TSG56 After Action thread

Welcome to the TSG56 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!

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

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.).

- How many cities did you build and how many did you decide to acquire?
- How did you use religion or spying to your advantage?
- How did diplomacy go with your neighbors?
- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
- Were your UA and UU helpful?

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.

Made it to turn 318 without fighting a single war. Also without making a dent in the world. This was my error.

In the mid-game, I got very anal about completing several national wonders before expanding beyond my initial 3-city setup. This was the problem. The only national wonder I should have worried over much is the national library, which I did first. Then I should have upgraded some archer spam to crossbowmen and attacked one of my neighbors. (As history had it, Catherine, who smiled at me throughout the game while conquering her other neighbors.)

The secure mountain borders were a false security. Ethiopia became irrelevant, technically competent but still unable to out-tech the mighty Russian bear with dozens of cities. Got bored about the time we were both building space parts and felt that it wasn't right anyway, since Diplo was the stated goal. I retired.

Conquering is necessary in order to get more cities. More cities are necessary for the trade routes in order to rake in the gold. The science will come incidentally to that. (And I had bothered getting Machu Pichu... lol...)

Best use of stele that game was just to get the religious beliefs I wanted in order to make the best out of a rough starting position, without having to build more than a regular monument. Should have left it at that for religion and just gone a-conquering.

Edited to add: the worst bit of it is that I took the liberty tree, not tradition. I usually go tradition so messed that one up good. The slower border expansion felt odd, given how often I at least open Tradition. (But Liberty was indeed a good choice for conquering, given the extra happiness per city. I just should have done that.)

The funny thing was, in my game, for a very long time (150+ turns) I still thought that this was on an archipelagos map. So I went for Great Lighthouse/Heroic Epic/Navigation (got GL on T100 after NC dozen turns ago). Cathy was indeed going big, but she was still manageable and so I DOWed her when I had 3 frigates upgraded and three more coming. Intention was to get +1 range asap... was pretty slow going for that. We had a long fight for her coastal cities



In hindsight, going through all that trouble to lobotomize Catherine was a big mistake because the real runaway was always William



That guy literally destroyed my religion despite me trying hard to stop his GP from coming for a dozen turns. I told him to stop that and what did he do? Later in the game when he entered modern era and just when I gotten my religion back under control, he suicide his last GP into my cap again



The only reason now I can think of not DOWing William was that he was buying city-states left and right and two of them were ringing my third city to the north. But going after the Russians was still a big mistake and I should have gone for the FP in Amsterdam instead. Wasted more than 50 turns doing nothing but killing off crap cities, unit spam of all kinds from Longswords to rifle cossacks and bagged a capital that only contained Kremlin and entering -20 unhappiness with the peace cities

No public schools buying, no labs, all spent going for Dynamite and unit spam to push deep into Russian heartland (oxford to bulb at T228).



So basically by T200s my cap wasn't growing as fast as I wanted which is a shame because it was growing huge some 50/100 turns ago, 40 pop by T200s was looking very possible and that kind of cap is the kind for pumping out volumes of modern+ units especially with God of the Sea boosting production

and then there was that aforementioned unhappiness

I partially managed it by selling cities (crap ones) to my then-friend Washington, but he proved no friend at all when this happened:



Okay, you have a big runaway on your own continent (Alex gobbled up most of China and Rammkhamhaeng... so only left George + Oda Autocracy combo against runaway Alex), right on your proverbial doorstep... and so you basically think sending most of your armies to conquer someone else on another continent unsuccessfully would be the way to go?



Alex then got paid off really cheap to DOW him, and George at T285 basically lost his capital and lands to Alex, and all because he decided to try and colonize Ethiopia



But all this and re-DOWing Cathy (she had GW Inf and artillery looking really bad at me, like hostile Neutral) made me even more behind than possible. Alex finally won SV at T338, I am currently engaged in a vicious modern war with William and I will not stop until every last Dutch is dead and if it comes to it, radiated because this is how much I hate him right now



Thanks for this great map btw, Leif. It was (and is) great fun!

This was the most difficult Immortal I have ever played.
The "security" of the Alcatraz-Start was interesting, and I was proud to have built the
great lighthouse first, so till turn 56 everything looked fine. I had a nice religion with bonus for fishing boats. But I saw the problem how to expand...so when I built two cities on the near continent, both, russia and netherlands declared war to me. They did not conquer my cities, but this stopped my growth and took the initiative away. I had big problems after that for a long phase to manage income.
Normally on Immortal you have to conquer at less one other civilzation to get strong enough to be competitive or to stop the others to become to strong.
But I had a constancy-war with russia who grow bigger and bigger, she did not send any troops to may island but I saw no possibility to conquer her cities, only with frigates.
It would have been possbile to attack the Netherlands, but at the risk that russia tooks over the whole continent. In the meantime I met the USA who wiped out everybody but Siam. So even if I could handle the problem with russia I see no chance to win against the USA. That is the risk with "not pangaea"-Immortal, it is difficult to control/influence or very different from game to game what happens in the rest of the world.
When my frigates were destroyed by russian bombers I gave up at turn 229.
Perhaps I try it again to learn something, but when another global power is born on the other continent it will influence the chances to win.

i won this game on turn 284.
catherine was the runaway science leader the whole game and i barely squeaked out the win with her only needing one spaceship part.. i was last in military the entire game by a long ways but nobody really hassled me.. catherine had the science lead by more than 15 techs.. wonder after wonder going to her..

i was friends with everyone during some parts of the game (signed about 4 ra).. oda backstabbed me around turn 230.. this was a bad move for him because everybody (that was left) dow'd him shortly after.. his original peace offer of all my gold and a city changed to even peace after that..

china, greece and one other civ i never met got gobbled up in the east.. holland were religion spamming but only hit me once in my second city just before i got my religion spreading prophet out.. netted me a monastery at least.. after that his initial missionaries depreciated inside my borders without affect.. i went for boats, growth, and cs resting place beliefs.. only spread my religion in one go to some requesting cs's.. after that i realized the futility and saved the religion points for a scientist and a couple of engineers to rush requested wonders some cs's wanted.. cristo redentor and i forget the other..

i focused mainly on gold to make sure i could buy my science buildings.. my culture and religion generation was crap so i didnt have many cs allies in the midgame but i used spies and accumulated wealth along with timely luxury trading and wonder hunting in the late game to snag the needed votes.. it didnt look a likely win for a long time especially when catherine finished apollo but i somehow squeaked it out..

i only built 1 spearman, 2 trireme, and 4 frigates the entire game.. the frigates repulsed japan and i decided to maybe go attacked his coastal city after i fought him off until a war bomber killed one of them and i hastily retreated to my waters.. i was gifted a catapult, a marine, and a rifleman and only one left my shores to find a wonder inside russian borders for some cs's.. i was way behind militarily.. i never upgraded a single unit..

i got off to a good start focusing on one city nc and running my triremes around finding cs's and ruins.. got like 3 techs and 3 barb quests.. initially assumed it was some islands map so i did great lighthouse.. that was a bit of a waste.. i did 3 cities and didnt bother expanding any more as it looked like catherine was going to be a beast fairly early.. she was scoping out and settled the island above me pretty quickly.

didnt do anything with the uu and the ua didnt help much either as nobody really hassled me..

Finally i made GOTM to the submission
I settled next to the mountain, and that was my only city (except later puppets of cause). I desided to go for 1 city NC, and when i did it (about t75), there were no position i would like to build more cities - coast to south and west was full of Russian and dutch cities and only crappy places on the northern islands. Also i went full tradition, so there were no free settler.
As for religion - i went GotS, papal primacy, divine inspiration ( i managed to get some world wonders), religious community, and religious unity. Never tried CS-related believes before and decided, that diplo game would be good to try them. Now i think it would be better to go for tithe+itinerant preachers (i had gold problems in mid-game until i started to build puppet empire) and wider empire with liberty start to make religion earlier and make in dominating on my continent.
Social policies: tradition-aesthetics-adopted rationalism-full patronage-full order (finished it some turns before elections)
Mass pledges+aesthetics+religion+purposeful quest completition = 10 CS allies at renaissance.
Tech path was: optics-resource techs-philosophy-theology-education-navigation. When i had 3 frigates i started slow assault on russian and then dutch coastal cities gradually increasing army. They didn't have much troops - they were constantly fighting with each other. It was really long fight, i was finishing them off with battleships and great war bombers.
By that time Alex stole almost all of my CS allies, and i could not do anything with this. So instead of beelining globalization i decided to go for radar and maybe nuclear fission - you can get much farther with diplomacy and atomic bomb than you can with diplomacy alone. Then everything was easy - smashed Oda and liberated Siam (one more vote!). Built UN, made peace with Oda, took all his money and one greek city - liberated it (Alex voted for me in the end). Ten more turns of buying CS influence and some coupes and victory!
May be i will try it one more time and will be more aggressive from the beginning, think can get better resul

Alfys said:

Finally i made GOTM to the submission

Click to expand...

Welcome to CivFanatics and GOTM.

Congrats on your win in this very difficult game.

Perhaps a few screenshots and a bit more on how you did it? Thanks.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 56
Date submitted: 2013-03-03
Reference number: 28443
Your name: Monthar
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1911AD
Turns played: 331
Base score: 1225
Final score: 1856
Time played: 7:05:00
Submitted save: TSG56_Diplomatic_Victory.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Monthar_C505601.Civ5Save

Click to expand...

I had several wars with Russia. The first time she dow'd me I had ships here her one coastal city on the continent and near enough to bombard the one city across the bay from my cities that Cathy stupidly placed 1 tile in from the coast. We swapped those 2 cities a few times, but I ended every war in control of both cities. I took 2 of her cities on the CS island north of the start, keeping the one with the marble and razing the one with no resources. I also took and razed one of her cities on the small island west of the northern CS island.

The next to last war ended after I had taken the one city on the continent that was between the two we'd swapped a few times. That city and the south coast city were both within striking range of Moscow for my GW bombers. William asked me to go to war with her, so I gave the wait 10 turns replay. Either around that time or during the 10 turn wait Japan declared on Russia. This joint war was the final war of the game. William took a couple of her cities, but I got Moscow and one other city that was on the ice, but had oil and a manufactory she'd placed on the ice.

In the end I had all the CS's allied.

Policies
Liberty - Completed
Patronage - Completed
Commerce - Completed
Order - Opener which I managed get 1 turn before unlocking the UN and had just enough faith to buy 1 GE which cut the UN build time down to 2 turns.

I only settled 3 cities. The capital was settled in place, but would have been much better settling on the silk. The 2nd city was tucked in the mountains to the south for the 2 fish and 1 whale there. The 3rd city was to the east of the lone northern mountain to work the ivory on the other island. I had a lot of fun trying to block a Russian settler heading for that ivory while getting my 3rd settler built. However, I managed to get my settler in place and buy the tiles on the island before Cathy could take them.

I never got to meet Greece as Japan had taken them out fairly early. I don't like I got to meet Siam either for the same reason. I did meet China before Japan and America took them out, with japan ending up with the capital.

In I had a DoF with William, Washington and Oda. I even had a few RAs with all three, but since William got PT and I didn't go into Rationalism they didn't help my tech rate enough.

Of the 5 civs left at the end, all of us took Order except Oda who took Autocracy.

There were a lot of coups, but most of them mine. I only failed at one coup, but was able to get that CS several turns later anyway.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 56
Date submitted: 2013-03-03
Reference number: 28444
Your name: stickyfingers
Game status: Science Loss
Game date: 1785AD
Turns played: 268
Base score: 364
Final score: 364
Time played: 5:25:00
Submitted save: Haile Selassie_0268 AD-1790.Civ5Save
Renamed file: stickyfingers_C505601.Civ5Save


Picking up from the other thread, it's around turn 110 and I have 3 cities. I only built 1 on the starting area (which was my major mistake of the game) and put 2 more north of William. Will DOW'ed me on turn 100 or so and I fended him off by 110, but not after losing some units. The rest of my game went thusly...

Turn 120 - Unmet player lost capital. That made 3 for the game by this point (China, Greece, Siam - never met any of them). I started my NC, which was delayed due to the war with Will.

Turn 140 - Will DOWs again, but his invasion force is much weaker plus I have a citadel, so he doesn't pose much of a problem. I'm 5th out of 5 in score and producing 52 beakers. By 146, he gives me peace and some gold.

150 - Discovered education and built Machu Pichu, my only wonder I think

185 - I've got about 8 crossbows, and Cathy has DOWed Will. I decide this is my chance to go on the offensive against him as I've got a straight shot to Amsterdam and he's busy with Cathy. I DOW but can't take his capital. I retreat with my battered forces and heal up. He won't give me peace but he's not attacking either so for 20 turns or so, there's not much action but we're still at war. In this time, I finally set sail and discover USA and japan, the last 2 remaining civs from the other continent.

212 - I built up a force of 6 frigs and 2 privateers and take Rotterdam from will. Now I have 212 for science with uni's and scientists. I'm still ranked 4/5 in score though. After I take Rotterdam I get a nice view of Cathy marching up artillery to Will when he and I don't even have cannons. I realize he is in big trouble, and I'm probably on her to do list.

218 - Cathy completes Apollo and by this point it's a virtual certainty I can't beat her. She's #1 in score, but actually not by much Oda is #2. He has TONS of gold (usually at least 5k and every lux/resource out there) but Cathy is much more advanced in science. When the list comes out at turn 225, she has 58 techs compared to #2 who had 47. I had only 40.

236 - Cathy eliminates William. And then there were 4. Also Japan mass buys 4 CS on one turn, including 1 that used to belong to me. Almaty was allied with me for most of the game. Lot of good that did though as every 50 turns they would give me a single legion, which was hopelessly outdated. It was basically a white elephant that cost me 250 gold to upgrade to something somewhat useful. At this point, I'm realizing Cathy will DOW me any minute now. She can easily kill me. We had been friendly all game, but now she is less receptive to trades.

241 - She DOWs me. I upgrade to gatling guns, muskets and cannons - but she has artillery, rockets, paratroopers, machine guns and cossacks. She takes Rotterndam on 245 and Harhar on 248. I make peace with her by giving up my last satellite city and all my gold (300 some). I'm down to just my capital. Cathy also finished her first spaceship part. It won't be long now.

267 - Cathy wins a science victory. I played out the last bunch of turns for the hell of it. Hoping Japan would do something crazy, but they didn't even have nukes so what were they going to do. Japan was similar in score, but Cathy was the true runaway. She steamrolled everyone near her and would have done so to Japan or USA if they were close enough.

In retrospect, I don't think there's any way I could have won this game. Maybe someone a lot better than me could have though. The other scores so far didn't have an AI win this soon. The only way I could have maybe won I think is if I settled 3 cities on the starting point, geared up for a war and then took out Russia before she went buckwild. Problem is I would have had to have known she was going to become a runaway before it actually happened. Also, without my interfering with William, he could have become quite powerful and Oda was a beast too. He had an unlimited amount of gold and I could never get any from him because he also had every resource. I blame the Chinese, Greeks and Siam for allowing Russia and Japan to dominate them.

Attempt #1 ended in retirement.

Billy decided to take me down AFTER stealing the rest of my techs, but my real downfall was the lack of coal, oil and aluminum.

T252 - I retired when GW Bombers were pounding my capital. Even if I had rushed to get triplanes, I had no oil. Milan had some, but I was still broke.

Mistakes:
I needed a road between city 1 & 2 to keep my trade routes up during the Sea Beggar/Ironclad spam. 5-6 Frigates might have taken down Urecht before the swarm came for me.
Settling the city on the silk would have been better. I did that on try #2 and things are going much better.

America was running away. Only Billy, Cathy and George had their capitals and Washing just entered the modern era.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 56
Date submitted: 2013-03-04
Reference number: 28451
Your name: dthompson32
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1876AD
Turns played: 308
Base score: 820
Final score: 1344
Time played: 27:55:00

It was a long LONG game, but pretty happy with the results. With some different decisions early, especially city placement, I might have gotten under 300 for this. But as the game panned out, some early strategic decisions turned out very well. the decision to completely ignore land units and build only naval units turned out to be genius. Even though I got into a 200 turn long war with Catherine, she kept putting her troops in the water and I kept decimating her. She easily lost over 200 units while I lost 5.

Deciding to beeline to biology and submarines was also a good move. Once I had my subs in the water, I was taking out every ship she launched the moment they left port.

- How many cities did you build and how many did you decide to acquire?

I built 4 cities. Other than the capital, the sites were pretty poor, but in the end I managed to get them up to 26, 24, 18, and 14. I've attached a picture of my tiny empire. Every unit I own can be seen on this map, all 11 of them.

- How did you use religion or spying to your advantage?

Religion was pretty meh, although I was able to buy some critical GPs at key points, especially bulbing plastics and rushing the UN. Spying went well, I was able to gets some tech from Cathy, then later used my spies to rig elections and get me closer to being able to buy the ally.

- How did diplomacy go with your neighbors?

I started a war with Cathy that lasted 200 turns. I don't know if that was good or bad. I never had a war with anyone else until the end, and sold my whales when I could. Several RAs were very helpful.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?

Well at least it isn't Deity. Knowing Cathy was to my south in an immortal game made me cautious.

- Were your UA and UU helpful?

Getting God of the Sea was very important, so the Stele was good. The 20% bonus also worked out against Cathy.

Here are my detailed notes from my game:

T0 - Going in I think I'll need a tall empire based on sea resources, so I'll use a tradition opening but open up sailing first. Workboats instead of workers to start with a focus toward Astronomy to take advantage of the mountain.
T1 - Planted city 1 next to the mountain, researching pottery and building a scout. Sending the warrior west since the terrain looks smoother that way.
T4 - Well that was a waste, looks like we are on the tip of a peninsula, sending warrior back the other way.
T6 - City 1 grows to size 2
T8 - Scout spawns, taking a look to the east and we might be on a island, or landlocked by mountains. Ruins give a population increase, and the mountains are definitely impassable. This is going to be interesting. Going to build the Stele since there is not going to be a need for more scouts and we won't be trading for awhile. Looks like I can fit 2 more cities on the island, I might want to go 1 city NC.
T10 - Researching sailing
T12 - Well what do you know, there is land just to the north. I need Optics.
T17 - City 1 grows to size 4.
T18 - Stele completes, going to put a turn in on building a granary until sailing next turn.
T19 - Starting to build a Trireme. I hate how slow it is to get started on water maps. The other Civs will probably have Frigates by the time I find them. Starting research of Optics.
T20 - Opening Tradition anyway, even though land is limited.
T22 - Someone has a Pantheon, they took Goddess of the Hunt
T25 - I get a Pantheon, picked God of the Sea, also next policy is available and took Legalism
T27 - Trireme finishes, starting a work boat.
T28 - Found Milan, I'm first so there is no on up on this island.
T29 - Found two unclaimed ruins on two islands due north. I'll send my scout that way once I can get it in the water.
T32 - Optics, putting my units in the water, researching Writing to head up to the NC.
T33 - Ivory available on that next island, I could fit a city on it, barely.
T34 - Found Rio and tundra, now I know where the pole is.
T35 - Work boat done and fishing on a whale, someone completes Great Library (no surprise), new policy took Landed Elite, stealing a worker from Milan (I can't remember if it will be able to embark or not), starting to finish the Granary
T37 - Ruin gives a map, marble available up near Rio
T38 - Ouch, Barbs almost killed my scout
T39 - Culture ruin, the stolen worker can swim
T41 - Put my warrior on the other side of the island finding Warsaw, only got 15 for it, so there is another Civ here on the other side of the mountains, starting to research calendar
T42 - 60 gold from ruin, Granary finished and starting another boat
T46 - Found the Grand Mesa and Catherine, she has no money to no point in selling my whales or DOWing her right now.
T47 - Met Columbo, and Russia is trying to take it. She really hates not have room to grow.
T48 - Another whale being worked, starting to research Philo and build a Library
T50 - Found ice to the south, this isn't a very large map. Took Aristocracy to help build the NC, not sure if I will get another policy before I can start building it.
T51 - Met a Dutch scout. Traded embassies to find out where he is and sold a whale for 146 and 3 gpt. My Trireme is on the wrong side of this landmass. Scout found a ruin with a useless map of water.
T52 - Heh, Columbo is winning against Catherine.
T54 - Library done, taking a chance on building the Great Lighthouse. I have enough cash to buy a Settler once NC is done. Need some hammers so will research mining next.
T56 - Looks like Catherine has 3 cities now.
T60 - Catherine builds the Hanging Gardens.
T62 - Warrior is starting to explore now, looks like it is a continent after all, we are just on a landlocked tip.
T63 - Catherine just left a settler open for theft, might as well get some cash and DOW her. Found Manila and killed a barb Trireme for it.
T65 - Running with the stolen settler, found a good city spot, unlikely to be able to get it though, and close to Catherine which is dangerous. Philo is done, starting to research Mining. 3 turns for the Great Lighthouse then start NC.
T68 - Finished Great Lighthouse, the +1 sight let me find Sri Pada, Mining is done so starting to develop the silk, starting to build NC, researching AH to see if there are horses and to develop the sheep
T70 - AH done, I have some horses
T72 - Archery done, going to push for Theology now and try for the Hagia Sophia
T76 - Took Monarchy, starting to get to the end of the continent, so there will be 5 other Civs I can't get to until Astronomy. Need to decide where to put cities, if I put them down with Dutch and Russians I'll likely get caught up in land wars, but my little section doesn't have very good city spots.
T79 - NC is done, buying a settler and building an archer. I'm going to stick one city on the jungle to the east on the tip to use those sea resources, another city up on the marble on the island to the north, and maybe a 4th next to the mountains southeast to get the sea resources there, the 4th location is pretty poor.
T81 - Drama and Poetry finishes, starting Theology, generating 29 bpt
T82 - Sold whales to the Dutch again for 66 gold and 5 gpt. Finished archer starting to build another settler
T83 - City 2 is settled, starting a work boat, but need the city to grow
T88 - 3rd settler is done, sending with an archer to the northern island. Building some work boats
T91 - Theology done, beeline to education
T92 - Took out a camp, making Florence and Genoa friends. Start building Hagia Sophia
T94 - Golden age starts, buy 4th settler
T95 - 3rd city settled next to marble on north island, building a worker there
T96 - Taking out camp next to 3rd city and Barbs makes Rio an ally and Milan is a friend
T97 - Tradition completed
T99 - 4th city founded and my Trireme has 2 promotions killing Russian boats
T104 - Prophet finally spawns, makes Milan an ally, Hagia Sophia in 2 turns so will be able to enhance quickly. 4th religion, so the Cult of Bacon takes Ceremonial Burial for the happiness boost and Cathedrals.
T106 - Hagia Sophia finishes, enhance religion with Asceticism for happiness benefit in shrines and Holy Order for cheaper missionaries. Pretty underwhelming choices, but maybe I will get CS quests to spread my religion. Start building a shrine.
T108 - Shrine done, building more boats to defend against Russia
T111 - Opening Commerce for a Great Admiral, I need someone to sell these whales to
T113 - Sold whales again for 114 and 4 gpt. Going to save money for University instead of buying libraries
T114 - A Great Artist pops, turns out I have a free ampitheater I guess I got it with Legalism because my Stele was already built. Starting a golden age.
T116 - 4 Triremes built now, starting the Great Mosque
T118 - Catherine loses another two boats to my fleet. Catherine #1 (478), William #3 (385), Me #5 (281). Cities are 14, 4, 2, 2. Generating 48 bpt and 33 gpt in a golden age.
T119 - Library done in city 2, starting Granary.
T121 - Took out another one of her Triremes and an embarked CB. I think I need more Triremes.
T122 - I took out two more, but she got one of mine. She is trying to sail troops up to me, but I think she only has one very damaged one left. Switching production in my capital to Triremes, the wonder will have to wait.
T123 - Education finished, getting Compass for harbors and push to Astronomy. Bought a University in the capital, 71 bpt now.
T126 - 3rd promotion on one Trireme, took ability to heal outside home waters. Catherine just landed a Pike on my other shore so I need Triremes over there too, sailing another missionary to north island to convert city. Someone lost a capital.
T127 - More Triremes in the water, forgot I have a spy so put it in Moscow. So far she is having a hard time figuring out how to get to me through my fleet.
T128 - Library finished in city 3 on north island, starting Shrine. Happiness is a problem so I need them, growth has been good. Trireme on west shore taking out Cathy's troops she is sailing up that way. Compass finished starting to build Galleas. Taking a quick break for Masonry to allow marble to be developed, then Astronomy
T129 - Starting to research Astronomy. Cathy loses another Pike and Trireme to my navy. I can hear her grinding her teeth.
T130 - A Great Admiral generates from all the naval battles, going to use this one to help my fleet. Completes a quest for Florence to they are now friends with a culture boost.
T131 - Spy tells me Cathy is plotting against William, he will love to hear this. I need them fighting. Social policy available so taking the naval promotion in commerce and sailing a second admiral to find other continent. She is loses two more boats. Saving last use of my missionary for a CS. Once the shrines come up, the happiness problem will reduce. Gold to finance my fleet is the next problem, need to build harbors.
T133 - First Galleas builds in capital, starting a harbor there.
T135 - Met China, exchanged embassies and sold a whale for 126 and 3 gpt. Sydney wants Bacon, so sailing my missionary down there.
T136 - *laugh* Once my Galleas showed up, she put all her boats into ports. I think I can hold her off now until Frigates.
T137 - Met Japan, traded my last whale for 66 gold and 5 gpt, exchanged embassies. Astro is one away, but delaying it one turn until I can buy a cathedral
T138 - My navy is fully healed and Cathy can't get to me, bought a Granary in city 4, it needs help.
T139 - Astronomy, finished Harbor in capital, starting Observatory, someone stole Calendar. William finished the Great Mosque so I get cash back for the work I put into it. Picking up missed techs before starting on Navigation
T140 - Met Siam and Prague. My scout is in the ocean sailing to the other continent. Picked up Construction and upgraded my one archer, researching Iron Working
T141 - I should have saved the upgrade for a Trireme, going to save cash to upgrade them to Caravels. I have a 6 iron in my territory and already mined. Starting to research Navigation.
T144 - Stole Guilds from Cathy, new deal with William and a DOF with him. Cathy continues to lose units to my navy, will she ever give up? Met Alexander, one civ left to find. Cathy is #1 at 647, William #2 at 482 trying to convince William to attack her.
T147 - Observatory finishes, generating 121 bpt, starting Machu Picchu I know Cathy is working on Himeji Castle but I can see she is working on Machu in one of her cities, going to increase production. If I don't get it, that city will be my first target. I see my religion spread to two of her cities. Found Atlanta and exchanged embassies with Washington. Looks like he and Alexander are evenly matched. Found Wittenberg and they have El Dorado inside their boundaries.
T148 - And Cathy finishes Machu Picchu, oh well not a tough city to take when I get Navigation in 5 turns. Oh and borders grew to allow the Ivory to be picked up. Found Jerusalem.
T149 - Building a market in capital, first trade route opens
T150 - Found Jakarta, Cathy is trying to sail troops from the east again, moving some ships over to kill them, cities are 17, 6, 5, and 4
T152 - Washington wanted me to join a war with Alexander, tempting but I decided against it. Second trade route is up and cash is getting better, 15 gpt now.
T153 - Met Geneva, navigation completes, time for Frigates/Privateers and doing some damage to Cathy. Market finishes in capital starting a privateer.
T154 - Finished Engineering
T155 - Stole Chivalry from Cathy, Great Artist spawned so starting another Golden Age, my navy keeps sinking her troops, got a catapult and great prophet this time.
T156 - Machinery finished and beeline to printing press. Building some lighthouses for growth. Ivory finished.
T158 - Cathy tries to sail a fleet of Triremes at me supporting embarked troops, it doesn't end well for her, she loses 4 units. My first privateer sails, building frigate in capital now. Open Rationalism.
T160 - Tried raiding a town for gold, never tried it before, was lucky to live through it given the counter attack from CBs. My caravels are decimating Cathy's troops though.
T168 - Printing Press pops, making a beeline for scientific theory. Sign RAs with Alexander and William. I didn't remember that privateers will capture enemy ships, so I have two of Cathy's triremes now. The bay between us has turned into a killing field for her troops, but I doubt I can take her cities without some ground support. It might make more sense to keep out teching her and killing her troops.
T169 - Stole banking from Cathy. Another privateer is done, building a circus in the capital, also a cathedral in city 2.
T170 - Finally found Zurich, last CS
T174 - A GS spawns which I will plant, sold whales to William, going to get rid of some Triremes, cash flow is a problem.
T175 - Signed an RA with Washington, a University finished and planted the GS, 194 bpt now.
T179 - Looks like William is sending missionaries, building an inquisitor, shame could have used the cathedral
T181 - I have my coast blocked to keep William's missionaries out
T185 - Used a privateer to capture one of Cathy's galleas
T186 - Stole steel from Cathy, Architecture is up and the LTOP will build next turn, I'll take a GE and rush the PT since I have several RAs.
T187 - Used LTOP for the GE, rushed the PT and it will build next turn, researching scientific theory. Sank more of Cathy's cannons and xbows. Alexander just went into industrial era, so I'm just behind him.
T189 - Captured another galleas, planted the GS and science is at 239 per turn, next small boost will be from city 4 when the observatory finishes. Starting a seaport in the capital.
T190 - Amusing, the galleas I stole was sunk by its home city, so I stole another one
T192 - Opening patronage instead of going down the rationalism tree, really need to get better relations with the CSs and I'm keeping up on science.
T194 - Sci Theory comes up, I forgot to buy a cathedral before it, oops. Starting to build public schools. Cities are decent sized now, 19, 10, 9, and 7. This navy is so expensive, I need to start raiding cities. Researching archeology to get the Louvre
T196 - Setting up for an naval assault on one of Cathy's cities, America is kicking Greece's butt, even though Alexander has the tech lead, fortunately my RA with him will finish next turn.
T197 - Sold whales to Washington for 61 gold and 5 gpt. Assault on Russian city, took it down to half strength, got 30 gold from it, used an admiral to heal everyone.
T198 - RA completed, finished archeology and gunpowder, going to take biology, I should probably try for plastics, but I have the tech lead and I think I need submarines. Almost took this Russian city, had it so close, one more frigate would have done it
T199 - Took Russian city, we will see how long I keep it. RA with William is done, 3 turns to Biology now
T201 - Russia took it back, not a surprise, but it hurt her and I made some good money taking it.
T202 - Turns out there are 3 oil up on the north island, my city placement was good. Also offshore to the east that I will probably grow into. Took Cathy's frigate.
T204 - Greece offers an RA just before losing his capital, I think not.
T205 - I want to build Taj and Louvre, going to build workshop instead in capital and then decide
T206 - Signed an RA with Washington and closed my borders to William, time for those missionaries to work harder. Raided a city with three privateers, one with logistics, took over 100 gold in the raid
T210 - Decided on the Lourve, the coliseums I'm building should deal with the happiness
T212 - Privateers fully upgraded with coastal raiding and logistics are great, steal 60 gold and sail away. William completes the Taj, glad I didn't bother.
T213 - Refrigeration done, going back to chemistry, then up to plastics
T219 - Crap, made a movement mistake and lost one of my upgraded privateers
T225 - GA spawns, Louvre in one turn for two more, I'll do a super golden age
T226 - Gah! William got the Louvre first! Better put the gold I got to good use, time to build national wonders and submarines
T227 - Signed an RA with japan, took second patronage policy and pledged protections to everyone I can. Bought a Great Prophet and going to spread religion to the CSs that want it
T228 - No coal and no aluminum, going to have to get it from CSs
T232 - Japan kills my ally Prague, but I steal Milan from William and the sugar completes quests for 3 other CSs
T236 - RA with Washington completes, halfway to replaceable parts
T237 - Are you kidding me? 170 turns later, Cathy wants a peace treaty? Of course she wants one of my cities too.
T238 - GS spawn gives me friends with Columbo, gave them gold to ally them, triggering quests for jewelry. Geneva converted for their quest
T239 - Big cascade, picked up 4 allies as a result, I have 5 of the 10 UN votes now, need to get tech in gear and get to UN
T240 - Stole fertilizer from Cathy, first sub goes in the water. Coal from a CS, building a factory in capital
T244 - Going full out on growth, the CS luxuries have jumped me up to 18 happiness, need people working the sea resources for cash. Sizes are 21, 15, 15, and 11. Getting worried about William completing the Utopia Project before I can get the UN, he already has 3 done, plus one in Freedom. Missing out on the Louvre may be a big mistake.
T247 - RA completes with William, use my saved GS to bulb Plastics
T249 - Plastics is up, researching flight now. Also got to take another Rationalism policy for a science boost, factory completes in 1 turn and will start a research lab in capital
T250 - Starting on research lab in capital, I need to start thinking about getting a great engineer for the UN. My subs are sinking every boat Cathy produces, I have to have killed 200 or more of her units by now. Uh oh, she has aircraft now, 7 more turns until flight. Good thing I have subs.
T251 - She bombed a trireme, poor guy had lasted 200 turns. Moving my Frigates 7 hexes from her city, since they have range upgrades and logistics, they will still control the bay. Left a sub out there, since it can't be seen.
T254 - Silly Cathy, putting an aircraft carrier into the bay, my subs took it out in two shots. Next time I'll wait until you have planes on it.
T256 - Rigged election in Milan and got it back as an ally, but the election in Warsaw failed. Washington offers an RA, but I'll need the money. Flight comes up, I need to build some triplanes.
T257 - This is a chess match, William is spending gold like crazy to lock me out of CSs, I'm going to have to try some rigging. Cathy sails out another carrier, going to let this one load first. RA with Japan completes as does my research lab in the capital. 3 turns from electronics, science at 584 bpt. Did the math and there is no way I can get a GE in time, I will have to hard build the UN. Building bank then stock exchange in capital, after a couple triplanes
T258 - New plan, Florence wants Cristo so building that instead
T259 - Sank Cathy's battleship, she has slipped ahead of me in tech, electronics next turn and I have some promoted frigates that would make nice battleships (logistics and +1 range)
T260 - William converts one of my cities with a prophet, I hate this guy. I still have my inquisitor. Going to buy a merchant with faith and do a trade mission with one of the CSs. Upgrading my best frigate to a battleship
T261 - About damn time, William finally declares war on Cathy
T262 - Sank another of Cathy's carriers, helping Columbo fight her off with frigates, stealing money with a privateer is getting harder.
T264 - Trade mission in Warsaw, improved relations there, used cash to buy back Milan's loyalty from William
T267 - After almost 200 turns Cathy finally asks for peace, I took the deal so I can get rid of some units for cash and get deals with her CS allies.
T271 - Elections rigged, getting closer to being able to take over as allies on a few CSs, more spies out rigging, hopefully I won't have to risk a coup, but I have that option later
T273 - Cristo built, taking another patronage policy to reduce cost of gold gifts, buying a GS with faith and bulbing. William is almost finished with a 4th policy tree
T274 - Dodged a bullet, Genoa wanted a Prophet, I was waiting for my influence to raise more, William just took the city. Bulbed Penicillin and starting Ecology. Cities are 25, 20, 17, and 12
T280 - Golden Age and not a turn too soon, big cash flow increase and I'm going to need it. Cathy is fielding a hefty army that I will have a hard time dealing with if she DOWs me.
T283 - Two more research labs finish and I'm up to 910 bpt, only need one more tech though because I will use Oxford for the last one.
T284 - Ecology finishes and 10 more turns for Telecomm, I'll start Oxford in 7 turns to time it and start selling buildings. Can't bother with Sydney Opera House, it will take too long to build.
T287 - Selling my original archer, warrior and worker, no need to keep them now
T290 - Time to start building Oxford, new policy comes up, I open order for the happiness benefit and to let me buy a GE with faith. Golden Age ends, but I saved 2000 gold from it
T292 - Cathy is massing a huge fleet in the bay, this could get dicey. Changing production to submarines in other cities just in case
T294 - Telecomm finishes at same time as Oxford, starting UN. Can purchase GE next turn. Starting to sell buildings.
T295 - GE bought, it completed two CS quests too
T296 - Used the GE, UN will build in 3 turns
T297 - Catherine completes Apollo, William hasn't gotten any new policies for awhile, beginning to hope
T299 - UN is built, vote is in 9 turns, election rigging next turn and we will see where we stand
T301 - 11 votes lined up with over 3000 gold left to spend, we will see what happens next
T302 - Quest completed with Milan, so spent gold to take over as ally, giving myself cushion
T304 - Two nuke subs complete, switching all cities to wealth now. I wonder if Japan will survive to the vote?
T305 - America lost ally status with Cape Town, so I bought it up, cheap at 500 gold
T306 - Are you kidding me William? Japan has one city left and you want me to declare war? All the coups by the other Civs have failed.
T307 - One turn until vote, buying up all the votes I can. I now have all the remaining CSs, or 14 votes. Declaring war to lock in the votes (and kill those pesky Russian carriers)
T308 - UN vote, I vote for poor Japan with his one city. I get 14 votes and the win, woot!

Game: Civ5 GOTM 56
Date submitted: 2013-03-05
Reference number: 28454
Your name: AE_
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1695AD
Turns played: 249
Base score: 723
Final score: 1475
Time played: 6:35:00

This was a painful game... I went for a 4 city tradition game, but Russia DoWed me turn 100 (or close enough) and it became a 3 city tradition game instead. This is the first time I finished a game after losing a city, and also the first time I finish a game with a starting position as bad as in this game. The military power of Russia was strong the entire game and we were at constant war after she DoWed me.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 56
Your name: DrZ
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1858AD
Turns played: 299

Click to expand...

This was a very tricky starting point, thanks Leif for the map and the effort!

- How many cities did you build and how many did you decide to acquire?

I initially wanted to try wargizmo's liberty start which i like very much and go for 6-8 cities, but after seeing how little space i have i went right into full tradition with only 3 cities.

After that i acquired around 12 cities (all cities built by Cathy and William).

- How did you use religion or spying to your advantage?
Initially all i wanted was to kill my first neighbor, so I didn't build enough faith to be able to create an enhance it fast. Unfortunately William and Cathy concentrated on religion and both enhanced around turn 100... From that point on i heavily concentrated on faith generation with allies and mass building temples and shrines. To the point i got to enhance Religious texts and Itinerant preachers were gone so I chose Messiah, which was exactly what i needed to rehabilitate my religion. Mass Great Prophets can thoroughly cleanup other religions, i also bought 2 Inquisitors to cleanup the AI religion from the holy cities Moscow and Amsterdam.

Religious beliefs that helped a lot:
- God of the Sea - additional hammers and early are essential.
- Tithe - i almost always get it in a diplomacy victory. The gold income is awesome if you can spread your religion

- How did diplomacy go with your neighbors?
Russia was hostile from the first time we met, and remained like this until she died.
The Nederlands were neutral until i killed Russia and after that they went to guarded and then hostile. I decided to kill him too because he was a major runaway in my game also. He had such a nice start and such nice cities that after i conquered him I was instantly the first in score and remained there until the end of the game.
America was my only friend from the other continent. China and Greece died and Japan battled a wonder-spamming Siam and America both. I fueled towards the end game with a lot of Oil America so they can stand up to Japan. I also signed 3 RA with America.



- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
Not being Deity I had the courage to build some wonders, like The Oracle and Machu Pichu. The fact that it was Immortal i was actually able to sign some RAs with America, on lower difficulties i am usually way ahead in tech, and not willing to pay the extra gold to the other counter part of the RA.

- Were your UA and UU helpful?
The UU not helpfull at all. All conquering finished by the time i got to them.
The UA not helpfull at all. I was bigger then my neighbors most of the time.
The UB is awesome! After building the Steele i could overlook the shrines and start on building my army.

My Social Policies:

AE_ said:

Game: Civ5 GOTM 56
Date submitted: 2013-03-05
Reference number: 28454
Your name: AE_
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1695AD
Turns played: 249
Base score: 723
Final score: 1475
Time played: 6:35:00

This was a painful game... I went for a 4 city tradition game, but Russia DoWed me turn 100 (or close enough) and it became a 3 city tradition game instead. This is the first time I finished a game after losing a city, and also the first time I finish a game with a starting position as bad as in this game. The military power of Russia was strong the entire game and we were at constant war after she DoWed me.

Click to expand...

same here... the worst about it was her stealing 3 KEY techs (with wonders i needed) even though i had a spy in my cap =/

i finished t236.
4 city trad with no dow/trade break because i wanted to try. also it would have probably been hard to pull off usual tank style here, catherine was rather strong and there was not enough hammers or gold around to have units.

william declared on my city on his island (next so spices), i held with 2 composites until he offered peace and money. same turn, catherine declared, barely held with walls just focusing on her melee units.

had a terrible culture problem, i could not open order because that wouldve risked my ratio finisher to be even later. cath had 2 culture allies i couldnt befriend and also built taj mahal/pisa! goddamn pisa because she stole the techs.... so i ended up with no way to get a GE. double spawn wasnt really an option because there was no coal nearby to fill factory (GGed coal next to amsterdam some time after).

ended up waiting for ratio to finish and 13 turns to build UN. shouldve been done 10-15 turns earlier at least.

t254, victory

* timed my GS wrong. bulbed only 4, where i could have 6 and had 1 over at the end. (-16turns)
* five RA signed, one broken because Wu died. (-8turns)

t127 Astro
t141 Machu Pichu
t169 Porcelain Tower and Scientific Theory
t170 Free Thought

t224 Plastics
t242 Globalization
t245 UN (with GE)

Your name: golem
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1884AD
Turns played: 312
Base score: 1198
Final score: 1932
Time played: 5:02:00
Submitted save: Haile Selassie_0312 AD-1884.Civ5Save

I finished the game with only one city build - it was not so good idea - in the end I could have much more, as my hapiness was about 50. I should annex the conquered ones, but I let them as puppets. I conquered Catharine by 105 Turn, Amsterdam by 170. Due to it I had Astronomy rather late, about 200. The last 100 turns I just did RAs and trade money. No wars, no new cities.

I did all Liberty, Patronage, Rationalism. And one Order, as I had to wait to finish Rationalism in time. I was all the time ahead with science, so the spies had nothing to do - I stoled only one technology.

In turn 304 Wiliam declared war on me - I had only three units on continent, but he did not manage even to get close to my cities. Allied city states destroyed his army, in three turns one conquered his city and in five turns he offered me peace treaty, giving me his last free town. Great victory just without fight.

I have two replays of this going. I finished the first with a turn 279 win using a 3 city tradition opening, peaceful game, like TyfoonTurk did. While it was a win, I had Cathy sitting outside my capital with about 20 battleships trying to take me down. I don't think I would have lived for 3 more turns.

The second one, it is turn 178 and I've wiped out Cathy, but I don't have navigation yet, and Siam is about to go into Industrial. It is a more satisfying game, but I think it is destined to lose a science loss to someone on the other continent.

One thing I'm finding is that putting a 4th city on the north island is pretty much useless. There is no production up there. Looking at the geography, it is just possible to get 4 cities on the little starting area, but you have to give up an observatory in the capital. I'm going to give that a try.

It was fun, but very difficult for me. The AI civs are so aggressive at this level!

I'm usually best at culture, so seeing the island I immediately settled for an OCC. I stayed out of wars except for one against America, but my rather beefy fleet took care of that. In the game, Russia and USA were total runaways, and at the end, it was just me, five city states allied with me and those two left. I had 4 policy trees filled in, and like three more on the commerce tree to get to a culture victory. And had it come to a vote for diplomatic victory, I would probably have won as well, but out of the blue, USA came over with a vast army of subs, hangers with bombers and what not. Despite a navy of like ten subs and so, it shattered it my one city in three turns, so I died on the threshold to cultural glory.

I don't now how you guys can stand against such a surge, but good job all of you. I'm still learning, as you can see below:

Game: Civ5 GOTM 56
Date submitted: 2013-03-08
Reference number: 28464
Your name: TimeWeaver
Game status: Conquest Loss
Game date: 1949AD
Turns played: 369
Base score: 525
Final score: 525
Time played: 4:51:00
Submitted save: Haile Selassie_0369 AD-1949.Civ5Save
Renamed file: TimeWeaver_C505601.Civ5Save

Game: Civ5 GOTM 56
Date submitted: 2013-03-08
Reference number: 28466
Your name: Yannarosh
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1810AD
Turns played: 275
Base score: 1085
Final score: 1972
Time played: 10:02:00
Submitted save: Yannarosh GOTM56.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Yannarosh_C505601.Civ5Save

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That was such a great and challenging map !

Can't say I'm too excited about my time. My inexperience in diplomatic victory and taking things a bit too personnal with my neighbours shenanigans cost me a lot of turns but I enjoyed this game from start to finish.

- How many cities did you build and how many did you decide to acquire?
So, after discovering I was cut off from the rest of the world I debated hard between my 3 options: 1)OCC, 2)stay in that tip of the peninsula that belonged to me and settle 2-3 cities and maybe 1 in the ivory up north, or 3)expand to Catherine's lands. In the end I decided that 2 whales and 1 carpet ain't gonna cut it in the long run to get so much cash to buy off CSs and I chose option 3. I settled 2 cities south @t61. One of those was next to the mountain in what looked like a great Petra location. I wanted to place my 2nd south city in that nice mountain spot a bit to the east between copper, ivory and whales but Cathy took it first so I settled a few tiles to the east of my other city in order to have a bit more defensible position against Russia. @t75 I settled my final city right on top of the ivory in the north island.

- Diplomacy (yeah right!)
Cathy didn't wait too long to DoW me and did so @t62 which is 1 turn after I settled. I bought 1 or 2 archers and also started building archers in these cities while beelining Petra tech. William also DoW me @t75 but his plan of bringing 1 unit at a time through that mountain line didn't really work for him. A few turns later, for some reason, Cathy thought it would be great to build Petra in a city with 1 desert tile so she shamelessly grabbed it around turn 80 effectively screwing my whole game. At that point I made a very profitable peace with cathy in order to get my science up to speed and we even signed a declaration of friendship. A few turns later however she decides to "reinterpet our friendship" and backstabs me again.

From that point it got personnal. GOTM or not she HAD to die.

After her hordes started retreating I went into the counter attack and bombed her cities with my 2 GGs while pressing with composites and pikemen. I teched machinery to seal the deal with x-bows and finally took Moscow @turn151 which had some nice buildings and a couple of wonders inside. At that point happened another game breaking mistake. She managed to take back Moscow and the next turn I took it back again. As a result every building was destroyed and after all that effort all I had gained was an empty city... Anyways I took some more of her cities and William took the rest.

In the other continent Washington had killed almost everything. I didn't even meet Alex and Wu got destroyed a few turns after I visited her. The only thing Washington failed to destroy was the annoying Siamese who completed Patronage and made allying city states even harder. Still Washington and Oda had huge amounts of cash and we made some deals and RAs.

At that point the game had stabilized and I was confortably in the tech lead as my spy couldnt steal from Washington.

The only thing that still annoyed the hell out of me was William with his army of missionaries dancing around in my territory and converting everything.

So things got personnal with him too and I decided to DoW him. To be fair I destroy William in every game I play. That paranoid giggle he does when he backstabs you in his coloured pantaloons... man, that just rubs me the wrong way...Another reason more relative to this game was that he had the closest coal deposits while I didn't have any coal whatsoever.

DoWing William was probably my biggest mistake and cost me tenths of turns. I abandoned my teching in the upper part of the tree in order to get rifles. In addition his fleet started sacking my trade routes costing me more than 100g per turn so I had to make battleships as well. My thinking at that point was that gold would be the main issue and not raw science in order to buy the CSs who were declining more than 2 per turn because of Siam. That bad decision was obviously due to my inexperience in diplomatic VC. Ofc in the end I had much more gold than I needed to ally everything. Because of that war I didn't get to even build Research labs until a couple of turns before UN tech.

- SP
I filled tradition initially but it wasnt possible at all to time a straight transition into rationalism because of constant wars. I took patronage opener and policy that gives extra influence from gifts which actually helped some to be able to compete with Siam.
After taking the left part of rationalism I put my final policy into order in order to buy a GE for UN.

- How did you use religion or spying to your advantage?
Got easy first pantheon (god of the sea) and religion because of steles. I chose tithe which turned out to be just "ok" (was getting about 25-30g per turn late game) because of William spamming missionaries.

A special mention to the unsung hero of my game. Special agent Demeke who couped 4-5 CS without dying !

Thats pretty much the story of my game which I enjoyed throughout.
In the aftermath I still believe that settling south will produce better times if you manage to take Cathy's cities without delaying your necessary teching too much. Clearly though starting a war with the Dutch after that was a mistake. I should have just built all my science buildings and cruise to victory.

If theres a lesson to be learned here, that is to not take things too personal !