7OTM14 (2 Jan 2025) - Completion of Age of Antiquity Spoiler Thread

[Eyswein]

At the top of your post please post the following:
- Turns = Number of Turns (for Turn Game)

A few questions to consider:
- How did the new patch impact your play?
- 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 choose 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]

Turns: 95 // all legacy paths + 1 civ wipe (Pachacuti/Maya) // 9/7 settlements w/ 4 cities

Plan: Goal was to find the landmasses near distant lands and target a civ wipe based on that. Then just do the Egypt thing -- commander civic (slot survey tradition + disperse an IP) >> food on navigable civic >> altar (god of the sea) >> Great Stele >> rest of Egypt tree. Then react from there based on the map and civs.

Government: Classical Republic (+20% culture every celebration)

Opening: 3x scout >> settler-1 >> harbor >> settler-2 >> medjay (purchase slinger) >> medjay (purchase scout) >> settler-3 >> settler-4 >> great stele

Wonders: Great Stele >> Pyramids >> Gate of All Nations >> Hanging Gardens >> Nalanda >> Colossus >> Oracle

Milestones: (1) Free military attr from 2 medjays and disperse IP -- military IP to my north (2) Build Great Stele (3) Build UQ (4) Trigger Egypt narratives -- salt, dates, 2x desert settle, altar + monument (5) pump out tjaty (6) civ wipe (7) research up to amphitheater tech then hit 4 masteries to complete science legacy path

Approach: I like researching through irrigation and then rolling over science until I get a free tech from a science IP, but couldn't find one. Also noticed that the AI didn't meet any others but me because they didn't research sailing. So they ended up suz'ing every visible IP with their influence... but left an abnormal amount of "Discoveries" which is why I purchased another scout. I found Lafayette/Rome first which is naturally weak and thought about buying two galleys to wipe him but he only had one coastal exposed tile so would have been a grind and he seemed trapped by an IP so I could use them as a civ wipe in exploration. Instead leveraged friendship for +6 culture most of the age and actually allied with him. Next found Pachacuti/Maya which I usually avoid because hul'che can be a pain and Maya usually gets tier 2 early, plus the capital wasn't coastally exposed... but then realized they were the distant lands adjacent landmass, so hit denounce and swam my commander + 3 units over with my 4th settler, bought another slinger and then upgraded the 4 units. Took Meroe which they had suz'd. The next turn Baak got insta-walls everywhere. I pillaged around the edges and farmed some XP on their chariots until I unlocked catapults. Purchased two and then just muscled through. They settled Uxmal during the siege and I easily took that a few turns after Baak. Got friendly with Confucius/Mississippi somehow and had +6 science most of the age, and also allied with him.

Mildly Interesting Notes: (1) I was not sure where to settle as I usually look for more navigable rivers for my first few Egypt settles, but wasn't spotting any. So I settled to the north to grab the last 2 nav tiles the cap couldn't reach and get gypsum. Then to the east to get cotton, tin, turtles, and wine (created from Discovery). Then to the west to get both the salt (+science always worth it) and dates (not really worth it) narrative events. (2) I considered whether trying to speed up the age ahead of a normal 95 turns by wiping Lafayette/Rome 2nd, but I like using the last 5-10 turns of the age to pump settlers/military to speed exploration. On this map type, spammed boats. (3) Not sure if I'd have gotten through Baak so easily on Deity -- it would have been closer and/or at least required purchasing more units. The 3 less cs on the AI definitely factored in.

Future Age Setup: Had one settler with a boat to the north DL and another settler + boat to the south DL water edge. Then gathered a bunch of boats by Lafayette and more by Confucius for 2 quick wipes in exploration because they each had only 2 settlements. Ironically they were my allies so I declared surprise wars on the last turn to ensure we'd be hostile to start explo. Also hit Isabella with a surprise war since she was the next closest between the other two. Xerxes (as usual) had a bunch of settlements, so I assumed I'd use him as the primary ideology point generator in modern.

 

[Mazrak]

Turns 98 all legacy paths + 1 civ wipe (maya)

My first ever sub 100 Antiquity age (although with Xmas and being away I've only played the two GoTMs since the start of December - lets see if I get enough time to finish this one).

Took God of the Sea to get the extra hammer on the fishing boats and expected to create more costal cities and/or navigable river cities but it didn't work out like that

First dilemma was whether to try and wipe Xerxes or Pachacuti - dragging my troops north to disperse the IP kind of decided for me and I went for Pachacuti, although a combination of my lack of war experience, Maya building Dar Sharrukin and seemingly having endless chariots meant it took much longer than expected. By then I had picked up the Culture IP near Xerxes and I wondered if that would mean he would pick on me - I really wanted to settle in that north eastern corner of his island you can just see in my screenshot but having decided Maya was the target I decided not to. Wierdly Xerxes was cool with the IP long after it had completed the Suz journey but then latterly got angry with me and started hitting me with sanctions.

Pachacuti declared on me which was a bit of a surprise, I declined a couple of Endeavors and that seemed to push them into it, I did wonder if they would hold back given the inherent bonus but they were hardly restrained and I ended up with +6 for most of the war (Han beat me to the Gate of Nations!)

Also wanted to settle on the western side of the starting island - the resources plus the mountains looked like a decent place for a city but suddenly realised that an IP had spawned there mid game - not seen that before, I assume someone wiped one somewhere else on the map, is that how it works - also some sloppy scouting on my part but I assume that middle island is undiscoverable (actually can see in civfanatic4sure's screenshots it it - does that mean it will be distant lands in Exploration? I ended up just picking the best of the remaining coastal areas near Waset to get the last Military point

Bought Libraries in towns to up the science numbers, think only having two cities impacted me a bit but 70+ production in Waset was a joy for wonder building

Wanted to get 6 wonders encircling my Monument in Waset but only managed 5 which was a shame

Interesting looking at the other post that civfanatic4sure didn't go Fishing Quay early on - do the experts deprioritise the growth potential? Other than that my opening builds were almost exactly the same but post the troops I build the UU before the Great Steele. A question in a similar vein, when do you build harbours on towns - once they have at least 7-10 boats (and you have money spare) or are there other considerations?

Not super well prepared for Exploration, only got one settler ready and one/two boats near the ocean but for me to get tat prepared in 98 turns is a major lift on any game I've completed before

As always huge thanks for organising these games - can we have a regroup version in Feb?

 

[GoblinMatron]

Turns: 99

LPs
Cultural: 3 (Great Stele, Hanging Gardens, Pyramids, Petra, Colossus, Ha'Amonga Maui, Great Lighthouse, Emilie Bell, Mundo Perdido, Oracle, Weiyang Palace)
Militaristic: 3 (8 settlements, 3 cities + 5 towns, 4 founded + 3 captured + 1 gifted)
Scientific: 3
Economic: 3

Plan:
Get all LPs and one civ wipe for a turn 95 finish.

Game:
I am disappointed that my early scouting neither reveal more navigable rivers nor any good city states.

I see a hostile diplomatic city state nearby, so I build a Medjay after the first 2 Scouts and research Disciple after Chiefdom to get the military going early.
Pachacuti is the only leader that I find in the first 25 turns, because I neglect to scout to the west. He is weak and close, so I decide to try and wipe him early. I settle my 4th settlement on his island, denounce him on turn 32, declare war against him turn 41 and defeat him turn 43. He only had his Capital without walls. He finished the Mayan unique quarter in Baak, that might be a good Capital in the modern age.

The early civ wipe makes me hopeful to get a second one. I found Xerxes who is also very close and only has his Capital at this point. I heal up and sail to him, but decide to wait with going to war, because he has many units and I do not want to go over the settlement cap this early. Sadly, he quickly builds 5 more settlements and soon also has walls. I research The Wheel as soon as possible and go to war against him, but it all takes far too long and after capturing 3 of his settlements, (razing one of them), I realize that I will not wipe him and make peace, letting him give me one more settlement.

My plan to get 10 Codices was to get Nalanda. I went for it after finishing the Egyptian Civics. I was extremely sad that someone else built it when I had only one turn left. I hoped to get the Tjati that gives a Codex to finish that path, but it was literally the last Tjati I got on turn 99, which ended the age.

I think at this point, my scouting is the weakest part of my game. Often, I realize that when my settlers are ready, I have not scouted my immediate surroundings enough to know the best settlement spots. This was much better this game, but now I did not scout out far enough. If I had met Lafayette earlier, he might have offered me culture endeavors which would have helped my early game, where culture was a weak point (maybe I would have gotten Nalanda?).

I declare war on the last turn against Confucius to have the option to go to war against him next age.

Spoiler End of age :

 

[civfanatic4sure]

Interesting looking at the other post that civfanatic4sure didn't go Fishing Quay early on

A question in a similar vein, when do you build harbours on towns - once they have at least 7-10 boats (and you have money spare) or are there other considerations?

(1) Other than hitting 5 pop to build settlers, spending resources on growth isn't as good as other options, e.g. I'd rather build the harbor for the prod -- as egypt you can typically get 3 scouts and then pool prod until you finish sailing (1-2 turns) to get the harbor down quick w/ 4 pop to hit 5 and start settlers -- in this game I forgot what happened but I had 5 pop before getting a harbor down and did a settler first
(2) I don't usually buy buildings in towns without some leader/civ benefit (e.g. ashoka happiness bonus) or until going in modern where it's worth it to have warehouse quarters for lyceums, just specialize towns at 7 pop to feed the cities and use 220g for something more useful

 

[Bleidraner]

t105, legacies 3 economic, 3 military, 3 cultural, 2 science

I played this some time ago. Badly. And I don't remember a lot of the stuff that happened. I lost concentration towards the end of the game and finished late and with little prep for Exploration.

My plan was to do 95 all legacies and one civ wipe, with an outside chance of 90 if I could wipe 2. The macro plan was to then choose Songhai for exploration and either Buganda or Russia for Modern.

It started OK, not great IPs but developed quickly and killed Baak pretty early, I think in the early 40s. The Baak kill was surprisingly easy and I did it with a promoted commander and only 4 units and a scout. I was waiting for 2 other units to reach me but thanks to my explorer I saw a chance and took it, and Baak fell in 2 turns, Maya wiped as they had not planted any other settlements.

I thought, oh well, second wipe does not look impossible. I went south immediately to kill Xerxes, who only had one settlement but by the time I got there, he had 4 other towns with difficult acccess and walls and a ton of immortals. I should have stopped there and maybe take a town or two, or just do a peace deal, but I obsessed with taking Parsa and my science and culture suffered for it. It slowed me down a lot.

I tried to fix the game, took Parsa and a couple of towns, and left myself an easy wipe for Exploration, with 2 river locations. As I was planning on Songhai and frankly was dissapointed with my performance, I did not build settlers for exploration, just the one, on the West coast. I saw the peaks of a DL big island on the West thanks to Everest and was hoping for one of those treasure rich islands that we have been encountering lately.

Anyway, finished 105 and did not finish the science legacy path but the explored territory looked promising for Exploration.

Here is my final screenshot and my t105 save file.

Spoiler t105 screenshot :