Hello, Simmie here once again to bring you the Rennaissance Era of our ongoing Civilization VI game! I'm thrilled with the way this game is going, I totally think I'm winning, and I'm eager to be all smug about it when I'm up 2-0, hehe!
Anyway, as I said I am in a Golden Age again and I have got Monumentality for a second time. I have only five more cities to settle; I have two settlers out on the map and three more to buy, giving me an empire size of 20 cities, which is quite massive, especially for this early in the game! I'll have the rest of the era to use my faith to buy workers and hopefully some traders. The way my religion is set up I get literally no benefit from expanding it beyond my borders unless I intend on invading someone, so I'm probably not going to really bother with it.
As for Phil, he's not doing bad, but his growth is very slow compared to mine. He doesn't receive nearly as much benefit from tundra and that's pretty much all he has left to grow into, though there is one other river he could possibly exploit. He intends to focus mainly on science and production in the cities he's already founded and possibly expand slowly throughout the age. As for me, I really need to focus on gold as these cities are going to need help developing! But in my main cities I will be focusing on science and production
The Rennaissance Era (Turn 139-)
Phil started off the era by putting down several tacks for expansion he actually did locate one spot near Korea that was on a river near several resources, even if it was in the tundra. A reminder that as the Dutch he gets adjacencies for districts on rivers.
I started my era by making a bunch of trade deals! As you might imagine, a large empire means a lot of luxuries I can see. But Phils is being annoying; he knows my larger empire needs more goods and he as one I want but is demanding TWO of mine for it. I reluctantly agreed, but I'll get him back for this!
On Turn 144 Phil unlocked spies. I think he's going to go much harder on spying than he did last game. Maybe I should be worried! On the same turn I finally finished my first commercial hub and realized I have my unique Polish building: the Sukiennice! That should help my trade situation quite a bit!
Speaking of unique buildings, Phil realized he can now build his polders! For some reason he didn't think he'd unlock them until the industrial for some reason.
On Turn 147 a massive Hurricane started to blow on shore in one of Phil's cities. If it blows further inland it could be massively damaging! Luckily for him it petered out shortly after it got ashore.
I love when things like this happens: Broke Australia was willing to give me a great work in exchange for extra resources I don' need. I made the deal, then turned around to sell it to Portugal for gold!
On Turn 148 I gained the ability to make alliances, so I formed an Economic alliance with Dido and a Cultural alliance with Teddy! I didn't want to give Teddy a scientific alliance as his science is already ridiculously high, but I'd like to make a research alliance with someone else when I can. Also, I just realized I've never actually met Japan.
And it just so happened that on Turn 150 I did meet Japan! Now I really do know everyone! Phil met everyone like 3 eras ago. But speaking of Phil, he's having major production woes. He's really going to have to ramp that up if he wants to be competitive in science victory!
Some of my cities are producing so fast that they run out of things to work on. Thankfully there are city projects they can do! Any city project is going to come back to help me later with ley lines, because great people earned increase yields on them starting in the Industrial Age!
I've begun work on Potala Palace in my capital! That will give it something cool to do for about 22 turns!
On Turn 158 a huge haboob dust storm appeared over one of Phil's cities. It if blows north or east it could really mess him up, but if it goes south it's going to hit America. Hopefully it does that; America has twice my science! As it turned out it mostly just blew west over open desert.
On Turn 159 a solar flare took place across the world! These are an apocalypse mode only disaster and they usually don't happen until Armageddon, but they do rarely happen earlier. It pretty much just pillages Industrial Zones and some Campuses across the world. It is amusing to see America's science dip from 180 to 72 in a singe turn, but all you have to do is repair them and you're right back to where you were.
On Turn 161 somebody neutralized my governor in my capital! I don't know who it was (it wasn't Phil) but I really have to get a spy in there for counter-spying reasons. Sadly I don't have spies unlocked yet and probably won't for a little while.
Gonna go ahead and build Ankor Wat in one of my other high producing cities, why not?
Poor Phil, he's getting walloped by a haboob! Although to be fair, he was the one who wanted to play Apocalypse mode, so all these storms are his fault!
On Turn 163 I finally settled my last city--well, that is unless I find an island or something. Kind of crazy how I filled in the entirety of the vast land I had around my start location!
Oh gosh, as soon as the one haboob ended another formed just to the south hitting both Phil and Teddy. So much damage! Thankfully this one seems to be moving away from him. But I shouldn't gloat too soon--a tornado outbreak hit my southern cities!
As of Turn 165 I have a caravel ready to explore the open ocean! As we're on a Pangea I doubt there will be much out there, but who knows? Incidentally Phil gained the ability to enter the open ocean a turn later but it will be a hot minute before he's able to take advantage of it.
On Turn 168 I recruited my first Great Engineer! This one gives me three culture per workshop which is going to be a huge boost to my culture, the one thing that's been lagging this whole game.
On Turn 169 Phil unlocked Merchant Republic, beating me to getting a Tier 2 government by one turn. Also, the countdown is on so the era ends in 10 turns. Phil is almost certain to get another normal age. As for me, my chain of golden ages is most likely going to end and I'll probably end up in a dark age. It's really not a big deal as these two golden ages have set me so far ahead!
On Turn 171 I completed the world's first circumnavigation! That's five era score for me, which puts me only five out from a normal age. I might be free from a dark age yet!
And now on Turn 174 Phil gets hammered by a blizzard! He's really been a magnet for disasters lately! Thankfully Liang is saving the day in his capital!
On Turn 175 I finished Ankor Wat! Now it's time to work on the Intelligence Agency and get some spies going!
On Turn 178 Phil had his first successful spy operation, and that enabled him to get the "Disrupt Rocketry" promotion, a big deal in our science victory race! Also, I finished Potala Palace causing me to secure a normal age! When the countdown started I was 15 points away so this is quite the achievement in catch-up! And now that the era is ending, I'm dumping my excess faith into builders so I won't have to make any for a while now that my Monumentality buff is going away.
And on Turn 179 the Industrial Era arrives! Phil has secured a normal age like expected, and he has chosen Heartbeat of Steam. I also have a normal age but I have selected Reform the Coinage, as I already have 7 active trade routes and am making more with every few turns! I must also point out that now it's the Industrial Era I can upgrade my secret society with the governor promotion I've been saving up! That means every Ley Line in my empire now gives me an extra 1 faith, 1 production, and 3 gold! Those yields will only increase as I keep recruiting new great people!
Stats at the end of the Rennaissance Era:
Phil (Wilhelmina of the Netherlands):
Cities: 9 (+2)
Citizens: 58 (+27)
Science: 96 (+34)
Techs Researched: 30 (+6)
Culture: 53 (+13)
Faith: 14 (+2)
Gold: 127 (+74)
Highest Producing City: 24 (+8)
Simmie (Jadwiga of Poland):
Cities: 17 (+5)
Citizens: 144 (+97)
Science: 140 (+73)
Techs Researched: 33 (+11)
Culture: 83 (+59)
Faith: 287 (+128)
Gold: 311 (+270)
Highest Producing City: 54 (+15)
Conclusion
Well, I have to say that once more I am absolutely decimating my poor husband in this game of Civ! I hate to say it, because he really is trying, but my advantages are just too great at this point. Any straws he was grasping onto have slipped between his fingers now.
It's very likely he's going to give up and submit to being my vassal once again. But we've agreed that we will compete for one more era. There's still a chance Phil can turn things around in the Industrial Era! Actually...there isn't really, but I'm being polite, and I do want to see how far he'll get!
Anyway, it's Phil's turn to host next, so you'll get to hear him talk about how far behind he is and living vicariously through my accomplishments! I'll be back in the Modern Era, and daresay probably every era after that too until the game is complete.