[GS] Benchmarks Thread: Compare your T100 stats!

Was trying Russia With work ethics, and got a pretty insane game going. This is all standard and HOF style, and if I dont mess it up I should crush the best HOF times for fastest SV by my own assessment. This might ofc be completely wrong! =)

I will leave the screenshot in a spoiler, because someone might want to try this map in a HOF-game.

Stats are: 268 Spt, 300 Cpt, 179Ftp, 97Gpt. 13 cities.

Map seed:1636056475
Game seed:1636056474

Spoiler screenshot turn 100 :

I never had Rapa Nui in a game before. It is literally game changing…

 

@ATEX Have you planed to do a video or something about how you reach those numbers at turn 100?

 

No plans to make a video, but my main thoughts you can get from my Russian guide. Although that uses some different religion than this game, the philosophy is the same.

 

Bumping this thread in hope of getting some advice.

Other people in this thread seem to be able to get more science out of their empires late game than I do. I know rationalism isn't as strong as it once was, but I still feel like I'm leaving something on the table. Not sure if its not enough cities, not enough suzerains, not enough amenities, not enough research labs, or whatever. Nevertheless I have a lot of trouble 1-turning the late game techs. I'll go over the last four science games I played in no particular order. All games are 100% peaceful (may not be optimal, but its what I've been focusing on), and use both secret societies and heroes & legends which should speed things up even more. Some games used monopolies and corporations, but I feel that mode hinders science victory as much as it helps because you can never trade for the AI's luxuries to help with amenities.

GAME 1
Unfortunately T105 is the closest save to T100 I have of this game, but this is a pretty typical game for me. Standard lakes, standard settings, random civ picked.

On T100 I have 11 cities founded, with another settler on the move. Kilwa finished a couple turns earlier and getting an empire wide +15% to science .

I won the game on T220 having a bad future era tech tree, 18 cities, making just under 1600 science per turn. Missed Amundsen-Scott due to poor planning, had five! (but no Geneva) scientific city states all with 6+ envoys, 5 of 9 city states suzerained (25% globalisation bonus), all cities content. Culture was a struggle all game (no cultural city states), finished with just under 200cpt, and never made it to my tier 4 government.



GAME 2
Fantastic map, early suzerainity of Nan Madol, also have suzerainity of Auckland although Auckland will be raised soon after this screenshot was taken.

Other T100 stats: 14 cities, no additional settlers on the move. Kilwa finished, getting the empire wide 15% to culture, but not to science. Magnus is in the process of establishing to chop a cothon and the move capital project.

End up winning this game on T183 in large part thanks to a really good future era tech tree. Finished with 19 cities, but only 1600 science per turn. About 400 culture per turn (with Kilwa bonus). Got Amundsen-Scott, two scientific city states (both suzerained, also Geneva), 6 of 12 city states suzerained (+30%), all cities content.



GAME 3
Good start, but slowed down by barbarians at the beginning. Not many good spots to settle cities outside the area near my capital.

Other T100 stats: 9 cities, one additional settler on the move. Kilwa not started yet.

Ended up winning on T234 with a mediocre future era tree. Finished with 17 cities, about 1400 science per turn, and just under 300 culture per turn. Got Amundsen-Scott, two scientific city states (both suzerained, no Geneva), 6 of 8 city states suzerained (+30%), all cities content.



GAME 4
Typical dance of the aurora / work ethic Russia with a nice strip of tundra. Also put more city states in the game than normal which helped.

Other T100 stats: 15 cities, two additional settlers on the move. Kilwa is finished, and I'm getting an empire wide 15% to both science and culture.

Ended up winning on T168 (my pb) with 22 cities and a good but not great tech tree. This was the only game I actually managed to ramp my science up over 2k, ending the game with 2300-ish, and was closer to 2500 when going through the future era techs. Definitely helped out by having four scientific city states including Genvea, and 8 of 15 city states suzerained. Also had 500 culture per turn in large part due to Antananarivo and the 15% Kilwa bonus. Almost all cities were content, but two were discontent.

 

Game Modes sort of killed the game IMO.
They made the game a bit too difficult to discuss.
Most players aren't playing the game flat with no modes.
All the rage seems to be combining game modes with Heroes, Secret Societies and Monopolies.
Players now finish the game early from turn 48 to turn 75.

You seem to be doing really good!
Personally I have been trying to focus on a Taller Empire.
The difference is exploiting Pillage Wars to slingshot.
I'm not very good at it.
Other players have showcased how strong Pillage Wars are though.

 

That tundra game looks solid, 168 is pretty fast without extra modes. The biggest thing is the number of cities—could be more like 25+ by t100, though it’s fine if some are still on the move. I think in my t124 game I had 30 total by t107, t100 stats around ~600/400

the root problem looks like it has to do with lavra placement—I see a lot that are +3 or so because you’ve settled half (more than half?) outside the tundra. Faith per turn should be more like 400-500 at t100 which would allow you to found more cities/purchase ports with moksha faster

I usually want 3-4 cities on the edge of the tundra to hit 10 pop for more districts and the capital to hit 15 but other than that I’m spamming 4 pop cities with +7 lavras then stunting their growth with specialists. As long as they can hit/chop to 4 pop for both campus and lavra nothing else really matters

 

Just as an aside: You've managed to win a game at T168 Your T100 screenshots look fantastic. You are already in the "best" 0.1% of players that ever touched this game. Your room for improvement is much smaller than a new or adept player's.

But since you asked for feedback, here you go:

10 cities by T100 is simply not enough (imho). 15 is good, 20 is great, but more than 20 is possible. You need to understand that having 6 cities at T100 with 100 science and culture is unimpressive, but having 15 cities at T100 with the same numbers is hugely impressive. The former means slow, linear growth, the latter means explosive growth from T100 well into the lategame. It is very important to think of Civ as a game of return, and you constantly need to check for yourself whether your current investment will yield the best future returns. Settlers and military units imho almost always deliver better return than districts or buildings. After T100 the opposite is true - Settlers yield little returns for their high cost.

It seems like you're not warring very much early game. One reason other players get ahead of you is by investing in units and getting value out of them. But remember, aggression doesn't mean taking cities. Taking cities is great, but you can get many economic advantages out of a small army, like starting a war with a casus belly, killing a few enemy units, and then getting a good piece deal. I am warring constantly past T50 well into the late game even in all of my "peaceful" games.

Lastly, it seems you can definitely optimize the economic aspect of your empire more. You finish with 19 cities and 1600 science in your T180 game, but to me it feels like with close to 20 cities more than 2000 science is easily doable. This probably has to do with using growth, production and your policy cards as effective as possible and micromanagement. I have never, ever had a game of Civ 6 where my lack of proper (policy/production/governor) micro didn't cost me like 20+ turns off of my victory.

To me it seems like you are already doing very well and you will be going places! My finishing times honestly arent much better than yours and I've played 1000s of hours of Civ.

I am still playing without modes. Not just because they're too expensive, but because most modes are basically just slight bonuses to the player and the AI masqueraded as new flavorful features, and by virtue of the player being much better at abusing bonuses, make the game even easier. which is the opposite of what it needed.