6otM169 AAR

[Eyswein]

Welcome to the 6otM169 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 map affect your gameplay?
- 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.

 

[Chrumo]

SV 170

Spoiler t170 :

A nice, calm, optimization game with an insane start. I tried to micro my heart out to get the most of it, but still some mistakes have been made, which were mostly avoidable have I had been more attentive.

The strategy was to get Lady of marshes with Etemenanki, and then get some cities via conquest and settling. With that much empty space, I could also get nice woody lands which were useful for space project chopping.

A bit of warmongering and pillaging along the way as well. Overall, a very chill game which hit exactly right after a tense day at work

Thanks for the game!

 

[Airey]

wow, the land looks great

 

[linaker]

SV 170

The strategy was to get Lady of marshes with Etemenanki, and then get some cities via conquest and settling.

How did you manage to get Etemenanki? I've played this three times and not yet managed to research writing and get a spade in the ground before another civ has completed Etemenanki. Did you research pottery then writing, take urban planning rather than the civic that gives 1 gold and faith and buy production/wood tiles to chop? I'm mystified. You're obviously a very good player.

 

[Chrumo]

How did you manage to get Etemenanki? I've played this three times and not yet managed to research writing and get a spade in the ground before another civ has completed Etemenanki. Did you research pottery then writing, take urban planning rather than the civic that gives 1 gold and faith and buy production/wood tiles to chop? I'm mystified. You're obviously a very good player.

Ah, I was kind of hoping that in this game getting Etemenanki was fairly consistent, as it can absolutely make or break a game. I guess then I got lucky without even knowing it.

That being said, I did everything in my power to get it - I settled to the east and bought the pearls asap, so that I could get lady of marshes t19. After that I switched the card to +1 production. For technologies, it was straight up pottery, and I think I even had to fully research writing as I couldn't find any other civ, despite franticly scouting around. If there were any tiles that boosted my production while getting Etemenanki, I bought them too. Eventually got it t38 - got 5 villages prior to this point, but I don't think they were impacful (maybe some gold, but that's it).

The interesting thing is, the AI built Pyramids at t39. It seems very early, maybe my "Etemenanki-AI" rushed Pyramids instead?

It sucks that it is that hard to get a fundamental wonder for the game. Recently there have been a few GotMs which are absolutely ruled by the completely arbitrary decisions made in the first 5-10 turns:

Spoiler gotm161, gotm164, gotm167 spoilers :

gotm161 was suboptimal settling and getting Desert Folklore, gotm164 was finding Kandy, gotm167 avoiding scouting Gaul

I failed in all of those abovementioned, so I am happy that I once got a treat and the wonder!

 

[BeAttila]

Restart, restart, restart...

Well, according to my counting, I have now restarted the whole game 7 times... As you can see, I almost got the Etemenanki (only 5 turns away), I even managed to get a builder from a friendly tribe... but now, these barbs are on me, with such a force, that most probably this will be the end of the Egyptian civilization... I am already preparing myself for the 8th restart - I am now in T30, but I don't think I will ever see the sun rise in T40

The previous times I got demolished first by Suleiman's science, then managed to contain Suleiman, but then I got attacked and destroyed by Mali...

I will not give up, at least, I intend to try a few more times!

 

[Airey]

I will not give up, at least, I intend to try a few more times!

if you are having problem with barbs, you can try placing units (initial warrior or 1 change builder) 5 tiles away from your cap, so camp doesn't spawn.
I could be wrong, but I never recall seen one barb camp in marsh. So you only need to worry about them on the south side.
In this case, south on one of the forested hills.

I didn't go for Etemenanki in my game.
with Musa, he is usually crazy rich, I friended him early on with sending delegations (+3 relation) and gift him my open boarder and buy his.
with Suleiman, I pumped out lots of cities early and sell him lux as an insurance. If he wars, you get these lux back and sell to someone else.

 

[CiJay]

That's funny. I thought I would be the only one who DESPERATELY wanted Etemenanki
I restarted 6-7 times until I finally got it. I settled also near the coast to work the pearls and got a builder from the tribal village. Anyhow I think I was just lucky in the run when I finished it as somehow the AI was not going for it. In all other attempts I would have needed 5-6 more turns to finish it.

 

[BeAttila]

9th time the charm? - no, lost to Kongo (T297)

I will not give up, at least, I intend to try a few more times!

Well, I tried the 8th time, then the 9th time to get Etemenanki, but I lost to the AI at T30 or T31, but I thought that maybe I will try it without the Etemenanki, so I went on.
Did not developed anything regarding religion, only focused on science, production and gold... and that was a bitter awakening towards the end, when I was hurrying my research for the exoplanet expedition, as Kongo got me cornered and won a culture victory

My colony ship sailed 3 ly only by then:

I had no war at all, throughout the game, I was pumping out luxuries (for gold) and I was in good terms with almost everybody. My standing barmy was only to show off and to deter anyone to attack me.
I think I should've settle more cities (or capture one or more civs):

Korolev and Sagan was needed both to let my colony ship fly, but that was not a great problem, my industrial base and science base was firm.

I had no luck with the barbarian camp findings, mostly it was money and sometimes faith, which was no big use for me

So, in a certaince sense, I made it in T294...

... but not.

Well, I don't think I will go for a 10th round, I think I let this go. Enjoy your culture, Kongo!

But big thank you for this game, I hope the next will be more successful for me.

 

[A. mexicanum]

SV turn 210

Plan was simple: settle the wheat and work the pearls for early Lady
beeline poetry --> writing for Etemenanki --> Mining for the single chop available
Go from there

Worked pretty well, met Sundiata Keita in time for writing, got lady turn 19. Was a little worried since either Shaka or Sundiata was already building it (can't remember) - but from the graphic it looked like I would get it earlier (turn 32 or 33 with the chop) and then it was gone on turn 28 - Kongo had build it.

Tried 3 or 4 more games for Etemenanki, but it was gone turn 28 in every single on of them, so I just returned to my first save. I didn't technically replay or play ahead, so you guys can decide if that counts, but I guess it doesn't matter either way.

Settled north first to secure the land, since I speculated (successfully) that the desert south prevented Sundiata from settling east. No war all game, just a little simming and a little conquering via loyality pressure.
One funny situation: Suleiman captured Zanzibar when we had a culture alliance and kept it, so I did not renew the alliance the very next turn and took the city via loyality pressure.
Question for the pros: When you conquer a "free city" or take an ex-citystate-city that was previously conquered by AI you have the chance to free it. I wanted to do that with Zanzibar as well but did not get the option. Is that because I got it via loyality pressure? Would I have needed to militarily conquer it for that?

Fun game, thanks.

 

[Michael Lindskou]

just started this map and Eteminaki gone t25 thats pretty fast for an immortal game :/ oh well ill have to conquer it later... not the end of the world

Moderator Action: Moved to the spoiler thread. Once you have opened the save, please do not post in the Announcement thread as that is a spoiler for other players. Thanks. leif

 

[BeAttila]

T330 (1909) Double victory: SciVic + DipVic (2011 points)

Sorry for spamming, but I was not able to sleep well, even if I thought that I will not give a 10th try... but I had the feeling that I need to try again, and beat Kongo and the others. So, I sat down today and also made some notes at specific turns, to capture my road to victory (or failure, I was not sure in the beginning).

I tried to reach the Etemenanki in this game too, but I was not successful, up until T321 , so here is my log of events:

T29 - Etemenanki is made by an unmet player
T30 - got lucky: builder from a barb village
T41 - got lucky: +1 pop from barb village
T49 - classical era start - dark age for me, but I was planning to go heroic...
T59 - changed government to classical republic
T62 - became suzerain of Geneva
T63 - met Amanitore (Nubia), and also - unrelated to the meeting - received Euclid
T68 - became suzerain of Zanzibar
T89 - met Shaka (Zulu)
T92 - medieval era starts (heroic)
T94 - beeline set for Merchant Republic government
T132 - renaissance era starts - dark again
T146 - government change to MerchRep
T149 - started a surprise war with Menelik, he had an undefended settler on the other than mine continent and I wanted to get that... but I had only a scout in the vicinity, yet I managed to get the settler, as my fregatt rushed there and killed the chasing troops from Menelik
T169 - Nubia starts a surprise war on me - quite a bad decision from Amanitore...
T172 - industrial era starts (heroic)
T200 - beeline set for Communism
T211 - the worlds first railroad is layed (in 1500 AD)
T213 - modern era starts (golden)
T222 - merged Kumasi into my empire (thanks to Stanford). This was also quite bad news for Amanitore...
T241 - I got Rocketry researched (but I think I was not the first)
T245 - It turned out the Otomans were also at war with Nubia, and I got lucky: the Otomans demolished the walls of a big Nubian city and I captured it haha, s*ck it up Suleiman
T248 - Otomans completely raze a a pop.16 Nubian city. I never saw this before from the AI
T249 - Shift of gov to communism
T253 - Atomic era starts (normal)
T273 - Earth satellite launched, now I see all
T273 - Asked Mali, if they would finance my war efforts against Kongo (they were already at war). Mali gave 4800 gold + 252 gold/turn. I joined without hesitation.
T275 - Made peace with Nubia. Nice compensation received, plus a few cities.
T292 - Korolev rushed with faith. (I had just one holy site, and Mali converted me to Islam, but I tried to gather as much faith as possible for this very possibility)
T293 - Information era starts (golden). Automation warfare was very tempting, but I went for Sky and Stars. AutomWF would have been better, as SaS gave nothing, I forgot that I have all researched already.
T293 - Mars colony established (first in the world)
T303 - Governor Victor becomes my first fully promoted Governor. Congrats, Victor!
T305 - Exoplanet expedition is launched. Thanks to Karl Sagan!
T317 - I was in war with Nubia and Ethiopia (military emergency over some Kongo city), but in this turn I made peace with them. They asked for peace, after the saw that I nuked the Kongo capital.
T321 - Now I have the bl**dy ETEMENANKI - I captured the Kongo capital, which was a nuclear swamp, but whatever the initial goal, to have that wonder is achieved.
T324 - I had to raze a pop.16 Kongo city - I was not able to pacify the captured ones
T326 - All major cities of Kongo are captured and pacified - Dido is also at war with Kongo, and pushing them from the north.
T330 - won. Science AND Diplo

This is how in the final turn (before the win) Kongo mainland looked like:

Spoiler Kongo mainland :

And this is how my capital and the surroundings looked like in the winning turn:

Spoiler Capital area T330 :

I named my cities a bit strangely: city number and the turn number when it was founded
The attached save is in T329 - so you will have SciVic at the beginning of the next turn.

At the end I had control over 31 cities. That, I think, was a must.

Thank you for this game!
(and sorry for my constant spamming, this was a real challenge for me)

 

[linaker]

I settled to the east and bought the pearls asap, so that I could get lady of marshes t19. After that I switched the card to +1 production. For technologies, it was straight up pottery, and I think I even had to fully research writing as I couldn't find any other civ, despite franticly scouting around. If there were any tiles that boosted my production while getting Etemenanki, I bought them too. Eventually got it t38 - got 5 villages prior to this point, but I don't think they were impacful (maybe some gold, but that's it).

Thanks for the response. I saw the strategy. Settle to the east for the extra culture to obtain Code of Laws quickly. Work the pearls asap and plug in God King to get Lady of the Marshes asap. Meanwhile beeline writing and build Etemenanki as soon as it's available. It was working well, with an estimated completion of T38, when Kongo completed it on T28, as happened to A Mexicanum. Grrrr!

It looks like an interesting game with lots of different options without building Etemananki. eg Try milking Mali for gold, using Cleo's chariots to flatten the continental opposition... But that start really screams Etemananki and I have never built that wonder before, so I'm going to have a few more goes, now that I know I'm on the right lines. Probably won't finish it until Christmas though!

 

[linaker]

T330 (1909) Double victory: SciVic + DipVic (2011 points)

It's interesting to see a detailed response. (Though I haven't reproduced it in this reply!) The trouble with a lot of Let's Plays on You Tube is that it's difficult to follow what they are doing.

 

[Planktonic]

SV, turn 219

Like everyone else, obviously tried to beeline for Etemenanki, but it was gone on t27 in my game.

Settled 1 SE as I wanted quicker access to the 1f3h tile. Was able to get lady of the Reeds and was able to get Choral Music for my religion, which I made a priority since I had production anyway from the pantheon and initial holy site adjacency was pretty terrible, so Work Ethic would have been a bust early.

Ended up eliminating Ottomans and Zulus and Mali, conquered most of Kongo and a good bit of Phoenicia but only after pillaging almost every tile that I possibly could. Also pillaged Nubia a lot for faith from the Nubian pyramids.

Faith-built 5 spaceports (the most ever for me I think) and ended up chopping out almost all space projects, including even 10 laser and terrestrial station projects; only had 1 project completed with Royal Society builders.

Pretty fun game but the civ's abilities were pretty useless- apart from the initial settle I don't think Arrival of Hapi mattered at all. Built only a single Maryannu archer and just a couple of sphinxes. By far the most helpful feature was the immunity to damage from floods.

Thanks for the game!

 

[isopaha]

SV T243. Quite a nice game with a good map. Lady of the reed was useful (got +20 faith from a hut, but not very early), but I didn't even get a chance to try Etemenaki, it went early. Otherwise quite a standard peaceful science game, though seems that in the new patch(es) AIs frequently DoW you without much of a reason, I guess if you're the leader. They even used an airforce, which was new to me. I was allied (culture) with Mali for most of the game. I loyalty flipped a good city (this was a planned thing) from Ottomans and one unimportant one from Nubia. 16 cities in total, which means 16 campuses.

 

[lakeiron]

SV T211

Did not even try Etemenanki, I simply so used to not going for it, that it did not even occur to me... haha
Lady was key of course, and a very peaceful game with lots of settling. 17 own settlers, 1 got from barbs, 5 cities flipped and I annexed Kabul very late by a Great Person just to spite the Ottomans, who were in the middle of a siege for it...

Thanks for the game!

 

[Monthar]

Science Victory Turn 251 Score 1640

Peaceful game. I still need to learn to expand faster.

 

[cas]

Anyone have the map seed number ? I'd like to play this on King or Emporer where I have a chance for Etemenanki.

cas

 

[Japlas]

Etemenanki T33
Enjoy!