Rhye's and Fall of Civilization - Arabian strategy

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Strategy on Viceroy difficulty

by Mitsho

Arabian standard game, Introduction and UP

An Arab game is usually centered around their Unique Power, as their starting lands are production and food poor. But there are ressource and food abundant regions just laying before their doorstep: Mesopotamia and Anatolia, Egypt and Persia. So the problem is to get a good kick-off and you can pursue whatever victory condition you like. For that, you best make use of your Unique Power: State Religion spreads automatically with temples and cathedrals to conquered cities. This means that every conquered city will have culture and happiness for free and either construct buildings faster, train more experienced troops, create Great People faster, or give even more happiness and science, depending on the religious civic you use. There are some wonders that influence the UP even more:

The Majjid al-Haram/Temple of Solomon or any other Great Shrine: Built by a Great Priest, this will generate you culture and up to 20 Gold (1 per city), you will need the money for your economy.

Spiral Minarett: This is basically an enhanced Shrine, it will give you 1 gold per state-religion building and does not have a maximum cap. As you have two state-religion buildings in most cities, this wonder will skyrocket your income. It is an absolute must, nobody else but the Arabs shall build it.

University of Sankore: The wonder works similar to the Spiral minarett, but it gives you 2 beakers per state-religion building. It is helpful too.

Stonehenge: From time to time you will inherit this wonder, it allows you to switch to all religious civics. This can be helpful if you need better AI-relations for a few turns (switch to Free Religion), it certainly is a nice wonder, but it isn't that powerful.

All in All, these wonders do only work if you have conquered, and not founded, many cities. Good targets for the first turns are Babili (don't cross the Euphrat, make sure about spearman), Ninua (is on a hill, if with Spearman practically unconquerable), Shush, Parsa, Siraji, Per-Wadjet, Niwt-Rist, Abdju, Selima and other cities in these regions. BAD targets are Artaxata, Hattusas, Sinope as these cities will flip (or want to) to the Turks upon spawn. It is usually a good idea to conquer indepedent Ushalem (Which becomes Al-Quds, AKA Jerusalem), and raze the city north of it (As-Sur). The Turks will want the northern city, assimilate your culture, and take Al-Quds (or at least make it nearly useless). Destroying As-Sur means Al-Qus will remains yours, and provide a sea route to support your campaign aross Africa.

After you've conquered yourself a nice empire, you should be on top of the scoreboard and have a nice dominating game before you.

The UHV-game

The conditions

1. Control 3 Holy shrines by 1300 AD
2. Control or make vassals of Spain, Carthage and Egypt by 1300 AD
3. Spread Islam to 40 %

-> We need to expand to the West, and more to the West and we need to travel and thus control the Sea, yes we are Saracens, Arabian Pirates. -> We need to focus ourself on Religion. -> Time is short until 1300 AD, afterwards we have all the time we need. So the first few turns are crucial to us.

The Opening moves

1. Turn 1: Settle Makkah, move one settler to the East, one North, the Camel Archers move North East. Contact everyone you can, try to get Meditation, Literature and Calendar. The latter should be doable. Set research to Gunpowder.
2. Turn 2: Islam spawns, making Makkah the Holy City, switch to Islam. Send your Missionary via Open Boarders to Parsa, Persia. You'll need good relations.
3. Turn 3-xy: Urshalim, As-Sur, Saana, Ur and Tell-el-Farama will flip to you, if they exist. You will now be perhaps at War with Babylon or Persia, in which case you have got more Camel Archers in Makkah. Switch now to Hereditary Rule, Vassalage, Slavery (not Serfdom!) and Theocracy (you need the experience and no no-state-religion spread). Move your Camel Archers into Mesopotamia and observe the situation:

Babili will put big pressure on your cities which will have one or two archers/spearmen inside.

• If Babili has few spearman, conquer it with your Camel Archers, same with Ninua.
• If Babylon has many Spearman, but declared war on you, you can still conquer them, otherwise move to Egypt.
• Shush can be conquered if it doesn't belong to Persia, Artaxata not in any case, it will flip away from you.
• After having conquered Mesopotamia, concentrate yourself on Egypt, attack it right away and conquer it, move many longbowman into Egypt to defend it afterwards against the Natives
• Settle Rafah - the Suez Canal - on the hill, it can be quite a good city.
• If any city has more than 2 non-religious wonders, raze it, chances are high it woul kill your goal #1.

Consolidation and City-Specialisation

• Makkah: beelines to the Spiral Minarett via Granary, workboats and a forge
• The Arabian peninsula cities: have not enough production, granary and lighthouse and let them grow for money
• The Religious city: Most probably, some city will have 1+ wonders, make that your Great Priest City, let it grow big, build a Madrassa (two more priest specialist possible) and/or another temple, try to build the Leaning Tower. The City can be everything from Urshalim, Ur, Babili, Ninawa, Shush, Kem Kaysir or Luxor.
• The Military Cities: The other cities build granary, barracks, one builds a stable additionally and whip your defenders out. Some of the mediterranean cities (I prefer As-Sur) whip some galleys.

The strategy now is to build up a defense force, get a bit more stable and prepare the next conquest rush. Science is set to Gunpowder which will give us Musketmen (ignore city walls) and cannons (if we have Iron). Cannons are an Arabs best friend as they will allow us to conquer Spain. But we can only research Gunpowder if our economy is in order which means that Spiral Minarett is built and 1,2 or 3 of the shrines are built. First will take its time, second means that our Religious City gets special treatment. In the waiting time, we can conquer one or two more cities: The Christian Holy City. We need it to achieve goal #1 and it can be found most of the time in Constantinopolis (Camel Archers reach it easily, it'll be defended by 1-2 phalanxes and a few archers), Athenai (dito, Hurray, the city has Iron) or some other Greco-Roman city.

Run to 1300 AD

Turk Exception Error: In 1070 AD, the Turk have spawned and messed up everything in the Middle East, their culture will be overwhelming thanks to their UP, so don't give them As-Sur (pull your defense units to Urshalim) but don't care much for them, leave one or two units, that's all and move on. If everything went well, you now in 1100 AD have three holy cities (Makkah, Urshalim, any Greco-Roman), a good economy, have got Gunpowder (afterwards I research Enginering and Civil Service), 5+ galleys and a little army. Carthage will fall easily, if you got the right moment, they won't have Longbows, otherwise, bring a few cannons (prebuilt catapults) with you. The technique is easy and the same for Spain. Whip your units in Egypt and Mesopotamia bring and ship them to the battle. You should be able to conquer the areas just by 1300 AD. For the second goal, your religious city should have been able to spawn those Great Priests, you might have needed to micromanage a bit, but that's normal. Just make sure you are able to move the last one fast enough to the last holy city.

Aftermath

Puhh, it's 1310 AD, you've got an army in revolting Spain, but you are just stable and have built a Triumphal Arch in Makkah. Now check the Religious Advisor screen, Islam will be spread around ~20% or so, how do you get another 20%?

• Let your own cities grow, they've been whipped down. Kem Kaysir for example can grow up to 17.
• Send your missionaries abroad, Mali, Inca and Aztecs are good targets. If you have a vassal, the latter two won't give you open borders. Any other civ with which you have open borders is ok too.
• There are a few native cities in Africa, conquer them and colonize the rest of the coast.
• Use your army in Spain and conquer Europe. Longbowmans and Pikemen are no match for cannons and a few correctly promoted Camel Archers. Conquer what you can, but don't build a new army. I've been unstable a lot at this stage and needed to first whip Courthouses all over Europe which gives them the time to research gunpowder.
• If this isn't enough already, you can always expand slowly. ;)

As soon as Islamic Spread hits 40%, you've won. Congratulations

Short tips

• Whip yourself everything together, Your area is production poor but food rich. Thanks to your UP, happiness shouldn't be a problem.
• Plan your Great Priests and every move they'll do. I had it happen that I had enough Priests but couldn't reach the correct city in time.
• Your economy is wonder and religious based: Spiral Minarett, Majid al-Haram, Church of Nativity, Temple of Salomon, University of Sankore.
• Cannons (= Gunpowder and Iron) are the key to success, as Camel Archers are too weak for Longbowman and Pikemen. But they are sufficient for Egypt and Carthage.
• Theocracy helps with its no non-state-religion spread.
• The Turks are a major pain in the ass, try to exile them to the Caucasus.

Playing with the 600 AD start

by Pacifist

Can't add to the excellent plan above, but since the older civilizations are not around, your game plan changes. The Byzantines are around (having just obliterated the Parthians which explains the lack of cities in the Fertile Crescent around Persia) and aren't really that strong. I played in Viceroy (got a 17000 score in 1520) and got the 2/3 UHV in 1300 in Monarch, and here's what I did (with some help from the civ-fanatic forum):

1. Found Mekkah, switch to slavery and hereditary rule, make work boats for Sana'a and Mekkah. Convert to Islam in the 2nd step. Keep one settler around for later (see below)

2. sent all (and I mean ALL--there are no immediate enemies around, and time is of the essence) troops up north (one settler, one longbowman and one camel archer up northeast). Workers do their pastures and roads.

3. capture Jerusalem (one holy city down) and whip out a catapult or 2. DID NOT get Iskander (which eventually deserts to the Turks and is tough to guard from the Byzantines without draining too many troops from the surge towards the West)

4. Found Basra on the marble (or Baghdad on the stone), and send my camel archer towards Persia to capture that city (usually has one archer) and then as soon as a camel archer is built, capture Delhi, Mumbai and Patna which is the holy shrine for Buddhism or Hinduism (and you have your 3 holy cities; usually the shrines are already built and you just need one great prophet for Mekkah). If you're brave you can send your original camel archer from Baghdad and Shiraz towards India (other than barbarian horse archers there's usually nothing around), just whip longbowman and camel archer ASAP in Baghdad to guard against the 2-3 Byzantine cataphract that will come eventually. Your Basra and Shiraz are your culture producing cities, and also cannon (work the iron NW of Shiraz ASAP. Eventually you want to colonize all of India and grow your Islamic population. One neat trick to spread culture in Baghdad: if you have enough troops, leave it open for the cataphract, then recapture it for automatic spreading of Islam plus 2 buildings there.

5. If you meet the Chinese, and you're strong enough, they may vassalize when Mongolia declares war on them. It is a drain on your economy but may contribute to a higher score eventually (exchange enough techs with the Chinese and make peace with the Mongolians to let the Chinese grow)

6. techwise, I opted for civil service, gunpowder, optics. guilds, engineering and astronomy (the first because you're going to make Mekkah your city producing troops and when at a size of 7-8 it can get a war elephant or camel archer in 1 turn; the latter 5 because you have to dominate the seas against the Byzantines independents and the Europeans, and cannons are much stronger against the European walls). Don't really need the culture ones (I bought meditation for a song and save me a valuable turn, exchanged some nonessetial techs like divine right for Chinese music, drama and literature. Trade for Calendar from somebody)

Now the tough part is conquering everything to Spain: 7. switch to Theocracy when you have built your important buildings (barracks, madrassa, harbor for your capital) so that your troops can get 2+ experience

8. Sana'a should concentrate on 2-3 galleys, a trireme and a caravel when you have optics

9. get Luxor and guard it with 2 longbowman and expert camel archer against the impi.

10. when you have 1-2 catapults and another melee that's strong enough, get Alexandria (which happened to have a strong great scientist producing program).

11. build roads so that your troops can march westwards

12. build a fort with 2 workers on the hill where the Suez canal is (you do not need a city there, ships can pass through a fort. Nice trick that I didn't know until I played the Arabians and was figuring out how to build ships soon enough; acutally this is key for getting to Spain in time)

13. if you're really brave, get Athens and Rome (the latter is nice for its holy city, but isn't really essential if you got the Indian holy city already); I almost got sidetracked by Athens and didn't make Spain in time

14. remember the settler in your capital? Once you've filled your galleys with troops, get him on board and send your ships towards Morocco. This city will be your troop drop off point until you're strong enough to declare war against the Spanish. (it also has many resources like wheat, wine, sheep and elephants around)

15. I opted to get Valencia first, then Madrid and usually this will be enough for the Spain criteria (got it around 1280 before the 1300 deadline). Now you need to get Islam to 40% (by now you should have at least 25%)

16. Rest a while, and declare war on the Portuguese (they usually have their troops outside their cities, and with your camel archers you can get to Lisbon in 1 move, and the other city in 2-3. Those troops outside the city disappear.

17. get the French, Germans (if they haven't collapsed already), Dutch (big city in Amsterdam) (or just spread your religion to them as they are usually either organized religion or free religion. The English are protected by their channel and the Vikings cities aren't big enough for the work)

18. in my game the Persians (Kandahar) and Babylonians (northeast of Asia minor) spawned and became my vassals. Good buffering against the Turks (who being fellow Muslims are more useful to you alive than dead)

19. I ventured forth into Aztec and Incan territory and got my free troops--both of them converted to Islam adding to my total. When my empire grew too large, the Mayans spawned later in Tikal and Chichen Itza but I didn't care since they were already Muslim)

20. India grew exponentially which helps your population count

21. build the Islamic wonders (Spiral Minaret and University of Sankore) for exponential science and money gathering (I got as far as Steel in 1520)

All in all, this civ is more enjoyable if you are a war-mongerer (the automatic Islamic buildings on conquest almost deters settlers--in fact I only built 3 settlers the whole game, mostly for India). Camel archers are way overpowered IMHO, and if it were not for the nagging Impi and European pikemen you can just build them straight. War elephants are useful in Africa but too slow after you conquer Spain.

The 600 AD start, BTS v1.181

by Sedna

Much of the above is still valuable, but on the 600 AD start, Jerusalem (Al-Quds) now contains the holy shrines for both Judaism and Christianity. This makes the 1st UHV essentially trivial -- all you need is a single Great Prophet for Mecca. In contrast, the 2nd UHV, conquering Egypt/Carthage/Spain is a bit harder than from the 3000 BC start. Instead of facing two opponents who are weak or collapsing from barb attacks, you face a technologically advanced Byzantine Empire.

Don't expand too fast. Cairo (Al-Qahirah) and Sana'a will flip to you right away. You want Jerusalem for its money, so that's your first priority. Rather than head on to Alexandria and the rest of Egypt, it's better (and historically accurate) to head into Persia instead. The cities here will be production powerhouses and supply you with necessary resources (luxuries, health, and iron). I like to settle Babylon and Shush as shown by the green marks with my starting settlers and capture Shiraz (Sirajis), which normally only has one archer. Typically, you can conquer most of India with one or two spare camel archers. Now be patient. Barbs will attack out of central Asia and out of the Sahara, and Byzantium will normally launch half-hearted attacks at Babylon and Jerusalem. Increase your army before expanding anymore. Research should be either engineering (pikes and additional road movement are most useful for fighting barbs) or gunpowder (preferred for attacking the Byzantines).

While you wait, run a priest or two in Jerusalem or Babylon (after building a temple). When that is nearly done it's time to take Alexandria. Normally they will have produced and settled another great scientist here in the meantime (if you take it early you'll get a scientist instead of a priest as your first great person), so now you have the three free scientists and the Great Lighthouse. One you get the University of Sankore and the Spiral Minaret built your economy will be set.

You are now well poised to sweep across Northern Africa and into Spain, but you will have to move fast. Beware the Byzantine fleet. Use the BTS ability to build a fort which acts as the Suez canal and build some triremes in Arabia or Shiraz to escort your galleys. Camel archers should go by land of course. The nice thing about the conquest goal is that you are told immediately when you achieve it. Just taking Tripolis counts for Carthage. In Spain, you do not need to worry about Portugal, just attack Spanish cities. If they've founded 4 cities you normally just need to take three of them to trigger the win. Naturally they will typically collapse also.

If you have time prior to the Turkish spawn in 1280 it is useful to conquer one of cities that will flip to them (Alexandretta, perhaps). This makes Turkey more likely to adopt Islam, which has many benefits. Now have a fun game playing for the last UHV -- there are lots of ways to achieve it.

BtS UHV 1.186 (monarch)

By The_K

There's not much to add but just to bring this up to date.

A lot depends on your start (whether you start from 3000BC or 600AD).

So just a few general pointers:

1. Build your three cities and get whatever flips. If you're at war with Persia or Babylon fight a bit but make peace quickly.

2. Send camel archers west. Take Egypt - fast.

3. Continue to Carthage. There has to be something there, at least one city so take it.

4. Build a galley (one is enough). And transfer your camel archer to Spain. 2 camel archer per turn and 4 of them is enough, so 2 turns and you take Spain.

Remember, you need to CONTROL the area which means having more cities than others. 2 cities in Spain, 1 or 2 in Carthage and 3 in Egypt is the usual case. No need to build settlers and you can achieve all this before 1000AD.

As for holy shrines, you will hopefully have 2 (Yerusalem and Mekha). With a bit of luck you can also have 3. If not, take it. Generating 2 or even 3 GP is no problem (pick a city-preferably an Egyptian one with prophet wonders-and run priests).

The only problem is spreading Islam but you have all the time in the world to do it. Just don't collapse ; )