6otM 16 After Action Report

[Knowtalent]

Welcome to the 6otM 16 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 you bother with Religion?
- Did you build your Culture, let others build and take theirs?
- Did you bother with Science
- 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.

 

[Photi]

Culture victory, Turn 183, Score 304


How many cities did you settle or capture?

Settled 8 Captured 0

What did you prioritize for research and policies?

First priorities were Printing and Drama and Poetry, after that i made my way to Humanism and Natural History and was headed for Cultural Heritage (Civics) and was on my way to Radio/Computers on the tech tree.

Did you bother with Religion?

No.

Did you build your Culture, let others build and take theirs?

Built my own culture by getting Theater Square Districts up asap, Divine Spark pantheon, Oracle, which led to completely dominating the GWAM scene.

Did you bother with Science

Yes, researching the Printing tech is important to get the most out of all those Great Writers. I ended up building several campuses to help speed up research to Computers, but it turns out i won before i got there. I could have probably made a more direct path to Printing which might have shaved a few turns off victory.

Were City-States helpful?

Yes, mainly Zanzibar and Amsterdam for the gold boosts.

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

Nothing not mentioned in the opening moves post.

Did you enjoy the game?

Yes, it was a good game. No wars on my part, no DOWs against me, no need for spies and sabotage, no pillaging. A clean win. For military units, i built 3 slingers and 1 warrior. Slingers were upgraded to archers, i still have the one built warrior, the starting freebie was KIA by barbs. I got a free scout in a barb hut. All other units were civilian. I was able to make friends with all my neighbors early, who eventually became allies which provided all the defense i needed.

Spoiler :

 

[Lily_Lancer]

I finished at turn 133. A culture victory with tourists 17 out of 16 required.

I played the game for two days. So there's altogether 2 sessions. The first day I played for 2 hrs and ended at turn 63, while on the second day I played for 7 hrs and ended at turn 133.

I once thought I have to go through radio, computer and conservation, etc. But it turned out that only PPress+Flight(With Pasture+1Culture) is enough. I should have finished earlier if I understood this situation before playing.

 

[Lily_Lancer]

How many cities did you settle or capture?
I settled about 10 and captured about 30, leaving everyone else a single city.
- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
For research, Horseback Riding is a must for Scythia. Then PPress, Flight. I won before finishing Radio.
For policies, Horseman+50% is a must for Scythia. Then Politic Phil, Culture Zone, Exploration, Natural History. I won before finishing Conservation.
- Did you bother with Religion?
I got a religion by capturing religious minor civs. And selected Jesuit Education. But in fact I don‘t have a lot of faith so only bought a few theatres and museums. I wonder if selecting relic*3 to get an instant 16 travel/turn bonus may be better.
- Did you build your Culture, let others build and take theirs?
I first capture AI cities, and build culture zones, theatres, museums, archeologists in these cities myself.
- Did you bother with Science?
Of course. Science is the most valuable resource (for any type of victory) in CIV6 game, I think.
Also, it values much more than other resources. There's a saying that in average case, 1 Science=1.5Culture=2.2 Hammer=3 Gold=3 Faith.
PPress is valuable, Flight is more valuable. I regret not buliding more scientific zones that I only got ~330bpt in the end, and haven't researched computer.
- Were City-States helpful?
Seoul and Geneva are most valuable minor civs since they're scientific. Kumasi is useful but comes out too late. I suzerain Kabul for free so I accepted it, double experience has its value. Other Minor Civs are of no value and are captured once I have free military resource(even if I have free delegates inside). For example, I first discovered and finished 2 tasks, Suzerain Zanzibar for free, but I just captured that city-state.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
You don't need a lot tourists in a King level culture victory. Reach 3,600 for every other civ is enough to gain a victory at turn 133 or so.
England captured Aztec's capital. That surprised me since it's ridiculous that Aztec(with its EAGLE WARRIORS) lost an early war.
- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes of course. The "only once" rule is good since you don't have a second chance in real world.
If I have a chance to replay, I think I can manage to gain a culture victory before T120, or even before 1AD

Some more quotes about fast win if you have seen the map before, if you meet Kandy at the beginning, using relic*3 tourism+ Kandy, and build/capture about 3-4 Holy sites with temple, this will soon get you 72~96 tourism/turn, and maybe you'll be able to win at Turn 80!
(This strategy is of high risk, so it's not useful at "only once" games, I think.)

 

[Photi]

If I have a change to replay, I think I can manage to gain a culture victory before T120, or even before 1AD

I suppose strictly speaking to game mechanics, yours was a "culture" victory, but anyone can see plain as day it was a domination victory. It's been a problem with the Civ series since the beginning. The only reason there's only at most 15 domestic tourists in your opponent civs is because you slaughtered them all. And sadly, yes, slaughtering people has been the way hegemons have spread their culture for most of human history. But even the Mongol empire was only ever 16% of the world's landmass, and that makes the whole domination victory condition in this game the most unrealistic, followed distantly by the religious victory.

 

[Lily_Lancer]

I suppose strictly speaking to game mechanics, yours was a "culture" victory, but anyone can see plain as day it was a domination victory. It's been a problem with the Civ series since the beginning. The only reason there's only at most 15 domestic tourists in your opponent civs is because you slaughtered them all. And sadly, yes, slaughtering people has been the way hegemons have spread their culture for most of human history. But even the Mongol empire was only ever 16% of the world's landmass, and that makes the whole domination victory condition in this game the most unrealistic, followed distantly by the religious victory.

Mention that T130 is a lot different from T180. In T180 an AI always has multiple times of domestic travelers from what they have at T130. I started attacking England at T120 or so. (Which means it has 120T free time to develop, also it has 2 capitals.), but only developed less than 15 domestic travelers.

Time is the main reason for the small number of AI domestic travelers. Not "slaughter" or so.

 

[peurojoque]

Culture victory on turn 267, score 503

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled 8, captured none. Tidy little empire.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
I went straight for Astrology and religious civics after Political Philosophy. I didn't bother much with beelining the research tree, mostly went for easy eurekas. As for civics, Monarchy for Mont St. Michel and then Theocracy were the priorities.

- Did you bother with Religion?
Yes, got the first prophet and invested heavily in Holy Sites and a few Kurgans with good adjacency. Took Reliquaries as the first belief because I got a relic from a village right at the start.

- Did you build your Culture, let others build and take theirs?
Built my own. Cathedrals+Andrey Rublev first, used faith to get GWAMs as soon as I had space for great works, later 3 national parks and some resorts right at the end. Did not declare on anyone and played completely peaceful. In the end Mvemba and Fred, and later Hojo and Gandhi teamed up against me, but I had to go looking for their armies myself, as they never appeared on my border.

- Did you bother with Science
I did a little, built two Campuses to get the eureka for printing and, in general, tried to get as many eurekas as I could.

- Were City-States helpful?
I was not going after city states as much as their envoy bonuses to maximize gold and faith output. Zanzibar is always nice, but with all the luxuries around I had no problem with amenities.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Not a surprise, really. I failed to take full advantage of the Reliquaries, because instead of Apostles I started spending faith on writers, which probably delayed my victory. I was really close after around 100 turns, but missed the window and the others started gaining tourism. Anyway, neither of the religious nations had enough religious units to go after.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes, I did. After seeing how close to victory I was early in the game I want to give Reliquaries another go. I play cultural a lot, but I haven't tried early religious tourism strategy yet.
Also, Scythia is an interesting choice, but it worked well. I only trained a few horsemen and archers and didn't really use them until late in the game. But Kurgans with a couple or more pastures can generate plenty of faith, enough to get a couple early GPs.

Thanks for the game!

 

[Eliminator_Sr]

Cultural Victory on turn 170/171

I should have won this one much earlier, but I realize I made some mistakes. I completely forgot about printing press! I knew I was missing something because it took me forever to get the tourists needed. I had so many Great writers too so that was a big oversight. I was looking all over the tech tree for a writer policy card - oops. My other mistake was failing to notice India in the first 80 turns and they pulled ahead in culture early. I had to take out their capital to knock them down a peg. I also took the French, Japanese, and Kongo capitals. I left Germany and the Aztecs alone. The Aztecs had London so I guess they took out England - I never saw them.

Otherwise everything went according to plan. I got a few relics from Kandy and one from India and picked reliquaries for my religious belief which helped make up for the missing writer tourism. After that I went directly for cultural heritage and pumped out a bunch or archaelogists but failed to plan ahead for all the artists so I had three of them just sitting around. I built one national park around turn 150.

Scythia is top tier for sure. I didn't realize how good that healing ability is or that their double horses worked for horsemen too.

 

[Rakish]

Culture Victory turn 127 26/24 tourists 227 tourism

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
11 in the end. Took a slightly different approach to my usual style, putting emphasis on raid/pillaging over straight up conquering, taking everything not bolted down from Kandy, Kongo, Germany and Aztecs and razing several Aztec cities as they where tourist leaders (after myself) by a couple of points at the end and needed that to stop.

with the raid policy and a juicy target this can really power you through a couple of techs/civics Gorgo style. Got to printing many turns earlier thanks to this which defiantly made a difference.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
ignored the usual Camus/com/ind path till after printing
went along the top of the culture tree other than theology

- Did you bother with Religion?
Yes, got the second one and went for Reliquaries and holy order. England was at 58/60 GPPs I was making 7PPT and gold purchased it by selling off my horses as I'd finished making my main army.... clutch.

- Did you use diplomacy? How?
Was Declared friends with japan twice, India once, and on good terms with Kongo after I made peace and converted a city on my way to martyr off an apostle, all denounced me at the end when I but my foot down on the Aztecs but I was riding the line on diplomacy till then.

- Did you build your Culture, let others build and take theirs?
focused on it quite a bit, the nat wonder north made a big difference early, free monuments essentially.

Also Build Oracle, Mahabodhi temple, Pyramids and was 2 turns off forbidden city.

- Did you bother with Science
I had ok-ish science output, more than any of the competition anyway

- Were City-States helpful?
yes religious and cultural CS where very helpful.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
>Kandy screwing me over by not working properly
>A horsemen getting stuck at 2 hp and not healing 2/3s of the way into the game
>Having trouble getting my apostles martyred because India refused to buy any faith units till turn 120 something even though they got up to nearly 100 faith per turn and launched an inquisition, And Japan actively running its faith units away from mine... that's rather extremely perceptive for an AI or well 0 guesses at the alternative.


- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes! thanks for setting it up. lost the will to 'micro' out the end a bit due to the setbacks. I have half a mind to replay It now as I think I could get sub 100 with hindsight possibly even peacefully .

 

[Lily_Lancer]

Culture Victory turn 127 26/24 tourists 227 tourism

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
11 in the end. Took a slightly different approach to my usual style, putting emphasis on raid/pillaging over straight up conquering, taking everything not bolted down from Kandy, Kongo, Germany and Aztecs and razing several Aztec cities as they where tourist leaders (after myself) by a couple of points at the end and needed that to stop.

with the raid policy and a juicy target this can really power you through a couple of techs/civics Gorgo style. Got to printing many turns earlier thanks to this which defiantly made a difference.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
ignored the usual Camus/com/ind path till after printing
went along the top of the culture tree other than theology

- Did you bother with Religion?
Yes, got the second one and went for Reliquaries and holy order. England was at 58/60 GPPs I was making 7PPT and gold purchased it by selling off my horses as I'd finished making my main army.... clutch.

- Did you use diplomacy? How?
Was Declared friends with japan twice, India once, and on good terms with Kongo after I made peace and converted a city on my way to martyr off an apostle, all denounced me at the end when I but my foot down on the Aztecs but I was riding the line on diplomacy till then.

- Did you build your Culture, let others build and take theirs?
focused on it quite a bit, the nat wonder north made a big difference early, free monuments essentially.

Also Build Oracle, Mahabodhi temple, Pyramids and was 2 turns off forbidden city.

- Did you bother with Science
I had ok-ish science output, more than any of the competition anyway

- Were City-States helpful?
yes religious and cultural CS where very helpful.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
>Kandy screwing me over by not working properly
>A horsemen getting stuck at 2 hp and not healing 2/3s of the way into the game
>Having trouble getting my apostles martyred because India refused to buy any faith units till turn 120 something even though they got up to nearly 100 faith per turn and launched an inquisition, And Japan actively running its faith units away from mine... that's rather extremely perceptive for an AI or well 0 guesses at the alternative.


- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes! thanks for setting it up. lost the will to 'micro' out the end a bit due to the setbacks. I have half a mind to replay It now as I think I could get sub 100 with hindsight possibly even peacefully .

Nice try on martyred. I haven‘t even considered that since I think King difficulty AIs will not get into apostles at turn 100 or so. It proved that your AIs develop so quickly on religions. Congratulations.

 

[Photi]

Mention that T130 is a lot different from T180. In T180 an AI always has multiple times of domestic travelers from what they have at T130. I started attacking England at T120 or so. (Which means it has 120T free time to develop, also it has 2 capitals.), but only developed less than 15 domestic travelers.

Time is the main reason for the small number of AI domestic travelers. Not "slaughter" or so.

i'm sorry, it sounds like you are trying to argue it wasn't a dom victory, when clearly it was. anyway, the issue isn't with you, you're just using the rules to the best of your advantage. my issue is that with the sole focus on turn time for victory in the game of the month, the victory conditions set for each game is purely semantic, when with a few exceptions based on chance mixed with skill, the substance of every single GOTM is domination. I think it would be more challenging and edifying to have a GOTM (especially on higher difficulties) where military conquest was discouraged or banned all together. Most deity games seem impossible to win without some level of conquest, but what may seem apparent might not necessarily be true. If variations in rules were introduced, like for instance on occasion military was banned for all but purely defensive purposes (unrealistic perhaps, but not more unrealistic than taking over the globe), i think it would make the series more interesting and deepen everyone's understanding of the game. This whole "i won on turn 2 by knocking everyone else out" is repetitive and dull.

 

[woks]

Turn 380 on 04/06/2017 score of 547

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Built 6 cities, no capture
- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
For research I went mainly with the boosted ones but trying to get Printing, Astronomy then Internet for the buildings and the tourism bonus.
- Did you bother with Religion?
I pushed for my pantheon, which I got lucky since I found a relic in a tribal village. Then later on I built 2 faith district just to give a boost on the great people buying, it also helped me buy the naturist.
- Did you build your Culture, let others build and take theirs?
I completely built it, I didnt bother going to war, the civ next to me have been very peaceful and I was declared friend with the 2 closest.
- Did you bother with Science
Science was very important at the begining to help me get keys tech. I droped all my science policies once I had gotten Internet. and started focusing on other things.
- Were City-States helpful?
I rushed a few wonder early on and had encounter 2 production City-states so it did help. I didnt compete for city state at all, I met so many of em that I was just spreading envoy to get 6 everywhere, priorized the productions, then money, science, spreaded the rest equaly for military faith and the unique culture city I found later on.
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
I surprisingly was able to snatch many important wonder, my opponents were almost all focusing on science it seemed, and fought each others a lot. I was at peace for almost 300 turn before kongo germany and japan all decided to attack me. they first all seemed to want my remote city that I had founded far away after capturing a barbarian settler with m explorer. this city got trashed and looted untill I was able to get peace with kongo by offering them 2 work of writing. the others went to my main cities instead. I regreted giving the work to kongo, I shouldve just give them the city because I wasnt able to fully repair that city. district required repair of about 40 turns. it basicly just sucked money for me to try and save it. and there wasnt really anything important to keep there except for that 1 oil platform which was my unique one, but I didnt build any unit that needed it in the end. I fought japan and germany on my teritory, spamed anti cavalry since germany was running over me with tanks. japan pulled out early as they only ever sent 4 units which died from my city defenses. they both quit and gave up to me artifacts and GPT + luxuries. All was for the best in the end.
- Did you enjoy the game?
My low production in almost every city except one had me very frustrated to be honest, I also encountered a bug in a city where I couldnt repair the walls at all even after many turn of having been at peace. I pretty much gave up on that city as all my district were too long to repair and the production there was very low. I wouldve perform way better on that game if I had gone with science. my neighbor were very weak and I would've just capture them and then focus my science. But thats the challenge right?

 

[Greenlami]

TURN 367, 488 point (first civ had 542) (yeah, I took my time but it was so fun!)

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Finished my game with 7cities, none of wich were captured

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Mainly what boosted culture and tourism, then went for computer/archaeology/holidays soon as I could

- Did you bother with Religion?
I did, mainly because I met Montezuma and Tokimune quite late and while the first had great tourism value but nothing I could not settle by myself, the second was after a religious vistory, so I had to convert at least a civ to avoid that

- Did you build your Culture, let others build and take theirs?
Built my culture without moving war on anyone! Gandhi first and Montezuma later were quite good at culture, but I managed to keep them in line without needing force.

- Did you bother with Science
I did to speed research up a bit after turn 200, more or less, but it wasn't my main focus

- Were City-States helpful?
Yes, mainly for gold and faith.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Gandhi made me roftl when I saw his first agenda was Peace lover and the other was Nuke happy XD He asked me a few times to go to war with him against Congo, then I made the mistake to accept and had everyone against me for a few turns. Luckily, my neighbors were pacific, so the war never arrived to my doors, but it was bad as I was struggling with Tokimune's faith sprawl at the same time and congo was one of the nation I was about to convert.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Very much! As I said, I really love cultural victories (I occasionally end up winning culturally even when I'm planning on winning with religion or science... XD) and the starting point was very nice, lots of luxuries and production, my neighbors were nice and quiet. Starting as congo, right in the middle of the pangea, that would have been terrible!

 

[Alivejke]

Turn 312, 450 points

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
6 Cities settled, non captured. I was able to became friends with all my neighbors and allies later.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Mainly religion and culture, pretty much ignored everything else.

- Did you bother with Religion?
Yes, I've completed Stonehenge and created first religion, I used it as a buff to cultural(Relics and +1 Culture for each 5 followers)

- Did you build your Culture, let others build and take theirs?
Build it by my own, not a single war for the whole game, it was most peaceful game I've played

- Did you bother with Science
Not really, trading routes with, at first one, and after a while 3 campuses, gave me enough to keep on track

- Were City-States helpful?
Yes, Yerevan and Kandy were very helpful to get a lot of relics, which gave a lot of tourism with my Relic belief

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Kongo and Japan were pushing to cultural victory also, it seems the main reason why it took me so long to get the victory(638 culture and 637 tourism at the end with 239 needed tourists for victory).

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes, pretty much! This was my first gotm and I've enjoyed it alot. Still for the cultural victory I wouldn't mind one more rule applied to keep players from conquering half of the continent Such as "you can capture no more cities than the amount of half of cities you've built by yourself".
Thank you for a nice game!

win

• Alivejke
• Jun 11, 2017

 

[ZerrorR]

300 turn Culture win.

 

[Hrothbern]

I played the scenario a couple of times because I never played Tomyris before and it was unexpected fun, especially the self heal.
First run was peaceful 300 turns with fast religion as support.

Then I found how well you can fight prolonged battles and how effective the horse archers are when they can retreat when wounded, re-engage and self heal when the kill is sure and further engage in front line. Flanking effective with a swarm units wit 4 movement points. Rinse and repeat.
So next run I conquered France and Kongo and then step by step the others leaving them one city. Was so focussed on that battling, and not so much tourism, that it took still 250 turns.

Last one was 180 turns, again conquer 2 civs and then conquer all cities minus 1 of the others. I build in my first 3 cities only encampments and hubs for my army, with relics (Kandy) as fast tourism source, the Prophet from holy sites conquered.
Kongo had 2 Science, Germany 1, I build 1 more science and then only theatres. This 180 turns could have been better because I had never played on getting tourism and I neglected theming. Plus there is a delay of 10 turns or so to swap them, so you have to plan where you store them first.
The other thing I overlooked was to decide early which civilisation I should leave their capital, or give back the capital after swapping tiles.
Now London was the last in my conquest and had twice the domestic tourism as the other civs.

 

[Locke_Daemonfire]

i'm sorry, it sounds like you are trying to argue it wasn't a dom victory, when clearly it was. anyway, the issue isn't with you, you're just using the rules to the best of your advantage. my issue is that with the sole focus on turn time for victory in the game of the month, the victory conditions set for each game is purely semantic, when with a few exceptions based on chance mixed with skill, the substance of every single GOTM is domination. I think it would be more challenging and edifying to have a GOTM (especially on higher difficulties) where military conquest was discouraged or banned all together. Most deity games seem impossible to win without some level of conquest, but what may seem apparent might not necessarily be true. If variations in rules were introduced, like for instance on occasion military was banned for all but purely defensive purposes (unrealistic perhaps, but not more unrealistic than taking over the globe), i think it would make the series more interesting and deepen everyone's understanding of the game. This whole "i won on turn 2 by knocking everyone else out" is repetitive and dull.

Although I agree in principle, this game setup had to be designed to push people to do at least some amount of warfare. Scythia has zero direct advantages for a culture game. The only non-military bonus, the UI, is easily the weakest part of the kit. Played completely peacefully, it's basically playing a vanilla civ with no bonuses. Perhaps that was the point? I'm new to GOTM. I am quite impressed at a completely peaceful win on turn 183, actually.

Took me awhile to get around to it, but I just finished on turn 214. I did war a lot, but I tried to keep the warmongering penalties down as much as possible to have some open borders and to be at least somewhat in theme, culminating with Paris's liberation in the last 40 turns or so. I'll admit that I contributed to her demise in the ancient era, but I was surprised to see that Catherine not only recorded all my warmongering while she was eliminated, but was the only one not to have the warmongering modifier reduced from liberating her capital. I will try to write it up in full if I have time.

 

[Noeffinidea]

Tried something different. Went the religious / Oracle route to buy my way to a great person victory. Took a bit longer than I expected. I only lost out on 2 great artists but managed to buy/steal what I needed for themed bonuses. The Bastards wouldn't activate 4 out of the 6 great artist works

 

[whacker]

T111 CV, score of 217.

I finished stonehenge in t27, giving me the relic religion. I got lucky finding a relic ~t10. With god of the forge pantheon i then rushed several horsemen/horsearchers and started conquering France and India. After that i realized Monte and Victoria were the leading culture civs, so i attacked them as well. In the meantime i built the Oracle and several TD`s with amphitheaters. Got 4 Great Writers, 2 of them bought with faith.

 

[Giskler]

Turn 304, 785 score.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?

Settled 11, captured 0.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?

Focused on culture and economics.

- Did you bother with Religion?

Founded a religion and kept it on my own cities and the closest city states. Also France.

- Did you build your Culture, let others build and take theirs?

Had theatre district in every city and I built 90% of the wonders.

- Did you bother with Science

Somewhat. I was miles ahead of everyone without trying too hard.

- Were City-States helpful?

Yes, the two economic ones were my pals the whole game. The science ones weren't very useful since I was permantently at war since before turn 80.

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

I found several unguarded settlers that boosted my growth by a lot. I took 1 from Gandhi, 1 from Catherine and 2 barbarian settlers that I presume were German.

- Did you enjoy the game?

I always enjoy building/culture so yes. This was my first GotM for Civ6 and also my first with Tomyris.