6otM 02 After Actions

[vahn_arian]

Victory on turn 325 with a score of 730

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled 6 cities on my island and conquered 4 cities from America.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Chose to prioritize districts techs first, leaving military techs for later. For civics, I beelined to feudalism and to later form of goverments.

- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
Not really. Never built a single holy site. It was fun seeing religous battles from other civs on my territory though.

- How much warring did you do? Was it effective in supporting your Culture objective?
As soon as it became clear that I would never close the gap on culture production with america, I decided to conquer its best cities. Stoped after getting it's first 4 cities and didn't start any wars. Japan and India declared war on me 3 times each, but never sent troops.

- Were City-States helpful?
Only at the second half of the game, when I manage to get tier 3 bonus from all commercial city states, making it easy to buy all those power plants.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
How bad I play without the UI mods I normaly use. Other than that, how bad the AI is at making war. There was one time where 6 LAND troops surrounded my Ironclad at sea, without ever attacking.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Not that much. It was kind of fun, but more often that not I would become frustrated for not haviny my mods. Unity report, Production Queue and better trade makes a lot of difference.

 

[VirginiaRounder]

Aaaargh, was well on my way to victory, and then was defeated on turn 295 as Hojo Tokimune converted the city he needed to get a religious victory. I have to make a note to myself to do a better job of paying attention to my religious status and protecting my cities with Inquisitors when needed.

That was a really tough map. I am seriously impressed with anyone who was actually able to win that one without using any exploits or replaying any turns!

 

[Acken]

Finished T198 (or T197 depending if it's before the movie or after the movie). Had to reload the last turn because I forgot to save.

Follow up from the introduction :

Stopped taking notes around T160. After Killing Teddy and getting all my districts its just a ramp up of tourism with the Great people, Archaeologists and Sea Resorts.
Theres a lot of room for optimizing. My culture/science balance is probably not ideal and I think Ive missed some important wonders. I don't really know if computer is the most important or Radio.

It also seems to me that there is little point in getting Artists over Archaeologists.

Capital : Trader, Chariot, Factory, Entertainment, Colloseum (rushed), Trader, Amphi, University, Builder, Archaeo museum, Archaeo, PP
Olympia : Campus, Chariot, Amphi, Library, CD, Market, University, Art Museum, Builder, University, Bolshoi
Eretria : Acropolis, Chariot, Factory, Amphitheater, Settler, Trader x2, Archaeo Museum, CD, Builder, Campus, Library, Archaeo, University
Athens : Acropolis, Chariot, Factory, Library, Amphi, Museum, WaterMill, Archaeologist
Argos : Granary, Chariot, ID, Trader, Theater, Workshop, Factory, Amphi, Museum, Archaeologist, PP
Corinth : Acropolis, Chariot, ID, Amphi, Settler, Art Museum, Builder x2
Knossos : Amphi,Chariot, Market, Campus, Library, Settler, Archaeo Museum, Archaeologist
Ephesus : Chariot, CD, Trader, Acropolis, Amphi, Art Museum, Campus
Washington : Trader, Repair, Granary
Philadelphia : Granary, Art museum
Los Angeles : Repair, Granary
New Orleans : Granary
Pharsalos : Granary Acropolis Amphi
Mhetos : Granary Acropolis Amphi
Megara : Granary Acropolis
Phocaea : Granary Acropolis

I declare war on Teddy at turn 119 with 7 Knights. Hes by far the cultural leader but Immortal AI cannot defend so I rolled over him.
I also made a few scouts for the Garrison amenities.

Spoiler :

 

[rockytop00]

Points: like 630? Victory! Yay... boring as hell.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
-- I spammed a bunch of cities, thinking that would help overwhelm my opponents, I think it just slowed me down. Pretty sure I had 16 cities and captured one from america. I felt that America had a culture lead most of the game and then at the end I overwhelmed him with tourist, but it just seemed to take forever.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
--I don't remember, I'm so numb from mindlessly clicking through the last 100 turns

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

- How much warring did you do? Was it effective in supporting your Culture objective?
- Just attack america when he forward settled, then fought off two attacks from england... interestingly I felt the AI did horrible war planning and sued for peace super easily.

- Were City-States helpful?
- I think so...

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

- Did you enjoy the game?
- I did at first, but the long culture grind killed any and all hope of enjoying culture victories in the future. Plus the nebulous way that tourism works is kinda annoying, I think I understand it now, but I'm not sure really.

 

[twyxted]

Finished on turn 325, would've finished later if I hadn't totally finished off America.

Culture? What culture? Isn't this a wargame? I've always played civ as a warmonger, hence my lack of interest in previous GOTMs.

Tried to build up culture early game by going acropolis first, bad choice: it just slowed me down. Found 3 cities before Japan forward settled the Cliffs of Dover site. Upgraded 5 quadriremes to Frigates and took Japan down. Left his inland capital, since I had only a pikes and a lone catapult. Thank you Japan! Played to enjoy from here on, taking down the enemy civs.

Maintained alliances with England, Norway and Rome while attacking Brazil for her niter. After 3 cities conquered through my navy, Brazil capitulated. By this time niter was irrelevant since I have artillery.

Went full gear towards culture, since I didn't need to build up a land army and just upgraded my navy to battleships, I spammed wonders in Sparta.

Built Hermitage, Eiffel, Mont St Michel, Potala Palace...missed out on the forbidden palace. Captured Venetian Arsenal from Japan hence the easy naval build up. (actually didn't notice until two units would pop out of my other navy builds) Built oxford in a city captured from Japan. Built Cristo redentor in my 3rd greek city.

Finally went to war with America in the hopes taking his cities will reduce domestic tourists. Sadly, after taking all cities except one, his domestic tourist count is still 400! At this point my tourism per turn is just under 1k, but after 10 or so turns without a victory, I decided to finally wipe Teddy off the map.

City States:

Tried to keep Dag Madol or the culture state under my wing but ended up putting in more than 15 envoys competing with Teddy. After better diplomacy policies, put my envoys towards the gold city states.

Quite enjoyable, much warmongering in a culture win! Civ 6 AI's are easier than CIV 4 or 5 on immortal and deity, yet it seems more enjoyable to play so far.

 

[glory7]

t208 (or t209? I need to double check).

My first culture victory attempt, so my play was far from optimal. Plus, far civs (Japan and India) were strong culture guys, which made my denominator (max(other civ's domestic tourists)) too high.

1. Agree with Acken that archaelogists are much better. Theming arts was too difficult.
2. For island maps, radio is much more important - sea resort spam + cristo redento = gg. Tourism from other sources (arts, relics, national parks, etc) was inconsequential when compared to tourism from sea resorts. My tourism per turn (on the top) was close to 2000 in the end.

I upgraded 8 frigates to attack, and USA and India double DoWed me (thanks guys...). It was unfortunate that many cities were not coastal ones so I could not capture them. I attacked other civs with yummy coastal cities and that helped culture per turn a lot (with help of that culture CS nimadol).

I made a wrong decision to beeline electronics and computers... it looked really good to build power plants and have X2 tourism, but that was a critical mistake - I should have beelined radio and started spamming sea resorts asap. If I replay this map, I would spam cities near coasts and get workers ready so that I may build sea resorts right away. Pop 1 cities can even build acropolis, the only district I need.

 

[rockytop00]

Quite enjoyable, much warmongering in a culture win! Civ 6 AI's are easier than CIV 4 or 5 on immortal and deity, yet it seems more enjoyable to play so far.

By golly that's it! I was sitting here this morning, kind of thinking how I hadn't enjoyed the last game or two as much as I usually do. The answer is simple: warmonger as per usual and aim for the stated victory type.

I'm an idiot. Should have done that for this game. God knows it will be the only way to make a religous victory tolerable in the next GOTM!

 

[DanQuayle]

T205 CV, Score 636

Spoiler :

I went for Seaside Resort spam + Cristo Redentor this game. Later, I went Expropriation and settled many little cities for more Seaside Resorts.
It was the first time I went for a late-game CV and I was a bit disappointed to find out that Seaside Resorts actually do not provide double the Appeal as Tourism as mentioned in the Civilopedia, but I think they are still powerful on such a water map.

I never declared war this game.
I got double DoW'd by America and Japan T117. I delayed Industrialization and went for Square Rigging and upgraded my Quadriremes. Frigates might be even more powerful in Civ VI than in Civ V. I took out America without a bruise and left him on one city for leeching tourists later on. The only threat I had was two wandering Caravels from Japan with 62 Combat Strength. However, they just sat on my Harbors doing nothing (bug?) not even pillaging them. I got Civil Engineering a few turns later, so it didn't really matter in the end.

I also got double DoW'd later on by Denmark and England on T181. Denmark had the highest military score and Harald complained about my lack of navy. However, how come I only ever saw one meager Frigate from you all game Harald? On the other side, England had virtually no military and Victoria's main cities made nice additions to my own. She actually was friendly to me most of the game, until she complained I had too much military near her borders. I had one Frigate near her borders, so I moved it and made a promise to her. However, I somehow broke that promise later on despite having zip near her, except a scout.

I did not seem to get warmonger penalties with other civilizations after taking cities. I am not sure if it is a bug or not or if it was because I did not instigate the wars.

T169 Radio
T175 Cristo Redentor
T179 Computers

Room for improvement
I forgot to work Theater Square Festivals in the late game (until the very end too late), so I finished the Civic tree a bit too late.
I totally forgot about the Printing Press Tourism bonus and never researched the tech.
I stayed on 2 campus most of the game, I should have added the 3rd and 4th earlier to reach Radio earlier. Meeting Geneva earlier could also have helped.

Overall, I think that going on a Frigate spree after dealing with America and capturing as many coastal cities as possible would have been better overall with the Seaside Resort strategy.

 

[Sir Prizer]

Late, Late Culture Win T377; Score 619

What a slog. Fun, but a bruising trying to get tourism to rise before Gandhi launched.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Just as planned after T100, planted a total of 9 cities on the island - last at T164, and worked them hard. Missed Petra in the desert by 2 turns, which hurt @ T110.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Prioritized a few things - Early God-o-Open-Sky (culture), and Hanging Gardens (growth.) I planned for Great Zim using the cattle in Sparta and got her. So that drove the strategy to let trade routes be core engine of my civ. Ended with 17 routes - 8 CommHub, 7 Harbor, and 1 from GZ. That allowed me to either max production in Sparta from internal routes (over 100 hammers at one point), or max gold from international routes. Built IZ and Acropolis in almost every city. No Holy sites - all missionaries were welcome.

The rest was great people to fill the Great Works gallery, which I snagged whenever possible with Zimbabwe gold. Added much needed cultural wonders, Hermitage, Mt St Michel, Sydney Opera House, and Bolshoi Theatre. When Teddy beat me to Cristo Redentor (T265), I assumed I would lose. That would have made victory easy - but no luck. I did it the hard way overcoming the Enlightenment penalty and lacking the double Seaside resort bonus (I ended with 11 of them.)

I launched a desperation war T306, Allies Greece and Rome vs. Allies Washington and Japan. I failed miserably in attacking DC, but enraged Teddy who took chase across the sea to my island where his troops fell victim to my navy and cannons. He then offered 4 gallery pieces as part of a peace deal, and I had my first smell of victory blow toward my rocky island. Japan had settled a lone village west, which I took, then sold to England for two more art items and the gallery began to grow.

Alas, Gandhi surged toward space with only two items left for Mars at T353. I took down 2 of his 3 spaceports but didn't think that would make it, and didn't have any military means to stop him from settling Mars. Out of great people entirely, I relied on Zimbabwe again and switched to an all cash economy. Bought every gallery item that any player would sell. Lucky, not skilled, Gandhi still hadn't launched the Mars Colony Hydroponics when victory came at T377.

- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
No. Well, I did save enough for one National Park.

- How much warring did you do? Was it effective in supporting your Culture objective?
I declared only one war, captured one city. Early Washington and Harold declared joint war on me, but sent horsemen who died in my island's mountains and jungles.

- Were City-States helpful?
Yes, somewhat. I hardly ever stayed suzerain, but the extra gold and hammers helped. I'm sure the coastal benefits of Nan Modal were good but I never calculated the benefit.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
District placement keeps surprising me. An island like this offers many possibilities for locality bonuses where cities share the benefits of certain districts, but I found myself mis-placing districts in locations where only one other city might benefit, then realizing that a different placement would have been tons better. This severely hampered my game. Live and learn.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Emphatically yes. This is my second cultural victory and first win on immortal. Great place to learn... this peaceful island. Thanks for setting it up!

 

[Halfdan Helgrim]

Victory on Turn 303 (actually 302), with 919 points.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Initially settled 5, but it became more as expanded to entire world and conquered America and Japan.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
No strategy, just what seemed best at the time.

- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
I tried to get religion, by building holy site fast, but lost by one turn.

- How much warring did you do? Was it effective in supporting your Culture objective?
I went to war with America in beginning. Became a pretty long war as he managed to snatch one of my 5 beginning cities with a single caraval (two attacks and then it was down). Then also killed Japan as culture leader later on.

- Were City-States helpful?
Found them pretty late, so no

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Surprised at how fast the religions were gone. Surprised that America snatched one of my initial cities.

- Did you enjoy the game?
It was rather boring, as AI is soooo weak.

 

[MiniMe]

Victory Turn 288, Score 643.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled 12, one on American island next to plenty of desert Seaside Resorts. Captured none.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
First infrastructure amd then culture / tourism

- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
No, ignored religion.

- How much warring did you do? Was it effective in supporting your Science objective?
Just a couple of short, defensive wars.

- Were City-States helpful?
Toronto is cool. First city state I met and I had several envoys ready just waiting at that time. They were friends till the end.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Not really, except how puny Imortal level seems to be.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yup, my first win both on Immortal and on culture.

 

[CPWimmer]

Culture Victory - Turn 263 - 499 points
​

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
I settled 9 cities, all on my home island, no capturing (or any war for that matter)

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
After going broad up through turn 100+ and eventually grabbing Printing, I then focused Tech research heavily going for Radio and then Computers (picking up some naval techs along the way) - i then went back to modernize my army, just in case. I felt like I was always a bit behind in tech until around turn 200-220.

For Civics I mostly focused on Humanism->Natural History->Cultural Heritage and then moved to pick up Suffrage (for democracy) and then Social Media - after that was filler to wait out the end game. I was almost always in the lead before the mid-to-late game spike where I pushed ahead.


- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
Not really. I only had my Fertility Rites pantheon. A few people tried to spread religion and battle on my territory but only 1 or 2 of my cities ever stayed converted for long. In the end Rome was Sikhism, Japan was Buddhist (and had influenced England), India was Hindu. Meanwhile Brazil, America (who had founded Confucianism), Norway and I had no predominant religion. It appeared that India was going for a religious based cultural victory and was ahead until roughly turn 200.

- How much warring did you do? Was it effective in supporting your Culture objective?
None, I played a 100% peaceful game (excluding early barbs). I ended the game in an alliance with England and Rome and a Declared Friendship with India. There was a lot of espionage in the end game, however. i managed to steal a few Great Writings and captured (and traded back) a few foreign spies.

- Were City-States helpful?
Somewhat - my only was Suzerain w/ Brussels for an extend time. I was off again on again w/ Buenos Aires and Geneva, but not in any real capacity. I had 3 envoys (and a few 6+) with every non-Faith city state.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
I was surprised at how much better archaeologists were compared to artists - and how hard it was to theme art, but easy it was to theme artifacts. My typical Art Museum supplied 8 Tourism, while my Archaeological Museums routinely provided 27. I was able to construct 3 Wonders - the Oracle, Broadway and Sydney Opera House. They last 2 were "fun" to build but I'm not sure if they helped all that much or not - they were part of my late game spike. The Oracle probably helped. I can't say for sure about it's effect, but it certainly played into my overall Great Person strategy. Excluding Generals, Admirals and Prophets (which i put no effort into at all) - as of turn 261 I had earned 16 of the 32 Great People recruited up to that point (including the all important GM Sara Breedlove). I didn't go back and check right at the very end.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes, I was a bit worried about this game with it only being Civ 6 Game #3 for me (and my first GotM, Culture Victory and Immortal game), but in the end I found I was able to not only win, but managed to do so without ever engaging in international war (which felt very appropriate for this kind of Victory).

Screenshot:

Spoiler :

 

[Eyswein]

Turn after win: Culture, Turn 243, 1660AD, Score 560

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Built 14 total cities; 8 core cities on main island spammed prior to turn 100, 6 others for seaside resort locations when I could make them; annoyingly got beat to spots by 2-3 turn a few times; zero cities captured (one barbarian settler captured late)

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
I focused for industry, museums, seaside resorts, democracy, and of course major culture boost capability
I entered Industrial Era turn 146, Modern Era turn 175, got Computers & Mass Media on turn 200.
I had computers before I had Musketmen; ended up with Corps of Hoplites for the Boost
I also wanted Cristo Redentor (got it) and Eiffel Tower (was building at end so I could make even more seaside resorts) for culture boosts

- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
God of the Open Sky pantheon, got beat to religions, built zero Holy Sites; not sure if that hurt

- How much warring did you do? Was it effective in supporting your Science objective?
Played peacenik, zero captured, made peace at earliest opportunity when war declared (Viking, Rome, America in different groups of two); did capture a barbarian settler sometime after turn 200

- Were City-States helpful? Not as much as I would have hoped; every time I got one, someone else would take it from me; eventually saved up a bunch of envoys to try the “2 if other form of gov’t” policy from Cold War, but messed that up because I didn’t pay attention to which ones had no allegiance to anyone – late in game anyway

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
1)Getting beat to city sites I wanted for seaside resorts while my settler was on its way – had to build less cities and move to other sites; very annoying India, very annoying
2) Forgot seaside resorts couldn’t be built on hills and tundra; (once destroyed plantation, harvested bananas, cleared rainforest to then realize the darn spot was a hill, so then I mined it L); I was spamming +30%build/+2action settlers at that point, so minor slowdown
3)Great works trading – I could find no way to tell what the darn great work is on mouse over or click, did google searches and still nada on specific pieces; had to guess to get one religious relic from England for an artifact; otherwise gave up on trying to trade because I couldn’t tell if they would be good or bad trades
4) Foolishness lost my trade route to a scout on turn 56 (bought it back); built my first galley on turn 84 only to lost it to a barbarian frigate exploring the American coastline on turn 103 (built it back); both annoying slowdowns in early game
5)Wars weren’t a surprise, but didn’t attack cities, just held my ground and tried to kill stuff coming to me…and asked for peace as soon as I could; only navy ships I built were the 2 galleys (to caravels) and 3 privateers for the boosts; best land unit I ever had was a crossbowman
6) The speed at which you went from nada to win with culture; at turn 200 I had single digit tourism with ZERO foreign tourists – at this point England was the clear leader; by turn 243 I’d won with 1170 tourism and 183 foreign tourists; it went so fast my Eiffel Tower strategy (more appeal for more/better seaside resorts) didn’t even have time to play out

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes, corps of hoplites are just funny; a city with 5 land spots with all 5 being seaside resorts is cool (Bermuda, Bahama, come on pretty mama…)

 

[CappyAA]

Welcome to the 6otM 02 After Actions Report. In this thread you can post the results of your game. Please state victory date and score (preferably in the post title), as recorded in the Hall of Fame, and the most important: your path to glory!

STOP - Please do not continue reading this thread until you have completed and submitted your game.

Please attached your victory save to your post.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
- How much warring did you do? Was it effective in supporting your Culture objective?
- Were City-States helpful?
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
- Did you enjoy the game?

Please use spoiler tags for any surprise details you'd like kept hidden. Thanks.

Players are encouraged to provide feedback on the game. Some players like to replay the game, and although we will not record the results from a replay, you can still post your new experiences (please state if the game is a replay). Please refrain from posting videos until the deadline for submission is over.

Culture Victory on Turn 328 – Score 836

Also, first ever victory on Immortal!

- How many cities did you settle or capture?

I finished with 21 cities. Settled 9 on my own island. I captured 1 from Teddy in war. As I was about to take Washington, he gave me 6 more in the peace deal. I captured 5 from Gandi in a late-game war.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?

Nothing in particular, other than to make sure I get industrial and commercial zones up and running as fast as possible.

I also focused on trying to pop the eurekas, which I did a better job at the beginning.

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

Nope – I need to get better at this (GOTM 3!). I got an early pantheon but that’s it.

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

I tried to play a peaceful game early and really just built up my cities until around turn 225. Then I realized that Teddy was beating me on tourism and I wasn’t going to catch him, so I scrapped that plan, built a navy, and declared on him. It’s amazing what a few battleship armadas can do. I took his closest city pretty handily and was about 2 turns away from taking Washington when he offered me all his other cities, all his gold, and some of his relics/art/etc. That essentially took him out of the game, so I accepted.

India was doing everything well – culture, faith, and science – and again, I wasn’t generating much more in tourism than him, even after taking Teddy. He was working through the space race, so I sent my navy (and bombers by that point) over to his coast and declared war. I took 5 of his cities. We were still in war when my culture victory popped.

- Were City-States helpful?

Not especially. America and I kept going back and forth as the Suzeran of Nan Madal. But otherwise, I didn’t meet a ton until later. I was Suzeran of 3-4 by end of the game.

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

I was actually surprised with how little the AI had navys built up given the map. It was super easy to war from building just a few battleships.

- Did you enjoy the game?

I really enjoyed the game a lot. It was my first time attempting a game on immortal, so I was really pumped that I got a win. I have a lot to learn on culture victories though. I really just tried to maximize culture and great works. But I don’t think I have a great understanding of the details and can learn a ton in the optimization.

Looking forward to the next one!

 

[whacker]

Finished turn 198. (The screen is from t197 but the vid starts afterwards)

I tried to quickly develop 9 cities on the main island without going too wide, then rushing Eiffel Tower+Christo Redentor for a lot of seabaths. Sadly the japanese culture proved to be a bit too strong to finish earlier. I think i should have prioritized science a bit heavier as i feel that seabaths are the way to go on an island map. Hardbuilt the Pyramids at t80 and rushed the Colluseum around t120.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled 9 cities on the starting island and conquered 4 american cities+1 settler.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Steel, Radio then Computer. Archeology.

- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
No, i find it too expensive to go for a religion on higher difficulties.

- How much warring did you do? Was it effective in supporting your Culture objective?
I decided to conquer Teddy rather late when i saw he was the cultural leader by far. Finished him somewhere between t160-170 with some battleships and knights. Got randomly dowed sometimes but nothing happened.

- Were City-States helpful?
Toronto was.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Yes, i realised i kinda like this type of map

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes.

 

[bartaxe]

Round 303 771points

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Captured none settled 15. One just to get uranium on the south pole, two as big sea baths, the rest to fill out my island.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Acropolis, the internet, cultural civics.

- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
I got god of the open sky, then i ran for getting a religion. Founded Taurism and got a nice 2g per city. I took Cathedrals as well, but did not use them really, cause i only had one temple district.

- How much warring did you do? Was it effective in supporting your Culture objective?
Mostly defensive wars, i could persuade Victoria to join me against Teddy, but that backfired. She took LA, the US-city on my island. That caused all this.. but well.
Afterwards there were some defensive wars. Had to prebuild some quadriremes to upgrade them to frigates. With those i could repell the Vikings and Rome. (the northmen took a city i had to reconquer...)

- Were City-States helpful?
Sure, put 1 to 3 emissaries in each, expect the religious ones. Because i battled about the control of Nan Madol with Teddy, i could not get control of Toronto.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Victoria backstabbed me once and got a foothold on my island by taking it from the americans. All the while i was bombarding and besieging that one. But well, i let it slide. Later she parked her outdated units on my land. I was a little scared, despite being the whole game very close to her. DoFs and allied her early.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yep.

 

[Falabello]

Culture Victory - Turn 324 - 1903AD - Score: 565.

 

[Hardcorey]

Turn 274 (275 on the "one more turn" save). Score: 509. Culture victory.

I found a really early relic in a tribal village, which had an obscene amount of early faith and tourism, so built my entire strategy around that first relic. Here's everything in my strategy that doesn't seem obvious for a culture victory:

• Expanded to cover my whole island ASAP. Had 10 cities total. Didn't attack anyone.
• Scouted everyone ASAP, so I could spread my early tourism.
• Expanded on 2 sides of America with the intent of attacking, but (mistakenly, in hindsight) didn't think I could pull it off.
• Religion doubled relic effectiveness and stopped my religion from being reduced in surrounding cities upon death.
• Prioritized Mont St. Michel for the Martyr promotion on apostles, then suicide bombed everyone for relics
• Was suzerain with La Venta (I think), which gave the ability to pick the promotion on Apostles, so almost all apostles had Martyr and Debater (+20 theological combat strength). Also Toronto and Buenos Aires.
• Built about 7 holy sites, so the temples could carry relics
• Got Acropolis in most cities ASAP
• Prioritized Great People as often as I could

I was really surprised by how long it started to gain tourists, since that relic gave me a ton since the beginning and I scouted everyone early. Once it ramped up though, the game was over in 30 turns.

Mistakes

• I picked the religious belief that lets you build buildings with a religious art slot. I never got to use a single slot.
• I thought Christo Redentor would be really effective, but I was unable to build seaside resorts on a bunch of coastal desert tiles for reasons I don't understand.
• I should have attacked Teddy. And early.

Had a great time. Really looking forward to the next one!

Spoiler :

 

[Half Nelson]

Culture Victory turn 294. Score 575.
The whole game was played post-patch. I achieved my personal aims of winning (1) without making a DoW on any AI or CS and (2) achieving 1000 tourism / 500 culture per turn. I was DoW by America / Rome mid-game (immediately after I leapfrogged America to top the culture table) and later by India / England. I settled 8 cities and captured 1 from Rome. America generated a lot of culture from early game which took time to overcome peacefully.

 

[eternalsceptic]

Turn 210, Score 574

Spoiler :

Was aiming for a sub 200 peaceful win so a little disappointed. Wanted to be friendly with everyone to maintain the bonus modifier with trade and open borders but Pedro was being too annoying with the Great People agenda. Still had 5 allies at the end though.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled 11 on starting landmass before turn 100, no captures. I knew it was important to have as many cities as possible and not warring meant I had to basically squeezed cities as close together as they possibly can.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
For research, Industrialisation > Computer > Radio. Completely ignored the bottom half of the tree till the end where I was waiting to win.
For Policies, basically for the Govts, PP > Exploration > Suffrage. Took the tourism cards when able.

- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
Nope, couldn't spare the district slot. Unfortunately the religion being spread to me (America & England) were complete rubbish.
However, Gandhi had pretty high domestic tourists with his religion which led to a later win. Triple yield relic with Yerevan and 30% cheaper apostles gave him 10 Relics and 598 tourism at the end of the game!

- How much warring did you do? Was it effective in supporting your Culture objective?
None, was intending to go for a peaceful game.

- Were City-States helpful?
Mostly just Toronto. Was also Suzerain of Buenos Aires but it probably wasn't too impactful. Lack of early envoys (did not meet any of them 1st) and poor quests (Toronto gave holy site as first quest...) hurt quite a bit early.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Got double double-DOWed by America, Japan, Norway and Brazil around turn 110-120 which was a little alarming. But 3 of them made peace without sending a single combat unit and I managed to sue America for peace after killing a few of his embarked units.

Gandhi's high tourism was a surprise since he wasn't leading at first. Considered warring him but was probably too late and Japan had pretty high domestic tourists too for some reason so it probably won't help much. Japan also built zero harbours so I couldn't maintain a trade route with him.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Started to lead in score from T100 so I knew the win was inevitable but trying to push for an earlier victory turn was pretty fun.