6otM05 After Action

[leif erikson]

Welcome to the 6otM 05 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 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.

 

[fish0311]

Domination Victory 1560 AD, Turn 223

- How many cities did you settle or capture?

Settled: 5
Captured: 26
Razed: 4

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?

TECHS:

Animal Husbandry > Archery. For Deity, I usually try my damnedest to pick up the Archery eureka and switch off to another tech with 1 turn left to research. A barbarian village spawned decently close just North of Washington and I was able to kill the spearman with my first slinger. I planned to build up 3-5 slingers (cheaper production than archers) and upgrade them all at once when I was ready to use them. However, Trajan decided to tip his hand and send about 6 warriors (how he had so damn many I'll never know) around the border of Washington before denouncing me for not expanding fast enough. I immediately finished archery and upgraded the 2 slingers I had for the assault to come.

I then prioritized researching Wheel, Bronze Working, and half of Stirrups (to pop when the eureka for Feudalism hit) while I rushed for Mercenaries in the civics tree. I started getting all the sailing techs and currency in the meantime while my culture caught up.

Finally, I bee-lined Military Science > Combustion

POLICIES:

Military: Conscription (and later, Levee en Masse) were always on. Professional Army is a must during upgrade waves. Maneuver for the initial buildup.
Economic: I heavily focused on gold generation. Caravanasaries (and later, Triangular Trade) was always on. I also used Meritocracy, Trade Confederation, and Liberalism.
Diplomatic: Charismatic Leader > Gunboat Diplomacy

- What order did you take down your opponents?

Rome started it. I managed to take one of his cities + capital with 4 archers, 2 warriors, 2 chariots, and 1 battering ram around turn 55. I accepted peace for a bit of gold / gpt in order to heal my units and reorganize / reinforce them. Greece's city of Ephesus was close to Rome and didn't have walls, so I turned my attention to him. Took that + Athens and two settlers before he bought me off in a peace deal (including giving me another city, Pharsalos). Now with a supply of horses, I refocused on Trajan and took Setia. While I looked for his last city (Puteoli to the East), I finished off Greece in the South and took Carthage since it was on the way. I had my continent fully under control around turn 110.

Once my war train was rolling, I took down Sumeria next (he was way ahead in tech and I had to make a move fast). His borders were completely covered in ziggurats, but was surprisingly lacking in troops. What he was researching is a mystery to me. His cities were pretty intertwined with Germany's, so Frederick was the target after. I worked my way West and hit Norway, then Egypt, then Russia. I finally found Tomyris' capital around turn 195-200 and the rest of the game was spent sailing my army to her.

-What did you build for an Army and how did it change?

After my initial army above, I focused on an equal mix of Chariots / Horsemen and added a few siege towers. Once I hit Stirrups, I had a pretty veteran force to upgrade after the early wars with Greece and Rome. I used the knights to finish off the last remnants of those two and staged them to the West once I realized how close the other continent was. Sumeria had pretty formidable city defense and I was fairly close to Calvary, so I ramped up horseman production and upgraded as soon as I was able. I had enough gold for 4 right off the bat and they were instrumental in establishing the beachhead and taking down Gilgamesh's two largest cities (including capital) with siege towers (my knights were almost getting one shotted by bombardment and hung back).

The snowball really got going with the formation of Corps. During the Sumerian invasion, I popped Nationalism and was able to form 4 Calvary corps during the battles. Germany didn't stand a chance as my 4 knight corps could also do some work since Sumeria was the only one crazy ahead in tech; the others didn't have the tough bombardment he did. I rolled through Frederick and Harald with this army. Once I had their capitals and any smaller cities in the way, I was on the verge of Combustion and prepared to drive into Egypt. I had plenty of gold and grabbed a few more knights to form 3 armies that would be upgraded. Combustion hit and...I had no oil ANYWHERE. After searching the map for about 15 minutes, I resigned myself to pushing on with Calvary and hoping it would be enough. For some reason, I decided to check the great people screen and saw that Carnegie was on deck! I was in the lead for him, and after a couple of turns, I had enough faith points from conquered cities to patron him. I upgraded the knights into tank armies and drove through Egypt and Russia stunningly quickly, upgrading the Calvary to Helicopters midway through.

I ended with 2 siege towers, 3 tank armies, 3 helicopter corps, and a great general.

- Did you use diplomacy? How?

Not really. Due to the constant warmongering, noone wanted anything to do with me. I was able to sell extra luxuries every now and then when the AI was feeling generous. Most of my diplomacy consisted of clicking through denouncing screens.

- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.

Besides the clutch faith points for Carnegie, not at all. I will say that Greece and Rome kinda screwed me over building so many Holy Sites in their cities, and it was tough getting Commercial Districts or Campus Districts up and running quickly since I had to grow the population to build them.

- Were City-States helpful?

I met the main players too late to do much with them. They certainly helped the snowball and shave some turns off the final time with boosts to tech and gold. However, Nan Madol was pretty money, as I usually have trouble keeping culture pace with tech, so I let them live on my continent. I ended up sending them a ton of trade routes (since I didn't find any commercial city-states to trade with) and they had the best gold value (8-11 GPT). Combined with Trade Confederation, they gave me a great boost to science and culture as well.

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

Trajan coming in so early with so many units. Luckily, I don't trust the Deity AI and he kind of gave me some warning.
How close the other continent was. I actually sailed all the way around the world before I found it and realized. Totally could have started that conquest sooner, I think.
Sumeria being two ages ahead of me, and yet, had almost no military (and what he had consisted of mostly war carts).
Tomyris was all alone in the mid-South. Could have saved about 15-20 turns of just getting my army over there if I would've known sooner.

- Did you enjoy the game?

Hell yeah. I actually played this one in a single sitting. There was always a new phase to the domination just around the corner and it was great trying to time everything just right for maximum efficiency. I was also in doubt a few times that I would even win this one with Trajan's carpet of doom and Sumeria in the modern era when I just hit Industrial. Good times.

 

[bbbearbbb]

Game is crashing at around turn 280 everytime. About to crush Egypt and then Scythia would be last one standing.
Build order was builder, slinger x 8.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Stole an early settler from Rome. Bought another, had around 11 cities on first continent and half dozen on others. Used captured settlers later to secure key resources.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Focused on commerce, then industry, then science. Didn't realise the IZ area bonus has changed post patch til a fair way in.

- What order did you take down your opponents?
Rome, Greece (by about turn 120), Germany, Norway, Sumeria, Russia.
Spent too much time (turn 120-200) teching up as I was scared to attack AI ahead in tech.
From reading above post by fish0311 knights/cavalry/siege engines strategy is much better and I could probably finish game before it crashes. =).

-What did you build for an Army and how did it change?
Started with archers and warriors, upgraded to crossbowmen, then to armies of battleships, ironclads, field cannons, rough riders, and tanks. Then to most modern units.

- Did you use diplomacy? How?
Was allied with Egypt in joint war against Germany but after that all the AI hated me.

- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
Not at all.

- Were City-States helpful?
Not really.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Some rare resources, such as oil, is only available near polar regions. This is good as it forces exploration and forward settling.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes, apart from game crashing. I think the AI should be more forgiving for warmongering especially those that instigate the war.

 

[Hardcorey]

Domination Victory, 1856, Turn 299, Score: 1104

It was messy, but it worked. Basic strategy was to focus on production and science in cities and use civics to focus military.

Major

• Didn't build any culture district, but was able to capture Rome with Chichen Itza and lots of jungle
• Didn't get a religion
• Didn't build any wonders, just got them from taking cities
• Used Carthage to boost trade routes. Had 21 trade routes running at the end with a max of 31
• Settled 5 cities including starting settler.
• Stole 3 or 4 settlers from civs who would just sit a settler in their city
• 31 cities captured
• Took opponents down just based on proximity. Started with Rome and Greece ended with Russia and Scythia on the same turn
• Built armies around artillery w/ balloons, cavalry and machine guns. It worked well.
• Only had about 5 ships

Mistakes

• Focused heavy cavalry so I could take advantage of the Rough Rider only to find that you can't upgrade a Knight to a Rough Rider. Maybe that's true of all specialty units?
• Let some high ranked units die early
• Need to bite the bullet and invest in entertainment districts early on Diety if you plan to war a lot
• Only had 2 encampments for a long time. Should have built a couple more.

I'm glad Domination Victory in a Diety game was picked as a GOTM, because I've tried to play a full game with these settings for a while, but just keep quitting midgame. I find warring for 200+ turns a bit tedious. I'm glad I did it, but it wasn't my favourite GOTM. Looking forward to #6

Spoiler :

 

[CaptainFranz]

Domination Victory 1610 AD, Turn 233, Score: 919

** Please do not consider my game for ranking as I reloaded twice **
I would still like to share my experience, as there were a lot of good lessons learned for me. Considered this was only my 6th Civ 6 game and first on Deity, it was overall easier than I expected. Both reloads were consequences of my poor tactical decisions on attacks and after turn 100. I certainly could have still won the game, but much later as I would have taken a pretty big hit to my main army.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled 9. Other than the capital, 3 early-mid game. 2 fill-ins mid game and 3 late game for luxuries I didn't have access to.
Captured 25.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?

• Techs: opened AH into archery and focused on the bottom part of the tree early. Then stirrups, then mostly prioritized getting techs for better units as soon as possible. Switched focus some, but not too much, to take maximum advantage from eurekas. I was able to boost a good amount of them. Sometimes it wasn't worth it or it would have blocked me for too long, but overall it worked well for me, much better than my previous games.
• Civics: focused on political philosophy early, then feudalism and mercenaries for 50% upgrade discount (huge). Then divine right for monarchy, then mostly straight line. Most important ones for me were nationalism for corps and mobilization for army. I diverged into natural history for zoo as I was running into a bit of trouble with amenities (nothing worse than -1 per city) and I also had urgent need of some envoys for mercantile CS that I just met to boost economy.

In retrospective, I should have tried to get a little bit more culture going earlier. I also should have tried to beeline mercenaries earlier. Pre-building and upgrading units is extremely powerful. I wasn't able to get feudalism early enough to boost stirrups. Ideally I would like to get that and mercenaries as well to have the discount ready to use for horseman to knight upgrade.

- What order did you take down your opponents?
Rome (easy), Greece (fairly easy), Germany (easy), Norway (somewhat hard), Sumeria (easy), Egypt (very easy), Russia (very easy), Scythia (somewhat hard)

• Rome and Greece were mostly done by 100. After 100 I had one Roman city and two Greek left, but Greece still had the majority of its army intact. I wasn't sure what to do and just sit there for a few turns. Then decided to split forces to make things a little faster. Bad idea. The Greek attack was thwarted. That was my first reload. On second attempt, I first took down Rome and then re-focused on Greece, that went much better.
• Then I noticed Germany was just across the sea and took them down pretty easy.
• Norway was the obvious next as they had the strongest military, but I started to run into some trouble with economy. I had a stronger economy earlier, but as I started upgrading units and building more stuff, it kind of ran dry. I had techs for knights and musketman but no money to upgrade and I knew those units were not enough to take Norway, so I had to sit there at least 15-20 turns while trying to boost my economy. I realized one of the issues was that I didn't meet any mercantile CS early. Finally meeting Zanzibar was a life saver, but I had no envoys, ugh! Also, I should have focused more on using trade routes for gold, both by making foreign trade routes and using the +gold on trade routes policy cards. Triangular trade and finally getting those envoys helped me digging out of the hole and finally upgrading some units. I decided to go straight for the capital, although I knew it was risky given its strong defensive position. Bad idea. I couldn't break it. That was the second reload. On the second attempt, I sent my army to the north, took another city, then came down into the capital, that worked out better.
• For Sumeria, I again waited a few turns to get Artillery, then went for it by the sea. Went straight for the capital and got it. Kind of surprised they really didn't have much of an army as they were ahead in tech and they have been a problem for me in previous games. Took one more city, then peace.
• Egypt was a piece of cake, took 2 cities in 1 turn each.
• Russia much the same, although I didn't really know their geography, but at least terrain was easy to move fast with mounted units.
• Scythia was a pretty big pain. I typically build two armies and send them opposite directions. However, in this game I struggled to do that due to higher difficulty. Also, the map didn't particularly lend itself to this approach. Anyways, I finally managed to get together somewhat of an army that I thought would be enough and let my main army sit after conquering Russia. Again, bad idea. I almost reloaded again, but I resisted the temptation this time. I lost some high ranked units mostly to AT units. Sent in a bunch of reinforcements, my main army and a single observation balloon was a saving grace. Finally took them down at 233... with a better plan I could have certainly saved at least 10 turns on this attack.

-What did you build for an Army and how did it change?
My initial army was 3 slingers (soon to be archers) and a warrior, enough to take on Rome. Next upgrade was warrior into swordsman. I started to build a few catapults too. Upgrade to crossbowman is good, but damn expensive without upgrade discount. Once I secured a second source of iron, I knew knights was next, so I started pre-building some heavy chariots. By this time I had 50% discount on upgrades. Then I upgraded infantry to musketman (had niter). Once I was able to secure two horses as well, I started pre-building horsemen for cavalry.
Basically, I used a mix of all units and focused on using the most powerful ones as upgraded became available. It's the first game I really use mounted and that really worked out. I was also somewhat lucky to get access to all resources (even oil for tanks later, although things were almost settled by then). Had a few naval too, but not a big focus.

- Did you use diplomacy? How?
Next to zero. Due to constant war, everybody hated me. Not being able to trade luxuries did hurt somewhat and forced me to build ED by mid game.

- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
Zero.

- Were City-States helpful?
Only having two CS on continent hurt somewhat, especially not having any mercantile. Things got a little better later on. I did send a few envoys to Nan Madol to keep up with culture since Greece had a fair amount of theater districts (actually got that suggestion from the opening actions thread!).

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Being declared on from Rome very early on, which I already discussed in the opening actions thread.
Other than that, I was generally surprised of how little army AI had (other than Scythia maybe) and how little of a threat it was overall after turn 60-100. Nobody else declared on me. The small amount of units from Sumeria was particularly surprising, maybe they had their army wiped out in war with Norway.
Not many other surprises. I made exploration a priority as soon as my continent was secure, so that I knew everybody's location. Even without that, I feel like the various screens (victory, diplomacy) and the map (tooltip) help a lot knowing how strong other people are / where they are / what they are up to. Almost feels like cheating at times.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Absolutely. So many lessons learned. I feel I am quickly becoming a much better player thanks to games of the month and reading what other people are doing. Looking forward to the next one, and no reloads next time!

 

[whacker]

Domination Victory, turn 172.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
I settled 6 cities and conquered 21. I captured a roman settler in turn 16, which gave me a nice early boost.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Mostly techs to get swordsmen, musketmen, crossbows, field canons, knights, tanks and battleships. The only civics i beelined for were Political Philosophy and Mercenaries.

- What order did you take down your opponents?
Rome->Germany->Greece->Norway->Sumeria->Scythia->Egypt->Russia.
I lost several turns because i had no road towards Egypt (should have sent a traderoute towards her) and my siege tower arrived painfully late. It also was the only capital out of battleship range on that continent. Russia gave me some troubles having u-boats, oneshotting my ships. Luckily i decided to take St.Petersburg with ships as soon as i found it, so i could reinforce my fleet with rushbuys. In the end i still needed a tank, because he killed the last melee ship i had in the area.
Norway was by far the hardest enemy because knights were almost outdated. Fortunately battleships became available halfway through the war, ending it quickly.
The rest was fairly easy, becoming a drive by shooting when tanks kicked in.


-What did you build for an Army and how did it change?
I decided that i would use 2 armies and some ships for naval siege assistance. One consisted of archers/swordmen->field canons/muskets, assisted by a battering ram. I used this army to conquer Rome/Carthage and 1 greek city, later on a bit more of Greece and the scythian capital. The second army was sent to the west. It consisted of 8 knights/tanks and 2 siege towers. I did not build knights but timed charriots with mercenaries civic and upgraded them.
My favourite unit was the battleship though. Available pretty early it just kicks ass with range 3 and so much combat strenght. Also the 100% production policy for ships combined with chops makes it so easy to get a lot of quadriremes in no time, not requiring any pre-planning.


- Did you use diplomacy? How?
I sold some luxuries and i had 2 joint wars, later on everyone hated me for warmongering. I wasn`t expecting this to be a diplomatic heavy game in the first place anyway.

- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
Not at all. I didn`t build HS and when i captured some, all prophets were gone.

- Were City-States helpful?
City states came into play rather late. I conquered Carthage early on, other than that there was no interaction until i found Geneva and Seoul around t100. I saved all of my envois and so they provided a lot of science. Later on i also found Stockholm, which is a city state i always try to become suzerain of. The rest of the CS were conquered, useless or i found them too late to be relevant.

- Did you enjoy the game?
This actually was my first domination victory in civ6, i usually prefer SV or CV. Nevertheless i had a lot of fun and i`m glad gotm`s make me play stuff i would skip otherwhise.

 

[CappyAA]

Domination Victory - Turn 267, Score 1284

- How many cities did you settle or capture?

Settled 9, Captured 34 for a total of 43 cities

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?

I beelined straight for Crossbows and Knights to take over my home continent first. Then prioritized getting a strong navy along with some tanks / bombards to plow through the rest.

- What order did you take down your opponents?

Took Rome and Greece out first on my home continent and then split up my armies west and east. Scythia and Germany went down simultaneously. Then Norway, Egypt, Russia, and finally Sumeria.

-What did you build for an Army and how did it change?

This was my first Deity win, so I was focused on defending from barbs. I had a lot of slingers to archers early and took control of my continent that way. I caught up afterwards by getting some knights to help control the land game. As I moved to other continents, I wanted to get battleships to help bombard cities from the waters as I attacked.

- Did you use diplomacy? How?

Not really. Everyone hated me and thought I was a warmonger.

- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.

Nope - I didn't go for a religion and was focused on wiping everyone out.

- Were City-States helpful?

Not really. I didn't get a ton of envoys with anyone off my continent.

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

I was actually just surprised I was able to do as well as I did. I had a really good start and was able to steal a settler from Rome early, so that really helped.

- Did you enjoy the game?

Yes, very much enjoyed it. I am usually not really a warmonger, so early warring threw me a little out of my comfort zone - which is good. It's easier later game when you have stronger armies, but the strategy around sending archers / crossbows / knights to take cities is new to me. So I think I learned a ton and hopefully got better.

 

[Eliminator_Sr]

Yes! I did it - I beat Deity! This one turned into a total race against time - Domination Victory on turn 342 in 1921.

How many cities did you settle or capture?
I captured 25 cities and settled 8

What did you prioritize for research and policies?
After getting stirrups I beelined for Rifling for Rough Riders which unfortunately didn't help me much. By that time Sumeria was more than 20 techs ahead of everyone and they had Mech. Infantry. After that I had to hold out till the modern era for artillery before I could get enough fire power to take them out. I didn't prioritize science that much in this game and I only built two industrial districts so my late game play was a little sloppy. I did utilize the spy policies and my late game was basically spent trying to stop everyone from completing the space ship. Norway and Sumeria both got really close.

What order did you take down your opponents?
Definitely not the optimal one. I was only able to take out Rome and Greece early. Then it was Scythia since they attacked Carthage but it wasn't until 1795. I had two short failed wars against Sumeria in between but they were just too advanced for me to dent their cities. I finally took them out in 1854. Then it was Egypt, Russia, Germany, and Norway last. Norway was tough - they took Germany's capital early and almost won a space race victory - they had 3 space ports constructed and finished the first Mars module. I had to sabotage/pillage them to delay their progress.

What did you build for an Army and how did it change?
Archers and chariots for Rome then Knights and Catapults for Greece. I built a lot Cavalry which couldn't do much of anything against Sumeria but then upgraded them to Helicopters and combined with Artillery to take out Scythia and Sumeria. At the end it was a combination of everything but bombers were probably most key and then Modern Armor and Rocket Artillery for mop up duty. I had tons of submarines everywhere. My military strength was close to 4,000 by the end of the game.

Did you use diplomacy? How?
I tinkered with it a bit just to see if I could ally with someone - I was able to with Norway but everyone else hated me. I had -258 modifiers for war before winning.

Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
Very little - Rome converted most of my cities early but not much after that.

Were City-States helpful?
Heck yes - the Carthage bonus is awesome! I was rolling in cash and buying units like crazy. I was also Suzerain of Zanzibar which gave even more GPT bonuses. I didn't have to worry too much about science and production improvements because of this and just kept churning out units and traders and upgrading older units.

Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Yes, Sumeria was crushing everyone in tech because of all those Ziggerauts. I think they had 67 techs researched before anyone else got 50. They easily would have won if I didn't cripple their space ports.

Did you enjoy the game?
It got a little tedious at the end and I had units going all over the place so it was hard to stay focused. It was quite challenging and allowed me to use a lot of the modern warfare units that I hadn't tried out yet. All in all it was a pretty fun game. I'm not crazy about the American special abilities though the +5 combat boost really helped early on (not sure I would have won without that when the barbs swooped in).

 

[TheJimbob]

Cliff Notes:
I lost to Peter at turn 326. I started a war with him at ~275 to stop his culture victory, but I didn't have enough of a war machine to push onto his main continent.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
16 total cities. My biggest issue was not expanding off the home continent early enough. This caused my mid/late war efforts to require too much transportation time, as any cities on other continents couldn't produce units quickly enough.
- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
I tried pushing flight early on due to my lack of mobility, but regret it. I wish I would have pushed into electricity earlier, as Peter's cities would have been easy enough to target with a fleet of Subs. Combined with a seaport and the power plant, this would have likely changed my ability to push into his capital.
- What order did you take down your opponents?
Greece, then Rome. I was going to work on Scythia next, but Peter had pushed his culture/tourism too high so I had to go after him.
-What did you build for an Army and how did it change?
I had a handful of tanks and artillery units, but focused too much on air units as mentioned above. I'm more or less over air units at this point. They seem fairly underpowered for all the work it takes to set them up. Naval units for Coastal bombard and artillery for continental wars seems better to me.
- Did you use diplomacy? How?
Not really. Everyone was pretty angry with me all game for War Mongering.
- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
It helped boost Peter's tourism, but otherwise not really. There was no threat of a religious victory and I didn't push for religion.
- Were City-States helpful?
Carthage was crucial to keeping pace throughout the game. Encampments that give trade routes are just too strong. I eventually suzerain'ed Amsterdam as well, but that was a bit back and forth.
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
To be honest, I hadn't played on Deity yet, so I was pretty happy with how well I did.
- Did you enjoy the game?
Yep, time for 6otm06 or 07.

 

[CPWimmer]

Domination [edited from saying "diplomatic"] Victory on Turn 287 Score 1040 - My first Deity victory!

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
34 total: founded 7 {5 on my home continent & 2 luxury colonies} & captured/peace dealed the rest

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
After turn 102 (6otM05 Opening Actions found here) I focused on Military Techs: Steel, Flight, Electricity, Combustion / Combined Arms, Adv Flight, Stealth & Fission (but I didn't get as far as building any nukes)
While my post turn 102 Civics focused on Govt & Amenities Civics: Exploration, Natural History, Mobilization,Class Struggle & Pro Sports

- What order did you take down your opponents?
Captured Rome at turn 102, followed by 50 turns of peace before taking on Greece (which was the only Civ I wiped out completely) when they DoWed me. Next was "Germany" via Norway which had most of their land. Norway itself was too well prepared to finish off, so I turned eastward to take on Scythia. I then continued to take my Navy east to Russia & Egypt (who fell back to back almost simultaneously under the siege of 3 ranged Battleships and Arty). Then we sailed south to Norway's capital (for real this time), and once Nidaros was bombed into submission I quickly followed up by capturing the capital of Sumeria thanks to long range Jet Bombers and a quick Modern Armor take down.

- What did you build for an Army and how did it change?
Turn 102 (Fall of Rome): Battering Ram, Galley, Crossbow, 4x Archers, 2x Swordsmen, 2x Spearmen, 2x Catapult
<Support:1, Naval Melee: 1, Ranged:5, Melee:2, Anti-Cav:2, Siege :2>

Turn 186 (Fall of Athens): Ram, Privateer, Galley, Caravel, 4x Crossbow, 3x musketmen, 2x Pikemen, 3x Knight, 1x Cavalry, 3x Bombard
<Naval Ranged: +1, Naval Melee: +1, Ranged:-1, Melee: +1, Cavalry: +4, Siege:+1>

Turn 218 (Fall of Frankfurt - after taking Aachen): Ram, Privateer Fleet, x3 Frigate, Battleship, Battleship Fleet, Ironclad, Caravel, 3x Field Cannon, Musketman, Pikeman, 3x Knight, x1 Cavalry, Bombard, Bombard Corps
<Naval Ranged: +5, Ranged: -1, Melee: -1, Anti-Cav:-1, Siege: combined into Corps>

Turn 242 (Fall of Pokrovka): Ram, Obvs Balloon, Privateer Fleet, x2 Privateer, x5 Battleship, Battleship Fleet, x2 Ironclad, 3x Field Cannons, Field Cannon Corps, Musketman, Musketman Corps, Pikeman, 3x Knight, x2 Rough Riders, x1 Cavalry, x2 Artillery, x2 Artillery Corps
<Support:+1, Naval R: +3, Ranged: +1 corps, Melee:+1 Corps, Cav: +2UU, Seige: +2>

Turn 274 (Fall of Ra-Kadet): Ram, x2 Obvs Balloon, x3 Bombers, x3 Mustangs, x2 Carriers, Sub Fleet, x2 Subs, x8 Battleshisp, Battleship Fleet, x3 Destroyers, 3x Field Cannon, Field Cannon Corps, Infantry, Infantry Corps, x2 Pikemen, x4 Tanks, Tank corps, x3 Rough Riders, Rough Rider Corps, Helicopter corps, x3 Artillery Corps
<Support:+1, Air: +6, Naval Support:+2, Naval R: +3, Naval M: +1, Anti-Cav:+1, Cav:+4, Seige: combined into Corps>

Turn 287 (Fall of Uruk): Ram, x2 Obvs Balloon, x6 Jet Bombers, x3 Mustang, x2 Carriers, Sub Fleet, x3 Sub, x6 Battleship, Battleship Fleet, Battleship Armada, x3 Destroyer, 3x Field Cannon, Field Cannon corps, x2 Infantry, Infantry Corps, x2 Pikemen, x2 Tank, x5 Modern Armor, Modern Armor Corps, Rough Rider, Rough Rider Corps, Helicopter Corps, x3 Artillery Corps
<Air:+3, Naval R: Fleet formed, Melee:+1, Cav:+1>

- Did you use diplomacy? How?
I had an early Joint War with my BFF Greece vs. Rome (89-102) - then once I had the city of Rome itself, I peaced out allowing Roman troops to descend on Greece - weakening both sides. Later I was BFF and then held a long term Alliance with Gilgamesh after he had surprised DoWed me but I beat back his higher tech units. I then changed to his Govt and all was forgiven for about 100 turns (war 127-137, BFF 142, ally 185-278). The alliance with Gily allowed me to sell extra resources off and on.

- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
Not much. By turn 75 all 5 religions had been founded (none by me). By turn 100 Rome and converted our entire home continent to Taoism. After that there were slight shifts in the balance of power, but nothing ever significant.

- Were City-States helpful?
Not at first, but somewhere around 150 when i had met a few i had 3 envoys with a lot of them, helping my economy and civics. Aside from Carthage I didn't maintain consistent Suzerian status with any of them though.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
1. Surprised at how close Germany and Greece were - apparently sent my opening Galley the wrong way around the continent.
2. Gilgy's Tech lead! - I made friends with him, and just saved him to the end where he was no longer 3 eras ahead of me.
3. Amenity issues and the resulting riots/barb units in the mid-game - solved this with zoos once i got the civic, plus 2 luxury cities: St. Louis Island for Fur and Pearls and the Charleston Tundra for Cotton and Marble north of Seoul.
4. The amount of blue on the map (only Germany, Russia and Scythia really stood out on the mini map) - even some of the city states blended in with the way Norway, Sumerian and the US were dominating most of the map.
5. How much Norway beat up on Gilgamesh - one thing I didn't mention above was that although Gilgamesh was the Tech leader they didn't have a sizable army. Norway actually took a few of their cities at one point - halting their progress of their Space Race victory. Gilgamesh was the only one to launch a satellite, before they lost a few of their key production centers to Norway.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Heck yeah! Although twice I got really discouraged (the pre-turn 102 barb horse rush during my 1st Roman war and the discovery of the huge tech lead Gilgamesh had at turn 124 followed by him DOW'ing me 2 turns later). However I manged to battle back and triumph. I'm not sure if I'll tackle Deity again any time soon - especially with Domination not being my favorite strategy. I'm pretty sure that Russia would have had a Culture win, before I had a Victory of some kind if I hadn't taken over 3 of his cities. I'm quite glad I didn't leave him until last.

 

[torsteinvh]

Domination Victory, Turn 222, 1555 AD, Score: 680

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled six, three of them with captured settlers. Two of them very late, one to aid in the attack on Scythia, the other to grab oil.
Captured 17. Didn't capture more cities than necessary.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Anything related to military

- What order did you take down your opponents?
Rome and Greece first, then a small pause before i took Germany, Sumeria and Egypt. At that time Norway looked a bit too strong, sword armies against my knights, so I let them be and took out Scythia and Russia with tanks after a brief pause. Had to bring some of the tanks back to take Norway, that delayed victory with about 10 turns.

-What did you build for an Army and how did it change?
Rome and Greece were captured with archers and warriors. Germany, Sumeria and Egypt captured mostly with horses, chariots and knights later on. Supported by archers and siege towers. Scythia, Russia and Norway with tanks and field cannons, a couple of corps and armies at the end.

My favorite strategy is marching siege towers backed by strong infantry up to the cities, then attacking with horses/chariots/knights/tanks with some ranged support. With a mobile attack force I'm able to withdraw damaged units before they are destroyed, and build up their experience. I think almost all my tanks in the end were upgraded knights, I don't think I built a single tank.

I have completely stopped using catapults/bombard. They are slow to bring to the front, and are almost always targeted first by city defenses. Observation balloons help, but this game was finished long before flight.

- Did you use diplomacy? How?
No, not really. Everone hated my pretty much from the start.

- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
I didn't build any religious infrastructure myself, but I used faith generated in the captured cities together with Theocracy to buy units.

- Were City-States helpful?
Not very, I had one envoy in most of them just to get the basic bonus.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Not too many surprises, really. Had to bypass Norway as the had armies very early, that was about it suprise wise.
My own stupidity suprised me a couple of times though: I managed to research both battleships and tanks long before coal and oil...

- Did you enjoy the game?
Oh yes, very much so

 

[Half Nelson]

Domination victory turn 270. A bit better than 6oTM4 IIRC. I tried the cavalry / tanks approach rather than mech inf this game:- modern armour armies are quite the thing but jet bombers make everything a lot easier. I had a slow start due to missing out on Roman settler grabs (1 move away from capturing 2 of them!). I was rather safety-first with my intercontinental invasions and could have shaved off a few turns by taking more risks. I did get a GG this time and faith-bought a couple of Rough Riders:- I think these would be much more useful in a non-domination scenario. Scythia was a major irritation mid-game with her horseman hordes but otherwise no-one put up much resistance. Germany in particular (as in previous game) had a large, well-developed area with virtually no defence. No more domination (or Teddy R) for me in the near future!

 

[MiniMe]

Domination Victory, Turn 195, Score: 846

Fun game. Just remembering to submit before the deadline

 

[leif erikson]

This game is closed as time has run out.

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