7otM10 (Oct 2025) - Announcement

[Eyswein]

Welcome to Civ VII Game of the Month - 10 (October 2025)

These games will allow new and old GotM fans to play Civ7 in a friendly competitive environment. Participants are encouraged to post questions, stories, advice, tricks and failures in the dedicated game threads (described below). Each game will specify the Civ you will play.

How to Play

1. Please read our Must Read Rules and Game Details sections below for important information before playing.
2. Consult our Other Useful Information section below and ask spoiler free questions in this thread before starting your game if needed.
3. Click the 7otMxxx.Civ7save file attachment at the bottom of this post to download the Civ6 savefile.
4. Move the Civ7 savefile from your ...\Downloads folder to your ...\Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization VIi\Saves\Single folder. (This is the standard Civ67install location so please let us know if yours is different or you can't find it)
5. Load the 7otMxxx.Civ7save file in Civ7 and play the game adhering to all our Rules and Victory Conditions specified below. (In game, click Single Player, Load Game, 7otMxxx should be at the top.)
6. Once finished, report your results in the appropriate thread and attach your finished save game to your post in the final thread.

Must Read Rules!

We would like to ask you to please abide by our most sacred rule: Do NOT replay any turns! If you make a mistake, accept it and try to recover. To ensure fair play and prevent results exclusions, please set your Autosaves to 1 turn. In the event of a computer crash while playing, just reload to the previous save and play it as closely to how you played it the first time.
We also ask that you only use UI mods and not any game changing mods.

Game Details

Goal for this Civ7 GOTM: Fewest total turns.
This Civ7 GOTM Final Score Example: Across all 3 ages, keep track of your turn per age. Add all 3 of them together for total.
Civ7 Scoring: In most previous Civ games, fewest total turns has been a good measure; appears to still be a good overall measure, but please provide feedback if you believe there is a better method.

Victory Condition: Economic (in Modern Age) (all VCs are enabled)
Player (You): Catherine the Great - Greece (Antiquity Age)
Player (You): Norman (Exploration Age) - please chose for the Exploration Age; specific civs may or may not be required for Civ 7 GOTMs
Player (You): Russia (Modern Age) - please chose for Modern Age; specific civs may or may not be required for Civ 7 GOTMs
Mementos: Shisa Necklace, Pochteca Backpack (pick any mementos you desire for future ages; specific mementos may or may not be required for Civ 7 GOTMs)
Mementos bonuses: gain 100 influence when you become suzerain of a city-state; +5 range for all trade routes
Starting Age: Antiquity
Difficulty: Immortal
Start Position: Standard
Game speed: Standard
Age Length: Abbreviated Note: Reduces max turns per Age to 160 instead of standard 200; each age progress is still one turn (so 5 age progress = 5 turns)
End of Age Countdown: No Countdown
Age Transition Impact: Continuity
Initial Independent Hostility: Standard
Bypass Civilization Unlocks: Disabled
Map Type/Size: Continents & Islands / Standard Size
Civs (including player): 8 Civs
Disaster Intensity: Light
Crisis: Yes, but Plague disabled in Antiquity and Exploration Ages

Game Options:
Start: Ancient Era
Enabled: Independent Powers
Game Version: This game was created in Civ7 version 1.2.5 on 30 Sep 2025
Game Requirements: Civ7 vanilla patched

Starting Position


Other Useful Information
Unique Attributes:

Spoiler Unique Attributes :

Leader: Catherine the Great

Leader bonus:

• Leader Ability: +2 Culture per Age on displayed great works
• Leader Ability: Buildings with Great Work slots gain 1 additional slot
• Leader Ability: Cities settled in Tundra gain Science equal to 25% of their Culture per turn

Thread information:

Spoiler Thread information :

Announcement thread (this one): This thread is used to announce the game and clarify the settings and rules (don't be afraid to ask questions). It's also used to discuss the game before you start, and post problems with opening the save. Once you have opened the save, DO NOT POST game-related information in the Announcement thread.

Internal staff coordination - @leif erikson @Blake00 @The_J

Game Length:

This game ends 1 November 2025.

 

[Eyswein]

Additional DIFFERENT map for those who want to try a different victory condition
With two different maps, you can play both if desired.

Spoiler Score Map :

Game Details

Goal for below map Civ7 GOTM: Highest Score
This Civ7 GOTM Final Score Example: Score is the percentage of each legacy path you complete (can be over 100% for each) across all 3 ages; in the modern age you still need to complete the victory condition
Civ7 Scoring: For those interested in score victory condition looking for feedback on if this is a good way to calculate score for Civ 7 GOTM.

No change to game details from main post above except as indicated below:
End of Age Countdown: 10 Turns
Age Transition Impact: Regroup

Details on score calculation

For each age your score is as follows: Floor { 100 x [ (Culture Scored / Culture Target) + (Military Scored / Military Target) + (Science Scored / Science Target) + (Economic Scored / Economic Target) ] }
Note: Floor just means round down to integer; drop anything beyond the decimal point instead of rounding
Example: For the Antiquity & Exploration Age in the photos below we get
Antiquity Age Score: 100x [ 2/7 + 14/12 + 12/10 + 29/20 ] = 410
Exploration Age Score: 100x [ 21/12 + 165/30 + 46/12 + 44/5 ] = 1988
Modern Age Score: 100x [ 500/500 + 20/20 + 3/3 + 15/15 ] = 400 Note: Not shown, but listed in order as seen in the Modern Age Progress screen (EMSC). Assumes perfectly matching the legacy goal points needed which would yield exactly 100% for each of the 4 legacy paths.
Total Score: 410 + 1988 + 400 = 2798

Score calculation example photos
View attachment 741178View attachment 741179

Starting Position


Additional: Please ensure you save your game in the last turn of each era and take a screenshot of your Age Progress for the After Action Threads

 

[Bleidraner]

The update impact is massive and I will have to play a couple of games before tackling this GoTM, as the snowball mechanics have completely changed. Thank you for posting the maps!

 

[Eyswein]

The update impact is massive and I will have to play a couple of games before tackling this GoTM, as the snowball mechanics have completely changed. Thank you for posting the maps!

It seems like they've (almost) eliminated the snowball mechanics.

 

[Manpanzee]

Are the later-era civ choices correct? Neither Catherine nor Greece automatically unlocks Songhai in Exploration, and "bypass civ unlocks" is disabled. Maybe a copy/paste error with the same civs in last month's game?

 

[Eyswein]

Are the later-era civ choices correct? Neither Catherine nor Greece automatically unlocks Songhai in Exploration, and "bypass civ unlocks" is disabled. Maybe a copy/paste error with the same civs in last month's game?

They are not! Thank you for the catch!!! Somehow I missed updating those from last month. Updating now. One goal was to start Catherine in Tundra for the eventual Russia synergy.

Apologize for the confusion!