TSG108 After Actions

Welcome to the TSG108 After Action Report. 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!

STOP - Please do not continue reading this thread until you have completed and submitted your game.

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.).

- Describe any significant science benchmarks. Policies, Wonders, Wars, etc.
- In hindsight how would you have played it differently (if at all) for a faster finish?
- In hindsight how much of an impact did the starting location ultimately play into your strategy?

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). Please refrain from posting videos until the deadline for submission is over.

Your name: Mandaliet
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 2029AD
Turns played: 459
Base score: 1338
Final score: 1470
Time played: 3:31:00

Well, that's embarrassing.

From what I've been reading here, it seems like the best course of action for science is to build the Great Library as soon as possible, then get the National College and the Hanging Gardens. After I did all that, I beelined right to technologies that would give me science buildings. This seemed to be working really well; I was far ahead of everyone else in technology for the whole game. I got to the point where I had most of the space ship parts... and then I had to research Particle Physics. I hadn't even done Astronomy yet! It took a really long time to get the rest of those technologies, like 50 turns or so just waiting for the last part of the ship.

I thought I had a big advantage but it took me longer than it probably would have with my normal strategy. Harrumph.

Maybe I didn't have enough population in my capital. It was at 20 near the end, which seems like a fair amount, but perhaps it's just not enough. Maybe I should have built more cities; I only had 3. Shaka kept declaring war on me even though he had no chance of hurting me in the slightest. It probably would have been helpful to be more aggressive and take his cities, but I don't like war.

Usually I get by without a lot of units, but the raging barbarians helped with that. That is, they were menacing city-states so I got a lot of favor with militaristic city-states by beating up the barbarians and destroying their homes. Mostly I was given ballistas. Lots and lots of ballistas. Oh, apparently the plural form is "ballistae".

As far as the starting location, I hardly ever move my first settler. I think this turned out to be a good choice, because while it initially looked like there were no luxuries nearby, two were revealed once I settled. I did regret not looking at first because I thought there was ocean a tile away, but it turned out to be just a lake. Maybe my population would have been better if I'd settled right against the lake though.

Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1878AD
Turns played: 309
Base score: 1416
Final score: 2321
Time played: 7:23:00

Settled one move down on lake. Went Scout, Scout, Shrine, Granary, GL, NC, TA, HG, then Petra in second city. Built four cities, stupid mistake with 3rd city on lake - no cargo ships.
The only problem I had when I wanted to foundate 4th city - Zulu DoW me and I have their units next to my settler. So I did city immediately, just one turn out of desired place near mountain. Ch-Ko-Nu were great, I quicky destroyed Zulu's army and receive all his luxuries and money for peace. 20 turns later he repeat it once again with the same result - the rest of game was peaceful.

I did EDU late, around turn 130, but the rest was rather good - lot of money, all CS allied - I planned finish before 300, but I forgot one technology and bulb GS sooner. But probably I would not have enough money for SS anyway.

Religion : Kings of God, Initial rates (helped a lot, lot of money as no other religion appeared for a long time), Pagodas.
Policy ; full tradion, left patronage, rationalism, opener commerse, freedom.

Thanks for nice game/

Your name: ssjos
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1740AD
Turns played: 258
Base score: 1509
Final score: 2958
Time played: 9:56:00

I guess it went ok even though start.

Settled 2 squares SW on silver. Did monument, worker, settler settler setteler (bought scouts). Got ToA, late GL, NC, HG. Early settlement next to faith NW gave me pantheonon and religion, all foods stuffs.
Also, with Bourbabour? wonder I spread religion my religion and it then spread across the map for tithe gold. Filled up rationalism pretty fast with oracle, writers etc. Got RA twice with babylon and Shaka.

In the end I messed up the calcs somewhat. I had crazy many scientists and I actually bulbed everything to late. Furthermore, I built oxford to early by mistake when I meant to left it on one turn so I got a 6k tech instead an 11k tech. Also, I had gold for 3 spaceship parts and I had to spend some time producing the rest.

Science Victory in 1972AD (turn 392) - I was aiming at 1969AD

Base score: 2325
Final score: 2980

Settled by the lake and quickly decided to hunt barbarians and chop trees in my food poor area. The hunting of barbarians and rescuing of workers got me quite a few CS friends and allies.

Once I got a pantheon I decided to go for the Goddess of the Hunt for extra camp food.

I chopped the Great Library pretty early and choose Philosophy as my free technology. At this point I made a rather major decision and used my barbarian hunters and city state gifts to invade Babylonia. My mistake was to not go slightly earlier and stop them settling two new cities, but the invasion was successful as I took Babylon. My inspiration was my large army and that Babylon looked a far better site that my capital for National College. In the end I opted for National College in Beijing simply as I didn't feel delaying until Babylon had finished resistance would have been worth it.

Babylonia was ultimately destroyed by Greece and the Huns. The Huns burnt down the city they took giving me a rather nice spot for a city.

I wish I had dealt with the Zulus before they got Impis which they built/bought in VAST numbers. Perhaps one reason I didn't do this was due to a war with Greece and the Huns moving many units past my capital. Plus, those Impis are bloody difficult to kill. They even took one of my newly settled cities. It took two wars before I eventually destroyed the Zulus and it cost me many, many men despite a vast technological advantage. The Zulus had built me Petra...which was some compensation. The first war was a Zulu invasion as I had settled near them and had even stolen land using a citadel. The second war was inspired by the Huns who wanted me to invade and I made a good friend.

My spies told me Greece would be invading Babylon...so they were met by nearly my entire army. I was quite impressed by the size of their invading force, but it was cut to ribbons in the open. The Greeks made a deal and I got Corinth.

The rest of the game was simply trying to grow and tech as quickly as possible whilst destroying barbarians in distant lands and making city state allies. The Koreans were killed by Assyria and the Assyria invaded Greece and succeeded in taking Sparta.

Once again, I probably settled too many cities and warred too much for quick victory, but I certainly enjoyed this game. I think I started and ended this game very strongly, but the mid-game is where I lost my edge.

In answer to the OP's questions:

- Describe any significant science benchmarks. Policies, Wonders, Wars, etc.
Using the Great Library to get to Philosophy relatively early meant things were looking pretty good early on. In terms of policies, I completed Tradition relatively early, but regret not having taken the first Liberty policy (as per usual) earlier in the game to allow me to get the Pyramids.

- In hindsight how would you have played it differently (if at all) for a faster finish? Possibly I should have kept to four cities. This might have happened but for the Zulu war and the land that opened up when the Huns destroyed Babylonia. I should have resisted the lure of land and a coastal city.

- In hindsight how much of an impact did the starting location ultimately play into your strategy?
The starting location encouraged my natural instinct to go hunting barbarians for money, workers, culture (honour) and the gratitude of city states. The location also encouraged chopping trees for early wonders and military allowing the conquest of Babylon. The start location meant I felt trapped and encouraged my desire to fight Babylon and the Zulus which definitely cost me turns.

GG

Final Score: 2900-something (forgot to note it)
Date: 1972

Is it just me, or are the science victory ones the most drawn-out? I could have had a diplomatic victory 7 years earlier. I still don't understand how you guys are teching fast enough to get a spaceship in the 1700s - I figured it would have really inflated your score, but it still looks like it was kept in check (due to less policies, land area?)

King is perfect difficulty for me. (I typically play one emperor, but keep it at a Small map with less competition.)

Started out and built three cities. I decided I would go 'tall' with tradition / freedom (as opposed 'wide' with liberty / order). I was able to get the Great Library and most of the 'vital' wonders without a problem.

I think what hurt me was that Shaka attacked me fairly early on and I had to concentrate on my military for quite awhile or else be wiped out. I was in quite a protracted war trying to sack that city of his just east of the mountains. (Those damn impi are tough, and he churns them out pretty quickly.)

Assyria and Greece were the two other contenders after that, and I needed to go to war with them to limit their growth. After that, it was just turtling and concentrating on science. Was able to build six academies around Beijing. The Cho-ko-nu were intruiging: I was able to get two of them range promotions before bumping them up after industry. (And also found out that giving them the extra shot promotion does NOT give them three shots - what a waste.)

Babylon, Korea, and the Huns were never real threats (Greece had taken care of Russia early on). Interesting that most of the 'science'-themed civs were represented; bumped up the difficulty a little.

I also messed up at the end by not 'claiming' an earned policy before I launched my spacecraft.. cost me a few points, anyway.

You need really high population to get high beaker per turn.

To get high population use many farms, food caravans, martime CS, religous modifiers, ToA, HG etc.

Also tech for key tech buildings, university, observatory, public school and research lab. Rushbuy them once tech is discovered if you have the money.

Get rationalism and early +2 sci/specialist (if possible by finishing oracle in the era in which rationalism is accessible).

Save all but the first 1-3 great scientist for bulb at the end. Each GS will give about 10k science for an amazing tech boost. I bulbed ca. 12 GS in the end.

My beaker per turn was almost 1500 and populations 41-33-33-33 in the end (see attachment).

Underestimated Shaka a little bit. Got attacked really early and my capital ended up on half HP before my two composite bowmen killed his 10+ units. Took his 2nd city, made peace and finished him off later with Chu-ko-nus. Was really late with all the key technologies and policies due to this early war which resulted in worst finishing time in a long time.

Other than that was smooth game. Assyria bowed out early thanks to Alex and Cathy was left with one city by the Huns.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 108
Date submitted: 2015-04-19 06:09:05
Reference number: 32621
Your name: Alphons Rodulfo
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1844AD
Turns played: 292

I founded five cities, three of them near mountains. Another one was coastal, but in the end it wasn't that useful, perhaps it was a mistake even. I accepted Sparta in a peace deal with the Greeks, because it had a river+mountain spot. I annexed it for science production.

I had two wars that were laughably one-sided. The first one was the Zulus attacking me. I did not get much from that, because Shaka had no gold and no interesting cities. A second war was declared by both the Greeks and the Huns. I got some good peace deals from those. My army was composed mainly of gifted units.

Again I hope I learned something from this game, I did make a few mistakes that cost me some turns. The first one was not building a paper maker in my second city. I needed that for the National College. In stead I built a granary first, but my income was less than expected. Almost all other players had negative gold reserves, so there could be no income from trade. In the end the paper maker had to build.

A second mistake came later in the game: the policy that allowed me to buy spaceship parts came too late, making me have to build a few of them.

Oh, regarding the start: I settled one tile to the southwest and built a worker first. It went chopping.

Thanks for the game, lads!

Your name: stridecolossus
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1954AD
Turns played: 374
Base score: 1541
Final score: 2082
Time played: 10:18:00

- In hindsight how much of an impact did the starting location ultimately play into your strategy?

Moved one tile to settle between the rivers next to the lake, didn't fancy wading through all that forest for a better location, fortunately that moved revealed silver.

Started with a worker (not something I do very often) and Mining to chop the forests, then Archery and Honour to deal with barbs and get some culture going. Went full Liberty which I think was a dumb move, should have gone Tradition and HG.

- Describe any significant science benchmarks. Policies, Wonders, Wars, etc.

Zulus denounced me at turn 27! Inevitably declared war against us about T70, razed one city and took his capital. Later on attacked and left him with once city in the tundra. He continually came moaning and denouncing throughout the game, despite the fact I was protecting him by blockading units from Babylon who was at war with them from classical era to the end!

Fought another war against the Greeks who were getting on my nerves with constant CS sniping, took 2 cities and razed another.

Early wonders built:
- Great Library
- Statue of Zeus
- Oracle
- Tower of Pisa

Techs:
- Mining
- Archery
- bee-line to Currency for Petra in second city in desert to the east
- Machinery for those lovely Cho-ko-nu
- Education
- Printing Press (congress)
- Astronomy (observatory in science city)
- Plastics

- In hindsight how would you have played it differently (if at all) for a faster finish?

Went Order but mucked up the end, could have organised getting engineers for the last spaceships bits a bit better than I did (again Tradition would have been more logical).

Thanks for the game

- stride

Reference: 32624
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1911AD
Turns played: 331
Final score: 3130

The amount of war in this game was incredible. I think it took me until T150 to get education simply because I was fighting so much.

I settled in place and built a scout, worker, then Great Lib. Went Tradition and built 4 cities, one next to the mountain for an observatory.

Shaka dow'd me before T100. I love that guy. He had warriors, archers, spearmen and 2 catapults. I killed them all, then killed him completely. Puppeted his cap and dropped a 5th city on the coast to his east.

Meanwhile, Assyria capped Korea. Atilla capped Russia. Babylon backstabbed me (with a friend-denouncement, not dow). Greece dow'd Babylon and took 2 of his cities. Greece was spreading all over the map.

I paid Assyria to dow Greece, and paid Greece to dow Atilla. Then I denounced Greece, got my chus and dow'd Greece. I took 3 or 4 cities, including Athens. I kept one of Babylon's cities but liberated another. He decided to love me after that.

So I was friends with Assyria, Babylon and Atilla... the only ones left. That lasted about 10 turns. I think I got a total of 3 research agreements before they started dowing each other again.

In the meantime, I never even finished Rationalism. My empire was so big I could not get through Rationalism or techs because of penalties. Oh well, it was a very fun game!

239 science victory.
A single mistake, making an extra GE costing me to wait for around 6 turns at the end.

Game followed my freedom SV strategy after the opening moves up to T122 on the other thread.

The AI is completely useless on King... I won the world fair at 2500 hammers without anyone winning a single medal.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 108
Date submitted: 2015-04-19 17:10:52
Reference number: 32626
Your name: acken
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1645AD
Turns played: 239
Base score: 1673
Final score: 3559
Time played: 3:35:00
Submitted save: TSG108_Win.Civ5Save
Renamed file: acken_C510801.Civ5Save

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I've arrived in 1800 and the game is clearly won. I won't play it out. Rather I'll post some thoughts and see how others did it.

Greece on the continent = city state strategy would not work well. Atilla and Shaka = it won't be a peaceful cakewalk either. So, we built the GL and then beelined construction to take Shaka out. Never actually built a second city until much later to get access to the ocean for trade.

Korea was some help. But Alexander was hounding them and we only had about 3 research agreements. Victory was not in doubt, but I expect others were faster. Let's see.....

Thanks much for the game, by the way. Fun as always.

Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1921 AD
Turns played: 341
Base score: 2037
Final score: 2995

Game: Civ5 GOTM 108
Date submitted: 2015-04-20 14:38:43
Reference number: 32632
Your name: JimmyAAA
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1969AD
Turns played: 389
Base score: 2055
Final score: 2668
Time played: 68:06:00

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Don't mind the time played, I often do not turn the game off and just go to work.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 108
Game date: 1860AD
Turns played: 300
Base score: 1584
Final score: 2640

To follow up on my comments in the opening thread, I decided to build the Hagia to get a religion started. I settled in with 4 cities, and food caravans, and tried to get caught up on science after my war with Shaka sidetracked me for a very late entry into the Renaissance (turn 145 or so). It was peaceful the rest of the way, although Shaka was mad at me for pretty much ever. I was very pleased with how hard I pushed population. I managed to have my capital and 50, and my 2nd best city at 40 by turn 300, so that helped tremendously in getting caught up.

In hindsight, I should have read Acken's Science Freedom guide before I finished this game. There's a lot of great ideas in there that I think would have helped me hone my mid and late game. I made a number of choices in regards to buildings and when I bulbed or got GS that could have been much more optimized.

The starting location strongly affected my strategy. I don't normally start with a worker, and all that forest discouraged me from walking to the mountain that I could see. In hindsight, if I played this map again, I would suck it up and walk to the mountain. And of course knowing, now, that I can't cargo ship across a lake, having my capital on 1 side, and my 1st expansion on the other side of the lake was not optimum at all.

I basically couldn't do anything at all this time around. Shaka invaded Beijing in like 1000 BC and never relented for a single turn no matter how many of his Impis I killed. When I finally managed to get Manila as an ally for some help, he just sacked Manila and annexed it.

After I got to 1830 AD without a single break in hostilities, I quit. Hoping I do better in the next game.

Acken said:

239 science victory.
A single mistake, making an extra GE costing me to wait for around 6 turns at the end.

Game followed my freedom SV strategy after the opening moves up to T122 on the other thread.
.

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Wow, 239 turns is some very good promotion for your strategy guide.

This did not go well. I was too greedy with puppets, too lenient with my neighbors and made several other costly mistakes. And just as an icing on the cake, I counted my GSs wrong, so I had one too many in the end

Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1920AD
Turns played: 340
Base score: 2872
Final score: 4223

Plus I managed to click the return to main menu button in the victory screen, and didn't submit for days. But since I had saved the game just prior to launch, I did't think there's much trouble with that after all, so I decided to submit. 101 turns slower than my record, but that was on Deity a long time ago, G&K I think. I don't think I could ever pull off a sub-t250 SV on King, since the AIs are so short on gold and hard to make friends with. Gotta go check the guide mentioned above.

kamikazees said:

Reference: 32624
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1911AD
Turns played: 331
Final score: 3130

The amount of war in this game was incredible. I think it took me until T150 to get education simply because I was fighting so much.

I settled in place and built a scout, worker, then Great Lib. Went Tradition and built 4 cities, one next to the mountain for an observatory.

Shaka dow'd me before T100. I love that guy. He had warriors, archers, spearmen and 2 catapults. I killed them all, then killed him completely. Puppeted his cap and dropped a 5th city on the coast to his east.

Meanwhile, Assyria capped Korea. Atilla capped Russia. Babylon backstabbed me (with a friend-denouncement, not dow). Greece dow'd Babylon and took 2 of his cities. Greece was spreading all over the map.

I paid Assyria to dow Greece, and paid Greece to dow Atilla. Then I denounced Greece, got my chus and dow'd Greece. I took 3 or 4 cities, including Athens. I kept one of Babylon's cities but liberated another. He decided to love me after that.

So I was friends with Assyria, Babylon and Atilla... the only ones left. That lasted about 10 turns. I think I got a total of 3 research agreements before they started dowing each other again.

In the meantime, I never even finished Rationalism. My empire was so big I could not get through Rationalism or techs because of penalties. Oh well, it was a very fun game!

View attachment 392843

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Pardon me for asking but how did you get your info on the screen to look like that?