6otM62 AAR

[Knowtalent]

Welcome to the 6otM 62 After Actions Report. In this thread you can post the results of your game. Please state victory date and score and the save choice (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 bother with Religion?
- How did you pump your Tourism?
- Were City-States helpful?
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
- 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.​

 

[Monthar]

Culture win, turn 278, score 1222

I settled across the river on the flat desert. I had 1 war near the end only because Scythia DoW'd my ally China, which caused me to auto-DoW Scythia.
I did not found a religion.

I am still not expanding fast nor far enough, nor running projects to boost tech, culture, and gpp. My first two rock bands broke up before their first level-up and took a while to get enough faith for another. All these factors probably slowed my victory way down.

 

[Casualty of war]

Heh, so my early troops got cleaned up by the Great Yosemite Blizzard of 3000BC. Missed a Medieval Golden by 1 Era point. And somehow I managed to circumnavigate the planet (first!) without meeting Hungary.

Strangely enough Hungary flipped first though! Sure wish I would have known how easily other Civs would sell me their Relics....

 

[kcd_swede]

CV turn 239, score 970-ish

Took the Relic route with appropriate wonders. Settled everything southeast of the two CS's. Joined a war as part of a world session... but never fought any wars. Had hocket rinks in all southern cities, then made 3 Nat Parks with Mounties... the last was unecessary as it showed already 1 turn to victory, but why not? I think it was 67 tourism that overcame the last civ for the win... the lowest total I ever needed for a CV! But I still thought my finish time was slow... had done a t237 win previously in another game, so I know it could be better. Probably TOO much expansion and not enough single-minded focus. No Rock Bands made or needed... didn't even get to the tech/civic needed, to be honest.

Thanks for the game!

 

[Eyswein]

T107, Culture Victory

- What was your strategy?
1) Culture to D&P and Science to Printing; Goddess of the Harvest if possible
2) Explore to see if I will need Cartography or not
3) Expand to 7 cities - Theater Squares, Amphitheaters, a few Comm Hubs

- Cities & early build order?
2-OTTAWA (1E on tea): 8-Scout, 20-Setter, 24-Warrior (could see 2 scouts and 2 barbarian encampments, one where I would later settle Montreal), 34-Settler, 38-Slinger, 41-Warrior, 43-Slinger, 44-Monument(g), 45-Builder, 49-Gov Plaza, 56-Pyramids
28-HALIFAX (Amber at Yosemite): 38-Monument(g), 41-Builder, 46-Slinger, 56-Trader
36-MONTREAL (coast E of capital): 47-Monument, 52,57-Galley
After ancient era – faith bought 4 more settlers on T61,62,70,71; main focus on chopping Theaters, Amphitheaters, Theater Square Festival projects, science boosts

- What did you prioritize for research, policies, and governance cards?
Research: 9-AH, 15-Mining, 31-Pottery, 35-Writing, 35-BW (was 3rd in research line, but stopped for boost), 42-Sailing, 46-Masonry, 53-Currency, 59-Wheel, 65-IW, 67-Archery, 69-Irrigation, ?-Engineering (had set it up and finished with boost, didn’t right down when), 78-Machinery, 94-Printing
Civics: Intent was to beeline D&P, but I had a TV give me boost for SW and didn’t find another continent for FT boost before I ended up researching SW, so ended up being: 16-CoL, 35-Craft, 43-SW, 46- FT, 50-EE, 58-D&P, 62-Pol Phil
Governance: based on need – Agoge while building land units, Maritime when building caravels, Corvee when building Pyramids; Classic Republic and Literacy Tradition as soon as I got Pol Phil

Governors: 43-Magnus, 49-Liang, 50-Pingala (base, +science, +GPP, +Tourism, +culture), Amani
​

Districts? 7 Theater Districts, Gov Plaza, 2 Commerce Districts
Wonders? Pyramids and Oracle
Diplomacy / Trade? always open borders & trade delegation; trade as much as possible; friends whenever I could
Ages? 61- Golden Age, Monumentality (38/24 points at transition)
Religion? Pantheon: 19-Goddess of the Harvest; Religion: N/A
Barbarians? Had to escort 1st settler and create an ancient military; nothing too bad – lost an exploring worker and a galley to barbarians
Military build / best unit? 1 Scout, 3 Warriors, 3 Slingers->Archers, 2 Galleys; best units were the exploring galleys and workers

Neighbors/War/peace/dustbin?
Met: 26-Germany, 39-Brazil, 60-Mapuche, 67-Scythia, 74-Hungary, 74-Arabia, 76-China; total peace, only combat was with barbarians

- Were City-States helpful?
Very. T6-Jerusalem fist that led to Goddess of the Harvest; I didn’t meet any other CS first; T70-Suz of Hong Kong for +20% city projects

- How did you pump your Tourism?
I ended with 148 tourism; focus was Great Writers (faith bought a couple; city projects to speed up), Printing, Pingala curator bonus; 2 ancient wonders; open borders always (even at cost to renew later in game); trade routes when possible; toward end I got a great artist and great musician; sadly, I got no relics and Germany would not sell under any circumstances

- Did you enjoy the game? Yes!

 

[pahakuutti]

T110 CV

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled 10 cities. However, that was too many. I guess I just got carried away with monumentality.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Found relic around T10-T15. So I chose to go with religion and relics + classical era writings. In the end had only 2 relics (one self found and one bought). When I built Mahabodhi temple, one of the free apostles got martyr promotion. I desperately tried to suicide it against AIs' missionaries with no luck.

Spoiler :

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
AI's unwillingness to pay for luxuries. Even declared friends didn't offer anything reasonable for luxuries.
The most they were willing to pay was something like 1gpt + 7gold. They even paid more for 20 horses.
Well, maybe it's because prince AI don't need amenities as they have so few cities.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes, thanks for the game.

 

[DanQuayle]

CV T154

I missed the GotH pantheon despite getting an early pantheon with a faith hut. I took Divine Spark instead.
Classical golden age: I took Free Inquiry for faster Printing Press since I would have low faith generation.
Not taking monumentality made me miss getting a 4-move sailing builder for exploring especially since the continent was not ocean locked.
I met the last AI (China) really late and surprisingly it had relatively high culture generation for a Prince AI (settling Piopiotahi and 2 cultural CS did help it)
I didn't get any relics, nor did any of the AIs.

- Any surprises you ran into?
A blizzard killed 3 barbarians for me; it felt liked the disaster intensity was high this game.

 

[leif erikson]

Moderator Action: The Deity save posted is NOT the Game of the Month. If you want to report on that game, please make sure your post is very clear that it is not the GotM save. Thanks.

 

[kb27787]

CV t225 (deity map version).... NOT OFFICIAL GOTM

Spoiler :

Settled on tea and had a nice, isolated start... a bit busy with the barb chasing using my archer and starting warrior but ultimately was forced to build a horse to get rid of those pesky scouts plundering routes.

Found "CS island" to the northeast and enjoyed them as long as they lasted (darned Germany! Eating up CSs like no tomorrow).

Basil's Cathedral + Yosemite + Liang turned into the national park hub of my empire.


- How many cities did you settle or capture? 9 cities... captured one free city in the middle of Brazil during his dark age and never gave it back

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
The normal Drama and Poetry beeline... afterwards Feudalism then Basil's Cathedral. Then museums... then conservation. Apprenticeship, industrialization, then Flight.

- Did you bother with Religion?
This is deity, so no.

- How did you pump your Tourism?
UIs, artifacts, and then national parks once modern era comes close (they do consume quite a bit of builder charges though!).

- Were City-States helpful?
Rapa Nui in particular once I found it...

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Despite getting somewhat early-ish relic... did not get any of the OP pantheons and had to go with +1 culture on pastures. I suppose the other AIs found faith CS early.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes. I wish there'd be a bit more tundra on the map though...

 

[Halfdan Helgrim]

T175 CV

Settled only 7 cities which was way to few. Had 3 extra writers and 1 musician at the end. Was totally peaceful game. Was also too slow with the trade routes. Might play the Diety variant and hopefully have more challenge.

 

[Archaelicos]

- How many cities did you settle or capture?

Settled 11.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?

Beeline Theater Square, then Museums, then Archaelogists, then Rock Bands, then Flight.

- Did you bother with Religion?

Yeah, I wanted to do some early relics but it didn't really pan out. I did end up with 2 relics late in the game.

- How did you pump your Tourism?

Hockey Rinks + flight + GW

- Were City-States helpful?

Not really. I guess they basically blocked wars by being in a really inconvenient spot that made it hard to get land units to Brazil and vice versa.

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

Not really. I did make one city in tundra, and Canada's UA came in handier than I expected. Being able to make the tundra tiles be at least not terrible gives you some versatility in where you can settle a reasonably productive city. Plus the hockey rink benefits from those tiles.

- Did you enjoy the game?

Yeah, mostly. It was pretty uneventful.

 

[isopaha]

CV241. Strange but I think I was close to victory already on turn 170 as I had about 7 theater squares full of GW's and a few arts. At turn 195 culture screen showed me 6 turns until victory. The game dragged on and on despite me pumping out new amphitheaters and museums and filling them instantly, dunno how to influence this.

I took the 2 cities early government square / ancestral hall strategy and pumped first 4 new cities and later about 6-8 more, meaning I had quite a good base for theaters and for hockey rinks. In the end filled everything with moais. I was peaceful all game. Early game very unlucky with barbarians pillaging trade routes.

 

[Wolfenlane]

CV 235 turn. Went for religion first then culture districts everywhere along with many great wonders. Managed to have a big boost with 6 relics but i lacked a little to end at least 50 turn earlier.
Nice gotm thanks.

 

[Minou]

Culture Victory T142

Sure hurt to miss out on Divine Spark. Hit Humanism at T113 and bought an Art Museum, the next turn I finally completed Printing Press and also got my first Great Artist. More Great Writers poured in: 4th on T117, 5th on T124, 6th on T135. For kicks I bought an Archeology Museum on T127 after ripping off the AIs by selling Diplomatic Favor. Even got a Great Musician on T131.

I actually completed Mahaboudhi Temple and Mt St. Michel on the same turn, gaining 2 Martyr Apostles. However, since the AIs had almost no Missionaries it took 17 turns just to sacrifice one for a relic, by which time the game was pretty much over. I never was able to sacrifice the second.

Learned something new this game - I made a mistake swappng Pingula for Magus so I could chop St Michel. Two turns later. I realized losing the extra science and slowing down Printing Press was made this a dumb move. I though it would take him 5 turns to reestablish, but it only took 2 - I guess he had only “walked” half the way to the new city.

Out of interest, I made a spreadsheet recording the amount of tourism I was generating from each source each turn this game. To me, this game was a good example of the most enjoyable type of cultural victory- a peaceful game with lots of building. I don’t really care much about Rock Bands and would much prefer to win by generating lots of tourism than “stealing” another players tourists.


Here is a pie chart shows the relative contribution of each source of tourism for the whole game:

Spoiler :

Great Books make up far and away the majority of tourism (3692 tourism, 65%). Not too surprising on Prince where the AI is not able to compete (I got 3 of the 4 Classical Era Great Writers this game) and because their impact is doubled by Pingula (Curator) and Printing Press.

Wonders played a modest role (940 tourism, 17%). I built a few that were unnecessary, but they are fun to make. I also love how their tourism goes up as the era advances, which makes sense from an immersion point of view and gives an added incentive to tech up to the next era faster.

Holy City was actually pretty useful (584 tourism, 10%). Even though I was only producing only ~5 tourism (due to some AIs having different religions) compared to 116 tourism from Books by the end of the game, my Holy City was up about 15 turns before my first Great Writer and so had longer to contribute.

Art (226 tourism), Music (96 tourism), Relics (80 tourism), and Artifacts (60 tourism) were basically irrelevant (less than 10% for all four combined) because they came so late and have such low values. In any fast game this will be true, with the exception of Relics. An early Relic from a hut would be great - even better of course with Reliquaries.

Here is a graph of tourism generated per turn by source. This shows how Books really drive things and other sources like Art, Artifacts, and Music tend to be “icing on the cake”. Ignoring those three entirely probably would have only set back the win date by 5 turns or so.

Spoiler :

Finally, here is the same graph but showing tourism generated by AI source instead. This shows how tourism starts building very slowly and then ramps up exponentially in most games. It also shows how important meeting all the AIs quickly is for Cultural Victory. Imagine how much longer the game would have taken if we did not meet China and Arabia until turn 120?

Spoiler :

 

[DanQuayle]

Out of interest, I made a spreadsheet recording the amount of tourism I was generating from each source each turn this game.

Really interesting stuff.
Out of curiosity, how did you did you do the spreadsheet dump?

 

[Minou]

I made it by hand in Excel - it is pretty easy to track how much is coming from books/wonders/holy cities since you only have to change something in the spreadsheet when you build / get one or hit a key boost like Pingula (Curator) or Printing Press. For tourism coming from AIs it is more of a pain, you have to check each turn if you want to be super accurate since they can change governments / religions which affects things.

Probably too laborious to do every game but I was really interested to actually see how things stack up. I am playing another game as Russia of Deity now and will report the same charts when I finish - that would be a more typical game (for me anyway) because the AIs produce more culture on Deity so more overall tourism is needed for the win.

If you are interested in the spreadsheet I can upload a template later this weekend. It was a lot of work the first time but now with the template the charts generate automatically. It's a bit less time intensive than it seems since you often won't have any tourism at all for the first ~50 turns.

 

[DanQuayle]

Oh! I thought you had found a way to the make game automatically dump the tourism info to a csv file.
I am nevertheless interested in your spreadsheet template if it is not too much trouble for you.
Thanks!

 

[Morten-Mo]

First GoTM submission since 2015. CV406, Score 1383. This might have been my first culture victory ever and I tried to concentrate on it. The screen kept saying I was close (5-20 turns away) for the last 200 turns, but it took forever to get over the "hump".

- How many cities did you settle or capture?

Captured 0, in fact for the first time ever I never used a single unit in anger (except against barbarians). Was never attacked and MExicy City and Jerusalem created a safe border between me and Brazil.

Built 9, 8 for the longest time until I wanted some oil far down on the continent.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?

Not as much of a plan than I should, so took too long to get some key stuff done. Wasted prob 100 turns by not focusing.

- Did you bother with Religion?

Yes, when reading up on culture victories, several suggested helping w religion. Probably got too carried away and could have done a Religious victory way before cultural.

- How did you pump your Tourism?

Religion, any art I could get.

But what took it over the edge was a Rock Band. I got one that just never seemed to die. "Human Improvement" prob played 20 gigs or so and still "alive" at the victory. It was also a religious band so with a few more turns I could have had a religious victory as well.

- Were City-States helpful?

They were a little, got lots of culture from them. And they did serve as a block meaning this was the most peaceful game I've ever played.

 

[Eurritz]

CV 308/500 1005 points

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
I settled ten and captured one. I finished the game at war with Germany and Tomyris.
- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Went for archers, PP, merchant republic, then printing, humanism and conservation.
- Did you bother with Religion?
I tried to get one but got only that pantheon that increases faith on tundra.
- How did you pump your Tourism?
Lots of trade and turism policies.
- Were City-States helpful?
The first ones protected me from Brazil and Germany, and Rapa Nui is worth mentioning.
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
On early stages, I misplaced the second city and had to settle another one so I could get the Yosemite park. A barb killed an unit with settler and I wasted some time trying to recapture it. A surprise I found and mentioned on opening action topic is the lack of Apadana, I was really counting on it to improve my CS-game...
- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes, it was very fun to play.

 

[FeiLing]

CV 205

Had a flood in the capital without yield gains on turn 3 and also a blizzard same turn down south where later several more would spawn all game long

8 Parks created, had locations prepared for 4 more. Wish I realized earlier how much gold the Prince AI had and how much Diplomatic Favor I had to trade for it. Could have bought some more Mounties, much earlier.

In the end of course all the tourists came from Great Writings, as the Parks all came during the last few turns, but it's always fun to figure out their locations and beef up the appeal via woods, removal of nearby mines and in this case hockey rinks (had 6), which create some nice 8 and 9 appeal tiles

Note how Jerusalem blocked my settling spot below Brazil with a worker for thousands of years. They just would not move it (maybe a bug when they retake a worker from barbs?).

Spoiler :