7OTM06 - Completion of Age of Antiquity Spoiler Thread

[Lord Yanaek]

At the top of your post please post: Difficulty - Number of turns (optional)

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 play differently knowing that neither the number of turns nor the amount of legacy points scored during that age would affect the final score? Do you feel this allowed you to play more freely? Do you feel like it makes the Antiquity less important?
• Do you like the new Pangea map and the ability to meet everyone during the Antiquity?
• Did you settle in place or move? Why? Did you regret your decision?
• 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? Endeavors, City States, War?
• Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
• Did you enjoy this Age?

 

[cas]

Sovereign save. T149 antiquity age end / 9 legacy points (3mil, 3com, 2sci, 1cul)

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?
Delay the age as long as possible while crippling the AI civs. Eliminate some civs on the last turn if possible. Build armies for the next age.
Three notable mistakes:
1) didn't take enough units to conquer Waset quickly. I would kill 2 medjay per turn, Amina would just replace them immediately. That war took way too long and kept me from eliminating her at the end of the age.
2) Kept a couple of Tubman's cities that I should have razed. Constantly at the happiness cap from exceeding settlement limit.
3) Timing was off on the research/civics. Wanted at least one wildcard point from future civic or future tech. Fell way short.

Did you play differently knowing that neither the number of turns nor the amount of legacy points scored during that age would affect the final score? Do you feel this allowed you to play more freely? Do you feel like it makes the Antiquity less important?
Yes, yes, and yes, but I like a mix of formats for score/VC. For this format and VC, I care about the military legacy points for extra settlements (fealty+2 and mil/exp attribute points in Exploration). The others are nice/useful, but not a major concern for Antiquity -> Exploration transition.

Do you like the new Pangea map and the ability to meet everyone during the Antiquity?
Like Pangea, but it is easier than continents...at least on mid levels. I haven't played Deity Pangea.

Did you settle in place or move? Why? Did you regret your decision?
SIP. Fresh water, couple mountains, decent resources, clay pits for production. No reason to move.

What were your initial 5-10 builds in the capital and/or other early cities?
scoutx4 - brickyard - settler - (buy settler) - granary - settler

Early order for technology/civics? What did you later prioritize for technology/civics?
Pottery - sailing - writing - AH - irrigation ? I think sailing and scouts are more important on Pangea to meet as many CS and neighbors asap. Sailing allows scouts to escape land units and get around mountain areas easier...as long as you don't run into galleys.

How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
Didn't make full potential of it, but useful. I consider Pachacuti kind of weak, but maybe I'm playing him wrong.

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 four: capital, city2 - north by Tubman to degrade relationship so she would start a war, city3 - east to grab Thera culture tiles, city4 - west to grab resources and semi block Rome expansion south.
Captured thirteen or fourteen ? Kept Roma (Ceasar), Zala (Tubman/Ceasar), Aksum (Tubman), Champa(CS), Waset (Amina), Baak (Jose), Stung Treng (Nap). Razed the others. Razed one CS too.
4 cities, 7 towns, 3 other captured settlements in process of being razed at end of age.

What were key production/purchase focuses?
4 settlements, Gate of All Nations, Terracotta Army, Emile Bell, units/army commanders. I wanted 4 army commanders and units to fill them going into Exploration.

Pantheon chosen and why?
Stone Circles. What else is there ?

What government did you select? Which bonus did you chose most and why?
Classical Republic. I like the extra culture mid age and useful for wonders earlier.

Other good info we didn't think to ask?
Can't think of anything.

How did you focus your use of influence? Endeavors, City States, War?
befriended 4 CS. Ran into negative influence pretty quick from capturing and razing cities.

Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Wish I had found a friendly science CS earlier. Took forever to get to Aritim at the bottom of the map. Free tech perk was therefore not useful this game.

Did you enjoy this Age?
Yep.

Thanks for hosting the game. I hope someone else hosts another one mid month.

 

[RaidandTrade]

Antiquity: 132 turns (6 legacies)

Spoiler Ranking :

Spoiler Legacies :

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?

First Pangea so looking to see how far inland I’d be for Exploration with an aim to build out towards a coast or, if landlocked, build burning arrows.
At turn 22, I thought I’d found both east and west coasts. The west coast settle looked good but, after a little scouting, ended up sending me first settler due south to get Tropical. If it lets me, this will be my Exploration age capital with the Inca as it’s got a decent Machu Pickchu site.

Game plan was to try and get both coasts to then get some treasure resources.

Pachacuti, whenever I pick him, seems to get forward settled by close, aggressive neighbours. Plan was to build up infrastructure interspersed with burning arrows then get ready to defend and counter. Both Harriet and Augustus forward settled me taking the east spot (near Threa) and west coastal spot I was eyeing. Plan B was to buy Tyre and Su Nuraxi with influence. (Didn’t happen).
Chickasaw got nicely built up and made it to 23 pop by the end of the age. I managed Mundo and Emile Bell there and Monks Mound in Cahokia. The anticipated attacks never came and the most action my army saw was dispersing an Independent that was blocking a settle.

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 x3
Brickyard
Settler x2
Burning Arrow x3
Granary
Settler

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

Pottery (Brickyard) -> AH (Archers) -> Writing -> Irrigation (Hanging Gardens?) -> Bronze Working

Earthworks -> Earthworks II -> Mysticism -> Discipline

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

I played for gold and growth with the aim of getting a Silk Roads golden age.

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 had 7 at the end and was a turn away from putting down number 8 but the age counter jumped from 96% to done. Ended up getting 5 cities, 2 towns.

What were key production/purchase focuses?

Production was mainly to get to adjacencies and setting up for Exploration. Once I finally found and suzed a scientific City State, I put down a few Step Pyramids.

Pantheon chosen and why?

Stone Circles = Production.

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

Oligarchy -> Maximise Growth and getting cities on-line ASAP.

How did you focus your use of influence for diplomacy?

Friendly greetings: Amina, Augustus & HT
Befriend Kuaiji, Tyre, Vyadhapura, Su Nuraxi (dispersed), Shengle and Aritim.
Supported one or two cultural offerings and did a few open borders to get some better scouting. That helped me discover that the west coast was not actually the west coast.

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

Missed Hanging Gardens, Petra, Gate of All Nations by 1 – 2 turns. I seem to always miss the science legacy and wanted a strong military so skipped the monument and went write and into bronze. Mistake. My culture is awful and I still missed science so no golden age academies.

Did you enjoy this Age?

Yes, although I regret not just loading up with burning arrows and picking an early fight which is, I think, how the Mississippians probably should be played.

 

[GeoGeo]

Turn 130, 10 Legacy points -- I'm on the Deity save.

Settled in place, targeting a quarry start. Plan was to find lots of good mountain land for the next age (not at all challenging--thanks for Vihren!) Went heavy on the Burning Arrows early on, and got a war declaration from Harriet after clearing an IP she was befriending. I tried to invade her to the north, but she sent a force after my capital from the east in a rare show of good military planning by the AI. Eventually triumphed and got the settlement I’d been eyeing in a peace deal. I’d later be at war off-and-on with Augustus despite early attempts to be friendly, with Harriet (and Amina for some reason) joining in at times. That’s life at the center of the map, I guess. Speaking of the map, had a rough time scouting. Lot of tough hostile IPs and foreign land in the way (and I preferred to save my Influence for Endeavors rather than Open Borders I wouldn’t otherwise use). I didn’t meet the last AI, Friedrich, until very late.

Domestically, I wanted to go relatively tall and prioritize growth over expanding the settlement limit. I took a chance on beelined Hanging Gardens—which I thankfully got. My Vihren settlement easily kept up with and at times exceeded my capital’s population. The Deity AI was wonder happy, as seems to be the norm as of the recent patches, so I barely managed 2 Cultural legacy points with the otherwise low-priority Oracle and Emile Bell (though maybe Ginseng Agreement is better with the recent growth changes? Maybe I’ll experiment in the next age.) Managed the full Military path by taking some settlements from Augustus and Harriet (including my only settlement with proper sea access), as well as Economic. Culture and Science yields were a bit anemic, so I only got 2 Science points. It felt like I might be floundering when I hit the crisis at turn 97 with only 4 points. The late-game wars really turned things around.

I had three Commanders, two of whom had +2 capacity, and one of who died a shameful death of the plague too late to respawn. Big oof, there. Ended with 8 settlements, which is fine by me, but only 3 cities, due to my irresponsible spending habits.

Looking ahead, I am going for the Inca and am likely to prioritize Science and Culture growth in Exploration after not being able to in Antiquity. I’m not at all equipped for treasure fleets or further conquest. Perhaps I’ll just stretch out the game by ignoring those paths.

P.S. Why is Amina in every single game I play? I expect Civs to repeat, of course, but this one leader just keeps popping up. Only complaint about the map, it’s a great showcase for Pangea Plus and Pachacuti otherwise.