Hi everyone and welcome to the TSG15 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 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). The game will not be closed as such, but after two weeks, the results will be compiled, and will not necessarily be updated with reports coming in after the closing date.
What do you think of the features in the new patch? Does the patch make the game more difficult? If so, what difficulty should future TSG's be?
ive played a few of the GOTM but this is the first time ive bothered to do a report, so where to start.
Emperor is just too easy, its true.
Scientific win!
Turn time: 337 - 1917AD
Score: 1459 - i think
only built three cities. NY to the north near the whales, boston, late, out west because i felt a third city would help science.
Polcies: tradition maxed out (for that 15% growth), honour maxed out (its the best tree out there but i didnt get its full benifit this game, not enough war so not enough from the gold bonus), rationalism (its a science game, so yeh)
Was only ever in two wars and they were fought with an upgraded scout archer and my starting warrior and city bombardment. China and Egypt, egypt got wipped out by someone and china took a flat peace after some other civ started on them. that was it. built two musketman which i upgraded through the game just incase. built one caravel to explore.
built a shed load of wonders, off the top of my head: Great Library, Oracle, Stongehenge, Itza, Himeji, Sistine, Hagia, Kremlin, Porcelain Tower, Pentagon, Brandenburg Gate, Opera house. all the national wonders. (told you emperor is too easy.) All in my capital other than Oprea House in NY.
once i had the opening of Rationalism and the PT it was just RA after RA. easy. happiness was never a problem, i did have to gold two colloseum at one point but that was it. Gold was a slight issue till the bank and the national treasury, i bought two market places at one point. bought my NY library too but i was a bit late on getting the College up (due to wonder whoring), planted one great scientist too (at my capital on the horses).
built public schools in all three cities, much beter building after the patch.
only way i can think of right now that would have speed it up was buildign the national college earlier.
Diplo Actions: oh aye, the much discussed diplo. i never sign DOF's, ever, in any game. i trade open borders at every chance for 50 or 43 or 1gpt + 19. traded my spare lux's just as and when i could. i knew both china and egypt would attack as they flooded me with units, they were never a danger.
ill often sub the AI gold to get those RA's.
TEch Path: headed straight for the GL, then straight to the Oracle, the straight for Itza, i think i used the Hagie GE for Itza (i think an early RA gave me the Hagie tech), missed out on the Hangign Gardens due to this path, hey ho.
then its just researching the lowest Tech every chance.
oh aye, this was the first time ive played as the Yanks. teh extra visibity is decent, the tile purchasing i never really used and i didnt get the chance to use the musketman or b-17.
Well, I managed a G. Lib. start, and also managed to win the races to Hanging Gardens and Porcelain Tower. I had a super capital, but got boxed in from the east by Russia earlier than I expected (going for G. Lib/NC made my settling very slow). Catherine was the main competition. I neglected my military after fending off an early rush from Wu, who turned into a non-factor. Finally Catherine invaded with Rifles/Cannons when I had a single minuteman and some warriors and archers---never was able to upgrade the warriors due to lack of iron in our start. Was quite scary, since there was no buffer between her forces and my capital. I fought a defensive war for a long time before finally pushing back and taking two of her cities, for a total of 6 in the end game.
I think if I'd figured out a way to warmonger earlier and expanded a bit into Russian territory, I might have done better. However, the reputation hit maybe would have cost me several RAs. I did a ton of trading to get the gold for them.
RAs are powerful with Rationalism and the Porcelain Tower, but it stinks when they overflow into a tech you don't want. Happened to me with the lower-branch military techs often towards the end game.
I settled several G. Scientists, but I think that was a mistake. I was hoping to double them with the Freedom finisher, but should have known I wouldn't have enough culture to round out three policy trees.
I'm honestly new enough to Emperor difficulty that it's hard for me to tell if this is easier/harder than before the patch. (Edit: not to mention, when I saw how much the patch was going to change things, I went back to Civ IV for a while )
I hadn't looked into the changes following the patch in any detail, other than knowing that RA's now gave a boost rather than individual techs. Although I did take a little more time than usual to check where various buildings, units, etc were in the tree, and the changes to SPs. Other than that I winged it.
Therefore I was somewhat surprised to find out how easy this win was. Looks like I followed a similar path to previous posters: bee-lined GL and NC, settled three citites, fought off an early rush from China, then took her out, no other wars, no happiness problems, lots of gold, quicker to build (?), job done.
Was the tech lead throughout the game, but managed to keep military parity whilst generating lots of science and gold, and supported about 3-5 CS for a large part of the game.
I allied several military CS which I don't normally do, but they were in good strategic positions against potential enemies, had nice luxuries, and kept my military up to scratch.
Launched 1927 (turn 347), base score 909, score 1307. Rank: Simon Bolivar.
Wow, this was the funniest game I have played so far in Civ 5!
Played a fast game (4:23) and finally finished in 1836 (turn 288). Almost everything worked fine for me.
I was surprised, that the AI was relatively peaceful, as in my three test games for the new patch they were really aggressive from the beginning on.
I beelined GL, NC, then went for iron. With no iron around, I went for minutemen (for defense).
I built Washington on the incense for observatory and solar (next to mountain and desert). Had 3 cities the whole game. When I got the Coal tech, I have built a 4th, to grab the coal west. I also got one city of the Russians near the end of the game.
Policies were the whole Liberty and Rationalism path. I love the early boost from Liberty. I am not sure, if Tradition would have also been good, as I've built many wonders.
I did RAs all the time and they were really great and powerful. Also did a lot of trading every turn.
I wasn't able to upload the savefile here, but posted a submission.
My opening build was scout, scout, worker. I wanted to pick up as many ruins and city state bonuses as I could early game. That 3 sight helps enormously.
When I saw how tight space on the map was I figured I'd only have 3 or 4 cities so I went tradition. I'm always tempted to take Liberty in the early game, but I've found Tradition to be a much better long term plan almost all the time. But I did build a settler as soon as I could to make sure I got that whale spot before Wu.
I did a lot of wonder whoring. Beelined the Hanging Gardens, then realized both GL and SH weren't taken so I did them both. The AI doesn't seem to want wonders anymore. And with all those plains around Washington the Hanging Gardens were huge. I don't think I ever took it off production focus and it still grew to size 24.
Wu was a little pissed that I settled so close to her (I also bought about 6 tiles as soon as I dropped the city). She declared war, but I had two archers and two warriors waiting for her. While we were warring I settled Boston right by the mountain pass to the east, hoping to block off Russia.
Wu sued for peace and then apparently gave up. She settled one more city throughout the game, which was quickly taken by Persia. I maintained friendly relationships with everyone, signing DoF's with the Iroquois for almost the entire game. Then in medieval Catherine backstabbed me. Once again, my archers and warriors held her a the choke point (that oligarchy policy is amazing). She sued for peace right about the time I hit gunpowder. I cranked out about 10 minutemen and went after her, taking out about four of her cities.
At that point I pretty much just turtled up and went for science. The Russian war had put me economy and happiness in the red. So I beelined theaters and then banks and was fine. I bought 6 city states and maintained them through the game. I stayed friends with everyone except for Cathy. Darius was a monster. He was pretty much permanently at war throughout the game. He took out Egypt, Russia and India within the span of about three turns in the late game. But I had my entire army hanging around what used to be Russia, so he never tried anything.
Hiawatha gave me a few scares. That guy can produce. He killed one of his city states and brought an entire carpet of doom through my territory. I was convinced I was in for a fight, but he politely moved though my borders and took out a Russian city on the other side of the map. I was sweating a bit though.
Washington was a powerhouse. Aside from the early wonders I took Hagia Sophia, Porcelain Tower, Sistine Chapel, Taj Mahal, Christo Redentor and Statue of Liberty. I got Notre Dame, Big Ben and Sydney Opera House in New York. And in Boston I built the Eiffel Tower.
Social Policies were the full Tradition branch. Patronage to scholasticism while I was waiting to hit the Rennaisance. Then went the full Freedom track while settling some Great Scientists. In the late game I started on Rationalism, timing the two free techs to grab the last spaceship parts. All of my cities were high in production. I churned out the spaceship parts in about 4 turns each.
This is my second game playing as Washington post patch. I really like him. America is versatile so you don't have to play with any set strategy going in. You can just take things as they come, which is nice.
Looks like i am the only one who took the liberty path. Also i only had only one cs as an ally.
another remark: the future techs took like about 20 turns for me each. Before the patch it was about 12 turns. Or is it because i didn't had patronage and cs allies?
Game: Civ5 GOTM 15
Date submitted: 2011-07-04
Reference number: 24520
Your name: Tabarnak
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1660AD
Turns played: 242
Base score: 831
Final score: 1731
Time played: 3:55:00
Submitted save: Washington_0242 AD-1660.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Tabarnak_C501501.Civ5Save
First time i fought so much when i go for other types of victories than domination. AI is more agressive but when you have army to defend and destroy other armies you can get large pots of gold from peace deals. You can see a write-up of the game here :
Future tech? never got there. I also had only 1-2 CS allies ever, and no patronage---I went Tradition/Rationalism (was hoping for Freedom, as I said, but when it became clear it wasn't going to be a factor I took Order instead for Factory science boost, although by then I already had the key spaceship techs).
It sounds like you had a much more peaceful game than I. I probably should have built more defense--but given how big Catherine's empire was, and how much military she had on my border, I don't think more Minutemen would have prevented her DoW. Not to mention hammers (and hammers that could have become food/gold/science) spent fending off China's early rush, in my game. I think war/peace might have made the difference between our finish dates. I'm surprised Liberty didn't slow you down more; the growth and wonder bonuses from Tradition seem way better than founding New York a little earlier, to me.
Edit: looks like early REX is stronger than a G.Lib. start. Those spots for Philadelphia/Boston are where I wanted to settle, but Catherine beat me there due to the G.Lib./NC start. I also built a worker first to chop out the G.Lib., which meant less scouting and fewer ruins. (early comments directed at mcmpan, edit @tabarnak who posted at the same time I did)
Devs have announced in march that the new Tradition tree provides bonuses for Tall empires and Liberty for Wide empires. But in reality it was the opposite!
They finally got what it's supposed to be. Liberty is for Wide empires and Tradition for Tall empires now.
I barely beat Catherine to the Spaceship; she only needed the last 2 parts.
I didn't play particularly efficient this game. Going one city too long allowed Russia to expand into my territory and made her a superpower. Taking Hiawatha's city-state ally by force sent a landslide of hate upon me by almost every other leader (ironically, not Russia) and ruined my plans for late game RA's. I should have avoided Patronage and got some happiness policies instead. There were a couple points in the game that I hit under -10 happiness, which is never good.
On the bright side, I was able to use B-17's to their maximum potential. With an Armory, you can produce Lvl3 B-17's which can have +50% evasion, +50% vs cities, and air repair. They are essentially indestructible; I think I only lost one to getting double hit by nearby AA Guns. Lvl4 can give them Logistics (attack twice) and then Lvl5 can boost the city attack to +75%. And then comes Stealth...pure rain of fire! Washington's +1 sight really synergizes well with the air attack, allowing Cavalry or Tank's to get close enough to see the city and then retreat to safety.
Wasn't the best finish by far, but it sure was interesting and fun!
A Warry experience! Everyone was fighting everyone, and most interesting when I bulbed for the final 12 techs, I was DoWed immediately by Hia and the money I saved for SS factories I had to put into units. I had to sell all my PSchools, Unis and Libs as well to keep my towns together.
I also made one big mistake, not bulbing Apollo earlier, that costed me 7 turns to build it, where I could already have built SS-parts. I will do a write up in the "in progress" thread. How do you upload Screenshots?
Game: Civ5 GOTM 15
Date submitted: 2011-07-05
Reference number: 24523
Your name: sebasm
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1850AD
Turns played: 295
Base score: 671
Final score: 1137
Time played: 3:19:00
Submitted save: SEBASM_TG15_0295 AD-1850.Civ5Save
Renamed file: sebasm_C501501.Civ5Save
I did the new NC start, hardbuying the Libraries in my first two cities. Then settled two more quick close to the luxuries. I thought about settling next to the two cotton's close to Hia but figured that would spread me too much and with all the CS in between, the area would be hard to control.
Cathy decided to play tall and go for wonders (I've never seen her do this before) and beat me by 4 turns to the HG. After this failure I just beelined to HS, used the Liberty GE on it and then did the PT. Waited some turns more for the Rationalism opener and then started to spam RAs.
The problem was though that the AIs were either dead broke or asking for unfair exchanges most of the time.
- Wu built an army early on but never went on to conquest anyone which gimped her throughout. She never ever had more than 50g because of this.
- Cathy went tall, got almost wiped by Ramses. She lived with Moscow, then settled two cities next to Hia and managed to pull back into the game late on. Awesome comeback, babe! Still, she was at 0g for most of the game.
- Ghandi wend on a killing spree around turn 200, getting Wu and Ramses in the process
-Hiwa, Darius and The loner built and spammed RAs.
I had a long lasting war with Ramses up to about turn 200, Cathy never liked me but I was friendly with everybody else until the last 25 turns. That's when EVERYBODY DoW'd me (except for the Loner and the dead). In the end I had to sell buildings to survive but it was great fun, especially since the alternative was just spamming End Turn.
P.S. What do you guys use to get screenshots ingame?
For myself i downloaded ScreenCaptor a free software. I take pictures(IMG format) with alt+prtscrn and i upload them at photobucket.com(made an account). I copy the direct link from picture on site and use the insert image icon(paste) when i post and usually put them in spoilers too.
I just hit the "Print Screen" key on my keyboard and the game saves a screen capture in the folder at: D:\My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 5\ScreenShots
You can attach them using the forum or you can upload them to a photo site such as photobucket or imageshack and link them to the forum using the image tools,
I just hit the "Print Screen" key on my keyboard and the game saves a screen capture in the folder at: D:\My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 5\ScreenShots
Not working for me. That's why i use a software. With only printscreen from computer i always get a blank image and i don't know how to change format(which is very simple with ScreenCaptor).
Not working for me. That's why i use a software. With only printscreen from computer i always get a blank image and i don't know how to change format(which is very simple with ScreenCaptor).
Civ5 GOTM 15
Date submitted: 2011-07-05
Your name: Aaronius
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1850AD
Turns played: 295
Base score: 1783
Final score: 3022
Wow. This game is getting more and more fun for me. I managed to play half of a game with Napolean before the GOTM came out. I wanted to know how the RAs would work (still not 100% sure how) and I also wanted to see what all this happiness business was about. Turns out it was a good practice because IMO both France and America are good civs for trying to play with an early expansionist approach and liberty track. Also, I learned that some of the wonders are very different. Obviously the Great ATM...err Library, but also the costs of some natl wonders went up, and some late wonders moved around etc. Basically, it feels like a new game, but one that is more intuitive for me. Also, I absolutely love the new graphs and maps at the end game....not perfect, but wonderful nonetheless!
With this GOTM I wanted to go with several cities fast and play for a liberty start. It turned out to be a pretty good strategy b/c there were lots of nice city sites around. I ended up with five cities in my opening gambit and completed liberty as my first policies. I built the GL and exploited it to the tune of $4320 between turns 55 and 295 . In retrospect I probably would have stopped with four cities for a few reasons, but five worked out pretty well.
Spoiler:
Drawbacks to the expansive opening included an angry Wu and Catherine. I was a good neighbor but just too big. Cathy said it best when she said "fate has determined that we would be enemies by placing us together", or something to that effect. I thought it was a nice statement to make as she backstabbed me and ruined our RA . However, I knew I was in for trouble with my expansive ways and I prepared accordingly. I bought a couple CS allies, including one with iron. I built all warriors instead of scouts as I like to do, one of them found some advanced weaponry (spearman), and I upgraded two of them to swords and backed them with a couple archers. This was more than enough to see off advances from Wu and Cathy. I bought another CS for more iron, upgraded the rest of my warriors, went longsword, and took Cathy and Wu's capitals. I let them sue for peace and give me everything they had, upgraded to crossbows and built a couple trebs, then finished them both off shortly after....cathy I left one crummy city so we could RA together and she never backstabbed me again, tho she always hated me .
By this point I was as big as I needed to be, but everybody on the continent was guarded with me. The only RAs that completed in the early game were with Hiawatha (a loyal friend early), Ramses Gandi and Cyrus. I decided to take out a military CS to gain another CS ally, and also to get more use out of my sweet but expensive woman destroying army. This proved too much for Hiawatha and Gandi as they tried the ol' tag team DOW (didn't they see what happened to Wu and Cathy ). This ruined my RAs but allowed me to take some nice cities which gave me several new luxuries like silk and gems and more wales. Deli was so nice it ended up building a spaceship part as well . By the end of this war faze I had the left side of patronage in addition to all of liberty, plus I was halfway thru rationalism tree as well.
The sticking point in this game occured between AD1000 and AD1500. I had expanded more than I needed (to 15 cities, five domestic and 10 puppets). Every city had one or more lux but still happiness was an issue. I had every lux but silver thru my own lands or CS allies but still hit the dreaded -10 happy for half a dozen turns or so . I really wanted a few more cities to put my enemies permanently in the rearview, but it just wasn't possible to expand any further or even to grow domestically during this period. I ended up working thru the problem by annexing all ten puppets (I was rich biatch!) and building courthouses followed by Colosseum Theater Library University School. By this time I was just about thru with rationalism and I liked the way all the science buildings were adding happiness. This synergy between happiness and science is very powerful IMO.
Spoiler:
As the now undisputed score leader, nobody was ever friendly again except for the turn after I slapped them up and made peace. This made RAs during the mid game problematic and sparse. No matter how nice I was with my plentiful luxs and RAs everybody kept DOWing me, and I couldn't go after them b/c of my happiness issues. I especially lusted after Hiawatha's capital b/c he managed to beat me to almost ten wonders (I had all the rest ) Right about the time that I was finally getting my super annexed empire happy and productive the other leaders finally chilled out and just remained perma-guarded. I left my army in defensive pose and focused on leaving this miserable planet.
A deep and abiding peace summed up my late game, altho Cyrus got frisky with Ramses. I got another round of RAs with everyone, and almost had time to complete a third round of successful RAs before I won. I was getting rich by this point to rival even the mighty Harun on his island paradise by about turn 225. He was starting to nab CS allies and really take off so I traded him everything I had for all his money, stole all his good CS allies, and DOWed him. After the minimum turns and not a shot fired in anger between us he settled for a neutral peace and I had the money and power advantage to maintain my CS from there on out. He ended up grabbing some of the hostile and militant CS, but by the end of the game I had over $10000 to his $1000 so I could have bought him out of his allies no problemo. I had all eight of the good maritime and cultural CS's, RA's rolling, more than four primo spaceship cities with the amazing Deli in the empire. Nobody ever built the Manhattan Project so I was able to leave my spaceship parts unassembled until the last turn for extra satisfaction . If by some chance Harun got to UN (extremely unlikely) I was ready to buy out all the CS with my vast sums of wealth.
I got really happy and really rich as the tech race went on and experienced two induced GAs between Turns 240 and 295. I missed my beaker goal of 1000bpt by 1800, but I reached it by 1820. I was building Apollo by the time anyone (Harun) hit the modern era, I had cash for spaceship factories where I needed them, and the parts came off smooth as can be. I would have been three turns faster if Cyrus hadn't conquered Ramses on the very turn when our RA completed , but it all seems fairly petty compared to the vastness of space.
In the interest of full disclosure I used two replays early in this game. This game with the new balancing has convinced me not to cheat anymore from here on out. As long as we stick with emperor for a while I think I can now tolerate something as horrible as an early lost warrior or the like . Let's see if I can stick to that pledge next time
Thanks to our fearless Viking leader for the most fun GOTM yet!!!
Oh, in my writeup I forgot to add the most important thing I actually wanted to say:
Apparently, if you lose the aluminium the Spaceship Factories still provide the 50% prod bonus.
When the world decided to kick my ass, Ghandi was sure to sweep Ragusa fast, removing my only source of aluminium. My rocket artillery ended up shooting wet noodles so I dismissed it and sent it packing for an all inclusive Caribbean holiday. But the spaceship factories were still cranking as before, with me sitting at -3 aluminium.
Looks like a nasty bug to me. Does anyone know if this is true for other resource buildings?
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)
. In retrospect I probably would have stopped with four cities for a few reasons, but five worked out pretty well. 
). This ruined my RAs but allowed me to take some nice cities which gave me several new luxuries like silk and gems and more wales. Deli was so nice it ended up building a spaceship part as well 
. By the end of this war faze I had the left side of patronage in addition to all of liberty, plus I was halfway thru rationalism tree as well.
. I really wanted a few more cities to put my enemies permanently in the rearview, but it just wasn't possible to expand any further or even to grow domestically during this period. I ended up working thru the problem by annexing all ten puppets (I was rich biatch!) and building courthouses followed by Colosseum Theater Library University School. By this time I was just about thru with rationalism and I liked the way all the science buildings were adding happiness. This synergy between happiness and science is very powerful IMO. 
) Right about the time that I was finally getting my super annexed empire happy and productive the other leaders finally chilled out and just remained perma-guarded. I left my army in defensive pose and focused on leaving this miserable planet. 
. If by some chance Harun got to UN (extremely unlikely) I was ready to buy out all the CS with my vast sums of wealth.
, but it all seems fairly petty compared to the vastness of space.
. Let's see if I can stick to that pledge next time 
