THE GREAT TOURIST INVASION

[Bliss]

This was my second civ6 game, I have played virtually no civ5 apart for a couple of weeks when it was released, so I am coming from civ4 which I played for years in multiplayer.  

In both my previous and this civ6 game I realized two things, I really like what they've done with Civ6 and Prince level is easy    

In this game as Kongo I ended up winning a cultural (tourism?) victory in 1605 AD (turn 232). I did not start aiming for a cultural victory, in fact I don't think I have ever won a cultural victory in a game of civilization! 

However the way things unfolded it became evident that it would be the easiest path to victory. 

I learned a lot in this game, especially around the way tourism works and how to optimize for a cultural victory and I will try to share all this.


The first 50 turns

Turn 1
I settled in place, saw no reason to move and the start is really good as it has hammers, food and luxury. 

Teched Mining first as there were 2 mining resources to improve and went scout-builder. In this level (prince) I don't see any reason to go for anything else than builder after your scout. Scout out first seems essential to explore, find goodies but also very important to be the first to discover city states to get the first envoy with them. This first free envoy helps massively your start but also the game overall as we will see further on.

   

Turn 13
My scouting warrior finds an injured barb camp (from city state warriors) and clears it for a nice Inspiration boost and some cash! I am meanwhile researching animal husbandry for no reason whatsoever!

   

Turn 40

My first settler is in place to settle my second city. My build order was scout-builder-warrior-warrior-settler. I had some barb issues to the south that is why I had to do a second warrior before settler just to be safe.

I chose the river/coast location in the east to settle as I want the luxury.

Meanwhile I have 581 gold in the bank and I start to think of the best way to use them. I decide in buying a water mill in my capital which will give me 3 food and 1 production.

   

Turn 47

It is time to found my pantheon. I choose the one that give culture for every luxury as there are a lot of luxuries on the map. I am not thinking cultural victory yet, just a nice way to expand my borders.

   

[Bliss]

Turns 50 - 90

Turn 56

I now have 3 cities. Settled my third city to the west to get access to the horse resource. 

In the meantime my warrior travelling south has found America. My land south of the capital is not that good, mostly desert, so I decide I will settle my fourh city way south in that nice river spot with 2 horses, to block America from expanding and get a foothold in that area. 

   

Turn 60

I build my first trader and start a route to the capital. On a hindsight I think I totally messed my my trade route plan in this game since I did not establish any foreign trade routes until way late in the game. My capital trade route will bring 1food and 1hammer which is quite nice. Hammers are scarce in Civ6 so at this point in the game an extra hammer might be better than some extra gold from foreign route, which would take way more turns to complete anyway. 

Regarding civics - I have been running urban planning from the start for that extra hammer in cities. I find it way stronger than god king, unless you focus on religion. In military I use one civic for bonus production on units and one to reduce my maintenance costs. For great people I used the scientist one to get some tech boost eventually. 

Government - I beelined autocracy and run it for most part of the game for the capital bonus mainly. I only made 1 gov switch the whole game. To be honest I found most government bonuses irrelevant in my game.

   

   

Turns 60-81

I settled my south city close to America and found Egypt and Rome expanding towards there. What a nice opportunity to gain more cities. I went military production and send units south preparing for war.

Meanwhile all the ai's hate me. I get constant threats from everyone and then the odd praise in between for keeping my people happy...

Turn 82 - 90

War time - I declare on Egypt. My ancient units make easy work of Cleopatra's first city. She has 2 cities (amazing after 80 turns...). I take the first in 5 turns and start to head for the second one.

At this point I am thinking to go for a conquest victory, cultural victory has not even crossed my mind yet. 

   

   

[Bliss]

Turns 90 - 100

Turn 91 

I get my first great person. It is a scientist that boosts 3 techs, how nice! Meanwhile my troops position to take cleopatra's second and last city.

   

Turn 99

Cleopatra is dead and I now have 6 cities

   

Tech wise I decide to go for knights. I am still thinking conquest at this point and Rome who is in the neighbourhood is the next target. 
What I did not realise at the time is that I only have one iron resource, so I cannot build knights in any city as I do not have barracks anywhere. 

   

I also get my first great writer this turn, a result of a two theatre districts I build in my capital & my second city. I decided to go theatre to get the culture as tech seemed not to be a problem with all these inspirations. Little did I know that these 2 theatre districts (which got adjutancy bonuses form each other as well would put me on the path to cultural victory. 

   

Turn 100

I use my writer to create my first great work. Seeing this glorious screen of great works makes me start wondering how cultural victory works, could it be possible? In the meantime I start moving my troops to conquer Rome as well which is only a few tiles away, how convenient. 

   

[Bliss]

Turns 100 - 110

I start my war with Rome. Rome has only 3 cities and is also surprisingly super weak in military. It takes only 6 turns to capture the first 2 cities. 

And there you have it, Turn 105 I have 8 cities. And for all that I only build 7 units 3 archers & 2 warriors  & 2 chariots and upgraded 2 warriors to swords.

I had not realised that Kongo UU did not require iron so I delayed teching iron working alot since I did not have iron early. 

   

Meanwhile Japan is leading in cultural victory and is actually looking like the most advanced civ with 5-6 cities already. Japan borders are about 10 tiles east from the last Rome city I took so it becomes my next target after I finish off Rome

   

Turn 114

Rome is gone, I now have 9 cities and 2 civs eliminated. Japan is next 

   

Turn 115

I start realising how important city state benefits are. The per envoy benefits are really good but the suzerain bonuses are huge. From some i got tech inpirations, form others free amenities (happiness) and also that prevented the ai from using their units against me when I started wars. I also could have used their units by paying the I realised later which I did not do.

   

Turn 119

I make my first foreign routes but decide to do them towards city states which provide some nice bonuses instead of other civs. Not sure if that decision was wrong or right, it gave me some immediate benefits but I am not sure what effect it had towards my culture victory. Maybe if I had foreign civ routes earlier I would get more tourists? It is not very clear but will talk about it more in the culture victory analysis at the end.

Meanwhile barbs spawn near my capital and I have to focus some attention there. Barbs are a real issue in civ6 throughout the game and seem to have fast tech progress as well!

   

[Bliss]

Turns 120 -130

Having completed 3 theatre districts and 3 amphitheaters in my original 3 cities, I start getting and influx of great writers and artists. Actually soon I would realise that I am getting much more than I have spaces for great works. The last 80-90 turns of the game I would have lots of great people sitting around not being able to use them. Had I realised that earlier I would have build more buildings that give slots for their works and most probably would have accelerated cultural victory.

   

Meanwhile my troops are moving east into position to take on Japan

   

I also now started to lead in the culture victory screen as the sudden accumulation of great works has started to attract tourism.

   

Turn 140

I make my first government change (and only in the game). I switch to merchant republic to get the extra trade routes and the bonus envoys to city states. I somehow think that this is the only government that can accelerate my culture victory through the extra trade routes bringing more tourists.

I also make some civic changes - unit production bonuses for military - Trade route and theatre district bonuses for economy - City state influence points for diplomacy and finally start some points towards my first great engineer. 
I realised later that great engineers can hugely accelerate cultural victory through rushing key wonders that can hold great works. Had I realised earlier I would have beelined using this wild card policy. The other way to get great engineer points is to build the production district but I think the theatre districts are a priority for cultural victory. At this point I also start appreciating the great people system in civ6, where there is no "pollution" with unwanted types of great people and you know what you will get, compared to civ4 where there was almost always a luck factor.

Also, somewhere in between turn 130-140 I also capture 2 Japanese cities. There is a choke point in the map separating Japan & Arabia from the rest of the world and these 2 cities were on this choke point. This make the rest of the game easier as I can just fortify the choke point city and forget about them 2 for the rest of the game.

   

Turn 141

I now have my first 2 world wonders. I build pyramids in my fourth city which had a desert tile (It took a great time to build) and Great Library in capital for the 2 great work slots it provides.

Another thing worth mentioning perhaps is that I have been using my gold almost exclusively for purchasing buildings in cities. Mostly monuments in new/conquered cities but also a few water mills. I think avoiding to spend your gold on unit upgrades as much as possible and boosting your cities is a nice way to get ahead. Especially so since production is an issue and these improvements take many turns to build so through buying them you grow your city quicker to make it productive much faster.

   

[Bliss]

Turns 140 -145

I get my first apostle and spread the religion more. I actually have no idea how religion bonuses work and I don't think it would make much difference in this game anyway. I will investigate all that in another game.

   

I have now decided to stop all waring and see how fast I can win cultural victory. I have 11 cities and I am getting more great people that I can use so I need to accelerate buildings that can hold great works. So I make peace with Japan for a nice offer they gave me. Ai seems to offer alot for peace, I cannot recall them being this generous in Civ4.

Also another thing I notice is that all this time the war wearing penalties did not have much impact on me. Maybe I had too many happy resources but I started 3 surprise wars and did not get any negatives form it, apart from everyone hating me which they already did anyway before I started wars.

Turn 147

I now have 9 great works, what a joy! I think I enjoy getting these more than winning wars 

   

Turn 151

Victory screen says I have 5/26 tourists needed to win. Apparently the number needed will go up depending on how much internal tourism the other next best civ gets. Another reason it becomes super important to control the cultural city states as culture generates internal tourism I found out.

   

Turn 152

I cannot believe how many great writers and artists I am getting, my great work slots are now all full and I realise that it will take a long time until I build any new buildings/wonders that have slots! This is when I start understanding how much advanced planning matters in civ6.

   

[Ituralde]

Thanks for your report thus far. I'm at turn 150 also and thought I was doing well in science, if not in culture. Looking at your numbers it seems I was wrong. Those early wars really paid off for you.

Also 46 culture from the Great Works alone, interesting how that mechanic feeds back into itself.

[Bliss]

Thanks for your report thus far. I'm at turn 150 also and thought I was doing well in science, if not in culture. Looking at your numbers it seems I was wrong. Those early wars really paid off for you.

Also 46 culture from the Great Works alone, interesting how that mechanic feeds back into itself.

Thanks, I plan to finish this report soon, I think early wars are pretty much mandatory in civ6 no matter what difficulty and what win you are playing for, you get your cities and space and then plan what to do further.

[Bliss]

Turn 162
When I though this was going to be just a click enter to win, the Americans decide to declare war. It turned out to be a naval invasion to my third city next to my capital area instead of the south border I was sharing with them. It was not going to be any major threat but still it put me back as I had to make units and spend resources on defence. They also had some naval units which I didn't which made the defence more difficult as they would instantly kill any of anyy units that embarked on sea (if for example after killing on of theirs from shore).

   

This is how my capital looked at the time

   

Turn 169

I get a great merchant which grands me a luxury resource for some much needed happiness.

   

Turn 172

The war is still on, meanwhile I am suzeirian of almost every City state, gaining significant benefits

   

This is my civics situation at this turn

   

[Bliss]

Turn 183

The war is over with no city casualties from either side and I begin my enter to win again. I am facing some happiness issues, at the time I played game I was totally clueless of what the threat is (barb uprise is serious stuff) and also what I can do to handle it so I did nothing and I guess I got lucky to have no uprising.

   

Turn 190

I finally finish my Archeology museum! This should have been a priority from earlier on but I totally forgot they existed or what they do.

   

Turn 200

I get a great engineer which come just in time to finish a key wonder (Bolsoi Theater) that gave me more space for great works.

   

Turn 201 update of how my cities look.