TSG28 After Action Report

Hi everyone and welcome to the TSG28 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 thoughts on game setup.
Do you enjoy your Keshiks?

Genghis Khan. Domination. Turn 208.

It can be done a whole lot quicker. A Keshik rush, you already know all about it. I should have built more and did it quicker. On such low levels the Wonders just sit there teasing me. I cant help myself, even went single city Heroic Epic start, not needed. Niether were the slew of other wonders i went for and got. But i did buy my units in between when i wanted them so I had to build something....




Game: Civ5 GOTM 28
Date submitted: 2012-01-15
Reference number: 25527


Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1480AD
Turns played: 208
Base score: 1526
Final score: 3721
Time played: 2:52:00
Submitted save: GOTM28Save.Civ5Save
Renamed file: trueblue_C502801.Civ5Save

And how did it feel to beat the stuffings out of Bismarck, Ramkhamhaeng, Montie and Harun el-Rashid?

After last game...

Game: Civ5 GOTM 28
Date submitted: 2012-01-16
Reference number: 25536
Your name: Monthar
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1846AD
Turns played: 293
Base score: 2176
Final score: 3751
Time played: 8:41:00
Submitted save: TSG28_Domination_Win_T293.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Monthar_C502801.Civ5Save

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Germany built the Great Wall in my game, which made it a royal pain to reach Berlin. I also had a heck of a time reaching Rome. However, once Rome fell, I was able to take a white peace with the Romans and they showed as friendly afterwards. So I quickly made a deal for mutual open borders, all my excess lux a couple of their lux I didn't have and a fat wad of cash. They denounced the following turn.

When Berlin finally fell I was 1 turn away from artillery and already had infantry.

The only civ I didn't have to go to war with was Arabia, because the Romans took their capital around turn 120ish. I didn't have to DoW the Siamese, because they DoW'd for me. So while the Romans and Germany were duking it out near circle, I swung my troops around to deal with Siam.

I completely wiped out the Aztecs and Greeks, puppeting all but 2 cities that I razed because I didn't like their locations. I left China with a very crappy city on the coast to the SE of their capital.

dominated on turn 146

settled landinwards (t1), settled 2 city near horses/dyes (t24), used gl for civil service (t48, calendar had to wait), nc in 1st city (t62), waited for the liberty finisher to open chivalry, got it on turn 80 by oracle in 2nd city

i think 120 is possible

capitals fell on (only used 1 army):
monte 88
alex 105
wu 114
ramka 125
harun 132
caesar 135
bismarck 146

could have:
* settled between the wheat
* farmed chariot archers
* second/third army
* mining/calendar earlier in technology path
* more scouting

Game: Civ5 GOTM 28
Date submitted: 2012-01-16
Reference number: 25540
Your name: numaru7
Your email: -
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1110AD
Turns played: 171
Base score: 788
Final score: 2317
Time played: 2:06:00
Submitted save: TSG28_3_Turn 171_Win.Civ5Save
Renamed file: numaru7_C502801.Civ5Save

Third try, first one i was very tired and i attacked too soon, second one barbarians captured 1 settler.

Settled between the 2 wheat's on turn 2, build GL - used it for civil service, went liberty -used GS for Chivalry - attacked around turn 90-95 with 5 keshik's and 1 horseman. For the last 2 capitals....roman and german i also had double attack and range upgrade.

TyfoonTurk said:

dominated on turn 146

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I knew I saw slow, but 1 turn less than half the time I took and saying it can be done even faster? That's it, I'm done with GOTM, at all levels, because there's no way I'll ever be able to compete with these ridiculously fast times.

numaru7 said:

Third try, first one i was very tired and i attacked too soon, second one barbarians captured 1 settler.

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Please remember that you should be submitting your first try.

It is OK to replay and post those results in this thread, but your first try is the one to submit.

i was reading this and the HoF sections. are submissions largely based on trusting that participants are being honest or is there a way to verify that certain exploits/mods/retries weren't used?

im like monthar in that i'm sure ill never be able to compete in this, but i will try many of them unless they involve dlc's i dont possess like Polynesia or Denmark. subtleties like selling open borders and certain gold manipulations are skills i definitely do not get yet. i mean anything pre-16 or 17th century to me seems just unreal. and then you see something like 1400's and early and it's just obscene. with numbers like that its doubtful ill ever actually upload one.

wow, the inefficiency in my game plan is just astounding. i just learned how to get double attacks and that would have made a RIDICULOUS difference. i always went for Siege thinking it was best for toppling cities. i wont next time, at least not til i get the extra attacks. and +1 range, wow that would be just crazy.

btw, yeah i finished it. 1932ad. not even worth a report. deleted it from my logs to get rid of the bad memories.

Hammer Rabbi said:

i was reading this and the HoF sections. are submissions largely based on trusting that participants are being honest or is there a way to verify that certain exploits/mods/retries weren't used?

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Yes, this is true. We are awaiting the release of the .dll file contents in order to create a mod that we can use to verify player submissions. That is why we call this the Training Series of Games or TSG.

Hammer Rabbi said:

im like monthar in that i'm sure ill never be able to compete in this, but i will try many of them unless they involve dlc's i dont possess like Polynesia or Denmark. subtleties like selling open borders and certain gold manipulations are skills i definitely do not get yet. i mean anything pre-16 or 17th century to me seems just unreal. and then you see something like 1400's and early and it's just obscene. with numbers like that its doubtful ill ever actually upload one.

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I am in the same boat you are in, and was with Civ III and Civ IV.

I have played in order to compare what I do to what the superstars do in order to improve my playing ability. It is what I found here and why I joined here. Playing the same save as others, I am able to compare and learn and improve. I will never be as good, but I can, at times, play fairly well. I hope you can find this as well.

Hammer Rabbi said:

wow, the inefficiency in my game plan is just astounding. i just learned how to get double attacks and that would have made a RIDICULOUS difference. i always went for Siege thinking it was best for toppling cities. i wont next time, at least not til i get the extra attacks. and +1 range, wow that would be just crazy.

btw, yeah i finished it. 1932ad. not even worth a report. deleted it from my logs to get rid of the bad memories.

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I always go for the rough terrain damage until I get double attack. Then I follow that with +1 range, indirect fire, march then the sieges and lastly the flat terrain bonuses if the unit is still kicking. I do the same with naval and siege units, except I skip the indirect fire since cruisers and artillery both get the IF promotion automatically when upgraded to them.

The real beauty of double attacks (Logistics) on naval units is it also lets them move after both attacks if they still have movement points left. Not to mention all units, both land and sea get to earn experience from both attacks, so the later promotions come a bit faster.

When promoting a Carrier, always got for the ship vs ship promotions until you can get the + movement because they can only defend and I think it helps them survive longer when attacked by another ship.

For all naval units it's a good idea to get the promotion that allows it to heal outside your borders, after logistics and + range that is. At the very least, after logistics.

I made a 4 cities sword rush start and it paid well. 6 iron tile far north settled with 4th city. I harrassed Monty right in the beginning i killed all his units excepted an archer when i finished with swords around turn 50. I stole 3 workers, so i didn't take the right side of Liberty and decided to go for Alex right away.

Built the GL in cap for Civil Service then Oracle. 2nd city built Stonehenge. When i got close to alex, i didn't know that other folks where on the continent(well i tought it was a continent for a long time). Was preparing myself for Astro but the continent was way too huge for such other land. So i teched directly for chivalry...well it took a long time to get there seriously. Built no libraries or NC. I figured later that i couldn't get a free scientists somewhere or by myself...so much used to get one before turn 90. But with 3 policies in Honor, i was in good shape anyway with 8 swordmen, 5 horsemen and 2 horse archers by turn 85.

After Greece, i splitted my army in 2. One for China, Siam and Arabia and the other one for Rome and Germany. Roman opened borders for me and i paid him to DoW Germany as well. It worked nice and some units got damaged. Then i DoWed Germany. Wasn't easy, some horses died but the swordmen attacked Berlin hard enough to dodge a counter attack.

Chivalry discovered around turn 110, i upgraded 5 of them at Berlin and (easily)traveled to Rome. The other army was too strong for the south part, every capital went down like castles of cards.

In resume i built/teched :

-4 cities
-built 8 warriors
-teched iron
-GL, Oracle, Stonehenge
-circuses, markets, coliseums
-Chivalry(not really necessary)

I annexed Greece around turn 75 and i rush bought 6-7 horsemen a bit later. Upgraded 5 keshiks at the end for Rome. But capital was undefended and other army was at 4-5 turns from Rome.

Edit : I built a useless road with 3 workers from Greece to Rome...I lost some gpt there for sure.

Ok now i recorded all this but i can't figure why movie maker can't read the file. I think it's a bit too huge idk. If i can't figure how to read this thing i will post some pictures.

not far off with my prediction of 120, didn't expect the lsm-rush

@monthar and others: the whole point of the gotm-games is that you learn. by looking at strategies and timeframes of other players, you get better. when i started with the earlier gotm's, i had the same problem. the finishes of others seemed just impossible. however, by doing gotm's and reading the forum you learn on the way and now i see the result.

also, what i like about the gotm (and the hof) is that it provides an extra challenge to the game. on one hand, adding a new scenario/task/quest and on the other hand comparing yourself (in that quest) with others

tyfoonturk, im certainly learning, that's for sure. im watching some people's LP's. wainy's and maddjinn's are good for me trying to learn deity strategy. but some of these strategies are vague enough that the micro-management isn't being discussed and im not sure about certain military decisions.

btw, im not asking for that kind of info, giant bricks of micro-decisions are fine and all but many of the pros here already have that kind of stuff in other threads as well as the videoLPs. i just need to go read/watch them. tabarnak's details are great for a general progression of how things happened, but the minutiae of his decisions are still really fuzzy to me. if he gets a videoLP up, i will definitely watch it.

TyfoonTurk said:

not far off with my prediction of 120, didn't expect the lsm-rush

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Just swords.

settled 1 tile inland on the wheat. 2nd city east between the 2 horse tiles. built a 3rd settler for some reason - didn't know where to put it so shoved it up top near the crater..

My scout got trapped below monty at the boot of our land. I was convinced it was a continent so didnt scout the rest.

chivalry done by turn 90. monty fell pretty fast afterwards. then just plodded through each opponent in turn. alex, china took siam. china, berlin, arabs then rome at the end.

not sure what difference it would have made if i scouted a bit better earlier. i also fanny about a bit too much before declaring war.

might try tabarnaks swordsman rush and see if i can pull it off.

Thanks Leif. This one felt good to exact some revenge after TSG27. Everything was easy in this one.

I went with 2 cities, and the National College. I believe I settled in place and put the 2nd city 3 tiles away on the river near the dyes. The 2nd city built a monument, library and then pumped out chariot archers. Took out Monte's capital with 3 chariots and a horseman and then settled a 3rd city on the southern coast west with the two 4-horse spots.

Chivalry came from the Great Library. My culture wasn't going to complete Liberty until the late 90s, and I was able to grab it earlier this way. After taking Athens, I split forces into two 1 horseman/keshik groups. Like Tabarnak, one team went towards China/Siam and the other went toward Germany. There capitals were still around 14 strength, so it only took about 3 turns of bombarding before the horsemen could sweep in and take them.

More keshiks were built/bought to strengthen the armies against the more defended Romans and Arabians. The German-attacking army marched through Roman lands (still had open borders at that point) and went after Mecca while the China/Siam army came from the SW up towards Rome a few turns later.

Things went pretty smoothly and I was pretty aggressive (without losing any units). Maybe I could've sold off Athens and annexed a more centralized military base to shave off a few turns. The AI was pretty cash poor, though. I was taking all with Luxury / Resource sales already.

Mazer Rackham said:

Thanks Leif. This one felt good to exact some revenge after TSG27. Everything was easy in this one.

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Very happy to hear you enjoyed it. Thought it might raise some spirits after TSG27.

Monthar said:

I knew I saw slow, but 1 turn less than half the time I took and saying it can be done even faster? That's it, I'm done with GOTM, at all levels, because there's no way I'll ever be able to compete with these ridiculously fast times.

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Don't quit, you have plenty to offer. I always felt bad about my sports skills, but 5 of my team mates went pro.

I am rolling along just fine right now in 28, but you can believe that I am really interested in this 118 win video. I wasn't even thinking I could have gone faster, until I saw this time. I think I could have shaved 16 turns off my current time (army is past Alex on t114) just because I should have prebuilt settler #3 for iron city AND should have placed the city on the iron. I should have started pounding on Monty anyway with just my warriors/archer.

I was going for a horse rush, but my first ruin popped mining and I changed to sword rush instead.