Religious victory turn 227, score 1056.
- 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?
Build through trade and suzerain while gaining a religion, then make decision as to domination or religion. Build a good production base. As my focus became religion, some religious wonders and lots of holy sites became the plan. Hold off trying to convert my opponents while building a faith base and then convert those with no founded religion first. Competing for City State loyalty was hard and I only held suzerain over a few. Geneva, Cardiff, Hunza, Venice late, and that may have been it. My expansion was slower than I preferred thanks to missing a medieval golden age by one point, and then Lady Six Sky sent her men-at-arms, hul'che, and trebuchets after my archers, warriors, and chariots on turn 93, and it turned into a long war, and finally I took a peace with 26 GPT around 30 turns later after my counterattack wasn't able to crack into any of her cities. For the first twenty turns of war or so it was a real struggle to survive, especially needing to trade for iron, and my settler production went to nil. Ended up having quite a deep hole to climb out of after that, and was behind on science and culture the whole game (technically during the last few years my science per turn led the world but I was way behind in number of techs). When I got around to sending my missionaries and apostles to the leaders of the other religions, we were all allies except for the now-impotent Maya and so I had pretty much free reign despite their protests.
- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
I love foreign trade routes in general and used mine to try to save money expanding borders and of course gain money directly. Built only one Okihtcitaw. I ended up friendly with everyone but the Maya, and allied with all but them and the Americans, and the visibility benefit was nice as during my defense against the Maya and then mad rush to catch up on expansion after, my exploration was lagging.
- How many cities did you settle and/or capture? Where did you settle your first few cities?
Settled nine cities and captured one, a formerly Mapuche free city (renamed "City Nine" in the screenshot), a very small empire for me.
- What did you prioritize for technology/civics?
Techs: Astrology, Currency, Apprenticeship, Cartography, Banking, then whatever struck me, had not particular science plan beyond and was way behind on tech anyhow.
Civics: Foreign Trade, Political Philosophy, Theology, Exploration, Reformed Church.
- What were key production/purchase focuses? Military units / Civilian units / Districts & city development / Wonders / Civ Unique Unit & Infrastructure? Most critical or interesting?
Getting to a holy site fairly early was important and even with that I ended up with the last great prophet, I believe. Wanted to build a lot of commercial hubs for great merchants to build corporations with, and money to buy temples and mosques and universities and workshops. Was fortunate to get my first settler built to settle near the Torres del Paine, as I beat Lady Six Sky to the punch by one turn (and at that, had to settle one hex away from my original planned lakeside destination). Glad I sent the first one to the wonder instead of to the river bend SW of the capital, as I would have lost the spot for sure then. I knew settling there would piss Lady Six Sky off but felt it important to get the spot, and good thing I did, it became a production powerhouse. I did underestimate my ability to defend when the Mayan attack finally came and that caused some struggle, but at least I weathered the storm. Having no high-science campuses put me way behind on science.
- Pantheon chosen and why? Religious beliefs chosen, and why?
Pantheon: Dance of the Aurora. With a lot of tundra near the starting area, and the Torres del Paine, I figured on several high faith holy sites to power expansion through early golden ages and gambled that I'd be able to get the first due to the era score from the early UI and UU. Elephantism started with Work Ethic and Holy Order, the first to get productive advantage from those high adjacency holy sites, the second because I was gonna need a lot of religious units. The took sacred places for gain since I already had a few wonders and knew I'd be getting more, and finally Mosques.
- What governments did you select? What key policy cards did you use? Why?
I ended up using all six of the first two tiers, starting with Oligarchy, then Classical Republic and into Autocracy when I decided I needed the extra military policy to fight off the Maya and didn't want to go through anarchy to go back to Oligarchy. Took Divine Right next, then Exploration and when it came time to start my conversion onslaught, Theocracy.
- Which Governors were most important; when and why?
I don't think I used any but Magnus, Pingala, and Moksha. Magnus moved around all over the place for chops and settler work, Pingala had a few migrations during that time when kicked out by Magnus, and Moksha stayed in my city near the Torres del Paine the whole game once installed, for the religious combat benefits as the Maya sent their missionaries after me.
- Was diplomacy/trading useful? How? Relations with other civs?
Trading is always useful, and it helped me get rich as well as gain good relations and alliances with almost everybody.
- Were City-States helpful? Any competition with other civs for key city states?
I had a hard time keeping control of Geneva but finally managed it. Had to send forces to defend Hunza from Maya. As far behind as I was on science, I'd hate to think of my position if I hadn't had Geneva almost the whole game.
- When did you have Dark/Golden ages?
Classical Golden (Monumentality), Medieval Normal (free inquiry), Renaissance Dark (Hic Sunt Dracones), Industrial Heroic (Hic, Reform, Heartbeat) and Modern Golden (Reform the Currency).
- How did the game modes affect or impact your play?
I had opportunity for several industries and corporations and made every effort to get them early as possible. The barbarians took some work before I could keep my borders clear, but managed to gain some benefits by buying a spearman, a horseman, and a galley off of them before razing.
- How did the reduced victory conditions impact your game?
I paid much less attention to science and culture than usual for me, and voted in the World Congress for the outcomes I wanted and thought I stood a chance of gaining, rather than trying to decide where the AI votes would go and matching that.
- How were the Barbarians?
Quite a trial early on and it was only by buying some units from them that I was able to hold my own.
- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Missing a golden medieval age by one point, then missing a normal renaissance age by one point, were frustrating (the dark age was difficult because it was during my struggle to hold on to the formerly Mapuche free city I'd captured. I had to send Magnus, place all the loyalty enhancing policies plus the amenity enhancer for garrisoned units, buy a builder, and then chop wheat and rainforests to build population to the point where the city could rebuild loyalty. I think it bottomed out at 0.2 loyalty! The long war with Maya was a huge frustration, as was the need to trade for iron to be able to defend myself. Once I got past that point the game was pretty easy despite being so far back in tech and culture.
- Did you enjoy your game?
Yes!