Tell us the story of your current game

[Berrern]

Only 2 definitely sounds like a bug, because a decent map script would have some minimum number ( probably something like 1.5 per player)

Yeah, it might be some random bug that doesn't occur very often...

I sort of enjoyed the lack of Treasure Resources, especially while I was under the impression that Amina was sitting on a few golden Towns - I imagined an epic battle between multiple civs, fighting over those Towns (and the two Towns I had settled) throughout the age! But alas... No opponent even sniffed around my two Treasure Settlements

 

[tedhebert]

I really like it too… just finishing antiquity on my first game with the map, very special thing, I’m situated smack in the middle of the map so I thought « here goes my chances for explo treasure hunting » but very surprisingly, I have a very small area right beside my capital (about 10 tiles away), maybe 10X10 tiles area, that is all surrounded by ocean and my exploring has revealed that inside is considered distant land even if completely surrounded by homelands… also another bigger region completely south in the middle of the map, bordering south pole, that is also considered distant land… so it’s not just east and west where you have distant land islands but also north and south + one region directly in the center of the map. I find this very interesting

Update... Made the switch to exploration and went exploring those two landmasses.... net result ? A grand total of ONE treasure resource... After 36 consecutive games where I succeeded in getting the treasure fleet path completed (all my games), looks like I'm finally going to fail in this one The other distant lands are SO far from my home, only other option would be to conquer something an AI settled... and still I'd have to get armies all the way from the middle of the large map to there... not sure I'm going to bother

 

[Brutus2]

Augustus leading Rome - Iceland - Ottomans
Shattered Seas

This was a fun game. Being able to buy culture buildings was great as well as the extra production in the capital for each town. I switched mementos a bit but mostly Note G for production each time you complete a tech or civic mastery and False Beards for +2 culture on each wonder.

Iceland was a ton of fun but obviously that's largely because of the map type. So many bonuses to coastal pillaging, the income was insane and the great people can boost it even further. Even gained the ability to convert settlements to my religion by pillaging them! They also get a discount on repair costs so you can pillage the heck out of cities and then if you decide to capture and keep the city, you can repair everything for cheap. I loved getting relics for each civic mastery - no need to bother with missionaries at all. The unique improvement was amazing too. I had about +18 culture on each one and you can get a tradition that adds +2 gold on each one if you have a Kiln in that settlement which again worked great with Augustus letting me buy a Kiln in every settlement (which I had over 20 from all the pillaging and captured cities), so every single improvement was getting that +2 gold. I also had a suzerain bonus that grants a sanction called "Demand Tribute" which forces the target city to give you a treasure convoy! That has nothing to do with Iceland but it was fun.

Ottomans were interesting and their unique civics had some cool stuff but I didn't get to play them for long. I bought a museum and explorer on each continent and got artifacts like crazy because a lot of them were within my huge empire. Got a World's Fair victory on Turn 33.

Since I was culture focused throughout the game, I moved quickly through the civics trees and built a TON of wonders in all three eras. I had to switch my capital after each era because the capitals were always so full of wonders that I had no locations left to build.

Overall lots of fun and I really got that Iceland "Viking" vibe from all the ships pillaging up and down the coast of everyone foolish enough to declare war on me which was everyone except Genghis. I found it kind of ironic that he was Rome's only ally. I also managed to settle Pompeii right next to Vesuvius which made me laugh when it erupted.

 

[Berrern]

Sounds like a great game @Brutus2 , I had a very similar experience with Iceland! One main difference though, for me it was everything but cheap to repair everything in a Settlement after conquering it! It typically cost 1500-2000 gold...

Did I miss out on a bonus or ability perhaps?

 

[tedhebert]

Sounds like a great game @Brutus2 , I had a very similar experience with Iceland! One main difference though, for me it was everything but cheap to repair everything in a Settlement after conquering it! It typically cost 1500-2000 gold...

Did I miss out on a bonus or ability perhaps?

Reiði Guðanna​

This tradition gives 25% off on repairs when slotted

 

[Brutus2]

Sounds like a great game @Brutus2 , I had a very similar experience with Iceland! One main difference though, for me it was everything but cheap to repair everything in a Settlement after conquering it! It typically cost 1500-2000 gold...

Did I miss out on a bonus or ability perhaps?

When I first read this, I had assumed it was just for repairing damage from natural disasters like volcanoes but it applies to all repair costs.

 

[MutilationWave]

I played the game @Berrern posted-
Sayyida - Aksum - Deity - Shattered Seas - Catastrophic Disasters - Regroup - 20 Turn Timer

I think I got a bit rusty, but after reading Berrern's Antiquity post it strikes me how similarly we play. However, there was one little fateful misstep I made that made our games go in wildly different directions.

In this game I could never get enough influence, happiness, or gold - even with Aksum's bonuses. I also couldn't get science where I needed it to be. This was a real struggle session. I had only played Aksum once before, I think it was my third game, and I didn't do well. So starting out, I was struggling for science and culture, but luckily many endeavors werre offered. Having a happy Cathy next door works well for this. At turn 25 I got a third endeavor going from I think Amina, got my first celebration, and had 25 science and 22 culture per turn. I was feeling pretty good at that point. The home continent was split by a single-tile isthmus with a volcano. Three hostile IPs on the other side killed my first scout and second scout I sent that way, so I decided to come around from another direction. Aksum was safe from the IPs because of the volcano, so I went harder than I ever have for settlers. Three scouts, then bought a setttler and built another two. I got my army commander from Discipline, still hadn't built any military. In fact, I didn't build any military at all until I got Bronze Working, by far the longest I've gone. It was a dangerous gamble that nearly cost me badly.

Cathy expanded to a poor choice of settlement location, making it awkward to settle immediately west. I didn't want the badly placed settlement and I needed to keep the endeavors flowing.

My scouting situation from not being able to make it down the east coast of my continent, plus my silly unit list and poor yields for turn 33.
Forum is loading this image then saying it is not an image. Weird.

My home continent had room for four settlements, but the northeast quadrant was full of mountains and no fresh water, so I went with three settlements. I managed to anger Himiko of Tonga by settling my third city seven tiles from her capital, across deep ocean, on another continent. This was another new one for me, I didn't even consider it. She tried sanctioning me two turns in a row, which I used my influence to deny, then she sanctioned again two turns after that. I had a settler northeast of her on a canal tile, but I decided to go with the flow and move for war. I had little other area to expand. My commander got rebuffed trying to go south to fight IPs. They had units swarming everywhere with nobody to cull them. So in the following image, there is a 1 where I initially had my settler, and a 2 where I moved it. I settled directly on her border to use the town as a forward operating base. Image is from turn 49. Yields roughly the same, very poor, scouting not going great.

I spent all my gold on Hawilti and archers that were killed covering my commander's retreat, plus more gold on replacements and a couple of Dhows. Shortly after my (second) forward settle, Himi declared war. My commander was still healing, but I sent him at ~50 health with three archers to intercept her fairly large attack. Luckily, she attacked across the sea to my third settlement, instead of taking my fourth settlement on her capital's border. With some tricky packing and unpacking, I was able to defeat her initial wave with three archers and two Dhows. I brought my commander to the FOB, but was unable to make progress on taking Lapaha. She consistently killed my archers, so I had to keep buying more. My Dhows built up slowly, because I was able to rotate them out to heal. I didn't lose a single one all age, but they couldn't earn me culture and influence or establish trade routes while fighting in Tongan waters. I would make it into Lapaha, take a couple of walled districts, then get wrecked. This happened several times. I noticed something I hadn't before. The opponents are able to buy multiple units per turn, AND attack with them the turn they are bought. I'd get her down to one slinger and the next turn she'd have six, I'd lose my archers, next turn she'd have eight.

I ended up getting three military endeavors and the mastery that gives +3 CS to ranged before I could get farther. I had never seen negative CS before.

I couldn't spare units to go fight the IPs to the south. I finally got a scout down there by bringing it over from the east. To my surprise, Great Barrier Reef was in the narrow strip of fog I hadn't uncovered! I had made a huge mistake. All my influence had been going to keep six endeavors up when I could have been getting better science to the south. It would have cost me much less gold to fight the IPs than it did Himiko. I only have a rough estimate of how long the war lasted, but it was over 70 turns. Embarrassing. I spent every bit of influence and gold during this time on intangible things other than a few Hawilti. I finally took Lapaha on turn 116, wiping Himiko. Here is the state of the city the turn it stopped resisting. All but one tile pillaged, most by my army, but plenty by rioters during the loyalty crisis.

Ha!

What I did have going for me was production. I was up to 80 in Aksum and 50 in Adulis by the end of the war. I was able to build all the buildings I could tech to in both cities, but I didn't even make it to Amphitheaters. I was able to get two Academies down. I did have one thing to be proud of, a personal first build of Mausoleum of Theodoric! This will come in handy next age. Shortly after the war, I finally felt like Aksum was coming online, but the age was almost over. If Himiko or I had settled one more town I would have got 3 military legacy points. My happiness was wrecked from the crisis. I only suzerained two CS, so my settlement limit was stuck at 6. I don't think I've ever had an antiquity so low. I was only able to complete one spying action all age. Despite the incredible production in Aksum, I was only able to build three wonders. Cathy built almost everything! A couple other civs got a wonder, but Cathy built Angkor Wat on turn 89! There was no chance for me after my decisions. I did manage to get four army commanders built though, which will be plenty for the rest of the game.

Final turn yields-

This doesn't even tell how bad it was. 15 or 20 turns earlier I was at 60 science, 180 culture, and even worse happiness and influence.

Everything but a few Distant Lands islands explored. If you look to the east of Eddie's territory, you'll see that on my very last turn, his settlement flipped to me! Should be a short trip from the treasure island to the east.

Ended with 2 Military Points, 2 Scientific Points, 1 Cultural Point, and 3 Economic Points. I got the final codex to reach two points on the final turn, hooray!

Despite my little mistakes, and my one massive mistake (combined scouting error and not building military earlier), I had a great time with the game. I love a challenge, although I prefer not to cause it through poor play! I learned not to be so greedy with settlers, and not to underestimate an opponent that seems to be defeated. I think I might have known that at one point. I'm happy to be back to playing after too much work.

I'll start exploration with Iceland tonight.

 

[Berrern]

I played the game @Berrern posted-
Sayyida - Aksum - Deity - Shattered Seas - Catastrophic Disasters - Regroup - 20 Turn Timer

I think I got a bit rusty, but after reading Berrern's Antiquity post it strikes me how similarly we play. However, there was one little fateful misstep I made that made our games go in wildly different directions.

In this game I could never get enough influence, happiness, or gold - even with Aksum's bonuses. I also couldn't get science where I needed it to be. This was a real struggle session. I had only played Aksum once before, I think it was my third game, and I didn't do well. So starting out, I was struggling for science and culture, but luckily many endeavors werre offered. Having a happy Cathy next door works well for this. At turn 25 I got a third endeavor going from I think Amina, got my first celebration, and had 25 science and 22 culture per turn. I was feeling pretty good at that point. The home continent was split by a single-tile isthmus with a volcano. Three hostile IPs on the other side killed my first scout and second scout I sent that way, so I decided to come around from another direction. Aksum was safe from the IPs because of the volcano, so I went harder than I ever have for settlers. Three scouts, then bought a setttler and built another two. I got my army commander from Discipline, still hadn't built any military. In fact, I didn't build any military at all until I got Bronze Working, by far the longest I've gone. It was a dangerous gamble that nearly cost me badly.

Cathy expanded to a poor choice of settlement location, making it awkward to settle immediately west. I didn't want the badly placed settlement and I needed to keep the endeavors flowing.
View attachment 750596

My scouting situation from not being able to make it down the east coast of my continent, plus my silly unit list and poor yields for turn 33.
Forum is loading this image then saying it is not an image. Weird.

My home continent had room for four settlements, but the northeast quadrant was full of mountains and no fresh water, so I went with three settlements. I managed to anger Himiko of Tonga by settling my third city seven tiles from her capital, across deep ocean, on another continent. This was another new one for me, I didn't even consider it. She tried sanctioning me two turns in a row, which I used my influence to deny, then she sanctioned again two turns after that. I had a settler northeast of her on a canal tile, but I decided to go with the flow and move for war. I had little other area to expand. My commander got rebuffed trying to go south to fight IPs. They had units swarming everywhere with nobody to cull them. So in the following image, there is a 1 where I initially had my settler, and a 2 where I moved it. I settled directly on her border to use the town as a forward operating base. Image is from turn 49. Yields roughly the same, very poor, scouting not going great.
View attachment 750597

I spent all my gold on Hawilti and archers that were killed covering my commander's retreat, plus more gold on replacements and a couple of Dhows. Shortly after my (second) forward settle, Himi declared war. My commander was still healing, but I sent him at ~50 health with three archers to intercept her fairly large attack. Luckily, she attacked across the sea to my third settlement, instead of taking my fourth settlement on her capital's border. With some tricky packing and unpacking, I was able to defeat her initial wave with three archers and two Dhows. I brought my commander to the FOB, but was unable to make progress on taking Lapaha. She consistently killed my archers, so I had to keep buying more. My Dhows built up slowly, because I was able to rotate them out to heal. I didn't lose a single one all age, but they couldn't earn me culture and influence or establish trade routes while fighting in Tongan waters. I would make it into Lapaha, take a couple of walled districts, then get wrecked. This happened several times. I noticed something I hadn't before. The opponents are able to buy multiple units per turn, AND attack with them the turn they are bought. I'd get her down to one slinger and the next turn she'd have six, I'd lose my archers, next turn she'd have eight.
View attachment 750602

I ended up getting three military endeavors and the mastery that gives +3 CS to ranged before I could get farther. I had never seen negative CS before.
View attachment 750600

I couldn't spare units to go fight the IPs to the south. I finally got a scout down there by bringing it over from the east. To my surprise, Great Barrier Reef was in the narrow strip of fog I hadn't uncovered! I had made a huge mistake. All my influence had been going to keep six endeavors up when I could have been getting better science to the south. It would have cost me much less gold to fight the IPs than it did Himiko. I only have a rough estimate of how long the war lasted, but it was over 70 turns. Embarrassing. I spent every bit of influence and gold during this time on intangible things other than a few Hawilti. I finally took Lapaha on turn 116, wiping Himiko. Here is the state of the city the turn it stopped resisting. All but one tile pillaged, most by my army, but plenty by rioters during the loyalty crisis.
View attachment 750601

Ha!
View attachment 750603

What I did have going for me was production. I was up to 80 in Aksum and 50 in Adulis by the end of the war. I was able to build all the buildings I could tech to in both cities, but I didn't even make it to Amphitheaters. I was able to get two Academies down. I did have one thing to be proud of, a personal first build of Mausoleum of Theodoric! This will come in handy next age. Shortly after the war, I finally felt like Aksum was coming online, but the age was almost over. If Himiko or I had settled one more town I would have got 3 military legacy points. My happiness was wrecked from the crisis. I only suzerained two CS, so my settlement limit was stuck at 6. I don't think I've ever had an antiquity so low. I was only able to complete one spying action all age. Despite the incredible production in Aksum, I was only able to build three wonders. Cathy built almost everything! A couple other civs got a wonder, but Cathy built Angkor Wat on turn 89! There was no chance for me after my decisions. I did manage to get four army commanders built though, which will be plenty for the rest of the game.

Final turn yields-
View attachment 750604
This doesn't even tell how bad it was. 15 or 20 turns earlier I was at 60 science, 180 culture, and even worse happiness and influence.

Everything but a few Distant Lands islands explored. If you look to the east of Eddie's territory, you'll see that on my very last turn, his settlement flipped to me! Should be a short trip from the treasure island to the east.
View attachment 750605

Ended with 2 Military Points, 2 Scientific Points, 1 Cultural Point, and 3 Economic Points. I got the final codex to reach two points on the final turn, hooray!

Despite my little mistakes, and my one massive mistake (combined scouting error and not building military earlier), I had a great time with the game. I love a challenge, although I prefer not to cause it through poor play! I learned not to be so greedy with settlers, and not to underestimate an opponent that seems to be defeated. I think I might have known that at one point. I'm happy to be back to playing after too much work.

I'll start exploration with Iceland tonight.

Great writeup, I too see a lot of similarity between our games - but also some differences!

Interesting how you decided not to settle in the northeast, granted it's far from a perfect location, but it's got a delicious 4-adjacency Mountain location! I settled there and turned it into an Urban Center to pop down a Monument ASAP.

I too struggled a lot with the Barbarians to the South, in the end I left them alone - until I had a packed Commander and a couple of Dhows!

I've noticed too how the AI can attack immediately with the units they build, but I haven't seen them building multiple units in one turn! Are you sure they didn't come from packed Commanders or other Settlements?

Good luck in Exploration, you'll need it, you'll see ;-)

 

[Berrern]

Sayyida al Hurra - Ottomans - Modern Age

Well, when you start Modern with this kind of lead, it's somewhat pointless carrying on:

Nevertheless, I wanted to see what the Ottomans are all about - and why not take the opportunity to rank up Sayyida by completing all 4 Legacy Paths?

I replace the Ballestilla Memento (+1 sight for naval units) with the Merchant's saddle, for increased Explorer movement.
For some reason I got the National Guard Legacy Bonus, despite only getting 7 war support in the last age. I guess they changed the requirements!

Despite playing with a new Civilization, the Modern Age wasn't much to write home about. I'll summarise it in bullet points:

• Turn 20: All Ottoman Civics researched.
  
  
• Turn 23: I'm now befriending (or having already suzerained) all the IPs on the map.
  
  
• Turn 25: 6 Wonders already built.
  
  
• Turn 27: Got 15 Artifacts already, even before Hegemony! The Ottoman advantages really shine What's really interesting (and possibly overpowered?!) is that you get double Artifacts when overbuilding as well!
  Haven't built enough Museums to house them all yet, but no rush as I want to complete all paths.
  
  
• Turn 29: Two Factories up. Are there less Resources in this Patch / Map type? I don't even have 7 of one kind to fill my biggest Factory!
  
  
• Turn 34: Hegemony researched! Can't be bothered chasing down more Artifacts, I've already got the 15 I need.
  
  
• Turn 38: Finally someone picked an Ideology, the poor bastard is Jose Rizal with his communistic views. I go for Fascism and denounce him in all the ways I can, while sending 4 Fleet Commanders (16 Battleships) and 2 packed Army Commanders to his borders.
  
  
• Turn 46: I declare on Rizal, and boost my War Support to +6. Influence is printing nicely.
  
  
• Turn 46: First Space project done.
  
  
• Turn 51: Future Civic already available, but I abstain, still got Legacy Paths to fulfill.
  
  
• Turn 52: Catherine denounces me, is she mad?
  
  
• Turn 52: Rizal's Copan falls, Military Legacy Path done! Jose doesn't want to trade his biggest city (pop 41), not even for ALL my Settlements! Oh well, I make peace.
  
  
• Turn 59: Economic and Scientific paths done! Only missing Cultural now, will pump out a few Museums.
  
  
• Turn 61: Cultural path done! 9 turns until the Crewed Space Flight completes. And Catherine declares, probably not knowing that those two Fleet Commanders are hiding 10 Battleships. Also, in 4 turns I'll complete the Manhattan Project and she'll get a Nuclear warhead on her head:
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Turn 63: So much for Cathy's invasion force (and her town Moscow):
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Turn 69: The Crewed Space Flight completes, and I win a Scientific Victory!

Final yields, score and empire:

The Ottomans certainly have an interesting dynamic, but I didn't really take full advantage of it, my lead was already so big so the whole Age was more or less a snoozefest.

Oh well, onto the next one!

 

[MutilationWave]

Great writeup, I too see a lot of similarity between our games - but also some differences!

Interesting how you decided not to settle in the northeast, granted it's far from a perfect location, but it's got a delicious 4-adjacency Mountain location! I settled there and turned it into an Urban Center to pop down a Monument ASAP.

I too struggled a lot with the Barbarians to the South, in the end I left them alone - until I had a packed Commander and a couple of Dhows!

I've noticed too how the AI can attack immediately with the units they build, but I haven't seen them building multiple units in one turn! Are you sure they didn't come from packed Commanders or other Settlements?

Good luck in Exploration, you'll need it, you'll see ;-)

Nah I had full visibility of Lapaha, both commanders dead, one unit left, other settlement razing, then Himiko had six next turn, one in each unconquered urban district.

 

[Berrern]

Nah I had full visibility of Lapaha, both commanders dead, one unit left, other settlement razing, then Himiko had six next turn, one in each unconquered urban district.

That's crazy, never seen that before! Even with the Deity bonus of +160% Unit Production, I don't see how they're doing this! Did you by any chance keep an eye on their Military strength from turn to turn?

Could it be an additional "ability" they get when they're down to their last Settlement? I typically never kill off an enemy completely as it speeds up the age, so I wouldn't really know much about this...

 

[MutilationWave]

@Berrern

I don't know, I did not keep watch on military strength. I've thought in the past that during war I was facing more troops than were possible even if every settlement was building and buying one every turn.

I wasn't planning on wiping Himiko initially but by the time the capital was cooked I was already in the 20 turn timer.

Hopefully I'll never see a repeat because I don't plan on playing so badly ever again. If I do, I will document every turn.

 

[MutilationWave]

It has been over a month since I last posted here, and it has taken me that long to play one age of Civ! Between work and other life obligations I have had little time, then I did have a few days, and my AIO cooler died on me! I had cpu temp at 90C+ at idle and shutdowns if I attempted to play a game. So I bought a new cooler, installed it, and finally finished the Exploration age on the last game @Berrern posted.

Sayyida - Aksum -> Iceland - Shattered Seas - Deity - Regroup - Catastrophic Disasters - 20 Turn Age Timer

I didn't keep much notes this time. I was recovering from a poor Antiquity performance, and my first task was to get my science up. I started the age with 63 science per turn. I started befriending a science IP, popped a goody hut for 120 influence and started befriending a culture IP. These were the only science and culture IPs on the map, and I took the warehouse bonus on both. Monasteries would likely have been better for Modern, but I needed to jumpstart my science and the warehouse bonus would nearly double it.

Of course I set out to explore the few islands considered distant lands immediately. At the very end of the last age, one of Teach's settlements flipped to me due to the crisis. It was right beside a substantial DL island, but there was only one treasure resource on it. There were only two treasure resources on the entire map! With the help of Havana Harbor and a short commute, I was able to achieve two points in Economic Legacy. If I had settled the other resource early enough, I had a shot at three points, but I didn't think it was possible.

Lucky lucky, bad luck and good luck.

Iceland is a fantastic civ. Culture exploded. On T16 I had 86 science / 302 culture. 16 turns later on T32 this was 141 science / 640 culture! I finished the age with three future science and four future civics, a personal best on both! I had over 1600 culture per turn at the end and I didn't even bother building kilns! Even so, the fourth future civic couldn't have happened without the 20 turn end of age timer. This was without using any IPs to time an extra tech or civic at the end. I did not skip any technologies or civics either. What brought me over the top was coastal raiding from Iceland's Vikingr plus Mausoleum of Theodoric. Every coastal raid was 120 gold 60 science and 120 culture. With the five movement on Vikingr ships, it becomes possible to move one tile, coastal raid, and attack every turn. The naval commanders, with proper promotions can additionally coastal raid twice and focus fire in one turn, or in the case of one of my commanders with nine movement while packed, they could coastal raid three times per turn.

I had a monster navy but I couldn't afford to capture settlements too early because of the loyalty crisis. In retrospect I should have been warring just to coastal raid without capturing settlements. I had missed two settlement limit increases in Antiquity, so I couldn't go too high until the end of the age.

I really enjoyed the Saga Heroes, even though some of them are worthless. The turn I activated the one for free coastal raiding with 26 ships was magical. The one that grants the Order commendation is fantastic as well. I did want to mention here that I think pillaging and coastal raiding should be looked at. If an ability gives a bonus to pillaging, or a bonus is received from pillaging, it should also apply to coastal raiding. This seems to work for some things but not others.

My war was with Xerxes, and he did not establish any distant lands settlements. I was only able to achieve two points on the military legacy path. In the image it shows me one point short, but that's because I had a cheeky missionary pop up and deconvert one of my DL settlements at the end of the age. In this case, you still receive the two legacy points.

He did mount a large naval defense, which impressed me, although messing with Vikingr he had no chance.

The relics rain from the sky with Iceland's ability to gain a relic on each mastery researched, which suits me fine because I hate to mess with religion. I only bought four missionaries. If I had focused on it, my relic count would have been truly outrageous, although I didn't really have the gold to buy temples to display them. I didn't count, but I think I had over 30 relics.

I like taking the belief that gives a migrant on conversion. Combined with Iceland's ability to spread religion with coastal raiding, I received one migrant for each settlement I captured. I used these to grab a couple resources in specialized towns but even better to fill in some high production rural tiles in my cities, because I was using growth events to place specialists. Aksum in particular, my antiquity capital, achieved 156 production while only receiving +6 from assigned resources. This production capacity allowed me to build most of the wonders and six naval commanders to bring the majority of my navy to Modern.

Final yields -

Super fun game! I think I'll go see how fast I can get a cultural victory in Modern with Ottomans. Their siege train looks incredible, but I don't enjoy playing modern enough to mess with it.

 

[Berrern]

Great to have you back @MutilationWave !

Sounds like a fun game indeed! Did you change the Mementos, or stick with the ones from Antiquity (I didn't change them)?
You did very well to achieve two points on the Economic Legacy Path, you got twice as many treasure points as I did! I guess you built the Havana Harbor way before I did... Plus I lost my early exploration party to Barbarians, which didn't help.
The Loyalty Crisis was an absolute pain in this game, I had to return numerous Settlements to Amina to cope with the unhappiness... I guess this is the reason why you didn't get to conquer/found more Settlements in DL?
3 future techs + 4 future civics is incredible! I failed to take note of how many I got, but you definitely beat me there.

Iceland is indeed very strong, especially with a large navy. And that Saga Hero that gives "free" coastal raiding is an absolute blast, that turn lasted sooooo long
I've actually played 3 more games with Iceland since this one, that's how much I like them And yet I still haven't been able to build the Reykjaholt wonder, the AI always beats me to it (in my previous attempt I got beat by just two turns ).

You mention a Belief that gives a Migrant every time you convert a Settlement, I can't recall ever seeing this option? Is it a secondary belief you unlock through gameplay, by any chance?

Enjoy the Ottomans!
I didn't really get to play much with the Siege Train bonus, I just wanted to get Modern over with and done ASAP, so I mainly used my Navy for conquering...

 

[vorlon_mi]

Simon Bolivar - Standard - Continents and Islands - Sovereign difficulty
Silla - Songhai - France

An unusual pairing, that has resulted in some playing against type. I wanted to try Simon and an Antiquity civ that I hadn't played before. Silla looked attractive, because I dislike when the AI outpaces me in science yield.

However, Silla really thrives on making friends and trading with them; Simon likes to attack. Tension... I lost the race for Gate of All Nations to one of my neighbors, Machiavelli, leading Greece. I had promoted a commander decently, so I tried to invade Athens and take it by force. Lesson 1) -- declaring a surprise war on Greece (Hoplites) who also has GoAN is an uphill slog. I switched my goals and took Argos instead. My other two neighbors in the Homelands were Hattie/Egypt and Jose/Tonga. Both of them grew into allies by the end of Antiquity, so the Silla traditions came in handy. I had 10 settlements at the end. Machy was down to a OCC (One City Challenge) by the end.

Along the way, I unlocked Songhai which looked attractive for the Homeland treasure convoys on navigable rivers -- I had two. Hattie picked Iceland (???) and Jose picked Hawaii. Early in Exploration, Jose declared on Machy. I didn't declare right away, since I wasn't sure how serious Jose was about conquering. I was about 4 turns late. Lesson 2) -- If an AI has conquered a few districts of its opponent, and you conquer the last one, the city does fall... to the civ which occupies the most districts. Athens had 4 or 5 fortified districts, but I controlled only one. Jose got the former capital, including its wonders. My Exploration went swimmingly; treasure resources were on a nearby island and the other DL continent. Ibn Battuta also made friends, since I had explored LOTS of tiles. I used him to fulfill the narrative event of "Make an ally in Distant Lands." Still not really able to take advantage of Simon's leader ability, but I got milestones on all of the paths and achieved the Economic Golden Age.

This brought up the vexing question... how to win? I had 4 allies among the 6 remaining leaders. The two who were grumpy were both in DL, where it would hard to project power and conquer settlements. Ibn had chosen Abbasid in Exploration, had built infrastructure, and was probably going to out-tech me. I built up a gold reserve as Exploration ended, hoping to buy Rail Stations and Factories. My homeland cities were nicely connected, with lots of trade routes for resources. I would also send out Explorers, hoping for some luck with artifacts.

I chose France, which is working out so far (turn 40). Hattie, Ibn, and Jose are still friendly. Charlemagne had planted a town on my southern border, so I've been sanctioning him so I can grab it. Updates soon ...

 

[MutilationWave]

Great to have you back @MutilationWave !

Sounds like a fun game indeed! Did you change the Mementos, or stick with the ones from Antiquity (I didn't change them)?
You did very well to achieve two points on the Economic Legacy Path, you got twice as many treasure points as I did! I guess you built the Havana Harbor way before I did... Plus I lost my early exploration party to Barbarians, which didn't help.
The Loyalty Crisis was an absolute pain in this game, I had to return numerous Settlements to Amina to cope with the unhappiness... I guess this is the reason why you didn't get to conquer/found more Settlements in DL?
3 future techs + 4 future civics is incredible! I failed to take note of how many I got, but you definitely beat me there.

Iceland is indeed very strong, especially with a large navy. And that Saga Hero that gives "free" coastal raiding is an absolute blast, that turn lasted sooooo long
I've actually played 3 more games with Iceland since this one, that's how much I like them And yet I still haven't been able to build the Reykjaholt wonder, the AI always beats me to it (in my previous attempt I got beat by just two turns ).

You mention a Belief that gives a Migrant every time you convert a Settlement, I can't recall ever seeing this option? Is it a secondary belief you unlock through gameplay, by any chance?

Enjoy the Ottomans!
I didn't really get to play much with the Siege Train bonus, I just wanted to get Modern over with and done ASAP, so I mainly used my Navy for conquering...

I forgot to change mementos as usual

Yeah having that settlement that converted to me on the last turn of Antiquity was everything for economic legacy. I bought a settler there, then bought all warehouses including the more expensive exploration ones before converting the town to a city. Then I bought a shipyard and was working mostly reef tiles. This let me hit Havana Harbor very early. Only taking 4 turns to get my treasure convoys back helped too.

Yeah I could have dropped two more DL settlements or warred Amina to get 3 military legacy points, but war with Xerxes seemed inevitable and his empire fit better with mine. I ran reconciliation with Amina, but probably I should have just warred her for naval commander levels and coastal raiding.

I hadn't even started Reykjaholt when it was built!

The belief I'm talking about, or maybe it's the enhancer or something, I don't pay much attention to religion. I believe it works like this- when you convert one of your settlements for the first time, three buildings/improvements are damaged and you get a migrant. So when you capture an enemy settlement by costal raid it will activate. I'm not sure what it's called but I like it.