The Q-Meister
King
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2005
- Messages
- 774
Here we can post the UHVs we have accomplished successfully and on what difficulty level. This way, we can see which UHV is the easiest and which one no one or almost no one is getting.
Here are mine:
UHVs Completed (all on Monarch level)
Persia Moved this one to the top of the list.
VERY tough but VERY fun UHV! Took me several tries and this was on vanilla so I had no Great Wall, no Hanging Gardens in Babylon and had to build all 7 wonders myself as frustratingly the only civs that built wonders were China and Rome, the 2 civs farthest from me. Anyway, getting that 8% of land, especially in vanilla, takes a lot of efficient use of the units you have; always maximizing what you can do with them and striking a far-harder-than-it-sounds balance with your military of using them in favourable situations while not too cautious with them that you are not using them at all. Taking a few calculated risks are necessary here.
Finally, War Elephants! The best military unit in the ancient world! I would not have completed the UHV without them! They will be your best friend here. Immortals are only useful for the opening moves of the game and as much as I would love to move around archers across Mesopotamia and say "Our arrows will blot out the sun!" They are better off as garrisons of your cities. So yes the Persian UHV is possible even on vanilla...despite making your economy scream and having 99 turns till your next tech, you get to say "I have 8% of land!" and emerge victorious!
Egypt I'm really proud of this one; true it's not the hardest UHV, but I completed it on my first ever attempt with this civ on my first ever game playing the Mod.
Greece Fun, not particularly difficult, be interesting to play Greece in a militaristic way outside of the UHV
Rome Lots of fun; but no possible way to complete the entire Roman Empire without extending the ancient era. You barely have time to enjoy even the Western Roman Empire before the Euros come in. Anyone who wants to see why the ancient era should be extended should play Rome.
England Challenging. I did this with the old 1650 date for getting the 3 cities in each
continent requirement. Glad to see the date has been moved up thought, it was very tight.
Arabia - Took me a few tries to get this one. Much tougher than it seems. My strategy is a little bit different than some here; I go right away for Egypt (after the initial cities flip over to me), defending against the barbs is VERY difficult. Those camel archers are formidable and unlike Rome, just staying bottled up in those cities won't work as you need to defend your resources and roads as well for transportation across North Africa.
Getting the 3 Holy Sites are tough too. Especially when Christinanity is in Europe as happened to me more than once, in fact in my winning game this is what happened. What to do in those situations? As always, when in doubt, conquer India!! There should be at least 1 Religious shrine in Delhi by the time you get there and don't be intimidated by the distances involved! Sending 3-4 Camel Archers should pacify Delhi, India should collapse afterwards. My strategy was to gift Delhi to a friendly civ, say the Mali and then use the army in Delhi to conquer the rest of India. That way, even if India re-spawns as happened, it's OK as your goal is not to conquer the country but spread Islam to their cities!
Taking Spain is tricky but doable. I built a lot of Camel Archers, they only had Longbowmen and that's that.
The real nightmare occurs afterwards, your economy is screaming from taking all that land and your science rate is 0%. About Christianity, I razed the holy city, and I highly recommend doing this. Territory was no longer important so I started gifting some more Egyptian cities to Mali. Mali then collapsed though 
I can't wait for BTS..it's gonna be VERY nice having another African civ around to absorb those barbs and build up some cities!
China - Good civ for those that seek balance (religions, expansion, military) Hardest part was getting the religions, the religious techs for temples, and enough military techs to defend against annoying barbs. The 120 unit requirement wasn't as difficult as I once thought as you want to build a big army to dominate your area and build a proper defense (or offense) after having to build all those temples. Using the whip appropriately is the key here. China is a strong all around civ for many different playing styles.
India - Finally! Hooray! So many things happened to me in trying to get this UHV it's not even funny. I have become better at playing India as a result, though I must say, more than ANY other UHV luck had a bigger part in whether I win or lose (For instance if Persia hell-bent on destroying you it is very difficult to defend against the Persian immortals and build the wonders and temples you need. Also if the AI is set on getting a wonder or even Judaism he will beat you to it. If China is led appropriately they will beat you in popualation. If a plague hits you right before the 1200 deadline the population victory becomes much harder to attain...etc Well you get the idea. Just glad to say I completed this UHV so I don't have to do it again!
Japan - One rule: Attack China Early. That's it. My experience has been that Japan turtled up within the main island doesn't work; the score will not compete with the empires of Persia, Arabia or the emerging European colonial powers controlling a mere 1% of global land mass in tiny Japan. If you build wonders and attack China late (as I did before) then the score will suffer as you only became a large empire recently. The trick is to forgo the wonders, attack China early, take care of your science and you will at least be competitive in the race for top score in 1500. You should win most games using this strategy effectively.
France - See page 2.
Aztecs - See page 2.
UHVs I have attempted but thus far been unable to complete:
Mali Got 2/3 with this one, last UHV condition is pretty tough.
Mongolia This is confusing to me; I always conquer China, usually have 3 cities but still it does not register with the game that I've accomplished this requirement.
Won with a victory other than UHV
Persia Even without taking the 8% , 6-7% by the early AD does give you a pretty good base to dominate the game.
America Didn't go for the UHV when I played America as the old requirement of eliminating ALL Euro colonies from the entire Americas seemed impossible. After playing several games as Arabia and Persia, the difference between the American land vs that of the latter could not be more stark. The American land and thus its economy is simply magnificient; it blows away completely the lands in the Middle East.
The rest of the civs I have not played yet.
Here are mine:
UHVs Completed (all on Monarch level)
Persia Moved this one to the top of the list.
VERY tough but VERY fun UHV! Took me several tries and this was on vanilla so I had no Great Wall, no Hanging Gardens in Babylon and had to build all 7 wonders myself as frustratingly the only civs that built wonders were China and Rome, the 2 civs farthest from me. Anyway, getting that 8% of land, especially in vanilla, takes a lot of efficient use of the units you have; always maximizing what you can do with them and striking a far-harder-than-it-sounds balance with your military of using them in favourable situations while not too cautious with them that you are not using them at all. Taking a few calculated risks are necessary here.Finally, War Elephants! The best military unit in the ancient world! I would not have completed the UHV without them! They will be your best friend here. Immortals are only useful for the opening moves of the game and as much as I would love to move around archers across Mesopotamia and say "Our arrows will blot out the sun!" They are better off as garrisons of your cities. So yes the Persian UHV is possible even on vanilla...despite making your economy scream and having 99 turns till your next tech, you get to say "I have 8% of land!" and emerge victorious!
Egypt I'm really proud of this one; true it's not the hardest UHV, but I completed it on my first ever attempt with this civ on my first ever game playing the Mod.
Greece Fun, not particularly difficult, be interesting to play Greece in a militaristic way outside of the UHV
Rome Lots of fun; but no possible way to complete the entire Roman Empire without extending the ancient era. You barely have time to enjoy even the Western Roman Empire before the Euros come in. Anyone who wants to see why the ancient era should be extended should play Rome.
England Challenging. I did this with the old 1650 date for getting the 3 cities in each
continent requirement. Glad to see the date has been moved up thought, it was very tight.
Arabia - Took me a few tries to get this one. Much tougher than it seems. My strategy is a little bit different than some here; I go right away for Egypt (after the initial cities flip over to me), defending against the barbs is VERY difficult. Those camel archers are formidable and unlike Rome, just staying bottled up in those cities won't work as you need to defend your resources and roads as well for transportation across North Africa.
Getting the 3 Holy Sites are tough too. Especially when Christinanity is in Europe as happened to me more than once, in fact in my winning game this is what happened. What to do in those situations? As always, when in doubt, conquer India!! There should be at least 1 Religious shrine in Delhi by the time you get there and don't be intimidated by the distances involved! Sending 3-4 Camel Archers should pacify Delhi, India should collapse afterwards. My strategy was to gift Delhi to a friendly civ, say the Mali and then use the army in Delhi to conquer the rest of India. That way, even if India re-spawns as happened, it's OK as your goal is not to conquer the country but spread Islam to their cities!
Taking Spain is tricky but doable. I built a lot of Camel Archers, they only had Longbowmen and that's that.
The real nightmare occurs afterwards, your economy is screaming from taking all that land and your science rate is 0%. About Christianity, I razed the holy city, and I highly recommend doing this. Territory was no longer important so I started gifting some more Egyptian cities to Mali. Mali then collapsed though I can't wait for BTS..it's gonna be VERY nice having another African civ around to absorb those barbs and build up some cities!China - Good civ for those that seek balance (religions, expansion, military) Hardest part was getting the religions, the religious techs for temples, and enough military techs to defend against annoying barbs. The 120 unit requirement wasn't as difficult as I once thought as you want to build a big army to dominate your area and build a proper defense (or offense) after having to build all those temples. Using the whip appropriately is the key here. China is a strong all around civ for many different playing styles.
India - Finally! Hooray! So many things happened to me in trying to get this UHV it's not even funny. I have become better at playing India as a result, though I must say, more than ANY other UHV luck had a bigger part in whether I win or lose (For instance if Persia hell-bent on destroying you it is very difficult to defend against the Persian immortals and build the wonders and temples you need. Also if the AI is set on getting a wonder or even Judaism he will beat you to it. If China is led appropriately they will beat you in popualation. If a plague hits you right before the 1200 deadline the population victory becomes much harder to attain...etc Well you get the idea. Just glad to say I completed this UHV so I don't have to do it again!
Japan - One rule: Attack China Early. That's it. My experience has been that Japan turtled up within the main island doesn't work; the score will not compete with the empires of Persia, Arabia or the emerging European colonial powers controlling a mere 1% of global land mass in tiny Japan. If you build wonders and attack China late (as I did before) then the score will suffer as you only became a large empire recently. The trick is to forgo the wonders, attack China early, take care of your science and you will at least be competitive in the race for top score in 1500. You should win most games using this strategy effectively.
France - See page 2.
Aztecs - See page 2.
UHVs I have attempted but thus far been unable to complete:
Mali Got 2/3 with this one, last UHV condition is pretty tough.
Mongolia This is confusing to me; I always conquer China, usually have 3 cities but still it does not register with the game that I've accomplished this requirement.
Won with a victory other than UHV
Persia Even without taking the 8% , 6-7% by the early AD does give you a pretty good base to dominate the game.
America Didn't go for the UHV when I played America as the old requirement of eliminating ALL Euro colonies from the entire Americas seemed impossible. After playing several games as Arabia and Persia, the difference between the American land vs that of the latter could not be more stark. The American land and thus its economy is simply magnificient; it blows away completely the lands in the Middle East.
The rest of the civs I have not played yet.
I think I have got Japan and greece on older versions...
