6otM04 After Action

[leif erikson]

Welcome to the 6otM 04 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?
- What order did you take down your opponents?
-What did you build for an Army and how did it change?
- Did you use diplomacy? How?
- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
- 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.

 

[twyxted]

First to submit, but probably in last place Domination Win Turn 321/322.

Quite a tedious game if I may say. By the time I could field bombards, Scythia already had AT. If the AI wasn't so inept at war, this would be a lost game.

After taking over Scythia and most of his cities, I was able to recover in gold, prioritizing commerce. Arty corps and Teddy's UU were put up against Freddy's modern armor. Extended range kept my bombards safe from his mech inf and modern armor. Again, the AI is so bad in war. Except for the slow process of wittling down walls, the game started to be enjoyable at this point.

My bottleneck in this game is culture, and having both land and naval units that are outdated. Should've picked one or the other. Also, on hindsight, I would've taken out germany first before Scythia or Egypt. The rest of the game was the slow process of a thousand clicks...but battleships against Rome and Sumeria was better than arty against 100+ city defense Germany had.

Order of conquest: Egypt, Scythia, Germany, Rome, Sumeria, Greece and last: Norway.

If I'd remember how bad the AI was in war, I'd straight up continued warring in the classical era. CATS vs walls are not so bad compared to arty vs modern walls.

 

[teqofc]

T 285 DV, score 1051

Rather disappointed in my victory time. Made way too many mistakes, especially with taking the 2nd continent. I went to war too soon and hadn't quite set up my economy yet so was struggling to get any traction. Also the cities I captured had absolutely crap for production. I captured Germany first then Egypt then Scythia. Peter was already too strong for my knights and had AT ugh so I had to delay and take Norway. In the mean time I was assembling my 2nd army to make their way to the 2nd continent which was a comedy of errors in production and movement. I should have made a lot more catapults to upgrade to bombard->arty->rockets. By the time I hit Peter with my arty and his 100+ str cities I get bogged down taking too long with my few arty. Arty barely made a dent at that point. Knights upgraded to tanks were helpful though.

Thankfully by the time I was ready to take Rome and Greece I was able to upgrade to Rockets and blast away at +5 range with FW + OB.



Very messy and one I don't want to play again. I just rushed into it without thinking and wasn't expecting the AI to advance so quickly.

 

[TomeTraveler]

Domination Victory AD 1876, Turn 309, Score 1267

After regrouping from my (first) Scythian fiasco, I directed my armies south and invaded Germany, starting with Aachen. Frederick proved to be a surprisingly easy conquest though it took 22 turns to achieve the complete conquest. A bit surprisingly to me, by turn 152 I was in the leader in Science, with more techs and a better BPT rate than anyone else, though Peter was close. It probably would have been wiser to go for the Russians next but Scythia annoyed and I declared again on turn 170. I took Gelonus, the Scythian city that had given me such a battle earlier, but the Scythian capital was very well defended and it would have been a slow and expensive proposition to take it, so when she offered a truckload of luxuries and 45 GPT for peace, I accepted so I could turn to Cleopatra, and perhaps then invade Scythia from the north later.

That proved correct--I eradicated Egypt totally because I had no taste for continuing envoy wars with Cleopatra over Hattusa. Curiously enough, around this time, Pericles chided me for being on the road to bankruptcy. At the time I had over 2000 GP in my treasury and an income of well over 100 GPT. HUH?! I took the Scythian capital and accepted peace with Tomyris on turn 220 though just before this, she had one more annoying trick to play: a horde of horsemen came out of nowhere and raced into my lightly defended flank, killing a level 6 field cannon before I could react to them.

On 224 I turned to Russia, just as Peter began building his first spaceport. By the time I took St. Petersburg, he'd finish spaceport in Novgorod and St. Petersburg, both now mine. To finish my starting landmass I went directly for Harald then and took Nidaros by around 250-260, though he took a few turns to settle for peace, during which the first rebels began to appear in my cities from war weariness. This was to prove a significant problem for me for the rest of the game, and my first experience in trying to learn how to manage it. I consolidated while preparing for Rome, geographically next but with the strongest defenses. For the next 20 turns or so, I tended to get an average of one revolt per turn, each revolt giving rise to four units (initially helicopters and a machine gun, later on mechanized infantry and a rocket artillery.) My war weariness never went down, and I started building for amenities like mad, but couldn't delay any longer and went ahead and declared on the Romans, who also had a spaceport by now. Peace with Rome in my hands on 296, then I launched a two-pronged attack on the final landmass, taking Athens and Uruk on successive turns to finish the game.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
38 in total. I settled 6 initially on my own, adding two later, one as a forward base versus the Romans, and the other to grab two luxuries. I learned a lesson here. In settlements with Russia and Norway, I accepted "extra" cities that I hadn't captured as part of the settlement. These surely had bad effects in my ensuing amenities crisis, and by the time Trajan offered peace with extras, I took only the cities I actually possessed.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Lower half of the tree mostly for tech, but also naval techs. I found the UU rather underwhelming, good for a rush on your continent perhaps but by the time you get them you may already have, as I did, conquered most of that area already. Civicwise, Mercenaries, Divine Right, Totalitarianism

- What order did you take down your opponents?
Germany, Egypt, Scythia, Russia, Norway, Rome, Greece, Sumeria

-What did you build for an Army and how did it change?
Started out with mostly archers and warriors, would have loved a few horsemen but no horses available. Built a few spearmen while dealing with Scythia, and catapults to deal with walls. These units, upgraded, formed the basis of my army until I was close to Knights, when I built a couple of Heavy Chariots to upgrade. A few rough riders. Late game it was all armor, infantry, artillery, and bombers (going to the upgraded versions of these. A single destroyer fleet, ditto BB-->Missile Cruiser, and CVs. Built a few P-51s but again found them not particularly useful, didn't see a single AI air unit all game.

- Did you use diplomacy? How?
Everybody hated me. Diplomacy for me was sneering back, and then taking their capital.

- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
Early on, there were a lot of other states having theological wars near my cities, but I mostly ignored it except to check periodically if any religion was becoming dominant.

- Were City-States helpful?
Not particularly, surprisingly. Usually City-States are an important part of my game, but aside from keeping Hattusa on my side (Stockholm grew too expensive) and a few other situational alliances, I mostly ignored them this game after the initial envoys. I kept a large reserve of unused envoys to swap a CS suzerain just before going to war though, which came in useful at times.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
So much about this game was surprising! From the early Scythian hordes, to the ease of defeating Germany, the near uselessness of City-States. It was my first game playing late-game military units domination and I learned much. The amenities crises was a big surprise and I thought that it might end up leading to my defeat, but managed to get through it.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes indeed! A couple of points of interest, also. This is the first game in which I finished both the tech and the civic trees completely, and by the end of the game, every single great person except some late artists, was taken. I had a huge lead in GE, GM, and GS generation as the game progressed and I paid faith to be sure that the Space Race GPs didn't fall into the AI hands.

(Added the second screenshot to show how many of the derned AIs were building spaceships by the time I managed to get to them all.)

 

[eternalsceptic]

Turn 190 DV, Score 760

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled 3, capital, then 1 near GBR for crucial early science and 1 for Iron as Egypt settled 1 tile away from both fresh water and Iron... Captured 26, sold 2 back for gold. Did not end up killing off any of the AI.
- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Stirrups and Machinery for Knights & Crossbow, then Ballistics for Field Cannons, then Combustion for Tanks, the rest were inconsequential.
Civics was PP, then Mercenaries for the 50% off upgrades, Exploration, Nationalism for corp, Mobilisation for army
- What order did you take down your opponents?
Pretty much by distance, Egypt (~T70), Germany, Scythia(~T100), Russia, Norway(~T150), Rome (~T170), Sumeria, Greece.
-What did you build for an Army and how did it change?
Archer > Crossbow/Knight > Field Cannon > Tank
Also had 2 Battering Rams and 1 Siege Engine. For some reason the support units did not work for Knight but did for Tanks. Really puzzling.
Teddy's home continent bonus really did help to level the Diety bonuses. Double attack Crossbows were the MVP mid-game while Tanks just rolled over everyone when they became available. Managed to take Uruk using a single Tank Corp with Siege Engine support.
Artillery was just way too slow to be effective and Navy was unnecessary here.
- Did you use diplomacy? How?
Only managed a few trades early but there was just no way to manage the warmongering later on.
- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
Nope did not try to get a religion. Should have considered buying units with faith though, since my faith per turn was quite high from all the captured holy sites.
- Were City-States helpful?
Kabul was by far the MVP giving double EXP and being in a strategic position. Stockholm was alright when I had it but Greece ended up dumping 14 Envoys with it later on. Managed to grab Adam Smith and Darwin which were really helpful.
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Not particularly, though Scythia's horse spam was a little alarming early on. Should have focused a little more on economy early, didn't have enough gold when Knights and Crossbows were teched, which slowed down the conquest quite a bit.
- Did you enjoy the game?
Was a bit tiresome later on with the AI spamming demands every few turns and all those mediocre cities to manage. I usually stick to 6 civ if I intend to go DV.

 

[RaidandTrade]

I was done by turn 47. Details in Opening Actions thread reproduced below:

Spoiler :

Done = Defeated. I got owned...

Met Germany, Scythia and Egypt pretty early on. Egypt sent an unescorted settler that turned into Boston and I had a small force of three archers and a warrior marching towards Egypt. Thought it was going pretty well. Scythia denounced me due to my war with Egypt and follow it up with a force of four horse and five warriors to Washington.

I'd been building a settler and Cincinnati came into being just as she DOW'd me. At this time, my force was nearly on Egypt's doorstep so I had no home guard.

I went for broke and kept the assault going on Egypt but she got her UU out and walls up so at that point I knew it was game over. I couldn't get my force back in time to prevent Boston's capture.

 

[FireSale]

DV T136.

Hi guys, this is my first post -- I've been a reader and student of this forum, and I finally get to post one!

I had a fantastic start. BO : scout - scout - builder
Sent warrior west,
sent first scout NE (1 o'clock dir) that popped a relic and stole Egyptian settler,
and sent second scout SE (5 o'clock dir) that popped a third(!) scout from a hut.

Pantheon at ~T15, obv +25% prod to units.

As most good starts make us, I got greedy and chased bronze working eureka too hard (couldn't find that third barb).

Result?
Even after two encampment trainings, I lost my Sun Tzu by 1 turn.... [refer to T60 (1)]

Okay.. my hope of fast conquest is now gone, and I had to go for a smoke -- but this gave me some time to rethink.
I finally realized that Scythia and Egypt caps are coastal(had vision for a while), and I switched my game plan completely.

Slow army will march to Russia, and I will take care of two coastal caps with frigate, and send a second army to whatever overseas.

Rest is quite self-explanatory -- I beelined cartography, stirrup, then frigates.

Order of Conquest >>

1st Army : Aachen(~85), St.Petersburg(~105), Nidaros(~125), Rome(136) // swords and archers(later crossbows) + 1~2 knights later
2nd Army : Athenes(112), Uruk(127), Rome(136) // 6 knights + 1 archer(later crossbow) + 3 reinforcement frigates later
3rd Army : Ra Kadet(123), Pokrovka(128) // 3 frigates + 1 horse

If I played well and did not miss the first general, 1st army probably would've killed Rome ~T125 instead of meeting 2nd army there 10 turns later...
but this is all in hindsight, and I would not have even thought about using navy if I had double general.
City States didn't do much -- took Buenos Aires from Scythia while waiting 10 turns for 2nd war on Germany and got Kabul on pce deal. Valetta gave me some free monuments / walls.
Overall, I had a lot of fun with this map. Thanks!

 

[DanQuayle]

T175 DV, Score 567

This turned out to be quite an interesting game as Scythia quickly became out of control with an army strength of well over 2000 mainly composed of horsemen. I decided to play it safe and use all my army against her and then split it up in 3 for the last 3 remaining capitals (Rome, Uruk & Athens).

Conquest order: Aachen, Râ-Kedet, St. Petersburg, Nidaros, Pokrovka, Rome, Uruk, Athens

The highlight of the game was a strange bug that managed to make me laugh. Right after using Adam Smith, Cleopatra told me her agenda message about me having a weak army. However at that time, I was done dealing with Scythia and I was sitting in 1st place for army (with 2000+) which was above everyone else by a large margin. That really came out of nowhere.

 

[Shader]

Well I'm stumped. Been playing a pretty successful game and now my game is crashing at turn 148. I've tried going back all the way to 146 and unfortunately it continues to crash in between 148 and 149. Not sure how to proceed at this point! Stinks because i think I actually had a shot at winning this one.

 

[guilheotavio]

My game is also crashing, on turn 170 to 171! I'm very upset cause I was enjoying a lot the game.

 

[guilheotavio]

About my game crashing, I didn't have anything like these happening to me before. I've played 192 hours and it has never crashed. Apperently it crashes during the turn of an AI (Pericles). I've tried to go back a few turns and do things differently, specially towards Pericles, even declared a war on him because maybe he would do something different and the game wouldn't crash but that doesn't work. Every time I am going from turn 170 to 171, it crashes again. So the only thing I can do is to start the game again, just because I really want to play this game but I know I can't submit it.

 

[MiniMe]

Domination turn 189, Score 871

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled initially 4 (including settlers from Egypt / Germany) and added 3 later in tactical positions on the second continent for popping fresh units with faith.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Machinery for Crossbow, Stirrups for Knights, Cartography, Ballistics for Field Cannons, Steel for Artillery, then Combustion for Tanks
Civics was Political Philosophy, then Mercenaries for the 50% off upgrades, then Reformed Church to pop units from faith.

- What order did you take down your opponents?
Pretty much by distance, Germany, Egypt, Scythia, Norway, Russia, Rome, Greece, Sumeria.

-What did you build for an Army and how did it change?
Archer > Crossbow > Knight > Field Cannon > Artillery > Tank

Also had 1 Siege Engine. Never got a Great General, probably bad focus. Never created a multi unit corps, probably also silly?
Teddy's home continent bonus really did help to level the Diety bonuses. Double attack Crossbows were life savers and Tanks just ruled when they became available.
I thought artillery was going to be a killer unit and there it was fabulous against cities. But really horrible against land units.

- Did you use diplomacy? How?
Only managed a few trades early but there was just no way to manage the warmongering later on.

- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
Not religion per se but my faith per turn was high since AI seems to build faith buildings all over the place. So Reformed Church was real helpful. Greece was taken with faith popped Artillery. Sumeria with faith tanks.

- Were City-States helpful?
Kabul was nice. I discovered it latish since my scout was killed off early. So had to remove someone (think it was Scythia) before I could have any use for it.
Freed three city states from Scythia and the free 3 envoys bonus is quite nice.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Germany declared war immediately, but never followed up with units. Scythia was a real horse spammer so had to be done slowly.
The Hattusa bonus to grant 1 extra strategic resource does not seem to work?

- Did you enjoy the game?
My first domination attempt Fun and full of learning.

Note my game crashed on last turn when capturing the last capital in the same turn as capturing Soul without deciding to keep or not. Had to reload and decide to keep Soul before taking the Sumerian capital.

 

[eternalsceptic]

Domination turn 189, Score 871

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled initially 4 (including settlers from Egypt / Germany) and added 3 later in tactical positions on the second continent for popping fresh units with faith.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Machinery for Crossbow, Stirrups for Knights, Cartography, Ballistics for Field Cannons, Steel for Artillery, then Combustion for Tanks
Civics was Political Philosophy, then Mercenaries for the 50% off upgrades, then Reformed Church to pop units from faith.

- What order did you take down your opponents?
Pretty much by distance, Germany, Egypt, Scythia, Norway, Russia, Rome, Greece, Sumeria.

-What did you build for an Army and how did it change?
Archer > Crossbow > Knight > Field Cannon > Artillery > Tank

Also had 1 Siege Engine. Never got a Great General, probably bad focus. Never created a multi unit corps, probably also silly?
Teddy's home continent bonus really did help to level the Diety bonuses. Double attack Crossbows were life savers and Tanks just ruled when they became available.
I thought artillery was going to be a killer unit and there it was fabulous against cities. But really horrible against land units.

- Did you use diplomacy? How?
Only managed a few trades early but there was just no way to manage the warmongering later on.

- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
Not religion per se but my faith per turn was high since AI seems to build faith buildings all over the place. So Reformed Church was real helpful. Greece was taken with faith popped Artillery. Sumeria with faith tanks.

- Were City-States helpful?
Kabul was nice. I discovered it latish since my scout was killed off early. So had to remove someone (think it was Scythia) before I could have any use for it.
Freed three city states from Scythia and the free 3 envoys bonus is quite nice.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Germany declared war immediately, but never followed up with units. Scythia was a real horse spammer so had to be done slowly.
The Hattusa bonus to grant 1 extra strategic resource does not seem to work?

- Did you enjoy the game?
My first domination attempt Fun and full of learning.

Note my game crashed on last turn when capturing the last capital in the same turn as capturing Soul without deciding to keep or not. Had to reload and decide to keep Soul before taking the Sumerian capital.

I suppose imitation is the highest form of flattery ...

 

[MiniMe]

@eternalsceptic, your write-up was almost like reading about my own game, including the finish date
Is it bad form to use an existing write-up as template?

 

[GiovDenti]

Domination victory on turn 235

I did not play an optimal game because of my lazyness. Managed all the conquering with a single army. Probably could have shaved off 20/30 turns.
Though, I must say my opinion on the current state of the game is very negative. After the first 100 turn the game gets super-boring.
Is it possible that the AI is so stupid? Compared to Civ IV and CiV this game is really really flawed.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled 4 cities and conquered all the others. Though, I have never built a settler. I stole 4 settlers in the first turns.
Question is: can't the developers hard wire in the AI that settler should not go around unattended? What the sense in having 10 warriors and leaving your settler alone?

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Always gave priority to new units.

- What order did you take down your opponents?
Egypt, Schytia (1st part - this was the only real challenge), Germany, Schytia (2nd part), Russia, Norway, Rome, Sumeria, Grece

-What did you build for an Army and how did it change?
Mostly Ranged, Heavy Cav. and Bombard. I found the latest especially useful.

- Did you use diplomacy? How?
Managing warmongering is not possible.

- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
No religion. Produced a lot of faith. Used it to buy buildings and great people.

- Were City-States helpful?
Ended up with most of them as allies. No particular strategy, a part for Kabul.

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

- Did you enjoy the game?
After turn 100 the game tend to be boring.
AI is not a challange, even if at the same technological level. War are many modern units againts few ancients... There is no tactical challenge of any kind. An incredible step back in comparison to Civ IV or CiV. I can't understand.
Why does the AI not bother to upgrade units? Is it so difficult to hard wire units upgrade in its priorities?

 

[ferenginar]

T325 defeat, score 323, German Science victory.

Settled 7 cities, captured 1 Egyptian, failed on attempt to take capital, withdrew to lick wounds and wait for AI to kill me. Apparently, I was so pathetic they couldn't be bothered, and left me alone. I was so far behind in Science and culture attempting any further captures would have been suicidal.

It was my first attempt and domination, and first attempt at Deity. Could do better.

 

[bonniepbilly]

T176 DV
Main army composed of archers and swordsmen (later crossbows and muskets) took Egypt (with two settlers), then Germany (one settler), Russia, Scythia and Norway.
Went probably too late to Cartography and it took me a while to find the last civs. Main army crossed the ocean to take Rome while a new army of cavs went after Uruk and Athens.
I still don't know whether to use rams/siege or cats/bombards...

 

[arenquinha]

Domination Victory Turn 241 Score 1096

How many cities did you settle or capture? Settled 4, Capitol, 2 stolen Egyptian Settlers and a stolen Settler towards the end. Captured about 33 cities.
- What did you prioritize for research and policies? I had seen talk early on about prioritizing archery, and that's what I did as well. After that I was kinda all over the place. Did make sure I got crossbows pretty early.
- What order did you take down your opponents? Egypt, Schythia, Germany, Norwegian, Russia, Rome, Sumerian. Sumeria had already captured Greece's capitol so didnt need to get after them at all.
-What did you build for an Army and how did it change? My army stayed the same units for most of the game really. At the start I had 3 or 4 archers and 2 warriors. Went north and took a couple settlers from Egypt within the first 20 turns and was able to take out their capitol within 40 or 50. Scythia was pretty easy, Russia gave me a little trouble since they were significantly further ahead of me in tech, but once I had field cannons it was less of a problem.
- Did you use diplomacy? How? Not at all really, played this game like a total war.
- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain. I ignored religion completely.
- Were City-States helpful? No
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it? Barbarians were tough and I was declared on early by Germany/Scythia, but since I already was playing war with everyone it was less of a surprise. I'm more surprised I didn't get declared on more.
- Did you enjoy the game? So I've never played Deity level and was amazed I won. I usually do not do domination either. So I'm glad I did here. The first 50 turns or so were fun, but after that it was just move army, take city, move army, take city. Got very repetitive.

 

[blackbird12]

Could someone please explain something to me. I managed to beat Schythia down early enough to keep her from spamming horses toward my cities. Quickly built up an army of crossbows and swords to attack her. But sieging her cities was extremely difficult!! Every few turns, at least 4 horsemen would instantly appear around her city. Is that a proper mechanic for an AI??? I don't mind the AI getting unfair advantages, but that just seems broken, and VERY frustrating!

 

[glory7]

DV t132.

Order of conquest (capitals):
Egpyt - Scythia - Germany - Russia - Norway (t131): 1st army, 1st general and 4 swordmen with 2-3 archers (Xbows later)
Greece - Sumeria - Rome (t132): 2nd army, 2nd general and 7-8 knights (upgraded from heavy chariots). I also bought 4 siege units (and upgraded) with faith after taking Roman coastal cities with frigates.

I used some frigates (upgraded from quadrireme, of course) to help landing main army and took coastal cities. They were helpful when I attacked Rome.

After meeting lots of civs on the starting continent, I thought swordmen+general rush would be nice. With siege tower and battering ram, they don't need any siege units.

Germany DoWed me very early (around t10). I stole one settler from Egypt early.

Military CSs, Kabul and Valetta, were helpful. Kabul was particularly nice, as double XPs helped a lot to gain promotion faster.

After meeting 6 civs on the starting continent, I assumed that there would be only one other continent with 2 civs - I was naive and did not check the total number of civs in this game. I could have saved 3-4 turns if I had known that Rome had its own continent.

Thank you for the nice map, as always.