[R&F] 6otM 34 After Actions Report

T254 absolute domination (last major civilization on the map)

How many cities did you settle or capture?
My plan was to settle a few cities and then develop them while keeping the AIs with few cities (but without eliminating them) using my military, so they wouldn't produce many tourism or culture and i hoped it would help me win that culture victory without totally wasting every single of Mongolia's uniques as those are all made for war. It didn't exactly work as planned. France was too close for my comfort so i took all two of their cities and a settler. Later i also got a settler from Netherland and used it to settle near the northern NW. I played most of the game with 7 cities, 5 of those i settled myself but with only 2 self-built settlers. Obviously by the end of the game i had a bunch of former capitals in addition to this.

What did you prioritize for research and policies?
As i didn't plan to play this game half seriously, i had decided from the beginning i would build only cavalry units. As a result my first research priority was The Wheel so i could build 2 chariots to defend against barbarians with more than my starting warrior. After that i went back to those early techs i should have researched first, then got bronze working to build the unique building and start producing improved cavalry, then horseback riding and from that point i mostly teched to better cavalry units.
For policies, after Political Philosophy i went on the religious branch as i had a religion, then Feudalism and then the policy to get corps, roughly

Did you bother with Religion?
Sort of. I managed to enter a golden age in classical and went for Exodus dedication. The +4 Great Prophet points and my single Holy Site were all it took to get the 4th religion. I managed to find a relic in my first village and took Desert Folklore for Pantheon, this gave me a large faith output to buy units later.

How did you pump your Culture?
Without any unique way to do it, i did it the old way by building Theater Squares districts and great works. I also wonder-spammed a bit which helped me keep a long lasting golden age and generate some tourism. I picked reliquaries but couldn't get many apostles with Martyr and didn't see many AI apostles to kill my own anyway so i didn't try to build St-Michel.
I didn't have that much tourism, was planning to improve it with National Parks while keeping every AI small enough that they wouldn't be able to resist my pressure but after my army reached the west side of the Pangaea having left a trail of razed cities, i looked at the culture screen and noticed i was still some time away from any culture victory so on the way back i decided to end the game by conquering what was left of them (usually their capital alone) so in the end it didn't matter at all.

Did you instigate any major wars?
Obviously

Were City-States helpful?
Yes, especially Kabul to get some crazy promoted units.

How did the new features help you?
I really like Governors. At last there is something to reward you for growing your cities rather than spamming backwater towns all over the map which i hardly consider "building an empire". In this game i decided to promote Amani in order to ensure i would keep Kabul for the entire game. Double XP is really cool.

Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Not really

Did you enjoy the game?
In the end, yes, but probably only because i played it to use my civilization uniques rather than follow the victory condition. Otherwise it would have been like playing "the neutrals" because everything about Mongolia calls for a single victory : domination. They have nothing for peaceful games and almost nothing for early wars followed by peaceful development which is usually what works best for culture (at least for me).

 

T111 CV

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled 1 early city
Captured 1 settler from France when I captured Paris
Caught 1 unescorted settler from Russia with a scout later on
Captured the remaining cities to hamper culture runaways

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Horseback Riding, Printing
2-city Stonehenge for early Drama & Poetry

- Did you bother with Religion?
Founded religion with Stonehenge
Took Reliquaries in case an AI found a relic (which was not the case in this game)
Also took Lay Ministry
Most important was the Divine Spark pantheon

- How did you pump your Culture?
Early Theater Squares
Tourism: Religion, few wonders, 7GW, 1GA

- Did you instigate any major wars?
Warred with all opposing civilisations at some point, but I didn't take any cities from Russia and Sumeria
Pillaged science from Sumeria (Ziggurats, Campus) for faster Printing
Also, 56CS Horsemen are pretty powerful (36 base + 5 GG + 12 Intel + 3 Mongol Horde)

- Were City-States helpful?
Mohenjo Daro took and razed two Sumerian cities for me (by itself)
Moved Amani around to get the Suzerain bonuses I wanted when needed
Buenos Aires for amenities
Kabul when producing army
Babylon to reach Printing faster
etc.

- How did the new features help you?
Governors make it easier for faster finishes (Magnus, Pingala, Amani)
Golden Age bonus helped a little bit
Got an emergency against me in the game: 3 AIs had to take a conquered city from me; they didn't seem to bother.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
(1) As mentioned earlier, a CS was more capable at war than any civilization I have seen in the game
(2) America jumped from 10 Domestic Tourists to 13 and then 15 in the space of just a few turns at the end of the game. With an output of only around 20cpt, I don't see how it's possible unless they hit a bunch of inspirations in a really short while. Anyway, I had to kill them to get an early victory.
(3) I thought I had missed a T111 victory by only 1T from Netherlands, but I got the victory screen at the end of the turn (maybe a case of rounding).
(4) It seems the decrease in DT by 1 when the Visitors count goes up by 1 is delayed by 1 turn (as seen in the screens with Spain and Russia) which is weird (need more testing to confirm)

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes
First game I used all 3 L1 governments in the same game, I think.
Surprising finish mentioned earlier

 

Culture victory turn 217 (952 points; Herbert Hoover).

The Netherlands emergency gave me lots of money to buy GP and culture buildings and Greece fell very easily, although I left their capital untouched, partly because it was very close to Spanish cities which were exerting a lot of loyalty pressure. Resisting the urge to continue W with my Keshig horde, I then settled back for a peaceful culture push. I beelined to computers and cultural heritage, kept my OB and trade routes running and (bar a second Netherlands emergency which gave me a handy £8k to buy more GP and a couple of broadcast towers) did not play aggressively. Spain and America made a joint DOW at one point, but with little effect. I developed a level 2 cultural alliance with Gilgamesh (but was well short of level 3) and, rather surprisingly, became good friends with Russia. I was running 844 tourism / turn at point of victory without quite reaching Space Race for additional GM tourism. I was a few turns short of securing 3 consecutive Golden Ages.

Mongolia was fun to play and clearly a powerful civ, even though I underused some of their strongest attributes by my broadly pacifist approach. Keshigs + Ordu fly across the map wreaking havoc and accumulating horseman support as they go. I really liked the Ortoo ability; early trading posts helped push trade routes to distant civs much earlier than normal and the extra diplomatic visibility was an added bonus.

Surprises.

I couldn’t found a National Park in places that I thought were obvious spots, notably around Mount Roraima. Have the requirements changed?

Alliances take a LONG time to develop.

 

Culture Victory Turn 162!

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yep . Thanks for one more game !

 

Culture Victory Turn 180.

Tried Horseman rush and removing everyone except Russia and America from the game. Horsemen way to OP.

Thanks for fun GotM!

 

Culture Victory(dom) - T390 1969 AD Score 4807
Civics 243, Empire 3151, Great People 260, Religion 0, Technology 194, Wonders 525, Era 454

Science per turn 2257.5
Culture per turn 4440.2
Gold per turn 3980.5 (+2572.5)
Faith 462.3
Tourism 6338
Domestic Tourists 3296 Visiting 137/124

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled 25 Capture 65

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Anything that had a eureka or gave a military advantage.

- Did you bother with Religion?
No, ignored it in favour of science, production, cash

- How did you pump your Culture?
Wiped everybody out stole their wonders, then built lots of archaeological museums

- Did you instigate any major wars?
Yes, started by taking down France. Started a war with the Dutch whilst in a dark age; that was hard work, had a couple of cities flip, and had to take the twice. Then went in to Heroic age, and the Dutch and Sumeria were taken quickly, then Greece, Spain, Russia, and all but the American Capital.

- Were City-States helpful?
Yes, cash, +40 Science, +40 Culture, and a bonus for rescuing Jerusalem from the Dutch.

- How did the new features help you?
Magnus was pretty useful for settler production, no chopping though. Otherwise, yes I suppose domination is easier now, the Golden age Casus belli is OP.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Didn’t get an Era bonus for fully promoting all Governors, very disappointed.
Got caught out on the last turn by how much American domestic tourist dropped (-8), missed the opportunity to buy a couple of Great people, that would have added to GP points and era score.
Not realised before, but it was obvious in this game, Sumerian Ziggurat spam, when I took the city, they all disappeared, and I had practically unimproved area.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Very much so, my highest score ever, by some way.

 

Culture Victory Turn 258 - 1735AD

This game was a lot of first for me. It's the first GotM I've played since Civ 6 was released, it's the first ever Rise and Fall game I've played (Governors, Era, Mongolians were all new). It's also the first time I've ever tried for a Cultural Victory. Given that, I'm pretty pleased with the result.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Didn't settle many, only 6 and 2 of those were captured settlers. Captured 3 cities from France, 2 from the Dutch and 7 each from Sumeria and Spain, so 25 in total I think.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Rushed towards Horsemen to try out the Mongol abilities (which are ace) then pretty much went where the Eureka's came. Didn't focus on printing as I didn't find out it was important until later.

- Did you bother with Religion?
Nope

- How did you pump your Culture?
Great Writers then Archaeologists

- Did you instigate any major wars?
Yes, a few. Was denounced by France so attacked them formally (pre-emptive). Wiped them out and was then denounced by the Dutch. Took a couple of cities (one was capital) then settled. Was joint DoW'd by Sumeria and Spain. Wiped them both out.

- Were City-States helpful?
Yeah, but I didn't notice them overly.

- How did the new features help you?
The Mongolian features are great. +3 CS for all Horsemen makes them great units for ages. I marched over Civs with them. Their UU is good too.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Not a single Emergency. I'd been reading about them and expected I might see one with 4 Civs wiped out throughout the game.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes, very much thanks ​

 

CV T232 (1605 AD), Score 1320

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Captured 3 from France, captured and settled 1 French settler, had 14 cities in total. Went to conquer France from the capital only.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
First religion, then culture.

- Did you bother with Religion?
Oh, yes. Mt. Kili being on the doorstep, I thought I had a shot at the Stonehenge, this being "only" Prince and all... silly me, what a courageous, yet utterly foolish idea. Lost it on t35 (to Peter) with 2 turns left...
Put a holy site in place of that hideous circle. I thought I'd pump some apostles and get them killed for relics, but easier said than done on Prince. Managed to suicide only two, when that did not matter too much.

- How did you pump your Culture?
I put down quite a lot of holy sites first, for eventual purchase of great people, but bought quite a lot settlers and builders as well, during the 'Monumentality' times. Had a lot of literature, artifacts, some art and quite a few wonders.

- Did you instigate any major wars?
I only killed France, then just defended against joint wars. People were quite far away, I was too lazy to go to war them.

- Were City-States helpful?
Helped with science, gold, faith and, of course, production. The only cultural Mohenjo-Daro was conquered by Pedro. Emergency triggered with almost all potential players, but no one joined (me neither - too far) - so after 30 turns I got a message that Pedro won.

- How did the new features help you?
Magnus was the only most prominent feature. Did not build a single encampment.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Even on prince AI spies can hurt you. One dislodged Pingala for 10 turns, another stole 1620 gold (sic! ) from my Great Zimbabwe city
Put my own counterspy there and within a few turns he was master veteran level 3 superspy, and AI were 3 spies less.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes, of course, thanks! I thought I'd go straight for the Cree game, but then again, I don't know yet how to do culture quickly, so I thought, why not to practice.

 

CV Turn 172

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled 6 or so, captured about 15.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Horseback riding and bronze working initially. I built two encampments with Ordu's very
early.

- How did you pump your Culture?
In most cities my build order was monument -> theater square -> amphitheater.
Later in the game I chopped when necessary to finish these.

- Did you instigate any major wars?
Eliminated France and Sumeria early on, during the mid game Gorgo decided to declare war on me which was great. I took over all her cities except one.

- Were City-States helpful?
Yes. They weren't my main focus this game and the AI took out a few, but still they were still relevant.

- How did the new features help you?
I wanted to see how far I could optimize my chopping by making Magnus a nomad. My idea was to have builders set for chopping as soon as he's established. After a few turns of plundering all the stone/wood, etc I reassigned him and the builders onto the next city, repeating this many times. It worked extremely well and this was only my first time trying the idea.

As many stone/deer tiles as I could, I harvested with Magnus in the city alongside civics boosts and 1 turn off completion. (mostly ancient walls but works for any bonus % production card)
In some cases a single tile yielded 500+ production, works great for rushing wonders/districts/ etc.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Ran into some logistics problems during early wars. It took me far too long to move my army due to city states and mountain blocking the way while I was at war.

- Did you enjoy the game?

Absolutely, I haven't been playing much civ 6 in the last few months but so far I'm impressed by new features. I think there's a tremendous amount to new strategy to learn with a very high unexplored skill cap.

 

T119 CV

Main highlights:
- Much early luck on the goody huts: 1 scout, 1 builder, 1 relic (which resulted in Goddess of the Harvest pantheon grab).
- Settled 2nd city near Kilimandjaro, then build encampment in capital while pursuing state workforce and military tradition. Then was able to recruit Magnus and accelerate production of first horse army (3 horsemen), which I sent towards Peter and Gorgo to stop their culture or GW point generation. I was planning to wipe out those two but keep all other civs around.
- Then proceeded to settle a few more cities with early empire, and started producing heavy chariots for knight army.
- With classical golden age, took monumentality to get the harvest-worker cycle going, and used chops towards monuments and theater squares with amphitheatres.
- Then around T80 started taking down the strong cities of the remaining opponents, while starting to build commercial infrastructure to send trade routes after peace. However, I really failed to take into account the loyalty impact... both Philip and Teddy lost their last city to loyalty pressure, increasing the time to CV by almost 10 turns I would guess.