TSG25 After Action Report

[leif erikson]

Hi everyone and welcome to the TSG25 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).

Would be interested to hear any thoughts on game setup.
How did the large map and epic speed affect your game?

 

[Tabarnak]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 25
Date submitted: 2011-12-04
Your name: Tabarnak
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 880AD
Turns played: 233
Base score: 623
Final score: 2009
Time played: 4:51:00
Submitted save: Elizabeth_0233 AD-0880.Civ5Save

Well i guess i'm the first one to finish. What followed from my last update from turn 200 is that i simply continued the rampage. With 3 armies, it went pretty fast.

The goal was pretty simple : Capture first capitals and hold them until you reach happiness cap of -8/-9 . Build a lot of triremes in the beginning, like a dozen. Send them everywhere before reaching Navigation. Kill barbs to get XP. Keep them unpromoted. You want to gather most insta-heals as possible. SotL can be immortals. Spot iron tiles very soon because you will want to send at least 1 settler to get a 6 iron tile. Beeline Navigation and mass upgrade form all the accumulated. Get out and rape everyone.

More you get cities, more the AI get angry. They declared a chain war against me. From that point, i knew i couldn't hold them much. Find an AI friend with everyone and sell capitals to him, but not before killing a bunch of units to raise peace deals probabilities. That way they are less willing to enter war with their friend too.

France was by far the most annoying capital to get but after captruring a 1st city to access to Paris from inland it was only a matter of time before i could take their cap.

Many glitches appeared near the end like white and red squares and a sort of nuclear waste surfing on tiles but i could get rid of this by clicking around on the map and let the computer absorbing informations(me think).

 

[Aaronius]

For whatever reason I was not able to submit my save. Its the first submission I've done on my Mac so maybe that has something to do with it.

Well, I missed the boat on the early iron supplies and realized I would never be able to conquer the world in my slow ponderous ways. I also had great relationships with everybody, plenty of money, plenty of lux, and plenty of rich friends. So I signed RAs with everybody all game and won by science. I did end up kicking Sully in the teeth and taking his cities on the continent; after he declared war on me the fourth time.

Bizmark and Wu got testy towards the end, but a strong navy rendered them impotent.


Edit: I tried attaching the save here, but the 2.32MB exceeds the limit here as well. Also, where did the thumbnails go for the screenshots that I attached yesterday?

 

[leif erikson]

Did you get an error message?

Please try attaching your save in your post above for us.

edit - Update
We think, because of the large map, the save file sizes are exceeding 2MB. That is the current limit for file sizes for the submission system. Alan will need a save or two to test with.

Unfortunately, the file attachment system for the forums also has a 2MB limit, so we are discussing how we will get them from you.

If you have a problem, please keep your saves and as soon as we solve it, we will help to get them uploaded.

Tabarnak's was 1.8MB, so it went through OK. If your files size is less than 2MB, you should be able to submit it successfully.

edit -
Update
Alan has increased the file size limit and everything seems to be working again.

Should you have a problem, please let us know.

 

[Aaronius]

Did you get an error message?

Please try attaching your save in your post above for us.

Yes, I did get an error message, and yes, my file size exceeds 2mb. I wasn't too concerned since I did a restart, took forever, and won by the non-designated VC.

 

[leif erikson]

Yes, I did get an error message, and yes, my file size exceeds 2mb. I wasn't too concerned since I did a restart, took forever, and won by the non-designated VC.

If you still have the original file, Alan would love to have it sent via the email I pm'ed to you.

 

[Tsaghen]

Got bored with my game since I realized I made two bad choices so I reloaded an early save.
First I went chasing Ruins too far away. Lacking melee units to soak the shots from city and garrisoned archer I had to delay my attack on Sulleiman.
Second I thought Range and Indirect Fire promotions was the best way, I was wrong, Logistics proved far superior.

So I reloaded just after gathering the 4 ruins on the two islands to the west. I regrouped all my units and started earning experience on the Ottomans as soon as possible, saving promotions until i reached level 4 for Logistics. I didn't want to take the bombardment promotions earlier because it would have killed my targets.
I went very well. I reached Navigation on turn 165. By then I had 9 Triremes —7 had reached Logistics— the Ottomans were wiped out and Berlin had fallen. I had saved enough to upgrade all my Triremes and build more SotL. From there it was quick and easy and won on turn 185 with Paris, Thebes and Persepolis falling.
I think I could have been even a bit faster if I had build a few more Pikemen to send them in advance near capitals. Even with 3 melee units I think I wasted up to 5 turns waiting for them to arrive.

That strategy based on a veteran army would not have been efficient on standard speed because science progresses too fast, there is no time for training. Thus I believe on standard the best plan would be —like Tabarnak did— to save promotions for instant heals.
Personally I had a great time playing promotions, it's much more fun and opens more strategy paths than blunt rush with instant heals. So thanks a lot for the change of game pace, I hope we see more in the futur, maybe make it the default ?

 

[Tabarnak]

-From there it was quick and easy and won on turn 185 with Paris, Thebes and Persepolis falling.

-I think I could have been even a bit faster if I had build a few more Pikemen to send them in advance near capitals.

-That strategy based on a veteran army would not have been efficient on standard speed because science progresses too fast, there is no time for training. Thus I believe on standard the best plan would be —like Tabarnak did— to save promotions for instant heals. Personally I had a great time playing promotions, it's much more fun and opens more strategy paths than blunt rush with instant heals. So thanks a lot for the change of game pace, I hope we see more in the futur, maybe make it the default ?

-Did you won the gameeek? or stomped 3 civs out of 12 by that date?

-Yes, sending troops a bit in advance save a couple of turns. I took an average of approx. 4 turns to capture a capital. Sometimes i had to kill ennemy units around, sometimes not.

-I agree, gathering insta-heals is cheap but very efficient. I think that disabling saved promos can reduce exploits. In fact i'm used to pick promos right of the bat because saving promos just don't work in mp games even if you enable it(bug?). At epic speed it's more fun to use promos but i just didn't want to lose ships at immortal level(i lost 1 for the whole game) and for the best result.

 

[Tsaghen]

Win on turn 185. Paris, Persepolis and Paris were the last civ.
As soon as I upgraded to SotL I made two fleets of four upgraded ships. The third fleet came later as I produces and bought new ships. Since I would not have time to train them I built barracks first so they would have and instant heal available right away.

Using instant heals isn't cheap, it's smart because it's usually the most efficient. I feel it's too bad the game is designed that way. In this very particular setting I thought promoting might work out as good, I gave it a try. Range + Indirect Fire turns out about the same but Logistics kicks ass.

It's tough to get there but then it's Christmas before time ! Not only does one ship count as two, they also gain experience twice as fast which gave me Supply (also gives +1 move) and +1 move promotion soon after. Added to Great Lighthouse and the +1 move from SP my SofL had 11 moves cutting a lot of travel time.
If that was not enough, the real killer is that Logistics also allows to move after attacking. Thus I only needed one access point to a city, get the first ship close, fire twice, move out, rinse and repeat with as many ships as needed. No need for the range upgrade and never took damage since the ships finished their turn out of range. Impossible to loose ships once they are upgraded, before it's tricky, I probably lost some time training as I didn't take any chances.

Try it yourself, I bet you can win faster than me as you usually do.
Note that I started from an earlier save where I had already Great Lighthouse, Colossus, Great Library which was a luckier start than yours. Also corrected some other mistakes, no way I would have thought of all that on the first try.

 

[Tabarnak]

Win on turn 185. Paris, Persepolis and Paris were the last civ.

Still pretty impressive for a replay!

You destroyed all the civs in 20 turns... You probably right when you say that it's more efficient by giving promos than to wait for insta heals. Though, it's hard to give enough trireme all these promos in time.

 

[Tsaghen]

Yes, got to start early. I declared war on Sulleiman around turn 85.

For anyone interested, here's the tricks I know to gain experience quickly with ships.

• When exploring and a ship has up to 3 movement points left, try to shoot at a barbarian. That's 2 points almost free. They should be level 2 by the time you recall them.
• Use a wounded melee unit to draw fire from the city and it's garrison, Triremes take too much damage. Two melee, both with medic and alternating as bait should do the trick.
• Bombarding cities gives 3 exp instead of 2 from units. Keep the cities for units with the most experience because as soon as they get Logistics they can train on another city without melee decoys.
• If possible, don't take the Bombardment promotions until level 4 so you don't risk killing enemy melee units, you need them for practice. Kill the archers though.
• Don't waste time training melee units, they don't need experience. Once the target city is down to 1 hit point you can take it even with a 1 hit point melee that cannot die from that battle.

This week end I'll replay the game to take some screenshots to illustrate.
The +50 % experience SP is nice but in this game there isn't time as it ends with Navigation. On land it might be worth it.

 

[trueblue]

Elizabeth. Turn 434. Domination.

Terrible turn time.

It just fell apart in the middle game.

Though i was never in any danger of not winning.

Took me seven days to complete, on and off. GOTM24 didnt take seven hours.

Maybe i can bring myself to write something about it later. and the screenshots.

Skyrim for a while now.




Game: Civ5 GOTM 25
Date submitted: 2011-12-08
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1844AD
Turns played: 434
Base score: 1951
Final score: 3422
Time played: 12:05:00
Submitted save: GOTM25Save.Civ5Save
Renamed file: trueblue_C502501.Civ5Save






Three things.

1. First time ive killed a tank with an anti-tank.
2. First time ive seen rebels(?) spawn in AI land.
3. First time ive completed a Large map.

 

[Maxym]

Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1300AD
Turns played: 280
Base score: 1087
Final score: 2937
Time played: 22:36:00

I guess it didn't go that bad even with everyone fighting against me. Even Nappy joined in before it was his turn to die. I was going to take out him and Oda on turn 276 simulaneously in case i suffered a bad hit to happiness after annexing one of them. But got my scout snagged on some japanes units around Kyoto and i was hoping an insta heal wouls see the scout through a bombaqrdment but he spawned/bought a trireme and run me over. Had to bring in another land unit all the way from Rome and hence the delay.

I have kept first few caps because i had the happy for it and Turks had Iron, China ND and Arabs GW. After that i figured that since i was not in contention anyway it would be nice to hold on to all of them if possible. I had to spend a lot longer as after every conquest i spent 3-4 tunrns clearing all of enemy units and giving caps time to heal up. After Germany and Arabia joined a mass DoW i had to divert 4 SOTL to deal with their carpets of doom and then kept them around as they were spawning units very quickly. I also too 2nd german city as additional iron inusrance, ended up with 18 SOTL, 2 longbows, 1 pike and 2 scouts. I have build a bunch of caravels to keep the sea lanes cleasr and not worry about escorting my land units with SOTLs. The seas of that world will make for a great wreck diving spot

I really enjoyed this map and a different speed was a nice change of pace. It was also nice to see AI mass DoW me instead of waiting to be picked off one by one. Too bad it's still so hopeless at naval and amphibious warfare. Looking forward to the next one.

 

[tommynt]

well ended this tunr 150, all I did in last turn was move with my sword into city as I missed the turn before that I d get movement penalty when moving past a warri ..

Game: Civ5 GOTM 25
Date submitted: 2011-12-13
Reference number: 25325
Your name: tommynt
Your email:
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 350BC
Turns played: 150
Base score: 371
Final score: 1855
Time played: 6:50:00
Submitted save: GOTM25_tommynt_t150win.Civ5Save
Renamed file: tommynt_C502501.Civ5Save

Ok pretty basic simple beeline navigation game here:
Tech order: Mining-->Optics-->Writing--> Education-->RA compass--> bulb astro and Navi --> RA steel
SP: Liberty tree and free gen for GA (does the right 2nd military SP work for ships attacking cities? Its bit unclear stated figures when attacking cities arent shown)

Buildup: Cap on Gold--> Monument --> granny --> settler (after free settler and bonus)--> worker--> scout--> Great Lighthouse (lost )--> lighthouse ... --> GreatLib-->NC

right after teching sailing I bought a ship with Otto and own Gold --> find civ -> buy another ship --> find 1 --> buy another and so on. So I had pretty early sent 5 ships in every directions and few scouts rdy to go for all the ruins on map when hitting optics.
After finding like 3-4 civs I started training the ships most times with try to hit barbs with last move while doing more scouting.
Once I teched Philo (a bit late got bronze for no reason before) I did 4 RAs (in like next 5 turns) as I wasnt sure If I d get Gl (just lost great Lighthouse 2 turns before build) and wanted make sure to be able to beeline Navi right when they end.
45 turns later it showed that 2 RAs d have been enough as I could get CS with GL and hard tech Edu myself.
with lib finisher rushed PT and with scientist from hagia I poped Astro and navi in like turn 127.
Meanwhile I upgraded 3 swords and together with few trimeres I attacked ottos - Lost a lot and had to send 2 or 3 new swords .... but finally i could take otto. Meanwhile rest of my fleet gathered at greece and I could take it afetr long long fight right when I hat Nvaigation. Upgraded ships and send armies of 4 ships around world - got overall 3 armies -
the 1 from fromer otto --> germany --> arabia --> Japan
from greece --> egypt --> rome --> siam --> shonghai
1 new ship + 1 from each side --> Persia --> China
and all after build went to french(bought a ship a sword-->LS and a cata in the Iron city close to it).
Was in GA after 1. one at around turn 80 pretty much all time with all the generals

I m pretty sure that training to get 3 range asap is way better as saving heals as u dont get hit after 3 range anymore anyway - so i upgraded all my early ships right when they could and healed new ones just up when they got hit too often by cities.
Had in end a 5 time up ship and lot ones which I upgraded 4 times overal.

Ah yes, and sold all my cities to ottos - most ones right the turn or next after conquering. When opponent looked strong I shoot units (espacially melee ones) for 1 turn after conquering so that they dont deicde to attack ottos - but guess after getting gifted like 5 caps very fast he looked strong to the other civs. I checked his military status every 2nd turn to see if hes in war with some1 to be able to help or try to bring back peace.

Fun game - but the 6 hours shown sound very flawed - I m pretty sure that I did like 4-5 sessions which each 2-3 hours (and maybe 1 or 2 very short ones)

 

[Ribannah]

Tommy, can you specify the turns you got your techs, and what you built on which turn in London? Did you build the National College? Where did you get your Iron? Where did you found your other cities?

 

[tommynt]

dont remember turns really, but got Philo in turn 80 pretty sure singed 4 ras in t80 t82 t83 and t85 I think - gl in like turn 85- 90 --> Theo --> Edu in like turn 118 (remember it was like 7-8 turn before RAs hit) and navigation in t127

Built Gl in like turn 87 and NC like 12 turns later.

My other 2 cities where on some hill se close to cap and on hill east of ivory - the iron tile was right in between the 2 founded 1 more city at greece continent very late (like turn 132 and and ne of otto cap in like t137 to get irons. Got 2 irons from CS like same turn when i conected the 2 in my land then went for otto 2nd city at the marble to get another 6 (the only ones I had when Navi hit - had to anex city and buy tile - neither cap nor city had boarders there yet)

Other cites built monument, units to scout, libararies and so on, some trimeres aswell - they had decent production with built on hill, republic and use of more prod tiles

Think key is here to do the 2 scientist beeline Navi trick and have enough trimieres rdy to upgrade then - in a replay I d obviously skip GL (missing it sucked ass, but the +1 movement isnt soooooo important) and maybe build another fast settler instead - early production is really helpful to get enough stuff to scout, hit ruins, train units and so on.
Overall I got like 25 ruins I think, giving me 3 free techs (no big ones) some pops and so on.

Expected btw to have more ocean on this map, didnt think I could find nearly all civs before astro

 

[Tabarnak]

Navigation turn 127 is damn fast. I guess you got Civil Service or Theology from the GL(Edit : i read theo nvm)? I should have signed a couple of RAs to accelerate things. Very nice tommy, as usual. And yeah i also think that insta heals ar less powerful than going for +1 range or blitz. Well i realized that after.

When you attack these guys so early i guess you don't have as many problems as me or other players that start conquering much later, reducing even more the finish date.

I will try to record my future games. I hope you will do the same this could be very nice to see.

 

[DaveMcW]

Turn 133 Navigation.
Turn 177 Domination.


Link to video.

 

[Ribannah]

Turn 80 seems quite fast for Philosophy, since you say you researched Bronze Working first (not a bad idea as such, as you could then pop Iron Working). Did you get 30 culture from your first ruins, and choose Collective Rule before Citizenship?

You also still have me wondering about this:

find civ -> buy another ship --> find 1 --> buy another

How many ships did you have on turn 80, and what did the civs get for their gold?

Navigation turn 127 is damn fast.

Getting the Great Library easily makes a difference of 10 turns in a race to Navigation. The Great Lighthouse is nice thematically, but will gain no more than 2 or 3 turns in speed.

 

[Tabarnak]

Turn 80 seems quite fast for Philosophy, since you say you researched Bronze Working first (not a bad idea as such, as you could then pop Iron Working). Did you get 30 culture from your first ruins, and choose Collective Rule before Citizenship?

You also still have me wondering about this:


How many ships did you have on turn 80, and what did the civs get for their gold?


Getting the Great Library easily makes a difference of 10 turns in a race to Navigation. The Great Lighthouse is nice thematically, but will gain no more than 2 or 3 turns in speed.

You can't pop a classical tech from a ruin. Only ancient ones. Yeah missing the GL cost us many turns of research. I would say more than 10 turns because we also lost the bonus from the GL itself.

And more we attack later, more we face resistance. We were already doomed Ribannah

I can't check Dave's video at my job right now