6otM 01 - Opening Actions

[Cakeathon]

I have no idea what is the best strategy for science victory, some people seem to focus on expansion while others focus on building up science early, will be interesting to see which strategy pays off in the end. I personally did a mix of both strategies.

I went heavy on military early on with my usual archer rush strategy and have 8 cities which seems to be average. Hopefully I will soon have the whole continent to myself. As far as science is concerned It seems I'm doing very good in comparison with ~70 science per turn, I will hit the industrial era on turn 106 with scientific theory and plan to build oxford right away.

Spoiler turn 100 :

- Where did you settle your city?
Moved north to settle next to the gypsium deposit

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
Opened mining into archery than went for astrology to found a religion with the "free" divine spark pantheon I would get from the dyes. After that I was just getting whatever good stuff I had an eureka for before going for a scientific theory beeline. Since this is king difficulty I haven't felt to need to get crossbows or even iron working.

On the policy front I don't know what I'm doing but I went for the government one into theocracy beeline.

- What was your build order?
slinger->builder->slinger->slinger->archer->holy district

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
Went for holy right away to get a religion. Apart from that it's mostly campuses and industrial.

- How did you place your districts?
Rome and stockholm have some good spots with a lot of mountains for adjacency bonus so that's what I went for.

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
I tried to balance tech and expansion. I settled one city on the cliffs of dover and captured 6. I captured stockholm, hongkong, both cities from egypt and 2 out of 3 from france.

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
I went classical republic with maintenance reduction in the wild card slot. For the rest it's +1 production, campus adjacency and extra envoy points.

The most important is to stay afloat money wise as I have a substancial army, after that I want to hit 6 envoys on hattusa for it's insane bonus.

For religion I have no idea what I am doing so I went work ethics which seems like a good bonus. I picked meeting houses as well because production is good. Might have been a mistake in hindsight as I haven't even built a single shrine yet so I can't even spread my religion or make any use of my bonuses.

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
I met stockholm hongkong kumasi and hattusa, I conquered the first 2 and plan the conquer the 3rd, hattusa's bonuses are too good so I have invested all my envoys into it.

- Were your neighbors peaceful?
France declared a surprise war on me but overall they were very passive.

- How were the Barbarians?
They didn't cause too mcuh trouble in the first 70 turns or so but now they are everywhere in large quantities, I am barely able to hold them off, most of my money is used to rush buy archers to keep the barbarians away, things should be easier once the continent is conquered and I can bring back the bulk of my army to defend.

- Any surprises?
Spawning so close to hattusa was a pleasant surprise but overall the game has been mostly on cruise control.

 

[trojan13]

Hey, this is my first GotM in civfanatic. My overall strategy is to conquer my own continent, to save envoy and golds for maintenance with natural border(ocean), so to boost science and productions into the stars.


- Where did you settle your city?
I've scouted Northern riverside area with warrior, and decided to settle on Gypsum tile, so that I have +3 campus and +2 holy site in NW 3 rings.

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
It's my first Roman campaign in CiVI. So I wanted to go militarily with Legion, so I beeline'd for Ironworking. With lucky bronzeworking Eureka from hut, I unlocked Legion on T30.
I then unlock all possible district technologies first, particularly Apprenticeship and Bath, to squeeze cities and lands I've expanded.

For civics, I go Craftmanship first for Agoge, Agoge plus urban planning is just beast powerhouse for warring civ.Then Mysticism for Revelation, to grab beliefs I wanted, Political Philosophy for better government, Feudalism for better builder, and Exploration for merchant republic.

- What was your build order?
Scout - went E SE S SW, meanwhile first warrior goes NW, W, back.
Builder - I chopped 3 jungles, turning them into a narrow passage into Southern area. I knew I wanted to settle on sweet spots so chopped them for pops. Low production, low gold starting means spamming settler for me.
Settler - to settle around cliffs of Dover, aiming Eureka for Ironworking.
3 Warriors - I upgraded one into Legion on T30 and started expansion with 3 warriors and 1 Legioin.
then 3 more settlers and holy site.

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
First district is Holy site on Rome, I started to build on T52. I know it is noway possible in diety game but hey, it's king. I checked great prophet progress and I found Religion as second (first was stone henge guy ofc) on T68.
I picked up divine Spark, work ethic, wat, tithe. It is a basic religion for My civ's internal affairs. Second district is Campus on Stockholm arnd T70. It has +4 sweet spot.

Generally, I prioritize Campus, Industrial zone, Commercial Hub, Baths in my mind, but I built Bath first in most case because city extent needed to grow upto the best spots for districts.

- How did you place your districts?
I placed for max adj bonus. However, I placed Industrial zones of outer cities for maximizing 6-tile-buildings because I wanted very high production cities for space projects.but those outer cities can't be such kind.

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
My conquest and expansion went smoothly.

Found Ostia, E of Rome on T27. Dow'd on France before entering Classical Era.
Conquered Stockholm on T40, with 3 warriors plus 1 legion.
Found 2nd city, Puteoli, S of Rome on T42 or so.
Found 3rd city, Auileia, NE of Rome or N of Hong Kong on T52.
Dow'd on Egypt on T54 after my armies moved from Stockholm to her border.
Captured a settler from France, found Lugdunum, SE of Rome on T58.
Finished Egypt on T64, captured 2 cities and 1 settlers.
Finished France on T65, captured 1 cities and 1 settlers(I mentioned above).
I found 2 more cities on NW of Stockholm with 1 from Egypt, 1 from my city.
Dow'd on Russia on T72, finished on T87. Captured 4 cities (3 from Russia, another is her ally Kumasi) and 1 settler.
Conquered Arabia on T97, captured 1 city and 1 settler from barb around her.
Finished conquest of my own continent.

So 17 cities so far and will have 18 cities as soon as I found the last one.


- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?

I used Agoge + Urban planning for army pumping.
Switched into + cavarly card for horseman, chariots as reinforcements.
I keep +2 influence cards most times but switched into double envoy when I sent them.
-1 unit maintenance is really strong, allows me to use massive army for early conquests.
In the end of conquests only this card is activated, I can have cheap armies to counter barbs.

I kept serfdom after I unlocked it to develop cities I expanded.
I used land survey for tile purchase and added caravansaries(+2 gold from trade), natural philosophy(100% campus adj bonus) when I unlock merchant republic.

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

I conquered 2 out of 4 in starting continent, having Hong Kong and Hattusa in my side.

- Were your neighbors peaceful?
I was the bad guy who invaded them all and erase them out of map.

- How were the Barbarians?
So far so good. I kept 0 maintenance units(scouts, archer, chariots) in the empty land so no barb spawn in my backyards.

- Any surprises?
Starting area is not a kind that I expected. Low production, low gold, no gold cs makes early expansion slow.

T97 images :

Spoiler :

My civs and city placements.









Tech progress on T97 : 24 researched, 96.4 bpt.



Tech tree on T97 : finishing Medieval techs, entered Renaissance with Mass production.



Civic tree on T97, now filling up after beeline for Exploration.



Government/policy cards.



City states.

 

[teqofc]

Settled in place.
Early BO was Scout->Builder->Slinger->Slinger-Slinger-Settler. Popped two more scouts from huts. Built up two army groups after that consisting of 2 warriors and 3 archers each. Warriors upgraded to Legion of course which just wreck anything except Varu on King and even Deity. Almost not fair After army groups were formed I worked on a campus in capitol.

My warrior headed south and eventually stole a settler from Catherine but as I was heading to a nice spot to the NE Peter found Novgorod argh! Oh well, he won't have it long ... As the rest of my group was finally formed they took Paris with two warriors and 3 archers.



Then took my stolen settler and founded Ostia so I could upgrade my warrs to legions there and then proceed to take down Novgorod and then head east to take out St Petersburg. The settler I created in Rome founded Cumae which is quite a nice location.



So two competitors down and I already met Egypt and finally assembled Army Group North and headed up north to see the Pyramids of Egypt.. only no pyramids to be found, just a said AI with very few troops and struggling to fight the barbs. At least the cities had some prebuilt holy and campus districts. Oh well can't get too greedy. Her cities melted even faster than I thought.



After enjoying the hospitality of St Petersburg and filling their stomachs with блины с медом they headed east only to find a lot of open space and a lot of barbarians. WTF is going on out here? There's got to be a civ out here right? After numerous barbs and almost wearing out the soles of their boots my troops finally found Saladin! Oh and wow he has only his capitol hmm. Another AI struggling with barbs sigh. Well it did take a few extra turns at 35 def but after some arrows softened it my Legions went knocking and finally broke down the doors.


I should have bought/built a settler or two while I was moving east to Cairo to setup some future factories to augment St Petersburg which is already a cog powerhouse. Should still have time but should have thought about that as I was heading east to Cairo.

So at turn 100 here I am. Not bad but could be better. Need a city west of Rome for a shared factory.


Was Oligarchy while war mongering but will switch next chance and then aim for Mercantile and then democracy.

Ouch it is late and need to get up early tomorrow er today. Might be a few days until I get back to my game.

 

[XaW]

So I'm having another go at GotM, and I'm looking for not losing this time, I did enough of that in Civ5. Settled in place. Meet Russia and France early. Forward settled in the middle of them near the river. Peter declared a war early so he was out shortly after. Since I had all these Legions standing around I ended France after a quick take of his two cities. Got the notice that someone I haven't meet got eliminated durign the war. Meet Egypt and Arabia during the wars, but they stayed out of the scirmishes. After som peaceful turns Egypt attacked med due to my low balance and got Arabia involved. Currently at war with both of them and thinking I'm going to knock out Arabia, but Egypt looks too powerful to remove completely at the moment.

I'm pretty far ahead in tech, probably since I've been focusing on campuses and such while getting out legions to fight. Built the Great Library to get the science from it, so I'm hopeful I can win this. At least as long as I manage to fight off Egypt and Arabia.

 

[Rafeli]

Hello everybody, after a nice lurk i couldn't miss this opportunity to go at it with Trajan. I'm italian so forgive typos and such. I tried to just follow the eureka moments, and you'll see that it payed off.

I started in place, scout and slingers went to explore, not too far, but i had good instincs this time and the slingers came back to evolve soon after meeting Peter. I had every good intention towards Catherine, but I hate him and I wanted to take him down quickly. I made my first spearman and battering ram.
Instead, Catherine declares surprise war with 4 warriors: no match for my archers, and soon Paris capitulates. I take Peter's two cities as well, only one noticeable mistake: i didn't secure the loyalty of Kumasi, that switched and seriously threatened an unprotected Rome. I rushed into erasing Peter from existence just in time to not be pillaged too much. Oh, Cleopatra is lovely by the way. I'll keep her alive.

Oligarchy was my choice, and it paid off. As pantheon, i went for the oral traditions, even if it did't feel right. I can say instead that probably it was a good choice, since i quickly deployed Conscription. Being able to have huge armies without paying their cost is amazing.

While repairing the units involved in the st.Petersburg conquest, i started to consider how good this game was. Everything under control, no more enemies, three capitals, some nice personal vital space, my hot wife Cleopatra for commerce - she never denies me anything, as long as i have my biiiiig army - it's basically the Roman Empire. I'm ready to rule the world, bringin peace to the continent, and groom my own utopia.
Almost there for the religion, everything goes fine. I wonder whats just behind st.Petersburg: probably the world ends. We don't really know the Ocean, with all these monsters. I once heard that the world rests on a giant tortoise.
Let's send an expedition to check it out.

Spoiler REEEEEEEE :

...fugees in my civ?

Well, this is the moment that stoned me breaks the third wall and asks the guy who made this map: "WHAAAAAT. THE. Moderator Action: <SNIP> ."
Moderator Action: Welcome to CivFanatics and thanks for playing and posting. Removed your explicative as we try to run a family friendly forum and inappropriate language is not allowed. Thanks for helping us maintain an appropriate forum.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

Spoiler What would Urbanus II do? :

I must resist. For now. But the settlers are undefended, leaving them now would have St.Petersburg open... So assimilate them, defend Cristianity, make a outpost city. Saladino will be angry, so what?

This is a defining moment in the world. Once i understood how similiar this was to the actual history, i must focus to avoid the same mistakes of Rome. And I haven't founded my religion yet. But once i do... It will be war.
Maybe I'm just in time. I could conquer Saladino before he spawns his special units. But if this is really a remake of our history, i expect his capital to be very far away.

Or.
I could accept the boundaries, leave St. Petersburg exposed - but fortified. Focus on science and culture. No, this isn't the right way, this is the mistake the roman empire made later.
I reconsider. Probably the real mistake was to find a middle ground between the two choices. It should have been or more conquests, or leave the middle east alone, forget about the religion, and rush with education and mosquets against the barbarian Horde - that at this point cannot be far.

But which choice now.


I try to assimilate the settlers. Declare a surprise war at Saladino, found a frontieer city, fortify and make peace, but...
I hover on them, pointing my spearmen with battering ram to convert them.

They... disappeared? I needed a city there! This can't be happening.

Somehow, they're all dead. This can't be, they can only be captured.
Can they?
What have i done.
A thought crosses my head, creepily similiar to a voice. "The God of the War needs to be fed." It's midnight - exactly.

This is just a game, i have to remember it. My immortal soul is not at stake.

Woah! No they didn't disappear! Here they are, back again. Just a bug probably.

I found, defend the city easily with the archers- and thanks to the river. Make peace with Saladino - almost without warmongering malus - and try to get the chance at founding a religion... too late, the prophets are all gone.

At a certain point he attacked me again, but the archers are all promoted and almost immediately taken to XB. I think i had the right policy for that, all without breaking a sweat. The eureka moments guide you and they can make you feel like the game wants you to win: just follow the cues.
Around t110 I conquered Saladin's capital and nearby Aleppo, holy city of Islam. I'm not spreading it very much, now it's all about science. I start in Smolensk - industrial & faithful - to profit from the "meeting points" bought at 30 faith. Useful, but i many things in my head now: they would need a strategy on their own, and it's easier to just hope in buying a Great Personnage... Even if now I have many without expense. Wonders were built, and it was an amazing view, especially the new +wildcard that will stay with me.

Around 100 some skirmish with the barbs became serious trouble. It's a defining point with the romans: Legions are expensive, barbarians attack from every corner, in forces and with cavalry. You can't protect trade routes, GPT goes down. I went out of that crisis thanks to the Roman forts, and redeploying the powerful XBs; most of all, micromanage with care every barb scout: it's never been this important to kill them before they lay eggs.
At 130, i can start RomanTopia, filling the blanks with many cities.

 

[vahn_arian]

Long time reader, first time playing a GotM. So far, I'm only at turn 50.

Spoiler Turn 50 :

- Where did you settle your city?
* One tile SE. There is no benefit to settle adjacent to a mountain anymore and a mountain adjacent tile is quite essential for our unique district.

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
* I got divided between an early religion or early campus. Decided to go for the safe bet and get writing.
Pottery>Writing>Mining>Bronze W.>Iron Working>Animal H.>Archery

- What was your build order?
* Scout>Slinger>Settler>Warrior>Settler>Legion

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
* No district so far. France started to show some warriors by my borders, so I had to build a second warrior to counter that.

- How did you place your districts?
* I didn't. But I have a nice dotmap that I did on PS that will help me.

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
* Sure. 4 cities by turn 50 (with a stolen settler, but who's judging)

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
* God King and Survey for the early turns (not that many barbarians near me). Colonization for the settlers and Agoge and Urban Planning to build legions quickly (also have God of the Forge).

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
* Stockholm, Hong Kong and Kumasi. Will cultivate Stockholm and HK for the bonuses. Kumasi already got conquered by the russians, but I will let them keep it for now.

- Were your neighbors peaceful?
* So far, yeas. A couple of 'shows of force' by France, but thats it.

- How were the Barbarians?
* All good.

- Any surprises?
* Yes. Finding a Natural Wonder and a relic from a good hut just after I decided to drop my plans for an early religion.

======================

This is our situation now:
* Iron Working done and 1 legion up.
* A total of 2 warriors, 2 archers (early slingers that got promoted), 2 scouts and a legion. Kind of weak, but it will improve rapidly.
* 3 founded cities and a settler on route to found our forth one.
* One current war, that I will try to make peace. Plans to start a second one (I'm looking at you Catherine).

My concerns:
* Low treasury. I refused all possible deals with the AI and have ZERO traders. That means that even with just 7 units, our income is meager 3 gold per turn. Need to improve it ASAP.
* Low Science. Early expansion and military units didn't make it possible to buiild a campus. I was hoping to get an Early Empire eureka from a goody hut, but no luck there. That would've shaved 10 turns of the civic and 8 turns from settlers. With it, building the campus would be possible.

 

[Half Nelson]

Turn 100. I have 7 cities, 6 settled and Paris:- France is no more. I founded Rome N of the start spot on the river next to gypsum:- it will do. I built early military and a settler to take the nice spot to W (buying up horse and stone tiles). I came across an unescorted French settler around turn 25 which was too good an opportunity to miss. I captured it and subsequently took Paris with archers and legions. I pumped out more settlers to settle E (including the Cliffs of Dover area), on the river to N (guarded by a spearman who was enough to deter an Egyptian settler from settling there) and finally to S of Rome to bridge the gap to Paris.

There were quite a few barb incursions but they were largely XP fodder. I didn’t really get going with builders until after the settler spam. My first district was a +6F Holy Site S of Rome and I am currently in a Theological War with Egypt. Cleo loves me and is a good trade partner but I think eventually I will have to take military action to stop her annoying missionaries.

I have not yet built a Campus (or any scientific Wonders), hence my science is fairly slow to date, but I have pinned 3 good sites for later (love the pins!). I have a couple of commercial districts and am building baths and industrial districts. The Continent seems rather large and there is still lots of space to expand into (Russia and Arabia are warring rather than building). Although housing is reckoned to be the main limiter to growth, I am finding amenities to be more of an issue at this stage of my current game:- bring on the Roman Baths!

This is my first CivVI King game and I have yet to get past industrial era in my previous Prince-and-below wins (Religious or Domination victories). The late Tech-tree is therefore a mystery to me but I seem to be in reasonable shape at present.

I like Trajan so far. The pre-built roads are a major bonus (especially with so much rainforest about) as are the pre-built monuments for an early boost up the Civics tree. I have swapped civics a lot (very nice feature), mainly to switch between settler and builder focus but also to purchase cheap tiles or speed up Great Prophet (and now Great Scientist) points.

 

[jopegk]

Here's what I think I did. I'm not completely sure, though. I had an idea of an early war to make use of the legions. I just finished that, after having conquered France, Kumasi and Russia. Now I'm going to focus on science.

- Where did you settle your city?

On starting location.

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

Research
1) For improvements: Mining, Pottery, Irrigation
2) For legions: Bronze working, Iron working
3) For bath, science, economy and defense: Writing, Currency, Masonry, Wheel, Engineering, Apprenticeship, Mathematics, Education, Construction, Castles

Policies and governments
1) Chiefdom

1.1) Discipline and Urban Planning
1.2) Agoge and Ilkum (to build up work force and early army)
1.3) Agoge and Colonozation (to settle my third city)​

2) Oligarchy

2.1) Conscription, Caravansaries, Charismatic Leader and Strategos (to fund my army's, and the conquered cities' maintenance)​

- What was your build order?

Rome: Scout, Settler, Warrior, Builder, Warrior
Puteoli: Builder, Warrior

After that, I can't remember. I focused on army and workforce.

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

Finished a campus i Rome around turn 70. After that I prioritized baths and commercial hubs.

- How did you place your districts?

Where the bonuses were the highest at that time. The campus in Rome on the other side of the mountain.

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

3 built. 5 captured.

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?

See above.

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

Met Stockholm, Kumasi (later conquered), Hong Kong and Hattusa. Allied Stockholm.

- Were your neighbors peaceful?

No! First France and Egypt formally DOWed me. Later Russia did the same thing.

- How were the Barbarians?

No big problem.

- Any surprises?

It seems like the continents Mu and Antarctica is put together in one.

Spoiler Map :

 

[Hardcorey]

I decided I'd try to embrace the rainforest. Become one with it, you know?

Here are the highlights:

1st City: I moved my first city just 1 tile south, so I could save the spot next to mountains for my districts.

Religion: Grabbed the pantheon that gives faith adjacency bonus for rainforest, then got a holy site as my first district. When I got my religion, I got the belief that lets you buy campus and theatre district buildings with faith. Plan to generate faith like a madman to offset production.

Production: Leaning heavily on everything I can for production: Hong Kong, an industrial zone in most cities, great engineers, traders.

Wonders: Set my sights on Chichen Itza for its rainforest bonus

Happy surprises: Got lucky and nabbed a Barbarian settler up north

Future plans: Kill Egypt

Spoiler :

 

[Zeppa]

Went total war to cleanse the starting continent. At turn 100 have taken 2 capitals and currently working on third. Legions rock.

 

[BearStew]

Hadn't played the Romans before. Figured a swordsman UU would come in handy in wiping my continent early. Also figured I would try to fill the continent ASAP and then make Rome and a couple of other cities as big as I possibly could. At this stage, I like the locations of the French and Russian capitals, so I think I will surround them with factory complexes and run a heap of trade routes out of the three cities. I think I was a little over ambitious in my conquest timeline, and didn't really complete the conquest as slick as I would have liked. At T100-ish, I still have 1 city each left to conquer from Cleo and Saladin. Just getting XBows, so they should be mincemeat soon.

- Where did you settle your city?
I settled on the Gypsum. Like the look of the land up there a bit more, though still no hills. In hindsight, I should have chopped some jungle early to get some sweet early growth and hammers in Rome.

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
I rushed Bronze working and Archery, then on to Iron working. Backfilled a few luxury techs in between. Main idea was to get my conquering force into action then pump out settlers to fill up the continent.

- What was your build order?
Worker-Settler- Warrior- Slinger- Slinger-Slinger-Warrior-Warrior or similar enough to make no difference really.

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
Conquered districts before I built any. Focused on military, workers and settlers for the first 100 turns. First districts I built were either Production or Commerce in some of the cities surrounding the French and Russian capitals. Time to start spamming trade routes.

- How did you place your districts?
Mostly so that I could get the adjacency bonuses from hills/mines and still maintain the 6 tile radius to my 3 "hub" cities. Going to try for the Venetian Arsenal in one of my coastal cities so had to take that into account. Commerce districts were usually placed on rivers/coast etc. for similar adjacency boosts.

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
Conquered nearly everything on the continent, could have been quicker. I think I have 14 self settled cities, and I captured a few settlers, and 4 cities so far I think.

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
Went for the military production discounts ASAP. 50% off my warriors, slingers and then archers and legions. Then also went for production discounts on settlers and workers. Lower maintenance costs for military units as well so I didn't go bankrupt.

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
Got 2 of the 4 on the continent to Suzerain, Arabia is Suzerain of Hattusa, but I have 2 delegates there also. Once he is gone I'll be close to Suzerain status there too.

- Were your neighbors peaceful?
In that they went quietly, yes. Except for Cleo. Had to abandon the first war against her. She had walls, an encampment, and too many chariots. I had stupidly split my forces 50/50 to head North/South and didn't have the Archers to overcome her. Still I got 2 settlers out of the war.

- How were the Barbarians?
Only caused me a couple of issues when I was overextended in warfare. Only minor though.

- Any surprises?
Unwalled cities are easier to conquer than I expected. Archers and warriors make mincemeat out of them. I should have, and could have started conquered earlier.

 

[Zeppa]

Settled in place. Built scout, warrior, warrior, archer (as soon as available), warrior. Researched archer asap, then iron working and the advanced govt. Added a third city to get iron. Took out 2 civs (France then Russia) with 3 upgraded warriors plus 3 archers. Very low on cash, currently building economic zones and trading routes for cash. Have 9 cities cause Russia built a 1 city and I was afraid of war problems if it was destroyed, not an ideal city count. Somebody in this thread said you don't need iron to upgrade warriors, is this true?

 

[RaidandTrade]

Where did you settle your city?

Settled in place

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

I found France early so figured conquest was a good way to grow quickly so beelined for Legions.

What was your build order?

Warriors, Slingers/Archers, Trade Route (Stockholm).

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

Late. When I did, I went for a Holy Site first of all.

How did you place your districts?

Holy Site on the north-east side of the mountain.

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

I took France (Paris only) and Russia (two cities) early and then had simultaneous wars with Egypt (two cities) and Arabia (Cairo only). Egypt and Cairo make have been a little after turn 100 but not by much. Added an Expo to the north west - bad decision as it was too far away to benefit from districts later. Placed another one between Paris and Rome to fill the gap but it wasn't close enough to connect the incense - bad placement.

How did you play your governance cards, priorities?

Mainly focussed on production and gold early on.

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

I met all the CS on my continent and quickly got Stockholm. I was Suzy to 3 of them pretty fast and the 4th came into line not that far after.

Were your neighbors peaceful?

They were resting peacefully.

I didn't meet the ones on the other continent until much later.

How were the Barbarians?

Very annoying. My cities had too many gaps between them so trade routes kept getting plundered which really hampered my production and growth.

Any surprises?

How few production tiles were around Rome.
Barbarians.
How slow the AI was to expand early on - I wanted them to build my empire for me!

 

[dannybe]

Settled two tiles north of starting point.

Started with Astrology (wanted to get Stonehenge for a quick religion), Pottery-Writing (campus), Mining, AH, Irrigation - all for resource development, Bronze Working then Iron Working for Fe Resource and Legion.

Build Order - Slinger, Scout, Slinger, Holy Site, Shrine, then Library I think

Built Holy Site first followed by Campus. I focused on Religion thinking that I could get some extra science points.I wanted to make sure I would get a religion before they the AI got them all. On previous games the religions went pretty quick so I focused my early game on getting a religion. I placed my Holy Site two tiles north of my CC adjacent to a mountain and placed my Campus between the two mountains, adjacent to my Holy Site

Didn't really focus on expansion and after 100 turn I had 3 cities with the last city popping at turn 95 or so.

Neighbours not too nice with Catherine declaring war at turn 97 or 98. Maybe should have tried sending a delegation of gifts to the other Civs to mitigate this.

Barbarians were surprisingly tame. In the other games I played they were much more aggressive

Spoiler: 100 turns

 

[kimo]

Founded Rome at starting location, then just build slinger, went straight to archery while my warrior start heading south to find the French. Discovered a city state on the north because its unit just came to my city.
With archery done, I upgraded my three slingers to archer and captured paris very quickly. Was lucky to get the settler on the first turn of the war, building a city on the river between Rome and Paris.
Then went straight for Russia and start sending 2 archers on the north to find Egypt. Unfortunately, a trirem killed my second archer, which make it very difficult to capture thebe, but I could take a settler founding my third roman city near Rome.
With this lose, my forces were a little scattered between thebe and the russian Capital I spent a lot of turn without dealing no real damage since Pierre was just spamming warrior constantly. Built a few more warriors and switch to oracle (on Paris) and great garden (on Rome) before switching to Commercial district for everyone !
After a few turn, I finally took the Russian Capital, few turn later, Thebe was mine, and I a m headed to the Egyptian capital, but with fortification, not sure I can attack it right now.
On the Est my warrior met Saladin, before dying to barbarian. On the south, I sent the reminder of the army and a brand new legion take care of the very annoying barbarians. A civ stole me the pyramid wonder I was making in St Petersburg just a few turn before I finished it.

My tech was very straightforward : going to archery, then doing irrigation to keep people happy, and unlocking the oracle wonder, then straight to legion and industrial district.
For the doctrine tree, I focused first on the boost of army production card, then the new governement, I choose republic, preparing the switch to peace time.

I'm gonna probably make peace with cleopatra until she send a settler, then stole it again and finish her. Don't think I'm gonna go to war with saladin, since I don't know yet where he is and there is a lot of nice land on the east I want to rush. The plan is to switch very quickly to mass settler prod, take the land and then, commercial district to industrial district to campus.
City state are not that good, I was hoping for toronto of course. I'm not gonna take them for the moment, I usually keep them for the district bonus. So far I met three of them : one science, one culture, one prod. I think the cultural one gonna go, but the others will stay.

From now on the priority is to kill cleopatra with the army I have, just after killing these pesky barbarian, then focusing on district and settler. I plan to found A LOT of cities, starting by taking the land on the east part so saladin won't get it. I'm pretty confident I can win the game easily from here, focusing on improving the land, getting the science wonders and start to make rome (or maybe anotehr city with more hills) a production beast for the spaceship.

 

[WillowBrook]

I need to take notes next GOTM. I settled in place, have five cities at turn 100 and locations picked out for 3 more.

I played nice with all my neighbors, no wars so far. That's probably a mistake not to take cities, but we'll see. Annoyingly, Cleo conquered Hong Kong and took away my extra production.

I have two campuses and two commercial districts, and working on two harbors, a bath, and an industrial zone.

Finally decided not to go for a religion after Peter spread his that has Jesuit education.

Hmm, that's about all I can remember....

 

[leif erikson]

Willow.

Nice to see you playing again. Best of luck.

 

[Neuro]

- Where did you settle your city?

I settled one SE of the starting spot. I wanted the starting spot for my campus.

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

I started with Animal Husbandry and Mining, as they have no Eureka. I tried to maximize the Eurekas as much as possible.

- What was your build order?

Scout, Slinger, Builder, Scout, Archer, Archer.

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

I built an Encampment fairly early on. It might have been a waste, but I had 2 City-State quests for encampment, and I was greedy for the envoys.

- How did you place your districts?

I knew I wanted to place my Campus where we started, so I could get the mountain and rainforest bonus.

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

I haven't actually built any settlers myself. I managed to steal one from Egypt around turn 35 (Dover Cliffs like everyone else), and I started taking over my neighbors. France was quite obviously building up for an attack, so I pre-emptively DOW her and took Paris, then went north and took out Egypt's capitol, then went south and started on Russia's two cities. At turn 100, I am literally one turn from capturing St. Petersburg.
After that, I will probably take my crossbow/knight army further east and take out Arabia, giving me the whole continent.

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?

I kept shuffling them in and out based on what I needed. I would do the trick of stopping a civic at 1 turn, and then switching to whatever I needed for 1-2 turns, and then going back. My go-to cards are +production in cities and Unit Maintenance.

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

I managed to meet Stockholm and Hong Kong first, but I've met all 4 and I am Suzerain of all four.

- Were your neighbors peaceful?

I didn't give them the chance to find out. I declared war on Egypt and France in Ancient Age to avoid getting Warmonger, and then later I didn't care and Surprise War on Russia. It is about to be me and Arabia, and I will DoW him in a few turns as well.

- How were the Barbarians?

They are a pain in my behind. When I went after Egypt, tons of them spawned by Paris, because Catherine hadn't been clearing them out.

- Any surprises?

For some reason, Arabia has yet to found a religion with his Final Prophet. Maybe he never built a Holy Site?


I actually wasn't going to go Religion at all this game. I got Faith in a goody hut, and that + the Dyes got me an early pantheon, so I got Rainforest +faith, on the off chance that Hildegard showed up. He did, so I built a holy site on the far side of that mountain, between the two dyes, and now it's generating 12 beakers a turn (6 faith from rainforest adjacency, 100% adjacency faith bonus card makes it 12, and Hilde turns it into science).

 

[arnoldinho]

Long time lurker on these forums; finally signed up in order to get involved with Civ 6 GOTMs!

This is an interesting one to begin with. Having won a science victory in my first (and before this only) completed game on the back of capturing cities militarily, this time I wanted to try a peaceful approach. My aim was to expand relatively quickly early on, and by Turn 100 have 8 reasonably well established cities up and running. Then after that pivot to a sharp science focus.

In the event I didn’t quite manage that, but by Turn 100 I did have 6 cities up and going with 2 more settlers in the process of being built. The lack of production across the map was a hindrance in terms of them being well established and balanced though.

Having discovered Catherine I forward settled south-west to claim the incense and then for my third city went north to claim the horse river before Cleo could get it. Both grumbled about me forward settling but I was able to promise both I wouldn’t do it again because I had no intention of doing so! Further cities have followed on the west coast, in the river rich area towards Kumasi and north of the mountains around Stockholm for campus adjacency bonuses. The other two will go to the west of Stockholm and to the east, again for adjacency reasons (and the latter to trial the baths in a non-river spot). Trying to decide whether to stop there or to add another on the west coast taking in the white cliffs. But 8 is quite a good number to have from an amenities management perspective, and with so few hammers available on the map I don’t want to be wasting them building entertainment districts.

Tech wise I figured I’m going to have to get them all (bar the dead ends – but I wanted archery!) sooner or later, so have tended to follow the eurekas. On civics I beelined political philosophy and since then have tried to focus on those that could add gold as in my first game I faced a money crunch around the medieval era before I got commercial districts and trade routes up and running. Didn’t seem to make much difference and again I’m a bit cash-starved at this point in the game.

Diplo has been remarkably easy to date. Cleo, Catherine and Peter have all been pretty friendly. Saladin has been nastier and we had some mutual denouncing after he attacked my protectorate Hattusa but he’s further away, and in an on-off war with Peter (who seems to alternate fighting him and France). At one point Catherine appeared to be building up forces along our shared border but that threat seemed to die away once I popped out my first legion. City States wise I’ve ignored Kumasi but tried to build up envoys in both the scientific ones and Hong Kong. Going for three is spreading myself a bit too thinly really though and so I bounce in and out of suzerainship on all of them as other get envoys.

I wanted to get a religion as a defensive tool against a religious victory, but wasn’t really willing to prioritise it and ended up missing out. Big religious battles are taking place across my territory between Peter’s Orthodoxy and Cleo’s Hinduism but I don’t see either of them becoming dominant any time soon.

Overall, I think I’m in a strong position to win (based on score I’m ahead, although one player on the other continent seems to be running me close) but I suspect it will be a lot lot slower than many others on here. Still, most importantly I’m enjoying it!

Any surprises: Two unmet players have already been defeated! At first I presumed this meant two civs on another continent, but actually does this message show even if it’s just a city state that’s defeated?

 

[RaidandTrade]

@arnoldinho - Defeated message is usually a CS. If a Civ goes down I think you would get a red "X has lost it's capital" message.

Nice write up BTW.