shinghand's Adventure 4

[shinghand]

First time participating in a RB adventure, so hopefully I do a good job of reporting what's going on. Can anyone tell me how to attach photos to my post - do I have to use Imgur or something similar?

I'm not very experienced with Civ 6 yet. I've played about 4 unfinished games, 3 on Prince (using Frederick) and 1 on King, using Mvemba, in preparation for this game here. In most of these games, I play up to the early industrial era where I am ahead of the AI in just about every metric. Some observations:

1. There is very little competition for the GPs produced by the theatre square district – in most of my games I claim GAs and GWs without any civs even having any of them.

2. Biggest competition appears to be for GS, from Campus districts, and for the military GPs. Divine Spark might be more beneficial for this. I’m not sure whether the +1 culture to pastures / +1 production from floodplains that focus on early growth or Divine Spark’s bonus is valuable in the long run. GMs are also moderately competitive but I had little problem getting all the GMs because I heavily prioritized commercial hub districts.

In my trial game, I had 7 cities by turn 100 or 110, 2 of which had theatre districts, and I had no competition for GWs at all.
 
3. Getting enough slots for Great Works, even with Mvemba’s 5 palace slots, is something that needs to be focused on. Specifically, Humanism needs to be prioritized on the Culture tree.
 
With this in mind, here’s my gameplan for this adventure:
1. Expand quickly in the first 50 turns, try to establish 3 cities.
 
2. Prioritize an early campus (maybe with Divine Spark), preferably in the first 50 turns too by chopping it out. The edge over other players will likely come from grabbing more Great Scientists than my peers
 
3. Ignore the military GPs. This is mainly because I’m not interested in taking a military approach for this adventure. I’m sure that taking a military approach by beating up the other civs (whether or not the military GPs are a part of it) will be a superior strategy than just remaining peaceful, but I don’t think this fits the theme of Adventure 4. Will be more fun that way J
 
4. Theatre Square districts (and Drama and Poetry civic) do NOT need to be rushed – it’s more important to grab early Campus, and more importantly, grab land. The more cities I have, the more districts I can build. This also means that I will not be bothering with the +GPP policies in favour of going for +%production for settlers, builders, etc.

As an addendum, I will say that it could be I have not played against leaders who strongly prioritize culture and therefore it might seem like there’s no competition for the theatre square GPs. And if I’m the one designing this scenario, I’m pretty sure I’d include some civs that prioritize culture to give the player a challenge. I might play a game against Greece, this time to completion, and see how the competition for the GPs are.
 
5. Make reaching Humanism a priority to EITHER unlock Art Museums, OR prioritize going for Natural History + build the Terracotta Army. I haven’t decided which is better, being able to use the Great People you have (really seems like a huge waste to just have them sit there), or to exploit Kongo’s crazy +2 food +2 production and +4 gold. These are about as powerful as trade routes, and you can have 3 of them, that’s ridiculous.

6. Wonders to be built – I will not be going most of the early wonders until the Industrial era (except maybe Terracotta army) because I intend to prioritize expanding to grab more land rather than build wonders. Especially since the AIs are rather bad at expanding and so there are large swathes of land unclaimed even when the Renaissance rolls around.

Otherwise, I will attempt to go for Ruhr Valley (extra production never hurt), and depending on circumstances attempt to get Hermitage and Bolshoi Theatre as well. If it seems like the cultural victory is slow, and the opportunity presents itself, I will go for the Cristo/Eiffel combo too.
 
7. This is more of a reminder for myself – try to grab as many boosts as possible. I tend to speed play through most of my games and so miss critical boosts. This can definitely be optimized.
 
Will be interested to see whether my approach works out after I finish playing the game!
 
As for the start, SIP seems quite weak. Maybe 2W will be better to bring stone and the hills closer to my borders. I will move the warrior first to see what lies to his west.

[MJW (ya that one)]

Can anyone tell me how to attach photos to my post - do I have to use Imgur or something similar?
 

New Post-->Add attachment-->Insert attachment into post

[shinghand]

After playing a few more SP games, I've realized a few things
1. Divine Spark is definitely worthwhile
2. It's not worth bothering with Artifacts and Terracotta Army because by the time it comes online it's too late to change much
3. Competition for GPs really depend on who is in the game. I'm undecided on whether it's worthwhile to go for early districts (for early GPs) vs. going for early expansion (more districts means more GPs in the late game).
4. For 12 CS game is very cramped for space, and extra CS really accelerates the early game if you're the first to discover them. Might not have a lot of land too

I will probably play the first 50 or so turns in the next few days. Looking forward to it

[shinghand]

I open the game and move the warrior west, to find nothing, so I decide to go with 2W as my settling location. My main reasons for 2W were
1. More hills for production in the opening
2. Brings the tile adjacent to the 2 mountains into 1st tile range, where I can set down an early campus
3. Opens up a future spot to the east to grab the cocoa and silk

I briefly considered 1W as well, but decided that having the quarry in the first ring was better than having the bananas in the first ring.
I set tech to Mining and start production on a slinger. My production plan for the capitol will be slinger, warrior, followed by builder and settler. 
For tech, I intend to go with Mining -> Pottery -> Writing, with the intention to set down an early campus.
With 12 CS on the map, I intend to do some scouting to get the juicy free envoys in the early game. I send my warrior down the western bank of the river in search of settling spots along fresh water.

T9: I pop a hut and find this

   

 This is really, really gamebreaking - grabbing an early relic from a hut provides me with +2 food + 2 production +4 gold and +4 faith.   This is going to speed up my development to a ridiculous extent. My slinger heads to the northeast and pops a hut, which grabs me a scout. Not bad, but not great. I guess they can't all be relics 

Needless to say when Code of Laws comes in I do not swap to God King, but I grab Urban Planning instead. I found my pantheon and pick Divine Spark, for the extra GPP.

After taking Code of Laws, I head down Craftsmanship, but do not finish it, as grabbing the boost for it will be trivial. I swap out of craftsmanship and pick up Foreign Trade once 50% is complete.
Research wise, I head down Writing --> Animal Husbandry --> Archery.

Meanwhile, I find Mohenjo-Daro, Yerevan, and Stockholm as city states near me. Mohenjo-Daro also gives me +2 culture (just what I needed!) for being the first to find it. Stockholm's presence in the game, particularly near the player, seems to be intentional on the mapmakers part. This is a city state that I HAVE to be the suzerain of, and my first few envoys will be going here!
In other news, we meet Spain, to the north, and Norway, to the south. I immediately send them delegations immediately - because if you don't send them on the immediately, they won't accept it due to the negative "first impressions" on higher difficulties. My guess is that the relationship bar needs to be above the halfway point in order for the AI to accept delegations. I'm not a fan of this mechanic.

T27: I complete craftsmanship as my builder completes a quarry and two mines. Having cleared almost all the barbs from the surrounding area, I decide to head into Agoge, because I intend to build 2 more slingers to field 3 upgraded archers in the future, which will be useful for the Machinery boost later. I do so also because by now, I'm used to the AI declaring on me as early as turn 25 (!) so it's better to be safe than sorry.

I finished half of craftsmanship earlier before the boost, and am 1 turn from completing foreign trade. The next civics are State Workforce --> Early Empire as after the settler finishes I will complete a 5 turn campus (completes Mohenjo-Daro's quest too!) before picking up 2 slingers. As the 2nd city is not founded yet I believe I won't pick up the boost for Early Empire so quickly.

T29: Norway plants a city right at my doorstep, his city's first ring borders my Citrus tile. It doesn't even have any good resources nearby! If I wasn't intending to play a peaceful game I might go for him... I might do so down the line. Nevertheless from experience the AI in Civ 6 is more likely to declare war if it feels the pressure to expand. This makes building the 2 slingers even more important.

I manage to plant my next city a few turns later to the west, next to the 2 rice tiles and 2 tiles north of the copper. It's a good city with plenty of potential for future mines. Unfortunately after it reaches the housing cap there are only two good tiles in its 1st ring it can work. I rush buy a builder here and begin improving both rice tiles and a mine to the west of the city. Mpinda (the 2nd city) begins on a monument as usual. I also decide to buy a tile at Mpinda in order to set down a campus district - I thought about whether it'd be worth the 65 gold, since even 65 gold is precious in the early game, but decided to because 
1. I did not want to place a campus on a first ring hill tile when I already lack good tiles at housing cap
2. I didn't think the culture would automatically take that tile anytime soon, and with Classical Era on the way, it makes sense to drop the district quickly.

After Archery has been researched, I go for Irrigation --> Bronze Working for rainforest chops (those will be needed soon), before going down the typical Apprenticeship Beeline ™. Later I will rush buy a trader in order to grab the boost for Currency.
Meanwhile, I meet Montezuma. In Civ 4, I'd be afraid of war declarations from this crazy bastard, but I have since realized every AI in Civ 6 is nuts   

After building two slingers, I have to make a choice between grabbing a builder (which I don't need) or a settler (which I really need), but I decide on a builder (+30% builder bonus) because I lack the Early Empire +50% to settler production, and I figure I'm ahead of the curve anyway since I found that relic. The objective is to hit 3 cities by Turn 50, which I think I am going to reach.

A couple of peaceful turns pass until I reach Early Empire (quick growth from the 5 food marsh rice tile). The builder pops and I get to work on the third settler. All seems well until...

T49: Spain is racing me for a settlement!

   

Well, since 1UPT is in the game, I guess it's time to stall them for 1 turn until my settler can arrive! 
I intend to settle on the plains quarry, since it's akin to a grassland mine for most of the game, and it puts all the important tiles within the 2nd ring. 
Just a little bit of builder and slinger blocking here and there and...
MISSION SUCCESS! 

T51: Montezuma declares war. I panic for a moment until I realize he's only brought 1 eagle warrior 
Classic Monty! 
Unfortunately, not expecting any aggression, I sent the warrior in my city out to explore, so I rushbuy an archer in the city. I stop here.

My civ on turn 51:

   

You can see Spain's settler and archer being forced out of my borders. Phew! If I were 1 turn too late, he'd have reached that location before me.
Also of note is the really weedy single eagle warrior trying to threaten my city. 

   

I'd also like to add that this whole "AIs declaring war on you" business is somewhat unbelievable at the moment - I have +12 with Monty, and I'm friendliest with him, and yet he declares war on me? I understand that the AI is under pressure to expand, but right now, it seems like diplo has little or no purpose at all, if someone is willing to declare war when we are friends. It's not just in this game, too, out of nowhere I get war declarations from civs that are friendly towards me. What's the point of diplo if it's not going to change anything other than triflings from trade?

Thoughts on the game so far:
1. That relic was really, really, really important for me, I don't think I could have done everything I wanted to do if not for that relic
2. I grabbed a free scout with an early hut and sent him all the way to the western coast, where I found several city states. Strangely enough even though they were half the world away from me I was the first civ to contac them! This means that there is a lot of open space to the northwest, which is where I will expand towards. This also means that I should expect very cramped starting locations for the other civs. Being a small map, we've met the Aztecs, Spain and Norway - I expect to see 2 more civs. Maybe a cultural civ? Greece? Hopefully there's no Germany, Rome or Scythia hiding in the fog!
3. We are likely on a Pangaea script - as can be seen from the size of the continent. Sullla has also (intentionally, i'm sure) located us in the centre of the pangaea. There certainly wont be any peaceful building for thousands of years in this game!
4. The great people that I can see so far are pretty crappy - 3 Eurekas in the early game really isn't a very big deal, since about 75% of them are achievable with proper planning.

[shinghand]

A quick update for my turns 50 - 150 - won't have the time to attach pictures and do a detailed report as the closing date for this adventure is coming soon.

As I open up the save, I make some initial plans for what I want to do:
1. Expand to many more cities while remaining competitive on the early GPs. So far, not much competition for the early GPs, so expanding outward might not be too difficult.
2. Long term, consider taking out Mohenjo-Daro whose usually powerful suzerain bonus is not so useful when you're in the centre of the Pangaea,
3. Scout more - I need to look for new city locations both to the east and the west.

My tech path remains unchanged, beelining Apprenticeship, whereas for civics I go for Drama, and then Mysticism since it's cheap and you get a free envoy.

Previously, Montezuma declared war on me with 1 Eagle Warrior, so I rush an archer in the city and begin looping a warrior back to defend against him. The defense goes well, as Montezuma just trickles in Eagle Warriors one at a time, with not much else.  Meanwhile, I upgrade the slingers in the capitol. An upgraded archer follows the settler which gets built in the capitol, heading up for an aggressive city plant along the northeast river.

An Envoy comes in on T61 which is put into Stockholm quickly for the suzerain bonus. The real news for the set of turns is on T64, when Norway declares a surprise war, which is actually not much of a surprise. He brings with him a decent amount of warriors and a few archers, so this won't be as easy as the war with Montezuma. I recently get peace with Montezuma, who happily gives me his entire income and gold.  Mysticism comes in this turn, so I make the swap for Agoge to churn out some military against Norway. Civics is headed for Recorded History to grab the +100% science adjacency bonus for the two campuses. I also receive my first GP of the game, a GS, who unfortunately is not very good.

Apprenticeship arrives sometime later, and the tech path goes for IW to get the UU. I notice that Sullla has not put any horses or iron near to the starting location - perhaps intending for us to not have the tools to go on an AI stomp early this game?   In Agoge, I produce several cheap warriors with the intention to upgrade them to unique swords later in Professional Armies policy.

On T71, I head towards Games and Rec --> Feudalism after Recorded History comes in, whilst heading for Wheel --> Engineering --> Machinery to unlock Aqueducts, Crossbows and Lumbermills. I find myself taking this path quite often in my games as the aqueducts and lumbermills tend to remove some soft expansion caps by increasing availability to fresh water and allowing more production in places without hills (making non hilly areas more viable).

I find Germany on T81, which means I may face some stiff competition for GEs from Frederick. That's annoying. Wonder if Sullla did this on purpose, to give us a run for our money! Thankfully he has yet to produce any Industrial Zones. On T84 Spain declares war, bringing the total war declarations to 3 for this game. This, I admit was not due to the utter insanity of the AI, but due to me forward settling him twice this game. Unfortunately for Spain I have IW and I upgrade one of the earlier Agoge Warriors to a Ngao Mbeba. I refrain from upgrading the rest until absolutely necessary (will wait for Professional Armies) On T88 I find a wandering builder from Spain near one of my cities... so I use an archer to capture it entirely guilt free. Hey, they declared on me, not the other way around - it's not my fault they were careless with their builders!

Past Feudalism, I head for Mercenaries, and after grabbing Machinery I head for Education for universities and Construction.. because it's cheap. Hildegard of Bingen is our next GS, who I can't use, since I can't build any holy sites, which seems to be an oversight on Firaxis' part - there are many city state quests (Recruit a Great Prophet!) and Eurekas, and now Hildegard of Bingen that I can't use because Kongo can't found a religion. Hildegard quickly becomes the Civilization Cheerleader™ who sits around. By now, with theatre square districts, and commercial hubs built in 5 cities, the GPs begin pouring in fast and will likely not stop until the end of the game.

In the midst of defending from all the AI attacks, Montezuma steals a settling location to the west of Mpinda next to the sea (T94), which is an unfortunate turn of events. My settler would have finished in 2 turns, and spend the next 5-7 turns to walk over. With that spot gone I begin to focus on the hill areas east of Mohenjo Daro which looks to be a real productive spot. Unfortunately the war, and the presence of Mohenjo-Daro means that I have to take a real big detour and spend about 15 turns to walk my settlers over... Speaking of Mohenjo-Daro, the crazy city state has built just about 7 archers and 5-6 other assorted swordsmen, chariots and spears, making the entire area a real pain to traverse through. Yay for 1 UPT   This however puts a crimp in the plans to take Mohenjo-Daro.

T99 and T101: Montezuma and Norway both declare war on me again, and now we have 5 war declarations in 100 turns, which seems really stupid from where I'm sitting at. Montezuma trickles in a whole bunch of outdated Eagle Warriors and archers again - it didn't work last time, so it won't work again this time, buddy. I upgrade the archer sitting in Mpinda into a Crossbow and begin training a quick Heavy Chariot to defend the Aztec front. Norway has a ridiculous number of catapults and.. not much else, so I retreat several upgraded Ngao Mbebas (I upgraded them earlier in Professional Army to try for Mohenjo Daro, but they have swarms of units... Giving up on that for now) to defend the capitol. 

Civics wise, having gotten Mercenaries, I begin heading for Merchant Republic for more trade routes (always good) and going for 6 policy slots. I actually had the choice between getting Merchant Republic and heading for guilds - for Kongo's pretty good, if late, unique district. I choose Merchant Republic, thinking that it's rather unlikely I'll find the time to build Mbanzas when I'm at war with... basically half the globe. For science, I begin teching towards the ignored military techs, Stirrups for Knights, and Military Engineering for Nitre, Gunpowder for Musketmen. On the northern front I have slowly killed off all of Spains units - he mostly threw chariots and archers at me which all got quickly crushed by Ngao Mbebas and Crossbows, so he sues for peace again. I accept. Don't come back for a second helping, Spain! Unforunately much of this fighting with Spain has left quite a few districts in the capitol pillaged, which need to be repaired.

On T112 I have killed more of Monty's Eagle Warriors and Archers and he's ready to throw in the towel. I accept peace. As Military Engineering comes in I realize we at least have Nitre, which is great. I wait for civics swaps when Merchant Republic finishes and grab Professional Army again, upgrading a Ngao Mbeba into a strength 62 Musketman with promotions, which tear through Str 28 catapults easily, no matter what terrain they're on. On T120, I get a little frustrated of all the wars and decide to bring the war into Bergen, intending to make them pay a little for their insolence   . I have no siege weapons but thankfully, my good friend Stockholm brings several catapults to the party, which quickly make short work of the walls. Two crossbows, a Ngao Mbeba and the Musket quickly slaughter all of Norways units, and I begin pillaging everything in Bergen. On T135 I have the option of capturing the city.

Hmm... As my plan is to do a peaceful game, I decide not to capture or raze the city... But just for revenge I decide to make a quick save and raze the city to satisfy my bloodthirsty desires. Next turn, T136, almost EVERYONE else - Spain, Montezuma, Germany - all denounce me for being a warmonger. What the hell, game? I've had 5 war declarations against me the entire game, and I'M the warmonger?? Something needs to be changed about this...

Anyway, I reload the game back to T135. Meanwhile, on the economic side, I begin building the the 3rd district for many of my cities. Taking a quick look at the Great People screen I realize I have very few Great Engineer points, and some competition on the Great Scientist front, so I begin to put down some Industrial Districts and Campuses wherever I can. One of the new cities (to the east of Mohenjo-Daro) builds a campus after its commercial hub and as Isaac Newton is recruited, I drop him in a fresh campus for free library, university and +2 science to all universities, wonderful! Unforunately, I'm unable to grab Galileo before Germany is able to do so. Maybe it'd have been better to spend gold on getting him rather than on builders. Debatable. 

My Tech path begins to backfill several old techs, Printing, and then starts down the beeline for Industrialization (for the juicy +1 production to mines and Ruhr Valley). Funnily enough this is the first game I've played where I have nearly all the eureka bonuses down this path - it's usually hard to grab kills with Musketmen for the Square Rigging eureka, but thanks to the many wars, I manage to do it this game. Civics wise I grab Humanism, Mercantilism and then The Enlightenment for the Art Museums (many GAs popping up that I have nowhere to put them in), Logistics (+1 movement very useful) and Triangular Trade (basically + 15gpt civwide) and the +100% science from buildings civics. I... actually forgot about guilds, but on hindsight, I think it's arguable whether the extra housing was a better decision, or whether getting Art Museums and extra science is more worthwhile. 

Since T130, Norway has been repeatedly begging me for peace, but they've also offered me peanuts. Well, they offered all they have, but all they had were peanuts.   I've been refusing their offers (don't really need peace) but they suddenly become the suzerain of Yerevan so I accept the next offer for peace. With the world finally at peace, I turn my eyes towards new cities - rushing two 5 action builders in the 2 western cities - it takes about 15 turns for me to build them in my core and walk them over, and start thinking about settling more cities to the north, west of Spain. There's quite a lot of lush land there that I have no idea why Spain hasn't bothered settling. As for the core cities, I begin dropping down Mbanzas as many of them are at the housing cap for the last 30 or so turns

Close to T150 Industrialization comes in, so I stop this playthrough. I'll look to finish this game sometime tomorrow or otherwise. Thoughts so far:
1. The housing cap was poorly managed, but I'm not sure whether it's worthwhile to prioritize guilds to grab faster Mbanzas for growth or whether the more powerful +science +culture +gold policies are more worthwhile.
2. I am pretty sure I've won by this point. My only objective here out is to grab as many great people as I can before the game is over.
3. Will be thinking about which wonders I want to build, now that I am at no risk of losing anything. Will think about this before the next playthrough
4. Look to be aggressive in planting more cities next time.
5. Not a comment about this game, but more of in general -- the mid-game Science tree is rather bare and boring once you reach Machinery - only Military techs, Universities, and Banks are really important. Astronomy, for example - it only unlocks one wonder, and not much else... There's no excitement in grabbing that tech. The entire top section of the tree is also quite ignored in this game, as Pangaeas don't really offer much in the way of sea combat/units.

Overall, it's been quite a fun game, looking forward to playing this out next!

[shinghand]

Just a quick update for this game, will post the full report soon,

Ending turn: 231
Final Count: 66 Great People.

I fully expect the TRULY dedicated to be able to break 100 great people (though I'm not sure if that many exist in the game), because
1. I wasn't expanding quickly enough during the T100-150, only ended up with 8 cities at the end of the game. Someone who had gotten, say 12 cities would probably have destroyed this number of GPs.
2. By turn 200, I really didn't bother playing the turns much, just ending turn and building whatever I felt like. But City Projects are very abusable to get even more
3. I completely ignored Great Admirals and Great Generals (except for one that I rushed with $)
4. At the end of the game, I built Big Ben and blew 15,000 gold on Great People... However I did it inefficiently, Big Ben was just an afterthought. If I didn't buy Great People here and there but waited for Big Ben, I'd probably have 40,000 gold which would have gotten me another 6-7 GPs.
5. Not milking the score until Turn 250.
6. Not giving every single city a Theatre District

Basically I just didn't bother for the last 50-80 turns of the game.

Still, pretty happy with the result! Thanks Sullla for the fantastic game, it was really fun to play. On hindsight the early aggression was helpful to not make this scenario a snoozefest.


Also:

   

This picture more or less sums up the game 

[shinghand]

Surprisingly enough, I find that 66 GP on T231 (actually T230 was the last turn, won on the interturn) is actually fairly competitive amongst the other players, especially given how all my cities were self-founded, I did not do any conquering at all, only attacking pillaging Norway once out of spite.

Having read some of the other spoiler threads, I give my opinion on why 66GP can still be achieved in a peaceful setting. (And how to get way, way more GP)
1. Emphasis on Theatre Square districts - these give 3x the number of GPP than Commercial Hubs, and 6x the number of GPPs than Industrial Zones, Campuses, etc. Even though more trade routes are usually the way to win, for this scenario, you want to get ALL THE GPs - all Theatre Squares should be built!

2. Expand early while districts are cheap. In the late game, districts are very expensive (>200 production) but they net the same amount of GPP. Whereas Libraries, Universities, Markets, Workshops, etc are always the same cost but give the same amount of GPP. This is further exacerbated by how long it takes for new cities to start up. Hence, the overall strategy should be GO WIDE EARLY, AND THEN GO TALL LATER. An extension to this point is to prioritize reaching the district cap in each city instead of building new districts in others - more mature cities have more production are can build districts more quickly. Of course, do both if you can.

3. Make the most of your land. How do you go wide early, and then go tall later? By focusing on internal development - don't leave hills unmined, woods unchopped - focus on squeezing every last bit of production from your land! Once housing caps are reached, quickly build Mbanzas to grow taller. Tech plays an important role here - knowing what you need at each stage of the game.

4. Don't compete for Great Generals. The AI prioritizes them to a ridiculous degree - why, I have no idea, but in my game I had Germany going for +15 GPP in great generals while having +2 GPP in Great Engineers the entire game. And they're the civ with Hansas! It might be better to grab GPs where you know there is no competition.

This is just my opinion on the issue, open to discussion - I welcome anyone to point out where I've went wrong in my analysis!

[timmy827]

Good to see another first timer!

Re 4:  I don't know if I agree, in my game there was not a lot of great general competition.  Over the games I've played there seems to be a lot of variance in which districts and GPP sources get prioritized by the AI (besides holy sites, those are available so early that it almost always each AI gets them at first few cities).  I don't know if this has been AI changes through the patches or just randomness in their decision factors.  

One other comment - since planting districts locks the cost in place, when going wide it really helps to grow through the early sizes, food trade routes are very useful.   And in particular harvesting a rice/cow/marsh etc can grow you from 5-7 in a blink in the lategame.  (I think I didn't do this as much as I could have in my game).
Also since adjacency bonus doesn't affect GPP, a lot of times you may want to live with just sticking them anywhere rather than a good adjacency spot (that would either cost gold to buy the tile, or hammers by waiting for culture to grab the tile and then your tech/civic multiplier has gone up).

[shinghand]

Good to see another first timer!

Re 4:  I don't know if I agree, in my game there was not a lot of great general competition.  Over the games I've played there seems to be a lot of variance in which districts and GPP sources get prioritized by the AI (besides holy sites, those are available so early that it almost always each AI gets them at first few cities).  I don't know if this has been AI changes through the patches or just randomness in their decision factors.  

One other comment - since planting districts locks the cost in place, when going wide it really helps to grow through the early sizes, food trade routes are very useful.   And in particular harvesting a rice/cow/marsh etc can grow you from 5-7 in a blink in the lategame.  (I think I didn't do this as much as I could have in my game).
Also since adjacency bonus doesn't affect GPP, a lot of times you may want to live with just sticking them anywhere rather than a good adjacency spot (that would either cost gold to buy the tile, or hammers by waiting for culture to grab the tile and then your tech/civic multiplier has gone up).

Interesting - I guess my game just happened to have stiffer competition for GGs.

I tend to notice that the AI are usually usually build more of the early districts (encampments, campuses, holy sites) but they do not build many of the later ones, industrial zones especially. Perhaps due to poor city management that makes them unable to keep up with district scaling costs?

Yea, on hindsight after reading many of the other threads I realized I didn't do a few things as well as I should have:
1. What you mentioned about district placement
2. Harvesting resources
3. Selling off excess great works to the AI - had way too many GPs anyway
4. You should always aim to build at least one encampment, somewhere - just for the eureka bonuses that come from the encampment and their associated buildings