6otM24 After Action

[leif erikson]

Welcome to the 6otM24 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 attached your victory save to your post.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
- What was your most useful unit?
- Was diplomacy useful? How?
- Were City-States helpful?
- What was your strategy, what order did you take your opponents out in?
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
- Did you enjoy the 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.

 

[Scaramanga]

Haven't done GOTM before but I only got two cities at turn ~80 because I was eager to get a great general out and use some Legions. Not the best option on this map type. I made sure to get 2 galleys out and attacked my closest neighbour with 4 legions. By this time they had a medieval GG and knights. I retired.

 

[guslaet]

DV at turn 331.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
3 on starting continent, then a 4th to get access to iron in Egypt's continent. Later I founded 2 more out of captured Settlers, but unimportant ones.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Whatever was cheaper or I had gain boosts to.

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
No.

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
I was aiming at getting 3 of each type of unit (except support ones, which I'd get only one) before being able to do armies. I would build one unit, one building or worker, alternating.

- What was your most useful unit?
Bombards. With them I could eliminate the city walls faster for my melee units were outdated at least during half of the game.

- Was diplomacy useful? How?
I did try to keep warmongering to a minimum for as long as I could. Gilgamesh was my ally until turn 329.

- Were City-States helpful?
Yes. Because of bonuses.

- What was your strategy, what order did you take your opponents out in?
To atack whoever had less tech at each time (except Gilgamesh, the silly, who was my faithful ally till the very end). I started with Egypt, then England, Then Scythia, then Brazil, then Japan, and Sumeria was the last one. As for the USofA, Japan had taken care of that for me, but I did capture Washington, because it had built the Hagia Sofia.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
My first attempt at Egypt was actually a failure. I had to sign a peace treaty when she got Crossbows; it started decimating my spears and archers. So I took one of her cities in the peace trety, close to the capital, in order to prepare a second attack. The second surprise was actually good, because she never rebuilt the defenses, so when I did strike the second time, it was pretty, even though I was still technologically behind.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes. But I don't really understand why the AI does not join forces to stop such a warmongering bastard as myself. And a stupid one for all that science matters.

 

[Eyswein]

DOMINATION WIN, T131, 375AD
Significant details of first 100 turns in the Opening Actions thread. Not as much detail here as continuation of that strategy.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Finished with 19 Cities: 1 capital, 5 created settlers, 12 captured cities, 1 captured settler near end
- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Research: Math-103 (faster navy), Cartography-111 (held off ~3 turns for larger galley spam; caravels, ocean tiles, faster embarkation!), Stirrups-113 (yea knights!), Apprenticeship-115 (+ mine prod, but at this point not a big deal), after that just advancing for better military, but didn’t get there
Culture: RecHis-106, Theology-110, CivSer-115, DivRight-119, nothing significant afterwards
Policies: switched to Monarchy on T119, maintained ProfArmy (cheaper upgrades) from T110, Conscription (cheaper unit upkeep), Urban (production), Caravans (little extra gold), others didn’t care
- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history? No, just capitals and other cities on advance route or useful
- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
Army: Initially scout, 2 warriors, 6 archers; warrior spam in 80s->Legions T87; remaining 4 archer->crossbow T99; heavy chariot spam in 90s/100s->Knights T113+, didn’t have enough gold initially due to Navy upgrades; sadly built my battering rams late causing delays taking down walls (London and Uruk specifically)
Navy: two galleys T46-7, five galleys T80s, galley spam starting T100 -> caravels T111+ as have gold and get to my territory; should have been emphasized earlier
- What was your most useful unit? Combined arms vice a single unit type: Caravels were critical in sea and helped capture coastal cities – ability to travel over oceans squares for all units was most important; Knights with Battery Rams for wall decimation
- Was diplomacy useful? How? Trading for gold was very helpful
- Were City-States helpful? Increased gold and science were helpful
- What was your strategy, what order did you take your opponents out in?
T076-086, Scythia, capital T82 – see first thread
At T100 I hadn’t met Brazil and didn’t know where Japan was. Plan was to sweep through to those I had fixed locations for and continue to scout for others.
T105-125, England, capital T111: after finding London with a galley, started moving from Pokrova with 3 Legions and a GG while my crossbows came in a little late as they waited to upgrade, also sent Heavy Chariots
T115-125, Egypt, capital T118: used mostly Heavy Chariots/Legions, captured Apu T115 for Iron on T119 since I was losing Scythia provided iron on T116
T117-127, Sumeria, capital T123: knew location for a while; sent 3 caravels to start, 3 knights followed, but only one was needed, BatRam never got there
T119-end, Brazil, capital T122: ran into capital on way from London to Washington; D44&Encampment, super siege with Knights/Legions filling every open tile
T126-end, America, capital T128: same force as Brazil moving on to America
T128-end, Japan, capital T131: finally found by roaming galley about T110; mainly force from homeland and Egypt
Army one – Scythia, with major reinforcements, to England, Brazil, America, couple units and GG made it to Japan (GG was with Army one)
Army two – Egypt, combined with another homeland group, Japan
Army (really navy) three - Sumeria
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
No surprises besides the big one mentioned in the opening actions thread. Running into the Barb Quadriremes in late T90s was actually useful as it made me realize I needed Caravels immediately – and Cartography just has so many good effects.
- Did you enjoy the game? Love GOTM6

 

[dolCe]

DOMINATION WIN, T131, 375AD
Significant details of first 100 turns in the Opening Actions thread. Not as much detail here as continuation of that strategy.

Hey man, I was really, really surprised you won that quickly and I was thinking to myself it seemed impossible to support that kind of army without comm hubs and/or a gold CS meet. THEN, i read your opening moves post and saw Scythia gave you a 34gpt peace deal... holy crap why did i rush currency and get comm hubs up hahaha. I'm playing this like its multiplayer.

 

[dolCe]

DOMINATION VICTORY | T243 | 1660AD

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled 5 and captured quite a bit, maybe had 30 cities at the end. Maybe more.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
After turn 100 i ended up changing my strat and going for frigates > Knights > Cavalry. I stayed on Unit maintenance and +Science Cards the whole game. Also just kepy the unit upgrade discount card as my bonus.

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
I almost did that to Egypt, England and Japan but they offered me really nice GPT deals and ceded all cities so i just peaced them. I learned it is better to peace right after you take their capital in single player.

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
My initial plan was to rush an ancient Great General and just legion the hell out of my continent, but upon discovering I was on an island by myself I ended up going comm hubs then upgrading quads to frigates.

- What was your most useful unit?
The frigate by far was my most useful unit. Just bombarded down any city i needed to take including a few capitals. I captured Egypt and Japan's capital with frigates and a scout.

- Was diplomacy useful? How?
Nothing was useful besides making peace deals after i took their capital where they offered me all their GPT.

- Were City-States helpful?
Extremely. They always are. I think at one point i was making over 250gpt and in the modern era over 350 science per turn. Not possible without CS.

- What was your strategy, what order did you take your opponents out in?
I should have taken Scythia first because her cities were very nice. I took out Egypt and Japan first and their towns were horrrrrrrrrrrible. I hit them because their armies were weak but it did not help me snowball whatsoever. My initial strat was to get legions then cavalry then tanks but it being an island map changed that quite a bit. Frigates made the wars really easy.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
America's capital was really well defended with mountains and other cities with 92+ city defense. I dealt with it by getting modern armor and helicopter corps and somehow sneaking a few shots off with artillery and that was enough to take it.... thank goodness.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes, my first 6OTM. Very, very fun and can't wait till the next one!

Screenshot of final score: https://imgur.com/a/LUQl9

 

[Victoria]

T139 Dom 560 AD

How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled 4 at home and 1 later for a strategic upgrade from a captured settler... I deleted 2 other captured settlers as they were worthless.
What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Science - Mining, Bronze working, sailing, pottery, writing, irrigation, shipbuilding ... after that getting knights then I did not care. I overscienced a bit.
Civics - I had a creat Civics set of eurekas apart from Foreign Trade and got Autocracy on T47. After that I went for the CS envoy ones before going for Feudalism...slowed down my victory a bit I suspect but it was fine and we need to make mistakes to learn better.
- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
Nope, fairly minimalistic in approach. I did not take any capitals before T100
- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
Army: 2 warriors inititially, 4 slingers and a warrior later (lost 1 or each to barbs), chariot/knights around T100
Navy: My normal... 2 squadrons, each consisting of a caravel and 3 frigates. It just works.
- What was your most useful unit?
A builder! ... About turn 35 I sent her off sailing with 1 charge left. She got me my Political Philosophy and Astrology Eurekas , opened borders as soon as I met Japan, America and Brazil and she survived to circumnavigate the globe!..... Great intelligence.
- Was diplomacy useful? How?
With late attack games you can even brefriend early, with island maps you can open borders. I opened borders with anyone who wanted to pay me and I befriended Hojo and Teddy at T45-55. Life was happy and we all lived in harmony until T100... well I think I took Toronto in the 90's
- Were City-States helpful?
Science city states as usual were very helpful when I found them... although a quest to create a prophet is never helpful. I only built one CH at about T120 so not the money ones... Frigate attacks are very fast and you just pile up the surrender money so fast you do not really need hubs. Also looting harbours helps with the double loot card (I forgot to use)
- What was your strategy, what order did you take your opponents out in?
When I found out it was an island .... well I play a lot of naval so thats how I wanted to play, damn the legions. So the plan was find all the capitals first to asssess if I needed an army and how much of one. Build 2 squadrons and plan my attack.
Red Squadron went Gilga, Hojo, Cleo
Blue Squadron went Cleo (for early money and iron), vicky (1 turn to take cap), Tomyris (5 turns to take cap), Pedro (2 turns to take cap) and Teddy (4 turns with help from red squadrons knights)
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
The map... Not exactly a normal continental... and so much shallow water. I was hoping for al least some continental shelf
Teddy and Hojo's science were a good challenge.
- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes, the lack of goody huts reduces luck a bit and slows things down.
The way I played was immensely enjoyable. I normally fumble around but this times scouted first , planned, and then executed. More safety than risk, lost a few turns due to stupidity but less than normal!
Niter was rare. IF I knew it was at amsterdam I would have rewritten my strat... so rare it was good.
Thanks yet again GOTM team.

Favourite screenshot
Probably Kyoto because it was a hard fought battle, hence the destroyed districts.

 

[Eyswein]

- What was your most useful unit? A builder! ... About turn 35 I sent her off sailing with 1 charge left. She got me my Political Philosophy and Astrology Eurekas , opened borders as soon as I met Japan, America and Brazil and she survived to circumnavigate the globe!..... Great intelligence.

Wow, this is the most awesome and coolest idea ever!

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change? Army: 2 warriors initially, 4 slingers and a warrior later

After the two warriors did you go right to all the settlers before finishing the other military?

What was your strategy, what order did you take your opponents out in? Build 2 squadrons and plan my attack.

Do you send a battering ram or siege tower with the navy to help with walls or just attack without one?

 

[Victoria]

Wow, this is the most awesome and coolest idea ever!

an old idea but a good one, a one charge builder is slower but cheaper... it has one nice advantage... it can go on land! ... no goodie huts this game but when you are looking for wonders it's mighty handy. Also on land, they cannot be targeted by ranged fire.

After the two warriors did you go right to all the settlers before finishing the other military?

... this will shock you.... Rome's queue went something like builder, warrior, settler, trade route, encampment, builder, settler, slinger x3 warrior X1, slinger X1 ... I lost one of each. It's an island so fairly safe and as I was mainly naval there was no need early. Just a waste. I think I got animal husbandry on about turn 70-80

Do you send a battering ram or siege tower with the navy to help with walls or just attack without one?

... have you never used frigates against a wall?.... they do not suffer the -50%... as fast as Joshua at Jericho, they never get a chance to shoot. Naval is a bit OP but the off normal tech route adds problems, hence the science push.

 

[Eyswein]

... have you never used frigates against a wall?.... they do not suffer the -50%... as fast as Joshua at Jericho, they never get a chance to shoot. Naval is a bit OP but the off normal tech route adds problems, hence the science push.

I tend to like land lover maps. Even for those I've always been a fan of archers/crossbowmen over catapults/bombards even thought the later are better at city attacks. Ranged ships are the bomb - need to keep that in mind!!

 

[Victoria]

Ranged ships are the bomb

Range 4 battleships/missile cruisers in a city are affectively shooting 5 tiles into land. Even on Pangea, owning that much land space is strong. Of course for fast victories battleships have a non naval tech branch so it's just not gonna be easy.

 

[dolCe]

Basically, what I have learned from this 6OTM is that, in a domination game, making comm hubs will slow your victory down by almost 100 turns. Instead just rely on GPT generated from peace agreements and you can snowball to a <T200 victory.

 

[Victoria]

, making comm hubs will slow your victory down by almost 100 turns.

It is unlikely the hubs slow much depending on how late you build them. Its more about a lot of smaller tricks like chopping at the right time, early cuilture, eurekas, when to buy a tile., district placing.. The little things add up.... especially those Eurekas.... I mean maybe you let sailing go to 3/4 instead of half finished... not a big deal?... well you just lost a few turns off your victory.... every move your troops make wrongly, every time something was built in the wrong order.... for example a trade route versus a builder.

 

[tarafran]

Turn 270

- How many cities did you settle or capture? 7 settled 21 captured
- What did you prioritize for research and policies? NAVY
- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?no
- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change? 6 frigates,2 caravel
- What was your most useful unit?frigates
- Was diplomacy useful? How? selling my luxury
- Were City-States helpful? yes i was the only Suzerain except Scythia
- What was your strategy, what order did you take your opponents out in? Tojo was #1 with water cap, Pedro next ,Scythia England ,the last 3 within 3 turns with long range battleship and tanks
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it? Everybody was friend with me till around 150 when Tojo settled next to my cap .......
- Did you enjoy the game?yes

 

[dolCe]

Its more about a lot of smaller tricks

That makes sense. I definitely don't know all of the tricks and I can see how little mistakes here and there add up in the long run. I'm coming from multiplayer and the way i play is i get comm hubs up first to support an army then i finish building campuses but I don't think that's the best strategy vs AI on standard speed.

 

[Victoria]

I'm coming from multiplayer and the way i play is i get comm hubs up first to support an army then i finish building campuses but I don't think that's the best strategy vs AI on standard speed.

The AI is dumber so your army does not need to be so large.Its just about judging the best army to use and getting there in the most efficient manner. So for example knights are often key and getting to feudalism, mercenaries can be very handy if it's done early enough. To do that you really have to push your civic eurekas.... I built an encampment first but never pushed a general. The reason was I got bronze working early and that shows me iron and allows an encampment, not directly for war, but to get 2 civic eurekas.
As it happened I was more interested in getting 2 harbour's for cartography eureka which was harder due to the map and my start.
Also in SP science city states rock, 3 of the at +2 each means each campus puts out 6 science before adjacency or buildings, a longer game would be 12 science each... that's a lot.

 

[ferenginar]

Turn 388 1967 Science Victory – Score 561

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled 9 – 1 captured settler, captured 1 city. Japanese settler, Japanese city, My continent, get off my land.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
No prioritisation, just plod along with whatever comes next.

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
No

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
Defensive only

- What was your most useful unit?
Crossbows and Legions

- Was diplomacy useful? How?
What is diplomacy?

- Were City-States helpful?
Nothing special

- What was your strategy, what order did you take your opponents out in?
Strategy was to stay alive, and wait for somebody else to win, then realised I might actually be able to pull it off. Big surprise, they left me alone, except for the constant spying.

- Any surprises you ran into
I won, biggest surprise of all, my first victory at this level.
how did you deal with it?
Did you not hear the celebrations?

- Did you enjoy the game?
Oh yes, but slightly less, when I realised I should have been going for a Domination Victory. Not sure where I lost track of that one.

 

[antimony]

T192 DV


- How many cities did you settle or capture?
About 2-3 per opposite Civ.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
After Turn 100, I focused on the getting muskets and frigates early, then battleships. I still tried to get most eurekas. For government, researched Exploration first for the gold and trade routes, and later Theocracy to replenish my land army with faith (not my own holy sites, but those I took from Egypt).

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
Pedro, only because he only had his capital left.

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
Lost most of my knights army, rebuilt another land army with muskets->infantry and catapults->bombards->artillery.
Lost less naval units: My initial ~4 galleys and ~6 quads remained with promotions for most of the game.

- What was your most useful unit?
Naval ranged units for this map.

- Was diplomacy useful? How?
Most enemies had very little luxuries to trade, so mostly trade extra resources for gold. Kept Sumeria and Scythia as friends to avoid an early DoW from them (in the end, Gilgamesh wasn't that strong, and Tomyris mostly had a lot of unpromoted horsemen.)

- Were City-States helpful?
It took me a while to find the really useful ones (Geneva, Amsterdam, Lisbon). More pre T-100 scouting would have helped.

- What was your strategy, what order did you take your opponents out in?
After getting Cleo's capital (which took a bit long since I only had range-1 naval and the terrain was slow), my main mistake was probably to underestimate Hojo's military (lots of knights and crossbows), I lost most of my initial land army there. I should have gone for other targets first even if they were further, or I should have settled on Hojo's continent to get a healing base (which I did on the 2nd attempt). I ended up taking London and Rio with naval units only, and later the Sumerian and Scythian capital with minimal land support. Kyoto and Washington (which Hojo had conquered) fell quite late.

- Did you enjoy the game?
I hadn't played a naval map in a while so that was a good experience.

 

[antimony]

I tend to like land lover maps. Even for those I've always been a fan of archers/crossbowmen over catapults/bombards even thought the later are better at city attacks. Ranged ships are the bomb - need to keep that in mind!!

Your conquest speed with a land-first strategy is quite impressive. I mostly gave up on legions after seeing it was a naval map.

 

[antimony]

The AI is dumber so your army does not need to be so large.Its just about judging the best army to use and getting there in the most efficient manner.

In hindsight, I definitely agree that patience (don't send an army until you've seen the capitals) and planning were the way to go on this map.