6otM27 After Action

[leif erikson]

Welcome to the 6otM27 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.

- If you played 6otM21, how did this game play in comparison?
- Do you find the new Religion layer useful? How?
- How many cities did you settle or capture?
- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
- What did your religious army consist of?
- 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, how did you gain your Religious VC?
- 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.

 

[seb_schmitt]

Religious Victory in Turn 284, 519 Points

Close call, Qin Shi was about to launch his mars rocket. Toughest game I've won so far against AI.

Do you find the new Religion layer useful? How?
Being able to see how strong the religions are in a certain city is very valuable.
How many cities did you settle or capture?
10 settled, 2 captured (Kandy and Saragossa as religious hubs before facing Qin Shi and Hojo)
=> despite Mvemba, everyone hated me for the rest of the game, but luckily they did not attack (despite my weak military)
What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Research: naval technologies, then military to be prepared in case of an attack; Policies: Theocracy, afterwards focus on envoys
What did your religious army consist of?
Mostly apostles with one charge left in the frontline, gurus behind them to heal, third row apostles with charges to convert cities (which was not necessary in most cases, because AI did the job by running into my apostles with inquisitors; maybe AI could be improved to focus on removing foreign religions in its own cities instead of wasting inquisitors on attacks? Would have made the game for me impossible to win, which I think should be the common case on deity level.)
Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
No
What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
Had only 8-10 land units and 5 ships, upgraded them occasionally.
What was your most useful unit?
Guru for sure, helped a lot to sustain religious confrontations.
Was diplomacy useful? How?
Sold my luxuries for decent amounts of gold to the AI (mostly Mvemba), was allie to Mvemba for half of the game.
Were City-States helpful?
Buenos Aires helped me a lot, Toronto a littl
What was your strategy, how did you gain your Religious VC?
Focus on Holy Sites and expansion first, later on faith and money. Kandy and Saragossa were crucial als religious hubs, from there it was quite easy to convert Qin Shi and Philip. Tojo and Cleopatra were tough oponents, cost me a lot of turns.
Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
After surprise war of Pedro, who was quite easy to defend against, no more surprises.
Did you enjoy the game?
Not at all at the beginning, because of the bad (you could also say challenging) starting location. Later on I was quite thrilled by the close finish, almost to much, neglected rest of life a bit.

One question to the other guys who finished (maybe off-topic): would you also prefer, if religious units could not be eliminated by military ones? At first when the latest update came out, I thought this was the case and was totally amazed by this game changer. It means, you only can defend against religious attacks with religious units, which would imho make religious victory an almost equal option to domination, even when playing against humans.

What do you think?

 

[Fivethumbs]

Religious Victory in Turn 246, 655 Points

- Do you find the new Religion layer useful? How?
Way better for the eye than the old one. Follower numbers is easy to follow. I still don't understand all the pressure numbers though (whats that number on the right hand side of the panel?)
- How many cities did you settle or capture?
3 cities settled (2 on the same continent and a 1-tile galapagos island). Japan/Egypt continent conquered almost fully.
- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Frigates -> Battleships for research (not too many Eurekas...)
Merchant republic -> Enlightement -> Theocracy for policies (kept Science + Faith output cards most of the time, and that 100% frigates building card)
- What did your religious army consist of?
Zerg of Apostles. Sneaky CS drowned maybe 5 apostles or so. Too few consistent fronts - trickle of Apostles didn't fare well vs 10+ inquisitor wall.
- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
Japan fully, and most of Egypt
- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
Land army - just crossbowmen (bought with faith 1 turn before field cannons) for city defense
Frigates into Battleships as Navy
- What was your most useful unit?
Frigates into Inquisitors - otherwise Japan would've dominated the religion.
- Was diplomacy useful? How?
Ghandi and Philip were friendly throughout most of the game, providing safe attack point onto Japan/Egypt
- Were City-States helpful?
Not at all this game. However short trading period with Kumasi while suzerain gave that needed push for Merchant republic. I did not conquer a single CS.
- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Religious VC?
Plan was to build frigates, conquer couple of other religions (convert via extermination & get large faith generation), then proceed from there. Japan turned out to be best first target. Japan built most of religious wonders also.
Other two religions were owned by China and Brazil.
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Biggest surprise was to get the win after what felt like a very slow start. Success in the first war was very borderline - could've gone either way.

T150 - With 3 frigates, 2 caravels and 1 inquisitor started first war with Japan (which had samurais & crossbowmen & catapults for defense, no navy). Some of the other civs were reaching into Atomic era (in the purple tree).
T150 - T190 - Interchanging peace & wars with Egypt & Japan - get some cities, peace, get inquisitors out, meanwhile attack the other one. Ended up with ~8 frigates and 2 ironclads. Longer peace when Japan finally got submarines out and started killing frigates fast. Got most of Egypt in cheesy peace deal (Exploited AI bug? When frigate started attacking Egypt capital walls, Egypt gave away 3 other cities for gpt for a peace).
T192 - Switched to Theocracy, at this point just cought up with China & Kongo in science generation, but ~8 technologies behind.
T200 Brasil + China declared joint war vs me. China was too far to be a threat, Brazil sent all wooden crap that floats towards Arabian shore (catapults, archers, horses) for free xp.
T215 - upgraded to battleships and took Kyoto for those religious wonders
T220 Kongo + China declared joint war vs me and just kept feeding units, and in peace deal gave 1 city for gpt each. Cities served as base for the conversions.
~T225 I think I will win but then China completes second science victory milestone. At this point had converted ~3/7 civs. Somehow got 4+ apostles & gurus going on two fronts and won in the end. At the end Apostles cost 900+ faith.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Absolutely. So much stress...

 

[Victoria]

T188 RV

If you played 6otM21, how did this game play in comparison?
I did not.
- Do you find the new Religion layer useful? How?
Yes very, being able to walk under enemy units up to their cities especially.
ALSO .... the promotions issue seems fixed... I could get three of the same apostle promotion within 2 turns. The strongest now seems to be the triple strength one.
AND I also discovered the religious stats by accident, very handy although the units showing through the pie graph are annoying. Note Jerusalem I do not have a majority but I am Suze, thats all that counts.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled 4 captured 26. I gave one back to Mvemba after I had converted all his cities ... I saw nothing wrong with that... it was to get rid of the -18 to get him to be an ally. If thats wrong shoot me.
- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Anything naval but mixed in eurekas and needed ones like granary for growth early. One key to my success was good gold and getting granaries down to not stifle city growth. Also pushing civics to get good early chop. I hard built up to friagtes at around T110 and had mercs at T100 so was fine.. only after frigates did I start going toward battleships ... Getting my quads to take 4 CS before frigates also helped a lot.
- What did your religious army consist of?
Many many missionaries and quite a few apostles. 3 inquisitors
- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
Hojo, he just did not appreciate he had lost
- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
I literally had one warrior until about turn 150
2 caravels and 8 frigates and later some privateers just for safety.
Later I bought chariots, cavalry and archers with money... cavalry/tanks at the end were handy
- What was your most useful unit?
Probably my initial warrior, he went sailing with my quads and cleaned up lots of camps... as did my great prophet
- Was diplomacy useful? How?
Not really ... Mvemba being Darwinist helped a lot although he did declare on me at one stage. I ended up allied to him but it was just a safety thing at the end.
- Were City-States helpful?
Kumasi was good early, Religious CS's were great late but the most helpful were Toronto and Mohenjo Daro for being easy enough pickings early, Great extra harbours
- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Religious VC?
I built no troops, purely went for my standard tactic of 2 Caravels and 6 frigates in 2 fleets and 2 extra frigates for home defense.
I built harbours first initially and got the double adjacency card for great money, then powered out the holy sites, chopping them in as needed.
I left non religious civs and just attacked religious ones with my civs... I left Brazil as they were strong and inland expecting them to be a hard fight at the end.
At turn 167 I activated my religion which turns all cities with holy sites into my religion... all over the place... at that stage I was on+450 faith and had over 10K in the bank.
I wanted to try and take all civs from there with religious units but Japan just annoyed me in the end with the inquisitors so I killed him.
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
How easy Brazil was to convert, he just did not complain and had no units bar one missionary I left through sympathy... Pedro had subs but never once declared war... very weird. He would have made for an interesting naval battle.
- Did you enjoy the game?
So much so, I learnt so much, I have never done a late RV like that before. I could have easily got it 20 turns earlier if I knew what I was doing.
I forgot to change to 1 save and accidentally pushed debug at one stage but never used it... I saved twice ./.. at T101 and T167. I am not fussed about being on any list... I just enjoy the games but did to play to the spirit

My seconds city, great early gold and prod, I love truffles.

Note my egyptian holy city

 

[Victoria]

(whats that number on the right hand side of the panel?)

The pressure the city is pushing out per turn

 

[^MeSSiaH^]

Seeing how RV is modified DV, I would love to see religious pressure on units. I.e. "converted" units fighting worse against their brothers in faith etc. This could bring a true new layer to this type of game.

 

[Victoria]

Seeing how RV is modified DV, I would love to see religious pressure on units. I.e. "converted" units fighting worse against their brothers in faith etc. This could bring a true new layer to this type of game.

It would not help in this case. My frigates were home grown. They need to punish continuous war with weariness or similar. It's blatant continuous war that's making all victories similar.

 

[Eyswein]

RELIGIOUS VICTORY, T160, 980AD, score 663

Early details in the Opening Actions Thread.
- If you played 6otM21, how did this game play in comparison? I didn’t finish 6otM21, so can’t compare. I do like the new religious interface and rules!
- Do you find the new Religion layer useful? How? Yes, being able to move religious units without interference from military units was very useful and makes sense – annoying when the AI did it to me.
- How many cities did you settle or capture? Total of 31 cities at the end – 1 capital, 4 settlers made, rest were captured cities or settlers.
- What did you prioritize for research and policies? Some of the key ones below and why I used them:
T101 both Stirrups and Mercenaries – upgraded my heavy chariots to finish off a second Brazil city
T117 Square Rigging - upgrade quads to frigates (held off for this upgrade to start war with Japan)
T117 Divine Right – switch to Monarchy and Limes – wall chop in holy sites for cites without them and commercial districts for those with them
T129 Reformed Church – switch to Theocracy
T130 Exploration – specifically for Press Gangs, hated to give up Urban, but had decided 6 frigates were too few, ended with 17 frigates
T151 Nationalism – Corps/Fleets make war easy again
- What did your religious army consist of?
1) Initially missionaries to convert my cities to my religion – one mistake I made was starting a religion with my first Holy Site – I should have waiting until I had a few more up; at Deity the others were generally maxed out with 4 beliefs, so didn’t need to try to beat anyone to a particular belief, just select from the remaining ‘at leisure’. I used the GP on T88, on T90 I had 3 Holy Sites, by T106 I had 2 more captured Holy Sites with no religion in them. This would have been a far better time to establish my religion since all 5 cities would start with it (I think).
2A) Next I focused on Inquisitors and Missionaries to convert the cities I’d captured that were another religion.
2B) Also focused on Apostles to convert the cities of others I left with only one city as well as India/Kongo who had other religions sent to them.
3) Apostle swarm spreading the Avesta to convert the remaining Chinese cities.
Note: I didn’t meet the winning religious condition with any Civ, to include me, until T151; Brazil was first at T151.
- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
Army
1) Early on 3 warriors and 4 archers (while some of these were upgraded later, not a focus).
2) Added 9 heavy chariots to start war with Brazil, then upgraded to Knights; added Bat Ram for city walls.
3) Corps of Knights, yea!, though really just to take the last Egyptian city
Navy
1) Early on 3 galleys, explorers
2) Added 6 quads, 5 of which were upgraded to frigates for war on T117; other was roaming and had to get to friendly territory to upgrade
3) After exploration on T130, went Frigate crazy, doing any chops I could to get them faster, ended with 17 frigates with a few Fleets of them
- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history (also listing wars since this was key to my strategy)?
WAR, what is it good for?
India and Kongo – peacefully coexisted with India hating me and Kongo loving me (net +35 at end with Kongo, only negatives due to fear of me winning (-10) and moving troops past them(-2)).
T095-106 Brazil, captured 2 of 3 cities; one taken with heavy chariots, then one with knights; didn't know where 3rd city was; heavy pillage focus.
T120-142 Japan, captured 6 of 7 cities; picked them as 2nd target after they built Hagia Sophia; frigates mainly, knights had to hold back for interior only due to samurai coast bonus.
T135-145 Spain, captured 4 of 5 cities; they were still wimpy, frigates and 2 knights ate them up.
T139-157 Egypt, sent to the dustbin of history; captured 8 cities and a settler; I had a group of frigates going N to S down both sides of the land mass; for the single interior city I waited for Knight Corps since she had ‘Defender of the Faith’.
T145-156 China, captured 3 of 8 cities; only captured the ones frigates could attack; wow, renaissance walls suck… but frigates are better, especially after they become fleets.
I let all the early conquests remain with one city for the gold from the peace deals, but then needed to spend time converting them which seemed to work out OK, but not sure if that was best.
- What was your most useful unit?
Military – Frigates ruled; Religion – Inquisitor to convert all the cities I captured that had another religion already (T152 before >50% of my own cities were my religion)
- Was diplomacy useful? How? Incredibly useful!
1) First, I traded everything I could as soon as I could to the highest bidder (wish there was an interface, so I wouldn’t have to go through all of them to figure it out; one trade can swap the next turns offer significantly). One problem I ran into was thinking I’d keep Suz of Mohenjo, which was silly think at Deity. Since I was counting on the luxury for contentment, my people were discontent for many turns.
2) I wanted at least one AI that didn’t denounce me, so I’d still have someone to trade with after I started warmongering. Kongo joined my wars whenever I asked, though I had to pay, but they loved us while everyone else denounced us. Against Brazil, Mvemba wanted 7gpt+5g which seemed expensive at the time, but worth it. Against China, Mvemba wanted 100gpt, but I was able to talk him down to 71gpt + 3 luxuries…and I paid it because China had a few apostles near Kongo which quickly disappeared.
3) Peace deals were awesome. I got gold, gpt, luxuries, and even two relics from China, not that it mattered by then.
- Were City-States helpful? Absolutely critical.
1) Mohenjo Suz from T71-91 and Kumasi Suz from T96-121. With no Theater Districts ever built, only got the Suz bonuses. Kongo stole both and it wasn’t worth getting them back. I think it would have been better to save all my envoys for the religious CS, but the growth and trade route culture were nice at the time.
2) I then focused on getting 3 envoys in the religious CS (T103, T115, T130) for the massive faith bonus; got one to 6 near very end.
- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Religious VC?
General idea was to take any AI who developed a religion militarily and convert the other AI with religious units. While Brazil didn’t develop a religion, he was the first one I met and could reach so I went to war.
Beginning game – Survive, explore and expand (see opening actions thread)
Early game – Start to militarily expand and spread religion only to myself and AI that will take missionaries.
Mid game – Heavy navy focus to expand militarily. I wish I’d built far more Quads to upgrade to Frigates; lack of huge navy really slowed me down. Inquisitors, with Missionary backups for large cities, followed the military.
Late game – Final push with military and then Apostles into China while trying to finish converting everyone else also.
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
See opening actions thread; nothing major afterwards
- Did you enjoy the game?
Absolutely. I learn the most about this game from doing 6oTM and they are just fun in general.

 

[Eyswein]

They need to punish continuous war with weariness or similar. It's blatant continuous war that's making all victories similar.

I agree. I'm almost always at war with most AI denouncing me by mid-game. War works 'best' for every victory condition.

Spit balling a fix:
1) War wariness continues to accrue even if different opponents.
2) Higher for starting wars and especially surprise wars.
3) Maybe bonus happiness when fighting a defensive war.
3) After X turns, war wariness grows exponentially; or always exponentially where it hits the curve at turn X.

Citizens become discontent, then angry, cities stop producing anything, rebellions, etc.

 

[Victoria]

Spit balling a fix:

WW is only given with attacks, many turns during war there is no attacks, they need a turn cost or at least reduce the WW reduction during war to nearer 0

 

[arthur486]

RV @ 288
The latest victory I'm reporting here; also first game with Saladin, first religious victory and first deity game!

Since the latest games I played more aggressively, I decided to try this one out peacefully. I basically settled my island and the one to its north, build several holy sites and campuses and converted everything island by island. I obviously did not play 'well' as this was my first go, but it was a fun, peaceful game that allowed me to start learning about RV.

I won't post the save as I reloaded at one point due to misclick
@Victoria - I totally missed the religious stats window, even though I expected something like that to be included.

Thanks again for the game!

 

[Rogue-star]

T138 RV
- If you played 6otM21, how did this game play in comparison?

I didn't played it, so I'm sorry for my no answer.

- Do you find the new Religion layer useful? How?

Really useful, especially in Religious Victory. It is clear to know the religious pressure on each city.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?

2 settled, 27 captured, and in reality, razed 10 or so.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?

In addition to the necessary ancient technology, I researched cartography and square rigging directly, then stirrups.Civics: mercenaries -> Exploration

- What did your religious army consist of?

Apostle and missionary.

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?

India, Brazil, Spain, China, Kongo (according to the order of elimination).

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

Navy: galley and quadrireme -> Caravel and Frigate. Army: Mamluk.

- What was your most useful unit?

Frigate. It can attack enemy cities and troops efficiently without damage itself.

- Was diplomacy useful? How?

Useful. I declared friendship with several AIs in the early stage, so I can capture City-States without being denounced. And I can sell luxury to them (although the price is not high).

- Were City-States helpful?

In addition to getting a lot of culture as Kumasi's suzerain, I captured nearly all other City-States. After all, it is difficult to attack AI's cities in the early stage, but City-States don't have the +4 bonus due to difficulty.

- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Religious VC?

Conquer most of AI's cities and found religions in the last time. Occupied Japan and Egypt's coastal cities, found religion to converted, and then gave them back. A sufficient number of missionaries should be purchased before returning to ensure that these cities can be converted immediately.

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

It was probably around 130T to end, because I timed all the battles exactly. However, I did not found Kongo's defeated lines after conquesting all their discovered cities, and it turns out to be Kongo found a new city in the distance. It was a waste of time to attack this city. Fortunately, my amount of frigates was enough and captured this city immediately.

- Did you enjoy the game?

It's good, but I hope that our games will not always based on the idea of domination. The basic ratio of each game is the speed of conquest, sometime it is a little boring.

 

[Wandering_Dandelion]

RV,T156,900AD,score 587

I’m not good at English because I’m not from a native English speaking country. I’ll try my best to express in the correct way.

My laptop shut down at T115. (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻

I kept it open because I’m not allowed to save and I guess it was overheated.


- If you played 6otM21, how did this game play in comparison?

I’m sorry to say that I’m new to 6otm. ☹

- Do you find the new Religion layer useful? How?

Not at all… RV is still an another name of DV. To tell the truth, I hate it because I can no longer kill AI’s religious units just my move.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?

3 settled, 24 captured, 7 razed..

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?

T99 mercenaries

T116(or 117 or 118? I forgotted) square rigging

T120 exploration

- What did your religious army consist of?

3 Apostles and 7(or 8 or 9) missionaryies

For converting China and Congo. One missionary was killed by convert’s Caravel. ☹

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?

India, Brazil, Egypt, Japan.

Spain build a new city far away from his capital just 1T before I took the last city of him!

I didn’t take Congo’s capital for lacking of knights.

I didn’t take even one city from China for lacking of frigates.

Though India had only two cities, it took me 15 turns to destroyed India and it forced me to give up my plan to declare war to China.

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

Navy: caravels and frigates.

Army: mamluks and hams.

- What was your most useful unit?

Both frigates and mamluks. They are my main force.

- Was diplomacy useful? How?

No sense of existence. The only effect of it is providing GPT and gold to me.(Still I did not declare war to civs who provide gold to me in 30 turns.)

- Were City-States helpful?

Very helpful. I occupied them before I declared war to AI. LOL

- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Religious VC?

Murder 6 AI and converse the rest.

I almost made it.

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

Barbarians!!!!!

Why there are two barbarian outposts on my island??? One on the north and one on the south.

I may my sight full the island after I destroyed them.

- Did you enjoy the game?

Of course yes, but I think domination is still the most important thing even players are forbidden to send cities to AI. It just turn the way of victory from taking half of the world to killing almost all AI.

By the way ,I want to recommend a new way of playing this game. In China, we set a rule that players are forbidden to declare war to AI or take cities/settlers from AI when we want to win a CV or SV. I sincerely recommend players who are tired of endless domination to try it.

 

[Scaramanga]

This was really hard and I quit shortly after the tech leader China took my capital. Waited until I got the Venetian Arsenal to attack Brazil and took one of their cities. They had their naval UU but I was able to make a favourable peace with them and Egypt. Congrats to anyone who finished.

 

[Eyswein]

By the way ,I want to recommend a new way of playing this game. In China, we set a rule that players are forbidden to declare war to AI or take cities/settlers from AI when we want to win a CV or SV. I sincerely recommend players who are tired of endless domination to try it.

This is a really neat idea. Every game I play is a modified form of domination where I'm just trying to figure out the balance of the actual victory requirement. That would be an awesome optional setting to add to the game. Also wish they would add in a single city challenge optional setting that requires razing all cities, to include capitals.

 

[nufro]

T297 RV. A version of Domination, unfortunately that's the only way I know how to make work

 

[leif erikson]

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.

 

[CPWimmer]

I missed the deadline by a few days (real life intruded) but wanted to still post my results.
Turn 263 (mostly peaceful) Religious Victory!


- Do you find the new Religion layer useful? How?
Yes, it is night and day from the old lens. It's far more readable, has less clutter, and has more information easily available (ex: clicking on a city tells you # of citizens per religion and specifically where pressure is coming from). It feels very intuitive, and gives me the information i need.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
I settled 8 cities starting with filling out my home land and some of the western island that includes Brazil's territory. I then added some religious healing colonies. One was located north across the sea from Japan and east of Spain, one was southwest of Jerusalem and finally one was due south of La Venta . I only "captured" 2 cities, both taken from Egypt on the land south of Kongo, between the two Religious City States. They were part of a peace deal with Egypt where I only fought using Frigates and Ironclads (mostly raiding and killing embarked units) and let my ally Japan do most of the grunt work.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
I continued my naval focus of research, and then just tried to vaguely keep up in other areas - I failed. While my navy was marginally up to date, I was about 20 techs behind the leader at the end.
I focused my civics on Theocracy - and then basic progression towards whatever would help with eventually getting spies as well as the theological combat Policy Cards.

- What did your religious army consist of?
Mostly Apostles. Missionaries helped occasionally to convert some uncontested cities, and I started with just 1 guru just to try them out - but quickly added a lot more. Once I determined that theological combat was my path to victory, I ended up needing a lot of healing in foreign lands. I even got the Raid Healer achievement.

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
Nope, I only participated in one war, and it was mostly a distraction to keep Egypt and Japan busy with each other while i was converting India

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
T100: 3 Archers, 1 Warrior, 2 Galleys, 2 Quadriremes
T150: 2 Archers, 1 Crossbow, 1 Warrior, 2 Caravels, 1 Quadrireme
T200: 1 Archer, 5 Crossbow, 1 Warrior, 2 Mamluk, 1 Catapult, 2 Ironclad, 3 Frigates
T250: 7 Crossbow, 1 Warrior, 5 Musketmen, 1 Infantry, 1 AT Crew, (I used some heathen conversion for most of the melee additions), 2 Mamluk, 1 Catapult, 2 Ironclad, 4 Frigates, 4 Submarine

- What was your most useful unit?
Apostles, Apostles, Apostles. I used them to Spread Religion until they had 1 charge left and then theological combat the rest of the way. The area effect impact of winning theological combat was often very powerful.

- Was diplomacy useful? How?
Ghandi and Hojo were friends early on. They then allowed me to ally with them, which I took advantage of to hunt down their religious units! Everyone else disliked me until around T240 or so where everyone but Spain and Egypt liked me - in part thanks to sharing the same religion.

T192 I convinced Hojo to join me in a joint war vs. Cleo (Hojo gave me $$$ for it, and since they were on the same land mass my goal was for them to weaken each other some, and maybe even have a religious clash)
T203 Peace w. Cleo: I was awarded 2 cities in the peace deal (coal, jade, pearls, holy site) without capturing a single city.
T233 Ghandi wanted to joint war vs. Qin (who has recently landed on the moon ) but i have to turn him down - i am not in any tech or army position to take him on at this point in time.

- Were City-States helpful?
No, not really.

- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Religious VC?
60% Theological Combat, 20% apostle conversion (w/ +1 charge from mosques), 15% missionaries (+1 charges), 5% settling nearby with religious colonization (to establish forward healing bases, but it also worked to auto spread Islam to colonies established by countries I had already converted - keeping them solidly on my side). Aside from a brief distraction war with Egypt, military forces didn't factor into my victory at all.

T170 Islamic Brazil (peaceful conversion - w/ some theological combat vs. Indian and Japanese units found in Brazil)
T197 Islamic India (easy theological combat)
T231 Islamic Spain (challenging theological combat)
T236 Islamic Egypt (very challenging theological combat)
T246 Islamic Kongo (100% peaceful conversion)-- I had completed up to this point by the December 15th deadline
T252 Islamic China (100% peaceful conversion - some of it very early on, pre turn 200)
T263 Islamic Japan (challenging theological combat)

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

Japanese coastal combat bonus applies to religious units
- I just dealt with it, but it certainly was a surprise

Japan, Egypt and Spain were swarming with inquisitors
- I deployed an Apostle carpet of doom backed up by Gurus

Very limited land to perform theological combat: You can't attack an embarked unit with another embarked unit; it takes 3 movement points to attack from the land vs. embarked units; due to Mountains, City Centers and Encampments all blocking movement maneuverability was limited)
- I dealt with it by have better unit tactics than the AI *gasp*. One of my go to tactics ended up with setting up choke points where my +20% Theological Combat shock troop Apostles would set up where they couldn't be easily flanked, and have 2 or 3 support units behind them, and let the AI kamikaze inquisitors into them.

- Did you enjoy the game?
I guess - it was a chore sometimes, but the end when i picked it back up was a tense race vs. China who was about to launch their second portion of the mars mission. I had weakly promoted spy in the area, to attempt to slow him down, but the game ended before that came to fruition.

 

[Lily_Lancer]

It seems clear that those Chinese guys do not take a look at the rules (or maybe because they don't quite understand English and just use a Google Translator or sth.).

They shall not give or return cities in RVs.

 

[Wandering_Dandelion]

It seems clear that those Chinese guys do not take a look at the rules (or maybe because they don't quite understand English and just use a Google Translator or sth.).

They shall not give or return cities in RVs.

I returned cities? Prove it please.