Civ6 6otM 03 After Actions Report

[CPWimmer]

Religious Victory at Turn 146 with a measly 188 points!

How many cities did you settle or capture?
5, with nothing new since my turn 100 post

What did you prioritize for research and policies?
The basic religious victory stuff (up to Education) plus the sea techs needed to get missionaries and apostles to France and Norway and then Divine Right in civics (was headed to Reformed Church but won before I got there)

Did You get the first religion?
I got the 2nd (first was Gorgo with Stonehenge) but it didn't matter. I had most of the world converted before the next 3 religions ever showed up. Only Norway was an issue - and really it was because of the barbarians between him and the rest of civilization. I eventually won via Apostles at Sea!

How much warring did you do?
None

Were City-States helpful?
Yes, I was Suzerain with 3 of the 4 faith city states and had 3 envoys with the 4th. I had envoys with 9 of 12 city states I had met. I was even accidental suzerain of Stockholm in the end due to completing a quest for them while doing something else.

Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
France being across the sea -- so I went all the way for Cartography on a Pangaea map)
Norway being land locked by barbarians, who killed 2 of my apostles -- essentially the same solution: Apostles came in form the ocean, untouchable by barb galleys and quadrienes

Did you enjoy the game?
Yes, although in some ways I played it a bit boring. I didn't even have any religious combat because I had overwhelmed the entire planet with Taoism so early. I converted the Jewish and Catholic holy cities before they could get anything going - so I barely encountered any opposing religious units at all. Norway was the last to convert, but only because of how far and isolated they were. 4 of the 7 AI's were converted before turn 100. Gorgo was converted on turn 121, France on turn 134 and then finally Norway on 146.

Spread the word thru peace and love, or conversion by the sword?
Peace and Love and Harmony for all! (and still complete before turn 150)

 

[Telco Inc]

Turn 190, Score 246 Religious Victory

How many cities did you settle or capture?

Decided to declare war on England early on to steal a builder and captured both cities.
Then Brazil surprise DOW’d me and I conquered their both cities and as a bonus I caught a settler with who I founded a city.

What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Priority was Astrology which was second or third tech to be completed .

The remainder was go with the flow

Did You get the first religion?

Due to Stonehenge I was the first to found a religion. I used Stone circle Pantheon and Itenerant Preachers

How much warring did you do?

Besides the war with England and Brazil no wars took place at all.

Were City-States helpful?

Yerevan was instrumental as it gave me the oportunity to choose the perks Prosetylyser and Translator to convert foreign cities very efficiently.


Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?

Contact with Norway was relatively late so Gorgo Greece was able to found the 5th religion which in the end was more fearfull as it was harm.

France showed me their capital but was swamped with barb’s for which I needed to send a militairy force across the sea.


Did you enjoy the game?

Yup, Although I expect on higher difficulty levels it will be a real challenge.


Spread the word thru peace and love, or conversion by the sword?

England was converted before a second religion was founded. Pericles Greece was easily overrun by the Apostle combination (Prosetylyser and Translator) when at the same moment Brazil was sieged.

The two Arabian religious cities were done in 2 or 3 turns.

 

[Sempronius]

Turn 340, pretty late, but first time trying religion and I wanted to win with only religion and not domination.

- How many cities did you settle or capture? 8 settled, zero captured.
- What did you prioritize for research and policies? all techs that aided faith
- Did You get the first religion? yes, on turn 30
- How much warring did you do? none, only religious fights no conventional ones
- Were City-States helpful? somewhat, but I mostly ignored them
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it? I was surprised that I made it through 340 turns without one fight.
- Did you enjoy the game? Yes, but I think I could shave at least 50 to 100 turns off this now that I understand the way religion works in Civ6.
- Spread the word thru peace and love, or conversion by the sword? peace, only theological combat

 

[MiniMe]

Religious Victory Turn 171, Score 249

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled 4, captured 3. Wiped out Saladin, and he had a great prophet sitting in his last city upon capture

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Religion, basically

- Did You get the first religion?
Yup, chopped Stonehenge

- How much warring did you do?
Built a few archers as usual and since England got the second religion and just because they were so near, they had to go. Well. left them with one city.
Then Saladin was not too far away so removed him.

- Were City-States helpful?
Yes, Yerevan rocks.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Lost some turns because I didnt go cartography - just assumed I could get to anyone by foot. Well guess what ...
And poor Cathy was walled in one little city surrounded by barbs. I brought an army of apostles but it was over in one go.

- Did you enjoy the game?
My first religion in Civ 6 so yes a lot of learning in this game
Presumably i would have lost badly on higher difficulty.

- Spread the word thru peace and love, or conversion by the sword?
Mainly with love, except everyone hated my after I knocked down the English and the Arabs.

 

[bartaxe]

Turn 152, Points 230

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
5 + 2 (Western Greece, actually i captured 3 but razed one and rebuilt one with a captured settler).

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
First Astrology and PP + Theology, later sea-faring technologies, because i could not find the last civilization. Never found Paris, but converting Toulouse and Bordeaux was sufficient.

- Did You get the first religion?
I did with Stonehenge. Stupid me, explored with the GP before founding in a built Holy disctrict instead of founding in Stonehenge...

- How much warring did you do?
Early defensive wars against Brazil and Greece. They teamed up on me. Later England joined in. After the invaders were repelled, i attacked to get hold of iron and horses in western Greece. Never used these resources though,

- Were City-States helpful?
Did not include them in my plans. Envoys went to the religious ones mostly.s

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Desert folklore + japanese Meiji + writing civic is HUGE. +31Faith per Turn, per some districts..
France started on an island, with no connection to the mainland. Well maybe a connection in the far north east. I bee lined for cartography and led my missionaries and apostles into the sea.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes. Thanks for setting this up. I'm not very competitive so far, but it's fun!

- Spread the word thru peace and love, or conversion by the sword?
Missionary zealots got the AI by surprise. Everybody hated me in the end, because i took Western Greece for myself. So well, i spread the word by swift surprise and fear. Upgraded my archers to crossbowmen, to hold of the brazilian aggression. Pedro converted late to Catholicism, which i purged quickly with apostles.

 

[krapfa]

Won on turn 175 (1140 AD) with 490 faith per turn

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
16 Cities in total - captured most of them and didn't settle many.
- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Mostly things that helpt the faith generation
- Did You get the first religion?
Yes, wasn't a problem at all
- How much warring did you do?
Aaaa lot! Conquered almost anthing and just Norway, Arabia and France are left over with max 3 cities each
- Were City-States helpful?
Not in particular
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
It was just too easy. Could have finished much earlier but found France very late unfortunately.
- Did you enjoy the game?
Beginning was fun since I conquered a lot. The rest was a bit lame since AI was too weak.
- Spread the word thru peace and love, or conversion by the sword?
A lot of sword and some relegion conversion

 

[Xger]

Turn 139 241 score. Most of my information is in the opening actions thread. Unfortunately, I failed to realize that Harald was still swamped in barbarians, and failed to guess that France would also be swarmed, so I lost 3 apostles. Had I been better prepared, my win would have been 120 or so, maybe sooner. I might go into more detail later.

The big issue for me was not thinking about the possibility of an island civ. So, I didn't start the tech leading to the tech that allows ocean embarking until I finally realized that about France. Probably could have finished 25+ turns sooner had I realized. Maybe more had I realized really early and put together any science infrastructure. One save is after getting the victory screen. The other is the auto save, just need to move the apostle near Harald and spread to win.

 

[DrZ]

Hi guys, won this game on turn 171 with a score of 374, had a blast playing it, was my first time winning a religious victory so had now good grasp about how to optimize the winning time, have still a lot to learn.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
I settled 2 cities and captured 9 from England and the close eastern neighbors.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
For Techs: Astrology for Stonehenge and after that military techs for timing attacks on neighbors. Also Cartography after not finding a way to get to France (there was a way in the north east but didn't find it in time so had to rely on Cartography).
For Policies: Political Philosophy (better government), Theology (temples for more faith and apostles), Mercenaries (for cheaper military upgrades), Divine Right (better government), Reformed Church (even better government for faith).

- Did You get the first religion?
Yea with Stonehenge, was really easy getting it this game.
Pantheon: Stone circles (had a lot of quarries so i thought was the best choice)
For religion i chose:
Jesuit Education (thought i'd buy campus buildings with faith but i think was a mistake as i didn't end up buying any science building with faith, spent all my faith on religious units and buildings).
Mosque (for more faith and more spread)
Holy Order (for cheaper apostles and missionaries)
Church Property (i needed money for my huge army)

- How much warring did you do?
A lot, killed all my close neighbors, and left alone the outlying civilizations (Arabia, Norway and France). I converted them, and i really think i got caught up in war too much and i should have sent missionaries a lot earlier to convert Norway and France as they had no religion founded and was an easy early win by just getting there...

- Were City-States helpful?
I think they are always helpful, i focused mainly on the faith ones for more faith...

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
I was caught by war and didn't realize i could just send missionaries to the remaining outlying civs and just win, had almost 300 faith/turn with the cost of a missionary 220 so a missionary each turn would have been enough to finish this game a lot faster.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yea, was a great game, i hope they improve the AI thought, it's so easy to stomp on them right now it's not even funny, even on higher difficulties.

- Spread the word thru peace and love, or conversion by the sword?
Half the world was converted with the sword, half with love :-D.

 

[Melofeign]

Turn 164 Religious Victory
Note I can save the game on the turn that I won as it was an active conversion to finish.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Pericles gave me 2 of his cities after declaring war on me. I found that Yerevan really took it to him, getting a city down to almost no health and walls destroyed, but they would not take the city even though they had units there. I didn't have a melee unit close, so it took a long time to take it. I also founded one more city up north of Stockholm that had access to 2 new luxs for me, but finished before I could get them online. So 3 by force, and 3 more by settling for 7 total.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Get to apostles, get to production techs, and then get to cartography to get to France. Policy wise move towards Theocracy, but it came too late to make much difference.

- Did You get the first religion?
With Stonehenge, indeed! The other religions popped up nearby except for Norway, so Yerevan enhanced apostles that remove other religions were quite useful and didn't have far to go.

- How much warring did you do?
Ate England, and that was it. I responded to 3 wars on me, but only took things from Pericles. The last war made winning more difficult, I hadn't converted Norway or France and they declared on me. This killed an apostle and forced my other apostles to wait 10-15 turns before being able to get to them after peace. They never moved any military my way that I could tell.

- Were City-States helpful?
All the religious CSs were helpful for faith generation. Yerevan was the only CS that had an important ability.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Declaring war on me did stop my religious conversion for a while. Watching Yerevan spend 10+ turns with horsemen next to a defenseless city and not taking it also was surprising. I brought some xbows over to help my apostles get close to the cities I was at war with, but they declared peace before I got to shoot anybody.

- Did you enjoy the game?
I did! i thought we had a real nice start, and a religious win is pretty fast. I do wish Prince AI could deal with Barb AI on a more regular basis; finding civs with only 1 or 2 cities and beset by barbs is a little sad.

- Spread the word thru peace and love, or conversion by the sword?
After taking London (pre any religion) I only responded to wars declared on me. People weren't happy with me, but they converted nonetheless =) thanks for the game!

 

[Eliminator_Sr]

I won on turn 245 in 1670 with a score in the Dan Quayle category. This was my first GOTM win and only my second civ 6 game. It wasn't very efficient but I'll take it.

I definitely made some mistakes and like another poster I didn't realize that evangelize gave you more beliefs so I clearly have some more learning to do.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Mainly the faith improving ones - went for theology and reformed church but didn't get the latter until kind of late. I also went for Military Tactics get Samurai because I did not have access to iron or horses early.

- Did You get the first religion?
No - someone beat me to Stonehenge by 2 turns so I had to reset. I think I got the 2nd religion.

- How much warring did you do?
Not much. England backstabbed me. I was friendly with them from the outset and they kept moving units through my borders and settled below my capital. They all of a sudden declared a surprise war out of the blue. They managed to pillage my financial improvements in the capital before I got units there. I think they only killed one or two units and I captured one of their cities. I wanted to take them out but I was almost out of gold at the time and I needed money so I sued for peace instead.

- Were City-States helpful?
Yes -- the extra faith was nice, but I probably should have focused more on Yerevan. Greece kept pumping envoys there so the Suzerain bonus was off and on for most of the game. I made some trade routes with a few states as well.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
England declaring was a surprise. I expected war with Greece so I was somewhat prepared for it. France being on an island was annoying and it took me awhile to get there - definitely lost some turns on that. I ended up just getting some sea tech to sail there directly since my apostles kept getting killed by barbarians. A few of the civs only had one city when I got there which made conversion pretty simple.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes - it was a good learning experience too. I usually play for domination so this was a nice change of pace. I'm glad the difficulty was set lower because I'm still learning how to play.

- Spread the word thru peace and love, or conversion by the sword?
I wanted to go all out Religion in this one so I refrained from conquering anyone though I was tempted.

 

[CappyAA]

Religious Victory, Turn 192, 1310 AD, Score 478

- How many cities did you settle or capture?

Settled 5 and captured 11 for a total of 16 cities.

Rushed on England early and took them out, getting 2 cities. After getting a decent army of knights, I took 4 more from Greece. By that time, I had bombards and musketmen and was far in front of any other civ, so I took out Brazil too, with their 5 cities.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?

Mainly tried to play for eurekas. I did somewhat prioritize the military tree more. I also ignored sailing / cartography - which probably added some time to my game since France and Norway were a pain to get to.

- Did You get the first religion?

No, Gorgo got 1 early. I took the 2nd.

- How much warring did you do?

At the beginning, I did it for a quicker expansion. Mid-game, I more warred b/c I was bored.

- Were City-States helpful?

Yes, I was suzerain for 7 of them by the end.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?

Not really. Just where Norway and France were. I met France somewhat early, but didn't think they would be stuck on that island. My scout was killed by barbarians on that small land mass when about to find Norway. So those two were tough to get to towards the end.

- Did you enjoy the game?

More than I thought I would, but I don't think I was that optimal in my use of Apostles and Missionaries. I am looking forward to the Religious Victory Guide when it comes out as I have a lot to learn. If that was much higher difficulty, it might have been much harder.

- Spread the word thru peace and love, or conversion by the sword?

Sword, but by the end, I was pumping out apostles so I just overwhelmed Arabla, Gorgo, Norway, and France.

 

[Hardcorey]

T192 Religious Victory, Score: 506

I thought I finished pretty quickly, until I came here and saw sub-100's wins! Not sore though, because I was ranked Warren G. And I regulated.

I didn't know it was even possible to pump missionaries out fast enough to convert people in less than 100 turns on an 8 player map, so I invested big in infrastructure and didn't rush a religion as fast as I should have.

Strategy included:
- Expand like crazy (20 cities. 5 of them captured)
- Get faith from having a lot of holy sites in those cities (was getting ~400/turn by the end)
- Made missionaries and apostles more efficient (30% cheaper via religious belief, +2 charges via religious belief and wonder)
- Make a small army dedicated to wiping out England and Arabia. Convert the rest.
- Get extra everything from city states. Was suzerain of 5 or 6 I think.

Mistakes:
- Should have rushed religion and attacked earlier instead of expanding so fast.
- I'm so used to being production starved that I invested too heavily in it. I ended up wasting a lot of it.

I had a great time. I don't usually play on the easier difficulties, but it's really fun when there's competition online. Thanks!

By the way, does anyone mind if I answer all the questions in this format? Makes it easier for me to reference in the future.

Spoiler :

 

[Eyswein]

6OTM3, Religious, Turn 147, Score 334

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
14 total in end; only built 3 settlers, rest captured or captured settlers (I really wish they would change the captured settlers into builders; this feature annoys me)
- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Science: Generally military builds; eventually went for Cartography when I couldn’t find France
Culture: Generally better government or ability to build what I wanted quicker
- Did religion come into play in your game, please explain.
Well, ya. Never played with religion as a factor before, so this was interesting. Played with capture or convert, but probably not very efficiently.
- How much warring did you do? Was it effective in supporting your Science objective?
Early and often with a focus on supporting religious victory, not science.
Captured 2 civilizations outright (England, Brazil); partially captured 2 (closest Greece, Vikings) and converted rest; done a little more effectively this would be a great synergy
- Were City-States helpful?
Yes, Hattusa gave me Iron before I mined it; Kandy gave me 3 relics with nice extra faith; lots of other synergy bonuses
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
1) Well, playing for a religious victory and warmongering for me is a surprise in itself.
2) Not being able to find last civs (Vikings/France) caused me to go for Cartography and have more ships/scouts out looking for them. I didn’t even find France until turn 129 and it was not at all where I expected – thought it was past Vikings and was trying to come at it from the other side.
3) I was too focused on watching great prophet level, so I converted 2 civs (Arabia, France) only to have them faith rush a great prophet and stop following my religion. In both cases ended up converting their other cities (2 of 3 total in both cases) so still ‘converted’ even though they have a holy city. If I’d been able to go faster, this wouldn’t have been an issue, so minor slowdowns led to much bigger ones.
- Did you enjoy the game?
Absolutely, first time playing religious and really liked the ‘hidden’ France.

 

[GiovDenti]

Religious Victory, Turn 185

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
3 settled cities, one with an England Settler + conquered London, 4 greeks cities and 1 brazilian.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Tried to streamline more advanced units for warfare.

- Did You get the first religion?
Yes.

- How much warring did you do?
Plenty. It was too easy. The AI did not even try to put up a fight.

- Were City-States helpful?
Yerevan, indeed.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
The most difficult feat of the game: finding Catherine.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes. First go for a religious victory. With Yerevan special ability I had the opportunity to try many apostoles features.
Though Prince is comparable to the Settler level of Civ5-
The main problem is that this game is way too easy.
I'm not a good a player but I can already win a Deity game, after few games. It took me a lot more time to win Deity on Civ5.

 

[Photi]

Ok so i got a T163 victory with some sort of 283 score or something. I would like to say though that if the most "efficient" win strategy is always some sort of domination game, we don't really have a true metric to determine the better played games. it's a contest that favors early aggression over anything else, regardless of victory condition. Anyone can build slinger>slinger>slinger>builder>warrior>archer and upgrade the rest, but why does doing so mean you are the better player? it's all messed up.

 

[Photi]

Religious Victory at Turn 146 with a measly 188 points!

How many cities did you settle or capture?
5, with nothing new since my turn 100 post

Sounds like a well played game to me!

 

[DSYoungEsq]

NOT A SUBMISSION - Religious Victory Turn 218, score irrelevant

I'm not turning in a game, but I will post my answers to the questions. Originally, I got to about turn 220 and got frustrated because every effort I made to progress was being blocked by Pericles and his mighty apostles. I had also inadvertently wiped out Victoria (she only had two cities!), which violated my desire not to kill off any civs. So I went back to turn 100 and tried again.

On the replay, I was able to finish off the game by turn 218. I could have finished it some thirty turns prior had I really been focused, and had I realized where France must be (I also took my time finding the Vikings, because I made a bad assumption about the shape of the ocean beyond the Brazilian cities!). But once I had figured out how the religion mechanic can be worked, I got a bit bored with the whole enterprise. And now, having read some of the other AARs, I can see how I could have changed the efforts of the first 100 turns to quicken the pace of what I did.

Still, I'm very proud of the fact that I completed the game without removing civs, and having captured only two cities (admittedly, they were competing “holy” cities).

- How many cities did you settle or capture? I settled 9 cities, including the Capital of Kyoto. I really didn't intend to settle that many, but I kept capturing settlers (5!). I captured four cities, but only kept two (Corinth, Mycenae and Athens from Pericles, keeping only Athens; London from Victoria, which I kept).
- What did you prioritize for research and policies? I prioritized no particular research after my turn 100 report; I just kept making sure I wasn't too behind in important techs, like catapults, etc. Eventually, of course, I figured out that there must be something across an ocean, despite the map type, so I snatched Cartography. In civics, I headed to Monarchy, followed by Theocracy. Monarchy, because it's the first and easiest civic with increased cards; Theocracy mostly for game flavor (religion victory).
- Did You get the first religion? No. The Vikings (as it turns out) did with Protestantism, which they got by finishing Stonehenge three turns before I would have. I don't know if Pericles got Shinto before me; I do believe I had Dougism before Victoria got to Confucianism. As it turns out; Pericles would have been the most formidable opponent religiously. He kept pumping out wonders, including the Mahabodhi, and given his chance, would have had so many apostles it would have been hard to beat him back.
- How much warring did you do? Two wars: one very precisely tailored to get Athens, the other was intended to be precisely tailored to get London, but Victoria was just a bit more clever, and a bit more stubborn than Pericles. That war lasted for 57 turns before Victoria finally ceded London (I could have had peace much earlier if I had been willing to let her keep her claim on that city).
- Were City-States helpful? Yerevan was VERY helpful, once I started cranking out apostles. It was nice to be able to tailor the automatic promotion; usually I used the proselytizer upgrade so as to stamp out other competing religions. But the ability to convert barbs would have been nice for the trip to France.
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it? I was mildly annoyed by the fact that France was not on the main continent. I was not aware that this map type could spawn major unconnected land masses. Took me a bit to figure out that France had to be across deep water. Eventually, I figured it out from a combination of exploring with apostles and realizing France was the only civilization that hadn't contacted me (a dead giveaway for across-the-sea civs). For the sake of complete disclosure, I should note that I had run into France the first time around (they had managed to show up on the north coast of the continent!), so I knew they were in the game, just not exactly where.
- Did you enjoy the game? Not really. It's too gamey. Once I got the mechanic figured, there was no real worry at all that I wouldn't win; had I realized that France was across the sea, I would have converted it much earlier in the process. My inability to finish off Brazil earlier was just laziness prompted by the boring nature of the game.
- Spread the word thru peace and love, or conversion by the sword? No civ was converted by the sword. I had already converted both Athens (Pericles) and England prior to starting the wars against them. I only took Athens and London to kill off their aggressive proselytizers.

I should point out that it would be nice if conversion was added as a peace option in ending wars (like it is in Europa Universalis IV). That would make religious wars more interesting.

 

[rockytop00]

Religious victory turn 217, score 360.

How many cities did you settle or capture? I captured two cities from England to the west, then captured one city I think from the east, believe it was from Greece?
- What did you prioritize for research and policies? Prioritized getting to theology.
- Did You get the first religion? Nope, Gorgo beat me to it I think.
- How much warring did you do? Three wars, England was by choice, I had to fend off the other two.
- Were City-States helpful? I have yet to figure out how helpful city states are...
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it? Super surprised that there was an island on a Pangea map.. lol.
- Did you enjoy the game? Eh, I don't know, still conflicted about Civ6 in general.
- Spread the word thru peace and love, or conversion by the sword? Peace mostly.

 

[MidniteWatchman]

Result: Turn 229 Religious Victory 1590AD Score 302 (Mary Tudor I)


- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled 5, captured 1.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Basically went after the religious stuff, and things I had boosted already.

- Did You get the first religion?
Yes, with Stonehenge.

- How much warring did you do?
Did not declare any. Taught the Greeks and the Brazilians a lesson or two when they declared a joint surprise war against me. Same when England attacked - took their snowy city (Sheffield) to the south in that war.

- Were City-States helpful?
Yes! The one that lets you choose which promotion to give an apostle was very helpful - the “remove other religions” promotion was key - it may be too OP.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Nah, Prince difficulty is pretty easy. But was a nice way to learn about the religious victory and how the different religious units really work (for instance the fact that Inquisitors only work in your own cities was a surprise).

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yeah, I never go for religious, so this was a good learning experience. Will help me in future games to defend against enemies that go for a religious victory.

- Spread the word thru peace and love, or conversion by the sword?
Peace and love - but the other civs with religions didn’t seem to appreciate it...but they didn’t start a war over it - they were too scared of my army I think. I was first in everything (the victory conditions) for most of the game. Wish there was a demographics screen!

 

[ProfMonkeys]

Relivious Victory on Turn 157, 920AD with a score of 280

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
I settles 5 cities and captured London from England.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
I picked up astrology much earlier than I usually do but otherwise largely focused on picking up whatever civics of techs I had the boost for. I made a very rough beeline towards Theology to help wrap things up.


- Did You get the first religion?
Pericles got the 1st religion and I got the second. It didn't seem like it made sense to rush my religion too much, since the beliefs I wanted tend to not be very competitive and better infrastructure mattered more.

- How much warring did you do?
I declared war against England early and took London, since it was bothering me. Later, France and Brazil declared war on me but took peace deals at the first available opportunity.

- Were City-States helpful?
Kandy and Yerevan were quite useful. I found Kandy at an opportune time when I had scouted a tile adjacent to a natural wonder and was able to get several relics out of being their suzerain. Yerevan allowing me to pick proselytizer on most of my apostles made it very easy to wipe out competing religions.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
The relevance of naval technologies surprised me, but I was fortunate to have already have researched several because I had eurekas for them, so it wasn't a huge delay.

Barbarians made mopping up the end of the game take much longer than I expected, since I neglected to escort my missionaries and apostles and several camps had spawned between myself and Norway. Without dealing with the barbarians, I probably could have finished up the win 10+ turns earlier.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes, first time trying a GotM and it was quite fun.

- Spread the word thru peace and love, or conversion by the sword?
Mostly through apostles and a few missionaries. Since Yerevan was available, I opted to primarily use apostles with Proselytizer followed by a few missionaries to just ignore the presence of other religions entirely. I probably could have been more effective if I had conquered more cities from Pericles, Gorgo and/or Pedro, since it would have allowed me to spawn apostles and missionaries closer to their destinations.