Hello! Simmie here! We are ready to begin the second age of our Civ VI competition where Phil and I will take on the classical age! As we agreed upon before we will be swapping the duty of chronicling each age between us, so I'm taking care of the Classical Era and Phil will be back for the Medieval Era!
I will admit that it's been several days since we last played and both of us have to refresh ourselves over what we were doing. I have two cities settled while the Hanging Gardens should be completed in six turns. My goal is to quickly expand to four or five cities, then focus on getting a holy site up in each city (for production) followed by a campus, as well as a preserve in many cases. I want to spread my religion and shore up a golden age, so that way I can use my faith to mass-expand in the Medieval Era.
As for Phil, he needs to settle another city between his capital and his America-facing expansion to shore up the loyalty in the area, then he's going to build several builders to improve the tiles around the city. Then it's science time for Phil, and hopefully expansion onto a river to his east where he will be able to use his adjacency bonuses!
The Classical Era (Turn 59-99)
Almost immediately at the start of the era Phil suffers a flood in his capital wiping out a few of his tiles. Poor guy! At least his cattle tiles are okay and his flood tiles gained fertility.
Meanwhile I unlock my next governor tile and I will be picking Hermetic Order. As we agreed, I am allowed to do-over the turn if my lay lines are crappy. So here I go...okay, so there are five really close to my territory. I think I'm okay with this! I know this will cause people in the world to like me less because I'm the only Hermetic girl in the world, but I'm willing to suffer that.
On Turn 61 I created a salt industry, which happens to be my first industry in the world! Five food, two hammers, and two gold is really nice this early in the game.
On Turn 63 the volcano in my capital went boom finally, but it was a relatively minor disaster only affecting two tiles. Also, Phil took out a barb encampment with a scout which I thought was pretty impressive!
Phil got his government first on Turn 65. Phil elected to pick Autocracy! On the same turn I finished the Hanging Gardens!!!! Now it's time to shift my goals back to expansion.
As of Turn 71, all the world's religions have been created. Besides me, the other civs who have a religion are America, Japan, Australia, and Portugal. Thankfully that means my nearest neighbor, Korea, doesn't have a religion and therefore won't care if I expand mine to them.
Korea declared war on America; that's good news for both Phil and me because each of our neighbors will be occupied!
As of Turn 73, Phil has made friends with literally everyone in the world besides me. What a friendly guy! I still only know Korea, and they don't like me all that much.
On Turn 77, Phil and I finally met! This means Phil was the first to meet everyone in the world! We agreed to declare friendship but will keep a wary eye on one another.
On Turn 79 Phil finished his first campus, which means he's the first of either of us to finish one. I'm lagging a little but I do plan on building several once I make just one more settler from my capital.
America already has Man-at-Arms so I'm a little worried about them! Thankfully for me they're over by Phil so not really my problem right now!
As of Turn 89 the countdown has begun. This era has been flying by! I am only an era score off my golden age so I'm certain to achieve it. Phil is probably going to go normal this time around. I plan to make one more Missionary and then nothing but civilian units with faith all next era!
On Turn 90 I FINALLY get my government! My culture has been really bad so far this game! At any rate, I have selected Classical Republic.
Also, that turn I have been denounced by Korea!!! It's probably because I settled close to them multiple times. I can feel Phil's evil little brain turn, he's thinking of sic-ing Korea on me! Thankfully their military strength is literally lowest in the game so I don't really have anything to worry about.
On Turn 92 I achieved a monopoly on salt! Of course, it's going to be a little while before I can truly use it.
On Turn 95 I finally began work on my first campus! Really, really late I know, but I'm going to start building them in all my cities very soon!
America and Korea are by far the science leaders of the world. Phil and I are both going to have to work really hard to catch up!
My volcano erupted again on turn 96, this time covering all the tiles around it. Unfortunately this pillaged my holy site, so I need to pause my settler to repair it so I can get that sweet production boost!
On Turn 99 the Medieval Era starts! And would you believe it, Phil was one point short of a Normal Era! Hehe, at least he can get a heroic if he tries. He went for Free Inquiry, a natural fit for his heavy campus build.
Meanwhile, I of course got a Golden Age! I was at least 12 points over! I go Monumentality as I planned, and I plan to use my faith to buy civilian units, and my superior gold generation to buy granaries and monuments!
Stats at the end of the Ancient Era:
Phil (Wilhelmina of the Netherlands):
Cities: 4 (+1)
Citizens: 15 (+7)
Science: 20 (+13)
Techs Researched: 15 (+7)
Culture: 19 (+11)
Faith: 6 (+3)
Gold: 9 (+5)
Highest Producing City: 12 (+5)
Simmie (Jadwiga of Poland):
Cities: 5 (+3)
Citizens: 15 (+8)
Science: 22 (+13)
Techs Researched: 14 (+7)
Culture: 6 (+3)
Faith: 33 (+26)
Gold: 41 (+23)
Highest Producing City: 22 (+2)
Conclusion
This era flew by and I've been having a lot of fun! I'm amused that even with Phil's two completed campuses and one library he's still behind me in science, if just barely. My infastructure feels very thin at this point and I'm doing a risky early-investment late-reward type strategy. But I think the next two eras are going to be where I really take off.
Phil is doing pretty well for having such weak production; he intends to keep improving his cities and trying to expand to his east where there is plenty of room along the river there. Anyway, Phil will be your host for the Medieval Era, so I'll see you all when we get to the Rennaissance!