TSG75 After Actions

Welcome to the TSG75 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.).

- What wonders did you get or miss? Were they a priority?
- How did you use religion or spying to your advantage?
- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
- Did Brazil's unique traits contribute to your game plan or victory/loss? If so, how?

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.

It took a long time to win. Siam's culture was over 9000!

I only used 2 cities so science was slow once again. I bombed him with 4 musicians to finally end it on t268.

Yes, Siam also was the last I had to convince.
I should have earlier stopped him to make friends with the city states and send my missionarys on a long journey.
I played to aggressive at the beginning to stop other religions, so at the end I had no bonus anymore for open borders.
It is a little bit weird in the civ-rules that you have to declare war to send you musician on tour...
T244.

I came sooo close to winning without Acoustics. I got it two turns before victory.

I also completed Aesthetics the turn before victory. double

I'm absolutely certain I could have done much better, but this was my first legitimate attempt at Sacred Sites ICS. The thing that really slowed me down, by at least 20-30 turns, was that I let Hiawatha close his borders before I came through, because there were a ton of barbs blocking my scouts from going through the narrow pass. As a result I didn't meet all the civs until after I tech'd Optics. Also, I should have gone with a different pantheon. +culture from jungle tiles is kinda lame.

Sacred Sites wasn't my long-term plan until I saw Mt Sinai sitting there... at which point, it became a no-brainer. ;-)

First time playing Game of the Month. Won on turn 216. Also went Sacred Sites, but only I over-estimated the amount of culture produced by AIs (don't usually play at Prince level). I thought I would at least need Hotels + Brazilwood Camps. Was obviously wrong. Finished Tradition tree first, opened Piety to get discounts on religious units/buildings even went secularism before finishing Piety. Big mistake.

Now I know that the best way to win this is by opening Piety tree. If I get a second chance to play this, I think I can end this before turn 120. The way to go is: early shrine, desert folklore, open and close piety, have one big city that can produce, rush oracle then keep making settlers, build shrines/temples when you can, pay siam and zulu to go to war, minimum workers to improve luxury resources. I think I am going to replay this for the hack of it.

Turn 152 Sacred Site victory.

YourHarry said:

First time playing Game of the Month.

Click to expand...

Knap said:

Turn 152 Sacred Site victory.

Click to expand...

Welcome to CivFanatics and GOTM.

Thank you for joining us.

150 BC (t109) and whole Asia (Arab) Africa (Zulu) and South Amreica (Brasil) is enjoying Dancehall Music.
Rest of the world killed themself in intense wars.

Lets hope the reggae spirt brings finally peace to the world.

Lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Game: Civ5 GOTM 75
Date submitted: 2013-12-20 07:20:50
Reference number: 30287
Your name: dinanipedro
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1040AD
Turns played: 164
Base score: 779
Final score: 2434
Time played: 2:32:00
Submitted save: Pedro II_0164 AD-1040.Civ5Save
Renamed file: dinanipedro_C507501.Civ5Save


fun game, found siam way too late ))

liberty / piety / pagodas / mosques / the 100 gold when religion spreads

not submitting, because I replayed a turn (no, archers, capture the city-state worker! don't shoot it!). This was my first serious try at doing piety first, and, um, I seem to have done it wrong. I got sacred sites, cathedrals and monastery, mount sinai, with 100g per converted city.

Ended up founding 7 cities, on the thought that more cities = sacred sites, buying settlers with gold from conversions, and it was going well, was sitting at 48 tourism a turn... I just had Haiwatha, Egypt and Siam left to go, all over 70%... and they started falling. And kept falling until after I had a stocked museum in every city, hotels and airports. I hadn't built national college before expanding, got behind in tech, missed the theology wonders, and, well, I'm not sure what happened, but it wasn't good.

- What wonders did you get or miss? Were they a priority?

I met Egypt early so was initially cautious with wonders. As GL is a popular AI choice I went (and got) Stonehenge which got me first religion.

Buoyed by my success getting Stonehenge it tried for the Oracle but missed by 4 turns which hurt. Hammers don't convert to a lot of gold and 30 turns of early hammers is a lot of hammers to lose in a low hammer empire.

Later in the game I managed Sistine Chapel, Louvre, Broadway and Statue of Liberty (that one only because Siam was building it and I had an engineer idle). Also built national college, circus max and hermitage along the way.

I filled most of the slots and worked the theming bonuses for all except Sistine and one museum.

Policy-wise I went full tradition, aesthetics and rationalism and about half of freedom.

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

I used religion mainly for faith points and picked faith focus beliefs. Used a GP to convert Thebes and stifle their early religion growth. We were never really friends after.

I got near the top of tech fairly quickly so spies didn't do a lot of stealing (one tech from Hiawatha). Main use was as a diplomat in Siam and rigging elections.

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?

I settled on the hill near the jungle as it gave me forest for later and farmland early. Still, growth and production were a problem early game. In hindsight I should have settled cities earlier. Instead I put one in the coast - big debate as to whether to go for Mt Sinai or not and ended up not (I had Stonehenge). Egypt forward settled on me which was a dampener.

Without decent production I ran a risky game with almost no military the whole game - 2 XB up to the modern era...

I bought open borders from everyone and was keeping a low happiness to save golden ages for when I had some tourism worth inflating and using the gold to fund wars.

Shaka had claimed most of the other continent with my backing. Arabia went down and then the world turned on him. Siam started swallowing up the continent and I couldn't do anything to turn anyone against Siam. This was the start of the slide for me - Siam started running away with it big time.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?

I've been playing immortal recently having made a step up but have been mostly winning at science so this was a very different game for me. I underestimated the barbs and lost two warriors early and had a worker kidnapped briefly - a big delay in getting tile improvements done early wasn't good.

I played science to keep near the front rather than way ahead in order to go culture and I also thought I could do it with 2 cities but didn't factor in Rio being so hard to grow early.

I also gambled by playing no military thinking I could rush buy green defensive units if needed.

- Did Brazil's unique traits contribute to your game plan or victory/loss? If so, how?

I messed up my tech path going to acoustics before machinery having not checked the fine print on when I could build camps. Big big error there... I'd have reloaded a save but in the spirit if the rules, sucked it up and soldiered on!

Diplomatically, I should have seen the Siam threat earlier which, had I scouted like I usually do, I may have done. By putting the world against Shaka instead of Siam, Siam ate enough cities to become the runaway. By the time everyone realised Siam was the threat, he had nearly 30,000 in the treasury and bought up most of the city states. Nobody was willing to DOW him and I have no military.

I'm at turn 380 something and there's 1 turn until WL vote and he's got 38/40... My fleet of 5 faith bought musicians has only got me to "familiar" after bulbing (during carnival...)

I'm too far away from stealth and xcom to quickly take Siam and Siam has 28 Uranium to my zero so war is likely to end badly if it's a protracted affair.

First time playing Brazil and I've learned a lot of lessons for Brazil but also applicable to other games.

I've given up on this lost cause!

First run at a GOTM, very fun, can't wait to try a few more. Went sacred sited with a "wear my bluejeans or die" approach. Ended T201 when Siam got knocked out leaving Indonesia, Arabia and Zulus. I was way too slow to wrap up piety, trouble getting early quests out of the culture CS's, and missing out on a few they did give.

Cromwell said:

not submitting, because I replayed a turn (no, archers, capture the city-state worker! don't shoot it!).

Click to expand...

^^I did the exact same thing shooting a worker instead of capturing it.. Tried to snag one from the CS just south of Mt Sinai and ended up with no worker and an angry CS. So that was a bit of a setback.

In hindsight, definitely should have had at least 2 offensive groups knocking out the culture hogs. Took a long time trekking through all that forest with just 1, and no one was going to get into the eastern half of the map once I cleared it anyway, so defense was a non-issue.

Humm T222 and Indonesia in so far... and can etablish a trade route to boost tourism. I'll drop.
Bad start cause I settled in the wrong place.
I went for sacred site but full piety but struggle to build settlers. It was a mistake. I feared Ramses and its Islam to miss Sacred Sites. I miss Mt Sinai, until T150.
Well done guys.

Your name: carazycool
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1898AD
Turns played: 319
Base score: 1682
Final score: 2669
Time played: 4:08:00

As you can see, it took me awhile...turn 319 culture victory. I have never been one to play civ to see how quickly I could win. I like to build up and take my time. I am interested in playing more culture games and see if I can become more efficient with culture.

I moved my first settler next to the mountain on the river. My second city was rushed down to Mt. Sinai ASAP. I then was able to get Petra in that city so it was pretty good with the fresh water desert hills. My strategy was to go wide, because I got religion and took Pagodas and Mosques and I went straight piety. My reformation belief was +2 tourism from religious buildings. I bet there is some way to use that belief to overrun civs with tourism early, if it is done right.

I usually play on Immortal and I was amazed at how feeble the AI's military attempts were. Only once was I declared war on (by Hiawatha and Wu). Neither of them mounted a serious attack on any of my cities, despite the fact that I had almost no military. I was able to build and buy composite bowmen after they declared war and go on the offensive. I took one of Hiawatha's cities and then he offered me peace and gave me another city. Shortly thereafter Wu gave me a city too. I accepted those cities but they kind of ruined the game because that bug was present (the one where the gifted city gets no yield from the city square...which makes maritime CS useless for that city). Even annexing the cities left that same bug...I thought I remembered annexing cities removes that problem..? not this time.

Anyway. Fun to play culture. I will try to get better with Pedro

Cromwell said:

not submitting, because I replayed a turn (no, archers, capture the city-state worker! don't shoot it!). This was my first serious try at doing piety first, and, um, I seem to have done it wrong. I got sacred sites, cathedrals and monastery, mount sinai, with 100g per converted city.

Ended up founding 7 cities, on the thought that more cities = sacred sites, buying settlers with gold from conversions, and it was going well, was sitting at 48 tourism a turn... I just had Haiwatha, Egypt and Siam left to go, all over 70%... and they started falling. And kept falling until after I had a stocked museum in every city, hotels and airports. I hadn't built national college before expanding, got behind in tech, missed the theology wonders, and, well, I'm not sure what happened, but it wasn't good.

Click to expand...

Haha, I'm lucky not to be the only one messing things up.
I haven't even heard/seen a "sacred site" option and I just did it like in civ5 vanilla.. Took awhile to figure out the tourism stuff etc
Well, atleast I finished. t396.

went full Piety to start, followed by Liberty to the Golden Age

was planning to play this peacefully, just doing lots of my own little cities. But I guess my military was too weak, and Egypt and China declared war on me simultaneously. So I thought, OK, I guess I'll just take their cities off them. Took just one from China, but both of Egypt's, and eliminated him. Had an army looking for something to do, so I also took all of Hiawatha's cities and eliminated him too. Wasn't really necessary though. I think I only had a couple of sacred sites in Hiawatha's cities generating tourism at the end.

re:
- What wonders did you get or miss? Were they a priority?

only Stonehenge, it wasn't really a priority, but I went for it anyway

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

religion was idols (+1 culture, +faith from gold/silver), mosques, pagodas, +100 gold, itinerant preachers

- Did Brazil's unique traits contribute to your game plan or victory/loss? If so, how?

yes, Carnival is great. got one natural Golden Age, and after finishing Peity went into Liberty to get the Golden Age in there.

Fun game, thanks HR!

Went liberty to free settler, then piety to reformation, back to liberty for GA.

Took out Egypt and Hiawatha and few Chinese cities including cap. Not really necessary but Thebes and Shanghai both got monasteries and Pagodas after annexing.

Brazil UA is huge, it allowed me to cut at least 30 turns from finish time versus a vanilla civ. I wish I built my WG faster as it was I only saved a turn by bulging my GW.

Maybe piety first would be faster.... AIs we're not really competing for land.

Built only Oracle to speed up SS acquisition, Egypt built SH for me.

Religion was Natural wonder pantheon, 100 gold, monasteries pagodas and IP.

Finally managed to get Shaka to DoW Gajah and Prague to slow him and himself down as he was allied and the friends with them. He was the culture leader for most of the game, then Siam, and the Shaka again.

T251. Looking at Sacred Sites I see how fast people won using that. Second culture game I play since BNW. Carnevals(GA) were awesome, got a 50-60 turn GA in the end, and tourism just came falling into place. All civs turned to my culture within 15 turns of eachother. Made my religion world religion, only enemies holy cities were of another religion.

Tradition -> Peity -> Rationalism -> Peity -> Exploration -> Aesthetics
Grabbed Autocracy for the extra tourism on GP birth with the two free points when I hit Modern Era.

Got my religion set up late, reformed way to late: Fertility Rites, Tithe, Devine Inspiration, Mosques, Religious Texts, To the glory of god (Sacred sites was gone by then anyway)

Your name: CyberBocal
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1230AD
Turns played: 183
Base score: 804
Final score: 2233
Time played: 8:46:00

I used the sacred sites strategy. I started Liberty to expand fast, then switched to piety to get early religion.
I built the Pyramids, then Stonehenge and the Oracle.
I took cathedrals, then monasteries, and quickly built them in all my cities. With sacred sites, 3 brazilian golden ages gave a great boost to tourism.
I had to manage a war against China, because of fast expansion, which distracted me a bit of my objectives, but managed to resist and sign peace quickly.
I think I could have been faster if I had built a couple of more cities.