TSG4 After Action Report

Btw, does anybody know, how to play a replay?

I saw oil near Mongols's Beshbalik .

Diplo VC - turn 457 (AD 1867) - HOF 2420 (in-game 1452)

I was quite happy of my performance.. til I checked yours, guys! Thank you all for posting a description of your win, I'm planning some reading sesh soon. As for me I didn't take any notes; I guess I must find a system.
Grosso modo I killed China's first Settler with my warrior, then took on my western neighbour with Mohawks. I was hoping that Rome would stay put til I win, but he amassed Musketmen on my borders, while I had just Longswordsmen. I skipped the Musketman upgardes so I could concentrate on the top part of the research tree, and build an infantry just in time to avoid Rome's onslaught. I kept on building those and eventually took all of the continent. With insight, maybe I should have waged war with him earlier. I built both United Nations and Sidney's Opera House in a few turns, thanks to two saved Great Engineers. Longhouses are pretty cool for generating GE's. Bought all the required CS with 4000 gold saved along the way.

Thanks for the game!

ChevalierdeJstn said:

@Neuro:

Did you go Rationalism first or Freedom? Which is more powerful, Secularism/Free Thought or Civil Society/Democracy?

Seems like it might be of benefit to get Democracy first in order to get more Great Scientists earlier, but it sounds like you went the other way around? Was this just because of when you could unlock the paths?

Click to expand...

I went Rationalism first. My SP order was Liberty-Citizenship-Meritocracy, then Rationalism-Secularism-Free Thought-Scientific Revolution (got SR because I needed to get Astronomy ASAP to find more Maritimes), then I got Freedom and started ICS. ICS took so long to get going that I ended up getting two more policies which I probably should have put into Civil Society and Democracy, but I grabbed two in patronage instead.

Secularism/Free Thought are far more powerful though.

Since I have pretty much botched my initial attempt to stay at one strategy I want to see how much better I can be by staying focused.

Due to this I will try to stay at 1 city till I got the most important SPs (Liberty up to Meritocracy and Freedom). Then start to ICS, in the meantime take as many puppets as possible while at least keeping one of the civs on my continent alive (Rome, Mongols will depend on number of cities and their placement) for a RA. In addition I will try to spam some wonders to improve early culture (Stonehenge) and slingshot to accoustics via the GL, the Oracle would be nice, too due to the free SP.

Am at turn 95 now and producing just +14 science, +18 gold and +13 culture which is low, but about to be expected with my focus on wonders (got Stonehenge and the GL, currently working on the Oracle).

Initial build order was scout, warrior, worker (stole a 2nd worker around turn 55) and since I failed to upgrade my scout I bought an archer.

The 2 warriors + archer went for China and due to some barb interference it took me till turn 79 till I got China's 2nd city, but this delay actually netted me a 3rd worker which was finished just 1 turn before I took the city. The spices, marble and 2 silver will come in handy once I reach the other continent and should help with getting some money from Rome and the Mongols, too - sold my gems and silk to Rome and the Mongols, basically whoever pays the most initial money will get the luxury - no sell/DoW on purpose here.

In order to find the CS island I delayed finishing the GL and researched sailing/optics in the meantime. My scout should arrive on the island around turn 100.

My research order was Pottery, Mining, Writing, Calendar, Philosophy - interrupted by Masonry for the marble - Sailing, Optics, Theology. I doubt that I will be able to get up to HBR before facing Rome, but might be able to get some horsemen to support my little 3 unit + GG army during the war with Rome.

I actually got the GG due to having to fight the barbs around China, so the delay actually netted me a worker and a GG, not that bad, but it did cost me about 10 turns. But considering that I saw the Mongols build their 3rd city this might help with getting another puppet.

I did not manage to get any CS tasks to destroy barb camps or have been able to free their workers, but will spend 1000g next turn to net me a cultural ally and some whales. The remaining money was spend on a library and a monument.

Concerning the GA I will try to delay it a bit by selling (even gifting if I have to) my luxuries to Rome till I have finished off the Mongols and am about to DoW Rome (more cities).

At the moment this feels a lot weaker than my initial start, but due to the SPs this should be fairly strong in the long run. I think that I might even reach the 2 free techs in the Rationalism tree.

CharonJr

Wish I had more of a report, this is my first ever GOTM submission.

Diplo victory in 1872.

Here are the phases I went through at a high level:

1. B-line for stonehenge. First build was a worker, did the optimal route to fastest possible build of this wonder.

2. Wiped out Wu. She was no match, seemed to have a bad start. I'm not sure if it was starting tiles or barbarians or both but she fell easily very early.

3. Longer war with Mongols. This is the first time I screwed up...I left the capital alive for a breather because I was worried about unhappiness. In hindsight, having a civ by the throat like that, its worth it to just finish them off. He ended up being a thorn in my side.

At this point I'm loving the Iroquois...they are just awesome. Roughx3 Mohawk warriors are unbelievable if you make sure to have them on rough terrain at all times. Their ability is amazing with forests in this kind of abundance.

4. War with Caesar. This went on for some time...I got cocky and underestimated his defense and had a major setback...if I could replay the initial battle I think it would buy me a century or more. Inevitably I took him down.

5. Mop up Mongols.

At this point I have a solid longhouse/lumberyard powerhouse going with my first two cities creating a cycle of great Engineers and Wonders.

6. Hunker down and focus on research while building caravels to meet remaining civs

7. Win...pretty uneventful. Lots of clicking next turn and flinging money at city states. I didn't end up in conflict except one short war with Bismark to wipe a colony off my continent. The final couple turns were great...popped globalization with rationalisms final social policy and then rushed united nations with a great engineer.

Post Mortem, my main mistake was not being ruthless enough. I let Mongolia live, and made some tactical errors with Caesar.

Seems like the AI at some point should have seen my power and gone all in against me...but they just fought amongst themselves. Was a shame I didnt have to fight tooth and nail for the win.

Well,

I did finnish it with an earlier time than I though.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=399564

Made peace in turn 251 after annexing Antium by mistake. Might have lost a couple turns just there. Than, kept my continent and bulb to the United Nation with 2 free tech, Oxford, 2 GS 1 GE.

Some thing I found quite disturbing

1- Happiness stagger during GA. Negative happiness too. I drop down to -9 during my Golden Age and get back in positive right after. No hapiness change. I knew it work that way the other way round but I assume unhapiness would result in some lost...

2- Anarchy is basically 1 lost turn... but that's it. When I switch from piety to rationalism, I didn'T loose my 2 extra hapiness neither than my extra culture.

More information about my 2nd game (delayed ICS):



CharonJr

Turn 279 victory, 1295 A.D, 5462 final score.

My first GoTM participation. Was kinda nervous at the beginning, but soon it comes VERY fun to play and plan things.







Actually I enjoyed this game very much, learnt alot about imbalanced Iroqois

My first CIV5 Gotm.

First session - 4000BC – 500BC
Start on the place. Built scout then worker. Found three city states, Chinese, later Mongols and Romans. Research mining, next bronze working and \iron working. Access to iron near capital => Mohawk warriors and end of China. Four cities as pupets. Next conquer Bucurest, proble city state => two allies. In the end I haave five pupets, four aliied city states, researching steel and thinking about invasion to Mongolia.
My mistake was trepassing Geneva too much – then I had spend some money and losing two units (scout, spearman) on Bucurest.
Sci 41 Gold 1468(40) Culture 25 248b

Second session 500BC – 330 AD
Soon upgrade to four longswordsman. Conquered one mongolian city and went to capital. Thaen Mongols offers peace treaty for 200 Gold and three cities – I had to take it. After ten turns I conquered Mongolia, finished 50BC. The problem is unhapiness, still -1. Did not manage do right timing for Great library, wanted Education but failed.
0BC - Sci 85 Gold 176 (59) Culture 33 532b
next plan 18 turns to astronomy, other AIs must be somewhere
300 AD I met England, Greece and France – grate boom due to trade.
Turn 199 - 380 AD – Sci 121 gols 117 (GA) Culture 50 633b - Finally happy, patronage 100 percent helped..

Third session 330AD – 1315 AD
I was so happy to see other nations so I did mistake – exchanfe luxury resources for gold, but then felt into unhapiness. In the end after 400 years of fight I had to raze some city. Finally I manage to stabilize the world, all small nations are allied and patronageis full. Nex I will start to go for globalisation, but I am afraid of war with England. They are pretty upset.
Turn 283 – Sci 290 gold 319 (GA) Culture 153 930 b

Forth session 1315AD – 1695 AD
The rest of the game was run for globalisation and then my horrible attemts to do UN. I planned great engineer, but failed due to other persons. Then I missed aluminium etc. I planned to finish hundred years soomer, but failed.

My worst mistake was bad policies, too much patronage, too much unhappiness. Anyway it was funny game, I enjoyed.

@avl8 - astounding victory date! Great game
Would you mind sharing which social policies you actually chose, and when (ie, how many cities did you have when you had various policies?)

adrianj said:

@avl8 - astounding victory date! Great game
Would you mind sharing which social policies you actually chose, and when (ie, how many cities did you have when you had various policies?)

Click to expand...

Thank you very much, though credits should go to Paenblack, Martin Alvito and alpaca for inspiring me with ideas of ICS and great warpath ICS. I only improved their great ideas and did huge microing to achieve the date

Culture plan I had consist of 6 policies and I got it during the game. Cant give you exact numbers since I didnt write things up during the game.

However heres complete order list:

Liberty #1
Citizenship
Meritocracy
Freedom #1
Rationalism #1
Secularism

Diplo Victory Turn 425, 1830, 4135 final HOF score.

I could have sped things up by focusing on science earlier to get the globalization tech quicker. Conquered first continent and some cities on second continent but didn't follow through to conquer all of Bismark, etc.

Dang it, I posted this wrong the first time and it went up as a new thread. I am going to read up and see if I can delete that ... or anyone else feel free to do so. I hope I get it right this time ... first time posting to a GOM. Sorry!

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I ran an experiment on this one, deciding to build only two additional cities (in retrospect too few) and puppet many others. I also decided to build very few Wonders to see how that would go (again, maybe too few). I never attacked a city state, ended up allied with 15 I think. One was liberated from the Romans.

Numerous mistakes were made. Early on I missed getting SH by one turn (should have emphasized production). Later I made a few poor SP choices and completely forgot about buying buildings when my gold ran way high. I wasted it upgrading forces though I was never attacked from the other continent. I never explored the interior of the other continent, only the periphery.

I eliminated the Chinese, Mongols, and Romans in that order (5, 8, and 8 cities taken plus 2 razed). I noticed that the MOngols and Romans did not build any buildings at all (the Chinese did in Beijing). They just went all settlers and military I guess.

Puppets are set to optimize on gold (I wish that one parameter could be selected). As a result they tend to make buildings that emphasize commerce and to some extent culture. I don't think I ever saw one build a library or university, etc. That made the puppet strategy tougher going for diplomatic victory.

Another AI oddity was Warsaw had a nearby barb encampment the entire game and never went out to eliminate it.

I am not clear if having uploaded the attachment it is going to appear here when I post ... if not I'll try to go figure it out and re-post. It's not compeltely obvious.

The system will not let me attach my game file ... says I already posted it in the other place. If I can get that post deleted I will come back and post my file here. Not a great performance anyway

I think it is deleted. See if you can attach the save to your post here?

I am learning too.

That was fun, and I'm not skilled enough to complain about being elected the King of the UN in the 18th century. I'm sure I made many errors, but the major ones that stand out:

• Only settling two cities. The absence of a maritime CS meant that growth was stunted and I couldn't use the science specialist slots. I should have changed my plan as soon as I didn't find a nearby maritime CS.
  
• Not exploring the seas early enough. For some reason, I never suspected that a three CS island lay off the coast. I did eventually annex a coastal Mongol city, but not until I was nearing Astronomy. I also didn't send out any embarked units.
  
• No happiness policies. I struggled with happiness most of the game. It improved after I contacted the other continent and after the FP, but went back down in both cases. I saved for Patronage and then went to Rationalism. My take, from reading other posts here, is that, if you don't use Piety, you need Meritocracy.

Thanks for the setting up the game Leif. We are all awaiting another.

Here's my save.

could have easily shaved off 18 turns with a GE, should have warrior rushed wu earlier. ended up leaving genghis and augustus with 1 city each but failed to sign RA's with either of them . gold was into 300+ per turn very early, didn't spend enough of it. good practice for me with my micro skills, however!

think this was petty well played -

pros:
- planed to go to ren via astro from gamestart on which was perfect for this map in end
- china built me pyras
- got 5th sp right when slingshotting astro to start the "big science via the +2 per scietntist sp
-finished this free scientist wonder right when I needed it to get the last techs
-8 GS overall - 1 for astro, 1 for banking, 4 for glob, 2 useless
-LOT! of micro ......

cons:
- got into red twice by dumb worker action choping wood and ai waar declare - loosing me twice all prod
- had to build un for 25+ turns - might have speeded a bit - even when I m clueless how to get ge - seems impossible if u run mass scietists as i do - teching to nuclear plant fast to buy nuc fac d have shaved 2 or 3 turns i guess - or having a bit bigger cap (was size 8 when starting un ...)
- never got this half unhappy per special guy sp untill last turn - sp costs rise too fast when expanding

my strat: cap wonders .., rest of cities: expand, build lib, run scientists

its really not any more, u dont need big cities when most of science comes from scientists anyway - and "production" for settlers from mcs
had early cities stop grow at size 3-4 and later ones at size 2

prod for coloseums i did mainly via mirco bakkers (turn of scietists for 2 turns if u dont get to next tech in 1 turn but need 2 anyway)
universities i did mainly buy via gold

civ5 is so unbalanced, hard to beleive that the game designers did play a full game;
- growing without ms impossible
- food on tiles/granny.. all neglectable in comparison to mcs
- teching mainly via scientists is dumb, u should have to balance empire
.....

all in all the main problem atm is that used tiles are too "weak" - u just dont need em, u get stuff via other stuff:
food: msc
gold: trade, number of cities
tech: scientists
units: upgrade, cs
buildings: u need 2-3 anyway rest is just lol ...
wonders: well thats only thing u need tiles for .. so 1 or 2 cities actually using the land is enough ...
civ4 was so much more fun when u had to think how to use land best and used loads and loads of tiles

no overflow for science is 2nd worst

will post save later ...

I wonder a BIT if staying at like 8 cities MIGHT work - u could get all the sps in the science tree, then this free tech nw and like 8 GS - means bulbing all the last techs from like indu age upwards - 8 cities all size 5-8 with univ d be like 8x40 bakkers - enough for the early techs - with the land from this map (lot hills and espacially mountains for obs) getting these cities rolling should be fast - d like replay somewhat , but then trying to do good in this version of game is too timeconsuming, more then half of time u waste due to brokken game mechanics - trade/no overflow

(Edit to add: Dilpo victory)

Not much to say. Once selecting a victory path, there isn't a lot to think about. I'm a little disappointed that unlike civ4 where there are multiple ways to accomplish the same goal, in civ5 the play is too simplified. The worker actions and city builds are very little decision-making needed. Tactically I like how the battles are in Civ5, but the diplo and relations... gosh, its just a matter of getting cash so your ready for when the AI DoW on you, and can buy what you need for happiness, and buy what you need for diplo victory.

Must say I wasn't very motivated to finish this one, as the gotm61 (civ4) is more appealing.

I didn't exploit all the things that are possible to exploit. I tried to stay peaceful with Rome but they wouldn't have that, so I had to kill them. Oh well. Every war was about the same, they start with big edge in units, I pick off the weak ones until I've amassed enough forces to take a city, then repeat until they want peace. They are certifiably insane in that they don't want peace, but can't fight a war properly.

But I hit enter the necessary number of times to win... so here's my result.

View attachment 274586

View attachment 274587