The World of Islam

I had played 5 games with The Arabs and always the missing UHV goal was this, so, or I am a really bad player, or is just too difficult. Of course it adds more action because you are encouraged to conquer all Europe. I am saying this because when I was playing as the Ottomans, I had a HUGE empire, with "colonies" on England, Azores and those little islands, guess what, Islam was just 33%. So, the goal could be changed into "build a lot of islamic wonders" or "have 2 (or 3) islamic vassals".
 
@Merijn
Exactly! I'm against a UHV based on luck as well, that's why I stated that the extra spawn that now is based on luck could be changed to be awarded always (maybe I wasn't so clear in my last post). So always the Arab player would start with those 13 HAs, and being fast enough you may conquer all North Africa up to 756AD.

About the production and growth I didn't know this, I was guessing. Having 100 FPs and 50% boost on production and growth will you grow a city needing 100 food only by making 50 food? So you'd become twice as fast in growth and unit production right? I was thinking something in these lines.

In my games with Arabia I don't even care for Corporations

@osmowstroyer
Of course there is a math trick in this UHV: The earlier you get it the easier. You are the 3rd civ to spawn and you spread your religion on conquest. If you conquer a lot of places soon enough you'll get the most of the world population with few territory, because at this time cities are small, scattered, with few religions and lots are of tiny independents. If you complete the conquest of North Africa together with the spawn of Cordoba, Islam reaches ~20% of spread. That's because nobody has a size comparable to yours, only the Byzantines (because if they don't, you'd win just by completing UHV2 in 750 AD).

And as the majority of the territories are of a historical majority of christians and most of the civs are historically christian as well, if you wait too much time to spread it'll get increasingly difficult.
 
I had played 5 games with The Arabs and always the missing UHV goal was this, so, or I am a really bad player, or is just too difficult. Of course it adds more action because you are encouraged to conquer all Europe. I am saying this because when I was playing as the Ottomans, I had a HUGE empire, with "colonies" on England, Azores and those little islands, guess what, Islam was just 33%. So, the goal could be changed into "build a lot of islamic wonders" or "have 2 (or 3) islamic vassals".

IMO, it's one of the more easier UHV. My trick is to have big cities with only islam and no other religions in them.
And with Arabia, that isn't too hard. You can easily have a continuous empire for Damascus to Oran. (or at least Tunis) Make sure you have the Gardens of Al Andalus, so you can build farms on all plain tiles. If you do this, all of that cities can grow to at least size 15. (reaching size 20 isn't uncommon) And with the right civics, the farms will also generate a very decent production and commerce.
(And if you have the Hanseatic league, you can grow even bigger.)

A city of size 15 has more inhabitants than 3 cities of size 5. So big cities are the key.

If you do this, you'll automatically get the UHV. I don't even have to think about it, because as I grow, I will automatically get the UHV.

@Merijn
Exactly! I'm against a UHV based on luck as well, that's why I stated that the extra spawn that now is based on luck could be changed to be awarded always (maybe I wasn't so clear in my last post). So always the Arab player would start with those 13 HAs, and being fast enough you may conquer all North Africa up to 756AD.

About the production and growth I didn't know this, I was guessing. Having 100 FPs and 50% boost on production and growth will you grow a city needing 100 food only by making 50 food? So you'd become twice as fast in growth and unit production right? I was thinking something in these lines.

In my games with Arabia I don't even care for Corporations.

That's indeed how the islamic FP work.

The Hanseatic League is very, very useful for Arabia. The food bonus will make your cities much bigger. (and a lot of resources you need for the HL are in your territory, making it very effective) This will make your empire having more inhabitants, making more people islamic, making the 3rd UHV a lot easier.
 
There are a lot of factors making Arabia too easy. Most of them are already mentioned but I will list them anyway:

- House of wisdom, +100% science. Obsoletes with Eduction which I delay as far as possible. You get the universities at Philosophy which gives you a nice edge in tech.
- Faith points for cheap units and food
- Hanseatic League, wonderful for that North African coast stretch
- Theocracy, +2 XP and +20% unit production (or was it +25%?)
- Feudalism, +20% unit production
- Ghazis
- No competition in North Africa
- Spread state religion in conquered cities with a temple in a mod where culture is a bit hard to get
 
IMO, Arabia is indeed one of the (if not THE) easiest civs. At least for the human player. The AI usually has some problem with Arabia. Maybe Arabia should get a bigger penalty when played by the human player.
 
Yes, Arabia is not challenging enough by far
For a first step, I already increased barbarian activity for the human player in North Africa and in the Middle East
 
So I finished this new game with the Arabs. I still think I failed to get a great early date to finish UHV3. Up to the last game before this, I'd never completed UHV3 before 1291 AD (UHV2 limit date). In the last one I got it a few turns before 1291. This time I got it around 1180 AD (100 years before UHV2).

I'm sure this was Cordoba's fault and in some part my management as well. I delayed the early wonders to make Ghazis. This allowed my horde to conquer the european lands quite early. But the wrong side of this was the total growth focus of my cities, especially in the North African Coast. Of course if I grow faster then the christians, I may win the objective earlier. But if I don't grow fast, and instead conquer all christian lands (by focusing on stability + ghazis), I may complete the objective even earlier.

So I should have focused on making an alternate production between ghazis, stability buildings and growth buildings. In this game I was always thinking like this: New City founded/conquered -> Granary - Smokehouse - Harbor - Defensive Unit - Lighthouse.

In terms of conquest I failed in a single spot: Never destroy the Spanish. Destroying Spain means that Cordoba will fall. Cordoba is always Shaky or Unstable/Collapsing after some time, so a dead spain will rise from inside Cordoba. In this game when Cordoba failed to handle itself together, it had all Iberia with the exception of Lusitania and had Tanjah as their only african city. Only La Corona, Tulaytulah (capital, they moved the initial settler to make Al-Maryyat) and Tanjah remained with them. Leon, Pamplona, Barcelona, Sevilla, Valencia, Al-Maryyat and some possible other cities they founded became Spain. A few turns later Cordoba collapsed. I even could change Spain to islam briefly, but then they returned to Catholicism and started to persecute islam.

In the rest of my conquests I was even better then I imagined: I started by sending my HAs and Zanji Spearmen to Iberia, to help Cordoba survive (they couldn't even handle the barbs, and almost lost Tulaytulah twice). With my first wave of Ghazis I conquered Spain and liberated the cities to Cordoba. Then I invaded Burgundy. Marseille was destroyed before I arrived, so I conquered Toulouse and Lyon and Capitulated Burgundy. Then Genoa appeared (while I was conquering Milan), and after those 5 turns of peace with them, I conquered Genoa and the city they founded near Marseille site. Venice was already dead (don't know why), so I conquered it, and all this territory I gave to Burgundy. At this time Cordoba collapsed and I was divided between attacking France or Spain. The Pope chose for me: Charlemagne was leading the crusade. Then I conquered a few cities in France and they asked to capitulate. Great, 2 Emirates in Europe. Suddenly Hungary declared war, so I did a blitzkrieg with them, capturing 5 cities in 2 turns. They capitulated after that, and I gave all cities back to then (Zara went to Burgundy and Ragusa I kept for myself, as I did with Neapolis earlier). So finally I went for Iberia, destroyed Spain, attacked Portugal until they capitulated, and divided Iberia with them. After this I won the game (if not my next aim would be Poland/Austria).

And here it is, the final screenshot (you can see that the Emirate of Burgundy was already conquering Poland for me):
Spoiler :
 

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