6otM93 After Action

[Eyswein]

Welcome to the 6otM93 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.

- What was your plan for achieving a Culture VC? What are the major steps you planned to take? What events, if any, changed the plan in execution and to what new plan? Any interesting decision points?
- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
- How many cities did you settle and/or capture?
- What did you prioritize for technology/civics?
- What were key production/purchase focuses? Military units / Civilian units / Districts & city development / Wonders / Civ Unique Unit & Infrastructure? Most critical or interesting?
- Pantheon chosen and why? Religion, beliefs chosen, and why? If none, why?
- What governments did you select? What key policy cards did you use? Why?
- What secret society, if any, did you join and why? Impact to VC plan?
- Which Governors were most important; when and why?
- Was diplomacy/trading useful? How? Relations with other civs?
- Were City-States helpful? Any competition with other civs for key city states?
- Did you achieve Dark/Golden/Heroic ages? What dedications did you take and why?
- How were the Barbarians?
- Any surprises/frustration/elations 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.

 

[Enfant_Sauvage]

CV T169

Spoiler Details + Screenshot :

Opened with Scout >> Builder >> Settler >> Monument. I got my pantheaon at turn 23, Religious Settlements was taken so I choose Earth Goddess and decided to get some appeal and faith using my Rock-hewn churches.

- What was your plan for achieving a Culture VC? What are the major steps you planned to take? What events, if any, changed the plan in execution and to what new plan? Any interesting decision points?

>>> The plan was to build as many faith improvements (Rock-hewn churches and colossal heads) as possible, get Flight sooner as possible (I built only 1 campus tho), get some relics and Theatre Squares with Archeological Museum. I had 12 cities before T100, most of them had Obelisk + HS + Shrine + Temple. I used a lot of builder to remove ressources where I could build improvements. I used my faith mostly for settlers and builders in the first 80 turns, then for apostles to get relics, then for archeological museums, archeologists and naturalists.

- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?

>>> I spammed Rock-hewn churches whenever it was possible to and Menelik II unique ability to convert some faith into science and culture.

- How many cities did you settle and/or capture?

>>> Settled in place, my second settle near the Tsingy to get some ear score + good tiles. Finished with 12 cities at turn 80.

- Early order for technology/civics? What did you prioritize for technology/civics?

>>> TECHS : Astrology (to get HS), Masonry (to get Pyramids), Bronze Working, Writing, Machinery (to get Kilwa Kisiwani) then Flight (for Toursim on faith improvements), Computers (for +25% of Tourism generation) and Steel (to get Eiffel Tower).
>>> CIVICS : Mysticism (to get Oracle), Pol. Phi., (Games and recreation to getRock-hewn Curches and TS), Theology (to get better HS), Feudalism (to get 6 charges builders), Divine Right (to get Mt St-Michel), Reformed Church (to get St Basile), Humanism (to get Archeological Museums), Natural History (to get archeologists), Conservation (to get some naturalists), Cultural Heritage (to get more tourism on my artifacts), Suffrage (to get Democracy and better policy cards) [I am aware that T3 governements are not the best choice for CV since AI rarely go for it but I was really good in the game so I think it didn't slow down the game], Environmentalism (to get more Tourism).

- What was your early build order in your capital and other early cities? Military units / Civilian units / Districts & city development / Wonders / Civ Unique Unit & Infrastructure? Most critical or interesting?

>>> Scout >>> Builder >>> Settler >>> HS >>> Obelisk >>> 3x. Prayers >>> Builder >>> Builder >>> Gov. Pl. >>> Ancestral Hall >>> Oracle >>> 4x. Settlers (using Magnus T2 + chop all the tiles in capital for rock-hewn churches) >>> then Shrine + Temple >>> Campus + Library >>> TS >>> Kilwa Kisiwani. I faith buyed all the others settlers and moved Pingala in cap for the rest of the game.

Other cities went for Obelisk >>> HS >>> Shrine >>> Temple >>> TS (I had enough gold to buy all amphitheatres). Some cities built wonders such as Pyramids, Mt St Michel, Mahabodi Temple, St Basile, Christo.

- What were key production/purchase focuses? Military units / Civilian units / Districts & city development / Wonders / Civ Unique Unit & Infrastructure? Most critical or interesting?

>>> HS and buildings first, then TS and buildings (mostly with gold and faith), production went into walls in the mid-game.
>>> Wonders : Oracle, Pyramids, Mahabodi Temple, Mt St Michel, Kilwa Kisiwani, Petra, Ste Basile, Christo Redentor, Eiffel Tower.

- Pantheon chosen and why? Religion, beliefs chosen, and why? If none, why?

>>> Earth Goddess to get extra faith. If Religious Settlements was still in the game It would have been my choice.

- What governments did you select? What policy cards did you use? Why?

>>> Early Autocracy (for faster wonders) then Classical Republic then Theocracy (for cheaper apostles) then Democracy (for fun). I used Scripture, Simultaneum and Sefdom almost all the game.

- What secret society, if any, did you join and why? Impact to VC plan?

>>> I took Void Singers for sure to get Culture and Science based on my faith generation.

- Which Governors did you choose and why did you choose them?

>>> Pingala will all promotions except the space projects one, Magnus T2 to get almost all my settlers in my capital without loosing any population. Reyna for some extra gold, Amani to secure CS.

- Was diplomacy/trading useful? How? Relations with other civs?

>>> I selled my early luxuries, buyed a few relics and selled my diplo favors for gold.

- Were City-States helpful? Any competition with other civs for key city states?

>>> La Venta helped me to win the game, Nazca was fun for my Petra City. I didn't used Moais.

- Did you achieve Dark/Golden/Heroic ages? What dedications did you take and why?

>>> I had only Golden Ages, that was a big part of my strategy : get the 3 Monumentality Golden Ages. The last one was not game changing as the final era was short.

- How were the Barbarians?

>>> Pretty nice, I had no problem at all and built only one settler and one Oromi Cavalry for era score.

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

>>> Kupe had a lot of culture and tourism, he was the only one good oppopent for a CV. I had to get 250 Tourism at turn 169, which is pretty high. The victoy could have been way faster nut that was interesting.

- Did you enjoy your game?

>>> A lot, as always, this game was my second try for Ethiopia on Secret Societies mode. The gameplay on Colossal Heads and Rock-hewn churches was fun.

 

[monikernemo]

CV Turn 172

- What was your plan for achieving a Culture VC? What are the major steps you planned to take? What events, if any, changed the plan in execution and to what new plan? Any interesting decision points?
Focused on Science to get flight and computers. Able to found La Venta mid game; so that accelerated science quite abit. Getting Suzerain of Antananarivo was good to accelerate civics tree and also denying culture off other players.
Focused on getting suzerainity on Caguana late game as well.

- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
Early builder to get early pantheon. Settled predominantly on hills.

- How many cities did you settle and/or capture?
Captured a settler from Georgia mid game, to establish trade routes far away.

- What did you prioritize for technology/civics?
Mining - improve diamond to sell to AI and fast pantheon.

- What were key production/purchase focuses? Military units / Civilian units / Districts & city development / Wonders / Civ Unique Unit & Infrastructure? Most critical or interesting?
Wonders wise: Pyramid, Oracle, and Mausoleum. Was going for Eiffel last, but won the game before finished building Eiffel.

- Pantheon chosen and why? Religion, beliefs chosen, and why? If none, why?
Earth Goddess helps Rock Hewn Church to get more tourism per tile.
Did not go for a religion, in previous play through the relic strategy was either very strong with early relic, or require too much efffort to procure relics.
Based on previous experience, one usually can win before getting 3rd SS govenor promotion.

- What governments did you select? What key policy cards did you use? Why?
Classical Republic for some GPP -> Merchant Republic for good selection of policy cards.
Ended with Theocracy for faith purchase to accelerate victory. Did not go for 3rd tier govt because of tourism penalty.

- What secret society, if any, did you join and why? Impact to VC plan?
Voidsingers, 35% of faith income converted to sci and culture is very powerful.

- Which Governors were most important; when and why?
Armani to get classical golden age and secure suz of La Venta. Pingala with curator and themed museums was insane.
Reyna made nature parks and seaside resorts insanely strong. Forsaken industrial era SS govenor promotion, not really useful...



- Was diplomacy/trading useful? How? Relations with other civs?
Selling luxes gave me a surplus of gold which allowed me to develop infrastructure quickly.

- Were City-States helpful? Any competition with other civs for key city states?
La Venta, Caguana very helpful. Because abundant resources meant consistently hitting 7 to 10 culture per Batey.

Brussels, could chop wonders quickly.
Not much competition.

- Did you achieve Dark/Golden/Heroic ages? What dedications did you take and why?
Golden age throughout, obviously first 3 golden ages Monumentality GA were crucial to expansion and also building improvements.

- Did you enjoy your game?
Thanks for the game!

 

[Monthar]

Culture Victory turn 212, score 1528

The game started out quite well and I was on track for a much faster finish, but Kupe kept ramping up his culture and blocked my rock bands from entering his borders. Next time I play a culture game and Kupe is in it, I'm wiping him out early.

 

[Tarry]

Cultural Victory, Turn 176, score 1169

- What was your plan for achieving a Culture VC? What are the major steps you planned to take? What events, if any, changed the plan in execution and to what new plan? Any interesting decision points?
Aim for Voidsingers and Faith to power everything. Build Holy Sites and Theatre squares. Get the Relgious Governer to use faith to build districts to up my cities. Getting Voidsingers was hard as it took a while to find huts, I had all the others available well before, it took me 2-3 huts before they let me in.

- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
Massive. I tried to build my cities on hills and construct rock hewn churches to combine with promoted voidsingers to power up all other aspects of my civilization

- How many cities did you settle and/or capture?
I neither declared nor received a single war in the game, even though my military strength was lagging behind all the others.

- What did you prioritize for technology/civics?
I spent most of my time following eurekas and inspirations. Mining for the initial location and to Iron Working (2 city states wanted an encampment), then I worked towards Flight and Computers. Astrology for holy sites, then a government and Rock Hewn churches. After that I just took whatever seemed good at the time.

- What were key production/purchase focuses? Military units / Civilian units / Districts & city development / Wonders / Civ Unique Unit & Infrastructure? Most critical or interesting?
I went for a double scout (and later on the both got killed in the same turn by bloody barbarian horsemen who rode them down the very turn I switched away from+5 strength vs barbarians). I got pyramids, but missed out on all the wonders that give extra slots, by 1-2 turns constantly. Very annoying.
My early game was focused on faith and getting a golden age with a double promoted magnus to turn out settlers in the classical era.

- Pantheon chosen and why? Religion, beliefs chosen, and why? If none, why?
I wanted Religious Settlers, but like always it's never available now. Lots of good tiles for Earth goddess so I took that. I didn't get to found a religion, so I ignored religion for the rest of the game.

- What governments did you select? What key policy cards did you use? Why?
Oligarchy for combats against barbarians to get their camps and era score for a golden age, then into Autocracy once I had a government plaza for the boost to yields and pyramids. Then all the 3 of the next tier ending in theology for a LONG time as I wanted the faith discount. Ended in Democracy.

- What secret society, if any, did you join and why? Impact to VC plan?
Voidsingers. Key to my whole plan. Once I got the the classical and improved them they were awesome. My faith generation

- Which Governors were most important; when and why?
Armani gave me lots of Era score as she went visiting all the city states in the 1st 2 ages for Era score.

- Was diplomacy/trading useful? How? Relations with other civs?
I was friendly with everyone except Ghandi, who terrified me for ages but he never attacked. Near the end of the game he denounced me, because of my alliances with his enemies. Trade routes to everyone, normally I go for lots of internal trade routes, but for this game I ended up with routes to everyone else. I sold luxuries and diplomatic favour to anyone who would buy to get the gold to buy improvements.
Interestingly Tamar valued Diplomatic Favour above other civs, she consistently offers more for the same diplo favor.

- Were City-States helpful? Any competition with other civs for key city states?
Yeah, they gave me loads of Era points for golden ages, without them I wouldn't have achieved continual golden ages. The religious city states were highly contested, I focused on making sure to get envoys by completing CS quests, that helped a lot. The suze of city states really helped my early scouting and dioscovering.

- Did you achieve Dark/Golden/Heroic ages? What dedications did you take and why?
Golden all the way. Monumentality for the faith to get builders and settlers.

- How were the Barbarians?
Too few if anything, I had to work to find them early on and then they seemed to always be really tough for the rest of the game with many pre-spawned in the tundra and ice areas.

- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
I kept losing wonders to other civ's so annoying. Kupe was a beast he had so much of everything, I swarmed him to 10+ rock bands (1/2 died 1st time they played WTF). Only 1 rock band got theatre squares promotion it felt like the others all got move fast, money, religion wipe or indipendent, none of which were really useful.

- Did you enjoy your game?
Yes.

 

[lotrmith]

T144/145 (Requisite tourists achieved at the start of T144 but nothing I could do, rockband, whatever on that turn would trigger the Victory, but rather it immediately triggers on End Turn, so the One More Turn takes you to T145).

Spoiler :

- What was your plan for achieving a Culture VC? What are the major steps you planned to take? What events, if any, changed the plan in execution and to what new plan? Any interesting decision points?

Planned on starting with Relics/Voidsingers and adapting. Founded an early religion with Reliquaries/Zeal. Got an early pantheon and opted out of Settler and went for Earth Goddess, as Rock Churches on Breathtaking Tiles convert the +2 Earth Goddess Faith into Tourism as recently discussed/discovered. However, I ended up converted a good deal of Rock Churches into Moai given the situation so by the time Tourism kicked in with Flight it was Moai all over, but the Churches prior to this did help with Faith generation throughout the game.

- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?

Planned to settle on hills and spam a Faith economy to leverage Monumentality into expansion and builder opportunities, as well as hunt Relics.

- How many cities did you settle and/or capture?

Settled 13. One was a stolen settler from Russia that I nestled in between some city states, so I could get trade routes to Georgia and Greece. Surprisingly Russia tried to forward settle it and ended up flipping two cities to me from there. One last city flipped from India near the end, with a 4th flip being Neutral and not yet flipped to me prior to victory. Stayed at war with Russia and used two scouts to pillage Lavras over and over and over, until I made peace at Flight to send a trade route and get Tourists.

- What did you prioritize for technology/civics?

Prioritized the usual suspects, bouncing here and there for relevant wonders (St. Michel, Kilwa, etc) but ultimately goalposting for Flight, and Civics towards Conservation and etc.

- What were key production/purchase focuses? Military units / Civilian units / Districts & city development / Wonders / Civ Unique Unit & Infrastructure? Most critical or interesting?

Builders, Builders, Builders. All that coastal/lake land made for ridiculous Moai spam. Chopping the Rainforest/etc to replace, and using the chops to build in Theater Squares and Wonders.

Built practically no military. Several Archers for defense upgrading two I think into Crossbows honestly only to protect against India's free-flipped state that spawned some Swordsmen I did not want harassing my builders or improvements.

- Pantheon chosen and why? Religion, beliefs chosen, and why? If none, why?

See above. Earth Goddess > Reliquaries + Zeal

- What governments did you select? What key policy cards did you use? Why?

Autocracy for Wonder production into Theocracy for Faith Discount.

- What secret society, if any, did you join and why? Impact to VC plan?

Voidsingers intending to get great works and relics into obelisks, but the game ended before Cultists even came online. Most of my obelisks were empty. The 20% boost I suppose was useful but I don't know how it compares to the other SS's. This was my first SS game. I did know to not commit to one until after revealing them all for the free governor promotions (I think that's how it works, anyways), and those early promotions are stupid good.

- Which Governors were most important; when and why?

Magus for chops and buying Settlers. Liang for builder spam. Pingala in capital.

- Was diplomacy/trading useful? How? Relations with other civs?

I managed to first meet and then suzerain a whole bunch of city states and trade away my favor and resources every turn for massive gold gains. Allies with India, Dutch, Gorgo, and Georgians. China hated me for wonder spam and grievances against Russia, and Kupe hated me for all the chopping. Russia surprisingly faired very poorly and made friends with me right after Peace was declared.

- Were City-States helpful? Any competition with other civs for key city states?

Extremely helpful. Take your pick of what you wanted to spam for Tourism: Bateys, Colossal Heads, or Moai. I could do all three but opted for Moai spam to continue to rush through the Civics tree as well as buff surrounding Moai. No competition. I even got Valetta and both Science states towards the end to buff up Kilwa and faith buy a bunch of walls for tourism.

- Did you achieve Dark/Golden/Heroic ages? What dedications did you take and why?

All Golden, All Monumentality. Ended in Renaissance.

- How were the Barbarians?

Non-issue.

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

Nope. I don't do a lot of reliquary play but I did find not much competition for religious combat. After St Michel I spammed a few apostles and India only had missionaries so it wasn't easy to get my apostles killed... I think I managed 6 relics all told. Russia and Kupe started showing Apostles too late to matter... I was spending faith on walls, archaeologists, national parks, and rock bands at that point. It only took 2 rock bands with a 3rd on the way, with ~5 concerts, to finish Kupe for the victory.

- Did you enjoy your game?

Yep.

 

[DanQuayle]

CV T136

- What was your plan for achieving a Culture VC? What are the major steps you planned to take? What events, if any, changed the plan in execution and to what new plan? Any interesting decision points?
Reliquaries + early Flight
Meeting La Venta early only confirmed my choice
There is no opportunity cost to go for early Flight when you get free great works slots from obelisks with the Voidsingers; you don't need to build many early Holy Sites or TS
Meeting Russia and trading for his great works was the best of both worlds

- How many cities did you settle and/or capture?
14 cities settled
2 cities loyalty-flipped from Kupe
1 settler sent North toward China / Russia for trade routes (but didn't have time to settle)
Kupe forward-settled me to the North, I settled 3 cities around it. I promised to not settle near him, but I broke that promise later. He got 100 grievances from it (I thought it was 75 grievances before, but maybe I am mistaken?). He denounced me on the spot and I lost around 20 turns of open borders with him. This was early game, so my tourism output was not that high. I also sent him my first trade route to compensate.

- Pantheon chosen and why?
I chose Stone Circles (which I normally never do)
In the early game when I chose my pantheon, I had scouted a lot of potential quarries and not many breathtaking tiles. Since you don't necessarily want to harvest bonus resources as Ethiopia, I rationalized that if there was one game where Stone Circles could make sense it would be this one... So, was it a wise choice?
At the end of the game, I compared the two alternatives. First, one should note that Better Report Screen grossly overvalues the value of Earth Goddess since it takes into account unworkable tiles such as mountains and tiles under districts. Better Report Screen reports +160 faith from Earth Goddess, but I manually count 27 breathtaking workable tiles in my territory for a total of +54 faith. I would also have had +10 tourism from 5 Colossal Heads or Rock-Hewn Churches built on breathtaking tiles. Whereas, I had 16 quarries in my territory (+5 non-improved potential quarries near my territory which I didn't count) for a total +48 faith if you count the +1 you get from improved ressources as Ethiopia. You can argue that the early cities I settled had more quarries than breathtaking tiles in them and that early faith is more valuable than faith accrued later. Earth Goddess however kicks in immediately when settled, whereas quarries first need to be improved. Not harvesting stones also has a huge production opportunity cost. I could also have went with Earth Goddess, and still get +1 faith from quarries as an improved bonus ressource without harvesting them, making the true value of quarries at +32 faith. Earth Goddess also greatly benefits from the Eiffel Tower, but that comes too late to be considered. In conclusion, this was an ideal scenario for Stone Circles, but I still feel Earth Goddess would have been a better choice.

- Were City-States helpful? Any competition with other civs for key city states?
La Venta, Rapa Nui and Caguana: all city-states with unique UIs that provide tourism at Flight. Combine these with the Rock-Hewn church from Ethiopia and the puzzle to place what improvement where becomes much more interesting. I have never played with these 3 city-states in the same game before. Usually, I would have just spammed Moais everywhere as they benefit from adjacent Moais. But in this game the resources were set to abundant and you didn't necessarily want to remove them because of the extra faith they provided. There were many spots with 3 adjacent resources for Bateys of +7 culture which is about the maximum you can get with Moais (in the center of a 6 hex cluster) without volcanic soil. Also, spamming Moais has an important opportunity cost: it takes a lot of builder charges to not only spam them, but also to harvest resources or chop features. Since these builders are most likely faith purchased they compete with many sources of tourism that require faith to get them. By removing resources (as Ethiopia) and features (for Colossal Heads) you also reduce your total faith output. I feel like I got the most from UI tourism with minimal investment in builder charges.
The Owls of Minerva ability to get free envoys from trade routes didn't really make it more difficult for me (in a different secret society) to gain suzerainty of city-states. And that is taking into account the fact that there were more city-states than usual on a standard sized map (18 vs 12). This may partially be explained by the fact that I was so far ahead in culture and had unlocked more envoys from the civics tree. Kupe did however establish a strong early grip on Taruga with the help of the Apadana.

- How were the Barbarians?
Less than usual. As a consequence, the antiquity sites were farther away.

- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Russia reached The Enlightenment T112 (which is the fastest I have seen)
Great Writers were banned at the 2nd World Congress, but it was too late to have a big impact.
My first CV where I reached Cold War, but I still didn't have the opportunity to use a rock band

 

[kcd_swede]

Defeated by China spaceship t 300+

I thought I could just cruise with Rock Bands to the finish and stopped warring just to save real life time (lazy). It gets tedious moving all those units around. I came within 1t of CV at turn 297, then Ghandi censored rock bands. Took too long to get them somewhere else. Oh well. That's what I get for being so lazy after doing everything needed to actually win.

 

[Chrumo]

T177 CV

Forgot to turn off the Concise UI mod, so I guess its technically out of competition

Spoiler T177/178 CV :

One of my overall best peaceful runs on Deity. Menelik is just broken with Voidsingers.

Settled 13 cities on hills and built HS and TS in each of them. Other than that, perhaps 1 campus and a bunch of harbors.

Menelik abilities, along with Voidsingers t2 bonus carried my research and culture early on. When I got the faith discount from government and Monumentality for GA, I spammed faith-buying builders and setlers, After getting Flight, I started spamming builders again to build city state UIs to boost my tourism. Also, my rock bands were suprisingly efficient this time!

Thanks for the game, a lovely setup!

 

[TheFinalChiTown]

T162 CV
- What was your plan for achieving a Culture VC? What are the major steps you planned to take? Reliquaries. I had never won a game using reliquaries, so my main goal was to hit all 3 golden ages and see how things played out.
- What events, if any, changed the plan in execution and to what new plan? Any interesting decision points? I was late getting my relics. Part of this was because my apostles were steamrolling all opposing religious units. At this point I had to shift towards beeling flight to win. Regret: I wish I had completely eliminated all religions except one. I left 3 alive in hopes that it would help me get more relics. All it really did was decrease my tourism output to those civs.
- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all? Tons of faith. I had +3k in the bank when my game ended.
- How many cities did you settle and/or capture? Settled 14, flipped 1 from Maori. Worth noting that 5 Western cities weren't settled until my last GA, when I returned to Monumentality. They gave me great chopping power in the late game.
- What did you prioritize for technology/civics? Techs: flight; civics: Theocracy then Mass media
- Pantheon chosen and why? Religion, beliefs chosen, and why? If none, why? Goddess of Festivals. Just because it was the best one left. Was getting 20 culture from it at the end.
- What secret society, if any, did you join and why? Impact to VC plan? Voidsingers, so the Old God Obelisk could help with faith/relic slots.
- Was diplomacy/trading useful? How? Relations with other civs? Always. Lots of diplo favor generated=lots of gold
- Were City-States helpful? Any competition with other civs for key city states? La Venta and Rapa Nui were both heavily contested, so wasn't able to start placing their improvements until late
- Did you achieve Dark/Golden/Heroic ages? What dedications did you take and why? 3 golden ages: monumentality, exodus, monumentality
- How were the Barbarians? Very quiet.
- Did you enjoy your game? Yes, fun seed. Thank you!

Spoiler :

 

[whacker]

T132 SV

I played on the old patch until ~t100 and finished today on the new patch.

- What was your plan for achieving a Culture VC? What are the major steps you planned to take? What events, if any, changed the plan in execution and to what new plan? Any interesting decision points?
Usually i play CV very similar to SV, with lots of campus to get flight and computers asap. With Ethiopia and Voidsingers, i felt confident that lots of faith would suffice to get science. After i finished my 1. HS, i realised that i could still found a religion, so i ran 3 prayers and got the last one (Reliquaries).

- How many cities did you settle and/or capture?
Capital + 11 settled. None captured, none flipped.

- What did you prioritize for technology/civics?
Flight and Computers.

- What were key production/purchase focuses? Military units / Civilian units / Districts & city development / Wonders / Civ Unique Unit & Infrastructure? Most critical or interesting?
Very few districts, i mainly relied on tile improvements. I founded one city in the tundra to get St. Michel and St. Basil in the same city for relics. Early Pyramids, CV always needs a lot of builders. (especially with these CS, good job Eyswein )
Other wonders: Oracle, Kilwa and Mausoleum.

- Pantheon chosen and why? Religion, beliefs chosen, and why? If none, why?
Earth Godess. I feel that is the best Pantheon for CV, especially with the Rock Hewn Church. Got lucky and sneaked in a religion with Reliquaries and Holy Order.

- What governments did you select? What key policy cards did you use? Why?
Autocracy for Oracle+Pyramids chops, then Classical Republic and finally Theocracy.

- What secret society, if any, did you join and why? Impact to VC plan?
Voidsingers. I thought this would be very powerful with high faith generating civs and it was. It allows to build very few Campus and TD and still have good culture, science and GW slots. The faith from monuments is the icing on the cake.

- Which Governors were most important; when and why?
Magnus for chops, Liang for Builders and Pingala because he is just great overall.

- Was diplomacy/trading useful? How? Relations with other civs?
Lots of gold. I bought a relic from Ghandi after i founded my relgion, sadly there was only one. I also bought all GW from Peter as soon as possible to prevent him from running away with culture. Peaceful playthrough, not a single war. Ghandi denounced me in the late game because i converted one of his cities. (pretty big mistake, had no open boarders with him because of this.)

- Did you achieve Dark/Golden/Heroic ages? What dedications did you take and why?
3 x golden, Monumentality

- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
It seems Ghandi does not build temples and only spams missionaries. I was not aware of this until my army of Martyr-Apostles arrived in India, just to run all the way back to Kupe. I lost at least 10 turns of 7 relics in my St.Basil/St.Michel city.

- Did you enjoy your game?
Very much, i have been focusing on SV recently and playing a CV again was a welcome change. Also the map and set of CS made this extra enjoyable. Big Shoutout to Eyswein for setting this up, i hope you keep doing this!
As always, thanks to the whole GOTM stuff, you guys are great.

 

[EmJayLambert]

T291 CV

My first ever victory on Deity so quite pleased, although I see it took me a lot longer than others.

- What was your plan for achieving a Culture VC? What are the major steps you planned to take? What events, if any, changed the plan in execution and to what new plan? Any interesting decision points?

Initially thought I'd use the massive faith economy of Menelik/Voidsingers and grab a load of relics for a reliquaries victory, which I've done before with Khmer. Planned to push hard for early religion to get reliquaries and then see where it took me. What made me change plan? Not getting a religion...! I managed a fairly quick pantheon, although not quick enough for Religious Settlements, but for some reason Holy Sites/GPP seemed hard to get, and I think I was initially quite cautious with it being my first ever Deity game to make sure I was defended from any potential rush. So once the religion thing didn't pan out I just went all in for Culture, Rock-Hewn churches & other improvements to give me the tourism once flight came along. Again, probably because of my naivite at this level I didn't know how hard to beeline that which probably contributed to the slowness of my victory. Then I had loads of faith to spend on Naturalists. I ended up with 8 national parks.

- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?

The faith for cities on hills is a huge bonus, and the rock-hewn churches add all sorts to this style of gameplay - additional faith to save for naturalists, turning to tourism later on. Buying Archaeological Museums and Archaeologists was brilliant. Oromo Cavalry did nothing for me except a bit of quick exploration.

- How many cities did you settle and/or capture?

Only settled 6 which is the major reason for not getting a quicker victory. I put this down again to being overly cautious about spreading myself to thin and being open to conquering, but I should have gone harder, particularly to the North which remained largely unsettled until Kupe started wandering across it. I didn't see too many places that I could have made good use of though. I also flipped two of Kupe's cities late on using Cultists which I did more for the Relics than the Cities themselves.

- What did you prioritize for technology/civics?

After a while, it was Flight. All the obvious ones too like Steel for Eiffel Tower for the bonus appeal & Radio for Seaside Resorts. Civics were aiming towards all the ones which affect tourism.

- What were key production/purchase focuses? Military units / Civilian units / Districts & city development / Wonders / Civ Unique Unit & Infrastructure? Most critical or interesting?

Theatre Squares in every city. Got a really good Campus in my capital which helped the science chug along at a decent rate. Key wonders I guess Kilwa for the 30% boost to Culture & Faith when I Suzed two of the Purple & White CSs. Eiffel Tower for the added appeal to my natural parks, Christo for the religious tourism - had loads of relics of the void & Rock-Hewn Churches. Also got Oracle to help with the Great People.

- Pantheon chosen and why? Religion, beliefs chosen, and why? If none, why?

Divine Spark as Religious Settlements were gone and I figured it would help with GWAMs. Missed out on religion.

- What governments did you select? What key policy cards did you use? Why?

Classical Republic for the GPP. Always the Wonder production cards as I always seemed to be building a wonder. Also the extra builder charge ones.

- What secret society, if any, did you join and why? Impact to VC plan?

Voidsingers. Huge once I got to third promotion and grabbed some Void Relics. It was around this stage that I realised I should have made more cities for more Obelisks to store the relics. Or maybe made a few more holysites for temples. First couple of levels do decent things with faith too.

- Which Governors were most important; when and why?

Magnus chops helped me out a lot with wonders and Pingala's tourism boost is massive. Liang for the extra build charges for seaside resorts and chops.

- Was diplomacy/trading useful? How? Relations with other civs?

Decent relations with most other Civs. I somehow had huge amenities so was always able to sell my luxuries for a decent flow of gold. DId some good trading of Great Works too for some nicely themed museums. Forced into DoW on Tamar mid-game because she declared on one of my allies. I had units near her territory at the time so did some useful faith pillaging. Stayed Red with Tamar, Gandhi and Kupe for the majority of the game. Kupe went green shortly after I flipped two of his cities, which was weird, but it helped massively because I could ally him and get some bonus tourism.
Then finally Gandhi decided to declare war and I was worried, but he proved incapable of putting my capital under siege. Honestly, I was a little disappointed that a Civ with ~2000 military strength couldn't do anything against me with ~700 (I hadn't bothered upgrading past Oromo Cav until he came crashing in with Infantry and Machine Guns) However, at this stage I was running Future Civ every 4 turns so put Victor in the capital, got him to stop any potential siege and ended the war as soon as possible by trading the two cities I had flipped from Kupe. I don't know if this counts as an exploit but I just couldn't be bothered slogging through defending the city against ineffectual attacks.

- Were City-States helpful? Any competition with other civs for key city states?

Yes. Rapa Nui, Caguana, La Venta - all their improvements gave me some excellent culture/faith and then tourism. A little competition for them but mostly I was able to get them back quickly.

- Did you achieve Dark/Golden/Heroic ages? What dedications did you take and why?

Mostly Golden Ages. Monumentality to get all the Builders making Rock-Hewn Churches, Bateys, Moais and Colossal Heads. Later Golden Ages don't seem particularly helpful for CVs but I think I took the Heartbeat of Steam one.

- How were the Barbarians?

More trouble to the Dutch than me I think as at one point they appeared to have Amsterdam under seige. There was a massive camp in the North which I steered clear of.

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

Main surprise was Gandhi's late attempt at a war and his complete inability to do anything sensible. I was also surprised at how little competition I ended up getting from some supposedly big hitters of the Cultural game. Peter, Gorgo, QinShi, Kupe... once the tourism snowball started I was streets ahead of them.

- Did you enjoy your game?

Yes. I always find the end of a Cuture Victory a bit of a slog and the weird prediction of how many turns it will take is frustrating (11 turns til victory. No wait, 63 turns. No, 31... etc.) but yes I enjoyed this game, learnt a fair bit and may just be hooked on the whole GotM idea. Thanks!

 

[leif erikson]

may just be hooked on the whole GotM idea. Thanks!

You're welcome. Glad you joined in and gave us a try.

 

[Eyswein]

My first ever victory on Deity so quite pleased

Congrats!

 

[shooter6947]

Won on turn 290 -- my first deity culture victory. Thanks for the game!

 

[Eyswein]

Won on turn 290 -- my first deity culture victory.

Congrats!

 

[Drac00La]

Hi! Long time lurker here. Decided to give GotM a go, and oh boy it was lots of fun!

T149/150 CV (victory screen triggered at then end of T149, HoF shows T148 for some reason ).

- What was your plan for achieving a Culture VC? What are the major steps you planned to take? What events, if any, changed the plan in execution and to what new plan? Any interesting decision points?
Tried reliquaries for a first time. Luckily I've met Voidsingers in the first (or second) goodie hut, which made it even better. Beelined theology and reformed church to chop Mont St. Michel asap and start spamming apostles. First GE monumentality for fast expansion, evangelists next for faster apostles. Finished with monumentality again to get builders faster for all the tourism improvements. After meeting La Venta and Rapa Nui, beelined flight to finish with tourism from improvements.
- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
UI helped a lot - Rock-Hewn Church rocks! Not only does it give tons of faith (and tourism after flight), it also boosts appeal, making earth goddess a lot better. It's also very fun to plan around - very nicely done improvement! Surprisingly enough it was somewhat hard to make full use of LA - only half of my cities ended up being on the hill. It was still very good, as I had tons of faith income in the middle-end game. UA was helpful to get things started. Used UU for era score and to help Wilhelmina deal with barbarians .
- How many cities did you settle and/or capture?
Settled 10 in the first half of the game, and one near the end to get trade routes to Georgia and Russia (should have done it earlier).
- What did you prioritize for technology/civics?
For civics: theology -> reformed church. For science: flight.
- What were key production/purchase focuses? Military units / Civilian units / Districts & city development / Wonders / Civ Unique Unit & Infrastructure? Most critical or interesting?
Faith purchased a lot of builders and settlers. Every city focused on Holy Site -> Monument -> Temple, some of them bought with gold. Key wonders: Pyramids and Mont St. Michel. Mahabodhi, Kilwa and St. Basils also helped.
- Pantheon chosen and why? Religion, beliefs chosen, and why? If none, why?
Focused on getting pantheon asap, still failed to get religious settlements. Took earth goddess, and maybe it was a better choice anyways. For religion, I took reliquaries and missionary zeal, never bothered to evangelize it.
- What governments did you select? What key policy cards did you use? Why?
Classical Republic -> Theocracy, with Scripture and Simultaneum as main cards. Swapped other cards around a lot, like tile purchase discount, builder charges, etc.
- What secret society, if any, did you join and why? Impact to VC plan?
Joined Voidsingers very early. Extra relic slot in each city is awesome - I managed to grab all the relics in the game! I was surprised that it's even possible, because I always assumed that they are infinite.
- Which Governors were most important; when and why?
Amani was the key to getting classic monumentality GE, Magnus to chop wonders and infrastructure. Pingala was nice, but with Voidsingers and Menelik's LA he is less impactful than usual IMO.
- Was diplomacy/trading useful? How? Relations with other civs?
Bought a relic from Tamar after we become friends. Forgot to buy great works from Peter. I think it was my biggest mistake, could have easily shaved a couple of turns. Overall very peaceful game, only Gandhi hated me, but never declared a war.
- Were City-States helpful? Any competition with other civs for key city states?
It was fun to plan around different tourism boosting improvements with UI added into the mix. They were not necessary, but still helped with the final push after flight.
- Did you achieve Dark/Golden/Heroic ages? What dedications did you take and why?
All 3 golden, monumentality -> evangelists -> monumentality.
- How were the Barbarians?
Not that big of a deal, cleaned first camp rather fast for some nice boosts. Had to send Wilhelmina help to deal with tundra barbs invasion in the middle of the game. Also had to clean up camp near Gandhi, as he didn't seem to be interested in it and I was planning to plop a city nearby.
- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Gandhi never bothered building any apostles, so it was painful to suicide into his missionaries. Luckily, Kupe spammed them, so I was constantly sneaking into his territory to get relics.
- Did you enjoy your game?
Yep, very much, thanks for the awesome map!

Edit: forgot to attach save file.

 

[leif erikson]

Welcome to CivFanatics and 6otM!

Congrats on your win. Best of luck in future.

 

[firelord24]

Welcome to the 6otM93 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.

- What was your plan for achieving a Culture VC? What are the major steps you planned to take? What events, if any, changed the plan in execution and to what new plan? Any interesting decision points?
I planned on using a religion, + hills for all cities, to drive science and culture and let me get ahead and start building rock hewn churches. I planned to keep peace as much as possible. Not getting a religion was tough, but it did mean that I ended up with alot of faith to buy cities and settlers. I had a lot of open space for a long time, not much interaction with many civs other than India and the Dutch. Almost everyone went Voidsinger, so I found out that you can run out of relics to get from the Cultists, which delayed my VC significantly. I had a lot of trouble generating enough tourism to catch Kupe and Ghandhi with their culture so I was worried I was going to have to go to war in the end to push down their culture, changed around how I worked some alliances later and eventually Mary Leakey helped.

- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all? Critical, I relied on it for almost all of my science until much later. Doubled the culture so I was way ahead on the civic tree.
- How many cities did you settle and/or capture? Settled 25 cities, never went to war.
- What did you prioritize for technology/civics?
- What were key production/purchase focuses? Military units / Civilian units / Districts & city development / Wonders / Civ Unique Unit & Infrastructure? Most critical or interesting?
Almost no military for the majority of the game, kept peace and allies with almost everyone but Scythia.
- Pantheon chosen and why? Religion, beliefs chosen, and why? If none, why?
I went with Earth Goddess to try and drive the faith economy, I also ended up missing out on a religion, so I let India spread their religion to me which gave me Jesuit Education so I had places to buy Theater Squares easily.
- What governments did you select? What key policy cards did you use? Why?
Classic Republic, Monarchy, Theocracy, Democracy, Digital Democracy. Drove Faith production a ton until later.
- What secret society, if any, did you join and why? Impact to VC plan? Voidsingers, took a long time to get access to it. Faith and places to put relics.
- Which Governors were most important; when and why?
Magnus and Pingala to start with chopping and driving culture/science. Reyna helped later when I was able to buy districs and expand my city near the natural wonder.
- Was diplomacy/trading useful? How? Relations with other civs?
Trading was incredibly useful, sold my luxuries a ton and kept me going gold wise. Kept Friends with everyone but Scythia for most of the game.
- Were City-States helpful? Any competition with other civs for key city states?
Taruga and Cahokia were very important, drove the gold economy, and let me keep science growing with the resources. Valletta was also important to get so that I could use Faith to buy walls and city buildings quickly after founding cities.
- Did you achieve Dark/Golden/Heroic ages? What dedications did you take and why? One golden age with Monumentality for settlers and builders, most of the rest of the time with Reform the Coinage later to drive gold production.
- How were the Barbarians? Very little impact.
- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it? No religion was tough, but it let me not spend almost any faith on apostles or religious units until much later.
- Did you enjoy your game?
Yes

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.

 

[nufro]

T 208 CV. Reliquaries -> Voidsingers.