TSG12 Game in Progress

Welcome to the TSG12 Game in Progress thread. This thread is used to discuss the game once you've started playing. 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. Please remember that we are running a family friendly site, so express anger or frustration with this in mind.

Please use this thread to discuss your goals for the game and your opening moves through about the first 80 to 100 turns.

Once you've completed the game, head over to the TSG12 After Action Report thread.

Hi.. Pretty fresh on CivV here, didn't know GOTM had started using CivV. (I see you link to Buffy above here, but as far as I find, that mod is not usable in CivV yet?) So I'm guessing training games is because HoF addons or similar is not yet available in CivV?

Anyways.. Thought I'd try to play some CivV games, and playing GOTM games is fun, as I can compare my result with others if they care to write some of what they do. And emperor level suits me too.

I never tried a cultural victory before in CivV (and only attempted it a couple of times in CivIV too), but thought I'd try it as that was the ranked victory in this game.

So I guess the top level strategy is then to full five trees with social policies as soon as possible, and at that time have a good production city that can build the wonder. Looking at the social policy cost formula in the number crushing thread: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=389702

p(n,k) = pb(k) (1 + pm (n - 1)) rounded to the next multiple of 5

It looks like the social policy cost is doubled from one city to 4-5 cities+, and doubled again at 10 cities. Thus, it looks to me like getting more cities is beneficial rather than a hinderance, given that you try to make all producing lots of culture.

So my strategy is somewhat like this:

1. Scout (with as little resources as possible)
2. Research what is needed to get access to luxury resources close by.
3. Create new cities in locations where I can get those luxury resources (to fuel happiness for the growth). Also, make sure to position all cities so they can all grow big.
4. Try to build culture buildings early so you can get some policies early. Have no idea which 5 trees are smart to fill. Thinking of Tradition, Liberty, Patronage, Freedom and Piety. Getting early tradition and liberty. Have to figure out how Legalism and Representation work. (Does legalism build buildings? Or is it just free upkeep for 4 buildings? Is it for first cities or next 4 cities built? Does representation decrease cost for cities already built?)
5. Once I have a set of decent cities and see no further luxury resources to grab close by, develop all cities. No more cities will be built by me. All cities adding to social policy cost should be built relatively early so they can contribute with culture during the better part of the game.
6. Try to survive on low military but try to tech to a military advantage. If we are able to get one, we might want to war a bit to get some puppets to add to our culture without upping policy cost.
7. Don't slow progress by building wonder early that AI might steal ahead of me anyway. Try later then we have developed all our cities a bit and gotten the most important culture buildings.

Lets see how it goes from there. I'm guessing we might have trouble warring for puppets having to prioritize science, city growth, teching to culture buildings and so on at the same time.

Edit: Oh.. And I should likely see what great artists do in CivV, and I'm guessing I'd want most of those, so I should try not to pollute my great person pool with other great person points. Maybe generate a great artist factory city.

humbe, TSG12 is Diplomacy victory. TSG11 was the Cultural victory game.

For a Cultural victory you really need to keep the number of cities as low as possible. When going for a Cultural victory, monument should be before the scout to get the first 2 policies asap. Typically those first two will be Tradition then Liberty for an additional +3 and +1, so when combined with the Monument the capital should be putting out a decent amount of culture while you research to the temples.

Cultural games usually don't have much of a happiness problem due to having fewer cities.

Jees.. Misread the victory condition

A bit fuzzed on why cultural victories should have very few cities, as the maths I've seen on it, says policy cost doubles at 4-5 cities and quadruples at 10 cities. I was thinking most culture would be coming from buildings built in city, such that more cities would add more culture than they would increase the cost. And since puppets dont add to policy cost as far as I've heard, getting enough cities to get an army to get a lot of puppets sounds like a good way to get more cities to contribute culture. I guess most culture is coming from sources that don't duplicate with cities then, such as wonders, and that added culture from puppets or new cities wouldn't be that much.

Maybe I should just go to play TSG11 first to investigate more about how cultural victory work and replay this as diplomatic victory then. Never tried that at all I think. Or maybe I should actually try those two victory conditions in two simple CivV games first so my comparisons to others in training games would be a little closer to something sane Thanks for the reply anyways.

main source of culture comes from multipliers from sp, wonders, nb,
as u can really get most multipliers to work in only 1 city its best to just have 1 - but I guess2 or 3 can work aswell if all really contribute (have to have wonders and all the cult buildings) but getting 3 such strong cities seems hard to me - they need the cult buildings (like 1500 hammers) + wonders (about 300-500) = 2000 hammers in a 3rd city before like turn 150 (thats about when u hit archeology)? must be beast of a city.

If u really can get such 3 ciites AND time oracle and a policiy with hitting astro that d proly be strongest strat for cult - but as said - hard ..

In theory, having more cities is advantageous, but there comes a point when another new city does not have enough turns to reach the eventual net positive effect.

In TSG11, I did well with 4 cities.

This is going badly...

Ramesses has 4 times my points, and while i am just exploring the world with my caravel he has already built the manhatten project.

Seriously bad...

Hang in there, Good Luck!

So isolated start. I bought a useless trimate and hoped to find another tradepartner but fail.

Now i finally reached astronomy on turn 117 :S

Like 50 turns later than if I would have had an good start location

Who needs longbows when you can have logistics triremes!


Unfortunately Wu folded so fast that I never needed to upgrade to Ships of the Line.

This is my first TSG... isolated start a bit painful. I shudder to think what is happening on the other continent, which I still have not discovered. Getting ready to go all Henry V on Wu... may rename one of her cities Agincourt in honor once she is conquered.

Btw, do these TSG maps always omit goody huts? I probably would not have gone scout-scout-worker if I had known there were no treats to find. Especially with the plains-heavy starting locale, I probably would have busted out my worker first...

This too is my first 'Game of the Month' but hit a snag. I know we are not to replay saves, but I hit the "black screen of death". I had saved my game and exited. When I got back to my save, loaded it and after a few turns discovered another Civ. We traded luxuries straight-up and a few rounds later the screen went blank. I have had this happen in the past, but not for a very long time (after adjusting video settings per geforce.com's website). I believe the newly discovered Civ was asking for the luxury handout as I could hear his voice but not see what the "trade offer" was for. My only option is to quit Civ. V via Task Manager. I know there is an auto-save option after x-number of turns, was that enabled for TSG12? Or, can I reload my last save and still have a valid game? I have not restarted Civ. V since the black screen (happened last night).

Welcome to CFC and GoTM.

Should you run into game crashes or power failures, you may play from autosaves without penalty, or feeling guilty.

You may set your autosave interval from the main Civ5 menu screen by clicking "Options" and then "Interface Options". On the upper right of that screen, you will find "Turns between Autosave" (should be set to 1) and "Max Autosaves kept", which you may set to whatever you wish (the higher the number, the more hard drive space you will use). The autosave interval can be set anytime and is not done in the save.

Good Luck.

This is really hard. I couldn't meet Wu because of a well-placed barbarian encampment. I assumed that there wasn't much land beyond and that it wasn't worth the risk. My warrior died soon after, too. Now Wu has expanded tremendously and I have but 2 cities. How do you guys do it? I did manage to get the Great Library and get Theology with it, but my gold is low and I have few units. Current year is 575 BC (Turn 92).

Great Pharos said:

This is really hard. I couldn't meet Wu because of a well-placed barbarian encampment. I assumed that there wasn't much land beyond and that it wasn't worth the risk. My warrior died soon after, too. Now Wu has expanded tremendously and I have but 2 cities. How do you guys do it? I did manage to get the Great Library and get Theology with it, but my gold is low and I have few units. Current year is 575 BC (Turn 92).

Click to expand...

Like in civ4, if no city states around, i take 1 or 2 units to clear the fog of war to prevent barb camps spawning. If a barb is coming it's more easier to intercept him.

Just played my first session, 150 or so turns. Got of to a very slow start and just popped Navigation at 141, without the infrastructure I had planned to have at this point. Was late expanding and did some early mistakes in tech/sp/bo. I reckon I'm still in for a sub 300, but its going to be close. Research is looking good, production is okay but my economy is in shambles and reliant on GPT lux sales to China(playing without lump sums too, seemed like a fun and more fair idea, well, I do use lumpsums under 30 together with GPT, to even out sales).

Well, I'm glad no one has posted crazy fast finish times yet. I think I'm around turn 225...1600s in my game. Getting close to the industrial era, but I have little cash and struggle to imagine how I will coax everyone to vote for me without it. Have coexisted with China so far, maybe that is part of the problem.

I've got 4 cities and will have all the national wonders before any further cities built near luxuries. UN tech is about 10 techs away.... Game seems to be going well, apart from an apparent lack of a strategy to actually achieve the victory conditions.

Oh and Gandhi, who seems to be allied with nearly every CS, has an 80 strength cap.... Zoiks!

Oh well... this one is almost certain to be a loss, so I might not take the time to finish. Egypt is getting ~150 gpt and has enough CS allies to win diplo. I went to war with them to weaken them, and captured a wonder heavy capital, but right now they're ahead in military tech (I have Riflemen and Ships of the Line vs. their Infantry/Riflemen and Cannons/Artillery) and I doubt they're going to make peace and let me try to steal their allies.

I expanded too much- built a total of 6 cities- and took too long to get astro (turn 146).

Doing better than I expected, although still not great. I am at about turn 175, and Wu is not really expanding much at all. I grabbed what I believed to be a critical location next to some mountains and resources to try to cut of Wu's expansion (if she chose to expand) and it seemed to work. That move plus refusal to give Wu open borders is letting me have free reign to settle on the entire rest of the continent. Don't see much hope for Wu in the future, she will go down soon -- I have connected up the 6-iron spot in the far north.

I just shudder to think of what is waiting for me on the other side of the world, though......

EDIT: That should be turn 125, not 175...oops! LOL I don't feel quite so bad for not sailing around the world too.

Also really loving the happiness that I am bringing in from all the variety of resources.

EDIT 2: Now, about 100 turns later (I believe it's actually turn 212), I have found just about everyone else, and have a couple Ships of the Line. I own both coasts, and Japan is the only threat that wouldn't require a naval attack. I'm stunned I've gotten this far without anyone declaring war on me...hope it stays that way. Egypt isn't running away in my game, but they are on top of the scoreboard (with 1 unknown still, so they could possibly by #2). Gunna try to finish the game by tomorrow, but I may not be able to -- still will submit though, and holding true to my no RA's and no partial techs, but next game I'm gunna have to relax it to just no partial techs.

I really think the key to my good fortune was settling my 2nd city in such a location to really hem in the Japanese, between the mountains and the city-state borders for Tyre. Japan ended up having to settle a city on the main continent after getting caravels because I did such a good job hemming them in, so I'm proud of that Still probably gunna lose, but I am happy to have survived this long on my first Emperor game that I haven't replayed any turns for.

Also, was it deliberate to choose a civ with a memorial day (well, actually, Remembrance Day, but knowing the words also appropriate for Memorial Day) song for the game ending May 30? Brings an extra tear to my eye this Memorial Day weekend.

Well...I did not finish (yet) but have not lost either. Japan is the superpower and someone wiped out Mongolia before I even discovered them. I went with the six city approach right away. Two were land-locked, but the other four were port cities. I did this to benefit from the resources and was an ally of Tyre since the early rounds. I used them to help produce my military. China attacked me around round 80 and she was WAY more powerful than I was. I kept begging for peace but she would always demand way too much. Our war waged on for a very long time, but she never conquered me. I was able to play defensive quite a bit but occasionally I got greedy and went on the offensive, only to lose my army. Eventually, I was able to upgrade my military to longbows, SotL and cannons. Not even sure how I lasted this long as she was clearly the 2nd most powerful AI (only behind Japan). Went on the offensive and took her city right next to Tyre and annexed it. The next round she offered a VERY generous peach treaty, which I took. I was a bit *annoyed* she never gave in until I conquered one of her cities so I kept building up my military and produced as many SotL's as possible. I waited until the 30-turns expired and then declared war on her. Oddly, she had riflemen to my longswords but I put 5 to 6 SotL's right on her coastal cities and went to town. I took her down pretty easily with only two cannons and three longswords, also denied every peace treaty she offered. I also annexed or puppetted all her cities.

After China I ran across the ocean and conquered the Ottomans. Japan has over 43000 gold and is making 777 gpt. However, I have 10 CS as allies. India has one city remaining and is at war with Japan...they nuked them, but gave up. Irony is, India is one Social Policy from being able to start the Utopia Project. I am still researching the Manhattan Project and only have 2 Uranium (even from all the allies). We are in the 1920s and all I need is someone to build the United Nations. I am also knocking on the door of war with Egypt, only because they are 'Guarded' and won't allow me to pass freely within their borders to get to India to stop the Utopia Project.