Game: Civ5 GOTM 37
Date submitted: 2012-06-06
Reference number: 26410
Your name: Halcyan2
Game status: (Waiting to be corrected)
Game date: 1978AD
Turns played: 398
Base score: 4964
Final score: 6283
Time played: 12:54:00
Decided to have fun with this one, so I played this out to have simultaneous victories on all 4 winning conditions on the same turn. (The quirks of the system meant I didn't get the Culture Win Trophy though, more on that later).
[Game Summary]
Settled in place. Nice selection of resources nearby, close to Marble (for Wonders) and coastal.
Production: Scout, Monument, Granary, Great Library
Science: Pottery, Writing, Calendar, Archery?, Philosophy, beeline to Iron Working, beeline to Mathematics
Social Policies: All of Tradition, then All of Liberty
With Science as the Designated VC and on Immortal, I wanted to hit the Great Library early, ideally netting me Theology, the free Library (Paper Maker), and the beakers every turn.
I met Japan *very* early on. Knowing how close he was (since I just met him) and how aggressive he tends to be, I changed my strategy slightly. I ditched one of the Scouts in my queue build (normally I build two Scouts) - this worked out well since the continent was so small. I also moved up Archery in my list of priorities.
I sent my warrior south, where he found a pop increase ruins. He did a tiny bit of exploring before running back to potentially defend me. My single scout never found any ruins but did meet the nearby civs (Iroquois, Arabia, Persia).
I kept my Warrior on alert. I read that other players got rushed very early so maybe having that Warrior nearby delayed Japan's attack. In addition to being able to see when Japan was going to attack me, it would also mean that I could trade for all of his gold right before he did that. Plus, I also managed to block his settler for several turns by moving around across the river.
Eventually he did DoW me (apparently later than most players). He settled in a sweet spot (hills/river) which I had been eyeing myself - but that was fine because I would just take the city myself! I finished Archery and bought an Archer to fend off his first wave.
After finishing the Great Library, I then devoted myself towards the war efforts. With a force of 3 Warriors and 2 Archers, I took the hills/river city. I took another city he had just built in the direction of Arabia, but it took awhile for me to take his capital, Kyoto. I did lose my Scout in the process, which was annoying later on when I needed to explore across water. At this point, he only had one city left (Susa taken from the Persians). The Persians soon took the city back, which saved me from the genocide penalty.
Ancient Era: Being Immortal difficulty and fighting off Japan meant I was at a disadvantage in the Wonder/Tech race. Although I got the Great Library, most of the other ancient wonders were built in far away lands. England built the Great Lighthouse, Mongolia had Stonehenge, and Russia got The Colossus. There wasn't that much interest in the Pyramids, so I went for that and was surprised when I got it. I was looking forward to the Great Engineer point (which didn't really end up helping), so I wonder if I shouldn't have bothered with the hammers, though the 2 workers were helpful in improving the Japanese land.
Classical: Went by quickly. I got the Oracle, but Mongolia got the Hanging Gardens and Iroquois the Great Wall. After discovering Optics, I sent one of my Archers to search for the other civs (my Scout had been killed by the Japanese).
MISTAKE #1: After finishing Tradition, I then did all of Liberty, but I think it was a mistake. I would have been better off going straight to Patronage instead (I was in Medieval Era due to GL). I wanted the free settler to try and build my second city in a spot before Arabia could get there (he had a pair of Settlers who were itching to get near me, but I refused Open Borders to delay him). However, I felt that the Liberty benefits were largely unhelpful. The free Great Person came late enough to not matter much (when I complete Liberty first, the GE grabs me a key wonder but this game it was so late that I just got a Scientist instead).
Medieval: I met Mongolia and England (due to Liz's fast Trimeres) early on, but it took a *while* to find Siam and Russia. After my initial clash with Japan, I was largely peaceful with everyone. Maintained friendships with both Arabia and Iroquois to deter war (and allow lasting RA's). Medieval Era was exciting. I grabbed Hagia Sophia, used the free GP for Porcelein Tower, and built Notre Dame. Meanwhile Genghis got Macchu Picchu and eventually Himeji. I was surprised by how quickly England built both Chichen Itza and Angkor Wat (maybe she used a GE?).
Around this time, Persia turned on me. He had built Ectabana very close to me so that proximity probably contributed to his hostility. After taking that one city I didn't really fight him much. He was also fighting the Iroquois and lost Susa to them. I marched my troops south and he sued for peace, offering me Pasargadae in the frigid south (but it had pearls). After that Persia was stuck with only his capital for a long while.
Was Friendly with everyone else and did lots of trading and RA's (with all 7 remaining players, including Persia).
Renaissance: I had a nice tech advantage going in (with lots of RA's, PT, and Rationalism soon after) but was losing in terms of points and resources. Mongolia seemed the runaway civ, with Siam close behind. First I built the Sistine Chapel and Kremlin in my two cities while Genghis completed the Forbidden Palace. I was surprised when my capital still managed to build the Taj Mahal (figured someone would beat me to it). My plan was to then do Big Ben, followed by Brandenburg. I did get Big Ben, but was surprised to see Genghis build Brandenburg. It makes sense that he would prioritize Military Science (given his UU) but I was surprised by how quickly he built the Gate. Ah well, I still managed to get the Louvre.
Catherine was suicidal. She had two cities and a much smaller army than Siam but attacked nonetheless. She quickly got stomped, losing Moscow and then St. Petersburg.
CLEVER SOLUTION #1: I was annoyed when Russia attacked Siam, because I knew Russia would get destroyed and I wanted the trade (and RA) partner. Learning from prior games, as soon as Russia declared, I had Shanghai build a Settler, who I sent to a distant island. When Russia was about to lose its final city, I created a tiny city and gave it to Russia, keeping her in the game. This let me have an additional trade partner for quite some time (though I needed to front most of the RA cash). Though if I had let her die, I could have liberated her later on (more on that later)
Industrial: I was very much in the tech lead. Built the Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower, and Cristo Redeemer. By the end of this era, Mongolia was getting to be a problem. He had killed Sidon early on (before I met them). My solution was to bribe him to alternately fight Siam and/or England. However, Siam was also starting to become a problem by buying up lots of city states. (Reading about other people's games, it does look like the Siamese diplomatic engine was the biggest hurdle).
Around this time, Hiawatha finished off Persia by taking their final city, Persepolis. I considered bribing him to stop, but it wasn't worth it at this point. My RA had already completed, so it wasn't worth it for me to interfere. Plus, I was far enough in techs that it didn't matter and I was entering the "no more RA's needed" phase anyway.
CLEVER SOLUTION #2: In order to curtail Siam's influence, my plan was to have Mongolia attack Siam and a bunch of city states. By later attacking Mongolia, I could gain influence with city states who were attacked and/or liberate city states.
I decided on this strategy when I saw a Mongol army heading in my direction. At first I was worried that he was going to attack me, but instead he declared on Helsinki (allied with Iroquois). Helsinki was getting stomped, so I actually decided to *save* Helsinki by blockading the city with 2 workers, an Archer, two Swordsmen, and a Great General. Each of them took one of the 6 sides of the city (a few were embarked). Though Genghis easily beat down the city, he couldn't actually take it since I was in his way. Of course, soon after, Siam allied with Helsinki, so I told Helsinki that if that's the way they wanted it, they could fend for themselves. The city fell the next turn.
With Siam gobbling up the city states diplomatically, I bribed Genghis to attack Siam, and so began the conquest of the city states.
Before this Genghis had already taken Sidon and now Helsinki. He soon took Dublin, Hanoi, Monaco, Rio de Janeiro, and Sydney. After I declared on him, he did take my two allies Bucharest and Warsaw.
(Much later, when England was fighting off Mongolia they took Rio de Janeiro and puppeted it. And when I bribed Siam and his allies to fight all the other players, Elizabeth took Tyre and Hiawatha took Belgrade).
Modern: Back to the Mongolian War. I quickly liberated Helsinki, Dublin, and Hanoi, but had to wait a bit to get enough naval support (Submarines which went Nuclear, along with Destroyers and Battleships).
MISTAKE #2: I went upgrade crazy (changing my Swordsmen, Pikemen, and Archers into Mechanized Infantry) very quickly, but I probably should have waited 10-15 turns to finish the Pentagon. Would have saved a lot of cash.
MISTAKE #3: Another mistake I made was annexing Kyoto without realizing it didn't have Barracks. I was building the Heroic Epic in my capital at the time and thought it was completed when in fact, it stopped building because I didn't meet the requirements. As a result, I bought a whole bunch of units which I thought had the Morale promotion but they really didn't. This type of thing has happened to me a lot in prior games (stupid National Wonders!).
When I laid siege to the Mongolian continent, I quickly took Beshbalik (with Stonehenge, HG, Macchu, and Forbidden Palace). Defending it was hard though. I lost many a Tank and Mechanized Infantry to the relentless blasts of Artillery. Eventually, my Rocket Artillery and Battleships won the day and I took the whole continent (liberating Sidon). Moving eastwards towards the isles was challenging and slow, especially since I had to be careful enemy ships did not snipe my embarked units. I gradually liberated Bucharest, Warsaw, Monaco, and Sydney. I took a bunch of Mongolian cities. By this time I had built up a fleet of Stealth Bombers, which made things a lot easier. Meanwhile England was having success against Mongolia, taking Rio de Janeiro and doing well against Mongolia's final two cities. I took one of them, and let England have the honors of committing the coup de grace.
England wasn't happy with me and quickly became Hostile. However, Elizabeth wasn't my next target. I was still worried about Siam. In addition to his diplomatic potential, he was also the furthest along culturally. I bribed England to attack Siam (and she became friendly to me again). I convinced Siam to attack everyone else (Iroquois and Arabia). I allied with the remaining city states loyal to Siam, and DoW'ed him.
I attacked from the west, with Florence providing some cover fire. I took his first city easily enough with Stealth Bombers, but once I relocated my squadron there, it was a tense couple of turns holding the city. It was being bombarded down to 0 HP, but I threw my units in the way to prevent Siam from actually taking the city. At one point I even made a movement mistake which left a flank open, but I used my Paratrooper to fill in that gap (first time I used the Paratrooper to good effect). I got the unit from a Militaristic CS BTW - I didn't build it.
Once that city was secure, I quickly took the rest of the continent (including Siam-occupied Moscow and St Petersberg). Siam was left with just one wayward city, which I would get eventually.
Next up was England. I had one army coming from the east which would attack London and the northern city. And a separate army attacking an English city near Rio de Janeiro. It started off a disaster. My army landed on the English shore but I quickly lost a couple of Rocket Artillery to Tanks (which fight well even with the 50% resource penalty). I was 1 HP away from taking the English city on the island, resulting in the loss of 3 embarked units to speedy English ships (this slowed me down on this front since I only had one unit left that could take cities).
With my stealth bombers, I quickly took London and its northern neighbor. Also took some English islands and liberated Rio de Janeiro. What happened next was hilarious:
Previously England had completed the Manhattan Project. She had 4 Uranium (on the English island which I had first attacked). She had previously nuked a southern Siamese city and a Western Iroquois city. I tried to keep her busy by trading for her suppl (before the war)y, and then taking that city ASAP.
HILARIOUS MOMENT OF THE GAME: Right after I took London (and the northern English city), I guess Lizzy decided to try the "scorched earth" strategy of "if I can't have London then you can't have it either." She nuked her own capital (London). I really, really wish I had taken a snapshot, but I was so surprised (and amazed) that all I could do was watch. I didn't expect this, especially since I had now taken away her Uranium, but apparently nukes work just fine anyway. However, it didn't actually kill any of my units, which makes me wonder if the Nuke had the 50% strategic resource penalty.
After this, I quickly mopped up all of the English cities (first civ I officially killed), and liberated Tyre. Amusingly enough, I also took that city which had been Mongolia's last city and liberated Genghis Khan. I finished off the last Siamese city. Also, because I wanted to experiment with liberation, I took out Catherine (think of it as "loaning" her that city and taking it back).
Now it was just me, Arabia and the Iroquois, and Hiawatha was next. I wanted to have some fun with liberation, so I gave Hiawatha several free cities. I then DoW'ed him and took those cities back.
LESSON #1:
I learned this from prior games, but a city remembers which civilization originally built it. If a city has passed hands multiple times, it only cares about who originally built it (for liberation purposes).
From what I learned this game, you can only liberate a civilization that you did *not* kill. I was able to liberate Darius, by gifting Pasargadae to Hiawatha and taking it back. (Susa and Persepolis were nice enough for me to keep myself). I tried doing that with St. Petersberg, Oxford, and a Siamese city but was never given an option to liberate. Presumably because I was the one who killed them.
At first I thought it might be because those were particular cities I had previously owned (maybe similar to how you aren't offered the chance to Puppet a city that you had previously Annexed, if you lose it and get it back). However, Genoa had taken (and kept!) an English city (Norwich) that I had never possessed. So to test this hypothesis, I DoWed on my ally Genoa, took that second city, and was not given the option to liberate (meaning that prior city possession was not a factor). I then quickly made peace and gave them blood tribute to ally with me again.
By this time, I had an army of Giant Death Robots, which when combined with Stealth Bombers, made it a quick fight. I liberated Belgrade, took all of Hiawatha's cities but one (Brentford), and let Vienna take the final city (I provided tactical air support).
In order to to practice liberation more, I tried the same thing with Arabia. This time, I was allowed to liberate the Iroquois (but still not Russia, England, and Siam). Remember that Vienna had actually eliminated the Iroquois not me, which is how I figured out the liberation conditions.
Quickly took out all of Arabia's cities but his capital. A robot army sat outside his borders for a few decades until I could work on the Utopia Project.
MISTAKE #4: I wanted to have fun so I chose Autocracy as my 5th branch. The cheap units and extra strategic resources were nice. However, in hindsight, the happiness bonus wasn't really good for a Cultural Win (I should have chosen Order instead). Autocracy gives happiness bonuses with Courthouses, which requires annexations, which increases the cost of social policies. I wanted to conquer as much as possible so I never thought about razing (I only realized that "No Razing" was enabled after the game), but still, it probably wasn't a good policy choice given my attempt to complete 5 policy branches. It was fun though!
LESSON #2: After having achieved a double Victory trophy in TSG36, I wanted to try and do a quadruple Victory in TSG37. I was able to get everything to line up so that I could achieve everything in a single turn. However, due to the quirks of the system, you aren't able to get all four Victory trophies. Here's the explanation:
[TIMING]
Cultural needs to be completed in between turns by finishing the Utopia Project, so it will be the first thing to trigger.
Domination (take the last capital), Science (move the last SS part to your capital and click), and Diplomacy (after waiting 10 turns you can click any time to vote) can be done during any part of your turn
[PRE-EMPTION]
Completing some of the victories will pre-empt you from completing the others on the same turn:
1. If you do Cultural, it has to go first. Once you win Cultural, there is no U.N. vote at all (so you can't win Diplomatically). You are no longer able to add pieces to your spaceship (so no Science win). But you can still take out the remaining capitals. So if you do Cultural first, your only possible remaining trophies are Domination.
(All the other possibilities preclude Cultural, since that would have to go first)
2. If you do Science first, then you can still do both Domination and/or Diplomacy (in any order). This is the only way to get 3 trophies (which is what I did).
3. If you do Domination or Diplomacy first, you can still do the other (Diplomacy or Domination). However, if you do any of them first, you *can't* do Science any more (no more button to add a space ship part).
Science, Domination, Diplomatic, and Cultural (in principle) Victories on turn 398. Could have optimized things by:
- If I had gone straight for a Science or Diplomatic win, I probably could have won in the mid or late 200's. If I had gone for Domination, I could do it by early 300's. It took a LONG time to get to the point where I could do a cultural win too.
- Should have ignored Liberty and taken Patronage earlier. Eventually I would have gotten either Commerce (even cheaper units, and the extra movement would have been nice) or Honor (good happiness for domination).
- Should have ignored Autocracy and taken either Order (instant happiness) or Honor (more potential happiness with garrison + defensive fortifications).
- *Maybe* I could have gifted crappy cities to my liberated allies (and I should have let Genoa keep Norwich but I wanted to experiment) but I think the map is prettier when all the territory is MINE!
I had a few minor technical glitches, but they all happened late in the game (when I was well past winning). My game crapped out around Turn 290 (black screen, I think it ran out of CPU resources) so I had to reload then. Around Turn 346 I was experimenting with liberation, so that was another reload. And finally right at the end game, I was so preoccupied with taking screenshots that I forgot to save so I had to reload to Turn 384(?). Once again, the game was already won (from a Science perspective) by those points so it shouldn't make a difference (other than increase my "sessions played" count).
DIPLOMACY OPTION: Completed
DOMINATION OPTION: Completed
CULTURAL OPTION: Completed
SCIENCE OPTION: Completed
Here's a screenshot of Turn 397, right before the U.N. vote. It shows that I have the Utopia Project, ready for completion on Turn 398:
Here is my triple trophy shot (I should also get a fourth for culture, but due to game programming it is impossible):
Social Policies: All of Tradition. All of Liberty. Rationalism Opener. Patronage Opener and Philanthropy. Rationalism through Scientific Revolution. Autocracy Opener, Militarism, and Police State. Gradually filled up the rest of Rationalism, Patronage, and/or Autocracy. Saved Total War for last (for kicks).
Wonder Count: Great Library, Oracle, Hagia Sophia, Porcelein Tower, Notre Dame, Sistine Chapel, Kremlin, Taj Mahal, Big Ben, Louvre, Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower, Cristo Redeemer, Sydney Opera House, Pentagon, United Nations. Conquered the rest. Completed Apollo, all SS, Manhattan, and Utopia Projects.
U.N. Vote Count: 25-0.
I was left along with 3 liberated civs (Mongolia, Persia, Iroquois). Of the 20 city states, 9 voted for me because we were allies, and 11 were liberated allies.
Not sure what the 2 self votes are. (Maybe a bug due to winning multiple victory conditions, or because I killed Arabia right before the vote).
Here are screenshots from the Vote screen. (The background shows my city instead of the map b/c I accidentally hit either Insert or Home instead of PrintScreen).
Liberation count:
1. Persia (I helped slightly, but mostly killed by the Iroquois)
2. Mongolia (killed mostly by me, but Elizabeth did the dirty deed)
3. Iroquois (killed mostly by me, but I let Hiawatha have the humiliation of being eliminated by a city state, Vienna)
* Technically this means I could have liberated Japan (after giving a city away). However, all of the original Japanese cities were all quite nice, and I didn't want an ugly white spot in the middle of my continent!
1. Sidon (killed by Mongolia, likely without provocation?)
2. Helsinki (killed by Mongolia without provocation)
3. Dublin (killed by Mongolia in war with Siam)
4. Hanoi (killed by Mongolia in war with Siam)
5. Monaco (killed by Mongolia in war with Siam)
6. Sydney (killed by Mongolia in war with Siam)
7. Rio de Janeiro (killed by Mongolia in war with Siam, taken by England before liberated by me)
8. Bucharest (killed by Mongolia in war with me)
9. Warsaw (killed by Mongolia in war with me)
10. Tyre (killed by England in war with Siam)
11. Belgrade (killed by the Iroquois in war with Siam)
Look at all that Future Tech!
Finally, to reward those who've bothered reading through this whole thing, here is one last hilarious screen shot of City State Domination. When I DoWed on the Iroquois, Vienna conquered Montreal by itself. I later provided air support which let them take Brantford. Later, when I DoWed Arabia, I gifted Mechanized Infantry (to Vienna) and a Tank (to Almaty) while I pounded Basra down to 0 HP. I wanted to see whether Vienna or Almaty would take the city and it looks like Almaty did. The nearby city of Pasargadae was liberated by me. Note that all of these cities are puppeted (no city razing). This is truly the
ISLAND OF THE CITY STATES!
. I'm going to try replaying the board.
. I made a great decision to move my capital close to that riversided spot with 2 sugars.
I think it was around the middle 1800's. If Siam had been closer I think I would have done something stupid like attack them.
, but am generally happy with the game as I've not played much on immortal so this was quite a challenge for me.
Glad you enjoyed the experience. Please keep reading and playing and it won't be long before you are in the thick of things. Good Luck. 
