jorissimo
Warlord
Did a playthrough of Indonesia up to and including the 2nd UHV, which I achieved in 1380 on Regent, Epic speed. I loosely based my approach on the different strategies outlined in this thread, which dates from 1.15.
The three approaches outlined there for UHV 1 - biggest population in 1300 - are: sabotaging other civs using Djongs (which used to be called Orang Laut), peaceful growth using Monarchy and peaceful growth using the culture slider.
Sabotaging other civs is risky because there is not always a clear pop leader. I have seen it rotate between Korea, China, Tamils, Japan and even Byzantium, and so you're often dealing with a moving target. Furthermore, China is not so susceptible to naval blockades and Byzantium is way too far for you to influence them. It will also take a while to get to Compass. So I'd recommend the peaceful route.
On my first try I used MagnificentMOFOs strategy, which relies on the culture slider. This worked quite well, but really set me back in tech, making it impossible to get to Compass in time, which would have allowed me to settle the pearls in Polynesia.
On the second try I used canexpat's Monarchy approach, which worked just as well, while allowing me to tech.
When it comes to UHV 2 and the happiness resources, my approach consisted of settling as many resources as possible myself (9), which required me to trade for only one more. Settling as many resources as possible yourself minimizes your dependence on luck, with potential trading partners collapsing or not wanting to trade their resources with you.
So I opened as follows:
Switched to Despotism, Clergy, Redistribution and Citizenship. Founded capital Sukadena in Borneo, plus the starting spot Palembang and a city on top of the dye on the Malay peninsula. Immediately sent two of the workers that spawned in the cap to hook up the iron next to Palembang. Work boat built fishing boats for Palembang as well. Palembang started work on a barracks while waiting for the iron to come online. When that happened I immediately rush-bought two swordsmen and sent them to capture Pagan, which did not have a crossbow yet, just an archer. Other cities whipped work boats and all food buildings (Granary, Harbor, Aqueduct. Used culture slider for border pops. After the swordsmen, Palembang built a settler (Java, on the stone), scout (sent to meet Tibet and Turks), settler (Phillippines, the city that captures all of the resources there), followed by three more settlers, to be used later. Beelined Compass.
After the three major cities (mainland city, capital and Yogyakarta) had all of their food infrastructure in place, I switched to Monarchy and started pumping out archers in those cities for happiness. That's pretty much it for the first goal.
At some point after the year 1000 I started sending out settlers to the fur in NE Russia (near a river) and the silver, near Adelaide. Each settler was accompanied by an archer and each colony built a worker. After I researched Compass, I built a Cog and sent the third settler out to the Polynesian island with the pearls. This required Compass because a cape had to be traversed, on the island of Papua. This island city kinda sucks and would ideally rush-buy a work boat. I had already switched to Vassalage by that time so had to hard-build it, employing the single pop the island could sustain as a citizen.
After researching Compass I prioritized Machinery, Fortification and Feudalism. When I reached Feudalism I switched to Vassalage and Tributaries.
I managed to trade for cotton from the Mongols, which would have gotten me to the required total of 10 happiness resources, but the island city was still building its workboat (pro tip: switch out of Citizenship AFTER rush-buying the workboat). I have found that this city is essential as the Tamils are very unreliable in providing pearls. Either they declare war on you, or collapse, or spawn late and don't have the pearls hooked up, or a combination of these factors.
While waiting for the workboat, Tibet finally became willing to trade their incense, securing my golden age.
Something annoying that happened, which may be a new feature, is that, when Thailand spawns, the Khmer's core moves to the area around Hanoi and covers Pagan's tea, which you can never get back from that moment. Fortunately I was on good terms with the Khmer, and they had two tea resources, of which they were willing to trade me one. But this is something to watch out for: if possible, try to get the second goal before Thailand spawns in 1350.
I haven't played any further yet, but countering the TC events seems to be a matter of upgrading your stacks of archers to crossbowmen, and just massing siege and additional crossbows in your cities. My population was consistently over 9% and so the third goal seems to be a matter of keeping up the growth, not collapsing and settling some more cities.
The three approaches outlined there for UHV 1 - biggest population in 1300 - are: sabotaging other civs using Djongs (which used to be called Orang Laut), peaceful growth using Monarchy and peaceful growth using the culture slider.
Sabotaging other civs is risky because there is not always a clear pop leader. I have seen it rotate between Korea, China, Tamils, Japan and even Byzantium, and so you're often dealing with a moving target. Furthermore, China is not so susceptible to naval blockades and Byzantium is way too far for you to influence them. It will also take a while to get to Compass. So I'd recommend the peaceful route.
On my first try I used MagnificentMOFOs strategy, which relies on the culture slider. This worked quite well, but really set me back in tech, making it impossible to get to Compass in time, which would have allowed me to settle the pearls in Polynesia.
On the second try I used canexpat's Monarchy approach, which worked just as well, while allowing me to tech.
When it comes to UHV 2 and the happiness resources, my approach consisted of settling as many resources as possible myself (9), which required me to trade for only one more. Settling as many resources as possible yourself minimizes your dependence on luck, with potential trading partners collapsing or not wanting to trade their resources with you.
So I opened as follows:
Switched to Despotism, Clergy, Redistribution and Citizenship. Founded capital Sukadena in Borneo, plus the starting spot Palembang and a city on top of the dye on the Malay peninsula. Immediately sent two of the workers that spawned in the cap to hook up the iron next to Palembang. Work boat built fishing boats for Palembang as well. Palembang started work on a barracks while waiting for the iron to come online. When that happened I immediately rush-bought two swordsmen and sent them to capture Pagan, which did not have a crossbow yet, just an archer. Other cities whipped work boats and all food buildings (Granary, Harbor, Aqueduct. Used culture slider for border pops. After the swordsmen, Palembang built a settler (Java, on the stone), scout (sent to meet Tibet and Turks), settler (Phillippines, the city that captures all of the resources there), followed by three more settlers, to be used later. Beelined Compass.
After the three major cities (mainland city, capital and Yogyakarta) had all of their food infrastructure in place, I switched to Monarchy and started pumping out archers in those cities for happiness. That's pretty much it for the first goal.
At some point after the year 1000 I started sending out settlers to the fur in NE Russia (near a river) and the silver, near Adelaide. Each settler was accompanied by an archer and each colony built a worker. After I researched Compass, I built a Cog and sent the third settler out to the Polynesian island with the pearls. This required Compass because a cape had to be traversed, on the island of Papua. This island city kinda sucks and would ideally rush-buy a work boat. I had already switched to Vassalage by that time so had to hard-build it, employing the single pop the island could sustain as a citizen.
After researching Compass I prioritized Machinery, Fortification and Feudalism. When I reached Feudalism I switched to Vassalage and Tributaries.
I managed to trade for cotton from the Mongols, which would have gotten me to the required total of 10 happiness resources, but the island city was still building its workboat (pro tip: switch out of Citizenship AFTER rush-buying the workboat). I have found that this city is essential as the Tamils are very unreliable in providing pearls. Either they declare war on you, or collapse, or spawn late and don't have the pearls hooked up, or a combination of these factors.
While waiting for the workboat, Tibet finally became willing to trade their incense, securing my golden age.
Something annoying that happened, which may be a new feature, is that, when Thailand spawns, the Khmer's core moves to the area around Hanoi and covers Pagan's tea, which you can never get back from that moment. Fortunately I was on good terms with the Khmer, and they had two tea resources, of which they were willing to trade me one. But this is something to watch out for: if possible, try to get the second goal before Thailand spawns in 1350.
I haven't played any further yet, but countering the TC events seems to be a matter of upgrading your stacks of archers to crossbowmen, and just massing siege and additional crossbows in your cities. My population was consistently over 9% and so the third goal seems to be a matter of keeping up the growth, not collapsing and settling some more cities.
