of barbarian horse archers that flipped.

I founded Moscow, Talinn, Kiev, Stravopol. I went for civil service first, moving the capitol to Kiev for a monster capital. The poles threw a wrench in that plan, founding Tiraspol and taking the pig and iron hill, and with the timing of the mongol invasion and poland vassalazing to turkey, I never got a chance to correct that situation.

I got a few techs by trading in the first few turns, which helped a little bit: fishing and sailing from the vikings, calendar and meditation from Tibet, compass from china, and later on guilds from mughals. This is, from my experience in this scenario, slightly better than usual results from tech trading.

The mongols showed up in the mid 1300s, but I was ready and crushed their 12 units in 2 or 3 turns.

After civil service I went for engineering (for the mongols, unnecessary really as knights and general winter did the job), then optics and astronomy. I got optics around 1440, and astronomy around 1500. At this point the massive amount of cottages I set up in around my 4 european cities were finally maturing and, along with more infrastructure, my research really took off.

I got both conquerors events, despite spain being closer and getting optics at least 5 turns before me. I made peace with the incas and aztecs when they were willing to talk, and they were willing to peace vassal to me as soon as I got astronomy.

I settle the Rio plata spot, as spain usual settles it pretty early, and focused on settling the few decent spots in southern siberia, as mongol culture was already creeping up and threatened to squeeze me out of at least 2 of the better spots. I founded a chain of 6 cities up to mandchuria. I waited until 1700 for the last one, a garbage city on the okhostk sea, which I immediately gifted to korea. I also settled the central american plains as soon as I had the settlers (mid 1600s) and 2 additional cities in brazil around the same date. I wanted to settle california as well, but the spanish somehow got there really early.

When the settling phase was over, I had 17 cities, which is a lot, but somehow research kept going at a pretty fast pace. If you look at the screenshot at the end, I am researching plastics in 2 turns, with 19 cities by then. So I am not sure the penalty for research beyond 8 (?) cities is too steep, as was questionned in a different thread.

The last 3 vassals were:
Korea, in the late 1600s: I had to declare war on mongolia. They had been offering for a long time by then, but I was waiting for the tide of their chinese war to go against them, and to have sufficient troops to defend my new siberian cities.

Italy, in the mid 1700s: I had to declare war on spain. This didn't seem risky as they were already at war with France and Vikings. Problem was Turkey and it's vassals (Poland, Iran) joining the fray the next turn. This proved a distraction from building up infrastructure, and a real threat to Kiev from turkish troops, but I was able to grab Kazan from the Poles before the war ended for continuous culture from moscow to the far wast

Indonesia, in the early 1800s: Being at war with China, they had been up for grab for a long time. I was just about to go to war with china for my last vassal when I was forced into war with England, Prussia and the netherland by a congress. I had to "fix" them before getting my last vassal. China had vastly superior forces in the area, but with superior technology I inflicted them early and disproportionate casualties and got them to talk peace pretty fast.

After researching rocketry and starting on the apollo project, I went for mass media so I could trade all the necessary techs to get to communism to my vassals. As the incas had just done a civic switch, I had to wait a few turns to convert them, but finally it ended up timed with the same turn the apollo project was completed.

Sidenote: I didn't get much from espionage: Chemistry and rifling from the prussians, biology from the koreans near the very end and that's pretty much it. I spent a lot of EP on Poland and Turkey before the german spawn, but they never got to any tech before I did. I got gunpowder from Iran, military science from Korea and replaceable parts by trading with France which is an unusual haul in my experience, especially with so many vassals hurting my foreign relations.

 

[Ororo]

I managed to roll a really good start: 3 Hulagannis and 1 vulture flipped to me.
Settled Kition as my capital, which is one of the most awesome short-term spots in Mediterranean. I used the starting workers to chop/mine around it to get the necessary infrastructure up asap. I started running 2 scientists very early.

The army I flipped was immediately used to eliminate Greeks. Athens was defended by a single warrior so no casualties there and for Sparta I mainly used mercenaries. It was razed obviously. Couple of turns later I founded Carthage.

The first tech I researched was Mathematics. I timed the Oracle to finish on the same turn and grabbed Alpha. Got Monarchy+some minor techs through tech trades.

Kition spammed catapults for the upcoming war with Romans. With a decent siege back-up even the Legions are a piece of cake. Captured Rome and Pompei, razed Mediolanum and Nova Carthago. Rome then collapsed. During the war, Carthage was slowly but surely working on the Great Cothon and the Palace.

At this time, all I needed was a city in Spain and Currency. I settled on the Silver, which is the best short-term location I can think of. As for Currency, I got it around T125, then it was just building up and defending against stupid Barb Triremes which kept spawning inside my culture and blocking my trade routes. (it's really gay, since they can spawn and blockade on the same turn so they will cancel all your resource trades)

2 Golden Ages helped me to get the required gold on T151.

I spawned 3 Great Scientists and 1 Great Prophet (Aethetics bulb, Golden Age, Compass bulb).

Spoiler :

 

[Jusos2108]

I think there should be a continuation in the records from the earlier versions, if the civ in question hasn't experienced any changes.

 

[Neshalin]

Which civilization experienced no changes at all? Even if nothing was tweaked for that specific civ, others around have changed, influencing this one. The barbarian overhaul touches every civilization before America's independence (for example, you need to exert -some- effort to protect North American colonies from mohawks and mounted braves, where previously crossbowmen or longbowmen could hold the natives off forever). Cities giving full non-food resource yields touches every civilization as well.

 

[Barbuesque]

Good examples, some have been made indirectly harder too, like HRE from poland's existence, or India with the tamils.

 

[Ororo]

Now...this one I'm really proud of as I've resisted the temptation to build up and actually played like a true Viking

I decided to settle Uppsala as my capitol to have access to 3 food resources and plenty of forests to chop. I immediately started a market here and chopped it out to allow me to run 2 merchants. An early Great Merchant as really helpful for Vikings as it can bulb Civil Service, which unlocks Huscarls.

Spoiler :

The second settler went to found Lulea 1S of Copper. This is an excellent production city with tons of forests to chop. It produced tons of troops throughout the game.
The third settler was shipped to Ireland where it found Dublin. A very good city with tons of food, which is excellent for 2-pop whipping Huscarls. Plus it unlocks the access to Iceland.

I focused research on Compass. Later I went: Aesthetics -> Drama -> Engineering -> Paper (bulbed)
I spawned 3 Great Merchants. 1st bulbed CS, 2nd conducted trade mission to London, 3rd bulbed Paper.

The initial army was sent towards Rome and my initial intentions were to pillage the heck out of them. Surprisingly, they collapsed the turn after I met them. However, their vassal served as a great trading partner:

Spoiler :

I proceeded with the army towards Italy. I used my free barb kills on Mediolanum and razed it. Rome was poorly defended so I took it. It had some settled Great People but no Wonders. Later I managed to trade Pompeii as well.

Uppsala produced 2 settlers for Iceland and Vinland. I used Culture slider (once Drama was researched) to pop borders.

Then it was just spamming Huscarls and some support units. Diplomacy proved really helpful as well:
I bribed Charlemagne to declare on Barbarossa and on the same turn Izzy to declare on Charly. When I felt ready I stabbed Charly, took 2 of his cities on T1 of war and marched towards Paris. Barbarossa suicided his stack and left Paris defended with like 2 troops. Piece of cake for my Huscarls so I took it...and razed it
I then bribed Casimir on Barbarossa and declared on both Spain and Germany. I took all their coastal cities amphibiously. The main army went to Spain and eliminated them from the map. On the last turn before UHV I declared on England, taking London and Inverness amphibiously. I didn't manage to take Plymouth unfortunately.

Most of my gold came from capturing cities but I also made sure to pillage every single tile improvement.

Here's what's left of Europe:

Spoiler :

And some final stats:

Spoiler :

 

[blizzrd]

Cities giving full non-food resource yields touches every civilization as well.

Exactly.

 

[Gigaz]

Rome 561 ad, Marathon, Monarch.

Rome is serious business because the UHV require quick research and a lot of conquest. I think I took the most straightforward strategy:

I wiped Greece of the map with my 4 starting legions and built the Oracle to bulb currency. (That doesn't always work, sometimes Greece has built the Oracle. Without war they build it virtually every time)
I founded Vindobona and Salonae in the East with my settlers. These two cities have nice production. I built the Temple of Artemis in Rome to get my prophet for the Theology bulb. I conquered Carthage and Hippo Regius before I began to work on the building-UHV and the Phoenicians collapsed. After I got the buildings for the UHV ready I settled the rest of the historical Roman Empire and conquered Egypt.

The research line was monotheism - (currency bulb) - construction- theology (partly bulbed by a great prophet) - machines - civil service.

I think the Rome UHV is hardly possible without the Oracle and it is important to trade with India and China. They gave me meditation, code of laws and calender and lots of profit from trade. I had no time to build the Great Lighthouse and in the end I didn't need it.

Edit: forgot the end screen

 

[Neshalin]

Cambronne has posted a Korea victory in this thread before. (It's misspelled as Corea in strijder's OP). It was obvious that it could be completed a lot faster than 1742AD. Youtien's finish in the 1.9 thread was pretty late too. Here we go!

My start was pretty similar to Youtien's, though I chose to settle on the deer and just get the iron in the BFC that way. Barbarian Simiyan hoton was lightly defended by just a single archer, so my horsey rushed up and took it. After healing to full, he went west to meet our Roman friends. Unfortunately, they collapsed before I could reach them. Had to trade with the Vikings to finally get alphabet.

Tech: Literature, Civil Service, bulb Philosophy and Paper, Music, Machinery, Printing Press. I could get the Great Library and the Colosseum, but no other useful wonders.

At some point China asked for war against Japan. Not quite ready with only one trireme ready, I agreed anyway. A coastal city was churning out triremes, while my capital joined after finishing the cathedrals. The other two cities sort of looked pretty and useless and threatened to flip to the Mongols. I refused and never saw a Mongol unit. Japan wasn't building Triremes quickly enough to my taste, so I declared war on China and sunk their ships too. Victory in 1240AD.

Spoiler :

 

[Bair_the_Normal]

Cambronne has posted a Korea victory in this thread before. (It's misspelled as Corea in strijder's OP).

It can be spelled as either Korea or Corea. But I still think that one tile West is the best capital for Korea.

 

[Neshalin]

Hmm...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corea

Regarding the capital, you may well be right. The spot I used includes rice in the BFC, but I hardly ever worked the tile for the entire game. You'd raze Shimiyan hoton then, yes?

 

[Bair_the_Normal]

Actually, from my previous experience with Korea, you want the surprisingly common occurrence of a faraway civ, preferably Rome, to capture Simiyan hoton before your spawn. This is because: Rome is a pretty standard conqueror anyways, Rome is typically pagan, so they won't declare on you, Rome will provide a good and pretty stable and strong barrier between you and China, and if Rome has Simiyan hoton, they typically won't be able to build up enough culture to combat Korea's.

In regards to my capital choice, that rice is replaced by the wheat, and the same rice can be worked by a Japanese city that is... I believe one west of Kyouto, which indeed is an optimal spot. As for when Rome collapses, by that point, you as Korea should have built up enough units to capture and raze Simiyan hoton. The next thing is to take out Japan and found Harbin, along with any other city of your choice. (The choice of Harbin is for longer games, as Harbin is a quite good city that won't flip to the Mongols.)

 

[Swarbs]

I played a game with China and theres a much easier solution to that problem:

Vassalize Korea. When he goes for a tech that you must have first, tell him to research something else. Vassals must obey.

Just saw this now, and I have to say I like it

And here's my Emperor Mali victory, sticking to the initial three cities without relying on collapsing Moors or other such. Timbuktu whipped a market and Gao whipped a temple straight away getting the GM and GP just in time with no pool pollution. Sankore was whipped in around 1475, GP in 1490.

Used three GMs to Mecca, 100% commerce, sold loads of maps, and flogged Divine Right to the French for 930 gold to get the gold target with room to spare (virtual 1685AD). Could've raised another 800 or so with aggressive slavery as the French still had around 800 gold, and could've sold Divine Right to Spain for a couple of hundred, but it wasn't necessary in the end.

Only thing I did wrong was not settling on the coast to the west after 1500AD - that city would've raised a fair bit more gold and stopped the Dutch settling in my core which messed up stability in the end (-24 overall due to -7 for occupied core).

No score screenie, as it's Emperor so it doesn't count, but the normalised score was 2149. Best Dan Quayle I've ever had

Spoiler :

 

[Ororo]

Not quite strijder's 1200AD from 1.9 Challenge so there is still a room for improvement:

I haven't sent a Knight to meet China until very late so I never got there and Poland decided to troll me as they didn't want to capitulate until ~1220AD ("surely you must be joking" even though I've captured Krakow and left Gdansk defended with a single Catapult)

AP was built in Frankfurt, the shrine was captured (Sparta).
The three vassals were France (attacked from the start), Spain (once I was done with French) and Poland.
I had to self tech Printing Press and got it in 1250 AD.

Had loads of fun with this UHV but I'd say it's a little bit on the easy side.

Spoiler :

 

[youtien]

As Germany from 3000 BC, I founded Mainz 1W from Frankfurt, on iron, 2nd city on Copper 1N from Wien, 3rd city Riga on cow, conquered Mailand, Roma(Colossus), Rocksilde, Laibach(from Byz), then Byz collapsed, Constantinople had only 1 archer and both holy shrine. Then I went to Athens(Great Cothon, Great Lighthouse), Sparta(Temple of Artemis, academy and 2 great prophets)......

 

[Barbuesque]

Aztecs, win in 1860 with 3052 score.

This was no min maxed attempt, but I can definitely say that the aztecs are much harder than they used to be. Their UP has been so nerfed so much it's sad. The new one is absolutely nowhere near the +hammers benefits you'd get from the old one.

This is somewhat mitigated by the barbarian/native nerf to north america, that is effective until 1700 when gunpowder natives start to appear, but by this time the great plains should have been settled for a while and productive enough.

The result is that the expansion phase is much slower. Workers are expensive, and under the old versions, not only were you spared from building any, but you got a lot of them, a lot earlier. This snowballed in many, many hammers.

Anyway the euros are slower in colonizing the new world compared to some of the older versions, giving you enough time to settle the carribeans for the first UHV. The slaves one is easy, I got more than I needed. It's the tech one that is the challenge now, as the settling phase is so much longer from the UP nerf.

Surprisingly though, I wasn't much behind when I got physics. I got a very good haul from trading Education, Astronomy, and liberalism.

 

[Tomorrow's Dawn]

^Show us that Ottoman Empire!

 

[Barbuesque]

^Show us that Ottoman Empire!

A massive beast! The balkans, italy, poland, ukraine, germany and about to invade the netherlands Pretty much the strongest AI I ever saw in DoC

 

[Locutus_Morti]

I only ever see 2 Ottomans: The ones that control Europe, or the ones that control Iran.

 

[Swarbs]

A massive beast! The balkans, italy, poland, ukraine, germany and about to invade the netherlands Pretty much the strongest AI I ever saw in DoC

That's impressive! Tho' I saw a stronger Russia in my Italy game - controlled all of France, Madrid, and Frankfurt, vassalised Germany and Austria, and its borders went right from the very eastern edge of Siberia to Madrid and from the Caucasus all the way to the deer in Scandinavia. It even had Constantinople until I got it through a conference.

It was like Stalin's wet dream...