7OTM05 - Completion of Age of Antiquity Spoiler Thread

[Eyswein]

At the top of your post please post: Number of turns

A few questions to consider:
- What was your plan for moving toward the victory condition? 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 you settle in place or move?
- What were your initial 5-10 builds in the capital and/or other early cities?
- Early order for technology/civics? What did you later prioritize for technology/civics?
- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
- How many cities/towns did you settle and/or capture? Where did you settle your first few towns? What was your mix of towns vs cities?
- What were key production/purchase focuses?
- Pantheon chosen and why?
- What government did you select? Which bonus did you chose most and why?
- Other good info we didn't think to ask?
- How did you focus your use of influence for diplomacy?
- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
- Did you enjoy this Age?

 

[patparker]

140 turns in ancient era

What was your plan for moving toward the victory condition? 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?
Just concentrate on military and science. It worked out fine

- Did you settle in place or move?
Settled in place

- What were your initial 5-10 builds in the capital and/or other early cities?
scout- scout- warrior - saw pit - library

- Early order for technology/civics? What did you later prioritize for technology/civics?
tech: library first than immortals
civic: pantheon first, then leader, then concentrate completely on Persian specials

- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
Made a lot of paradisia and leaders

- How many cities/towns did you settle and/or capture? Where did you settle your first few towns? What was your mix of towns vs cities?
settled 5, captured a few. Ended with 4 cities and 6 towns

- What were key production/purchase focuses?
Just military and production buildings

- Pantheon chosen and why?
extra science

- What government did you select? Which bonus did you chose most and why?
Despotism for infantry build

- Other good info we didn't think to ask?
What did the AI do that was significant?

- How did you focus your use of influence for diplomacy?
Just used it to buff the many wars

- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
there were 4 wars declared on me and 1 that I declared. I won them all

- Did you enjoy this Age?
Yes

 

[ABigCivFan]

114 turns, 10 legacy points.
Main goal here is to take out one AI early, and expand, get 3 army commenders and lvl them up as much as possible for later ages. Since this Deity, aiming to complete Military and Commercy legacies only. Culture and science try to get 2 points each.

Settle in place, plan to share Grand Canyon with another city. Given the momento, only built 2 scouts, then Brick yard for hammer, then granary, then a settler. On turn 29, got a Army commender with 4 slingers ready to take out the cultural CS north since it is on a good city spot (my 3rd city).

Supported a science and a cultural proposal from AIs early to boost science and culture. Need to hurry to get Archers and Immortals for war. Befriend a Miliary CS but lost "Age of Hero" to another AI. got in skirmishier with Russia, she was expanding aggressively, I tried to limit her expansion by settling right above her capital. On turn 53, upgraded to Archers and ready to go full on war with Russia, while building Gate of All nations.

Turn 64 captured Rome right after her building Theodoric (nice wonder for war . then swing army west and captured 3 other weaker and poorly placed towns, razed them all and plot down 2 of my own cities.

Turn 83 captured last Russian city, had to kill 2 of her settlers before that.

Since culture is low, tried to build as many unique improvement as I could. Lost multiple wonder race. But was nice to get Terracota Army, Gate of Nations, Theodoric, Emile Bell, and WeiYang Palace. Was frustrating when I razed these cities and my military legacy points acutally dropped. But Asoka DOWed me and I was able to take over one of his towns to end the age.

Spend diplo point on 2 CS (1 Military, 1 cultural), the rest on stealing tech/cultural, and small amount on war since I razed multiple cities.

Selected Growth/30% build discount government to develop the empire.

Finished all the Persian civics, but missing 2 civics giving settlement boosts.

Ended with 4 cities and 6 towns, wasted a settler on last turn, have good amount of infra built in cities. Got 1 lvl10 commender with the Order commendation.

 

[cas]

114 turns. 115 turns. The game said 100% at T114, but didn't take me to Exploration until T115. 8 legacy points.

What was your plan for moving toward the victory condition? 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?
wanted to take out 2 AI, but ended up only eliminating Catherine, and late (T78) because I waited too long and she expanded multiple cities south. Reduced Charlemagne to 2 small cities in the far north. Almost captured Ashoka's capital, but fell short.

- Did you settle in place or move?
in place. 3rd city was northwest after eliminating hostile culture CS, so it shared Grand Canyon with the capital.

- What were your initial 5-10 builds in the capital and/or other early cities?
scout, scout, scout, brickyard, slinger (I think)

- Early order for technology/civics? What did you later prioritize for technology/civics?
pottery-AH-masonary-writing-irrigation ?
mysticism-discipline-discipline2-Persian civics

- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
not a fan of Persia. culture/science is weak. science was helped by Grand Canyon. built Pairidaeza late, but as many as possible for culture/gold...should have built some earlier.

- How many cities/towns did you settle and/or capture? Where did you settle your first few towns? What was your mix of towns vs cities?
settled 4 (capital-in place, 2-north of Catherine to box her, 3-northwest to grab part of Grand Canyon, 4-northeast towards Caithness CS after befriending)
captured 5 from Catherine/Russia. kept capital and one further south. Razed 3 others. Catherine was kind enough to build Mausoleum of Theodoric in her capital for me. Also razed the culture CS down there...should have left it to die after eliminating Catherine.
captured 3 from Charlemagne/Maya. Kept 2. Charlemagne was kind enough to bulid Nalanda for me. Razing the one furthest north toward Ben Franklin area.
almost captured Ashoka/Maurya capital, but fell short. that will slow me down in Exploration.

- What were key production/purchase focuses?
brickyard/granaries, settlers to 4 cities, military/armies, altars for happiness. I have four Hazarapatis...not sure how the carry-over to exploration works. I should have built a few Pairidaeza earlier to help with culture. Or converted a couple more towns to cities and built culture infrastructure.

- Pantheon chosen and why?
Stone Circles. Love the production bonuses.

- What government did you select? Which bonus did you chose most and why?
Despotism. Figured I would need the science and military the most.

- Other good info we didn't think to ask?
nothing comes to mind

- How did you focus your use of influence for diplomacy?
befriended 4 CS. there were other CS available for befriending, but I ran out of influence. Also used some influence on war support and stole one tech.

- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
I declared war on Catherine and Charlemagne. Only DOW on me was Ashoka due to alliance with Charlemagne. I expected more wars, but maybe the AI could see I had a decent army.
Missed Emile Bell by two turns. Had to build Oracle instead to get 1 culture legacy point.

- Did you enjoy this Age?
Yes, fairly easy for Diety so far. I think the map layout and Grand Canyon helped. Not a complaint.

Thanks for hosting the game.

cas

 

[Manpanzee]

105 turns

Well, obviously war was on the menu. I met Catherine early and supported both of her endeavors, so we actually had some positive relations going for a minute. That quickly flipped after some mutual forward settling, and I was happy to accept when she denounced me.

In the meantime, I rushed out to five settlements. I clustered a bit more densely than usual, getting three settlements with the Grand Canyon buff. Aside from Settlers, I was also spamming Slingers while beelining Bronze Working. I wanted to save some upgrade gold by directly building Immortals (with the Persia +50% hammer tradition), and that timing worked out reasonably well, giving me a sufficient army when Catherine came calling:

Spoiler :

War with Catherine went about how it usually does. She had a lot of units to start, and I needed to sit back hold my ground with ranged for a bit. Then she pretty much completely crumbled as soon as her front line was gone. I finished wiping her on turn 78, keeping all five settlements she founded. Not a lot of great city spots in her empire, but all perfectly acceptable for towns.

Spoiler :

At this point I paused to take stock. None of the AIs were particularly wonder-spammy, and nobody on the home continent was above 1/7 on that track. However, both Ben Franklin and Charlemagne had super high science, and both already had Academies down. I figured one or both of them would probably finish the science legacy path before me, which meant I just needed to target reaching the 2/3 legacy milestones on both science and culture by 105.

Ben ended up capping the science path on turn 90, which is absolutely crazy. The rest of the way was mostly uneventful building. I successfully built Gate, Colosseum, Emile Bell, and Mundo Perdido, but missed out on Pyramid of the Sun by a couple turns. I was already at four cities upon wiping Catherine, and I had some thoughts of going higher. But once I saw how the age timeline was shaking out, I decided to stay on four. Spent a bunch of gold setting up warehouse buildings in my towns, bought some hammers in Cusa to get Emile Bell down in time, and otherwise saved for Exploration.

Spoiler :

 

[GeoGeo]

130 turns, 9 Legacy Points

Settled in place and expanded to Grand Canyon ASAP, with plans for a mining setup after that. Got off to a decent start thanks to narrative events boosting both science and culture. Went with Despotism for the infantry boost, and pushed it into overkill by picking God of War for my pantheon--wish I'd done Stone Circles instead

Met Catherine early (naturally) and hoped for good initial relations. There were not good initial relations. She parked a bunch of troops on my border, but I had just enough troops of my own that she didn't end up declaring war at first. The early investing in deterrence slowed down settlement progress, though. She actually dispersed her army after some IPs started harassing her. The inevitable war declaration came right around when my first Commander showed up and I got to work eating away at her empire over the course of the age (with Charlemagne coming in clutch with military aid). I ultimately had 9 settlements--two that I settled plus the capital, and six that I took from Catherine (had four cities by the end). I let a couple of Catherine's settlements survive so they could count towards legacy progress in Exploration. I didn't fight anyone else (aside from IPs--got the barbarian horde crisis), though a late alliance with Ashoka did pull me into an inconsequential war with Franklin.

I was able to set up three Grand Canyon settlements, though I don't think I took optimal advantage of the benefits. In addition to military I got the full economic path in the natural course of playing (as I always seem to), but fell short in science (2 points) and culture (only 1) The AI was Wonder-happy this game, especially Franklin. I only succeeded at building Gate of All Nations and Petra--I bungled a late attempt at the Coliseum due to not rearranging my resources properly.

Some missed opportunities, but I'm just glad to have survived the new and (somewhat) improved Deity. Feeling pretty good about the transition to Exploration and the Mongols. And to Bermuda Triangle shenanigans.

 

[MACKA0ili]

108 turns

Settled in place and went for the grand canyon to start off with extra science. Initial plan was to create another city north of the canyon but I switched into forward settling Catherine once I realized how close she was. Decided to go Oligarchy and went straight for Writing and its Mastery to pump up my science. After building my first library, it was pretty much all military units until Catherine declared war. I had played another Deity game on the new patch before this so I decided to use my extra diplomacy points to run endeavors to keep the other civs off my back while I destroyed Catherine. Things took a little longer than I expected, and I had to keep swatting down the settlers she tried to sneak past me but I eventually managed to take all 5 of her settlements from her by turn 100. After that I focused on getting the economic legacy path done to end the era by upgrading towns into cities and buying/building markets. I delayed the last point by about 3 turns so I could get 1 last codex the tier 2 science legacy.
In the end, Parsa turned out to be a pretty good city with the Petra and Gate of Nations fueling my military. I did end up settling another city north of the canyon eventually too so I ended up with 8 settlements in total. Hope to keep up this momentum in the next age, Mongolia should make the military route much easier though I'll probably hit the settlement cap so I might try to see what's overseas.

 

[GoblinMatron]

Turns: 101

I planned to defeat 1 or 2 civs to finish the age quickly. I wanted at least 4 wonders, enough codices for 2 scientific legacy points and assumed that the resources for the economic legacy path would come naturally.
I focussed my civics on the wonders I wanted (Petra, Hanging Gardens, Gate of all Nations, then see what is left). I was afriad to not get 4 good wonders.
In the end, I did not get enough codices for 2 scientific legacy points. I could have delayed the age for 3 more turns to get the codices and finish 2 more wonders (Oracle and Weiyang Palace) for the third cultural legacy point. Not sure if I should have done that. 3 turns are 3 turns and it already took me longer than anticipated to finish my last war.

T 01: I found my capital in place
T 02-18: I explore, taking money whenever possible from goodie huts, so that I can buy an early settler, which is especially lucrative this game thanks to the silver
T 18: I buy a settler
T 21: I found my 2. settlement Tarsus to the west of the Grand Canyon
T 26: I found my 3. settlement close to Catherine
T 31: Catherine declares war on me and I am not ready. My military is to the north fighting the cultural city state.
T 32: Catherine takes my 3.settlement
T 39: I take my settlement back
T 47: I found my 4. settlement Harran to the north of the Grand Canyon
T 53: I take Ostia from Catherine. I convert Tarsus to a city
T 56: I take Rome from Catherine. Sadly, a hostile city state takes one of Catherine's settlements that I wanted and razes it before I can take it.
T 60: I take Pompeii and defeat Catherine
T 61-75: My Army Commander is in the far north, where Catherine's last city was. He takes some turns to heal, then discovers the rest of the north and defeats two independant cities there.
T 64: I finish the Petra in Parsa
T 70: I convert Rome to a city
T 72: I finish gate of all Nations inTarsus
T 75: I make a plan to defeat Ashoka. He only has 2 settlements, so I assume that it will be quick. And Pataliputra looks beautiful, I want to have it.
T 79: I finish Terracotta Army in Parsa
T 84: the Crisis begins. I declare waron Ashoka
T 87: I take one of Ashokas settlementsand finish the military legacy Path. I convert Harran to a city.
T 95: I finish the Colosseum in Parsa
T 100: I finishg Pyramid of the Sun in Parsa
T 101: I capture Pataliputra and defeat Ashoka

Production in Parsa:
Scout → Scout → Warrior →Brickyard → Settler(bought) → Settler → Granary →3 Slinger

Civics:
Discipline → Mysticism → Code ofLaws → 3 Persian Civics
I wanted Petra as soon as possible, because it is very good at the capital's location and I was scared that someone else might take it away from me.

Techs:
Pottery → Animal Husbandry →Masonry → Masonry Mastery → Irrigation → Writing
I knew that I could skip Writing forsome time, because the Grand Canyon gives science, so the library isnot as necessary as in other games. I also wanted to try and build the Hanging Gardens. I think that it is a good wonder even in cities without any farms, just for the attribute and the growth rate. In this game, it might be especially good in Parsa, because farms are not as bad: Parsa has the Petra, the Grand Canyon, some floodplains tiles and unique improvements in this and the next age from the civilization that can/must be built on farms. Sadly, I had to build units and someone else build the Hanging Gardens.

Pantheon:
Stone Circles. We have many mines/quarries in the first 2 settlements, so it is a no-brainer.

Government:
Oligarchy.
The food is good early and the production boost is good in the mid-/late-game.

Diplomacy:
I befriended 3 city states, hoping thatI might have the influence to befriend more, but the war somehow diminishes how much influence you get, I don't 100% understand wha texactly causes that. I offered Benjamin Military Aid and supported his Science endeavor when I could.

Settlements:
9 total. 4 cities, 5 towns. 4self-founded, 5 captured (0 of them razed)

 

[RaidandTrade]

And Pataliputra looks beautiful, I want to have it.

Nice!

 

[RaidandTrade]

Turn 130/131 in Ancient Era, 8 Legacy Points.

Spoiler Ranking :

Spoiler Legacy Points :

Spoiler End of Age Yields :

What was your plan for moving toward the victory condition? 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 was actually going to go for peaceful expansion to take advantage of the higher settlement cap. Really wish I hadn't... Catherine changed my plans with early hate despite attempts at diplomacy.

Did you settle in place or move?

Took one step to the left.

What were your initial 5-10 builds in the capital and/or other early cities?

Scout x 3, brickyard and granary then settler x 3. One on the coast, fed one to a hostile independent power and settled one slightly north east. With the cultural NW so close, I felt safe not prioritising the monument.

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

Tech: Beelined Writing with the intention to go back to Masonry for monument but ended up going into Bronze working as Catherine became aggressive.
Civic: Pantheon (Stone Circles) then Gate of all nations (built successfully during the first Catherinic war) then dipping in and out of unique tree and main tree.

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

Planned to use the settlement cap to expand peacefully to build a platform of solid cities that would be the core of the empire to start really warring in Exploration. War from Catherine meant I was actually quite weak in both science and culture as I diverted hammers into units. Lost too many units as I had a split the army to defend my northern city from an aggressive IP so the units fighting Catherine took too many casualties.

How many cities/towns did you settle and/or capture? Where did you settle your first few towns? What was your mix of towns vs cities?

Ended up with 3 cities (the ones I built) and 5 towns (all captured from Catherine, including Roma) at the end so I didn't even max out my settlement cap and didn't reach Mathematics.

What were key production/purchase focuses?

Fresh meat for the grinder and commanders. I ended with a hefty amount of gold (just over 2,000) to take into Exploration but I wasn't as well placed in the Science/Culture race for Exploration.

Pantheon chosen and why?

Stone Circles. Basically, it was the best of what was available and seems to be my default choice.

What government did you select? Which bonus did you chose most and why?

Classic Republic. Culture is always a priority so took +20% culture most of the time. Occasionally I managed to use the wonder production (Gate of All Nations and Oracle).

How did you focus your use of influence for diplomacy?

I befriended a few City States then it was mainly war support to keep Catherine in the red.

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

Didn't get some of the wonders I was trying to build, missing some by only one or two turns. Aggressive IP divided my army as well which didn't help me. Losing a settler also bit me.

Did you enjoy this Age?

Initially, no. It didn't go to plan. I was hoping for "sim city" but grew by bloody conquest which ended up being fun.

 

[jes_terday]

Turns: 117
Xerxes, a game with a lot of war. Good for me, because I've neglected combat so far and practiced little. Goals: Build five settlements, a powerful army, and attack the nearest neighbor. And then we'll see.

I settled at the starting point.

Because of the many mines, I tried something: only two scouts, but immediately a brickworks, and then two settlers, a slinger, and another settler. The settlements worked, but I was very lucky. Behind the natural wonder, I encountered an enemy warrior, so I had to build immediately. Luckily, my slinger arrived in time to save the settlement. Otherwise, the rapid expansion paid off, but I retained a poor grasp of the map until the end, because something was always more important than a new scout.

T2: Capital, T18 second settlement, T27 third settlement, T37 fourth settlement.
Then Catherine comes running in and declares war. That took the decision out of the way for me about who to fight. But I wasn't quite ready yet; first, defense was the order of the day (T50). Then finally, my fifth settlement, and I built units for three generals.

The war went surprisingly easily; Rome didn't offer that much resistance; the independent peoples were more annoying.

I started four wonders, but I only managed to build one. That was frustrating.

At the end, I still had to search for where the last Romans were hiding. And I wanted to delay the end to score even more points. But the independents became so strong that I almost lost another city. So, I decided to end it at T117.

 

[torsteinvh]

125 turns in antiquity.

Overall plan was to create a strong foundation for the rest of the game. I've played a few test games, and find it hard to really cut down on the number of turns in antiquity and to an extent exploration and still achieve a decent amount of legacy points. Modern age on the other hand can be quick if the foundations are good

So my plan for antiquity was to build two wonders for a culture point, at least get Fealty on the military path, at least one milestone on science, and complete the economic path.

If a good opportunity presented itself I planned on eliminating a civ or two to shorten the age. Future techs and civic is usually beyond reach for me at Deity.

Settling and building

• Settled in place
• Build order: Scout - Scout - Scout - Warrior - Settler - Settler
• After that Brickyard - Gate of all Nations - Library - Monument
• Missed Hanging Gardens by a couple of turns, after that I built mostly military and happiness buildings when needed
• Settled two more towns around Grand Canyon to share the science bonus between three settlements.
• Pottery - Animal Husbandry - Writing - Masonry - Irrigation - Bronze Working - The Wheel - Sailing - Currency - Engineering
• Settled three more after that, two to the east to reach the coast, and on to the north near Charlemagne
• Captured two cities from Charlemagne in my first war, and got one in the peace deal
• Captured Charlemagne's last two cities and eliminated him in my second war

Initial techs and civcs:

• Focus on ranged units as soon as possible, then growth, upgraded arhchers and finally science to get codicies.
• Discipline - Discipline II - Mysticism - Code of Laws - Then the Persian cicvic tree
• Getting commander as soon as possible, then focusing on settlement limit

Wars

• First war almost ended in disaster, I started maybe a turn early before my units were perfectly placed, and I was rushed by chariots and lost both my commanders in two turns. But managed to hang on by buying units, and the tide turned.
• Second war I was allied with Benjamin, and hoped he would capture one of Charlemagne's two remaining cities so I could focus on the other, but while it looked good for a while Benjamin ran out of steam so I had to capture both myself. I misread the terrain coming in to the capital, so I couldn't use my archers effectively, and spent way more time than necessary capturing the last city. Could probably have done it som turns earlier with better planning and preparation.
• Had five Army Commanders in the end, promoted to levels 6, 5, 4, 2 and 1. Great foundation for the exploration campagin.

• Pantheon: Stone Circles, I always take that.
• Government: Republic, I think. The one with culture and wonders. Always culture except when I'm building wonders.
• Influence mostly used for trading and accepting deals from Catherine to keep her happy. Suzerained one city state, rest of the influence used on war support.

• Surprises: No war with Catherine She was friendly all along, and I ended the age allied with both her and Benjamin
• Frustrations: Missed two wonders by a turn or two
• Elations: Managed to pull it all together the last couple of turns: Eliminated Charlemagne, built the second wonder, got the last codex I needed, so four extra legacy points I more or less had given up on

All in all an enjoyable age, I have more or less the foundation I want for the Exploration age

 

[Bleidraner]

Turn 105

The plan:
Take advantage of the Grand Canyon to plant 3 cities, all of them with the extra science. That will allow Xerxes to tech like a champ, instead of the warmonger he is. That should get me 2/3 science legacies. Getting 3 in military with Xerxes is almost a given, we are going to be at war most of the age. 3 economic legacies kind of takes care of themselves. Building 7 wonders in Deity for the full 3 legacies is a pipedream, wont happen. So objective is 3 legacies in military and economic, 2 in culture and science. So my calculation, if you kill an AI, that should give me a 110 turns win, which will be close to the top players. If we get 11 legacies, then 105. If we manage to kill 2 AIs, well 100 with 11 legacies. So plant 3 cities sharing the GC, go to war with neighbor and tech hard and wonder spam.

The game:
Scout, Scout, Brickyard, bought settler, settler, planted settlement 2 on t18, planted settlement 3 on t24 or so. Catherine is my neighbor but she is very nice to begin with, with a couple of science deals. But soon, she denounces me, which is great as I can see she is very close. But she does not DoW me, so I denounce her military presence and that triggers the war on t39. The war does not go very fast, there is an IP that is kind of messing with both of us so it takes me until t66 to capture Rome. This is pretty slow, I should have built 3-4 more units and make this happen faster by 5 turns but my build queue was very busy as I really wanted to get Petra in my cap, thinking about production in Modern. Petra usually goes fast in Deity.

Once Rome fell, I took stock. I had Carlomagno to my north, with a few cities and very difficult access through mountain passes and jungle, and he is Maya, so not wise to screw with him. But there is Ashoka in the north, with a beautiful Paliputra as his only city! He is not incredibly far away, so I decide to go for it and see if I can finish off Catherine and also kill Ashoka, that would give me an amazing result.

Things did not go as planned. First it took me until t82 to finish Catherine off and unfortunately that last town puts my best Army commander really far away from Paliputra, in the far south. Second, I started spamming some units in the capital to have a second army, 2 archers and 2 immortals that would join my veterans from the south to help kill Ashoka. While they were waiting, I sent them to hover close to the border of Carlomagno, who asked me for a non aggression agreement. I checked and realized that he was allied with Ashoka. So I agreed to support the non aggression thig, and immediately DoWd Ashoka, and lo and behold, of course Carlomagno reneges on the non aggression deal and DoWs me. That puts him at a minus 6 war support, which makes it very easy for my 2 archers and 2 immortals to capture Tikal and resist efforts to reconquer. 10 turns later I propose peace and get Chichen Itza.

Let’s be clear, that short victorious war with Carlomagno was a mistake. I got 2 towns, one of them with an academy, but this made me lose the opportunity to kill Ashoka and go sub 105.

So took stock again, I am now at 9 cities well over the cap and unhappy, and unfortunately I have run out of time to kill Ashoka. 105 is now my best possible result but for that I need to get to 4 wonders, I already have Gate of Nations and Petra, but I need 2 more. So capital starts building Pyramid of the Sun and Pathra works on Emile Bell. I feel pretty comfortable with Emile Bell, due to finish in t104, as it is rarely picked by the AIs. But as I feared I lost Pyramid of the Sun by 2 turns (that really sucked). I immediately substituted it with Weiyang Palace and managed to finish that.

Meanwhile I am doing really well on tech having reached Maths and back for the masteries, I plant a couple of academies, manage to get the 10 codices (in fact I got 11) by t104. I get my 20 resources for economic on the same turn, and I had already got the military a looooong time ago. Emile finishes building on t104 or 105 and the age ends.

So, 3 cities, 6 towns, 1 more razed. 11 legacies (just missing one culture). Cities on the West and East Coasts. Parsa well developed and with Petra. 2 Armies with 8 units. I am well placed for Exploration but I have some regrets:

- Should have stuck to my plan and go for Paliputra. I got scared.
- A 4th city (Chichen Itza) would have been great, as I will be able to keep my cities in Exploration, but I run out of money.
- Was not able to save any significant money or influence for Exploration. Have like 150 Gold and 25 influence.
- A third army with 4 units would have been nice.
- All the above could have been achieved if I had not obsessed with Academies, which I really did not need, I had turns to spare on Science. 2 academies less = 4 more units, one more Commander, and some money saved. Maybe even that 4th city.

This was fun thak you GoTM staff. On to Exploration and, alas, more war. The Mongols are coming.

Spoiler Screenshots :

 

[Lord Yanaek]

Antiquity : 106 turns

GotM06 should be just around the corner if the plan is still 2-games per months so maybe it's time i (finally) wake up and post my results

What was your plan for moving toward the victory condition? 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 was my first military game in Civ7 and it was Deity, which i barely touched before so i really didn't have much ideas how it would unfold. With the OP Grand Canyon i wasn't too worried about success but beyond that this game was one big surprise for me. My only real plan was to get military units out ASAP and take advantage of the huge science boost to delay what is usually essential infrastructure a bit later.
Oh, and obviously, since it was turns-based score i did plan to eradicate a civ or 2 and when Cathy volunteered to be my first victim by marching an army on Pãrsa, that part of the plan became a lot more clear
Love how Cathy cares about her Palace more than her own safety

Spoiler :

I tried to stay friendly with Ashoka and Ben but Charlemagne eventually lured Ashoka into an alliance after declaring war on me which was unfortunate for the "great king at the center"

Did you settle in place or move?
After Eyswein's instructive "how to abuse that insane start for an even more insane result" post i didn't really want to move. I couldn't see a better option for a turn 1-2 city and didn't want to wander too long anyway.

What were your initial 5-10 builds in the capital and/or other early cities?
Early cities sounds like a Civ6 remnant Anyway in the capital i produced only 2 scouts (down from my usual 3) as i wanted military units fast. After that i trained 3 warriors and 3 slingers with some production boost as they unlocked followed by 2 settlersin order to secure 3 settlements around Grand Canyon

Early order for technology/civics? What did you later prioritize for technology/civics?
I should keep notes. I really should, especially when i play the entire game before posting any result rather than a single age.
I don't think i deviated much from what i do usually : AH > Pottery > Irrigation > Masonry (as science wasn't really an issue) then i went to bronze working instead of Currency (my usual goal in more peaceful games) and the rest wasn't really that important.
For Civics it was Discipline obviously, but i almost always go Discipline first anyway. Then Mysticism 1 and 2 (love that food boost) and into Persia unique tree.

How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
Honestly, i knew Xerxes+Persia was a strong combo for a war oriented Antiquity game but i had no idea just how strong until a played it. I could have sworn i was playing against Prince AI with no strength bonus (and independent powers were just laughable). I was attacked by Cathy relatively early and easily repelled her invasion, taking 2 cities by force and another one in the peace deal, leaving her with only her capital and didn't loose a single unit in the process.

How many cities/towns did you settle and/or capture? Where did you settle your first few towns? What was your mix of towns vs cities?
I settled 2 early around Grand Canyon so i would have the science bonus in 3 settlements. Then i took 3 from Rome and later Rome itself. Then i settled a 4th town to fill some gap and took 1 more from Ashoka and 2 from Charlemagne. I was at 11/8 at the end of the Antiquity with only +2 global happiness but since it was Barbarian crises and not Loyalty i didn't care.

What were key production/purchase focuses?
Wait, didn't i already answer that?

Pantheon chosen and why?
Whocaresgodofthesun

What government did you select? Which bonus did you chose most and why?
Oligarchy as bonus food is never useless, especially early on.

How did you focus your use of influence for diplomacy war support?
There, corrected for you
Still managed to befriend 2 CS, including a heavy focus on a Military one for more commander XP, but mostly war support really, especially since i didn't have a high production with the conquered settlements penalty. In fact i was at -2 at the end of the age.

Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
This game was full of surprises, but the 2 major ones were how strong this combo is and how perfect the crises was. With Loyalty i would have had to consider my over-expansion more carefully but with Barbarian i just got some free XP for my commanders and an extremely strong Legacy Card moving into the Exploration age. needless to say i made sure i had the right amount of promoted commanders when the Crises struck.

Did you enjoy this Age?
As always, i love Antiquity, but nothing lasts forever

Spoiler :

EDIT. Forgot to post my end-of-age results. I know Legacy points are not the goal here but i like to see where i am. My conquests were slightly overkill in the end of the age, as i didn't need any of the 3 settlements i took from Charlemagne and Ashoka, but hey, they declared that war on me, i just crushed the rebellion
Probably not optimal, i should have saved those for Exploration, but i had a lot of fun and that's what's important. Silk Roads is ridiculously easy with so many settlements and i even managed to build 4 wonders (HG, Gate, Terracota and even managed to fit Petra in Pãrsa to take advantage of all the flat deserts)

Spoiler :

 

[pmarc]

Turn 105 (10 legacies: 3 mil, 3 econ, 2 sci, 2 cult)

The general plan for the Antiquity was:
- Take maximum advantage of the Grand Canyon.
- Eliminate one AI, get just enough settlements for completing the military path (ended with 8: 4 founded by me, 4 conquered from Catherine and 1 razed). That will reduce the happiness hit from the larger amount of settlements we will need with Mongols in Exploration.

Initial techs were AH->Masonry. Because rough tiles don't get the +2 science, I chose to ignore them initially. After grabbing the kaolin using the trick highlighted in the announcement thread, I picked the farm SW of capital that connected to two grassland woods. Only after these woods did I grab the iron and silver.

I put the first two settlements 4 NE and NW of the natural wonder, they were eventually converted to cities. The next one was SW of capital by the coast and will remain a fishing town. That's all I settled this age. I think in this GOTM we really don't need that many cities, given the military goals and the bonus to gold generation from Xerxes. 3 cities was the minimum to host the 6 codices in libraries. I expect Roma to be offered as an alternate capital in the next age, so I can convert it for free and get 4 cities.

After the initial techs, I focused on reaching bronze working and wheel for military, then engineering to catch up on culture with amphitheaters, then various masteries for codices (could have fit math, but was not confident about it). Ended with 7 codices, while Charlemagne and Franklin completed the path.

For culture, I wasn't as sure about the path. I think I did Myst, Disc I- Disc II (for Gate of all Nations), Myst II, then Code of Laws for Petra, which I missed by a turn. Then the first two tiers of Persian civics, then back to the main tree Entertainement and Org.Military, and finally 3rd tier of Persian civics.

I was helped by getting Free Civic from my first suzerained CS and Free Tech from the 2nd one. Ended with 4 city states and dispersed two military ones when trying to hurry wonders. I got the 4 wonders in time (Gate, Colosseum, Emile Bell and a rather useless Pyramids).

Note: The free civics from the city states were really useful, but I think maybe I could have got a faster early game by supporting some proposed endeavors for science and culture. I'm still not sure what's the best strategy in that case. Even on deity the AI are not *that* quick to grab city-states because they love to spam their endeavors.

I waited on the last turn to assign my last resources and finish Catherine's last city (under siege for 20+ turns).

I built up some more military while waiting for the end and got some experience for my new commanders from the hostile IP crisis. Ending with 4 commanders, 21 military units, ~2000 gold and ~250 influence in bank for Exploration. With the Grand Canyon bonus and the Step Pyramid UIs, I should have enough science on rural tiles to get a good start in Exploration.