Hi everyone and welcome to the TSG22 After Action Report thread. In this thread you can post the results of your game. Please state victory date and score (preferably in the post title), as recorded in the Hall of Fame, and the most important: your path to glory!

Please use the Civ5 game submission page (http://gotm.civfanatics.net/submit/c5-gotm.php) to submit your final, first play through, .Civ5Save file, saved AFTER the victory ceremony if you were not conquered (using the "Lemme play one more turn" feature.).

Players are encouraged to provide feedback on the game. Some players like to replay the game, and although we will not record the results from a replay, you can still post your new experiences (please state if the game is a replay).

Would be interested to hear any thoughts on game setup. :)

Turn 294. Culture. Me.

Turn 326. Culture. Score of 1655. Pretty much had to defend from Russia 3/4 of the game and the last 70 turns was a 3 front war. Thank god I returned a worker to Bizmark early on and he was DoF with me the whole game or I was done.

Ok basically I went barb hunting the first 100 turns of the game so my policy's were:
Tradition opener - Honour opener- aristocracy - obligatory - Into Piety- Finished piety then back to finish tradition - then finished freedom and started commerce back to honor for the win.

tech path was Potter-writing- philo-calander-mining-AH-Wheel(for floating gardens)--to theology- then pretty much went for education and acoustics.

went Monu-scout-worker-gran-library-got oracle around turn 60-started on my settler-settled second city 4 tiles directly south on the river.

ended up getting all the major wonders HG turn 109 PT 110. got delayed on my third city cuz of war with russia (she DoW'd me on turn 73 lasted till 100). Finally got my 3rd city down by mt. fuji on turn 142. wish i could upload ss's but Civ5 Crashes on my comp everytime i try to get one.

Woulda finished game around 300 turns but had to focus on military and slowed my SOH. took my cap 22 turns to hard build utopia.

First time playing a GoTM. Fun times.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 22
Date submitted: 2011-10-16
Reference number: 25016
Your name: Monthar
Your email:
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1912AD
Turns played: 332
Base score: 1952
Final score: 2957
Time played: 7:34:00
Submitted save: TSG22_Cultural_Win_T332.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Monthar_C502201.Civ5Save

I started off well, then slowed down a bit. I think if I'd finished Freedom a lot sooner I could have shaved some turns off with another settles artist or two and having their structures producing more.

I only settled a 2nd city to the SW along the river, but not on the lake. It ended up being a production powerhouse thanks to the 2 iron deposits in its borders.

My first war was when I DoW'd China while Russia was attacking them. Out of the many wars I only DoW'd one other time against Japan and that was only because France asked me to after Japan denounced me at the end of our 3rd protection pact.

The wars weren't an issue because in the beginning I traded all my lux and even gpt if need be to buy a bunch of Jaguars. Later so I could upgrade them. When I saw a a build-up of troops near my borders I traded gpt for all the cash I could get out of that nation and used it to either ally another CS, upgrade troops or buy more troops. This typically resulted in the aggressor giving me a sweet deal for peace a few turns after their DoW. EDIT: Several times it prevented the DoW when they saw the suddenly increased military.

I did end up capturing a lot of the American cities including Washington when they DoW'd after I had a bunch of LSMs (upgraded from Jags). In the last war with Japan I pushed through to their capital mainly to take the GW from them.

I built most of the wonders. Of all those I started building China was the only one to beat me to finishing and that was on the Louvre. They beat me to it by 6 turns.

I did not sign any RAs this game, mainly because I expected the other nations would break them to DoW.

Turn 326. Culture. Score of 1655. <snip>

First time playing a GoTM. Fun times.
Welcome to GOTM and congrats on your win. :thumbsup:

I ended up only having the first fifty or so turns in peace, fought defensive wars against Russia, China, Japan, Germany and France all the game. Brought me a lot of nice culture through kills. Made a few mistakes though, biggest one was an accidental unit movement which cost me my fourth city on turn 305. Managed to mount a counter offensive(at great loss of units though) and take it back two turns before my victory. China was on military tech pararity with me that war, artillery vs artillery.
I bulbed the last six techs to Sidney, most of the important stuff is in the progress thread, after that it was mostly straight towards Sidney tech wise and defending my lands.

One thing I did learn however, is that my capability to wage war(safe unit movement) is severely hampered by fever. I think I might try this again when I am back to health see what difference it makes(apart from now having map knowledge ofc)

Finally! A game where my starting units didn't die to random barbarians. ;)



Initial build order was something like this:

Jaguar -> Monument -> Granary -> Jaguar -> Great Library -> Jaguar -> Floating Garden -> Hanging Gardens -> National College -> The Oracle



Initial policy order was something like this:

Tradition -> Aristocracy -> Honor -> Legalism (For temple) -> Landed Elite -> Monarchy -> Oligarchy -> Piety



Initial technology order was something like this:

Pottery -> Writing -> Calendar -> Animal Husbandry -> Philosophy (From great library) -> The Wheel -> Archery -> Mathematics

Progress at turn 100:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v28/nthexwn/Unsorted/TSG22_Turn100.jpg

The name of the game was FOOD, and there was LOTS of it! At the end of the game Tenochtitlan was sitting at 45 population, which felt completely absurd considering the initial start was on plains. Here's the progress from turn 215 (note the +78.45 food per turn):
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v28/nthexwn/Unsorted/TSG22_Food.jpg

After I got my warmonger on and puppeted the entire map, the culture started flowing in from all over the place. No founding, annexing, or razing was done. :)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v28/nthexwn/Unsorted/TSG22_Victory.jpg

Hoping for another deity game soon, and crossing my fingers for better starting luck!

Hi, long time lurker, first time poster.

Was a fun game, Monty is one of my favourite leaders. Went Tradition > Liberty start, getting a second settler after the liberty settler for a fast 3 cities and 7 wines for selling. Went monument > worker > floating gardens > jaguar > hanging gardens > GL > NC. Missed out on Oracle which hurt in the long run. Didn't sign a single RA but was easily ahead on tech for the entire game, instead spent money on cultural CSs and rush-buying culture buildings. Used legalism for Opera Houses after completing Piety and Liberty. Settled a total of 11 GAs in the capital and also popped 4 GS (1 from PT) and 2 GEs (1 from liberty, 1 from HS).

AI's were complete sociopaths, which was no bad thing. Selling them stuff, having them DOW a few turns later then surrender meekly for nice peace deals 10 turns later got me more gold than I knew what to do with. Took a couple of American cities off Napoleon early (puppeted), and slapped Russia and China around late game with Mechs (including 1 beastly Jaguar-Mech).

Where I could do better: Perhaps staying at 1 city - even with the liberty policy having those 2 extra cities hurt. Missing the Oracle also sucked. Finally I missed the timing for legalism by 1 turn, having to wait an extra 10 or so turns for Operas/Hermitage wasn't good.

Decided to stick with a single city and ended with Tenochtitlan at size 46. Managed to build the important cultural wonders - Stonehenge, Oracle, Hanging Gardens, Sistine Chapel and the Louvre. Also added Colossus, Hagia Sophia and Kremlin. Missed Notre Dame by one turn. I became allied to all the cultural states and two Maritime ones and remained allied with them all until the end. Interestingly, there was not much competition from the AIs for city state allies, which I find unusual. They must have used their money for other things.

Remained friends with Washington for the whole game and with Catherine for most of it, although she did declare on me about 10 turns from the end. A futile move on her part since I had Artillery and Infantry by then. Bismark, Elizabeth and Napoleon swung wildly between Friendly and Hostile, but we never went to war.

Hi, long time lurker, first time poster.
Welcome to GoTM and nice to see you become an active CivFanatic. :goodjob:

Congrats on your win. :high5:

Game: Civ5 GOTM 22
Date submitted: 2011-10-17
Your name: Aaronius
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1924AD
Turns played: 344
Base score: 3630
Final score: 5338
Time played: 9:26:00


Settled in place. I originally wanted to stay peaceful in this game but didn't quite do it. I built a large empire so I knew this would be no record setting win.



The proximity of Wash and especially Cathy did not bode well. Also, the nearby locations for city sites were saaaweeet; so I went large. I built a total of four more cities; one to the east to get iron and wine, one to the south on the river lake tile with wheat iron and gems, one to the SW near Fujisama, and one on the isthmus far to the west to get the gold whales and horses and possible sea access.

Since the latest patch my understanding has been that culture victories can be equally fast with one city and four. I am not a specialist at heart and so all my cities end up pretty similar. Before the latest patch the fewer cities the better, but now I find that as long as I settle quickly and can build culture and wonders in all my cities at roughly the same pace, I always finish at roughly the same speed. 344 was roughly par for the course for me, and considering I had five cities, I thought it was good.

For SPs I opened tradition, finished liberty, finished piety, finished freedom, finished tradition, finished patronage. My goal is always no more than 10 turns between SPs, but in this game I lost that in the middle and was at maybe 12-13 turns per SP. My culture games are always the same; first policy may take forever or not, then a few fast ones, then slowing down thru the midgame, then fast towards the end. Its the bulge in the middle I've been trying to cut down on. Obviously I wasn't very fast with this big empire.

B/c of my big empire I never had to worry about much. I did have trouble remaining peaceful and forging a strong alliance. I made fast friendships with Wu and Wash, but everybody was mad at me for creating a fifth city. Cathy broke a RA and DOWed me pretty early on. I really dragged it out and enjoyed chewing up her units with my jag-swords, but I didn't really try to take her cities. What I really wanted was peace, and I worked really hard to try to get another one or two civs in to the super-friendship alliance with me Wu and Wash :confused:.

France was a complete introvert and wanted nothing to do with anybody. Germany England and Japan were really kicking up hostilities with each other so I could only pick one of them at the expense of the others. To make matters worse, each of them had some problem with one of my two friends practically the whole game. It was very frustrating, and I have to agree with the sociopath comment from a previous poster. By midgame my alliance was broken, and essentially every single civ was either at war or denouncing every single other civ :mad:.

I always kept a strong military. The tradition and freedom policies made this relatively cheap, my large empire kept the science flowing, my strong military meant nobody but Cathy was dumb enough to DOW me, hence all of my RAs were making it to completion. I was making money hand over fist and buying up all the city states by midgame. Everybody hated me but they still paid between 80-109 for my resources and I had a ton of them. On king this really didn't matter at all b/c usually the civs are so broke you have to loan them money for RAs anyway, so actually having them all guarded against me just meant they saved more of their money for RAs with me:king:. The only downside was they would never sell me their lux, but I was happy from about turn 80 onward so no big deal.

Towards the end of the game I aquired a huge military tech advantage :scan:. I decided to go ahead and take the southern hemisphere with a circumnavigational war. I started with rifles and artillery vs Cathy's swords, moved on to infantry and artillery vs Oda's samurai, and completed my journy by kicking down Wash's backdoor with mech infantry, rocket artillery and bombers against his minutemen and cannons. All three wars took maybe 20 turns or so combined.

Of course Napolean had to seal his own doom b/c he didn't know his place in the world, so after he DOWed me I took some of his cities just to get pearls and make a more symmetrical and aesthetically pleasing empire, but at this point Utopia popped and it was all over. Napolean was lucky b/c I was 1-2 turns away from giving birth to four giant death robots :nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke: who's sole purpose would be to amuse me at his expense. I was really curious about Paris which was defense of 96. I wanted to practice cracking that nut without nukes...

Usually we do random or fractal maps. I really liked this one, but I'm such an idiot I didn't read it in the announcement. I kept thinking that the ocean had to be around somewhere, only to read a progress thread where somebody reminded me it was lakes :lol::lol: What I am wondering is if there is something about the map that affects the AI Civ behaviors. I really agree that the other civs were psychotic. Does that have something to do with the lakes map?

Usually we do random or fractal maps. I really liked this one, but I'm such an idiot I didn't read it in the announcement. I kept thinking that the ocean had to be around somewhere, only to read a progress thread where somebody reminded me it was lakes :lol::lol: What I am wondering is if there is something about the map that affects the AI Civ behaviors. I really agree that the other civs were psychotic. Does that have something to do with the lakes map?
Please reread the Announcement. Random personalities was also enabled. :mischief:

As we repeat the civ leaders, you never know what might be in those announcements... :hide:

I've been playing these GOTM games for a while now and finally decided to upload one. This was a hell of a lot easier than that deity culture game. :)

I went with Tradition, Liberty, Honor, Piety and Freedom for my policies. Was constantly DOWed by every civ except Washington and Catherine. I settled two cities. My capitol I settled in place and the second I place next to the three lake tiles to the west for the floating gardens buffs. Both cities ended up huge with my capitol being at pop 39 and the other at 26.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 22
Date submitted: 2011-10-17
Reference number: 25028
Your name: quan
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1832AD
Turns played: 286
Base score: 1107
Final score: 1942
Time played: 3:39:00
Submitted save: TSG22_win.Civ5Save
Renamed file: quan_C502201.Civ5Save

Game: Civ5 GOTM 22
Date submitted: 2011-10-17
Your name: Tabarnak
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1750AD
Turns played: 260
Base score: 1991
Final score: 3828
Time played: 4:48:00
Submitted save: Montezuma_0260 AD-1750.Civ5Save

Almost under the 260 turn mark. As i planified, when Sydney was finished i picked the 2 last policies needed on the same turn to start Utopia on turn 247. With 123 :c5production: under golden age(119 for half way), built Utopia in 13 turns. I prebuilt some buildings earlier to shave some turns with hammer overflow but i didn't have a single turn in spare.

Total great people acquired : 21

4 gs, 3 ge, 3 gg, 11 ga. Settled 8 ga in capital.

Burned 3 ga for golden ages at the end. Burned also 2 gg somewhere for golden ages. Got 1 golden age from happiness bucket. Got 2 golden ages from policies.

Wonders

Capital : Stonehenge, Porcelaine Tower, Taj Mahal, Louvre(ge), Forbidden Palace
2nd city : Oracle, Hagia Sophia, Himeji Castle, Big Ben
3rd city : Notre-Dame(ge), Kremlin
4th city : Sistine Chapel(ge)

http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa413/Tabarnak2/Screenshot-17_10_20112_11_40PM.jpg

I improved my culture game a lot in this one. Thanks Leif!

On my replay I based off this 4 city placement Tabarnak posted in the in progress thread and shaved 32 turns off my win for a finish on turn 295 with a Hof score of 5898 making this my current highest score in Civ 5.

http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa413/Tabarnak2/Screenshot-16_10_201110_12_56PM.jpg

I had a massive war campaign for the last half of the game, wiping out America, Russia and Japan. I left Elizabeth with 1 city that had pearls mainly because it was too much trouble to get to.

On my next replay I think I'll start the warmongering much sooner so I can take full advantage of the culture per kill and see if that can shave more turns off it.

On my replay I based off this 4 city placement Tabarnak posted in the in progress thread and shaved 32 turns off my win for a finish on turn 295 with a Hof score of 5898 making this my current highest score in Civ 5.


I had a massive war campaign for the last half of the game, wiping out America, Russia and Japan. I left Elizabeth with 1 city that had pearls mainly because it was too much trouble to get to.

On my next replay I think I'll start the warmongering much sooner so I can take full advantage of the culture per kill and see if that can shave more turns off it.

Most important is to build Oracle then take legalism later for operas and keep a ge for Sistine. Then immediately start Hermitage. Problem here are wines. Monasteries. Or you can let wines unimproved if you don't settle on them, but you miss the most important thing you need : :c5gold:

Most important is to build Oracle then take legalism later for operas and keep a ge for Sistine. Then immediately start Hermitage. Problem here are wines. Monasteries. Or you can let wines unimproved if you don't settle on them, but you miss the most important thing you need : :c5gold:

I did those things and I never had a problem with having enough gold.

I did those things and I never had a problem with having enough gold.

Yeah obviously it's way better to ensure gaining a lot of :c5gold: and wait a couple of turns for monasteries to put operas online. With enough :c5gold: you can rush buy some monasteries(i did for 2 of them in my newest cities).

My first cultural game with the latest patch. And first ever game with Monty.

Went with only one city, given the great starting location. Was pleased with how I went, except for not reading what the Freedom closer was until well into the game. I could have shaved a good many turns off had I beelined for that earlier instead of mucking round with Patronage and Tradition.

Double popped GS and GE with about 5 turns left for SOH. Bulbed refridgeration and used an RA to get most of the way through plastics. Finished that just as I got my last policy, and used the GE to build a hydro damn and built Utopia in about 12 turns. Was pleased with that. :D

I should go back and pick up on my TSG19 start now. ;)

Nice one Tabarnak! Looks like you're outclassing me in all victory types now. :)

Game: Civ5 GOTM 22
Date submitted: 2011-10-19
Reference number: 25038
Your name: Mazer Rackham
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1844AD
Turns played: 292
Base score: 4690
Final score: 8086
Submitted save: TSG22_MazerRackham_Final.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Mazer_Rackham_C502201.Civ5Save

As I mentioned in the In Progress thread, I accidentally went down 6 policy trees in this one. :blush: That's what I get for continuing to play after bedtime.

Someone had to pay... and it ended up being the AI. I will have to settle for having the highest final score on this GotM.

I put a beat down on the world. But the UA of the Aztecs doesn't seem to bring in enough culture (at least on King) to make a dent when going for Culture victory. I started with the Rationalism opener and switched to Piety after getting to the final culture techs. I was able to complete the Sydney Opera House at 214, but it didn't speed things along as quickly as I hoped. I think I would've shaved off about 15 to 25 turns had I not mistakenly gone down an extra policy tree; so I don't think I would've competed for quickest victory time anyway with this approach.

Here is the final screenshot:

http://i1181.photobucket.com/albums/x432/gbrooksokok/MRGotM22.jpg

Toku had only his capital and Wu had just settled a 2nd city on the final turn. Only the Asians were allowed to survive! :lol: It was a fun game that bested my previous high in my Hall of Fame by over 2,000 points!

Here is the final screenshot:

http://i1181.photobucket.com/albums/x432/gbrooksokok/MRGotM22.jpg

Toku had only his capital and Wu had just settled a 2nd city on the final turn. Only the Asians were allowed to survive! :lol: It was a fun game that bested my previous high in my Hall of Fame by over 2,000 points!

So much red on this map! Who said that cultural victories mean peaceful victories? heh

Nice one Tabarnak! Looks like you're outclassing me in all victory types now. :)

Thanks! I'm the most surprised with this game. I always sucked with cultural victories before.

That was a fun game!
Could as well have been domination, but I did win on culture on turn 314 with a score of 3464. Founded 2 other cities and took liberty, piety freedom, tradition patronage (weird order, I know, but started tradition early, then waited to finish it late to get broadcast towers). Had about 10 puppets: 4 from Russia with Moscow, 2 from Japan, 1 from Germany, 3 from USA with DC, but happiness kept me from puppeting more. Had all the culture CSs from about turn 80 onward, and 2 maritimes and 4 militaristic from 200 onward.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 22
Your name: xerex
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1910AD
Turns played: 330
Base score: 1260
Final score: 1909
Time played: 4:12:00

Fun those random personalities! Also they kept DOW'ing me one after there other, and most RA's got cancelled because of that; however they offered loads of cash for peace :)
Large military (thanks to the CS) and few loses, but I didn't capitalize much on it. Russia was close but refused to improve its four whales until modern times (so little point in taking it imo); china too far to puppet; Germany pretty strong but more importantly, my only reliable trading partner.

Thanks for the game!

Finally a game i manage to complete again ..

Just started to play for the fun of it, looked like a nice start. Only looked up the victory condition a bit later, when i had already built 4 cities.. might have slowed it down a bit for culture.

Didn't have too good a start, loosing two jaguars to barbs, and i was peaceful for quite some time.

Russia dowed me, and i built my 4th city close to them, starting to assault their capital but never managed to capture it. After the strong japanese declared on me as well i decided i wanted peace with catherine, who just then offered a nice peace package giving me her other 3 cities. Had to rush my army over to defend against the now very close japanese and had some happiness problems, but it turned out alright.

Had a few more wars, one with germany, who also gave me their cities :)
They got wiped out soon after by the chinese.

I always went back to peace quickly since the game got slow. So my spread wasn't quite as big.

My first GoTM in a long time...Turn 294, Culture victory. Went for a 3 city strat, with the third in Texcoco's spot in the spoiler picture that Tabarnak posted. The city didn't do very well there.

Civ5 GOTM 22
Date submitted: 2011-10-21
Reference number: 25040
Your name: Quizman
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1924AD
Turns played: 345
Base score: 1243
Final score: 1827
Time played: 7:42:00

An easy, if unspectacular victory.

It started OK, but I did not micro-manage nearly enough mid term. I am a defensive player by nature so I should have gone to war on the AI, but I didn't. Everyone declared on me except Washington, but I can defend well enough so they were never a threat.

I finished with 4 cities and 3 cultural allies

Used a scout and a couple of jags for early exploration. Used the pottery>writing>GL opener to move asap to piety. I think I opened Trad and Liberty before clearing all of piety before doubling back to complete trad. Freedom and the rest of liberty was next and patronage completed the 5.

I signed about 10 RA's and I think I finally understand how they work.

It was a bit of a wonder-fest in my capital. The vital ones were Stonehenge. Oracle, Sistine, Sydney and Christo, but I picked up many more besides.

The moral for me is to be more aggressive. I clearly need to understand when is the right time to DOW an AI, but we are not allowed to reload on GOTM so I have a safety first policy. Perhaps GOTM24 will be a prince/king domination game!

Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1910AD
Turns played: 330
Base score: 2065
Final score: 3128
Time played: 116:42:00

Fun Game Leif, thanks! I found the random personalities weird at first, but eventually came to know the new personalities (I think). Still would prefer no random personalities though.

Learned a little about Culture Victories too I think. Next time I would work harder at:
1) faster teching, and taking tech paths to break into the new ages earlier (for increasing Culture from city states).
2) early aggressiveness to puppet some enemy cities (for gold for getting city states).
3) settle only three cities if the fourth one is kinda marginal anyway - why not let someone else settle it, then go puppet it!

My first Civ5 GotM submission. Very entertaining game :)

Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1913AD
Turns played: 333
Base score: 1140
Final score: 1727
Time played: 10:57:00

I didnt do very well, never tried culture victory before.
Even tho i ended up having 11 landmarks around my capital city.
Propably should have built more cities, seems 3 is not enough :(
Never seen so much war in any of my (few) Civ5 games, AI´s were all total maniacs.

Time played: 116:42:00


:eek:

Culture Victory Game date: 1836AD
Turns played: 288
Base score: 1648
Final score: 2891
Time played: 8:10:00

My first GOTM participation with Civ V, and my very first game that I played culturally. Normally I just go for conquering the world. Therefore I'm quite happy with my turn number.

Here is my empire:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=304937&stc=1&d=1319325429

I just settled two more cities. The third spot which was settled by many participants was a little bit too close to Russia for my liking. The eastern city was very close to America already and I didn't want to risk a two front war, especially as I haven't had roads in the beginning and a weak military.

RAs were suboptimal but still OK. I drained most of AIs money by trading, so they were close to being broke for most of the game.

Maybe I should have done more conquering, but I didn't invest too much in military and I am normally used to attack with a military tech advantage. Not in this game of course, as I was focussed on the top of the tree.

However it was "just king" and I could have done more in terms of military actions. Well, I think I was just a little bit scared, as reload was not an option. And then I thought it may be a good idea not to puppet, because the happiness overflow was a good chunk of culture. I don't know if that pays off...

SP wise I went for Tradition - Autocracy first.
Then Liberty - Piety - Freedom
Somewhen in between I chose the 4 cultural building policy (I think it was for Monasteries after temple.
Last policy tree was Partonage.


On a sidenote: Wu DOWed me several times, but her units never really came through the terrain of my allied CSs... :D

My first GOTM participation with Civ V, and my very first game that I played culturally. Normally I just go for conquering the world. Therefore I'm quite happy with my turn number.
Welcome to Civ5 GOTM. :wavey:

Congrats on your win and date. :)

Game: Civ5 GOTM 22
Date submitted: 2011-10-23
Reference number: 25053
Your name: Farrapo
Your email:
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1902AD
Turns played: 323
Base score: 2700
Final score: 4218
Time played: 6:31:00
Submitted save: Montezuma_0323 AD-1903.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Farrapo_C502201.Civ5Save


Settled in place, built two cities (east and west), engaged in multiple wars, annexed Moscow, took several other Russian and Japanese cities, allied all CS's, was way ahead in everything. Main problem was missed getting Sistine Chapel by one turn .. popped it with a GE and another Civ got it on the turn. Bummer.

The five SP categories completed were (in order): Liberty, Patronage, Tradition, Honor, Freedom

Early picks:



Tenochtitlan: Monument, Scout, Granary, Jaguar, Worker (buy), GL, worker (buy), NC, Floating Gardens, SH, Settler, Oracle, Monastery, HG ...

Research: Pottery, Mining, Writing, AH, Wheel, Phil (GL), Calendar, Archery, BW, IW, Sail, Trap, CS ...

SP: Tradition, Liberty, Honor, Aristo, Collective Rule, Citizenship, Representation, Meritocracy, Republic, Patronage ...

Game: Civ5 GOTM 22
Date submitted: 2011-10-23
Reference number: 25055
Your name: RedRover57
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1838AD
Turns played: 289
Base score: 2067
Final score: 3626
Time played: 22:44:00
Submitted save: TSG22_289.Civ5Save
Renamed file: RedRover57_C502201.Civ5Save

I made a number of mistakes that would have shaved off time, including:

1) I used my first GE (from the HS) to rush a wonder (ND) in my capital instead of in city 2, So I had to use the Liberty finisher GE to rush the Kremlin in city 2 and hard build the Taj Mahal in city 3. This was a substantial loss of culture over time.
2) Late in the game I took one of France's cities and set it to raze, but then realized it would have been a decent puppet so I stopped the razing (thinking that I could then puppet it). This apparently was counted as an occupied city and it increased my SP cost. Even when I set it back to being razed, the culture cost stayed increased when it was burned down.
3) I didn't focus enough on Science as I thought that broadcast towers probably wouldn't be needed. But I now realize that I should have increased my science more to get to Radio earlier. I should have taken Patronage for my last policy tree (for Scholasticism, since I was allied with most of the CS) instead of Honor, which didn't help me that much other than a bit of culture and happiness. Also, I didn't sign any RA's, but wouldn't have been able to sign many anyway since I was at war with the other civs most of the game.
4) I'm wondering if settling 4 cities to start would have been better than 3. I'm thinking that the extra city would have more than made up for the slight increase in policy cost.

I'm sure all of these errors cost me at least 20-30 turns.

One thing to note in my save file submission - I had a bad crash on turn 242 and had to reload the turn 240 autosave. This didn't have any material impact on my game as I was basically just riding things out to the end by then.

One thing I meant to ask. At some point in my game Mt. Fuji lost its culture bonus. So it went from a 2 gold and 5 culture tile to 2 gold only. Is this working as intended or bugged in my game? It was frustrating because I settled my 2nd city in a suboptimal spot (away from fresh water) specifically to have Mt. Fuji within range. And even more annoyingly, the city governor grabbed every other tile around Mt. Fuji first for border expansion and I couldn't spare the 180 gold to buy the tile, so I didn't even receive the culture bonus for very long before it disappeared.

One thing I meant to ask. At some point in my game Mt. Fuji lost its culture bonus. So it went from a 2 gold and 5 culture tile to 2 gold only. Is this working as intended or bugged in my game?
Sounds like something with your game install?

In testing, I did not see this, Mt. Fuji provided culture for the entire game for me, afaik. Perhaps someone else has some insight? :dunno:

I had the same thing happen with Mt Fuji.

:hmm: Did it happen as a response to something you had done, built or adopted a policy? It is baffling? :crazyeye:

Not that I know of and I don't know when it happened. I just noticed that it was no longer giving culture when I shifted focus back to culture in that city. When the governor didn't select Mt Fuji, I manually did and that's when I notice it was only giving 2 gold.

I checked the Civilopedia, but couldn't find anything that would intentionally cause this. I don't recall seeing any policy nor tech that would cause this. So it's either a bug or something they changed in one of the patches but didn't change any of the in game text to reflect it.

Another average game from me. Was fun, but outcome wasn't much in doubt after the first couple wars. I was never the aggressor, btw. ;)

4-city game with Moscow, Edinburgh, Berlin, and another German city as puppets. I suppose I should have used the trait more... its significant in the start at least.

Got all the wonders critical for culture victory, but missed a couple extraneous wonders along the way. Got a late GE... he can't rush Utopia, right? I planned to settle him near my best production city but put him in the wrong spot. I didn't even have IW in the right spot. But these mistakes are on the order of about 5 turns. I have a lot of strategic planning I need to understand better to cut down my #turns significantly.

Game status:

Culture Victory



Game date:

1943AD



Turns played:

363



Base score:

1829



Final score:

2540



Time played:

8:35:00

Please reread the Announcement. Random personalities was also enabled. :mischief:



I didn't notice any difference. Which is pretty much an indictment of what passes for diplomacy in CivV, imo. :rolleyes:

:eek:

:) yeah, 116 hours is a long time, but I spend a LOT of time thinking about my next moves.
(like when I'm sleeping, or when I'm at work, or when I'm out of town ...) :)

I too noticed that I had lost the Mt Fuji culture at some stage. At the time, I thought it must have been something I'd done. I have just reloaded some of my saved games and it disappeared somewhere between turns 260 and 300 (yes, some of us mere mortals still had not won by then!). I am not sure if the rollover to 300 is significant.

I shall try to replay from turn 260 and see if I can spot when it happened.

OK, I've replayed it from turn 260. What I found was that the Mt Fuji culture disappeared at turn 282. I would like to say, I know why that was, but sadly, I do not. Very little happened after turn 281 end. A few trade deals expired and I renewed them. The war with Russia was ongoing and my eastern town, well away from the problem completed a circus. And that was it.

Most mysterious.

What I found was that the Mt Fuji culture disappeared at turn 282.
Most mysterious.

That may explains why i got no bug. I got 2 other minor bugs instead, the one with stuck images floating on the screen and the food/hammer/gold yields disappearing around my capital. I could get rid of them by continuously clicking left and right on the map. Sounds weird but it works for me.

Turns played: 292
Base score: 1852
Final score: 3193
I settled in place and built monument then 3 additional Jags. Took Honour start, then Liberty (settler, worker, reduced policy costs) before full Piety. I then completed Liberty, ran through Freedom rounded off by pickn’mix Patronage / Honour. I gained significant early culture from barbs and an early, long-lasting war with Japan. I built 2 additional cities in the fairly obvious locations, bought up wine tiles as necessary and built early monasteries. I allied myself with the conveniently-grouped cultural CS and built many Wonders (GL, Oracle, HS, ND, PT, Sistine, Louvre, Taj, Brandenburg Gate, Big Ben) although I didn’t get to Cristo or SOH. All seemed to be going very well but I somehow struggled mid-game to get policies in under 10 turns, at least until Broadcast Towers were available. At peak I was touching 800 culture per turn. I was at war with all AI at some point:- after initial hostilities with Japan, we grew into a military alliance which dominated the map. I managed to complete 9RA but this was limited by AI cashflow. I popped 9GA and obtained 2GE, 4GS and a GM from various sources. I ripped through Utopia Project in 13 turns (Hydro plant + constant Golden Age). I may have performed better by taking Tradition over Honour (or Patronage), although I bought religious buildings when available without being overly strapped for cash and didn’t feel my rate of city growth was a limiting factor to culture output.

Edit:- reading through other posts, I see a possible reason for my mid-game SP slump. I razed a worthless tundra city during my war with Russia (about turn 190) which, I believe, would produce an unmodifiable 15% increase in all future policy costs. This may have cost me about 15 turns. Never occurred to me until now..... gggrrr!!

Game: Civ5 GOTM 22
Date submitted: 2011-10-25
Reference number: 25062
Your name: Banman
Your email:
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1913AD
Turns played: 333
Base score: 1813
Final score: 2746
Time played: 9:10:00
Submitted save: TSG22Montezuma_0333 AD-1913.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Banman_C502201.Civ5Save

fun game, was at war with somebody pretty much the whole time but the culture gain from unit kills doesn't seem to have been much of a boost. this also meant RAs weren't very reliable, could probably have moved faster with more of them. looking forward to the next one!

I believe that I have found what was causing the Mt Fuji issue. It actually occurred on turn 281 for me, not turn 282 as previously stated. It was OK at the start of the turn, but had changed by turn 282. What happened was that, on turn 281 I completed the Freedom tree. I have replayed it yet again and as soon as I adopt the last policy, the culture from Fuji disappeared.

If I try adopting another policy, there is no issue with the disappearing culture. Upon completing Freedom the benefit should be to double great tile improvement values. That certainly happens with all my Landmarks, but not so with Mt Fuji.

I assume that this is a bug. If others agree, what is the process for reporting it please?

That may explains why i got no bug. I got 2 other minor bugs instead, the one with stuck images floating on the screen and the food/hammer/gold yields disappearing around my capital. I could get rid of them by continuously clicking left and right on the map. Sounds weird but it works for me. I get these two graphics artifacts bugs a lot. Basically the the overlay layer for the yields, units, etc gets shifted out of place or just disappears. I've had this happen on two computers, both with nvidia cards.

I believe that I have found what was causing the Mt Fuji issue. It actually occurred on turn 281 for me, not turn 282 as previously stated. It was OK at the start of the turn, but had changed by turn 282. What happened was that, on turn 281 I completed the Freedom tree. I have replayed it yet again and as soon as I adopt the last policy, the culture from Fuji disappeared.

If I try adopting another policy, there is no issue with the disappearing culture. Upon completing Freedom the benefit should be to double great tile improvement values. That certainly happens with all my Landmarks, but not so with Mt Fuji.

I assume that this is a bug. If others agree, what is the process for reporting it please? Now this bug makes a bit more sense. I wouldn't be a bit surprised to find out it's effecting all the natural wonders, because iirc they increased the yields of all the natural wonders in one of the patches. So it's possible the policy tree changes and natural wonders changes didn't merge properly, especially if both changes were to the same file and were done at the same time by two different people. In which case the most recent change to that file, which was the Freedom tree's boost to tile yields, overwrote the boost to natural wonder's tile yields.

Here is where the two changes I mentioned were added.
Patch 1.0.1.135
Natural wonders now award culture (if worked) and happiness (if in border) if that trait is assigned to a wonder in XML.

Patch 1.0.1.332
Policy “Finishers” added to all 10 policy trees. Taking all policies in a tree will grant an additional bonus effect. See policy notes below for more information.

Civ5 GOTM 22
Date submitted: 2011-10-26
Reference number: 25063
Your name: tommynt
Your email: thomasniederschweiberer@gmx.de
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1620AD
Turns played: 234
Base score: 2378
Final score: 5169
Time played: 9:45:00
Submitted save: GOTM_22_tommynt_t234win.Civ5Save
Renamed file: tommynt_C502201.Civ5Save

SP is timeconsuming :(

with Monte is was pretty obvious to me that I d go for some huge cities and tech to Christo and Sydney asap.

BO cap was something like: scout Monument (buy granny) worker Henge Settler Settler GL.
Went for a 4 city setup and once I saw Moscow I knew It should be mine at some point.
Wars:
Built/bought some UUs for CS missions scouting and killing barbs (and had to defend USA early on) and then I upgarded them to swords and went for an rampage - 1. to Russia (very weak) then on to Japan - back to USA as they redowed me and then I was hovering around a bit.

I wasnt really lucky with CS missions, lot were fullfilled by ai before me, washington dowing me also made me defend instead spread units but I got some in end. As ais gold was way better early game as midgame I could milk them a bit to buy CS.

Buildup. I pretty much spread my cities tried to get good grow/lux spots
Anaxed Moscow soon after conquering and rush bought 2 ships and then started getting all the building it needed so I got get the nationals in other cities.

Tried stay friendly in midgame to get the RAs going - lot of GAs helped me to get the gold - all AIs apart france were constantly in -gold so it was allways a double spening for me.
Some later Ras were brokken sadly - I expected this to might happen from the "strong" civs - but even the ones I brought down to 1 city - USA and Russia dowed me. Luckyly I could hard tech Plastics just in time so I could speed utopia with having a waterpowerhouse.

All these river cities made me really rich.

Culterwise I wasnt pushing it hard early on: went 2 trad - full liberty - full piety - legalism - freedom - economy.
Filled 4 cult spots in 5 cities after legalism (around turn 160)

Early on my money went into CS - tried to get all cult and 1-2 marritme asap

Hard built cristo from t 180-200 and GE sydney the turn after: Giving me over 1000 cult in turn 201.
If no Ras were brokken i d have gotten sydney in t183.

Cap was size 29 in end making utopia a 10t build

Think was an OK game overall - dows seem not to be aviodable for me - midgame I made ais attack each other - thats only thing which seems help a bit vs dows but not possible all game.
Looks like massdows are ALLWAYS coming at the about 17th sp

edit btw: Stratwise I think it was played "perfect" (real perfection is impossible), at least I think so, I really hope some more guys are trying this - its a real fun setup (Mone really made a difference to me). I d be interested if some1 can do better. With all civs brokken anyway the constant checking of ais gold wasnt as unfun as in other games.

I believe that I have found what was causing the Mt Fuji issue. It actually occurred on turn 281 for me, not turn 282 as previously stated. It was OK at the start of the turn, but had changed by turn 282. What happened was that, on turn 281 I completed the Freedom tree. I have replayed it yet again and as soon as I adopt the last policy, the culture from Fuji disappeared.

If I try adopting another policy, there is no issue with the disappearing culture. Upon completing Freedom the benefit should be to double great tile improvement values. That certainly happens with all my Landmarks, but not so with Mt Fuji.

I assume that this is a bug. If others agree, what is the process for reporting it please?

This makes sense. In my game I lost the culture from Mt. Fuji some time in the early 200's, which would correlate to when I completed the Freedom tree. Definitely sounds like a bug.

maybe devs wanted game sure its cullure isnt doubled and rather put it to 0 :king:

Posted by Tabarnak

That may explains why i got no bug.

I would have thought that you would have lost Mt Fuji benefit too as you have completed the Freedom tree.

Went back and checked and I also lost Mt. Fuji culture. In the save I looked at, commerce was down to 1 as well. :crazyeye:

Has anyone tried replaying to check if freedom tree completion makes the change for sure?

Posted by Tabarnak



I would have thought that you would have lost Mt Fuji benefit too as you have completed the Freedom tree.

I will check that when i will get back home. I will open my last save.

@tommynt : Really impressive game. Congratulations! I didn't build Cristo, all my RAs got almost broke somewhere. I barely had time to build Sydney for my 2 last policies.

long time lurker, first time poster.

this is the 4th or 5th gotm i've tried. 1st time i've decided to submit. pretty fun setup.
Game: Civ5 GOTM 22
Date submitted: 2011-10-26
Reference number: 25065
Your name: Pintosaur
Your email:
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1903AD
Turns played: 323
Base score: 1335
Final score: 2085
Time played: 5:07:00
Submitted save: Montezuma_0323 AD-1903.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Pintosaur_C502201.Civ5Save

@tommynt : Really impressive game. Congratulations! I didn't build Cristo, all my RAs got almost broke somewhere. I barely had time to build Sydney for my 2 last policies.

thx and well I played real aggressive, civs having a size 3 city only hardly DOW you ... but also my own science was good - 5 size 15+ cities really give some nice basic science.
And well I said I also had impression like I played it good. Buying granny early on let me grow from size 2-5 very fast. Also my 1. game when I did pay strong ais to attack each other to avoid them attacking me.

Also - I dont really know why - happyness was never a big problem - with 5 huge cities and some puppets u d think happyness d be close - but I was like + 15 very often.

long time lurker, first time poster.
:wavey: Glad you signed up and played. Welcome to GOTM.

Congrats on your win. :goodjob:

After almost a year of not playing civ 5 i gave it a try again.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 22
Date submitted: 2011-10-27
Reference number: 25069
Your name: Allirion
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1892AD
Turns played: 316
Base score: 2215
Final score: 3515
Time played: 7:15:00
Submitted save: TSG22_Allirion_0316 AD-1892.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Allirion_C502201.Civ5Save

Things i learned this time:
- The Freedom Finisher doesn't double cultural tiles (i had 7 of them)
- National Wonders don't count as Wonders for the 33% culture bonus
- you can't hurry the utopia project with a great engineer
- much has changed, but the ai still isn't that bright
- but chu no nus still can make you retreat ^^

"The Freedom Finisher doesn't double cultural tiles (i had 7 of them)"

It does.

Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1780AD
Turns played: 266
Base score: 1600
Final score: 3018

Settled 3 cities (starting location, south by gems and east by wine and iron).

I was waiting to upgrade my Jaguars until a was Dow'ed. Unfortunately both England (the AI leader) and Russia DoW'ed me almost the same turn, but I managed to kill enough of Englands units that she offered peace. Russia then also offered peace, but I refused, upgraded my army to 4 LSM and 2 catapults and puppeted Moscow and another city, and made peace with Russias last city.

After that (around turn 140) I was leading the game in every aspect, and it was a question of time before I would win. I was considering attacking other Civs for the combat culture and puppets, but I ended up choosing the peaceful way and was milking the friendly Civs instead. Don't know if that was a lazy or a good choice.

Ended up with 13 GA's around my capitol.

I guess I should have focused a bit more on tech, as I never got to finish Cristo Redentor before I could build Utopia. I didn't sign any RA's at all, but used money for cultural CS and buildings.

But otherwise I am pretty glad about the game (except that the last 100 turns of just clicking end turn was a bit boring...)

"The Freedom Finisher doesn't double cultural tiles (i had 7 of them)"

It does.

it didn't for me.
Or it is a ui-bug, but the great engineer-tiles showed 9 and 10 Production after i finished freedom, while the great artist-tiles still only had a large culture-icon that didn't have a number (as if it would give 5 culture)

Game: Civ5 GOTM 22
Date submitted: 2011-10-28
Reference number: 25074
Your name: yyz
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1878AD
Turns played: 309
Base score: 3226
Final score: 5288
Submitted save: Montezuma_0309 AD-1878 win.Civ5Save

My second upload :)
I enjoyed the game. :D
I would like to replay it some day and see if I can get a faster result by creating less cities.

Finally got this one done, in 279 turns. Buuut I think it'll get kicked back if I submit it, because I reloaded autosaves a couple times (but only a couple!). I swear, next month I won't cheat so horribly. I was riding too high on my first decent GOTM run to let it get ruined by one stupid move in my war against China.

4 cities in the usual spots (settled east, south, then west). Went minimal military buildup at the beginning to save resources for buildings and such, and I think it paid off.


My clever bits:

--Had all 4 cities as early as possible (4th by turn 80 or so), to allow time for their maturation.
--Exactly the right amount of RAs (the last one got me halfway through plastics, which is the last tech I go for before Utopia)
--Forget Cristo! He is too little, too late.
--Left some Wines undeveloped near cities 3 and 4 so I could get Opera Houses up earlier


My mistakes:

--I wooed a couple city-states right after education because I was low on happiness...then I decided to rush Notre Dame instead of Porcelain Tower, and was easily at 7-8+ happiness for the rest of the game. The extra 500 gold that I spent (*ahem*, wasted) on the CS would have been nice at that point of the game.
--From the reports of those finishing before me, it looks like I'm not puppeting enough to really get my time to an elite level. My only puppet was Stockholm, and I took it post-turn 200. In general, is it worth it to tech to Ironworking before Education to overrun some AIs early?


My thoughts:

--Thank you Leif for putting our start-location at one of the only oceans on the map (for Sydney)
--Monty is fun
--It would be nice if there were some quick culture-win strategy that wasn't Tradition-Liberty-Piety-Patronage-Freedom. Just for variety.
--You know you let your military techs are dragging behind when your Longswordsmen run into Riflemen in Nanking. Whoops...

Game: Civ5 GOTM 22
Date submitted: 2011-10-29
Reference number: 25076
Your name: juicegecko
Your email:
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1952AD
Turns played: 372
Base score: 1741
Final score: 2352
Time played: 7:00:00
Submitted save: Montezuma_0372 AD-1952.Civ5Save
Renamed file: juicegecko_C502201.Civ5Save

Yay, I was finally able to finish and submit one of these games. This was also my first cultural victory after struggling with similar settings on Emperor a few weeks ago.

It was a fun game, I managed to gather quite a bunch of culture points early on thanks to El Cid morphing into a citadel near the russian border and defending from Oda and Wu's cycle of stabs.

China ended up with the highest score, being the scientific and military leader for most of the game and I was beaten to some key wonders like Cristo Redentor and the Opera House.

Looking forward for next GotM.

straight forward win

Game: Civ5 GOTM 22
Date submitted: 2011-10-29
Reference number: 25078
Your name: subber
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1910AD
Turns played: 330
Base score: 1400
Final score: 2121
Time played: 5:46:00
Submitted save: Montezuma_0330 - 1910 n. Chr..Civ5Save
Renamed file: subber_C502201.Civ5Save

had a good start, basically boosting capital, tried to build GL-NC. GL went to far away country however before I could finish it.

built one more city to the south with good production. In midgame I built almost every wonder, but lacked a little behind in cuilture per turn - it takes me around 13 turns in midgame to get to the next policy. a little better then my previous games but not good enough when wanting to go for a sub 300 game.
Which turn do you guys settle your fist GA? I believe that I am lacking behind with this... in total I only settled 3 GAs or so.

towards the end I was dominating with 7-8 techs ahead of other civs. took artilleries and took a russian and a chinese city before settling for nice peace deals (like 40-50 gpt plus luxes).

Due to policies I boosted happines in endgame to 70+.

--You know you let your military techs are dragging behind when your Longswordsmen run into Riflemen in Nanking. Whoops...

I was wondering about this. I put about 210 turns in so far and only have 22 policies. I'm wondering how the sub-270 finishes are done. Are people skipping Metallurgy, Fertilizer and Rifling and heading straight to Mass Media? I realized too late that I could have avoided those techs and used the RAs to get me closer to those last two wonders.

Also, did anyone do Rationalism first? It seems like too much of a sacrifice for two free techs, but I seem to remember someone claiming it was a decent tactic for Deity culture wins?

Quote:
Originally Posted by GreyWithAnE View Post
--You know you let your military techs are dragging behind when your Longswordsmen run into Riflemen in Nanking. Whoops...
I was wondering about this. I put about 210 turns in so far and only have 22 policies. I'm wondering how the sub-270 finishes are done. Are people skipping Metallurgy, Fertilizer and Rifling and heading straight to Mass Media? I realized too late that I could have avoided those techs and used the RAs to get me closer to those last two wonders.

Also, did anyone do Rationalism first? It seems like too much of a sacrifice for two free techs, but I seem to remember someone claiming it was a decent tactic for Deity culture wins?

Good question!
You DEFINATLY can skip lower tree after muskets and just try to get to Mass media ASAP (and possible 1-2 more RAs for plastics)
But be careful with RAs, about 7sp before last sp (which d be sp23?) I allways get massdowed making RAs brokken.
And yes I was theorycrafting about takking Rati or at least its starter instead of peity, but I think after last game I came to conclusion that its not needed if u go instead for 4-5 BIG cities which generate enough gold to run 5-7 RAs all time (or maybe play deity were gold inst that scare)
And well then there is imo pretty big difference between a t270 win (which can be done without sydney totaly) and a sub t250 win.

And well regaridng military, I dont think its a bit secret that taking ai cities is best done early on with some swords and a bit later with Longswords again.

With this 2 "waves" of conquering u should be able to take 2-3 civs down to 1 city whats enough of conquering for a cult game. To defend yourself against craiplled ais 4 lvled Longswords should DEFINATLY be enough

Oh and dont forget to generate a engi for Sydney ...
Best d be to have 1 available for Christo aswell.
But as there are only 2 free ones and 1 goes into Louvre allready the other d have to be saved but is usually just needed for Notre or PT or sistine n my games. Capital just cant get all them wonders and other cities are usually still growing and lack prod to get a 500hammer wonder inreasonable time.

My clever bits:

--Left some Wines undeveloped near cities 3 and 4 so I could get Opera Houses up earlier


I dont get this one...

Good question!
You DEFINATLY can skip lower tree after muskets and just try to get to Mass media ASAP (and possible 1-2 more RAs for plastics)
But be careful with RAs, about 7sp before last sp (which d be sp23?) I allways get massdowed making RAs brokken.
And yes I was theorycrafting about takking Rati or at least its starter instead of peity, but I think after last game I came to conclusion that its not needed if u go instead for 4-5 BIG cities which generate enough gold to run 5-7 RAs all time (or maybe play deity were gold inst that scare)
And well then there is imo pretty big difference between a t270 win (which can be done without sydney totaly) and a sub t250 win.

And well regaridng military, I dont think its a bit secret that taking ai cities is best done early on with some swords and a bit later with Longswords again.

With this 2 "waves" of conquering u should be able to take 2-3 civs down to 1 city whats enough of conquering for a cult game. To defend yourself against craiplled ais 4 lvled Longswords should DEFINATLY be enough

Oh and dont forget to generate a engi for Sydney ...
Best d be to have 1 available for Christo aswell.
But as there are only 2 free ones and 1 goes into Louvre allready the other d have to be saved but is usually just needed for Notre or PT or sistine n my games. Capital just cant get all them wonders and other cities are usually still growing and lack prod to get a 500hammer wonder inreasonable time.

Well, my goal was 270 (not gonna make it). I can't really wrap my mind around how you could get it done at under 240. I appreciate your advice - you confirmed a few things for me. My errors were:

(1) only 3 cities (4 is clearly optimal)
(2) hard-build of the Louvre (amounts to about 30+ CPT & >42 CPT after Freedom - clearly delays your game to build instead of rush)
(3) didn't create enough GE
(4) probably should have rushed more than one neighbor (I still might, but it's too late now to have the right effect)
(5) inefficient research path.

I agree that under 240 is about as perfect as you can get a culture win, by the way. Congrats, and thanks again!

I dont get this one...

He got Opera Houses with Legalism for the Hermitage.

Quote:
Originally Posted by subber View Post
I dont get this one...
He got Opera Houses with Legalism for the Hermitage.

I dont gt at all why this is "good play" in some general opionion.
Isnt is obviously WAY more efficient to get Museums instead of Opera houses?

Some turn more early Hermitage definatly dont make a game breaking difference ... (whats adds to the effect that cap migh be busy building sistine anyway which comes with same tech)

I didn't really think it out before I played. My first instinct was to get the opera houses, thinking the +5 & +50% from Hermitage was going to be huge. When I started building museums it dawned on me that Legalism might be better used here. You are right that production is a huge limiting factor in this game. The builds I started at Archeology (Louvre & museums) did take a long time to complete.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 22
Date submitted: 2011-10-30
Reference number: 25084
Your name: Trystero
Your email:
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1920AD
Turns played: 340
Base score: 1210
Final score: 1779
Time played: 7:26:00

This was my first Civ5 GOTM, and second cultural game in a row after returning to Civ5 after a prolonged layoff (and only my second game with the latest patch). I wasn't really intending on submitting this game, but what the heck. My previous game was an attempt to try Wainy's cultural approach with Darius. In that game I beelined to Archeology before backfilling the lower half of the tech tree. I wanted to try a more balanced approach this time, so I focused on research early and managed to grab both the GL and Porcelain Tower. As a result, I was the tech leader for most of the game. I also tried delaying running specialits early to focus on growth. In retrospect, I should have run more specialists and taken advantage of the Aztec's UA to boost my culture output (I played a mostly peaceful game, except for the frequent defensive wars).

My empire at 1 AD for city placement:

http://i654.photobucket.com/albums/uu269/Trystero_CFC/TSG22.jpg

I will probably try another culture game with Monty. I'd forgotten how poor the AI was at fighting wars at King.

Simular game as Ballcrusher, w/o any RA's

http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/m520/killerloop121/TSG22t259cultwin.jpg

I guess SP development is most interesting, hence:

Lib - Settler - Worker
Trad
Piety Full
Patr
Lib4: Repr for the future SP reduction
Patr: Phil + Scol for the extra science from CS
Fill Lib for the GE for Louvre
Freedom
Trad2: Legalism for the operas
fill Freedom
fill Patr for the GP's form CS's
fill Trad

By turn 156 I had my 3 cities filled up with 4 GA specialists in temple, opera and museum.

After that it was cruising to the end.
Managed most of game to be no1 in Military, although that doesn't help. After SP17 (build in??) all friends started denouncing. Wars started and after SP23 I was at war with almost everyone. That's ok, because it gave me something to do...

I erased Russia in one of the wars taking all her cities as puppets, finally I took a city from Wu and Stockholm in the end of the game. At game end, all were guarded but we had our peace ;)

The end was a s following
t233 I finished Electricity. Bulbed to SydOpera with a GS and Oxford,
started a 5 turn SydOpera with a GE and a GoldAge from my GG's and a GA/GS pair that I got at 241
t235 I finish SP28
t244 I finshed last SP, starting a 17 turn Utopia. The GS was used to bulb to Hydro, getting me to a 15 turn Utopia with bought Hydro plant.

Mistakes:
-forgot Representation :blush:
-Used GLib (t48) for Theo, maybe CS would have been better for initial Growth. I build HS pretty late (t100 or so)
-3rd city had Mt Fuji, but was food scarce, so I never worked it at all, maybe location was not optimal. (same issue with Mt Fuji as decribed by others, BTW)
-as Tommynt showed: use your early military power to get some extra cities + Cult

Tx Staff for a fun game again !

Game: Civ5 GOTM 22
Date submitted: 2011-10-31
Reference number: 25096
Your name: NotSure
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1818AD
Turns played: 280
Base score: 1830
Final score: 3327
Time played: 17:49:00
Submitted save: TSG22_0280 AD-1820.Civ5Save
Renamed file: NotSure_C502201.Civ5Save

I actually won on t279, but I thought you were supposed to submit the turn after? Anyway, I came close to my goal and learned a few things about culture games. I can see that this is definitely doable in 250 turns.

What I learned:
- Broadcast towers and CR have surprisingly low impact.

- 4 quick cities are probably optimal with Representation (at King, at least). I only got down 3.

- A beeline to Mass Media would have cut at least 20-30 turns off the finish - maybe more.

- Legalism at Archeology looks best.

Thanks for the game!

http://i.imgur.com/ai5ab.jpg

From your screenshot NotSure, you have won at turn 279. After you voted, just press one...more...turn button and save the game from there.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 22
Date submitted: 2011-11-01
Reference number: 25098
Your name: tincando
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1725AD
Turns played: 255
Base score: 1299
Final score: 2547
Time played: 12:11:00
Submitted save: Montezuma_0255 AD-1725.Civ5Save
Renamed file: tincando_C502201.Civ5Save

This game turned out to be a peaceful wonder whoring feast for me. Both France and England hated me fom day one, without resulting to violence. All others were more or less friendly towards me. A mentally instable China declared war on me a few times, but always wanted peace after less than 10 turns with little to none actual military confrontation. No one else bothered me until Japan finally panicked and much too late launched a suicide attack while I was working on utopia.

Without ancient ruins, I decided to build a monument first. My initial plan was to follow up with a scout looking for cultural city states. But within a few turns, my jaguar had already stumbled upon both Monaco and Brussels. I managed to ally both of them and beeline to the medival era before turn 50, giving me +24 culture per turn from them (almost two thirds of my total influx at that point). I continued expanding on this and allied with four additional cultural city states during the following 30 turns.

I founded a second city to the east near wine and furs, and a third city south near wine and gems. I refraind from settling a fourth city near mt Fuji because at this point all of my nearest neighbours (Russia, America and China) had declared friendship with one another. I was kind of stuck in the middle of this three way alliance, wary of upsetting any one of them. By denouncing Japan (the arch enemy of Russia), I was able to get a foothold in the alliance, and eventually joining them as a full member. Later on we denounced China and kicked her out from our little club and promptly replaced her with a much more mentally stable Germany.

My military were mostly for show and saw almost no action at all (only 143/200 great general progress at the end of the game). My core army consisted of 6 jaguars that I later upgraded to swordsmen - longswordsmen - riflemen. Budapest provided me with an additional 8 mixed units throughout the game. I ended up with 3 workers, 1 per city. The first one was hard build, the second one was from the liberty policy tree, and the third one was stolen from Stockholm.

France was the only serious threat to my wonder monopoly. He managed to beat me in that race a few times, most annoingly, he snagged big ben when I was only 1 turn away from completing it.


long term research goals:
theology, iron working, mathematics, metal casting, education, acoustics, steel, archaeology, biology, mass media, plastics, rifling

social policy order:
liberty, free settler, tradition, aristocracy, rest of liberty, all of piety, patronage, freedom, constitution, legalism (museums), philantropy, scholasticism, aesthetics, rest of freedom, rest of patronage, rest of tradition

capital build order:
monument, worker, settler, great library, granary, stonehenge, great wall, national college, hanging gardens, oracle, workshop, university, tempel, monastary, floating gardens, sistine chapel, notre dame, himeji castle, opera house, hermitage, museum, kremlin, aqueduct, ironworks, louvre, windmill, garden, national epic, public school, oxford university, broadcast tower, sydney opera house, factory, hospital, market, national treasury, bank, hydro plant, brandenburg gate, utopia project

2nd city build order:
monument, library, jaguar, jaguar, jaguar, monastary, temple, workshop, floating gardens, porcelain tower, opera house, granary, museum, university, market, aqueduct, stable, garden, circus, windmill, bank, public shool, hospital, broadcast tower, stock exchange, cannon, cannon

3rd city build order:
monument, library, jaguar, jaguar, monastary, temple, workshop, hagia sophia, floating gardens, granary, opera house, university, garden, museum, market, aqueduct, circus, barracks, bank, windmill, public school, hospital, broadcast tower, taj mahal, cannon, cannon

great people:
* 8 great artists + 2 from louvre + 1 from educated elite
* 2 great scientists + 1 from porcelain tower
* 2 great engineers + 1 from liberty tree + 1 from hagia sophia
* 0 great merchants
* 0 great generals + 1 from brandenburg gate
* 2 golden ages + 1 from representation + 1 from reformation + 1 from taj mahal + 1 from great general

Hi Tincando, I see it's your 1st post, welcome.

Good game, congrats!

BTW, how many RA's were you able to get in place?
Did you see any change in AI attitude after SP17 & 23?

I refraind from settling a fourth city near mt Fuji because at this point all of my nearest neighbours (Russia, America and China) had declared friendship with one another. I was kind of stuck in the middle of this three way alliance, wary of upsetting any one of them. By denouncing Japan (the arch enemy of Russia), I was able to get a foothold in the alliance, and eventually joining them as a full member. Later on we denounced China and kicked her out from our little club and promptly replaced her with a much more mentally stable Germany.

Do such stuff REALLY work???
Denounce some1 enemy and u get his friend?
Can you/some1 confirm this?
My diplo knowledge isnt too great ...

255 is very good btw, think with getting your granny up more early u d have shaved 5 turns - with a 2wheat starts its really powerful - that would make 250 whats really good for a peaceful 3 city setup

Can you elaborate about the granary tommy?

If : a scout can be built in 5 turns, a monument in 7 and a granary in 10 approx, it's 22 turns total. Have you rush buyed it before turn 20? How can this shave 5 turns to a victory?

Buying a worker isn't better at this point?

tincando - Welcome to CFC and GOTM. :wavey:

Nice game and great write-up. :thumbsup:

a granny with 2 wheat is obviously "da " - 4! food right away, obviously I bought one as soon as other ais could afford :D

well how much a early stupid fast grow to 5 brings in finish time is proly hard to elaborate - but imo its very strong.
a workers brings 2 food after 16 turns (its 7t to improve before bonus isnt it?)....

a granny with 2 wheat is obviously "da " - 4! food right away, obviously I bought one as soon as other ais could afford :D

well how much a early stupid fast grow to 5 brings in finish time is proly hard to elaborate - but imo its very strong.
a workers brings 2 food after 16 turns (its 7t to improve before bonus isnt it?)....

I know that, but i don't see what is different between a rush buyed granary and a worker around turn 20 compared to a granary built and a worker around the same time. First of all, you need like 350 :c5gold: approx to rush buy a granary. Findind this gold in less than 20 turns is pretty hard.

Did you loan gold from the AIs and declare war right after? I'm not a big fan of this tactic but i know it's a very strong strat if you can eliminate the risks. I think you put more complex tactics farther in the game more than saved 3,4 or maybe more turns for an earlier granary to get a big edge.

Fastest granary possible is more like around turn 12. For 8-9+ turns granary bonus at best, you got 4-5 turns better finish? Very hard to understand.

Fastest granary possible is more like around turn 12. For 8-9+ turns granary bonus at best, you got 4-5 turns better finish? Very hard to understand.

granny costs 340, and after monument and 1 or 2 scouts it wont finish that fast ...
also I didnt say 5 turns are shaved with 8t more early granny - but tincanto built it AFTER gl whats more like turn 50-60 and delaying it that far definatly puts you back a lot

the "usual BO" - scout-monument-granny with buying a worker is USUALLY ok but with this land I think buying the granny like turn 12 got me big bonus - I think

granny costs 340

Oops i played too much epic rerolls recently. Corrected. Still higher than a worker. Well i gotta have try this if i find any 2-3 wheats/deers super capital site.

Hi Tincando, I see it's your 1st post, welcome.

Good game, congrats!
tincando - Welcome to CFC and GOTM. :wavey:

Nice game and great write-up. :thumbsup:
Thanks! :)


BTW, how many RA's were you able to get in place?
I supplemented my base research with:
~10000 beakers from 8 research agreements
~20000 instant beakers from 3 great scientists + oxford university + great library
~5000 beakers from scholasticism

Did you see any change in AI attitude after SP17 & 23?
I didn't notice any abnormal attitude change. If something happend, I missed it.

Do such stuff REALLY work???
Denounce some1 enemy and u get his friend?
Can you/some1 confirm this?
My diplo knowledge isnt too great ...
Let me elaborate. The situation was as follows:

* Russia friends with America
* America friends with China
* China friends with Russia
* Russia had denounced Japan

When I denounced Japan, Russia started to fancy me, because "We had denounced the same leaders". She liked me enough to sign a declaration of friendship, which in turn made America and China happy, because "We had made a declaration of friendship with the same leaders". Upsetting Russia by founding a new city next to her might have made it impossible for me to sign that declaration of friendship with her.

255 is very good btw, think with getting your granny up more early u d have shaved 5 turns - with a 2wheat starts its really powerful - that would make 250 whats really good for a peaceful 3 city setup
In retrospect, it probably wasn't optimal to neglect growth in favor of production as much as I did. After completing the hanging gardens, my capital was set to production focus pretty much the entire game. And if I only had realised that floating gardens modifies gross food, I would have built (or bought) them a lot sooner.

granny costs 340, and after monument and 1 or 2 scouts it wont finish that fast ...
also I didnt say 5 turns are shaved with 8t more early granny - but tincanto built it AFTER gl whats more like turn 50-60 and delaying it that far definatly puts you back a lot
The reason I delayed my granary like that was simply a happiness shortage. When I started building the great library, I already had two cities and a fresh settler ready to found a third one. Wine was of course due in a few turns, but I wanted to sell it for cash rather than keep it for myself.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 22
Date submitted: 2011-11-04
Reference number: 25110
Your name: ElWanderer
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1785AD
Turns played: 267
Base score: 1563
Final score: 2949
Time played: 10:42:00

I wanted a big capital fast and to avoid Liberty for once. So I guess my play was somewhat sub-optimal...

Went Tradition opener. Honour opener (and was spamming Jaguars early on). Rest of Tradition (took a monument from Legalism...), then all of Piety. Patronage opener. All of Freedom. Right side of Honour. Rest of Patronage. Left side of Honour. Utopia (Commerce opener whilst it was building).

I also avoided Research Agreements for the most part. I signed four, but only two took affect. That plus avoiding Rationalism meant I was relatively slow to tech - I built Cristo Redentor and Sydney Opera House (both built in one turn by Great Engineers), but very late on. The opera house popped my penultimate policy and perhaps shaved a turn off the last one. I built a hydro plant halfway through building the Utopia project, combined with the manufactory from a gifted Great Engineer, that shaved a turn or two off.

I settled in place, second city to the east on top of the horses for the wine (and iron, it turned out), and a third city on the river to the south. I was tempted to settle by Mt. Fuji but couldn't see the benefit versus the increased costs.

Was it really random personalties? Washington was the same sanctimonious argh he usually is. He plonked his second city next to mine then complained when I bought up the remaining pair of hexes between us. I told him to stuff it. He then marched a settler through my lands, apparently aiming to settle where I put my third city. That was enough for me - I declared war, killed the escorting warrior with a swordsman and went on to capture New York and Washington. I let him live but he remained a OCC (with Boston) for the rest of the game.

Everyone else was a pain in the neck. Catherine was friendly, then "surprisingly" "backstabbed" me three times. Each time, I'd barely started ripping through her forces and she was offering large sums of gold for peace. Oda was similar, though his first declaration seemed to be triggered by someone else - he seemed as surprised as I was (and it cancelled a research agreement) and I don't think I saw a single unit of his before he requested peace. The second time he declared war, he huffed and puffed and failed to attack one of my city state allies, then offered me peace. The third time, he lined up five units on my border then "surprisingly" "backstabbed" me. Result - short war, peace, gold... More annoyingly, Bismarck twice declared war, scrapping a research agreement and achieving nothing. He also tried to attack one of my city states, and was repulsed before I could get any of my own units there. Lastly, every other leader seemed to be denouncing me constantly, though they didn't dare declare war. I didn't seem to have any warmonger hate from my early war, just lots of jealousy of my lands and wonders.

Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1808AD
Turns played: 274
Base score: 1875
Final score: 3472
Time played: 20:25:00

I decided to go with only 2 cities not seeing very many promising locations. not sure if not having 4 slowed me down or just my opening was slow. I waited with 2nd city to build NC and then founded it before building it anyway.

Got Bstabbed by Cathy first then USA, and China in medieval era. I lost a lot of units throughout the game, did not conquer as much as i was hoping for: NYC, Washington, and Boston in reverse order to get my 2 more cicites for legalism, but only got temples there. then got 2 of Nappy's cities and took Cathy out (moscow and Novogrod) in late game fought almost everyone but Alizabeth who was hostile most of the game but never dowed. Oda was a friend throughout the game till the last bit when he attacked and almost overrun my Russian posesions. But by then i just got SP30 and could annex cities and buy AA guns to repel him.

Utopia took 13 trns, almost made it in 12 by chopping all forest arund cap but fell short 4 production. did not have plastics as i mismanaged RAs late in the game and ealry as well. Signed a bunch before PT and got crap in return. shuold have allied more CSs or held on to my cash. but positive gold balance always tempts me to spend it on something.

opened with trad then lib, then wonder SP, piety, two in Patronage then filled piety, freedom, and the rest. settled 9 GAs but a lot of them quite late. i wonder if i replayed and settled more would i have come close to 250?
was an interesting game but not particularily challenging.