6otM57 After Action

[Tarry]

I've played a few of these, to try different things, but never posted my results before, compared to many, I'm way slower and less focused, I like doing everything all at once

- How many cities did you settle, or capture?
I settled many and conquered even more.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Religion and science at first and then I remembered that I was playing culture victory so switched to that

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
Anyone who declared war on me. Sweden, Netherlands, Phonecia, Mali. I didn't start the war, but I ended it.

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
I built loads of my Maori, and loads and loads of ships.

- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
It was fantastic, the -5 stacking penalty was very powerful. I hated upgrading it to musketmet, but then I always hate upgrading my UU

- What was your most useful unit?
Scouts, they found so many city states before the other civ's that I ended up dominating city states all game. Also they became the units that handled the barbarian gifts in the southern island landmasses

- Was diplomacy useful? How?
yes, the votes in the world council were in my favour except for one which was +20%growth/-5 loyalty late on, which was a bit of a pain. Being surezain of so many city states meant I was flush with dip[lomatic favours

- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
I had many of the city states from my early scouting. Any I didn't contact early were conquered (Kandy, Babylon La Venta). the new N muilitary state was fought over by all the other civs with many many enviys, I left them to it and hoarded my mastery over most of the rest.

- Did religion play a role in your game?
Goddess of the Sea got me loads of production and food throughout the game.

- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Culture VC?
Pretty rubbish all in all. I didn't think about doig cultural things seriously until like T100 or so. In the end, there were many mountain ski resorts and a lot of theatre squares with archeologists/paintings and all the policies at work.

- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have? Did you have a strategy?
I was golden all the way. Sweden and Netherlands southern areas were continual swarms of barbarians, I killed a barbarian camp every 3 turns or so - loads of gold and era points until the camps stopped giving era points. There was one single barbarian spawn on the nothern landmass where I settled in the whole game thoug I left large swathes of the land unobserved.

- What effect did Loyalty have on your settling or conquering? How did you mitigate its effects?
My golden ages made things easy. Anyone who annoyed me by declaring war lost 2 cities from my large navy/army and were backed up my governors and loyalty policies.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Norway, England and Phoenicia were mad dogs of war and declared war on each other continually throughout the ages. I stayed well out of that until I allied with Norway. Then Dido declared war on my mate Harald. Well that was the last of her.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes, got to the latest age, and had the seas rising, tiles swamped, building flood dams, trying to capture enough CO2 to delay more flooding from my reckless use of Coal plants was fun.

 

[Victoria]

I like doing everything all at once

It is good you post, we share experiences, it is not a race to be fastest, I like to play very fast and make lots of mistakes, everyone is different, loved your post, if you play.... say. It also is good for the GOTM staff as they do the hard work for these and if only a few people reply it must be soul destroying.

 

[Halfdan Helgrim]

CV Win at turn 200 (guess it was actually 199)

- How many cities did you settle, or capture?
Believe I settled 9. In the end I captured 1 city from Ottomans and 1 from Norway.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Things that would give tourism.

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

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
I built a small frigate navy.

- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
Not really.

- What was your most useful unit?
Probably a scout, which ended up as level 3.

- Was diplomacy useful? How?
It was simple enough to get Open Borders with everyone. There were several situations where I was offered only 1 gp, but could change it to be more appropriate. Was a bit annoying. They also kept asking for my relics.

- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
I found Kandy as the last CS, which was a bummer. But naturally the CS did give some small bonuses.

- Did religion play a role in your game?
I did go for a religion and I managed to get a couple of martyrs.

- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Culture VC?
No strategy really. Just build as much that would give tourism. Had several relics, many arts and some music. In the end I beelined to Flight.

- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have? Did you have a strategy?
Believe I had 3 Golden Ages.

- What effect did Loyalty have on your settling or conquering? How did you mitigate its effects?
I just put Victor in the one city I conquered from Ottomans.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
I was surprised of how powerful the Marae actually was. It seemed rather broken.

- Did you enjoy the game?
I did enjoy the game, but I think it is sad that the AI is not challenging at all - removes a bit fun from the game. Was nice for a change not to take Magnus.

 

[ShaderX]

I've followed for years, but decided to join. Although I guess I'll wait until next month to officially join. I took a serious wrong turn early in my first game and ended up on a bunch of separate islands. I really didn't enjoy it so I quit, restarted, headed immediate East so I could have a continent. Wiped out Tyre and her assorted cities and built a really fun civilization.

Won in turn 195 and the computer never really put up a challenge, possibly because the Maori is so powerful.

I really don't like the "relic" victory path that causes these really short times. It's almost like a totally different game than the culture games that go into the modern era.

But then, like anything in this type of competition, the better you are at the game, the less likely you are to ever get to the modern era.

 

[Victoria]

I really don't like the "relic" victory path that causes these really short times. It's almost like a totally different game than the culture games that go into the modern era.

Welcome!
I may try a Maori rock band game.... just Marae rush to rock bands while saving my faith and then thrashing the bands. May be an interesting alternative.

 

[ShaderX]

Welcome!
I may try a Maori rock band game.... just Marae rush to rock bands while saving my faith and then thrashing the bands. May be an interesting alternative.

Yes I was quite annoyed as when I finally won I was two turns away from the rock band so I never got to use them. I played after I'd won just to test it out!

I like your idea!

 

[martyb36]

Turn 253 win for me. Just chilled on the first island I found to the north. Fun to see that if I headed south at the start I could of had a very different game with Kandy.

- How many cities did you settle, or capture?
Captured 3 city states early on, settled 5 cities
- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Flight to get my tourism rolling. Also beelined The 100%from artefacts card.
- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
Nope not a single war vs other Civs, although the Dutch pushed me when they took Kumasi...
- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
Mainly naval units as I just stayed on my island, didn't really push it hard, I kept good relations with everyone.
- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
Since my capturing was done before the Toa was available no. Although I guess it got my some golden age points for owning it, and for building the fort UI.
- What was your most useful unit?
Do builders count? If so the builder when I got conservation for more forests and for building La Venta giant heads. If we only count military units, then the Quadrireme for those quick captures on city states.
- Was diplomacy useful? How?
I kept friendly with all but the most hostile civs to avoid getting in any fights, wanted to keep my trade routes open.
- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
As mentioned above The Netherlands took Kumasi which annoyed me a little. However I had Hattusa and Babylon all game with no challengers (got beaten to build Kilwa Kiwasi though (not sure if I got that wonders name right)). La Venta was great for the Giant heads later on, no one else interfered with my suze status on this CS either.
- Did religion play a role in your game?
Jesuit Education was useful to get some buildings a bit quicker, was only working off one holy site though (albeit a pretty good one).
- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Culture VC?
Ge the Unique building and get straight to flight. Got to flight quickly by settling a couple of extra small campus cities with good adjacency.
- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have? Did you have a strategy?
Really over shot one golden age which made it hard to get any more. Think I had 2 golden, and finished in a dark age.
- What effect did Loyalty have on your settling or conquering? How did you mitigate its effects?
No issues stayed on my island and filled all the viable spaces.
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Nothing to report.
- Did you enjoy the game?
My first 6OTM and I loved it, thanks for putting it together! Was my first play through with Kupe and thought it was a really fresh and fun way to play. Enjoyed making my beautiful island!

 

[Zedseayou]

CV T224

- How many cities did you settle, or capture? Settled 7, captured 9 by the end
- What did you prioritize for research and policies? Not knowing very much about CV I took a hint from announcement thread to go for flight. Focused science early and then tried to have UB come out near flight
- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history? I took Nygazardamu and Preslav, and then Dido DOWed me midgame, around T110? I fought back to take most of her cities, got the last two when it felt like CV was imminent
- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change? Toas Toas Toas got me through most of the early battles, and then Frigates dealt with Dido.
- Did you use your UU? Was it useful? Yes! not sure what it will be like on Pangea map but Toas seemed strong and didn't need iron, which was good on this map. Plus they can repair improvements!
- What was your most useful unit? Uhhh idk
- Was diplomacy useful? How? I suzerained all the CS nearly just from getting every single first-meeting envoy, so had tons of favour. Usually was able to stop every emergency targeting me
- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states? Yeah no one liked that I captured CS. Honestly I should have done it earlier but hesitated and by then everyone had met them.
- Did religion play a role in your game? Nope didn't go for religion, I started on equator island instead of north like many others so fewer mountains and much less land to play with. And no natural wonder for adjacency, I got God of the Sea which lasted a good long time before everyone else missionary spammed
- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Culture VC? Tried to get Flight up with Meroes, and get that early tourism from that, then museums, maybe 60:40 artifacts vs art. I did not realise that ski resorts are so good but I made a lot of those when they came out and also got 3 national parks. Would think about targeting those sooner, I mostly just chilled. Game was buggy where it kept telling me that I was imminent victory (like from T 120 it started saying this) and I still cannot decipher the cultural victory panel, so was never quite sure how far away I was. E.g. at one point I thought I only had 20 turns left or so and was building walls for tourism.... Late I only built one rock band because I didn't really know how they worked but should have gotten more, I had plenty of faith from who knows where
- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have? Did you have a strategy? Golden, Golden, Normal, Golden. I didn't have much of a strategy, being able to freely explore early gave so much early era score though!
- What effect did Loyalty have on your settling or conquering? How did you mitigate its effects? Had some teething troubles holding onto one of Dido's cities but colonial growth came out in time to help while I got some more population up. Didn't try to settle near others because it was too late by then
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it? Never got hit by a weather event... maybe just a function of the watery map? Some things I was not sure what was happening; I was getting tons of culture from traderoutes and also some of the woods I planted would start generating faith??
- Did you enjoy the game? Yep, blasted through the second half in one go and going to sleep now...

 

[arthur486]

Colossal (Head) Victory @ 155
I've noticed that a lot of people went with Kandy, well I did a "by the books" CV using La Venta's ability and Maraes.

Settled the capital in the ecuatorial region, same tile as @DanQuayle (2nd screenshot). Managed to get most of the first-meeting city state bonuses (1st screenshot). Took earth goddess pantheon, did not declare war on any major power, but conquered Kumasi, Ngazargamu, Hong Kong, Brussels, and Kandy . Used Pingala and Liang, first game where I did not recruit Magnus. Only chops were to free land for districts or colossal heads.
Ages went golden -> golden -> dark (won a dark age culture victory ). Took monumentality both times, built ancestral hall and built/bought a bunch of settlers and builders with both faith and gold.

Turn 100, 4 turns after @Victoria 's victory I still had 0 tourism.
Turn ~130, Flight is online and tourism jumps from 8 (Sun Tzu) to 258
Turn 155, 1 turn before Computers, got the victory screen. Last screen is from the hall of fame, I though it was interesting to include.

Definitely the most fun game of Civ I've played lately. Thank you 6otM team!

 

[kb27787]

Bleh... went for dedicated reliquarie strategy and did not realize Kandy was there... so wasted early hammers on an early holy site, etc.
t196...

Settled on Piopiotahi island after noticing some culture in the water while moving east. Pantheon was earth goddess. Peaceful all game on purpose.

Thought would finish the game easy once Mont saint Michel completed however, grossly overestimated emperor AI. They did not have a single apostle out until t120+ almost... a lot of their religions are not even enhanced. And then, even when they enhanced I basically walked my two-three apostles each into their lands unopposed.

It was not until I converted their holy city did they show any semblance of resistance... (could've won religious ages ago if wanted to)... Made a miscalculation and thought I could harvest the deer to build basil... until I forgot we can't harvest deer! So had to build Basil somewhere else in a much inferior production satellite city... no matter though by the time it was built I had barely filled the relic slots I had... emperor AI simply does not put forth religious units anywhere near deity. I had to chase mere missionaries around to get my martyrs killed.

Overall not rushing science and flight was a mistake (thought relics would do it, because I had great early culture to rush Monarchy and Theocracy... problem is AI not very cooperative with my relics plan). Did not get a campus up until I build one in my cap at size 15...

 

[Carto]

Summary - The Great Ukelele Wave (Turn 275 CV)
After finding the island with Piopiotahi and 3 city states, I decided to forego defense in favor of pushing exploration, religion, and settlement. I settled between the city states on the ring of islands around the central ocean.

Other than Piopiotahi's island, my largest city land mass was 9 tiles, only three developed. I relied heavily on fishing boats for the early game, but once the marae came online my cities functioned well without many districts. That meant that even late game my islands looked idyllic, and I was able to find room for National Parks.

After a bit of exploring I realized the city states were arranged in a circle, and I decided to build my civilization in between them:

The black lines represent the city states, and the red line is my arc of island cities. Early on, I used the city states in the north for protection from barbarians, and the cities to the southeast and southwest as shields against unfriendly neighbors. I quickly allied with Ottomans to secure my NW flank (there wasn't much to grab there), but sparred with Dido all game over the land and city states on my NE border.

I had intended to use Kandy to push for relics, but Dido conquered Kandy and Vilnius early on. This forced me to wait for National Parks, and also set up the political dynamic for the game: the Phoenicians and the Dutch poached city states, and I liberated them. This worked really well, keeping me sovereign of multiple city states into the late game. It also kept the wars out of my backyard, at the expense of the city states.

On the culture front, I built a base of artifacts and national parks while using the world congress to block great writers and later theater district buildings. Kristina launched a Nobel competition that gave me discounted rock bands, and I used my strong faith production to spam Ukulele bands.

- How many cities did you settle, or capture?
Settled 8, captured 1, liberated the same city 3 times.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
I prioritized naval technology and religion civics early. Because I avoided military conflicts and a lot of districts, I missed a lot of eurekas and civics and eventually opted just to beeline to flight, computers, and the other CV-related techs. On the civic side, I went for conservation and cultural history to set up my cultural win.

- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
Cahokia. I plotted an invasion of Dido but it was thwarted.

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
My army consisted of a single ranged unit in each city plus two toas (one made it to muskets), two scouts (one made it to ranger), and three coursers. My navy was much larger, with multiple named ranged and melee vessels supported by admirals, plus raiders. I fought wars by bombarding cities into submission and making quick strikes with the coursers, though mostly I preferred naval and coastal raiding.

- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
Only once, but I was happy with it. I had a Toa and an archer get stranded behind enemy lines during my first war with Dido. The debuff made it possible to tank and pillage with the Toa while the archer peppered the patrolling units.

- What was your most useful unit?
The Noble Trident, a fully promoted frigate with Admiral Nelson commanding. I was able to stand off from defensive units while still bombarding cities. Eventually it became a fleet and formed the basis of my military plans.

- Was diplomacy useful? How?
Incredibly so. Staying sovereign of so many states meant I always had favor to invest, and I had some interesting options. For two or three cycles in a row I managed to ban great writers through the patronage vote. At the very next conference I banned construction on theater square buildings, at the same time Kristina launched the artistic competition. I already had museums in place, so I wasn't adversely affected. Checking the graphs afterwards, this succession of votes knocked Kristina out of the running for a culture victory.

- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
Yes. Buenos Aires let me run most of my cities at happy / ecstatic levels even when housing was maxed out. Hattusa kept me in strategic resources to trade to everyone else. Despite my hopes, Kandy only got me one relic. Ironically, the emergency war to take back Kandy revealed most of the natural wonders through shared vision with my allies.

- Did religion play a role in your game?
Not as much I had hoped, since I wasn't able to get relics early with Kandy. Still, I was able to use relics for faith production (I took the corresponding doctrine) and it made a contribution late game with Cristo Redentor. I also took itinerant preachers, and once I converted the city state ring to my religion I was able to put pressure on everyone.

The one-hit wonder band The Sacred Uke successfully converted Islam's holy city to Taoism just before I won the game.

- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Culture VC?
At first I intended to play the relic game, but after losing Kandy I opted to go all out on National Parks, artifacts, and the Flight+Marae boost from unimproved islands. To top it off, I used faith generation (peaking at about 300/turn) to produce The Great Uke Wave, 6 ukulele rock bands all formed in one turn.

- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have? Did you have a strategy?
An early Golden Age followed by two Dark Ages in a row. I wasn't in a good position to take advantage of the first (it spoiled a military invasion) but I was positioned with Magnus and Isolationism to boost my empire through the second. I won during the subsequent Heroic Age. I had hoped to use the loyalty pressure from the Heroic Age to grab Dido's northern coast, but she entered one at the same time.

- What effect did Loyalty have on your settling or conquering? How did you mitigate its effects?
It stopped my only attempt at an invasion. After a couple of wars with Dido I decided to launch an invasion during the late medieval era. I just missed the threshold for a normal era and couldn't hold onto any of the cities I conquered. I left one revolt and razed it so I could access artifacts from the battle later, and then retreated. After that I shifted to pillaging and liberating rather than outright conquest.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Dido was a much more serious contender than she's been in any other game. She took an early score and science lead, and was consistently neck and neck with me throughout the game. She started capturing city states on my eastern border, which determined the course of most of my major wars.

I found liberating captured City States to be an effective way to counter the envoy lead that the AI eventually builds up. I might try a two-stage Hungary game: first levying city states to fight my wars, then liberating those cities for late game sovereignty and diplomatic favor.

- Did you enjoy the game?
This may have been my favorite Civilization game in some time. First, the Maori have a unique feel. I enjoyed foregoing improving tiles and building districts and instead trusting in the fishing boats and marae to support my cities. Fishing Boats + God of the Sea + Marae provided a balance of yields and supported rapid city growth. Pingala and Reyna made up for the lack of district yields, and I was pulling in so much science and faith I could buy the great people I wanted. Lots of appealing tiles for National Parks, and I even avoided all of the resources that could contribute to climate change. The cultural victory felt appropriate, like my bands were telling everyone else to forget their strife and relax by the beach.

Meanwhile, the developing grand strategy game made sense. Power blocs formed around the three strongest civs and the conflict zones remained consistent throughout the game. Diplomatic resolutions coincided with some major events (everyone voted to discount military purchases right before a world holy war broke out). Even after it became clear how I was going to win, the game still had a satisfying narrative arc that motivated me to finish it.

 

[Lord Yanaek]

T220 Culture Victory. No Reliquaries, "peaceful" game (mostly)

So i didn't know Kandi was there and didn't plan a Reliquaries game. I met La Venta early and got first Pantheon but then i moved the warrior back north to invade the CSs. I don't remember when i met Kandi but i had already planned another culture game at that point. I might (should?) have been able to change my strategy but didn't really consider the option and i wanted to see how the Marae worked anyway. No way to compete with a good reliquaries game thought but i'm still happy with a sub T250 victory. Looks like i'm right with most of the "traditional" culture games this time which i consider a success as i tend to be somewhat slow most of the time.

• How many cities did you settle, or capture?
  Not much changed since the Opening Actions. I added the planned snow city for a total of 8, 3 being captured CSs.
  
• What did you prioritize for research and policies?
  For Research after the initial stuff i went straight for Flight. As stated in the Opening actions, i didn't build many campuses early but on my second Golden Age (medieval) and since i planned to leave a lot of land unimproved, i took the science GA rather than monumentality. The science from all my harbours (with the 100% bonus adjacency) really helped me. The world entered Renaissance T150 and i got Flight 6 turns later.
  For policies, after the early government, i went for Merchant Republic which is the most versatile of the T2 governments, then i beelined Conservation to plant more woods and get Natural History on the way. After that i went for Ideology, took Sufferage and then Professional Sports for the Ski Stations and finally Cold War to get Rock Bands. Pretty disappointed by those 1-shot units (they appear to always retire after their first tour for me) thought i don't know for sure how much tourism they actually added.
  
• Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
  Does offering some City States stability as part of the great Maori Empire count?
  
• What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
  Land Army : 3 Slingers that upgraded to Archer, a pair of Warriors, a pair of Chariots and a Pair of Horsemen. That was also my army at the end of the game
  Navy was a bit better : 1 Galley (i was sure i built 2 but apparently i was wrong) that was upgraded up to Ironclad and 4 Quadriremes that were upgraded to Frigates.
  
• Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
  Wait, Maori have a UU? You mean Quadriremes right from the start don't you? Didn't even upgrade a warrior. Could have gained some Era Points but didn't think of that option or maybe it wasn't enough for a Renaissance GA anyway, i don't remember.
  
• What was your most useful unit?
  Quadriremes right from the start to conquer some CSs. As bad as they are when you get them around T40-50, they are extremely strong to take cities early.
  
• Was diplomacy useful? How?
  I played peaceful and traded for Open Borders each time i remembered to do it. Apart from that, i didn't really use diplomacy much.
  
• Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
  Early first contact with many CSs proved extremely useful. Later i managed to stay Suzerain of most of those while the AIs captured a lot of the remaining ones. In the end i was Suzerain of 5/6 remaining CSs and on my way to liberate Hattusa recently captured by Dido but game ended before my fleet could attack.
  
• Did religion play a role in your game?
  Yes. Not as large as some other players but my Holy Site was the biggest single tourism contributor by the end of the game. Even without Reliquaries, Relics do help. Jesuit Education and a lot of Faith also helped get some Marae faster, not to mention Workers/Settlers in the Classical era with Monumentality but then it was my Pantheon rather than religion being at work.
  
• What was your strategy, how did you gain your Culture VC?
  Marae and Land-based tourism (including National Parks and Ski Resorts). All of this goes well together as keeping forests helped keep high appeal land for a lot of Faith with Earth Goddess and good and numerous National Parks. Ski Resorts were added as there was a lot of single-tile mountains to use. No Beach Station thought as they require Research and i had much more culture than science.
  I also used the Theater Squares of course as i needed those for Maraes so i built museums (both Archeological and Art) and in the end i had unpowered radio stations broadcasting Maori opera
  
• How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have? Did you have a strategy?
  I managed to get 2 very useful early golden ages. That's really easy with Maori on a water map where you can explore faster than anyone else. Classical GA i took Monumentality and used it to expand. Medieval GA i took the Science bonus and that somewhat made up for the lack of proper research at that time as i prioritized Theater Squares and then Harbours for growth.
  
• What effect did Loyalty have on your settling or conquering? How did you mitigate its effects?
  No effect due to the island map.
  
• Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
  A nice Natural Wonder really close to my settler's starting location. I settled there without second thought and then proceeded to consolidate my lands by annexing the CSs that were there, not enough room otherwise.
  
• Did you enjoy the game?
  Yep, some nice changes from the new expansion even thought some of the new mechanisms feel half-backed. I'm still discovering the expansion content thought so i'll see if this expansion is the right one for me and i can finally enjoy Civ6 as much as i enjoyed Civ5 or if it turns into a new exploit-fest and my interest dwindles again.

Spoiler :

My lands at the end of the game. You can somehow see the 8th city in the bottom left corner. It's actually a big city (pop 18) thanks to Liang and plenty of Fisheries. It gave me some luxuries i wouldn't have otherwise and another Campus but didn't add much tourism due to not enough land tiles. Notice my nice modern army Oh, you can also see the Engineer who built my railroad network, i actually built an Encampment just for this purpose, not a very bright idea but i wanted to see the new content.

My tourism generation. Top contributor (13) is the Holy Site which is common when i found a religion due to it being there for a very long time. It's followed by my first 2 National Parks (11 and 8) then the Theater Squares, Oracle and another Park (4-6). All the 1s and 0s (actually would be 1/2) are woods, reefs and even ice unimproved natural features.

Here's the save for a change as i didn't play with CQUI (not yet updated, but the UI have seen some nice improvements with this Exp so i might actually be able to play without it in the future).

 

[ShaderX]

CV T96 - Relics before Jesus @ 500BC

Victoria,

Thanks so much for this guide. I decided to make an attempt and won at T100 with relics. My one "change" was heading East right at the start and destroying Phoenicia.

I learned a lot in this game about the mechanics and I'm "relatively" sure I could finish this game before turn 90 if I tried again. I got stuck for ten turns trying to finish trade routes. Also, I'm still a tad unclear how early you have to have everything completed before you end up getting the culture win.

For instance, by turn 93 I had only one religion penalty, I had open borders in all countries and I had trade routes to all countries. My citizens were something like 11/15. I put everyone to sleep and hit next 7 times and I won on turn 100. Understanding that dynamic a bit better and finishing everything by turn 80 might be possible.

Either way, your guide was excellent and I'm well prepared for another relics game whenever that happens, even though it really goes against my natural style. (5 cities by turn 100 seems weak though I get why it's necessary! Just a silly thing that you can actually have a "worse" civilization and win)

I'm considering trying once more for sub 90, or doing a game where I try to build 15-17 cities, rush flight and win that way in as little time as possible.

But maybe I should step away from the computer and just wait on GOTM 58

 

[Victoria]

I'm "relatively" sure I could finish this game before turn 90

Try one more because they are rare and once done, another one is not so much fun. You will also find a lack of chopping odd compared to most games.

Not surprised about T90. I am a lazy player, do not micro and make mistakes so my times can always be shortened. But I am glad to be of help. Rerunning GOTM is a great way to learn. Not sure 80 is possible but may be. The record Is 58 but that was using Stonehenge as the Chinese.

So level of the game is quite important, for example the fastest CV’s are on deity because there is more money. This being an emperor game means religions up around T70 but seems slower now. It is also a random. I know I had 3 up around T70. Just a question of what the AI pathed on the day. Anyways, glad to be of help, welcome and good luck

 

[Eyswein]

Culture Victory T149/150 (depending upon if you count turn of video of turn immediately after it)
One write-up, combined info asked for in both opening actions and after action.

- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Culture VC?
1) Original plan was culture focus, ignoring Flight science route, with goal of Rock Bands. Won before I could make them.
2) Found Kandy on T37, but had already found 2 natural wonders; thought adding 3 relics would be decent start and could probably get one from TV and AI trade. Sadly got none by TV/AI; also was very slow to find the 3 remaining natural wonders – T57,89,97.
3) After finding Kandy, I decided to see if relics from Apostles would be viable at Emperor in Gathering Storm, but this ended up to just be a major waste of time & resources as I didn’t build any Apostles until I built the martyr wonder – only got 2 relics this way on T129,137.
4) After faith/gold started flowing, I focused cities on only building things they had to with production while using faith/gold to rush everything else. Messed this up a bit by accidently not taking Monumentality for my second golden age so had to buy archaeologists with gold instead of faith.
5) Finished with 363 tourism, which – if I’m adding correctly - came from relics (120), artifacts & other works (95), natural parks (76), walls (66), & one wonder (6)
6) Won after catching Mansa Munsa at 46 tourism; next closest was Suleiman at 30 tourism, so definitely could have sped up the game a bit by preparing to eliminating Mansa Munsa instead of waiting for the tourism build
-) If I get time I’d like to play this twice more with the same start not using any relics; once focusing on Flight and once focusing on ignoring Flight to see which would be faster

- Where did your cities go? Went N following the coast squares for land; capital 4E of Preslav & 2d city 4 E of capital. Ended with 11 cities - built 10 cities and captured Preslav. Expansion was to areas that wouldn’t have loyalty issues, but could see using governors and/or cultural alliance to settle close to someone.

- What was your build order? Capital - Warrior, Settler, Builders, +2 ea warriors/slingers, galley, Gov Plaza, etc.
- Districts? Gov Plaza, Holy Sites (first on T42 in second city), Theater Districts; later Commerce/Harbors for trade
- Wonders? Only Mont St Michael on T108
-Military? Only the one galley, limited land for exploration & initial capture of Preslav
-UU? Didn’t use it since I stayed peaceful
- Most useful unit? Nothing stands out, used 5 Naturalists to create National Parks

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Science – Mining, Astrology, AH to start; ignored Flight path; all wall techs
Culture – focused on Pol Phil, Divine Right, Cultural Heritage, then was headed toward Cold War
- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
Discipline/Urban to start; then as needed for current priority
- Which Governors did you choose and why did you choose them?
Pingala x3 (faster culture/science), Liang (better builders), Amani (CS’s), Reyna x4 (gold)

- Did you try for a Pantheon? Did religion play a role in your game?
31-Earth Goddess (lots more faith), 58-Religion with Reliquaries & Religious Unity (to turn Diplomatic Favor into gold)

- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have? Did you have a strategy?
All Golden Ages
56 – Monumentality with focus on settlers for expansion
107 – Pen, Brush, & Voice; this was by accident, meant to take Monumentality again so I could buy Archaeologists with faith
147- last GA

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side? Helpful?
T37 – met Kandy, which was the 9th one I met; all 12 by T55; captured Preslav; at end had Suz of 9 of 11 of them (to trade Diplomatic Favor for gold); yes, for bonuses and trading

- How long did it take to find your neighbors? Were they hostile or friendly?
met 5 others by T27, all by T74; generally friendly to include alliances; no wars at all with AI

- How quickly did you get Trade Routes working, who did you trade with?
Not quickly, waiting until I had decent tourism, then traded with all AI; early for CS envoy missions

- Was diplomacy useful? How? Just for trading; really hate how trading works – needs to be streamlined so it isn’t so monotonous, and AI doesn’t keep asking to trade for a couple resources.

- How were the Barbarians? Not a major factor this game

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it? Finding Kandy, which had me poorly attempt for some relics

- Did you enjoy the game?
Look forward to future 6OTMs.

Spoiler Pictures :

 

[Zedseayou]

I tried again using Victoria's suggestion with relics and Kandy, but only managed T110 CV (though I could have triggered religious victory by T90...) It seemed as though someone would keep getting inspirations and pushing up my target. Even kinda knowing the map I struggled to time getting Temples civic with finding wonders. I did not optimise for trade routes or keeping up borders as well as I might have though, and definitely let the different religion malus spring in. It's not the most riveting, checking to see if a new missionary spawned for you to kill. Also, I'm not sure how many natural wonders there are in the game. Settled near Piopiotahi, got relics from Tsingy, Sahara, Dead Sea, Ik-Til, and one from a Marytr apostle near the end. Seems like keeping the bonuses up is the most important since Victoria needed only 4 relics. I had put my cities west of Piopiotahi, west of Preslav, one on the island near Vilnius, and one on the island east of Hattusa, but perhaps there are some better spots? I also didn't chop...

 

[Victoria]

Seems like keeping the bonuses up is the most important

Yes, often missed in CV. The sooner you meet a civ the sooner you influence them. They key is to meet around 5 fast as that has the majority of impact but keep pushing for all 7. Very early I sent a 1 charge builder east around the top of the map and met most civs quite fast doing that.
Open borders and trade routes is 50% extra which is powerful. What really annoys me is you have to micromanage these, especially open borders as you can miss when the deal finishes.
I have never played a Kandy before and was glad to be able to do so but it is not one I enjoy despite being an explorer at heart.
There is nothing wrong with T110, lots of variables in a game. Don’t judge yourself too harshly.

 

[Lord Yanaek]

That's probably something i did really wrong in my game. I stopped exploring during Ancient Era to preserve the Era Points from circumnavigation for Classical as i already had enough points for GA so i didn't met some civs until quite some time. Then i really didn't pay much attention to open borders as i just can't check every couple turns. Probably i should negotiate open borders all at once for culture games as it would reduce the micromanagement.
Even thought i'm quite happy with my result i'm sure i could have done better with double GA start (including Monumentality with large faith output) if i had paid more attention to those details.

 

[ShaderX]

The only way I won turn 100 was knowing where the natural wonders were, camping close to them, and discovering them one by one when the temples came online. so yeah, heavy cheating that wouldn't work in a real game.

But in doing so, I learned a ton about how the culture win works that I think will greatly help me the next time I do a culture game.

 

[Gaonac'h]

CV turn 133
Went for flight/archeologists with heavy warmongering.
- How many cities did you settle, or capture?
settled 3 and conquered about 35.
- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Toa then flight/computer =)
I didn't really prioritize any civics, just went for mercenaries to upgrade galleys and then straigh to archeologists.
- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
No.
- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
Around 10 galleys in the early game and then about 15 toa.
Didn't bother with frigates.
- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
Yeah, it's a better varu.
- What was your most useful unit?
Galleys I guess, they are so strong against coastal cities.
- Was diplomacy useful? How?
I didn't really bothered with diplomacy.
- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
Babylon and Hatussa helped me to reach flight faster. And Buenos aires bonus was handy.
I mostly killed others City-States.
- Did religion play a role in your game?
I did get a religion, but it was not very helpful.
- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Culture VC?
My fist plan was to get God Of The Open Sky pantheon and improve every pastures on the map while rushing to flight.
But after exploring with my first warrior I thought God Of The Sea was a better choice and I gave up the idea and just went for Marae.
- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have? Did you have a strategy?
Golden all game long.
- What effect did Loyalty have on your settling or conquering? How did you mitigate its effects?
Didn't had any issues with loyalty, some cities from Netherland went free but I instantly took them back.
I also make sure the AI don't die from my loyalty pressure.
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
I misunderstood the Marae tooltip and build some useless one (chopped too much) and wasted ton of prod so I went for archeologists to help finish the game.
And I also lost my exploring builder to barbarian....
- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes, the start was awesome.
I first thought Maori wouldn't be a very strong civ but starting with the shipbuilding tech on island plates map and getting all thoses envoys skyrocket your start.
Thanks for the game!