6otM125 AAR

Eyswein · Dec 15, 2021

Welcome to the 6otM125 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.

isopaha · Jan 5, 2022

CV T321. No submits yet? I also had to play the last 10 turns almost 2 weeks later due to not being home.

Don't really have any idea how much the Chateaus and especially the court project helped in attaining the victory. I ran exclusively this unique project instead of any TS Festivals. I'm not familiar with the mechanism. At last turn I had a total of x resources: 9 coffee, 3 cotton, 1 diamond, 5 incence, 8 spices, 1 tea, 3 tobacco, 1 whale, 2 wine, 4 turtles (from Resources screen). This means I deduct 1 from each of those -> 27 excess, which would provide 27*50 = 1350 tourism, which is 72% of my base tourism output. The projects are so costly to produce, I'd say I was able to finish a project in any of my cities probably every 3rd turn at most, meaning the input to my tourism would be about 24% of my per-turn-output.

I assume it hurts to trade away any luxuries, even if you get another (fresh) luxury in return? Luxuries from CS work as would your local ones? Seems like the victory date would have been similar with just having at least one UI CS in the game.

I had 75 GW in total, probably they served a more significant role. Rock Bands did not do much here. Just 6 wonders, not much help there either.

I was peaceful but converted 3 cities from Cyrus and 1 from Russia. At some point it seemed more cities might be 'joining the flow', but that did not happen after all. The last one from Cyrus was strange, as it was converted by a lone satellity city that I founded by a barbarian stolen settler. Total amount of cities was 17.

Planktonic · Jan 5, 2022

CV, turn 231 (per HOF)

But it was technically a repeat playthrough- I started the game weeks ago and got through 30+ turns and then lost power in an electrical storm. When I went to resume the game a day or two later, the computer instead loaded the Krampus save, and I got interested in that and played it through (not too well as it turns out), not thinking that I would lose my autosaves for GOTM 125. So after the holidays I had to go back to the beginning and started again- I did pretty much all the same things as far as I can remember, but it wasn't my very first encounter with the map. But it was a very interesting game, especially since it was the first time trying this mechanic for me.

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 decided to focus everything on the Court Festival project, and use other mechanisms only when convenient. That meant I needed to focus on production to try to get as many projects done as possible. So my goal was to have Theater Square, a Holy Site (with Work Ethic) and an IZ (+/- workshop) in as many cities as possible and improve as many tiles as possible. I did want to have a strong faith economy, as I consider it is extremely versatile and especially so for a CV, since it enables Naturalists and Rock Bands. I never used any Naturalists, but did use about a half dozen Rock Bands, 3 of which died quickly but 1 became a massive success, giving 14000 - 19000 tourism per concert at the end.

I also wanted to maximize the number of luxuries I controlled, so that meant war to gain some territory. I first had a long conflict with Cyrus in the Classical which ended with his elimination, and later opted to take 3 Egyptian cities that were relatively close as they controlled 10 luxuries between them.

- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
Didn't know what to expect from it, but centered everything around maximizing my ability to do the Court Festival project. Never built a Garde Imperiale, made only 1 Chateau for Era score, and myself built only 1 Wonder (Kilwa), although I captured three others.

- How many cities did you settle and/or capture? Where did you settle your first few cities?
16 total, settled 10, captured 3 from Cyrus, 3 from Cleo. Settled the cap on the incense for the faith bonus, settled the 2nd city NW to get three horse tiles.

- What did you prioritize for technology/civics?
Astrology first and foremost- I definitely wanted Work Ethic and Tithe and was reasonably confident I could get them since neither is a priority for the AI. After Astrology, beelined to Horsemanship. After that, tried to slow my tech development as much as possible, concentrating on reaching military units (musketmen, cuirassiers) until the end, when I started going for Industrialization to help with production as the Court Festival projects were getting costlier and costlier. Once the projects started completing I was surprised at how fast I rocketed through the Civics tree, reaching Rock Bands pretty early and allowing for that to help speed the game.

- What were key production/purchase focuses? Military units / Civilian units / Districts & city development / Wonders / Civ Unique Unit & Infrastructure? Most critical or interesting?
Horsemen and then Swordsmen to war with Cyrus, Musketmen to war with Cleo. Only built Kilwa to get the bonus for faith generation after suzeraining Chinguetti and Jerusalem. Again, concentrated on Holy Sites and IZs; did not build a single campus, didn't even repair any pillaged campuses, and only built 1 Commercial Hub.

- Pantheon chosen and why? Religious beliefs chosen, and why?
Religious settlements (for obvious reasons); Work Ethic and Tithe, the former to help with production, the latter to reduce my need for Commercial Hubs. I recruited the last Great Prophet probably around turn 50 but didn't activate until turn ~120, after I had had a chance to build Holy Sites in about a half-dozen cities.

- What governments did you select? What key policy cards did you use? Why?
Oligarchy to Monarchy to Theocracy to Communism. Communism is a great boon to this strategy for the production boost to cities with Governors!

- Which Governors were most important; when and why?
Magnus with Provision early; Moksha with Divine Architect to help later cities get districts quickly; ended up using all governors in cities making Court Festival projects.

- Was diplomacy/trading useful? How? Relations with other civs?
Friendly/allied with Pericles most of the game; was friendly with QSH for a long time but then he DOWed me at the end (to little effect).

- Were City-States helpful? Any competition with other civs for key city states?
Immensely helpful. Suzed Wolin early and levied their troops which were critical to defeating Cyrus. The Wolin bonus earned me a Great General (I never built an encampment) which was critical to conquering 3 of Cleo's cities. Hong Kong of course for the production bonus. Chinguetti and Jerusalem + Kilwa for added faith.

- When did you have Dark/Golden ages?
Normal Classical and Medieval, Golden Renaissance, Normal Industrial and finally a Dark Modern (but it didn't matter at that point).

- How were the Barbarians?
Minor annoyance, not really a factor.

- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Amazed at how much tourism the Court Festival projects produce, even without trade routes (I had none to other civs) and mostly closed borders. Each project was gaining me about 9 -10 tourists on completion at the end, and just demolishing the Civics tree. I ended up with 35 excess luxuries, so was getting some 1750 tourism I guess with each project. I had about eight cities doing nothing but running projects from around turn 160 (when I started the first one) to turn 232 (when I got the Victory screen). One confusing thing: I only had 7 Great Works- 6 books and 1 piece of music, plus a Holy City, plus 4 Wonders, but my base tourism was still listed at 155. That does not compute afaict. Does the Court Festival project somehow increase basal turn-by-turn tourism as well? Was also surprised at my ability to generate gold- I'm netting 197 gpt (16 of that is from Deals) despite having only a single Commercial Hub and no Harbors.

- Did you enjoy your game?
Very much- really didn't know what to expect but it looks like my plan worked out OK. Although I've heard that this is a very powerful mechanic and suspect others will be sub-200 and maybe even sub-150 or -100 ???

One last curious thing: I got a Victory Screen after turn 232, in the HOF it's listed as turn 231, but after clicking "Just One More Turn..." in the game itself it shows me as having 274/286 tourists, which would mean I didn't win yet. I've never seen this before, I guess QSH had a burst of domestic tourism going into turn 233 after my win was already registered? So I'm also attaching a screenshot of the HoF documenting the CV at turn 231.

Thanks again for yet another great game!

arthur486 · Jan 16, 2022

CV @ Turn 153
I went on my usual route for culture victories, but tried to adapt it to Catherine's Court Festival. Played a completely peaceful game, settled 14 cities and tried to find & declare friendship with all opponents, adding open borders and trade routes. Did not know that they don't apply to the festival's bonus - this wasted quite a lot of turns :undecide:

. Should have stuck to building TS's exclusively everywhere, chopping a round of festivals and called it a day.

Managed to get ~35 extra luxuries from settling cities strategically and buying up luxuries from the opponents. The good thing with higher levels is that AIs have much more resources available, so that also helps the player develop faster. Again, I did not plan well ahead, as more builders and a chopping plan would have resulted in a much better victory time.

Anyways, the game was very enjoyable, so as always, thank you to the 6otM team!

Arnold_T · Jan 17, 2022

CV t262
this is a replay. I rage quitted the first attempt when it seemed the Barbs and Persia had an evil alliance against me.

I re-started the game with aggression, taking out Persia and half of Egypt's cities. I resurrected Persia by liberating a city he had lost due to Loyalty. I didn't know the real enemy was going to be China though. I never really figured out the Court Festival thing works. It didn't seem worth it to spend so many turns of production on generating so little tourism. And it's not really clear how much tourism it generates. Is it 25 per lux you have resources of? or 25 per copy? can you buy extra copies of luxs from the AI for extra tourism? is the generated tourism counted against each AI civ? or is it split between the AI civs? is it affected by open borders and trade route modifiers? I guess I could have figured out the answers to all those questions with careful note taking and experimentation, but I decided just to go military against China and eliminate him for the win. but by the time I got there with sufficient force I managed to get the CV. It's was an interesting and challenging game. Thanks guys, for another good 6otm!

Eyswein · Jan 17, 2022

Arnold_T said:
I never really figured out the Court Festival thing works.

Hmm, guess I should have posted a Court Festival guide for this one. Court Festival can be insane. You generate 50 x (# excess copies of luxury resources) culture and tourism. The tourism is applied in full to each civilization whether you've met them or not, but also is NOT adjusted for things like open borders.

It applies for each excess, so if your total luxury count by unique luxury is 1,7,5,5,4,2,3,5,2 via owning them, city states, and trading, that would be 25 excess luxury resources. Completing a court festival project would yield 1250 culture and then 1250 tourism to each other civilizations (with 9 other civs, that is 11,250 tourism total :cool:

- much better than a rock band).

In my full run through test game (not fair comparison as I try a few starts for playability, etc. and know too much about the map) I won while still generating only 4 tourism per turn :eek:

(1 great work of writing; sold the other GWW for cash for luxuries). I basically built 7 cities (all west and south of Paris) focused on luxuries (to include buying ring 3 as needed), theater squares, explored to meet all for trading, traded & suz, and then spam chopped court festivals which gave me almost 9K with each other civ after about 7 festivals completed for 36 of 34 needed tourism at the time.

leif erikson · Jan 18, 2022

This game is closed for submissions as time has run out.

You may continue to post here and attach saves if you wish. Results will include games above this post.

GaidinX · Jan 23, 2022

Had this done a week or two ago, but never posted. After the Krampus game I went back to my save file in the 80ish turn range and decided to keep going. I had lost a city to Egypt (that I got from Religious Settlements pantheon), but had claimed it back and build one more city. I pushed cities out for luxuries, built up some troops fighting some nasty barb invasions and managed to get good siege just as Cyrus and Egypt killed their armies fighting each other - took out all buy one Cyrus city for some needed infrastructure and luxuries and then settled into a peaceful game. Built a lot of Theatre Squares but didn't run the project until I had back all the luxuries I had been trading away. Bought all the AI's extra ones as well thanks to strong gold economy and my first project finished in 8 cities on the same turn - with 72 extra luxury copies in play - for 3,600 tourism each x 8 = grant total of 28,800 tourism against all civs. Gained almost 80 tourists that turn. Got the cards and GPP for bonus on trade routes just before for extra impact. had trade routes to all but 2 (they opened up last couple of turns as an option, but no traders available).

I spammed a lot of Chateaus and later ski resorts for extra tourism pressure. Cristo gave my religion (work ethic, and tithe) a full tourism boost as well.

Spain took out Cyrus (sent troops past Egypt to do it) and Kupe was killed late by Teddy which slowed everything down a for a bit with lost tourists, but was able to push through.

I didn't understand how much culture the project she has would have generated - vaulting you through the civics tree - should have chopped those very early and will if I have her in future - Could have shaved off a lot of turns. Also, the cost didn't go up much for completing, and I wasted a lot of turns lining up a lot of cities to go. I did a wave of 8, then 5, then 6 and that about finished the game. Had a science rock band in Egypt that did a few massive shows and 1 of the 6 I sent to China did really well on wonders to seal the vitory.

A really fun game, tough AI opponents from the start and I almost had the Deity AI kills you early moment - Cyrus was about to finish me after Egypt knocked me down, but Egypt nicely declared on him and he went away.

theauk · Feb 7, 2022

Just rediscovered GotMs after quite a few years.. think it was Civ 3 days! Played a few of the last ones, know it's after the submission date, but still...

CV 156

- 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've played a couple of catherine games before and so was planning on focusing entirely on court festival projects. Nothing really changed this.

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

I really like the idea of court festivals because of the fact that they get more expensive the more of them that you do; it requires some planning to get the chops right. I got loads of luxuries; 45 excess by the time I won.

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

Settled 11, most of which were located for maximum luxury access and captured 6, 3 from persia and 3 from egypt (all early on).

- What did you prioritize for technology/civics?

Feudalism for builders was the only thing I actively aimed for.

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

I did an archer rush with help from Wolin on Persia and Egypt which worked well. Otherwise completely focused on theatre squares/builders. Didn't build any campuses or wonders. Pyramids went super early as usual.

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

Religious settlements, work ethic, tithes, although only built 2 HS.

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

A mixture; policy card that reduces cost of purchasing tiles was pretty useful.

- Which Governors were most important; when and why?

Magnus! Lots and lots of chopping.

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

They hated me a lot at the beginning, due to early wars, but then got over it and were more than happy to trade me luxuries by the time I needed them.

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

Wolin and Kabul useful for early wars. I got a few luxuries from CS overall, but not many; didn't really make much of a difference to final lux count.

- When did you have Dark/Golden ages?

Golden, normal, golden

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

- How were the Barbarians?

More annoying than they should have been, although largely due to my own laziness.

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

I've played a few catherine games, and, while I like the idea, it's a bit annoying that your speed depends so heavily on whether you get a cultural runaway... which I did. China had 105 domestic tourists by the time I won, and the next highest was 64. I had planned my first round of court festivals to all finish at once and had thought from previous experience that they would be enough, but it became clear that they wouldn't be, and I had to spend about 20 turns doing another round in a much less well planned way. Such is life. I think I ended up doing 11 or 12 festivals. I definitely wasn't efficient overall, and should have build more theatre squares and fewer builders. I also didn't use Magnus on tour as well as I should have done. Definitely reckon a victory in the 130s would be possible on this map if China was dealt with; I should have done a joint war on them as soon as I found them. I had thought that Pericles would be the big cultural risk.

- Did you enjoy your game?

Yes! very different strategy to normal games. Felt I got a bit unlucky with China's cultural output. I could probably have done things a bit quicker overall by conquering them, but didn't think about this until it was too late. I think there is an argument in catherine games for doing much more conquering to restrict the AI's culture generation, but this didn't seem quite the right map for this.

leif erikson · Feb 7, 2022

Welcome back!

Rutseg · May 2, 2022

Cultural Victory T204, Score 929, Time 24 h

Decided to give the Court festival a chance and here we are back and victorious.

Plan
Expand and trade for luxuries, build theaters, then build and chop festivals.

Execution
I got nervous once I started to get the festivals out in and the tourism output was far from giving me a victory, so I started to build amphitheaters and look for more traditional sources of tourism. The problem with the court festivals spawning is it leaves you without anything aside from extra Civics, it does not help you with yields and definitely no infrastructure, so it leaves you a feeling of underdevelopment, which is risky if you fail the tourism target.

After giving them a second wave, things slowly raised to the point of victory combined with writing works+printing, natural parks, a few relics and resorts, and even needed the help of some rock bands to complete the job because Peter was rocking on culture.

Diplomacy
Focused early on to get good relations but failed with Cyrus, Qin and Roosevelt.

Went for war upon levied armies on Qin whose cities were close and badly defended while he was the star on culture on the early-mid game. After taking a couple of cities, I had no more trouble with him but earned me an emergency war that Cyrus was happy to join.

Although this delayed me both in turns and time, I was happy for the distraction (just focusing on building court festivals is boring let's be honest) and finally cracked down a couple of border cities and managed to bring most of the board against him.

Cities
Settled 11 cities, conquered 4 and got one thanks to loyalty.

Early stage
On T100 I had 6 cities with 2 coming soon, and was almost ready for my religion and first theater square.

Abilities
The Chateaux and Theater square were useful for a bit extra culture with luxuries adjacency and Flight for extra tourism, but it comes just too late to have a large impact I think.

City-states
Jerusalem served me well as the conquest on Qin was upon its levied swordmen.
Mohenjo-Daro was a priority because I settled without much water, and Nan Madol for the extra culture, but I do not remember for other city states to have much impact on my play.

I liberated Wolin just a turn after victory.

Final state
The court festivals are very potent, but I am clueless on how to get them going very early when the production is competing with settler expansion to grab more duplicate luxuries. My early festivals were on the 20 luxuries while the last ones were bursting on the 40's but still only striking with 9 tourists (which is a bit confusing, because all festivals seemed to give the same number of tourists, 1 for civ).

Thanks a lot for the game!

Spoiler Full log :

Spoiler City build order :

6otM125 AAR

Eyswein

King

isopaha

Warlord

Attachments

Planktonic

Warlord

Attachments

arthur486

Warlord

Arnold_T

Prince

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Eyswein

King

leif erikson

Game of the Month Fanatic

GaidinX

Chieftain

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theauk

Chieftain

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leif erikson

Game of the Month Fanatic

Rutseg

Chieftain

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