TSG79 After Actions

Welcome to the TSG79 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 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 France's new 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). Please refrain from posting videos until the deadline for submission is over.

Would be interested to hear any thoughts on game setup.

Immortal CV is pathetically easy
They say deity is the new emperor but I say immortal is the new chieftain.
Two hours and two minutes.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 79
Date submitted: 2014-02-01 21:36:03
Reference number: 30563
Your name: kb27787
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1780AD
Turns played: 266
Base score: 1412
Final score: 2664
Time played: 2:02:00
Submitted save: Napoleon_0266 AD-1780.Civ5Save
Renamed file: kb27787_C507901.Civ5Save

- How did you use religion or spying to your advantage?
I think my screenshots speak for themselves.... Spying not so much (had tech lead)

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
Desert is so strong... nice to have choke points so I only had to deal with a few neighbors (just constructing landmarks for them usually does the trick)

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
Went for wonders more. Did not rush to expand because AIs do not start with free settler.

- Did France's new unique traits contribute to your game plan or victory/loss? If so, how?
Helped a bit I'm sure... the bonus is pretty straightforward; I put everything in my cap.


HG + Petra + DF + flood plains + swords to plowshares = easy growth in cap... as you can guess from my playstyle it's all about the cap the size differences between it and my satellites are ridiculous... OMG nub why no 4 cities? Tradition needs 4 cities waaaaaaaaaaahhh...
(well as much fun as 4 cities sound... I hardly did not want Cassimir to hate me, and it's not like I need an extra city)


When was the last time you were making over 100 faith without any CS allies? WELL, DF + divine inspiration + wonderwh0ring + planting prophets, including one free one from Pisa which would've cost around 1200+ faith does not happen every game


Kissed up to Poland in WC, and Russia's conversion to freedom cemented my victory; there is no longer any diplomatic/military threat from my neighbors... (Poland went Autocracy and Russia initially went Order... things got a little hairy when I was down to just two green diplomatic modifiers with her, but this revolution turned her into a best friend) did not get involved in a single war all game except to steal a worker from CS.


Victory!!! Only rush-bought airport in the cap the turn before it ended See? My satellites, despite having horrible terrain for food, grew up just fine.


Virtually all tourism from my cap... my holy holy holy holy holy city.


Dunno bout you but 80% literacy under 270 turns isn't horribad... even though it's CV but my science was pretty good this game. I hope this puts to rest the myth that you absolutely need 4 cities to keep up with AI in science.

Victory 1898 AD. The world is eating my French Fries and listening to Daft Punk.

I had an epic game and the screen shot will tell the tale. In the upper left corner you can sea a famous French under water explorer examining the wreckage of the Polish Navy.

I was attacked by number 1 Poland no less than 5 times. Four out of five, I had to face a carpet of Uhlans, one of the best units in the game. It could have been as many as 200 turns of war. Every time as soon as the treaty was over, he attacked. While some people were hiding in Paris praying for peace, I was taking the fight to Poland in the valley of blood.

My basic strategy was giant Paris, but when I made friends with Poland, forward settled him and bought tiles, it sealed my fate for how the game would play out. I almost pulled off World Religion, but polish aggression ruined it. I had about 90 FPT going and the extra great people allowed me to fill themes slots and music bomb Ethiopia when I needed it. What I originally had planned was a squadron of frigates to decapitate any culture leaders but there were none. Ethiopia was tops and he was land based so that didn't work. Also no water route to Warsaw was given.

This was a great game. Thanks for the map.

Oh, I culture flipped St Petersburg and Te-Moak. I won World's Fair by just 6 hammers. There were no Olympics.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 79
Date submitted: 2014-02-02 06:48:25
Reference number: 30568
Your name: budweiser
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1898AD
Turns played: 319
Base score: 1633
Final score: 2592
Time played: 5:36:00

Well I am giving up my attempt...trying to go OCC was just a dumb idea. Should've stuck to my usual plan. that's what I get for trying to be fancy.

budweiser said:

My basic strategy was giant Paris, but when I made friends with Poland, forward settled him and bought tiles, it sealed my fate for how the game would play out. I almost pulled off World Religion, but polish aggression ruined it.

Click to expand...

an early/aggressive expansion is worth 1000 years of trouble. (For peaceful CV, your mindset must be: turn the other cheek; if someone (as OP as Poland) takes the expansion you wanted, let him settle 4 tiles of your capitol too, and in the meantime build him a landmark)

Looks like you learned it the hard way

kb27787 said:

an early/aggressive expansion is worth 1000 years of trouble. (For peaceful CV, your mindset must be: turn the other cheek; if someone (as OP as Poland) takes the expansion you wanted, let him settle 4 tiles of your capitol too, and in the meantime build him a landmark)

Looks like you learned it the hard way

Click to expand...

Who said I wanted a peaceful game?

I wouldn't trade my game for anything. It was awesome. I'm still jacked from the tension.

budweiser said:

Who said I wanted a peaceful game?

I wouldn't trade my game for anything. It was awesome. I'm still jacked from the tension.

Click to expand...

ah, well then that's a different matter

Still... I feel that if you any more than what you did your empire was going to be

kb27787 said:

ah, well then that's a different matter

Still... I feel that if you any more than what you did your empire was going to be

Click to expand...

My plan was to do some fighting, just not the same guy over and over again all game long. I wanted to kill the culture leaders and end it around 250 but the map makers had other plans.

budweiser said:

My plan was to do some fighting, just not the same guy over and over again all game long. I wanted to kill the culture leaders and end it around 250 but the map makers had other plans.

Click to expand...

...I see (but unlike domination, you need to take them COMPLETELY out) look at the number of Ethiopian cities though...

And you just HAD to fight the guy with the great wall... but if t250 is what you're aiming for, that may very well have been possible with a completely peaceful approach so unless you have a penchant for warmongering, you could've just beelined internet as normal.

kb27787 said:

...I see (but unlike domination, you need to take them COMPLETELY out) look at the number of Ethiopian cities though...

And you just HAD to fight the guy with the great wall... but if t250 is what you're aiming for, that may very well have been possible with a completely peaceful approach so unless you have a penchant for warmongering, you could've just beelined internet as normal.

Click to expand...

I don't think you need to completely kill them, just take the cap and they wont accumulate too much more culture. Plus you get their great works. Add that to your Renaissance theme wonders plus musicians and you are done. Stop them at 3K or 4K before they get rolling.

I apparently have a lot to learn. Poland backstabbed me on t102 one turn after dof and a 240 gold for my cotton deal. He had just finished the terracotta army so he brought about twenty units on Paris. I didn't do anything to him as far as I know. I settled satellites down south and let him settle right on my doorstep without a peep.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Xparent Red Tapatalk 2

kayelbe said:

I apparently have a lot to learn. Poland backstabbed me on t102 one turn after dof and a 240 gold for my cotton deal. He had just finished the terracotta army so he brought about twenty units on Paris. I didn't do anything to him as far as I know. I settled satellites down south and let him settle right on my doorstep without a peep.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Xparent Red Tapatalk 2

Click to expand...

After this first time we fought, we made friends and he backstabbed me AGAIN! My jaw dropped. It was pikes and x-bows vs his UU. I almost broke a couple of times.

kayelbe said:

I apparently have a lot to learn. Poland backstabbed me on t102 one turn after dof and a 240 gold for my cotton deal. He had just finished the terracotta army so he brought about twenty units on Paris. I didn't do anything to him as far as I know. I settled satellites down south and let him settle right on my doorstep without a peep.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Xparent Red Tapatalk 2

Click to expand...

Did you make a DoF with one of his enemies? Did you buy a tile near him?

In my game he denounced me as well despite having DoF when I DoF'd Indonesia, which he hated. I just sat tight with 8 or so units and he never came to my borders though (it helped that I was not last on army score at that point) Once WC came around I had a chance to please him and he offered DoF again right after his denouncement expired.

About survivability, get holy warriors if you must. DF + holy warrriors = complete safety. The terrain is such that Paris is very easy to defend.

Nope. I signed a dof with Brazil and even got Poland's "I see we like the same people" message. Didn't buy any tiles. Complete shock. I only had maybe three archers and a warrior. Actually lasted three turns.



Sent from my SCH-I535 using Xparent Red Tapatalk 2

kayelbe said:

Nope. I signed a dof with Brazil and even got Poland's "I see we like the same people" message. Didn't buy any tiles. Complete shock. I only had maybe three archers and a warrior. Actually lasted three turns.



Sent from my SCH-I535 using Xparent Red Tapatalk 2

Click to expand...

hmmm sounds like he was bribed... (AIs can do that once per game to you); the culprit is the one most likely coveting your wonders or hating your guts.... but regardless, that was unfortunate (but could you hold off? did you have CB? A petra capitol produces a CB in 2-3 turns anyway)

336 for me
Poland was totally out of control, lol
He and Shaka traded Zurich back and forth like 20 times
Never DoW's me....kept him peaceful..but he did steal land with a general, and that hurt
Cathy settled on top of Lyon and kept some tiles from me in the SE
Oh well..was fun..Im just slow as usual

Game: Civ5 GOTM 79
Date submitted: 2014-02-03 00:28:01
Reference number: 30572
Your name: Mac1961
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1916AD
Turns played: 336
Base score: 1351
Final score: 2016
Time played: 3:48:00
Submitted save: Napoleon_0336 AD-1916.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Mac1961_C507901.Civ5Save

Game: Civ5 GOTM 79
Date submitted: 2014-02-06 01:18:29
Your name: Tabarnak
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1710AD
Turns played: 252
Base score: 1413
Final score: 2826
Time played: 5:50:00
Submitted save: Napoleon_0252 AD-1710.Civ5Save

Double worker blow



Game as it was after 1st session(last update)



Then i didn't go at war at all. DoF with Brazil and Ethiopia almost all the time. A little bit of Gaja too. I took a long time to think about next moves...i learned a lot from this game.

Well...i didn't need Telecoms and Internet. I went that way before airports. I should had gone airports only. In fact i didn't need these things at all. I digged almost all sites from the map. I had enough tourism generated from cities and 1750 tourism musicians that blown 3 times(1 Russia and 2 Brazil). Funny thing, i picked World Religion for ''fun''. They immediately hated me all...but open borders didn't fade before win...phew.

Bad plays : I deliberately delayed airports(the earlier and first real booster building of the game after hotels, but the lowest of all).

I deliberately delayed musicians because i thought that i need more tourism to finish. Completely forgot about the Louvre(but wasnt really necessary)

I went 3rd tenet of Freedom before getting 3rd and 4th policy from Rationalism.

I would have finished around 235 if i knew that i was much closer for a win than i thouht.



But, next time, i will go like this :

Tech order : Scientific Theory-Archeology-Radio

Aesthetics until Rationalism available. Get 4 policies from Rationalism. Finish Aesthetics. 3rd tenet from Freedom. Span musicians. Win below 210-220. I guess that airports are needed to get the slight boost. Getting them around 205-210 should be a good target. Maybe even skip Plastics too and go for airports asap.

Of course, you need more than 4 cities to achieve that because you need a lot of great works.

Thanks for kb and megafone for comments in past days so i could really understand how it works.

Turn 379 science defeat at the hands of Brazil...

I got forward settled by Poland and we must have had four or five wars and had him plotting for most of the game. He stole some land with a GG which I subsequently stole back later on. Fortunately Indonesia kept him occupied for a fair bit of the game. Russia forward settled me as well and plotted a few times but fortunately Brazil was on the warpath for most of the game. At one point Brazil was at war with Shaka, Indonesia, Shoshone and Russia at the same time but still managed to take cities and kept the party going. Never seen a Brazil like it - normally Shaka would have eaten them for lunch.

I went all out for Petra at the beginning at the expense of an early National College and relied on trade routes bringing me enough science so never got above 3rd. Nearly lost a Great Scientist in a war so bulbed it early. Bulbed a couple more along the way to get to key culture infrastructure. Managed to get SC, Uffizzi and Louvre but missed Broadway. Not enough great works around to swap to get Louvre theming but got the others up. Brazil was killing it in terms of tourism and culture and was on a major warpath. They took out Shaka and, late game, started tearing apart Poland.

I had religion which was more a hinderance than a help as I must have spawned 5 or 6 prophets. I then made a fat finger purchase of an artist instead of a musician late game but even if I'd got that right, I was still too far behind (I hadn't got to airports). I also thought I could get to Warsaw with a navy so built a privateer and a few frigates for that purpose. The idea was to take the forward-settled city first and sail around to Warsaw. Imagine my surprise...

Frustrating, error-ridden game so certainly made a lot of mistakes from which to learn! Key things for me:
- Should have treated Petra as a bonus and stayed the science course
- Should have built more units earlier and taken Poland before he got his cities to a decent size rather than rely on terrain for defence
- Should have scouted the naval route better
- Should have used my scientist bulbing better
- Should have turned people against Brazil earlier.

Oh well. Bring on GOTM 80!

Tabarnak said:

Game: Civ5 GOTM 79
Date submitted: 2014-02-06 01:18:29
Your name: Tabarnak
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1710AD
Turns played: 252
Base score: 1413
Final score: 2826
Time played: 5:50:00
Submitted save: Napoleon_0252 AD-1710.Civ5Save


Thanks for kb and megafone for comments in past days so i could really understand how it works.

Click to expand...

You're welcome
as expected from a master; it never occurred to me to start the music machine before internet was up. (and I would never dream of trying a CV with a mere 40 or so fpt because I usually rush-buy my musicians) but you obviously calculated everything just right.

Although if you really went that wide (even by conquering) proposing IG and winning it (IG is VERY hard to win with few cities and the AIs all love it... usually the superwide warmonger to whom the tourism bonus is almost worthless ends up winning) , along with popping musicians during that window, would probably finish the game right there... I suspect in the hands of a master it can be done sub-200 even, esp because this is immortal not deity.

RaidandTrade said:

I had religion which was more a hinderance than a help as I must have spawned 5 or 6 prophets.

Click to expand...

Could've just planted them if you didn't want the diplo hit....