6otM 01 - Opening Actions

[elitetroops]

First time playing a GOTM for me as well. Overall it's going pretty well so far, though I think I've been a bit too slow with my expansion.

- Where did you settle your city?
First of all, what an evil start. Scouting south is a complete gamble, settle in place means no improvements before BW and the northern river doesn't look particularly appealing. I moved warrior W and settler NE, thought about where to settle for quite a long while until I decided to settle on gypsum.

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
Started on Mining, but quickly realized there was nothing I could do with that tech, so switched to Pottery->Writing when I met Catherine. After Writing I picked up some basic worker techs and Currency->Apprenticeship, eventually Archery and Engineering, then headed towards Industrialization. Don't remember the exact order, there was quite a lot of switching back and forth to avoid completing unnecessary techs too early. T100 I just hit the eureka to complete Industrialization and now the first few factories are in production.

- What was your build order?
Slinger->Settler->a couple more slingers->settlers in both cities at early empire. Settled second city south of jungle at wheat, got a very lucky builder from a hut right before the first settler was out.

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
Built first campus very early. I had 3 envoys in Stockholm before it was up for some extra science, in addition to +3 adjacency. My first 4 cities all had campuses placed very early, also commercial hubs and industrial zones as soon as population allowed. I've completely ignored the religious game. Haven't even researched Astrology. Probably never will.

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
Should have emphasized it more, I think. Only 9 cities so far and one settler heading towards settling location. I probably delayed war a bit too long, didn't go to war until around t50. Took Kumasi first, then France. After France I had to clear out the tundra and the west coast as there was a ton of barb camps over there. Next I headed for Russia, but he decided to make the first move when he bribed Sal into a joint war and headed to attack Kumasi. This forced me to first send units in the wrong direction and after that he was already much tougher than I had hoped for. He spammed way too many heavy chariots. Apparently I'm still not very good at evaluating how much opposition there will be, especially on King difficulty, which I've never played before. Oh well, just took his capital, should capture the last Russian city in a couple of turns, then head towards Arabia.

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
Pretty basic setup. Mostly +2 influence and +100% campus adjacency. The other 2 slots vary depending on what I'm doing. Now 2 turns from Merchant Republic, which should help the situation a bit.

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
Currently 6 envoys in Stockholm, 3 in Hong Kong and 3 in Hattusa. Kumasi is dead, I think I'll let the rest live.

- Were your neighbors peaceful?
Hatty has been beating on Stockholm for quite a while. I'm not worried, not a chance that she'll manage to take it. Russia and Arabia declared on me around T80. Took a peace treaty with Sal after a while, the peace treaty should have expired now so I can take him out immediately after Russia.

- How were the Barbarians?
Annoying, as usual. There were lots of barbarians harassing Catherine from the west and the south. While taking her out, I had to fight of barbarians as well, then take a detour to wipe out the camps.

- Any surprises?
I didn't go to war until T50???!? I think I should see my doctor...

T100:

Spoiler :

 

[GameBoy2000]

- Where did you settle your city?
Right where the settler spawned.

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
I picked this research order because it seemed logical.
Pottery > Minning > Animal Husbandry > Astrology > Archery. (I got more done, this was just me first 5.)

And this was my Civic order... (Same reasoning.)
Foreign Trade > CraftsManship > Early Empire > Mysticism > State Workforce.

- What was your build order?
Scout > Slinger > Builder > Granary > Settler.

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
On turn 88 I had gotten out 1 campus (out of 3 cities) and 2 Baths are being build.)

- How did you place your districts?
I don't understand the question here is, so... N/A
- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
By turn 102 (sorry, I forgot to stop at turn 100) I had founded 3 cities (my capitol included) and taken 1 French City.

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
I varied quite a lot though the first 100 turns and I don't remember what they where so my current layout is Maneuver, Conscription, Ikum, and Inspiration.

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
Kumasi, Hattusa, Hong Kong, and Stockholm. I had only allied Stockholm.

- Were your neighbors peaceful?
Mostly, but I am turning into "that" neighbor as I have no room left to expand and I just got my UU. (by "that" I mean the one who is a warmonger.)

- How were the Barbarians?
Mostly kept at bay, never had any problems with them.

- Any surprises?
Not that I can recall.







And now, for the giant wall of text going into great detail for anyone who wants to read it.

Spoiler Giant Wall of Text :

This is my 1st GOTM so sorry if I did not give as much infomation as I should have.
I did not move the first settler as I found the +3 food tile quite appealing. After that I moved my settler off to the west (Assuming the top of the screen is North.) To find a barb camp, along with the Cliffs of Dover, and a +5 food Sugar tile. This is where I planed to found my second city.

I started with a build of Scout > Slinger > Builder > Granary > Settler.

A resserch order of Pottery > Minning > Animal Husbandry > Astrology > Archery.
And a Civic order of Foreign Trade > CraftsManship > Early Empire > Mysticism > State Workforce.

By trun 20 I had met both France and Russia, and gotten myself a Pantheon. (Religious Settlements)

By turn 25 I had met Egypt and Arabia.

By Turn 30 I has started work of my first settler (Started turn 29, but though I would add it here.)

On turn 33 Egypt had denounced me for having a weak army. (guess that should be the case, I only had 1 Warrior, 1 slinger, and 1 scout.)

By Turn 35 I had upgraded my slinger to an Archer, and I am 2 turns away from getting a settler.

By Turn 40 I had my settler in a formation with my Archer headed off to found my second city, (Also saw a barb camp spawned in the area so I hope it won't steal my settler.) I am also working on building up my army.

By Turn 45 I had grown my army with an 2 more Warriors and 1 more scout, in addtion to that france has linned my borders with 4-6 Warriors. I had also sent an Envoy to Stockholm making my total 2 now. (got a free one for meeting them first.)

By Turn 50 I can now confirm that france has lined my border with at least 6 warriors, building the Ancient Walls should help defend. Not sure if I will risk defening with 3 warriors, 1 Archer, and the city walls or not. (Probably will as the river will work in my favor.)

On turn 53, France has 10 (yes, 10) Warriors in/on my Border, (maybe I should have not given them open boarders [That was before this hole thing happened.]) I may have just lost this game.

On trun 54, (you guessed it.) France had jsut declared a war on me... hope this goes well.

On Turn 55 France had pulled back 6 of its warriors and I found out the the walls can't attack of the rain forestm this should be fun.

On Turn 57 I had gttoen my first "real" goverment, given the cards I was delt, I had to go for Autocracy.

On turn 61 (forgot to do 60, sorry.) I had gotten out a Heavy Chariot and held my ground agenst France, I was only able to kill 1 French Warrior, but i should be fine after I get my second Heavy Chariot out.

On turn 64 France offered me peace for everything she had, other than 2 gpt. (A "Grass Cutting Sword", 78 gold, and 5 gpt.) I glady accepted and now plan to go back to building up my empire, bound to make this misstake again.

Turn 66, I had decided that I would buy a third settler, seeing the way I am right now, I will probably stop founding cities and start taking them to help progress my victory. (Due to there being no "decent" places left to settle after this.) I had also noticed that somehow I got 3 Envoys with Stockholm, and I sent them a fourth as Egypt was also trying to get to ally them.

By turn 86 I had started my rush for a victory by getting out my first campus with a libary, I had now set my sights on improving tiles and getting Baths in all my cities that needed them.

On turn 88, France had forward settled my capitol, then asked me to move my troops (becuse the Ai is logical.), then denounced me. When I am done with my building up my capitol, I will start building up my army for a war with France.

On turn 98, I had claimed Euclid (Great Scientist) and changed my mind on taking out France, I now plan to take 1 French city (the one they forward settled.) and then take on Russia, as they where the only person I know of who was possing a threat to me science wise.

On turn 100, I had gotten the Legions, with a combat Strength of 40 and the city I wash to take of 20, I will decalre war next turn (they denounced me so I can do a formal war.) and take the city. And I need to denounce Russia so I can declar war on them as well.

On turn 102, I had taken the city and denounced Russia. I am going to build up my army and take over Russia.

Thank you all for this fun GOTM.

 

[Kroman]

Well, first time player of GOTM, couldn't resist the urge to play the new game.
I decided to play the traditional way - expand, expand, expand. Sure you can probably get a faster science win, but this is to me the heart of this game as it is now (maybe in the future it will be changed to make wide play less rewarding).
I didn't plan on too much conquest, just the necessary amount to secure enough land, but France came with like 6 warriors on turn 25, so not much choice to build an army and punish them... After that it just went by itself... At turn 100 I already killed France, Russia, Kumasi (friends with Russia and were generally trying to pillage my lands, prevented my luckily stolen Arabian settler from coming back home... and in general they were a nuisance, and I don't like their bonus so... why not? )
The legion is SO strong!
The funny thing is - I have not built a single campus (the only ones I have are conquered), and I am still easily the science leader.

Where did you settle your city?

I settled in place - nothing really interesting in the area, so did not want to take chances.

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?

Mining and Animal Husbandry first, then beeline for Archery, then Iron Working, after that - beelines for commercial zones --> industrial zones --> whichever technology was slowest (!), as I hoped this will prevent district cost scaling to much...

- What was your build order?

Scout, Slinger, Scout, Slinger, Builder, Slinger, Slinger, Settler, ...

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?

Not before turn 50... I construct ONLY commercial zones, industrial zones and sometimes port zones, if the city has early access to water. Nothing else - I have lots of cities (10+ at turn 100 and lots more planned), so I need the production. Science and culture are strong enough just with free monuments and lots of population

- How did you place your districts?

Commercial zones on rivers whenever possible, industrial zones (not many of those yet) I tried to place so that I will be getting a huge production bonus in Rome.

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?

After building some archers and warriors, expansion it is. Warriors have the perfect trait of upgrading to legions, with no iron necessary... I almost pitied my neighbors...

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?

Free monument means early access to cards... God King first to secure a panteon (the one with faster border expansion for once), then mainly bonus production and reduced unit maintenance. After I reached Oligarchy, I included faster settlers.

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?

Stockholm, Hong Kong, Hattusa - my good buddies. Kumasi is no more - hated me and I hated them, as is usual in my games.

- Were your neighbors peaceful?

France appeared at my borders with a friendly delegation of 6 warriors on turn 25 or so... had trouble then, as I had just researched archery and did not have to many of those guys, but my warrior + some slingers + AI stupidity were enough to defend.... and then I steamrolled. Obviously Paris was first to fall - they were on one city only... Peter (with his buddy Kumasi) was next, now I am on my way to pay a visit to the Arabs (Baghdad is already a part of the Roman empire) and I have 4 legions + 3 archers on their way to Egypt, so why let them survive?

- How were the Barbarians?

A pain in the tundra behind France and Russia former territory. I don't want to settle to many junk cities there, so my Arabian army will probably spend the rest of the game fog busting.

- Any surprises?

Not really. I planned for peaceful, with all the territory available around the Cliffs, but France decided to attack me instead of Russia, and sort of moved my hand for me...

Now the plan is to kill Egypt and the Arabs, fill in the gaps with cities, build CZ and IZ everywhere and dominate the game. Science win it will be.

Spoiler My empire at turn 100 :

 

[Melofeign]

Plan was to secure my continent, then race for the finish! Getting to Legions was going to be key to make sure the continental police action would be successful.

- Where did you settle your city?
Settled In Place (SiP)

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
Went for Writing first, then some worker techs, archery, and onto Legions. Then went over to apprenticeship. Wanted to make sure I could get the ball rolling quickly.

- What was your build order?
Scout, slinger, warrior, settler, campus. Then more units with some workers thrown in and a trader when I could.

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
Went for Campus first, and had one right after I popped out the first settler.

- How did you place your districts?
Not a whole lot of adjacencies, so tried to line up rain forests for the Campus.

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
I expanded the old fashioned way, Vici! I had one settler for myself, and then 4 cities from my friends nearby and 2 more settlers that were hanging out in defeated cities. That should make 8 at turn 100, and Cairo should be going down soon.

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
Went with barbarian fighting and gold/faith to pantheon, then production for units.

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
I didn't kill any city states, and have met 4 with Stockholm and Kumasi Suzerain'd

- Were your neighbors peaceful?
Not really. French started uppity, so we took care of them first, then rolled along through Peter and onto Saladin. Cleo is too busy pillaging Stockholm to do anything while my army is away. I should have made more units to start fighting north earlier; will be a long slog back to Egypt after Cairo is taken.

- How were the Barbarians?
A bit painful but not so bad; having a lot of units to begin with I'm sure helps.

- Any surprises?
I feel like there's a lack of hammers out there, and not much in mountains for nice campus adjacency bonuses. I grabbed the growth pantheon, but am thinking I should have gone with border expansion, because I'm not focusing on culture and the spread is pretty slow. Overall will be fun to see how this shakes out!

 

[Life Admiral]

I tried this for Civ 5 but I was already late into the action there so I decided to start from the beginning with this game.

My usual game level sits between Emperor and Immortal (or it did on Civ 5) so this will be fun when you guys push me into Diety.

- Where did you settle your city?
Moved 1 hex NW and settled on Turn 2. My logic was that I wanted to get a little bit out of the rainforest so that Rome could actually pick up some yields. Don't regret that call.

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
I'm literally playing with Notepad open so I'm writing down every little detail.

Technologies:
- Pottery
- Mining
- Irrigation
- Masonry* (EB)
- Writing (EB)
- Wheel
- Engineering (EB)
- Bronze Working (EB)
- Animal Husbandry
- Archery (EB)
- Iron Working
- Sailing
- Currency (EB)
- Astrology (EB)
- Mathematics (EB)
- Celestial Navigation
- Horseback Riding
- Apprenticeship (EB)
- Education

Civics:
- Code of Laws
- Foreign Trade (IB)
- Early Empire
- Craftsmanship (IB)
- State Workforce
- Political Philosophy (IB)
- Mysticism (IB)
- Drama and Poetry
- Recorded History
- Military Tradition (IB)
- Theology
- Games & Recreation

Technology goal was to prioritize Writing and then run to Engineering. I'll get to Masonry later because that was an "on the fly" decision.

After Engineering, it was more clean-up of old techs that I hadn't needed (Animal Husbandry, Archery, Sailing...) and unlocking Legions. The Engineering Eureka is actually building Ancient Walls which meant that early Masonry actually paid off (since Engineering unlocks the Bath). After that, the goal was Education with a side trip to Celestial Navigation in order to pick up a Harbour.

Civics was simply trying to get to Political Philosophy early and then aiming for any Civic that handed off Science. AKA Recorded History.

- What was your build order?
Early Builds (Rome):
- Scout
- Builder
- Trader (STOP) -> Slinger
- Warrior
- Trader (Continue)
- Scout
- Granary
- Settler (Cumae)
- Ancient Walls
- Campus
- Bath
- Trader
- Settler (Arretium)
- Builder
- Catapult
- Legion
- Spearman
- Heavy Chariot
- Archer
- Great Library

Early Builds (Cumae):
- Builder
- Bath
- Builder
- Archer
- Harbour

Early Builds (Arretium):
- Bath
- Builder

My guess was that because I was stuck in Rainforest, Barbarians wouldn't be an issue so I could put off that early Slinger. I was only half right. The trader was to connect immediately to Stockholm for Science and an Envoy.

The series of military units before the Great Library was simply while I was waiting for enough money in order to buy the tile required to build the GL. It's currently under construction.

In addition, I've also bought another Builder on T35. Other important purchases included a Granary for Cumae and a Library for Rome.

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
Finished a Campus in Rome on Turn 64 and bought a Library on the same turn. After that, both Rome and Cumae immediately started on Baths (since neither has access to Fresh Water).

Once Arretium was founded, first build was a Bath while Cumae got started on a Harbour.

- How did you place your districts?
The Roman Campus is 3 hexes away to the NW, giving it currently +3 Science (2 Mountains and 2 Rainforests). Moving the Roman settler up a tile let me build the Roman Bath on the tile where the settler began the game.

The Cumae Bath is located NW of a Mountain that is about 4 hexes away from Paris to the NW. Cumae itself is W of the Bath. The Harbour is 2 hexes W and 1 hex NW from Cumae, beside the Fish.

Arretium has a Bath E of the city and the city is located NW of Rome and SW of Stockholm.

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
Cumae was founded T55 and Arretium was founded T82. Will either found one more city or will invade France. Arretium will pick up both hexes of the Cliffs of Dover.

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
- Survey/Urban Planning
- Survey/Caravansaries
- Agoge/Colonization
- Conscription/Ilkum
- Conscription/Agoge/Ilkum/Urban Planning (Autocracy)
- Conscription/Agoge/Urban Planning/Inspiration
- Conscription/Agoge/Conscription/Inspiration
- Conscription/Agoge/Natural Philosophy/Corvee

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
Hong Kong/Stockholm/Kumasi through T35, Hattusa by T50. My goal is to milk Stockholm for all the Science possible and then probably take it for myself.

- Were your neighbors peaceful?
Well... France declared Surprise War on T20.

I kid you not.

First of all, moving that Settler was entirely key because it meant that France actually had to circle around the Mountain to get to Rome. I immediately stopped building the Trader and went with a Slinger followed by a Warrior. In addition, I picked Masonry instead of Writing because I figured that if France wanted to prolong the war, I'd need Ancient Walls and fast. Since I had mined the Gypsum already, Masonry had received a Eureka which made it fast learning.

After killing a Slinger and Warrior, Catherine retreated and offered me peace with money on T29. No harm done.

Since then, I met Egypt and Russia with both nations eventually asking for Friendships. France went to war against Russia and is kinda falling behind with Paris open to a pretty easy assault soon.

- How were the Barbarians?
Annoying rather than dangerous.

- Any surprises?
Aside from T20 Surprise War? Nope. Cliffs of Dover being close is very nice.

This is through 35 turns and I'll will update it at about 70 and 100. After that, fun times.

EDIT: Turn 101 in my game. Here we go.

 

[Montezuma's Revenge]

- Where did you settle your city?
Settled in spot
- What was your build order?
Slinger -> Slinger -> Builder -> Settler -> Hanging Gardens
- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
I started an early war with France, so prioritzed military. Think first district was Commerce Hub in cap
- Were your neighbors peaceful?
They were, but I wasn't

Decided from the beginning that I wanted to take out my closest neighbours and when France leaves me a unescorted settler dangling at turn 36 I DoW.

Spoiler :

France put up I surprisingly good fight, they produced a heck of a lot of warriors, but by turn 75 it was all over for them. After that I focused on taking down Russia. At turn 150 now and St. Peterburg has fallen.

Spoiler :

Other than Hanging Gardens I also built the Colosseum, that feels kinda mandatory when you play as Rome. I have 8 cities now, 1 captured from France (Paris), 2 captured from Russia (Novgorod and St. Petersburg) and 5 own settlements. Cleo is getting real friendly with me 'cause of my big...army, gonna try to DoF. Think I have asserted my dominance over the continent now and gonna focus on science and production now. I have Campuses online in Rome and Paris and working on getting commerce and industrial in all my cities. Got the Great Scientist that insta-build Library and University.

 

[Ribannah]

The patch hit my game before I finished. I've started anew to test things, and immediately ran into a bug.

After the patch, it is no longer possible to sell the Gypsum if you settle on it, not even with the knowledge of Mining.

 

[WackenOpenAir]

No submission for the contest because i reloaded and read this thread before i started. I post anyway because finding the most effective playstyles is what these early GOTMs are all about anyway. This is the first civ6 game i hope to finish, I didnt really get interested so my civ6 experience so far is a bunch of restarted tomyris blitz games none of which i actually even finished. So this game i had some things to learn and just build / researched things for seeing what they do and reloaded to do or test other things. Meanwhile i did not micromanage as much as i normally would. That makes this report more of a civ6 early experience review.

The overal game plan. While population has always been the key, it seems that buildings are simply much less significant for science than in previous versions of civ and the cost of having a bigger empire seems to be reduced. No more corruption, happiness issues seem to be reduced. Buildings are no longer multipliers and cities can grow to a moderate size without even needing any buildings so a wide empire seems to be most effective.
So i guess we reverted back to rapid expansion civ. After that i suppose i want to build science districts wherever i can, befriend every scientific CS on the map and get a few high production cities to have Elon produce me that falcon rocket. (when is he going to be a great person in civ?)

In early game i noticed that the game kind of forces you into a playstyle that has always been correct anyway. You want to have very clear cut goals and phases in your game. Except for the beloved settler factories of old, it has always been good to focus on building settlers or on an army, not mix them up too much. Now the game makes it clear that you really want to focus on one thing and i focussed the full 100%. Wanting to expand fast, i started with 1 slinger for scouting, then 2 settlers for initial expanding while i purchased a worker so i could get some eurekas and a luxury. With the prospect of going into full unit production very soon, i was not too afraid to go with only 1 unit before settler. I kept it close to home while settling those 2 cities. Just scouted around to find expansion spots and nearby CSes. Goody huts seem of less significance to me now that they no longer give full techs, but merely half techs that 9 out of 10 you would otherwise get free anyways.

So after the slinger-settler-settler opening, i turned on the 50% unit production bonus and build units from all 3 cities. I purposely finished a 2 warriors and some slingers before getting the archer and swordsmen techs so i could use my gold efficiently. Nice bonus is that we get legions for swordsmen upgrade price. I totaled 4 legions and 5 or so archers. Initially i thought i would need that many units, but quickly i noticed that the legions are so powerful that i could spread them out in all directions and conquer everything almost simultaneously. While this army started my conquests, around turn 50 i swiched out the unit production bonus for the settler production bonus and proceeded to build settlers from every city.

If it werent for the pesky barbs in civ6, i maybe would have probably to build more settlers before starting the military buildup so that those self built cities have more time to develop while the captured cities actually can develop a bit in AI hands if you capture them later. The barbs however require us to build units, so if i have to build them anyway, then better just build enough to actually get some benefit from conquest out of them. Although in hindsigh, the conquest thing is so immensely powerful and cost effective that it is probably good to prioritize it anyway. On higher difficulties i imagine it will be important to first conquer the enemies that have different goals than you do so that the cities you capture a bit later have the correct districts for your victory condition of choise. On those difficulty levels conquering the cities later is probably not too bad since the AI gets advantages allowing it to develop the cities faster.

While my army was building up, i sent the first units to conquer the cultural CS. The scientific SCes seem more beneficial later on as allies providing me a total of 8 science per district plus some other stuff. After being dissapointed that "city projects" does not mean districts or buildings, google helped me find the answer that it is actually space parts ! So that production CS might come in really handy as well. After that i started with france and quickly conquered the rest of the continent.

As soon as i obtained a city or a city grew to a size allowing an extra district, i immediately placed the district to lock in the price and then proceeded building whatever i was building in that phase. Placing these districts was done with a priority order of: campus - industrial - commercial. I bee lined for apprenticeship to allow myself placing the industrial districts. At the beginning of the game i did not yet realize the value of forests and rain forests with my future 5 action workers so i removed them while placing districts. Some day in the future i guess i need to do some math on this whole thing with these scaling prices for both workers and districts and see what is best. (getting the cheap price locked vs waiting till you have the worker to cut the forest) I do assume the price locking when building districts will be patched at some point though. I feel like the adjacency bonuses are not all that great in the grand scheme of things so i try to optimize the placement but i wont be sad choosing sub optimal places if the optimal ones are in the expensive third ring tiles that i cant afford yet. I havent played any civ6 late game yet though, so i could be wrong.

I almost got to capture a Russian Prophet. My unit was just 1 turn too late to intercept it before it founded a religion. I would have loved to see if that would have given me my own religion to start. (Can you capture great persons?) Unfortunately though it means i have 2 cities with a foreign religion in my empire. However when i look at the great peoples screen it sais i am producing 5 great prophet points per turn so it seems my devine spark also works in these captured religious cities. And i should soon have a prophet to create my own religion. Wow, conquest is just way too rewarding, especially considering that a single Legion is capable of capturing a city in early game. (on this difficulty level at least)

It is now turn 65. I have:
3 initial self produced cities. (including capital)
1 CS
1 city from captured french settler (i played after patch so i guess less captured settlers for me)
1 french city
2 russian cities
1 egypt city
2 recently settled cities, the first of a flood to come.

Only 1 arab city remaining to capture.
My units are cleaning out the barbs from all the areas to settle. half a dozen settlers will be ready in 5-7 turns. By that time i will also have feudalism, so i can then perfectly swap to full scale 5 action-worker production. So far i have not build a single worker except for the one i purchased early. I captured 7 actions worth of workers during my conquest. Together with the fact that conquered improvements count toward eureka requirements, that enabled me to easily get the 3 mines and 6 farms bonuses. Yes, conquest is OP, it just provides everything you need in the game, workers, settlers, religion.... I wonder up to what difficulty level this works, but my gut feeling sais deity because the AI will never have the focus to mass an army and then actually use it effectively like we do. Combat has always been one of the greatest equalizers for humans against dumb civ AI that gets everything at half price.


Next priorities:
Feudalism
Republic
Ocean faring
General city development

It is amazing how we are bassically back to civ2. Civ3-5 were all about different ways to stop us from mass expanding. Now we are totally back in the old days. I dont mind, i have always been a warmonger. But it feels terribly unbalanced.

 

[Ribannah]

When you capture a Prophet, it is disbanded.

 

[iL3nz]

- I settled my city a few movements north near some bananas.
- I went straight towards legion first. Wanted to beef up an army early in case someone like Egypt was next to me.
- Scout, Slinger, Settler
- As soon as possible. I did an encampment first because Egypt was next to me.
- Nothing strategic, just whatever popped up with the best bonuses.
- Yes, I expanded early and also took Egypt out as soon as possible. By 100 turns I had seven cities I believe.
- First was barbarians and then the bonus production towards pumping out early units.
- I met Stockholm first and have kept them on my side since.
- Egypt never is so I took them out early. Russia has been a pain but I knocked out two of his cities and hasn't been trouble since.
- Barbarians are aggressive as usual.
- No surprises yet. I am now shooting up the tech tree as fast as I can.

 

[mushroomshirt]

Well it's been a long time since I tried a GOTM. This did not go well. I had a persistent crash for some reason that I could not get past. boo! Didn't even get to found my first city. Will try again with GOTM2.

 

[Sir Prizer]

Considering the jungle starting spot, my plan was to explore for a high production 2nd city (which I know now doesn't exist). I wanted to focus on science and religion early, and set up powerful trade routes using Rome's trade route specialty. However, Russia and France had other plans for me. They declared joint war within about 25 turns - the turn after I met the second of them. Amazing! So then I played defense, preparing for the onslaught (which never came by T105.) So I built military while settling 2 cities to the NW (near Dover Cliffs) and W (coastal river). Since I didn't know the location or even direction of Russia and France, I explored close by, fought barbarians and eventually located Egypt.

- Where did you settle your city?
Settled In Place (SiP)

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
Key research in order was Writing, Irrigation (for the dyes). Astrology, Ironworking, Engineering, Apprenticeship.

- What was your build order?
Slinger, scout, settler, builder, slinger, warrior, builder, heavy chariot.

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
Holy Site first. I had planned go campus first, but then I saw the pantheon Sacred Path. Selecting it meant that I could place a HS West of the capital mountain for a full 6 adjacency points. So I planned around that move and don't intend to remove any of the adjacent jungles. That delayed science production, which I hope pans out. I took Wat to boost science and now have 2 campus and 2 holy sites from builds. I also took Jesuit Education which allows purchase of campus and theater square buildings, so I faith-rushed libraries, and first University to play catch-up.

- How did you place your districts?
My districts are spread so that holy sites can maximize contact with rainforest, mountain, and wood. Only 2 types so far, holy and campus.

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
Slow progress. 3 cities built by T105, then one conquered from France and I will take Paris as soon as Catherine completes Mahabodhi Temple Next builds are for 2 settlers to fill in space between Rome and Paris, which is currently heavily guarded. I still have the CIV V preferences for Tall, but I see that wide is working better in 6 and need to adjust.

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
Went with barbarian fighting and gold/faith to pantheon. Now Conscription and most importantly Scripture to double HS adjacency, which is 12. Used Ilkum a bit.

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
I didn't kill any city states, and have met 4 with Stockholm Suzerain'd

- Were your neighbors peaceful?
See above. The joint DOW appears like a gift. Egypt is Friendly because of my strong military. No warmonger penalities yet I get to wage war with both France and Russia, at least not letting them expand. Peter is begging for peace, but I'm not taking his offerings. Rather have Paris and St. Petersburg.

- How were the Barbarians?
A bit painful early but only pesky lately.

- Any surprises?
Aside from the joint DOW against me, I'm feeling the lack of production like everyone else. But Sacred Path is allowing campus buildings quickly. I'll need Industrial Zone focus soon and look forward to meeting the rest of the party!

 

[AugusTIN0007]

MIXED EMOTIONS arose when I saw the announcement for civ6 GoTM. The last great SP experience, I had in civ4 (bts), and sadly civ 5 AI, out of my viewpoint, was not capable of understanding the interesting new concepts and complexity of civ 5, so civ 5 I played mostly just MP.
So this challenge and invitation to play civ6 Gotm, to compare, improve and exchange strategies and experience with other players seems a good way to try SP again.
BUT the released version had game breaking bugs and exploits, so I could not force myself to start.
Finally the patch was out and I waited for having enough TIME, so I can play a long session without breaks, because I had an unpleasant situation in civ4, where I joined a Gotm for my 1st (and only) time, and most probably continued from a wrong save file, because my submission was not accepted due to the GOLDEN RULE of NOT replaying any turns (what i 100% support and accept) - so if i did i did by mistake.
So this time I can proudly say that Yesterday i started my game, and played 1st session till turn 150 . I left the game running even during lunch, breaks and going to town ..lol

TURN 99 situation:
4 founded cities, and 5th settler on the way to the north to become my 2nd production city.
A respectable army of 4 Legions, 1 crossbow, catapult, chariot on the borders of France, and a few more old units (warrior, archer) for domestic guarding.
Explored continent with 3 scouts and 2 galleys (2 scouts lost their lives for the motherland).
No losses so far.
Holy site in Rome, economical district in coastal town, campus and (soon) industrial district in production city.
Envoys in all 4 Cs and 1 CS suzerain in north.
1st in science by a few techs, 1st in score, 1st in domination, 1st in religious spreading religion at the moment to become most dominant on continent.



Where did you settle your city?
Settled In Place ... because since release I just finished 2 games and started just a few more, so I am still in the learning phase and not so deep into it for having advantage of "searching" for better start position. Also, it seems to me, that by the new concept of districts, and "specialization" the importance of the capital will NOT be as huge as the tall super-capitals of civ5. Actually by looking at the starting position I decided ...for 1st time in my life to SACRIFICE capital for early expansion (builders, setlers) and later transform it into a place of prayer and scholarship ... and build a MORE POWERFUL city somewhere with bigger production! LOL ... what a plan

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
No specific order. As for the moment it looks that the eureka of 50% is overpowered, I try to start a balanced game and try to get most of the research through eureka - that means even settling soon a 2nd or 3rd city at coast for many future boosts - (although in MP civ 5 You never do this - its either ALL on continent or ALL cities on coast due to frigate rushes).
Although I tried to reach as fast as possible iron working so i can clear rainforrest and speed up builders/settlers for an early expansion.

- What was your build order?
Ups ..I forgot - hm scout, slinger, settler, builder, warrior ....

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
Holy Site first. So far, out of the few games I played, because of overpowered 50% eurekas, I experience that I can keep up (and even very easy lead science at king level) without rushing campus. Religions are limited and therefore priority. But still, at king level I did not hurry either, but focused at expansion and building/ chopping tiles. The early pantheon gave me the option to get extra faith of rainforrest!!! So the best position was west of mountain with extra 6 faith for holy site - I had an eye on the great person list and timed founding religion as the 4th civ ...easy going - so no prioritizing, just flowing.

- How did you place your districts?
Low production area (of capital, but sadly as I know now, even of big areas around) and being Rome forced an approach of going WIDE: the idea was to build in the low production cities campus / economic districts, and in the few production cities go for production and military districts - and entertainment as needed due to situation. I will not care about cultural district due to the fact that Russia is close neighbor, and I let RasPutin build it for the great Roman empire
So 1st, as written above, Holy site in capital with 6 extra faith (the only one I plan to build). The 2nd city was the coastal city towards the west (natural wonder boost of culture), so economic district (and later in future, in combo with harbor). 3rd city, toward east (4 hills and a mountain) I build my 1st campus and later production district (and in future I plan an military district).
I could not play my desired plan and build more, because my irrational neighbor FRANCE declared a surprise WAR in the very early time, when Rome was fragile, in the time of warriors and slingers, in the time when I just settled my 3rd city ... so the very little production I had, was invested into few units and the sparse money into upgrading slingers into archers during this early war. I could, without losses, push back the attack, but when the peace offer with 9g/turn arrived (and I don't think that taking down his already 2 cities would be painless with this small army of Rome at this time), so I accepted and postponed future annihilation of France for the time of Legions and crossbows

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
YES, I emphasized expansion. Due to low production start area, I sacrificed the idea of building any Wonders, just minimum districts (as mentioned above), so focus was on builders for improving, builders for chopping rainforsets (except the one i needed for extra faith boost), builders and builders and settlers and a medium sized army for revenge on France.
So, till building my 3rd city (I forgot turn, but the AI mostly had 1 or just 2nd city out, so it was fast) I had a good feeling
BUT then the War with France interrupted "the flow", and signing "peace", for Rome was already "starting to prepare for the real WAR" - but this "preparation" (building 2 legions ... 1 crossbow, upgrading 1 archer and warrior ... building catapult, founding 4th city towards south close to Paris due to ROAD and faster access). This last 30-40 turns till turn 99 it felt, like a stagnation, I lost focus and felt "lost", due to slow producing - most probably, after reading other "reports" I will have much room to improve this part of the game.
So in turn 99 I finally felt ready (much later as I hoped) to formally declare War with medium warmonger penalty on France for revenge but also to gain some good districts from Paris.

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
Went with barbarian fighting and gold/faith to pantheon.
In the time of my 1st government before reaching Oligarchy, I rotated very carefully %settler card when building/chopping settlers, or %builders trying to synchronize and build in ALL cities builders in that period, %building units when I was raising army. 100% bonus on holy site was very powerful due to 6 extra faith meanwhile, 2 points on envoys, but at 1st contact I changed for getting extra 2nd envoy. 100% navals, for getting 2 galleys and following the eureka boosts ... 2 extra GP prophet points to reach religion faster, later 2 GP scientist point ... so as I stated in introduction, due to the fact that just after few games I have NO STRATEGY yet, I try to go wide and balanced in every aspect and use many different combos depending on terrain, room to expand, neighbors, situational priorities etc

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
I met all 4 on the continent - yes early exploration with scouts is for me very important. I was not very successful solving their tasks, so I have just 1-2 in each and suzerian with the SCIENCE CS in the north to give me extra science in campuses AND "visibility" towards Egypt - important when fighting a WAR in the other site of the globe with France (forgot name) - didn't kill any city states.
Actually at around turn 80 I saved my suzerain CS as Egypt was attacking them by sending an archer and 1 Legion just to stand at some tiles close to city and hinder the AI to place armies better, so the CS was not overrun but their War is balanced and costs a lot of units on both sides.

- Were your neighbors peaceful?
See above - France declared a surprise War early in time of slingers an warriors ... BUT WILL PAY NOW. In turn 99 Rome is declaring War with 4 legions, 1 crossbow, 1 catapult ... and there is NO chance France can escape destiny. As I read patch notes, most probably I will leave them 1 city not to get the extra huge warmonger penalty for destroying a civilization - the emperor from Rome AugusTIN has mercy
Paradoxically in turn 99 I still don't have an army district (it was no priority) and with just 1 horse resource, in my 1st War I can not count on cavalry units (except the chariot I made earlier)!!
Egypt is neutral - they like Romes army and the war.
Russia is unfriendly ..


- How were the Barbarians?
A bit painful early, but sadly I could not get some eurekas I normally get: an encampment cleared an CS warrior in front of my eyes, and slinger could not kill any due to early war with France
... later it was just loosing time due to sending units here or there to get rid of some barbs.

- Any surprises?
The low production area is a surprise - From Rome to Paris, and around a huge low production area covering space for 5-7 cities!

Thank You for keeping all the good work in civfanatics.

 

[Eyswein]

Long time (off and on) civ player since it was released way back in '91. I didn't keep good track of the below, but will next game. Started off slowly knocking out achieves (about 70 so far) and remembered this site; saw the GOTM was already going so thought I'd try it for fun. Downloaded on 26th and finished on 27th.

- Where did you settle your city? In place. Didn't see any advantage after moving warrior.
- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why? Mining (to build quarry), then went for Irrigation (for plantations), then archery (for defense/offense). For polices focused on Early Empire (researched and waited to boost) and Political Philosophy (for better governance) as soon as I could.
- What was your build order? Builder, Builder, Slinger x3, Campus
- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize? Campus first; only one in early stages. Commerce later.
- How did you place your districts? Opposite side of mountain for the rain forest bonus.
- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns? Only viewed local area (no scouts until later in game) to determine where to build first 4 cities and to try to kill 3 barbarians and a barbarian outpost for quicker research. After capital size 6 started building settlers with bonus. Without scouts, only found (or was found by) the 3 close City-States and 3 AIs (Egypt, Russia, France). I didn't know 4th CS and Saladin were on the same continent until much later. Think I was at 5 by end of 100th turn or soon after. Planned on going to 4, but wanted to close off France's expansion, so ended up with 5. I got my 2nd city before I even reached size 6 in capital due to captured Russian settler - they really need to fix the AI for this - it was 1 warrior for me vs 3 warriors for Russia (captured settler in open, built next turn, rushed another warrior with gold and moved slingers down as fast as I could - only lost 1 unit overall. This is insane, AI needs fixed for real escort duty (linked, not nearby).
- How did you play your governance cards, priorities? Focused on production / barbarian +damage, then on settler building.
- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side? Only met the 3 close ones early on. Focused on all to 3 emissaries for synergy bonuses (science one first and only early on).
- Were your neighbors peaceful? I started war with Russia for settler capture and made peace as soon as I could. France/Egypt did go to war with me, but not sure if it was before or after turn 100.
- How were the Barbarians? Eh, with 3 slingers out turning into archers no big deal.
- Any surprises? Failed to get a religion. Had a +2 prophet card as soon as I could, but didn't build a district. Looked like I was going to get there, but didn't. Eventually Russia gave me their religion.

 

[DSYoungEsq]

I know it's officially over, but for completeness sake, I'm doing 6otM 1, before doing 2 and 3. Here's my offering on 1:

Brief recapitulation of efforts:
I started in place on turn one. Sent warrior to the north generally to check things out. Ran into some city-state peeps, then some barbs. While taking a whack at the barbs, Cleo's minions showed up. I talked nicely to them, while plotting how to do them in.
I made a slinger and sent it easterly. Ran into Peter, who made nice to me, and we're getting along swimmingly. He's gonna be pissed when I do him in.
Ran into Catherine after a while. She acted suspicious. Well she should have.
Got my legions, just in time (DoW with no warning from Cleo). Smashed her troops, killed her second city, then took Ra-Kedet. Cleo gone.
Turned south and hunted out Paris (Catherine rarely creates a second city it seems). Declared war without warning, and took Paris without trouble. Bye-bye Catherine.
At turn 100, had my troops streaming towards Peter's borders. Meanwhile, I have started three cities after Rome (captured a settler from France), and have two wonders built (Hanging Gardens and Pyramids). Have not settled a coastal city yet. City-states are mostly mine, and will be all mine after I knock off Peter. Oh, and Saladin showed up just at turn 100.
- Where did you settle your city?
Settled in place. Sent the warrior to the NW to see what was out there, and realized that there didn't seem to be much advantage to going north. I dislike settling after turn one unless there's an obvious advantage, so I stayed with the spot given. So far, that's turned out to be just fine.
- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
I had played the Romans before (first game I tried), so I knew that I wanted my Legions as soon as possible. Thus, the most direct path to iron working is preferable. In this case, it was Mining, followed by a brief detour to Irrigation, then straight on to Iron Working. Once I have my legions, I'm going to be unstoppable I figure.
After that, it's backfill with things as they show on the map as necessary (Archery or not depends upon what the barb situation is, for example). Masonry was a focus to get walls, when it became clear who I had around me (Cleo is a noted early-attacker). Finally, I wanted machinery so I could eventually begin to get some production out of the forest hexes in this very production-poor area.
Final order: Mining, Pottery, Irrigation, Bronze Working, Iron Working (49), Animal Husbandry, Archery, Masonry, Astrology, Writing, Currency, Horseback Riding, Wheel, Engineering, Machinery (100)
My Civics were less well thought out. I've not got a feel yet for what I want in what order. It's Rome, so I went with Foreign Trade, then Mysticism because I figure religions are always useful.
After that, it was straight to Political Philosophy, so that I could get the extra cards. Beyond that, it was a bit aimless, other than that I didn't want to go for Recorded History until I could trigger a eureka for it, because that was an envoy bonus.
Order was: Foreign Trade, Mysticism, Early Empire, Craftmanship, State Workforce, Political Philosophy (46), Military Tradition, Games & Rec., Drama & Poetry, Theology, Military Training, Defensive Tactics, Feudalism (94).
- What was your build order?\
This game is all about expanding, just like all Civilization games (and more than CiV, because the stupid growth penalties are, if not gone, lessened considerably). So it was:
Slinger, Settler, Builder, Trader, Hanging Gardens
I'd have switched the Builder and the Settler, if need be, but Rome grows FAST. City 2, Puteoli, went Warrior, Spearman, Legion, Settler, Walls.
- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
Encampment in Rome, after the Hanging Gardens. Was time to crank out some serious soldiers, since I intended to take down Catherine and Peter after Cleo.
- How did you place your districts?
The encampment went to the NE, in the bend of the river, so that it's harder to attack from that direction. It's also on a straight line to Puteoli, so its units when produced get to that city faster. Finally, it's not in the way of placements that take advantage of the multiple resource hexes to the south.
- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
ALWAYS emphasize expansion. That's been true since the original Civilization game.
I had city #2 founded by turn 26, directly to the NE. It's not an ideal placement, but the location of the City-States to the NW, East, and SE made it hard to go to the optimal locations for hex build-out (three over and diagonal four, or four over and diagonal three). The location I chose seemed a good place, half-way to Ra-Kedet, and still leaving room for a city along the sea to the NE.
I've now built three cities (two settlers built and one captured), and captured three cities (two Egyptian, of which one was razed, and one French).
- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
I took Discipline and Urban Planning to start. The extra cogs were going to be needed in this cog poor area, and Discipline always helps until the barbs are gone.
After I got Political Philosophy, I took Oligarchy as a government. I added Charismatic Leader (for help with the city-states), and Inspiration (science is ALWAYS EVERYTHING). I also switched out Discipline for Agoge, because there weren't that many barbs, and I want to pump units out of Rome. The only change since was switching to Conscription to hold down costs (I was running a negative balance after taking down Cleo).
- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
I've met Stockholm, Hong Kong, Kumasi and Hattusa. I'm working to make all four my slav...er, my subjects.
- Were your neighbors peaceful?
Cleo attacked me just about as I expected, right as I was about to get Legions. She was a bit late; she attacked the turn I got them. A quick set of upgrades to my two warriors, and she was toast. Peter has been gracious and kind, a good trading partner. Catherine vacillated about me, before I attacked her. Peter's next, though he doesn't know it, yet.
- How were the Barbarians?
Tame. Some limited raiding, but mostly they were focused on Egypt, to my great help.
- Any surprises?
Not really. Shocking the barbs aren't being worse, but I put that to the game level. A bit surprised that there's no one to the west between me and the coast.