6otM35 After Action

[leif erikson]

Welcome to the 6otM35 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?
- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
- What was your most useful unit?
- How did you use Poundmaker's Trading ability?
- Was diplomacy useful? How?
- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Culture VC?
- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have?
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
- Did you discover any new exploits? Did you find old ones fixed?
- Did you enjoy the game? What do you think of the Rise and Fall Expansion?

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.

 

[Chalcedon]

CV t216 1525AD @1082pts (not ranked pls due to diplo bug)

- How many cities did you settle, or capture?
Settled 12, took one with loyalty. Did not want to do any war

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Beelined Flight, Computers, and was too late for Eiffel Tower, just finished it 1t after winning, so I missed on about 9 Seaside Ressorts
My research was waay too low since I focussed on early Holy Sites, Theater Squares and Commercial Hubs.
For policies, the +faith, +tourism and +gold ones...

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
Nah, I do not like war games, Spain was good for keeping Monty busy.

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

1 UI, 2 Warriors, 3 Archers, 2 Galleys, 1 Quadrireme. Upgraded the land units for fun and boosts, the navy was useful, as a random great Admiral turned the Frigate into an Armada and together with 2 upgraded Ironclads I was able to wipe out a Russian invasion... HELL, Peter was building tons of ships!

- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
As said, built one. Early on this guy was really useful, fighting off barbs, Spanishs from Stockholm... Do not really know where I left him after fighting Philip´s early CS aggression, maybe he´s still around Stockholm, blocking tiles---

- What was your most useful unit?
The good ole Builder unit!

- How did you use Poundmaker's Trading ability?
I think the best way to use it is sending trade routes to foreign nearby cities early on, then quickly sneaking in another one in between so that the trader takes a bunch of ring 3 tiles for the new city.
After having settled and grabbed all the land I wanted, i mainly traded internally (also a little bit due to diplo bug).

- Was diplomacy useful? How?
Can´t really tell, due to the bug everything was a bit horsehockey with diplo... i could sell stuff to people, but on this run alliances weren´t really useful.

- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
City States were awesome, especially Stockholm of course. In the end I had 59 envoys, 8CSs were mine, did not care about the other 3. Zanzibar and Babylon were a bit harsh to keep, but alright.

- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Culture VC?
Combination of high gold+faith output early on, maximizing great person points and a huge culture output. Also tried to work with swapping tile improvements/features to pump in late game stuff like Ressorts and national Parks.

- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have?
Golden - Normal (due to forgetting to souze CSs I missed the last era point) - Golden till end.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Nothing special, it was kind of odd that no one gave me a hard time about CSs...
Robert the Bruce actually hated me instantly and paid almost any other civ to war me (instead of warring me himself)... the only pain there were the massive fleets Russia kept sending, all those Frigates...
In the end I was a bit lucky that he paid me 33gpt for peace otherwise I might had lost one or two of my late coastal cities.

- Did you enjoy the game? What do you think of the Rise and Fall Expansion?
I really liked it! Especially the map was nice, not only with two mayor but also three a little bit smaller landmasses.
Also funny things happened during this game, being drawn into war due to alliances, the revenge of combined Stockhol/Mohenjo on the already crippled Spanish, a real navy invasion... it was really fun!

I would love to see more games like this where the point is not to just dow everyone and win "culturally" or "scientifically" by destroying all other civs.

Anyways, thanks again for making these great games! I love to see about the other players decisions!

 

[Yngve]

CV Turn 200, 1390 AD, Score 837

- How many cities did you settle, or capture?
6 Initially, and 2 late on a lone island that didnt contribute much but I chopped some theater districts there thought.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Bee lined Printing press -> Computers

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
Nah, did a peaceful game, was naturally protected by city states and distance so had not much problems with other civs. Did a war early on Spain just to rescue Stockholm being taken, ended up with Stockholm razing one of Spains cities .

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
Built very little, just some archers and 2 galleys

- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
A more expensive scout, I think I might prefer the normal one tbh, just used it to explore, got some from ruins so had 3 but only built 1.

- What was your most useful unit?
Archaeologist

- How did you use Poundmaker's Trading ability?
Had some decent trade routes that gave quite a lot of gold. Did not build Great Zimbabwe, already placed a wonder on the available spot, could have gotten a good amount of money out of that. I do not think it affected the game to much, got to start some other wonders instead.

- Was diplomacy useful? How?
Sold some resources for extra cash, and got a little extra research with research alliance.

- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
Kilwa Kisiwani made me have 15% tech and culture most game. Wasnt that hard to keep the most important ones, saved some envoys in case some civ got more than me over Hattusa and Babylon which where the only one I really competed for.

- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Culture VC?
In opposition to the last GOTM I went totally peacefull and all out on theater districts and wonders. Probably why I had 50 turns later finish time than the last game, also because I did not go for relics for early tourists.

- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have?
One normal age, rest was gold ages.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Well not that much of a surprise since he always does it, it seems, was a bit harder to get the early writers since Peter was going hard for it as usual. Did not manage to get that many extra writers so did not sell any literature work this time.

- Did you enjoy the game? What do you think of the Rise and Fall Expansion?
Enjoyable game even if I would have preferred not two culture games in a row. Like the loyalty system. The golden age system on another side I have mixed feelings about since you might want to wait with stuff to guarantee a golden age or even time it for a heroic age. Already time stuff to get tech and culture boosts, golden ages seems like another micro management system.

Thanks for the game, nice to have some balanced games to try out.

 

[pahakuutti]

T139 CV

- How many cities did you settle, or capture?
Settled close to 10. Captured and kept about 10. Captured and either raized or let it revolt 10 or so.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Horserush followed by knights. Then printing press and later computers and cultural heritage.

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
Spain by accident (their last 2 cities flipped).

Russia on purpose as Peter had too many great people hanging around + he had most culture output of the AIs. I had to act before he figures out what to do with all the great writers .

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
Bunch of horseman and couple of chariots/knights.
To speed things up, I gold purchased great general (didn't have encampment).

- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
I think it's just a overpriced scout.

- What was your most useful unit?
All of the horsemen and knights.

- How did you use Poundmaker's Trading ability?
Early on, the land grabbing ability is nice, but as the game advances you could just gold purchase the tiles.
Didn't really pay attention to the gold per camp feature as didn't focus on gold.

- Was diplomacy useful? How?
Not much. Everyone hated me.

- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
Very helpful. Other civs showed interest only to the religious ones, which I couldn't care less.

- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Culture VC?
Pretty much same strategy (horserush + great works) and finish time as in previous GOTM.
Only this time I put little more effort to science. I actually built few seaside resorts.
Culture victory got triggered when Russia lost it last city.

- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have?
All golden.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Found relic at T10, but still didn't get harvesting pantheon

- Did you enjoy the game? What do you think of the Rise and Fall Expansion?
Yes, very much. Thanks for the game.

 

[Casualty of war]

Turn 213 CV. 1350 something score.

- How many cities did you settle, or capture?

Settled 9, captured and kept 9, captured and let go Free 3, flipped and kept 3 (soon to be 6+)

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?

Tried to wonder-inspire my way to an early Drama & Poetry that ended up being some pitiful fail hammers and a much delayed Political Philosophy.

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?

Spain. Monty's last city went Free on the last turn.

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

I used mostly Swordsmen and Archers to clear most of the continent, in a two-stage war. A few purchased Chariots upgraded into Knights using the 1 Iron trick helped, but not many of them survived to the end game.. Once I saw the narrow channel between the continents I made a few galleys to go see what's what, and they got to grow up to be Destroyers eventually.

- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?

I love that guy. Strong enough to clean up Slingers, and other early units if those units are wounded, can live through a Horse Barb mugging. Can swoop in for a pillage, survive getting shot from the city walls and escape.

- What was your most useful unit?

All the Harbors I captured from Montezuma meant I was swimming in Great Admirals, one of which let me make an Armada way, way, WAY too early. My derpy little Caravel Armada threatened to annihilate all of Peter's coastal cities. Couldn't hold them but I sure could take them, let them go Free then watch as Peter had to deal with a pair of angry Musketmen appearing behind his lines.

- How did you use Poundmaker's Trading ability?

His trade route ability is nuts. Trade routes will claim hexes for Cree if they are within 3 of a city center even if the city isn't part of the trade route! I had cities that hadn't claimed the second ring yet but could work some third ring tiles because a Trader had come by.

- Was diplomacy useful? How?

I was Friends and Allied with most of the rest of the other continent almost from the moment we met. Except for Peter. He denounced me almost immediately upon meeting and so I put together a Joint War with Gandhi to slow both of them down. i really wanted Peter to take Antioch or Kandy to prompt an Emergency, which worked like a charm.

- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?

So i somehow missed the third continent as I was sailing up the Scottish Coast to go free Antioch from Peter's clutches. Not getting the second Cultural City-State until crazy late really made my Kilwa Kisiwani suboptimal. No idea how I missed it and Monty met all three CSs first with a Great Admiral. I did still get all the Goody Huts there.

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

Initially I wanted to rush Apadana to be a spot to put Great Works possibly before I even got most Amphitheaters up, but no Apadana. Then I was going to use Stonehenge, Pyramids or Temple of Artemis to vault to an early Drama & Poetry, and got beat out of all three. This meant i had no chance at a fast game. If I could have gotten Peter to cough up some of his Great Works, i still could have finished in the 180s but Civs don't seem to like giving up Cities or Great Works in Peace Deals at all anymore.

- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have?

Got Golden, stayed Golden. When my neighbors had Dark Ages while I was Golden, their cities started wanting to be Cree. I had 4 cities on the other main continent, 2 of which flipped from Scotland.

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

I expanded and conquered westward, leaving eastward ripe for Barb Camps to spawn. I burned a ridiculous amount of effort dealing with a Camp in the Northeast and didn't settle the Cliffs until late in the game. And of course I didn't keep count of the City States to realize there were missing ones, especially a crucial culture one. I played horribly.

- Did you discover any new exploits? Did you find old ones fixed?

I'm going to have to map out an optimal Cree settling pattern, because Trade Routes can claim so many potential hexes. Instead of settling on the route you probably want to be 2-3 hexes off to the side and watch your territory fill in.

I suspect Emergencies are exploitable because they are just so much gold much earlier than you would expect to have available. I had two Emergencies, the first for prying Madrid back out of Montezuma's clutches. Finishing Spain delayed me enough that I couldn't succeed at the Emergency, Monty got the 800 gp prize then gave me 1025 Gold for peace. Later I got just a preposterous amount of gold for freeing Antioch from Peter.

- Did you enjoy the game? What do you think of the Rise and Fall Expansion?

Great map and selection for the game. I am loving the new R&F features. I got good use out of all the Governors this game, except for Moksha.

Thank you kindly. I really only improve from playing the same map and seeing what paths other people take.

 

[Eliminator_Sr]

CV on turn 226

How many cities did you settle, or capture?
I settled 11 or 12 and captured two from Monty. I liberated one of Spain's cities from the Aztecs since I knew I would lose it to a loyalty flip - they made a good ally for me.

What did you prioritize for research and policies?
I slacked on science big time and it probably delayed my victory a lot - I think I only had a single campus @ turn 100. Beeline to printing then to Steel/Radio and then to computers. I took some unnecessary detours for military units. I wanted to take the continent but Monty offered me 58 gpt for peace so I stopped. The game was almost over by the time I got computers - only needed about 10 more tourists.

Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
No - Monty was about to conquer Spain (they were down to a single city) but I saved them and they were able to flip some cities back.

What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
I built a few horsemen, some archers to xbows, and about 8 knights which I was going to take out the Aztecs with. I had some caravels and later upgraded horsemen to cavalry.

Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
I kind of like the boosted scout. I built 3 of them and they were pretty useful for clearing barbarians. I had pretty bad luck with huts in this game though so it didn't really pan out.

What was your most useful unit?
Traders I think - my trade routes were pretty ridiculous in this game. I had a few near 50 gold at the end with Great Zimbabwe. I bought all of my archealogists. The Cree are pretty strong all game long.

Was diplomacy useful? How?
Alliances helped to some degree - had a level 2 alliance with Spain and allied with India for a good chunk of the game. I was friendly with Scotland too but they wouldn't go for an alliance. Russia and Brazil were annoying and kept denouncing me but I never fought them.

Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
Yes - Kilwa was great had boosted science and culture for the rest of the game once I built it. Stockholm was great for the extra GPP - I was getting around 60 writer points at the end.

What was your strategy, how did you gain your Culture VC?
I used everything - Writers, artists, archs, Reyna for tourism boost, tons of wonders, musicians, 1 national park, social media + trade routes, and Eiffel + Redentor + resorts. I had a lot more trouble theming than usual. Ruins sites were spread pretty far and seemed sparse so I built quite a few art museums and the natural history museum in the capital.

How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have?
I had one normal age and the rest were golden.

Did you enjoy the game? What do you think of the Rise and Fall Expansion?
Yes - I enjoyed the map and it was nice to have some space. I'm ready for domination now though. I don't think I played very optimally - I was sloppy with governors and maxing my tourism and should have built a lot more campuses early.

 

[Adonias]

CV T300
Did not know what I was doing. Third CVI game ever. Never thought I needed computers for culture victory for instance.

Anyway. Quite boring game, the last 150 turns. I was friendly with everyone during the last 2000 years (except brazil) and dit not have one single war (well, Brazil declared because of alliances, but I never saw any action). Traded quite some art with Peter for the matching museum bonus and gave Robert the Bruce "Pride and Prejuduce" , just for laughs. Spammed wonders, but found production lacking.

Had 1000 culture per turn and 1350 tourism per turn in the end. Needed 328, however that works...

Thanks for the game, I think I'll do a rerun to see if I've learned anything.

 

[ThomCNTV]

CV on turn 231

How many cities did you settle, or capture?
Settled 10

What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Computers, Mass Media to Cristo, and Reformed Church to St.basil's

Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
No, Monty destroyed Spain and was my best friend during the whole game, what protected me from wars



What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
A few chariots and archers to defense against eventual attack of Monty, but I did not have to, and I never updated them


Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
The worst UU in the CIV6. I found it totally useless.

What was your most useful unit?
Traders, the best thing about the cree

Was diplomacy useful? How?
Alliances helped so much. My alliance with monty put us on top, and mainly served to keep the peace


Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
Yes, Mohenjo made my cities grow fast and Stocolm and hattusa up my science

What was your strategy, how did you gain your Culture VC?
Relics mainly and Great Artists, Cathedrals, Wonders

How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have?
two gold, three normal

Did you enjoy the game? What do you think of the Rise and Fall Expansion?
Yes, so much. Except for UU Cree are very good, their Mekewap and trade bonus are awesome

 

[Koot Katmandu]

CV Turn 291 1840 Score 1485

- How many cities did you settle, or capture?
I ended up with 22 cities. I captured 6

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
After my initial exploration, I wanted to take out Spain and then play a peaceful game. I got a few archers and took out Spain and then did colonization, builder, wonder, economic, and tourism policies.

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
Spain. Spain had taken CS Stockholm. I took it first and then all of their cities except their capital Madrid. The Aztec's already had Madrid. I was going to try and keep peace with the Aztecs but Monty declared war on me twice. Each Time I took one city and asked for peace and got the best deal I could. The second time he gave me a relic.

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
I started with Archers and took Spain, I had a lot of iron so I made a few swords too and kept them on the boarder with Monty. I used the swords to take Madrid from him when he declared the first war. I had a couple of Frigates and a Privater and Caravel for a navy that I used to take a city from Monty the next time he declared war. I upgraded the navy and army periodical. Although I had other wars declared on me, there was not much more fighting after Monty lost his second City. After that he was just whiny but passive. He even gave luxuries on demand once. Other wars looked like joint wars that nether party was really serious about. I see the AI doing joint wars a lot and not fight.

- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
I made a couple. I think they are just overprice scout. I guess the promotion is good and gets you the lay of the land a little faster.

- What was your most useful unit?
Frigates. Monty had two cities and range units supporting each other, with a choke point when he declared the second war. I would have lost several ground units taking a city from him without the ship bombardment to take out the shields. The cities was a nice one. I got the colossus and the Theo wonder and I made a national park there.

- How did you use Poundmaker's Trading ability?
Fist one went to CS for quest and then mostly internal to open up new tiles. Opening the new tiles is strong early game. I wanted to get an economic alliance going but never managed it. Monty had me denounced the whole game and the only person that would ally with me early was Brazil.

- Was diplomacy useful? How?
No. I wanted to play a peaceful game and get rich off economic alliance but almost all the other civs were unfriendly to me most of the game even though I did not declare wars. I was allied with Brazil early but he broke and declared a surprise war on me with Russia. India declared a joint war on me too from friendly status. India was all over the place hostile, friendly always changing.

- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
Not really just kind of there. I picked up some unimportant buffs from a couple of them

- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Culture VC?
Keep up on science to keep a military to survive and lay down as many theater districts and wonders as possible. I did not realize that computers doubled tourism. I should have bee lined for it I guess. I also wanted to use spies to fill up my theaters and Russian helped me out. I had a spy in their capital stealing a great work every few turns. Near the end of the game he did not have anything to steal a couple of times. I took a couple works from India too. I also made three national parks. I have never had three before. LOL.

- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have?
I think the firs was golden, then dark then heroic, Dark and heroic

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
How schizophrenic Brazil and India were. Brazil was also very aggressive. They took over Scotland and declared on me twice. Once was joint war and they never really did anything. The second one was very late and they sent a few units to a couple cities I planted on the small land mass to south east. Both times they attacked out of friendly status.

- Did you discover any new exploits? Did you find old ones fixed?
No

- Did you enjoy the game? What do you think of the Rise and Fall Expansion?
I did. I like to play this style game. Build a empire but not just go war all the time for domination. I prefer to play on a larger map at epic speed though. I play on emperor difficulty and I think it is harder on larger map.

 

[Old]

CV t196 1350ad score 1496

- How many cities did you settle, or capture?
Settled 11 , captured 0 , one was founded from captured Spanish settler though

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Did not really prioritize anything, don't usually play culture games, maybe my second ever cultural victory

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
-Nope, only wars i fought was early on to capture Spanish undefended settler that was coming too close, Montezuma killed Spain off the game. Then an emergency against Lautaro who captured La Venta. I ended up being the only one who accepted the emergency and earned nice 4800 gold from liberating La Venta Altough Lautaro conquered La Venta again near the end of the game, there was no second emergency declared anymore. Other civs from across the sea randomly declared wars against me for no apparent reason, but i just mainly sunk their navy and pillaged their coastal resources before they signed peace and gave me around 20 gpt for my troubles

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
Did not really build that much, couple units and few boats, kept upgrading as necessary. Did levy Stockholms military early on for 200g to get rid of pesky barb camp that spawned in awkward position.

- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
Yes, built 3 of them right from the start, but i think i still prefer regular scout, these are too slow to build compared to them.

- What was your most useful unit?
Naturalist Built 4 National Parks, even though the last one was useless, built on the last turn when i already had enough Tourism anyway...

- How did you use Poundmaker's Trading ability?
Tried to build cities enough apart to maximize free tiles

- Was diplomacy useful? How?
Sold unnecessary resources to AI always immediately for gold , not much other use

- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
Was the Suzerain of almost all CS almost all the time, except India really liked Kandy and took some time to get that. Nobody complained.

- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Culture VC?
Built a lot of Wonders, and first National Park immediately after researching Conservation, tried to cram coasts full of Seaside Resorts. Had some bad luck with Artifacts and lost some key Great Persons to Russia, so didn't have a single themed museum.
Next time will build Theater Squares faster, didn't build those fast enough, i think...

- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have?
4 Golden Ages, no other ages. Overshoot all the ages to GA with ease.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Spanish played really goofy, they lost their capital to Aztec around t60 , but Spain decided it was a good idea to use 6 warriors , 2 scouts and an archer to attack Stockholm couple turns after Aztec declared war on them and not defend their capital...
They kept losing few more cities but never turned their attack force back from Stockholm. Meanwhile they were sending undefended settler towards my lands - i declared on them, captured the undefended settler and helped Stockholm in destroying Spanish warriors , didn't want to lose them as i was the Suzerain.

Another surprise was that Montezuma never declared war on anyone else, not even city states. They just kept building religious wonders and spamming prophets around. Should have conquered their lands at some point, mistake to keep them around, as they had plenty of relics and wonders, and i had every other civ dominated in tourism easily, but took ~15 turns more to win Aztec Tourism too.

- Did you discover any new exploits? Did you find old ones fixed?
Did not any more get two ships when buying them with gold after Venetian. Did get two ships when building them, so the wonder was working, they just probably removed the option of getting two ships when rush buying with gold. Don't know, haven't used Venetian so often...

- Did you enjoy the game? What do you think of the Rise and Fall Expansion?
Very nice game, much different from my normal games, i think i learned a lot. Probably should have played more aggressively and eliminated almost everyone else and cultural victory would have been much faster.
R&F is awesome, really like the loyalty system. Prevents building too close to other civs and vice versa.

BtW didn't see anywhere, which save file is it that needs to be uploaded, before victory or after. So this is just before victory, there is the tourism pop-up image about dominating Aztec culture visible. End turn and CV video should trigger.

 

[trojasmic]

Turn 172: Cultural Victory

- How many cities did you settle, or capture?
9 settled

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Printing Press, Computers, new government civics. I really tried to synergize what my cities were doing with the policies I had chosen for efficiency this game.

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

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
3 slingers upgraded to crossbowman, 6 heavy chariots upgraded to knights, 3 battering rams (just in case), 2 galleys upgrade to caravels, 3 privateers

- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
I actually scored like 3 of them from goodie huts. They were good for exploring and did some attacking along the way as an added bonus.

- What was your most useful unit?
Builder

- How did you use Poundmaker's Trading ability?
Used strategically placed trade routes to obtain territory tiles. Loved this!

- Was diplomacy useful? How?
Tried to sell excess luxuries and great works for money. Tried to play nice to form alliances. Gandhi and Robert the Bruce kept declaring war on me for some reason. They never actually attacked tho.

- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
Like others, I was suzerain of every city-state I wanted. The AI seemed focus on religious city states.

- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Culture VC?
I got up a bunch of culture districts early, made a few wonders, used archaeologists

- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have?
All golden

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
A pleasant surprise was choosing Goddess of the Harvest as my pantheon. I couldn't figure out why I had so much faith then I remembered Goddess of the Harvest. I used the faith to buy builders after selecting the "buy builders with faith" golden age tenet in my city with Liang as governor. As a result, I had a bunch of 6-action builders to use for the rest of the game.

- Did you discover any new exploits? Did you find old ones fixed?
Nope

- Did you enjoy the game? What do you think of the Rise and Fall Expansion?
Yes. I like the new civs and I'm enjoying the governor and golden age mechanics. I'm still not sure about the loyalty system... it makes warmongering more difficult unless I'm doing something wrong.

 

[Halfdan Helgrim]

CV t218

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
Spain and Aztec.

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

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Was surprised of the strength of Mapuche. The reason that I cannot not just conquer the second continent with the few troops I had. I should have tried to wipe Russia for a quicker win.

- Did you enjoy the game? What do you think of the Rise and Fall Expansion?
Yes. It was an enjoyable builder game.

 

[Copper_47]

T97 CV

- How many cities did you settle, or capture?
Settled 9 (one was just for trade routes), captured 0.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Research: printing. Policies: civil engineering and natural history.

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

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
Army: 3 archers, 1 swordsman, many warriors and slingers. Navy: many galleys for overflow.

- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
I’m accustomed to start the game with scout, but Cree’s UU is a bit expensive. It was useful when fighting with barbarians.

- What was your most useful unit?
Great writer.

- How did you use Poundmaker's Trading ability?
My trader took a bunch of resources. It saved me a large sum of gold buying land in the early time.

- Was diplomacy useful? How?
Yes. Open borders can increase the number of tourists.

- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
Certainly yes. Stockholm helped me a lot on recruiting great people, especially great writers.

- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Culture VC?
I used a strategy called “salted fish CV” in Chinese forum 233. It means gain the CV just with books, relics and wonders.

- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have?
Golden till end.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Nothing surprise.

- Did you discover any new exploits? Did you find old ones fixed?
The new continent discovered before settled capital cannot provide a inspiration of foreign trade. Looking forward to the bug fixed.

- Did you enjoy the game? What do you think of the Rise and Fall Expansion?
Okay, but I think Magnus somehow breaks the balance of the game.

 

[isopaha]

CV turn 232.

I played a peaceful game, only declared war on another CS to try to prevent them from destroying Stockholm. This succeeded once, but later they razed Stockholm and I lost a lot of GP points due to this.

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

I just build a lot of theater squares and buildings and lots of wonders too, my capital was crazy with Ruhr valley, building late game wonders in 10-15 turns. I dunno how I could improve my time significantly, should probably watch some videos. I didn't get a single national park, because faith production was so low, but don't think that mattered much. Got 3-4 beach resorts, there were not so many good sites for them.

 

[misterjoshua]

Cultural Victory -Turn 261 - 1750AD

Had a bit more idea what to do this time after my first ever CV in the last GotM

- How many cities did you settle, or capture?
Settled 10. 8 for most of the game and another couple later on (for extra theatre districts)

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Usual policy start, but pushed for Natural History when it got close. Grabbed Social Media policy card towards the end, but too late to make a difference. Research-wise I grabbed the free trader first thing. Pushed for Computers but was going pretty strongly before that. Tended to just research where the Eureka's came.

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
Nope. I actually played an (almost) totally peaceful game. At one point there was a row of green smiley faces across the top of the screen. Only a late game (turn 240+) war where Monty DoW'd Spain who I was allied with. The only non-barb killing I did was done by naval units and city state levies.

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
Built a bit of an army early on but didn't find much use for it. Made sure I'd got enough archers to defend against Monty if he came then concentrated on expansion.

- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
The super scouts were good for taking out barbs early on, but soon outstripped by other military units. The lack of war in my game minimised their usefulness.

- What was your most useful unit?
Hard to say, probably traders or archaeologists

- How did you use Poundmaker's Trading ability?
I found Poundmaker's trading incredibly strong. Internal trade routes back to the capital allowed new cities to get up and going much faster than normal. By the end nearly all of my cities were pop 10+. Later on, trade routes to all other Civs for the +tourism boost. The tile grabbing was very good early on. I picked a few trade routes because of what tiles they'd get.

- Was diplomacy useful? How?
Diplomacy was good for keeping good relations, allowing trade routes and open borders with nearly all other civs (just Brazil and Amazon not compliant) and a big boost to tourism.

- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
City states were really handy. All the ones on the starting continent were mine. The +GPP for each district ability (can't remember who that is) was a great help for churning out Writers and Artists.

- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Culture VC?
Ignored religion, spent the early game getting settlers out and some good city positions

- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have?
No dark ages. Nearly all Golden ages. Think I finished on a normal age.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Only the peacefulness of the game. Monty attacked Spain early on, took Madrid but then the Spanish held on and that was largely it for war until late game.

- Did you discover any new exploits? Did you find old ones fixed?
Nope

- Did you enjoy the game? What do you think of the Rise and Fall Expansion?
Very much so. Poundmaker's abilities are really nice and well balanced, not pushing you in any particular direction but helping all over. Thanks for the game.

 

[Monthar]

Culture Victory Turn 223 Score 1525

I completely took over my continent, wiping out Phillip and Monty. Lautaro and Robert declared a joint war on me after I finished the Aztecs. I made peace with Robert as soon as I could, but kept warring with Lautaro until I liberated La Venta. The only other wars were with Robert and Lautaro, because they both triggered CS Emergencies.

 

[Half Nelson]

Culture victory turn 195. 1032 points; Ivan the Terrible.

My first sub-t200 culture victory. After a holiday hiatus, part 2 of the game was a largely peaceful path of culture after I finished the Aztec war (leaving them 1 city). Gandhi was the leading AI culture opponent, marginally ahead of Peter who had accumulated 6 relics (I presume from the CS Natural Wonder bonus). I concentrated on snatching all GP available and building up OB and trade routes, beelining to computers and cultural heritage. I peaked at 1064 tourism on the winning turn, which coincided with reaching Social Media. I was suzerain of all cultural and scientific CS in the game.

Not founding a religion wasn’t a big issue in this game I think. By the time I met the AI on the other continent my tourism from development of theatre squares probably outweighed that which I would have gained from a Holy City.

Surprises:-
I was close to forming an Alliance with Scotland when Mapuche and Aztec DoW me, triggering the Scots “Friendly Neighbour” agenda and making them denounce me even though I was the innocent party, A bit harsh!
I achieved 4 successive Golden Ages
There were no emergencies

I enjoyed playing as the Cree. The trade route boni and the Wekewap can be extremely strong. The UU was solid, allowing better exploration with less risk of being killed. The alliance bonus is very game – dependent. I only managed to form one (cultural) alliance with Peter, the other AI having very long memories of my ancient wars with Spain.

 

[Falabello]

Cultural Victory - Turn 136

Game not valid. This was replayed for the second time to train the strategy of Copper_47 and Rogue-star . Thank you very much 47 and I appreciate all your precious help !

 

[Fivethumbs]

Cultural victory - Turn 202

built some Horsemen to mess with local tourists in other civs and then focused trade and culture.
One other Civ was getting large GreatWriter points early on (thought it was Kongo). Managed to get only one classical great writer. From mid game got most of the great persons.
Conquered most of the Spain and Atztec, Atztecs eventually flipped to dustbin.
Unfortunately, after that reckless horsemen attack on Zanzibar (or what was the commerce state on the next continent) went wrong, ~9 archers (or so) came from the bush and decimated the horses. From that point played peacefully.
Russia (not Kongo) generated quite a lot of tourists so it took time.
Forgot to focus on Computers research - researched it at ~t200 or so only...

 

[Eyswein]

CV, T152

Finished a while ago and forgot to post then so don't remember much of the details. In short, tried to go for religion, but failed to get desired pantheon so switched to military expansion, then decided to stay on continent and be peaceful after this initial small expansion, so lots of wasted time changing things up. An early emergency against Aztec in the T50's helped with gold.