6otM45 After Action

[leif erikson]

Welcome to the 6otM45 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 Religious VC?
- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have? Did you have a strategy?
- 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.

 

[Chalcedon]

RV t177 Renaissance 1160AD @738pts

- How many cities did you settle, or capture?

Settled 8 incl. cap + 5 from Scotland.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?

For research, nothing special really. Early on Astro, Iron Working, Currency. For policies, Theocracy with Simultaneum, Scripture and Holy Orders.

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?

Yep, but only in one war against the Scottish, after they took out Antioch and built some Campi for me.

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

5 Archers, 3 Swordsman and a Ram. They weren´t upgraded except for 2 Xbows for the boost. Later on 1 Hussar for the era boost. 2 Galleys, looking for passages, after that on auto explore.

- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?

I only built 1 as I didn´t go down the religious warmonger path. It was good for the era score and fighting back barbs.

- What was your most useful unit?

Apostles with 2 promotions thanks to Moksha.

- Was diplomacy useful? How?

Alliance with Russia and friendship with Spain helped my Apostles not to die. The Alliance I did for the boost, but dragged me into a war when Wilhelmina attacked Peter, which stole me quite some turns, when the Dutch tried to kill my Apostle swarm and re-established their false belief in their cities.

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

Antioch for sure was very helpful, as well as Buenos Aires. After meeting La Venta, the 6 envoys placed there helped a lot for HS boni. Collossal head spamming as usual - it´s kinda odd you may place these things next to each other^^

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

I didn´t really used Missionaries, Apostles only, supported by 1 Guru who gave 2 times heal to 6 Apostles each. Figured the shape of the other landmasses out too late, otherwise I would have splitted the Apostle swarm earlier. Totally forgot about Hagia Sophia. Mosques together with Moksha´s 3rd promotion were really nice. Was thinking about Earth Goddess, but took God of the Harvest as usual for massive faith (on demand) in combo with Golden Age monumentality for early infrastructure development.

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

Since classical era golden ages only, to ensure monumentality with God of the Harvest.

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

None, really. In the first Scottish city I had to place a governor until I had taken Stirling.

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

Lots of early Barbs - Archers.
Being stuck on an island with just 1 continent and 1 neighbour and no real good harbour city spots - hard researching naval stuff.
Russia - converting it last.
Low production lands - couldn´t harvest as much as I intended.
Being dragged into war due to alliance - apostles had to RUN and hop in the water. Got really lucky that a dutch caravel did not bother condemning my Apostles, could easily have killed about 10 (really bad AI showcase).

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

Nope.

- Did you enjoy the game?

The map was really nice and interesting, and I enjoyed the game a lot (for a RV game ;-) ). Normally I play Culture or Science games, so I enjoyed doing something different, BUT I think the religious game always comes to a point where it becomes tedious. You just move your huge Apostle swarm through a really ugly religious lense, and after researching ocean crossing and reformed church, there isn´t really anything else to do. Except for Holy Site prayers...
I kinda disliked that there wasn´t really a way for me to make use of the polish relic benefits.
But BIG thanks for making these!

 

[guslaet]

RV t359

- How many cities did you settle, or capture?
Settled 6, captured 1 from France and 2 from rebels (originally from from Spain and Russia).

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Whatever gave me faith.

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

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
Very little. In the end I had 2 ranged cannon corps, 1 army of hussars, 1 corp of AT Crew, 1 Knight, 1 bombard, 2 medics, 1 corp of submarines, 1 corp of ironclads and 1 corp of frigates.

- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
To kill barbarians basically.

- What was your most useful unit?
Missionaries.

- Was diplomacy useful? How?
Yes, to keep Scotland from attacking me.

- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
I just secured Buenos Aires and Toronto. Guess BA helped with ammenities.

- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Religious VC?
Lots of faith, continuous spread and policies that strengthened my Apostles. I used them defeat Russia as fast as I could for they were the only real threat.

- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have? Did you have a strategy?
1 dark age in the begging, and I think 2 golden ages towards the end. No real strategy with that.

- What effect did Loyalty have on your settling or conquering? How did you mitigate its effects?
It helped me to secure no one else in my continent. Had no trouble keeping Scotland in its place.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Not really.

- Did you discover any new exploits? Did you find old ones fixed?
No. There was a long time a didn't play. The game is a lot more stable and old bugs were fixed.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes!

 

[BarbarianHunter]

RV T231, Score 2218

- How many cities did you settle, or capture? Captured them all but 2.
- What did you prioritize for research and policies? Mercenaries for Winged Hussars.
- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history? Everyone but Spain.
- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change? Horse units I used in the T79 to T88 Scottish conquests upgraded to cav then helicopters with 4 promotions carrying battering rams vs. pre steel civs. Winged Hussars promoted to tanks and modern armor as well.
- Did you use your UU? Was it useful? A nice unit.
- What was your most useful unit? Winged Hussar’s pack quite a punch and are extremely useful for cracking mid game garrisons.
- Was diplomacy useful? How? No.
- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states? Yes. Suz’ed nearly all of them by the end due to a combination of choral music and conquer/inquisition conversion plan. The AI’s generally like building holy sites.
- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Religious VC? Conquer/inquisitor…rinse, repeat.
- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have? Did you have a strategy? All golden.
- What effect did Loyalty have on your settling or conquering? How did you mitigate its effects? Just have to conquer quickly, and then conquer the surrounding countryside quickly as well. Sometimes that means waiting for upgrades to corps, or cav, etc…
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it? There was a crazy Spanish Conquistador who’s had his circuits flipped somehow. The verbiage from the Wiki reads, “Converts cities to Spain's religion (if they have founded one) if it captures a city or is adjacent to the city when it is captured.” This fellow was indeed adjacent to the city, but he converted his own city to my religion when I conquered it.

Spoiler :

- Did you enjoy the game? Fun, but perhaps less so as I cannot relate to the other players stories as I tend to play religious victory games w/ a militaristic slant. This was mitigated by the fact that I find that I like the Polish civ more than I recall. Perhaps due to my evolving playstyle.

...narrration continued from Opening Actions thread…

I took Carthage then Buenos Aires. I then declared on Robert he Bruce and finished him (+5 era score) with 1 turn away from finishing cartography (hard build). Russia and France didn’t offer peace, and I wasn’t looking for any. I sent my horses over toward Toronto which was engaged in a war with France. I figured I’d find some French cities around there somewhere.

Spoiler :

My horses traversed the transcontinental sea route without incident and, after dispatching some Russian units around the French city of Toulouse, engaged it, and took it. I would have liked to move immediately on Toronto to cement my loyalty mechanics in the area, and would have, except for the horde of Russian horses that showed up to the south.

Spoiler :

A gruesome battle ensued with MANY Russian horse units meeting their end, as well as many years of Polish horses in rehab healing up. Finally the waves of Russian horse units stopped long enough to take Toronto proper. It was here that my 1st Winged Hussar arrived from the stables of Krakow.

I quickly took Toronto and moved south to the Russian city of Tver which I took T140. After losing Tver the Russians finally saw the logic of peace and offered me a great book, all ther gold horde, and 25 gold per turn. The French also finally became willing to make peace but I declined as there was a French city (Valetta) just south of Tver. As of T140, I have an inquisitor and missionary crossing the channel toward Tver. I plan to buy a temple and use it as a launching point for “Hosers R Us” onto the 2nd continent.

Spoiler :

I will end my narrative here, as I believe my storyline will not correlate well with any of the other religious victory paths. Much conquest ensues, 1. Conquest, 2. Inquisition. Rinse/repeat...

Spoiler :

 

[Hactar]

RV T188, 1270 AD, score 902

This is my first GOTM (I play on Mac, so was unable to open saves due to differing patch levels until recently). Sorry I didn't take detailed notes; didn't realize there was an exam at the end so I will just summarize what I remember.

Settled in place. Settled second city by the wonder for the era score both from settling and from the high adjacency Holy Site. So much land around there were a few barbs early, but no horses so it didn't detract much.

Took Goddess of the Harvest pantheon. Earth Goddess was gone but it might not have been so good in this game anyway, with so few mountains and all those plains. Ignored science early and went for the two holy sites + religion. Didn't even start a campus until I had Magnus and was able to start chopping. Found a relic from a goodie hut fairly early (T20ish I think?) so I chose Reliquaries for my first religious belief. With Jadwiga's +2 faith, tripled by this belief, each relic is +18 faith. This ended up being pretty significant by the end (10 relics generating 180 faith, about half my income). The other belief was Holy Order for the discount on apostle and missionary purchases. I didn't enhance until later when the good beliefs were gone, so I ended up with Mosques (+1 spread) and Tithe. Can't go wrong with gold.

Robert didn't put up much of a fight. After discovering we were alone on the continent, I ignored navy and tried to focus on eliminating him before making contact with other civs, to avoid the diplomatic hit. Did end up meeting Spain and France before finishing him off. Was able to do it before Knights, just Swordsmen and Archers. I declared on him after he had sent his army over to take Carthage. I was expecting a nice juicy emergency for him taking Carthage, but I didn't have any envoys there, so no emergency - big OOPS! During the war, I was suzerain of Buenos Aires and they captured and razed Carthage all by themselves lol. Another big mistake - I should have sent at least one unit over there to hopefully snipe the city before it got razed, since it was in an OK location.

The one time I actually wanted Holy Sites, Robert built none for me. LOL. All campuses and commercial hubs. One IZ.

Once Robert was out of the picture, with the Classical golden age with Monumentality I spent all my faith on settlers and covered the whole continent. Waited a few turns for the Ancestral Hall (built in second city) for the first few settlers of course, to get those sweet sweet free builders. At that point the game is won for any desired victory condition. Since the goal here was religious, I did chop in a few more holy sites here and there, and of course the obligatory campuses to keep the army good enough to avoid DOWs, and harbors and commercial hubs to keep the economy rolling.

Having a Normal Medieval age might have been a bonus - the Exodus of the Evangelists belief giving +2 era score for each new city worked very well for me, since I hadn't bothered to spread the religion in Classical since I was spending all my faith on settlers. So all those new cities got +2 era score each. Easy golden Renaissance. I took the Exodus of the Evangelists belief. +2 movement and +2 spreads. I had one religious emergency declared on me for converting Spain's holy city. I had all their cities converted so I thought that one was in the bag, but then a few turns later, I noticed it had converted back somehow. So I had to rush some apostles over there to take it back with just 4 turns to spare. Whew. Thank goodness for that +2 movement. I thought religions were extinct once all cities were converted, but nope.

I was able to build the Colosseum covering 8 cities maybe my best. Could actually have settled 2 more for a total of 10 if I didn't care about them being useful for other purposes. I was able to use Poland's encampment culture bomb twice to grab third ring tiles - once for the horses in the capital, and once for nitre over near where Carthage was. Built one Winged Hussar for the era score but was long done with warring by then so he never got used.

Stayed in Theocracy the last half of the game and ran both +5 religious combat policy cards most of the time.

With my focus on relics I did end up chopping in Mont St. Michel in the capital. I did end up with 10 relics by the end, so well worth it I think. Was eyeing up a spot up in the tundra with lots of chops for St Basil's, but the game didn't go on that long to need those 3 extra relic slots.

No other big surprises. Fun game overall - it's interesting to focus on a specific victory condition early. I usually just try to get ahead in everything then decide from there somewhere around Renaissance.

 

[tarafran]

RV 171

- How many cities did you settle, or capture? 10 settled ,2 from Robert, 1 free city originally from France on my continent.
I was going for 3 city start but had the pleasure to meet an unescorted settle from Robert

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?Astrology first to start an early religion ,archery ,ship buidding,irrigation,printing,cartography

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?I was tempted to finish Robert for his harbor but did not want to get all the other civ to declare me as I wanted a peacefull setup for my Apostle rush

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?6 archers 2 warriors 1 heavy chariot to fight Robert and the Barbs

- Did you use your UU? Was it useful? Only to helped me get and stay in Golden ages

- What was your most useful unit? Scouts ,I had 3 at one point and found a lot of goody huts. Also vey helpful to siege a city in the early war. Then to scout the other civs
- Was diplomacy useful? How? Trading and open borders

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

- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Religious VC?
Rushed to astrology for Holy site to get the harvest goddess and built Stonehenge
Then build my cites and make sure to get a golden age for monuments.
Chopped and Chopped more toget enough for 2 apostle for 2 more beliefs while building the Hagia Sophia in my capital. Pick up work belief for hammer. Mosque, scripture and tithe for gold. As soon as I got Moksha to patron saint I was getting Apostle with 2 upgrades and i recall one with 12 spreads !!
Started with 6 and 2 Gurus and 2 scouts going to Marseilles and Paris with very little resistance . I sent one to clean up the northern cities already in Russia's religion and the rest slowly toward Russia on land. Sent another 3 with a Guru to flank Russia from the sea. Russia put up a good fight.
Next I got to The Nederlands with my 9 healed Apostle and still plenty of charges . A bit of fighting there. No match for 9 units
By that time I had another 4 Apostles 1 guru starting on Spain and finish the games

- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have? Did you have a strategy? 3 golden Ages, i also made sure to build every kind of districts to get age points

- What effect did Loyalty have on your settling or conquering? How did you mitigate its effects? Nothing except for the French city that tried to settle on my continent

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it? Lots of barbs , I had to get extra slingers and warrior early on

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

- Did you enjoy the game? yes a lot , just a bit annoyed at the big religion windows on cities every-time I want to move religious unit. Very tedious when you have a lot of them

 

[seb_schmitt]

Religious Victory in turn 175

How many cities did you settle, or capture?
Settled ~15, captured ~10

What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Research: Masonry (for chopping), Irregation (for selling luxuries), Archery (for paying Robert a visit), somewhen later Astrology (because I was planning to trigger my religion only after conquering at least two Civs)
Policies: Focus on reaching Classical Age als late as possible in order to make it a golden one, did not work out :-( Later Mercenary for Knight updates, then Reformed Church just before triggering my religion

Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
Robert, Philipp and Harald didn't make it to the end

What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
Quite the standard stuff: 4 Slingers and 3 Warriors for keeping Barbs in place and early Archer rush, 4 Heavy Chariots for late Knight rush, 2 Galleons, 6 Quadriremes to rule the sea

Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
Not that much, but helped to keep Barbs away in the late game

What was your most useful unit?
Military: Heavy Chariot / Knight and Ram
Religious: Apostles

Was diplomacy useful? How?
Helped in the early game to trade some gold against luxuries

Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
Besides the bonus, Kandy was a bit useful, as I got a relic out of Suzeraining it and discovering a natural wonder

What was your strategy, how did you gain your Religious VC?
Mixture of Domination and building up faith: first conquering at least two Civs while building up as many Holy Site as possible; then trigger Religion, change to Theocracy, have enough faith to buy at least on Apostle per turn and send them all across the world

How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have? Did you have a strategy?
See above, Classical Age was normal, all the others golden

What effect did Loyalty have on your settling or conquering? How did you mitigate its effects?
Loyalty was not really a problem in golden Ages and with the AIs capitals not very well defended

Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Just after triggering my religion, Harald declared war out of the blue. Good thing I still had my fleet next to him after having wiped away Philipp

Did you discover any new exploits? Did you find old ones fixed?
Not that I'm aware of

Did you enjoy the game?
Indeed, I prefer Religious Victory to Cultural or Science, since it usually can be achieved faster. Thanks a lot, Leif Eriksen!

 

[Halfdan Helgrim]

Religious Victory Turn 176

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

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Astrology and Theology.

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
Nope, was 100% peaceful game.

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
2 Warriors and 1 Slinger/Archer and a couple of galleys. Nothing really changed as complete peaceful game.

- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
Only for scouting.

- What was your most useful unit?
Debater Apostle.

- Was diplomacy useful? How?
I was able to do a lot of favorable trades for gold and I guess keep the peace with everyone.

- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
Not really. Only discovered religious city states very late.

- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Religious VC?
Settle at least 9 cities, get max faith out of these cities and build religious armies. I was expecting a hard time with barbarians and Bruce (somehow I thought it was Immortal), but it never happened. Since Scotland did not develop a religion and I had enough room to expand, then kept the peace. Sent 1 army to the west to convert France and Russia. Sent another army east to convert Spain and Norway. They meet in the middle to convert Netherlands and Germany. An army was around 4 apostles with at least 1 debater, 2 missionaries and 1 guru.

- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have? Did you have a strategy?
I missed the first Golden Age by a couple of points and the third by 2 points, which was really annoying. +2 charges would have helped a lot.

- What effect did Loyalty have on your settling or conquering? How did you mitigate its effects?
No effect.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Was surprised that I did not get swarmed by barbarians or attacked by Bruce, so built less units than normal. I am surprised that other people were able to get Goddess of the Harvest as there was no City States or plots to get extra faith from. That would have done a hugh difference to the game, even though Stone Circles was pretty nice. I also think I was very unlucky with Goody Huts only containing xp, crap inspiration and gold. I also missed capturing a settler from Scotland even though I had 2 warriors and 1 scout scouring his borders.

- Did you discover any new exploits? Did you find old ones fixed?
No. I still think Magnus and Overflow is way to overpowered. Managed to get the Pyramids and Hagia Sophia this way.

- Did you enjoy the game?
I did. It was a 100% peaceful game, where I did not end in any wars at all and still had a decent finish time.

 

[soulvius@]

- How many cities did you settle, or capture?

I didn't capture any cities I settled 14-15

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?

I went for Cartography then everything else didn't matter. I was in peace with everyone the whole game.

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?

No, everyone lived.

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

Nothing. I had 3 archers 2 winged hussars 2 scouts 1 warrior and 2 caravels the whole game.

- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?

I cleared an empty barb camp. Not really.

- What was your most useful unit?

Apostle.

- Was diplomacy useful? How?

Well, i was always at peace with everyone and I got nice luxuries from everyone. So it was useful in that sense.

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

I had buenos aires and later kandy as suz, but they weren't any impact to the game.

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

Quite simple. I went desert folklore and has +200 faith around turn 130. I achieved Mahabodhi Temple and Hagia Sophia, from there the game was pretty easy. I made 8 apostles + a guru, converted Russia first, then the Netherlands, and finally Norway.

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

Actually, I think this was the most crucial point of my strategy. I started with a Golden Age so I could settle cities with faith. Then in Medieval I was normal age, and Reniassance and Industrial were both Golden Ages too. Then, the game ended. I used the golden ages in Renaissance and Classical to buy builders/settlers for faith.

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

I didn't conquer anything and I was in constant Golden Age, so loyalty wasn't a problem for me.

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

Absolutely nothing. Russia had some kind of a defence, but the Netherlands and Norway were all free to convert.

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

Nothing.

- Did you enjoy the game?

I already won turn 170, but i had to wait until turn 228 to win. I didn't really enjoy it because the AI didn't put up a challenge, but it was my first religious victory so, that's something.

Thanks for organizing this GOTM.

 

[DanQuayle]

RV T134

First game I have played in a while. Since I have never played Poland before, I gave this one a shot.

The conversion of a military to wildcard slot helps you found a religion earlier, but since the AI seems to always choose the same initial follower beliefs in the exact same order every single game and since I prefer to go Choral Music (which the AI never picks btw), I didn't go early Mysticism. In fact, I actually delayed founding my religion until my Holy Sites were completed in most of my cities (thus founding the last religion). However, this ability does give you flexibility later as it makes Monarchy and Reformed Church more attractive forms of government. In the end, only the small additional faith adjacency bonus from HS helped me in this RV.

I played this game completely peaceful. I forgot to built the Pyramids. The Mahabodhi Temple was the only wonder I built. Because of it, I may have overspent faith on builders in the initial phase of the game.

My neighbor Robert had the Environmentalist agenda and dislisked me seeing as I was harvesting the whole land. I also forward-settled him and refused to make a promise to him (and thus technically never broke any). Despite the fact that Robert had the largest standing army pretty much the entire game and that my whole land army consisted of only two warriors, he never DoW'd me. I am not sure if his agenda is hardcoded for him to not DoW you unless you break a promise to him or wage war with any other civilization (Flower of Scotland leader agenda), but it sure looks this way.

I tried some shift-enter in this game. It is very slightly useful. I used it only to 'pre-build' some districts that didn't meet the population requirement yet.
I found the two Faith CS late way past T100.

Goddess of Harvest / Monumentality / Exodus of the Evangelists

 

[pahakuutti]

RV T102

Got lucky and found early relic. Thus, didn't have to run the god king card nor hurry first holy site to secure goddess of harvest. With Poland early relic seems to be even stronger because of the additional +2 culture. Thanks to the relic and settling 2nd city next to the NW I got nice +6 extra culture. I didn't get boosts for craftmanship nor foreign trade but still reached Political philosophy around T50 without prioritizing monuments.

When I cleared some fog and saw two extra horses, I was temped to go for a horse rush. But then I realized that I could only conquer 4-5 cities on my continent and that doesn't pay back the detour when aiming for cartography. I got cartography at around T90 and then it was only a matter of from where I'll find the two unknown civs (spain & norway) as I had already discovered shallow water route to other civs.

Things I learned:
-It's benefical to send delegations because diplo visibility adds +3 to theological combat.
-Apostle with heaten conversion can "steal" barb settlers
- Didn't know that one can have 11 charge apostles (6 for exodus and 2 + 3 from promotions)

Harvest of goddess / exodus / exodus

Spoiler The Pious Autocracy of Poland :

 

[pahakuutti]

- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
Just out of curiosity tried Poland scenario. Hussars' special ability is very situational: great for clearing barb camps, not so great when flanking an enemy -> enemy retreats and flanking breaks + in worst case enemy unit retreats behind a river to a forest hill.

 

[arthur486]

RV @ Turn 146.

- How many cities did you settle, or capture?
Settled around 6 cities, captured a few from the Scottish, kept them in the game though with their last city.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Astrology, followed by the usual.

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
Nope.

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
A few warriors and archers; had 2 galleys and 2 quads that got upgraded throughout the game. It was enough.

- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
No. Never even build one.

- What was your most useful unit?
Not really sure here. Probably the naval units I've sent scounting...

- Was diplomacy useful? How?
Well I disposed of Robert then befriended everyone and converted them using the word.

- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
Not really. Only discovered Kandy as religious state, but it was already late in the game.

- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Religious VC?
Swarm of apostles and missionaries, converted everyone with them. I was a bit more attentive with the timing, to make sure I reached players that were further away in time.

- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have? Did you have a strategy?
2 Golden Ages and that was it. Those were great for spreading the religion.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Yes. Hildegard of Bingen was super useful, as she provided +12 science/turn!
Robert was very aggressive with the city states but ran out of army against Carthage. That's when I came in.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Thoroughly, as always! Thank you

 

[lordofcivs]

Turn 264 - Score 1053

- How many cities did you settle, or capture?

Settled 9. Captured Carthage and Buenos Aires only.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?

Went for early Astrology. Sadly, still lost Goddess of Harvest. Prioritized religion specific researches overall.

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?

No one. Played peacefully mostly..

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

Kept army minimal. Early game had 3 warriors and 3 archers. Didn't build mounted units till mid game. Didn't build Navy till late game.

- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?

Built 1 and used it once (while at war with Buenos Aires). But overall it was not very useful, as I was going peaceful mostly. Later built 1 more only in case need it.

- What was your most useful unit?

Apostles.

- Was diplomacy useful? How?

Early game made some gold by selling silver. But overall it was not much useful this game.


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

Not too helpful overall.

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

As I lost Goddess of Harvest I went for Stone Circles Pantheon, as I saw too many stones on the map which meant I could build lots of Quarries. I couldn't get first golden age either, so no Monumentaly either. Played peacefully overall. Used missionaries to show the path of heaven to Scotland. Rest of the job was done entirely by Apostles. Spain gave hard time in converting him, as he fought well with lots of Apostles. Once I converted all his cities and moved on to another one, later I found that he had somehow converted most of his cities back to the path of Hell. Needed to do the job again.

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

Had one golden age in Medieval Era. Had a Dark Age in Industrial. But would have one heroic in Modern Age if the game would have continued.

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

None at all.

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

Spain became a pain in fighting Apostles vs Apostles, and reverting to old religion once my apostles left.

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

Not so far.

- Did you enjoy the game?

I'm not much of a religion game lover. Last time I warmongered in such game and didn't do well. This time I went peacefully, and I think it still didn't work too well either.
Good thing was that it was an empty map and could have played peacefully and still could have lots of cities. I think I did bad with going properly in research path. Should have finished the game about 50 turns earlier.

I think it would have been more fun if some religion specific city states were there.

 

[nufro]

t171 rv

 

[MrRadar]

RV T189, Score 872

- How many cities did you settle, or capture?
13 cities total, of which 3 captured, the rest settled, one with a Scottish settler

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Masonry and astrology, for civics moved towards theology and reformed church.

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
Nope, but trimmed Scotland in size a bit. He captured Antioch, an emergency fired up and I went in, alone. I was about to get Winged Hussars anyway, and his cities were unwalled, except for the capital. 2400 g emergency reward, ~360 lump g and 30x40gpt, so another 1200 g from Bruce in reparations. Pretty lucrative business, them emergencies.

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
First three warriors and three archers, which I later upgraded, then added 4 Winged Hussars and two chariots/knights. Two galleys into caravels.

- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
Yes, they made a toast of the unwalled Bruce's cities, then controlled some barbs.

- What was your most useful unit?
Debater Apostle.

- Was diplomacy useful? How?
Yep, everyone was more or less friendly with me, so I traded for luxuries, befriended and allied Harald and Phillip.

- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
Yes, a bit. Won suzerainty over Antioch and Buenos Aires, the latter even razed one Scottish city for me.

- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Religious VC?
Got Goddess of Harvest pantheon, founded third religion, took choral music, mosques, pilgrimage and holy order. Kept postponing Mahabodi until someone built it, have built Hagia Sophia instead. Renaissance GA Exodus of evangelists put my religious units on fire.
Somehow I forgot about Cartography until quite late, and maybe I built a couple of unnecessary wonders and overdone on the commercial hubs. But those Sukiennice looked so nice!

- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have? Did you have a strategy?
Classical Golden (found a ton of villages - 8, none of 'em had a one single relic. Bunch of heathens!), Medieval Normal, Renaissance Golden and Industrial Golden.

- What effect did Loyalty have on your settling or conquering? How did you mitigate its effects?
Had to move in some governors to keep what I took from Bruce, but it was ok.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Please, tell me frankly - did you cook the map? 4 landmasses and 4 corresponding continents - that's first time I see something reasonable like this in Civ 6.
Also, did not locate Yerevan. There was much weeping and gnashing of teeth, I must tell you!

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

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes, as always, thanks!

 

[leif erikson]

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