TSG71 After Actions

Welcome to the TSG71 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!

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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 City States did you acquire with Venice's ability and did you take any cities through combat or peace deals?
- 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?
- Did the the patch change how you play a diplomacy game or change how you treated the AI?

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.

DV turn 319. Settled south hill, annexed Antwerp with optics MoV. Built GL, HG, Colossus, used this cargo ship to bring food to Venice. Then built HS, founded religion. Took tears pantheon, faith for each ww, papel primacy, spread to further cities. Then spread aggressively to all CS. Without barbs there were much fewer CS quests to gain influence. PP combined with consulates gave me resting 35 influence. This worked for a while until Indonesia started spreading their religion like mad and it became to difficult to keep track of which CS still followed me and which did not.

By this time entered modern era, opened freedom. I had saved three great writers, opened a golden age, waited until I maxed out their culture and burned them all. This allowed me to open up the increased influence with unit gifting and increased influence with trade routes. I had enough TR to connect with all the CS. Game over at this point. The rest of the game was spent hitting next turn and a pointless, destructive invasion of the Zulu, where I didn't take any cities, just pillaged all his tiles. I figured I should use the units the military CS gave me.

Mistimed the change to the info era and thus the UN. This added 10 turns. Haven't figured out how to best time this.

Realized consulates plus freedom policy, arsenal of democracy gives you 40 influence with CS at the cost of a crappy unit, which you can buy anyway with all the gold Venice has. Not sure how fast the arsenal bonus wears off.

In answer to your last question:

It was a nice map. In retrospect settling north to get all the sea resources might have been better. No barbs made this much easier in that there was no trade route destruction. I have found on sea maps they are relevant for a much longer period of time.

I had never played Venice before, so an easy setup was helpful. It was a nice break after the last brutal map.

Reference number: 29885
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1836AD
Turns played: 289
Base score: 1307
Final score: 2292
Time played: 2:55:00

I opened Renaissance via Printing Press instead of Acoustics, which I think delayed my victory. It works great for a cultural victory, but threw things off here. In fact, I became influential with every civ but Indonesia. Thank goodness he was really pressing culture or I would have won that way.

I had to dip 2 policies into Commerce before opening Rationalism, which delayed Secularism. To make up for that, I passed sciences funding in the WC. That slowed down my writers and artists, which was a good thing. I also went Order for the 25% from factories. I used Oxford to get Plastics, and the free tech from Rationalism to get Ecology (bad timing on my part). Then bulbed my way to Internet with 5 scientists, 2 of which were bought with faith. Also spawned 3 or 4 merchants of Venice, which I just used for trade missions.

With the amount of gold I was making I didn't need Patronage or any of the CS ideology tenants. I maxed out Tradition, Rationalism and Commerce, and ended up with Iron Curtain as my 3rd tier Order policy (for internal trade routes).

WC proposals were World Religion->Science Funding->World Fair->Ideology (Freedom). All passed (World Religion by 1 vote), except Ideology, which did not get voted on.

I really need to trigger the WC vote sooner. The last 150 turns were mostly just clicking. Maybe I should have proposed Science Funding first. I probably also should have sent food cargo ships to Ulundi and Antwerp so they would grow bigger. They refused to work the specialist slots.

No wars for me after I took Ulundi around T100, although China, Byzantium and Indonesia fought amongst themselves a little. I did build the NIA to get an extra spy. Turns out I had way more votes than I needed, though. I had 44 and only needed 39.

Great game. Thank you!

Game date: 1830AD
Turns played: 286
Base score: 1104
Final score: 1936
Time played:2:59:00

Moving the warrior to the hills in the north at the start was perhaps the most important decision I made. I then settled the north hill to get those 8 sea resources. Went straight to GL->Philo->NC and then towards education as quickly as possible(t.113). Then it was just farming GSs, Wonders and getting Astronomy to start Rationalism. Morocco, Portugal and Byzantium were my friends most of the game and I did some research agreements with them when possible.

I had to sink one policy to Patronage after completing Tradition. Then Rationalism and I also completed Patronage and hoped to get a GS from a CS but they only gave me 3 MoVs.
I took Order as a ideology for the science to factories.

I annexed Antwerpen as soon as I got Optics and there was a granary built which was really nice. I also accidentaly annexed Malacca very late in the game by pressing the wrong button with MoV.

I managed to bulb my way to telecommunications on the same turn as the next World Congress was scheduled and thought that would trigger the World leader vote but that wasn't the case and I had to wait for 11 turns which was a shame. I don't really understand the mechanics there.

There was no wars in the whole game and I didn't even build a single unit myself.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 71
Date submitted: 2013-10-18 11:18:26
Reference number: 29894
Your name: Monthar
Game status: Culture Wrong VC
Game date: 1886AD
Turns played: 313
Base score: 3044
Final score: 4909
Time played: 9:15:00
Submitted save: TSG71_Culture Win.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Monthar_C507101.Civ5Save

I screwed up the timing and ended up with a cultural victory. Even then, I was still 1 vote short for the vote coming up a a few turns after I won.

I went major warmonger, taking out every capital. To avoid the domination win, I kept Japan alive and gave them the Morocco's capital.

My DV strategy was "Extinct Civs don't get to vote." So I wiped out Indonesia (shouldn't have denounced me, Gajah,) Morocco, Portugal then I finished off Zulu after gutting Shaka early. Forbidden Palace plus World Religion plus World Ideology plus allying with every CS was enough to win the vote. I only annexed Antwerp, Sofia and I think one other; the rest of the MoVs were for influence and cash.

So many turns of "next turn-go" because even with truly horrible BPT (400/Turn at Turn 200) I was still in the modern era when most of the world was in the Renaissance. I blew most of the timing benchmarks post-Turn 100 but was still #1 in every demographic. I think if the World College is founded and a Civ is #1 in EVERYTHING, that should prompt a vote.

Between timing errors, slow science and occasional no-raze option conquests my victory was anything but fast. But I did learn that Indonesia's fancy luxes do come with the conquest now, so there's that. I had some Nutmeg sprinkled on my oysters for breakfast everyday in Venice.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 71
Date submitted: 2013-10-18 15:16:23
Reference number: 29895
Your name: casualplayer
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1917AD
Turns played: 338
Base score: 2508
Final score: 3743
Time played: 7:40:00
Submitted save: Enrico Dandolo_0338 AD-1918.Civ5Save
Renamed file: casualplayer_C507101.Civ5Save

Slow as usual

Game: Civ5 GOTM 71
Date submitted: 2013-10-18 15:40:12
Reference number: 29896
Your name: jshelr
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1965AD
Turns played: 386
Base score: 1483
Final score: 1925
Time played: 8:09:00
Submitted save: Enrico Dandolo_0386 AD-1966.Civ5Save
Renamed file: jshelr_C507101.Civ5Save

Game: Civ5 GOTM 71
Date submitted: 2013-10-18 16:01:23
Your name: marekb
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1876AD
Turns played: 309
Base score: 1825
Final score: 2991
Time played: 4:25:00

Click to expand...

I moved warrior on souther hill and not seeing any additional sea resources settled in place. I was thinking I am on a small island (it turned out not to be so small), so I started with monument scouting with warrior. After finding Zulus returned with warrior to the capital (forgetting no barbarians options) and built Scout. Unfortunately, Ulundi border had expanded I my scout was blocked.

TO: Pottery - AH - Writing - Mining - Calendar - Sailing - Optics - Philosophy (with GL)- Masonry -> IW -> Theology -> Education -> Astronomy -> Scientific Theory (delaying Printing Press) -> Radio (with Oxford) -> Plastics -> Refrigeration -> Penicillin with Rationalism finisher) -> Telecommunication

SP: Tradition -> Legalism -> Aristocracy -> Landed Elite -> Monarchy -> finish -> Patronage opener -> Consulates -> Rationalism (Secularism and right tree) -> Freedom (longer GA, great deal, treaty organisation) -> Patronage till Scholasticism -> Commerce till Mercantilism -> rest of Patronage.

Religion: +1 with fishing boats, papal primacy, divine inspiration, Swords into Plowshares, IR.

BO: monument - scout - worker - GL (t55) - NC -> Great Lighthouse (missed) -> Colossus (missed) -> Oracle (t106) -> HS (t 115) -> CI (t127)

With GMoV from Optics I bought Antwerp. T114 Shaka wanted to conquer Venice. I appreciated this. Defeated him with 3 archers, built 2 Great Galleass, one pike, upgraded archers to CBs and took 3 of 4 Shaka cities many turns later (war finished t174).

In turn 273 fired last GS and, unfortunately, I needed few more to finish Telecommunication. Later I realised I hadn't bought Research Lab in Nobamba and I need to wait over 30 turns for world leader voting. I am really disappointed with this. Should have finished in t288.

I used six cargo ships to feed my cities: three to Venice and three from Venice to each puppet. Lack of maritime CS slowed down growth.

The game was funny. Thanks.


- How many City States did you acquire with Venice's ability and did you take any cities through combat or peace deals?
I bought only Antwerp. Used Great Galleass to take 3 of Shaka cities (razed one of them).

- How did you use religion or spying to your advantage?
I took Papal Primacy and spread religion to surrounding city states. I voted my religion to be world religion and gained 2 additional votes.

- How did diplomacy go with your neighbors?
Except Shaka, that was hostile almost entire game (first he thought he could conquer Venice and later lost 3/4 of his cities to me so this fixed his attitude), I was friendly with rest of civs. At the end I pissed some leaders voting for my religion to be World Religion.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
I decided to go for some wonders (Great Lighthouse, Colossus) quite late. On higher level I wouldn't even try them.

- Did the the patch change how you play a diplomacy game or change how you treated the AI?
Not really. I didn't notice any remarkable change. Except the number of votes needed to win Diplo. After buying on CS it remains: 30 votes from CS + 4 from being member + 2 form being host = 36. You need 3 more. Thus, you need two of Forbidden Palace, World Ideology or your World Religion or to research Globalisation.

On my 2nd attempt I managed a turn 312 diplo victory.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 71
Date submitted: 2013-10-18 21:52:14
Reference number: 29901
Your name: dthompson32
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1896AD
Turns played: 319
Base score: 1068
Final score: 1695
Time played: 8:11:00

I was feeling a little disappointed, but I'm seeing most others finished in the 300s too, so far, so maybe not that bad.

- How many City States did you acquire with Venice's ability and did you take any cities through combat or peace deals?

I took all the cities on my island, then went with a peaceful game the rest of the way. I used MoV for two CS (Antwerp and Zurich) and took Zulu out of the game before he could get out of his first city.

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

Spying was not very important, and might have hurt me by keeping other civs too far behind me in tech. Religion was important, I took faith bonus for wonders since I knew I would be building a lot of them. I relied on a lot of faith production for 3 GSes. Tithe was also important in the early game for a large cash boost. God of the Sea was critical.

- How did diplomacy go with your neighbors?

Not as well as I would have liked. I could only get DOF with 3 civs, no one else would sign one with me. I ended up with huge piles of cash, and couldn't sign RAs with more than 3 civs. As it turns out a sub 300 win would have been pretty easy with more RAs.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?

I knew I could get the GL and other key wonders, so I built them, instead of buildings.

- Did the the patch change how you play a diplomacy game or change how you treated the AI?

Yes, even having all of the CSes allied and Globalization, I still had only just enough delegates to win. Forcing through world religion or world ideology is pretty important now.

I didn't get to Printing Press soon enough, I think. I also didn't produce enough GSes, I probably should have push through Science Funding. In the end though the biggest problem was I set up to maximize RAs, but only could get 3 civs to trade with. Cash production was insane though. I bought half of my buildings, used cash for all the CSes and still finished with 17,000 gold.

I'm also not sure if I should have taken more CSes with MoVs. I didn't use 3 of them, because I thought 4 cities was enough. But I was only maxing out science at around 575, so that might have slowed things down.

In the end, I missed getting into the Information Era before the vote by 2 turns. Ended up costing me 15 turns (I think).

Details:

0 - Moved warrior to north hill and saw all the sea resources, settling to NW
1 - Found Venice, start Pottery and Scout
6 - Start Monument (planning to take Liberty)
10 - Met Zulus (really? Do I need to plan an early war to take them out?)
11 - start Writing
12 - Sailing from ruin, start Granary
15 - War so I can get past Zulu
16 - Open Liberty
21 - Start Shrine
24 - Republic
25 - Start Archery
27 - Start GL
31 - Start Calendar
35 - Stole worker from Zulu
39 - Collective Rule (and MoV), sending it to Antwerp
41 - Pantheon, took God of the Sea, starting Optics
43 - Took Zulu settler, waiting to annex Antwerp until they develop the gems since I don't have mining yet
48 - Finished GL, starting some workboats before NC
52 - Optics, starting Mining
53 - Start NC
55 - Annex Antwerp, start Masonry
58 - Zulu are surrounded, they can't get any Settlers out
59 - Annex Zurich
60 - Start Animal Husbandry
62 - Start Drama and Poetry, Citizenship
69 - NC done, building workboats
71 - Ulundi taken (thank you Zurich archers) and Zulu is eliminated, I can breathe easier
73 - Start Theology
76 - Start Lighthouse, buy a Trireme, stopped Theology research, forgot I need Colossus, beeline to Iron working
82 - Start a Cargoship
85 - Open Patronage, switch to Colossus, back to Theology research
86 - Faith ruin
91 - Theology done, beeline Education
93 - Starting Hagia Sophia
99 - Found Cult of Bacon (Tithe and Swords to Plowshares)
107 - HS finishes, enhance religion with Divine Inspiration (I plan to have lots of Wonders) and Itinerant Preachers, Consulates, restart Cargoship
110 - start Workboat
112 - Start Borobudur
125 - Borobudor completes, starting University, Education done, beeline Printing Press
130 - Representation
131 - Start Oxford
139 - Oxford done, take Chivalry for free, start Colosseum
140 - RA with Theodora
143 - Colosseum done, starting workboat
145 - Start National Epic
152 - Building a bunch of cargoships
153 - Liberty finishes, take GS to bulb Printing Press
159 - Start Market
161 - Finish Printing Press, but can't find 2 CSes, going to delay the finish, Beeline Astronomy
162 - Hey, World Congress started, guess I did that right
163 - Start LTOP
166 - RA with Portugal
171 - Open Rationalism
172 - Astronomy complete, beeline Scientific Theory
176 - RA with Theodora
183 - LOTP finished, took GS and planting it, build harbor then add 4 cargoships to queue
184 - Golden Age
185 - RA with Morocco
187 - Secularism
197 - New RA with Maria, start Sistine Chapel
198 - Switch to Writer's Guild, need some culture
201 - Start PT
207 - RA with Theodora
210 - Start Navigation to get seaports
211 - Great Writer, used for culture boost
212 - Cultural Revolution, buy Public School
216 - Beeline to Plastics
217 - RA with Morocco
219 - PT done, back to Sistine Chapel
220 - Humanism
222 - Missed SC, should have worked on it instead of PT maybe, building a Seaport, then Cargoboats
230 - 12 cargo ships, starting East India Company
231 - RA with Maria, Free Thought, saving Great Writer for ideology
233 - Start Workshop
234 - Buy Bank
235 - Start Ironworks
238 - RA with Theodora
239 - Start Grand Temple
241 - Philanthropy
242 - Start Taj
243 - Missed Taj, start culture buildings
244 - Buy Factory
245 - Take Order to get the Factory science bonus, Hero of the People and Skyscrappers, Start Hermitage
246 - Worker's Facilities
247 - All CSes are allied now (359 gpt comes in handy)
248 - RA with Morocco, Start Eiffel Tower
255 - Scholasticism
258 - Eiffel Tower finishes, start World's Fair, use Great Writer for culture, buy Stock Exchange
261 - Cultural Diplomacy
262 - RA with Maria
264 - Plastics done (had to use a GS), turning up science (534 spt)
269 - RA with Theodora, trying to get into Atomic era and hope others keep up, going to Info era will be tough
274 - Won World's Fair, finish Patronage with free SP, GA starts, start going through 6 GSes, get into Atomic Era, and up to Electronics, start Circus Maximus, buy Museum, Hospital, Medical lab, and Broadcast Tower
294 - Got to Information era, but missed the vote by 2 turns, have to wait 23 turns for the vote
318 - Diplo win

T393 Diplo Victory. Base score:1373. Final score: 1760

I had a long post typed out, then went to hit submit, and it vanished. Oh well, suffice it to say, this was my first OCC and did okay. I would have finished sooner if I hadn't taken my time puppetting my last two CS. I had a total of three puppets, the first at T60ish and the second 2 after T300. Had the science lead from the very beginning.

Small war with the Zulu, which I was prepared for, this was about T120. Other than that, very peaceful.

Teched to Globalization and the 4 diplomat votes from that tech pushed me from 36 to 40 (I needed 37 to win). Globalization came in 2 turns before the first UN vote.

Actively pursued faith, so that I would have some options available late game to purchase Great People. Ended up purchasing 3 GS in a row to push me closer to Globalization.

This was a relaxing game. I've been working with deity and immortal maps. I had my first Immortal win the other day (Rome, Pangea, Standard). So this game was a nice change of pace.

My 3rd attempt I got it down to turn 295 with Interfaith Dialog for the tech boosts and I dipped into Piety to reduce the cost of the missionaries. I had planned to get cheaper missionaries for the enhancer as well, but someone else grabbed it first.

I think if I had gone into Patronage to the tech boost from allies early, I might have shaved off more turns.

This play thru, even though I stole a worker from the Zulu early, I didn't have any other wars and kept 3 RA partners going for most of the game. I finally managed to get Japan to DoF for a 4th partner and signed for 2 or 3 RA's with them.

Also, in this one I delayed printing press for as long as I could. Although, perhaps bee-lining all the science buildings might have been the better option.

Are you guys sending food cargo to Venice? Your cap is the science powerhouse, need to grow it huge. I went with only Antwerp and three Zulu cities, food cargo both ways to and from Venice. I think I puppeted him too early as last city was a drag on science for a long time, maybe a quicker way was to push with just cap and one puppet longer. When I was working towards schools and factories and labs I had three of four puppets with all science buildings and fourth lagging. Once I was at labs it was up and running and all my four puppets produced just over 100 bpt, peaked at 1100 but bulbed at just over 1k.

As usual missed or rather decided not to push to next era (atomic) as labs were just finished and stockpiled GS bulbs still weak. Once I started I ended up with two full GS too many, so obviously room to improve. I could have either delayed or speeded up PP. I waited 12 turns to get to vote counter once in IEra and then ten more I need to figure out the timing better.

Religion, tithe, swords, fertility, religious community and IP, no other religion got past three cities in spread.

WC: culture from wonders, WFair, WIdeology order.

I had 43 votes in the end, all CS allied and took Jakarta just for fun and to punish all the spying. I was spied on by everyone and my counter spies got to be lvl 3 fast. I stole one tech from Maria (Navigation) signed three RAs maybe more would have helped but I was appalled by low yield.

Having old consulates helped a bit but I made wrong turns with my trireme it seems at every junction, was late to meet civs and found last three CS including two culture ones close to t200 at that point I was throwing money at everyone and it didn't matter.

Will get few SS later...

A very interesting set-up.

Venice is indeed all about food - everyone of those extra trade routes gives you the equivalent of two hospitals (or a Hanging Gardens and a half) each.

Or, after workshops, a free Ironworks each.

That suggests that settling for fish resources at the cap is a trap - they take too many early hammers to get productive, and the food is easily available elsewhere. That suggested settling on the hill SE to get all those other hills in Venice's third ring once it had mad food coming in (that food could feed all the cultural specialists to get his borders popped quickly until then).

On OCC, and Venice is ultimately a OCC since its the only production you control, you want to be working the least amount of sea tiles possible. You'll need to go Freedom for all your puppeted citys' specialists, which means maxing out GP improvements, which also needs land, not sea.

Not sure if the GL isn't a trap - it used a lot of early hammers that could have been better spent getting the trade routes up and running, and I ended up working a lot of unimproved tiles waiting on the worker techs before the Library got up. An early regular library, then focus on more pressing matters might be better.

The worker steal from Zulu is critical - both to slow him down and to get your marble up. Might actually be best to delay exploring just a little to avoid diplo hit before stealing CS worker, or just beelining Optics to get worker through puppeting.

I ended up stealing one and waiting for another to pop before puppeting around turn 70 - that might have been too late.

For religion - took pearls and gems faith pantheon. Tried the CS influence boost belief, but that turned out not to do much, and missed 30% range. Growth and production boost a must I think, as Venice ended up an absolute monster.

Still only got a turn 305 win. With time as the victory measure, it seem every game comes down to rushing through the last 2/3rds of the game and you miss a lot of the interesting mechanics. Guess that's inevitable when playing the easier difficulties.

Turn 354...

ach.

Bezhukov: i disagree with your points regarding fish in this map.. with worker boat pantheon, a lighthouse and a seaport the normal fish tiles give 5 food, 3 hammers, and gold..

also why would you ever consider 30% ranged pantheon on prince with no barbs?

in my game the timing worked out perfectly in the beginning.. stole two zulu workers in one turn on my way back from scouting zurich.. got the second worker back home 2 turns before masonry while the first worker was finishing the wheat.. GL finished.. bought philosophy and built NC while teching optics then currency..

i didnt build a trireme until i had a few work boats and resisted the urge to build great lighthouse..

used my MoV and scout and warrior to explore as much as possible bumping into jerusalem with the two fish and two atolls.. waited for their pop to hit 6 and for some cash to accumulate before puppeting.. puppeted the other CS on our continent with second MoV.. also puppeted brussels hoping for that silk to get in the ring eventually which never did.. later on i also puppeted bucharest for the oil and bombed three zulu cities in three turns instant buying all science and growth buildings and sent food from cap.. i found the key to getting the puppets to work the specialist slots is to flood them with so much food.. even so, one of the stupid CSs wouldnt work the science buildings..

i tried something different than normal by going three deep into commerce for the purchasing discount which helped getting essential buildings up much faster in every city like a harbor, unis, public schools, etc.. if i played it again i'd probably pick the third commerce one after the first two in rationalism.. and i'd try push thru science in the WC vote asap as the RAs were ultimately pretty crappy so why bother playing nice nice.. also none of the CSs had any spare lux the whole game..

went 3 order.. 25% GP, discounted buying, factories..
used oxford to pop navigation for seaports..

finished turn 288..

Game: Civ5 GOTM 71
Date submitted: 2013-10-19 16:56:00
Reference number: 29910
Your name: Rathmourn
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1872AD
Turns played: 307
Base score: 1536
Final score: 2518
Time played: 2:34:00
Submitted save: TSG71_Win_Rathmourn.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Rathmourn_C507101.Civ5Save

Click to expand...

How many City States did you acquire with Venice's ability and did you take any cities through combat or peace deals?
Three total, to feed the beast that is Venice.

How did you use religion or spying to your advantage?
I was the first one with religion, that I spread pretty much world-wide and enforced by making it the world religion at the first world congress. I snagged Gods of the Sea, Tithe and a few other goodies.

How did diplomacy go with your neighbors?
It was a chill game. I was a bit pissed Shaka was right south of me, so I DoW'ed him around turn 21 and sniped two workers and a settler off of him before he started cranking out units. He asked for peace, I conceded, and then left him be for the rest of the game. I mostly just wanted to put him behind, and it worked.

How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
Man, I wonder whored my ass off. I think it might have actually added a few turns to my win because I got greedy, but every wonder I wanted, I got.

Did the the patch change how you play a diplomacy game or change how you treated the AI?
I pounded on Shaka early, then played nice with everyone else except Indonesia (who were religion s the whole game) so I can RA up with everyone.

Final Thoughts
I could've definitely had planned things out a bit better and gotten a sub 300 win, but, alas...I'll take it for my first GOTM.

I bee-lined Optics, used my free MoV to conduct a trade mission to Antwerp for 60 influence and 800 gold. With the 800 gold, I rush bought all of my work boats, and one trieme to start exploring and meeting people. The fast work boats + Goddess of the Sea helped me get my trade routes up fast, and that pretty much snowballed me into the lead, which I held for the rest of the game. I built two military units the whole game, but was BFF's with the military CS's pretty much from the beginning.

I think he means IP, 30% further spread.

I think settling on fishes is superior not a trap, you can buy workboats while plowing all hammers into wonders. I rarely worked those third ring mines as I had all specialist slots assigned. Maybe after 35 pop they started being worked.

GL is essential to early science push, I can't see anyone getting decent Edu times without it. and there are no alternative sources on beakers, AIs are too backwards for ITRs to yield anything useful.

Stealing Shaka's worker is irrelevant, unless you can capture early settler, worker comes too late. Besides you don't need to slow him down, you want him to develop well as those cities will be your puppets soon. I just built my worker since it's prince.

I played it a second time and got a turn 286 DV. I ended up taking a little Liberty and a little Tradition and doing a beeline for everything. Printing Press came at turn 155, which seems to be as early as I think it can be gotten with 3 puppets. I was able to get Telecommunications 3 turns before the turn 276 vote by finishing Liberty and taking the GS.

World Congress proposals were Culture for Wonders, World Religion, and World Ideology. After turn 125 or so I stopped building anything in Venice other than Wonders. I bought everything else, including all my Cargo Ships.

I think I'll try delaying Printing Press as long as possible on another playthru to see how it turns out.