Ultra Hard Guide

My Ultra Hard Guide after playing close to 40 hours.

Ultra Hard Guide

** Updated on 23rd March 2019 with latest version..
Now Ultra hard has been bit more hard than initial ultra hard ( no change in my steps )
Instead on turn 50, now I need 80 turn to rank 1 and another 10 turn to double the gap.
Make use the science that generate 50% cash (make sure you have at least 100k)

My Ultra Hard guide after playing around 40 hours
1. Start New Game – then pick the nation, my favourite nation is Magnate (Korea), it gives 50% more capital at start ( this is important for Ultra Hard since it starts with less money ) and next is Diplomat (France) as it gives 25% influence as matter of fact, influence is the hardest get compare to money and fears ( from guard )
I picked Magnate ( Korea ) for start..

2. Pick 1st country, I have favourite country as well, my pick is either Papal States or Wallachia as both are located in Europe and the bonus for Agriculture, Production and Real estate are high like 18 to 20 points plus the high wealth points of above 100 points.
I started with Papal States..

3. Once you have opened the 1st country, you can hire people to work for Espionage, Credit, Guard and Investment. To start, don’t hire for credit since you won’t have extra money to lend out. The rest 3, you can hire them (min skill is 5). Next to 2nd turn.
4. Remember to set the espionage auto negotiate meeting with the 1st country and always set to auto negotiate for every countries.
5. On next turn, you can find list of the property to buy in the investment. Buy Iron mine or Luxury products. Don’t ever think to buy real estate or farm at start (you can buy on later).
6. If you have Iron, you can create weapon and sell during the war at high price. Or If you only have luxury product, just continue until you have enough money to open new country. ( it is better to have 1 Iron and 1 luxury at this time Or Iron only , reason is on next )
7. Tips to open 2nd country, first open the war list then pick a country with 1 region and have war, why? As once the country win the war, you will have 1 country with 2 regions (without paying at least additional 26k). Doesn’t matter whether the country is going to win or lose (the Iron play big part) and the important is look for country with high Production bonus (at least 18 point).
I can choose Navarre or Scotland and I decided to pick Navarre with better bonus

8. Once you have two countries with 3 regions so it is time to upgrade the Headquarter, Armour, Espionage, Guard and Investment (you can ignore the rest for now).

9. Now you can set guard task and make investment, first once you have enough fear, you can buy influence to support the espionage to improve the relationship. ( the investment part is later )
10. Then now is time to grow and invest, only buy Iron and luxury good in region with high production bonus. So it is important to check the region before investing.
11. With you having extra money, you can start make investment to the maximum so the available investment in the region increase ( remember only invest in the region with high bonus ) – you can invest in the region for every 15 turns.

12. Or open 3rd countries and check the war list (do the same as the 2nd countries) and make sure the distance is far apart so they don’t fight each other otherwise you will lose the value. ( the losing region will have 50% value less )
on turn 49, I am rank 17th.

13. Once you reach turn 50, you can start buy IMF shares now and every 10 turns. You need to “cheat” abit, you don’t need to buy the share at start and make sure the other bank buy the shares at high price.

14. Few more things to do, in the espionage, you can grow the region bonus, just focus increase the region production bonus first (it cost around 1k per point) , you can grow the farm and real estate once you are more establish. You can even start war, reduce cost and suspend rival activity.

15. Just keep repeating above and my record is turn 59 , I have become number 1 bank.
Cheers and let me know if there are any questions.

On turn 69, I am still number 1 and there is no need to continue further..

Just ask me if there are any questions :)

[Battle barbarian]

Should also sell all the buisness in the country that will launch the war, so that you can buy it again in the war screen. it is too much work when yo are bigger but fine in the beginning.

[jokesmanhd]

Hey guys, is that how every game ends? I mean the OP AI with tons of money. Does that suppose to mean that to prevent the snowball effect we have to act way earlier?

[Crazy Wolf]

I am looking for Carbon
any idea where to find it

[Beanzoboy]

@david_kie99 I'm going to try winning through Science because I literally cannot pay the millions per IMF to even HOPE to win it.

[Beanzoboy]

@david_kie99 Now, maybe I screwed up earlier in the game (maybe really badly) but this is still absolutely insane. There is literally nothing I can POSSIBLY do to catch up in any way. Sabotage doesn't work. Investing doesn't do shit. I can't afford the 100M for IMF every 10 turns. I can't win ANY fights against them anymore, and with them being in 49 countries (326 regions) there are very few places for me to attack where I can ACTUALLY win. They make gold hand over fist literally every single turn, in the tens of MILLIONS of dollars.

This is absolutely nuts. And I was investing every turn. If the chance of default was <30% I did it. Every. Single. Turn. I invested in banks to bankrupt them, but even investing 17M for 9 turns with the 1st place bank ONLY made them more powerful.

You will hit a point where the computer will just handily whoop your ass eventually, and there's literally nothing you can do about it.

[Beanzoboy]

@david_kie99 Now, they have apparently SO MUCH WEALTH that every conflict they're in they can throw 9 MILLION toward their side. Considering this can ONLY be done by investing (very little) gold, or selling weapons, there is no possible way they could have enough weapons stored up to invest 9 MILLION in to dozens of fights. I've managed to win a few fights against them back when they only put up 5 million, but I literally CANNOT get 9 million into several territories only a handful of turns apart. Even if my investment is available during the turns before the fight, that's only 700k investment. Let's say 1M investment max with the full science tree. That's still 8 MILLION dollars worth of weapons that I would need every. single. fucking. turn. just to avoid losing my territories.

This is literally not possible. I'm on my way to getting the 50k labor per turn science upgrade, but EVEN WITH THAT my max amount (with ONLY muskets) would still be far too low to hit 9M per turn.

[Beanzoboy]

@david_kie99 I'm way past IMF by this point. My first opponent has over 150 M gold just sitting around. They're in 49 countries, while I just entered my 20th. What I don't understand, is that they're in countries that border other countries that they're in, which means ANY conflict between the countries reduces their production (because BOTH countries stop producing) and then the losing territory's value is cut. I only invest in single territory countries (aside from starting the riots in a few of its countries, which (theoretically) should reduce their (the bank's) value, yet doesn't seem to at all) and I've invested in countries that are not neighbors so I didn't have to lose all of my production and value every fight.

[david_kie99]

@Beanzoboy, I just played today, they have up the UH difficulty , I wont agreed with Varanx , the easiest to win is via IMF 51% then Fed and for science it will take longer. Also , it is impossible to get achievement of bankrupt all competitors under UH at 280 turn.
At least for 70-80 turn, dont use the sabotage but use for influence.. the achieve highest value, you need to invest every turn , by investing every turn then you can overtake the other banks. number of territories do not matter, it is number of countries are.. Keep investing in the countries ( you can invest every 20turn )

[Beanzoboy]

Hey, did you actually play further in the game you use as reference? Because it isn't until later that the banks are able to jump ahead. They invest in countries like China and Japan and just run away with the planet. My top competitor has 320 territories. turn 69 is just a tiny snapshot of the whole game.

[Varanx]

I've just won the game on UH difficulty, through science. It's the easiest way to victory imo, as you can just lend money to other banks since like 1-2 turn and do it till the end, with only minimal investments etc (just to keep you above expenses). I've got UH win at around 270-280 turn, in 40 minutes just by lending > upgrading hq etc > upgrading advisors to 50-100+ and just rush steam engine or whatever the last research is. I was last or near the last place till the end in stats.
Given that I think, lending to other banks should be nerfed. But, at least, finally I get all achievements :)