TSG97 After Actions

Welcome to the TSG97 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!

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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.).

- How did you use your Merchants of Venice and were it effective? How many did you get?
- Did you use spying to your advantage?
- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
- Was Faith helpful to achieve victory? How?
- What did you think of Venice as the playable Civ?


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.

Would be interested to hear any thoughts on game setup.

I finished in 1935 with the first elections with 40 votes (34 + 6 from Portugal).

Once CB were invented I conquered the remaining cities from GK ending with Venice and 3 occupied cities which was most of the time my core empire. The approx. 8 Merchants where used to get gold and influence from city states only. Religion spread on the island with Thea was not succesfull not even with Printing press.

Just when I was sending out he first caravel Greece was the first to found the World Congress. Which was a pain as he had FP, was techleader, had the topscore , had a culture lead over me and he was conducting propaganda in my allied city states. Mainly in Budapest my militaity unit supplier

The first attempt to embargo Greece failed but when I bribed Greece to attack several civs the second attempt was succesfull. In the process Portugal was annihilated.

I then decided to beeline for Battleships and liberating Portugal and conquering all Greece coastal cities. When my armade was near the former Portuguese coast Alex asked me what I was doing with my troops. So I gave him te opportunity to strike first - which costed me half of my cargoships to his allied city states - .
Siam, Poland and Egypt were also at war with Greece, my BS were very instrumental in bringing down the City defences

Followed by a DOW a few turns later by Thea. Luckily for me Thea mainly focussed on capturing Budapest without succeeding.

I was able to free 3 portuguese Coastal cities and reinstated Portugal as a power. I needed to leave a few BS behind to help Maria to defend herself (treb's against arty is not realy fair). Followed by liberating/selling a Siam city , conquering a Greek city, selling a Polish city back.

Thea was fairly quick to ask for peace which brought in some cash. Finaly Alexx sued for peace and giving away 3 cities and left Alex with 4 cities . On that continent I kept 2 Greece cities. making Siam the major power on that island who brought Greece back to 3 cities.

Greece was the first Ideology with Autocracy I was second with Freedom. Together with Polish votes i managed to get it as worldideology.

Now Thea was becoming nasty in messing elections in my CS. So I decided to attack her with my same BS aramada. This was costly as she had a lot of sub's. I managed to get two coastal cities of her and liberated one CS. Again she was mainly focussing on my ally Budapest. In a peace deal she gave me an arctic city. I gave the arctic city to Portugal just in time as Greece was conquering Portugal again. At that moment I had 8 cities (Venice, 3 from GK, 2 Greece, 2 Byzantium) of which only 4 had my religion

At that point I knew 40 votes were needed to win the WC elections. I had around 24 and Portugal 4. I could get 4 additional votes with Worldreligion and the rest was to be bought. I managed with caravans to give worldreligion to Portugal and piled up just enough money to get 38 votes Then I gave back one of Thea's cities: now I had 7 cities of which 4 with worldreligion....


>MoV where only used for merchant trips. And the money helped to keep them allied.
>Used my spies initialy to steal tech's; later as well for rigging elections in friendly and hostile CS.
>Map was not an issue.
>Game difficulty made no difference as lately I am exercising on deity level. Maybe to optimistic about a few wonders as I was beaten 3 times.
>Faith was difficult to spread as Thea was continuously defending her cities with missionaries even when Printing Press was in place. In the last vote before worldleader election I managed to get my religion accepted. Giving in the end 4 additional votes (myself and Portugal) enough to get 40 votes.
> Venice is a nice civ to play this was for me the first time being that agressive, which was surprisingly going very well. The AI in battle was mainly not focussing on me..

After taking my Cont out this game got real easy and it was basically next turn next turn for another 150 turns winning the 1st vote with 46 votes!

Game: Civ5 GOTM 97
Date submitted: 2014-11-05 10:16:06
Reference number: 31877
Your name: Fluphen Azine
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1872AD
Turns played: 307
Base score: 1295
Final score: 2122
Time played: 2:30:00
Submitted save: Enrico Dandolo_0307 AD-1874.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Fluphen_Azine_C509701.Civ5Save

Turn 294 Victory with the Honor/conquest strategy. I entered Atomic era one turn after a World Congress meeting and had to wait 30 turns for the World Leader vote -- I believe that's the maximum wait time, which is pretty lame. Lots of clicking "Next Turn".

My game was heavily impacted by a judgment call that was probably wrong: After clearing out Byzantium with a mixed land/sea army, I needed to decide who to go after next. The only other civs I knew about were Portugal and Siam, both to the west. Portugal had a coastal capital with the Great Lighthouse, and Siam appeared to be the leading builder AI. These guys were the natural next targets... except my forces were all over on the eastern part of my continent, and I would have to backtrack and circle my fleet around if I wanted to go west and take those guys out. I decided to gamble and go east, thinking that I'd find an AI sooner or later. It turned out to be a longer trip than I would've liked, and, to make matters worse, none of the other AIs had coastal capitals.

I ended up circling my fleet all the way around to Portugal and landing my army near Thebes. Both forces were a little skimpy, but my Range+Logistics guys were powerful enough to easily go to work once the hard part of establishing a beachhead was achieved. Meanwhile, I cut things extremely close with Portugal, losing most of my fleet and only conquering Lisbon with a single Knight that swam over in time. Fortunately, I was able to make peace, or I wouldn't have been able to keep Lisbon.

Taking out Siam was slow. I had to embark and make a high-casualty D-Day style landing in the coastal area between Almaty and Yerevan, both of which were Siamese allies. Siam had two cities in this area, so I suffered heavy losses before securing some territory. After that it was easy.

I certainly would've won faster if I had just gone after Siam first -- he kept me locked out of alliance with about half of the city-states for a very long time. Given that I had the policy for science from CS allies, I certainly would've been able to shave off the 1 turn I needed to enter Atomic on time and get my World Leader vote 21 turns earlier. Oh well.

Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1808AD
Turns played: 275
Base score: 1024
Final score: 1896
Time p1layed: 4:08:00

I really enjoyed this game - fast and funny. I had no war during the game. Went to optics, purchase nearest city state (just to have cargo ship with food to Venice) and the rest of the game just build cargo ships and wonders, rushed buildings and units.

I went to Traditiion, Patronage, Rationalism, later to Freedom. All the game I had too much money (sometimes 500G per turn), so it was easy to have all city states allied. I was afraid just of Mongolia, as they conquered three city states early - but their expantion stop on the continent.

I was friend with almost everybody, signed about 15 RAs. In the end I had 41 delegates for World leader (39 needed). My lowest influence to city state was 208 -never had so much economical power.

Thank you Leif, really nice game.

Your name: sebtanic
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1918AD
Turns played: 339
Base score: 1303
Final score: 1944

I also had to wait 30 turns after building UN. What a drag.

Played peaceful except in the very beginning, when I declared war on my neighbours to steal a worker basically. Lost a scout and the warrior and almost rage quit, but then discovered that my stolen worker had somehow survived so I continued.

Rest of the game was fairly straightforward, was allied with everyone most of the time.

Went far too slowly in tech. Next time for diplo will focus a lot more on science, less on gold.

Nice game, I found it easy for immortal but then again maybe I'm actually getting better at this

Rage quit embarrassingly early. Lessons learned:
1. Didn't know barbs killed MoVs unlike settlers which only get captured.
2. Should have built more military before cargo ships.
3. Shouldn't have fed my neighbour to the Mongols so early (I.e., before building said military).
4. Should have remembered respect for Keshiks...


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Game: Civ5 GOTM 97
Date submitted: 2014-11-18 12:19:04
Reference number: 31930
Your name: beto_java
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1947AD
Turns played: 368
Base score: 939
Final score: 1286
Time played: 4:54:00
Submitted save: Enrico_final_0368 AD-1948.Civ5Save
Renamed file: beto_java_C509701.Civ5Save

Game: Civ5 GOTM 97
Date submitted: 2014-11-18 12:51:05
Reference number: 31931
Your name: Alphons Rodulfo
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1860AD
Turns played: 301
Base score: 1342
Final score: 2236
Time played: 18:52:00
Submitted save: Enrico Dandolo_0301 AD-1862.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Alphons_Rodulfo_C509701.Civ5Save

This was the first time I played with Venice. It was interesting. I won with 45 votes in the end. I bought two city states and allied the rest. I liberated Sidney once from the Mongols, and Wittenberg three times. Two turns before the end I captured Karakorum because Mr. Khan kept occupying Wittenberg and I got tired of sending liberation armies each time. I was friends with all the other civs and had lots of research agreements.

- How did you use your Merchants of Venice and were it effective? How many did you get?
I think I got four of them. I used the second and third to buy Geneva and Budapest. Those city states seemed not worth much as allies, but were useful as puppets, for sea trade routes for instance.
- Did you use spying to your advantage?
Well, the spies were useful to ally city states. In the end they turned diplomat for the extra votes.
- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
It took a while to find the other civs and city states, but I think I was the first to discover navigation, so in that respect it was helpful.
- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
I made sure I had a sizeable army, to not let Byzantium or Mongolia get any ideas.
- Was Faith helpful to achieve victory? How?
Yes, it was. I had a 15% growth bonus and used faith to buy scientist and engineers.
- What did you think of Venice as the playable Civ?
It is nice because it is so different from the others. Being filthy rich also is nice. But the best part is that you can't have Venice as an adversary.

Won on T308, this was my first immortal game.

I bought Geneve (to supply food to Venice), Sydney (for units to attack Genghis), Kysyl(to have trade routes going on the second cintinent) and very late Almaty (misclick instead of trade mission). Finally I had 39 votes with diplomats and 38 was needed.

Attacked Genghis with trebs, but I was not successful. he had too many units. I settled for peace. He attacked my friend Budapest, so I surrounded the city state with my whole army, so that he did not get it. This destroyed many his units. Beelined canons and killed him (left one city, which was lately razed by Siam). Let him get Budapest and liberated it. Karakorum was nice with wonders, which helped my culture and turism a lot. So I ended up with 6 cities (2 from Genghis).

Then I was afraid Theodora, which was the tech leader and had a lot of units, but she was my friend all the game. Finally my religion spread to her as well naturally. She denounced me 10 turns till the end, but at that time I was the leader both military and techwise.

I beelined optics, then education, astronomy, canons, prinitng press, factories, plastics and globalization. Used Oxford, rationalism finisher and 3 scientists to get throught plastics to globalization. I was the only one to take rationalism and was way ahead in tech lately. Was on par in rennaisance, but got ahead really strong in modern.

I had lots of golds, was doing 800+ gpt in golded ages. Founded the congress, but then Siam become the leader in Industrial, because I was focusing on development. My only CS ally by that time was Budapest and Vilnius. But then I did some series of quests (wonder - got ally and dyes from him, this pleased 3 other CS etc). With some gold gifts I alied most of CS in short time and dominated the congress afterwards. Allied all of them lately.

Finished tradition, then commerc 3 (Merchant bonus), rationalism 2, freedom unitl the 4 influence per turn for trade routes. finished commerce, rationalism and patronage 2.

In the later game I was scared that I would be DoWed as I was the only one freedom. I build a lot of subs, infantry, planes and was in the end the military leader.

really liked this game.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 97
Date submitted: 2014-11-23 05:15:35
Reference number: 31955
Your name: Studio
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1923AD
Turns played: 344
Base score: 1501
Final score: 2207
Time played: 7:53:00
Submitted save: Enrico Dandolo_0344 AD-1924.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Studio_C509701.Civ5Save

Wow - when I lost Forbidden Palace to Siam, I thought I might lose it!
Policy: Patronage Opener-Aesthetics Opener-Rationalism Opener-...
T122 - joint war effort against Mongolia. Failed, and fair peace deal (144)
Education on T126, then Acoustics-Astronomy-Machinery-Printing Press-...
Founded World Congress, but lost LT of Pisa to Mongolia. Tried World Religion but failed.
Greece already taken out before I saw them.
Went Science Theory first then beelined artillery. Then went to take out Byzantine capital and liberate Budapest.
Kind of forced to take Autocracy 'cuz Siam was culture monster and was following Autocracy.
Forgot about Oxford University and lost 7~8 turns hard researching the Information Era tech (Telecommunication)
On the first session of UN (@ Information era), won World Religion (+2 delegates), then bought Mongolian votes(+4) and controlled 37 votes (incl. world religion) making 41. (out of 39 required)

- How did you use your Merchants of Venice and were it effective? How many did you get?
Got two. One right after Optics and another right before victory (and couldn't use it).
Bought Vilnius (to have naval base for East Coast). Mongolia took out most CS on the continent and didn't have much left

- Did you use spying to your advantage?
Quite so. Rigged elections, Diplomats after Globalization were nice. Stealing techs from Siam was also fun!

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
Continent made it a little bit more difficult to play - especially when Mongolia was taking out lots of CS's out! Could not find enough trade routes with just one city early on.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
Have been a while since I played at different level but Immortal means I shouldn't go for GL. Mongolia was crazy with lots of armies early on, so I had to bribe him a lot of money to go elsewhere (such as Budapest...)

- Was Faith helpful to achieve victory? How?
Definitely! Got Tithe and got +30~50 additional gpt. Also was making lots of faith/turn so got two GE's (although lost one when I lost Prora by 1 turn)

- What did you think of Venice as the playable Civ?
Very solid. Playing with just one city is not a big problem when you have a ton of gold to supplement your hammers! Probably one of the best Civ out there.

Took the warmonger approach to get the vote in atomic era with only 2 AI civs left: Greeks & Potugal. So there were lots of units to move, and the game took some time to play...
Cheers