6otM 02 After Actions

[WillowBrook]

Culture Victory T231/232

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
About 20 total. I took out the Americans by T105 or so, gaining 5 cities from them. Later in the game I settled about 6 cities scattered around the globe to get resources (edit: luxuries, not resources), places for seaside resorts, and a national park in that wonder north of India.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Top of the tech tree more than I bottom, radio was important. Mass media in the culture tree.

- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
I barely missed out getting a religion, but the Americans had one, so I got a few martyrs out of Washington after I captured it. But then Japan and England started fighting over the religion of my cities, wiping out America's religion. For a while, I had no religion in the cities with holy sites. I eventually had to build more holy sites in cities with a dominant religion to be able to produce apostles.

- How much warring did you do? Was it effective in supporting your Culture objective?
Taking out the Americans relatively early looks like it was a good call, given the trouble they apparently gave other players. I wanted more space and England was super friendly, so I picked my other close neighbor. Soon after I finished off the Americans, Rome declared on me but was totally ineffective at invading over water. Brazil and Norway apparently joint warred me later, but I had already the tech/civic that gives every city bombardment and enough boats that they were never a real threat.

- Were City-States helpful?
Yes! Lisbon protecting trade routes against barbs was undoubtedly helpful, although it's impossible to say how much. Buenos Aires turning bonus resources into mini-luxuries kept me from having to build entertainment districts until quite late. Toronto is of course great, although I don't know if it shaved much time off this game. I wanted Zanzibar, but Rome kept throwing envoys at them and I decided Lisbon and Buenos Aires were more important. I briefly had Yerevan and used in to get a couple of martyr promotions before I completed Mont St Michal.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
This was my first game above king and the AI were surprisingly not much of a threat.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes!

 

[Hythian]

Victory! - Turn 291, 684 Score

How many cities did you settle or capture?
Counting capital, settled only 10.
Captured 2 from America (Washington and Charleston).

What did you prioritize for research and policies?
I pivoted a bit after turn 100. Writing up my "Opening Actions" post had me looking at how I was playing in comparison to the AI.

Coming back into the game tonight I switched from my "All Culture, All the Time" research to instead really grind out military techs for a bit before going to smash America. Which was anticlimactic when my army arrived and I realized his army was Pikemen and Crossbowman compared to my Field Cannons and Infantry.

After that it was back to focusing on the Tourism multipliers late in the trees. Headed straight for those, and then just fiddled around a bit as I kind of lost focus after I had everything I thought I'd need for boosting Tourism up.

Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
The Divine Spark pantheon probably helped a lot over the course of the game in racking up GPP for getting works and the people I wanted, but otherwise I ignored religion.

It did serve as a distraction for the AI players though, as they churned out Missionaries and Apostles constantly. Had a few times where it was hindering my ability to do things as their would be fifteen or twenty religious units marching across my island battling each other and I'd be struggling to remember what the terrain looked like beneath them for planning out districts.

Ignoring Religion entirely did make getting a National Park pretty much impossible though. Never had enough Faith to afford a Naturalist, and the one time I got close I spent it rushing a Great Merchant who had the "+25% Tourism w/ Trade Route" feature instead.

How much warring did you do? Was it effective in supporting your Culture objective?
Given how America was pulling ahead in Culture at turn 100, I suspect that if I hadn't gone to war with Teddy that he would have kept pulling ahead. The final straw for me was when he built Broadway, at that point I knew he had to die or else I'd never be able to keep up with his growing Tourism rate.

Aside from that, wars basically amounted to other civs declaring Joint Wars against me and then not showing up to fight. I really don't think the AI knows what to do on an Island Plates map, for a lot of the game huge chunks of the world were vacant and they were still hanging out at home with Warrior and Slinger armies.

That said, I didn't fare much better as it wasn't until Battleships that my navy wasn't getting slapped around regularly by blobs of Barbarian ships.

Were City-States helpful?
Probably. After I finally got around to exploring and meeting them I tended to get them up to 3 envoys for the district bonuses, and then ignored them. I got such a late start with my navy that I tended to be a few Envoys behind on every C-S so there were no easy Suzerain bonuses to aim for. That paired with some really awful request sets (repeatedly asked for techs or civics that I had no interest in getting while aiming for a Culture victory).

Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
I hadn't tried this difficulty before, so the weirdness of the AI choices tended to surprise me. I'd repeatedly see them going to war with things like Warrior armies even very late in the game. Really weird expansion choices left them without any strategic resources for large portions of the game, and then Pedro kept bugging me every few turns trying to get me to trade him 3 luxury goods for a single unit of Horses.

Still pondering how it was that Teddy had such a huge and growing Culture lead on me at turn 100. Might go back and see if I can open my turn 100 save as a multiplayer game and look at what Teddy was doing. If anyone knows what it was (I don't think he would have had Film Studios yet, or National Parks, I can't remember any other US trait that'd give him that Tourism bonus) please let me know.

Did you enjoy the game?
It was fun. Hadn't tried Gorgo or the difficulty yet. Looking at what everyone else did in the first 100 turns, after I posted mine, helped me think more about how I play the game.

I think it helped me play some too, looking at it critically and writing it up. I know I did better at being more pro-active on swapping Government Cards out in the second half of the game.

There were somethings I still could have done better. I completely forgot about Archeologists for probably sixty or seventy turns after I got the Civic for them. I'd had the Museums for a while and just forgot about getting the Indy Jr's out there digging up the relics. I probably could have ended the game at least 10 or 15 turns earlier if I'd gotten those in sooner.

I also got pretty lax militarily after I smashed America and it was clear no one else was going to be close Culturally. India and Japan both started the first Space Race project by the end, and India had a pretty decent culture score mostly from Wonders. I should have taken my troops and continued the conquest.

And England... I settled the south edge of their island for Iron, and I should have just steam-rolled them. Actually, only reason I didn't was because I was worried about having enough Amenities for all of my cities as they didn't seem to have much variety in their land. In retrospect, I should have kept going and just built Entertainment districts to cover the gaps.

My lack of a decent navy hampered me too. If I had picked up a few more decent ships earlier on, and been more pro-active about tracking down C-Ss then I likely would have been able to leverage the bonuses off of them for higher productivity and had better luck at locking down the useful Suzerains.

I also neglected Espionage far more than I should have. I had some G.Cards setup to defend against spies, but I never got mine out and stealing Great Works or sabotaging Industrial / Space districts as actively as I should have been. I probably could have snagged a couple more works and completed some theme'ing with stolen art. Still won, but could have done it earlier and maybe with a higher score if I'd not ignored my Spies.

Still not sure if the Projects are worthwhile. I tried a few Theatre Projects but really not sure if the handful of culture and GPP is worth the hammers, given that I could usually be spending them building something that'll give a steady bonus instead.

Also, still don't really get Seaside Resorts. I don't think I finished the Eiffel Tower, should have started on it sooner, but so much of my coast line was filled with districts already. Think I built two and they were only 4 appeal tiles. Going to have to wait to see how heavily other people used them on this GotM and think about if they are worth the time and effort or not.

All in all, fun learning experience and I look forward to the next one.

Final Score:

Spoiler :

End Game Main Island:

Spoiler :

GORGO 291 1840 AD.Civ6Save

 

[RaidandTrade]

Rage quit.

It was a game where nothing was going to plan. Started with missed religion by something like 20 GP points. Botched my city spacing so my IZ's weren't going to work AND had some fog patches. India went to forward settle so had to go surprise war to become hated by the world.

Fog proved to be a major resource drain as I had to waste time building units to clear a barb horse army when I wanted to build a navy. Pretty much every tile got pillaged before I had them set straight.

Game plan was pretty much toast by that point so when India wouldn't peace out and war weariness slowed me further I decided enough was enough. I likely could have pulled it back but by that time I was fed up!

Thanks for the map - a memorable game for me for all sorts of reasons!

 

[LDiCesare]

Cultural victory - Turn 358 Score 700+

I decided to try stuff this game and put some constraint on myself. In particular, I didn't want to initiate any war because the AI is so bad that it feels like cheating. I think I could have finished much before if I had.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
17 settled, 1 captured. A fewcities were built late game halfout of boredom, half to claim aluminium far away and have more spots to build seaside resorts.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
I researched to get archers and then be able to navigate the map quickly. Policies-wise, I wanted to get merchant republic quickly, and be able to build archeaologists.
I also researched some religion.
I tried to build a few early wonders. I'm sure this is very sub-optimal. I should have built settlers instead.

- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
I never play religion (usually playing Deity and it's a waste of time), so this time I decided to toy with it.
I found it an absolute waste of time.

- How much warring did you do? Was it effective in supporting your Culture objective?
Almost none. I had decided not to, but Japan &India jointly declared war on me. Since Japan had built a city nearby and attacked me after 10 turns or so with a single AT crew, I decided to take his city.
I was dragged into wars by Trajan whom I allied late game to get +2 food + 2 prod from trade routes. This gave me 100 or 200 culture but that's all.

- Were City-States helpful?
Zanzibar was nice to get some amenities. Otherwise, they were mostly inexistant for me.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
The attack by Japan. It was unexpected. My army was way behind at this point, so I upgraded, researched some military techs, and attacked him.
Teddy was the only interesting opponent, since he obviously went for a cultural victory. I had more cities, however, so my culture rose sharply in the end, and I stole great works from him, built more resorts and parks, but refused to attack him because I had decided not to.
Another surprise was getting Isidorus of Milet (great engineer). I never get a GP that early on Deity. So I read the description and bought him. The surprise was when I used his ability an realised he had an other charge, not hinted at inthe text you get to decide whether or not to buy him. I would have rushed the pyramids had I known, so I was quite unhappy with the poor interface/explanation of GP abilities.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Not much. Probably my fault for trying stuff like religion, and not playing optimally by not using military. Unfortunately, the AI is a real pushover. Waging war is too easy, and in the end-game, if you don't wage war, there's simply nothing to build in your cities, so it gets boring pretty fast. Building culture doesn't even help towards the tourism victory, so it's a lot of uninteresting micro. Domination would have given a shorter, tenser game. Science would have been boring. Religion, well, the AI sucidies his apostels against mine who will heal, so, no, that wouldn't do it either.

 

[krapfa]

I let my screenshots speek for themself. It was my 2nd culture victory. Could have probably done it way faster by killing Teddy. My military was by far the strongest in the game.

2016-11-25 21_18_47-Sid Meier's Civilization VI (DX11)

• krapfa
• Nov 25, 2016

2016-11-25 21_18_47-Sid Meier's Civilization VI (DX11) 2

• krapfa
• Nov 25, 2016

Update: Added the savegame

 

[TomeTraveler]

Turn 283 Culture Victory, Score 557

Lots of room for improvement. My military was pitiful, I settled my second city in a spot with too much food and not enough production, didn't grow my population very well. That said, it was fairly easy just to keep working on culture and GPs until the late-game tourism modifiers kicked in. I was pretty casual about the last 50 turns, mostly just clicking through to advance to the next.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
9 cities total, all settled.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Cartography, Apprenticeship, Education, Printing, Radio, Computers.

Feudalism, Exploration, Humanism, Natural History, Opera and Ballet, Democracy, Social Media

Cultural GP cards, Culture/Science/Commerce cards, the latter being swapped to Tourism multipliers when they became available.

- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
Almost not at all from my perspective, aside from the occasional wave of missionaries or apostles traversing my land. I finally build a single holy site somewhere past turn 100, to build up faith for a naturalist. Aside from that, my only religious thoughts were to occasionally check the victory window to make sure no religion was becoming dominant.

- How much warring did you do? Was it effective in supporting your Culture objective?
I played totally peacefully, aside from defending myself from a single DoW from the Americans (and making peace as soon as I could).

- Were City-States helpful?
Zanzibar sort of drove my economy, Nan Madol was much help culturally, and Buenos Aires and Brussels added some later help finally catching up in districts.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Biggest surprise, Victoria didn't backstab me (heh). At the end of the game, Vicky, Teddy, Trajan, and Gandhi all loved me, Pedro, Harald, and Hojo all tended to hate me. Hojo was the biggest cultural competition, Pedro not as much as I expected.

- Did you enjoy the game?
I did! First victory on Immortal after I quit my only other Immortal start, and also my first GoTM finished (I recall starting one or two Civ V GOTMs even to the point of posting in the Opening Actions threads, but don't think I ever submitted a finished game there, either).

I'd post a screenshot of the end-game but I'm not sure how to.

Edit: Had forgotten to include Civic and Policy info.

 

[Knowtalent]

Long time civ player, but first post and first Gotm! It was really fun, but I totally forgot to summarize my first 100 turns, so no post in the other thread.
I won at Turn 279, with a score of 588, save is after the victory.

Welcome to the GOTM forum! Glad you had a good game!

 

[Knowtalent]

283 victory 662 score
- How many cities did you settle or capture?
8 settled 2 captured.
- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
No real plan with Tech. I got an early boost on writing which allowed me to build an early +3 campus. Between that and killing Barbs allowed me to catch up on Tech and Policies.
- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
Once I saw that Stonehenge was gone before I even got Astrology I didn't even bother with it.
- How much warring did you do? Was it effective in supporting your Culture objective?
Just a short war of expansion with Teddy. He had 3 cities up and running on his island I kept 2 of them. I should have expanded more on that island, but there weren't many good spots left and no new luxes
- Were City-States helpful?
Once I found them, they were helpful.
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Nothing really, beyond having the island to my self
- Did you enjoy the game?
It was fun, though the difficulty didn't seem to do much on the over all speed of the game.

 

[ZerrorR]

318 turn, 535 points, Cultural victory. Save is One... more... turn... later

- How many cities did you settle or capture?

7 cities settled, zero captured. No wars, except one defensive against England and Norway, true cultural commie victory.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?

I went for science and production early on, and then switched full culture AND commercial around 200th turn.

- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.

No, I had an idea that I should get one, but early barbs prevented that.

- How much warring did you do? Was it effective in supporting your Culture objective?

As stated, only one defensive. I know that I could get better time if I wipe out America and Rome, but I like it more to win without war. Immortal, no less.

- Were City-States helpful?

I befriended only money states, I like when I can buy anything, I even bought off great merchant (+10 tourism per industral zone).

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?

Projects are VALUABLE! 75 points towards great (insert type if people here) per city in 5-7 turns is insane.

- Did you enjoy the game?

Keep 'em (6otM) coming, it is fun!!!

 

[amh52]

Cultural Victory on T318 - 1894 AD

It was my first game on Immortal so I was quite happy to manage a win. I took too long to settle the island and started infrastructure too late. By then Teddy was running away with Culture. I thought I would lose, considered attacking him, but then didn't. I played the end pretty well, pushing my tourism, finally getting a few GPs and a few Wonders.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
I settled 8 on the island and 1 more across on the English side.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
I prioritized science at first in case I would need to defend myself and also thinking I would have to go all the way to Radio and Computers. For Culture I prioritized the ones helping a Cultural Victory.

- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
I ignored it totally. I couldn't even produce a Naturalist as I didn't have enough Faith

- How much warring did you do? Was it effective in supporting your Culture objective?
Basically none besides barbarians. For a better result I should have attacked America.

- Were City-States helpful?
They helped some but wasn't Suzerain of any of them until late in the game when I gained Buenos Aires

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
I am mostly surprised that Teddy couldn't win. Even at this high level the AI doesn't seem too focused on winning!

- Did you enjoy the game?
Absolutely! Still a lot of learning to do.

 

[Allston]

Victory Turn 339, Year 1918 AD, Score 807.

I believe this is my highest difficulty win since Civ 4. Wiping out the Americans would have definitely resulted in a much earlier victory. They were 100 tourists ahead of 3rd place.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
I settled 9 cities. Towards the very end of the game I captured 3 American cities.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
In the early game I prioritized military units to protect myself from barbs. Once I realized I was on an island I had them stationed all around to bust the fog and concentrated on production. I beelined workshops and then spammed acropolises. I used policy cards to gain numerous great works.

- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
Not at all.

- How much warring did you do? Was it effective in supporting your Culture objective?
I played a peaceful game. At one point I was declared friends with America, England and Rome. Towards the end I was bored with going turn by turn and went after the Americans. The rest of the world declared against me but I never saw any of their units. I wasn't able to finish the job for culture victory popped.

- Were City-States helpful?
Not really although I did get suzerian in a few, including Toronto.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
The island actually made it easier. I was ahead on tech and just went full builder mode.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes

 

[Martin974]

My first win ever in Immortal difficulty ! Thanks GOTM

Cultural victory in turn 385 (1964 AD) with a score of 594


- How many cities did you settle or capture?
6 cities settle, and one captured

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
as for research, I mainly go with the inspirations, and then for industry.
For policies, I headed to Classical republic, then Maritime, then mondialisation and other tourism bonuses

- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
I was not into the religious part myself, but as at least two other cils were competing, I did not fear a religious victory

- How much warring did you do? Was it effective in supporting your Culture objective?
I kept peaceful the whole game. The only war I got was with norway which created a city south of my island. I took the city, and settled for peace. But norway never forgot... They were the least pleased with me. In end game, I was happy with most of cils.

- Were City-States helpful?
Good for bonuses. i did not got many suzerain though as other cils were very active.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
I was a bit scared late game with Teddy cultural results. I sent a few spies to steal some works of art in his museum, and the late bonuses helped e to get my tourism to the top

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes indeed. Scary at first with the difficulty and barbarians, scary late with Washington in top of culture, and Gandhi heading for space, but very happy to win at the end.

 

[Sempronius]

loss on turn 392, mostly due to early mistakes and deciding to try to play peaceful with Greece

- How many cities did you settle or capture? settled=7, captured=0
- What did you prioritize for research and policies? culture and tourism boosts
- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain. I did not have my own religion, but I used faith to purchase units and buildings and one naturalist
- How much warring did you do? Was it effective in supporting your Culture objective? zero, not one battle other than barbs
- Were City-States helpful? yes for early trading
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it? No, no surprises, other than I need to practice with culture victories
- Did you enjoy the game? always

 

[DrZ]

Hi guys,
Won the game on turn 281.
- How many cities did you settle or capture?
I settled the entire island, 7 cities on the island, and another city near the Americans because it had a lot of good places for 4-5 resorts.
I didn't wage any wars but i believe it would have been optimal to kill at least one civ, because of the leader special trait and it would have helped to get some wonders that the ai built. Felt like i wanted to play peaceful this one because my neighbours (England and America) were really friendly.

- What did you prioritise for research and policies?
In early game i prioritised techs that help the empire grow as fast as possible and in the end techs that unlock important wonders (like the Eiffel Tower and Cristo Redentor) and tourism enhancing policies.

- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
I didn't found any religion and didn't focus at all on faith. I believe this was somewhat a mistake because relics help the tourism a lot, and i had to wait for 40 turns after i unlocked the naturalists until i had enough faith to buy one. Really missed this detail, didn't expect that i need so much faith to buy one, and i had no holy site at that point in the game.

- How much warring did you do? Was it effective in supporting your Culture objective?
No war whatsoever...

- Were City-States helpful?
Nothing special, unfortunately couldn't get the only culture city state as america invested all it had in that one, so i focused on the science and production city sates. Also Toronto is awesome!

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Didn't expect to need so much faith for the naturalist, got caught with no faith generating buildings at that time and had to wait like 40 turns to build up the faith for it.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Was my first Immortal win, had a great time playing it!

 

[Zinad]

Culture victory Turn 319, Score 580, first win on immortal in Civ 6

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
8 on the starting island, 1 later on the American island providing oil, aluminium and nice spots for resorts

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Tried to get as many heurekas as possible for early techs. District priority was Akropolis, economic and/or harbor, campus, industrial.

- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
I could found a religion using the great prophet points and by buliding a holy district early in Sparta. It was not really of use.

- How much warring did you do? Was it effective in supporting your Culture objective?
No wars at all. I wanted to play peacefully. The AI seems not to be strong on water maps. Also it was fun to see AI swordsman running around in the modern era.

- Were City-States helpful?
I think so. The gold from the economic states was helpful in the early game.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Game crash in turn 273. I continued by using 'continue game' in the start menu.
Got a notification in turn 301 that Norway's culture was becoming dominant and that their culture victory was imminent. I found a thread in the forum covering this, so I didnt worry.

- Did you enjoy the game?
It was a fun game, but somehow a bit boring, especially on immortal level I would have expected a far stronger AI.

 

[Mark Twain]

I won at Turn 327, with a score of 1006 my first game on immortal.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled: 11 Captured: 5 from India, 2 from America



- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Prioritize Theocrazy and Democrazy, and to get resources like iron, cool, oil, aluminium.
I should have focused litte more on science and I missed the computer/intenet tech that gives a tourism boost then I should have won the game around 220-250 I guees.
Played the polices so I got money (most from city-states) and by trade, I was allied with England and Rome wish gave me alot om gold and food/produciton.


- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
No I got a Phantome Stone Circle so I got faith on Querryes to get a nice flow of fatih. Bought troops with the theocrazy and made a Nationalpark to get Tourism.

- How much warring did you do? Was it effective in supporting your Culture objective?
War with the americans around turn 120 took there two citites,
Around turn 250 I was attacked buy norway anda

- Were City-States helpful?
Supporting with gold and production. In the end it was a nice big income.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Not more than we was stuck on a island

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes, cannot wait until next game of the month!

Got a nice oil/resort island with rhodos.

 

[Lord Yanaek]

T269(270) Culture Victory
I won't submit this one. The patch went live while i was in the middle and rather than play half game with patch and half without, i started over.
- How many cities did you settle or capture?
10 in the end, thought the one in the desert south of America's continent was settled with a captured settler (probably from Gandhi, thought it was a barbarian settler when i approached his coasts)
- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Mostly the usual go for Industrialization stuff, then to computers. For civics i went for Political Philosophy (Classical Republic) then Feudalism, Exploration (Merchant Republic), the civic for Museums, Suffrage Artifacts*2 and finally Online Communities.
- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
Slightly. My Holy City contributed towards my tourism but i'm not sure the investment was worth it. Once again i wanted to try Jesuit Education, and once again i couldn't buy a lot of buildings. I start to think this belief is only useful if you have tons of faith/turn or plan to go for Theocracy (cheaper faith purchase)
- How much warring did you do? Was it effective in supporting your Culture objective?
I tried to stay peaceful for open borders and trade but some AIs definitely didn't want peace. Gandhi and Teddy have been annoying often and now in the end Pedro finally declared on me for taking too many great persons and brought Harald in the war (he was starting to like me for my big navy)
- Were City-States helpful?
Mostly the plain old bonuses, gold and production are always useful. I became Suzerain of La Venta at some point to build some Big Heads but forgot what tech was needed to get tourism out of that culture so not very useful
With none on my island i couldn't get early benefits and didn't really bother to fight for suzerain status with already established AIs
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
A big nasty patch right in the middle of my first attempt
- Did you enjoy the game?
Not bad. AI is pretty useless in war thought. Teddy was quite good at gaining culture and delayed my victory as i had to break the 1000 tourism/turn roof by some margin

 

[xx13]

Victory, turn 353, score 498.

How many cities did you settle or capture?
6 cities (the 6th appear at the end of the game and had no impact, so literally 5).
I didn't capture anything.

What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Culture > Science > Gold / Production > Military

Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
I only rushed for a culture from pastures pantheon without any plans to found a religion.

How much warring did you do? Was it effective in supporting your Culture objective?
Very little. 2 nations declared war on me earlier in the game, but I was ok with defending with crossbowmen and a swordsman. Those were the only wars I took part in.
But my spies were really effective in sabotaging America (who was doing better in terms of culture at one point, I lost Broadway to them) and India (who was going for scientific victory). I stole a lot of pieces of art and funds from America, destroyed spaceports and factories in India, and also got some nice scientific boosts as well.

Were City-States helpful?
Sure! Being a suzerain of a merchantile city state, gave me +6 amenities with 2 lux resources. That allowed me to skip developing entertainment districts and to keep growing my cities.
Having smaller amount of envoys in cultural and scientific city states provided me with some nice bonuses.
That was my bad I found city states fairly late in the game (by that time I had around 20 unspent envoys).

Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
My biggest surpise was America completing Broadway before I could even reach it on the civics tree (and I was rushing culture, building acropolis in almost every city). From that moment I rushed my spies to steal some art works, resulting in massive spy actions till the end of the game.

Did you enjoy the game?
Absolutely! Right now I'm going through other replies to find something interesting for me.
That was the first time I took part in GOTM event, and I'm waiting for the next one.
Thanks for the game!

Spoiler My Empire :

 

[Lexad]

Turn 216 Victory
My first cultural game. Corrected the errors of overdevelopment in space 6OTM1, but I'm still far from understanding the optimal strategy in culture. Evidently so far it assumes more dump cities to house artifacts and build resorts and MUCH faster beeline to Eiffel - for aforementioned resorts. A GP boosting Appeal is also very useful - didn't have it.
Warred only once to stop Teddy from running away in culture. Was sieged by barb horsemen around turn 100 from 3 camps - lost 3 archers and built a ton of hoplites, so had to delay invasion of America quite significantly. I wonder if quasi-domination would've been a faster cultural win - unlikely though, as my tourism doubled in less than 10 final turns.

 

[groorg1]

Took forever, but happy to manage a victory! Still don't fully understand what prioritizes a cultural victory so I just tried everything...