6otM 16 After Action Report

[The Wizard]

Culture victory, Turn 350, Score 502


How many cities did you settle or capture?

Settled 6, Captured 0

What did you prioritize for research and policies?

First priority was masonry to harvest one of the stone resources for Stonehenge. The use of founding a religion was basically to accumulate more faith to be used for great people purchases, and unlock the ability to purchase Theatre district buildings with faith. After that I focused on making my way to Humanism and Computers for artists and tourism boosts.

Did you bother with Religion?

Yes. I selected beliefs that allowed the purchase of culture buildings with faith and also chose cathedrals so I had additional religious artwork slots.

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

Built my own culture, divine spark pantheon, Oracle, etc.

Did you bother with Science

Only enough to try and keep up with those ahead of me in science enough to defend myself in the event of an attack. Fortunately, I was able to distance myself from threats by forming alliances with India, France, and Japan. This allowed me to somewhat neglect my military.

Were City-States helpful?

By the end i had enough envoys in the city states to gain full bonuses. I was heavily invested in Geneva but couldn't protect them from the invasion of Kongo. I lost 15 of my committed envoys in that unfortunate event.

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

India had me changing my course as they settled too close to where i wanted to expand. I also unfortunately lost Broadway with one turn to go but I had built up enough culture that it wasn't really necessary.

Did you enjoy the game?

This was my first GotM after hours upon hours of Civ dating back to Civ II. I don't know why I never thought to check this out. I had a great time. Thanks to those who set this up.

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

 

[Photi]

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.

You make good points re the Scythian civ unique advantages and that militarism is playing to Tomyris's strengths, and actually when i played a few turns on a test run of the this setup, i used the two-light-cavalry-for-the-price-one ability to good effect. in that scenario i spawned near an iron resource and built an encampment, the Saka Horse Archers were good support units to my swordsmen, plus the Scythian healing ability is awesome and begs for more conquest. With abilities like these, "banning military conquest" with a civ like Scythia would probably upset more than a few GOTMers. I get that setting more restrictive rules for some games would in effect be banning a certain playstyle, but that's kind of what happens with the current setup. If anyone wants to actually win the GOTM, the military domination/warmonger playstyle is the way to do that, in effect banning other playstyles.

As far as the T183 peaceful play victory, i stated in the "Opening Moves" post that i was using someone else's strategy. It's all about getting the theater squares down ASAP--literally beelining to Drama & Poetry, forgoing Craftsmanship or anything else first. Crucial also is the first Great Writer, both for his or her inherent benefits but also to deny the writer to other civs. After i saw Mvemba was in the game, i thought for sure the strat would fail, but i think it's about that first great writer (plus Mvemba must've missed out on some relics or something). If you have chosen Divine Spark pantheon and are putting down the Theater Squares and Amphitheaters, the second Great Writer is a snap, the first one is the tough one. Even moving up one level to Emperor is enough for the most part to deny the strategy (opponent civs play a role here, a person could probably handpick civs to make the early great writer rush viable at higher levels). It was a fun game and i was able to finish in one session.

Edit: If Greece is in the game and you're not them, even at King level it would be pretty hard to get the first Great Writer. The strategy definitely has its limitations, everything happened to line up well in this game.

 

[Eliminator_Sr]

You make good points re the Scythian civ unique advantages and that militarism is playing to Tomyris's strengths, and actually when i played a few turns on a test run of the this setup, i used the two-light-cavalry-for-the-price-one ability to good effect. in that scenario i spawned near an iron resource and built an encampment, the Saka Horse Archers were good support units to my swordsmen, plus the Scythian healing ability is awesome and begs for more conquest.

I agree - it seems kind of silly to play completely peacefully when you draw Scythia as that basically negates their strongest advantages and is sub-optimal for that reason. I see your larger point though that the game design itself makes peaceful victories sub-optimal in general unless you add certain restrictions to gameplay. I did go with a similar drama first strategy but also made ample use of horsemen on top of that which felt right for Scythia and that's probably how I would play this again (except I would make sure to research printing this time).

 

[ferenginar]

T406 1985AD Score 687 Cultural Victory

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled 8 Captured 2 City states, Kabul for oil and Zanzibar because they attacked me for Monty, after I had defended them against Gandhi.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Culture and tourism

- Did you bother with Religion?
No

- Did you build your Culture, let others build and take theirs?
Mostly built, but stole some great works, and traded for others, never stolen before, trades were always swaps previously, these were outright purchase with cash and resources.

- Did you bother with Science
Only to keep up in arms race and stay secure.

- Were City-States helpful?
No

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Had an early DOW from Germans, but did not see any of their troops, or be bother by them in any way for about 200 turns, what was the point of that. When they eventually did arrive by sea, they were easy to take out without loss or damage.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes, but I need to pay more attention, accidentally started building entertainment district when I wanted commercial, and had to wait for city size to grow so that I could correct. Did it twice.

 

[isopaha]

Turn 244 culture victory. Settled 8 cities and captured 2. I captured the cities from France as they started the war, then wanted to take out Congo to hinder their culture and fasten my win, but I won before that happened.

Quite a standard culture game with early focus on relics.

 

[zxcvbob]

Turn 391 culture victory. At the end I had 21 cities. I think I settled about 6, traded for 2 or 3, and captured the rest (a few from France, but most of them right at the end from Kongo because I was trying to wipe them out but the culture victory popped before I finished)

- Did you bother with Religion?
A pantheon, yes (Divine Spark). Religion, no.

- Did you build your Culture, let others build and take theirs?
Mostly built it.

- Did you bother with Science
Yes, I was number 1 or 2 in science for most of the game. Near the end, I bought both Carl Sagan and Wernher von Braun (?) just to keep Germany from getting them and maybe winning a science victory; never got around to using them. But that probably wan't necessary because Germany stalled shortly after their moon launch.

- Were City-States helpful?
Yes. Especially Kandi; I got a bunch of relics from them.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
I'm too new to Civ 6 to really get surprises yet. Everything is still kinda surprising.

- Did you enjoy the game?
I don't really know how to play a culture game. Was kind of frustrating at first, playing a warrior civ with no culture bonuses. I thought I'd have to take out India early, but everybody else hated Gandhi, so that was the basis of our friendships. (Gandhi kept asking me to joint war against the other civs but I declined) France settled a city 4 tiles away from my capital, so I knew they would have to go. Finally had a Casus belli (sp?) to attack France and I took several cities including Paris. Then gave Paris back in the peace deal. Everyone still hated me. India and Japan declared war, and I captured Tokyo and Delhi, but traded Delhi back for 2 other cities. It was fun once I got my warmonger on, especially since I was trying not to get a military victory. (BTW, helicopter armies are awesome)

 

[Falabello]

Culture Victory - Turn 254!

 

[Half Nelson]

Scythia Culture victory turn 213 (Harding, 579 points).

I continued my war march to conquer Kongo and the core cities of Germany, then settled back to develop culture and tourism, mainly through archaeology and art. Never recovered my reputation sufficiently to obtain OB with anyone except Japan, but opened trade routes and beelined computers and tourism-improving civics. I converted India to my religion to improve tourism output.

The AI were fairly weak throughout and only started developing a strong culture defence about turn 200 but that was far too late. Barbarians were a nuisance throughout due to the large undeveloped land areas. I could have built more cities given the happiness excess from luxuries but it didn’t seem the optimum path given the likely finish date.

I made some silly errors:- (1) I overlooked the fact that the Scythian combat bonuses extend to religious units, hence my Apostles proved rather resistant to martyrdom until the penny dropped mid-game; (2) I switched from Merchant Republic to Communism without a trade-route buffer, losing trade-route tourism from 2 AI until I could build a couple of commercial hubs; (3) I didn't build any wonders until Bolshoi.

Scythia is obviously a very powerful military (and probably also religious) civ, but not a cultural powerhouse. The combat bonuses and free mounted units were invaluable early game. The Saka HA is a neat mobile unit, but does hang around well beyond its obsolescence date. I never built a kurgan but I guess they would be useful for a religious victory.

 

[benjspurs]

Turn 293 Score 605

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled 6 Captured 3 (1 CS 2 From France)

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Culture, Tourism and Wonders

- Did you bother with Religion?
Yes founded a religion Work Ethic and production house was chosen to boost production to get the Wonders

- Did you build your Culture, let others build and take theirs?
Built my own culture a lot of theatre projects got loads of great works, had a lot of Gold and resources to trade for relics later on.

- Did you bother with Science
Only had two campuses and was never too far from the front with science

- Were City-States helpful?
Yes kabul early on which helped my production of horses which i used to conquer them, Amsterdam and Zanzibar kept my Gold up. Too late to get a relic from Kandy.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Was declared war on early by France, led me to capture Two cities including their capital. Then was war with Germany and Kongo for most of the game without actually fighting them...Frustratingly so as it stopped ability to trade with them and get tourist boost. Kept Classical Republic as Gov for most of the game as i got extra policy slots through my Wonders, suprised at ease of Wonder gathering and Great people gathering.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes annoyed that i was declared War on, struggled to see how i could of won earlier without 2 great people boosting 25% each to trade route tourism and Social media.

 

[mtt9999]

Culture Victory // Turn 233 // 1610AD

This game was great! Another fun 6otM! As I hate multi-player CIV, this is one way we can connect with the community and feel like we are playing against each other, without the inconvenience of multi-player. This game was relatively straight-forward for me. I had never tried a culture victory before, and if any of you read my recent write-up for 6otM10, this was only my second complete civ6 game. MAD THANKS TO VICTORIA FOR HER EXCELLENT CULTURAL VICTORY STRATEGY GUIDE: https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/culture-victory-guide.25713/

I decided to settle some cities early and go for a peaceful culture victory without religious culture. My primary focus was getting my science up fast, as science is almost as important as culture in a cultural VC . I figured the civics would handle themselves, so tried to keep pace with tech for my eureka bonuses. I went for a few key wonders outlined below, all in my capital surrounding the theatre and campus. I won the game about 8 turns after finishing computers. While I did not get the fastest victory by any means, I wonder if I was the fastest to win without wars???

NOTE: [I had a game crash at around turn 133]

How many cities did you settle or capture?
I settled a total of 6 cities. Mostly south of the capital. My highest population was around 13, as I was focused on production and optimized placement of things.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?

Key Techs
Writing [Campus]
Construction
Printing [Double GW tourism]
Flight [Tourism Bonus]
Steel [Eiffel Tower - although I won game before completing this]
Radio [Sea-side Resorts / Broadcast Centers to house my great music]
Computers

Key Civics
Mysticism [Built Oracle Early for extra GP]
Drama & Poetry [Theatre District]
Political Philosophy [Upgraded Govt]
Games and Recreation [Built Colosseum between 3 cities]
Humanism [Archeology Musuem]
Opera and Ballet [Built Bolshoi Theatre]
Natural History [Archeologist]
Mass Media [Broadway - although I won the game before completing this]
Conservation
Cultural Heritage

- Did you bother with Religion?
I got divine spark pantheon to couple with my Oracle for extra GP, which was fantastic the whole game. After getting the pantheon, I stopped any pursuit of religion. I rarely mess with religion.

- Did you build your Culture, let others build and take theirs?
I was peaceful, no wars.

- Did you bother with Science
Absolutely. I prioritized it. Tried to keep my civic tree and tech tree similar as to get to flight early.

- Were City-States helpful?
Always.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Can't built sea-side resorts on cliffs. Eeek! A good suprise, how easily some AI are willing to get rid of early game Great Works of Writing. I bought 3 GW off of AI for 5-7 gpt in classical era, and 20gpt in late game.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Always. Thanks again!!!

 

[Gideon Griebenow]

Culture Victory Turn 152/153. Score 329. 37/37 Tourists.

It was pretty uneventful/straight forward from my first 100 turn write-up. I had to build up a little bit more tourism, so I basically explored the continent with my idle units (I met England at last!) while stocking up on Great Writers and getting my Archaeological Museum and Archaeologist research / civics in place. However, I won right after excavating my 4th ruin, so it didn't help that much. I was on the brink of winning with 26/27 tourists when Frederick suddenly had a surge in domestic tourists, gradually taking it up to 36 before I hauled him in. I tried waging a war against him and managed to get one city (and kill a few units) before winning. His domestic tourism surge cost me about 20 turns.
Japan and Frederick had declared war on me but Japan took ages to get to me, and I easily deflected his 5 or so units. Then he gave me two of his cities to make peace!

- How many cities did you settle or capture?

I ended up with 12. I didn't focus on expansion after the first 100 turns, but Japan gifted me two cities to make peace (strange) and I took 1 from Frederick in an effort to curb his domestic tourists, since he was costing me many turns.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?

Getting to Archaeologists

- Did you bother with Religion?

I had one but I never really did anything with it other than recruiting Great People.

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

I built all of it myself. The cities I captured didn't have Theater Districts

- Did you bother with Science

Not specifically, but I was ahead the entire game. I didn't bother too much with anything for the last 30 turns, so Frederick had one more technology at the end.

- Were City-States helpful?

I was Suzerain of about 5 at one stage, but it fell away again. I got some gold etc from civics.

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

Just Japan's crazy war ending in me getting two cities for free, and then the domestic tourist surge of Frederick just as I was about to win. I tried waging a war against him, but my units took too long to get to him after they've been exploring, so I only took one city before winning.

- Did you enjoy the game?

Yes, it was my first attempt at a culture victory, and I understand a lot of the mechanics better now. I'm glad I played a proper culture game and not an afterthought culture victory.

 

[Bram]

Culture turn 180, score 792, 10/11 tourists (?)

Not sure why I got a cultural victory, as I only have 10 out of 11 tourists. Would not have taken long getting that last tourist, but still...

(I reloaded the last turn and played it the same way, but again got this unexpected victory. Not sure if this counts, as I don't have enough tourists.)

 

[MrRadar]

T 273 CV, Score: 638

I played a peaceful game and only fought in two defensive wars, did not capture any cities, may have captured a settler or two, and self-settled 15 cities. On T273 my tourists went from 155/156 to 161/156 iirc, so I was awarded victory the same turn.
I got a metric ton of tribal villages and not a single one had a relic, no Holy Moly, nada. Oh, well.
This map had one of the wackier continental subdivisions and turned out to be a Pangaea instead of continents. And Vicky completely taking out Monty? What a shock!
Anyway, thanks for another interesting game! Perhaps, in one of them I will make myself to spread my high culture on the ends of lances and arrows, as it gets delivered much faster that way

 

[leif erikson]

This game is closed for submissions as time has run out.

You may continue to post here and attach saves if you wish. Results will include games above this post.

 

[Zedseayou]

Big necro, but I've been playing some multiplayer with folks on vanilla, so wanted to try out some of the military civs using GOTM. I picked out Tomyris because I wanted to actually try the horseman rush strategy. So this is not a culture victory.

Early game I settled T2 on the plains hills to the left. Built a scout and then got two more from huts, which spiralled into even more huts. Most notable bonus was probably an early relic for a quick Pantheon. I did not have more than one horses around, so had to go Mining -> Bronze Working for Encampment and then Archery -> Horseback Riding. I think I got horsemen, the encampment, and Maneuver around T38-42 in succession, and then just queued up like 6/7 Horsemen in my capital. I also built two settlers during this period because there was just nothing to do while waiting for Bronze Working/Horseback Riding.

Honestly, this was totally braindead. Almost all cities without walls fell to like 3-4 horsemen attacks. I went France -> Japan -> Kongo -> India -> Germany -> Aztec -> England, in a pretty natural order across the map. I think if I ignored some cities it would have gone even faster. In the end, I got London and Domination Victory on T102, score 338, with only Elizabeth still having remaining cities. I didn't even really have money or amenities troubles, partly because I froze growth on a lot of my cities at 2. I'm honestly surprised as a turtly player how easy this was, even with the patches that nerf the path to Horseback Riding, the Maneuver policy and the horse economy stuff (yes, I didn't really play while that was a thing). Will definitely try this again in Multiplayer, though the combat can often make that weird.