News: TSG30 Announcement

[leif erikson]

Civilization 5 - Game of the Month Training Series Game 30
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\//////////////////////////////////////////​

Welcome to the thirtieth game in the GOTM V Training Series! There are plenty of new features in Civilization 5 to explore and the Training Series games will allow new and old GOTM fans to try out these new features in a friendly environment. You are all encouraged to post your questions, stories, advice, tricks and failures in the dedicated game threads described below. You can read more about the GOTM and Training Series concept in this thread. Before going into the details of this game, we would like to ask you to abide to our most sacred rule: don’t replay any turns. If you make a mistake, accept it and try to recover. It's better to do the bad moves in the Training Series instead of in the actual GOTM competition, once it starts.

In this game, the designated VC is Culture. You may win by any VC you wish, as all VC's are enabled, but the results will be posted with fastest finish by Cultural victory and then all other VC listed below by fastest time.

In this game you will play as Alexander and lead the Greek civilization to victory. It's a standard-sized mystery map played at Warlord difficulty and at standard pace. Cultural victory is the designated VC for this game, all victory conditions are enabled. You will have until March 15th to complete the game and submit.

Very happy to have out Mac users back with us, hope you enjoy the game.

Please note that you are only allowed to build Oxford University one time.

Civ V - TSG30 Game Settings:
Playable Civ: Alexander - Greek
Number of AI Opponents: 7
Number of City-States: 20
Map type: Mystery
Map Size: Standard
Difficulty Level: Warlord
Game pace: Standard
Game options: Promotion Saving is enabled. Quick Combat is disabled (You can enable it by following instructions in this link.)
Game Version: This game was created in Civ5 version 1.0.1.511

In this game, you will be playing as Alexander, you possess Hellenic League. Your influence with City-States degrades at half and recovers at twice the normal rate.

You can train the Hoplite, which replaces the Spearman. The Hoplite is far more powerful than the Spearman it replace. It is deadly against mounted units. You must discover the technology of Bronze Working and you do not need a resource to build it.

You can also train Companion Cavalry, which replaces the Horseman. The Companion Cavalry are faster and more powerful than the Horseman, making them the most dangerous cavalry units until the arrival of the Knight. They help generate Great Generals more rapidly than other units. They can also move after attacking. Their great weakness is versus Spearmen and Pikemen. You must discover the technology of Horseback Riding and you do need the Horse resource to build it.

This is where you will start:



Information about threads associated with TSG
TSG Announcement thread (this one). This thread is used to announce the game and clarify the settings and rules (don’t be afraid to ask questions). It’s also used to discuss the game before you start, and post problems with opening the save. Please don’t post any information from a game you have started. Instead use the next thread.

Game In Progress thread. This thread is used to discuss the game once it's on the way. There are no reading or posting restrictions as such (apart from normal decency), although we encourage players to use the spoiler tags for screenshots. Here you can post questions related to the game and share your achievements/anger/frustration/victories while you play.

After Action Report thread. In this thread you can post the results of your game. Please state (preferably in the post title) your victory date and score, as recorded in the Hall of Fame, and the most important: your path to glory! , We will create a separate thread with the results at the end of the two week period (sorted by date and score). 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. 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 finish date.

File Upload System
We now have a game file upload system you can find here. Please use it to upload your completed first attempt by saving the game on the turn after your victory or defeat. (by using the "lemme play one more turn" feature)

This game runs for four weeks and ends Thursday, 15 March 2012.

The Save can be found here.

 

[Monthar]

I'd move the warrior to the western hill to see if the northern and southern water connect. Then either settle in place to instantly clear the marsh, SE 1 tile to put the spice in the 3rd ring and be on the southern coast, or on the gold hill NE1 for better early production, instant access to the lux and be close enough to the mountain for Machu Picchu, or next to the mountain for an observatory and make the 2nd city be coastal.

Since there aren't any sea resources we can see, settling next to the mountain might be the better choice for plenty of food, production and better science, with only 3 coastal and 1 lake tile that we can see. Especially when considering the difficulty level and how much harder it'll be for the AI to have the funds for signing RAs.

 

[pontias]

good timing.. i was thinking about doing something constructive in my life. this will be a nice distraction

 

[mike678]

Yea I'll probably move the warrior to the west hill. If nothing spectacular I'll move settler to east forested hill to get a better view and settle next turn depending on what I see.

 

[FeiLing]

I don't expect any more land tiles to the west. Gonna move the settler onto the gold, then probably settle on turn 2 next to the mountain either east or NE from the gold. Not sure yet about the warrior, might go left or down.

Not too experienced with Culture games... guess they're basically the same as a Science game except you also need to increase your culture as well as your science.

BTW, may I ask why Promotion Saving is always allowed for these games? Isn't that like an option most players consider abusable? Not like it's really needed against the AI...

 

[Tabarnak]

Hmm. 1 tile SE or 2 tiles E? High early production+Machu picchu vs Sydney in capital+extra lux?

Can be NE on gold but i fear to lose too many hills.

 

[leif erikson]

BTW, may I ask why Promotion Saving is always allowed for these games? Isn't that like an option most players consider abusable? Not like it's really needed against the AI...

Not sure why it would be considered abusive? It has been a part of Civ, certainly for Civ4. It allows a player to hold the promotions until the player knows what they are going to face or to use them to instant heal when necessary. I do not see how it can be abused?

 

[Gamewizard]

Probably for the instant heals, but I don't abuse it so I'm not positive.

 

[leif erikson]

Probably for the instant heals, but I don't abuse it so I'm not positive.

I could understand that argument if the unit did not have to take the time to heal in order to save the promotion, there is still a cost to the player in healing the unit and losing the effectiveness of shock or the rough terrain promo (getting old, forgot the name).

 

[FeiLing]

So it's basically to please players of older Civ games; didn't know it was standard in Civ4.
Don't see though why promotion saving is cool, but policy saving is not (okay the latter might have a larger influence... for me both are just gimmicks). I prefer the standard game options (only exception being quick combat, but that doesn't change the game rules at all. Anyway, not too much of an issue.

Hmm. High early production+Machu picchu vs Sydney in capital+extra lux?

Good point. Think I'll try to make the capital mainly gold and research focused and a secondary city the main culture producer... could be fatal if I can't find a good shore spot with a lot of hills for the second city

 

[leif erikson]

So it's basically to please players of older Civ games; didn't know it was standard in Civ4.

Has nothing to do with pleasing anyone. For me, it makes sense. Do not see why you have a bur about it?

Open a discussion thread and make your case why it is abusive or exploitive and the community can decide.

Don't see though why promotion saving is cool, but policy saving is not (okay the latter might have a larger influence... for me both are just gimmicks). I prefer the standard game options (only exception being quick combat, but that doesn't change the game rules at all. Anyway, not too much of an issue.

We have had the discussion, as a community, concerning policy saving and we decided that it could be exploitive, so we do not use it any longer.

 

[trueblue]

Its on!















(while i dont mind insta heals, im not a huge fan of promotion saving and often wondered why it was specifically allowed. but hey, them are the rules.)

 

[Tabarnak]

HoF rules accept promo saving for every games(default rule). Certainly broken for mp, there is a bug anyway that don't let you save promos even if you enable it.

 

[Sprenk]

Err . . . is it just me, or is there a decided lack of food with this starting position?

 

[ifinnem]

I see the completed games so far have minimized the use of RAs. I am gonna try focus on the RA heavy approach assuming I can stomach playing without my usual interface mods...

Anybody have good reference points for when key wonders go, esp SH, GL, Oracle, HS, PT etc. go on Warlord

EDIT: FWIW it always struck me as odd that the only deviation from standard rules was to allow promo saving. Seemed like a slightly odd exception to choose...

 

[shooter6947]

I'm really bad at cultural victories. Bulding 3 cities with opera houses and museums just doesn't cut it. Basically you need to be generating enough culture points such that you get a new cultural policy every 10 turns or so. Since we're Greece this time I'll be aiming to maximize GPT income and ally with all of the cultural CS. But I doubt that will even be enough.

Can you win a cultural victory without puppeting half the planet? That would kind of seem to defeat the idea of a cultural approach, IMHO.

 

[mike678]

Can you win a cultural victory without puppeting half the planet? That would kind of seem to defeat the idea of a cultural approach, IMHO.

hmm? This isn't deity you could probably win a cultural victory on turn 500 if you wanted. It's even possible to win an occ cultural on deity though it involves a bit of luck and skill.

 

[shooter6947]

hmm? This isn't deity you could probably win a cultural victory on turn 500 if you wanted. It's even possible to in an occ cultural on deity though it involves a bit of luck and skill.

Okay, fair point. But the best way to win before turn 500 is puppet-master, then? If that's really the optimal path then I'm willing to give it a shot, just wondering if I have other (more peaceful) options.

 

[mike678]

Okay, fair point. But the best way to win before turn 500 is puppet-master, then? If that's really the optimal path then I'm willing to give it a shot, just wondering if I have other (more peaceful) options.

I won't say what I did here as this is suppose to be spoiler free but it's entirely possible to occ and get sub 300 turn scores. It may or may not be possible on this map but you don't need a mass puppeted empire to be competitive. It actually will hinder your speed if you put too much into military.

 

[leif erikson]

Give it a shot and then see how others did it.

Think cultural buildings, great artists, allying cultural c-s, fast, targeted, research, selecting the correct social policies early and a bit of war?

Good Luck.