TSG 61 After Actions

Welcome to the TSG61 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 UUs helpful for a Cultural Victory?
- Did you build any of the Wonders of the Ancient World and if so, were they useful?

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.

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

Built 3 cities and took other cities and caps. Annexed Thebes after getting it, and puppeted others, including madrid, cordoba, barcelona, london, carthage, etc. Liberated Monaco and Hong Kong.

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

religious idols - cathedral and ceremonial burial - religious community and itinerant preachers. cathedral is essential for culture game and burial helped a lot as I conquered many cities but did not have time to build happy buildings (yes, building wonders).

I got lv3 spy quick by defending at cap right after entering renaissance (other civs will come for sure as I entered renaissance era first). After that, I sent him to iroquis cap to steal techs like iron, metal casting. Later, I sent all my spies to culture CS.

- How did diplomacy go with your neighbors?

I DoWed 3 civs in my continent and got all caps before t150. After that, I sailed to other continent when I saw that Dido took Monaco. I liberated Monaco and took Carthage too. Later, I took utique and several american cities and liberated Hong Kong.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?

I did not build many units to conquer the world as King level AIs won't have many units to defend.

- Were your UUs helpful for a Cultural Victory?

A lot. I took Madrid with only 2 rams, for example. Early conquest provided lots of gold and some spt.

- Did you build any of the Wonders of the Ancient World and if so, were they useful?

I built ToA (at cap) and Hali...(+2 gold for quarries and 100 gold when GP used) at 2nd city. I am not sure there are other ancient world wonders.


SP: tradition open - honor open - tradition fill (around t80) - piety till RT - Liberty till representation - pat open - freedom open and fill - pat left line - piety fill - lib fill - pat fill.

I stupidly clicked pat open (at that time I forgot that I opened honor) and I realized that I wasted one policy. That would cost at least 6-7 turns, in theory, as I had to fill one more policy for utopia and last policy usually takes at least 6 turns.

I was about to ragequit twice during this game - first was when I lost GL at t42 and 2nd was when I opened pat by mistake.

However, after the game, I think that it actually worked out okay. As I did not use oxford for archaelogy I could save it for radio - I think I got radio around t180 by bulbing GS from PT (used GE from pisa). With two RAs, I could actually reach plastics and built cristo - and I finished it when I got 3 policies to go so I saved 2-3 turns I think. My high spt came from scholar - I would have missed it if I had not opened pat and kept going honor.

Good thing about mass-puppeting was that as long as I could afford happiness (ceremonial burial helped a lot), puppets provide lots of gold and science from them are not negligible. I was swimming in cash (I did not use deal and DoW for civs at other continents - I just sold lux and resources at good prices and even did 2 RAs. Could have done more, but I did not need them so I rejected offers) and could rush-buy most of the required buildings after t150 (museum, public schools, Broadcast towers, factories, etc).

cpt peaked 1300+ and spt was 900+ too - I even entered atomic era, which is pretty unusual for culture game. Also it was my first culture game to get cristo (or to get labs). I did not prepare well for utopia and my pre-building sucked, but could finish utopia in 7 turns.

missed details:

Game: Civ5 GOTM 61
Date submitted: 2013-05-16
Reference number: 28960
Your name: glory7
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1660AD
Turns played: 242
Base score: 2092
Final score: 4358
Time played: 8:24:00
Submitted save: glory7_gotm61_242.Civ5Save
Renamed file: glory7_C506101.Civ5Save

glory7 said:

- Did you build any of the Wonders of the Ancient World and if so, were they useful?

I built ToA (at cap) and Hali...(+2 gold for quarries and 100 gold when GP used) at 2nd city. I am not sure there are other ancient world wonders.

Click to expand...

Statue of Zeus is the 3rd Wonder.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 61
Date submitted: 2013-05-16
Reference number: 28963
Your name: Tammo
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1848AD
Turns played: 294
Base score: 1133
Final score: 1953
Time played: 4:58:00
Submitted save: Attila_0294 - 1848 n. Chr..Civ5Save
Renamed file: Tammo_C506101.Civ5Save

Got some problems at start. Tried to make a screenshot using default steam button twice, which makes civ reload the save. So I started with session 3....
I am very pleased with my game. I won Turn 294, I don't know wether this is competitive but this is my first win EVER in Civ5
Got a little lazy in the Middle Ages and made some mistakes (settled a GA to far away from my Capital so I couldnt work it T 192 or so). Been at least 180 Turns in a GA due to happiness overflow, wonders, SP and 4 or 5 Great Artists (didnt plant the last 2, cause I calculated the 20% culture bonus better than 2 settled Artists). Was a smooth game.
Made some MM failures (sometimes my cities work unemployed persons, cause I have prod focus and didnt overlook every round). In the MA I sort of lost the focus and teched without plan, but I paused and played later...
Could have timed some SPs better
Started Honor, completed Tradition, started Pat until the SP with the Influencebonus, completed piety, finished pat, took freedom with the 2 culture per wonder SP, this could be done 2 or 3 SP before... finished it and finished Honor. I didn't really save production for my Utopia Project... This could save me perhaps 6 Turns or so... Realisticly I could have finished something like T 280, if I played more concentrated on Culture and microing. Culture Peak was 1039 T283!
Got Acoustics T 150 and Archeology T 200

- How many cities did you build and how many did you decide to acquire?
As I said in the opening actions thread, I decided to have two cities and go tall. Turned out to be a good strategy, perhaps it would have been better to found a third city near the national wonder and build Petra there... Next time
I focus on gaining as much culture as I could. This was my first win ever, I just played on emperor into the renaissance, not much beyond, so i'm not very experienced in Civ5. Thats why I didn't conquer anything. I think King level helped, cause the AI never DoWed me, sometimes Ramesses laughed about my military status, and Hiawatha told me Isabellas filthy plans ~180 or so... I just build some Knights and Isabella DoWed Ramesses

- How did you use religion or spying to your advantage?
Religion helped a lot. I allied with Jerusalem and the other rCS ~T70 and had my Religion enhanced ~T105 took fertility rites, papal primacy, Divine Inspiration, Cathedrals, holy order. FR was perfect at T5, my capital grew like crazy ending at 37 T294! My second City (founded ~T75) became 27 or so! papal primacy helped me being allied with all the CS on my Continent since T 140 T150 or so... This was a big help. Especially with the 25%Production CS ---> Science SP (I Think its Scholastics?), which I got T 192 this boomed my beakers from ~150 to 224! But I think I didn't need it, cause I was like 120-240 Influence with all the city states the last 130 turns. The Cathedrals were not game breaking. I didn't really use the extra artist slot except for the last 30 turns or so... I could get better with my culture mm. I like Holy Order but I just bought 10 or 12 missionaries... Had so extremely much faith due to DI and the CS, also I settled like 3 GPs...
Used Espionage just passively since I was first in Tech nearly all the time. Just stealed 1 Tech from Hiawatha but this was not game breaking

- How did diplomacy go with your neighbors?
Very well. Ramesses really hates me but Isabella and Elizabeth been friendly all the time. The other Continent was totally friendly with me...

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
I did a wonder spam approach... I thought it a good strategy on King. Didn't miss any wonder and build 18 in Cap and 4 in second City... Giving me a good summ of Culture and Faith. Also I was the fastest teching nation with just two tall citys... I think this was due to king!

- Were your UUs helpful for a Cultural Victory?
I used a horse archer to kill barbarians but this wasn't game breaking

- Did you build any of the Wonders of the Ancient World and if so, were they useful?
Yes. GL, ToA, HG and NC gave me a good basis for a strong Capital. Got Alhambra T 142 this helped.

turn 291 culture victory
- How many cities did you build and how many did you decide to acquire?
settled two cities besides cap.. didnt take any puppets..

- How did you use religion or spying to your advantage?
i went with 15% production towards world wonders then founded religion with tithe and cathedrals.. enhanced with faith from wonders and relgious texts.. my relgion dominated the continent.
spying was useful to keep all the cultural CS allied to me..


- How did diplomacy go with your neighbors?
everybody was fairly relaxed towards me most of the game until at some point egypt got annoyed because i stole all the wonders.. i played peacemaker at various points saving spain from england, egypt from england.. then at the end i had to park my units around spain again to save them from england.. then i gave them a few modern units i bought to force england to make peace.. one time i had to declare war on england just to back her off of spain.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
on king i wonder whore and almost totally disregard military.. for most of the game i had three horse archers and two warriors..

- Were your UUs helpful for a Cultural Victory?
nope

- Did you build any of the Wonders of the Ancient World and if so, were they useful?
probably not.. not really sure which ones apply.. great library, pyramids, hanging gardens, oracle, great mosque, petra, CI, alhambra, sistine chapel, etc etc

the barbs were annoying at first.. i didnt really do much to thwart them early on until i researched horseback riding which was after i rushed NC.. so my warriors danced around putting out fires from all the barbs from the two nearby camps..

iz DOWd me and tried taking my petra city that i dropped right next to her.. was very close to losing it.. health at zero.. i had to scramble my horses into position.. they were chilling in my two other cities saving me gold.. once they arrived it was easy peasy.. pushed her back and she offered peace which i took.. could have easily smashed her but i didnt.. netted me a decent trading partner and multiple RA buddy in the end..

not quite sure where i go wrong with these culture games.. had like 8 artist tiles locked down in the until i turned them into mines for utopia build.. pretty much a golden age for the last 75 turns.. artist slots always filled.. had like 1100 cpt.. even still the finish time is pretty average..

Game: Civ5 GOTM 61
Date submitted: 2013-05-17
Reference number: 28974
Your name: Monthar
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1838AD
Turns played: 289
Base score: 2632
Final score: 4617
Time played: 9:03:00
Submitted save: TSG61_Cultural_Victory.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Monthar_C506101.Civ5Save

Click to expand...

I had a few key mistakes that cost me some turns.

1. I only took 1 battering ram with my archers and horse archers to take out London. That ram died 1 turn before capping.
2. I didn't build enough military early to take out Spain quickly, so that ended up being several wars.
3. I spent too much money on city states in the early game. If I had saved all my cash I could have rushed the culture buildings.
4. I think if I had built a 4th city or annexed the capitals I captured and put some wonders as well as all the culture buildings in them it might have shaved more turns even with the increased policy cost.
5. I didn't beeline for Alhambra and ended up losing it to Hiawatha by a couple turns.
6. Lastly, I didn't queue up enough stuff with 1 turn left to finish to save up the overflow hammers for the Utopia Project. Partly, because I end up with just 3 turns to the last policy when I finished Cristo Redentor in the capital. If I'd built it in my Petra city instead, it would have only taken 1 more turn to finish, but I could have used those turns for building up the hammer overflow.

On a positive note. I still finished in under 290 turns which is currently the 2nd fastest time posted in this thread. I also racked up a nice score of 4617, which is currently the highest score posted in this thread. So overall I feel pretty good about this win.

Finished and victorious, although barely. Hiawatha was probably within 10 turns of finishing his spaceship. Just getting used to King, so I'm happy, even if others will be WAY faster.

- How many cities did you build and how many did you decide to acquire?
I ended up going with 2.
- How did you use religion or spying to your advantage?
Kept a spy in each cultural city-state I found. Managed to steal a few techs as well.
- How did diplomacy go with your neighbors?
Elizabeth was a pain. Everyone else was friendly until they were wiped out be Elizabeth or Hiawatha.
- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
I'm just getting used to King anyway, but I know it allowed more Wonders than higher levels would have.
- Were your UUs helpful for a Cultural Victory?
Horse Archers were helpful for defense and pushing back. I did use the Ram for liberating Thebes.
- Did you build any of the Wonders of the Ancient World and if so, were they useful?
ToA was the first Wonder I built. Handy for early growth.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 61
Date submitted: 2013-05-17
Reference number: 28978
Your name: WxDan
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1955AD
Turns played: 375
Base score: 1014
Final score: 1352
Time played: 4:29:00
Submitted save: Attila_0375 AD-1955.Civ5Save
Renamed file: WxDan_C506101.Civ5Save

Game: Civ5 GOTM 61
Date submitted: 2013-05-18
Reference number: 28980
Your name: lymond
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1830AD
Turns played: 285
Base score: 1943
Final score: 3408

Click to expand...

I haven't played Civ V in quite some time. In fact, I uninstalled it last year. Felt to the urge to pick up a game so I played this one. I'm not very good at the game, but can usually win on Immortal.

Start seem fairly slow both culture wise and growth. This was in part due to not finishing Tradition first thing. My research seemed to outpace my culture early on considering such that I decided to open other SPs before finishing Tradition, but I kinda regret that decision. Also, I had every intention going into this to milk barbs for culture and then completely forgot to open honor,which I then ended up ignoring entirely.

I settled on the hill to the east and went straight to Writing for the TGL, although I may have picked up Mining first. I took the Gold and Silver pantheon, but I'm not sure really how useful that was since I did not work the silvers much at all early on so as to emphasis growth as much as possible, and growth was slow. I took Drama with TGL and teched Philo.

Another thing that really hurt was that somehow one of the AIs got a Religion before me and, ofc, they would decide to take Cathedrals. Thus, I had none of those and it was a long time before in Great Artists popped for me.

War wise I took it to the AIs on the continent. First off, and bizarrely, Ram sent a settler (very very early) over to the prime silver/marble coastal spot. Honestly, I was very surprised by the move, especially since he had a very nice spot east of him, although maybe a barb camp up there was a deterrent. I DOW'd him and took his settler as a free worker slave. Meanwhile I produced a few HAs and a Ram and sent it to Thebes. I took Thebes easily. No more Ramses. (Actually I recall stealing another on of his settlers)

At this point Iz and Liz are no longer liking me too much. Liz declares on Iz and I send my little army to Iz and take Seville and Madrid. Iz literally had no units. I went on and took Barcelona in the West and, thus, no more Iz. AIs are fairly worthless anyway at this level having so little gold.

Liz was a tougher beast because a) she got CBs quite early b) built the Great Wall (ugh). Interestingly Liz DOW'd me first trying to take Barcelona and Madrid. I basically stayed in perpetual war with her for quite some time. I took Nottingham east of London and then used 1 of my GGs to build a citadel 2 tiles west of Nott to allow better movement. I lost a few units though once Liz got those Longbows, but eventually whittled London down and took it. I made peace leaving her 1 city, as at this point I'd met the AIs on the other continent and did not want to piss them off too much. However, that stupid "You made a promise not to attack" demerit stuck with all the AIs the whole game. Hiawatha though was a good trading partner though.

4 "live" cities were Attila's court, Thebes (left puppeted for some time though), desert Petra city which was very nice, and of course the silver marble city, which was not all that great as it seemed. I left the AIs on the other continent alone and just traded with him.

Lots of early quests allowed me to get most nearby CS allied early, including Yerevan. By midgame, I had most all CS in pocket.

Policies - Bits and pieces of Tradition, Liberty, Peity, Patronage and Freedom. Finished Tradition first, although much too late, then Freedom and back to finish all the others. Ofc, I shot for the SP cost reduction policies as fast as I could. At first I wanted that free worker from Liberty, but that ended up being a bad call since I stole 2 settlers from Ram. I should have just opened Liberty and then went on to finish Tradition first. I had so many workers this game...ha...deleted some eventually.

Total CPT was never that great. I think I topped at close to 1000CPT but never at 1000 or above, which is not good. Other than free culture buildings (Opera House free in cap), I bought up most of them, as well as science and production buildings. Otherwise, cities focused on wonders, which I pretty much had the bulk of this game.

edit: I should add that losing CI to Hiawatha was a big surprise. My fault for delaying it even when almost complete as I switch out a turn or two for units. Literally missed by 1t. I've just recently come to realize how important Golden Ages are to culture wins as the boost to culture is quite significant. I'd guess CI combined with some other optimal play can shave many turns off victory.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 61
Date submitted: 2013-05-18
Reference number: 28982
Your name: tomoliop
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1952AD
Turns played: 372
Base score: 1611
Final score: 2177
Time played: 3:40:00

Such a horrible start. I freaking lost my initial settler to barbs. I think I settled on T7 and badly, because I moved to the west of the river and had sucky growth early, was blocked at 2 pop for more than 10 turns. Settled 4 cities, razed some, 4 puppets, only on my continent, left England and Spain alive, probably should've killed them. I think I only played one short game with Huns before, horse archers are sick, as well as battering rams and on this difficulty they worked ok till around T150. After that start I didn't expect to finish pre T400, so it didn;t turn out as bad as I thought it was going to. Kinda pleasant game overally, unlike the previous GoTM which I don't think I'm gonna finish, cause it's been so sloooooooow...

Game: Civ5 GOTM 61
Date submitted: 2013-05-18
Reference number: 28985
Your name: Hieschen
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1939AD
Turns played: 359
Base score: 824
Final score: 1160
Time played: 4:13:00

Now that was really bad. My worst finish time in my Hall of Fame…

I have a deep feeling of underachievement here. After 100t it looked actually quite good, was on par with most of the others in the opening actions thread. Build CI soon after posting. I feel that i could achieve a t280 or below victory, so will play again and post my finishing time

So what went wrong? a lot, harvested barbs, but did not pay attention to Lizzy scout, both camps gone, on top she achieved quite some quests with that. Was beaten to alhambra by 2 turns …. Lizzy declared and my blitz run into longbows and died in the blaze of glory.

Should have build 3rd city at the coast. Spend a of money on Bruxelles and Yerevan just to get coup'ed twice the turn after allying.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 61
Date submitted: 2013-05-18
Reference number: 28986
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1967AD
Turns played: 387
Base score: 1826
Final score: 2371
Time played: 4:26:00

Another very slow finish time compared to others, gambled to much (i.e. settling a city on the desert near all the wheat, between sheep and ivory and trying to get Petra, missed by a few turns). Settled 2nd city on desert hill to east on coast near mountain, but so little food to start every time it grew it started starving again.

Elizabeth and Isabella spent the entire time denouncing each other, or at war so never became much of a threat. Elizabeth did a very early DOW on me but was defeated easily, taking a coastal city of hers SW of my capital.

Isabella and Egypt were friendly nearly all game. I DOW'd Ramassees after I had allied all nearby CS and wanted to stop his stream of missionaries and prophets heading to my cities. Took his capital and one other main city, giving me more than a dozen wonders, but by that time it was industrial era and too little, too late

Hiawatha and Arabia had space ship parts completed, and I had lots of spare gold so I bribed them every 10+ turns to declare on each other. Sometimes it was a bit pricy (Arabia wanting all my uranium, oil and 1000+ gold), sometimes cheaper. To take on Arabia's helicopter gunships, rocket arti, and tanks Hiawatha settled for 2 horses, 5 lumps of coal and 50 gold

Game: Civ5 GOTM 61
Date submitted: 2013-05-18
Reference number: 28994
Your name: ense7en
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1760AD
Turns played: 262
Base score: 1646
Final score: 3165
Time played: 5:29:00

Woohoo, only 20 turns behind glory7, and i don't think i played this one very well at all.
I'll take it!

Hammer Rabbi said:

- 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 UUs helpful for a Cultural Victory?
- Did you build any of the Wonders of the Ancient World and if so, were they useful?

Click to expand...

Built two cities.
Captured all the capitals on my continent and left the AI with one or a couple crappy cities (trading partners and no huge diplo penalty). I probably should have annexed some of them, but there was never a great time (and toward the mid+ game i didn't care anyway, game was so long over), so they remained puppets all game.

Religion was basically good for buying great artists.

Difficulty level, lol. King is wayyyy too easy for me, so i pretty much wonder spammed all game long, with extremely minimal units built all game.

UUs helpful for cultural victory, haha...not really? I used HAs and BRs to clean up the AI caps on my continent.

I built Temple of Artemis; it's a really nice wonder.
I like Ancient Wonders pack; if nothing else, it gives the AI more wonders to spend hammers on.

Game was highly uneventful.
Early on i focused on growth and spamming wonders.

Pumped out a bunch of Horse Archers and then visited Spain after she'd foolishly decided to attack my cultural ally Prague.
Took two of her cities; left her with one.
Then took out Egypt's cap. They refused to settle more cities though, which was really annoying, as their second city was in a really bad spot.
Then had to swim over to England + maneuver units one by one on the narrow land strip to get to England due to Egypt's stupid second city being in the way.
Lost lots of units to England due to Egypt's city being in the way, but then grabbed their cap and made peace for all their gold+gpt.

That was about it.
After that, it was a lot of next turn clicking and building stuff and trading resources/luxs, particularly to my pals on the other continent. They were good for RAs and feeding me gold+gpt.

I did one more war on Egypt to steal their prophet to make a holy site.

Had silly good gpt pretty much all game, so i was allied with all the cultural CSes pretty close to as soon as i could meet them, and then eventually, allied with every CS out there.

I went Tradition > Piety > most of Patronage > all Freedom > finished Patronage > Liberty.

I did finish Cristo Redentor, but like one turn before i finished Liberty, so zero point for doing so. My science was not so strong all game due to only having the two cities (puppets don't provide much beakers), whereas my culture was pretty good all game.
I used Oxford's free tech to get Archaeology to be able to get into Freedom and get Louvre done a bit sooner.

t250, this was max culture/science. I destroyed many landmarks and an academy to build mines/stables for building Utopia, so my final screenshot numbers are much lower.


t262, home and the rest of the continent screenies

2 Turns to Utopia Project being done and Harun al-Rashid launches his spaceship! Played a couple turns after the loss just so I could nuke him in disgust.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 61
Date submitted: 2013-05-19
Reference number: 29000
Your name: BuddhaBubba
Game status: Science Loss
Game date: 1972AD
Turns played: 393
Base score: 1822
Final score: 1822
Time played: 4:43:00
Submitted save: Attila_0393 AD-1973.Civ5Save
Renamed file: BuddhaBubba_C506101.Civ5Save

My first submission for GOTM - I know there were many ways I messed this up, but I'm excited to have my first culture victory, and my first victory with Atilla.

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

I built 3. Capital on the hill east of the starting position, one on the coast by the silver there, and one between then three wheat. I briefly entertained the idea of acquiring some others, but failed so miserably at taking London after Isabella invited me to go to war with her that I decided simply to turtle all game.

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

I prioritised getting a pantheon because I _really_ wanted Religious Idols.
Religious Idols -> Ceremonial Burial (should have taken Tithe, I think) + Cathedrals -> Divine Inspiration (because wonder spam) -> Religious Texts.

Cathedrals were aweome. Also awesome was Harun El Rashid spamming GP's which meant I could let him convert my city, buy a Mosque and then Inquisitor it back

- How did diplomacy go with your neighbors?

Isabella is insane. My failed attempt at war with England was a result of Isabella's invitation. Isabella then denounced me, and I had a warmonger penalty with her.

Isabella DOW'd me three times after that. The first was a bit exciting, because I was behind the curve on military tech - although I managed to hold her off and then push towards Jerusalem (which she'd taken relatively early), when she sued for peace.

The second war was frustrating, because I knew I had her measure, but I kept having to turn down a peace offer that involved me giving her my 21 pop city in the desert.

The third she surprised me with a Great War Bomber, but I rush bought an airforce, and there was never any doubt.

I maintained a fairly friendly attitude with everyone else (Liz never liked me), having made the decision to sit and grow.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?

King is the level I'm currently playing at, so I'm not sure how to answer this question. I like to build wonders

- Were your UUs helpful for a Cultural Victory?

To me, not at all. I've never played with the Battering Ram, and nearly got my first one immediately killed the first time I tried to use it. The horse archers seemed awesome in the beginning, but by the time Isabella was attacking me they needed to be upgraded.

- Did you build any of the Wonders of the Ancient World and if so, were they useful?

I build ToA. The growth is useful, and I guess the hammer bonus for archers would have been useful although I tended to buy units rather than build them.

Overall, I'm not too disappointed with how I did. I cursed myself for not building Chichen Itza as soon as it was available because Hiawatha beat me to it, and was a little bummed not to get Petra for my city by the wheat (I never even got close, tbh). I cursed Hiawatha again when I discovered he was far enough ahead in tech to build Christo Redentor while I was still researching plastics.

Good fun, though.


Game: Civ5 GOTM 61
Date submitted: 2013-05-19
Reference number: 29001
Your name: ellgieff
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1932AD
Turns played: 352

Base score: 1162
Final score: 1660
Time played: 9:19:00
Submitted save: TSG61_0352 AD-1932.Civ5Save
Renamed file: ellgieff_C506101.Civ5Save

*edit* I should also mention, I had a sudden laptop shutdown which forced me to reload from an autosave. Thanks to the RNG not reseeding, I was able to play the turns out the same way. I hope this doesn't invalidate my submission?

ellgieff said:

My first submission for GOTM - I know there were many ways I messed this up, but I'm excited to have my first culture victory, and my first victory with Atilla.

<snip>

*edit* I should also mention, I had a sudden laptop shutdown which forced me to reload from an autosave. Thanks to the RNG not reseeding, I was able to play the turns out the same way. I hope this doesn't invalidate my submission?

Click to expand...

Welcome to CivFanatics and GOTM.

Congrats on your initial effort.

Your submission should be fine. A couple of things though.
- You should have your autosave interval set=1 so that in case of crash, you do not need to replay more than one turn. It sounds like you did that.

- In future, when a crash occurs, please let on us know via Private Message what happened instead of posting it in the forum, in case we have questions or there are any other issues.

Thanks.

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

I only built my capital. I annexed Lhasa and Thebes. I had two puppets, London and Madrid.

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

I met Lhasa and Jerusalem early, which gave access to a religious idols (+1 faith and culture from silver and gold). I built the stonehenge as well, and got the first religion. I took cathedrals, and when I enhanced my religion I took the Hermitage follower.

I used my spies to stay allied with the cultural CSs.

- How did diplomacy go with your neighbors?

Not very good. I took down Lhasa which was under protection by Egypt. I then decided to take Thebes. Afterwards Lizzy and Isabella declared war. I took Madrid (Spain's only city), burned down York and puppeted London. Egypt built Memphis just before Thebes fell. They eventually got up to 3 cities.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?

King allowed for early aggression with a kinda small army, while my capital was building wonders.

- Were your UUs helpful for a Cultural Victory?

A lot. Taking down my neighbors would have been a lot harder without HAs and ram. I only built one battering ram, but it was enough to take down 3 capitals and a CS.
- Did you build any of the Wonders of the Ancient World and if so, were they useful?



Game: Civ5 GOTM 61
Date submitted: 2013-05-19
Reference number: 29008
Your name: Herfelt
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1842AD
Turns played: 291
Base score: 1399
Final score: 2412
Time played: 3:52:00
Submitted save: Herfelt_GotM61_291.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Herfelt_C506101.Civ5Save

Game: Civ5 GOTM 61
Date submitted: 2013-05-19
Your name: marekb
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1842AD
Turns played: 291
Base score: 914
Final score: 1575
Time played: 4:21:00

Click to expand...

I played a peaceful game. I build two cities, had no wars. Dido founded religion 10 turns before me and I lost Cathedrals. I decided to take Religious Idols, Tithe, Divine Inspiration, production boost and religious texts and later bought 3 GA with faith. Probably I could buy once more if I remembered earlier to prevent GP spawn. I should be more aggressive early in the game, and capture neighbouring capitals.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 61
Date submitted: 2013-05-19
Reference number: 29011
Your name: Xicivilian
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1919AD
Turns played: 339
Base score: 1492
Final score: 2226
Time played: 12:58:00
Submitted save: TSG61_Win.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Xicivilian_C506101.Civ5Save

Short game story: I build city in desert for Petra and city next to mountain and coast, but should have done it other way around, since coastal city could grow better from the start. Took Tradition opener, Liberty opener and Honor opener for early culture. First policies I had quick, but I was way to slow to Classical era to obtain Piety.

Midgame was war with England and Spain. I conquered Thebes and other city of Egypt and Madrid. Annex Thebes as 4th city and puppeted other two. Had lot of wars with England, but they took only once one city, which I could take back easily. Later on I could bride the other continent to keep England busy.
End game was waiting long for policies to finish (took about 10 turns for each next policy). Utopia took another 16 turns or so. Next time I have to go to Religious Tolerence faster.

Religion wise I took Religious Idols, Tithe and Asceticism, Cathedrals and Religious Texts, which were nice for the boosts and Cathedrals for the culture. Also used some Prophets for Holy Sites, but I finished Freedom way too late.

My first spy protected Capital, but did not do a good job. His replacement did much better. Stole some techs of AI’s of other island.

UU was helpful to get some early cities and to block out a barb camp. For wonders I build Temple of Artemis and the one which gave you 100 gold for each Great Person, but does where not particularly necessary.

After a few replays I managed to cut my win down to turn 273, with a similar score. That's 16 turns faster than my submission.