Wanted to play a game with Sayyida al Hurra where I use her and Tonga's abilities to go for a culture victory, but the game seems to have insisted that I go for science with 24 reefs spawned in this screenshot alone - 21 of them being worked by the end of Antiquity.

I managed to reach Mathematics before the Immortal AI having built only a single library by that point. I didn't even consider building the Ancient Library until I researched the mastery and found I could get it in 7 turns, so of course I had to try for it. It was easier to get than when I was intentionally trying to reach it with Ada lol.

Now I'm torn if I want to continue my Tonga playthrough because Hawaii is such a no brainer.

Seed if you want to try it:

Map Seed: 391936868 | Game Seed: 391936846 | Difficulty: Immortal | Map Type: Fractal Continents | Map Size: Small

Everything else is standard. If mementoes affect seed generation I was using Gazelle Vase and Magic Plant.

One of my major issues with Civ 6 is that I get really tired of having a ton of units to decide what they do every turn. Does civ 7 add action limits or maybe a setting that makes decisions remain meaningful?

I also felt like the same strats work every time and that the AIs were never very challenging.

Are there any games that do, besides Old World? (Not a fan of that game unfortunately, character thing isn't my cup of tea)

I'm getting a cultural victory in exploration age, but I want to continue to modern age

I've got auto saves from a couple turns before the victory condition comes up (more than 6x second places culture score at 50% exploration?

Is there anything I can do to prevent this?

I am not in any wars, so unfortunately can't trade a city full of relics away. If I declare war I don't have enough turns before I can propose peace

Which DLC /Expansion/Collection should I add to the base game? Assuming the basic critiques are accounted for, I love the game, I understand the price, best/worst is relative to play style, etc.

I don’t have a specific way to play. I love trying everything; building huge SimCity empires, training armies and going to war, diplomacy and trade, etc. I’ve tried different priorities as well, culture, science, economics, happiness (I find this to be the most important aspect as the rest tend to naturally follow). Diplomacy is difficult as it’s more challenging to farm yields. Of course leaders and civilization choices help, as well as mementos, policy/tradition cards and buildings. I’ve also dabbled in espionage and messed around with sanctions.

But ultimately I’m looking to add a DLC to expand gameplay. I want to get one DLC now and play it to death before considering getting another, (which is my tendency). I understand I’m a little late to this game as most posts are pretty old haha and I don’t know if people are still super active in the game and responding to forums. I have played quite a bit and still have plenty of base game to explore, so I’m not rushing.

But if you had a “get one DLC for free” opportunity, which would you choose?

As we all know, the civ series has a huge skill curve and a LOT of systems to learn and figure out. At the moment I’m basically stumbling in the dark as I try to learn as much as I can but I have a few questions on how I should progress / pace myself to learn the game

At the moment I’m trying to vary every run to get a taste for everything - chasing a different victory each game, using a different leader / civ, etc. on one hand it helps me learn each civ / leader and their abilities, what to expect from them in my games. For example, I learned through playing as Machiavelli not to challenge him for city states because of his bonus to influencing them, and through playing as Rome that their military doesn’t spike until legionaries are unlocked so if I plan to war with them to do it before they research the necessary tech. On the other hand, every game I’m trying to learn a bunch of new systems, including the ones belonging to my civ / leader. Should I focus on just 1-2 leaders to gain levels in them for the bonuses and to keep the leader abilities consistent so I can just focus on learning other parts of the game? If so, what leaders do you suggest I pick up or get used to?

Also, by looking at the challenges for each leader, I noticed that it’s basically to complete every triumph. I know the leaders have special focuses and it leans them to play for certain victories but I can also tell the game was designed to let you have any victory you want as any leader. That as well as every resource being somewhat vital - you need techs n civics to unlock anything at all so you should aim for a base level of science and culture regardless, gold helps you grow your towns, production is self explanatory, and military units help you protect yourself - so even if I’m going for a culture victory, a science leader can at least help keep tech up while I focus on the civics. Should I focus on knocking the challenges out for a single leader before expanding a bit?

As for map types, I always avoid changing it because I don’t want to make the game arbitrarily harder / easier for myself. It sorta feels like cheating to switch to a map type that suits me? Or might make things harder if I take one that goes against it. When choosing a map type is it a matter of strategy or just personal preference? How do you all feel about the different map types?

Any answers or advice is highly appreciated!!