6otM41 After Action

[leif erikson]

Welcome to the 6otM41 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?
- What effect did Loyalty have on your settling or conquering? How did you mitigate its effects?
- 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.

 

[cas]

T176 victory.
First deity victory. First time I've made the effort at that level and finished a game with a wide empire. The initial war with China was difficult, but Varu + war of territorial expansion was powerful mid-game. Oh, and the AI doesn't know how to build or defend against a navy.

- How many cities did you settle, or capture?
too damn many. tedious and irritating managing them.
- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
After I took out China/Japan/Mongol, I prioritized square rigging for frigates. then ballistics for field cannon. At the very end, combustion for a couple tanks for finish Peter.
- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
China/Japan/Mongol/Gilgamesh
- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
Mostly Varu, Xbow, frigates . A few knights, pikes, caravel. Then upgraded the xbows to field cannon. Very late upgraded to a couple battleships and tanks.
- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
Very useful early and mid-game. Not so useful starting Renaissance until I upgraded 3-4 to tanks late.
- What was your most useful unit?
Varu on the starting continent. Frigates on the other continent.
- Was diplomacy useful? How?
No. Not at all.
- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
Since I wiped out the AI on my continent, it was useful to be suzerain of several CS on the starting continent. Also liberated Hattusa and Lisbon on the other continent. Going after Buenos Aires late would have been a waste of time.
- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Domination VC?
Take over the main continent -> use frigates to capture/destroy coastal cities -> slog inland for Peter and Tomyris capitals.
- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have?
No dark. Classic normal. Medieval, Renaissance, Industrial Golden.
- What effect did Loyalty have on your settling or conquering? How did you mitigate its effects?
Just had to move governors and keep conquering to avoid rebellions
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Seondeok was pretty far ahead of me in tech, but I was able to attack her capital from 2 sea squares, so I kept cycling frigates until I chipped her defenses down to 0. If that capital was 1 more inland, it would have been a hard road.
- Did you discover any new exploits? Did you find old ones fixed?
No exploits.
- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes, thank you for hosting it.

Country: war timeframe - RIP or alive
China: ~T50 - T92 - RIP
Japan: T102 - T118 - RIP
Mongol: T122-T132 - RIP
Gilgamesh: T137-T144 - RIP
Seondeok: T144-T162 - 4 cities left
Tomyris: T156-T175 - 2(?) cities left
Peter: T163-T176 - maybe 6 cities left

cas

 

[Chalcedon]

Turn 167, 1060AD, Renaissance Era @1717pts
Not competing as I expect a lots of sub t150 victories.

This was way quicker than I thought on turn 100 - but main mistakes were I didn´t split the army into two, nor didn´t I build a navy really. Overestimated Russia´s and Scythia`s military. First half of the game I neglected science as well -> fault.

- How many cities did you settle, or capture?
39 cities in total. Didn´t build any post t100 except for one coastal south of the cap (fault) and one next to the Sulfur (needed that mine) north of the cap. I really dislike managing such vast empires, so I just started building stuff on random, as I usually do in domination games. Should have build a second force to march west.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
The stuff for Muskets/Field Cannons/Bombards/Cavalry, then Tanks.
Policywise, I focussed on military stuff and gold, with detours for +science (see Gov screenshot).

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
Just China, the others paid me quite a bit for surviving, and I spared some turns as well.

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
Early on it was all about Varu + Archers/Xbows. After that some Horsemen/Cavalry, Chariots/Knights, Catapults. Both types including support units, of course. The Varu army had to stay in Mongolia at first, used a Renaissance army of Muskets, Cavalry, Field Cannons and Bombards on Seondeok - I decided to attack her first, since I had the Casus belli against her and she was way ahead in Science. Didn´t really build a Navy, converted some Barbs so I ended up with each one Caravel, Ironclad, Frigate and Battleship. The Varu/Knights into tanks pushed really fast towards the Scythian capital, ignoring what was between it and Russia.

- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
REALLLY useful, it´s just a little horsehockey you have to wait for tanks for upgrades, so you have to build something for the time in between (I should have really build more of such stuff). But as strong as Varus are, the make up for it.

- What was your most useful unit?
I´d say Varu into tanks, but the combination of the Renaissance units killed those techy Koreans with their Infantries.

- Was diplomacy useful? How?
As Korea took half of Sumeria including Uruk, I managed to stay allied with Gilga-Bro all-game - he´s a good friend and ally. I will remember this.
But, definetly NO - diplo should really be reworked, maybe with a diplo VC add on.

- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
Meh. Kumasi gave me some value in culture early, as did Stockholm and Hatussa for science later on, but on the whole, not really. Seondeok was claiming nearly anyone she met, but I like that you get 6 envoys relatively late game for liberating after the patch.

- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Domination VC?
Was really horsehockey on it, to be honest. Next time, I´ll read the tooltips/check civiliopedia in advance. Relied too much on the Varu in first place, and neglected the navy in total.
"Strategy" was to take most of the home continent, then take out tech leader Korea, after that steamroll through Russia/Scythia. As said, should have send a second army westwards. Arthashastra was really OP, especially with the tanks lategame. Blitz!

- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have?
Classical normal, medieval and renaissance golden.

- What effect did Loyalty have on your settling or conquering? How did you mitigate its effects?
On the second continent, I had to use Limitanei, Governors and quick conquering to manage Korea.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
After attacking Japan turn 100, I faced a lot of Samurai - wasn´t aware Hojo had them, but Xbows did their job.
Mongolia was really weak, I thought otherwise.
Korea was just SOOO afvanced, facing lots of Infantry was sth I would not have imagined... again, two shot/turn field cannons dealt with them. Not really sure if I should have gone for Scythia/Russia first, but I guess no, as taking Korea first allowed me to make use of Arthashastra.
Russia and Scythia were just a joke, so 7-8 movement tanks just moved through their lands heading for the last capital.

Fun Fact: Received 4th or 5th great prophet without caring, so I managed to establish a late game +amenities religion, converting all the conquered holy site cities arabia style.

- Did you discover any new exploits? Did you find old ones fixed?
Nope. Wasn´t even using chop exploits or selling great works on turn one I got them, as micromanaging with a wide empire isn´t fun.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Actually yes, tho normally I don´t like dom victories (due to micromanaging wide lands). I like that you´re forced to march eastwards, just to find out you´re facing high-tech Korea next, with the other nations further away. This was challenging somehow. Also I enjoyed that I was able to build some wonders (especially Terracotta Army, Alhambra and Forbidden City) which accompanied the VC, without actually beelining them.

Thanks a lot for this one!

 

[Chalcedon]

P.S.: I wonder if sticking to ~3 Varus would be better (but they seemed reasonably cheap), and focus on more knights/horsemen as usual... what do you guys think?

 

[DanQuayle]

T111 DV

Forward settled China to get the coast/river city location and also get some extra era points.
Bought one slinger with gold to be on the safe side.
China DoW'd and sent 5-6 warriors my way, but nothing I couldn't handle.
China walled its cities early and was the only civilization to do so on the main continent.
Only settled one city on coast and waited to conquer one of China's crap city on the coast.
It might have been a mistake as it took more time than anticipated to get to Cartography (T90).
(Should have settled two coastal cities.)

However, Chandragupta's ability which give +2 movement also extends to movement at sea and didn't make the late Cartography the bottleneck.
I didn't really care much for Varus before because they were too slow, but the Arthashastra ability fixes that and adds a nice +5CS on top.
I didn't realize this before, but the -5CS penalty for enemies stacks for each adjacent Varus. With 5 movement point (with GG), its super easy to surround enemies. You virtually take no damage back when attacking.
This unique unit (in combination with the Arthashastra ability) is probably one of the most overpowered in the game. Varus are effectively early Knights one era earlier.
In this game, I mixed Varus and Horsemen (as I didn't know if Cavalry would be needed or not), but if I were to replay it, I would only build Varus.
In a nutshell, India (with Chandragupta) is like playing Persia (Cyrus) with a better unique unit and a +5CS bonus.

Nothing else really worth mentioning.
I hit Japan before they had Samurais and Mongolia before they had Knights and Keshigs.
Genghis did surprise me a bit by getting Defender of the Faith just a little bit after I had started to war him.
Sumeria took St. Petersburg before I did and was still at war with Russia when I arrived, avoiding me the need to fight Russia.
Korea did have Knights, Hwachas and 50+CS cities, but I had just finished Military Science by then.

Potential bug: I got the Territorial War Casus Belli against Korea despire having only one city in proximity (10 tiles) of two Korean cities (unless it takes into account city borders, and not city centers, see screenshot)

 

[rfa]

Beaten by China. I'm no good at civ . I'll keep reading the thread trying to see what I should do differently

 

[leif erikson]

At Deity, it can be looked at as the luck of the draw, whether China attacks you immediately or not.

Wouldn't say you're no good at Civ...

 

[arthur486]

@leif erikson is absolutely right. I started this game several times. On the first run, China was friendly, but I managed to get a dark age with 11/12 Era Score and could not settle third city next to them. Quit. Second game, China attacked early and there was no way to recover quickly from it.

 

[Falabello]

Domination Victory - Turn 134

This game was replayed, so not valid.

In my 1# game I was in Dark Age and China was friendly, so I neglected the Army a little. Then they attacked... Anyway, I was able to survive and build na Army of Elephants and start my attack ... (Picture 1# attempt)
In fact, this game would be a nice "Immersive" one. But, to do this, I would have to reach the end of Tech /Civics Trees, with all the best Units of Atomic and Information Eras: Mechs, Armors, Planes, Helic... Despite I like so much this kind of game, my RL doesn't give me time to play. And my choice is to try every 6otM I can

So, I gave up and started again for a faster game

Thanks leif erikson (and others) to one more game

 

[lordofcivs]

Lost against China too early. Moving to GoTM42 now.

 

[pahakuutti]

T101 DV

The strategy was to play peacefully until I get Varus and Military training. Then take advantage of territorial expansion casus belli. However, China DoW'd just few turns before I had Military training. So, the conquest started with 2 movement Varus. Luckily, Japan conquered Zanzibar so I could declare war of territorial expansion against them to speed up Varu movement. When I got Cartography (t85), I already had embarked bunch of Varus waiting to be able to enter deep ocean squares, to scout and destroy anyone they can find.

I think the hardest part in this game was to get golden classical era. Without the help of barbarians, I wouldn't have made it to the golden age. Just 2 turns before the game was entering to classical era, I cleared barb camp to get enough points for the golden age. Otherwise I would have fallen short of era points and entered normal classical era. Then it would have a been completely different ball game - no faith purchased settlers/builders, no faith economy, etc.

Spoiler Mass chopping Varus can ruin your economy :

Better to get some gold from peace deals

 

[seb_schmitt]

Domination Victory in Turn 160

Decided to take an unprotected settler from Qin Shi around turn 30 which turned out to be a mistake: had to fight him of for around 20 turns which cost me a lot of time and units in the end.

Strategy:

• Destroy all nearby barbarian villages
• Get Harvest of the Goddess pantheon, if possible (and I was lucky enough to get it) for later faith chopping and expansion with Monumentality dedication
  
• Summon Magnus as early as possible
• Trade luxuries for gold and buy builders for chopping
• Build 5-6 varus (very useful in cobimation with Chandraguptas Arthashastra ability!), go for the first or second great general
• Build 2 Galley and 6-8 Quadriremes for attaking oponents on foreign land masses
• Focus research first on upper part of the tech tree for navy, later on lower part
• Declare wars of territorial expansion on as many opponents as possible just after discovering Military Training, try to capture capitals within 10 turns

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

Until around turn 70 I built (and upgraded as early as possible):

• 1 Scout (got another 2 from tribal villages)
• 4 Slingers
• 4 Warriors
• 5 Varus
• 2 Galleys
• 8 Quadriremes
• 6 Heavy Chariots

Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?

Gilgamesh and Tomyris

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

Started with a Normal ages, afterwards only golden ages.

What effect did Loyalty have on your settling or conquering? How did you mitigate its effects?

After having taken Xi'an and being in a Normal Age, I lost its loyalty every 4-5 turns (had to take Beijing first before making peace, because it was within 10 tiles of Hojos cities). After making peace and reaching a Golden Age, no more problems: sending governors to captures cities was enough to keep them:

Had to settle near Hojo a second city for enabling wars of territorital expansion. Did so in neutral territory, so no negative effects here.

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

Qin Shi showed more fighting spirit than expected.

Did you enjoy the game?

Yes, very much. It was a clean and fair fight. Alas, it took me over 3 weeks due to holiday vacation in between. Should have written down my strategy upfront, I forgot half of it on the way. ;-)

Thanks a lot @leif erikson for that fantastic game!

 

[seb_schmitt]

Potential bug: I got the Territorial War Casus Belli against Korea despire having only one city in proximity (10 tiles) of two Korean cities (unless it takes into account city borders, and not city centers, see screenshot)

I guess the rule is, that you have to have two cities within 10 tiles of one (not two) of the opponents cities, although the civilopedia says something different.

 

[MrRadar]

DV T286, score 3144
I like to take my time

- How many cities did you settle, or capture?
Final city count - 75, 19 self-settled

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
In the end I prioritized nukes.

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
Everyone, except Korea and Gilgabro, who had been taken out by Korea and Russia.

- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
Yes, but somehow it didn't give me a decisive advantage.

- What was your most useful unit?
Still the battering ram+melee, while it lasted.

- Was diplomacy useful? How?
Got some lux trades in the first half of the game, then it all ended.

- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
China was a lot into suzerainty, her Zanzibar was a bit painful, until China's elimination.

- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Domination VC?
Forward settled China and probably attacked too early with too little. The war dragged out. I eliminated China during the second war with it on T189, and the same turn got declared on by Mongolia who invaded with a carpet of Cavalry. My muskets were falling like flies, at one point they had +12 combat on me from intelligence advantage! Their cavalry took out almost all my land units and most of the trade, until finally I got rid of them and got a peace and 100 gpt payment from Genghis in some compensation.
From then I got artillery and slowly rolled through the world waiting for nukes, because Korea had some 20 tech advantage on me and had to be stung properly. Almost messed up the end too, because I forgot all about them owning Gilga's capital - one more turn of delay .

- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have?
First a dark one, then a couple of normal ones, then all golden.

- What effect did Loyalty have on your settling or conquering? How did you mitigate its effects?
Had to ship in governors, speed up the conquest, maybe had to recapture a couple of cities.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Yes, Chinese Crouching Tigers on those damn hills. Scored too many kills on my guys and ruined everything

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

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes, my fight with China in the beginning was close to epic. Then all that mopping up got tiresome, but on the other hand, I had a bit of action during some WC matches that were on the boring side

 

[leif erikson]

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