Civ VI Play-Along: Violent Science Victory with Macedonia

[yung.carl.jung]

UPDATE: Since a lot of people do not have all the DLC I rolled a completely new map, disabled all DLC besides the Macedon & Persia pack and all Mods, too, so everyone should be able to participate now. We had one very nice live session earlier today and depending on whether or not I have time there might be one more tomorrow. Again, just leave a post in this thread and I will private message you

This game is for everyone in the forum (and elsewhere) to participate! It is a community game and you are encouraged to leave your stories, write-ups, thoughts, strategies, ideas and comments in this thread.

The goal is to play together, critique and help each other out so that we can all improve. The goal of this thread is to get a fast science victory aided by conquering cities. But you are free to play the map however you want!

The map is standard size, the pace is standard, the number of opponents is 8 and the difficulty is Deity.

This is a special map cooked into the players favor. It has less hills than regular maps, less forests, few chokepoints and mountain chains and one very close neighbor. 3 Unique luxuries and lots of hammers.. The opponents are hand-picked, everyone that posted in my other thread was taken into account! I hope I included all suggestions If you dislike that, or think it is cheating, that is fine. A lot of players, me included, still struggle with Deity. So for practice a Deity-lite game should be ideal.

Do you want to play along? Here is how:

Download the save file COMMUNITY GAME MACEDON.Civ6Save. Put this file in the following directory: C:/user/(your username)/documents/My Games/Civ VI/Saves.

Start the game and select the file. Done!


We will also be doing an interactive playalong via Discord! Talk to other CivFanatics, ask questions live, play the same game at the same time.

If you want to participate with the interactive playthrough, please just leave a simple post stating 1) when you have free time to play and 2) your time zone.

We will most likely play more than just one session, so even if you did miss one of the Discord sessions dont sweat

Calling @Victoria @Wacker @Lily_Lancer @kb27787 @Eliminator_Sr !

With no further ado, Lets go daddy Alex ❤

 

[Navystorm]

Would love to join if I'm around when this is planned. I'm UK and don't have too many unmovable plans this weekend...

EDIT: Heads-up you do need all the DLC's to play - I don't have Vikings DLC or Poland and it wouldn't let me load.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

Im glad! I am German, @JamesCivFan is Greek (I think) so our time zones are relatively compatible, should be no problem I am free today and tomorrow.

 

[JamesCivFan]

@yung.carl.jung. Yes, Greek here. Gonna try out the save file now.

Seems like we use different UI enhance mods. I am using Chao's Quick UI and you are using NQ Enhanced User Interface. Therefore I cannot load the save file.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

Can you try loading with CQ disabled and NQ enabled? I didnt mean to do this, but I dont think theres a way to edit the save file :x Anyway, its a really great map imo so its worth it I think.

 

[Eliminator_Sr]

Not sure I'll be able to participate in the Discord session - I'm in the US Pacific TZ so about 9 hours difference. I generally play in the evenings here so likely middle of the night for you guys. The start looks decent enough. I have all the DLCs except for Vikings which looks like it might be an issue.

I've played a few games with Macedon including a few Deity openings and I tend to bypass archers and try to get those Unique units out ASAP. I have a hunch this probably isn't the best strategy for fast SV because it takes too much time to tech up there and then build enough units. I find archer conquest difficult on high levels because they are so weak against cities and the combat bonus on Deity only makes it tougher. I just feel like I never have enough of them compared to the AI who can churn them out almost every turn (recently ran into this on GOTM with Brazil and it really slowed me down). Are you guys planning to go heavy on archers early? If so what promotion line do you take? District bonus or combat bonus vs range/melee or a mix of the two? Scouts early or no? I know I need to do much better in my openings to get a fast SV and I always seem to be treading water in the early game - I feel lucky to get 10 cities down on Deity in the first 100 turns but I generally roll with whatever map I get unless it's horrible.

 

[JamesCivFan]

Not sure I'll be able to participate in the Discord session - I'm in the US Pacific TZ so about 9 hours difference. I generally play in the evenings here so likely middle of the night for you guys. The start looks decent enough. I have all the DLCs except for Vikings which looks like it might be an issue.

I've played a few games with Macedon including a few Deity openings and I tend to bypass archers and try to get those Unique units out ASAP. I have a hunch this probably isn't the best strategy for fast SV because it takes too much time to tech up there and then build enough units. I find archer conquest difficult on high levels because they are so weak against cities and the combat bonus on Deity only makes it tougher. I just feel like I never have enough of them compared to the AI who can churn them out almost every turn (recently ran into this on GOTM with Brazil and it really slowed me down). Are you guys planning to go heavy on archers early? If so what promotion line do you take? District bonus or combat bonus vs range/melee or a mix of the two? Scouts early or no? I know I need to do much better in my openings to get a fast SV and I always seem to be treading water in the early game - I feel lucky to get 10 cities down on Deity in the first 100 turns but I generally roll with whatever map I get unless it's horrible.

@Eliminator_Sr do you have Discord and/or Skype? We had a testing session in the map that I rolled actually.

 

[Eliminator_Sr]

@JamesCivFan

Yes I have Skype installed. Generally play in the 6 PM to midnight range but sometimes later on weekends (PST: 3:38 PM right now). Not sure how much I'll be around this weekend but likely will be on Sunday.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

It would be nice if the people that tried and couldnt play the map could report back on whether it works now! Hope I got it right this time. This map, I think, might be even more suited.

 

[JamesCivFan]

@Eliminator_Sr this timezone is unfortunately about 4 AM for me, but I'll PM you my Skype anyway.

@yung.carl.jung I just tested it and it turns out that if you have the Game Random Seed and Map Random Seed, we can create the exact same map, including the starting location with CQUI (or any other mod for that matter). That way, people who don't use any mods can play, but we mod users can also play the same map. Did you happen to keep these 2 numbers?

 

[Navystorm]

Yep - this loads fine...

 

[whacker]

Unfortunatelly i won`t be able to participate this weekend. I will try this out on monday.

 

[JamesCivFan]

Unfortunatelly i won`t be able to participate this weekend. I will try this out on monday.

@whacker, you wanna try it with me on Skype via Screenshare? That's how we did it with Yung. We were basically playing together in real time. I could learn a lot from you.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

@Eliminator_Sr this timezone is unfortunately about 4 AM for me, but I'll PM you my Skype anyway.

@yung.carl.jung I just tested it and it turns out that if you have the Game Random Seed and Map Random Seed, we can create the exact same map, including the starting location with CQUI (or any other mod for that matter). That way, people who don't use any mods can play, but we mod users can also play the same map. Did you happen to keep these 2 numbers?

Nope, I didnt. Is there any way to find out in retrospect?

Aditionally, are there any UI mods that work like in Civ V? Where they are not considered DLC but rather change existing game files? That would make it much easier for me to roll starts in the future.

 

[JamesCivFan]

@yung.carl.jung from what I see here, it's a very painful procedure if you didn't save a screenshot beforehand.
https://www.reddit.com/r/civ/comments/59biml/how_to_getting_the_map_and_game_seed_from_a_civ_6/
https://www.reddit.com/r/civ/comments/59b2lg/how_to_find_a_seed_from_a_save_step_by_step/

I found these 2 links. They might help. I really don't know. I have been taking screenshots of my seed numbers before creating a game lately. It really helps.

About said UI mods like in CiV, I have no clue.

 

[kb27787]

Well... I suppose I understand the violence part, as Macedon of course If domination then I should be able to finish...
Although my SV time will probably be horrible as I have never done SV really well in BNW (and I think I tried exactly once for CivVI... ended up not wanting to spend all those turns just waiting for that stupid spaceport... how the heck do they cost that many hammers...)

 

[JamesCivFan]

Well... I suppose I understand the violence part, as Macedon of course If domination then I should be able to finish...
Although my SV time will probably be horrible as I have never done SV really well in BNW (and I think I tried exactly once for CivVI... ended up not wanting to spend all those turns just waiting for that stupid spaceport... how the heck do they cost that many hammers...)

SV is actually really fun to plan out. I just haven't figured it out perfectly yet. Starting with an early war + Alex's ability, it should be great if done right. Can't wait for another session.

 

[kb27787]

Well I finished the map in around 2 hrs... (pretty great starting dirt) knights galore and the hardest part was getting around the map (it was far from being all flat like the OP stated... more like a labyrinth) I'm not the type of player to micromanage every single unit's movement so some of my units were dancing around in circles in some places... but then again that's why I can finish early in real life.

t122 domination which TBH is quite horrible for Macedon but indeed the map has an extra twist....
Problem was that with my early war, my army was all in kicking the northern AI's butt when I got blindsided in the south by another AI and lost my first expansion city... had to march my troops back... which prolly cost me several early hetairoi production.

If I had to play SV though... I'd probably just wipe the map more thoroughly perhaps and not only take the capitals and any cities along the way? And build campuses (I didn't bother to build any other district than maybe 3 encampments at most). No one's gonna give me any research agreements though

Spoiler Spoiler :

The heck, I thought this was a standard map and somehow there are 9 civs instead of 8... How sneaky saying the number of "opponents", and not "civs" is 8... I totally missed that little detail! I didn't bother to check how many civs were in the game... England is so darned far to reach and she had to pick defender of the faith... That kinda screwed up my calculations a bit... everyone else were pushovers...
As for the game, did a standard archer rush before switching to hetairoi... Russia put up a really tough fight with endless units coming out. Got pincered by Spain in the south and lost a city there... polished up Russia and returned to cream him with the horses... although the terrain around Kandy was pretty terrible for my poor horses... hills with forest/rainforest behind river and he had lots of archers and +4 to other religions bonus, Once Boudicca joined the scene though it was all over for him. While she led my horses southwest into Spain, in the meantime I sent my 10 archers with a single horse southeast... took a CS which was in the way. Got lucky with a settler steal from barbs much later, and planted a city next to Hojo's capital. "Teleported" Boudicca there and Kyoto fell (had to sacrifice some archers for speed).
Around this time I hit "mercenaries" (not beelining it, went for feudalism first) and upgraded my horses for a measly 65 gold each for knights. Creamed France and Norway simultaneously, meanwhile worrying about getting to Kongo so I sent my X-bows there with some knights. Saw Germany and decided Kongo was the bigger threat. Shocked when England showed up with a capital far, far away. Finally, after much swimming my knights reached English lands, around the same time stole Germany's settler with a DoW and teleported Boudicca down to help against Aachen in the south. Got a bunch of cities from Norway in a peace deal, "teleported" Boudicca northeast again and finished the game with a last spurt of faith-bought units. In the end, I had so many knights that I didn't use... knights were enough as the AI was not very strong even at t120 or so... Boudicca was a lifesaver and I didn't bother to convert barbs because there were only swordsmen at best.

 

[JamesCivFan]

@kb27787

That's better than I would do for sure! I have a few questions though. I guess I'll put them in spoiler tags:

Spoiler questions :

1) What was your BO in the capital and in the first 2 expansions to pull off a fast Archer rush?
2) When did you hit the Knights tech exactly?
3) When did you start building Encampments and Campuses?
4) What was your civics order, since you said you didn't beeline Mercenaries?

If I think of any more questions, I'll let you know. Thanks in advance.

 

[kb27787]

@kb27787

That's better than I would do for sure! I have a few questions though. I guess I'll put them in spoiler tags:

Spoiler questions :

1) What was your BO in the capital and in the first 2 expansions to pull off a fast Archer rush?
2) When did you hit the Knights tech exactly?
3) When did you start building Encampments and Campuses?
4) What was your civics order, since you said you didn't beeline Mercenaries?

If I think of any more questions, I'll let you know. Thanks in advance.

Spoiler :

Actually I wouldn't recommend people copy my opening
I did a very risky opening (although in the worst case I could just get a DoF by gifting the furs if I feel threatened but that would mean I cannot DoW them for 30 turns)
I opened builder (as far as I can remember), build pasture, camp, and farm and get agoge.
While that's going on I think I built settler. At this point Russia has yet to meet me (I saw his warrior but for some reason he didn't see me)
2nd city down, agoge civics complete, switch to agoge + 1 production per city and straight slingers.
3-4 slingers down, complete archer tech, upgrade... and attack with around 6 archers and warriors (I had to make sure I pillaged his horse otherwise horsemen would be very bad for archers)... but I did not get his city until I got my first horse out. He had a lot of archers and chariots too... so I did not have a very efficient push... compared to more successful games where sometimes my archers can simply walk in because the AI was busy building Stonehenge.

I'm not exactly sure when I hit knight tech, but I completed the tech halfway and wait for feudalism instead. Also, after feudalism I don't remember what I beelined next but I did not have that much money on hand at that time (maybe 200 gold or so?) I might've gone for monarchy path for more policy slots. It was not until I had shelled out a lot of gold from a peace deal with Spain did I start to go for mercenaries, but I didn't lose that much time... I think the only out-of-the-way civic I got was drama and poetry, so it was not a beeline, but it was simply adjusting the plan as I go. (I was fighting Japan at that time, and the hetairoi with GG combo was still going ridiculously strong so I felt I didn't need knights). I'm not a person who min-maxes everything like the pros... I don't really care if I have to hit a certain inspiration to trigger a certain tech in the most efficient manner. Macedon is strong enough of a civ that you get away with pretty much anything.
I did get massed knights from hetairoi upgrade eventually after making peace with Japan, and looking at the autosave it seems to be around as late as t80-90 when I finally upgraded them to knights.
You see, the thing is, hetairoi with GG is 45 strength... close to 48 of a normal knight, and the policy card for +50% production at military training only applies to hetairoi (you have to go all the way to monarchy to get the card for kngihts). You basically just steamroll the AI with them... So, in other words, you might even want to delay getting chivalry if you want to keep mass-producing horses because you're not very good at keeping them alive (I certainly lost way more of them than I should've.. or rather, I suicide low hp ones sometimes if there is no farm to pillage and they just get in the way, so I ram them kamikaze style into the city I'm sieging). Also very lucky to get classical/medieval GG Boudicca as she works with both hetairoi and knights, and she also helps my X-bows too.

I built encampments only when I noticed my upkeep gold was negative and that I cannot support any units My cities have always been producing either hetairoi or knights. I did not build a single campus (hey, I already got knights and X-bows what more tech do I want? I certainly am not going to reach field cannons and tanks before the game is over.. for that reason did not build a single UB) nor any other district for that matter.