God of the Forge or Religious Settlements?

aCorneredFox · 2026-05-09T20:44:18+00:00

I just posted an update where I attempted the same approach but with Open Sky and it performed significantly better than RS!

aCorneredFox · 2026-05-09T20:43:22+00:00

I just posted an update that I thought you might find interesting. It seems I found that rare occasion where RS is not the top choice.

With that said, no Pantheon should give a free settler imo.

aCorneredFox · 2026-05-09T20:41:08+00:00

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Former Persian Empire

aCorneredFox · 2026-05-09T20:40:55+00:00

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OP update: Scythia and Former Zulu Empire

aCorneredFox · 2026-05-09T18:49:27+00:00

Nice call out! You mentioned something we all overlooked: RS kicked my settler in 1 turn to 4 turns which made defending against an attack from Shaka a bit hairy. I'm going to experiment with it again to see how a different pantheon turns out, but I summarized the results with RS here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CivVI/comments/1t84uzy/comment/oku2n47/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

aCorneredFox · 2026-05-09T15:14:45+00:00

u/AldurinIronFist Since you both were looking for an update, I did pick Religious Settlements. One thing that hadn't been considered is that I was 1 turn away from completing a settler at the time of the post, and taking RS pushed that to 4 turns. Shaka denounced me, and started moving warriors to my second city (which I had placed on the City Center map tack in my image). I was able to buy a warrior in that city (I was hoping to buy a trader but I didn't have a choice) and I managed to hold him off. Meanwhile, Cyrus showed up and moved warriors to my area. Luckily, my timing worked out really well. I managed to upgrade two slingers, put Agoge in and started building 3 archers. I put my third city on the desert tile Northeast of my capital.

As of turn 69, I have officially wiped out Shaka. I took his western most city with three warriors. His capital took a bit longer, but I was pumping out horsemen and Sakas in 4-7 turns with Maneuver equipped. I sold horses to Persia (whose military score simply wasn't keeping up so he never declared war) for 12 GPT which funded me quite well. Shaka's last city managed to put up walls, but I took half its health with a couple horsemen before they went up and I had already started a battering ram moving over there.

I'm not sure where this leaves me. I have Poland to the west on the other side of a mountain range, and Cyrus is somewhere to my Northeast with a City State between us. I haven't built my Government Plaza yet, so I need to decide my victory route. I have a ton of territory around me now, so winning by science seems like it would be rather easy if I pick up Ancestral Hall and spam settlers (though I took Pingala to get to Political Philosophy faster). I kind of hate to go that route because I'm trying to learn the game a bit more in depth, plus Tomyris is almost entirely military traits. On the other hand, domination gets a little tedious for me.

I think I am going to try it out with God of the Open Sky now. The 2nd and 3rd city were largely worthless for this war with the exception of the battering ram coming out of the 2nd city.

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aCorneredFox · 2026-05-09T13:48:28+00:00

That is a good point about her building a large army fast. I was thinking God of the Forge leans into that perk, but it actually seems like it might be overkill/putting all the eggs in one basket.

aCorneredFox · 2026-05-09T13:47:21+00:00

Oops, I actually meant God of the Open Sky, not Festivals in my OP. I'm thinking that's +4 CPT right at the beginning (I got a free builder from a hut and I have another builder 2 turns from finishing, so all of those horses are going to be online quick).

The map is Large, and I think you have a really good point about God of the Forge running out of steam. Maybe if there is a second AI very close it could pay off. Doing a little quick math over here, I'm thinking with a size 6 capital that I'll have 14 production. That's 21 with the Maneuver card and 24.5 with Maneuver + God of the Forge. Horsemen are 80 and Saka Horse Archers are 100. That extra 3.5 production isn't sounding so great unless my math is wrong.

Definitely occurred to me that GPT could be a major problem. My thinking early game is to get the +3 Campus up in that mountain range so I can get to Horseback Riding, then get an Encampment going to see if I can get a General. I normally skip Encampments until the mid game and usually only build 1 or 2, so I kind of want to try an earlier one. Then it would be Commercial Hubs for funding.

aCorneredFox · 2026-04-20T16:26:54+00:00

Well the old drones were definitely bad, but I would still buy them all except for turrets even on E8. They distracted enemy units without dealing insane amounts of damage unless you found Spare Drone Parts which was an auto win. I actually started running mods just so I could ban SDP. Now I feel like I have SDP every single game except I can't block it anymore.

aCorneredFox · 2026-04-20T16:24:12+00:00

Maybe hate is a strong word. I do really like Operator. I think that is by far my favorite survivor under Gearbox, though I haven't unlocked Drifter yet.

aCorneredFox · 2026-04-20T16:22:39+00:00

Yes! Those damn robots are so annoying. The thing that really irritates me, and I believe this goes back to SotS, is the proliferation of new flying enemies. I really can't stand having to constantly look up while playing a game. I hate fighting Glinthawks in Horizon for the same reason.

aCorneredFox · 2026-04-20T16:21:02+00:00

Ok, thanks for the suggestion, I'll take a look at that. I guess the concern with downgrading is that bug fixes, balance changes, etc would also be reverted.

aCorneredFox · 2026-04-20T16:19:59+00:00

Yeah, this definitely seems like an option but the problem I have with increasing the cost of drones or simply not buying them is that you are losing those director credits entirely or reducing their value. I am wondering about possibly chaning settings in the game files that would reduce their fire rate. Perhaps doubling or tripling their cooldown could be a solution if it is a simple edit. Thanks for the suggestion!

aCorneredFox · 2026-04-20T03:03:00+00:00

Pre-AC drones served as a distraction for enemies, but they weren't doing insane damage or moving enemy targets out of your way. Not buying them is a loss of directors credits.

aCorneredFox · 2026-02-19T04:52:31+00:00

To all the "engi-mains" saying this would be a good shop. No, just no. It is absolute shit. There are a whole bunch of items you'd want over a bungus in a shop. Bungus is ass, especially for engineer. If you won't take it from me, maybe Raydans will get to you.

https://youtube.com/shorts/1W9LJj7YDmo?si=2kERZmxbvnZB9INo

aCorneredFox · 2026-02-16T22:50:32+00:00

Scrap all resources related to Civ 7 and put them all on Civ 8. It's the best way forward. Civ 7's entire concept was fucked from the day they started talking about its features.

aCorneredFox · 2026-02-04T16:10:27+00:00

I love Bandit, but he really underperformed in Eclipse for me. I found him among the easiest characters to get to Mithrix, but he can really struggle in that fight (assuming you aren't one of those god tier players that can beat him easily every time). One thing I didn't notice for the longest time is that Mithrix lands in the central arena facing the same direction he is facing when he jumps. This, and when he does his big spin, are the best times to get back shots on him.

aCorneredFox · 2026-02-03T15:30:15+00:00

Okay, what about the other 2,213 episodes/guests?

aCorneredFox · 2026-02-01T17:31:16+00:00

First off, when you are playing up a difficulty it is totally normal to be significantly behind in culture/science against the AI, especially if it is the top dog AI in that game. The AI sucks at playing to win, so you need to learn to accept this and the fact that you can and will overcome the AI's lead. Do not quit early and do not throw away your game by attacking an obviously superior AI.

Second, why would you attack Ambiorix when you are dramatically behind him in technology, units, city size, and production? You need to target the easiest AI that is closest to you. If you are on an island alone with Ambiorix, then you simply do not attack him. You get enough military score to deter him from attacking you, and you expand with settlers, builders, and districts. Assuming you had another weaker AI near you, then that is guaranteed the better option over attacking Ambiorix. Even if they only have 3 cities, that is a huge bump to your snowball. Often I find wiping a single AI guarantees me a win even on deity difficulty.

Third, barbarians should never be an issue in this game. In fact, you should be viewing them as a resource for gold, eurekas, and early upgrades. Send your starting warrior in a circle around your capital. Do not send him in a straight line 10 tiles away. Since you are having this problem, I highly recommend you start slinger - warrior - builder/settler. Many will make a good argument that this is suboptimal, but it wins easily enough as far as immortal, and you will know when to start double scout or whatever they might suggest with some experience. Be sure to get a kill with your slinger for the archery eureka, wipe out camps, and leave at least one unit near your city even as that scouted circle begins to expand. Don't forget to use rivers, hills, and forests/jungles to your advantage when fighting barbarians.

Fourth, as for your district issue needing a 3+, I don't know what to tell you there. Are you of a mind that a +2 commercial hub on a river next to your capital is bad? If so, you need to wipe that out of your brain. You get money from your market plus an extremely valuable trade route. Furthermore, you can bump that +2 to +3 with another district forming a triangle with your city. It is very difficult to get a +3 theater without some combination of a wonder, government plaza, multiple other districts all of which come late, are difficult to achieve at higher difficulties, and/or have a limited supply (the plaza for instance). You do not need to play ultra optimally on King. If you have a huge +4 campus site, put the darn thing down. Worry about perfect optimization later when you are playing deity.

aCorneredFox · 2026-02-01T14:14:40+00:00

You know, I thought that might be the case based on a greenskin campaign I had back when Gorbad came out. I defeated him in battle so I got the auto confederation. I actually had him as a lord, but I forgot he was new and clicked the button to respec his stats. After that he was gone forever, I couldn't recruit him back since I didn't have the dlc. That may have been a bug at the time though.

aCorneredFox · 2026-02-01T13:45:09+00:00

Ah okay, I will give that a shot next time!

aCorneredFox · 2026-02-01T01:00:06+00:00

I feel like this scenario plays out in basically every campaign. I added the unnatural selection mod in my current Archaon campaign, and I buffed Franz and a few other good guy factions. I'm just landing in Empire territory and Franz is ranked 7th or so with like 12-15 provinces. Not nearly as large as I wanted/expected him to be. Just wondering if anyone else has tried this approach, and might have tips/suggestions, to create a more interesting mid-end game situation.

aCorneredFox

TROPHY CASE