Tell us the story of your current game

[MutilationWave]

I'm not gonna read your exploration post because spoilers, but to answer your questions -

The one in the middle is Thebai, my third settlement. Navigable river helped with food. Fourth settlement was for the limestone. I push food hard. Did you get the +4 food on warehouses from an expansion IP? I think it's the best benefit right now. Then I buy the warehouses.

Tubman befriended the other science IP right under my nose while I was searching for an expansion IP, so I took it during the war. Really wish we had the option to liberate IPs in this way.

Yes of course I chose Inca. I want to play the same game and see where the differences come through. It's really increased my enjoyment of the game. I haven't played Inca in a long time, I'm excited to see what they can do now that they've been buffed.

I started exploration, only a few turns in. You know how those first few turns take forever if you're being meticulous.

 

[Berrern]

New patch - new game!

Let's give Edward Teach and Tonga a go, and transition into Pirates in Exploration.

Below are the settings (the rest I've left on default) - I'll also attach a save file:
- Map: Large Archipelago
- Difficulty: Deity
- Age transition: Continuity
- Players: 10
- Mementos: Only Imago Mundi
- Game random seed: -754846487
- Map random seed: -754846468

Let's see how it goes!

 

[m_mus]

I played yesterday Tonga paired with Himiko (Science) on Immortal, Continents + Islands. Mementos used were +1 Diplomatic Attribute Point & gain 100 influence after suzeraining an independent. Online-Speed.
I must say, that this has been the greatest fun I've had in Civ7! Playing with Tonga and the new patch just made me realize how much I craved proper naval gameplay (my preferred playstile in Civ6). I way lucky that my starting continent was rather thin at its equator so I was actually able to settle both coasts of it, as well as one island offshore on each side. Though I didn't catch the 'God of the Sea'-pantheon, the harbor and Tonga's unique tradition granting sicence + production for fishing boats in cities really granted me cities with good production. Although I yet have to see proper naval combat in Exploration age, the aspect of coastal settling was a much enhanced experience and I suppose this will hold true even for civilizations not designed specifically for that niche. I like the new ressources and terrain features.
Contributing to the overall good experience was the 'exploration'-vibe of Tonga. I loved to cross the sea into the distant lands and explored most of it. Equipped with the memento that granted me 100 influence after each new suzerainty I snowballed into suzeraining 13 IPS and with their visibility + the endeavour making the capital of other players visible (granted as a suzerainty-bonus by a diplo-IP) I had explored 95% of the distant lands by the end of the age. This not only gave me the feeling to know so much more of the world at a time, wherein the intelligible horizon is much, much smaller for everyone else, it also gave me the opportunity to witness a brutal war of conquest on the other side of the world:
Augustus' Egypt declared war on Confucius' China early on (I guess turn 35 or so) and only made peace with 3 turns left in the age. During that conflict, he first steamrolled Confucius by taking five (!) of his six settlements, boxing him in his capital, since he had a mountain range to his back. There Confucius made his stand. His capital was fortified with an acutally quite immersive and strategically well placed great wall and there he stopped the Egyptian onslaught. He stood firm until the Barbarian crises popped off ... and then the tide actually turned. This was due to two new barbarian camps spawning in between the five settlements Augustus had conquered. Not only did they disrupt his supply of fresh troops thoroughly, they actually forced him into a defensive position, wherefrom he actually lost 2 of the settlements to the barbarian. And yes, they razed these two settlements. Meanwhile Confucius reconquered the nearest 2 settlements and founded 2 new ones after he had circumvented the mountain range blocked him for such a long time. When peace was made, Augustus had actually won only one meagre settlement after spending a great amount of his ressources on attempting to swallow Confucius wholesale. Although the latter did end Antiquity also with little to show for in terms of progress on the legacy-paths, his heroic stand on the great wall of his capital, the divine intervention to his favour and the actual counter-offensive make him the hero of this age for me. I could watch all this unfolding, because I was able to place two of my scouts in navigable rivers, which the conquering armies had to criss-cross repeatedly. Compared to Civ6 it is fantastic that the AI at times is able to deliver these cinematic stories of great conquest and (alternative-) historical drama. In that regard Civ7 is much, much better.
And I won't dwell on the second noteworthy war on this continent between Trun Tracs India and Ghengis Khans Persia to the south. While the distant lands were war-ridden and remain comparably underdeveloped, on my home-continent Isabella ended Antiquity quite blobby and sucessful in terms of progress on the legacy-paths. I suppose she will be the prime-antagonist for Exploration Age and further. Knowing the lay of the land already ... and seeing where my settlers will have to go to catch those sweet treasure ressource is a tremendous advantage though.
Of course I picked Hawaii for Exploration. Really looking forward to continuing the game.
For me, this patch is really excellent.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

So if you are negative gold due to sanctions then a -100% adjuster will turn my income positive again, right??



Unfortunately that's not how it works lol!!

 

[Berrern]

I could watch all this unfolding, because I was able to place two of my scouts in navigable rivers, which the conquering armies had to criss-cross repeatedly. Compared to Civ6 it is fantastic that the AI at times is able to deliver these cinematic stories of great conquest and (alternative-) historical drama. In that regard Civ7 is much, much better.

Great stuff, you must've had a blast watching these events unfold! Great tip about leaving your scouts peeking at the AI, I'll definitely try that myself

 

[MutilationWave]

Finally got Explo done as Tecumseh of the Inca on Berrern's shared game.

I took Fealty, two Expansionist points, two Economic attribute points, and Great Library even though I only had four academies. Piety was discounted from the previous age future civic, but Inca civics are just too good so I went that way. Tons of mountains and rough terrain around allowed for plenty of terrace farms, buffing my food and gold to ridiculous heights. The gold was helped by turning all my towns into mining towns on turn 1. I suppose I had plenty of gold to go with urban centers but I spent a lot of money buying my entire military including commanders, traders, settlers, missionaries, warehouse buildings and terrace farms.

As always, I took an expansionist IP first for +3 food on food buildings. I think pushing yields through warehouse bonuses is the best way to go currently. The new coastal resources that do it look busted to me, time will tell. Settlement limits from expansionist and militaristic were next. After that extra social policy slot. I managed to grab 22 out of 25 of the IPs, Ben got one of them and two were dispersed. Ben was my main competitor during this age as well, I only outpaced his science at the very end of the age. Culture was a total blowout in my favor as usual.

There were only two tiles between the coast of my capital and "distant lands". I have to say I'm not a huge fan of Pangaea or Huge maps in general. But there were three treasure resources right there, so I got those. Even if I hadn't picked up more, with Inca's ability to generate convoys I would have been fine on the legacy path.

Getting Machu Pikchu so early is decisive. The yields it brings are amazing. I learned that a wonder tile on a mountain does not count as a worked mountain tile. I am confused about the Lirakuna policy. It gave me a good amount of food, but that amount did not change after I worked three mountains in Aksum. Not sure how it works, but it isn't as worded.

Ben beat me to Grand Bazaar and Tomb of Askia back to back in two turns! I should have obliterated this guy like Berrern did. I just played mostly peaceful with my three cities and tons of towns. Later I took another couple settlements from Tubman and made one a city. Finished the age with four cities.

This would look pretty bad on deity or deity++, but with Tecumseh's ability to add combat strength it was a breeze:

I had something interesting happen as I was completing the military age. The top settlement was captured one turn before this screenshot, the bottom one the turn it was taken. The bottom settlement had no unrest, happiness loss, nothing. It acted like a town I had always had from the beginning:

What this looked like before was pretty funny. Pachacuti was not ready for boats on his islands. I hear the new patch will help shenanigans like this.

Tecumseh is extremely powerful, and this age got me exactly to level 9 with him to get his warclub memento. It doesn't get much attention but seems very powerful. Ended the age on turn 91 with two future techs and three future civics. Here's the stats:

I really wish these points would stay permanent. I had a scare when it showed I was 11/12 on Military, but it was because of a religious conversion. I'm not going to continue this game because I want to play Berrern's new one, and try out Teach, Tonga, and Pirates. If I were to continue this would make an amazing Nepal game. Maybe I will come back to it. Overall happy to skip modern though.

As always I'd like to encourage anyone to grab that save from Berrern's post and join us in playing the same leader and civs on the same map. It's made the game more fun for me.

 

[Berrern]

As always, great write-up @MutilationWave , sounds like a fun game!

Interesting how we ended Antiquity on the exact same turn, and Exploration with just 1 turn difference.
You definitely beat me on yields, and especially food - I guess I need to get better at specializing my towns...

Regarding that town that didn't have any unrest, how strange! I've never seen this before - only when I get settlements as part of a peace deal do they not revolt.

Also interesting to see that you seemingly went hard on Religion, to be honest I can't be bothered doing more than the bare minimum there. Although all those Relics should give you a nice boost in Modern, if you ever were to finish the game!

I did finish it, as Nepal, and had some fun in the beginning, then it was just a long age of steamrolling everyone and razing every settlement. Not really much to write home about...
I actually continued playing after winning the game, just so I could erase everyone except for my ally Lakshmibai. Here's the final screenshot of the Modern age, notice the empty wastelands and the number of nukes!

Oh and I also ended with a Commander with 5 Commendations - I actually got the 5th Commendation when destroying the last settlement on the map!

Worth sharing the cost of my military too:

After all this warmongering I wanted a peaceful game, but playing as Edward Teach sounds everything but peaceful

One little tip for our Tonga game (no spoilers!): with the Pirate ability you can actually capture enemy ships! I missed that part when reading about Edward's abilities, and didn't realise until just a few turns before the 10 turn counter at the end

 

[MutilationWave]

That's crazy our turns lined up like that. I stacked treasure convoys as usual then went from ~70% to 90+ in short order once I got my first future tech and civic.

Regarding religion- I just took the ability to get two relics for every capital converted. I abused it twice with Tubman. As you take a capital, you can send a missionary to the new capital and convert it for more relics, rinse and repeat. All I did was buy about 10 missionaries and send them to the capitals. Not much micro necessary. I never convert my own cities for two reasons- I have no desire to play whack a mole with missionaries and I almost always get the religion crisis. I choose the all faiths are welcome option and end up getting nothing but a bit of bonus gold and happiness from the crisis policies.

 

[Kurtbob]

I started my first game after the Nov 4 update. I decided not to try out new civs or leaders... the new Egypt traditions just looked too interesting/powerful. Now, I have around 300 hours playing civ7 and I have played Egypt maybe twice...I found them fairly weak and their traditions not worth slotting in exploration or modern. For this game, I chose Hatshepsut to lead to double down on production bonuses.

I finished antiquity last night....I built 10 wonders in my capital...I've never done that before. I play marathon exclusively, so the typical time to build an antiquity wonder is like 25-40 turns. After building my first two wonders, I was churning each one out in less than 15 turns.

My capital sat on a navigable river in the middle of a desert. I aimed for getting the pyramids and petra, which I was able to do by beelining for them. Both took the typical marathon time to churn out. Decide to try my luck at another wonder...Dur-Sharrukin...13 turns. Absolutely amazing to me. I kept churning them out all age, only missing out on a handful due to my lower science output (culture was through the roof though). The production boosts from Petra, my civ ability, leader ability and traditions are just so powerful and, most importantly, fun

 

[MutilationWave]

Whew, Berrern's Teach with Tonga map taught me something.

This is the worst I've ever done in Civ 7. Can't win em all haha. Still had fun.

I did a four scout opener, prioritizing culture so I could guarantee God of the Sea pantheon and gold to be able to buy a settler quickly. Built one warrior for defense and the turn it finished my capital hit 5 pop so I built a settler and was able to buy a second one right around the time it finished. I'm really wanting to grab these crabs and turtles but things just weren't lining up right. I found a two crab and one camel spot that was unfortunately the edge of a new continent, so that's a no-go. It sucks we're still struggling with settlement connection issues this far into release.

I met my neighbors quickly. On turn 17 I saw that Himiko was already at 25 culture per turn, I think I was at 12. I thought there's no way I'm getting wonders this game, and I should have adapted my strategy or just abandoned them. I decided to put my first settlement down inland by Uluru to the Southeast. Settler was nearly dead from barbs. I just got enough gold to buy a slinger and save it.

Second settlement dropped on the coast to the north soon after, settler heavily damaged, and again I almost lost the settlement. I was playing aggressively and so far it was working out. I built and bought two more settlers. One I sent pretty far west to get the Great Barrier Reef and two camels. I was short on gold all game. I started the pirate ship snowball but it didn't go well. I wasn't just playing aggressively, I was playing recklessly and missing things. I beelined Oracle, then found I had no spot for it in the capital. I made my 3rd settlement a city and began building it there. I was one turn from chopping a military IP to secure it and was sniped by Ashoka, who had been sanctioning me heavily and war was inevitable. I went ahead and declared on him when he brought a settler my way. He kicked my ass. This is how close I came to losing even worse -

The ships really messed me up. I ended up building about twenty archers in my capital to beat him back, and surprisingly he gave me a settlement for peace. I allied Ibn during the war, and shortly after he started war with Lakshmi to the south. So I figured I'd turn all these archers around, start building chariots, and take her capital. It did not go as planned.

She tried to settle in the middle of the war and that didn't go well for her, but as you can see I wasn't making any progress. I was beaten to Ha'munga a Maui by one turn, which really hurt. I wasn't focused, didn't get any more settlers out, and the wars had taken all my time and resources for minimal gains. Ended on turn 140.

By far my worst game. I wasn't able to set up for the next age beyond building four boats. Again, I was not playing at my best.

The wars with Lakshmi and Ashoka bubbled up soon in exploration and their unending elephants and ships were preventing me from progressing my empire. I called it at that point.

I think I'm going to give this one a retry because I want to like this combo and I've read a lot of rave reviews of Tonga. I'm sure @Berrern has this game long completed by now, I'd like to see what he did differently.

 

[Berrern]

ANTIQUITY

I didn't know what to expect from this game, Edward's abilities sort of made me throw all my usual strategies out of the window, and come up with something new! As such, my only immediate goals were Animal Husbandry for the Wool and Mysticism for God of the Sea. And try to stay friendly with my neighbours, because I want to spend my resources on scouting the Distant Lands!

I got 3 scouts out early on before the Granary and 3 Settlers (I bought 1 or 2 scouts during the Settler construction too).

Early exploration reveals Uluru to the south, just west of Lakshmibai's borders. I'm not usually a fan of forward settling, but with all those juicy desert tiles, I simply had to, so I settled there on turn 26. I got lucky though, because the 3 turns before my settler got there I spotted Lakshmibai's settler roaming around the area.. Well, she was too late!

After getting Mysticism and God of the Sea on turn 24, I went for Tonga's unique civics rather than Discipline. There were plenty of hostile IPs around, but I didn't see any raids, and the Lapita's Free Trade Route with every new CS + Lapita II's 1 Influence per Monument on coast were simply too good to ignore. I still had to fight off a few Barbarian units here and there, which feels pointless without a Commander, but oh well...

I settled Tatakamotonga up north on turn 29, and as I was about to settle on the island to the west, one of my scouts spotted the Great Barrier Reef + camels further southwest! I sent my settler there instead, and built another settler to settle that island. No problems with unhappiness, so I could safely go one above the limit at this point.

On turn 38 one of my scouts reached distand lands. Around this time I got a Narrative event where I could choose +1 movement on Scouts, which I obviously did!

It turned out that scouting the Distand Lands was harder than anticipated. The Barbarians have plenty of boats and show no mercy, and as you can't disembark, there's nowhere to heal! I kept pumping out scouts, I wanted to explore everything before Exploration!

I didn't expect to get any Wonders during this age, but on turn 61 I somehow built the Great Stele! And some 20 turns later I get the Ha'Amonga 'A Maui wonder built.

By turn 67 I got the Kava Ceremony, which meant +100% influence towards befriending IPs in Distant Lands. I also got the Diplomatic Attribute point for a further +50%, meaning DL IPs now only cost 68 influence to befriend!

I spent nearly all my influence suzeraining all the IPs in Distant Lands, which really helps scouting as when they convert to your CS you get their maps!

It's very hard to use ships for scouting my homelands, because everyone is hostile towards them! The barrage from Archers inland is absolutely brutal...
Still, by turn 97, the whole map has been explored - homelands and distant lands! I'm befriending all the IPs in DL (9 of them!), except for the 1 that I'll lose to Xerxes - there's no point even trying. I've already befriended 6 CS in total - and there's still another 3 on my Homelands when/if I can build up enough Influence.

On turn 100, Pachacuti builds the Great Lighthouse as I'm just 2 turns away from completing it - the bastard :-(
On turn 102, Lafayette starts building the Colosseum, while I've got 8 turns left, we all know how that's gonna go... I pivot to Mundo Perdido! If I can get 1 more Wonder I'll get 2 points on that legacy path - which was never my plan. I get the Mundo Perdido 7 turns later, wow!

So here's the big kicker of the age for me... I get to turn 116 before I realise that you can actually capture ships you destroy with Edward Teach! Serves me right for not reading all his leader abilities in full, I somehow missed this part:

I pump out a few ships and send them down to Himiko, who's the closest neighbour with some coastal presence. But it doesn't come to much, my ships get trounced this late in the age, and just a few turns later the 10-turn counter pops up...

On turn 127 I settle my 9th settlement, ensuring I get Fealty in Exploration!

End of age status:

• Legacies: I end up with 2 Culture points, 2 Military points, 2 Science points, 3 Economic points. I needed three more turns to get the final Codex. 1 more turn to get a Future Civic.
• I end up allied to 4 AI: Lafayette, Lakshmibai, Ibn Battuta and Ada L (in Distant Lands ).
• I was ahead of all AI in Culture output
• I was ahead of all AI in Science - except for Pachacuti who's taking the piss with his 437 vs my 194
  
• 3 cities, 6 towns.
• 17 city states!
• I finished on turn 130.

I learned some lessons as well: I need to start using Espionage better. I had nearly 800 Influence at the end of the age! I could've possibly made Tosakhana if I'd done some Espionage missions. I also learned way too late that I can capture ships with Eddie T

Resources, anyone? Those free trade routes with every IP you suzerain really add up:

Final scores and yields:

 

[Berrern]

@MutilationWave it was great reading your story! Hard to say what we did differently, although I think you perhaps focused more on Homelands, while I went all out for Distant Lands. By turn 97 I had scouted everything, and was befriending every IP in the distand lands - with all the bonuses that entails. Not to mention the resources from trading routes, I went early for the Civic that gives a free Trade Route to every IP you befriend, which made a massive difference resource-wise!

And you still beat the crap out of me when it comes to gold per turn, that's an interesting one!
(EDIT: Sorry, I misread the GPT from your screenshot!)

Onward and upward

 

[Berrern]

@MutilationWave Oh an one more big difference between our games... You started building up a navy early on, while I completely ignored that (as I didn't know you could conquer enemy ships) and instead focused on pumping out scout after scout to get those Distant Lands explored. It actually seems that the fact I ignored one of Edward's crucial abilities, ended up giving me an advantage in this age?!

 

[reddishrecue]

I know I got a game going but i dont really remember lol... I just play it once in awhile but all I remember is that its on Exploration age and im making missionaries and expanding my borders so that all the relics could fit into my temples.

 

[Berrern]

Also, I didn't really make a point out of it in my summary, but this was the first Antiquity Age I've ever played without a single war!
About halfway through the Age, my ally Lakshmibai tried to pull me into a war against Ashoka, but I didn't even have Bronze Working yet (I was focusing on the upper part of the tech tree), so I broke our alliance.

I just loaded up the final turn of that Age again, and my "army" only comprised of 2 Warriors, 2 Archers and 2 Spearmen!

Surely that was another big difference in our games @MutilationWave .

 

[OmegaDestroyer]

In my Sovereign game, the 3 AI opponents (Napolean, Ashoka, and Xerxes), spend all of their influence raiding and sanctioning me. I get part of Napolean's schtick is sanctioning, and that is why his empire has been burned to the ground. But it's stupid to have the other two sanctioning me when I haven't done anything directly to them. I am already behind them on the various productions due to AI cheats. It's not fun being penalized further and sanctioning the AI has virtually no impact, other than being a poor man's denouncement.

Absurd anti-player bias is not going to help them grow the game. I know Firaxis loves to program games with anti-player bias (See X-Com 2's expansion's dumb zombie missions, any instance of the World Congress in a Civ game), and it's not helping.

 

[vorlon_mi]

In my Sovereign game, the 3 AI opponents (Napolean, Ashoka, and Xerxes), spend all of their influence raiding and sanctioning me. I get part of Napolean's schtick is sanctioning, and that is why his empire has been burned to the ground. But it's stupid to have the other two sanctioning me when I haven't done anything directly to them. I am already behind them on the various productions due to AI cheats. It's not fun being penalized further and sanctioning the AI has virtually no impact, other than being a poor man's denouncement.

Absurd anti-player bias is not going to help them grow the game. I know Firaxis loves to program games with anti-player bias (See X-Com 2's expansion's dumb zombie missions, any instance of the World Congress in a Civ game), and it's not helping.

I also noticed (in Exploration) that two AI that were Hostile (near max hostility) kept doing sanctions instead of actually declaring war. It forced me to consider whether I wanted to be hindered (slightly, or more) or spend my influence to block the sanction -- which meant I had less for potential war support.

Yes, it's a new tactic. Yes, it's a somewhat interesting decision. No, it's not as much fun as waging war. Yes, it could be a sign of the AI realizing which player is getting close to legacy paths or victories, and trying to do something about it.

 

[OmegaDestroyer]

The odd thing, though, is that the AI has NEVER tried to stop me from winning in the Modern era, at any difficulty level. In my current game, I'm not even close to completing any path. Best I can figure, they improved the AI's awareness of sanctions and decided to have it be used exclusively against the player. I'm sure it could impose sanctions against itself, but I've never noticed it. I don't know where I would find such data.

 

[MutilationWave]

Tonga with Teach Antiquity part 2!

I rolled a new Archipelago map to see if I could do better, and things went very well. Opened with 4 scouts followed by fishing quay then settlers. I had Isabella of Carthage to the north, and I quickly settled a town on the west side of the large island and one on the east, boxing her in. She responded by sanctioning my gold incessantly. Gold is the biggest struggle with this civ/leader combo for sure, so I decided I'd take her out once she got to the point of declaring war. I got a commander up near her ready to go with warriors and slingers.

Ben had 33 science and 63 culture on turn 47, I had 22 and 21.

I actually got to build Ha'amonga a Maui this time, which is beyond awesome for Tonga. My capital really blew up from sea resources, and I made my east side settlement into a city that also did well. I started knocking out wonders in the capital and reached antiquity cultural legacy for only the second time! I even got Nalanda and Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, which were both firsts for me. If I had river tiles I could have picked up Angkor Wat and Monk's Mound as well, and I've never built the mound. Capital was at 100 production by the end of the age, second city at 73. Lacking rivers I expect to hurt next age because I won't be able to build gristmills.

I hit bronze working and upgraded my military to declare war on Isabella. The war dragged on forever because I couldn't deal with the never-ending archer spam on my limited budget. I'm used to just buying whatever I need. I finally built some chariots and got my Kalia involved which turned the tide. I graciously allowed her to complete her Unique Quarter before I finally took the city.

Crisis was invasion which further messed up my gold. Doubling military upkeep was rough, especially with Teach's increased naval maintenance, but it was the least harmful policy I could choose. I had sent a settler to grab the last two camels in Homelands, and an invasion camp spawned on the location when my settler was one turn away. As a Kalia whittled away at the defender's health, my settler waited while my settlement spot got all screwed up by Ada.

Soon a camp spawned right beside my undefended capital, and I had to hurry up and capture Thebai before Isabella could finish the UQ. I recalled my army to protect the cap. At this point I thought I only had two points left on Military legacy, so I sent a gaggle of Kalia to capture a single-tile island town from Isabella. The shenanigans that ensued were silly. Defeat the Cavalry, she buys two colonists. Defeat the colonists, she buys a Galley. Defeat the Galley, she buys another Cav. It took forever to take this stupid little town.

Turns out I was actually three points from the final Military legacy. This could have been my second 3/3/3/3 legacy paths Antiquity. Ah well. I ended up picking up a future civic and future tech, but regretfully I missed out on a settlement limit bonus. I had almost all the IPs suzerained in the entire map, three were taken by others, and apparently one of those took the settlement limit option from a military IP. I usually have more time to get around to it. I didn't have much time at end of age to prepare, but I built two settlers, two traders, and some horsemen and archers. I only had two cities and one commander at the end, which is not ideal.

Final thoughts, Tonga is very good, and excellent on Archipelago. They may be S tier in Antiquity. The Kalia are great Unique Ships that get +5 vs districts. Even with their one tile range they can be what you need to bring coastal settlements down, which should be where Tonga wants its settlements anyway. Teach can capture galleys and upgrade them to Kalia as well.

This would turn into a great Hawai'i game, but I'm going Pirates. I'm worried that all those water tiles I'm working are going to become nearly worthless and my production is going to nosedive. This is the yang to Tonga's yin.

I leave you with some silliness. A dedicated soldier of Tiwanaku, my ally, stood guard on this goody hut the entire age.

 

[Berrern]

@MutilationWave wow, that's more like it! And even achieving the Cultural legacy path, especially building those two late tech tree wonders - impressive! I'm guessing you had a lot of reef tiles among your coast? If I recall correctly, one of the Tongan traditions give +2 science (and some production I believe) on each such tile!

Were you able to identify the main reasons for doing so well in this game compared to the previous one? Would be interesting to hear what you've learnt!

Also, you didn't post any map, did you manage to scout the distant lands and befriend those IPs?

100 production in Capital is incredible, I checked my own game and I ended Antiquity with only 58.