6otM25 After Action

[leif erikson]

Welcome to the 6otM25 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, did you go to space peacefully or by the sword?
- 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.

 

[JoZilla]

SCIENCE VICTORY | T200 | 1390 AD

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled 11, Captured 9

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Most of the time I was just focused on hitting Eurekas as good as possible. Bronze working was a target early game, to get hoplites. Mid-game went to Industrialization to get Ruhr Valley. After that to Rocketry.

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
France and Arabia.

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
Initially built lots of archers and was planning on attacking France soon. However barbarian horsemen manged to kill many of my archers so I waited for hoplites and go with them. That was a lot easier as there were lots of barbarian horsemen around.

I captured 4 France cities with 4 hoplites and 2 archers and 1 warrior. Then I went for Arabia and took first city (strength less than 20) easily. After that Arabia got Mamluk sitting at Cairo (strength 55), which took really long time to capture with 4 hoplites, 1 swordsman and 3 archers. Rest of the cities were a lot easier as they didnt have mamluk sitting on them, and I had crossbowmen.


- What was your most useful unit?
Hoplites were good for capturing France and killing barbarian horsemen.

- Was diplomacy useful? How?
I got lots of gold from selling luxeries/resources to especially England.

- Were City-States helpful?
Stockholm was really good for science and great people generation.

- What was your strategy, did you go to space peacefully or by the sword?
My plan was always to capture at least 1-2 nearby CIV's to get big enough empire. I captured France and Arabia quite fast, and was thinking about going over the sea for more cities. But after getting good trading with England and America, I thought it might not be worth the trouble and would ruing my reputation as well.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Biggest "surprise" moment was when barbarian horsemen upgraded from 20 to 35 and killed lots of my archers. Does anyone know, when barbarian horsemen strength jumps from 20 to 35?


- Did you enjoy the game?
I enjoyed this a lot. I think this was my fastest science victory, my previous record something like turn 215.

I'm happy that I got science and great people timing quite perfect. After buying all great scientists, I was also getting the last remaining technology, so I could finish last 3 space ship parts in 1 turn.

However, I definately made some "mistakes". I overdid culture and underdid commerce. I think for culture you really need to reach Democracy, that 15% from Space Race civic is really quite small. I had to wait many turns to build enough cash before finishing Big Ben and buying remaining great people.

 

[Rogue-star]

How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled 9, Captured 6

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Policies: political philosophy -- feudalism -- exploration--the enlightenment --- suffrage --- globalization.

Research:horseback riding -- apprenticeship -- machinery -- education --

Industrialization -- rocketry -- economic

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
France and Arabia.

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
8 horsemen; 3 archers, and two of them became crossbowman



- What was your most useful unit?
Horseman,It helped me defeat France and Arabia very easily.


- Was diplomacy useful? How?
useful for I keep friendly with other civs on the other continent.

- Were City-States helpful?
certainly, they play an important role in my scientific and cultural development.



- What was your strategy, did you go to space peacefully or by the sword?
murdered all AI on my continent, and kept peace with the others before winning.


- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
barbarians! 10 riders almost loot to the last pin!I used these crossbowmen and destroyed them.



- Did you enjoy the game?
It's well, but it is my first time to play with the map of fractal, before this time I was used to play pangera, so there are so many things I unaccustomed. For instance, I murdered two AI players in my mainland, but I really cannot find the third AI after them, so I even commanded a large group of horsemen landing an island. It wasted my conquer time to a great extent, therefore, I didn't attack any AI in the last mainland. If I had previous experience with the fractal, maybe I would be more skilled in dealing with the fractal's domination-science victory, and I think the best performance can reach 140T.

 

[Rogue-star]

How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled 9, Captured 6

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Policies: political philosophy -- feudalism -- exploration--the enlightenment --- suffrage --- globalization.

Research:horseback riding -- apprenticeship -- machinery -- education --

Industrialization -- rocketry -- economic

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
France and Arabia.

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
8 horsemen; 3 archers, and two of them became crossbowman



- What was your most useful unit?
Horseman,It helped me defeat France and Arabia very easily.


- Was diplomacy useful? How?
useful for I keep friendly with other civs on the other continent.

- Were City-States helpful?
certainly, they play an important role in my scientific and cultural development.



- What was your strategy, did you go to space peacefully or by the sword?
murdered all AI on my continent, and kept peace with the others before winning.


- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
barbarians! 10 riders almost loot to the last pin!I used these crossbowmen and destroyed them.



- Did you enjoy the game?
It's well, but it is my first time to play with the map of fractal, before this time I was used to play pangera, so there are so many things I unaccustomed. For instance, I murdered two AI players in my mainland, but I really cannot find the third AI after them, so I even commanded a large group of horsemen landing an island. It wasted my conquer time to a great extent, therefore, I didn't attack any AI in the last mainland. If I had previous experience with the fractal, maybe I would be more skilled in dealing with the fractal's domination-science victory, and I think the best performance can reach 140T.

How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled 9, Captured 6

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Policies: political philosophy -- feudalism -- exploration--the enlightenment --- suffrage --- globalization.

Research:horseback riding -- apprenticeship -- machinery -- education --

Industrialization -- rocketry -- economic

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
France and Arabia.

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
8 horsemen; 3 archers, and two of them became crossbowman



- What was your most useful unit?
Horseman,It helped me defeat France and Arabia very easily.


- Was diplomacy useful? How?
useful for I keep friendly with other civs on the other continent.

- Were City-States helpful?
certainly, they play an important role in my scientific and cultural development.



- What was your strategy, did you go to space peacefully or by the sword?
murdered all AI on my continent, and kept peace with the others before winning.


- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
barbarians! 10 riders almost loot to the last pin!I used these crossbowmen and destroyed them.



- Did you enjoy the game?
It's well, but it is my first time to play with the map of fractal, before this time I was used to play pangera, so there are so many things I unaccustomed. For instance, I murdered two AI players in my mainland, but I really cannot find the third AI after them, so I even commanded a large group of horsemen landing an island. It wasted my conquer time to a great extent, therefore, I didn't attack any AI in the last mainland. If I had previous experience with the fractal, maybe I would be more skilled in dealing with the fractal's domination-science victory, and I think the best performance can reach 140T.

 

[Lord Yanaek]

T249 Science Victory
No save, i'm playing with CQUI which is not officially allowed, reporting for the spirit.

I don't remember seeing that victory screen before so i guess it was my first Science Victory in Civ6.
I don't like that every victory is just a different flavor of domination so i didn't war a lot which isn't optimal but i could have saved several turns (probably 2 dozen) if i had better managed Great People and Campus Grants. I thought there was an engineer that helped for Space Projects so i built multiple Industrial Zones but in the end, all you need to rush the 3 final projects is the 2 scientists. Earlier Research Grants instead of wasting time building IZs would have accelerated my research and might have allowed me to grab the Scientist that gives Eureka for every Information Era tech. I also didn't have enough culture as i unlocked Democracy too late to be useful for GS purchases despite building a bunch of Agoras.

How many cities did you settle or capture?
Let me see, i stupidly overwrote the save. IIRC i settled 6 (including capital) and captured 1 from France as they settled too close to my natural wonder. Later after Catherine DoWed me i took a settler and settled a 7th city but it never became very large (still had a Campus with University thought).

What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Research : i tried to get Bronze Working and my Hoplites after the basic ones (Mining, AH, Archery), then Writing, Currency, Construction (as i had cities without Fresh Water), Apprenticeship and Education. After that i roughly beelined Scientific Theory then Rocketry (with a useless detour for Electricity as i didn't really need production or Engineers) and filling the gaps for the rest of the science projects.
Policies : The usual stuff : Political Philosophy - Feudalism - Exploration and then Suffrage for Democracy but that one came too late to be useful.

Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
A bunch of barbarian tribes

What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
3 slingers into archers for the early strike at France when i noticed she already had a city near the NW i wanted to settle. They were followed by 2 Hoplites but the jungles didn't really help and she had walls up quite soon so when she offered a sizeable sum of gold for peace i accepted. I added 2 horsemen to chase barbarians in the frozen south and later a Chariot to upgrade as i had CS quests for both.
Those got a big update (Hoplites to AT) when France and my Friend Saladin declared a joint war against me later and at the end of the game i purchases 2 more tanks for a Eureka.

What was your most useful unit?
Certainly the Archers. Horsemen were good to chase barbarians.

Was diplomacy useful? How?
I actually managed to get an RA for Rocketry with Saladin so i think i can say i used Diplomacy more than i ever did in any Civ6 game before

Were City-States helpful?
Stockholm was very useful for additional GP points (along with Divine Spark). They got most of my envoys as i had to get to something like 15 before Saladin gave up trying to take it from me.

What was your strategy, did you go to space peacefully or by the sword?
Mostly peacefully. I still took Rennes from France as it was north of the science wonder.

Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
The science wonder just NE of my starting position. I actually started scouting NW so i didn't see it immediately. When one of my Slingers saw it i immediately built a Settler to settle the river to the west (only freshwater nearby). This one really helped my science during the early-mid part of the game but i probably relied on it for a little too long and missed all the early GS.

Did you enjoy the game?
Overall yes, even if it turned into a "next-turn fest" in the end with the added annoyance that i had to periodically repeat counter-espionage orders. At least CQUI saved me the troubles of re-assigning trade routes.

 

[leif erikson]

T249 Science Victory
No save, i'm playing with CQUI which is not officially allowed, reporting for the spirit..

Thanks.

Was this game played in the new patch?
If so, CQUI worked without problem?

 

[Lord Yanaek]

Thanks.

Thank you (and the rest of the staff, present and past) for keeping GotM alive all those years

Was this game played in the new patch?
If so, CQUI worked without problem?

No, i set Steam offline to be able to finish this game without the patch interfering.
From what i've read the patch broke CQUI badly which isn't a surprise since they modified the UI. I've played a bit with the new patch (but without CQUI sadly) and the new religious lens is a huge improvement. Religious victory will no longer be a pain to the eye now.

 

[leif erikson]

I was pretty sure this was pre-patch, but wanted to check. Thanks again.

 

[Eyswein]

SCIENCE WIN, T187
Details of first 100 turns in the Opening Actions thread.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
19 Total; Built 9 -1 capital, 4 created settlers, 4 captured settlers; Captured – 10 cities
- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Research: some big ones: Banking-105, Industrialization-119, Rocketry-141, All needed-171
Culture: some big ones: Enlightenment-123, Suffrage-158, Globalization-180
Policies: mid-game focus on science/gold; late-game on production/gold
Build priorities: Focus on Campuses everywhere, I chopped/bought Libraries/Universities; 3 IZs to power plants, Commerce Districts everywhere; after Suffrage most cities to Campus research projects
Other big ones: 126-Great Zimbabwe, 132-Colloseum, 163-Space Port, 171-Satellite, 180-Moon, 185,186,187-Mars
Eretria was hub for all trade routes (19 at end) with 149 production and 383 gold at end
- How long did it take to find your neighbors? Were they hostile or friendly? Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history? France / Arabia eliminated; 102-116 met China, Other Greece, America, England, Sumeria; mostly friendly
- Trading: I met America on T106 and made trades for 350+ g, 57 gpt, at end had trades for 150+ gpt with civilizations on the other continent
- Wars: 126-136 China, liberated Buenos Aires and captured one city; otherwise peaceful
- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
Army: 1 Scout; 6 Slingers -> 2 Crossbows; 7 HChar -> 6 Knights; 2 Warriors-> 3 Muskets
Navy: just 3 Galleys (2 upgraded to Caravels)
Note: Not a major focus on military. Decided to focus on main continent cities and forego a major excursion onto the other continent
- What was your most useful unit? Caravels for exploration
- Were City-States helpful? Ended up as Suzerain of 7 CS; more science/gold would have been nice, but bonuses of fresh water / amenities were useful; Kabul was a waste since I didn’t continue warring
- Great People?
Started with two GGs, but then didn’t go military route, so kind of a waste.
For GE, 172-Goddard was notable, spent faith to purchase which I think would have been better saved for GS.
For GS, I think first I got was Gallileo; I had to buy the last 9 (all 3 modern/atomic/information) to get T174-Stephanie, T183-Sagan, after Suffrage gold was exclusively used for this.
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it? Nothing significant.
- What was your strategy, did you go to space peacefully or by the sword?
By the sword to capture main continent, then peacefully.
I’ve read how folks are getting sub-170 turn wins, but am definitely missing something in strategy or tactics.
- Did you enjoy the game? Loved it as always!

 

[civtrader6]

Turn 141 600 AD Science Victory

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Total of 23 cities out of which 19 at Turn 70 (3 captured from France (1CS), 4 from Arabia, 3 or 4 captured settlers) and then extra 4 from England around T90-100.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Prioritised early horseman rush. Then builder rush timed with Feudalism.
Then Monarchy to make use of the Wall overflows (+150% on chops) for cheap districts.
Then rush toward Economics/Spaceport and Merchant Republic to Globalization.

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
France and Arabia before T70. Then went on to look for other continents/city states. Luckily went in the right direction to find England next (which had one city without walls, perfect). Also, estimated that the first landmass east of home continent is uninhabited (based on barbs everywhere) so went around & push for Cartography. Good timing.
England had a really bad start though. So I virtually just repaired the monuments and chopped all the woods/deer they had for extra traders.

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
3 slingers (started building at T20 or so). Then 7 horseman (chopped quickly). Thats it. Lost my initial warrior never built a second one.

- What was your most useful unit?
The classical great general!

- Was diplomacy useful? How?
Very useful. Met Gilgamesh after finishing all the wars. Sent delegation. Gift luxury. Change open borders. Next turn friendship. Next turn alliance (just in time for a boost). Remained friends throughout.
Tried (my best) not to be denounced by China, Pericles and Teddy. Still was denounced. Nevertheless, they were good trade partners and good source of gold through the game.

- Were City-States helpful?
Very much so. With just one scientific CS - had to focus heavily on culture to reach Globalization before T130. Building acropolises was also useful.
Managed to snatch a religion and make use of Papal Primacy for extra culture.

- What was your strategy, did you go to space peacefully or by the sword?
War (home continent by T60-70, then England for extra traders). Rest as usual.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Lack of scientific city states. Compensated through strong culture focus and lots of early barbs.
- Did you enjoy the game?
Very much so. Thanks Leif for this amazing map.

 

[Eyswein]

Turn 141 600 AD Science Victory
- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
3 slingers (started building at T20 or so). Then 7 horseman (chopped quickly). Thats it. Lost my initial warrior never built a second one.
View attachment 479341

Awesome. Thanks for the write-up!

I can't wrap my head around this part - three slingers and seven horsemen.

 

[civtrader6]

Awesome. Thanks for the write-up!

I can't wrap my head around this part - three slingers and seven horsemen.

Well to clarify, France walled up immediately after I took their first city, so I purchased a battering ram (to do this, I sold horses and my only luxury to Arabia). And then a second battering ram was purchased in one of England's cities. Didn't have enough gold early to upgrade slingers, but later I did to 3 archers and 2 crossbowman, solely in order to get the 2 boosts.

 

[glaivemaster]

- How many cities did you settle or capture?

Forgot to check before I closed the game - I settled 10 and captured 2, I think.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?

Prioritised pretty much anything I got Eurekas for - early game Bronze Working was high up for Hoplites, later I was a bit all over the place. Once Rocketry was unlocked I did start beelining the rest of the Space Race technologies, naturally.

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?

Only the City State Carthage. Maybe I could have pushed more against France, but I made some bad tactical moves and so those early wars were quite costly. I chickened out rather than pursuing France all the way to death.

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

Started with 3 slingers to upgrade to Archers, then about 4 Hoplites while I started conquering France and later Carthage. Lost my Warrior in the French war, and then all my Archers against Carthage due to the awkward positioning. Not much war later game, so I just pushed out a couple of units at random when I had opportunities, and built/bought some Privateers mid-game to get rid of Barbarians that were hassling my north coast.

- What was your most useful unit?

Hoplites were crucial in taking cities early, especially since I let my Archers die. 2 Hoplites make short work of unwalled cities.

- Was diplomacy useful? How?

Later in the game I finally met the rest of the world, most of whom were friendly. I got 3 research agreements which maybe only sped me up by 10 turns, but that was fine anyway.

- Were City-States helpful?

Stockholm was absolutely amazing, helping me get a whole host of Great Scientists, and a couple of Merchants including Adam Smith.

- What was your strategy, did you go to space peacefully or by the sword?

Relatively peacefully - only took 2 cities really, and sniped a couple of settlers from barbarians. Far less than I intended, but I'm a bit reserved when it comes to warfare.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?

At some point mid-game Arabia and China declared a very sudden joint war with no pre-warning. China sent a Cavalry into my territory I was woefully unprepared for, and it pillaged a few improvements and trade routes. In the long run though, damage was minimal and both signed white peace fairly quickly. It did, however, encourage me to be more prepared for potential future wars (of which there weren't any).

- Did you enjoy the game?

It's my first game on Immortal, and first GotM. It was fun to win, but I definitely felt like I was doing badly, and I had the slowest time of any posted yet. Culture was awful throughout the game, and I made quite a few suboptimal plays, partly from laziness or lack of attention. I had fun, but I feel like I could have done much better.

 

[mortyr]

T266 - Science Victory

How many cities did you settle or capture?
Total 17: Settled 4 (with capital), captured 2 city-states, 5 cities from France and 6 from Arabia

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Early on I prioritized bronze working to get early Hoplites and conquer some cities. Later I rushed Ballistics and take down arabia using Field Cannons and Musketman. Later just go for the Rocketery.
Policies - just anything that gave me science or gold (also rushed communism a little bit)

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
Lisbon, Stockhold, France and Arabia. I left Saladin 1 city so he can pay me (he had 600gold and 80/turn, whith was too tempting)

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
6 Archers, 3 Hoplites and warrior until Renaissance, then 2 corps of Musketman, 3 corps of Field Cannons and 1 corp of Bombard + 1 lonely Bombard was enough to conquer Arabia, then just upgrading it.
0 navy whole game.

- What was your most useful unit?
Hoplites and Archers early, Field Cannons later.

- Was diplomacy useful? How?
Not really, I met England and USA then I was fighting Saladin so the denounce me. Leter they both declare joint war on me twice (they sent 0 units) and make peace after 10 turns. Once England built city on my continent, then I razed it so they paid me more. Met Pericles and Sumeria (with 1 city) around 200 turn when that was obvious I would win. However made some good trades with Pericles.

- Were City-States helpful?
Lisbon helped me with clearing 1st barbarian outpost. Mohenjo-Daro was very helpful. They took down last French city (and razed it) but when I was fighting with Saladin, they killed like 2 corps of his Horsman and 1 corp of Mamluk.

- What was your strategy, did you go to space peacefully or by the sword?
Conquer whole continent, leaving Mohenjo-Daro, Carthage, Vilnius and one Saladin's city.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
2 builders from tribal villages (and a relic whith gave me free pantheon). Barbarians weren't a problem at all whith was a big surprise. I also got random great prophed (France had 2 holy sites) but immediately after I found a Religion, Saladin just sent a bunch of missionaries, spread their religion into my whole country so I ended with 0 cities beliving my religion and this never changed.

- Did you enjoy the game?
That was my first 6otM game and 3rd game on immortal and it was pretty fun. Great tribal villages and Yosemite helping me with early science. Although when I conquer Arabia than was obvious I would win and it started to be a little bit boring. I guess it's time to play my first game ever on deity.

 

[Victoria]

T166 - Science Victory

How many cities did you settle or capture?
Captured 10, settled 12

What did you prioritize for research and policies?
To horsemen, then I just moved up the tree evenly holding off on possible Eurekas and finishing 1 turn sciences when they came up to increase chops. I built my spaceport about turn 150.

Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
Catherine and Saladin... they would have told tales to the others.

What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
7 horsemen and 2 knights and a GG. It did not change. I should have built 3 knights... it would have given me 2 extra eurekas.

What was your most useful unit?
Mr Goddard. Witrhout him I would not have made enough

Was diplomacy useful? How?
I did not really need it, the foreigners stayed stable so no intervention was necessary, great trade partners

Were City-States helpful?
Sure, Science, culture and money ones

What was your strategy, did you go to space peacefully or by the sword?
I took out Catherine and Saladin before I met anyone else and everyone was pretty neutral apart from Teddy denounced me in the last turn for ruining the environment
I got 3 markets a few acropolis and the obligitory million campus. I tried to balance getting to Democracy with getting my last project as close as I could
I did some things I have not done before like settle a very late city because it had 3 crabs and I had found a barb settler

Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Yes!... a builder in my second scout hut. I dealt with it really well thank you.
I tried out the city Patron Goddess. She seems to have done me well.

Did you enjoy the game?
I enjoyed last third of the game a lot. The start of the game I kept getting interrupted. I even reloaded because of it so this game is not valid.
I did not chop enough, coming back to the game and rushing a few turns is not the best way to play.
However it was a great learning experience and I certainly feel I could have done it faster. I just get lazy about doing the finer points.
It was a great map, Thanks Leif.
Tanks also to @Lily_Lancer and @civtrader6 for sound advice.

Favourite pic
Look at the awesome overhousing

 

[arthur486]

SV @ 219
This was my first "serious" play at science victory.

I'll start by saying that for the first time, the game consistently crashed on turn 131. I tried several reloads with both DX11 & 12 to no avail. So I reloaded the turn 126 save and chose a slightly different path which no longer triggered the crash.

Also, I've made the following errors, which I will try to avoid in the next games:
- I did not build Zimbabwe nor Big Ben, which set me back many turns. I only got Kwolek very late, and Sagan on the last turn before victory. Lesson learned
- I do not explore enough. This is something from Civ IV, where by the end every piece of land is taken; in 6, I see large areas occupied by barbs with juicy villages for which I do not have enough scouts.
- I do not time my attacks well; I attack too early, and do not time upgrades.
- After about 100 turns, when victory is certain, I get lazy, and don't think things through... tough luck fixing this one!

So, the game:
- Settle in place, meet Stockholm and Lisbon, double bonus
- Start with scout/slinger (scout start definitely worth it)
- First 4 goody huts are very good: builder/relic/builder/gold
T25 - Saladin wants to give me an arm and a leg for the relic, is the trade bug fixed?
T29 - War on France to steal settler
T30 - Finally sell the relic to Saladin for 220 gold and open borders
T42 - Classical Era
T46 - Political Philosophy (my fastest yet)
T54 - War on Saladin for settler capture
T67 - Sun Tzu recruited
T90 - War ends with France, 4 captured cities, including Paris
T100 - War on Saladin, Cartography complete; status is 83 science, 34 culture, 10 cities, 197 score, 13 envoys.
T103 - Meet China and Sumer
T112 - War on me by Pericles&Victoria, as soon as I met them
T130 - Relic trading bug? Victoria would give 400 gold lump + 177gpt for relic! Did not take as felt like cheating. Could not reproduce at later date.
T129 - On the replay made peace with Saladin, conquered all but 1 of his cities
T152 - Sparta completes Ruhr Valley
T163 - Colosseum built in Paris
T167 - Space port complete in Sparta
... and a bunch of end turns because I'm too lazy to play this game as I should.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
About 10 each.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Went for Rocketry, discovered Cartography too late for my taste

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
Nope, avoided finishing off France or Arabia

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
Warriors and Archers, a few Horsemen, upgraded up to Musketman

- What was your most useful unit?
Sun Tzu, made a big difference early on

- Was diplomacy useful? How?
Not really, after the first wars was denounced by everyone.

- Were City-States helpful?
Stockholm obviously, as well as the culture ones. Was suzerain of 4 city states by the end and had 6 envoys in most.

- What was your strategy, did you go to space peacefully or by the sword?
Mixed; conquered most of my own island and then kept to myself.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Not really; I expected to meet other science CS in the middle of the continent to the right, was surprised to discover it was water.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Very much, thank you for the game!

 

[isopaha]

Turn 253 SV. Captured most of France. Quite a standard game, can't seem to find a way to be much faster than this.

 

[nufro]

T224 SV

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Initially settled 3, 2 by the horses and one with a settler stolen from France, behind Paris. Ended up with 24 or 25, most captured.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Horseback riding

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
France, Arabia and China. China was way behind in science, I declared a colonial war to liberate Hong Kong, but ended up conquering him entirely.

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
Initial warrior, 3 archers and 5 horsemen were enough to capture France pretty fast. Went with the same for Arabia and got my butt kicked. Had to get knights and didn't conquer him till ~t100.

- What was your most useful unit?
Horsemen initially, knights later.

- Was diplomacy useful? How?
Surprisingly, yes. Stole 2 or 3 techs and some gold from my buddy Gilgamesh. He was also spying on me, but I did better.

- Were City-States helpful?
Definitely. I was a suzerain of 7 or 8 of them in the end.

- What was your strategy, did you go to space peacefully or by the sword?
By the sword, pretty much. England an Pericles kept hitting me even late in the game, probably encouraged by Teddy.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Didn't expect Arabia to be so tough to conquer.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Great game, thank you!

 

[Bachelor Panda]

Hi all, I really enjoyed this game. I've included a save of my first run through, a 230 turn victory.

But what I really want to do with this short post is give some shout-outs.

1) Thanks Leif for a great map.

2) Thanks civtrader6 for your write up.

3) Thanks Victoria for your write up.

I took this game on as a learning experience. A way to learn how to be efficient towards a victory. 1st play through was my posted 230 turn victory...which I enjoyed and as a mostly domination player was proud of

After looking at civtrader6's and Victoria's results, I realized I have things to learn. So I replayed this game twice more. Thanks civ6 for the Monarchy/100% defensive building card move....soooo powerful. I had never used that before and my 2nd run through was a 192 turn victory. I went again and focused on cavalry early instead of sword and 3rd time through made a 178 turn victory. What a learning experience. The biggest difference between cavalry and sword...cavs get to the 2nd war much sooner With a great general the 1st war goes about the same...but cavs get to the second front sooo much faster!

Victoria, I thank you because I didn't understand the legacy bonus...and seeing your use of neighborhoods fits my style of play. I'll probably play this game through again just to learn those mechanics.


BP

 

[leif erikson]

Thank you for the write-up.

Glad you enjoyed the experience. Game of the Month is all about learning and improving the play of our community.