TSG176 AAR

leif erikson

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Welcome to the TSG176 After Action Report thread. In this thread you can post the results of your game. Please state victory date and score (preferably in the post title), as recorded in the Hall of Fame, and the most important: your path to glory!
STOP - Please do not continue reading this thread until you have completed and submitted your game.
Please attach your final, first play through, .Civ5Save file, saved AFTER the victory ceremony if you were not conquered (using the "Lemme play one more turn" feature.) In your post.
- How useful was your UA?
- Did you use spying to your advantage?
- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
- What techs did you prioritize ?
- What did you think of the map and settings?
 
Hi,
This is my FIRST GotM upload, as I only recently discovered this format. Thank you all for maintaining this system!

The UA (extended reach of caravans) was quite useful, mostly because I settled next to the mountain, instead of going for a coastal location. Double oil was not important.

My spies were just about useful, of course not to steal techs with but for rigging CS elections.

OCC and the map type combined WAS the challenge here, and I enjoyed the setup. The map itself was definitely above average in my opinion.

The difficulty level made my play very inaccurate and even sloppy. Two examples: 1. Mongolia conquered the nearby CS early and instead of waiting for Persia or Poland to liberate it, I "liberated" it myself, before I remembered that this was indeed a OCC challenge. I actually went on to destroy Gengis early to avoid him taking over more CS. 2. At the first WL vote, I would actually have had the votes to win, I just missed that one CS was voting for Poland. I got it right on the second attempt though.

Social Policies: Full Tradition, starting to fill Patronage, switched to Rationalism, opening up Freedom, finishing Rationalism, finishing Patronage, ended up taking 7 policies in freedom before I went full Commerce and lastly I took a couple of policies in Honor (for fun).

The tech order was very standard: prioritizing science techs, but on Prince, there is no need to beeline too hard. At the end I was only 8 techs ahead of number 2 (Indonesia) and generated a very modest 629 science per turn. As a special note, I beelined a little bit to get LToP and instead of the standard GE/GS I picked a Great Admiral to find all those hiding CS.

The map was, as I said, above average. The starting location was great and there were several paths already there (SIP/move next to the mountain/go coastal). I am a fan of Harun, so the Civ was great. I also liked Quick Speed. I was not too fond of the difficulty level, but that was more or less the only negative issue I experienced. At the end Mecca was 42 Pop and I was first in Population, Literacy, Approval and Soldiers.
 

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  • TSG176Harun_0290 AD-2010.Civ5Save
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T207 diplo

- How useful was your UA?
Allowed for slightly more gold from further trade routes on home continent. Oil was not relevant.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?
Killed a few spied in capitol. Rigged a few CS elections. Needed 2 diplomats for victory since I accidentally let Khan take one CS.

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
Continents+ was ok, found all of CS with plenty of time with scouting units on auto-explore.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
Being Prince difficulty, I just relaxed and played on autopilot, nice to not sweat the small stuff.

- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
Full Tradition, 4 Patronage, Full Rationalism, 8 Freedom, finished patronage, started Aesthetics.

- What techs did you prioritize ?
Science route - Writing and Philosophy for GL and NC, Education, Astronomy … Globalization (diplomats WC votes).

- What did you think of the map and settings?
Missed no ancient ruins, did not miss no barbarians. Missed no coal (none of the CS had expanded to nearby coal be end of game). OCCs are usually some of my favorite games.
 

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  • TSG176diplo-t207submit.Civ5Save
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I am not submitting a file. I reloaded a few times when I forgot to change production or miss clicked. Near the end of the game I missed clicked again and into Poland's territory and just automatically click okay... meaning I went to war with Poland. I was like... I am no longer reloading. I was rushing and impatient (not because I was bored). It was a while since I played Civ I, and I finally got Civ VI, but was not getting into it. While I was rushing my game, it was still more enjoyable to play then CivVI.

- How useful was your UA?
Somewhat useful, since I settle inland.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?
I was raking in the gold so I sent out diplomats instead.

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
I don't think it did.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
I most likely dallied a bit tech irrelevant tech before getting to information era, and also trying something, explained below.

- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
I thought would try using religion to get some extra money, so I tried piety to get a little bit extra faith to get a religion.
But piety, tradition, patronage and commerce to get Big Ben. Freedom Ideology. Again, I was dallying with techs, so two civs got an Ideology before me. But since I had so many votes I made my religion and ideology world religion and ideology.

- What techs did you prioritize?
Early on, mostly of the commerce related ones. After getting the GL I went and got HG, Petra then the Forbidden Palace, then I got distracted.

- What did you think of the map and settings?
I did not see the OCC setting so I was wondering why I couldn't build a settler. lol.
 
Diplo victory on turn 302.

- How useful was your UA?
The double religious pressure from trade routes was awesome. It flipped a lot of cities to my religion (satisfied a lot of CS quests that way), and kept the other religious civs busy trying to convert them to their religion. The extra gold from Tithe was nice.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?
I leveled-up my spies by putting them in Mecca as counterspies, then sent them out to influence city states. At the end, I used a few as diplomats for Globalization but I don't remember if that was necessary.

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
I don't really know. It was a straightforward diplomatic game, but my time was not very good.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
It meant I could go for more wonders (wonders don't cost any gold to maintain) and I needed less military for a while.

- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
Tradition, Patronage until Rationalism unlocked, Rationalism, finished Patronage, Commerce, Exploration. Freedom ideology.

- What techs did you prioritize?
Optics (Great Lighthouse), Mathematics (Hanging Gardens), Philosophy (national college and Oracle), Banking (Forbidden Palace), Printing Press, Chemistry (extra production), Radio (ideology), Plastics, Telecomunications.

- What did you think of the map and settings?
OCC was fun. I saw that great starting location and thought it might be a trap; wasn't sure a diplomatic victory could be done on a "plus" map w/o caravels to explore and sea trade routes. When I moved my warrior north I saw coast, and it looked like a decent location too so I move my settler and planted on the horse tile (I didn't know it was horses at the time.) In retrospect, the observatory might have been more important than sea access.
 

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  • Harun al-Rashid_0302 Diplo Victory.Civ5Save
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Game: Civ5 GOTM 176
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Turns played: 311
Final score: 1637

--------------------------------

- How useful was your UA?

Was great for make gold since the beginning of the game with the Trade Routes, and the Wonder Petra improve the gains and spread the religion. The double oil was not necessary.


- Did you use spying to your advantage?
So so, the spies was used as diplomats, to exerts Pressure by Propaganda, creating Revolutionary Waves - one Zulu City was flipped to Arabs (and was destroyed, 'cause the OCC condition)


- Did the map help or hinder victory and how?
Think helps, let space for the borders of the city expands until the limit.


- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
Because de difficulty level, the focus was in build Wonders, try to get a large technological an cultural advantage over the other Civs. Due the fact of game be OCC, the Happiness got high levels too, and the Religious Settlement Pantheon improves the Border Growth.


- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
Starting opening Tradition, to get +3 Culture/Turn, open Liberty to get the Worker from Citizenship, Aestethics for improve Culture, Patronage for improve the influence over the CityStates, Piety for build the Great Mosque of Djenne (and, later, to get the Reformation Belief: purchase Great Person with Faith), Commerce for improve the Gold and get the Wagon Trains (later, get Enterpreneurship for make more Gold with the Great Merchant built by Faith, into the CityStates), Exploration and Rationalism to liberate the Wonders...

The Freedom Ideology starts with AvantGarde for accelerate the GreatPerson's born and Creative Expressions to get more Culture by the Great Works; The others was chosen with focus in Culture and Tourism.


- What techs did you prioritize?
Running for build the Great Library (Writing), choosed the Philosophy Tech Bonus, and building the National College gives a great Science Bonus; after got Mathematics (Hanging Gardens) and Currency (Petra) until Guilds (East India Company); so, completed the techs until Theology, to build the Great Mosque of Djenne, and runs for Architecture, Archaeology and Radio, to get the respective Cultural Wonders; after, was necessary complete the lower path of the TechTree, to get Plastics, so built the Globe Theater (Printing Press), Big Ben and Newschwanstein, followed by Statue of Liberty, until Globalization - to get the additional Delegate in the World Congress, because the CityStates has been anexed by the other Civs, and when I conquered if for liberate, it was destroyed... The same happened when The Mongols declared war, and were swept away from the world, including the Capital.


- What did you think of the map and settings?
Maked it easy and funny to play!
:D
 

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  • Harun al-Rashid_0312 AD-2032.Civ5Save
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  • TSG176 City Around.jpg
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Diplo victory turn 253.

- How useful was your UA?
I made a lot of gold and the caravan range helped in the beginning as well. I did not bother with religion.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?
Apart from maybe 1-2 techs stolen in the beginning, I was mostly protecting my capital and rigging elections. In the end of course globalization diplomats to win the first WL vote.

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
I decided to play completely non-standard and have fun, with absolute wonder priority. This would not have happened in a normal map probably. Also OCC meant no need to bother with all those settlers, city spots etc.
It was tricky to find all the CS as quickly as possible, so I did probably the funniest thing - hard built LTOP to select a Great Admiral. This turned out to be much faster, than land scouts sailing around. In the end I could have won a culture victory many turns faster, than diplo, and had to seriously control tourism and culture for this not to happen ;)

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
Wonder hoarding - this would never work on higher levels. I immediately decided not to bother with religion, and focus on wonders. So I built just one scout (no ruins, no settling - why bother?), quickly built the monument to the gods pantheon (+15% wonder production) and started building wonders. I built 26 of them, I think all were hard built, maybe 1 was rushed with a GE. After having ToA, Stonehenge, Great Wall, Petra and Angkor I built GEs like crazy, so in the end I planted 5 (!!) which combined with the right freedom policies and world congress effects resulted in absurd city strength (I also planted 2 prophets and 2 scientists). Starting with late medieval, hard building a world wonder never took more than 5 turns!
The speed of building wonders meant that I built almost anything I wanted, I only screwed up with forbidden palace (I was building Sistine for 4 turns, forbidden would also be 4 turns, but Cassimir beat me to it).
Regarding religion - when Persia finally managed to convert Mekka, he gave me Desert Folklore - how nice of him.

- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
full tradition (wonders! and growth) --> full patronage --> full commerce --> open rationalizm --> open exploration (so I could build Louvre :) probably the craziest policy choice ever) --> complete rationalizm --> 10 freedom tenets
I was even considering moving through exploration all the way to faster Great Admirals (I had 2 in the end - the one frome LTOP and another from a CS), but didn't bother

- What techs did you prioritize ?
Wonder techs. ToA --> Stonehenge --> HG (I settled on mountain hill with no river) --> Petra --> Great Wall -->... now GEs were appearing like crazy and production was absurd, so after that I went just for whatever wonder tech I thought nice. Like I said before, could have easily won culture many turns earlier, but controlled it to go for diplo.

- What did you think of the map and settings?
OCC inland was surprising. On higher difficulties I would definitely go for coastal, but as it was prince - very interesting, totally non-standard setup.
 

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  • TSG176_diplo_0253 AD-1966.Civ5Save
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Diplo Victory T273

It was a fun game. I've never built so many wonders. And I kept getting so many policies that I didn't know what to do.

Mongolia took a city state early so after that I sent troops to protect the other CS on the continent. Kahn tried to take it numerous times but I blocked him.

I didn't war until the very end when I attacked Poland. They were actually ahead of me in score and I was worried they'd buy a CS at the last turn. So I allied them all and then DoW and took a couple of his cities. It was cool seeing them instantly disappear.

- How useful was your UA?
* It was awesome. I spread my religion far and wide. It even was able to spread to cities very close to the other guys Holy City. Late game a trade route was something like 44 pressure.​

- Did you use spying to your advantage?
* I used it to ally CS since I was ahead in science the whole game.​

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
* Not sure it helped or hindered. By the time the UN rolled around I had met all CS long ago.​

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
* As I said, I've never built so many wonders. But I couldn't help myself. The wonders would be available and only take like 5 turns so I couldn't resist.​

- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
* I went full Tradition, then some in Patronage, then Rationalism, then Freedom, then I was getting so many policies so fast that I was picking them left and right. Even went into Honor to get a GG for a CS quest. I only took 3 in Freedom I think because they were not helpful for Diplo and I didn't need the happiness ones.​

- What techs did you prioritize ?
* Went for the one that lest me embark earlier than normal so I could explore and find the CS. Then later beelined for Globalization.​

- What did you think of the map and settings?
* I've never played OCC before so it was good to try that. I'm glad it was on Prince for my first try. I'm glad barbs were off, they just annoy me. But it would have been nice to have huts; though that may have made it even easier.

Spoiler Maps of Victory :
GotM 176 Mecca.jpg

GotM 176 Continent.jpg

 
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1978AD
Turns played: 259
Base score: 1261
Final score: 1704

It was interesting to use OCC for Diplo. My usual diplo ploy is to recall civs that are wiped out early, but that was not possible with this map.

I do love watching cities go “poof” when captured.

Won WL vote the first time it came up, but it was not particularly early.

Missed Petra and Forbidden Palace because I underestimated the Prince AI. Lots of Wonders though.
 
Well, that didn't end so well. Have yet to win at an OCC, and only just had tried my first one on King(cultural that was not working out), so figured this was a good 2nd effort. Did some reading and decided to try for science victory.....was going nicely until about the Modern era, when my science, due to lack of cities started to really bog down. I was finally getting close, when Liz won a Time victory....thought we had 500 turns, but it ended at 350. I had maybe 7 turns to go to finally win, albeit with a terrible score.

Guess I'll have to give OCC another try someday, further educated.
 
@beetle, where did you settle in the current GOTM? (I wish they'd get the post-game thread up) I think the awesome starting location was a trap. After moving my warrior north to the copper, I saw the coast and that was a decent location too (didn't know about the horses yet) and I moved my settler there. Built the Great Lighthouse and sent a trireme out exploring the world. The southern coast might have been even better but it wasn't visible right away.
I went to the desert mountain hill. But finding the coast was clever play, and I wish I had done that instead.
 
I went to the desert mountain hill. But finding the coast was clever play, and I wish I had done that instead.

The desert mountain hill was the right choice. The observatory was more important for a shorter number of turns than the coastal trade routes. The *best* play was probably the desert mountain coastal tile to the south, that wasn't visible until 2 or 3 turns into the game.
 
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1988AD
Turns played: 268
Base score: 1208
Final score: 1589

Unique ability was nice, especially in synergy with the OCC (for easy Grand Temple and religion-based wonders). I was able to dominate the religion on the whole continent, despite both Poland and Persia founding their own.

Spying was never really a factor until I researched globalization for the free Diplo votes. By the time I got spies I was already well ahead in tech so I just set them as diplomats so I could know when someone was gearing up for an attack.

The map type was a real pain in the butt for me... OCC, landlocked, HUUUUGE map with city-states hiding in the furthest reaches of the ocean? Scouting with seaborne missionaries who have tiny line of sight and 3 movement points? Not my cup of tea, but I can see how it added intrigue to the game at Prince level.

Difficulty level was one or two below what I normally play at, so I was able to relax and build every Wonder I wanted (plus many more). Also I went for Monument > Worker out of the gate, which I would never do on a higher level than that. One thing I didn't take into consideration is how bad the AI vs AI combat is. Genghis took out at least 3 CS because I overestimated their ability to survive against his trebs and keshiks.

Social policies were Tradition > Patronage > Rationalism with some Aesthetics and Mercantilism sprinkled in (not sure if those are the actual names). Freedom ideology for trade route diplomacy with CS.

For techs I prioritized Wonders early, then after I got the important early ones I just beelined science techs, then Globalization.

Overall, this one was kind of a slog for me. I felt I had the game in the bag from about t.150, or even earlier. The last 50 turns especially were just clicking next, giving away troops to CS so they didn't die to Shaka or Genghis, and waiting for the UN to put me up for a vote. I do like OCC, but I did not like enjoy waiting around for 100 turns and trying not to accidentally win a cultural victory. Maybe a smaller map with more accessible scouting would be better for my taste.
 
Turn 219 diplo victory. I'm not submitting a save since I had some crashing issues that forced me to replay some turns (in trying to fix them I reinstalled the game causing my autosave to revert to every 10 turns).


- How useful was your UA?
The extra money was useful.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?
I rigged city state elections mid game, and used diplomats to finish the game

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
The spread out cities slowed things down a bit.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
Easy difficulty made it easy to build a lot of wonders. I picked up Temple, HG, Petra, Oracle, Forbidden Palace, Sistine, Porcelain, SoL, probably a couple more I'm forgetting

- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
Tradition -> Part of Patronage -> Part of Rationalism -> Freedom -> Finished Rationalism -> Finished Patronage -> Couple Points in Mercantilism

- What techs did you prioritize ?
Currency for Petra and UB, Science techs, Globalism

- What did you think of the map and settings?
Not a big fan of quick game pace. I like doing OOC every once in a while.
 
Sorry, forgot to save the submit text ... turn 230 win)

- How useful was your UA?
Some - the money helped, and 67g/city converted was a small help. Not enough to get world religion on first try (due to my timing error).

- Did you use spying to your advantage?
Killed a few spies, rigged a few elections, but had enough great scientists that just did ->atomic->modern in only a handful of turns, so used them as diplomats - but would have won the same turn w/o them.

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
When I moved the warrior on turn 1 (after moving 1 and moving settler 1 tile on turn 0) and saw ocean a little bit a way, almost walked the settler there. Often wished I had.

Then again, it would have made Shaka into more of a real threat (with GW and a big tech lead, he never tried anything)

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
Easy (but fun).

- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
Tradition all, 2 of patronage, 1 of piety (due to bad timing, rationalism not open; also to get the missionaries can do 3 times building), rationalism (all but finisher), freedom (5), commerce opener (for $), piety3; for $ from temples). Everything after longer-golden-ages in freedom was not really needed, if even that.
Never finished Freedom, as no non-occupied city states to send trade routes to.

- What techs did you prioritize ?
Upper tier/food (GL/NL/HG/Petra). Nothing not on the path to Globalization. Figured at quick speed the Camel Archers were not going to
cut it (on a continents map) and at quick speed, bulbing makes violent diplomacy (kill-all-but-2) not as important.
Never built a CA... hm... pretty sure I never built /any/ units besides 1 scout. Towards the very end I got some from city states and from freedom policy and tried some minor warring.

Stole workers from Mongolia and Persia at the very start, both to help me and to cripple them, so they left me alone after that.

Did bribe others to go to war.

- What did you think of the map and settings?
Settings fine - it's fun to do easier levels to see how fast it can be done.
Map - so/so. I think Arabia works better on a pangea map. Tend to like maps that support the UA/UB/UU.

I did a test run, but at normal speed (did not seeing the warning). So was surprised and later missed a chance to get the vote done 1 cycle earlier by 1 turn.

Was also very surprised not to have promotion saving! The war w/ Shaka was more a diversion, so no fallout, but hof rules allow this ... and infantry fighting is *very* different w/o promotion saving - this was at the very end, just to see what I could kill.)

First gotm submission since feb 2017 (#149).

Thanks for running these.
 

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  • Harun al-Rashid_0230 AD-1920.Civ5Save
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Game:Civ5 GOTM 176
Date submitted:2018-12-11 06:55:29
Reference number:36253
Your name:choraltrickster
Game status:Diplomacy Victory
Game date:2045AD
Turns played:325
Base score:1116
Final score:1213
Time played:2:35:00

- How useful was your UA?
Insignificant. I opted to seek a coastal start. I went with the direction of the river and wandered for 10 turns (knowing I didn't have to worry about barbs), but ended up setting Solomon's Mines which turned out ok. Scouting SW and learning coast was just a few hexes away from start was disappointing. Once I had cargo ships, I mostly ran them rather than caravans.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?
I'm not sure I've played a game where I only spied on another capital for one cycle (which yielded nothing). After that, I worked CS and defended against enemy spies.

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
With a single city on continents, my interaction with the other civs was very minimal other than Persia and Poland. Poland killed off the Mongols, and we eliminated Persia together. I only went to war twice. First when Persia DoWd me for my proselytization. I razed Pasargadae and Persepolis (Camel Archers, XBows, Landskenecht). Later with only Poland and I sharing the continent, they DoWd me; we made peace soon after a successful defense.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
Having settled Solomon's Mines and gone Tradition, I built many more wonders than I normally would. My science stayed at or near the top and so I never felt threatened. I won the affection of city states relatively early and received many units which I gifted to the two CSs on the start continent. It was an enjoyable game with little war; largely a coast--a slow one compared to the rest of you--to DipV.

- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
Completed Tradition. Then opened all of Piety, Commerce, and Patronage, then Rationalism once available. I completed Patronage and Piety and went Freedom. With Forbidden Palace, and a strong CS influence, I passed World Religion and World Ideology.

- What techs did you prioritize?
I prioritized Hanging Gardens, trade routes and Forbidden Palace. Then some military techs during the period of war with Persia.

- What did you think of the map and settings?
Very little interaction with a majority of the civs. One City Challenge was fun as I had never tried it. I am glad the difficulty was easy, though it could have been a little more difficult, which would have made it more enjoyable. I usually play wide with quite a bit of warring, so being able to blast through a game in 2hr 35min (instead of 16-20 hours) was a big change for me; a real treat!

Thanks for continuing to do this! Much appreciated.
 
Diplo victory, turn 267 (1987 AD)

The desert mountain hill was the right choice. The observatory was more important for a shorter number of turns than the coastal trade routes. The *best* play was probably the desert mountain coastal tile to the south, that wasn't visible until 2 or 3 turns into the game.

I moved the warrior south and then decided to go to the coast there and settled that desert hill next to the mountain on the southern coast.
As some of the good tiles were more to the north that made some little slower development in the beginning so I missed out on some early wonder I was expecting to get (have to look up which)

Besides that, having sea based trade routes and some exploration ships was not bad, but I am not sure whether it is a clear best choice...

I guess, if I had focussed a little more on science instead of wonders and religion spreading, I probably could have shaved some turns off. After researching into final age, it was still 19 turns until leader vote...

This was (obviously) the first game, where I finished 'Exploration' but only did so in the end.
Took again like last game the reformation belief that halves how much your religion is removed by prophets and inquisitors.
That way I was able to convert a lot of the other continent (although I was struggling converting Polish and Persian cities....)

That was fun.
 
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