[SPOILERS] New setting, same RNG. yuris125, Civ6 PBEM26

[yuris125]

Classical era ended, and Archduke requested a pause, so guess I'll update now




Archduke got a golden age - probably not surprising with his military success, he must have swept all the conquest-related era points, as well as points for being the biggest empire in the world. I thought Pindicator would get a golden age as well, with him getting to key techs ahead of me, somewhat surprised (and relieved) that he didn't

Sticking with Monumentality for dedication, as I have a number of districts close to completion, and starting to put industrial zones down everywhere

I played some test games to better understand how my midgame is supposed to work, and came across something I didn't realise: haciendas can't go on flood plains. Only normal flatland grassland and plains. Ideally they should be placed in a triangle, as they get extra 1 food for every two adjacent ones, but this is often impossible due to not being placeable on flood plans and hills (not that I would want non-mine improvements on hills). The key thing is to place at least two next to each plantation to get a bonus hammer. But there are some plantations where it won't be possible, because of the flood plains restriction

I went through the map and marked the tiles where I will want haciendas placed

The east




I think I am getting the Coliseum, it took 4 forest chops and I had to buy a tile, but it should be completed on the interturn. Then I realised that because I had to move it 1E from where it was originally planned, it no longer reaches Bogota. But oh well, can't place everything perfectly, and don't think it was worth buying the tile I considered perfect. So it won't be all that useful right away - but it is usually a high demand wonder, and I will get use out of it after settling everythinng I planned in the east

The west




Not much to say here, an ongoing big chopping / mining operation. Still need to fix Hattusa's tiles - the first builder is on the way, and the one being built in Caracas will probably spend most charges in Hattusa as well

Pindicator's power started growing, but not a concern for now, and of course we're friends until T120

Money remains a concern - rushbuy would've added a lot of options, and I actually was surprised how much higher my income was in the test game. But I guess I did have a slow start here, and didn't yet complete all the commercial hubs / markets. It will get better!

Medieval era means word congress, and I have very little experience with this mechanic. Genuinely no idea how this is going to work in MP, and if it generally has much of an impact, or just treated as a gimmick

[yuris125]

World council - which gets its own turn, during which you can check the map and other in-game info, but can't do anything other than vote - so guess T101.5




This is actually relevant and would be helpful. I think it would help Pindicator as well, as we're on the same continent and share the same luxuries. The tricky part is picking the same luxury - so I go ahead and spend 10 influence to push for sugar, which is the one I connected the most. Won't cry too much if something else is picked, as long as it's one of the luxuries on the continent Pindicator and I share




Don't care too much about either of these, but I guess making rush-buying units more expensive could slow down Archduke a bit?

No idea if these are good votes, and honestly don't like this mechanic in general, and especially in MP, but it is what it is

[yuris125]

Some points I came across during test games I played during the pause

* Aqueducts. I assumed cities on fresh water wouldn't need them, as they only give 2 housing. What I didn't realise is that they also give +2 hammers in adjacency bonus to industrial zones, +4 once you slot in the policy card which doubles IZ adjacency (available at Guilds, not far from where we are now). I don't think aqueducts are mandatory, but I'm starting to think they at the very least need to be taken into consideration for city planning
* Meanwhile I realised that I have been planning industrial zones around optimising placement of factories in the future (a factory boost cities within 6 tiles, not just the city it's built in), but they only come online in industrial era, and I think it will be too late to matter in this game. When I get the next turn, I will need to rethink district placement, incorporating aqueducts as much as possible, and moving industrial zones to take advantage. If the game does get to factories, then I will start thinking about which cities should get them and which shouldn't
* Figuring out how to utilise district slots is going to be a big part of getting better at the game. For now I'm defaulting to every city getting an IZ and a commercial hub, then a theatre square or a campus, and then a lot of uncertainty at size 10. After 10, growth slows down a lot, and the size 13 district often doesn't get unlocked until late mid-game. I'm starting to think that maybe not every city should even get an IZ, maybe I should have cities fully focused on research / culture, especially in the backline. There's definitely potential for city specialisation in Civ6, which I am very far from understanding well
* Plantations get +1 production for every 2 adjacent haciendas, which is increased to +1 for every adacent hacienda at Mercantlism. Mercantilism is a late Renaissance civic, but it is beelineable, and I think as Colombia I should beeline it. Plantations with 5-6hpt yield are pretty great. I should make best effort to reserve every flatland tile next to a plantation for a hacienda; haciendas not adjacent to plantations are less valuable, but still nice when possible, as they do boost each other. Ultimately, there's not a lot of good tile improvements for flatland tiles, and haciendas fill this gap nicely for Colombia
* Speaking of improvements for flatland tiles, I promoted Liang along the right branch of her tree, and still believe it was a good choice for my start, but the left side unlocks city parks, flatland tile improvements limited to 1 per city which give +3 beakers, +3 culture, +2 housing, and +1 amenity (also increases appeal, but I still don't understand how much that matters). The downside for getting them up is that Liang would have to spend pretty much all the time travelling and not providing the bonuses I took from the right side of her tree. It feels like her promotions are supposed to be right side of the tree for a smaller empire, where she can sit in one city and boost it, and left side for bigger empires, where she wouldn't be able to provide passive bonuses due to travelling all the time. Something to consider for future games; in this game, I will need to think if the payoff for getting city parks is worth the loss of tile yields (and two governor titles, but that I think is ok, spending 2 more titles on her means I delay getting Pingala, but in test games increasing science hasn't been a problem)

All in all, finally playing Civ6 with slightly better understanding of strategies makes me see how much we underexplored it, and how much there still is to uncover. If only the AI wasn't so useless, and SP could be used for real practice, and not just as a sandbox where I ignore all the other kids....

[yuris125]

Interesting world congress results

On the luxury resolution, Archduke also spent an extra vote to boost one of his, but Pindicator's vote lined up with mine, so sugar did get the nod




This is pretty incredible, I don't have all sugar tiles improved yet, but once I get it done, it will boost my amenities massively

On the unit production resolution, Archduke spent a lot of influence to slow down building units with hammers. Pindicator's vote also went that way




This does make it even more important to increase my gold income, and also makes it even better to build basic units and upgrade them instead of building more advanced ones

On diplomatic victory points, I won the vote thanks to Pindicator voting for me




This is probably irrelevant, hard to imagine getting to diplo victory point threshold in MP, but still interesting. Noteworthy as well that Archduke voted to remove points from me, even though I didn't have any yet

I reworked my city planning blueprint with the new info, incorporating aqueducts into the plan as much as possible. Southeast:




The western of this two cities moved 1NW, which will allow it to get an aqueduct from the mountain, and then I can get industrial zones being boosted by a quarry (+1 production) as well as by aqueducts

You can also see some updated plans for the gap between Bogota and Quito - unfortunately looks like I didn't take a full screenshot of this area

Northeast (in strategic view, I put down a lot of pins here and it is a bit messy in normal view)




The biggest change here is moving the northern coast filler closer to the capital, this way it can build an aqueduct which will boost Bogota's IZ as well as its own. In the bridge between Loja and the planned east coast city, I replaced commercial hubs with aqueducts, amd moved Loja's commercial hub to make way (the east cost city will probably get a harbour rather than a commercial hub). Loja also has a lot of farms planned, as I would like both a campus and a theatre square here, so it will need to grow to size 10

There's some potential weirdness with aqueduct placement in Loja, as the game sometimes doesn't allow to place an aqueduct across the river on a hill when the city is on flatland. Will need to check once Engineering is researched

On the southwestern coast, there's no updates, there's no way to give aqueducts to these cities




Most likely they will be stuck with just an IZ and a harbour for districts, working plantations / haciendas or helping with strategics, and producing ships if navy becomes important. At least they can get to size 4 fairly easily, with 3 housing from coastal location and 2 from granary

Now that wonder construction is done, I moved Magnus to Maracaibo, which is currently the city with the weakest production, so will benefit the most from boost to chops

The great people screen of the new era




The next great merchant is pretty good, will be +3g to every trade route as present, and while I don't have that many trade routes yet (nowhere near enough), I do plan to have a trade route for every city eventually. These are great merchants of medieval era - Pindicator already claimed Zhang Qian, so this is probably the best one available (and arguably best overall, since you rarely get foreign trade routes in MP, so Zhang Qian doesn't give much besides extra trade route capacity)




Also noteworthy that no one earned any great engineer points yet, so guess I'm the first to complete an IZ? (Quito's completed this turn)

Also noticed the line that I cannot recruit great admirals. I can't find info on this in the mod description - wonder if it's Colombia's limitation, or if it's just because I don't have any coastal cities yet

One more noteworthy thing, the comandante general I got for this era can increase my trade route capacity when he retires




Not something I will be looking to do immediately (would like to at least get era score for killing a unit with him providing a bonus), but it's one of more useful retirement abilities

Speaking of killing a unit, I'm considering annexing Geneva, which is currently suzerained by Archduke (of course I forgot to take a screenshot of it, but it is the city state SW of Cartagena de Indias). Lots of pros and cons (and even more cons with the penalty to unit production), but probably the most realistic way to get the new comandante general into combat

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

I'm liking your thoughts and deeper explorations. Thanks for continuing to post!

[Jabah]

Nothing wrong with your aqueduc in loja (it would be illégal with the river for U-turn but is ok with mountain). You definitly should have harbor in costal city as they are probably discounted compared to commercial.
You need a costal city (or harbor) to be able to recrut an amiral.

[yuris125]

Thanks for this! And also thanks for the encouragement - I always hope I'm not boring people with posts about discovering things which Civ6 veterans have probably known for years

I think I'm going to get another archer (probably buy to dodge the production penalty we now have) for Machinery inspiration, then go attack Geneva. It is still sitting at 23 city strength without walls, so should be easily capturable with horsemen, and I only see 2 warriors and an archer for units. And there's no reason for my units to sit around doing nothing when I'm under no military threat

[williams482]

I'm really enjoying this thread. Fresh perspectives are interesting, and much more interesting than posting nothing.

[yuris125]

Thanks! Consistent reporting is one thing I can promise

T105

For a moment it looked like I was going to miss out on that great merchant on turn order




Pindicator has significantly more GM points than me, and he caught up to my total this turn. I actually recognised last turn that this was going to happen, and hired specialists in all 3 of the markets I managed to complete, in an attempt to counter, or at least earn more money to be able to buy the great person. But it ended up not being enough

But then I remembered that I could chop maize for money




I'm actually surprised that Pindicator didn't spend faith to ensure he gets this great merchant. I found faith to be a tricky resource to spend, unless you go full religion, with holy sites and religious buildings everywhere. Without them, the way to use it is to buy civilian units (mainly builders of course), but you need a golden age dedication in classical or medieval era. Since Pindicator didn't get one, I wonder what his plan for faith is. Personally in his shoes I would've spent it on this GM as soon as I could - but perhaps he doesn't value it as highly, or didn't realise there was a risk of losing it

Anyway, I did pay for it. Pindicator will now get the one who gives a free governor title

I also got a governor title this turn, by completing Medieval Faires. After giving it some thought, I decided it was time to appoint Pingala. My governor setup is almost certainly suboptimal - if I was playing with the knowledge I have now, I would've had Magnus sitting in Bogota with the promotion which allows to build settlers without losing pop, while Liang would've been travelling and building city parks everywhere. But with the current situation, I think I will stick with Liang sitting in the capital and boosting its tiles (this way it can painlessly regrow the pop it loses whenever it completes a settler), while Magnus will be travelling and helping with chops (so he doesn't need any more promotions). I am falling behind Archduke on science, and while I will build a campus or two in the near future, Pingala is the one who will help with science in the immediate future

Completing Medieval Faires also allowed me to place my first hacienda between two planations in Cartagena




First of many of course

This screenshot also shows my horsemen setting up an attack on Geneva, and Pindicator's newest city

Taking Geneva will greatly increase the danger of me being attacked by TheArchduke, and I am now on research path towards Machinery (crossbows) and Castles (coursers, the 2nd gen light cavalry units). For culture, I am now going towards unlocking Merchant Republic - seems like the best 2nd tier government for me, it gives 15% bonus to district construction, and I do expect to keep building districts for a while. Then on to Mercantilism for increasing the boost haciendas give to plantations and to each other

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Geneva, at least, does not appear to be building walls