TSG84 After Actions

Welcome to the TSG84 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.).

- 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 Egypt's unique traits factor into your Domination game plan? 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.

Apologies for the delay on these threads. I had been called into work surprisingly and just got back. I hope it hasnt impacted too many of you so far.

Apologies
HR

That was very painful. Not my idea of fun. I won on turn 157.

First I built war chariots, then I built Zeus, then I built the Great Wall for denial. All the while I built more war chariots.


Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 940AD
Turns played: 157
Base score: 1010
Final score: 3258
Time played: 2:42:00

I didn't get Optics until after America and the Huns were down. I was looking to loop around behind them to get Carthage and Venice. Didn't see Zulu to pretty late, they had already taken China. I stayed at war with Carthage for a long while. Eventually she offered peace and a city right next to Carthage. I took the deal so I could stage troops on the border. The Zulu offered a similar deal to allow access to China's old cap.

I did open Tradition, left side Honor to Monarchy.

Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1540AD
Turns played: 218
Base score: 1375
Final score: 3197

Here are the new details we have recorded.
Game: Civ5 GOTM 84
Date submitted: 2014-04-15 13:27:44
Reference number: 30956
Your name: Monthar
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1560AD
Turns played: 222
Base score: 2235
Final score: 5079
Time played: 4:38:00
Submitted save: TSG84_Domination_Win.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Monthar_C508401.Civ5Save

Click to expand...

Yes, I was a bit slow. My mistakes were bypassing Carthage to go after Venice and not building another army to go after Carthage, especially since I also sent too many units towards Venice. Bypassing China to go after the Zulu and getting bogged down trying to reach their capital. Plus I got into building wonders again.

I think if I replay this I'll beeline to wheel and horseback riding and send out armies of chariots and horsemen. After all the chariots are only 1 strength and 1 range strength less than composite bowmen.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 84
Date submitted: 2014-04-15 23:40:30
Reference number: 30964
Your name: Acken
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 50BC
Turns played: 113
Base score: 444
Final score: 2018
Time played: 1:32:00
Submitted save: TSG84_Win.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Acken_C508401.Civ5Save

Click to expand...

113 turns. Only charriots and scouts all game long.
On warlord it was pretty straightforward. The map is annoying but the AI is so slow to tech that by turn 110 its capital are still strength 13-15.
Charriots also help somewhat to speed movements, 3 scouts were necessary to find people and come with a reasonable plan on where to go, they were also what I used as a melee units to capture capital.

I went Washington first with my 2 initial archers and 2 chariots (had a quick wheel due to discovering AH in a ruin), got him turn 46ish. At that point I had meet everyone but China. I decided to go to Zulus first because they were the only one I know on a hill so I wanted to eliminate them first, I also were wondering if China was hidden behind.
I waited for optics to kill zulus (I beelined optics after wheel) and it went fine got him turn 67. I also annexed washington to rush buy charriots when possible (tributes).

After that I split my forces, the zulus army go to Oda by sea somewhat gambling that I can go to the last unknown player by traveling east of Oda, meanwhile I have money to rush buy enough troops (+what I produced) to have 4 chariots + general go to Dido, 5chariots to Attila. Attila fall T90, Carthage T93, Tokyo T96. My army at carthage can go north through water to attack venice with what is left of Attila army, Oda army goes to Beijing that I had finally explored a dozen turn after Zulus.

Both fall easy T108 and T113.

I went tradition but I don't know, liberty seems fine too but would require to build a monument.

Key tech of the game is definetely optics thanks to the suggestion in the announcement thread



- Did you use religion or spying to your advantage?
No, took god king after getting my pantheon in a ruin
- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
Hinder obviously
- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
Easy difficulty = no tech require for domination
- Did Egypt's unique traits factor into your Domination game plan? If so, how?
No, wonders are useless for domination on warlord. Obviously chariots were good though.

Hammer Rabbi said:

- 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 Egypt's unique traits factor into your Domination game plan? If so, how?

Click to expand...

Game: Civ5 GOTM 84
Date submitted: 2014-04-16 11:15:07
Reference number: 30971
Your name: hurtin
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1390AD
Turns played: 199
Base score: 1615
Final score: 4141
Time played: 4:44:00
Submitted save: 84HurtinGOTMEnd.Civ5Save
Renamed file: hurtin_C508401.Civ5Save

Religion I used a bit, for extra culture, production and gold. I never needed the happiness, from pagodas.

Since it was a highlands map, my main objective was to build as many roads as quickly as possible to facilitate the movement of troops, so I went liberty for the 25% worker boost and build the pyramids. Despite this it was common for my troops to out run my workers and having to cross lakes defeated the purpose. Overall though they did help with moving my armies from the rear when I created a second army.

I created about 3 scouts to start, and it still took a while to find anyone. I pre created some settlers for the purpose of having a forward base, for upgrading and healing troops closer to the front, this worked well as after taking Washington I settled north toward Attila, while my main army was attacking Shaka, workers were pre-creating a road north to attack the Huns and Japan. Once I had two armies, there was not much point in building more troops, since the limiting factor was moving troops not in firepower.

The map certainly made things more challenging, if I were playing again I would get optics earlier as I frequently got stuck between mountains and lakes.

The difficulty made me more expansionist and aggressive, went liberty, never worried about happiness, never cared about my warmonger score. Only problem was the AI never had any money for trade, so nearly all of my extra resources were useless. Taking Tithe helped with $$ and caravans with city states.

I used the wonder building trait a bit, since I really ran out of things to build. I didn't need troops or buildings, so I build a bunch of wonders.

I kind of dig this map type, but it was very late before I found all the AIs Venice was last and a pain to get to.

Turns played: 155

I tried first to settle near to my opponents, because they settle very slow on warlord,
so I got close bases near Japan, Karthago and America and could buy some extra units there.
Played a mix of allied CS and despot, plundered a lot of money there.
Allowed me the extravagance to build GL (for Swordsmen because of all the iron) and the Colossus (extra money...) and exstablished a lake-trade route to the survivors of Karthago (extra money...). Also had a long lasting friendship with Venice to sell lux.
Founded a religion (started with culture and faith for gold and silver) wanted to have some Happiness-backup to avoid combat-malus.
The city I wanted to build near Cerro de Potosie to get extra money never really worked that well. Some of my plans were not optimzed for a short game ...
Tried to wipe out the last three Capitals nearly the same time, also to not get to much malus.
The wars in China and at the Zulus were a little bit tricky, complex unit-positioning...
It seems that the "straight" way could be more effective... but no great nations without decadence
But perhaps I only should have scouted the way to Zulu a little bit earlier instead of "knowing" that I could easily move in together my armies there...

Game: Civ5 GOTM 84
Date submitted: 2014-04-18 20:40:10
Reference number: 30983
Your name: Dunkhan
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1420AD
Turns played: 202
Base score: 1546
Final score: 3865
Time played: 3:24:00
Submitted save: TSGFinishedRamesses II.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Dunkhan_C508401.Civ5Save

- Did you use religion or spying to your advantage?
I think my religion spread to every city. I took religious idols and faith from wonders to generate faith and itinerant preachers to help spread. I took the 100 gold each time the religion spread and used it to buy units and also chose use faith to buy units. This approach made building an army quickly fairly easy.

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
Hinder at least in terms of time. Although I imagine it probably hurts the AI worse than the human player so it could lead to a victory at a higher level then one could normally achieve one. I had a look at some trial highlands maps prior to attempting this and none of them had such irritating mountain ranges or anywhere near as much water. I assume this was a high sea level map. Apart from the really slow movement the pathfinding on a map like this is really frustrating as your units go backwards and forwards as their paths get blocked and unblocked

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
Frankly I underestimated quite how weak the enemy would be. I needn't have built anywhere near as many units and was far too cautious. Even at the end of the game 2 units were capable of taking all but one of the cities in 3 turns. Taking the Zulu capital was a tougher task due to its awkward position and their unit building tendency.

- Did Egypt's unique traits factor into your Domination game plan? If so, how?
It helped me to get early game wonders which worked as part of the religion although on warlord it would have been easy to get them anyway. Built the great wall to prevent others from taking it.


Other information: I experimented with a 4 or 5 scout opening to try to explore the map but the larger than expected amount of water tiles made scouting much more difficult than I had anticipated. I was given cities in peace settlements without having to do anything after some turns of war and upon annexing them I could then build units closer to the enemy cities. I think this tactic could be used to have a very early win.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 84
Date submitted: 2014-04-19 22:38:03
Reference number: 30995
Your name: tarafran
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1060AD
Turns played: 166
Base score: 1050
Final score: 3181
Time played: 8:33:00
Submitted save: Ramesses II_0166 AD-1060.Civ5Save
Renamed file: tarafran_C508401.Civ5Save
I opened with a scout ,grannery and then archer non stop till I got to chariot archer
I opened and finished the honor tree and fought with everything on my way
A lot of fun
I was runn9ng in negative cash flow the all game but was making gold and culture by killing a ton of barbarians
Could of win one turn earlier but I did not want the Zulu to retake their capital, did not know of the exact mechanics of the victory

Game: Civ5 GOTM 84
Date submitted: 2014-04-19 22:43:07
Reference number: 30996
Your name: Fluphen Azine
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1220AD
Turns played: 182
Base score: 1275
Final score: 3541
Time played: 2:32:00
Submitted save: Ramesses II_0182 AD-1220.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Fluphen_Azine_C508401.Civ5Save


I like that post of 113 turns, I need to learn to be a bit more quicker about taking the caps myself being it took me about 70 turns longer. I never went optics although I can see how that is a big help. I just wheeled around the map with 3 seperate armies. I took washington first and Japan next as I worked on Zulu at same time. After that I took out Atillas Court and next I took China and Venice about the same time as I marched an army through the narrows over to Carthage and game over. I used a mix of units (Chariot Archers, Pikes, Cats, Knights, Comp Bows and even 1 Cross bow at the end. I never built a trade route or a road, it was pretty much happy and gold buildings, units for war, and some wonders that were not neccessary.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 84
Date submitted: 2014-04-20 01:37:19
Reference number: 30997
Your name: golem
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1240AD
Turns played: 184
Base score: 1490

I did four cities and then went for Washington - skip Chariots, went fot CBs later XBs. AIs were so pathetic, no money no army - the only problem were the labyrinth of mountains and distance - and barbs everywhere.
Religion helped me a lot. Initial rates gave me a lot of cash. Libertz and honor helped too, my empire was always happy.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 84
Date submitted: 2014-04-20 04:43:22
Reference number: 30998
Your name: waveofdoom
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1420AD
Turns played: 202
Base score: 1477
Final score: 3692
Time played: 5:51:00
Submitted save: TSG84_waveofdoom.Civ5Save
Renamed file: waveofdoom_C508401.Civ5Save

Two observations:
1) I pushed to kill. Not a domination type player, but I was hoping for sub 200. Damn it, 202, the Impi's really slowed down my Knights.
2) I will be happy to never, ever play that map again.

The end.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 84
Date submitted: 2014-04-20 21:30:19
Reference number: 31001
Your name: strake
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1410AD
Turns played: 201
Base score: 1805
Final score: 4512
Time played: 9:55:00

- Did you use religion or spying to your advantage?
I used religion a lot. I eventually had a pagoda and mosque in every town, and never had happiness problems after turn 100.
- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
The map was fascinating. I kinda liked it. it made a warlord game much trickier and interesting.
- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
Never worried about tech, or being able to get wonders
- Did Egypt's unique traits factor into your Domination game plan? If so, how?
the chariot was part of my initial plan - Once I realized how much of a slog it was, and how long it took me to find everyone, I took full advantage of wonder building.

Much much much slower than I hoped for initially. And I was very disheartened around turn 100. But then I settled in and really just amused myself with a form of empire building I don't usually do. I had roads from my capital to every corner of the map - had tons of little cities to keep the barbarians away from my roads, and claim as many gold and silver mines as possible. Built a ton of wonders, and annexed a lot of the cities I took, in order to keep buying religious buildings, and build culture and gold buildings.

Went Liberty with a few in Honor, and a bunch in Commerce. Was making money faster than I could spend it by the end. Had 3 large armies all with worker crews roading paths through the hills. 1 each for Venice, China, and Japan last which all fell in the last 10 turns.

All in all kind of a neat and fun gotm. At least once I got over my frustration in the mid game when I realized I still couldn't figure out how to get to everyone's capital.

Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1635AD
Turns played: 237
Base score: 1520
Final score: 3234
Time played: 3:59:00

Slowest so far in the thread and deservedly so. My warmongering was sound, except for my tactics (two corps, both not strong enough), logistics (didn't think to build roads or use the lakes until far too late) and economy (crashed it and only recovered due to the finisher on honor).

Kill order: America, Huns (to build a backbone road), Zulus (just because), Japan (great wall), China (next up), Venice (built a road there) and Carthage (attacked from NE).

Still, good practice and I'm not too far behind some of you players. I'd be in tears if that was a higher difficulty!

Shaka slowed me down and I needed to reform with CBs and Horses rather than archers and chariots.

Civ5 GOTM 84
Date submitted: 2014-04-23 17:59:18
Reference number: 31012
Your name: Knap
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 920AD
Turns played: 156
Base score: 642
Final score: 2070
Time played: 6:55:00
Submitted save: KnapGTM84Ramesses II0156 AD-0920.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Knap_C508401.Civ5Save

Game: Civ5 GOTM 84
Date submitted: 2014-04-23 18:17:25
Reference number: 31013
Your name: Kaiser Wilhelm
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1854AD
Turns played: 298
Base score: 3135
Final score: 5313
Time played: 3:37:00
Submitted save: Ramesses II_0298 AD-1856.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Kaiser_Wilhelm_C508401.Civ5Save

Game: Civ5 GOTM 84
Date submitted: 2014-04-24 18:18:20
Reference number: 31015
Your name: raidandtrade
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1800AD
Turns played: 270
Base score: 1824
Final score: 3377
Time played: 6:41:00
Submitted save: Ramesses II_0270 AD-1800.Civ5Save
Renamed file: raidandtrade_C508401.Civ5Save

Did you use religion or spying to your advantage?

Religion wasn't a priority but it helped with some money (tithe) and happiness (pagodas).

Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?

Getting to Carthage, Venice and Beijing was a pain. I probably could have done Carthage quicker if I'd scouted the lakeside path better but took it and Venice fairly quickly once I got a roll on.

How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?

Threw caution to the wind every so often in wars but otherwise not really.

Did Egypt's unique traits factor into your Domination game plan? If so, how?

No.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 84
Date submitted: 2014-04-26 16:01:39
Reference number: 31030
Your name: 4N4C0ND4
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 980AD
Turns played: 159
Base score: 1193
Final score: 3848
Time played: 3:27:00
Submitted save: Ramesses II_0159 AD-0980.Civ5Save
Renamed file: 4N4C0ND4_C508401.Civ5Save

Click to expand...

Did you use religion or spying to your advantage?

Spying, lol
I completly neglected religion, took holy warriors just to see how much units actually cost (they do cost quite low, I was pleasely surprised)

Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?

This map was so painfull to play through.
So.
Many.
Hills.
I would have loved to be Inca here of course!

How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?

Threw caution to the wind every so often in wars but otherwise not really.

Did Egypt's unique traits factor into your Domination game plan? If so, how?

By a large margain actually: the chariot archer, while not being able to use at full capacity, still allowed me to get a few more turns off when flat was available. The UA sucked though, well I just used it for the Statue of Zeus, maybe a very underated wonder in this scenario. Can make or brake a key capital fall.

I was really happy about my game: everything went as expected, split my army in 4.
The only problems were:
1. the landmass on the west.... got stucked with 5 army here :/
2. the zulu: I had to take their cap with chariot when they had impi: things got bloody there but I managed with a city and pique bought spam.
3. America annoyed me and I should have wiped them when I first took their cap. Because after that I had to take their 2 others city in order to be able to march on the Zulus.

They KEY thing in this game was, imo, to know the trick that a 0 hp city can be taken byt any melee unit: so bringing 1 or 2 scouts with chariot was the best thing to do here by far.

I think I couldn't really do better than that game.

Very interesting challenge btw, tx to the GOTM staff. Really funny to see that fighting against geography can be as hard as beating some hard AI

Game: Civ5 GOTM 84
Date submitted: 2014-04-27 19:52:58
Reference number: 31036
Your name: hambridger
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 150BC
Turns played: 109
Base score: 502
Final score: 2390
Time played: 2:18:00
Submitted save: tsgRamesses II_0109 BC-0150final.Civ5Save
Renamed file: hambridger_C508401.Civ5Save

1st army went Washington then Shaka. Got Optics about the same time as Shaka fell. Then that army went north to Japan, and then East to China.
2nd army went towards Dido, realized I needed optics and went back to the capital to wait. Then went Dido, Venice, Huns. Took Attila's court and Beijing on the same turn to end it.
Build order was 4 scouts, granary, worker, mass chariot archers, and then a few horsemen after I took Washington and its 4 horses. Took Washington with initial warrior and then the rest of the capitals with horsemen. All captured cities were annexed and set to build even more chariot archers.
Optics and good scouting seemed to be the key to fast movement. Also, horsemen are a bit faster and safer than scouts.