6otM174 AAR

[Eyswein]

Welcome to the 6otM174 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.

If this is a replay, please indicate 'REPLAY' at the top of your post. If you conduct regular restarts, please indicate 'RELOADS' at the top of your post. More posting helps us all get play better as we understand the methods of others, but want to clearly distinguish between a first run through without reloads and other submissions as it is much harder to recover in game from the mistakes we all make.

 

[Planktonic]

Dom Vic, turn 94

My first ever sub-100 win of any condition; made possible mostly because of Heroes and Secret Societies, of course.

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 saw that there were 18 city states on a Pangaea map, so figured the best way to conquer would be by levying units. This meant you needed lots of envoys and gold, so I oriented everything around that. Chose Owls of Minerva for the society (trade routes give envoys) and prioritized getting Sinbad and Himiko as Heroes.

- What were your initial 5-10 builds in the capital or other early cities?
Warrior first in my capital, then monument, then settler. After that, monument first in every city.

- Early order for technology/civics? What did you prioritize for technology/civics?
Animal husbandry first, then sailing, then astrology on my way to Celestial Navigation. But really, the only technologies necessary for this game turned out to be Horseback Riding and Shipbuilding. Everything else was nice but ultimately just frosting....

- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
The +2 movement was incredible. The extra trade route was good too. The Immortals were fine but came late for me; pairidezas were largely irrelevant.

- How many cities did you settle and/or capture? Where did you settle your first few cities?
Think I settled 3 or 4, but was very quickly able to take Uruk with the help of levied troops from Kumasi. Almost everything after that was conquered, except two cities founded on other continents so heroes could teleport there or units could be purchased close to the front line.

- What were key production/purchase focuses? Military units / Civilian units / Districts & city development / Wonders / Civ Unique Unit & Infrastructure? Most critical or interesting?
My core cities, after the first stretch, produced almost nothing except harbors/lighthouses/commercial hubs. Almost all units were levied or purchased with gold. Never had a game before where production seemed so irrelevant....

- Pantheon chosen and why? Religious beliefs chosen, and why?
My pantheon was culture from pastures; I didn't bother with a religion. Actually, the game ended with no religion at all having been established (2 civs had recruited Great Prophets but I conquered them before they could be activated).

- What governments did you select? What key policy cards did you use? Why?
Oligarchy only. The most important policy cards were the green envoy cards (Charismatic Leader and the other one that gets you an extra envoy for the first envoy. Kept shuttling those two- others were mostly irrelevant.

- Which Governors were most important; when and why?
Amani the most important, Magnus second, and of course the governor use for Owls of Minerva. Never bothered to build a Government plaza.

- Was diplomacy/trading useful? How? Relations with other civs?
No real diplomacy; but was able to bargain/trade for gold even with civs that had denounced me.

- When did you have Dark/Golden ages?
Golden Classical, game ended in the classical. Knew I would be building almost exclusively harbors and commercial hubs so went Free Inquiry.

- How did the map affect your gameplay?
Great map, fun map, very unexpected for Pangaea. At first thought I was on the eastmost side of the Pangaea map, but quickly realized my error. BUt with so many civs and city states, the AI civs had almost no chance to develop and were mostly sitting ducks.

- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Except for that large central lake (I initially thought it was the ocean), no real surprises.

- Did you enjoy your game?
I'm not that big on domination, but this was a really fun one. I remain hesitant to chop, and very likely could have sped things up a bit more if I had chopped more liberally. Suspect someone here will be able to clear this in 75 turns or less. But overall I'm pretty happy with the success of this approach, and had a great time doing it.

Thanks for the game!

 

[Chrumo]

DV 84

Spoiler t84 :

Fun game, the mountains almost seemed to have been placed around by a nasty Krampus!

I haven't used any of the Secret Societies really, although I see that Planktonic made great use of them. I haven't come up with envoys strategy, seems like an awesome idea.

My initial heroes were misalligned, couldn't get any good militaristic ones nor Sinbad (which I was really hoping to get, as he is so busted). Eventually I managed to discover all of them, and chopped out my 3rd and 4th heroes.

My Immortal rush was also a poor choice, as there was no Iron anywhere. I should have gone for Horsemen instead. Overall a lot of mistakes, but I think I have managed to get a rapid victory nonetheless.

Thanks for the game!

 

[lakeiron]

Congrats for people who already managed to win, I was also well on my way to a relatively quick finish, but the game crashed every time (after reloading the quicksave) I discovered Great Barrier reef. I even tried to load the game on DirectX 11, then I was able to discover it, but the graphics was weird. This is the second time a normal game crashes since I installed the Anno Domini mod, so I am starting to suspect that it has something to do with it. Any ideas on how can I get rid of it? What if I reinstall the whole game without it?

 

[cas]

DV T122 first attempt. Slow as usual on dom vc. Settled inland, which was a mistake. Wiped left side with warriors and Arthur. Wiped right side with immortals, knights, Himiko, leveraged units.

DV T71 second attempt. Obviously doesn't count...just wanted to see how much I could improve it. Coastal capital, Sinbad discovered before I finished monument in capital. Mostly warrior rush on left side with immortals for Maya. 3 galleys to take Australia capital fairly early. Once a foothold was established with Canberra on right side, used Arthur + immortals to finish.

Sinbad is ridiculous. Especially with all water wonders.

Did use religion for crusade on Maya along with Akkad suzerain bonus. Very helpful, shaved off ~3 turns.

Thank you for the game.

cas

 

[Monthar]

Dom Victory turn 183 Score 1943

I was slowed down because I built the wrong 2nd building in the government quarter.

 

[Biologist]

Domination Victory, Turn 303, Score 1875

- 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 immediately set out for a Domination victory because I rarely attempt them and wanted something fresh. The first step was to take over my starting half of the map, working my way through most of my immediate neighbors fairly quickly. The next step was to build up a navy to assist my invasion of the other half of the world, and divide and conquer my remaining opponents with a blitzkrieg strategy, razing any cities aside from capitals to minimize the administrative work in holding the necessary capitals for the VC. City states factored in heavily throughout as a source of gold and levied units.
- What were your initial 5-10 builds in the capital or other early cities?
Ranged units, mounted units, and Old God Obelisks. I was shaking the rust off with this game and didn't have a terribly solid plan for my early game, but I knew I wanted to come out swinging and not spend a lot of time making scouts or trying to go for a religion, early districts, etc. I ignored the religious game entirely aside from purchasing Builders and Settlers with faith points midgame.
- Early order for technology/civics? What did you prioritize for technology/civics?
I prioritized the techs for getting to Archers, Immortals, and Horsemen as quickly as possible.
- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
Fall of Babylon made blitzing through my opponents a lot easier and more feasible throughout the game. Particularly in the late game when I was wrapping up the last few conquests with Modern Armor, the extra movement from well-timed war declarations let me breeze past minor cities and encampments to focus down enemy capitals.
- How many cities did you settle and/or capture? Where did you settle your first few cities?
At least a dozen not counting the necessary capitals. I settled my own continent very aggressively, expanding west and northwest of my capital as fast as possible to grab land away from the AI and provide a forward base for my early conquests.
- What were key production/purchase focuses? Military units / Civilian units / Districts & city development / Wonders / Civ Unique Unit & Infrastructure? Most critical or interesting?
In the mid-game, purchasing Builders and Settlers with faith was the key to keeping up my growth and securing new resources. Late game, purchasing district improvements with faith and Tanks/Modern Armors with gold kept my cities relevant and my armies advancing into enemy territory.
- Pantheon chosen and why? Religious beliefs chosen, and why?
I actually don't remember what pantheon I chose because it didn't really factor into my gameplay at all. I never established a religion and never actively spread a particular one, simply using the passive benefits of whatever spread to my cities.
- What governments did you select? What key policy cards did you use? Why?
Oligarchy > Monarchy > Fascism. The most important policy cards were those that allowed me to reduce unit maintenance, maximize resources, and boost gold income from city state trade routes and suzerainty (I invested heavily into securing city states to provide enough gold to purchase late-game units.
- Which Governors were most important; when and why?
Castellan was easily the most important governor, using his reduced establishment time to keep rebellious capitals loyal until I could properly secure the surrounding area.
- Was diplomacy/trading useful? How? Relations with other civs?
Diplomacy and trading were basically a non-factor. For the entirety of the game I was either at war or planning a war, with only very brief diplomatic interactions with civs too far away to attack. I did briefly have a declared friendship due to clicking the wrong option, so I used that to my advantage by securing open borders and taking out the civs on the other side of my "friend" before circling back.
- When did you have Dark/Golden ages?
No Dark ages, Golden ages in the Medieval, Renaissance, and Modern eras.
- How did the map affect your gameplay?
The chokepoints and bottlenecks created by the terrain forced me to find creative solutions for some city captures, such as training up an artillery unit to max promotions and then forming a corps to get enough firepower into position to take the city.
- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
I made a lot of suboptimal plays and finished the game very late as a result, since I'm pretty rusty and returning to Civ after a long break. That said, playing into the late game was an awesome feeling when I finally got to Tanks, then Modern Armor and could simply roll through the last remaining resistance on the map.
- Did you enjoy your game?
Absolutely! Playing with a specific set of conditions like this was a blast and it was a great way to get into Civ again after an extended break. I used to play on Emperor, but for a more relaxed experience, playing on Prince was fun.

 

[leif erikson]

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