Unique Historical Victories?

[Autumn Leaf]

Israel.

I see a suggestion that this was going to be Rhye's OCC in this mod. Unfortunately, having played Israel now (without UHVs, just trying to get a feel for it), Jerusalem makes a rather poor OCC city. By 428 BC, mine was up to population 7, after I Pastured the Cows and Farmed the three plains tiles in its BFC. Sadly, after discovering Sailing I found that the Dead Sea was not big enough to allow me to build a Harbor. I got a little more Food by reverting to Redistribution (+25% Food in the capital), and could get a little more again if someone gifted me Machinery so that I could build Windmills. The city maxes out at 11 population, and at this point I can't see a way beyond that except by the glacially slow accretion of Great Merchants. Jerusalem is never going to be a big city and its trade prospects are mediocre. It does have good producton.

In my game, I had Tyre (which flipped to me) in my BFC to the north and someone (probably Phoenicia) settled Sidon on the Suez ithmus (I renamed it to Suez when I finally captured it), so I'm certainly going to restart that game and not settle Jerusalem on the spot, just to see what happens. However, unless carefully written, any UHVs for Israel are probably going to involve certain big buildings in Jerusalem, and it's ahistorical for the Jews not to want Jerusalem as their capital, so let's work from that assumption for now.

What are the options? Bearing in mind that Israel spawns in 1052 BC (Actually I spawned in 1044 BC), with 8 years to the turn initially and 6 years to the turn from 1000 BC. Bearing in mind the limitations of the location. Bearing in mind the UP (every Israeli unit starts with City Garrison I) and the UB (the Koten grants every unit built in the city Guerilla I) and the UU (+25% on Hills), which strongly suggests Rhye (or EdmundIronside) had defensive stubborness in mind.

Option 1:

Solomon the Builder (I).
Build the Temple of Solomon by ... some date. It can only be built in the Jewish Holy City (we mustn't specify the city's location since if we spread Judaism to more than one city before converting, the Holy City may not be Jerusalem; in my first game, it's Tyre), so it's not like anyone else will build it unless you lose the Holy City first. The secular dating is too soon to generate a Great Prophet. But our in-game avatars are devout Jews and accept the phenomenon of the Missing Years. 832 BC is about 35 turns, which is not quite impossible. Worth testing; if it is possible to generate a GP in that time, we may have a winner!​

Option 2:

Solomon the Builder (II).
Build some number or some list of Wonders in Jerusalem, sort of a poor man's Babylon. Actual number or the items on the list yet to be determined.​

Option 3:

Solomon the Trader.
Acquire or get by trade some number and/or variety of resources or money. Unfortunately both the Harappans and Phoenicians already have variations on this one, so I'm just throwing it in here to see if someone can come up with a new angle.​

Option 4:

The Diaspora (I).
Spread Judaism to some percentage of the world. We can certainly do this. Send forth the Missionaries! Get OB with your neighbours, put your guys in boats for overseas - spread the Word! Probably best not set a time limit for this one. It could take a while, depending how popular we decide Judaism should be and how much of the world is Barbarian or Independent and hence unavailable.​

Option 5:

The Diaspora (II).
Build a city in every corner of the world. Specifically we want Israeli cities in Europe, Africa and Asia; probably more, regions yet to be defined. Resettlement is the Civic we need for this one. You can't conquer them or convert someone else's cities, you have to settle them yourself and put Judaism into them. And keep them! Good defensive units will be handy here, and a good economy so you don't go broke paying the maintenance.​

Option 6:

Revolt of the Maccabees.
Conquest. Not really something that RFC-GW's Israelis are tailored for, but having Israel carve out a pocket empire within some carefully outlined region is historical. The Maccabbee is a good unit: 5 strength, a natural +25% on Hills, plus Israel's UP and UB bonuses. Worth considering, although the game is already well provided with militant civs.​

Option 7:

Crowd Sourcing - it's a thing ...
Your ideas go here!​

Edited to add:

Great Prophet generated in 926 BC. So it's easy to build the Temple by 832 BC, if you're willing to forgo pretty much everything else. If this is to be a UHV, we need to think up a curve ball to make it more of a challenge!

Spoiler Zoroaster in Jerusalem :

 

[bluepotato]

That's good. I don't think the stability system has been touched since the original conversion of the Rhys R&F World mod into RFCGW. When I looked at the code, a lot of stability modifiers such as tech and civics were no longer relevant.

Most of these modifiers were removed in 1.6 along with old RFC constants. I also added some civic compatibility stability stuff in 1.8, though the system is a bit lacking.

Agreed. Just make sure it is less harsh than the DOC system, where you can collapse even if you are staying resolutely historical in conquests (I still rue my collapse in my Roman game )

Well since I don't really like the DoC expansion stability system, mine has not much to do with it (except for counting core population). Not saying I can come up with something better, just that it'll be different.
Also, I haven't mentioned this yet, but since I'm rewriting almost every core mechanic in 2.0, I plan to release some beta versions of it first (as soon as all current RFGW features are implemented in some form). It surely won't be as balanced as the current version, so any feedback on the new stability system (or really anything else) will be invaluable.

By the way @bluepotato , let me know if you want any help adding any more UHVs into the game. Autumn Leafs UHV guides have got me enthused to get UHVs for all the civs done.

Any help is appreciated, but first I'd like to finish at least the basis of the rewrite. Much of Victory.py will have to be changed for it to work with 2.0 (the biggest change being that all civ IDs will need to be changed to civ type names since player slots can - and will - be reassigned), so the less UHVs I'll have to convert, the easier it'll be for me.

we mustn't specify the city's location since if we spread Judaism to more than one city before converting, the Holy City may not be Jerusalem; in my first game, it's Tyre

Ugh, that's actually a bug. Converting cities to a religion can trigger a holy city relocation if any city with believers of the religion has a higher culture than the current Holy City (or if there is no Holy City); this represents that cultural centers of religions in this mod did change quite a few times. What I only realized after creating this feature is that new civs spawning with new religions will often move their Holy City to some random city they flipped, since their capital barely has any culture. I then wanted to make it so that Holy Cities aren't relocated if they're currently a player's capital, but looks like I forgot about that in the end
The UHV suggestions are great, btw.

 

[Autumn Leaf]

The UHV suggestions are great, btw.

Glad they're helpful. They're mainly just me rummaging around inside my head or some other part of my anatomy and pulling stuff out. Hopefully others will come back in and add their own ideas so that you can pick and choose those that seem best to you. I've been sick the last two weeks and Civ has helped distract me from that; but I expect to be back at work next week, so there'll be less of me around.

Ugh, that's actually a bug. Converting cities to a religion can trigger a holy city relocation if any city with believers of the religion has a higher culture than the current Holy City (or if there is no Holy City); this represents that cultural centers of religions in this mod did change quite a few times. What I only realized after creating this feature is that new civs spawning with new religions will often move their Holy City to some random city they flipped, since their capital barely has any culture. I then wanted to make it so that Holy Cities aren't relocated if they're currently a player's capital, but looks like I forgot about that in the end

Interesting. One of my peeves with RFC was that the Holy City (HC) usually ended up in West Bumfluff, which was some rubbish city I only owned because I hadn't managed to pawn it off on a neighbour yet, and there it stayed until someone razed it, after which that religion had no HC. That is totally ahistorical. There's always one or more HCs - unless a religion is so close to dead that it barely matters. So kudos to you even if it has a bug.

SoI had an interesting feature - a Missionary could pick up a Relic and relocate it to another city. Perhaps you could use a Great Prophet to relocate the HC? This would represent a charismatic religious leader taking an existing movement in a new direction. The Shrine, if it exists, would be demolished and yet another GP would be required to build a new one in the new HC. You should only be able to do this, of course, if your civ's culture is predomiinant in both cities - although again, history has cases of an invader forcibly relocating someone else's idols to another city.

 

[bluepotato]

Interesting. One of my peeves with RFC was that the Holy City (HC) usually ended up in West Bumfluff, which was some rubbish city I only owned because I hadn't managed to pawn it off on a neighbour yet, and there it stayed until someone razed it, after which that religion had no HC. That is totally ahistorical. There's always one or more HCs - unless a religion is so close to dead that it barely matters. So kudos to you even if it has a bug.

Originally I just wanted to make it so that founding a religion always creates a holy city, because Persia didn't get any even after founding Zoroastrianism in a game. Of course I messed up the first time I tried and the Holy City changed its location every time a religion was spread somewhere. Then came the idea of making an actual game mechanic out of this, mainly for the reasons you mentioned.

SoI had an interesting feature - a Missionary could pick up a Relic and relocate it to another city. Perhaps you could use a Great Prophet to relocate the HC? This would represent a charismatic religious leader taking an existing movement in a new direction. The Shrine, if it exists, would be demolished and yet another GP would be required to build a new one in the new HC. You should only be able to do this, of course, if your civ's culture is predomiinant in both cities - although again, history has cases of an invader forcibly relocating someone else's idols to another city.

I kinda prefer the current, more "passive" system, which you can still influence (by spreading your religion) but still works (somewhat) well without the player's interaction. The AI barely builds shrines in RFC, and there's no way anyone except the human player would use this feature.
Though now that you mention shrines... I never tested what happens to them when a HC is moved. I just assumed they're automatically demolished, but now I'm not entirely sure that's the case. Will have to take a look at this.

 

[Autumn Leaf]

In ... RFC Europe I believe it is ... the Christian shrine is in Jerusalem and the HC is Rome.

But I suspect your Holy City mechanic could be put to good effect in some civ's UHV. For Israel, say, Judaism could be scripted to be founded in Babylon (representing the Babylonian Captivity), and the UHV "Next year in Jerusalem" would be to relocate the HC to Jerusalem (or at least to some city within Israel's Core).

ETA: Oh my ... the Byantine start is all kinds of messed up. Starting bank balance 350 gold; annual income of -149 gold at 0% Research. They have just 76 turns to do - something.

 

[Autumn Leaf]

Byzantium.

You have inherited an empire in convulsion. A usurper rules in Rome, warlords and foreign kings control many rightfully Roman provinces, your armies are scattered and vulnerable, your exchequer is nearly empty. Justinian, you must build a New Rome that will bring peace, prosperity and order to this fractured world under a reunited Roman Empire!

You have 76 turns, until the end of the game, in which to achieve these goals:

UHV 1. Right the ship of Empire!

Balance the budget. Stop the wars. Control or vassalise [list of rightfully Eastern Roman regions].

Measures: Be in no wars and maintain a positive cash flow for any ten (X) turn period; control (or have the controller as a vassal) all required regions during all of those ten turns.
​

UHV 2. One Rome.

Vassalise or destroy the other Roman Empire. If that Rome is dead, control Italy, Sicily and Carthaginian North Africa.​

UHV 3. One Faith, one Church, one Emperor!

Have a State Religion and ensure that it is present in every city in your Empire at any time after you achive the other two goals.​

Hints:

Turn 1:

Settle Constantinople on the spot. Queue up a Monument, Forge, Courthouse and Hagia Sophia (if not already built).

Research whatever you like.

Revolt to Monarchy, Vassalage, Wage Labour, Trade Economy, Deification, Client Kingdoms on your first turn. The revolution will take two turns, which is the time before cities will flip to you, and meanwhile your exchequer is not hemorrhaging money.

As far as possible, bring your ships together for mutual defence. Do the same for land units. Destroy or move away from threats.

Try to buy a world map. Keep trying every turn till someone will sell you one.​

Turn 3:

Cities will join you. Cycle through them and ensure each city is contributing as best it can. Developed cities with Courthouses build Wealth. Smaller cities build Courthouse, Forge, Monument as appropriate. Try to get starving cities to at least Stagnant (this may not always be possible; some cities may need to be starved down a litte). Once you stabilise the economy, you can think about what to build and who to attack.​

Other:

Faith. For the Byzantines this is traditionally Christianity, but - pick your poison. Since your UP spreads it to new cities on conquest, you really only have to worry about spreading it to cities that flip to you or that you settle.

One Rome. It will probably be better to vassalise Rome, if you can; that way they will contribute to your Stability, whereas otherwise you must directly control several unstable regions. You don't have to control all those places if Rome is your vassal.​

Edit: clarified measures for UHV 1 and reordered the UHVs to a more logical order. (Checking every Byzantine city for religion every turn is going to be slow, so until UHV 1 and 2 are complete or failed, we skip testing for UHV 3.That way we may onlly have to test it once, or just a few times.)

Edited to add: Byzantine UP is bugged!

Edited to add (2): After playing further, my suggested UHVs 1 & 2 are too optimistic. I am used to having superior units or a superior tactical position. Here I have neither. The late game is packed with hostile units equal to mine. I can definitely win, given enough time - but 76 turns isn't enough time. I am preparing to invade Rome, but south of me in Greece I can see two Roman stacks threatening Athens & Mycenae, that together add up to more units than my own deathstack. Saving my cities will cripple my stack. I have captured two Macedonia cities and used up most of my Cats to soften them up, but I'm not even getting a 2:1 kill ratio. Macedonia, let alone Rome, can probably replace its losses faster than I can right now, plus half my cities are a sea voyage away - and while my Qinquiremes and Triremes rule the sea, I have no Galleys yet.

So, as they say ... "I suggest a new plan, R2 ... let the Wookie win."

Edited to add (3): For UHV 1 I suggest the areas to hold should be Constantinople (the 9 tiles including Constantinople), Macedonia (roughly from Orestia/Pella across to Constantinople), Morea (defined, slightly historically incorectly, as mainland Greece south of Macedonia), Anatolia (same area already defined for use by other civs) and Egypt (same area already defined for use by other civs). For UHV 2, controlling the city of Rome (directly or as a vassal) will have to be enough - there's no time for a proper conquest and they're unlikely to vassalise short of that. I've excluded major areas that are historically Byzantine simply because there's no time to capture them in 76 turns if they don't flip. More testing is required.

 

[bluepotato]

Checking every Byzantine city for religion every turn is going to be slow, so until UHV 1 and 2 are complete or failed, we skip testing for UHV 3.That way we may onlly have to test it once, or just a few times.

I think the costs of that are negligible. And even if they weren't, UHVs are checked for human players only for a reason.

 

[Autumn Leaf]

It's DLL calls that don't need to be made and Python routines that don't need to be called, hence memory and processor resources available to keep the game moving along as snappily as possible. When you're 500 turns deep in a 32-bit game it can make a difference. By the time you do need to worry about processing UHV 3, UHV 1 and UHV 2 will no longer need any processing. As long as you're busy conquering territory you're going to be acquiring new cities, some of which will need your religion. There's no point wasting cycles checking UHV 3 till you have all the cities you need and have spread your religion in all of them.

It's raining free Win! Grab your bucket.

 

[Edmund Ironside]

Option 7:
Crowd Sourcing - it's a thing ...
Your ideas go here!

Option 7:
The Book of Mormon
Israel has to found a city in the Americas by 1 AD!

But in general I think Israel's UHVs should have a strong religious focus as that is why they are so famous. However I also think a bit of military action would be good, so option 6 might be fun.

Any help is appreciated, but first I'd like to finish at least the basis of the rewrite.

No problem, just let me know once the rewrite is complete and it is a good time to start working on them. Also let me know which ones to work on (as I guess there are some Civs you have more ideas for and are more interested in doing than others).

 

[Hickman888]

Macedon:
You, Alexander, have inherited a kingdom on the brink of expansion. Your father was murdered before he could carry out his invasion of Persia, but you are ready to continue his legacy.

There are 25 turns from your spawn in 476 BC (turn 298) until Alexander's death in 320 BC (close enough; turn 323). The goal is to conquer a Hellenistic Empire that will dramatically merge and spread Greek culture throughout the known world. Because there are so few turns to meet this goal, we need to very much encourage Macedon to be very powerful, so that they have a chance in heaven to achieve what was done historically. Alexander's goal should encourage a steamroll effect, where the more cities you take, the stronger you grow. This will all come to a head at the end of your conquests, when you find there is nowhere else to conquer, and your empire will naturally fall apart from stability and bankruptcy, allowing the Romans (and any other civilizations you wish to add in the future) to rise up from the ashes of the Macedonian empire.

Starting Civics: Monarchy, Vassalage, Slavery, Trade Economy, Organized Religion, Occupation

New Unique Power: Legacy of Alexander the Great: Newly conquered cities have no city resistance, receive 200 , +1 free population (for whipping), gives extra , free Basilikoi Paides (new unique building), and 1 free unit each of catapult, Companion Cavalry, Hypaspist (new 2nd unique unit)

New Unique Units:
-Companion Cavalry: Replaces Noble Cavalry, starts with March and Blitz
-Hypaspists: Replaces Heavy Swordsman, starts with March, +25% against Archery units

New Unique Building:
-Basilikoi Paides: Replaces barracks, free Morale and Commando promotion to all land units built in the city (starting units should also have these promotions, if possible)

Historical Victory:
-Hellenistic Fusion: Have 10,000 by 320 BC
-Greek World: Settle at least 2 cities on each continent by 320 BC
-The Olympians: Spread Hellenism to 25%

I know much of these features of Macedon seem very overpowered. I would argue that not only would it be necessary to allow the player to achieve the historic goals of Macedon, it would also allow the AI to have a fighting chance at forging an empire at least half the size of the historical one. Perhaps when the AI controls Greece, their historic power can give even more military units and gold, to help them along. I would also argue that a prepared player who wishes to beat back this new Macedon would easily be able to, as this new Macedon strongly thrives off of snowballing.

 

[Hickman888]

Sparta:
The simple goal of a historical Spartan game is complete military dominance of Greece. You spawn in 908 BC (turn 226).

Starting Civics: Monarchy, Vassalage, Slavery, Redistribution (or possibly Isolationism?), Organized Religion, Tribal Warfare

Historical Victory:
-Spartan Lifestyle: Have at least 5 Level 5 units by 500 BC
-Pelopennesian War: Control or vassalize the Peloponnese, Attica, and Central Greece by 400 BC
-Lead from the Front: Earn 4 Great Generals by 300 BC

-Changes: The Statue of Zeus should be changed to instead provide +100% Great General emergence, and it should essentially be a soft requirement for the Spartans to construct it, to achieve their 3rd historical goal