Civ6 6otM 03 Opening actions

Welcome to the 6otM 03 Opening Actions thread.
STOP - Please do not continue reading this thread until you have completed at least 80 to 100 turns in your game.
This thread is used to discuss the game once you've started playing through your first 100 turns. Apart from normal decency, the only posting restrictions are to please not post videos until the deadline is finished and to use the spoiler tags for screenshots. Here you can post questions related to the game and share your achievements/anger/frustration/victories while you play. Please remember that we are running a family friendly site, so express anger or frustration with this in mind.
Please use this thread to discuss your goals for the game and your opening moves through the first 100 turns. Anything after that should be posted in the After Actions thread once you have completed your game.
- Where did you settle your city?
- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
- What was your build order?
- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
- How did you place your districts?
- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
- Were your neighbors peaceful?
- How were the Barbarians?
- Any surprises?
Please use spoiler tags for any surprise details you'd like kept hidden. Thanks.

 

This is my first post and whilst I’ve played the other two GotM, this is the first that I’ve made notes diligently enough to do this. From previous experience, I notice that it’s quite competitive to build wonders so I started out with a mindset that I would do whatever I could to accelerate them. Sadly, I missed out on the Oracle by what was about 3 or 4 turns. Any feedback gratefully received.

• Where did you settle your city?
  • Having moved the Warrior west, my Initial observations on the land suggested that the starting point was a great settle point. There are 4 Stone resources which will be good for the +2 faith stone pantheon as well as for Stonehenge. Further there are good surrounding forests for clearance in the early turns. Pedro took the Oracle at 95 when I was 2 turns away… grr. I want to war with England because they settled on my doorstep, but Greece just declared so I may take the opportunity to take a city or two of theirs first, then move on to England. We’ll see
• What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
  • Science: Mining (for chopping), Astrology, Beeline to Apprenticeship (I took archery to get a city state bonus with Yerevan before I made it to apprenticeship), Irrigation
  • Civics: Straight to PP, then Mysticism (for revelation), Theology
• What was your build order?
  • Builder (Mine, Mine, Clear Forest), Builder (Farm, Farm, Clear Forest), Stonehenge (desert tile to the east of the 2 stone resources), Holy Site, Granary, Archer, trader, commercial zone
• How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
  • Started Holy site at around turn 35, completed in 41, commercial zone started around turn 65.
• How did you place your districts?
  • Holy Site: To the south West of the cattle, getting the adjacency bonus.
  • Others, generally not so good, took advantage of basic adjacency bonuses and tried to ensure I'd get best IZ output for later
    
  • Commercial Zone: east of the corn, although I regret this as I could have put it south and done something better with the IZ
• Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
  • Not really, I did get a second city around turn 60 ish, which was right on the border with Greece’s fast expanding empire.
• How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
  • Started with Discipline and God King (for the faith bonus)
  • Turn 77 I got PP and went God King, Urban Planning, Charismatic Leader & Caravansaries
• What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
  • Yerevan to the north East (faith) & Kandy to the west (faith). I just found Jerusalem & La Venta, (faith to the west) and will focus on these too. I largely ignored the others
• Were your neighbours peaceful?
  • Greece Just declared war on me on turn 100.
• How were Barbarians?
  • There were Barbarians?
• Religion
  • Went for Stone Circles (+2 faith from Quarries)
  • Completed Stonehenge at 36 and founded religion
  • Went for Work Ethic and Pilgrimage

Spoiler :

 

Well. This time i'll try to submit. No patch (hopefully) and i got rid of my (bad) habit of relying on a single quick-save. This will be a first time Religious Victory even thought i often played my own Religion. Second Japan game but his time i don't think i'll get a lot of Meiji Restoration.

• Where did you settle your city?
  • Right there where i started. Seemed like a nice spot for fast growth with Sugar and some production from forest/hill.
• What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
  • Researched Mining to improve the stone, then as i found the nearby Natural Wonder (i saw the 4 food hills before actually spotting the mountain itself) i went straight to Astronomy. After this it was Pottery->Irrigation then Animal Husbandry->Archery (for some defense after i forward settled the wonder under Victoria's nose) then the usual Apprenticeship for better mines (i don't care about Industrial Zones this game) and i'm now finishing Education for Hagia Sophia after getting Masonry to make room for HS (had to remove some stone). Research is probably over after Education.
    
  • Civics was a no-brainer to go for Political Philosophy (trying to get Inspirations on the way) then Theology, then Feudalism and on my way to Reformed Church. Whatever i research after that won't be important.
• What was your build order?
  • I didn't write them but i think in capital i went Scout-Slinger-Builder-Holy Site-Settler (to get the Natural Wonder) then Shrine then another settler. On first expo it was Holy Site-Settler-Shrine-Monument. Every other expo went Holy Site-Shrine/Monument-Temple-useless stuff (i even started work on Petra in one of my desert cities because it would look nice there, i doubt i'll be able to finish it)
• How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
  • Obviously i went Holy Sites everywhere. Other noteworthy districts were a Commercial Hub and a Theater Square.
• How did you place your districts?
  • The Holy Sites with as much desert as possible (HS at Nagoya next to the natural wonder). Other districts next to Holy Sites to get some bonus adjacency.
• Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
  • I have a glorious 5 cities "empire" but i'm producing lots of faith
• How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
  • God King to get faith for my Pantheon as i had no early religious CS contact. After i had my Pantheon i switched Urban Planning to help districts. Once i reached Classical Republic i ran all production policies for some turns (Urban Planning + Colonization + Ilkum) but switched colonization for Scripture as soon as it was available. Kept that until i switched Ilkum fro Serfdom (even thought i produced few builders). Will probably stay this way until i get to Theology and can slot the second faith card. If i recall correctly I slotted the first envoy counts double after PP or Drama and Poetry while researching Mysticism in 2 turns, then after i got the Mysticism envoy and sent him to Yerevan switched to +2 envoy generation.
• What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
  • I met Brussels early (free envoy) which helped me get my first Holy Site faster. I met Yerevan but sadly without free envoy and lots of others but apart from some quests, i only cared for Yerevan. It will easily triple your Apostle power and will get all my envoys.
• Were your neighbors peaceful?
  • Yes. I was slightly worried about Vicky after i forward settled her but after i converted her she offered friendship and we've been friends ever since. Gorgo think i'm a coward but Pericles denounced me after i force converted him so i expect he will help me improve my relations with Sparta sooner or later.
• How were the Barbarians?
  • Not very annoying next to me, but painful for exploration of the wilderness and probably a pain for the AI as you can probably see from this T103 screenshot (notice the free envoy i just got for being first to meet a CS!)
• Any surprises?
  • Saladin got his free prophet some time ago and haven't founded. I wonder if i can convert him before he gets a Religion and what will happen. I guess his religion would just overwrite mine.

• Religious situation
  • When i first looked at the map i considered going for Stonehenge, however when i saw 30 turns to build it and 6 for a Holy Site i decided to simply ignore it and get a religion the old way. I got the second religion after Pericles built SH and as usual he took the +4faith/wonder belief so i was free to take Feed the World as i would have Holy Sites everywhere anyway and would settle the desert
  • I got Desert Folklore as a Pantheon. A +20 faith ruin in addition to God King helped me get the pantheon before building my first holy site.
  • When founding, i took the enhancer first, AIs rarely take enhancer first so i can always choose the best one, and for religious victory i thought it would be Holy Order so i can spam cheap Missionaries and Apostles.
  • I bought 2 early Missionaries before adding any belief, one to put my religion in my own cities, the other for Vicky as i noticed she wasn't producing any Great Prophet point and so would probably not get her own religion.
  • I took Mosques as my building belief for the +1 spread and Pilgrimage for more faith as i spread. It will help me and they won't have it.
  • I quickly converted Pericles as he was the closes religion. He had produced some missionaries when my Apostles arrived but they ran away and rather than trying to get his cities back, look what i see coming to me
  • I'll have to find who has founded Protestantism as well as another unknown civ. Taking Brazil shouldn't be too hard with the help of Yerevan. I'll have to walk some Apostles all the way to Arabia. They will come after i get the Mosque at Kyoto.
  • If i can get Hagia Sophia my Apostle will have 5 charges so i should be able to take the remaining civs even if Protestantism is strong. I wonder where they are thought.

Spoiler :

 

Yanaek. As a noob to this game, I'm asking these to get a better sense of the strategy:

• Why do you not care so much about Industrial zones in this game?
• What benefit do Theature Squares give when pushing for relig victory (apart from religeous paintings)?
• After the first GotM and subsequent attempts at relig victory in my own games I got the sense that getting stonehenge is such an overwhelmingly positive move, but i found that other civs always got it first, hence i tend to use builders to rush it etc. It's interesting that you didn't go for stonehenge. Can you elaborate on why you think you don't need stonehenge so early?

 

I hadn't intended to start this one until tomorrow or this weekend, but since I was having trouble sleeping, I decided I may as well do something with the time! This is my first time shooting for a religious victory, and as I hate moving hordes of religious zealots all over the map, I started out in a "conversion by the sword" mode (though so far, there has been far more sword than conversion).

- Where did you settle your city?
Movingn the warrior north didn't reveal anything interesting, so I settled in place.

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
Mining, Astrology, Animal Husbandry, Archery, Pottery, Writing, Masonry, Bronze Working, Irrigation, Sailing, Celestial Navigation, Currency, Wheel, Engineering, Horseback Riding, Apprenticeship, Mathematics, Iron Working, Machinery. Eurekas for all those save the starter techs, and Bronze Working and Horseback Riding (I harvested the cattle to make a place for my Commercial Hub).

Code of Laws, Foreign Trade, Mysticism, Craftsmanship, Early Empire, State Workforce, Political Philosophy, Drama and Poetry (No Inspiration), Theology, Games and Recreation.

- What was your build order?
Kyoto: Scout, Builder, Holy Site, Settler, Archer, Archer, Archer, Archer, Ancient Walls, Holy Site Prayers, Warrior, Granary
Yokohama: Holy Site, Trader, Archer
After this point, I stopped keeping track, as the number of cities began to grow.

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
Almost right off the bat. A couple of holy sites first, then a longish period without building any more as I was too busy building my army. I've finally got a commercial hub up in the capital, and have begun a harbor in a port I settled. I also picked up Holy sites when I captured London, and Athens.

- How did you place your districts?
The Holy Site in Kyoto I placed next to some woods, primarily because I needed to buy only one hex and so could get it started right away. The one in Yokohama I placed on a grassland hex adjoining Mount Kilimanjaro, for a +3 adjacency bonus. The Commercial Hub went next to river and Holy site for +3 bonus as well. It was only after placing that first Holy Site, that I realized that if I'd gone the other direction with it, I would have had a nice option with Desert Folklore for my pantheon. But I've been happy enough with Stone Circles so far.

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
I've built four and settled four, with a captured Greek Settler on its way to make my ninth city.

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
Policy cards started with Discipline and God-King, swapping to Conscription and Urban Planning. After switching to Classical Republic, I added Charismatic Leader in one slot (save for a three-turn hiatus where Diplomatic League doubled my initial envoys to Kandy and Stockholm), and have gone between Colonization and Ilkum for the other.

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
Met Brussels on turn 10 and then drooled when I found Yerevan on turn 12. Beyond that I've met Stockholm, Jerusalem, Valletta, Kandy, La Venta, Amsterdam, and Toronto. A few of those may have caused some drooling, also.

- Were your neighbors peaceful?
I haven't really given them a chance to be.

- How were the Barbarians?
Fairly easy to handle. Very sparse early on, thankfully, or my risky build order could have backfired on me badly. I did lose a Trader to a barbarian scout because I couldn't swing my heavy chariot over fast enough to cover--a mis-judgement on my part, I'd thought I had sufficient margin.

- Any surprises?
I've conquered Victoria and Pericles so far and neither put up any fight at all. Perhaps that's not such a surprise given the games war AI. Also I'm surprised at the lack of religious competition, so far it is just me and Gorgo. At turn 100, next Great Prophet is at 120 points and Brazil, Unmet Player, and Arabia have only 23/16/12 points built up (there is one more Unmet Player who apparently has yet to build a Holy Site).

 

Because production won't be useful to purchase apostles and i need my Holy Sites first anyway so the production from IZ won't help me build the only important buildings for my game. In addition IZ really become powerful with Industrialization and i expect to finish the game before i get that tech.

Simply a little bit of extra culture for faster Reformed Church and Theocracy government. Japan's Theater Squares are cheap and have better adjacency. I wouldn't care with another civilization except Greece thought.

30 turns to build it is a lot. I wanted a Settler to get the Natural Wonder, then more settlers to get Holy Sites in the desert for my Pantheon. In addition SH doesn't even help you spread earlier since you still need to build a Holy Site after Stonehenge if you want Missionaries and then Apostles. The only real benefit is founding first which merely allows you more choice for your Followers Belief while for Religious Victory the Enhancer is more important as it controls how will spread your religion (and AIs never take the Enhancer first).
Plus, as you said, AIs go for it fast so it's a big gamble (especially on higher difficulties)

 

- Where did you settle your city?
On spot
- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
Beeline theology. rest according to eurekas and inspiration
- What was your build order? How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
scout (slow as I went for growth to 4 pop first), slinger , builder (bought few two yield cog plots), settler started, Stonehenge (flat desert tile), finished settler, holy site south.
- How did you place your districts?
went for highest bonuses. didn't planned that much. Had only one science district (for a quest), mostly holy sites. Bought Euclid with faith.
- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
5 cities including London.
- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
Money generation and savings. later faith
- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
I did their quests - befriended 5 or six of them until 100, jerusalem, yerevan, toronto,
- Were your neighbors peaceful?
few wars among them, nothing to do with me.
- How were the Barbarians?
Not to much trouble, lost one 3lvl scout to them around 100th turn
- Any surprises?
I had fully upgraded religion at turn 85, and there were ONLY one more religion in the world. I went for all faith wonders. almost all city states are folowing my religion, and approximately half of the cities of opponents, excluding Norway and one unknown Civ are converted to Taoism by turn 100. I am generating approx 150 faith per turn.

Questions:
Does foreign holy city emanates its native religion if converted? Do inquisitors purge religion in foreign cities?

 

Wasn't paying much attention to the turn counter so this is T101.

My plan for this game was different to any other games I've played in that normally I would spend quite a lot of effort being efficient with techs and boosts. This seems pointless to me in a religious game on Pangea where I know I won't have to cross oceans to win. Normally I would micromanage my research quite closely to keep district costs down, but in this game I've not done that at all as it seems irrelevant.

I know it takes a while for Faith production to build up so I figured I would be better off conquering a few neighbours and then converting the rest once this was done. I knew that either Iron or Horses would be somewhere so I could go to war with either Horsemen or Knights but then had a nice surprise when I teched Bronze Working and found that I could get both with one city. This was close to Pericles but I wasn't going to let that get in the way of claiming both resources.

My initial 40 turns were spent gearing up for war and then I've been on the warpath and conquered Pericles, Pedro and Gorgo and I should be knocking on Haralds front door in another 7/8 turns. For the first 3 cities I captured I got monuments out and then Holy Sites, for the rest I've gone straight into Holy Sites and the Holy Site buildings. Victoria forward settled me which I thought was cute and then declared war on me. I fended off her whole "army" with 1 archer and 1 horseman and she is sueing for peace which I doubt I will accept. I just need to decide how to play out the rest of this game given that there are some long distances to travel. I think if I convert Saladin and Catherine to my religion while smashing Victoria with my horsemen then that should be the quickest way to end this.

Build Order - Slinger, Builder, Chopped Builder, Settler, Holy Site, Encampment, Horsemanx5
Techs - Astrology, Mining, Bronze Working (didn't bother waiting for boost as I wanted to discover Iron asap), Horseback Riding
Pantheon - Divine Spark as this would guarantee me the first religion without needing to build any religious buildings. I knew I would be going to war early so I didn't want to waste time.
Religion - Zen Meditation, Holy Order, Tithe, Mosque

I'll be happy if I can finish this by T130 although I think its more likely to be around T140.

Spoiler :

 

Cheers Yanaek

 

Turn 100 Screenshot:

Spoiler :

- Where did you settle your city?
Capital settled in place, it just looked like an amazing start spot with a good mix of resources.

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
Mining, Astronomy, Pottery, Irrigation, Animal Husbandry, Writing, Archery, Horseback Riding, Bronze Working, Currency, Mathematics, Apprenticeship, and about to finish Education (Hagia Sophia!)

Mining for the quarries, Astronomy for the Holy Sites, Pottery->Irrigation for the Sugar, Animal Husbandry->Archery for better defenses against barbarians and the threat of too close neighbors, Horseback Riding because... Uh... actually I think that one was a combination of eureka from a hut and a mis-click, Bronze Working to reveal Iron (mostly just to tell who might be a military threat soon), Currency because I'll need CZs for trade routes soon to shore up my economy, and then the path to Education for the Hagia Sophia for more awesome Apostles soon.

Civic'side it was the shortest route to P.P, Theology, and then route to Reformed Church, and now just picking them mostly by whim / free envoys.

- What was your build order?
Capital: Scout, Builder, (bought Slinger), Settler, Holy Site, Settler, Shrine, etc.
Most of my cities, if they had a decent +3 or better HS site: HS, Builder, Shrine, Settler, etc.
My other couple of cities: Monument, HS, Builder, Shrine, etc.

One issue I've ran into is that I should have put Monuments earlier in my holy-focused cities as I don't feel like I've been doing quite as well on the Civic side as I would like, got to Reformed Church a bit closer to turn 100 then I had wanted so my conversion swarm across the world isn't as far along as I'd like.

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
Holy Site very early. Since Japan gets the half-price HSs i decided to skip Stonehenge and spam those instead. My capital built it as the 4th build, my first two expansion cities did it as their first build.

I build an Encampment in my capital the mid-80s for turn, after Gorgo & Victoria DoW'ed me on turn 78 and I decided that maybe I'd have to build a bit more military then I had planned.

My first expansion city is working on a Commercial Zone (because having only 1 trade route makes my economy feel anemic right now), and I'll likely build more as I finish getting my Temples build across my empire.

My capital is currently building an IZ, because I expent it will be the center for my military production (since it already has the Encampment) and I'll need the bonus production for the Hagia Sophia, for troop builds, and for HS projects to generate more faith to spit out more conversion units.

- How did you place your districts?
For maximum bonus. With the Desert Folklore pantheon I have three HSs that are +6 or better adjacency bonus, and a couple +4 (iirc) because of the natural wonder to the west of the capital.

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
I am up to 7 cities now, with a plan to drop an 8th into the middle of the desert near my capital. To me, Religion is very similar to a Tourism (refuse to confuse it by calling it Culture) Victory in that having more cities, even small cities, are a huge help in terms of increasing your output towards victory. Going Wide rather then Tall just seems like the optimal strategy, more HSs means more Faith output means more Missionaries / Apostles which means faster victory.

At this point though, after that 8th city I don't expect to build any more. I am over 100 faith per turn already, and as Temples & Mosques start to go up and the envoys hit the Religious CSs and get them to the 2nd and 3rd tier my faith output will sky rocket so I don't expect to need more cities past this.

I am currently at war with Pericles to grab at least Ephesus from him because I want the Iron the city has, but his walls and my lack of Catapults / Rams mean that I might settle the war after just that one city and swing back and conquer the wall'less London to knock out Victoria's holy city of Judaism and keep that religion out of competition.

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
Anti-Barb & God King until I got my pantheon. Then swapped GK out for +Prod in all cities. Oligarchy is my current government with: +50 prod on melee & ranged, +Prod, +2 envoy pts per turn, and doubled 1st envoy to stack more envoys into some of the religious CS's around the map to try to rush towards the bonus faith in all HSs level.

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
Uh... A lot. I am pretty sure I have explored most, if not all, of the main land mass in the world so I have likely met almost all of the CSs. The ones that I have been cultivating are the religous ones: Yerevan, Jerusalem, and (stone-head guy).

- Were your neighbors peaceful?
Nope. Victoria (with Gorgo) DoW'd me on turn 78. Pericles has been denouncing me every few turns, alternatively because he doesn't like how close my cities are or because I've had decent luck with CS quests and he doesn't like how chummy I am with the CSs.

War with Victoria ended with my killing her entire army, but seeing Pericles moving troops on my other border I accepted her peace agreement (which got me her Relic, and enough GPT that it should have ruined her economy if the AI didn't get to cheat on not having to actually pay the GPT out of their income).

I surprise War'd Pericles on turn 98 or so, after he nagged me about my troops being on his border. In retrospect, that likely was a bad idea and I should have waited a little longer but I know Education will pop soon I had been thinking that was going to push me into the Rennaisance and worse war-monger penalties but checking now as I write this, it is just the top edge of Medieval so I could have waited a few more turns to have gotten into a better position first.

- How were the Barbarians?
Surprisingly not an issue. What local Barbarians I have seen have mostly gotten butchered by CS troops. I do have one tile currently pillaged by a Warrior that stumbled onto my capital while I was moving troops back from fighting Victoria, but otherwise they haven't been an issue for me. The couple of camps that did pop up near me I noticed the change on the tile icon right away and pre-emptively killed them before they'd even built a scout to send out. The tight map layout in the area near my capital, plus the tundra tiles to my south being either forested or hills has slowed any Barbs coming from that direction and appears to have been funneling them to the east towards Brussels and Pericles. All in all, Barbarians have been a non-issue for me.

For the AIs however... When I found Arabia they were neck deep in Barbarian troops pillaging everything around their cities. When I reached Norway a few turns ago it looked like they hadn't managed to settle a 2nd city yet because of how thick the barbarians were by them. While they haven't been an issue for me, the more distant the AIs are from my location (and the cluster of CSs around me) the more trouble they appear to be having with barbarians.

- Any surprises?
How big a difference that early scout made this game. I had stopped doing the early Scout and been going Slinger for my first build instead after a number of really poor scouting starts. In this game I got several very useful envoys because of being first contact, and have found where all of the AI civs are by turn 80 or so (not contacted France yet, but the last city I build was on the coast north of Stockholm because I saw French Galleys along the coast line there, so figure by the time I get an Apostle up there I should have made contact with their fleet).

How quick Pericles got walls up on his cities also surprised me. I had pondered an early war of aggression against him, because it looked more open to expanson in his direction with better land then in Victorias, except he had walls up by turn 60 or so and that killed my ardor for that idea. I still don't have the tech for Battering Rams or Catapults so am just looking at large Archer waves to bring walls down now with a lonely Warrior to capture, which is a less than time-efficient to make war.

Who got their religions first was also kind of a surprise to me. Protestant Norway and very recently Jewish England, while Arabia will get the last prophet there is still one more to be grabbed and at turn 100 it is still up in the air who will get it. Also, Stonehenge came so late that I probably could have gotten it, but the trade-off would have been likely having founded only 4 or 5 cities at turn 100 instead of 7.

- Mid-Game Analysis
Looking at the rest of this thread, I am wondering at this point how big the divide is going to be between the times of people going for a "straight" Religious victory and the times for a Domi-ligious victory.

I know Prince isn't very tough, but the AI is so utterly incompetent at defending their cities (aside from the surprisingly early Pericles wall-rising which seems to be more of a quirk in my game then what other people are running into) that just looking at this thread makes me feel like I would have been better off going full-on warmonger early on and aiming to grab a later G.Prophet instead of the 2nd one.

Just theory-crafting what I have left of my game, and where other people are at in this thread, and I am expecting to see probably a fifty to one hundred turn difference in the times of those who focused on building religion early and those who conquered a couple of AIs by turn 100.

Definitely something I will have to keep in mind for future 6otM rounds: early war appears to beat out any other strategy and is the faster route to any victory condition.

 

- Where did you settle your city?
At the starting pos. no ned to runaround
- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
Policies for settlers, builders and wounders.
Get the religious tech to make wounders going for monarchy

- What was your build order?
Builder - Settler - Settler - Slinger - Holy Site

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
Holy site because we want a religious win . around 30




- How did you place your districts?
To the left of capital on the grassland will build more district there to get he Japan bonus.

Spoiler MAP turn 102 :

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
7 settled and 1 take (London)
My plan was a fast expansion in along belt to take ground because there is not so much space for everybody, England, Greek and Brazil.
Now I will focus on growing my cities and produce faith so I can spread my religion.


- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
Wounders so i could get some early wounder like Oracle, Haning Gardens, Pyramid, and Mohobodi Temple

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
A lot not focus yet on them but I will soon.

- Were your neighbors peaceful?
Yes one rather short war against England, I needed to stop them to get a great prophet before me, I stopped there expansion and captured London.

- How were the Barbarians?
All most none, close to other countries and city-state, they handled them well I focused on build citites.

- Any surprises?
very peaceful

 

Hi everyone! I don't know how I feel about religion in this game yet. There is the "God of Harvest" bug which is anoying enough. Then, there is the strategy of giving your converted cities to the civs who don't convert to win the game, and that is considered exploitation. That being said, I really don't have any idea of what is the best strategy to win religious victory fairly. I tried to grow my capital and get Stonehenge before expanding but that was not a good strategy, Gorgo did it before me. I just founded my forth city and it's turn 114. Pantheon is desert Folklore, and I have two really good holly sites getting very good amounts of faith. I want to get some religious wonder but Gorgo is going full force towards religion, she got Mahabodhi Temple already. I think I'll try to get Petra and maybe I will take London. Let's see.

 

My first try on religion win. But i have conquered England/London to get the great profeth before them. My religion tactic is get a lot of smaller cities (got 8 includes London) with holy sites (9 until neighbourhood) and pump out missionaries and apotles. I have converted Greek and is going for the brazil now.

In your case if the Greek are better my advice is to conquer them fast, then convert there cities and use there wounder/holy cite on your holy quest. Could be hard to fight them in religion so war is my advice.

 

I think I need to start building more units when I'm not looking to go to war. I don;t think I have had a religious win in any civ game and so I was looking to go for a nice peaceful game, but the AI had other ideas.

At the start I settled in place, I didn't see anywhere significantly better near by and the location was suitable. I bee-lined Stonehenge, probably easier than getting a Great profit the other way, and I was successful. I found a goody hut with faith in it so I got a nice early pantheon. Normally I would go for pasture culture, but we had few pastures nearby and as there was a lot of stone and faith would be useful long term I went with faith from quarries.

For expands, there looked to be 4 reasonable locations, 2 towards the west and 2 to the east. I felt this would give me a nice little nucleus to get me to the end. just as I was looking to start building up my cities, I went holy site first in my capital I was declared on (by surprise) by one of the Greek's and England. I noticed that we had both Greece leaders in the game and they went to war early, although I didn't see much happen, no citied changed hands. The turn after they made peace Gorgo declared on me, closely followed by England. At the time I had 2 warriors and 3 scouts for my 5 city empire, so I may have been a little light on the defences.

Fortunately Gorgo was far enough away that I never saw a unit from her. England's capital, on the other hand, was nice and close so I switched to a cheep cavalry card and built a few heavy chariots and took London before getting peace from her. So also provided a settler for the cause, and after London fell I found a nice spot getting a new unique Luxury and some promise in the future.

This is one thing that annoys me about the war penalties, I was declared on, yet because I took a city I am the one the AI thinks is a war monger, and I foresee more wars in my future, especially as I start to convert their cities.

I saw Yerevan is in the game, so I intend to be Suzerain when ever I get a Apostle. Stockholm is also quite close and I really like their Suzerain bonus, the rest are so-so.

The barbarians were the usual, always getting in the way but not actually doing much and providing a nice supply of xp for my units. In the end I lost all my scouts to them.

The main surprise was the war declaration. I could probably have delayed Stonehenge a bit and had a few more units, but I begrudge the hammer and gold cost for something that isn't going to get any use. Of course, by not building them it turns out I did need them.

Still, the game is looking good. I have fair faith production and I have started converting the nearby civs and city states. With any luck the game will be over soon(ish).

 

- Where did you settle your city?

In place​

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?

I first went for Stonehenge for the religion boost. I was able to found the first religion on turn 31 by building a Builder first and chopping one hex and setting up a quarry.​

- What was your build order?

Builder, Stonehenge, slinger, settler, slinger​

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?

Holy site around turn 40​

- How did you place your districts?

West of the starting area so there is room to link them all over time.​

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?

Yes, 4 cities so far, all built. I don't plan to conquer any by force, I want to try to win with only religion and not military, but if I am attacked I will take the spoils of victory.​

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?

To boost the more immediate needs, +5 vs barbs, +50% settler, etc...​

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?

several and have my religion spread to three so far​

- Were your neighbors peaceful?

So far yes.​

- How were the Barbarians?

Not a problem, just a good source for upgrades.​

- Any surprises?

Not yet.​

 

Settled in place and went for a scout build.

Warrior moved west and found mt kilimajaro. next 2 huts gained scouts, now have 3 scouts. Contact with 3 city states to the east then Pericles, Brazil and Gorgo.

Build order: scout, builder, warrior, religious district. Placed in tundra and chose dance of aurora as pantheon (+4). Built settler, bought shrine with gold. Finally building monument!

Researched astrology after mining then irrigation, planning to grow to size 6 before churning out settler but fortunately popped eureka from a goody hut.

Founded second city on the coast near mt. kilimajaro.

3rd city founded near yarevan to the east, bordering pericles. Started converting cities. At turn 79, got eureka for organized religion. Sending 4th settler to found city in tundra to the south, at turn 83, Nagoya settled.

Popped a builder on turn 85 on the coast west of Arabia. Made contact with Norway and in two turns dow'd on me with Brazil.
Rushed to improve iron and upgrade warriors to swordsmen. Tried to take Brazil since he had no walls in his capital but had to fall back once he built walls just before I assaulted.

Had problems with barbs to the south simultaneously. Switched priorities to military and CZ's to keep up. Had to make peace with Brazil then attacked Pericles, at the same time converting his cities.

Religious city states very helpful, especially the bonus: choice of upgrades for apostles.

 

Turn 101 status: 5 cities, 21.8 Science, 19.1 Culture, 13.6 Faith, 9.6 Gold. #1 is science, culture, & religion and 25% ahead of #2 in score


I tend to play immortal or emperor but I've finished about 2 games of Civ 5 and no wins yet in Civ 6. My general strategy for any opening in 5 or 6 has been to emphasize production and to take advantages of bonuses from civics/governance whenever possible. I'm not a record-setter as I don't believe in exploits (except an occasional worker steal when it's obvious to work) and I'm sure I underchop/under optimize.

Next step is likely to kill England / maybe Greece/Pericles as well or a city state or 2. Can probably do this just with Samurai from the capital while the other cities build Commercial & Industrial centers.

- Where did you settle your city?
In place
- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?]
Research: Mining-Astrology-Wheel-Animal Husbandry-Pottery-Irrigation-Bronze working-Writing-Archery-Currency-Mathematics-Military Tactics-Sailing-Masonry-Horseback Riding-Apprenticeship (in progress)
Samurai came in on turn 88 even though I haven't built any yet. All of these technologies except for mathematics were boosted

Mining/Astrology seemed obvious to hook up stone and go for stonehenge/stone circles. After that it was just picking up Eureka'd techs or things I needed for workers/buildings.

- What was your build order?
Builder-Stonehenge-(bought Slinger)-Watermill-Settler-Builder-Settler-(bought Trader)-Settler-Settler-Spearman-Archer-Builder-Granary-Holy Site-Shrine-Temple (in progress)

Except for the first builder all of these were boosted with governance policies (including the watermill with +1 production in all cities I think...but maybe not that). I probably should have gotten the granary in sooner before the 4 settlers.
- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
The Shrine was chopped out at turn 95. I normally don't try for Stonehenge on Immortal but in this game once Stonehenge & Stone Circles were up there was plenty of faith. Normally my 1st district is commercial or industrial if I'm not heavy religion and in this case I saw no need to build early shrines

- How did you place your districts?
There starting to go down now in all cities. Japan's ability is pretty cool so I look for a 3-space connecting place for Industrial/Commercial/Other (city dependent) where the Industrial will be within 6 hexes of neighboring cities.
- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
5 cities total settled/none conquered yet, but I'm finally mapping around England as they are likely to be the first victim of the Samurai onslaught (though Greece/Pericles founded a religion so I'm tempted to go holy war on him)
- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
At turn 13 set it at +5 vs. barbarians / +1faith/gold in capital. This probably wasn't necessary and could have been +1 production in all cities instead since Stonehenge gives faith but it ended up working fine as I popped faith from a hut and got pantheon/stonehenge/religion all in the same turn and started getting lots of faith.

After that it was +builders to build builders and +settlers to build settlers. Political Philosophy came at turn 71 and I changed to where it was +50% melee/range, +50% settler, +2 envoy, +1 prod/all cities. I hadn't yet researched a purple +2 great person card
- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
At one point I had met 3 and had all at level 1 (2 from meeting/1 from completing a quest)
The big deal is that on turn 93 I got Valetta to level 3 and on turn 97 got it to level 4 and because the Suzerain. They allow purchasing of city center buildings with faith and I "bought" 3 monuments at border cities and my capital
- Were your neighbors peaceful?
Became friends with Greece on Turn 29 (they hated me as soon as it ended because of City State activity). Have ignored England/Greece complaining about me settling too close -- I probably should have told them both I'll settle where I please.
As I'm clearly winning, have city state support, and no trade routes to other civs all of them are now mad at me.
- How were the Barbarians?
Terrible / good XP & Eureka fodder. They did destroy my first trade route ~turn 50 and I haven't built another yet, but they were very helpful in getting me a Slinger kill, a Spearman kill, killing 3 of them, & conquering a barb encampment at good times for Eurekas.
- Any surprises?
Got State Workforce eureka from a hut which was huge as it requires building a district which I wasn't going to do.
On turn 36 I popped the hut 4 spaces from the starting city and got 20 faith. This was also the turn that Stonehenge completed so I got a pantheon and religion

 

That's awesome. Considering I'm at 13.6 it's certainly a different approach!

 

I was warring and missed the counter so this is T102

- Where did you settle your city?
In place. Overall plan is Domi-religion.

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
Decided to go for Stonehenge and likely over played it. Went for Astrology first, built one swinger, then started Stonehenge. Finished it at T32 with the 1st Religion. Shinto now has 10 cities and no other religion has more than 2. After Astrology, went Mining/Bronze for quest and to find iron (Pericles has the nearest, as well as horse - so head there next.)
Civic beeline to Theology. Now backing in to Political.

- What was your build order?
Swinger/Stonehenge (24 turns)/archer/builder/archer/settler /spearman/archer/battleram.

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize? - How did you place your districts?
Placed Holy City in NW plains, surrounded on 3 sides by desert. Took Desert Folklore as pantheon, so HS has +5 adjacency. Took Divine Inspiration, so capital is producing 27 faith even without Scripture. But I haven't built more yet so have some infrastructure to care for to take advantage of Hojo's ability

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
It was a long time to wait for first settler (T49). Sent him to coast by Mt Kil and started first campus. At T80, England's Surprised DOW allowed me to capture a settler for 3rd city and I build 4th near mountains and river east toward Pericles. Will finish London (for 5th city) this turn and expect to peacefully keep Leeds isolated with my religion.

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
God King and Discipline early, using Ilkum and Conscription now.

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
Suzerain with Yerevan and Valletta; also met Stockholm, Geneva, and Brussels

- Were your neighbors peaceful?
England declared war - perfect. Pericles keeps declaring friendship; Brazil is nice and Gorgo warring with Perciles. I need to get to Athens when it falls to Gorgo.

- How were the Barbarians?
Mild thus far.

- Any surprises?
Not to speak of.

 

Does getting a City State to follow your religion give any benefit??