6otM97 After Actions Thread

[Eyswein]

Welcome to the 6otM97 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 Science 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? Religious beliefs chosen, and why?
- What governments did you select? What key policy cards did you use? Why?
- 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?
- How did Dramatic Ages affect your play? When did you have Dark/Golden ages?
- 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.

 

[Ceydezed]

Science Victory Turn 270

- What was your plan for achieving a Science 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 went for a religion as soon as I saw the wonder, so it delayed my science a bit probably. There were not a lot of good campus sites around so some planning got necessary to get some high adjacencies, and I had to settle some random cities in strange locations.
- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all? Well obviously as Gaul you have to think your city planning a bit differently. The lack of district adjacency is a bit tricky, especially when there are not a lot of mountain around. At least one time i planned for a district next to the city center before realizing it was not possible.
- How many cities did you settle and/or capture? I settled 15 or 16 cities. I captured German capital at one point but gave it back, and some Sumerian city that rebelled.
- What did you prioritize for technology/civics? I first went for religion, then for science district. When i realized I had a lot of gold issue i tried to go on a more financial pathway.
- What were key production/purchase focuses? Military units / Civilian units / Districts & city development / Wonders / Civ Unique Unit & Infrastructure? Most critical or interesting? Because of some barbarian early game I had to build a decent amount of units. When I realized i would be quite safe from my neighbors, I basically refrained from buildings more units, until I started planning a dark age, and therefore built some units to help take back some cities I would have lost.
- Pantheon chosen and why? Religious beliefs chosen, and why? Got religious settlement; work ethic and the belief that gives faith from the number of cities converted. Later on i picked to other beliefs for the era score.
- What governments did you select? What key policy cards did you use? Why? Went for classical republic, then theocracy and democracy.
- Which Governors were most important; when and why? Pingala helped me secure religion; the others were not that important.
- Was diplomacy/trading useful? How? Relations with other civs? Not much - the other civs seem to struggle a lot, they had almost always 0 gold, so I stayed poor for a really long time. Really nothing to gain from them.
- Were City-States helpful? Any competition with other civs for key city states? They were allright. No science city states really hurt. I didn`t try too much to be suzerain except for era score.
- How did Dramatic Ages affect your play? When did you have Dark/Golden ages? In the last 2-3 eras, I was in a constant struggle to get golden age. I built a lot of useless wonders just for the points, and managed to stay in golden all the time, but it was really tight. In the last era i had to find something like 90 eras score, and it was quite tricky. Building Taj Mahal was very useful in this case.
- How were the Barbarians? Annoying. In the early game, they really came from everywhere. In this kind of map where there is land all around, it can be really difficult to handle that.
- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it? I was annoyed at how the other civs were poor and cheap. Germany as always was annoying. Most of them managed usually to stay in golden ages. With so much space none of them really got impacted by the dramatic age situation.
- Did you enjoy your game? It was quite tense, I didnt feel like losing half of my cities. I think dramatic ages without secret societies can be quite tricky. Thanks for the game!

 

[tarafran]

SV 244

- What was your plan for achieving a Science VC? getting a religion for faith science building, spam Oppidom for productions and a few Civ for Era score, kill a few neighbors with already built spice districts and wonders
- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?Yes I delayed building science district to get some GG
- How many cities did you settle and/or capture? 5 built (one from pantheon, one from capture settler),28 capture and 2 or 3 razed
- What did you prioritize for technology/civics?Oppidom,then science with detour to upgrade my armies
- What were key production/purchase focuses? 8 gaettans ,4 archers,4 catapult and 8 mounted unit,
- Pantheon chosen and why? Religious beliefs chosen, and why?free settler
- What governments did you select? What key policy cards did you use? military cards and gold
- Which Governors were most important;Pingui
- Was diplomacy/trading useful? How? only for the first 60 turns selling my excess lux
- Were City-States helpful? Any competition with other civs for key city states?Got Suzys of the 2 military one next to me,Akkad specially with the wall ability
- How did Dramatic Ages affect your play? When did you have Dark/Golden ages?All golden
- How were the Barbarians?nasty
- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?Yes the end game was hard to figure the way to go in the tree to get my space districts
- Did you enjoy your game?yes as always, the Gauls(my ancestors ) are great for waring

 

[kcd_swede]

SV turn 326, score 1434
I messed up the tech tree by converting to production too early - ended up with about 20 turns travelling at only 1 light year per turn. Otherwise it was mostly just stressful trying to avoid dark ages, which I did for the first, but every other age after that was dark. Spent most of the dark ages just getting back the cities I lost and trying to keep the loyalty in the ones I didn't. Most of my expansion came at the expense of Germany, and anyone who went into a dark age leaving free cities for me to take.

Not graet speed for my SV, but sort of normal for Immortal level the way I play. Yes, it was fun.

 

[Victoria]

SV turn 224
I had just gotSun Tzu and accidentally retired him instead of moving him so had to reload. Not that I'm interested in any recorded list anyway. I played the game fast so missed a lot of the finer speedy up bits, just my style.
I have been playing a lot of Gaul lately and had not played the highland map and it was just too tempting with the Matterhorn. I just never expected to get a level 7 Spec Ops with Matterhorn, Giants causeway and Fountain of youth. What a great game, designed for the gauls and with the right 2 military CS on your border it was just crazy good. I got sucked up in the war and missed so much. It took me about 50 turns to notice Gorgo had Choral music which means I now did!. Started spreading to my other HS quite late but the lack of science CS and my inefficient use of science meant they dovetailed nicely at the end.
Not exactly an awesome SPT at the end which shows it is not how much science you have but how you use it

Spoiler :

- What was your plan for achieving a Science 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?
Did not take a religion.
I started builder as it is the Gauls and there was plenty of hills and when I finished Writing I noticed bronze working behind so made a decision to go Encampment/Campus in my capital and ignore the government buildings a bit. Gorgo declared war on me by taking a settler! (first time I have seen this) So I chopped in some swords and as the encampment was right next to the matterhorn and a GG appeared soon afterward there really was no stropping me. Gorgo killed my settler! She could at least have had the decency to settle it in a bad place.
- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
It affected my start and also Gaul are just made for war and an SV benefits from it so it was a no brainer. I think the encampment building was caused by being a Gaul.
- How many cities did you settle and/or capture?
Cannot be bothered with how many captured, lots. I settled six and 1 later for oil
- What did you prioritize for technology.
The normal but not having much clue where they were did not help. Weird trees.
- What were key production/purchase focuses? Military units / Civilian units / Districts & city development / Wonders / Civ Unique Unit & Infrastructure? Most critical or interesting?
Settlers early then units in mass so I could attack East and west, foot army east, cavalry west. Lots of looting, so glad my helichoppers had the pillaging promotion, just cruised through strength 70 cities pillaging everything and not bothering with the walls that do not really help. The multi pillaging of science districts was a great boost.
- Pantheon chosen and why? Religious beliefs chosen, and why?
I chose Lady of the reeds and marshes even though I could have had religious settlements. There was just so much marsh around it was a no brainer. 3 food 2 prod tiles early all over the place... and a key one was a rice march in my cap, the prod on it early really helped.
- What governments did you select? What key policy cards did you use? Why?
I took all 3 classical governments, Classic Republic first while still getting settlers out, then Autocracy to quickly build my army, then Oligarchy for that awesome sword rush
- Which Governors were most important; when and why?
It is an SV, unfair to single one out but Magnus is always great OFC
- Was diplomacy/trading useful? How? Relations with other civs?
Sure, early suze and sell the favours. You should not be able to sell these, it enabled the game so much. Later, no diplomacy, why bother? It just does not help.
- Were City-States helpful? Any competition with other civs for key city states?
Oh god yes, Akkad was great. I also built Kilwa then grabbed two cultures. I left Hong Kong till the end and only lost it once for a turn.
- How did Dramatic Ages affect your play? When did you have Dark/Golden ages?
TBH, its a game for intense war anyway so I did not struggle. I think at one stage I built 3 greek national parks as I was a little worried but that was the normal feeling, at the start of an era you think its too many points then you exceed it hugely. Score was 481 at the end.
- How were the Barbarians?
Annoying at times but it is about keeping on top of them and with a spread out empire many cities I got walls in which really helped.
- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
No, not really. The turns get long which is frustrating but thats civ. I just like to play fast, a bit like speed chess.
I was a little surprised my empire was content at the end despite no Coliseum, feels weird, Brutal warring dictator with content cities.
Pyramids giot built before I could start on them but most surprising, (and strange I did not know I guess) was when I captured the pyramids alll my 1 charge builders became 2.
- Did you enjoy your game?
Yes, great map, great wonders, great civ and great opponents, it was a well crafted map, thank you
I even had fun building unnecessary wonders, Someone def should be able to get under 200. I may even give it a go myself, knowledge is a pwerful thing, especially remembering where you messed up.
I only play GOTM’s because of the fun maps and the feedback is my thanks for your efforts.

 

[TheFinalChiTown]

T207 SV

Spoiler :

What was your plan for achieving a Science 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?
This game was all about great people. I wanted to earn a great scientist scientist in every era, especially in classical so I could see where education was on the tech tree. I also wanted to earn at least one great general in the classical and medieval eras because on a spread out map the extra movement point is crucial. Initially, I wasn’t going to found a religion but chose to do so once I revealed 0 iron in my borders - just horses. The reasoning behind this was I wouldn’t be able to hard-tech Coursers in a random tech tree. Instead, I would have build 2 temples —> boost divine right —> boost castles. Divine Spark helped me earn the 3 classical great people (scientist, general, prophet).
- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
Went for builders first in new cities instead of monuments. The mine culture bomb is more effective than a monument. Had to put a lot more effort into planning districts adjacencies.
- How many cities did you settle and/or capture?
Settled 9 (two stolen settlers), captured a ton.
- What did you prioritize for technology/civics?
Techs: writing, BW, IW, HBR, education, gunpowder, rocketry. Civics: PP, mercenaries, feudalism, divine right, theocracy, class struggle, globalization. I built/bought three airports so I could see where globalization was before launching the moon landing. Had been a long time since I boosted that civic.
- What were key production/purchase focuses? Military units / Civilian units / Districts & city development / Wonders / Civ Unique Unit & Infrastructure? Most critical or interesting
Wonders: Great Zimbabwe was fantastic! I was struggling to earn gold all game. It gave me +14 gpt for every trade route out of my capital. At the end of the game it was giving me ~150gpt! Also great were oracle and the policy card wonders. I built a campus and holy site first in all the cities I settled. I only built 4 opidums because, while great for production, they don’t do much for science.
- Pantheon chosen and why? Religious beliefs chosen, and why?
Divine spark - wanted to focus on great scientists & faith. Work ethic and religious colonization - to get the theocracy boost without building missionaries.
- What governments did you select? What key policy cards did you use? Why?
Republic - classical great people. Autocracy - build oracle. Oligarchy - war. Monarchy - Castles boost. Theocracy - discounted, faith-purchased builders. Communism - +10% science. Synthetic technocracy .
- Which Governors were most important; when and why?
Pingala was huge early. I found a gov title in a TV so i was able to promote him to grants quickly. Magnus always for chops. Maksha bought me 3 spaceports with faith.
- Was diplomacy/trading useful? How? Relations with other civs?
No, they were broke the entire game. And they never met each other so joint wars didn’t happen.
- Were City-States helpful? Any competition with other civs for key city states?
Akkad and Lahore made conquest a breeze. Thank goodness the Akkad bonus doesn’t apply to Nihangs or they would be even more broken.
- How did Dramatic Ages affect your play? When did you have Dark/Golden ages?
I made use of the Sakdina policy for extra great scientist points.
- How were the Barbarians?
Annoying as always! Was very satisfying to take down 4-5 barb cavalry/outpost with a Nihang army towards the end.
- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
I wasn’t able to get Newton or Einstein, even being the first to earn a renaissance and modern great scientist. The game has a weird mechanic of discounting them if you earn or pass on the previous great scientist. Not sure if it always does that or only to favor the AI. Frustrating for sure.
- Did you enjoy your game?
This map was awesome. Between the incredible spawn, Matterhorn, and interesting city states, you guys hit it out of the park. Thanks GotM team!

 

[Monthar]

Science Victory turn 299 score 1969

I had a few dark ages, but I was able to get the achievement for losing 4 or more cities due to a dark age.

I need to learn to run projects, and expand much more.

 

[Email10]

Science Victory Turn 272, Score 2133

See my post for first 100 turns in Opening Actions thread

- What was your plan for achieving a Science 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?
My plan was to build strong Oppodums and Campuses in each city. I mapped out the good city spots based on good locations for my districts. I targeted my capital as my main Production Hub for the Space Race but had to change this when a Niter popped up on my Ruhr Valley location, so the Ruhr went to my second city, Samarobriva. I used this one for the main Space Race projects, and pushed the victory in the end with 3 more Space Centers.

- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
I used Mines to expand and Oppodums for production throughtout the whole game.The Gaesatae was helpful in the beginning of the game.

- How many cities did you settle and/or capture?
21 Citites in total in the end: 13 settled (2 of them to secure good oil spots, 1 stolen settler in the end), 5 flipped due to Dark Ages (3 from France, 2 from Greece) and 3 captured in the war with Greece.

- What did you prioritize for technology/civics?
See my first 100 turn post for priorities in the beginning. For the late game, focus was on getting my key wonders (Ruhr Valley, Oxford University, Forbidden City, Taj Mahal) and then the Space Race Techs

- What were key production/purchase focuses? Military units / Civilian units / Districts & city development / Wonders / Civ Unique Unit & Infrastructure? Most critical or interesting?
After Oppodums and Campuses I guilt some Encampments and then focused on Entertainment Districts and Water Parks. I tried to get all mid- to late Wonders focusing on Production, Science and Amenities.

- Pantheon chosen and why? Religious beliefs chosen, and why?
See first 100 turn post.

- What governments did you select? What key policy cards did you use? Why?
I used the Builder bonus card a lot, mid- to late game more focus on Science and Production.

- Which Governors were most important; when and why?
Magnus did his job on chopping, Pingala was helpful as well. Liang helped with some additional Builder charges.

- Was diplomacy/trading useful? How? Relations with other civs?
Trading was key to secure steady Gold income. I kept good relations (alliances) with most Civs.

- Were City-States helpful? Any competition with other civs for key city states?
I had strong competition on Zanzibar for additional amenities. When Germany declared war against them I had to leave my alliance with them and declare war.

- How did Dramatic Ages affect your play? When did you have Dark/Golden ages?
I had one Dark Age entering the Medeival Age (missed with 1 Era Score ) and the rest were Golden. Three cities flipped for me and they were quite a pain to take back because I had built Walls in all of them.

- How were the Barbarians?
Except for the early struggles (see first 100 turns post) no big difficulties. I lost some units while looking for the last player (England) so that this was delayed quite long.

- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
I met England very late in the game, but was still the first one to meet all Civs.

- Did you enjoy your game?
Very much, it really made use of the unique strenghts of Ambiorix. Thanks to the team!

 

[EmJayLambert]

Defeat to Basil Science Victory, turn 356. My ship had gone 20 turns and I was 1 turn away from researching Offplanet Expedition thing for the boosts.

Gutted.

The update to not be able to spy on allies screwed me over, (including the bug where spies get kicked out for no reason) but I probably should have gone for not being allies and spying rather than staying allied to protect from spies. In hindsight I should have spent more on Research Grants than a few vanity Wonders. A couple of Dark Ages affected me quite badly too, and I was also too keen to build Oppidums first rather than campuses. Missed a couple of key Wonders too; the only one I got that I really really wanted was Mausoleum.

Nicest thing in the whole game was probably building a campus in the middle of a ring of 6 mountains, that was fun.

Greece got unbelievably strong militarily and had about 8 or 9 GDRs wandering around, but never touched me or any of my cities which had flipped to Free. She could easily have steamrollered me and at least one of the Eleanors if she'd wanted.

Quite fun, especially enjoyed the early game with Gaul finding spots for Oppidums and mines. Dramatic Ages are stressful and the tech shuffle just made it that bit harder. Basil's science output was mad.

Probably the longest I've played a game and lost, but I've learnt a lot from it. Thanks!

 

[Email10]

(including the bug where spies get kicked out for no reason)

That happened to be as well once. I had put a Spy in London on Siphon Funds mission and suddenly he was kicked out with the reason that the country doesn't exist anymore. England was alive and kicking and no ally of mine.

 

[pahakuutti]

SV 189

Spoiler :

After realizing that there is plenty of room to expand, just bumped settlers.
Even used all the chops in capital for settlers (magnus + ancestar hall).
After that built 2 small armies; One to east, other to west.
Then all focus to science.

- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
Culture from mines -> Invested very little on other sources of culture.

- How many cities did you settle and/or capture?
~20 founded, ~30 captured

- What did you prioritize for technology/civics?
Getting as many boosts as possible to reveal where the key techs are located.

- What were key production/purchase focuses? Military units / Civilian units / Districts & city development / Wonders / Civ Unique Unit & Infrastructure? Most critical or interesting?
Maybe the most funniest is the fact that I built all of the wonders that provide extra yields to tiles:
Mausoleum, Petra, Basil's cathedral and Chichen.

- Pantheon chosen and why? Religious beliefs chosen, and why?
Lady of the marshes. No religion.

- What governments did you select? What key policy cards did you use? Why?
Tried pretty much all of the governments which I had unlocked, except democracy and fascism.
Classical rep for settlers, autocracy while building military units, and so on.

- Which Governors were most important; when and why?
Magnus

- Was diplomacy/trading useful? How? Relations with other civs?
Marginally useful. Gilga was my bff (but too poor to be useful trading partner) and all other hated me.

- Were City-States helpful? Any competition with other civs for key city states?
I missed the blue city-states.

- How did Dramatic Ages affect your play? When did you have Dark/Golden ages?
I think it makes science victory slower due to you have to slot golden age card, so you'll basically have one less slots (of course it gives some flexibility).
Also AI struggles and loses cities -> less to trade and less to pillage.

- Did you enjoy your game?
Yes, fun map. Thank you very much.

 

[Vlad Dracula]

Diplomatic Victory t314
I really struggled with the random techs and dramatic ages. Basil had the first two steps done before I even discovered rocketry. Luckily I'd build up some diplo points through aid requests and the world congress. I finished it off with the Statue of Liberty. Basil likely would have beat me had I not done so. I did have Moksha and a stockpile of faith for the spaceports but my spies were being super buggy so I didn't risk it.

 

[leif erikson]

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