6otM 11 After Action

[leif erikson]

Welcome to the 6otM11 After Actions Report thread. 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?
- Who did you send to the dustbin of history?
- What did you build for an Army and how did it change?
- Did you use diplomacy? How?
- Were City-States helpful?
- Did you use religion? How and were you successful?
- 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.

 

[Rakish]

Turn 211 Science victory Score 635

- How many cities did you settle or capture?

17

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?

went with all 3 early governments at different points in the first half of game, got districts up fairly late so the military focused governments made more sense for a lot of the time
then standard merchant republic into democracy
key policies being meritocracy to get to enlightenment asap. then build up massive gold and science for a democracy, Big Ben combo for the last 4 great scientists. believe I got to about 31k gold.

finished last mars tech on turn 203 but had mistimed the rocket scientists and had to waste some of the cogs building a library in 1 turn then took me 8 more turns for the final module.

- Who did you send to the dustbin of history?

Egypt

- What did you build for an Army and how did it change?

Warrior and Archers
then Chariots into knights with one battering ram

- Did you use diplomacy? How?

Allied Gilgamesh towards the end as he didn't have the warmonger penalties that crippled all my other relationships which was nice as i finally had someone to trade all these extra luxuries to.

-Were City-States helpful?

Amsterdam and Zanzibar hugely helpful for the gold to push out a good Big Ben. fought Russia the whole game for suzerain of both particularly Zanzibar as those amenities plus ivory were well worth fighting for.

Toronto and Stockholm were helpful later when i finally found them and became uncontested suzerain of both. was making over 50 great scientist points per turn with Stockholm's help

- Did you use religion? How and were you successful?

No let the AI do that for me, I was very multicultural by the end. Catholics, Buddhists and atheists all happily co-existing

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

The AI on the higher difficulties has defiantly improved in this patch version, if you leave it alone it can... sometimes... maybe, get quite powerful.

-Did you enjoy the game?

Not a bad finish date for my standards by the end, but my god was that a game of frustration. Basically my major strategy flaw was trying to play a builder Civ as a builder. Turns out when your surrounded by 4 AI civs fairly closely on emperor, trying to build wonders and settlers and builders is a bad idea.

Had the dream of building a vast empire with Pyramids and Petra to the East with a city on the oasis, building Colosseum in my capital, building Colossus to the north river mouth maybe even a sneaky forbidden city in there somewhere for the china roll play. basically all the early non religion wonders that don't completely suck.... an then

- Egypt forward settled me on the river to the south east just before i could get my first settler to the eastern oasis, blocking my city
- lost a builder to a barb scout and had my chase blocked by Egypt, losing it for good.
- lots of Egyptian units wandering around with a denouncement forthcoming, at least she's honest i guess.

So I decided to build a bigger army than my initial defensive force an invade Egypt...and this went horribly. Razed their offensive forward city so i could build my next city in the spot i actually wanted. But then proceeded to lose multiple units skirmishing in no-mans land before losing more units to fresh spawning chariot archers in my siege on their capital all while Hong Kong was causing havoc in my south being an Egyptian ally. Then Russia had the gall to invade me before i could finish the job. Had to sack the Egyptian capital next turn, get a peace treaty so I would have some gold to buy some defense against the Russian push for MY Capital. Ended up losing my capital city anyway and couldn't send half my bruised and battered army to help take it back because half a dozen sword and archers barbs were descending on my freshly acquired Egyptian prize. (they continued to threaten my north eastern borders for 30-40 odd turns including a crossbow wave until my knights finally cleaned them out.)

At this point my empire went into full crisis mode and all 4 other cities I'd founded in the meantime started pumping out chariots as I realized a domination style knight push was my only real chance of salvaging this game. the chariots soon righted the ship getting my city back and a peace treaty from Russia. I then preceded to start wiping out all the local city states as they were useless and Russian/ Egyptian sympathizers to boot. Spared Amsterdam as that gold is crazy good for science victories and they weren't suffering from Russian brainwashing just yet.

Reached mercenaries, upgraded 8 chariots to knights and went back to 'finish the job'. Sent Egypt to the dustbin of history and took the two most juicy Russian cities on my boarders before settling down for a nice peaceful science and trade infrastructure game with all my neighbors hating me.

After saying all that though i did end up building all those wonders minus forbidden city as Arabia build it before i could... just not as cleanly as I'd hoped.

 

[pahakuutti]

SV @ 224T

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
14

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Tried to get boosts to the key civics/techs.The big picture being:
Democracy + Big Ben + buy remaining scientists + rush space projects = victory

In the end, it turned out that I overshot gold and undershot science.

- Who did you send to the dustbin of history?
Didn't warmonger (a much). I captured only 3 cities. Two from Russia and a poor city state Kandy, because she was causing too much trouble being suzerain of my enemy. Also, I liberated Kabul from egyptian oppression to get some positive diplo modifiers.

- What did you build for an Army and how did it change?
Slingers/archers. Chariots to be upgraded into knights.
Had to upgrade few chariots into knights before hitting mercenaries, because of surprise double dow by Rome and Russia.

- Did you use diplomacy? How?
Sold some great works, which I acquired via peace deals.

- Were City-States helpful?
Yes, but not as much I hoped. Took way too long before I met first scientific city state.

- Did you use religion? How and were you successful?
Didn't bother. I got early relic from a hut and it helped to found a pantheon

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
I had just perfect place for Colosseum (would have reached 6 cities), but Russia got it first, which made my job more difficult. Now, I had not enough amenities to support expansion. And what an impact would that extra culture have done. Because of this, had to construct few entertainment complexes.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes, thanks for the game.

 

[PontifexMaximus]

SV @ 311T, Score 615

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
13

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
I tried prioritizing science-focused techs, but I still think I'm not good at beelining the correct techs needed for a specific VC. Need more practice.
With policies I beelined for Classical and Merchant Republic.

- Who did you send to the dustbin of history?
Cleopatra. After several blunders I described in the Opening Actions thread, I finally managed to turn the tide and beat Egypt with CBs. I also DoW'd Russia two times, but I couldn't defeat them. Still got some nice peace deals.

- What did you build for an Army and how did it change?
A whole bunch of Slingers - Archers - CBs - Cannons - Machine Guns, 2 Bombards and a melee unit or two.

- Did you use diplomacy? How?
Not much because, after eliminating Cleopatra, everyone just denounced me throughout the game. These AIs have some amazing memory, hating me for thousands of years...

- Were City-States helpful?
Yup, I ended up allied to Stockholm, Zanzibar, Hong Kong, Kabul and Toronto. Kabul actually singlehandedly razed the second-biggest Egyptian city.

- Did you use religion? How and were you successful?
My first district was a Holy Site, but I still didn't manage to get a religion.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
After finishing off Cleo I was leading in science-per-turn and I figured I'd just cruise peacefully to Science VC. Gandhi disagreed just as I was building Mars Modules and attacked me with 3-4 Modern Armor armies, 1 Helicopter army and 1 Infantry army. He got to my main Spaceport and instead of pillaging it...he pillaged the trade route on the tile. I got lucky I guess, that could've delayed my victory for a bunch of more turns. I managed to drive him off and he gave me a bunch of stuff in a peace deal. I hope they balance out these peace deals, there was no reason for Gandhi to give me so much stuff, I probably couldn't even capture a single city with what remained of my army.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Hell yeah.

 

[hongyu20]

Turn Science Victory T197 Score 627

Spoiler Turn 196 :

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled 11 cities , captured 3 cities .
- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Prioritized Campus and Commercial District techs , Stirrups for knights , apprenticeship and then the beeline to Rocketry .
For policies , the beeline to Classical Republic into Merchant Republic into Democracy .
- Who did you send to the dustbin of history?
India , which was really funny since , I actually revived it before I sent it to the dustbin of history , see , India had 2 cities , Delhi and Calcutta , India declared war on me , I took out his units and then captured Delhi , Rome declared war on India and took Calcutta , I declared war on Rome and liberated Calcutta , reviving India , hoping for some major diplomatic boosts ...
India denounced me 2 turns later , so I took him out a few turns later .
- What did you build for an Army and how did it change?
Slingers into archers with a couple of warriors at first , then it was mostly heavy chariots into Knights .
- Did you use diplomacy? How?
Not really , everyone hated me ,
- Were City-States helpful?
Yes , very , I had allied with Stockholm , Amsterdam and Zanzibar which were extremely useful for both gold and science .
- Did you use religion? How and were you successful?
No , I did get Divine Spark for my pantheon as I was the first to meet Kandy .
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Well I forgot to use Meritocracy policy until like turn 170 or something which seriously hampered my culture and delayed democracy , really frustrating ,
- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes , quite a lot .

 

[hongyu20]

Really impressed by Rakish , I think I would have given up had I lost my capital .

PS: It was a immortal game , not emperor

 

[Rakish]

Thanks mate. Congrats on the sub 200 time, no easy feat in this patch version with a lot of the more exploitative strats now removed and within GOTM rules. Yer certainly was disheartening and the game did turn into a bit of a chore for a bit ending with me putting it down for the day. But came back to it with fresh eyes, relishing the challenge to salvage the game. So I guess its all just a matter of perspective.

 

[hongyu20]

Thanks mate. Congrats on the sub 200 time, no easy feat in this patch version with a lot of the more exploitative strats now removed and within GOTM rules. Yer certainly was disheartening and the game did turn into a bit of a chore for a bit ending with me putting it down for the day. But came back to it with fresh eyes, relishing the challenge to salvage the game. So I guess its all just a matter of perspective.

I actually think you would have had much better finish time than me had you been you slightly luckier , I mean , I had stolen 2 settlers from the AI while you had your capital taken .

 

[w(oO)t]

SV @ 272

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
settled 4
captured at least 10

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
I rushed for machinery to wipe out russia and and egypt who both declared on me early

- Who did you send to the dustbin of history?
Russia, and left cleo with just one city left in the top right corner of the map

- What did you build for an Army and how did it change?
started with 6 archers into 2 swordsman, and a couple of catapults. I think I was too slow on my conquest, if I had build the catapults or even rams earlier, I could have conquested faster and turned to science focused building earlier

- Did you use diplomacy? How?
not at all really, sold a few luxuries

- Were City-States helpful?
yeah, amsterdam and kandy (can't remember now, the faith one to the south) gave me a great early game kick

- Did you use religion? How and were you successful?
no religion

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
the double DOW, luckily I had started with triple slinger so I just went for conquest instead of settling

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yeah, I've actually been playing GOTMs and reading these forums for years... well since Civ V, but I never bothered to make an account.

I haven't uploaded my file because the game crashed and I ended up replaying about 20 turns.

Just a side note... thanks to all you guys active in the community, I love reading your insight to the game, and as many have said, the GOTM gives me a real challenge. Of course I can beat the AI, even on Deity... but the real challenge is doing it as fast as possible ^^ You guys make it competitive! I'm sure there are others like me that lurk but don't contribute, so I encourage them to make an account and join in the discussion

 

[RadBlaster33]

Conquer @ 241 by the Russians.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Had 4 settle cities but none captured. The next war was with Russia which took out the 4 settled city I had, then made peace with me.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Had a long period of peace to work with so I try to aim for research and policies that both increase my science and military.

- Who did you send to the dustbin of history?
None. Was totally behind the eight ball when it came to military might. Russian and India, near the end of my existence, was already in the modern era.

- What did you build for an Army and how did it change?
Only could build the Crouching Tiger and Cross Bowman. Not very effective again the Russian Cossacks.

- Did you use diplomacy? How?
Nope. My end was near. Fight to the death.

- Were City-States helpful?
This is something I learnt what City-States could have been helpful. Next time I will do better.

- Did you use religion? How and were you successful?
Nope. Couldn't reach that due to early battles with other Civilizations.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
This is my first game at Immortal level. I certainly learnt a lot on what I did wrong and how I might have done better.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes!!

 

[Eliminator_Sr]

Science Victory on turn 302
I had a lousy start in this GOTM and felt boxed in for the first half of the game so I just hunkered down and tried to use the terrain to the best of my advantage. I had a few close calls in this one and felt fortunate to pull though with a win. Science is usually my last choice for victory so I think I improved a little in that area but probably could have done better with a stronger start.

How many cities did you settle or capture?
I only captured one city and settled 9 myself before running out of space. Egypt and India declared a joint war on me twice and India had so many more units than I did in the later war so I was basically just treading water and using the mountains to turtle up and create choke points for defense. I was also at war with Russia three times and I got one of their cities early but they declared a reconquest war and almost captured Beijing while I was building Ruhr Valley which would have been a huge setback. I had walls up but I forgot to close the choke point and they blitzed in with several Cossack corps and were one turn away from capturing the city.

What did you prioritize for research and policies?
I beelined directly to industrialization to get Ruhr Valley. My culture was really weak and mainly sustained via god of open sky pantheon, some envoys, some minor Great Wall construction and eventually a very late colosseum. I built a lot of campus projects to get the +3000 space parts GP because I didn't get democracy until the end was in sight.

Who did you send to the dustbin of history?
No one

What did you build for an Army and how did it change?
I always build an army but I wasn't able to do too much with it in this game except defend. I relied a LOT on crossbowmen and field cannons when things got hairy and scrambled a ragtag force together just in time to stave off Russia.

Did you use diplomacy? How?
I dropped my revenge agenda and managed to establish alliances with 5 civs in the late game. I utilized way more diplomacy than usual here and made ample use of research agreements and defensive pacts. India had a ridiculous stack of units and they were not friendly for the majority of the game but I eventually made inroads.

Were City-States helpful?
Yes mainly for the district boosts. I really didn't try to maintain Suzerain status over any of them.

Did you use religion? How and were you successful?
I built some holy sites after Peter converted all of my cities but it wasn't really worth it.

This was a challenging one for me on a very crowded map. I enjoyed the game but it did get a little stressful in the opening.

 

[Joatman]

Science Victory, Turn 309 1876 AD, Score 520

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled 10, Captured 1

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
This one was tough for me for some reason, close victory over India. Mainly tried early on to spread quickly with everyone packed in so close...Took an unorthodox move (for me) when my scout ran into an Egyptian settler around turn 15 or so (my first venture out), and I captured it with a surprise war. Then high-tailed it down to make second city. Built 2 more settlers, then busted out a crapton of workers...like a legion of them. Made sure I got the pyramids, but thats the only ancient wonder I went for. After that I majorly beefed up my military (of course Cleo. and Gilga. liked this), then built nothing but districts, focusing on Campus first, then commercial, then ind., in every city. I was coasting well and had a lot of units, so I decided to try and take out Russia as they were backed in a corner and seemed like they could take a culture or religious victory before long...It was going well until they got a Cossack, then 2, out of nowhere and beat me back, I was only able to take the one city. It was a waste of time and resources and regretted the war the rest of the game. The only positive out of it was I got Two more free captured settlers, so sent them to that northeast peninsula for what it was worth. In the end it took me forever to catch up tech wise, and I probably would have lost if I wasn't stealing techs and sabotaging the hell out of everyone's launches with some well placed/leveled up spies.

- Who did you send to the dustbin of history?
Egypt tried to take me on late game with nothing but Knights, like 20 of them out of nowhere (and I had been allied with her the whole game once she got over the first war for the settler)...I had cannons and ATs by then so it was like a 2 turn slaughter. It was convenient though, as she had sneaked in a crappy city right next to my capitol, so I razed it. That pissed everyone else off for awhile but no biggy, Igot one hell of a peace treaty out of it too, enough to make Versailles look like eden. Other than that Russia and Japan never went anywhere, but everyone else was nipping at my heels from like turn 240 on, especially India, who had also been lurking around my borders with AT and Knight armys looking for weak spots all game.

- What did you build for an Army and how did it change?
Started as mostly defensive, early on had 2 archers and a spearman at every city, plus 3-4 knights and a couple swordsman. Built a few catapults to take on Russia, but after that stayed even and just made sure to upgrade ASAP. It seemed like India was going to declare on me at any moment, but they never did.

- Did you use diplomacy? How?
Yes, tried to keep Egypt and India as an ally for proximity reasons. Other than that most hated me for declaring a war a millennia ago.

- Were City-States helpful?
Yes, I tried to keep Homg kong, Amsterdam, and Kabul the whole game. Later goit Toronto and brussels, I wanted all the prod I could get for those space projects.

- Did you use religion? How and were you successful?
Totally ignored it

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Other than Egypt providing enough Horse meat to feed my people for a century, I got jipped out of both Ruhr valley and Big Ben with 2 and 1 turns to go...grrrr.

- Did you enjoy the game?
It was a little tougher for me, didn't like the starting location, but overall was still fun as always!

 

[Tarskavaig]

Science Victory, Turn 324 1903 AD, Score 688

Spoiler Turn 84 Screenshot :

Spoiler Turn 323 Screenshot :

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
In the end I had 17 cities. 6 that I settled myself, as well as 4 Russian, 3 Roman, 2 Egyptian, and 2 city states.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
I was planning a warmongering game. I went for Campus, Commercial and Industrial districts, and also prioritized military tech. I have done a science victory before, so I should have known how to plan it better, but I did not beeline Rocketry and I did not focus on getting the great people that help with the space projects. I still got one of them, but I saved him for one of the three Mars projects, when I probably should have used him for the first or second project instead to get to the Mars projects quicker.

I was more focused on keeping the others from winning. Mainly Japan, as he had the tech lead. I needed a plan on how to deal with him. I would have to fight my way through the Roman and/or Indian territory to get to him. A sea route was out of the question, as Nan Madol and India blocked access. But I saw that a thermonuclear device from a silo to the west of my city Jiaodong would just be able to reach the point between Japans two major cities, the two that had rocket districts, and the nuke would reach both cities. So I completed the Manhattan project and the Ivy project and did that. Meanwhile, my spies had successfully pillaged those two rocket districts, leaving him just one Mars project from victory.

- Who did you send to the dustbin of history?
Kandy and Hong Kong.

- What did you build for an Army and how did it change?
Started with a slinger/archer rush and took one Egyptian city and a settler, as well as a Russian settler. Wanted to pretty much continue taking cities from that point, but as I mentioned in the Opening thread, a surprisingly large Indian army around my cities forced me to use my own military units for defence. Thus by turn 84, I only had 5 cities, fewer than most of the other contributors in that thread.

- Did you use diplomacy? How?
The other civs hated me due to the warmongering, except for Gilgamesh, who for some reason was friendly for a long time, until he eventually denounced me as well.

- Were City-States helpful?
I had some help from militaristic, scientific, commercial and industrious city states.

- Did you use religion? How and were you successful?
No, ignored it.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
As mentioned, the large Indian army and how they never declared war. Actually, I was only DOW'ed once, in the late game by Russia. He had already used several Cossack armies to take the two major Egyptian cities. I had enough money to upgrade my units to mech infantry, and easily wiped out his units. With the help of my ancient siege tower, I could also take St. Petersburg. I then tried taking his next city, but he put a Cossack army in it so it got very strong. I had nukes at that point, and used one to take care of it. I got a lot of kudos from Gandhi because of that

- Did you enjoy the game?
Absolutely.

 

[DogBoy]

Quit turn 197 out of frustration. Either my game is bugged or there is something I don't know about using builders to complete wonders.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled 7. Captured 4.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
I mainly stuck to the ones I had eurekas for, then beelined to build the spaceport.

- Who did you send to the dustbin of history?
Nobody.

- What did you build for an Army and how did it change?
Made a bunch of archers at the beginning that I eventually upgraded to crossbowmen. Made one quadrireme for exploration. Made one crouching tiger for defense.

- Did you use diplomacy? How?
Everybody hated me the whole game. I was weak so I got attacked, but then when I fought back I was a warmonger. I made no friends.

- Were City-States helpful?
No.

- Did you use religion? How and were you successful?
No religion at all.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
How fast I was surrounded at the beginning.

- Did you enjoy the game?
No, not really. I was at war from turn 48 to turn 149. I was so far behind by that point. I was able to use builders to rush Pyramids, Petra. Then I wasn't able to use builders to rush Potala Palace - there was no button. I lost it to the AI. Then I was able to use builders to rush Colosseum. Then I wasn't able to use builders to rush Oxford University - there was no button. I lost it to the AI. Then I wasn't able to use builders to rush Ruhr Valley - there was no button. I quit the game out of frustration. So either my game was bugged or there is something I don't know about using builders to complete wonders.

 

[hongyu20]

DogBoy , China 's ability to use builders to finish wonders only apply to wonders in the Ancient and Classcal era .

 

[DogBoy]

DogBoy , China 's ability to use builders to finish wonders only apply to wonders in the Ancient and Classcal era .

Thanks, I didn't know that. First time to play China. At least I learned something

 

[cheffster]

turn 254 victory, score: 862

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled 15 cities , captured 20? cities .

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
mainly anything to increase science/gold/culture

- Who did you send to the dustbin of history?

Eliminated Egypt around t100, then Russia around t180 and remained peaceful after that

- What did you build for an Army and how did it change?
Archers-crossbows-field cannons were my main troops

- Did you use diplomacy? How?
Japan liked me and helped out with some favorable deals, the rest all hated me

- Were City-States helpful?
Stockholm was very helpful for GP points. The other ones I mainly used to generate gold

- Did you use religion? How and were you successful?
No.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Nearing the time when I was building space ports all the great people required to aid in space construction were strangely nowhere to be seen except for 1 engineer.

Only once I was a couple turns off from victory was I able to recruit the scientists for +100% construction and +3000 yield.

I thought mistakenly I would get them sooner and it seemed only every possible GP besides the space boosting ones were available. I should have invested in more great scientist points and recruited all the earlier era GP sooner.

I founded the pantheon for 25% military construction early on. Thinking about it I really should have went divine spark.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes

 

[Eliminator_Sr]

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Nearing the time when I was building space ports all the great people required to aid in space construction were strangely nowhere to be seen except for 1 engineer.

I ran into this too. I was checking the menu often and I built a bunch of projects to get Carl Sagan and then it said that no more scientists were available. I never even saw Kwolek or the +100% engineer.

 

[hongyu20]

Did you check the previous great people page and see if the AI had taken it ?

 

[Eliminator_Sr]

No - I'm not suggesting it's a bug or anything - just that the AI somehow got them extremely quickly which was surprising.