6otM79 After Action

Culture victory turn 250 score 1474

I didn't expand enough nor focus on the goal.

 

Turn 259/260 CV.

In early game I took out most (5/6) of Pericles' cities as I realized he would be a culture powerhouse (and he already was with TS in every city) but lacked a credible army. He did not build any walls so the war was quite easy. Later I tried to stop Suleiman from taking out the useful Rapa Nui by means of war and I succeeded in stopping him, but Dido ended up taking it easily. At this point Cyrus decided to take the opportunity as my army was far away, and invaded me with dangerous Cavarly armies. He managed to take one of my key cities near my capital, but I could hold him off at that and later recapture it. However, it required me to spend about 20 turns in almost all cities building units.

In later game the AI's seriously tried to stop me from winning by declaring on me one by one (Arabia, Egypt), but there was no big trouble.
I stayed allied with Gilgamesh most of the game though. At the time of victory Cavalry army was still the best unit on field, as no one seemed to have oil.

I had 37 GW, 15 artifacts, 32 GWoA and 2 relics from AI. In addition, ski centers, moais and some wonders. A couple of rockband survived the first initial gig and one of them was churning about about 4k gold each gig.

Quite a fun game, though it was a shame the AI did not utilize the central sea at all. I had a few ships that proved a bit useful, but that was it.

 

CV T134

Strategy
Reliquaries play became the obvious choice with the two close faith city-states and both neighbors (Pericles & Cleo) going for early religion.
Ottomans built Stonehenge and was the only civilization against whom I had the -50% modifier penalty the whole game.
Arabia got the last Great Prophet with its UA, but actually didn't found until much later (no holy site). I only got the -50% modifier for a few turns against Arabia.
Golden Ages: Monumentality, Exodus
Eras came really late this game (Classical era T56) and I overshot eras points by a lot in this game. This made me regret going for Amani first.

Barbarians
AIs got some trouble with barbarians in this game which seems frequent on this map script.
Sumeria got one of its cities razed and its capital down to zero health. Same with the Ottomans and Istanbul which got its health down in the red.

Wars
It's been a while I have seen an AI completely wiped out by another, but it happened this game. Gilgamesh eliminated Dido T65 with his war-carts.
I tried to bait Persia into a war for the Defensive Tactics inspiration, but he didn't declare. Tired of waiting, I declared a formal war against him with a few Legions to pillage his Pairidaeza for faith with the Raid card that I used on Apostles. (bought his relic for gpt beforehand).
I sent many envoys to Brussels and levied its units to liberate Carthage from Sumerian rule. Gilgamesh had a military force under 100 and Tyre was already in yellow health from barbarians. Dido resurrected T120 (300DF) + 1 other city later (100DF). I kept the 3rd city for trade routes. Sumeria killing Dido probably only cost me around 2 visiting tourists overall.
Pericles declared on me near the end and I lost open borders/trade route.

Trivia
First time I have noticed: if you place a mine over a hill and then discover Bronze Working and there is iron on that hill, you will get the Iron Working eureka, but not the Wheel one.

 

CV @ T158 (here we Moai again).

Since I met Granada extremely early the plan was GWAM + Flight + Alcazars. Went for a totally peaceful game, where I could set up trade routes and open borders with everybody. Like in @DanQuayle 's game, Dido was taken out by Sumeria early on, which affected the tourism required for the win. Everything went according to plan until I met Rapa Nui on T104, and it was clear what had to be done. Btw Moais are insane for culture, as they actually give +1 for each adjacent Moai. I've recorded some of the more important milestones below (should do this more often):

T1 - Settle in place
T61 - Euclid joins (1st great scientist)
T67 - 4 cities, started churning settlers in Rome with Provisioned Magnus and Ancestrall Hall (with 2, and then 3 +2 bonuses from military city states this was very, very strong. Will have to do again).
T67 - Completed Great Library. Totally forgot it gives the Eurekas for ancient & classical era techs. With free inquiry, I got 6 Eurekas, 6 Era points and 1 envoy, making me a CS suzerain. (I think by far my earliest completion of the GL).
T72 - Hypatia
T81 - Aryabhata
T84 - Bhasa (GW)
T87 - Been around ~60 science for the past 15 turns...
T94 - Homer (GW)
T96 - Golden Age (Pen, brush & Voice)
T97 - World Congress Decides - No points towards GS (at least it's not GW this time)
T101 - Zhang Qian (gives a trade route, so no need for additional Commercial Hub + Market)
T104 - Stumbled upon Rapa Nui (we know what this means)
T112 - Found Hong Kong, the last city state. No scientific ones to accelerate Flight!?
T135 - Oxford finished with Magnus + Skyscrapers + Brussels suzerain, gives Flight as one of the techs.
T135 - Flight done, jumped to 204 Tourism
T158 - Victory, ~720 culture per turn, 8 turns away from Computers. Open borders with everyone, Trade routes with everyone but Sumeria (Had 2 CH + 2 Great Merchants).

It was a very nice game (thank you 6otM team), and I managed to keep my focus better than what I'm usually capable of

 

let me post my puny game for the record as well. dom --> rock bands.

 

I forgot to finish it. lol