TSG20 After Action Report

Hi everyone and welcome to the TSG20 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!

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.).

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).

Would be interested to hear any thought on game setup.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 20
Date submitted: 2011-09-16
Reference number: 24891
Your name: Monthar
Your email:
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1914AD
Turns played: 334
Base score: 1587
Final score: 2404
Time played: 7:06:00
Submitted save: TSG20_Sci_Win_T334_S2404.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Monthar_C502001.Civ5Save

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Here's the map of my lands when I won.

I only had 3 wars. In the first Russia DOW'd. The 2nd Japan DOW'd a few turns after Russia did. After taking a couple of cities from each, they offered a decent peace proposal (money, resources, etc.). I got Tokyo from Japan's peace proposal and no cities from Russia's peace offer.

The 3rd war started when Catherine asked about all my troops along our borders. I was close enough to being ready for this war so I told her, "Yep, it's on like Donkey Kong". Then I proceeded to strip her of all but her worst city, which was on the southern coast, mostly empty snow and no resources. I figured that would teach her not to DOW the guy with the most advanced military. I think the others learned from her mistake too since no one else challenged me for the rest of the game.

Overall, I think I did fairly well. However, I should have started some wars well before the two DOW's. I'm sure if I could get more into a warmonger mentality and less of builder, I could probably shave a bunch of turns off my non-domination victories, even if I have to contend with several turns of very unhappy citizens. Oh well, maybe next game I will get a bit more aggressive. I definitely will when I replay this one.

I settled on the gold hill like many others and went Pottery -> Writing -> Mining and went for the GL. I delayed that a few turns to pick up Civil Service to help with the food situation and push toward Education. I believe I went straight for Education without working on any other techs.

Went with 3 city setup all the way until Electricity when I found I had no Aluminum. But I was able to settle a 4th city to the east with 8! Japan had 2 settlers nabbed by barbs, so they were never a factor; they probably would've had that spot already.

Policies were Honor to help deal with (and profit culturally from) the barbs. Followed by Liberty. I was able to get the Oracle to help close that one out. Used HS Engineer on PT and Liberty GE on ND. Signed RAs as much as I could afford, taking the "era ahead" penalty almost always. The first round was very tight on cash, but eventually I nabbed Chitchen Itza right before a natural golden age. That and the Taj Mahal solved my money issues for the remainder of the game.

I also took the left side of Rationalism. No one declared war on me. Russia was huge but kept making declarations of friendship with me for the entire game. I had a few Maritime CS allies, but I focused the vast majority of cash towards RAs. I could've pulled victory a little sooner with richer AI and if Alex wouldn't have been hostile for no good reason. But overall I played it pretty well I think.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 20
Date submitted: 2011-09-17
Reference number: 24896
Your name: stannp
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1858AD
Turns played: 299
Base score: 1205
Final score: 2042
Time played: 8:14:00
Submitted save: Harun al-Rashid_0299 AD-1858.Civ5Save
Renamed file: stannp_C502001.Civ5Save

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What I learned;

• Raging Barbs are no joke, I lost my starting warrior after he upgraded to a spear and then stayed in the open.
• I rescued a worker from Cathy but did not give it back. She DoW me the next turn and it was 150 turns later before I could get a decent peace.
• Early culture from barb deaths was huge. I never farmed any barb encampments, but I had a trireme that must have killed 7 boats from one encampment.
• RA's made the game, but giving out money so my trading partners had enough cash and trying to keep track of when they popped so I could direct the research was a pain. Need better tools on who you have RA with, when they will mature and how much that will give you.
• I think I lost focus in the mid-game and built to many wonders.

First spaceship win on Civ5 - for once the tech tree layout made sense!

Stannp

Game: Civ5 GOTM 20
Date submitted: 2011-09-17
Reference number: 24899
Your name: Derfel_82
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1695AD
Turns played: 249
Base score: 830
Final score: 1693
Time played: 3:13:00
Submitted save: Harun al-Rashid_0249 AD-1695.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Derfel_82_C502001.Civ5Save

1) Settled in Gold
2) Go Honor to kill barbs easy and win culture
3) Go Liberty tree and after that Rationalism. I picked Patronage open because i didn´t had in Renassance to take Rationalism
4) Done a lot of wonders in Capital (GL, HG, HS, PT, Machu, ND e Eifel Tower)
5) Dowed one time by Oda (only kill their troops and accepted a good peace). Dowed one time for Cathy and defend only and made a good peace)
6) Done a lot of RA´s i think more than 15 with everyone. In the middle game i´m Friendly with everyone unless Oda
7) Done 5 citys and 3 CS ally (2 cultural and 1 maritime)

Sorry about my english

Science win on turn 267

I settled on the Gold, built GL and then NC and then put up 3 more cities, 2 along mountains to the south and east and one to the north along the river. I traded all excess resources when possible and signed lots of RAs but they all weren't optimized, especially the earlier ones. Catherine was the only problem child during this game, DOW me about 2 or 3 times, took 3 of her cities she settled north of me when I hit Infantry and she was still rockin Swordsmen. I took the first Nuke tech before realizing that I didn't need to go down that path for the science victory, all well!

Overall I am pleased with my result. Sweet semi-isolated start position was nice.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 20
Date submitted: 2011-09-18
Your name: Tabarnak
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1530AD
Turns played: 216
Base score: 748
Final score: 1739
Time played: 4:08:00

Around turn 170 i realized that i wasnt going to finish under 200 turns because one RA was missing(i just didnt sign enough). I also completely forgot Romans around turn 140 for like 15 turns for an extra RA with money in bank. Some turns later i had no choice but to use a RA for an almost hard finished one. The overflow transefered in Refrigeration .

My cities weren't completely ready to build all the parts in time too. Overall i missplayed a dozen of turns at the end(my ''talon d'achille'', the end game).

I've not been a war for the whole game. I think i needed 1 or 2 more cities earlier to keep produce more science and gold to break 200-205 turns without headaches.

P.S. : Darius and Catherine had finally entered the Ren. era at turn 199!

Land :

Tabarnak said:

Game: Civ5 GOTM 20
Date submitted: 2011-09-18
Your name: Tabarnak
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1530AD
Turns played: 216
Base score: 748
Final score: 1739
Time played: 4:08:00

Around turn 170 i realized that i wasnt going to finish under 200 turns because one RA was missing(i just didnt sign enough). I also completely forgot Romans around turn 140 for like 15 turns for an extra RA with money in bank. Some turns later i had no choice but to use a RA for an almost hard finished one. The overflow transefered in Refrigeration .

My cities weren't completely ready to build all the parts in time too. Overall i missplayed a dozen of turns at the end(my ''talon d'achille'', the end game).

I've not been a war for the whole game. I think i needed 1 or 2 more cities earlier to keep produce more science and gold to break 200-205 turns without headaches.

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Turn 216 is still pretty impressive to me. I didn't go Currency before Education thinking I could get RAs going ASAP. But, I don't think I had enough cash to get together 4 quickly like you did. I wheeled and dealed, selling and lending, but the money ran dry and having the extra bazaar gold +8 (National Treasury) would've been helpful.

Also, my approach didn't open up Mathematics early and I completely forgot about the Hanging Gardens in my zeal to get Universities and Bazaars up. You just wouldn't even have the opportunity to get it in Immortal where I usually play. The extra pop and science would've definitely sped things up!

I just started playing the GOTMs last month and these are really great for seeing what others are doing to help improve the finer points in your game. Thanks for your write-up.

Mazer Rackham said:

You just wouldn't even have the opportunity to get it in Immortal where I usually play.

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It's something i like when i play lower levels. Other strategies can be explored than the usual tight play of high levels(imm-deity).

Game: Civ5 GOTM 20
Date submitted: 2011-09-20
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1908AD
Turns played: 329
Base score: 802
Final score: 1233
Time played: 4:04:00

Not up to the standard of others, but I am pleased with many aspects of my game play, but I do need to concentrate more on city management.

Went initially for 4 cities, but added a 5th east for the aluminium.

Social policies were Liberty (all) opened Honor for barb killing culture, did most of Patronage either side of Rationalism (all).

Only brief war was with Spain, but I was offered peace as soon as I captured 1 city.

GL & NC opening and then mostly beelined all the science techs, but I made a mistake by forgetting to do plastics and therefore missed research labs.

Had allied with about 5 City States by the close of play.

Settled on the adjacent gold. Initially built two additional cities (N and E) and later another (S). Only once did Rome declare war, after I signed a DoF with Russia, but after a few turns he gave peace, though it did cost me an RA. No other wars. Rome was the big power in the game, which is rare in my experience. Russia was also powerful but friendly all game.

Signed a lot of RAs. Went the GL/NC route and held back on GL to get Civil Service with the free tech. Then went for Education with a detour to Currency first for Bazaars.

Took Tradition first, Honor second and the resulting culture (mostly from barbs) caught me up to complete Liberty fairly efficiently. Got pretty much every Wonder I wanted.

As often is the case, I grew somewhat bored after a while and did not play close attention to optimize the Great People production. Also, toward the end I forgot I needed to get Nano for Stasis Chamber so after getting the other parts I optimized on Production and then ... whoops ... had to back off and go Science again. I need to make some notes to myself, ha ha.

I think I'll go back and play more on my second try on #19 to see what turn I end up losing on.

Game uploaded separately.

Initial picks:

Game: Civ5 GOTM 20
Date submitted: 2011-09-21
Your name: BecomeDeath
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1967AD
Turns played: 387
Base score: 1012
Final score: 1314
Time played: 3:49:00
Submitted save: TSG20_BecomeDeath WIN.Civ5Save
Renamed file: BecomeDeath_C502001.Civ5Save

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Far far far from my finest hour.

Thinking I was a clever b*****d I threw a point into the honor tree and went hunting for barbarians to to give myself a culture boost to get my free liberty GP faster...but all I did was get my warmonger head on and ended up in a sticky blend of science\warfare that pretty much nuked my game.

Because of my warmongering, RAs didn't start coming through until the late medival era and because I was trying to fix the war problem I'd created I ended up with a military that wasn't strong enough to keep the Russians at bay so we fought a 1,000 year border skirmish ending in the 1900's when I sent a couple of nukes over to give their infrastructure something to consider.

Badly played on my part, but still, a win is a win.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 20
Date submitted: 2011-09-22
Reference number: 24924
Your name: Fidur
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1844AD
Turns played: 292
Base score: 708
Final score: 1220
Time played: 2:17:00
Submitted save: TSG20_Fidur.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Fidur_C502001.Civ5Save


My first GOTM, I hope I didnt break any rule...got DOWed twice so that owuld have broken some deals but I never DOWed to break anything and I never purposley let barbs destroy luxuries to break trades. I dont even think I traded that early but I cant really remember. Anyways, I played this honourably to my knowledge.

Game experiences...well not too many to be honest. It was a pretty straightforward uncomplex game. I was pretty hemmed in by city states and underwhelming expansion spots so I decided to go for a tall empire. Did the seemingly standart GL-NC route with Tradition opener. I picked up Rationalism second (fortunately managed to get to Renaissance right before I got my 7th policy pick).

It was a nice experience for me because it was my first time with Arabia, which I find a very underpowered civ. Their leader trait is horrible imo, I never once used their camels and their Bazaar is okay but nothing amazing. I had enough gold for lux and other civs werent too eager to take my resources anyways.

What annoyed me was that civs always wanted 100g extra for doing RAs with me and that they never had any gold to sign them so I had to gift them gold first oO Could have been significantly faster with more RAs I think.

What I found surprising was that I finished 1 or 2 turns before I finished a similar SP game with Babylon, in which everything was running for me, finding El Dorado first and very early and getting really good spots with lots of luxuries. But then it was a small map with only 4 or 6 civs so that explains it I guess...

The first 100 turns where quite exciting for me with some challenges, but from then on it was clear that the AI wouldnt pose the slightest of challenge so I got pretty bored and ended it with the least effort put in. I am always amazed at how ignorant the AI is...they didnt care when I finished Apollo nor when I finished any of the parts. In fact, the last turns they wanted me to help them against some other civ instead of DOWing me...not that they had a chance but still...

Anyways, as a builder and scientist this GOTM played very much to my strengths. Guess others will be a hell more difficult ^^ Also helped, I guess, that I usually play on Prince (got this game a week ago so still new).

Thanks for your effort in creating this and Im looking forward to many more GOTMS.

Welcome to CivFanatics and GoTM.

Looks like you did fine to me. Glad you decided to join us.

Now you get to compare how you did with some the others. Please feel free to ask questions if there is something you do not understand.

Good luck with future games.

Thanks for welcoming me. My aim was to complete this at all and without reloading and I managed to do that and in decent speed so Im very happy about it ^^
Dont have questions right now, Iv read a lot on this and other platforms so most of my questions are answered already and others I just need to check out myself (which openings to use etc.).

Looking forward for the next GOTM (defo NOT going to try the Deity one).

Tabarnak said:

Game: Civ5 GOTM 20
Date submitted: 2011-09-18
Your name: Tabarnak
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1530AD
Turns played: 216
Base score: 748
Final score: 1739
Time played: 4:08:00

Around turn 170 i realized that i wasnt going to finish under 200 turns because one RA was missing(i just didnt sign enough). I also completely forgot Romans around turn 140 for like 15 turns for an extra RA with money in bank. Some turns later i had no choice but to use a RA for an almost hard finished one. The overflow transefered in Refrigeration .

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I've had the occasional early win, but winning at 216 is outstanding, AIMING for 200 however is a huge leap.

I get that you're doing this through RAs, but out of curiosity would you mind letting me in on the following?

1. How are you generating the gold to run 4-6 RAs consecutively and continuously?
2. How are you maintaining diplomatic stability, especially considering how resource light this map was?
3. Are you timing the use of Oxford and presumably the GL to land on specific techs?
4. Are you storing GS's for use in late game or for targeted tech advances?

Future tech 1500ish is my Shangri Las, enough game left to enjoy it and to have a decent modern\future conquest period. So I'm just curious as to how you do this so alarming quickly, and with such presumable ease as to be able to aim at turn 200!!

Any advice you could provide would be greatly apprecaited.

Fidur said:

Looking forward for the next GOTM (defo NOT going to try the Deity one).

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Why not? Then you can see how others handled it and, perhaps, learn from them and incorporate this into your style of play.

Even if you do not submit, learning is what is important.

Becomedeath said:

1. How are you generating the gold to run 4-6 RAs consecutively and continuously?
2. How are you maintaining diplomatic stability, especially considering how resource light this map was?
3. Are you timing the use of Oxford and presumably the GL to land on specific techs?
4. Are you storing GS's for use in late game or for targeted tech advances?

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1-I have set up 3 fat cities working riversided tiles(built the GL for civil service to accelelerate things) and researched currency early(before theo? and edu) to fund AIs and myself. I have sold both gold tiles as soon as i could in the beginning. Selling luxuries in the first 50 turns is crucial because the AI usually begin to get broke at this level after the 50 turns mark.

2-Build enough military. I upgraded 3 warriors to swords then to LS later to stay on top or close to top soldiers. Didn't settle close to AIs.

3-I try to keep Oxford and GS for the end at best but...

4-I used some GS to unlock electricity before a wave of RAs landed to get the triple indu. techs median.

Thanks for that.

My own attempt was so tarnished with errors it was impossible to regain focus, but it seems that focus on that early push more vital than I thought, I would never have sold off both golds.

I guess as a traditional warmonger I play a different game, but it seems that some adapting is required!

Thanks for the answers.

A science victory in 1907 with a score of 1932.

The end game when you put the last spaceship part in place is a bit of a let down, surely they could put in a video/graphic of the ship launching or something. It was better in earlier iterations of the game when you saw the launch from your capital and it took some turns to reach alpa-centauri.

Thanks for the game and I look forward to the next one.