TSG110 After Actions

Welcome to the TSG110 After Actions Report. 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.).

- Describe any significant military benchmarks: Techs, Policies, etc that shaped your Domination strategies.
- Did you use Comanche Riders? If so, how?
- Describe any terrain challenges to shape your strategy.
- In hindsight how would you have played it differently (if at all) for a faster finish?

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.

Your name: vadalaz
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 275AD
Turns played: 126
Base score: 497
Final score: 1988

@GOTM staff: thanks for the funny map. Certainly didn't expect a Pangaea like that.

Putting Shaka at the end of the warpath was a good idea too - he actually had an Impi. He was too busy killing Ashur though and didn't have much of an army after that, so that worked well for me.

Actually I wonder if I could've just traded for Assur in a peace deal after capturing Ulundi... would've saved like 10 turns if that worked, as I had to raze another Zulu city to actually get to Assur.
Edit: I was curious about this so I loaded a save and tried to get Assur in a peace deal. It didn't work, Shaka was willing to give up 3 cities at once but not Assur, not even for 10 luxuries, 600 gold and another city. Kind of a relief to see the AI isn't THAT dumb.

t139 Domination

Unfortunately, I knew from about turn 20 that this game wouldn't go like I wanted it to. Still, it was slightly better than the last Prince domination GotM game that I played.

I wonder if Optics is a shortcut to Ashurbanipal and Shaka?

Some screens:

Pretty funny map. Reminds me a bit of an old-school RPG dungeon, ticking off foes one-by-one until the end boss.

Anyway, I won on turn 154, which is solid but well behind the leaders. Vadalaz/Olodune: Did you guys get 3 Pathfinder/CompBows? I can see how that would've shaved off a ton of turns. Didn't take a lot of units to win, and movement rate was the main constraint. Three fast-moving CompBows plus a Pathfinder would probably be enough to sweep the entire map, to be honest.

At one point very early, I declined a third ruin upgrade in favor of a pantheon (gotta have my God-King), thinking I needed a city-capture unit imminently for Rome and that I could find another ruin later. As it turned out, I had to wait a bit to take Rome, and having that third CompBow would've made a huge difference. While waiting I did in fact find another ruin, but this time a unit upgrade wasn't an option! Felt like a bit of a rip-off... That alone probably cost me 15+ turns.

Manpanzee said:

Vadalaz/Olodune: Did you guys get 3 Pathfinder/CompBows? I can see how that would've shaved off a ton of turns.

Click to expand...

Only two for me. I thought about saving a ruin close to the start but chose to get culture for the Honor opener instead. I think the biggest mistakes for me were:

1) Committing too much North - but it felt like there should be an AI that way;

2) Kill Monty/Pacal before Bismarck. I had too may units in the main army - the stragglers should have been assigned to the Aztecs and the Mayans. That would save at least 10 turns, I think.

It did feel like a dungeon crawl though No need for a civilization here.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 110
Date submitted: 2015-05-17 00:49:34
Reference number: 32747
Your name: Acken
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 175AD
Turns played: 122
Base score: 494
Final score: 2058
Time played: 1:16:00
Submitted save: TSG110_Win.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Acken_C511001.Civ5Save

Click to expand...

Nobody had an army but Montezuma (2 composites). Rolled over the last three with range + logistics.

Got 3 free CB but played too quickly and lost 1 + the general around the middle and was too lazy to have had a second one following so I finished without generals and 2CBs... Went Honor and started killing around T35 after getting 3 CB. Got 2 ruins around Rome with my first guy and then made sure every 3 ruins would go to a PF.

My second army of chariots went for montezuma and Pacal. 1st army was 3CB + Pathfinder Added 2 chariots and a horseman later, second army was 4Chariots + Pathfinder. Built SoZ.
Annexing size 1 cities to rush buy chariots would have accelerated my game, thought about it way too late.

Perfect game can probably get around T100-110 (3CB, Annexing + Rush buy).

I had 2 CB upgrades and went North first as well. My original plan was to get 2 quick armies with 1 CB, 2 Chariots and a Pathfinder in each. So I teched Mining first and sold Copper to Rome and Japan, bullied CSs and took gold ruins to amass Chariots quickly. But then it became clear that there's only one direction to move in, so just beelining The Wheel and rushing Rome with 2 CBs and a Pathfinder asap would've been better.

I finally split my army after killing Japan, first one took care of Monty and Pacal while the other one was sent to Celts, Bismarck and others. I did annex the capitals and starve them to size 1, rush-bought chariots for war and one archer to protect the luxuries.

Policy-wise, Honor into Liberty into Honor... just picked whatever felt useful at the time. Used the Great Generals to get Dyes in the capital as they would never catch up to the units.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 110
Date submitted: 2015-05-19 22:17:45
Reference number: 32758
Your name: Mandaliet
Game status: Time Wrong VC
Game date: 2050AD
Turns played: 500
Base score: 2144
Final score: 2144
Time played: 5:59:00

Click to expand...

Well then. As you can see, I'm rrreeeaaalllyyy bad at war. I kept going after my victory/defeat and it took me a total of 577 turns to get every capital. I hang my head in shame.

- Describe any significant military benchmarks: Techs, Policies, etc that shaped your Domination strategies.
I was pretty much useless until I had some frigates, but once I did I was able to swipe up some coastal cities quickly. Too bad not all the capitals were on the coast.

- Did you use Comanche Riders? If so, how?
They were helpful with pillaging the Japanese countryside.

- Describe any terrain challenges to shape your strategy.
Thanks to the hills and mountains, it was hard to reach anyone for a while until, as I said, I got some ocean-ready vessels. Maybe if I had realized it was a pangaea map I would have sent more "scouts" around, but it took a while even to conquer Rome because, as I said, I'm bad at war.

- In hindsight how would you have played it differently (if at all) for a faster finish?
Lately my games have been all about maximizing research at the beginning, but I figured for this one I would need to focus on military instead. I think I was wrong about that because I ended up being behind everyone else (or at least in their midst, which might as well be behind at Prince difficulty) and my units weren't much good at beating their units.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 110
Date submitted: 2015-05-20 14:28:35
Reference number: 32759
Your name: Monthar
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1585AD
Turns played: 227
Base score: 1782
Final score: 3960
Time played: 5:18:00
Submitted save: TSG110_Domination_Victory.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Monthar_C511001.Civ5Save

I was doing so well with a 4 city Liberty game, then I got into buildings and wonders and blowing cash on CS's. Maybe I'll at least be at or near the top on score.

T278 Domination victory.

Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1816AD
Turns played: 278
Base score: 2064
Final score: 3752
Time played: 4:30:00

First time I've been able to complete a domination GOTM (usually don't have the patience to take all the cities, and I usually crash my economy or happiness or get dogpiled if I try). Am happy with that. Usually play with 6 civs and am peaceful.

How you get sub-160s on such a map I don't know. Japan had the Great Wall, so was a pain to crack.

- Describe any significant military benchmarks: Techs, Policies, etc that shaped your Domination strategies.

Getting Composite bows then crossbows where enough to take out one civ at a time. Went Honor to keep the cash and happiness going. I planned to exploit Autocracy, but wasn't really needed.

- Did you use Comanche Riders? If so, how?

Good fast melee to deliver the coup de grace to crossbowed cities.

- Describe any terrain challenges to shape your strategy.

It stopped me fighting a war on multiple fronts (usually how I fail these). Japan was a bottleneck.

- In hindsight how would you have played it differently (if at all) for a faster finish?

I was paranoid about not crashing the economy, so I had a huge stockpile. Using the honor finisher to run my economy should have helped. Also, I should have farmed the barbarians better, rather than play whack a mole...

Your name: CatGarfield
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1810AD
Turns played: 275
Base score: 2413
Final score: 4387

I'm a builder, so domination, especially fast, is not suited for me. My strategy was to get as strong as possible and conquer when I felt comfortable with it.

- Describe any significant military benchmarks: Techs, Policies, etc that shaped your Domination strategies.

-I went full tradition, didn't scout enough early (barbarians had something to do with that) so I didn't know which way to go after taking Rome. I had crossbowmen when I attacked arabia (2nd war). I was beelining towards education, decided to take one tech from the bottom of the tree and forgot all about not having education for about 20 or so turns while teching towards machinery. In the end I was barely in modern era, policies were full tradition, full honor, 4 in economics, 3 in rationalism and one in patronage. I bulbed some great writers just before taking the Aztec capital. I had to finish the Worlds Fair almost all by myself, I invested some 3100+ hammers to it, no-one else got anything out of it.

- Did you use Comanche Riders? If so, how?

-Only in the end game and the last war against the Aztecs. I had bypassed them because they joined the war against the Celts and the Mayas, and we had a DoF and one RA. Plus I got some much needed money from Montezuma through trade.

- Describe any terrain challenges to shape your strategy.

-Kiev was placed so that contact with other civs was very late. Early on I saw that Kiev was coastal, so I thought the land route towards the other civs was somewhere else.


- In hindsight how would you have played it differently (if at all) for a faster finish?

-I should have scouted a lot more, should have got more CBs earlier and attacked Arabia and Japan earlier. I took everyone except Shaka and Monty (gatlings) with crossbows, plus Rome with CBs. I should have realized that on prince level 2 ruin-promoted CBs plus a couple of archers with one melee unit would have been enough to take out Rome, Arabia and Japan.

But as I wrote earlier, I'm a builder, not a conqueror. That affects my decision making so much that fast finish time in domination is not possible with my style.

Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1555AD
Turns played: 221
Base score: 1501
Final score: 3411

Not bad but lost my way a bit around the turn 100 mark, largely because I hadn't discovered all the civs so was unsure if/how to split my army. Also struggled to kill Shaka at the end as they had Impis by that point and the Great Wall, had to accept peace to heal and upgrade.

- Describe any significant military benchmarks: Techs, Policies, etc that shaped your Domination strategies.

Opened with Honour to both deal with the barbs and get some early culture going.
Built three Pathfinders and managed to get CB upgrades on each which meant could attack Rome early.

- Did you use Comanche Riders? If so, how?

Didn't get that far.

- Describe any terrain challenges to shape your strategy.

Terrain was a bit of a mare, lots of forest and hills, especially combined with the truly bizarre Pangea map! Good work on that

- In hindsight how would you have played it differently (if at all) for a faster finish?

Perhaps more exploring as well as early wars, it took me way to long to realise how wierd the map was, didn't meet the last civ (Assyria) until I was given their capital in a peace deal!

Re-suppling units was also very tricky as it was taking 15-20 turns for them to reach the front lines. Should have annexed another good production capital and left my core cities working on science/culture maybe. Did build the Great Lighthouse mistakenly thinking that was going to give my embarked units an extra move - duh.

- stride

Yet another game I just sit back and shake my head.

How do you guys even get across the map by turn 120, let alone WIN?

I have replayed this game about 4 times. I haven't built anything but military units, and I STILL can't defeat Japan before T120. And, I was like -50gpt from about T60 on.

I'm not gonna make friends with this statement, but...

These are supposed to be "teaching moments"....how's about letting us know just HOW you manage these fast wins? My GOTM experiences, since about #75 have been: play about 120 turns and if I haven't won, check the After Action reports and see just how bad I'm doing. For the GOTMs that have a turn by turn summary, I have tried to copy them. Allowing for differences between games, even then I stray from the pattern after about T60 each time...and end up WAY behind the curve.


So, masters of all things CIV5, what was your build order, SP order, and tech order?

kayelbe said:

Yet another game I just sit back and shake my head.

How do you guys even get across the map by turn 120, let alone WIN?

I have replayed this game about 4 times. I haven't built anything but military units, and I STILL can't defeat Japan before T120. And, I was like -50gpt from about T60 on.

I'm not gonna make friends with this statement, but...

These are supposed to be "teaching moments"....how's about letting us know just HOW you manage these fast wins? My GOTM experiences, since about #75 have been: play about 120 turns and if I haven't won, check the After Action reports and see just how bad I'm doing. For the GOTMs that have a turn by turn summary, I have tried to copy them. Allowing for differences between games, even then I stray from the pattern after about T60 each time...and end up WAY behind the curve.


So, masters of all things CIV5, what was your build order, SP order, and tech order?

Click to expand...

To be honest, and no offense to Gotm organizers, but this isn't really the kind of map you'll learn much. The only thing to do is to make Pathfinders and upgrade them to composite bows with ruins. Add a normal pathfinder and go conquer with that.

That's it. This is a one trick poney (due to the civilization on this difficulty).

So just go:

PF, PF, Monument, PF. Make a prayer for enough ruins so that you can get 2 or 3 CBs and then conquer with this without ever stoping. You can get the upgrade ruin every 3 ruins so get something like: Upgrade, Culture, Pop, Upgrade etc and make sure PF are grabing the 3rd, not CBs.

Meanwhile add a monument and worker. Hook luxuries and horses and build chariots to complement the army. As you go, annex capitals, starve them and buy more chariots. Due to the linear path of the map your capital will be too far to provide units at some point so just make happiness buildings and gold/Statue of Zeus. May add a spear or 2 too.

Divide your armies at some point.
Building anything else is probably superfluous.

Othe than that you oughta know also how to war efficiently. Try to use slightly damaged melee units as a damage sponge. Use workers as bait to remove a painful garrison etc.

Yeah, maybe this game ain't for me. I just replayed AGAIN since I last posted.

I'm at T91. My build order was PF, PF, PF,MON,Worker,Archer(barbs close and worker can't improve if he's in a barb camp), chariot, chariot

I opened Honor, Opened Tradition, went back to Honor

I upgraded three PFs, and with the remaining PF, took Rome around T40. Went straight for Arabia....and after losing the 3rd CB, I quit. Did I mention it was T91? I just can't see how you guys finished the WHOLE map, in another 30 turns, when it was going to take me that many just to take Mecca.

I've read all the warmongering tutorials, but I'm just not getting it.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 110
Date submitted: 2015-05-23 08:27:05
Reference number: 32770
Your name: groin_apologist
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 2004AD
Turns played: 424
Base score: 3815
Final score: 4541
Time played: 11:12:00
Submitted save: GrA_GOTM_110.Civ5Save
Renamed file: groin_apologist_C511001.Civ5Save

After dispatching Rome and Arabia, there wasn't much exciting to do and I was left with the long process of mopping up. And 2004 is a LONG game. At some level I realize that I could achieve world conquest faster if I was more aggressive. That is, attack earlier. Its just that I have this compulsion to build an 'invincible' army (e.g. build the National Epic, then of course the iron works is so close.... then get to a reasonable upgrade level for my units, etc). I suppose I could have also done a two-pronged attack and started a second front with the Zulus / Assyria, though amphibious does take some additional planning and a bit of a different research branch.

I'm with the above poster who said that these games can get a bit tedious by mid-game. At this difficulty, the outcome was never in doubt, it just took a long time to get there. I really enjoy the beginning of the games so much more than the endgames. You know what I would like? A mod that would let you hit a button and have the A.I. 'finish' the game for you.... it would be up to you to get to a point where you left yourself at a significant advantage such that you felt reasonably comfortable 'delegating' the rest of the game to the A.I. You could then just see what your final score would be without having to slog through the endgame. I'm not a modder myself, so is this even possible?

Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1896AD
Turns played: 318
Base score: 2932
Final score: 4653
Time played: 5:06:00

I moved east at the start of the game and settled on the hill next to the mountain. This meant lots of sheep (by chance) and I eventually got the pantheon to give me pasture culture which paid off handsomely as there were a tonne of cows, sheep and horses near me.

I did consider a rush of crossbows formed from upgraded pathfinders. What put me off was a flood of barbarians, Rome actually getting her act together quickly and not getting my pathfinders beyond Japan and into the land beyond. I actually thought that I may be on a smaller continent despite it being described as Pangea (never trust a mapmaker for a GOTM!).

Rome actually tried invading me with Legions and Ballista and that also put me off conquest until later in the game.

So, I built up, eventually took to sea and used frigates to take down Japan and Arabia. With artillery, frigates and Commache Raiders I took the Aztec, Roman and Zulu capital. I thought this would be enough to win as I was the only one with ownership of my own capital. I learnt that I had to own them all and so I kept fighting the Zulu to take Assur and I got Berlin through a peace treaty. I took every Aztec city and that got me Edinburgh and the Mayan capital which I accidentally liberated.

Definitely a fun game, a decent score, but not quick in any way, shape or form.

If I had discovered the land route earlier, perhaps I would have used my early composite bows to quickly conquer the world. However, I don't think that would have been as enjoyable.

GG.

Well this was a learning experience. I was the last player in control of my original capital by turn 206... However I didn't win, so apparently what's stated in the Civ'pedia isn't accurate. Do we have to conquer all the original capitals now?

Shaka controls Berlin and Monty controls Palenque plus the capital of a player I haven't even met yet. I have no idea which city that's supposed to be
despite having scouted all of the map (EDIT: Edinburgh - looked it up somewhere and it said it was a city state, haha!). I think I'm just gonna retire...

Yes, you have to control all the capitals to win domination now.

Monthar said:

Yes, you have to control all the capitals to win domination now.

Click to expand...

I wonder how I missed this crucial bit of information! I'm pretty sure I won Domination victories in BNW TSGs before, but it's been a while and I'm not sure if the AI controlled any capitals back then.