6otM Dec 21 Krampus vs Santa AAR

Eyswein

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Welcome to the 6otM Dec 21 Krampus vs Santa 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 attach your victory save to your post.

- What was your plan for achieving the VC? What are the major steps you planned to take? What events, if any, changed the plan in execution and to what new plan? Any interesting decision points?
- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
- How many cities did you settle and/or capture? Where did you settle your first few cities?
- What did you prioritize for technology/civics?
- What were key production/purchase focuses? Military units / Civilian units / Districts & city development / Wonders / Civ Unique Unit & Infrastructure? Most critical or interesting?
- Pantheon chosen and why? Religious beliefs chosen, and why?
- What governments did you select? What key policy cards did you use? Why?
- Which Governors were most important; when and why?
- Was diplomacy/trading useful? How? Relations with other civs?
- Were City-States helpful? Any competition with other civs for key city states?
- When did you have Dark/Heroic ages?
- How did the game modes affect or impact your play?

- How were the Barbarians?
- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
- Did you enjoy your 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.
 
Bwahahahahaha- more Krampus shenanigans! I realize this was meant to be the "dessert" after game 125, but I inadvertently opened the Krampus save and then got intrigued and just played it through.

Dom Victory, turn 331

This really was Krampus vs Santa, eh? Desert civ without any desert tiles to open? Then put it on an island forcing it to develop a ... navy??? And load up the opponents with the top warmongering civs in the game? Without any trade or religious city states to potentiate Mali's unique advantages? Not very nice.... On the other hand, look at those tiles to open. Plus a natural wonder already revealed. Plus the isolated start is actually an advantage, since there was no real threat of early death at the hands of the AI or from barbs. Plus lots of resources for a change ... that's a nice basket of Xmas goodies!

-What was your plan for achieving the VC? What are the major steps you planned to take? What events, if any, changed the plan in execution and to what new plan? Any interesting decision points?
Plan was to get Desert Folklore and Work Ethic, then develop high faith and use Grandmaster's Chapel and tons of suguba gold to buy my way to military victory. This plan was upended when Desert Folklore was not available for a pantheon choice....Ended up doing most of the conquering with bombers/jet bombers, tanks/modern armor, and finally nukes and GDRs. Used 6 nukes in the last two turns to take 4 capitals in just those last two turns.

- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
Lots of faith and gold is always welcome. Didn't seem to feel the production malus too much because of Golden Age cards (Heartbeat of Steam especially). Niani ended up being one of the highest producing cities I've ever had in any game of Civ 6 (over 200 hammers per turn; I know others can get much higher still!)

- How many cities did you settle and/or capture? Where did you settle your first few cities?
Settled in place, settled the second city on desert on the southern shore but lost it due to a Dark Age and had to reconquer it later. Settled probably 7 -8 more on the southern shore, mostly on desert.

- What did you prioritize for technology/civics?
Astrology first, then sailing, then shipbuilding.

- What were key production/purchase focuses? Military units / Civilian units / Districts & city development / Wonders / Civ Unique Unit & Infrastructure? Most critical or interesting?
Temple of Artemis was key. Building the +12 campus was amazing. Grandmaster's Chapel also helped a lot.

- Pantheon chosen and why? Religious beliefs chosen, and why?
A head scratcher. Desert Folklore and Divine Spark were both gone, so ended up with ... God of the Sea. A weak choice as it turns out but couldn't think of anything better at the time. But the AIs were sluggish in the religious game and I was able to establish the first religion- took Choral Music and Cross Cultural Dialogue. Later took Crusade but hardly used it at all when I was finally ready for war.

- What governments did you select? What key policy cards did you use? Why?
Autocracy to Monarchy to Theocracy to Fascism.

- Which Governors were most important; when and why?
Magnus with Black Marketeer, allowing for production of multiple units with only a single strategic resource tile. Later Moksha with Divine Architect, allowing for insta-building of districts.

- Was diplomacy/trading useful? How? Relations with other civs?
Was friendly/allied with Ottomans (so I would have a good trading partner) right up until very near the end. O/w no diplomacy to speak of.

- Were City-States helpful? Any competition with other civs for key city states?
Didn't discover Ngazargamu until quite late, also not too experienced with Mali so didn't really prioritize it or use it. Had quite a bit of faith anyway so was generally able to faith buy what I needed even without it. Came to learn that GDRs cannot be bought with faith, which makes sense I guess.

- When did you have Dark/Heroic ages?
Golden Classical, then Dark Medieval, then all Golden thereafter. Really prioritized making sure I stayed Golden after the Medieval. But the Dark Medieval was the best thing that could've happened to me, as it allowed me to use the Monasticism card, which, coupled with the +12 campus (+24 after Natural Philosophy), allowed me to have a very high science output and really catch up to the other AIs.

- How did the game modes affect or impact your play?
- How were the Barbarians?
Was surprised to find that barbarian camps were precluded from turning into city states, but this was actually great in terms of game play as it meant that barbs were a significant threat well into the midgame. They sacked one (admittedly unimportant) city, and I paid them off twice not to attack another (the first time I ever had to do that). I really liked this mechanic for the barbs.

- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Was pleasantly surprised that I could get Choral Music for my religious belief. Amazed by the power of the Monasticism and Heartbeat of Steam policy cards when you have a +24 campus. Also pleasantly surprised that the AIs were using jet fighters reasonably effectively to defend themselves- lost 2 GDRs, a jet bomber, and a modern armor army to jet fighter attacks.

- Did you enjoy your game?
Absolutely- another great game, thank you very much!
 

Attachments

  • KRAMPUS 2021 DomVic 331.Civ6Save
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DV206
Been too busy to play much of late but was determined to give this one a go, purely because I have never done a max adjacency Campus with a the dual adjacency card and +75% dark age bonus. That really got me ahead.
I forgot about Gran Columbia and finished them in the last turn along with the Zulu's with a Nuke. Hardest was definately alex who took a few turns with bombers, rockets and machine guns to get there, should really have used a nuke on him but hey, just a bit slow getting there.
I decided not to build a government plaza at all this game, just to see how it went, I really did not miss it and certainly it was a fools errand to build it in my capital as I needed HS, Enc and Campus early. I hate the the secret societies and so did not use them at all.

- What was your plan for achieving the VC? What are the major steps you planned to take? What events, if any, changed the plan in execution and to what new plan? Any interesting decision points?
I just wanted to get the 75% science bonus as I had not used it much and certainly I thought it would do well on this occaision. So the key was not to get a golden age. Luckily I did not build ships or go exploring early or I would have suffered
- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
I did not do much with Mansa's bonus to be honest, I did not chop well nor was super efficient but just a fast game.
- How many cities did you settle and/or capture? Where did you settle your first few cities?
I settled 2 others after the capital. One on the coast as a landing/upgrading city and the other was later on flat desert just to feel more like Mansa
- What did you prioritize for technology/civics?
Astrology, AH, Fishing, Pottery, Writing <- you grow pop so fast and need the culture from Pingala from that pop so keeping the city happy and growing was important to me for getting to NP early.
- What were key production/purchase focuses? Military units / Civilian units / Districts & city development / Wonders / Civ Unique Unit & Infrastructure? Most critical or interesting?
I think I went builder, Holy Site, Builder, monument, granary, builder, campus, Stonehenge. (did stonehenge for the inspiration, getting to double adjacency ASAP was the main drive)
- Pantheon chosen and why? Religious beliefs chosen, and why?
Choral music and sacred places - I was pushing culture as hard as I could so with stonehenge buyilt this seemed like a good idea.
- What governments did you select? What key policy cards did you use? Why?
Oligarchy and Natural Philosophy. I used reform the coinage quite a bit.
- Which Governors were most important; when and why?
Pingala, only him apart from a few turns of victor at the end for nukes and Magnus chopping
- Was diplomacy/trading useful? How? Relations with other civs?
Nope, they all hated me, they just do not appreciate an artist
- Were City-States helpful? Any competition with other civs for key city states?
Nah - crazy amounts of science CS... but Kabul was all I cared about.
- When did you have Dark/Heroic ages?
The first one for +75% science :)
- How did the game modes affect or impact your play?
Not really at all.
- How were the Barbarians?
Because my science was alwys ahead I could typically one-shot barbs from walls. At the start a barb galley held up my second city for about 10 turns.
- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Just barbs stopping my second city and coming across Alex quite late only to find ghis cities 30 strength higher than anyone else.
- Did you enjoy your game?
Very much so, higly customised Krampus spectacular was a VERY insteresting start but laster became a slog due to the number of turns but at least on deity it was not running through each city in a turn for avery civ.
 

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  • MANSA MUSA 206 1450 AD.Civ6Save
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DV Turn 251

What was your plan for achieving the VC? What are the major steps you planned to take? What events, if any, changed the plan in execution and to what new plan? Any interesting decision points?


Starting plan was to get off the island and see the world after securing a religion and pushing hard on campus and then boats. Established a few base in the deserts to the south to get trade going. Then goal was to push past AI and get bombers/tanks to be able to take a lot out quickly to avoid issues with dramatic ages and lots of cities


- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?


Used the gold/faith discount a lot to build up cities and take on barbs – trading bonus for my desert cities helped a lot paired with the silver corporation and industry and products


- How many cities did you settle and/or capture? Where did you settle your first few cities?


Settled 3, captured 40+. All settled near coast and desert to south of start


- What did you prioritize for technology/civics?


Religion/campus/trade/Commercial Hub then military – Factories for engineers and wonders


- What were key production/purchase focuses? Military units / Civilian units / Districts & city development /


Had so much gold that I did a lot with gold – faith for Suguba buildings and spreading religion/converting barbs


Wonders / Civ Unique Unit & Infrastructure? Most critical or interesting?


Stonehenge to start, Petra/Kilwa/Maus priorities in settled cities – anything with extra policy slot and others just to get the era score – always worried about dark ages at first. Got the +20% culture one in cap too late when I realized pushing beyond mountains would be nice – was one turn from having all mountain tiles and expanding when I won though…


- Pantheon chosen and why? Religious beliefs chosen, and why?


Faith on mines over lux and strategic resources – then luckily culture and tithe – later crusade which helped in early wars.


- What governments did you select? What key policy cards did you use? Why?


Republic/Monarchy/Theocracy/Fascism/Corporate Libertarianism (nice for resources to support large air force, tank armies, and GDR horde) – Double science used throughout, the cards for cities not on cap continent were really helpful – golden card to push production for science and trade routes and later military experience. I could level up a unit in one hit late in the game with all the bonuses.


- Which Governors were most important; when and why?


Pingala in cap and Victor to give promotions, others mostly loyalty sticks outside some chops from Magnus


- Was diplomacy/trading useful? How? Relations with other civs?


Ottomans allied till they needed to die. Friendly to many for good trade until time to take them out


- Were City-States helpful? Any competition with other civs for key city states?


Great for science boost – Akkad find made tanks great for dom push. Ngazargamu was late but let me buy a horde of GDRs to push through Alex’s +109 defense cities and end him and Hungary quickly.


- When did you have Dark/Heroic ages?

Golden all ages – forgot the big science bonus for first age dark card. Was over the score by 200 heading into Atomic but only went a couple turns into that before winning.


- How did the game modes affect or impact your play?


Corps/Industries and goods boosted gold to insane levels plus culture. Went Sanguine Pact with 2 of the castles in my capitol for some insane yields – Could 2 turn a GDR at the end even with penalty.


- How were the Barbarians?


Annoying at first, but then tech was ahead and I used some apostles to swell my troops and provide corps/army material cheap. Pushed hard to take a few camps out early to get vampires which made the early wars a lot better.


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


Being on an island was a surprise and I had wasted time on a scout. Bogged myself down taking out Montezuma and the massive free city conglomerate to the east – Gran Columbia fell and Monty was close due to dramatic ages and I slogged through the cities getting little experience while building up for the other AI. I struggled with amenities at first but later had them in spades.


- Did you enjoy your game?


Very much. Thanks. I had attempted game 125 and was doing… poorly so I took a look at this one and had some fun. Took too much time – could likely have simmed in placed with only a few cities and took everyone out in a quick push later but it was fun – had a nice railroad all around that was satisfying. Capitol was amazing and one of my best in recent memory – big ski industry apparently as well LOL.

I use UI mods so no save file, but a pic of the capitol and a bit of the end - I build a thermo just in time for my alliance to run out and end the Ottomans in style.
 

Attachments

  • Krampus_WinT251.png
    Krampus_WinT251.png
    3.4 MB · Views: 79
DV262
What was your plan for achieving the VC? What are the major steps you planned to take? What events, if any, changed the plan in execution and to what new plan? Any interesting decision points?
Built 3 cities get religion with the crusader belief and start the conquest

- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
Tried to maximize the trade routes and prebuild/buy archer carts to upgrade to the UU

- How many cities did you settle and/or capture? Where did you settle your first few cities?
Settled south of the fountain make room for a second city across the +12 campus
third city south on the coast across my land mass
- What did you prioritize for technology/civics?
Astrology AH campus horses
- What were key production/purchase focuses? Military units / Civilian units / Districts & city development / Wonders / Civ Unique Unit & Infrastructure? Most critical or interesting?
Spread my religion on the bottom right of the map and. convert cities on the left while at war for the era score

- Pantheon chosen and why? Religious beliefs chosen, and why?
God of the sea to sell all the luxuries from my second city

- What governments did you select? What key policy cards did you use? Why?
Owls of minerva for the extra card and the guilded bank
- Which Governors were most important; when and why?
Magnus for spamming my horses (Pingy would of be a better choice as I forget I did not need horses fo prebuilt my UU unit)and was a bit slow on culture)

- Was diplomacy/trading useful? How? Relations with other civs?
sell sell sell :) was allied with the Ottoman for a long time
- Were City-States helpful? Any competition with other civs for key city states?
Akkad
- When did you have Dark/Heroic ages?
All GA
- How did the game modes affect or impact your play?
I had to hold a governor card for a while waiting to get discover the Owls of Minerva
- How were the Barbarians?
frisky but manageable
- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
I forget to check on my empire happiness and got stuck mid game with the "999" turn for any kind of new district in my cities
It stayed till the end of the game after some revolt on my main island burned my commercial district that I was never able to repair
- Did you enjoy your game?
Very much Thanks
 

Attachments

  • DV-MANSA MUSA 262 1755 AD.Civ6Save
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  • DV-262.png
    DV-262.png
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Nice games being posted. This is why I really like playing GOTM - I always learn something ...

DV206
Been too busy to play much of late but was determined to give this one a go, purely because I have never done a max adjacency Campus with a the dual adjacency card and +75% dark age bonus. That really got me ahead.

I just wanted to get the 75% science bonus as I had not used it much and certainly I thought it would do well on this occaision. So the key was not to get a golden age. Luckily I did not build ships or go exploring early or I would have suffered

I used this card too but mostly by accident. I was trying to *avoid* a Dark Age but couldn't do it, and was then trying to figure out what I should do in my Dark Medieval when I stumbled across it. I never thought to actually *intentionally* go into a Dark Age to use this card, of which I was previously barely aware. Perfect tactic for this setup.

- How did the game modes affect or impact your play?
Corps/Industries and goods boosted gold to insane levels plus culture. Went Sanguine Pact with 2 of the castles in my capitol for some insane yields – Could 2 turn a GDR at the end even with penalty.
...

Annoying at first, but then tech was ahead and I used some apostles to swell my troops and provide corps/army material cheap. Pushed hard to take a few camps out early to get vampires which made the early wars a lot better.

Here again, I didn't really think this through. Since Mali has a good faith bonus, I automatically went for Voidsingers without giving it a second thought (for the Chorus promotion to science). I've never even tried the Sanguine Pact but it makes sense that it might be the better choice for a Domination game; similarly, never considered using Apostles to actually recruit the barbarians (which in my game were quite problematic). Good lessons....
 
Perfect tactic for this setup.
I had seen others talk about this card in the past but I always felt you needed a specific case to make it work, especially as you are normally building settlers/army early. So was quite intrigued to play this game.
Best done in classical when you have no cities to lose and earlier is often better.
 
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Turn 210 victory

- What was your plan for achieving the VC? What are the major steps you planned to take? What events, if any, changed the plan in execution and to what new plan? Any interesting decision points?

All plans went out of the window when I realised that I was on an island! The +12 campus meant that I aimed for a dark age to take monasticism. I had thought it likely that I would need to research cartography to find the other civs; I could have started exploring earlier, and this definitely cost me a few turns.

- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?

I purchased a lot of units later on with the help of the suguba and Ngazargamu

- How many cities did you settle and/or capture? Where did you settle your first few cities?

Settled 2 staging post cities on the southern coast for attacking Aztec and Zulu. I think I build capital pretty well, although not sure about my chopping.

- What did you prioritize for technology/civics?

I think I did a pretty bad job of researching early on; didn't really prioritise at all and should have beelined more for military technologies.

- What were key production/purchase focuses? Military units / Civilian units / Districts & city development / Wonders / Civ Unique Unit & Infrastructure? Most critical or interesting?

I went with the UU rather than light cav for main attacking force. I think in retrospect this was a mistake, and slowed down my pillage/conquest game quite a bit. Should have built at least a couple of horsemen. I build temple of artemis early on and then didn't build any more wonders until game was essentially done. Built HS, Campus, Encampment, Suguba in capital early on, and then added a TS and ED. The latter two definitely were not optimal.

- Pantheon chosen and why? Religious beliefs chosen, and why?

Divine spark, choral music, sacred places. Forgot that DS didn't affect great generals, so probably wasn't a good choice.

- What governments did you select? What key policy cards did you use? Why?

A mixture, generally depended on what policy cards I wanted to use. Military production ones were key. Used most of the golden age cards, but not sure any of them were particularly useful.

- Which Governors were most important; when and why?

Pingala was my man in the capital for the vast majority of the game. I could have used Victor and Magnus better.

- Was diplomacy/trading useful? How? Relations with other civs?

Relations were... not great!

Were City-States helpful? Any competition with other civs for key city states?

Kabul and Ngazargamu were super useful, and Wolin was pretty decent as well. I didn't find them early enough though. Kabul actually slowed me down a bit due to it's bottleneck position. I was way too slow conquering the Byzantines. Probably would have been quicker overall just to conquer it and forgo the XP benefits.

- When did you have Dark/Golden ages?

Dark, rest Golden

- How did the game modes affect or impact your play?
I went with the Sanguine pact. The Vampires weren't great, but the castles produced a huge amount of everything. Overall may have been better going with the owls.

- How were the Barbarians?

Tedious. I wish I had thought about the apostle recruiting thing.

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

The dark ages really harmed the AI's; none of them had much of an army at all, so it was really just a case of knocking down lots of walls. I didn't plan my wars well and should have fought on three fronts rather than just 2, I think, to make things quicker.

Looking at Victoria's game above I think I must have done something fundamentally wrong with science. Was nowhere near Nukes by the time that I finished.

I don't think I did a very good job overall of conquest given the feeble opposition I was facing, which I feel was a stroke of luck that I didn't take advantage of. I also should have been much better at scouting. I ended up not being able to reach Hungary's capital with bombers from the Ottoman's territory, which I would have known if I'd been bothered to send a unit up there. This delayed me by ~5 turns. I also lost a couple of units early on which I shouldn't have allowed to happen. Need to get better at knowing how much damage city defenses will do!

- Did you enjoy your game?

Very much so, great starting position and a fun challenge.
 

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