Youtien Compendium

[Royal Tenenbaum]

As we like to read, Youtien (and Chep) have outrageous strategies for civilizations. Settling Scotland as the Moors, and settling Poland as Greece. Well now it's time for a thread separate from the strategy one and one focusing only on the stupendous, shocking strategies that really bring the game outside the box. These include settling way out of historical cores, abusing mechanisms, etc...

Note: Helping finding these posts would be really helpful; all nations that do not have a spoiler need help finding.

Compendium

Egypt

China

Babylonia

Greece

Spoiler :

Greeks secularism victory strategy:

1. Bulb metal casting before turn 75 and buy alphabet, get ancient tech from Babylonians, monarchy from Persia(after peace), horseback riding from Carthage(can conquer Sur first), Oracle for currency.

2. Research masonry - iron working - math - aesthetics - calender - literature - construction - code of laws, then stay at classical era until 600 AD. Switch to republic - agrarianism - warrior code.

3. Complete conquest and wonder UHV. Capture Jerusalem ASAP, its gold really helps, and you can take Sur from there in 1 turn - no need to deal with their navy. Build an army of hoplites, catapults and horse archers.

4. Korinthos should build Statue of Zeus without ivory before you begin conquest.
5. Kill Romans by horse archer and swordsmen in number before they attack you, 4 horse archer and 2 swordsmen will do the job. When conqueror triggers, cease fire. Capture their core on the following turns. TIPS: Squat Milan by initial warrior - on the way back from Iberia hut. This way Romans will have one less city in their core.

6. Conquer Lahore and Mumbai too, try to capitulate Indians, get Buddhism for Shwedagon Paya.

7. Raise another army to conquer Dunhuang and a city in China to get Confucianism and Taoism, you can build the Grand Canal in Babylon later.

8. Don't get theology and build cottages all around, you can get tremendous gold this way, and early secularism allows all wonders. Either wait others to found Catholicism and convert, or build Paya to switch to secularism.

9. Counter Arabs with war elephants...Seljuks and Turks should be no threat either.

10. Beeline toward modern era...

Greek general strategy

Now we have to build cities in core area for stability. So my placing is:

1. Korinthos 2. Ephesus - 3N3E from Corinth, 2S2E from Byzantion, you can found it on the next turn. 3. Epidamnos - SE from Balkan copper 4. Byzantion - found it after Trabzon (Anatolia horse).

Conquer Egypt with initial army, capture a worker near Jerusalem, Ephesus build pagan temple, work boat then barracks, research masonry - iron working, Egypt build settler... conquer Jerusalem before Persia spawn. Then it will be easy.

India

Phoenicia

Spoiler :

1. Found Sur/Gebal(1N) and Kition(Cyprus copper), capital build axemen (hurry by gold every 2 turns), Kition build settler.

2. Starting army go conquer Egypt. Build horse pasture.

3. Load an axemen to conquer Greek city with only 1 warrior defender.

4. Build chariots to finish Greeks hoplites and defend against barb vulture.

5. buy an army of axemen and conquer Jerusalem ASAP, before Persia spawn.

6. 3rd settler and several workers go found Carthage.

7. Oracle for currency, research horseback ridings.

8. Buy an army to kill Romans.

9. Play at will!

1. Found Gebal 1N from Sur, The other settler go settle Anatolia marble and build the Oracle (for currency). Switch to militia - mercenary still have extra upkeep cost!

2. Starting army conquer Babylon if possible.. I beat 1 bowman and 1 warrior. Babylon build a settler to settle Carthage then.

3. Gebal build 3-4 warriors, mine the Cyprus copper ASAP, and upgrade your warriors to axemen. Load 4 axemen to conquer a city in Egypt and/or Greece, then make peace and let army go back for Jerusalem.

4. Have 4 axemen wait by Jerusalem in turn 86 (Persia flip), attack! Its 2 GP and 1 free priest is very important. Make peace later, you don't need any more eastern city, and you want tech trade.

5. Research math and calender and take out Greeks. Switch to agrarianism and warrior code.

6. Final target: Rome. Then you'll have a large empire with -50 expansion stability....

Persia

Rome

Tamils

Ethiopia

Korea

Maya

Byzantium

Japan

Vikings

Arabia

Tibet

Spoiler :

Unfortunately, I lied in the title. Playing through, I conquered northern India, Burma, vassalized Indonesia, and settled parts of Australia. The problem is, is that the core (Rasa) can only get around 5 population. Over-extension is a huge problem for Tibet, and I can't seem to create a large enough empire for other nations to even give me a second look. Any strategies? Any -youtien- strategies?

No. With current system, you better stick to UHV or religious victory. Lhasa can grow larger with city states and settled GP. And if you do't go after UHV, settle on horse or incense instead, then there are rooms for 2nd city in core. But it still doesn't support overexpansion.

Khmer

Indonesia

Spoiler :

1. Found capital: Sukadana. Found 2nd city on iron, upgrade all 3 archers to crossbowmen and sail to conquer Patliputra no matter what! Reload if you fail.

2. Conquer Delhi with remaining force.

3. Research alphabet, Patliputra raise a spy(build courthouse if it was destroyed), all points go for China.

4. Buy calender from Japan, currency from Tibet, aesthetics from Korea - you have to research partially. Build at least 3 spies and send them to Guangzhou (Buddhism). Build Borobudur in your homeland, you really need the +1 hammer priest.

5. Patliputra generate a great spy, Steal all techs from China ASAP. China may collapse under Mongol army. Don't build cottages near Patliputra, build workshops after guilds.

6. Delhi build war elephants and raise 4 merchants if possible, it can pop out a great merchant before Mughal spawns. Send the merchant to Nanjing to get 2000 gold.

7. Research astronomy, conquer Hanoi and capitulate Khmer at the same time.

8. Play at will.

Moors

Spain

France

Spoiler :

1. Found Amiens, switch to theocracy + warrior code, no need of slavery. Chop the forest near Frankfurt before 850 AD.
2. Army go conquer Rome, empty Marseilles to lure 2 pikemen out, you can take out the remaining 2 longbowmen by your starting force. Conquer Naples as well afterwards.
3. Marseilles build settler, Bordeaux build galley, to settle Scotlond iron. Also settle Brest to get dye in your homeland.
4. Research meditation -> engineering -> aesthetic line or paper. Vote Isabella to make Spanish friendly to you, they'll get guilds in 1050 or so, trade with them.
5. Naples build a galley, other cities build army, conquer Alexandria and Cairo, then Jerusalem and Mecca.
6. Research toward astronomy, settle America and play at will.

England

Holy Rome

Russia

Mali

Spoiler :

1. Found Timbuktu 1E from starting tile - covers 1 desert hill. 2nd settler go to Accra (don't found yet), 3rd go to Coast of Ivory, or you may found on one of plain ivory. Switch to OR + warrior code. Missionary spread Islam to Timbuktu.
2. 2 Starting units go to map the coast, 1 go NE to meet Arabs and Moors. Timbuktu build barracks.
3. On 4th turn, buy fishing+sailing by gold, buy code of laws + calender + meditation from Moors by DR. Found Accra(whip work boat on the following turn) and the other city, Timbuktu build monastery and whip at 4, then whip barracks, then use surplus hammer to build a missionary, in case you don't get automatically spread. You have chance to capture workers from Arabs, attack! I captured 4 workers near Tripoli.

4. SWITCH TO THEOCRACY-AGRARIANISM-FANATICISM-MERCENARY, build 5-6 catapults and 2-3 war elephants and also a few skirmishers, then conquer the Moors! This is when you don't get flipped camel archers or fararis(not too useful). Conquer them at all cost.

5. At the same time, Accra build a settler and settle east, 1e from the cow and by the lake. That city can grow to 9. Go on expand to east Africa, there are some plain hill by lakes that can be a decent city with low need of workforce.

6. After conquest, switch back to OR+warrior codes.

7. Research paper-printing press, switch to Catholicism before you complete. You can buy feudalism from Europeans when converted. Guilds, engineering, gunpowder, compass, optics can all be bought. Go for liberalism after PP, bulb constitution, switch to republic + representation.

8. build jails all around and begin stealing tech. You can buy astronomy from the Dutch as well, Settle North America. Contact Mughals ASAP, they have nice trade rate. Respawned Chinese sells replaceable parts. Then you'll grow too big to buy teches. Steal, steal, steal communism and have a GE ready for Lubyanka, then you are good.

Europeans will be normally strong, because we can't annex them in early game. Mali got bad tech rate but decent trade and UP, so use spies.

Poland

Spoiler :

1. Found Krakow on iron, check Buda, if Byz workers are around, capture them, which I did in my start as savefile. 2nd Settler stay home for a while, for Byz Cataphracts are around. Revolt to absolutism and warrior code (theocracy can wait until guilds).

2. Capture Buda and got my first GG. Attach GG to my flipped horse archer (2 horse archers and a longbowmen shared exp)

3. Made peace with Byz. 2nd Settler found Wilno on horse, upgrade our horse archers, Wilno build settler, army go conquer Kiev.

4. Now I have 4 knights. 3rd Settler found Tallin, Army to prepare assault to Russia. 3 knights to conquer Samara in one turn.

5. With my rapid attack, all Russia fell to my hand. The last city in their core I got is Vologda, with Mongol army around.

6. I built sejmik in Krakow early and got a great spy. Stole guilds, engineering, divine rights and paper from Germans. Wien eats so many tiles from me but I had my hand full at the time... also conquered indy Stockholm and Oslo by knights. Now I have silk (near Samara), fur and silver as luxury resources, the 12 pop UHV was easily acheived in 1390.

7. Race for Protestantism? Open a golden age by Versailles. Tech? I got a second great spy and stole gunpowder from Turks (and they are researching military tradition). With my vast land I can easily hoard 2 armies, one for the west, one for the east. UHV is too easy, I am not going to build 3 cathedrals.

Portugal

Inca

Italy

Mongols

Aztecs

Mughals

Turkey

Spoiler :

Who will paint tactics for Turkey? How to play for them bad starting conditions? Constantinople is often in the hands of the Mongols, and fight with them - bad idea. How to perform a UHV, if not immediately capture of Constantinople? Turkey has no cities with good efficiency in the core region. Which city is better to build? In general, I need a little guide, as I did not get even just stabilize. (Pretty hard to win the war with rivals 3-4 - Byz, Arabia, Egypt, Austria, optional Spain\France\Russia).
Thx4hlp :\

Choose a city with already 2-4 wonders, build 4th, and move capital there. Remember you can move capital.

Thailand

Kongo

Iran

Netherlands

Prussia

America

Argentina

Mexico

Colombia

Brazil

Bonus

Spoiler :

 

[youtien]

Build spaceship before anyone discovers astronomy, that means before 1580, Dutch spawn date. I already did that with Greek-Poland perpetual golden age.

Some of these post are a bit old. Now it is near impossible for Greeks to discover metal casting before turn 75. I would prefer research iron working first, then Oracle for metal casting.

Tried a Roman game last night:

0. Reload if Greeks settled on a spot you don't want.
1. Found Rome on spot, 2nd settler go settle on Iberia iron (1N from Madrid), 3rd on Poland iron (1W from Krakow). Rome build infrastructure, other cities build worker and legion. Production is far more important than commerce in early game, you can settle Barcelona later for silver.
2. Use initial Legions to build some Roman roads first, then board ship, attack Carthage on occasion(there would be 2 African war elephants).
3. After wiping out Carthage, conquer Jerusalem.
4. Oracle for currency(might need s/l), research horseback riding(double speed for barracks) - construction.
5. Expand and build basic defense against Celts and Barbs, legion rocks.
6. Let Greeks live and build all wonders they want, Let their conqueror sweep Asia, then attack their core. Once their core area falls, all their cities from Egypt to Persia go indy and would be only archers defending, so you can capture them easily.
7. Build no wonder except the Great Cothon in Rome, you need the UP. Build the Colosseum in Poland or Salona, where would be main battleground against barbs.
8. After AD, you unify Mediterranean like history. Play at will.

 

[youtien]

General strategy for Europeans: get horse, gift iron, build chariots and stock gold, get iron back, upgrade to knights, rush.

Qiu did a Tiberan game: Don't found Lhasa, all units move on first turn, barb Lhasa will spawn on second turn, and you'll flip it on 3rd turn. settle on southwest plain hill where you can eat 2 grassland floodplains in India, that helps expansion a bit.

 

[youtien]

No Dutch (mechanism abusing):

Build roads 1 tile near Amsterdam before Dutch spawns, have a settler around. AI Civs doesn't found city the first turn they spawn, so you settle 1 tile near Amsterdam in 1580, it usually crams so the Dutch can not build another city with their poor settler. Refuse flip on the following turn, fight, let that new city fall for a while. This way, you don't have to wait 10 turns and let Amsterdam squat your Paris, Amiens or Frankfurt.

 

[youtien]

Koreans 600 AD rush strategy: Found Pusan on rice, your culture will spread to Japan incense hill, build one galley and board troops to that hill, launch attack before 760 (Nagasaki culture would eat that tile back after 760).

 

[Hojsimpson]

Well, there is a conquest strategy with Babylonia that is stupid and may not work sometimes.
1. Send archers to China, sent archers to Egypt.
2. Save the game, and attack, if you lose reload and wait to the next turn.
3. Repeat step 2 till you conquered desired cities.

Combat odds may say X% chance of winning, but RNG gods say that you can win every battle if you do that. If you attack and your unit dies, every time you reload in that turn that unit will die. But in a different turn the unit may win.

I once conquered 2 China cities with 1 archer. Then they collapsed.

 

[ezzlar]

Build spaceship before anyone discovers astronomy, that means before 1580, Dutch spawn date. I already did that with Greek-Poland perpetual golden age.

Some of these post are a bit old. Now it is near impossible for Greeks to discover metal casting before turn 75. I would prefer research iron working first, then Oracle for metal casting.

Tried a Roman game last night:

0. Reload if Greeks settled on a spot you don't want.
1. Found Rome on spot, 2nd settler go settle on Iberia iron (1N from Madrid), 3rd on Poland iron (1W from Krakow). Rome build infrastructure, other cities build worker and legion. Production is far more important than commerce in early game, you can settle Barcelona later for silver.
2. Use initial Legions to build some Roman roads first, then board ship, attack Carthage on occasion(there would be 2 African war elephants).
3. After wiping out Carthage, conquer Jerusalem.
4. Oracle for currency(might need s/l), research horseback riding(double speed for barracks) - construction.
5. Expand and build basic defense against Celts and Barbs, legion rocks.
6. Let Greeks live and build all wonders they want, Let their conqueror sweep Asia, then attack their core. Once their core area falls, all their cities from Egypt to Persia go indy and would be only archers defending, so you can capture them easily.
7. Build no wonder except the Great Cothon in Rome, you need the UP. Build the Colosseum in Poland or Salona, where would be main battleground against barbs.
8. After AD, you unify Mediterranean like history. Play at will.

Tried this strategy. Works fairly well! But I still dont get a few points:

- Why The Great Cothon of all wonders? You arent really strapped for production in Rome.
- Usually I load all four Legions on the galleys and attack Carthage on turn 2. They only have 2 archers. If you are lucky you can capture two workers also. Then they collapse.
- Why not attack Athens right after Carthage? Greece will be forever crippled after that.
- Why Horseback riding? You already have a +30% UP for barracks once built, and they are cheap too!

 

[youtien]

Tried this strategy. Works fairly well! But I still dont get a few points:

- Why The Great Cothon of all wonders? You arent really strapped for production in Rome.
- Usually I load all four Legions on the galleys and attack Carthage on turn 2. They only have 2 archers. If you are lucky you can capture two workers also. Then they collapse.
- Why not attack Athens right after Carthage? Greece will be forever crippled after that.
- Why Horseback riding? You already have a +30% UP for barracks once built, and they are cheap too!

There are two kinds of wonder: global and local. GC is local, the Colosseum is local, the Great Lighthouse is 90% global and 10% local, the Colossus is global. It's better for Rome to focus on basic buildings, it only needs local wonder, GC helps it most. When you are done for buildings, build army. Don't build the Colosseum in Rome, it can't focus on army.

Rush Carthage is good, Maybe we can do this next time: load 3 legions and 1 archer to rush Carthage, archer captures worker and be garrison. One legion stay home and build Roman road to link iron and marble.

Why not rush Greece? 1. They have conqueror events for Egypt and the Middle East, they'll sweep them for you, otherwise you have to face all those armies by yourself. 2. They build wonders and generate GP faster than you, especially wonders of aesthetic line. 3. They never hold huge armies in their core. Once their core fall, all their conquered cities become indy and would have only archers or warriors.

About horseback riding, yes, 30% faster is good, but 130% faster is even better. You also need it for HA and war elephants, which counters all barbs you'll face. and construction can wait, you have enough time.

 

[Royal Tenenbaum]

Unfortunately I didn't get to play it all the way through as my game crashed right after the Mughal spawn, but here is my feedback on this strategy.

1. Found capital: Sukadana. Found 2nd city on iron, upgrade all 3 archers to crossbowmen and sail to conquer Patliputra no matter what! Reload if you fail.

2. Conquer Delhi with remaining force.

3. Research alphabet, Patliputra raise a spy(build courthouse if it was destroyed), all points go for China.

4. Buy calender from Japan, currency from Tibet, aesthetics from Korea - you have to research partially. Build at least 3 spies and send them to Guangzhou (Buddhism). Build Borobudur in your homeland, you really need the +1 hammer priest.

5. Patliputra generate a great spy, Steal all techs from China ASAP. China may collapse under Mongol army. Don't build cottages near Patliputra, build workshops after guilds.

6. Delhi build war elephants and raise 4 merchants if possible, it can pop out a great merchant before Mughal spawns. Send the merchant to Nanjing to get 2000 gold.

7. Research astronomy, conquer Hanoi and capitulate Khmer at the same time.

8. Play at will.

• Taking Patliputra was genius. It gave Indonesia tons of money for centuries, and had no fear of flipping to anyone unless extreme instability gave rise to India. For any goal, I recommend this.
• Making a great spy in Patliputra is not as easy as Youtien makes it seem. Either it takes hundreds of years to make a spy, or there is only around a 12% chance to pop one.
• Get aesthetics from Korea was not possible as they wanted no tech from me. I ended up getting aesthetics from Japan after trading them for horseback riding.
• War elephants are not strong enough to take Hanoi. I don't suggest even bothering with the Khmer, and instead focusing on colonization of Oceania.

 

[Royal Tenenbaum]

Oh and Youtien, can you find your Moroccan in Scotland and Polish Golden Age Forever posts?

 

[youtien]

Ｐｏｌｉｓｈ　Ｇｏｌｄｅｎ　Ａｇｅ　Ｆｏｒｅｖｅｒ：

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=528837

 

[youtien]

Morocco: forgot. Let's rewrite here.

Moors can also settle Scotland, but it has to cross Spanish border. If they settle Santiago, you'll have to wait (damn the 10-turn peace). And your homeland develop will surely delay. It'll paid off later, just you calculate.

3000 BC: rush Italy, play at will.

600 AD: load 2 swordsmen, capture workers near Rome, attack Byz and capture Naples and Athens(if possible). Build catapults and siege Rome. AI indy pikemen might attack your units on 50% winning chance, you may decrease their army this way.

Either use slavery or agrarianism, both can do. Now knights need guilds again, so no need for rushing feudalism.

Spanish will attack you in 1050 AD, so attack them first. I recommend mercenary(after barracks&stable under warrior code), for you need one city to build La Mezquita to raise GP.

If you have happiness problem, settling sugar island can help a little, but not necessary.

It is hard in 600 AD scenario to get cities and GPs on time. Morocco just can't have enough workers. I used to conquer Mali by knights, now it may be only horse archers.

 

[youtien]

Morocco: forgot. Let's rewrite here.

Moors can also settle Scotland, but it has to cross Spanish border. If they settle Santiago, you'll have to wait (damn the 10-turn peace). And your homeland develop will surely delay. It'll paid off later, just you calculate.

3000 BC: rush Italy, play at will.

600 AD: load 2 swordsmen, capture workers near Rome, attack Byz and capture Naples and Athens(if possible). Build catapults and siege Rome. AI indy pikemen might attack your units on 50% winning chance, you may decrease their army this way.

Either use slavery or agrarianism, both can do. Now knights need guilds again, so no need for rushing feudalism.

Spanish will attack you in 1050 AD, so attack them first. I recommend mercenary(after barracks&stable under warrior code), for you need one city to build La Mezquita to raise GP.

If you have happiness problem, settling sugar island can help a little, but not necessary.

It is hard in 600 AD scenario to get cities and GPs on time. Morocco just can't have enough workers. I used to conquer Mali by knights, now it may be only horse archers.

UHV #3 needs astronomy and military science. Build only Corsairs and send them all around the world then, especially Japan, I love smashing their triremes.

 

[soul-breathing]

@Royal Tenenbaum @youtien

May I translate all these above to Chinese and introduce it to Chinese CIV4 forum? It's helpful for players who are new for DoC.

 

[youtien]

@royal tenenbaum @youtien

may i translate all these above to chinese and introduce it to chinese civ4 forum? It's helpful for players who are new for doc.

ok. 沒問題。我也有逛那邊的。

 

[soul-breathing]

ok. 沒問題。我也有逛那邊的。

我知道你是 胡逆天 对吧？

I know you are HU Nitian.

And would you mind to tell me, all those above are for Monarch or Emperor?

 

[youtien]

Monarch unless mentioned.

 

[Royal Tenenbaum]

I know some kanji but only from Japanese.

問 = gate, yeah?

 

[soul-breathing]

I know some kanji but only from Japanese.

問 = gate, yeah?

It's the traditional shape of simplified Chinese word 问, 没问题 means "Ok". In Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and some places in SE Asia, we use traditional Chinese, in the mainland of China, we use simplified Chinese.

 

[Fresol]

I know some kanji but only from Japanese.

問 = gate, yeah?

That's “ask”. However, drop the square mouth in it and you get “gate”.