6otM119 AAR

[Eyswein]

Welcome to the 6otM119 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/Golden 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.

 

[Dekrznator]

Defeat turn 28

Turn 1SIP ...sent warrior to look around.
Soon after met Vietnam...got denounced 1 turn later
Warrior was clearing barb village south of capitol when another barb camp spawned north of city...in 5 turns that took my warr to come home Vietnam declared war and had 3 warriors at my gates+barbarians sent galley which helped in attacking my city...at same time i produced slinger and bought another warrior but it was impossible do defend...

Fastest defeat I had in any civ game ever..... :sad panda:
My profile picture accurately describes my feelings right now.

 

[Eyswein]

Defeat turn 28

Sorry to hear this! But at least it was a first? Annoyed as I thought I tested this enough to avoid such an event: never had the Vietnam + barb galley experience in any of the test starts; crazy insane. Hopefully for the next iteration of Civ they have a scaling AI by era instead of a huge bonus up front so it is not a behind to start, catch up, in the lead; instead, a competitive challenge in every era would be much better.

 

[Dekrznator]

Sorry to hear this! But at least it was a first?

Yeah...that came out wrong. I meant that I was never wiped out of the game before...I have lost in science victory, cultural etc...but never by being removed from world stage

 

[Chrumo]

Defeat turn 34. On unofficial second playthrough I did better, and got defeated on turn 40 The barb camps were always the culprits which stretch my units too thin, and then comes Vietnam to snatch the city. Of course even on the second playthrough I played somewhat greedy, since the starting location is not very lucrative.

I guess there is no other way to play this out than to pump out at least 3 archers before settling second city. Although it will be extremely hard economically to come back Very difficult game to manage on a blind playthrough, without knowing what lies ahead.

 

[Victoria]

On turn 36 I lost my cap and it was not looking good, barbs at sea no way round Vietnam. So playing again.
T100 I have taken out Vietnam (Nasty business)and am current banging out Moai but way behind on science, still great fun. So 10 cities by T76, I think I have 12 now.
Divine Spark was the only thing left of use, lady of the reeds sounds good but you want the Moai space and the pop to work em.
Pammukale is great, you really have to take Vietnam out to fly in this game.
I just did a highly concentrated light horse rush ignoring 1 pop cities and going for the big cities, still woods and Vietnam was not a hot combo to take out.
Amani was my start just to help out against these tree people and not really met many others, stole a settler which wierdly landed from offshore in front of my warrior and Sweden gave me a city as they had settled the other side of a desert.
Normal then golden, probably be normal again but hey, I am alive and doing well.

 

[Dekrznator]

Everybody is gangsta until trees start speaking vietnamese!!

 

[Rutseg]

Defeat, T49, Score 45, 1 h

Well, this month was a quick one

Forgot to send delegation to Ba Trieu in first turn. Result, war and defeat after she stole a settler and worker, then conquered Rio de Janeiro. My second city lasted 10 more turns, Rio had already revolted and would have turned back to me. I could have survived because I recovered my settler, but a stupid Barbarian Scout one hit killed my damaged Warrior, killing my chance to fund a third city and turn Rio back to me in a few turns.

Spoiler Full log :

1 - Ancient Era; Kalaharia Rio de Janeiro
5 - Rapa Nui
8 - Warrior
11 - Animal Husbandry Ayutthaya Ba Trieu
12 - Code of Laws Lake Retba
14 - Village (+1 envoy)
20 - Settler
23 - Astrology Slinger
25 - Curitiba
29 - Pottery
32 - Builder
34 - Foreign Trade
35 - Settler
36 - Barbarian camp (Irrigation)
37 - Ba Trieu declares war on me Settler Worker
40 - Rio de Janeiro
44 - Warrior
45 - Holy site
46 - Slinger
47 - Archery
49 - Classical Era (Free Inquiry) Early Empire Victor
50 - Craftsmanship Warrior Curitiba

Spoiler City build queue :

Rio de Janeiro (T1): Warrior > Settler > Slinger € Builder > Settler > Trader Warrior
Curitiba (T25): Holy site (+6) > Warrior > Archer

 

[Planktonic]

Wow ... I can't believe I am the first to post a victory.

CV, turn 222/223

This was a CV, but it was in some sense really a domination game, since in order to flourish it was immediately apparent you had to take out Vietnam. I also had a barb camp spawn very close to me very early, but luckily I had my warrior nearby and even more luckily Rapa Nui took an interest and actually wiped out the barb camp before I could. At the time I was ticked 'cause I thought they cost me some era score; reading the above I see that they did me a huge favor!

The other critical thing was that I founded three cities before going to war with Vietnam, and they had access to 4 horse tiles. I also prioritized getting Maneuver, so I was able to keep pumping out a new horseman from 2 of my cities every 5 turns. Even with that, it took over a full era to finally beat Vietnam. I really don't want to have to fight Vietnam again... those Voi Chien and the Drive out the Aggressors trait are really formidable. They had founded 6 cities; I razed the first peripheral small city, then went directly for the capital. Was able to take it but may not have been able to hold it except for one thing: they had built an Entertainment Center, which I took care not to pillage, so Bread and Circuses to the rescue. Plus, although the war started in the mid-Classical with Vietnam in a Golden Age and me in a Normal Age, in just 6 or 7 turns after the capture of the capital the Era turned, and I was still in Normal but Vietnam also fell back into Normal, which helped immensely.

Once Vietnam was out of the picture, it was basically Sim City to 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?
Plan was to get every monopoly I could and do the usual Great Works thing for tourism. I did immediately get a religion because I knew a high faith output would be important, so why not get the benefits of the religious beliefs as well?

- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
The adjacencies for rainforest were nice, and the 20% Great People refund were nice, but otherwise not much. I built multiple Street Carnivals and Copacabanas but didn't project much. Never bothered to build a Minas Geraes.

- How many cities did you settle and/or capture? Where did you settle your first few cities?
Settled 3 initially, captured 4 from Vietnam, then settled 11 more, got one from Sweden from loyalty flipping. Settled the cap in place, settled the second by Lake Retba to get the nearby horse tiles and the era score, settled the third to get the last available horse tile.

- What did you prioritize for technology/civics?
Astrology first and foremost; got the religion with little fuss after a few Holy Site prayers. After Astrology, beelined to Horsemanship.

- What were key production/purchase focuses? Military units / Civilian units / Districts & city development / Wonders / Civ Unique Unit & Infrastructure? Most critical or interesting?
For over a full era, all three cities did nothing but make horsemen for the war against Vietnam. Only after that was done (it took ~ 50 - 60 turns) did I start to actually build out an empire. Then I didn't build or buy a single other land unit for the entire game.

- Pantheon chosen and why? Religious beliefs chosen, and why?
River Goddess to boost cities with Holy Sites. Founded the second religion (Vietnam built Stonehenge first, and actually converted my cap city before I got my Great Prophet and founded my own religion, reclaiming it). Chose Choral Music and Tithe. Although Tithe was definitely helpful early, I should've gone with Cross Cultural Dialogue in retrospect as I was lagging in science most of the game, which finished before I completed either Computers or Environmentalism (although I was working on both at end turn).

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

- Which Governors were most important; when and why?
Pingala and Amani early, then Moksha with Divine Architect to pop out districts in new cities quickly. Never used Magnus at all.

- Was diplomacy/trading useful? How? Relations with other civs?
They were so distant they never were much of a threat after Vietnam was dispatched.

- Were City-States helpful? Any competition with other civs for key city states?
Useful to boost yields as usual, and Rapa Nui was critically helpful early, otherwise nothing unusual.

- When did you have Dark/Golden ages?
Normal Classical and Medieval, then Golden Renaissance, Industrial and Modern

- How did the game modes affect or impact your play?
- How were the Barbarians?
Monopolies obviously made it possible to score a very early CV (for me); I had six of them across the two continents accessible. Barbarians were often annoying but in my case obviously not fatal....

- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Battling Vietnam was a very very near thing; taking their capital was pretty joyful.

- Did you enjoy your game?
I really enjoyed this one, since there was an absolutely nail biting domination sequence that then transitioned to an even more fun empire-building sequence. I got pretty lucky as above, but also felt that this might have been the best game I ever played, so thanks for an awesome game!

 

[stevenzwart]

Reading all of the above I didn't do so badly, although no victory. I settled on the spot, sent out a few scouts that found the natural wonder, raided some barbarian camps. Founded a second city near the natural wonder and a third on the coast up north. I was building the Oracle wonder in the capital, but someone finished ahead of me, so I switched to hanging gardens.
Then Vietnam declared war on me, I managed to hold of for some time (I had 3 slingers ready that I immediately could promote to archers). Then they conquered my city, but I managed to take it back after some time. In the meantime they were also attacking my city in the north, with the help of Rapa Nui. I could hold them off for a long time but then came the elephants, and finally they conquered and destroyed Manaus. I played some time on, building a new city on the same spot, but most of my production went into buying units because the war with Vietnam was still going on. They got stronger units, I only had archers and horseman, so I gave it up after a while, somewhere in the medieval era I think...

 

[Victoria]

CV T188 on second attempt
I am so rusty! I have not played for a few months, did not meet others soon enough, set up and maintain my trade routes well enough and did not push science well enough.
With corporations, culture is less important than it was, the % gain is just crazy
Going to play again to get sharper again.

Spoiler :

The Holy site considers itself in woods and so I could not build Moai around it

 

[Sid Baker]

This felt like one of those hands of Bridge where you have like zero points; You know you they'll make the contract, but you consider it a win if you manage a couple of tricks.

Retired (quit) turn 284. Maya/Vietnam were close to 300 (of 610) visitors, I was at 84. Everyone but Ethiopia and me was building space parts, I was stealing techs as far back as Economics. No way I was catching up.

Only survived the early game because I had time to suz Aytthaya and Rapa, otherwise I would have been toast around turn 40. Parking a galley in Rio saved the day too. Vietnam did that "never peace" thing, was stuck defending until around turn 120.

Found those nice uninhabited islands to the north east much too late, too much time defending. Maybe if you get walls up quicker, you can let them throw themselves at them while you send settlers out to sea?

Anywho, glad to see I'm at least in the ballpark of other players for once.

 

[isopaha]

Wow, kind of surprised to see how challenging this game was for everybody. Though I was no different, I stopped playing around turn 100.

I used my first worker to scout the Northern islands early and wanted to play peacefully. I was at 3 cities basically the whole game, SIP and then 2 cities near the natural wonder. Strategy was to build 3 very quick TS and then settle more cities. I built a defensive force and started building 3 horsemen (TS were completed or near completion at this point). However, at this point I noticed Vietnam take a credible force (2 catapults etc.) to take out Rapa Nui and I had to prevent this. My force even before the horsemen was capable (barely, because I was unable to melee attack units in Rapa Nui territory) of achieving that, but in hindsight I should have realized Vietnam was weaker than I thought and I could have taken her out. Just 2 or even 1 more horsemen would have done it probably.

From my CS saving mission I switched my army to attack one Vietnamese city. I made some progress and did not lose any units, but it was all too slow. At a later stage even 2 men-at-arms did not completely devastate me as I used my units smartly and Vietnam did not. However, I was running into all kinds of trouble during this prolonged war: very slow science (and kinda slow culture as well), financial trouble and worst of all: slowly but surely losing loyalty in my border city even with focusing all civics and even governors to this task. End result was that I was one turn from taking the first city (way too slowly) and at that same turn finally lost the loyalty on my bordering city.

Even if I had managed to take that Vietnamese city, I doubt I would have been able to take out whole of Vietnam or even keep that one city. But if my war efforts (with the added horsemen) would have been much faster, I think this would have been a good game. Strange that Vietnam did not build any walls. However, her cities were quite large and plentiful, so that hindered my efforts as well.

 

[Victoria]

but it was all too slow

Yes, I opened with a slinger and rushed horses fast including chopping them in, even then I lost an archer, 2 warriors and a horseman. Damn Ent men.

 

[Tarry]

Gave up at about turn 40.
Barb camp spawned just outside my city, scout instantly spotted me. Many barbs spawning. Vietnam declared war turn 32ish.
They are taking capitol next and turn my archer just built in city prevented the unit there from attacking and saving it.

- Did you enjoy your game?
No

 

[Kraftster]

Managed to avoid war with Vietnam, but gave up when Vietnam flipped my holy city two turns after a hurricane wiped out a settler headed NW. Going to try to replay since I'm still just getting my feet wet on diety.

 

[Victoria]

Going to try to replay since I'm still just getting my feet wet on diety.

slinger opening into horseman is a fairly standard opening on deity and I feel is the best approach.
I had a play around and you can still get a religion after archery if you really want to go the relic route.
Those sea barbarians are just such a stymie on the game as well as a strong Thai start that you need to go west.
It’s been quite interesting to play the game a few times

 

[dzn]

- 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 lost several times but this was actually my first time getting back into playing civ in maybe 6 months. I followed Planktonic's path a bit after losing several times, quite brutally.

- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
Yeah I mean it's Brazil so defiantly take advantage of the great people bonus.

- How many cities did you settle and/or capture? Where did you settle your first few cities?
The first war was brutal, I only captured the capital, and that was last after raising everything else.
First city was on spawn, the next two went after the horses.
Had 21 cities in the end. I got a couple off of France, and one flipped from Sweden.

- What did you prioritize for technology/civics?
It was a mix, I was always behind in tech even at the end, but I just went for tech that would help with Tourism, same with culture really, had the end goal in sight.

- What were key production/purchase focuses? Military units / Civilian units / Districts & city development / Wonders / Civ Unique Unit & Infrastructure? Most critical or interesting?
Did not get anything special

- Pantheon chosen and why? Religious beliefs chosen, and why?
Can't recall, but I inherited the religion from Vietnam, I didn't even realize I could purchase city center improvements until way later, I spent a lot upgrading walls for later tourism bonus, I think by the time I could do rock bands I was only making maybe 60 religion a day. I had to block rival rock bands because they were spamming hard.

- What governments did you select? What key policy cards did you use? Why?
Yeah a mix at first to fight Vietnam, then just monarchy -> merchant -> democracy -> digital democracy. Pretty much my usual.

- Which Governors were most important; when and why?
Whatshisname with the science and culture bonuses.

- Was diplomacy/trading useful? How? Relations with other civs?
Really good relations with everyone except Vietnam and France, had allies most of the game.

- Were City-States helpful? Any competition with other civs for key city states?
The barbarians spawned new city states, didn't know they did that, I got most of the city states, I guess they were useful.

- When did you have Dark/Golden ages?
Had a few golden ages, it was pretty easy to maintain above the threshold due to artifacts and great people, and I got the Taj Mahal.

- How did the game modes affect or impact your play?
I only founded one corporation, I forgot I needed great merchants, the barb clans were interesting and quite aggressive at times.

- How were the Barbarians?
Aggressive, and it was almost like some city states just let them walk right by to attack me, but you got good boosts from killing them.

- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
The whole game is about the start with Vietnam, really annoying and painful, like I said I played this many times.

- Did you enjoy your game?
Yeah I did but it was tough, I want to get into playing more deity again, I sorta fell back a skill level or two because I found deity really tough sometimes... but seeing the other posts and knowing it was tough for everyone gave me some confidence - as did seeing the win from Planktonic - like I knew it was possible, I think he obviously did a lot better but I'm happy to finish. Think this is my first time posting too.

 

[tarafran]

CV 208
settled in place ,went for a fast religion before they were all gone.
Vietnam declared twice on me so I had to wipe out with the help of my 2. Suz culture CS.
After that I was friend with all the civ and coasted to victory
All golden Age
Great game
Thanks

 

[DanQuayle]

CV T144

Events
I got denounced very early on by Vietnam after meeting them. However, they didn't show any sign of aggressivity and even turned friendly afterwards.
With all the horses lying around, I did a horsemen rush. However, it was about 5 turns later than usual. Trying to found a religion at the same time didn't help.
I managed to take 3 cities from Vietnam including its capital before they got walls. One city was bound to flip to me anyway once Vietnam would get out of its golden age due to its location. The other city was a high pop city that I wanted them to keep anyway to stay alive and accrue visiting tourists against them. However, it was a very high pop city generating a lot of pressure and I had to slot loyalty cards to stay afloat. Add to this the Drive Out The Aggressors ability and it was a bit of a sluggish war.
Later, I took Sweden down with levied Men-at-Arms and a Siege Tower.
Vietnam founded the only other religion on the continent (with Stonehenge) and didn't produce any religious unit when left on 1 city. I had to walk my apostles all over the map to get some relics. I didn't get any before reaching the Renaissance and picking Exodus of the Evangelists.

Tourism
8 GWoW
4 Relics
3 Sculptures
Holy City and some Wonders
Missed on Oracle, Pyramids and Colosseum

Golden Ages
Monumentality, Monumentality, Exodus

Monopolies
Jade (10)
Honey (10)
Cotton (10)
3% * 7 * 30 = 630%
Last luxury was improved on T144
The bulk of the tourism output was done at 400-500% during the last 20-30 turns.

Tourism modifiers
I finally bothered to check how the different multipliers interact with each other. The insane monopoly modifier made it easier to figure out. It turns out that the "Different religion" and "The Enlightenment" modifiers are multiplicatives.
Here is the formula I came up with:
Effective_modifier = (1+Diff_Rel%)*(1+Enligh%)*(1+Gov%+Trade%+OB%+Monopoly%)
Thus, relics are not completely useless pass turn 115 if you have a high monopoly modifier.

Weird things I noticed in this game
After being victim of a natural disaster, I passed an Aid Request on the World Congress. Despite being denounced by all AIs, some of them backed my proposal. However, none participated to it (all scores staying at zero).
I was receiving Niter from a vassal city state despite not having unlocked the required tech.
On T145, Vietnam convinced China to participate in a joint war against me. Vietnam had a very small outstanding army (being left on 1 city). It looks like walking one of my unescorted settler near one of their unit triggered their decision to declare war. (However, they couldn't even capture my settler on that turn.)