7OTM08 (Aug 25) - Completion of Age of Antiquity Spoiler Thread

[Eyswein]

At the top of your post please post: Difficultly Level & 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?

 

[civfanatic4sure]

Deity - 94 turns - 7 legacy points (1 culture, 2 military, 1 science, 3 economic)

- 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?

Going into the game I wanted to leverage Yuthahathi's w/ increased movement speed from the civ culture tree for war and grab a military city state for increased settlement limit. Also obviously needed at least one alliance for Friend of Wei + the memento.

Met Lafayette w/ Rome and didn't want to war there (Legions).
Met Hatshepsut w/ Egypt and didn't want to war there (Medjay)
Met Jose w/ Mississippi and didn't want to war there (Burning Arrows)
Met Ibn w/ Aksum and he became the target.

Things changed when I sent my 3rd settler south to the double Gypsum + Camel area and Hatshepsut had two settlers on the way to that navigable river. Her settle lowered our relationship from Friendly. Then I peeled my settler over in between to the double Cotton + double Silk + double Marble area, which lowered the relationship further. Then she denounced me, game on.

I allied w/ Ibn and Lafayette.

She sent 4-6 units w/ a commander to my capital before we were Hostile and I got her with a Denounce Military Presence which gave me war support bonus. So I repelled the attack quickly w/ Archers plus Yuthahathi's that just came unlocked. Then I easily took the double Gypsum + Camel town w/ almost no defense present. Swung over to the city north of her capital and took it while she was taking my military city state.

I took back the city state w/ just archers and razed it because I was 2 over limit. Then Yuthahathi's + Commander w/ the Order commendation rolled Waset to eliminate her. I had 5-6 war support the whole time using most of my influence and got at least one from Ibn.

I was close to losing one or two settlements from the crisis but got the last settlement limit civic in time. Then immediately bopped the economic golden age to end the era by trading for Camels w/ Jose. I ended my alliance with Lafayette just before that when he declared war on Jose; needed to keep that trade route option to make the Economic golden age (Camels).

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

- What were your initial 5-10 builds in the capital and/or other early cities?
4 scouts, granary, (purchased settler), brickyard

- Early order for technology/civics? What did you later prioritize for technology/civics?
Rushed Wheel for Yuthahathi's.
Mysticism, Discipline + Mastery to rush Gate of All Nations, then first 2 Khmer civics (never took the last node because I wanted more than one city and couldn't take the happiness penalty)

- 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?
Capital + 3 settles + 3 captured (finished 3 cities + 4 towns). Settled Ou Kaev to make a resort town on Kilimanjaro. Then Jayendranagari for all the resources to become a city later. Then Lingapura when I got beat to the double Gypsum to make another city. Left Waset a town even w/ Economic Golden Age because I was certain I would be able to make it my capital for free next age.

- What were key production/purchase focuses?
Units & any district on rivers for civ bonus

- Pantheon chosen and why?
Stone Circles for the three mines northwest in the capital

- What government did you select? Which bonus did you chose most and why?
Classical Republic and +20% Culture every time except when I built Gate of All Nations

- How did you focus your use of influence for diplomacy?
War support

- Did you enjoy this Age?
Yes, really great map. The reduced age progress made it REALLY fast feeling vs my normal games I play on default.

 

[Manpanzee]

90 turns Antiquity

I finished all of the science/econ/military legacy paths and got to 2/3 on the cultural path. No civ wipes, no future techs. Abbreviated ages felt like a nice change of pace -- currently it's a bit too easy for skilled players to "do everything" on standard ages, which contributes to games feeling a bit samey. With abbreviated ages, I'd expect a bit more variety in how you get through the age.

Lafayette was very weak this game and would have been by far the easiest to wipe, but I had already committed to making him my ally by the time this became apparent. Instead, Hatshesput was my designated enemy for the game. She may have been wipe-able with a bit of luck -- one of my IP allies was just a turn away from taking and razing one of her cities, but instead she got in there and conquered the IP, for a +2 settlement swing versus the lucky outcome.

I enjoy Khmer and still think they're a bit underrated. The UA is very strong and fun to build around, and the elephants are obviously awesome. There is a lot of good stuff in the generic Antiquity civics tree, and probably people underestimate the opportunity cost of working through a unique civics tree. In this case, I didn't touch the Khmer tree until the very end of the age, when I powered through it all in a line in order to unlock the attribute point.

Some screenshots of notable points in the game:

Turn 43. Hatshesput has declared war on me a couple turns ago, and I've just picked up my first alliance, with Lafayette.

Spoiler :

Turn 59. I have just completed Himiko's leader quest chain, unlocking a third scientific attribute point for the extremely-potent +science from slotted resources.

Spoiler :

Turn 90. I'm a few turns past taking Waset (full of juicy wonders) and getting all my legacy paths as far as they were gonna go. The age counter has just ticked to 100. I don't have much gold because I decided to buy up all the Villas I could afford. Still ended up just short of purchasing the last one.

Spoiler :

 

[civfanatic4sure]

@Manpanzee nice run!

 

[dzn]

110 turns, mostly peaceful - some trouble, focused on expansion and science

Spoiler age rankings :

 

[ABigCivFan]

93 turns. 2 culture, 2 military, 3 science, 3 econ legacy points.
I wanted to try a fully peaceful game and leverage Himiko's traits, i.e. do not initiate any wars with major powers. And I was able to complete this age in 93 turns peacefully. Settled 5 cities in the last few turns (which dragged down my relations with everyone) to get 2 military legacy points. Used more influence on deals, struggled with culture rate all game. Converted 3 cities and plan on golden age Academy for the next age. Took out 1 IP for hammers and 1 for gold. Allied with Egypt at turn 57 to start unique deal. In the screenshot my settlements were dealing with severe unhappiness issues due to over settling and crisis, thankfully it did not last long

Spoiler Turn 93 end of age :

 

[GoblinMatron]

Turns: 93

LPs:
2 cultural, 3 militaristic, 3 scientific, 3 economic

Technology:
Animal Husbandry - Pottery - Writing - Writing Mastery - Masonry

Civic:
Discipline - Mysticism - COde of Laws - Mysticism Mastery - Discipline Mastery

Production:
Scout - Scout - Scout - Saw Pit - Brickyard (bought) - Settler - Setller - Library - Slinger - Slinger - Slinger - Settler


Since the AI all seemed to be quite far away, I planned for a relatively peaceful age. There were plenty of scientific city states that I planned to befriend. I hoped that would boost my science enough to get to a future tech.

So I used my influence for a science endeavor ealry to get to writing faster. Afterwards, I befriended as many city states as possible. Sadly, one of the scientific city states got wiped by Rosé while it was being befriended by me.

Lafayette, Ibn Battuta and Hatshepsut all liked me while Rosé Rizal did not. So I allied the 3 friendly AIs. When it became clear, that I would not get a future tech, I wanted to go to war instead to get the 3 militaristic legacy points. I declared war on Rosé Rizal and my 3 allies joined me.

I captured 2 settlements from Rosé and got one in a peace deal. In the end, I had 3 cities and 6 towns.

 

[Calcifer]

100 turns
1 military, 2 scientific, 1 cultural, 2 economic

I definitely wanted a peaceful game, because the last time I waged war against egypt it didn't end very well. Ended the age with 2 cities and 4 towns. I'm quite happy with the settlement spots, but I'm really not good enough for shorter ages, I would have needed at least 5 more turns to get scientific and economic golden age. I think the age progress advanced by 20 turns at the very end, with Hatsheput completing culture path and a DL civ completing scientific (that one was really sneaky).

Spoiler Age progress overview :

Spoiler My territory at the end of the age :

 

[Ballcrusher]

I didn't finish my game, as I made a lot big mistakes in the beginning. But I just wanted to say a big thank you to all the GOTM admins and all of you good players who take your time to do detailed descriptions with screenshots, so I and other players can learn. It's really fun and helpful to come here and read the strategies and learn from it. Often I play a second game to try and copy the new strategies I find here.

One question though: Is there some sort of log in the game like in CIV6, where you can see the timeline of the game (for example which turns the towns were settled, when wonders were built etcetera)? I find it fun to open good players save game and see their city building layouts and chosen attributes and so on, but there are many things about the played games, that I cannot deduct from the save file - for example the build order and timeline. That is not possible to see in-game unless people write it very detailed her, right? Or do you have any tips I'm missing?

 

[Bleidraner]

89 turns Antiquity

This is going to be a short write up as I am runnning out of time to finish the game before tomorrow. I will just touch on what I felt were the key points. I will try to edit it later with more depth.

- Diplomacy: with Himiko, this is a breeze, you can basically choose whats going to happen. It is also pretty important as Himiko's science boosts allows an early snowball. So 4 AIs and you will have to go to war with at least one, as war will happen between the AIs and you will be allied with all of them, making you choose. I chose Hatsh, the Egyptian lady, as she was pretty close, theoretically will build a lot of wonders that you will conquer (she didn't) and I knew she was going to be difficult when I started to build my own wonders due her leader agenda. Choosing an enemy and going to war relatively early, but after everybody meets everybody, also helps avoid war between the other AIs, due to the friendship boost of "war with a common enemy", to be able to keep those alliances. With 4 civs at war with her, I felt Hatsh would become so weakened that she would be wipeable, exactly what happened in t83. I spent some influence degrading my relationship with Hatsh and declared somewhere around t45.

- Trading and getting to 15 resources so you can get that third science attribute point is essential for the snowball. The 15 resources will boost your production, gold, etc on the way to finish Himiko's leader quest and getting the science per resource is a game changer. Fortunately, due to the traning on the Manpanzee's fast science thread, I am pretty familiar with Himiko .

- Calculate your finish turn and make adequate choices. I spent some time calculating what would the abbreviated age mean in tems of finish turn. I assumed I was going to get 11 legacies (everything except the last culture legacy, it is almost impossible to build 7 wonders before t100 unless you have crazy production). Assuming a little help from the AI, that means t90-t95. Doing science in less than 90 turns even with Himiko is pretty difficult, so that's going to be our critical path. In fact I finished science on t89. In my game, although I was hoping for the civ wipe, I was not depending on it. But Hatsh did a couple of bad peace deals including one with me, that left her with only her cap. That was great but also had the downside that I was only able to get two legacies on the military path, enough for fealty which is essential. I think I would have preferred to to continue the war instead of getting the t60ish peace to get the military path complete instead of the civ wipe for a t90 finish, but it was not to be. 3 more towns (one or two planted, one peace deal, one conquered) would have made the slingshot to Exploration much better, in spite of the happiness hit in the last couple of turns.

- Regrets: Well see above on the military path. Also, I struggled with Culture all game and let a couple of AI players runaway on culture, which will make getting the right religion in Expl very difficult. I think I should have built at least one culture wonder instead of focusing so much in science. In general, if I had to play this again, I would either play completely peaceful to see what I could get (probably a t90-95 but with a better slingshot to Expl), or would have continued the war without peace to try ot get 11 legacies. Biggest regret, I really wanted 3 cities, and I saved the money but I forgot about it and spent the money somewhere else, an academy I think, thinking "oh damn why have you accumulated so much money, you are so dumb, buy something asap". The poor culture play is the biggest issue, I need to review my game again and see what I did wrong there.

EDIT: Just read the whole thread. I did not really use Khmer civics, more about ignorance and poor culture play in my part than any kind of strategic choice. Amazing games, amazing players, very tight finishes. I am not a contender I think, as the t89 finish came a high cost, I am unbalanced between science and culture, my settlements are too small and we will see the impact of that already in Exploration. I am going to try though.

Spoiler Screeshots :

 

[Bleidraner]

One question though: Is there some sort of log in the game like in CIV6, where you can see the timeline of the game (for example which turns the towns were settled, when wonders were built etcetera)? I find it fun to open good players save game and see their city building layouts and chosen attributes and so on, but there are many things about the played games, that I cannot deduct from the save file - for example the build order and timeline. That is not possible to see in-game unless people write it very detailed her, right? Or do you have any tips I'm missing?

There is nothing, as far as I know. And I absolutely understand what you are talking about, I feel the same and the reverse engineering to figure out what happened from the last save does not give you enough. I have made a promise to myself that I will do more in depth write ups and detail the timeline better. Meanwhile, check out Manpanzee's "Fast Science" thread, there are a lot of games and good tips there.

 

[RaidandTrade]

Is there some sort of log in the game like in CIV6, where you can see the timeline

I have made a promise to myself that I will do more in depth write ups and detail the timeline better.

Nope.

I made this promise too.

 

[Suicidekills]

Diety 101 Turns

I thought the idea of High natural disasters along with the Civ Khmer was pretty good. I had a flood 7 turns into the game, so I thought Barays could be more important. While they were okay throughout the game, it was mostly volcanic eruptions for the rest of Antiquity.

I'm a fan of Himiko because I like the diplomacy game. I tried to stay as peaceful as possible throughout the whole game. I scouted well early (I tried that scout civic for the first time and with 3 scouts it was very useful). Since I scouted well, Ibn really liked me. He became my main ally for this age. He was my only ally at the end of the day because the rest of the leaders were at war with each other, and I wasn't trying to upset anyone. The only leader I had issues with appeasing was Hatshepsut. Our relationship oscillated from neutral to friendly. With Himiko's ability, I was in the lead with Science early and never looked back at any other point in the game.

I was not a fan of friendly independent powers. It made the game less interesting. No hostile IPs means no barbarians essentially. I picked up an early archer and spearman from goody huts. Along with my army commander, this was the entirety of my army for most of antiquity. I had one military excursion against a Militaristic IP when I settled near them. Besides that, I was not threatened at all at any point in Antiquity.

Science was the name of the game, and I also went wonder building. I think I ended with around nine wonders. I wasn't successful in getting Petra. This probably cost me a couple of turns.