The Great DoC UHV v 1.13 challenge

[Publicola]

Civilization: Poland
Victory Type: Historical
Scenario: 600 AD
Version: 1.13 (no Git)
Score (normalized): 8599, Simon Bolivar
Difficulty: Regent
Gamespeed: Normal
Victory Date: t81, 1405 AD
Game Save: View attachment Sobieski (Publicola) AD-1405 Turn 262 -score.CivBeyondSwordSave

I decided to go back to my above game and actually pursue the better score I thought I could get. Ironically, I succeeded so well I leapfrogged over 'Lech Walesa' for my final score.

Spoiler :

I loaded the game at the turn I discovered Liberalism and got Music, and gave myself an extra turn -- enough to spread out my workers to cut more forests, spread out my production so my capital could build Leaning Tower, ensure I could actually use the Great Prophet I spawned in 1400 AD for my shrine, and, oh right, actually finish the conquest of Mecca.

Spoiler :

I discovered I could boost my score another way as well -- it turns out that the Ottoman Empire was so bent on rampaging through the former Byzantine lands, that they only defended their capital Constantinople with two bombards. I snuck two of my knights around, and conquered the city during my final turn.

Spoiler :

Obviously I couldn't have held it against the Turkish stack of doom (though I was only four turns from getting my UU, Winged Hussars, so I might have succeeded in the conquest if I waited until then). Still, that conquest garnered me an extra 5 population points and two wonders when my score was tallied at the end of the turn.

 

[Andrrew]

Getting Lech Walesa with Poland seems quite appropriate. Poland needs more leaders like him..

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

Getting Lech Walesa with Poland seems quite appropriate. Poland needs more leaders like him..

Yeeeeeees no. Poland has enough counter-revolutionary scumbags already.

 

[ales_]

Please, stay on topic in this thread.

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

Please, stay on topic in this thread.

Fine, I'll go off topic in another thread.

 

[Publicola]

Civilization: Netherlands
Victory Type: Historical
Scenario: 1700 AD
Version: 1.13 (no Git)
Score (normalized): 3535, Ethelred the Unready
Difficulty: Regent
Gamespeed: Normal
Victory Date: t3, 1709 AD
Game Save: View attachment Willem van Oranje (Publicola) AD-1709 Turn 324 -speedrun.CivBeyondSwordSave

Spoiler :

So this was the (rather infamous) 3-turn victory for the Netherlands. The strategy:

1. Set Amsterdam to pop a Great Merchant as soon as possible. I assigned four merchants and one artist, to get it down to three turns
2. Load your Amsterdam rifles onto your ships, two apiece (I left one rifle at home just in case, but it proved unnecessary) and send those ships to the Caribbean. (The Bombards are useless -- don't bother with them).
3. Meanwhile, in SE Asia, load two Batavia rifles onto your Indiaman and move it beside your New Guinea city to load a third. These will unload the following turn to take Makassar, the indie city between the two Dutch ones.
4. Once your Amsterdam Indiaman reaches the Caribbean, declare war on Spain and take their spice island city. This is the only point where you need luck -- it's about a 30% chance of victory against their musket, but you need to one-shot it. On victory, move your Indiaman into the city, load the exhausted rifle, and move him toward South America with the second (unused) Indiaman.
5. Final turn: declare war on France and Portugal and attack their two South American spice cities (Cayenne and Belem) from the sea. You should have two rifles per city, so it's okay to lose one so long as you do some damage to their defender. Once done, that's the game.

For score, I sent my South African rifle + Indiaman to conquer the nearby Portugese city. I also did the same with my second Batavia Indiaman -- picked up rifles from Singapore and Sri Lanka and took the independent city in central India. It might have been better to attack Pagan for the wonder, but I was counting on the India population to compensate.

Terrible score, but a pretty satisfying puzzle if you're looking for a speed run.

 

[adhiraj.bose]

@Publicola - Can you do the French UHV on 1700 AD too ?

 

[Publicola]

Civilization: Netherlands
Victory Type: Historical
Scenario: 1700 AD
Version: 1.13 (no Git)
Score (normalized): 7175, Henry VIII
Difficulty: Paragon
Gamespeed: Normal
Victory Date: t3, 1709 AD
Game Save: View attachment Willem van Oranje (Publicola) AD-1709 Turn 324 -paragon.CivBeyondSwordSave

Spoiler :

Same start, same overall strategy, but this time on Paragon difficulty. I did make a few changes, though.

First, I brought my fifth rifle from Amsterdam. This meant that the 3-turn victory was no longer a matter of chance -- I could lose a rifleman to take San Juan and still have two rifles ready to attack Belem and Cayenne the following turn.

Second, with my SE Asia forces I targeted Yangon (Pagan) for the wonder. This proved a bit more challenging, but I took two rifles Malakka (Singapore) and one from Colombo (Sri Lanka) and landed them on the banana plantation next to the city, so I faced pretty decent (60% or so) odds for each of the three battles.

Third, I disregarded all of my cities' production to focus entirely on population growth. All but two of my starting cities managed to grow before I hit the UHV, which also boosted my score.

PS to adhiraj.bose: Sure, I can give it a shot. Probably not tomorrow, though; there's something on my calendar, though for the life of me I can't seem to remember...

Oh, that's right. Merry Christmas!

 

[Andrrew]

England / Paragon / Normal / 600AD
v1.13
Normalised Score: 18,404
Actual Date: 1751AD

View attachment Victoria AD-1751 Turn 338.CivBeyondSwordSave

Cities: Cottages, emphasised catholic and science / gold buildings, then built Wealth.
For happiness, the age old trick not to hook up Iron until there are ~4 warriors in the 4 core cities.
Early on focused on generating GPs and GMs and bulbed whenever possible (Phil, Paper, Banking, Education etc)

Techs: Guilds (1120AD), Astronomy (1330AD), Education (1420AD), Liberalism (bulb Repl. Parts in 1465AD), Economics (1490AD), Physics (1565AD), Rifling (1595AD), Chemistry (1640AD), Mass Media (1739AD). I would have much rather got Rifling and Mil. Science first after Econ instead of beelining Physics (to accelerate Indian conquest and Frigate building), but painful Spain already had Scientific Method so couldn't risk it to lose on Industrial era race.

Civics: Slavery / Guilds / Scholasticism in early game; switched to Secularism / Capitalism / Mercantilism / Naval Supremacy asap.

UHV #1:
- Africa: Starting longbows captured Marrakesh and Al-Jazair, then made their way to Alexandria (supported with Cats / Knights later)
- LatAm: I hit conquerors once Astronomy is done (i.e. even before Gunpowder). I didn't want to conquer any non-"Historical" stability city though so just vassalised Inca for happiness / resource. Aztecs were too powerful so just gifted away most of the troops. First Astronomy settlers settled the Caribbeans.
- North Am: Settled Mobile, St.Johns and Vancouver early, then at later stage Milwaukee and Winnipeg. All "Historical" stability
- Asia: Conquered India with Trading Comp troops once you get Rifling. Used the "whip" option as Mughals sometimes accept the 600g bribe. Obviously never traded techs with them as don't want to face Rifles / Grenadiers.
- Australia: Settled 3 decent locations around 1700AD.

Spoiler :

UHV #2:
Built an army of Privateers and sank caravels / galleons.
25 Frigates: Saved up GGs until to build Mil.Academies.
In my case my tech was actually ahead, so I switched to building Caravels and then upgrading them.

UHV #3: as tech and strategy above.

Spoiler :

Even with this approach Morocco sometimes resurrects, which is a pity as Marrakesh / Al Jazair are good production cities for those ships.

 

[Tigranes]

Victory without London seem just a bit tacky for the true Englishmen.

 

[Alexius08]

Why didn't you take Jerusalem? The shrine could have let you research much faster.

 

[Andrrew]

Tigranes: true that.. I'll have a go at a 'historical' scenario as well some point.. but hey, RFC is about alternative history

Alexius08: fair point, although as per latest stability map Jerusalem is 'Foreign' for England for some reason (Mandatory Palestine anyone?), and my stability was already Shaky most of the time. (Once I actually had to reload and change civics to avoid a Morocco respawn)

 

[Andrrew]

Korea / Paragon / Normal / 600AD
v1.13
Normalised Score: 5,958
Actual Date: 1610AD

View attachment Wang Kon AD-1610 Turn 303.CivBeyondSwordSave

UHV #1:
Settled Seoul and Pyongyang, conquered Shenyang with starting units, then settled Sanggyeong shortly after. With monasteries, monks and temples chopped / whipped ASAP the first goal is manageable. I finished in 1110AD with Pyongyang and Shenyang building the Stupas due to strong production / wood to chop. Obviously research Music first.

UHV #2:
This will be a mad tech race so build science buildings / research once those Stupas are done. I got PP in 1410AD. First I tried to build Triremes to give myself a head start for UHV #3, but someone beat me to PP in ~1420AD..

UHV #3:
Once the other 2 are done, mass produced Triremes and fought a miserable war against Japanese Caravels. I could have waited until I had Optics but wanted to accelerate victory. Trick is to lure 2 Caravels into your waters with 2 Triremes as baits. The Japanese Caravels will be hurt from killing the Triremes and your 3rd and 4th Triremes that were hiding in the city harbor will be able to kill them.

Spoiler :

Overall I killed 18 Caravels and 2 Triremes while losing 19 Triremes and 1 Caravel... not that bad I guess

Stability can become an issue.. I had 1 year of anarchy in the late game, but that's all.

Mongols: in 1200AD gift away Shenyang to China with no defenders. Then wait for Mongolia to put a defender in, kill it with no casualties, and Mongolia will likely make peace for good for 1 tech. Just continue giving them techs for gold to keep them happy though.

 

[Andrrew]

Khmer / Paragon / Normal / 600AD
v1.13
Normalised Score: 9,826
Actual Date: 1300AD

View attachment Suryavarman II AD-1300 Turn 251.CivBeyondSwordSave

Tech: Calendar, Philosophy, Drama. Then turn 100% culture.

Cities: I settled Bangkok (1W on Sugar) and Hanoi, then captured Pagan and Pataliputra (1 elephant casualty).
Capital and Hanoi starts with Library, Harbor then Monasteries + Warriors as required. (Didn't hook up Copper until Philosophy.. then gave it to China for 2 health resources)

GPs: limit Priests in Pataliputra until Angkor is done. Then the city will run 7 Artists
For teching I needed scientists in early game though, hence got 1 GS (bulbed Alphabet) and also 1 GP (settled in Hanoi)

UHV #1: Finished Angkor in 1170AD (chopped but did not whip to max on pop)
UHV #2: With 14/13/6/15 pops I hit 12 avg in 1180AD
UHV #3: 2 GAs + 100% culture was enough to hit 8,000 culture in 1300AD

Well, forgot to switch to Scholasticism so score / date could be improved. Also, maybe should have started a GoldenAge with GP+GS

 

[Publicola]

Civilization: Khmer
Victory Type: Historical
Scenario: 600 AD
Version: 1.13 (no Git)
Score (normalized): 21780, Augustus Caesar
Difficulty: Paragon
Gamespeed: Normal
Victory Date: t54, 1140 AD
Game Save: View attachment Suryavarman II (Publicola) AD-1140 Turn 235 -paragon.CivBeyondSwordSave

I was curious about the Khmer game after Andrrew's run-through, so I gave it a shot. As far as challenges go, the mid-game here was surprisingly relaxed; it was the early and late game that gave me conniptions.

Spoiler :

To maximize my core population, I decided to settle on the spice at the southwest corner of my core and the rainforest-hill south of the dye. Unfortunately, these came with the default names "Phuket" and "Vijaya" (I'm sure those are real cities with real histories, but seriously, come on). I ignored Hanoi because, while it is a nice spot, it's also 'Historical' not 'Core,' so it doesn't help with stability. When it spawned as a barb city, I used my free wins and gave it to Korea. I also changed my religion to Buddhism once my first two cities were settled -- it actually had a significant impact, since most of the cities I conquered were Buddhist.

Spoiler :

Like Andrrew, I immediately launched my campaign against the Indian subcontinent, starting with Pagan and moving on to Pataliputra. Unlike Andrrew, I did not stop there, but continued on to conquer Delhi. It was a risk, considering the Mughal spawn in 1206 AD, but Delhi's population and production capacities simply dwarf any other city nearby, so it accelerated my path to UHV considerably. I also conquered the neighboring cities and gave them to my rivals (mainly Tibet, since no one hated them, but also China to keep them happy with me and avoid a border with Arabia). Bhopal was the biggest challenge -- it was defended by walls, hills, and an Indian UU specialized in defending hills. I built a catapult and settled in for a slog, but I promoted one of my Ballistas with a Great General and got him promoted up to Combat VI with the +25% strength. It was still a close call.

Spoiler :

I also sent one of my Ballista Elephants on a detour south, just in time to meet the Indonesian spawn. Considering Indonesia starts at war with you, it's pretty easy to grab their two cities (and precious workers). Just avoid their trireme, and wait until they've spread Buddhism at least to their capital. Those cities start slow, but they ramp up population remarkably fast once they've gotten a granary and harbor under their belt.

Spoiler :

As the graph shows, I didn't give any attention to culture until nearly the end of the game. My priority in the early game was -- start with Sailing -> Calendar. That opens up the mid-game, which is a bit friendlier -- once you reach Calendar, your economy takes off, so stability is much less of a worry. All the new plantation resources also provide a ton of happiness, so it's basically a race with yourself to bulk out your population as quickly as possible.

The trick to reaching Philosophy is actually to research Alphabet first. Build a library in your capital and assign two scientists. As long as you've discovered Alphabet by the time you pop the Great Scientist, he gives about 1700 to Philosophy. Once I got Philosophy, I used it to trade with everyone for other techs -- including Currency, Theology, Compass, and most importantly Aesthetics, which led me straight to Drama.

I didn't worry about competition for the Wat Preah Pistoluk since I chopped the forests around Delhi to accelerate its construction (this also allowed me to nab Borobudur as well). Once you get Drama, there's the end game -- I assigned 100% of commerce to culture, traded techs desperately to keep my treasury afloat, maxed out my artist specialities in Patilaputra, and that was that. I spawned two Great Artists, and it was the second that pushed me over the 8000 requirement.

Spoiler :

Finally, on the final turn I declared war on China and captured the city I'd given them earlier. It was only worth 4 population, but still, every little bit counts. On the other hand, I must confess I'm really grateful I didn't go for it sooner: check out that Seljuk stack of doom waiting on the other side. No wonder Arabia collapsed so quickly...

Spoiler :

(Edit: thanks, I must have accidentally hit it at some point. Weird that I never noticed those before....)

 

[merijn_v1]

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[Alexius08]

Civilization: Mongolia
Victory Type: Historical
Scenario: 3000 BC
Version: 1.13 (no Git)
Score (normalized): 14582, Hammurabi
Difficulty: Regent
Gamespeed: Marathon
Victory Date: 1348 AD
Game Save: mongol uhv.civbeyondswordsave

For UHV1: Make sure that you don't spawn at war against China. However, you need to provoke them into declaring war against you so that you can get additional troops for free. Prioritize taking the city with the Great Wall to speed up your conquest.
For UHV2: I razed 3 cities in India, 2 in Persia, and 1 each in Babylonia and Egypt. There's no deadline for this, but I have to raze my seventh city to get a golden age and prevent bankruptcy.
For UHV3: Luckily, most of my neighbors were unstable. To reduce casualties, I waited for them to collapse before moving in. The result:

I was planning to play past the UHV, so I have to go to war against the Mughals and take over Delhi (where Shwedagon Paya is located) to switch to secularism later.


Despite having Optics before I spawned, the AI civs seem to be prevented from reaching the Americas. I then went to get the conqueror events to add to my score.

 

[Tigranes]

How did the island of Tibet survive in the violent Mongol Ocean?

 

[Publicola]

Hey ales, any plans to update the original post with all the victories that have been posted since November 22nd?

 

[ales_]

I've got a lot if things to do now but I haven't forgotten about this thread and I'll do it one day.