Tell us the story of your current game

[Berrern]

Great write-up @MutilationWave , I love reading it, and seeing screenshots makes it even better!

If anyone thinks counter-espionage is a waste of time, look what Confucius did to me! I didn't crop that one well but I think it would have made a hilarious old school forum signature background.

I have to admit I don't use counter-espionage. I guess I should, cause I often catch my neighbours stealing my stuff!

It's not clear from your screenshot exactly what Confucious did to you (the icons don't really explain it, cause I'm not very familiar with espionage)... Care to elaborate?

 

[Berrern]

It's not a story per se, but I just wanted to share some of the detail I go into when playing my games - and curious to hear if anyone else does the same!

So here's a screenshot of the Excel I'm using while playing my City States-focused game. I keep track of everything, and one of the things I do is that every time I've got enough influence to befriend a new IP, I cycle through all the ones I haven't started befriending, to see if the AI is befriending any of them - and if so, I go for them first (unless the AI is potentially 10+ turns ahead of me). I also prioritise based on which IP type has the most interesting bonuses left in the tree.

I also use Excel sheets to evaluate each of my towns when I have enough gold to upgrade one of them to a city. Which one has the most hammers in its radius? How many adjacency opportunities does each settlement have, especially when it comes to production, gold and culture?

I'm a micro-manager to the tee!

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

It's not a story per se, but I just wanted to share some of the detail I go into when playing my games - and curious to hear if anyone else does the same!

So here's a screenshot of the Excel I'm using while playing my City States-focused game. I keep track of everything, and one of the things I do is that every time I've got enough influence to befriend a new IP, I cycle through all the ones I haven't started befriending, to see if the AI is befriending any of them - and if so, I go for them first (unless the AI is potentially 10+ turns ahead of me). I also prioritise based on which IP type has the most interesting bonuses left in the tree.

I also use Excel sheets to evaluate each of my towns when I have enough gold to upgrade one of them to a city. Which one has the most hammers in its radius? How many adjacency opportunities does each settlement have, especially when it comes to production, gold and culture?

I'm a micro-manager to the tee!

View attachment 736261

I do this kind of detailed spreadsheeting only in Anno 1800, where one has numerous resources to supply to various populations on separate islands, so keeping track of production and trade route chains is an essential part of success. I have the advantage of having two computers, a PC for gaming only and a Mac that I do all my work - and spreadsheets - on, so it's easy to access the data on a separate screen as I update in a given game.

In Civ VII, the only thing I've done so far is set up 'reminder' sheets for Building/Quarter adjacencies and for Progression of Civs, so I can keep quick track of where to expand and build up settlements and what I have to do to ensure getting the Civ I want to progress to. I suspect I am going to have to also set up a spreadsheet format to keep track of things like what I've built in each settlement/city already and the IP status in the game, because I am gravitating toward more attention to IPs/City States as part of my 'fall back' strategy in most games.

 

[sixty4half]

I dont use spreadsheets for any game. Feels to much like work and it draws me out of the game. That much detail for CS seems overboard but I do the same thing you do for City evaluation just in my head. I check out the yields of all the best towns and of the two best I evaluate their potential (adjacency bonus, remaining mines/clay pits/lumberjack placements available ect). It may not be as accurate as your spreadsheets but thats okay for me.

 

[MutilationWave]

It's not clear from your screenshot exactly what Confucious did to you (the icons don't really explain it, cause I'm not very familiar with espionage)... Care to elaborate?

I attempted to steal tech and steal civic from him. The 43/15 is how many turns it's been active (out of 15). His counter-espionage cost me dearly, because I couldn't steal from anyone else while tied up and because these spying actions cost influence per turn. 43 turns!

Oh and on the spreadsheet front, you should see the handwritten notes I have for pillaging before they nerfed Bulgaria. I was doing single turn wonders and projects in modern and I wanted to share the incredibly broken optimum strategy.

Edit 2- I still make notes by hand sometimes on age transition just to be sure I'm getting the best out of my attribute points, although I'm getting better.

 

[Berrern]

I attempted to steal tech and steal civic from him. The 43/15 is how many turns it's been active (out of 15). His counter-espionage cost me dearly, because I couldn't steal from anyone else while tied up and because these spying actions cost influence per turn. 43 turns!

Oh and on the spreadsheet front, you should see the handwritten notes I have for pillaging before they nerfed Bulgaria. I was doing single turn wonders and projects in modern and I wanted to share the incredibly broken optimum strategy.

Edit 2- I still make notes by hand sometimes on age transition just to be sure I'm getting the best out of my attribute points, although I'm getting better.

Wow, I had no idea a diplomatic endeavour could get "stuck" for this long! That's certainly an interesting dynamic... Which in this case certainly sucks for you!

Would love to see your handwritten notes regarding pillaging! I'm always encouraged by seeing how people go out of their way to support their strategy in a game

 

[sixty4half]

While I was waiting for Augustus denouncement to finish I turned my eye towards Benny and we're the same govt type (his agenda) so I sent some trade routes and did some endevours with him. I had him snagged into an alliance before he realized what was going on. Because he was allied to Simon, they both immediatly joined my was against Augustus. I burned a couple cities, took his capital (Simon got his NWs and 2nd & 3rd largest cities) and a few others. Then I sued for Peace and gave him 3 towns back ; ). He had 4 settlements left.

25 turns later I dropped my alliance with Benny and re-declared on Augustus. Took his 1 city and burned the 3 towns. I got more XP for my Commanders this way, improving my Momentos.

Then I re-allied Benny and denounced Simon. A few turns later Simon denounced me so we got to -60 quickly.

Simon and I had insane Culture and I had great science so by turn 120 both Simon and I started completing Future techs and civics so the % went from 50 to 76. Benny and I declared war on Simon.

I've played this masterfully diplomatically. Ensuring I always have allies and future allies for when I stab my current one in the back.

I steal a +1 Treasure Fleet that he spawned on first turn of the war. It gets to my homelands in 10 turns, the last turn of the game, and gets me the final point I needed for 2 points in that legacy path.

I had already spread my religion for the +4 science bonus so all I needed to do was take three DL island towns with my 2 fleets (check), take those juicy NW cities Simon stole from me during the Augustus War (check), spread religion to one more CS for 2 relics (check) and grab one last future civic (check). Getting Gold Age in Military, Culture, 2nd point in Economic ages, and a future civ all in 1 turn. 19 settlements at end of age.

Swap to Buganda and trade the +1 science per Commander Level for the +1 Science attribute. Gonna rush ideologies and see if we can drop some nukes! I also took Obliques unique card that gives +CS to Air but -10% influence

T1 of the Modern age and I re-ally Ben and declared on Simon. I had intended to just pillage his entire empire and declare peace. He actually put up the strongest fight I've had so far.... I might have gotten a little carried away. I razed 75% of his empire and kept a few settlements. T34 and it is now down to just my good ol ally Ben Franklin and me.

Im already done with the Buganda civ tree and have gone Facist for the Hammers on specialists. Ben has way lower yields than I (this doesn't feel like Immortal, not once for the entire game) so I think I'm just going to complete some legacy paths while I wait for him to select an Ideology and eventually get mad at me.

Edit: Here is a short video showing my empire and the current state of the game.