6otM136 AAR

Eyswein · May 31, 2022

Welcome to the 6otM136 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?
- What were your initial 5-10 builds in the capital or other early cities?
- Early order for technology/civics? What did you prioritize for technology/civics?
- 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 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?
- When did you have Dark/Golden ages?
- How did the game modes affect or impact your play?
- 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.

Monthar · Jun 4, 2022

Science Victory Turn 262, Score 1792

It was a mostly peaceful game. I declares on Harold near the end just because he asked if I was going to. I think I'm going to try again to see if I can get it done faster.

Lexad · Jun 4, 2022

SV turn 202

Settled in place, SS for ley lines to boost campuses and holy sites and buff universities, settled first 5 cities around, rich territory with tons of hills, but little food. Hence camp pantheon for growth tempo in starting cities, Feed the world religion with +1 culture for # followers to boost always lagging culture. With 3 khevsur and Beowulf wiped out Russia, Beowulf very useful in lowering city defense by killing unit inside. Also summoned Hercules to instabuild expensive districts - on second summon, spaceports. Final hero - the one which gives envoys in city-states, spend much faith and effort converting city-states to exploit 2x envoys in converted cities - in the end suz-ed almost all ciites if interest. Captured ex-German independent city with Bath and Etemenanki - dark ages are stupid here, could've picked whole map except caitals with no wars if invested in military by capturing independent states. In the end killed Sweden to revenge for stealing Machu.

AI were surprisingly good in diplo preventing me from early win, banning lux from my salt 2 times and banning Great Scientist points after I passed a GS to get Newton after it - had to wait a whole era for one, not being able even to buy with gold or faith

Planktonic · Jun 6, 2022

Sci Vic, turn 229

I never play with Heroes or SS or M+C or Dramatic Ages modes unless it's GOTM, so doubt that I used these to maximum effect. Managed to get the two most useful Heroes (I think- Hercules and Himiko) and took Voidsingers for the Medieval Era boost from the Chorus promotion.

Fully peaceful game until around turn 180, when I started pillaging to get a little extra science. But realized that waiting too long to start pillaging in a lower level game doesn't help you as much- by the end I was making 1500-1600 beakers per turn for science but pillaging a campus only got me around 300- not even a half a turn advancement. Went for a religion- Work Ethic plus Tithe, took Divine Spark as pantheon. Debated whether Feed the World would have been better since it was Highlands without too much food available. Founded ~12 cities, ended up taking 6 more from Germany at the very end mostly just from loyalty flipping, plus 1 from Russia for the heck of it. The Dark Age policy wildcard giving extra science for cities with Holy sites was very helpful in the Classical and Medieval eras.

One major error was allowing Germany to live for as long as I did- since they conquered Mohenjo Daro and Geneva, rendering them useless to me. I later flipped Mohenjo Daro just from proximity/loyalty and made a second major error- wanted to liberate it so as to get suzerainty (already had Antananarivo so it would have really helped my culture with Kilwa) but the in game prompt said it would stay a "free city". I don't play with Dramatic Ages and didn't want to just leave it as a free city on my border, so kept it as part of the empire. Later I experimented with another conquered city state and realized I could've liberated it after all. Live and learn....

Also lost ~5-10 turns when someone neutralized Pingala and then spy-pillaged my main spaceport; this was shockingly competent behavior from a King level AI and I didn't expect or defend against it at all.

Thanks for the game!

Rutseg · Jun 11, 2022

Scientific Victory T213, Score 1956, Time 36 h

Achievements through this play:

Radiant Deeds, Bright as Sunshine: Win a regular game as Tamar
Holy Righteous Queen Tamar: As Tamar, have every city-state in the game following the religion you founded.
The City Ever-Shining: In Dramatic Age Mode, enter a Golden Age with an excess 20 Era Score.
No Light Without the Dark: In Dramatic Age Mode, as Georgia, have simultaneously a Golden and a Dark Policy active.

Plan
Religion boosted expansion looking for geothermal fissures, mountain ranges and reefs to build high yield campuses. In order to boost campus buildings getting 6 envoys at every city-state was a focus of my game, and generally suzerain bonuses are always useful, so I coupled Papal Primacy with Tamar's "Glory of the World, Kingdom and Faith" double envoy to quickly rule over all the city-states.

For the space project building, I went Royal Society, and Vertical Integration with Magnus in my capital, with 5 industrial zones feeding him, and Pingala with the 30% space boost on my Rhur Valley city. Hercules and chops brought up 8 spaceports while the capital was building the space projects. A bug blocking late district construction prevented me from benefiting from Seaport/Military academy +15% integrated space research policy card.

Early game
The game went pretty peaceful and my exploration (2 civs, 2 city-states, 1 natural wonder) along with 3 razed camps was enough to earn me the first Golden Age. I then started to use Monasticism for an impressive amount of science and Monumentality to fuel my expansion. Fortunately there was enough jungle and bonus resources to keep the food high enough before I had to use trade routes to compensate the deprived plain hills.

I had a good relation with all the civs except Wilfrid who was too far away to cause trouble.

Cities
Founded 19 cities, conquered 2, flipped 3 by loyalty.

I settled on place for water access and reach to a great spot with a +7 holy site. The first wave of settlers, half-chopped, squeezed through the mountains for spots with rivers and mountains to boost my early holy sites and campuses. With the faith obtained and Monumentality, I started to create settlers to further expand blocking Frederick to the south and Peter to the east. Going south-east my expansion reached the Zhangye Danxia natural wonder. Perhaps I should have begun my expansion to the western continent, I only realized late there was good spots with reefs and mountains and new luxury resources, and from the 4 cities I settled there only the one in the coast become relevant at late game. At least I gathered extra happiness from the luxs.

A couple cities went to the snow to have a chance for Amundsen-Scott but did not manage properly my great engineers and failed on that. One late city was over the northern ring of oil.

Diplomacy
Played a peaceful game, although given how bad the AI is to adapt to game modes, I could have easily taken most of my neighbors just conquering their flipping free cities.

War was declared at T136 on Frederick after he attacked Mohenjo-Daro, I did not want him to take city states, and the Protectorate casus belli boosted Nationalism civic while the grievances were positive for me. The campaign went good despite I had just a handful of units seasoned on the barbarian battles. I focused on raiding his districts and conquering his campuses. In the end I only took one city on peace, as I did not want the penalties of taking his capital, and later took another city as it was revolting to Harald.

Except for the early game where I traded luxuries and favor for gold, the AI was very poor at improving its territory, and I had little incentive to trade gold. There were a few religious skirmishes with Peter and Gaul but my focus was to convert the city-states not the other civilizations.

Wonders
Pamukkale was great! Not only gave me early water and boost to Astrology, my +7 holy site was giving me a +14 production bonus at my capital by T110 (plus a lot of faith), and my campus was producing +10 science just from adjacency. The only other natural wonder I made use of was Zhangye Danxia for extra great people and another good holy site placement.

For my Aesthetics civic boost, I tried to get Etemenanki, but failed and only managed the Great Bath, which was not bad, as that was giving me +24 faith in that city by the end game just from blocked floods, which combined great with the Voidsingers faith to other yields transform.

My other wonders of interest were the Pyramids (T101), the Forbidden City (T145) and Potala Palace (T163) for extra golden age policies, the Colosseum (T163) and Temple of Artemis (T167) for needed culture and amenities, the Ruhr Valley (T182) for space project production, a late Kilwa Kisiwani (T190) for extra science and culture, and an Oxford University (T200) for 2 free expensive techs.

My only unneeded expense was St. Basil’s Cathedral (T197), which was an error, because I should have saved the Gustave Eiffel charge to boost Amundsen-Scott by the end game instead. Also, I think the Mausoleum of Halicarnasus would have helped me to have enough engineer charges to build Amundsen, but I did not found a proper location for that wonder, as I only had 3 harbors and none had a free spot for that one.

Monopolies, Ages, Heroes and Orders
These are all really problematic. The AI simply does not know how to adapt play to them and they are a plain boost to the player. With so many modes active I had the feeling the AI had no weight at all. Special mention to Monopolies as this mode breaks something on the AI. For example, I had a missionary at Nalanda for most of the game and the city-state had 3 unimproved marble resources AND a builder next to them! And they did not use the builder to improve those, the builder will just remain there halted for half the game! No surprise, only Sweden ever had three luxury resources and a couple to trade. If it was not for the GOTM challenge of solving this in as few turns as possible, the game experience would be very underwhelming.

As Monopolies always put a problem with unwanted culture wins, I avoided opening trade routes with other nations (for no +25% boost), and spent my resources on actually buying write works from Peter (who had a tone of writers but only his palace slot for them) and gifting them to Kristina who saved me thanks to her hard work on culture. For a similar reason, I sometimes avoided improving luxuries resources, and I made a single corporation. The industries boosts and great merchant points were welcomed though.

In my opinion the Monopolies mode should favor a competition settling late game minor colonies in far away lands breaking disputes between civilizations for their control. But as the AI just ignores completely this feature, this mode has no sense, it is a plain tourism boost for the player, and an amenities penalty on the computer.

The Ages mode brought also more problems for the AI. As a player you realize how important is to avoid Dark Ages and losing cities, so you can focus on those things that give you era score, but the AI does not seem to realize how to get that era score. A majority of AIs were always on Dark Age every age change. Free cities will strike then out of them, and sometimes they would fail to recover control. An aware player can easily go around pillaging those great cities for extra science or conquer them if he feels able to retain them. Another plain penalty against the computer and a boost to the player, because you can now swap your age benefits, slotting Monumentality only when you need to buy for example.

Heroes is perhaps the more interesting mode, despite I also doubt the AI is doing an strategic or tactical use of the heroes powers. I only failed to get Himiko from the heroes I wanted. My most useful one was Hercules (T67), who insta-built my early holy sites and spaceports once recalled a couple of times. I also got Anansi (T87) whose ability to burn bonus resources in the nearby tundra was a nice trade of faith for science and culture. Sinbad (T129) was also reclaimed, I had a very pleasant experience with him in another game, but this one had little water and he only managed +445 gold from one encampment. I did not recall him. A late Maui (T167) boosted my harbors with extra fish adjacency bonuses and a few luxuries, but I could have done without him.

Hercules was by far the more useful hero.

For an Order I went with Voidsingers, focusing so much on faith, the ability to transform 20% of it into other yields was a great boost.

Religion
I took the Earth Goddes pantheon. With so many mountains and water I figured out it would be very useful.

I built my religion very early and focused on it, having holy sites in most of my cities. With so many mountains, fissures and the Pamukkele, I figured a good synergy using faith with Voidsingers for 20% other yields, expansion with Monumentality and exploiting Tamara's double envoys. And it worked well I think.

For believes I went with Work Ethic, for early production, and Papal Primacy, which helped me convert the far city-states for extra double envoys without having to buy and move missionaries on lengthy trips. I managed to have all city-states converted to my religion without a hassle.

Barbarians
I do not remember them being a problem. I had the minimum amount of units to grasp tech and civic boosts and defend from them. I razed their camps for very important era score and extra coin.

Civilization bonuses
I built quite a few Tsikhe walls for the +8 faith, but that is not a very hot bonus for the effort it takes. The extra policy card was a nice boost though, specially being able to place Dark Age cards like Monasticism (+75% science!) and Isolation (extra food and production!). The bonus I enjoyed the most was the ability to double envoys sent to city-states with your religion, coupled with Papal Primacy it was easy to govern them all.

Surprises (or bugs)
Discovering a natural wonder on getting suzerainty over Kandy did not produce a relic :confused:

A very anoying Cultural Infrastructure policy bug made my districts halt to 999+, impacting my late game by not being able to complete districts I had been building for a time. There were at least 2 compus almost completed, an encampment which might have gave me a +15% boost to space projects and a couple holy sites. Fortunately this happened only on the last 20 or so turns, but had it happened early, it could have ruined completely hours of play on this GOTM. After some research through the internet I found it is due to having slotted the Cultural Infrastructure policy, and it most likely happened when I switched to Communism (T193). I even tried to chop to complete those works, but the chop actually reduced the amount of advancement on the production!!! My guess is some variable got out of its bounds and took production to negative numbers. :mad:

I only managed to build a few districts by use of Divine Architect with Moksha using faith. Fortunately that worked.

Used a military engineer with 2 charges to boost a Lagrange station for the whooping production of 54 :sad:

There is a bug with Future Tech, not being able to research it once per turn even if you have enough science. You select it after finishing its research, it tells you it is going to be 1 turn, but next turn the splash window with the Tech does not appear, you are told to select a tech for research, then next round yes, the tech is researched. I do not know if there is a way to bypass this and research Future Tech once per turn.

With how good this game is in other aspects, it bothers me how great it could become if the AI was fixed to pose a real threat on war and kingdom building, if the different modes were fixed so the AI new how to use them, and if long standing bugs like Cultural Infrastructure one were polished. It frustrates me the true potential of this game is not exploited :help:

Final state
It was an interesting game, I had never played Tamara or the Ages mode.

Thanks a lot for the game!!!

Spoiler Full log :

Spoiler City build order :

Shinatoo · Jun 13, 2022

I've been haunting this site for years, downloaded many GOTHM going back to Civ IV, and I got my first victory today! Of course, didn't keep track of anything to share because it's always a loss.

I'll say this, no wars and no boats until after I built the Panama canal. Had to rush some tech and Civs to avoid dark ages. Quite an enjoyable game.

lakeiron · Jun 14, 2022

SV T236 - 1625AD, score ~1663

This is my first GOTM submission, even though I am a long term Deity player in Civ6.
Played similarly to others, Religion with work ethic, tithe and the early culture replacement from Camps.
Totally friendly game, no wars, between T150-T220 I was friends with everyone. I settled 15 cities and a norwegian flipped.
My favourite and most useful wonders are almost always Kilwa and Mausoleum as I go for suzerainty and Great Engineers a lot.

I switched to mass Campus building probably a bit too late, but otherwise happy with my first submission.

Tamar's unique abilities were not very sinergistic with my play style, UU and UB I only really built for Era Score, the 2 features are useful, but I really only benefited from the Strength in Unity, the other one would have required much more combat.... That could have replaced the Voidsinger strategy for Faith and then I could have gone with Ley Lines...

AI is dumb so I agree that the more modes more crazy AI behaviour...

Thanks for the game!

Michael Lindskou · Jun 14, 2022

Gotm turn 168 SV

nothing special work etic voidsinger is just nice for SV

isopaha · Jun 16, 2022

SV T260. Quite an easy scenario. Played peacefully with a decent of expansion. Ley lines helped with adjacencies.

leif erikson · Jul 5, 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.

lordofcivs · Jul 7, 2022

SV - T235 / Score 2162

- 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?
Base plan was to place as many cities with +4 adjacency Campuses as possible. The map had too many mountains, and then Pamukale and Ley Lines of Hermetic order further supported this idea. Playing with Tamar I knew I would have sure Golden Ages every age, which means faith will play a major role here. Hence I picked 'God of Craftsman' pantheon, which gave +1 Production and +1 Faith from improved strategic resources. And it worked really well.

I had two aspects in my mind. Place as many good Districts as possible. I needed to research Animal Husbandry, because that was a must for camps and pastures of surrounding resources. But otherwise I learned Bronze working very late, and before that placed many good districts. And it worked actually, or I would have missed some very good early spots for my great campuses.

Also created a religion, as Tamar is originally a religious kind of Leader and some of her benefits are related to that. Initially I thought I would play and entirely peaceful game, as there was much land available at north and north west. But later on went on war with Russia, and took most of the cities at east. Then went all peaceful and made all the CS suzerain. Kept exploring and expanding throughout the game. But I did several mistakes (as usual

). As I was playing SV first time after the Gathering Storm I had the set mind that only one Spaceport would be enough for the SV. Didn't know that they had changed so that having multiple would benefit a lot. Rushed one more, but it still took lot more time than it would have, if planned properly. I also lacked much knowledge about Mountain Tunnels, so placed too many, all of which were built by the Military Engineers produced in the Capital. These turns could have been spent on Space Port. But overall I think it worked well. The map was really good, and I think I did it right to take Peter's cities, as those were really good cities.

For playing this game I used the Civ 6 wiki immensely for learning all about the included modes, which made it lot more fun to take better advantage of different bonuses and possibilities. I recruited Maui, who helped my second city to become really great by giving plenty of Bananas in the nearby jungle, as well as access to Tobacco and Ivory, which I would not have otherwise. I would have also recruited Himiko, but when I found her, she was already recruited by someone else. But I think it didn't make a difference at all, as I would have played peaceful even then.

While I was about 30 turns away from SV, I noticed that I would win a Cultural Victory in 10 Turns.

It was then I gifted all my Great Works to the AI's, starting with Canada (as he had highest Tourism). With that then whenever I got a cultural great person, I simply deleted that GP. This saved the day, or I would have lost (by winning Cultural Victory

).

- What were your initial 5-10 builds in the capital or other early cities?
Scout > Scout > Settler > Slinger > Settler > Builder > Monument > Holy Site

- Early order for technology/civics? What did you prioritize for technology/civics?
Animal Husbandry > Mining > Masonry > Astrology > Pottery > Irrigation > Archery > Currency > Horseback Riding > Bronze Working
Later, I didn't prioritize specific researches. I focused rather on Tech Eureka's, and gaining Envoys in CS's, as there seemed to be some very good CS's options available.

- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
At first Tamar felt rather bad. All her abilities seemed useless for a SV game. But then I realized that one extra Policy Slot would be OP, joined with the fact that I would have Golden Ages every age, and there would be then the option of choosing many really good special policies (of dark ages as well as golden ages.) And this really helped, as I used the dark age policies as well at certain times of the game. Rest of her abilities were kind of waste, but Khevsurs helped me to take 3 cities from Peter, but then I upgraded them.

- How many cities did you settle and/or capture? Where did you settle your first few cities?
After settling 6 cities in total, I took a break, and used the Dark Age Policy that doesn't allow settlers or settling, but give bonus food and production to Trade Routes. During that time I built my cities rather well, and also produced some good troops. Then I took 7 cities from Peter, but liberated Hong Kong, as this CS was very important for SV I think. After that went peaceful, and one of my city kept producing settlers that went all the way to east to settle as many cities as possible. By the end of the game I had 30 cities in total, and 5 more settlers on their way to new locations. (I think I messed it up a bit

)

- What were key production/purchase focuses? Military units / Civilian units / Districts & city development / Wonders / Civ Unique Unit & Infrastructure? Most critical or interesting?
Campuses were the main focus. And good campuses. Right after settling a city, placed a campus spot, but built a monument first. Then built the two. Didn't go for library directly if there were good spots available for Industrial Zones. Otherwise, second option was Commercial Hub. Built them even in the cities were Habors were possibile. Very late in the game I built Harbors (in the cities where I already had Commercial Hubs.)

- Pantheon chosen and why? Religious beliefs chosen, and why?
'God of Craftsman' pantheon, which gave +1 Production and +1 Faith from improved strategic resources. Early game both of these would be very helpful, as Faith would be providing me Workers, and Production would be providing everything else. My religion had 'Zen Meditation', which gave +1 Amenity and 'World Church', which gave +1 Culture for every 4 believers. Reason for World Church is that I knew I wouldn't be building Theatre Squares, and my main source of Culture would be Monuments. I couldn't take Culture on a tile improvement either (like pastures), as that would give tourism later on. So this method of gaining culture seemed feasible.

- What governments did you select? What key policy cards did you use? Why?
Classic Republic > Monarchy > Merchant Republic > Communism > Synthetic Technology

'Republican Republic' Policy Card stuck with me throughout the game. Doubling Campus adjacency bonuses, and Rationalism (+50% and 50% bonuses to campus buildings) also stayed with me forever. Rest I kept changing based on the scenario.

- Which Governors were most important; when and why?
Pingala!
Not only he helped increasing my science yield, he delivered me culture based on production, and doubled the speed of grabbing lots of Great People, which strengthened my ley lines later. In the end, he sped up the Space Program Projects too.

- Was diplomacy/trading useful? How? Relations with other civs?
Well, not very useful. In fact, did the mistake of declaring Fredrick a Friend, and also made him my ally. Because of that I was forced into a war I didn't intend to go. Although that war didn't hurt me directly, because of that I needed to produce some extra troops and upgrade several others, whose maintenance costs I kept spending for the rest of the game.

- When did you have Dark/Golden ages?
All Golden Ages.

- How did the game modes affect or impact your play?
Among all the modes of this game, Secret Society was the main core I think. I chose Hermetic Order. Sadly, there were only 3 early cities who could have taken advantage of this on this map. In order to take full advantage of this order, it became crucial for me to take cities/land from Russia at the western side of the map. Which I did.

- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Not exactly frustration. The game was smooth. But I fell into an unrequired war because of my alliance with Frederick, for which I needed to upgrade my troops, and bear the additional maintenance costs for the rest of the game.

- Did you enjoy your game?
Yes! A lot! This game was all about placement of districts, lot more than other games.

hendu · Jul 17, 2022

Eyswein said:
Welcome to the 6otM136 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?
- What were your initial 5-10 builds in the capital or other early cities?
- Early order for technology/civics? What did you prioritize for technology/civics?
- 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 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?
- When did you have Dark/Golden ages?
- How did the game modes affect or impact your play?
- 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. Than

it’s been awhile since I played any civ. Tried this one and ran into the 999+ bug. Is there any fix or is my game trash?

Eyswein · Jul 17, 2022

hendu said:
it’s been awhile since I played any civ. Tried this one and ran into the 999+ bug. Is there any fix or is my game trash?

I'm not sure if the following is accurate. The only comments I can find regarding it are "It's a bug with the Culture Industries policy card exclusive to Dramatic Ages. Only fix is to reload a save before you plugged in the card."

6otM136 AAR

Eyswein

King

Monthar

Deity

Attachments

Lexad

oldfart

Attachments

Planktonic

Warlord

Attachments

Rutseg

Chieftain

Attachments

Shinatoo

OZ wasn't in Kansas

Attachments

lakeiron

Chieftain

Attachments

Michael Lindskou

Chieftain

Attachments

isopaha

Warlord

Attachments

leif erikson

Game of the Month Fanatic

lordofcivs

Lord of The Civilizations

hendu

Chieftain

Eyswein

King

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