TSG32 After Action Report

Hi everyone and welcome to the TSG32 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.

STOP - Please do not continue reading this thread until you have completed and submitted your game.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 32
Date submitted: 2012-03-15
Reference number: 25906
Your name: nea*Nicu
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1872AD
Turns played: 306
Base score: 674
Final score: 1104
Time played: 2:24:00
Submitted save: Suleiman_0306 AD-1872.Civ5Save
Renamed file: neaNicu_C503201.Civ5Save

Nothing to be proud of but at least won Played a classic science game, 3 cities, Great Library, National College, universities, public schools, research labs, produced like 7-8 GS, bulbed for Globalization.
Liberty, left part of Rationalism and first 3 of Patronage.
signed some RAs, with Hagia and PT.
Askia DOWed like 4 times, ignored him since the terrain was in my advantage and easily deffended with archers and crossbows.
Started too late to buy CSs and also went too late to PAtronage.
To be honest, I didn't have the money to buy 8 CSs but borrowed 5.000 gold (switching all cities to gold production, specialist etc and also using a GG from Brandenburg for golden age) from Harun Al-Rashid and used the money to buy HIS own CSs
A true diplomatic victory of course, the diplomacy of bribing

Well, I cheated. That was a pretty major disadvantage being the only civ to have to share an island...with a maniac...and no iron. My first game fell apart when Askia got my second city. I ragequit and started again with a different strategy.

I went with only the capital on the shared island, one tile to the east of the start. Went straight for water sports, work boats, and triremes, and settled my next three cities on the islands to the north and west. Harbored it up and for the first time ever had no roads. I got probably half a dozen or so ruins and converted probably eight or nine barb corsairs. The one third cost thing is so crucial.

Nothing could appease Askia tho. It seems war was inevitable no matter the strategy. The capital proved easier to defend than a second city, but all I could do was defend for about 100 turns. Finally, around turn 130, I managed to put all the pieces together for Janissaries and Frigates. Raising the money was tough, and having to buy the iron was a major pain. All in all tho, those Jannisarries with some highly upgraded frigates made easy work of Askia.

Had it been a domination game I could have gone to the races, but as it was I stuck with my peaceful empire of four cities plus three puppets. I did take one city state to please the one nearest me. From then on, it was just a matter of RAs to stay ahead of Harun, and getting a powerful economy. I just bought up those CS one after the other and nobody did anything about it except get less and less friendly over time. Not a big deal when you have all the resources and no happiness issues.



Also, these games just don't run correctly. I can't even figure out what the rule is for CS hooking up resources anymore. Sometimes its instantaneous with the tech, sometimes it takes forever. Now the other civs have resources they don't even have the tech for, and they pay money to buy them exactly once? Its totally messed up. I had an invisible mountain by the rock of Gibralter. Also, Askia parked a horse on my CS ally's soil for the entire game, being neither allied nor at war??? It was annoying b/c it prevented me hooking up a road. There was absolutely no explanation for the finances or the behavior of some of the AI. This game is buggier than it has probably ever been on my machine. I'm about to write this game off at this point.

Turn 333. Suleiman. Diplomacy.

I'll report back. Needless to say it wasnt a very inspired game. by the numbers stuff.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 32
Date submitted: 2012-03-16
Reference number: 25913

Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1913AD
Turns played: 333
Base score: 1270
Final score: 1924
Time played: 2:51:00
Submitted save: GOTM32Save.Civ5Save
Renamed file: trueblue_C503201.Civ5Save

Game: Civ5 GOTM 32
Date submitted: 2012-03-16
Reference number: 25914
Your name: Thresian
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1826AD
Turns played: 283
Base score: 842
Final score: 1503
Time played: 6:22:00
Submitted save: Suleiman_0283 AD-1826.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Thresian_C503201.Civ5Save

Click to expand...

I was quite pleased with this. Wonders were the Colossus, HS, PT, ND. Policies were all of Liberty, Patronage opener, all of Rationalism, Aesthetics. Allied Lhasa early on, and a second cultural CS with the GM from the Colossus. My RA timing worked properly for once. The final RA matured on turn 242, all industrial techs were cleared on turn 245, Oxford turn 246, Scientific Revolution, 5th GS and Globalisation on turn 247. By then I'd switched to all out gold production - attached is a screen-shot of Istanbul in its glory. Edirne built the UN, which finished on turn 274. On turn 277, Istanbul spawned its GM, who went down to cosy up to Helsinki. On turn 280, I allied all CSs, and still had 5k gold left over.

Aaronius said:

Also, these games just don't run correctly. I can't even figure out what the rule is for CS hooking up resources anymore.

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Are you talking about your gameplay or simply the game itself? Don't forget that 2 civs need to discover the tech to let city states using these ressources or units.

Thresian said:

Globalisation on turn 247. Edirne built the UN, which finished on turn 274.

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Next time, try to keep 1 or 2 ge for the UN. You will shave quite a bunch of turns!

2 options :

Let a capital average size and burn 2 ge for a complete finish in 1 turn but you will probably need to sacrifice a wonder during that time which is not always easy(like Notre-Dame or PT).

or, like in my game,

try to significantly boost your capital (like over 25 ) and use 1 ge only. But the ge will give a large amount of and you will be able to finish the UN in some turns only.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 32
Date submitted: 2012-03-16
Reference number: 25910
Your name: numaru7
Your email: -
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1918AD
Turns played: 338
Base score: 1528
Final score: 2280
Time played: 2:58:00
Submitted save: TSG32_Turn338_DiploWin.Civ5Save
Renamed file: numaru7_C503201.Civ5Save

standard, no stress, expanded to 7-8 cities, conquered russia and kept another 4
went tradition, liberty, piety, patronage, order - only completed liberty
some printscreens attached from the last 3 turns.

wanted to post this last night but the site wasn't loading.
2-nd try: 302 Diplo Win
Until now i've played this one more time because i wanted to try Tabarnak's 2-nd and 3-rd city positions. 2-nd run was better, but those city positions dragged me down a LOT since the beginning - the one on the gold was useless from a production standpoint for almost the whole game, the one on the silver didn't have enough because it didn't grow like my 2-nd city near the mountain+ocean did.
This time i completed liberty, patronage and rationalism, had 2 GE's for the UN - last time i almost did it with 1GE in 1 turn but the golden age just finished and it added 1 more turn to it.

Anyway - Conquered Russia(ofc took Askias Capital too) with Janissary this time (last time is was with destroyers and infantry). Overall i had 10% less science and 20% less gold this time(with no research labs, or even some universities though and not all cities had stock exchange),
In case of war, which i like btw, i'm not sure i could get the high prod i had in the first game, in just 30 turns.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 32
Date submitted: 2012-03-17
Reference number: 25919
Your name: Derfel_82
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1850AD
Turns played: 295
Base score: 878
Final score: 1488
Time played: 8:23:00
Submitted save: Suleiman_0295 AD-1850.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Derfel_82_C503201.Civ5Save

Not easy game.

Permanet war with Russia and DoWed 3 times by Askia.
I prefer to put the capital in the Marble for fast GL and gold. But i really don´t know if i do right.

I settled 1E of the settler's opening position and pursued the standard Great Library - National College opening. Askia declared early, but was easily held off with archers and triremes. I didn't seek peace but used his troops to gain experience for my trireme fleet so that when Navigation was discovered I had 3-4 frigates, all with the Logistics promotion. These quickly whittled away Askia's city defences and allowed me to capture his capital and second city with just one pikeman. Wu followed the same pattern, as did Hiawatha (although I was using one rifleman by then). This gave me a nice sized empire with a good cash flow, although happiness was always marginal until I built the Eiffel Tower.

All-in-all this was a fun game and I finished with a reasonable score, albeit in a slow time. I think overall I put too much reliance in Scholasticism and, therefore, didn't sign enough research agreements. This meant Globalisation came much later than it might have done.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 32
Date submitted: 2012-03-18
Your name: xerex
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1914AD
Turns played: 334
Base score: 1106
Final score: 1675
Time played: 3:58:00

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Well I lost the Porcelain Tower by a couple of turns, but went later to reconquer it from Hiawata, albeit slowly. In late game, half of the civs declared war on me, resulting in broken RA's and lost customers. Only 3 GS to bulb techs in late game..
Thanks for the game!

Game: Civ5 GOTM 32
Date submitted: 2012-03-18
Reference number: 25926
Your name: Brichals
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1929AD
Turns played: 349
Base score: 1171
Final score: 1697
Time played: 6:00:00
Submitted save: TSG32_Brichals_0349 AD-1929.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Brichals_C503201.Civ5Save

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I went tradition and settled the capital in an unusual spot west of marble. Edirne went near the wheat but not on the river. Then I got hemmed in by Askia and a barb camp. So a slow start. I bulbed Compass from the GL and with Machu Pichu set up a harbour network and was rich since then. Cities had good growth from tradition which I went through fast thanks to Lhasa and Mt. Fuji.


I settled my next 2 cities on the west island.


I later took Askias 2 cities on my continent. His 3rd was on the silver island up north. I left it. (he dowed me early. Was funny, I sold him marble to get allies with Lhasa for like 65/60. Lhasa then wants marble. Askia DoWs on me. Marble connected for Lhasa .


I went for trad, patronage, then rationalism and freedom in a mix.


I ended up with a tall empire, with Statue of Liberty. Running full specialists in my cities.


In the end it was a peaceful game and I could buy all the city states. I won 17-2. Arabia must have liberated one. They were doing well, and built the Apollo program and were in Future era.


It was a very interesting start. A really nice map.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 32
Date submitted: 2012-03-18
Your name: Tabarnak
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1595AD
Turns played: 229
Base score: 736
Final score: 1635
Time played: 3:55:00

Write up :

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Game: Civ5 GOTM 32
Date submitted: 2012-03-18
Reference number: 25929
Your name: Mazer Rackham
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1625AD
Turns played: 235
Base score: 1205
Final score: 2563

Game recap:



TSG18 had the same settings and I shaved 26 turns off my attempt on that one. So I'm happy.

Tabarnak said:

Next time, try to keep 1 or 2 ge for the UN. You will shave quite a bunch of turns!

2 options :

Let a capital average size and burn 2 ge for a complete finish in 1 turn but you will probably need to sacrifice a wonder during that time which is not always easy(like Notre-Dame or PT).

or, like in my game,

try to significantly boost your capital (like over 25 ) and use 1 ge only. But the ge will give a large amount of and you will be able to finish the UN in some turns only.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip. I have to admit, I was thinking that I'd need the time while the UN was being built to generate the I'd need to buy up the CSs, but as it turned out I had vastly more than I needed.

There's a couple of things I don't quite understand - how does the size of the city affect the from the GE? Also, in your game, Istanbul spawned a GS and a GE on the same turn: how is that possible? Is it just that you fiddle the GPPs so that they're both due on the same turn or is there more to it than that?

Even if I'd built the UN on the same turn I took Globalisation, I'd *still* have got a worse time than you and Mazer Rackham. One of the interesting things about the TSGs is how large the gap is between the strong players and the field.

Mazer Rackham said:

Game: Civ5 GOTM 32
Base score: 1205
Final score: 2563

Game recap:

Spoiler :

I settled on the Marble, put a 2nd city on the Silver to the East and went for a GL / NC start. I picked Compass for the free tech. My 3rd city was Silver to the North and then I claimed a 6-Iron spot on a small island close to Gandhi for Frigate upgrades.

Askia attacked early, but was pretty unwilling to actually enter my territory. I never made peace because I actually wanted his lands eventually. I also wanted to clear off one more AI's territory (so I wanted to keep my free DoW). Just bode my time until I could get my Frigates online.

I used the PT GS for Astronomy and my first generated GS right away for Navigation to get the wars on. After taking all but one of Askia's cities, I chose Catherine as my next target. I'm not sure that was best; she was 2nd in score, but I hadn't scouted all of her land and it ended up being pretty crappy. Maybe I should've gone after Mr. Moneybags, Harun.

I took 4 of Russia's cities and sold off another one that I got in the peace deal. There was no hope for it every generating anything useful. Humorously, Gandhi and Russia did a joint declaration of war around turn 195. So I got to take 3 of Gandhi's cities and sell off another one as my final techs were clearing. I'm curious as to what his crossbowmen and knights thought of the Range/Logistics Destroyers that cruised into their waters and incinerated them.

All the land made me rich and I didn't have to do anything cheesy to get the city states. I didn't start buying them up until late Renaissance - it helped clear the last Rationalism techs and get the first 2 or 3 Patronage policies by the end.

However, it did prevent me from growing my capital like Tabarnak was able to. As you would expect with that much conquest, I was constantly dealing with unhappiness. I only managed to pop one late GE and it took around 12-15 turns (even in a golden age) in addition to the GE to build the UN.

TSG18 had the same settings and I shaved 26 turns off my attempt on that one. So I'm happy.

Click to expand...

I like the clever use of the 1 free DoW and not accepting peace with Askia.

Thresian said:

Thanks for the tip. I have to admit, I was thinking that I'd need the time while the UN was being built to generate the I'd need to buy up the CSs, but as it turned out I had vastly more than I needed.

There's a couple of things I don't quite understand - how does the size of the city affect the from the GE? Also, in your game, Istanbul spawned a GS and a GE on the same turn: how is that possible? Is it just that you fiddle the GPPs so that they're both due on the same turn or is there more to it than that?

Even if I'd built the UN on the same turn I took Globalisation, I'd *still* have got a worse time than you and Mazer Rackham. One of the interesting things about the TSGs is how large the gap is between the strong players and the field.

Click to expand...

The formula for GE hammers is:
hammers = 300 + 30*pop of city

You need a size 24 city to rush the UN. I think my cap got to size 13. Too much conquest. Actually, too much of saving marginal cities from conquest. I tend to do that.

Yes, you can fiddle with your GPPs and get them to pop at the same time. Go back and check frequently, though. I've had times where I build a wonder and it throws off the time just enough to mess me over.

I believe the biggest key is getting finishing times is improving RA management. Get them going as soon as you know you will have the PT and Rationalism in place. Always find the cash to sign them (i.e. don't blow all your on CS too early) above all else. And manage your tech order to get the biggest bang out of them.

I actually learned something by reading Tabarnak's write up about going for Refrigeration and Telegraph before clearing the bottom of the tree. That does indeed push up the median; I had 5 turns of hard teching left after my RAs and if I had gone that route, it would've shaved off those turns.

Lots of mistakes made in this game. I went sailing as quickly as possible to get triremes for the UA. Ended up converting until I got around 10 of them. Rather than let them sit around doing nothing, I ended up declaring war on nearly everybody, and more or less conquered the world by the end of the game. Had to keep Moscow alive to prevent a domination victory. Food was hard to come by at city locations, and everybody hated me, so the RA's weren't too frequent. Ignored culture for too long, so didn't have the proper policies to stave off unhappiness from all the cities I was capturing. Also opted to waste my last GE engineer on the Eiffel Tower for this reason instead of rushing the U.N. At least I got to have fun with an armada of heavily vetted destroyers!

The fact that I'm avoiding all gold trades now really hurt as well, since upgrades are expensive, and there was no money to be found. Had to focus on building markets and banks everywhere for a while until I could afford to buy all the city states and upgrade all the units. It'll be interesting to see how my strategy has to change on regular maps too.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 32
Your name: FireFree3
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1770AD
Turns played: 264
Base score: 1317
Final score: 2532
Time played: 6:01:00

Not a fast game. Settled 1E for river & mountain. Settled only 1 more city in the island.

I explored the world with the triremes and decided to settle the 4th city on a 3 lux + 6 iron location west of Russia, and south of Monaco! It also turns out that the city has oil too! A very nice city spot.

Used the standard liberty, tradition, rationalism rush to navigation. Used the fleet of frigates to clear up hiawartha (got 4 wonders! ) and then go to peace mode. I signed the RAs too late (as everybody is broke.)

Askia declared war to me twice, and he's just giving me money in peace deals.

UN is constructed in 7 turns. The GE was created in another city, and it's not fast enough to move to the capital to rush UN. Instead, I rushed Sidney Opera House for another policy (+ gold influence).

Game date: 1826AD
Turns played: 283
Base score: 801
Final score: 1430


I ended up settling west on the marble after my scout spotted the gold on the tip of that island. 2nd city went on the silver in the middle.
askia declared earlier but couldnt get at me effectively because of the mountain.
3rd city went on island to north for the silver sales and 4th went west to a calendar luxury.
I scouted early and hence was slow on getting science buildings up. which meant my earlies RAs were a bit ineffective.

also, I'm terrible at getting my cities geared up for the end - 18 turns to build UN.

FireFree3 said:

Not a fast game.

Click to expand...

But a successful one.

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