6otM37 After Action

[leif erikson]

Welcome to the 6otM37 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?
- 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 Domination 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?

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.

 

[shogun11B]

Domination Victory, Turn 319, 1896 CE, 2777 (Augustus)

- How many cities did you settle, or capture?
I settled 6 before I started warring (bit of a slow start). After that, I captured all Gilgamesh's, GK's, and Herold's on home continent. I invaded second continent through Rome (who was closing in on a science victory) and razed 3 coastal cities to ease the pressure on Rome. Captured Rome and few more, then sniped capitols.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
First war was swords/archers/rams, Sumer war was impi & sword corps and xbows, Mongol war (which took about 100 turns ) started with pike & shot, and muskets, and ended with mech inf and artillery.
As for policies, mostly economy, and war. Had a cultural alliance with GK while we took out Sumer together, so I used the ally trading buff cards during that...mostly to get to Divine Right.

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
Gilgamesh & GK (who had already conquered Herold)

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
See above. By the end I used a a lot of modern armor and bombers. Built the Venetian wonder thing to build up a navy - destroyers, battleships, and carriers were very helpful in getting a foothold on second continent. I like continents for domination victory b/c it forces me to diversify the units I build. Took the final capitol (Aztec) with the fist nuke that I built

- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
Hell yes it was useful. Early impi corps are no joke. My first time playing Shaka. Would recommend
.
- What was your most useful unit?
Impi corps. Allowed me to make up for my crappy start and take over the game.

- Was diplomacy useful? How?
Was useful to build an alliance with GK early so he didn't take me out, and it helped my culture a ton while we both warred with Gilgamesh. After I turned on him, though, my rep was in the trash. Liberated a few city states just so I could trade some.

- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
Not really, actually. Extra luxuries was most helpful as war wariness became a bit of an issues.

- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Domination VC?
My strategy was to take over home continent and snip capitols on second continent. I pretty much did that, I just had a painfully slow start, and took foooorrrreeevvvveeerrr to conquer GK. Most of that is on me underestimating his tech lead when I attacked, but he was also buried in mountains which made sieging cities a pain.

- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have?
1 dark age, two golden ages.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Trajan nuked Rome twice after I took it from him
Also won three emergencies. Two were against me for conquering, which were no sweat. The third was against Trajan for nuking Rome, and only had to capture a city I was already barreling down on.

- Did you discover any new exploits? Did you find old ones fixed?
Having never played with Shaka before, I didn't fully exploit Impi corps like I should have. Next time I play with him it will prob feel like cheating.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Sure did, thanks for putting it together

Spoiler pics :

Impi corps, and allied w/ GK to take out Gilgamesh.

Lots of wonders for Trajan...

And then he nuked them...

Twice...

GG

 

[Chalcedon]

Domination Victory 1530AD t217 @2166pts

(actually I could have shaved off ~15 turns without my huge diplo fault late game, which really annoys me, see below)

- How many cities did you settle, or capture?

41 in total (?), plus razed a lot late game.
Finally I managed to keep all the cities happy/ecstatic

I know that´s unimportant, but it just felt right ;-)

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?

For research the stuff to upgrade my anti-cav, heavy cav, and siege units.
For policies I went with the +campus science/+commercial hub gold cards, military wise Levée en Masse + Professional Army, and the cards to reduce war weariness.
Am really not good at domination, do not know if the last point really was worth it.

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?

Sumer had to go. Mongols fled north of Zanzibar where I left him, as the Vikings did with that small landmass n/e of their Cap.
I left Scythia some cities, India one and somehow Monty managed to get a distant former Roman town. On the whole I only took the larger cities on the other big landmass for +loyalty and those which were in my way towards Rome.

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

I started with some Swords, Archers/X-bows, Impis and Knights. That mix was really useful against Gilgamesh, but I underestimated Ghengis´scientific lead in combination with his horde ability, so I had to withdraw all my Knights from his vast amount of Cavalry Corps. Focussed on Pike&Shot then.
For the invasion of the other landmass I embarked west of liberated Zanzibar with AT corps/armies, Field Guns and an Artillery corps, heading towards Tomyris who was really behind.
When I attacked there a second invasion started on India with upgraded tanks and infantry, supported by three purchased Battleships and an Ironclad.
The two armies merged in Aztec land (with some purchased stuff like more arty and a helicopter) and prepared for the last strike on Rome, but due to the mountains I had to split them again.

Don´t know if I should have trained some light cav, but it didn´t seem right against Ghengis... your thoughts?
To some extent I really do not appreciate light cavs against AI, but against experienced players they are great.

- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?

Merely, but yes. Somewhat, I don´t like Pikemen stuff. Against War Carts there is no bonus here, but they turned out to be great once upgraded to the new Pike&Shot, a bit against Harald and especially Ghengis, later also good as ATs as they come early. For the attack on the other landmass, the AT were okay, but after taking Scythia way too slow.
More important is Isibongo here, I think, like, early heavy cav corps/armies.

- What was your most useful unit?

I would say an Artillery Army with expert crew and supply train, and tanks into modern Armour.

- Was diplomacy useful? How?

It was nice to befriend the only direct neighbour Gilgamesh turn one we met, so I had time to build up an Infrastrucure.

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

The commercial CSs were useful for Gold. Met the science ones too late.

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

Nothing special, focussing on science/gold early to counter deity, splitting army in two for 2nd landmass.

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

Not sure, I might have had one normal age early on, but generally stayed in golden ages. Unfortunately, obviously no heroic ones, but early I only cared for Monumentality, and later on I didn´t really care.

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

No emergencies
I was kind of surprised of how strong GK´s cavalry corps were, but pike and shot corps dealt with them, in combination with 4 field guns, of which i lost two, unfortunately.

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

Not new ones, but this was the first time I tried to get an early Godess of Harvest pantheon, chop almost everything, if possible with Magnus, and purchase a hell of a ton of civilian units with faith and golden age monumentality. It´s ridiculous, especially as you do not need to invest in religion any further (and even more if you count in captured holy sites). Really did not know where to put my faith in, without ever doing anything except taking a free Pantheon from La Venta.

- Did you enjoy the game?

As always, I am not a dom fan. I think it´s way too easy to take a warmonger path, regardless of victory type, so I prefer peaceful playthroughs with a little border fighting just for fun. But this one was really fun, I discovered some new mechanics, and with this setting I enjoyed it a lot.
Thanks for making these, hoping for another science/culture deity game soon.

Some questions:
Does Isibongo work for naval melee units?
I ended up with an Ironclad Armada, but I might have used a Great Admiral on a former caravel, really don´t remember.
Is it always possible to befriend Gilgamesh the turn you first meet him?
And is there a way to see how long frienships last ingame, i.e. the number of turns?
As said above, Could have shaved off about 15turns, but was still befriended with Rome, and having the whole army at Trajan´s border doing nothing was really annoying. The only thing I really really regret in this playthrough.

Resumée

Late game at domination games, I really loose focus. Was not really doing anything with the huge ammount of faith I amassed, neither with the gold, except for some great person sniping, which was more or less for fun. Should have purchased more traders and builders.
After building Big Ben I should have purchased another Army to march east to attack Rome, so that I would have had three Armies taking the 2nd landmass from three sides, which, with ~1.5k gold/turn and 20k amassed would have certainly been possible.


As always, comments/critique/advice is really welcome here, am looking to improve my gameplay.
Thanks a lot guys, and especially you, Leif!

 

[Halfdan Helgrim]

Domination Victory Turn 253

- How many cities did you settle, or capture?
Settled 4. Took all Sumeria, Norway, Mongol, India, Aztec and a couple from Scythia and Rome.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Horseman rush, after meeting GK focused on Impi.

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
Sumeria, Mongols, India and Aztec. Mongols killed Norway before I got to them.

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
Initial army was 2 warriors, 3 archers, 6 horsemen and a ram. After meeting GK I added 5-6 Impi and 2 bombards.
Then a small navy of 2 melee and 4-5 battleships.

- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
Impis that upgraded into pike and shoot where very effective vs. GK. All the other abilities are very good. I was running around with a lot of Corps and Armies.

- What was your most useful unit?
Starting warrior. With Urban warfare and double attacks this unit conquored cities like crazy. It ended up with 7 promotions.

- Was diplomacy useful? How?
Not really

- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
Maybe. Did not notice.

- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Domination VC?
Horseman rush and enough culture to get Mercenaries for Corps. Later it turned into all-round armies with bombards.

- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have?
Golden Age which turned into Dark Age, which was actually nice. The Policy that gives +2 Food and Production for Trade routes is really helpful. Which ended up in Heroic Age.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Not really. Learning from other game how crazy Mongols can be, so made sure had enough anti-cavalry. But GK was the longest grind. GK killed Norway and had taken several cities from Sumeria, which was a little bit surprising.

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

- Did you enjoy the game?
I did and the first 150 is a challenge. But after that it is just walk in a park. It does not seem like AI builds enough units post 150.
Thank you very much for the Diety game - I really hope AI will get better soon.

 

[Eyswein]

Domination Victory, T126, 250AD; pre-patch
Only post, so combined questions from Opening Actions and After Actions

- Where did you settle your capital city? Your second city? How many cities did you settle, or capture?
SIP for Ulundi, 4E for Bulawayo; created 4 settlers that went EE, NE, S, W; ended with 33 cities total

- What was your build order?
1-Ulundi: Scout, Builder, Settler, Builder, IKANDA, 3x Slinger, Mon(g), 2x Warrior, 3x Galley, Settler, Builder, 4x Heavy Chariot; knight corps when available
26-Bulawayo: Mon(g), IKANDA, Slinger, Warrior, Trader, Builder(g), 3x Settler (note: chopped 2 on same turn I completed the settler in Ulundi), Builder, Heavy Chariot; knight corps when available
56-Nobamba: Mon(g), Gov Plaza, Bat Ram, Heavy Chariot; various
58-Kwadukuza: Mon(g), Builder; various
58-Nongoma: Mon(g); eventually navy
66-Nodwenga: (note: delayed settle due Sumerian forces in area) Mon(g), Campus; quadrireme spammer
Listed settle turn for core cities and tried to captured what I built early on. After start up, focused on Heavy Chariots, Commerce Districts, then Knights galore.

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
Ikanda in first 2 cities on T30/32; Campus on T83; Commercial Districts; captured 2 Harbors

- Did you try to build any Wonders?
Colosseum; accidently dropped an entertainment district in the wrong city and tile, so I didn’t complete it until T117

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
Started small Army/Navy - 4xSlingers & 3xWarriors, then 3 Galleys; then started Heavy Chariots -> Knights for conquest; expanded Navy for Quadrireme -> Frigates

- Did you use your UU? Was it useful? Built one, didn’t use it
- What was your most useful unit? Galleys for exploration; I needed to do a better job getting scouts through open borders to find capitals; ended up using Knights to do it

- How quickly did you get Trade Routes working, who did you trade with?
First Trader on T46; used traders to create routes to AI players for conquest or CS’s for g/s/c

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why? How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
Science: Mining, BW, Sailing, AH, Archery, Wheel, Masonry, Pottery, Irrigation, Writing, Currency, HB Riding, Stirrups, Apprenticeship; stopped tracking, but focused on Cartography and Square Rigging
Culture: CoL, Craft, FT, SW, MT, PolPhil,…, Mercenaries,…Divine Right,…,Nationalism
Policies: Autocracy, then Monarchy; switch as needed for focus of time - started anti-barb / production (i.e. urban, agoge, maritime, colonization, maneuver, chivalry), +science, military focus

- Which Governors did you choose and why did you choose them?
Magnus to provision – chop 3 fast settlers with no loss of citizens; Amani – for envoys; Pingala – ideally for sc/cul, but had to use some for loyalty; Reyna to Tax Collector for increased gold; other 3 to place for loyalty as needed

- Did you use religion?
Pantheon – City Patron Goddess; I believe Goddess of the Harvest and God of the Forge were gone or I would have taken one of them; otherwise ignored religion; could have used faith better to buy up GG’s

- Where there any emergencies?
I had 3 emergencies this game which gave me a crap ton of gold. T78- Defend Kandy from Sumeria, on T88 it was over after I eliminated Sumeria for an early influx of gold; T86- Liberate Zanzibar from Mongolia; T89- Defend Uruk (after I captured it); used gold for various stuff, but at end I was buying lots of single Knights to upgrade my corps into armies

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side? Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
Kandy/LaVenta early – joined empire; Antioch / Mohenjo / Zanzibar became Suz for all as soon as I could; some issues as AI was Suz when we went to war so lost quests; eventually also Suz of NanMadol / Hattusa / Babylon; used Hattusa forces, but didn’t really help much

- How were the Barbarians?
Helped me get to Golden Ages, so overall good; lost a slinger early which was annoying

- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have?
All Golden Ages, T52 & T92 era changes; took Pen, Brush, and Voice for Culture focus with goal of corps/armies of knights

- How long did it take to find your neighbors? Were they hostile or friendly? Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history? Was diplomacy useful? How?
T21- Norway, T25- Sumeria, T33- Mongolia; set up embassies right away so they would remain friendly enough to trade and not start a war with me, open borders if I could when available; I traded lux/horses as much as I could to just remain content for gold, but kept iron for knights; I started war with Sumeria on T30 to capture one of their settlers – sadly had to disband it as they had too many forces for me to get it away; really started conquest on T71 starting with Sumeria, T87 Mongolia, T101 Norway; completely eliminated Sumeria, left Mongolia/Norway with one city each for peace gold

T73-Rome, T81-Aztec, T90-India, T95-Scythia; Embassies/Open Borders; trade for gold; warmongering made them all denounce me; should have had scout(s) find capitals, but Rome I could see, Aztec found with Knights running along borders, India/Scythia found as I still had open borders when I got my forces there; focus on this continent was capitals and other cities in my way or easy to pick off with my frigates

- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Domination VC?
1) Survive start, exploration, & expansion (archers/warriors/galleys/settlers – chop!); trade for gold at every opportunity; bought key tiles and monuments
2) Early conquest (heavy chariots), very limited against Sumeria and lost a couple – probably should have been more patient
3) T82 Mercenaries and T84 Stirrups (corps of Knights), T93-Divine Right for Chivalry, didn’t finish off Sumeria until I had these; slowly at first, but as more came into service (high production cities and chops), faster and faster expansion
4) For better or worse, took all but 2 AI cities on my home continent vice a capital focus, left them for peace deal gold; I didn’t know where the Mongol capital was when the Zanzibar emergency started so I just started in the south and worked north till I found it – also wanted to liberate Zanzibar for a crazy 2400 gold; trade as much as possible with other continent before they all denounce me
5) Set sail for the other continent from both east and west; sadly, had navy on the wrong side so no help with Rome – wish I’d had a 50/50 split, but I was pumping out quads in Nodwengu and all my galleys were on that side after exploration to cross the ocean back home for upgrades after I got cartography; focus on capitals, cities in way; T117- War with Rome with quick take of capital and continued to expand south and east as I didn’t locate the Atzec capital area until T121; T121-War with India/Scythia, T-123 War with Atzec - Aztec had Defender of the Faith, so upgraded to knight armies by buying single knights to combine with my knight corps as much as I could; held off declaring war against them until I knew where the capital was

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes, I love 6OTM games; even when I don’t post I play them; looking forward to the 2018 Spring Patch!!

 

[Fivethumbs]

t154 domination victory

- How many cities did you settle, or capture?
Settled Ulundi in place, then built 1 settler only (using my standard opening build order Scout->Builder->Settler). Later in the game settled couple more insignificant cities (with HicSuntDracones - starting at 4 pop). Everything else was captured.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Technologies priority: Sailing (for Inspiration and whale) -> Bronze working (Ikanda, GG) -> Iron working (Swordsmen) -> Impi -> Xbows -> SquareRigging -> Cannons / Muskets
Policies order: Autocracy (on ~t53, personal best, accidentally it went very fluent with Inspirations / policy card switching) -> Mercenaries (corps) -> Monarchy -> Mercantilism -> Nationalism

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
Apparently no-one. For home-continent left AI with 1 city (or so) to get peace deals, for other continent just rolled over from coast to capital.

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
Some warriors/slingers early; upgraded to archers/swords and started wars; then built few spearmen to be upgraded to Impi; most conquest done with Impi. Later upgraded to Xbows, muskets. No navy really (a mistake)

- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
Used Impi almost exclusively (because its Zulu They were good vs Mongol horsemen, Scythia also didn't manage to get anything better than Horsemen (and it was already at t120+...).

- What was your most useful unit?
Ram again. There were a lot of walls, and Impi vs Walls are nothing without a ram.

- Was diplomacy useful? How?
Super useful as always, early selling of luxuries kept economy afloat; later on peace deals gave huge amounts of money. No alliances, everyone hates Zulu.

- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
Didn't pay much attention, but at some point suzerained Kumasi (?) (that gives culture trade boost), so most of the trade routes went to CSs for gold/culture.

- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Domination VC?
Get Swordsmen/Archers for early conquest; then get Impi to conquer the rest.
It was a little scary to meet 50+ strength Mongol Horsemen very early (t30?) hitting on the Faith CS (northern of the two - LaVenta?). Managed to declare war on CS just in time to move in and get the last hit with the warrior, and that gave me third city and two Chocolates to sell. Soon after declared and took over the other Faith CS, making it 4 cities.
Mongols were in perma war with Sumeria, so they left me alone for time being.
First war I declared was on Mongol on ~t60, when I had some swordsmen/archers/ram/gg on one side of the river, and Mongols had ~4-5 injured Horsemen on the other. Used archers/river to finish off the Horsemen, however then found out that swordsmen won't be able to squeeze through the mountain range and get the cities. Waited 10 turns to peace out, then declared on Sumeria, which was wide open. For a while ran Raid policy card and got 50science (around 2 turns worth of science output) for every pillaged Zigurat - pillaged at least 6 of those. Pillaging helped to get to Impi faster. Could have pillaged way more (for money, culture).
Sumeria was a breeze with GG/Swords/Archers; then Impi went online, so went north to conquer Norway (screenshot at t100) and right after Norway capital was done, declared on Mongols again.
Strangely, there were no Emergencies at that moment.
At around t110 or so embarked to the other continent (east from Ulundi) with few Impi corps, one Xbow, GG and one siege tower (2 hexes at the time...) but then nasty barbarian caravel killed at least the siege tower and teleported GG (there was no "unit killed" notification on the siege tower, if I'm correct? so maybe it just drowned by itself?) On the east coast, another barb caravel pillaged harbor.
Pushed research to Cartography/SquareRigging to start moving through the sea faster. Golden dedication helped a lot also (Impi moving 6-7 hexes over the sea make a difference).
Soon after the invasion of 2nd continent (started with Geneva and Toronto on both sides, to have a "home base" for upgrades/purchases), upgraded Impi corps to Pike&Shot, which finished the remaining few capitals.

Barbarians - first hut gave +1 lvl for Warrior, so used the promotion to quickly clear the camp to the south. After that, there was no barb problem at all.
Religion - got semi-early Pantheon (20 faith from hut), but neither God of Forge, or Harvest was available. Took -25% for the first district. Eventually did not use any of the Faith (rookie error).

From around t80 lost idea what to build in the cities, ended up with Petra, museums, multitude of religious buildings, overflow of builders and simmilar stuff, not oriented "towards the goal".

Strangely, at t100 had way better science/culture/economy output than in my "Science victory" oriented games

- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have?
One was normal, others golden. For the last Golden age took Hic Sunt Dracones for faster embarked speed.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Barbarian Caravels that ruled the seas t90 - t120. When built couple Frigates of mine, those caravels had disappeared by themselves...

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

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes, very much. But AI needs a boost maybe (i.e., use Magnus?)

 

[whacker]

T114 DV, prepatch

- How many cities did you settle, or capture?
Settled 9 myself, captured 26.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
With some minor detours i beelined for stirrups and mercenaries for knight corps.

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

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
4 archers, 3 warriors to defend vs barbarian hordes from the southwest. Around 50 chariots->knights for conquest. 3 galleys->caravels, 9 quadriremes->frigattes. 4 battering rams, 2 siege towers, 4 GG, 2 GA. Faithbought several horseman to prepare for a cavalry army timing, didnt need them though

- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
No, i prefer knight corps and didnt need the era points.

- What was your most useful unit?
The first archers, they saved me from a massive barbarian invasion.

- Was diplomacy useful? How?
Yes, i befriended Gilgamesh the turn i met him to avoid dealing with warcarts too early. Other than that i traded all luxuries and open borders to get gold for monuments and tiles.

- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
Mohenjo-Daro was useful early on to settle cities without fresh water, La Venta for harvest pantheon. Other envoy boni useful as always.

- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Domination VC?
I chopped the Oracle with galley overflow and combined it with Pingala to get generals, admirals and writers. Writings helped with early culture, later i sold them to upgrade all my chariots. Built the ancestral hall in my 2. city to chop/faithbuy 7 settlers, wanted to get as many Colloseum cities as possbile, ended up with 8. Bought all monuments and built some good adjacency campi to get mercenaries/stirups asap. Also chopped the Great Lighthouse to move faster between the continents and the Alhambra to get a solid military Trade Republic. avoided Monarchy because i wanted to keep the 50% for chariots card. Afterwards i just rolled over everybody and sniped Nidaros with frigattes.

- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have?
Golden into golden, always monumentality.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Barbarians . Mongolia got defender of the faith religion, it was pretty hard to kill him but in the end Zulu knight corps+GG were just too powerful.

- Did you enjoy the game?
This has actually been my first DV in RnF as i prefer peaceful gameplay. Still had a great time playing this Gotm, once Shaka gets rolling he is unstoppable. Thanks for providing these amazing Gotm, keep up the good work!

 

[Falabello]

Domination Victory - Turn 176

Game not valid as I was very upset with my first attempt. So, I replayed to improve...

Now I know exactly where I have to change. Need some more games to deal with this
I was the only one that didn't report my path to glory. But sorry, the language doesn't help me to do this with ease ​

Did you enjoy the game?
Yup, very much! My dates are decreasing step by step !
Thanks for one more 6otM.

 

[DanQuayle]

T115 DV

- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Domination VC?
I adopted a strategy that I would call "Lazy Surgery"
95 turns of peace, followed by 20 turns of war for world conquest
With Zulus' bonuses to loyalty, you can turn -20 loyalty cities into positive territory with a governor and the right policies if you can maintain positive happiness
Ex: Governor +8 Praetorium +2 Scout Corp +5 Limitanei +2 Happiness +6 (Retainers policy helps) = +23
You can thus easily snipe the capitals and leave the other cities alone.

Main bottleneck is starting conquest on the 2nd continent, so you need to reach Cartography as quickly as possible
Second bottleneck is Mercenaries which you ideally need around 10T later (which is the time required for your units to reach the other continent) to upgrade your units
Ran some Military Training for 2nd GG

Districts: 2 early Campi, Government Plaza, 2 Ikanda, 2 Harbors

- How many cities did you settle, or capture?
Settled: 5 (+1 on other continent)
Captured: 9 (7 capitals + 2 unwalled cities to rush buy Battering Rams)

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Early Writing > Cartography T80 > Stirrups T94 (delayed for more Heavy Chariots)
Recorded History > Mercenaries T91

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
4 Galleys for overflow, 20 Heavy Chariots upgraded to Knights

- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
No & No because of tech detour

- What was your most useful unit?
Knight Corps: 68CS with a GG is unstoppable at that point of the game

- Was diplomacy useful? How?
Selling luxuries
Sold 1 relic

- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
Didn't meet Kandi or La Venta first, but I did get an easy quest from Kandi (Meet another civilization) which I filled on the very same turn of meeting.
At that point, I thought I had secured an early pantheon (ie Goddess of Harvest).
However, Sumeria conquered it not long after thus ripping me off of an early pantheon
I settled for God of the Open Sky.

Found Nan Madol quite late and became its suzerain with Amani
Moved Amani to Zanzibar after reaching Mercenaries

- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have?
2 Golden Ages: Free Inquiry (for faster Cartography), then Monumentality

- Did you discover any new exploits?
Found 1 relic in a Tribal village which is useless for DV
Sold it to Gilgamesh for around 60gpt, but apparently the game is bugged and the AI overvalues it on the turn it is acquired (old exploit)
Still would have preferred Goddess of Harvest though

 

[Eliminator_Sr]

Domination Victory Turn 245

*Game may not qualify because I accidentally left a few mods on. They were UI mods (better report screen, icons, and civilipedia).

I had a terrible start. I got boxed in by the Mongols and ran out of cash and couldn't get an offensive going till past turn 100 but in the end the Zulu corps were too strong. I'm pretty sure I would have lost this game with a weaker civ.

What did you prioritize for research and policies?
I went straight for Military Tactics and Mercenaries, but it looks like quite a few people bypassed them altogether. Impis saved my skin in this game.

Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
Sumeria

What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
Everything - had lots of melee, anti-cav, and cavalry. Was mainly impis corps early on with a few swords then switched to knights. Upgraded those to tanks in the late game to capture capitals on the other continent. I built Venetian Arsenal and a ton of ships to clear the coastal cities - I timed it just before Steel and then swarmed India with battleships and ironclads and proceeded to run up both sides of the continent razing coastal cities.

Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
Yes - I was getting crushed and Impi corps turned the tide - most useful unit.

Was diplomacy useful? How?
Yeah - I used multiple joint wars to soften my opponents up. In the ancient age I declared a joint war on Genghis with Sumeria then made peace, allied with Genghis and declared a joint war on Sumeria. They both had much larger armies than me early on so this really helped me make inroads.

Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
I was surprised at how many city states survived on Deity - most of them did this time. I didn't Suzerain anyone and just spread the envoys evenly for boosts.

What was your strategy, how did you gain your Domination VC?
Beelined for Impi and prebuilt spearmen for upgrades then took out half of Sumeria and stalled when they got Cavalry. I didn't capture a capital until after T150. The second continent went faster.

Scythia and Rome T245
Aztec T239
India T232
Mongols T228
Norway T188
Sumeria T169

How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have?
Golden, Dark, Heroic, Dark, Heroic (2nd dark was intentional - first was just due to the poor start)

Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Heh - yeah getting pinned between the Mongols and Sumeria was intimidating.

Did you enjoy the game?
It was a little stressful in the early game and I had to play defensively but it was a fun challenge.

 

[isopaha]

T277 DV. First time playing Shaka and it turned out to be great! Have not used a lot of corps and armies before and Shaka gets a lot of them. Biggest challenge on home continent was Genghis, but Shaka is definitely well equipped against cavalry-heavy civs which there were a lot of. 2nd continent took a bit too much time for logistical and loyalty reasons.

Most useful unit was probably Pike&shot against Genghis. Bombards with balloon support were also very important and later artilleries. I had a good navy, but it was not so important, perhaps only against Norway. Amount of late game AI units is disappointing and almost a complete lack of navy too.

I settled only one city after capital and captured a ton. This was natural as the continent lacked good city spots near starting area.

 

[pahakuutti]

T130, Not valid

Started again after I realized that I was doing the traditional slingers to archers, barbs to swords and chariots to knights thingy. I wanted to try out Impis and build 'a carpet of doom'.

So second attempt was just Impis (later upgraded some to pikes). Focused on culture to get corps and armies asap. Forgot science pretty much at the moment I got impis (79T). Then chopped the first 10 or so impis. Later when I captured a city, I immediately chopped and faith purchased more impis on that city. It takes a bit time to get the impis but then it snowballs.

Impis can be quite fast too: 2 base movement, GG +1, redeploy promo +1, logistics +1 = 5 movement on friendly territory and 4 on hostile.

Thanks for the game. It was fun to try something new.

 

[seb_schmitt]

T246, not valid

Had to reload after Ghengis took me by surprise with his cavalary while I was still on spearmen.

Still enjoyed the game very much, especially the Zulu soundtrack which is my favourite one.

 

[Khalid]

T228 Domination victory.

I had a slow start and hard time getting through the rough terrain against Genghis. Gilhamesh has been my friend and ally and wanted him to keep like that as much as possible.

Finally broke through Genghis with impis and knights, but did not get his capital as he got cavalry. The impis were great against his keshigs, knights and cities. Went after Norway instead. At T160 conquered most of Mongol and Norway, but thought the game was over as Gilgamesh got Infantry.

But he was not able to use it and I crushed him when our alliance expired with cavalry and a pair of bombards. Took Genghis capital as well as he moved his cavalry to the north. My frigate fleet made a foothold in India. I managed to keep it with governors, policies and scout corps. Also made a foothold in Scythia.

Finally took over India, Aztecs and Scythia more or less at the same time while upgrading my knight armies to tanks. Rome was last. I took only two cities.

- How many cities did you settle, or capture?
- settled 4, captured lots.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
beelined impis, while getting ikandas. Then knights, cavalry and tanks. Policies - political philosophy, then mercenaries for the corps and upgrades.

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
Actually everyone survived and I freed some city states as well some free cities.

- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have?
Golden, dark (by 1 turn), normal, golden, golden

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Barbs from West and South were a pain. Gligamesh's infantry at T160. But he did not know how to use it.

- Did you discover any new exploits? Did you find old ones fixed?
Yes. I conquered Sumeria down to 3 cities and settled for peace for everything he had. But I didn't close the trading screen. He accepted my embassy, friendship and alliance (see the screenshot). With -252 warmonger penalty. This helped with some culture for trade routes to Sumeria with the cultural alliance.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes. but it took a long time in real life.

 

[nufro]

T209 DV

Been wandering around a lot, took a while to realize that I need to take Patna in the end.. Lost way too many units on the way.. Started warring too early.. Got wrong the mercenaries/caravel sequence.. But still not bad, by my measures.

 

[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.

 

[Half Nelson]

Domination victory turn 229. 1649 points (Ashoka).

Unusually beautiful weather for Scotland in May, alongside numerous family visits, have kept me outdoors and away from computers / Civ6 for much of last few weeks, Finally got time to complete this game in short bursts and am posting the result (laughably late) for information.

Conquering Sumeria did indeed prove to be a hard slog (capital being their most distant city) but I was then relieved to see both Mongolian and Norwegian capitals in close proximity. Neither were much of a match for my Musket and Impi corps, backed up by bombards. I still had no navy at this point, but rapidly built up a force of privateers and frigates to explore the world. I beelined flight for bombers and started my invasion of the new world with Scythia, which had 2 rather isolated coastal cities lacking serious loyalty pressure. Having established a foothold and upgraded my troops (now mostly armies) to infantry and AT units, I captured the Scythian capital then attacked the Aztecs. I managed to ferry my bomber units to the battlefront using airbases and, having conquered the Aztecs, I made simultaneous Golden-Age DoW on Rome and India:- both their capitals fell within 4 turns (total mismatch of forces).

A few surprises:-

1. Aztec and India were the same colour which made for some confusion on first contact

2. Deity R&F AI seemed to tech better than vanilla. They also suzerained rather than capure CS:- I only managed to control a single city state during the game

3. Barbs were a constant thorn (early muskets and infantry) until I had biplanes / fighters

4. I used the military governor for the first time; very useful in this type of game

5. I managed to get the Zulu achievement in a Deity game (OK, it is a fairly easy one!)

I enjoyed playing the Zulu, they made a potentially long domination slog relatively easy once their UA boni kicked in. The early corps / armies and free upgrades with city capture are very powerful attributes for a military civ. The increased loyalty pressure with garrisons was also helpful, especially when establishing position on the second continent. The Impi (speedy promotions) and Ikanda (cheap for speedy GG) are also OK but the UA are the key attributes for me.

I had some game issues which also reduced playing time. I use the Steam controller interface which went AWOL at one point (turn 137 IIRC) and I had to exit to reset the controls (eventually turned out to be a rechargeable battery issue). I also had a pair of ominous black screen crashes on turn 209 (left with a static blinking cursor) which might have been linked to the big Windows upgrade (or the mid-game patch). The t209 save played Ok when I went back to the game a few days later.