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Thank you for sharing your game with such a nice and detailed report.
Civ 7 GOTM03 - Completion of Age of Antiquity Spoiler Thread
- Thread starter Knowtalent
- Start date
Thank you 
my pleasure, was very fun, Looking forward to playing the Exploration age when I find the time.I just realized that I did not really get how age progression and legacy points actually work and interact. As Acken mentioned in his post, age length (on standard) is 200 points advancing by 1 each turn, and each legacy path advances the age (in Antiquity) by 20 points for a total of 80 (only counting the first time any civ reaches the milestone, with civ elimination counting for 25). This means that 95 turns Acken and me got was the theoretical minimum for Antiquity for 12 legacy points + 1 civ elimination (200-80-25), and the only way to reduce this further was by researching future techs/civics (each counting for 10 and, thus, half a legacy path or 5 turns I think, which I should have focused on more aggressively then) or additional civ elimination (which seems to make up for a full legacy path and 5 turns). If I understand this correctly now, this hampers variability of turn times and their ability to differentiate performance in Antiquity/Exploration by quite a bit. Also, counting legacy points and turn times together might be in part redundant then and worse limit strategies even more since options to cut the turn timer are so limited. Civ elimination on the other seems too good to not pursue in Antiquity. If one does not eliminate another civ, one would have to research future tech/civic 3 times to make up for the lost turns...
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95 turns Antiquity... and an extraordinarily frustrating finish.
My priorities for this age were:
1. Wipe two civs
2. Secure Camels to unlock Abbasids
3. Complete as many Mayan UQs as I could
I was less concerned about legacies, and figured I'd pick up whatever was convenient, possibly coming up short on both the Cultural and Scientific tracks. With both civ eliminations and potential Future Tech in the mix, I didn't expect to complete everything.
Lafayette was my first target. I had good scouting and spotted his first Settler heading in my direction. I quickly swapped into Settlement lens, ID'ed the recommended city locations, and planted units to block settlement. The AI got confused, as it does, especially with me stepping on and off the recommended spots when I knew he wasn't threatening to plant immediately. Lafayette at one point had three Settlers milling around in my domain: One died to barbs, one died to me, and the third finally wandered elsewhere to plant a garbage city that I ended up razing.
Next was Amina. The AI in this game seemingly has a switch where they get desperate and lash out randomly if they're boxed in. In this case, that meant Lafayette, sitting on only one city, declared on Amina a bit before I started warring him. So Amina was also somewhat dragged down by war before I got there.
Amina had three settlements. I saw a couple more of her Settlers wander out, but I was able to contain and snipe them without her getting any new settlements down. Her first two settlements fell in due course. My armies then marched on the third, arriving around turn 85. I quickly wiped all defenders, and was sure I was looking at a sub-90 turn Antiquity Era. Instead, I was thwarted by the AI's ability to stack multiple military units in cities. I had more than enough damage to kill a garrisoned Medjay each turn, with a bit extra to chip away beyond that. But they seemed to spawn in faster than I could clear them -- when I'd arrived at the gates, there was only a single Medjay remaining, but after a few turns there was somehow a horde of military units stacked in this city, with civilian units stacking up as further meat shields. I even left a water tile that I thought she could embark into, but the AI was seemingly not forced to unstack her military into the water.
So I didn't get there, and as the end of the age approached (along with some barbs), I packed in my military and walked away. This meant I failed to complete the Military path, but the Future Tech I'd picked up still ended the age at the 95 turn mark.
Objectively, this was a very successful age. I got my Abbasid camels, completed four Mayan UQs, and got way more wonders than I expected to. But I kinda feel like I got cheesed out of an even better finish.
This was my first time playing Maya, as I wanted to wait until the inevitable nerf. My conclusion: they're still busted as hell. Basically everything in their kit is good, and the UQ is still crazy -- I one-turned wonders in three different cities the turn after Future Tech. And I assume that's just a taste of the scaling brokenness that will continue into later eras.
I made one more major blunder, failing to get my leader attribute point. This mechanic is/was a bit opaque to me, but I think I figured it out: If you get a narrative event associated with your leader, with two "starts a quest" choices and one other choice, you have to choose one of the first two. Choosing the third option will lock you out of your leader-based attribute point, even if the event description gives no hint that the quest options are linked to attribute points.
So, yeah, I'm a bit tilted by this run in more than one direction. I'm also not that enthusiastic about continuing with Maya, as the scaling UQ still seems too broken for my tastes. Most likely I'll call it here and not continue this one.
My priorities for this age were:
1. Wipe two civs
2. Secure Camels to unlock Abbasids
3. Complete as many Mayan UQs as I could
I was less concerned about legacies, and figured I'd pick up whatever was convenient, possibly coming up short on both the Cultural and Scientific tracks. With both civ eliminations and potential Future Tech in the mix, I didn't expect to complete everything.
Lafayette was my first target. I had good scouting and spotted his first Settler heading in my direction. I quickly swapped into Settlement lens, ID'ed the recommended city locations, and planted units to block settlement. The AI got confused, as it does, especially with me stepping on and off the recommended spots when I knew he wasn't threatening to plant immediately. Lafayette at one point had three Settlers milling around in my domain: One died to barbs, one died to me, and the third finally wandered elsewhere to plant a garbage city that I ended up razing.
Next was Amina. The AI in this game seemingly has a switch where they get desperate and lash out randomly if they're boxed in. In this case, that meant Lafayette, sitting on only one city, declared on Amina a bit before I started warring him. So Amina was also somewhat dragged down by war before I got there.
Amina had three settlements. I saw a couple more of her Settlers wander out, but I was able to contain and snipe them without her getting any new settlements down. Her first two settlements fell in due course. My armies then marched on the third, arriving around turn 85. I quickly wiped all defenders, and was sure I was looking at a sub-90 turn Antiquity Era. Instead, I was thwarted by the AI's ability to stack multiple military units in cities. I had more than enough damage to kill a garrisoned Medjay each turn, with a bit extra to chip away beyond that. But they seemed to spawn in faster than I could clear them -- when I'd arrived at the gates, there was only a single Medjay remaining, but after a few turns there was somehow a horde of military units stacked in this city, with civilian units stacking up as further meat shields. I even left a water tile that I thought she could embark into, but the AI was seemingly not forced to unstack her military into the water.
So I didn't get there, and as the end of the age approached (along with some barbs), I packed in my military and walked away. This meant I failed to complete the Military path, but the Future Tech I'd picked up still ended the age at the 95 turn mark.
Objectively, this was a very successful age. I got my Abbasid camels, completed four Mayan UQs, and got way more wonders than I expected to. But I kinda feel like I got cheesed out of an even better finish.
This was my first time playing Maya, as I wanted to wait until the inevitable nerf. My conclusion: they're still busted as hell. Basically everything in their kit is good, and the UQ is still crazy -- I one-turned wonders in three different cities the turn after Future Tech. And I assume that's just a taste of the scaling brokenness that will continue into later eras.
I made one more major blunder, failing to get my leader attribute point. This mechanic is/was a bit opaque to me, but I think I figured it out: If you get a narrative event associated with your leader, with two "starts a quest" choices and one other choice, you have to choose one of the first two. Choosing the third option will lock you out of your leader-based attribute point, even if the event description gives no hint that the quest options are linked to attribute points.
So, yeah, I'm a bit tilted by this run in more than one direction. I'm also not that enthusiastic about continuing with Maya, as the scaling UQ still seems too broken for my tastes. Most likely I'll call it here and not continue this one.
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wenamon
Warlord
Civ7GotM3
Antiquity
Total turns 124
Total number of turns
A few questions to consider:
- What was your plan for achieving the most Legacy Points? 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?
My plan off the bat was to get science points given Mayas abilities. However, i quickly realized that my capital was a production powerhouse so I could do anything I wanted. I was still happy to go peacefully, but Layfayette settled to the West of my capital when he had plenty of space in his icy wasteland to the south and thay marked the road to war!
- What were your initial 5-10 builds in the capital and/or other early cities?
I bought a granary to immediately access the redwoods. Then I went to scout, scout, scout, settlerx2. These were done way too fast! I shouldoneve even done another scout to allow me one or two more turns scouting.
- Early order for technology/civics? What did you later prioritize for technology/civics?
I went mysticism into discipline into the mayan unique. In tech, I went pottery, AH, then into Masonry and it's mastery.
- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
The Gold has been absolutely ridiculos. It allowed me to upgrade cities early in uxmal and chichen itza.
- 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 settled a ring around my capital starting To the east and south.
- What were key production/purchase focuses?
I went with the brickyards sawpit combo. I wonder if I am menat to do this in every town or just the cap?
- Pantheon chosen and why?
Stone circles allowed my capital to take off!
- What government did you select? Which bonus did you chose most and why?
I went with the extra Food and production to bukldings. The celebrations came fast and furious sometimes initially with no policy to place! I always chose the food bonus as production was already easy
- How did you focus your use of influence for diplomacy?
I turned 3 city states and otherwise either forgot to use it or made some trade agreements and once or twice took tech from lafayette.
- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Ahain, the biggest surprise was how quickly the capital went up. Also, this was the first war dec I habe done, and realising i would take a penalty if we were not hostile led to a 15 or so turn delay.
- Are Turns the right measure of success for the Age of Antiquity?
I'm not sure. I'm just playing for fun!
- Did you enjoy this Age?
Yes!
Reminder that for Civ7 GOTM03 we request you do not change the mementos!
Ok.
Here is my log. waenjoyed documenting and will keep doing in the next age.
Turn 1: I hemmed and hawed about where to place my capital but ultimately agreed with some advice from user shoshonte that moving E would be a mistake. However, I could not convince myself to give up the freshwater so decided to settle in place. This is probably a mistake not to right away take advantage of the immediate yields from the Redwood Forest, but I couldn’t stop myself.
This did mean that my palace would get +1 science from having 2 veggie tiles next to it.
Turn 2: I selected to build a Jaguar Warrior and went for pottery hoping to eventually expand to the 3 rough tiles to my east, once I finished with the natural wonder. The JW found 5 different goodie huts by moving once SW and then using his search. I sent him towards the SW Cairn. I also decided to buy a granary at this point and placed it in the SW as well. My thought was that this would then allow me to use the first growth event to get to the Redwood.
Turn 4: my first hut was between town growth vs. two turns food. Since the town was close to growth anyways, I went for the food.
Turn 6: my JW found another hut to the S again and this time we went for the culture over happiness and production. I have heard that rushing mysticism for a pantheon is a good idea. I seem to be set up for stone circles and hope that I get it.
Turn 9: I finish Chiefdom and start after Mysticism. I have Samarkand, a hostile economic city state to my West. I set about trying to explore and realise that I am going to have a settler ready in no time after finishing my 3 JW’s! I haven’t even picked an ideal site yet for my first city! I also get to another hut to the S with my first JW. it is a choice between culture vs happiness and gold. I go for the culture again.
Turn 10: My 3rd scout has been going to the E and finds a hut and another hostile city state, Shomron. This time, i favor happiness over production in the capital. I also finish up with pottery and turn towards AH.
Turn 11: my first expansion leads me to build a farm to my E. I thought a mine might be a better option, but the extra food and happiness was just too tempting. I also entered a celebration, but had no policy to slot in! I had also finished my settler, whom I sent E to see about that silver and wool. I had not yet explored past those two squares however!
Turn 12: I meet Lafayette and immediately know I moved my settler in the right direction! My goal is to forward settle him and then maybe send my next settler south as well to claim the gold towards him if possible.
Turn 14: wow ok there is a river just to the E of the wool to the E of my capital. It will draw Lafayette’s ire but it is too perfect so I think this is where I will lay down my second city. To the West, I find the Chixoy River and am offered a hut for culture or to transform the tile to gypsum. I may have made a mistake but could not help but make the gypsum for a potential 4th city. I still intend to send my 2nd settler S to forward settle lafayette again but am unsure. Another hut to the North allows quicker celebration or less than one turns production to Ba’an. I go for the happiness but it comes at the cost of one turns culture.
Turn 15: another hut to the SW. this time i go for culture and production over science. Another camp to the E and I pick gold over food and feel fine about this. Time to think about city placement before we plop down city number 1 and send out settler 2.
Turn 17: my pantheon comes up and I go for stone circles. City Patron Goddess, Earth Goddes and Fertility rites all taken. I expand Baak to the NE for a woodcutter. I also get a narrative event with this and I go for the culture over happiness. I move towards Discipline for the army general and aim to start some warriors in Baak to defend form these filthy tribes. I also luck out and get an Archer for 50 gold from a hut to the NW. I unfortunately also discover an angry tribe to the NE, the Syvash.
Turn 18: I feel like I am really rolling. I have Baak start on a sawpit and bounce a worker to the dates. I also take gold from a hut to the NE over happiness.
Turn 19: OMG why did I build my cities before seeing this Valley of Flowers!!!
Turn 22: Ok this Valley looks kind of lame, no? Theres not really much point building a city here when theres so many mountains! I also decide to maintain distributed power through a quest for 10% production when constructing buildings in all cities. I also take this turn to use the gold from discovering the Valley to build brickyards in both towns. By now, I am almost at discipline and have built a small army to deal with some of the villagers.
Turn 23: a warrior from Shomron dares to attack Chichen Itza! There will be blood!
Turn 24: my army approaches Chichen Itza to defend. I meet Turng Trac and finish my research into discipline, unlocking my commander. Something tells me she is going to be unhappy with how many experience points he is about to get. I also choose to go for Rain of Chaac to start on my unique quarters. I also considered code of laws for terracotta army but figure i need to get my science boosted. I am at 27g, 14s, 20c, 31h, and 10i in terms of income. I find a cave in the North which I use to boost science and food instead of culture.
Turn 25: Another northern camp, this time i pick science over food. I also meet Amina due east and realise she too will hate me due to my settlements in desert and plains!
Turn 27 I meet Confucius and see a settler of Lafayette sneaking past the south of my settlements! I also get Isabellas quest and decide to take up the goal to research sailing. Not sure if I should have gone for training a commande since Lafayette is getting upityr? I also finally discover some friendly villages in the North in Babylon and Mochi.
Turn 29: there is a flood on the Chixoy and I accept a trade deal from Amina.I figure I need to start banking some influence for friendly city states. Another camp lets me take some influence over production and food.
Turn 30: another hut to the SW and I take science over food, unlocking Irrigation. I now decide to go for the Masonry mastery.
Turn 31: I am going for the Hanging Gardens 2 tiles SE of my capital. I figure i can build my unique district to the NW, culture to the W and science to the NE.
Turn 33: Amina invites me to military aid and i agree even though it means waiting to befriend the city states. I need to crush these neigbouring ones first!
Turn 34: I start on the civic Lords of Xibalba. I also find Hoerikwago to the north! Of course Confucius has already put flith argos on it! Also it took me this long to realise both Lafayette and Amina are Egypt?!?
Turn 32: I decide to accept Confucius research collaboration.
Turn 36: I take out the Shengle tribe to my west and plan my next settlement there. While destroying the village, my soldiers capture a chieftain for sacrifice! This is culture over gold, btw. I also use some of my gold to buy an Altar in Uxmal. Meanwhile, I complete researching Masonry mastery and go for sailing now.
Turn 39: I have settled Yaxchilan to the West and have a solid port town now. I also accept collaborations from Confuscius and Trung Trac. I note that Trung and Lafayette are at war.
I also get a choice to specialize Uxmol, but since it hasn’t grown to all possible resources, I keep it as growing.
Turn 40: I finish the Hanging G’s and complete Sailing to unlock the Galley bonus. I also pick a codex from the Story to tell quest over influence. I finally go for writing tech and start on my specialty district buildings. I also get a quest “Identity in Thread” and go for culture over happiness.
Turn 41: I finish civics and go for Code of Laws. Pearl divers to the NE of Yaxchilan find a favorite site and I decide to scavenge when they depart for gold rather than making a pearl resource.
Turn 45: another flood hist the Chixoy and I am researching Currency.
Turn 48: I complete my unique district and take culture with the reward over happiness.
Turn 50: I start towards Bronze Working and Discipline mastery
Turn 51: I turn my merchant towards Nagtipunan, the only place available with camels. I turn uxmal to a city.
At this point I pause and think about potential 5th 6th and 7th city destinations. I am unsure if I should use the production powerhouse of Baak to conquer a couple of capitals, settle to my SE to turtle, set up an eastern seaboard city, or try to get some camels to the NE.
Turn 57: One of the things I struggle with is when to upgrade from town to city? Do I keep upgrading buildings in my outer towns, or target one of them to turn into a city and save money to upgrade each in turn? In this game, I am targeting Uxmal and currently building Gate of All Nations there to allow me to eventually get to my +3 adjacency market and garden square. However, maybe I should just be building my unique district in each city and then hopping on to the next one?
Turn 58: My troops have dispersed Shomron to the NE of Baak. Filthy vandals!
Turn 59: I get a narrative event where I pick a codex over happiness. I realise I have nowhere to put it! I have to get going with the Library in the cap. I get a diplo point which I put towards extra +1 influence on the cap. I started researching Navigation, imagining I might want Ha’amonga’a on my Yaxchilan one day.
Turn 64: I take a science point and put it towards +15% producing buildings. Maybe a mistake since I get cheap production from my UD, but oh well! Also, Lafayette has finished Petra in Nekhab.
Turn 66: I complete the Gate of All Nations in Uxmal and upgrade Chichen Itza into a city. I hemm and haw about how to fit in a UQ along with my science and production buildings. Idont want to mess up the 2 hexes for double adjacency created by the silver and wool. So, I go granary to the SW of Chichen Itza and then plan for the UQ to the direct W of that.
Turn 69: I lose my SW city site to Lafayettes’ settle 2 tiles W of where I wanted. I guess this is a build up to war then!
Turn 70: oh shoot, why did I think those codi had nowhere to go! For some reason, my palace was sitting with 2 empty spots! I turn to unit construction.
Turn 74: Trung finishes Terracotta Army. I was hoping to go for that next, but will have to divert to Weiyang.
Turn 89: I forgot to update for a while! However, I have completed the Oracle in Uxmal and the Pyramid of the Sun in Baak. However, my gold has flatlined. Yet, I still must make Lafayette pay for his colonization efforts west of the Ironlands. My army prepares.I also realise I have been neglecting the spending of my influence. I make trade agreements with Confucius and Trung and they both accept. I also attempt to steal tech from Lafayette. After I do so, I realise that if I am planning to go to war, then I should have saved some of this influence for war support.
Turn 94: I have yet to declare war as I realise I will take a surprise war penalty if I do so! So, I denounce and bide my time, sending more units to the front and build up some back up ones in my capital. I start Weiyang in Chichen Itza. I research towards Military Training and Literacy.
Turn 100: a major diplomatic snafu has Lafayette hostile with me for my theft of science. I note he is now at war with Amina. I start my march.
Turn 104: the Conquests of Nekheb are complete. I lose a couple of units but Eastern Egypt was keen to fall to Mayan rule
Turn 108: I lose the race to Nalanda to Amina. I also manage to capture Gebtu. Unfortunately, the cowardly Lafayette ends his war with Amina, capitulating the western city of Nekhen in the process. I realise I have completed the paths for science and culture. I am 1 resource away from completing an economic victory as well. I need 3 more for the final point of military.
Turn 113: At this point, I am stretching it out to get the military 3rd point. My gaol is to take the last city of Lafayette to the south, to wipe out the Hyksos to my East and to colonize their lake. This should get me to 12 points. In an ideal world, I would have a fourth city as well to put my UQ in but I think that is pushing it!
Turn 122: I am at 96% and realise that the defences of Khemenu are now mostly 3rd tier and he has walls on two districts! I try to rush a ballista in Uxmal
Turn 124: I underestimated the power of my own troops! They sack Khemenu and its western district, bringing Lafayette to his knees! This pushes the game to 100% and I quickly settle Copan to the E of Chichen Itza. I have my 4 cities to end the age, each with a UQ.
I am pretty sure this is my first time getting all 12 legacy points in the ancient era, and on my first game at Immortal. To sum the age, I am sure I made a ton of mistakes and the power of the NW in my capital cannot be overstated. It was mammoth.
Antiquity
Total turns 124
Total number of turns
A few questions to consider:
- What was your plan for achieving the most Legacy Points? 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?
My plan off the bat was to get science points given Mayas abilities. However, i quickly realized that my capital was a production powerhouse so I could do anything I wanted. I was still happy to go peacefully, but Layfayette settled to the West of my capital when he had plenty of space in his icy wasteland to the south and thay marked the road to war!
- What were your initial 5-10 builds in the capital and/or other early cities?
I bought a granary to immediately access the redwoods. Then I went to scout, scout, scout, settlerx2. These were done way too fast! I shouldoneve even done another scout to allow me one or two more turns scouting.
- Early order for technology/civics? What did you later prioritize for technology/civics?
I went mysticism into discipline into the mayan unique. In tech, I went pottery, AH, then into Masonry and it's mastery.
- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
The Gold has been absolutely ridiculos. It allowed me to upgrade cities early in uxmal and chichen itza.
- 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 settled a ring around my capital starting To the east and south.
- What were key production/purchase focuses?
I went with the brickyards sawpit combo. I wonder if I am menat to do this in every town or just the cap?
- Pantheon chosen and why?
Stone circles allowed my capital to take off!
- What government did you select? Which bonus did you chose most and why?
I went with the extra Food and production to bukldings. The celebrations came fast and furious sometimes initially with no policy to place! I always chose the food bonus as production was already easy
- How did you focus your use of influence for diplomacy?
I turned 3 city states and otherwise either forgot to use it or made some trade agreements and once or twice took tech from lafayette.
- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Ahain, the biggest surprise was how quickly the capital went up. Also, this was the first war dec I habe done, and realising i would take a penalty if we were not hostile led to a 15 or so turn delay.
- Are Turns the right measure of success for the Age of Antiquity?
I'm not sure. I'm just playing for fun!
- Did you enjoy this Age?
Yes!
Reminder that for Civ7 GOTM03 we request you do not change the mementos!
Ok.
Here is my log. waenjoyed documenting and will keep doing in the next age.
Turn 1: I hemmed and hawed about where to place my capital but ultimately agreed with some advice from user shoshonte that moving E would be a mistake. However, I could not convince myself to give up the freshwater so decided to settle in place. This is probably a mistake not to right away take advantage of the immediate yields from the Redwood Forest, but I couldn’t stop myself.
This did mean that my palace would get +1 science from having 2 veggie tiles next to it.
Turn 2: I selected to build a Jaguar Warrior and went for pottery hoping to eventually expand to the 3 rough tiles to my east, once I finished with the natural wonder. The JW found 5 different goodie huts by moving once SW and then using his search. I sent him towards the SW Cairn. I also decided to buy a granary at this point and placed it in the SW as well. My thought was that this would then allow me to use the first growth event to get to the Redwood.
Turn 4: my first hut was between town growth vs. two turns food. Since the town was close to growth anyways, I went for the food.
Turn 6: my JW found another hut to the S again and this time we went for the culture over happiness and production. I have heard that rushing mysticism for a pantheon is a good idea. I seem to be set up for stone circles and hope that I get it.
Turn 9: I finish Chiefdom and start after Mysticism. I have Samarkand, a hostile economic city state to my West. I set about trying to explore and realise that I am going to have a settler ready in no time after finishing my 3 JW’s! I haven’t even picked an ideal site yet for my first city! I also get to another hut to the S with my first JW. it is a choice between culture vs happiness and gold. I go for the culture again.
Turn 10: My 3rd scout has been going to the E and finds a hut and another hostile city state, Shomron. This time, i favor happiness over production in the capital. I also finish up with pottery and turn towards AH.
Turn 11: my first expansion leads me to build a farm to my E. I thought a mine might be a better option, but the extra food and happiness was just too tempting. I also entered a celebration, but had no policy to slot in! I had also finished my settler, whom I sent E to see about that silver and wool. I had not yet explored past those two squares however!
Turn 12: I meet Lafayette and immediately know I moved my settler in the right direction! My goal is to forward settle him and then maybe send my next settler south as well to claim the gold towards him if possible.
Turn 14: wow ok there is a river just to the E of the wool to the E of my capital. It will draw Lafayette’s ire but it is too perfect so I think this is where I will lay down my second city. To the West, I find the Chixoy River and am offered a hut for culture or to transform the tile to gypsum. I may have made a mistake but could not help but make the gypsum for a potential 4th city. I still intend to send my 2nd settler S to forward settle lafayette again but am unsure. Another hut to the North allows quicker celebration or less than one turns production to Ba’an. I go for the happiness but it comes at the cost of one turns culture.
Turn 15: another hut to the SW. this time i go for culture and production over science. Another camp to the E and I pick gold over food and feel fine about this. Time to think about city placement before we plop down city number 1 and send out settler 2.
Turn 17: my pantheon comes up and I go for stone circles. City Patron Goddess, Earth Goddes and Fertility rites all taken. I expand Baak to the NE for a woodcutter. I also get a narrative event with this and I go for the culture over happiness. I move towards Discipline for the army general and aim to start some warriors in Baak to defend form these filthy tribes. I also luck out and get an Archer for 50 gold from a hut to the NW. I unfortunately also discover an angry tribe to the NE, the Syvash.
Turn 18: I feel like I am really rolling. I have Baak start on a sawpit and bounce a worker to the dates. I also take gold from a hut to the NE over happiness.
Turn 19: OMG why did I build my cities before seeing this Valley of Flowers!!!
Turn 22: Ok this Valley looks kind of lame, no? Theres not really much point building a city here when theres so many mountains! I also decide to maintain distributed power through a quest for 10% production when constructing buildings in all cities. I also take this turn to use the gold from discovering the Valley to build brickyards in both towns. By now, I am almost at discipline and have built a small army to deal with some of the villagers.
Turn 23: a warrior from Shomron dares to attack Chichen Itza! There will be blood!
Turn 24: my army approaches Chichen Itza to defend. I meet Turng Trac and finish my research into discipline, unlocking my commander. Something tells me she is going to be unhappy with how many experience points he is about to get. I also choose to go for Rain of Chaac to start on my unique quarters. I also considered code of laws for terracotta army but figure i need to get my science boosted. I am at 27g, 14s, 20c, 31h, and 10i in terms of income. I find a cave in the North which I use to boost science and food instead of culture.
Turn 25: Another northern camp, this time i pick science over food. I also meet Amina due east and realise she too will hate me due to my settlements in desert and plains!
Turn 27 I meet Confucius and see a settler of Lafayette sneaking past the south of my settlements! I also get Isabellas quest and decide to take up the goal to research sailing. Not sure if I should have gone for training a commande since Lafayette is getting upityr? I also finally discover some friendly villages in the North in Babylon and Mochi.
Turn 29: there is a flood on the Chixoy and I accept a trade deal from Amina.I figure I need to start banking some influence for friendly city states. Another camp lets me take some influence over production and food.
Turn 30: another hut to the SW and I take science over food, unlocking Irrigation. I now decide to go for the Masonry mastery.
Turn 31: I am going for the Hanging Gardens 2 tiles SE of my capital. I figure i can build my unique district to the NW, culture to the W and science to the NE.
Turn 33: Amina invites me to military aid and i agree even though it means waiting to befriend the city states. I need to crush these neigbouring ones first!
Turn 34: I start on the civic Lords of Xibalba. I also find Hoerikwago to the north! Of course Confucius has already put flith argos on it! Also it took me this long to realise both Lafayette and Amina are Egypt?!?
Turn 32: I decide to accept Confucius research collaboration.
Turn 36: I take out the Shengle tribe to my west and plan my next settlement there. While destroying the village, my soldiers capture a chieftain for sacrifice! This is culture over gold, btw. I also use some of my gold to buy an Altar in Uxmal. Meanwhile, I complete researching Masonry mastery and go for sailing now.
Turn 39: I have settled Yaxchilan to the West and have a solid port town now. I also accept collaborations from Confuscius and Trung Trac. I note that Trung and Lafayette are at war.
I also get a choice to specialize Uxmol, but since it hasn’t grown to all possible resources, I keep it as growing.
Turn 40: I finish the Hanging G’s and complete Sailing to unlock the Galley bonus. I also pick a codex from the Story to tell quest over influence. I finally go for writing tech and start on my specialty district buildings. I also get a quest “Identity in Thread” and go for culture over happiness.
Turn 41: I finish civics and go for Code of Laws. Pearl divers to the NE of Yaxchilan find a favorite site and I decide to scavenge when they depart for gold rather than making a pearl resource.
Turn 45: another flood hist the Chixoy and I am researching Currency.
Turn 48: I complete my unique district and take culture with the reward over happiness.
Turn 50: I start towards Bronze Working and Discipline mastery
Turn 51: I turn my merchant towards Nagtipunan, the only place available with camels. I turn uxmal to a city.
At this point I pause and think about potential 5th 6th and 7th city destinations. I am unsure if I should use the production powerhouse of Baak to conquer a couple of capitals, settle to my SE to turtle, set up an eastern seaboard city, or try to get some camels to the NE.
Turn 57: One of the things I struggle with is when to upgrade from town to city? Do I keep upgrading buildings in my outer towns, or target one of them to turn into a city and save money to upgrade each in turn? In this game, I am targeting Uxmal and currently building Gate of All Nations there to allow me to eventually get to my +3 adjacency market and garden square. However, maybe I should just be building my unique district in each city and then hopping on to the next one?
Turn 58: My troops have dispersed Shomron to the NE of Baak. Filthy vandals!
Turn 59: I get a narrative event where I pick a codex over happiness. I realise I have nowhere to put it! I have to get going with the Library in the cap. I get a diplo point which I put towards extra +1 influence on the cap. I started researching Navigation, imagining I might want Ha’amonga’a on my Yaxchilan one day.
Turn 64: I take a science point and put it towards +15% producing buildings. Maybe a mistake since I get cheap production from my UD, but oh well! Also, Lafayette has finished Petra in Nekhab.
Turn 66: I complete the Gate of All Nations in Uxmal and upgrade Chichen Itza into a city. I hemm and haw about how to fit in a UQ along with my science and production buildings. Idont want to mess up the 2 hexes for double adjacency created by the silver and wool. So, I go granary to the SW of Chichen Itza and then plan for the UQ to the direct W of that.
Turn 69: I lose my SW city site to Lafayettes’ settle 2 tiles W of where I wanted. I guess this is a build up to war then!
Turn 70: oh shoot, why did I think those codi had nowhere to go! For some reason, my palace was sitting with 2 empty spots! I turn to unit construction.
Turn 74: Trung finishes Terracotta Army. I was hoping to go for that next, but will have to divert to Weiyang.
Turn 89: I forgot to update for a while! However, I have completed the Oracle in Uxmal and the Pyramid of the Sun in Baak. However, my gold has flatlined. Yet, I still must make Lafayette pay for his colonization efforts west of the Ironlands. My army prepares.I also realise I have been neglecting the spending of my influence. I make trade agreements with Confucius and Trung and they both accept. I also attempt to steal tech from Lafayette. After I do so, I realise that if I am planning to go to war, then I should have saved some of this influence for war support.
Turn 94: I have yet to declare war as I realise I will take a surprise war penalty if I do so! So, I denounce and bide my time, sending more units to the front and build up some back up ones in my capital. I start Weiyang in Chichen Itza. I research towards Military Training and Literacy.
Turn 100: a major diplomatic snafu has Lafayette hostile with me for my theft of science. I note he is now at war with Amina. I start my march.
Turn 104: the Conquests of Nekheb are complete. I lose a couple of units but Eastern Egypt was keen to fall to Mayan rule
Turn 108: I lose the race to Nalanda to Amina. I also manage to capture Gebtu. Unfortunately, the cowardly Lafayette ends his war with Amina, capitulating the western city of Nekhen in the process. I realise I have completed the paths for science and culture. I am 1 resource away from completing an economic victory as well. I need 3 more for the final point of military.
Turn 113: At this point, I am stretching it out to get the military 3rd point. My gaol is to take the last city of Lafayette to the south, to wipe out the Hyksos to my East and to colonize their lake. This should get me to 12 points. In an ideal world, I would have a fourth city as well to put my UQ in but I think that is pushing it!
Turn 122: I am at 96% and realise that the defences of Khemenu are now mostly 3rd tier and he has walls on two districts! I try to rush a ballista in Uxmal
Turn 124: I underestimated the power of my own troops! They sack Khemenu and its western district, bringing Lafayette to his knees! This pushes the game to 100% and I quickly settle Copan to the E of Chichen Itza. I have my 4 cities to end the age, each with a UQ.
I am pretty sure this is my first time getting all 12 legacy points in the ancient era, and on my first game at Immortal. To sum the age, I am sure I made a ton of mistakes and the power of the NW in my capital cannot be overstated. It was mammoth.
wenamon
Warlord
I love the idea of sidequests, but imagine it is a lot of work for the organizers!
Antiquity 105 Turns 11/12 Legacy Points (2/3 economic, got the rest), 3 cities, Unlocked Bulgaria, Chola, Hawaii, Inca, Ming, Shawnee, Songhai, Spain
A few caveats with this run:
1.) I'm probably being overly honest since there is no enforcement mechanism but I did replay a few single turns for mis-clicks and such, I also practiced quite a lot using the strategies from this spoiler thread but did not look at the map or details from the map in advance. As such, I do not think that there is a leaderboard or anything for GoTM but if so, then this run should have an asterisk attached to it since I borrowed ideas from other players and also reloaded some turns.
2.) Completely unintentionally on T95 while I was farming Yilan on the east coast of the homeland continent for commander XP, my open borders with Amina ended on the same turn and pushed 3 of my units into the distant lands on the east coast. So I got 10 turns of exploring the east coast of the distant land island chains during Antiquity, including clearing a goodie hut for completely useless culture yields (probably should have left for exploration) and discovering Thera for 300g which I put into a Settler which I ended up wasting, more on that later.
In future playthroughs, it is probably a worthwhile use of my time to do this intentionally near the end of the age after clearing the 1 AI opponent for the era advancement as using commanders it should even be possible to settle the distant lands in Antiquity, thus allowing me to have a much faster Exploration.
Anyways that will be for a future game.
Similar to what others have said, I have the following opinion about the goals in this game. The opportunity cost of getting the extra scientific attribute point for future tech or setting up one or two more cities with unique quarters probably is not worth it for saving time in Exploration or Modern. I do not have definite proof of this but that would be my opinion, more testing would have to be done to know with more certainty.
I had the following goals for Antiquity:
1.) Complete all legacy paths as each one would shorten the age by 20 turns, I was unsuccessful in this and thus left 10 turns on the table from not finishing the 3rd Economic legacy path. This was mainly because of my next goal which was to
2.) Eliminate 1 AI civilization. This would reduce the number of turns in the age by 25 turns and thus is a high priority. I was successfully able to do this, eliminating Lafayette on T70. However, this led me into border tensions with Amina and due to the desert spawn I could not accomplish her agenda so I lost that trading partner and due to alliances was also in war with Trung Trac so could not trade with her either. I ended up with 9 settlements but they did not have enough assignable resources to hit the 20 marker and I setup trade routes with Confucius too late to hit the goal. Oh well.
3.) Have the option to go Abbasids in Exploration. I failed in this as I did not disperse Shomrom and Champa (ended up suzing one and missing the suz on the other) and the only other camels were a coveted possession of Amina. I managed to connect one camel in the north between myself and Confucius with a final turn settle, and traded for my other camels throughout the game to get my empire setup.
4.) Follow the Isabella Antiquity quest to its completion. It ended up being bugged out but I did build two galleys and a merchant in succession to unlock an Economic Attribute point which was cool, as well as all of my Antiquity cities could 1 turn galleys at all stages of the game pretty much which was a nice competitive advantage that ended up not mattering due to the 3(!) hostile coastal IP that made it impossible for me to launch an effective naval attack to the East and I couldn't risk my only ally of Confucius so it did not end up mattering very much.
Playthrough Notes:
I decide to settle off fresh one square to the southwest. The reasoning for this is simple, I want to be able to work the strong Redwood Forest tile right away without having to work a poor square first. Since Isabella doubles yields on natural wonders, I should have no problem with happiness in my capital. My initial build order in my capital is 3 scouts followed by 2 warriors to unlock the "Queen of Two Crowns" quest as well as to potentially get a head start on dispersing adjacent hostile IP.
We are on the Redwood Forest so my cap should have no problem with production so I can probably rush Masonry to get yields on mines online for my b2-b3 and then circle back for Pottery. I get the Queen of Two Crowns quest unlocked on t11, will postpone the first part of it (researching Sailing) until later when I can better fit two galleys into my build order for the second part of the quest.
I decide to settle my b2 in a 3 turn settle to the east to pick up the 3 production resources as well as have a sawmill based powerful science city. After making that decision, I discover a goodie hut that grants me a Gypsum resource nearby, so I will settle my city on the other side of the nav river between the Gypsum and the Wool so that I do not have to invest a rural tile on a fishing boat which tends to not be all that great.
On turn 15, the same turn that I settle my b2 I discover the Valley of Flowers to the East which gives me enough gold to immediately upgrade it to a city, so I do so.
On turn 18, I settle my b3 between the Wool and the Gypsum. On turn 24, I settle my 4th city in another gold and Gypsum city to the South of my B3. It turns out to be a massive forward settle of Lafayette which at the time I did not know.
On turn 30, I find Hoerikwaggo in the north and have enough gold to convert my b3 city between the Gypsum and the Wool so I convert it to a city right away.
Empire on T31, my b4 of Chichen Itza is not featured on screen but is bottom right.
Around this point, I stopped taking detailed notes as it kind of disrupts my flow of play and I had a lot going on in real life so didn't want to bog down the game too much by recording exactly what happened each turn. Basically Lafayette DOWed me on T35 before I had my military online (I had around 7 military units at this time dispersed throughout my empire, only 2 units on my border with Lafayette) which allowed him to take my b4 settlement of Chichen Itza. I quickly built up an army of tier 2 units and wiped him out by t70 (about 35 turns from beginning to end). I managed to harass his b2 and b3 settlers enough so they settled in really bad locations, b2 on the southernmost sea but in a really bad location, b3 I chased the settler all the way to the west coast where it settled underneath the incense in the screenshot above on the West, where I was waiting with Chariots and took it out and razed it in a few turns, and a b4 in another bad location on the southern sea. I razed all settlements but the capital which was pretty decent with the Pyramids but did so quickly enough to achieve military legacy 3/3. I also took Gutthiuda which had turned into a CS allied by Lafayette by that time which helped me get military legacy. I kept the city as it had a decent number of resources and I didn't want to raze too many settlements.
After this I declared war on Trung via my ally Confucius so attempted to get my army up to her, but ended up getting very distracted by a belligerent city state (Yilan) which was blocking my army and navy from proceeding up the coastline, and then everything fell apart when Amina DOWed me and the hostile IP crisis started so I ended up losing most of that original army.
Example image above of where b2 was for Lafayette instead of the ideal locations between the wool and gypsum which I was blocking with my Jaguar Slayer.
Some of my army was able to escape via a glitch to the distant lands however, so I got a 10 turn advantage of exploring the east DL island chain which will be helpful in the race for DL treasure resources next age, and gives me an idea to do this with intention in future games to speed up Exploration. I also was trying to end up with one more settlement than I ended with (ended with 9/7) to attempt to get economic legacy 3/3 but ended up wasting that settler due to miscoordination with another settler so that was a waste of gold.
And thus ends my time in Antiquity. I am going to practice Exploration a lot more before submitting, but I wanted to get an Antiquity run in before the patch on the 22nd so I can understand for myself what is possible and what the benchmarks are.
Thanks for reading and if anybody has any comments or places for improvement, please let me know!
A few caveats with this run:
1.) I'm probably being overly honest since there is no enforcement mechanism but I did replay a few single turns for mis-clicks and such, I also practiced quite a lot using the strategies from this spoiler thread but did not look at the map or details from the map in advance. As such, I do not think that there is a leaderboard or anything for GoTM but if so, then this run should have an asterisk attached to it since I borrowed ideas from other players and also reloaded some turns.
2.) Completely unintentionally on T95 while I was farming Yilan on the east coast of the homeland continent for commander XP, my open borders with Amina ended on the same turn and pushed 3 of my units into the distant lands on the east coast. So I got 10 turns of exploring the east coast of the distant land island chains during Antiquity, including clearing a goodie hut for completely useless culture yields (probably should have left for exploration) and discovering Thera for 300g which I put into a Settler which I ended up wasting, more on that later.
In future playthroughs, it is probably a worthwhile use of my time to do this intentionally near the end of the age after clearing the 1 AI opponent for the era advancement as using commanders it should even be possible to settle the distant lands in Antiquity, thus allowing me to have a much faster Exploration.
Anyways that will be for a future game.
Similar to what others have said, I have the following opinion about the goals in this game. The opportunity cost of getting the extra scientific attribute point for future tech or setting up one or two more cities with unique quarters probably is not worth it for saving time in Exploration or Modern. I do not have definite proof of this but that would be my opinion, more testing would have to be done to know with more certainty.
I had the following goals for Antiquity:
1.) Complete all legacy paths as each one would shorten the age by 20 turns, I was unsuccessful in this and thus left 10 turns on the table from not finishing the 3rd Economic legacy path. This was mainly because of my next goal which was to
2.) Eliminate 1 AI civilization. This would reduce the number of turns in the age by 25 turns and thus is a high priority. I was successfully able to do this, eliminating Lafayette on T70. However, this led me into border tensions with Amina and due to the desert spawn I could not accomplish her agenda so I lost that trading partner and due to alliances was also in war with Trung Trac so could not trade with her either. I ended up with 9 settlements but they did not have enough assignable resources to hit the 20 marker and I setup trade routes with Confucius too late to hit the goal. Oh well.
3.) Have the option to go Abbasids in Exploration. I failed in this as I did not disperse Shomrom and Champa (ended up suzing one and missing the suz on the other) and the only other camels were a coveted possession of Amina. I managed to connect one camel in the north between myself and Confucius with a final turn settle, and traded for my other camels throughout the game to get my empire setup.
4.) Follow the Isabella Antiquity quest to its completion. It ended up being bugged out but I did build two galleys and a merchant in succession to unlock an Economic Attribute point which was cool, as well as all of my Antiquity cities could 1 turn galleys at all stages of the game pretty much which was a nice competitive advantage that ended up not mattering due to the 3(!) hostile coastal IP that made it impossible for me to launch an effective naval attack to the East and I couldn't risk my only ally of Confucius so it did not end up mattering very much.
Playthrough Notes:
I decide to settle off fresh one square to the southwest. The reasoning for this is simple, I want to be able to work the strong Redwood Forest tile right away without having to work a poor square first. Since Isabella doubles yields on natural wonders, I should have no problem with happiness in my capital. My initial build order in my capital is 3 scouts followed by 2 warriors to unlock the "Queen of Two Crowns" quest as well as to potentially get a head start on dispersing adjacent hostile IP.
We are on the Redwood Forest so my cap should have no problem with production so I can probably rush Masonry to get yields on mines online for my b2-b3 and then circle back for Pottery. I get the Queen of Two Crowns quest unlocked on t11, will postpone the first part of it (researching Sailing) until later when I can better fit two galleys into my build order for the second part of the quest.
I decide to settle my b2 in a 3 turn settle to the east to pick up the 3 production resources as well as have a sawmill based powerful science city. After making that decision, I discover a goodie hut that grants me a Gypsum resource nearby, so I will settle my city on the other side of the nav river between the Gypsum and the Wool so that I do not have to invest a rural tile on a fishing boat which tends to not be all that great.
On turn 15, the same turn that I settle my b2 I discover the Valley of Flowers to the East which gives me enough gold to immediately upgrade it to a city, so I do so.
On turn 18, I settle my b3 between the Wool and the Gypsum. On turn 24, I settle my 4th city in another gold and Gypsum city to the South of my B3. It turns out to be a massive forward settle of Lafayette which at the time I did not know.
On turn 30, I find Hoerikwaggo in the north and have enough gold to convert my b3 city between the Gypsum and the Wool so I convert it to a city right away.
Empire on T31, my b4 of Chichen Itza is not featured on screen but is bottom right.
Around this point, I stopped taking detailed notes as it kind of disrupts my flow of play and I had a lot going on in real life so didn't want to bog down the game too much by recording exactly what happened each turn. Basically Lafayette DOWed me on T35 before I had my military online (I had around 7 military units at this time dispersed throughout my empire, only 2 units on my border with Lafayette) which allowed him to take my b4 settlement of Chichen Itza. I quickly built up an army of tier 2 units and wiped him out by t70 (about 35 turns from beginning to end). I managed to harass his b2 and b3 settlers enough so they settled in really bad locations, b2 on the southernmost sea but in a really bad location, b3 I chased the settler all the way to the west coast where it settled underneath the incense in the screenshot above on the West, where I was waiting with Chariots and took it out and razed it in a few turns, and a b4 in another bad location on the southern sea. I razed all settlements but the capital which was pretty decent with the Pyramids but did so quickly enough to achieve military legacy 3/3. I also took Gutthiuda which had turned into a CS allied by Lafayette by that time which helped me get military legacy. I kept the city as it had a decent number of resources and I didn't want to raze too many settlements.
After this I declared war on Trung via my ally Confucius so attempted to get my army up to her, but ended up getting very distracted by a belligerent city state (Yilan) which was blocking my army and navy from proceeding up the coastline, and then everything fell apart when Amina DOWed me and the hostile IP crisis started so I ended up losing most of that original army.
Example image above of where b2 was for Lafayette instead of the ideal locations between the wool and gypsum which I was blocking with my Jaguar Slayer.
Some of my army was able to escape via a glitch to the distant lands however, so I got a 10 turn advantage of exploring the east DL island chain which will be helpful in the race for DL treasure resources next age, and gives me an idea to do this with intention in future games to speed up Exploration. I also was trying to end up with one more settlement than I ended with (ended with 9/7) to attempt to get economic legacy 3/3 but ended up wasting that settler due to miscoordination with another settler so that was a waste of gold.
And thus ends my time in Antiquity. I am going to practice Exploration a lot more before submitting, but I wanted to get an Antiquity run in before the patch on the 22nd so I can understand for myself what is possible and what the benchmarks are.
Thanks for reading and if anybody has any comments or places for improvement, please let me know!
I think I also will not finish this game either, the reason being that unlocking Abbasids is critical to having the best possible pace in Modern, and this finish is already 10+ turns behind the best candidates so I will take my learnings from how to do a fast Antiquity here and apply it to the next game.
I do like having the flexibility of picking your exploration age Civ but if this is treated as a competitive event, then the game is essentially over if Abbasids are not unlocked which is a pity so I think having a strict next choice makes more sense.
I do like having the flexibility of picking your exploration age Civ but if this is treated as a competitive event, then the game is essentially over if Abbasids are not unlocked which is a pity so I think having a strict next choice makes more sense.
Turn 95 with 12 legacy points
My 4 cities are visible in that screenshot. Like many others I was aiming to prioritize the Mayan UQ and also try to get enough camels for Abbasids given the UQ combo potential. I wasn't necessarily planning to eliminate other civs, since I find wars a bit of a slog on Immortal and up, and especially against a civ like Egypt with defensive bonuses.
Baak settled next to the redwood forest since you can't beat the tempo from starting with those 3 tiles. I researched Animal Husbandry -> Masonry first (being able to basically ignore libraries for a while is very strong), and for Civics it was Rain of Chaac, then Mysticism and Myst II for Mundo Perdido, then the rest of the Maya civic tree before moving on to Discipline, etc. To get enough culture running, I prioritized culture discoveries and ran a monument in the capital next to two natural wonder tiles.
My first settlement was Uxmal in the tropical forest to the NW, was planning Mundo Perdido there but lost it on the last turn. Got some 130 production and 2 spearmen as compensation, which were useful later. I focused settlements on getting +production resources and camels.
Around turn 50 or so, Amina and Lafayette started what would be a long war. I was relatively friendly with Lafayette despite the proximity, and so decided to eventually join on his side. I was also planning to disperse an IP near the Valley of Flowers that Amina was befriending, and build a settlement for camels there anyway, which would go a long way towards making Amina hostile. I took Waset around turn 70, and a hostile IP took her 3rd settlement up north, so it was easy then to eliminate her by taking the last city on the SE coast. With 7 of my own settlements and 2 conquered, I settled one more at the same time I finished the codices (no future tech though) on turn 95 to get to 100% age meter.
My 4 cities are visible in that screenshot. Like many others I was aiming to prioritize the Mayan UQ and also try to get enough camels for Abbasids given the UQ combo potential. I wasn't necessarily planning to eliminate other civs, since I find wars a bit of a slog on Immortal and up, and especially against a civ like Egypt with defensive bonuses.
Baak settled next to the redwood forest since you can't beat the tempo from starting with those 3 tiles. I researched Animal Husbandry -> Masonry first (being able to basically ignore libraries for a while is very strong), and for Civics it was Rain of Chaac, then Mysticism and Myst II for Mundo Perdido, then the rest of the Maya civic tree before moving on to Discipline, etc. To get enough culture running, I prioritized culture discoveries and ran a monument in the capital next to two natural wonder tiles.
My first settlement was Uxmal in the tropical forest to the NW, was planning Mundo Perdido there but lost it on the last turn. Got some 130 production and 2 spearmen as compensation, which were useful later. I focused settlements on getting +production resources and camels.
Around turn 50 or so, Amina and Lafayette started what would be a long war. I was relatively friendly with Lafayette despite the proximity, and so decided to eventually join on his side. I was also planning to disperse an IP near the Valley of Flowers that Amina was befriending, and build a settlement for camels there anyway, which would go a long way towards making Amina hostile. I took Waset around turn 70, and a hostile IP took her 3rd settlement up north, so it was easy then to eliminate her by taking the last city on the SE coast. With 7 of my own settlements and 2 conquered, I settled one more at the same time I finished the codices (no future tech though) on turn 95 to get to 100% age meter.
Spoiler :
I think I might have overcompensated on the culture, and at some point I ended up with more culture/turn than science: delaying science buildings in favor of production and culture ones, 2 cultural CS + the tradition for culture on happiness building. I was able to fit Angkor Wat, which is obviously a good fit for Explo with the Abbasids, yet if I had focused more science instead I might have gotten a future tech and a few turns less... which is probably worth more than Angkor Wat, but not sure.
I'm curious why "most importantly gold". Do you end up buying a lot of buildings?
What was your motivation to convert the double iron city first? Was it just for the mine / stone circle focus or something else?
100%. For me one of the most understated bonuses is the +1 science adjacency on the Altar that's given for free with one of the initial civics. Would be one of the best pantheons, but then you can also stack a normal pantheon.
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