6otM65 After Action

[leif erikson]

Welcome to the 6otM65 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?
- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
- Did you use your UU's? Were they useful?
- What was your most useful unit?
- Was diplomacy useful? How? Did you levy any troops?
- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
- Did religion play a role in your game?
- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Domination 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?
- Did the patch change your game? How do you like the new patch features?
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
- Did you enjoy your 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.

 

[Vizurok]

T120 - Domination win

First of all, thanks for the game! This is my first time at GoTM, although I have been eyeing these threads for a while now and was waiting eagerly for a Hungary game. I saw the Announcement in the morning as I was struggling with a nasty hangover in my bed, and thought that I would kill the hangover with Civ - I can't say that I managed to do that, but overall, I had a very nice morning with this game. However, I am not really a domination player, so as I was moving on foreign terrain, I am sure that I made some outrageous mistakes (for example, I did not get Military Tradition's flanking bonus until after PP as normally, I would not care about this civic in a peaceful game) but I feel like I did a good job.
For the record, I have to state that the game crashed on turn 92, so I loaded the autosave to get back on track.

How many cities did you settle, or capture?
I settled five cities and conquered all Ottoman, Mongolian and Mali cities. I conquered almost all of India, however on the other continent, I focused on getting the capitals. However, while I was there, I felt obliged to liberate all city states taken by the Aztecs.

What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Hungary means Mining -> Bronze Working -> Iron Working that worked just fine with the Hattusa tech boost. The tough decision came afterwards: I had to choose between the Cartography and Gunpowder lines. As I was making good progress with my Swordsmen, I went with the seafaring tech but the Indians presented me with so tough resistance that I really wished I went for Musketmen earlier. I don't know if switching up the two techs would have significantly impacted my victory time, but it surely would have been more convenient.

What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
I decided that I am going all-in on the levying mechanics, so I only built a Warrior, a Slinger and two Galleys in the early game. Later on, I bought some siege and cavalry units to boost my Melee Levied army.

Did you use your UU's? Were they useful?
I bought two Horsemen to upgrade them to Black Army units. The bonus for having nearby levied units is quite nice, really made an impact.

What was your most useful unit?
Swordsmen did the bulk of the job, but the convenience of steamrolling everything with Musketmen was really amazing.

Was diplomacy useful? How?
I did not have any diplomatic relations with any other civs, I didn't even bother to declare formal wars. (I experienced something new because of this: due to my massive grievance generation, my favors were reduced to zero.

Did you levy any troops? Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
Well, of course I did. Levying with Hungary is still fantastic as in the current state of the game, all city states tend to build 5-6 melee units that might be enough to kill a nearby civ. After you have the economy running and you have built the T2 government buildings, you levy everything, always. (You should levy everything earlier as well, but sometimes you will not have the money for that.) The AIs could not fight my envoy shopping spree, but I did lose control of one levied army one time - fortunately, I had some spare envoys and could not care less about the levying price.

Did religion play a role in your game?
Somehow, I got a prophet due to the GPP generated in conquered cities. I did found the religion and did not do anything with it. I also gained a free envoy through the religious conversion city state quest. As for Pantheons, Jerusalem led me to a very early choice and as I was not planning to build units, I went with the free Settler. (I really feel that Religious Settlements is the way to go now - while other pantheons could have better effects on the long run, getting a free settler in the early game is so powerful in a snowballing game).

What was your strategy, how did you gain your Domination VC?
I suspected that the GotM would present an opportunity for a nice and easy levy win and my initial scouting confirmed this as I managed to get first contact with Hattusa, Jerusalem, Akkad and Yerevan (quite the Middle East pack, isn't it?). I discovered the Ottomans, the Mongolians and the Indians quite early, and after I got my Amani, I started moving her around to get my army ready. The Hattusa - Jerusalem task force took care of the Ottomans at turn 55, Akkad-Yerevan killed the Mongolians by turn 60, however, I knew that I had a problem when I saw the first Varu at turn 60 as well. I reckoned that I should kill the Indians first, but the bad terrain and the lack of envoys and good missions for Kumaisi and Hong Kong delayed the Indian envasion. The raw strength of Varu-defended Indian cities made me do a quick detour for Mali who did not present resistance.

While I was researching the seafaring tech, I launched my Indian conquest that went absolutely terribly. India was pumping out Varu and while I had strength in numbers, my Swordsmen had really rough times with the Varu units and the 50-strength cities as well. By the time I reached the Indian capital, I had to learn about the siege system changes the hard way: cavalyr units and Swordsmen supported by Battering Rams and Siege Towers were inefficient against cities - however, Musketmen tore down Walls without siege units demolished defenses effortlessly. (I can't say that I clearly understand the new mechanics right now.)

As for the New World, I really hoped that I would find a few surviving city states but as it turned out, the landmass to the West with the Zulu lands was quite close to the edge of my continent, so I killed the Zulu with the Akkad-Yerevan guys. As for the remaining two civs, I did find the perfect match for each of them: Cahokia conquered Sweden, Bologna took care of the Aztecs. Actually, I even got a military emergency against the Aztecs - how dare they take one city state while Hungary conquers the whole world?

How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have? Did you have a strategy?
First Suzerain era points lifted me to a Classical Golden Age, got a golden age for the Medieval as well.

What effect did Loyalty have on your settling or conquering? How did you mitigate its effects?
As I took a detour for the Mali lands to the east, I knew that I would be facing loyalty issues as my cities were far far away. I lost two cities but eventually they returned to me peacefully after I conquered the major Mali cities.

Did the patch change your game? How do you like the new patch features?
I did not care about production in this game, so I didn't really notice anything about that. As for the siege mechanics, I did run into some unexpected issues - however, I fully support the nerfing of battering rams. It seems that Musketmen will tear down Ancient walls without penalties - I think that this is a much more realistic and also enjoyable direction.

Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
As I mentioned, I did suspect that the Indians will give me a hard time but it turned out that they fought even better. Unique units that don't require resources are super OP as they can be spammed effortlessly. I kind of used the WW2 Soviet tactic to handle them: I did not really care about the long-term health of levied units (if you lose some of them, well, the next levying will be cheaper).

Did you enjoy your game?
I loved this game, it was fast and although it was mostly effortless, I did encounter some challenging situations and decisions.

 

[leif erikson]

Welcome to GOTM!

Hope your hangover feels better...

 

[Dekrznator]

Is there some tutorial of this game for us retards?? Beacuse I am obviously a ******...I don't understand how is it posible to win in 120 turns? I have only defeated Suleiman on my 120-ish turn...haven't even touched anyone else. I have 5-6 envoys and this dude has 70. Etc, etc, etc. I'm going to cry.

 

[leif erikson]

Learning is what Game of the Month is all about! Keep playing and you may soon do exactly what Vizurok did.

 

[DanQuayle]

DomV T110

My first domination victory where I conquered less than the normally 7 required foreign capitals on a standard-sized map!
Chandragupta got early Varus and stationed one in his capital, Patna, giving it above 50CS. Instead of trying to capture it, I peaced out and fully encircled and isolated his city by settling another city to the SE with a captured settler, buying some tiles and denying open borders. I then let the population pressure do the rest. Predictably, India went into a dark age during the Medieval era.
I captured the last capital on the other continent on T108, so I maybe I could have benefited from making a nearby EC and running Bread and Circus to make Patna's loyalty drop down faster.
The domination victory screen triggered at the end of T110 when Patna's loyalty dropped to 0.

How many cities did you settle, or capture?
I only built 1 settler and and used it for a crap coastal city (to make galleys and a harbor)

What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Iron Working, Cartography, Gunpowder

Did you levy any troops?
City-States levied: Hong Kong, Akkad, Jerusalem, Bologna, Cardiff, Cahokia

Were City-States helpful?
Hattusa and Akkad are probably the two best city-states for this kind of game

How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have? Did you have a strategy?
Classical Golden Age: Free Inquiry
Medieval Golden Age: Monumentality

Did you enjoy your game?
A far cry from my sub 100T victories on Pangaea with Hungary (under previous patch), but very enjoyable nonetheless!

 

[Casualty of war]

I knew I wasn't going to be a serious contender when I missed my Golden Classical. And right when I was about to levy Hong Kong to use those troops to get India and Mali, Chandragupta drops a bunch of Envoys into HK wrecking my suzerainity. My attack on Chandragupta using my own built troops went horribly; I would know where to have my Archaeologists look for artifacts from all the battlefield carnage. I took too long to get my economy really humming, really not until I took all of Mali's Commercial Districts.

I researched myself right into tacking a few extra Turns on. My levied Infantrymen didn't need Oil, not for operating or upgrade, until I researched Industrialization and they got thirsty. -15 Strength thirsty, right as I was trying to finish Monty.

That Raven King move bonus is ridiculous, especially in the water. I should have pushed Cartography more, because Levied troops scooted right across the ocean. I levied like a fiend, sometimes just for the 2 Envoys. I levied Jerusalem and Akkad twice, Hong Kong, Hattusa, Babylon, Kumasi and Cahokia once. Cardiff I also had to levy twice because Sweden had 4 envoys to bust up my first levy.

Turn 165, 1537 score. Thank you kindly for the game.

 

[seb_schmitt]

Domination Victory in T175

Despite having read the release notes for the patch, I was surprised how strong city walls have become. I found it almost impossible to capture capital cities with walls and Victor inside without siege units. But I think that's a good thing, because it empowers siege units a lot and thus keeps the game in balance.

Brief strategy: settle 2 cities, focus on horse power and golden ages (did not work with classical age), overrun any enemy on my continent (did not work on India because of early Varus and walls and on Mali, being shielded by India and the sea). Rush for cartography, look after the civs on the second continent (with Aztek being the first, then Zulu and at last Sweden), attack Mali from the sea and throw faith bought units at India until Chandragupta chokes. Btw, did not levy any troops because my army was big enough and I was short on gold.

Surprises:
1. India dowing me just after I settled my second city
2. Receiving a great prophet on turn 100 just because of having captured some cities with holy sites

All in all, only half of my plan worked. I will have a close look at the sub 130 turn victories in this thread.

Off topic: a big thank you @leif erikson and @Knowtalent for forwarding our feedback to Firaxis! It seems to me like our GotM experiences had some major impact on the June update, especially the one with the diplomatic victory. Feels good, to see the game develop in a great direction, looking forward to a diplomatic victory GotM!

 

[leif erikson]

Off topic: a big thank you @leif erikson and @Knowtalent for forwarding our feedback to Firaxis! It seems to me like our GotM experiences had some major impact on the June update, especially the one with the diplomatic victory. Feels good, to see the game develop in a great direction, looking forward to a diplomatic victory GotM!

Thanks to all of our members that play GotM as your descriptions and saves help the developers to "see" what you are talking about. Please keep up the good work both playing the game and discussing the results.

Diplo victory game will be upcoming.

 

[Minou]

T115 Domination Victory

Settled in place and started with a Scout. I met Jerusalem right away (T3) and scored a Builder from the first hut (T7). Thanks to Jerusalem, I got Religious Settlements on T11 and used the free Settler to found a city west of the capital on a Jungle Hill near the 2xTobacco. Second Settler completed T21 and headed east to found directly on Salt. I also got a first contact envoy from Hatusa even though I only met them T23.

Sent Amani to Hatusa to gain a free supply of Iron since none was in my first three city’s borders. I also popped 20 Iron from a hut T39, so there was never a shortage for upgrading. As soon as Amani reached Hatusa, I levied their army and then bounced her right over to Hong Kong.

I did not think I would get a Classical Golden Age since I had only 11/25 Era Score when the 10 turn warning popped up. But, shared vision with Hatusa revealed Eye of the Sahara, two huts, and a camp, helping me to secure a Monumentality Golden Age.

Due to the mountains India seemed like the best target for the first war. I sent two of my own Archers south, combined with Hong Kong’s 6 levied Warriors. Attacked Jabalpur on T46. India foolishly removed their garrison Warrior to chase my Scout, dropping the defense enough for me to capture the city T49.

Things came to a screeching halt when Varus showed up at T50. Damn, those things are strong! They killed off three of my Warriors. Not only was the capital out of reach, it looked like the Jabalapur would be recaptured.

But, the AI decided to just stop! After redlining Jabalapur they let up - so obviously that I wonder if there was something hard-coded to keep them from taking the city? A Varu was standing right next to the city and could have crushed it. Instead, it marched across a river. Then the next turn it marched right back to its original tile. All the while Indian Warriors were suiciding into my own Warriors, but not one Indian unit would hit the city itself.

Still, I was in bad shape. After steamrolling the first Indian city, I got greedy and sent Amani over to Akad so I could open up a western front. This came back to bite me when India managed to get two more envoys and cancel my levy on Hong Kong.

On the plus side, those 6 Akad Warriors were levied T58, upgraded to Swords T59, and sliced through Mongolia like a hot knife through butter conquering the capital T61. Mongolia managed to cancel my levy as well, but since the capital had already fallen it didn’t matter much.

With Mongolia defeated, I sent Amani back to Hong Kong to take a second stab at India with Swords+Ram instead of Warriors this time. The second Indian war began on T72. They must have gotten Victor established and promoted since I could not enforce a siege despite having ZOC over all tiles. Things looked to be grinding to a halt again because even Swordmen could barely scratch the city due to a Varu garrison. Then, the Varu left the city to kill a redlined Sword, but in doing so cut the defense in half. Three badly injured Swords were just barely enough to the capital - the tensest battle of the game.

Cartography was completed T83. A few turns before, I levied Kumasi and Yerevan (they actually had 7 Swords so it cost 690g) so the mercenary armies could get a head start marching to the east and west coasts. My Yerevan force hit the water to the west, but the Kumasi force needed to handle Mali first. I captured their capital the same turn as I declared war - it was empty and two Swords (boosted by Oligarchy, Hungary’s levy bonus, and delegation intelligence ) hit for ~100 damage each. Rather than wasting time taking their other tempting cities, I marched the Kumasi army right past and into the ocean to sail east.

The Yerevan army reached the other continent and found Zulu and Aztecs on T85, then Sweden on T87. I met Cardiff on T88 but only just in time to see them conquered by Zuku, However, Kandy had 4 Warriors, which I was able to levy when I hit Mercenaries T89 and could pull 4 envoys together. Actually, the shared vision from Kandy may have saved as much time as the troops themselves, because they revealed the Aztec and Swedish capitals were way farther north than I suspected and so saved a few turns of marching.

While all this was gong on overseas, the veteran Hong Kong troops made a leisurely march north and took out the Ottomans without any trouble. On T91 I got the Great Scientist who provides +5 healing which was nice. I also had two Great Generals on the field - at first I clumped them together but then realized the bonus does not stack.

It turns out I overspilt my forces, slowing my finish by about ten turns. The Aztec capital fell easily on T98 with no losses. In fact, I used their cities as a base to purchase one and chop out two Black Armies. On turn T99 late I also built the Terra-cotta Army, more for the free healing than the promotions.

The Zulu campaign went from an easy victory to a slog. I landed the Yerevan army on T92 planning to vassal Akad with the Naval Tradition envoy and steamroll them the next turn. Annoyingly, Mongolia sent an envoy to Akad between turns. Without the bonus negating walls, my Swords were shot up badly by city walls and encampments and had to flee back into the ocean. Since the next envoy was many turns away, I purchased a couple units and wiped out Mongolia's remaining cities to regain control of Akad on T101. I then levied Akad's units and after a lot of sailing conquered Zulu with the reinforcements.

Sweden had no walls, but a ton of Crossbows really slowed me down. Something very odd happened on T109. I upgraded two levied Swords to Muskets and I swear they vanished a turn later when my levy expired. I wasn't paying attention to the levy clock but this should not have been a problem since I had plenty of gold to re-levy. Do levied units disintegrate if the city state does not have the necessary tech? Or maybe Yerevan lacked the gold to pay maintenance? At any rate that really sucked! It took me several turns to get a new round of muskets because I burned all my small stock of Niter on the first few.

On T115, the Zulu fell to Akad-powered Swords and Sweden stupidly emptied their capital, dropping the defense by 20 points and allowing two Muskets to annihilate it.

 

[Minou]

Lessons learned this game:

1. Holy crap, Hungary is broken on low difficulty levels! With the average city state you can spend a mere 340g and 20 Iron for 4 double movement, +5CP Swordmen while the AI is just standing around with Warriors and no Walls. An entire Civ can be wiped out in a few turns.

2. Should have stayed in Monumentality for the second Golden Age. I did not need any more expansion, but the extra movement on Builders was sorely missed when I needed to go hook up Niter. Delayed Muskets a couple turns

3. While carefully planning military moves, I completely ignored my economy after conquering the first 4 capitals. My tech rate was terrible, which also delayed Muskets (which I didn't think would even be needed to win baed on how fast the Air were rolling over.

4. Should have wiped out the home continent AIs completely since that would have kept me from losing Akad at a critical moment and also would have let me move Amani out of Hong Kong which I was otherwise afraid to do for fear of losing my levied troops.

5. Beelining Iron Working would have been wise. I wanted to get the tech boost by founding my fourth city and mining a nearby Iron, but it delayed the tech by 4 turns and I could have really used those Swords four turns earlier when the Varus showed up.

6. I forgot to send Delegations to the first 2 AIs I met. I was thinking not to waste gold since I would be attacking them soon enough, but I forgot that added visibility gives a small combat bonus now.

Overall it was a fun game, though a total romp with the exception of the Indian Varus. I have long since given up on the AI creating any type of a challenge, but I still enjoy the meticulous planning of moving troops in the most efficient way, keeping loyalty under control, and trying not to forget to get the boost on the Cartography path quickly (this game, like most others, I could not manage the Buttress boost in time).

 

[Dekrznator]

Tywm Minou for detailed military rewiev. Finally I got some insight on how to do military stuff on higher difficulties. I wish more ppl would write in detail as you. Cheers.

How did you handle loyality in conq. cities? My last try resulted in 4 rebelions in cities (turks and mongolia) even thoguh I had governor inside? Should I raze all cities except capital? Or go for capital first?

 

[pahakuutti]

T99

- How many cities did you settle, or capture?
Didn't built any settlers. However, settled one after got a free settler from choosing a pantheon (religious settlements).
- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Iron working, cartography, gunpowder.
- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
2 x scouts. In the end chopped few horsemen to be upgraded to black army, but game ended before I could make the upgrade.
- Was diplomacy useful? How? Did you levy any troops?
Levied all city-states that I met. I guess that's the whole point, right?
- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
Very helpful. However, couple times lost a suzerainity just after had levied the troops (just had to throw in one more envoy and some gold)
- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Domination VC?
Levy the city-states and roll the map.
- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have? Did you have a strategy?
Free inquiry all the way.
- Did the patch change your game? How do you like the new patch features?
First game after the patch. I think the biggest change is that the value of chopping is bit less now.
Also, the rams & walls change might be good. But then again, if you have a city-state like Akkad in the game that doesn't matter.

Spoiler :

- Did you enjoy your game?
Yes, thanks you very much.

 

[Minou]

@Dekrznator

Never razed any cities this game. It was possible to capture another city a few turns before or after each capital, which really helps a lot because it takes that the negative population pressure from that second city and turns it into positive pressure. In most cases I put a Governor in the city the turn it was captured and left one unit as a garrison along with the Limitanei card. That was enough that the city would not revolt for about 10 turns, which was more than enough to heal units and take a second city thanks to the combat+movement bonus for levied troops. This might not be possible on higher difficulties or without the amazing levy bonus + quick upgrades of Hungary.

A sometimes overlooked part of Loyalty is happiness - the +3 or +6 from surplus happiness can buy a few more turns as well.

Am Indian city did revolt to a free city on me, but I just conquered it back with spare troops. I used the 3 slow moving units I had built myself for this while the fast moving levied headed east.

 

[cas]

T184 dom victory. lol. I really suck at dom VC and don't like it. However, I enjoyed this game figuring out some of the new features.

- How many cities did you settle, or capture?
Settled way too many. Maybe a dozen. I see by the comments most people only settled ~4 and started conquest.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Iron working

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
I built a small navy, but it wasn't useful. I mostly leveraged city states and upgraded their units for my army. Matthias unique ability is super strong.

- Did you use your UU's? Were they useful?
I built them just to get points for GA.

- What was your most useful unit?
City State swords / upgraded.

- Was diplomacy useful? How? Did you levy any troops?
getting Suz of the city states was the only diplomacy. Otherwise, steamrolled the AI civs.

- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
Useful is an understatement with Matthias ability to leverage.

- Did religion play a role in your game?
I founded a religion and thought i would use crusade(?) ability but it was a total waste of time and resources.

- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Domination VC?
Founded a lot of cities, stayed ahead in tech, steamrolled starting continent with leveraged city state units. Destroyed Zulu / Aztec so their capitals wouldn't revolt. Beelined for last capital.

- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have? Did you have a strategy?
All golden ages. buy civilian units with faith one.

- What effect did Loyalty have on your settling or conquering? How did you mitigate its effects?
I just eliminated all but the last AI to keep loyalty from being an issue.

- Did the patch change your game? How do you like the new patch features?
I noticed several changes and liked most of them...especially the changes to the pantheons.

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

- Did you enjoy your game?
Very much. Thank you for hosting.

cas

 

[Bangau]

T148 Dom Victory (thought it went quite well, but see above that one could have done it almost 50 turns quicker,wow...)

- How many cities did you settle, or capture?
Initially settled about 4 cities, during the conquest of my continent captured a settler or two and settled those. After my continent was completely conquered and my cities couldn't build any more useful things (for Matthias, you basically only need money and a little science) I build a bunch of settlers to 'fog bust with cities' (that was a first time).

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Basics first, then writing to kick start science production. Bronze working to chop and find iron, currency to get the money going. Was a little late to go for Cartography, discovered it right after conquering all of my own continent. Could have scouted ahead for the other continent and more effectively conquer that one. Now it turned out the majority of my levied army took the longest route to Kristina. Military engineering and gunpowder were prioritized as well, to promote all melee units to musketman.

- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
Build a few units to fight of the barbs early game and scout, but logically relied on levied units asap. Later on build some black armies to go with the levied troops.

- Did you use your UU's? Were they useful?
I did, a black army or five and even got to upgrade them into Husars. They are good, but I bet you can play without them and still conquer the heck out of your neighbours. With the Akkad suzerain bonus melee units are key, and the levied units are much more useful than the ones you build yourself because of their enhanced speed.

- What was your most useful unit?
Swordsman and musketman, they sliced through the enemies walls like butter.

- Was diplomacy useful? How? Did you levy any troops?
Yeah, tremendously... Well: before I killed them all I sold quite some diplo favour to them, so that I could use the money to levy the troops to... well... kill em. This overvaluing of diplo favour really should be addressed, it's kind of exploitative now.

- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
Ended up with 83 envoys, so yeah... somewhat helpful. Babylon wouldn't play nice with me, so on my way to Tenochtitlan I conquered it...

- Did religion play a role in your game?
No, but there was a surprise there: after conquering a few cities with holy sites I apparently build up some Great Prophet points. Turns out nobody got the last prophet (it was way late in the game already) and I got it. First time ever for me accidentally getting a religion!

- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Domination VC?
1.) Build little units, levy a lot.
2.) Early on get some good science to get to the (cheap) unit upgrades sooner and get an extra advantage over the AI.
3.) Build up your income, to pay the city states for levying.
4.) Go warmongering! I found Akkad very soon and decided to levy it's 4 warriors. Found Mongolia soon after and decided to go for it, declared war on turn 29, but found out that was a bit to optimistic. They quickly build a few archers and the levied warriors were to weak to cope. Went back turn 61 and conquered all of Mongolia. Started war on India on turn 82 (with the Varu's that was the hardest one) and took out Mali quickly after. In hindsight, I should have split up my army way earlier, I think I could have conquered all of my continent much sooner that way. Cleaned out the Ottomans between turn 117 and 123. Had most of my army in the north then and sailed (just researched it then, should have done it sooner...) to the east. Turned on Kristina on turn 134 capturing most cities of Sweden, the Zulu and the Aztecs in the next 14 turns

- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have? Did you have a strategy?
With all the levying and conquering I easily managed to get golden every time.

- What effect did Loyalty have on your settling or conquering? How did you mitigate its effects?
Some governors were often needed for the first two or three cities you capture from an AI, after that they 'flip' so fast loyalty isn't an issue anymore.

- Did the patch change your game? How do you like the new patch features?
I've played a fast Matthias win before the patch and this one felt much the same. I do really like the patch changes though, their impact just wasn't that big in this particular game.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
The AI were actually quite good in stealing away my suzerainity status, at least about five times. That's a good thing. And the accidental religion was funny to have.

- Did you enjoy your game?
Yeah! Thanks @leif erikson for your work on the GOTM. Particular enjoy reading how others (better players than me obviously...) have played this game and getting new ideas by doing so!

 

[FeiLing]

For the first time ever I understand how people win these games in only 100-130 turns.
Hungary is still incredible overpowered as long as you can get one city-state levied and start the steamrolling.
I however don't understand how these people do it if we're not Hungary and do not have Akkad

Finished T171 with 1812 score, but I totally see how it goes 50 turns faster if played properly.

PS: How awesome is Chichen Itza now with the Jungle Lumber Mills?

 

[kcd_swede]

DV t316 score 2714
I tried for faster conquest than I normally can manage... but got bogged down by loyalty issues. So it would have been faster to go my usual pace. Oh well... it was fun fighting in modern era.

 

[tarafran]

DV 101
This game was a lot's of fun.
Built 2 scouts and 1Slinger ,one settler with pantheon..settled south.
Levied all starting with Yeveran .Armany was my first governess

Beelined Iron working,carthography and got to Gun Powder on my victory turn
Never got to use the black army or Musket .Same with the battle Ram that was always late to the party.
I got to India before any walls were up, forgot to levy Hattusa 's units and lost the Suze to India .
India was the hard one .I took every city around the cap to stop them spamming Varu

My fastest DV

 

[arthur486]

DV @ turn 155.
Went Ottomans -> India (delayed greatly by Varus), Mongolia and Mali in parallel. Crossed the ocean to Sweden -> Zulu and Aztecs.
Was delayed by intense fighting for India who had Varus, as I attacked them at their peak, as well as the time it took to move troops to the Aztec capital.

I've noticed that in many cases the AI tries to cancel your levy once you start using it against them, which also happened to me. Really liked that move.

Thank you for the game, as always it was great!