Civ6 6otM 06 After Actions Report

[sebtanic]

Won t324.

Settled in place, and settled 6 cities early game in total. Had lots of problems early with barbs, which kept me from eliminating Egypt or even taking any of her cities.

This is my 2nd CIv 6 game (1st one was 6otM 01) so I just winged it basically. Built Lavras and Theaters and tried to attract gerat people.
Later on I noticed that Gorgo was the tourism & culture runaway so I decided to take her out. Built a fleet and sent a settler to settle near her, as she was on the other side of the globe I was kind of worried that my units would be outdated when they arrived. That proved unfounded, I destroyed her easily with battleships against crossbows & knights took me ages to get there though.

Got some nice great works and lots of wonders from her. Afterwards victory was straightforward, not a competitive time I'm afraid but good fun!

 

[KingDante]

Culture Victory Turn 276 - 1810 AD (Not sure how to go back and find the score after I didn't save it. If someone on the Mod team can access my save file and find it somehow, I'll add it to the post if you PM it to me.)
Final Turn Tourism per turn = 1056

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
I founded 7 cities myself, and captured 2 cities of Egypt's. I gave back one of the cities and kept their capital. This left me with a total of 8 cities for the duration of the game. My 8th city was founded on Turn 92, and Egypt's capital was captured on T74.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
I didn't really make many priorities. I could have won much faster if I had known where in the tech and civic tree certain tourism boosts were. I also massively under invested in research and focused too much on theatre districts. Computers and Radio proved crucial in the late game, and I ended up completing the entire civic tree and researching Globalization 3 times. I could have researched it more if I hadn't wanted to go back and finish the policies I missed.

- Did You get the first religion?
No. I got 3rd religion. Divine Spark Pantheon (GP points), %production belief, and Tithe upon founding.

I do think I over invested in religion. I built too many Lavra's early game as my first district thinking I needed to do that to take maximum advantage of Russia's unique district. I think this was a mistake. Some of those Lavra's should have instead been Commercial or Science Districts. The extra boost would have been much better than the minor benefit I received from the early great person points.

- How much warring did you do?
I only declared one aggressive war. This was early in the game. (T39) because Egypt had an unprotected settler. I stole the settler on that turn and used it to found my 3rd city on T43. On T52, I captured a second settler from Egypt and used it to found my 5th city on T60. Finally on T74 I captured Egypt's capital. A few turns later I ended the war after taking a 2nd city, and giving the city back to Egypt (while keeping the capital). I chose not to kill Egypt because I wanted a weak neighbor who would give me a bunch of tourists later in the game.

I was declared war on multiple times by two-AI alliances. It was very annoying, but I had a strong military so the only affect was having to divert some resources and effort to fend them off.

• T145: Sumeria and Scythia declare joint war on me.
• T175: Sumeria and Scythia declare a 2nd joint war on me.
• T206: Germany and Spain declare a joint war on me.

After fending off those three wars, I was able to manage diplomacy for peace for the rest of the game.

- Were City-States helpful?
Yes. I'm still learning the city states, but they were a lot of fun to play with. I like the new envoy system a lot, and I found it quite helpful to become Suzerian of the city states selectively.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
The only major surprise was finding the natural wonder that doubled tile yields, and then NOT being able to exploit it because Scythia settled it before me, although my settler was a few turns away. I didn't both fighting a war over it, but maybe I should have. I ended up just disbanding my settler and sticking with 8 total cities.

- Did you enjoy the game?
It was a fun game. I really enjoyed playing Russia for their unique ability that gave them a lot of extra starting tiles when a new city is founded. That is an amazing advantage.

- Spread the word thru peace and love, or conversion by the sword?
I spread the word primarily through peace and love. While I could have won much faster if I had chosen to go kill Greece, this is my first completed game of Civ 6 of any victory condition, so I was simply interested in building a bunch of buildings and learning the tech and civic trees.

 

[walkerjks]

Turn 215 with a score of 483.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?

14 total cities. 2 captured, 12 founded. That's bigger than I normally go for culture (I aim for 10 cities with 9 archaeology museums), but with Egypt out of the mix, there was a lot of space and I wanted to grab two cities by Torres del Paine (which were fantastic cities despite being founded mid-game) and the spot by the Great Barrier Reef (to make up for lack of science elsewhere).

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?

Focused on bottom of tree to research tree to machinery, then radio/computers, then picked up printing. For culture, it goes political philosophy to civil service/feudalism to exploration to natural history to cultural heritage to suffrage before picking up the other 2 tourism bonuses (space race and social media).

- Did You get the first religion?

4th to religion. Triple relics is not popular for the AI. I made religion, overall, a low priority, with only 2 lavras for much of the game. I did build Mont St. Michel as my only wonder. I suspect that I would have done almost as well ignoring religion.

- How much warring did you do?

Conquered Egypt (still not sure if leaving them a city would have been better), then none.

- Were City-States helpful?

Maybe. Picked up some relics with Kandy. Given that I didn't spread my religion, the dual -50% tourism penalties for different religion and enlightenment probably meant my 5 total relics didn't contribute much.

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

The lack of a science base slowed things down. I wanted a nice mountain range to get campus adjacency bonuses. Science instead came mostly through population. If you look at the save, you will see no military beyond crossbows and swordsmen. That is normal for the way I play.

- Did you enjoy the game?

Yes. I hadn't played Peter in a while, and forgot how much I love their big borders.

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

Love, except for poor Cleopatra.

 

[CaptainFranz]

Cultural victory turn 260 - score 640.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
15 - 10 settled, 5 captured (2 from egypt early, 2 from scythia mid-game, 1 from greece late).

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Try to unlock early techs and civics for culture/tourism. Usual suspects.

- Did You get the first religion?
No, I think the 3rd or 4th. Did nothing with religion anyway

- How much warring did you do?
Basically opened with standard domination / 4 slingers. Took down Egypt. Then was declared on several times in joint wars, mostly by Scythia / Greece. Never a real danger.

- Were City-States helpful?
I guess? I was suzerain of most by the end of the game. No game-changing bonus in this campaign, but all little things help.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Not really. Joint war were a bit of a surprise, but never a real danger.

- Did you enjoy the game?
More than the previous cultural GOTM. Won about ~100 turns earlier now that I understand better how to play cultural. Still by far not my favorite. I don't understand how people can win around ~175? Is it religion or what that helps to finish so early? I got a stupid amount of great artists and focused on all the usual cultural stuff, but I don't think I could have done it any earlier (maybe with more cities?)

- Spread the word thru peace and love, or conversion by the sword?
More like neutral in this one. I didn't purposefully attack anybody other than Egypt at the start. I just defended, yet people still hate you for being the warmonger lol. I was mostly neutral/positive with Germany and Spain. More leaning on the negative side with Scythia, Greece, Sumeria and France. I liberated Kabul from Scythia and did a little bit of war more for fun than for real need. I do find cultural victory to be pretty boring otherwise.

 

[GiovDenti]

Cultural Victory turn 243

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
5/6 settlled and many other captured.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Tourism related.

- Did You get the first religion?
Not the first but, in any case founded.

- How much warring did you do?
Mostly subject to AI declarations, seized the opportunity to annex many cities and obtain punitive reparations.
I cannot stress enough the complete dumbness of Civ6 AI in declarations and conduct of wars. IMHO, it is a major step back compared to Civ4 - Civ5. Bad work Firaxis.

- Were City-States helpful?
I found the access to water one (can't remember the name) especially usefull.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
None

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes, but no challenge. I hoped for a sub 200 result, but I was too sloppy.

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

 

[Sullla]

I finished with a Cultural victory on Turn 241. My writeup for the game is located on my website, which I'll link here: http://www.sullla.com/Civ6/gotm06.html

Thanks to everyone who reported their results; I've learned a lot from reading through some of the other games.

 

[arenquinha]

Cultural Victory Turn 306 Score 647


Just noticed my game had'nt posted, a trip to Greece, Croatia and Italy were between this post and that game so not much of it did I recall.

Just loading the file I did seem to war a good deal more than I did the first time.

 

[Saykor]

Cultural Victory on turn 270 with 721 VP

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
19 settle, capture 3
- Did You get the first religion?
Nope
- How much warring did you do?
Many. I destroy Egypt. Make few wars with Scythian to get few of their settlers. But I not attack their cities at all. Just to capture settlers. So i manage to settle 2 cities on their island and keep them with no free space. So they are not so bug deal in Great person war.
- Were City-States helpful?
Yes, they help me in the wars with Scythian to kill their units on my continent.
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Nope
- Did you enjoy the game?
Yep
- Spread the word thru peace and love, or conversion by the sword?
Well German hates me because I spy it and get few artifacts. But all other love me so much to offer me a friendship many time. I decline because will ruin my reputation in other civs.

Hmm seems I not save the last turn game but anyway will upload a video after registration is finished.

Spoiler :

 

[SolarEclipseNightmare]

Cultural Victory Turn 392
444 points
- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Settled 4 cities
- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Tourism Related
- Did You get the first religion?
Yes
- How much warring did you do?
I tried to remain peaceful for the whole game. But had a lot of formal wars declared on me throughout the game.
- Were City-States helpful?
Yes. The extra cultural and production benefit throughout the game help a lot.
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
No
- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes. First time trying this and I had a blast.

 

[Khalid]

Culture victory T279. My first completed game.

Had finally 18 cities, build 9 myself, captured 2 from Egypt, 2 from Scythia and finally all 5 Greek cities.

Didn't know much about the culture victory, so I was late to build theater districts. Rushed them later in almostevery cities, spammed archaelogists. But Greece went culture as well. It would took ages to gain enough tourists, their domestic tourism was 325. So I ran them over finally with battleships, which knocked the culture victory immediately with tourists 211/206.

Got the third religion, but converted my whole continent and succesfully defeated several French invasions of apostles and missionaires. Got an early relic from a hut, then took the relic belief and build Mt St Michele and Cristo Redentor.

I was quite peacefull. Only attacked Egypt early, took a settler and 2 cities. Then later DoWed Tomyris for converting my cieties. And finally Greece, because otherwise the culture victory would take ages.

Surprises:
-Barbs in the ice South were persistent.
-Build the Great Zimbabwe in St Petersburg for +12 gold for each trade route. Ran the trade route economic policies with the Merchant republic government. I had 14 routes (city states and mostly domestic as the gold difference was negligible and bonus production) and was making 400-500 gpt. Used that to buy several museums and archaelogists. Then some spies siphoned my funds and I was barely making +50 gpt despite the 500gpt shown. Took me 30 turns to counterspy them all away and restore my economy, which was dependant on the gold income.
- Despite 3 Industrial zones with good adjecency and factories covering St Petersburg and a lot of domestic routes with the bonus production, the late game wonders still took 20 - 30 turns to build.
- Tech pace was fast despite only having 1 campus in the jungle of Ra-Kedet for most of the game.

 

[Half Nelson]

Culture Victory turn 236 (score 529 IIRC). I beelined computers then towards radio but the latter was not really necessary. I ended up with 10 cities, including 1 captured from Spain who DoW after settling on my patch. I tried to keep peaceful to keep international trade running but was DoW 4 times by various combinations of AI pairs (usually instigated by Gorgo). I was at war with 4 AI for some time but was never under serious threat. The early GA and GW from Lavras makes Peter a top-ranking CV leader. I never got to use a cossack and the trade route benefits were of little use in this game (perhaps more useful at Deity?). Building the colosseum in a central spot was the key move to a comfortable victory. I also built Bolshoi, Broadway and Hermitage; Christo was almost complete when the game ended.

I was baffled by the Hermitage:- the total T/C output when full seemed to be lower than the individual artworks and I couldn't find any information on theming for this wonder. Can anyone advise me on this?

Thanks again for the game.

 

[ShinigamiKenji]

My last minute submission. Hope it counts. Turn 233 Culture Victory, 743 score, 287/286 tourists, 1586 tourism per turn.

I used the Artifact strategy for Tourism. I didn't know Kandy was in the game until long after all Prophets were gone and I had discovered many Wonders. I actually dug out almost all artifacts in the game (I lost 3 to Greece, 1 due to France settling on top of the artifact, didn't reach one in time, and maybe there were more hidden near the poles. I actually themed 17 out of 19 museums, for a grand total of 56 artifacts. Shame I couldn't get the Great Scientist that boosts Artifact tourism by 300%, maybe I should have prioritized Campi earlier and shave off ~10 turns.

Though I mostly used Artifacts, a significant part of my tourism also came from Great Writing and Great Music.

For wonders, I built Colosseum, Forbidden City, Great Zimbabwe and Potala Palace. I began building Eiffel Tower, but couldn't finish it in time.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
19 cities total, 2 captured from Egypt, 3 founded with captured Settlers (2 from Egypt, 1 from Spain).

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Tech-wise, usual beelines up to Machinery and Apprenticeship. Then going for Printing (double tourism from Great Writing), Industrialization (more production from mines), Radio (Seaside Resorts), Computers (quite obvious) then Steel.
Civic-wise, the usual beelines up to Exploration and Mercantilism, then Natural History for Archaeologists, Suffrage for Democracy, Cold War to avoid spies, Cultural History for Shipwrecks, Social Media and all envoy-giving civics.

I got Oligarchy for 1st tier government, Merchant Republic as 2nd tier, and Democracy as the 3rd.

- Did You get the first religion?
No religion at all. I think that even GWAM bonuses can't make up for the awkward theming from Great Art, which should form the backbone of my tourism. If I had known I'd found Kandy later, maybe I'd prioritize it, but that's life.

- How much warring did you do?
Not as much as I normally do. I only wiped out Egypt, and after that there were some brief wars. First against Philip/Tomyris, which resulted only in a few pillaged tiles and sunken units, and almost at the end, when France/Spain joint-declared war, and a couple turns later Gorgo/Sumeria did the same. I built a lot of ships because I was going to take out some cities, but my tourism was already ramping up. Maybe I should have built Builders for Resorts.

- Were City-States helpful?
Less because of suzerain bonuses (though helpful while they briefly lasted), but because of the 6 envoy bonuses. The cultural ones really propelled my civics tree, especially late game, and Geneva didn't let me fall behind too much in tech.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
No big surprises except for the plentiful start. I actually deforested my landmass for production, which really helped build my districts and museums.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Guess so. I became stressed due to repeated failure in the GotM 07, and I wanted to do a Cultural Victory (which I didn't do for quite a while), so it was refreshing.

- Spread the word thru peace and love, or conversion by the sword?
Mostly peace and love. But maybe I should have brought war to Greece, it was the runaway civ with high culture, but I unlocked Battleships too late.

Some mistakes I made:

• Built Colosseum quite late (it became ready past Feudalism), and I sacrificed many productive tiles from Novgorod. It hurt a bit later on.
• Built Lavras before I realized I was too late for a religion. I had ~4 GPP, other Civs had ~8 GPP and very near recruiting.
• Poor exploration overseas. I had to clear much of the fog using embarked Archaeologists
• Neglected Resorts until much later they came online. I should have made a mini-wave of Builders to get some in place.
• Maybe over-expansion, but I like my empires wider anyway.

For me, much of Russia's power comes from a seemingly small thing: bonus tiles when founding a city. Cosscks, Lavras and bonus to tundra are strong, but not as much. The Shoshones had proven in Civ 5 how powerful it is to work your very best tiles around your city in the very beginning, and Russia inherited that legacy.

For people that try the Artifact strategy: tourism only begins to ramp up after quite some time, so don't despair if other civs begin building tourism before you. I had more than half the game without a single tourist. But when you begin sending your Archaeologists, your tourism simply skyrockets, since they're quite easy to theme and all tourism-boosting policies are coming.

 

[leif erikson]

This game is closed as time has run out.

You may continue to post here and attach saves if you wish. Results will include games above this post.

 

[ShinigamiKenji]

I was baffled by the Hermitage:- the total T/C output when full seemed to be lower than the individual artworks and I couldn't find any information on theming for this wonder. Can anyone advise me on this?

I think the Hermitage can't be themed, but individual output from Great Works is the same wherever you put it.

Shame, because those cultural wonders are somewhat inferior to normal Theatre Districts (apart from the GPP). They maybe need a higher bonus to tourism/culture than normal museums (say, triple the tourism) if they're full.

 

[nikAlto]

I missed the cut off. But as this is my first victory ever above Prince, I thought I would do a post.

T275 victory. Score 731.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
I settled 10 cities. Took one from Egypt who i removed very early from the continent. Then a late one from Germany who settled on the edge of the continent.
Captured 6 Greek cities towards the end, as I conquered them to reduce from Tourist requirement for the victory.

- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
Pretty heavy military on tech. Was nervous at the higher difficulty. The AI - even though I think it had the techs - did not build many later era units. The final steamroll over Greece with submarines and battleships was surprisingly easy.

Policies was aimed at the culture ones. Ended up finishing the civic tree and researching the end two techs multiple times over.

- Did You get the first religion?
Got the 3rd or 4th religion. I think it hindered my game. The tourist reduction for different religions definitely slowed me down. I think next time I go a cultural victory i will not get a religion. The added tourist for religious relics did not outweigh the % reduction.

- How much warring did you do?
A fair amount in first 100. I declared on Egypt very early. Then got joined DOWd multiple times by Sumeria and Scythia. Then peace for about 100/120 turns. Then I DOWd on Greece late game to speed up the cultural victory.

- Were City-States helpful?
The cultural ones added a lot of culture per turn. So yeah, I suppose.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
I found Emperor challenging at the beginning, but I eventually pulled ahead of everyone on all counts by about turn 150.

- Did you enjoy the game?
Yes, although a slow grind at the end. But super happy for first ever victory higher than Prince.

- Spread the word thru peace and love, or conversion by the sword?
Sword very early and then sword very late. Greece had built up a tonne of domestic tourists. So I decided to wipe them out. Probably saved me about 30 turns.

 

[Lempface]

Turn 335 Culture Victory

Still feel this was really slow. I could have gone much faster if I was able to get more cities down but Egypt cramped me in pretty quickly as I did not forward settle her fast enough. However I did manage to get down 3 natural parks and several seaside resorts which I don't normally use so I felt even though it was slow I was utilizing good policy cards and maximizing my tourism. I focused on getting Printing pretty early on and then mostly beelined it to Computers. I made sure to get trade routes to as many players as I could while running Online Communities for the trade route bonus tourism and I snagged Sarah Breedlove for an additional +25% and maxed out at 100% bonus to tourism for civs with a trade route. I'm definitely loving playing the base game way more than I thought I would. I found a bare minimum of UI mods that work on vanilla because I don't think I could play much without some of these features.

- How many cities did you settle or capture?
Capture 0, Settle 7.

- Did You get the first religion?
No, I got the 2nd religion though.

I went with Goddess of the Harvest (so crazy powerful early, enjoying it while I can.)
Jesuit Education - I focused stacking faith so I could instantly purchase all theater square buildings.
Meeting House - Never tried this one, figured I'd give it a shot since feed the world was taken. It was just OK.

- How much warring did you do?
I had one defensive war against Egypt. She hated me from the start of the game and I built no military but I stayed in Theocracy and ran a bunch of faith cards so I had a stockpile of about 2000 faith and was able to mass buy crossbowman and easily fend them off. They offered peace after they lost most their army to my walls and archers.

- Were City-States helpful?
Having 4 culture city states was great to stack the theater square bonuses. The real winner here though was Carthage, their bonus that gives you trade routes from encampments was brilliant. I was able to get several more routes than I otherwise would have and paired with The Grand Embassy ability the trade routes kept me in the game since I only built 1 campus.

- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Again surprised by the usefulness of spies. I was able to steal 5 or so great works and pilliage Ra-Kedet's spaceport and industrial zone twice which stopped her science attempt in it's track. Scythia had a commercial zone that was popping so I put 2 spies on it and was generating 500-1000 gold every 3 turns. I slotted in the cards to improve spy mission times and went with Cryptography for the bonus level on offensive operations. Only one spy was caught, and I bought him back for 500g.

- Did you enjoy the game?
It was a relaxing very fun one. After really having to push myself on the Deity map this was a nice break to just sit back and simcity my way to victory.

- Spread the word thru peace and love, or conversion by the sword?
I only used missionaries to convert my settlements and boost them back up if Egypt brought any down.