TSG113 After Actions

Welcome to the TSG113 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 Diplomacy benchmarks: Techs, Policies, etc that shaped your vote-gathering strategies.
- Did your UU/UB play a big role? If so, how?
- Describe your choice/use of Great People from the Long Count for a Diplomacy 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.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 113
Date submitted: 2015-07-02 14:30:08
Reference number: 32966
Your name: Sempronius
Game status: Science Loss
Game date: 1900AD
Turns played: 320
Base score: 854
Final score: 854
Time played: 9:21:00
Submitted save: Pacal_0321 AD-1901.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Sempronius_C511301.Civ5Save


Lost to Austria, but was one of three Civ's still standing at the end. My plans went south when Bismark forward settled and then attacked me by turn 25. That war lasted for dozens and dozens of turns and after making peace I was attacked by Siam and Germany together. I was able to keep all of my cities except for one that I forward settled on Siam. I did have the joy of taking Germany's last city after Austria beat the pulp out of them and I stayed allied with Austria to the end. I never caught up on tech despite stealing several. I rarely try deity as I dislike the advantages of the AI, but i'm a casual player, I'm sure some think Deity is easy.

- Describe any significant Diplomacy benchmarks: Techs, Policies, etc that shaped your vote-gathering strategies.
None that worked, other than staying on Austria's good side as they wiped out most other nations and married most city states (5 CS were left at the end).

- Did your UU/UB play a big role? If so, how?
Somewhat, I was able to get an early pantheon and religion, but other religions were more aggressive in their expansion and they had some good perks that I was happy to adopt in some cities.

- Describe your choice/use of Great People from the Long Count for a Diplomacy strategy.
GP first to expand my religion, then GE who was parked in hopes of getting the FP

- In hindsight how would you have played it differently (if at all) for a faster finish?
I would have gone all in on war and troop development and wiped out as many civs as I could, rather than turtle and fight defensively.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 113
Date submitted: 2015-07-02 16:03:32
Reference number: 32967
Your name: VandyFan08
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1834AD
Turns played: 287
Base score: 943
Final score: 1654
Time played: 3:17:00
Submitted save: TSG113_Final.Civ5Save
Renamed file: VandyFan08_C511301.Civ5Save

This game was a lot tougher than I had originally thought it would be. I had two runaways (Austria and America) so that made it very difficult to survive sandwiched between them.

- Describe any significant Diplomacy benchmarks: Techs, Policies, etc that shaped your vote-gathering strategies.

My plan this game was to get Forbidden Palace (which I failed at), pick Freedom for idology, beeline to Treaty Organizations, and ally all city states. Then I would be able to do what I wanted in the World Congress. It was definitely slow going, though.

- Did your UU/UB play a big role? If so, how?

Atlatlist: These played a big role being available so early. Helped steal two workers and two settlers from Bismarck and defended a war from Germany and Siam for the next 70 turns.

Pyramid: Great early science for all of the cities but lost out on a religion by 1 turn (even with a decent pantheon, Desert Folklore for 7fpt).

- Describe your choice/use of Great People from the Long Count for a Diplomacy strategy.

I tried to use the Engineer for Forbidden Palace but I was 2 turns too late (as Siam beat me to it).

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

As Sempronius said, attack earlier rather than turtling too long. I could have won earlier if I would have attacked Austria and liberated Germany.

Well, I'm just no good at Deity. I started out with a goal of building the Great Library but even though I found Pottery in some ruins everyone had Writing before I, and someone beat me to the GL by several turns. Then I hung on for a while until Germany destroyed me on turn 107.

I thought I'd give it another try with a different tactic, this time focusing on military, but Germany destroyed me on turn 54. Ho hum.

Won turn 279, but not going to submit the game as I reload it. I wanted to finish the game as I really liked it and share experiences. I am not used to Deiti so I did one stupid mistake - conquered Germany.

I start four cities tradition, no wonders, education turn 105. Next I bult Leaning Tower and Porcelain Tower, did a lot of RA. Friend with everybody except Germany and America.

Germany and America were a nuts - Germany DoW me in turn 110 first time, when I destroyed their units (well placed citadel) and made peace America DoW me. When I did the same with America, Bismarck was back. Then the same story with Washington. In turn 180 I decided to go for Dynamite (out of normal path) and conquer Germany. When I did it turn 220, everybody hated me and Austria aand Iruquius DoW me. After 30 turns of war withour any succces I was annoyed and stopped it.

I reload back to turn 180, went classical way. Persuade America to fight with Germany, no other wars. I won in turn 279 with 37 votes.

Really nice game and experience, thanks for it. If you make challenge B for losers, I can send a game.

So, this was a very cool game that ended in heartbreak. This could have and should have been my very first sub-200 Deity diplo win. Unfortunately, I came up juuust short. You can see in the screenshot below -- It's t187, I've just entered the Information Era, and there is a full 20 turns until the next World Congress:



If I had entered Info era just 2 or 3 turns earlier, this would have been, I think, a t199 win. Instead I'm faced with the prospect of hitting "Next Turn" 30 more times until victory, and I just don't have the heart to take the time to slog through it. I think I've learned everything that I could from this game, and I would rather move on and apply those lessons elsewhere.

There are two crucial things I could have done to pull off the sub-200 win. The timings were very close, and I am not sure that either of them would've actually been enough to do it, but I'm pretty sure that at least one of them would have:

1. I took happiness from Monuments as one of my free Ideology tenets, when I wasn't sure whether I would actually need the happiness. If I had taken +25% Great Person generation instead, I believe I would've gotten my last Scientist 2-3 turns earlier. I should have realized that I wouldn't need the happiness -- with such a short window to victory, I was ready to start stagnating just 15 turns after Ideology anyway.

2. I bought a Public School with faith, which potentially cost me a Great Scientist. You can see I have 497 faith, and I would have needed 1,500 for another scientist -- I also bought a Research Lab after the fact, once my GS count was locked in, so I could've had another 1,000 faith. That wouldn't actually be enough, but if I worked a bit harder at maintaining my faith CS alliance (I lost control of it then got locked out by a DOW), I think I could've gotten to my faith benchmark in time. I'm pretty sure this was just a huge blunder, and faith-buying buildings in the Industrial Era is unacceptable for these settings unless you're 100% sure the marginal faith won't matter.

Anyway, this was a really cool, strong game otherwise. I went 3-city Tradition and attacked Bismarck with Composite Bows. This was a fairly late attack, and I didn't really plan on taking anything then -- I was mostly using the war as a way to stack up XP for the real push at Crossbows. But he didn't put up much of a fight, and I was able to burn one city and then take Berlin, netting me Mausoleum of Halicarnassus and Statue of Zeus. At Crossbows I went after America, taking three cities over the course of two wars. The American cities gave me Colossus, Forbidden Palace, Hanging Gardens, Machu Picchu, and Himeji Castle, as well as unlocking some extra internal sea trade routes.

I'm not sure what the deal was, but conquest was weirdly easy on this map. I feel like I learned a lot about Deity in this game, and am very pleased to see that I've been able to take my theorizing about warmongering being a universally-useful tool and apply it to actual results. It's just a shame that the Diplo endgame is so regimented by the World Congress meetings -- either you get a really cool result and win immediately, or you have a ton of turns of waiting and it feels like all your efforts to shave turns were for nothing.

Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1864AD
Turns played: 302
Base score: 944
Final score: 1573
Time played: 4:34:00

First Deity victory ever! I thought I was a goner for sure several times, but I didn't even lose a single city!

- Describe any significant Diplomacy benchmarks: Techs, Policies, etc that shaped your vote-gathering strategies.

The game changed completely after Austria bought every single City State! Seriously, every single one. I only needed 9 votes to win when she was done, and guess who had Forbidden Palace and Globalization for the first round of UN? The Sneaky Mayans! Austria had enough votes to win, but I had more thanks to my diplomats and forbidden palace.

- Did your UU/UB play a big role? If so, how?

Delayed Archery research a bit, and came in handy for keeping Bismark away. The pyramid was great all game.

- Describe your choice/use of Great People from the Long Count for a Diplomacy strategy.
Used the Great Engineer first to get the Forbidden Palace. That was the only wonder I got all game, and it was the only wonder I needed in the end.

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

More Science. More growth. More money. With more science I could have kicked off the UN a lot quicker and gotten that vote won faster as well. More growth means more science, and more money gets me more everything.

Wild_Woojsha said:

G
First Deity victory ever! I thought I was a goner for sure several times, but I didn't even lose a single city!

- Describe any significant Diplomacy benchmarks: Techs, Policies, etc that shaped your vote-gathering strategies.

The game changed completely after Austria bought every single City State! Seriously, every single one. I only needed 9 votes to win when she was done, and guess who had Forbidden Palace and Globalization for the first round of UN? The Sneaky Mayans! Austria had enough votes to win, but I had more thanks to my diplomats and forbidden palace.

Click to expand...

Wow, you weren't kidding! That screenie is crazy. I haven't seen Austria do that since before it was patched how Marriage works. Well done on successfully pulling that off.

HR

This game was absolutely crazy. I was in last place the entire game and was constantly being DOW'ed for the final 100 turns. However, Austria loved me for some reason, probably because I kept getting loans from her. My goal was to siphon away all her money, but it didn't work as she ran away with it and created a massive empire of more cities than I can count. Her soldier count surpasses 1 million, and buying her off to invade America after they declared war on me was cheaper than I ever expected. I think it cost 6 gold and 5gpt or something silly like that. I couldn't replicate it for when Hiawatha came after me with his calvary, but by then I had infantry and artillary and he was toast the second he crossed my borders with his outdated troops.

Bismark, America, and Hiawatha all put up a nice fight, but Austria owned this game from start to finish. She wiped Bismark off the face of the map shortly after he invaded me at turn 100, and just kept steamrolling on after that and started buying up the map. I wish I had researched satellites so I could see it in all its glory, she had to have owned at least 20 cities over 20 pop, maybe closer to 30, and even more that she built just to troll me (See the cities directly north of my border in the snow, seriously...) I attached the demographics to this one to show how much my empire sucks compared to hers...

Game status: Science Loss
Game date: 1952AD
Turns played: 372
Base score: 1821
Final score: 1821

A science loss to Washington. I wasn't a million miles off, but I made a few significant errors that probably did enough to cost me the game. On the bright side, I went toe to toe with the AI on Deity and didn't lose out militarily.

I settled one south and built up a decent four city civilization pretty quickly. I headed to Theology ASAP to get the clock going and things were going well. I was pleased to see the Aztecs defeat Austria as I felt they'd buy up all the city states and that would be an issue!

Eventually Germany decided to invade, but they had similar technology to me and were butchered. Towards the end of the war they started to have significantly better units, but it was too little, too late. I survived their invasion and took all but one of their cities which the Aztecs soon swallowed.

Siam came at me next and in a brutal war, I threw back their invasion, liberated Melbourne and in a decisive move I let the United States have open borders with me. The USA moved in and devastated Siam and eventually took them out of the game. This was also the fate of Brazil who had also tried to fight me.

I was in pain at this state due to Ideology. I was Autocracy, as was the USA. I moved to Order and things improved.

I decided to be clever. As the Iroquois had just nuked a few of the Aztec cities, I felt it was a brilliant opportunity to liberate Austria. Had I been smart, I'd have liberated the Germans as well. I kept on doing this, hoping to liberate those city states the Aztecs had taken.

Things took a turn for the worse. I had forced Order on the World and the USA decided to attack as a result. The USA took one of my cities and Bogata burnt down my 3rd city. I had too little in the West to prevent this. I made peace with the Aztecs and rushed my army and airforce back. I held the line and inflicted massive losses on the USA. I cleared the sea outside the capital and had the option to nuke Washington. Perhaps I should have.

I found that trading with my Ally Austria was VERY good for science. However, the Aztecs returned and took back all the cities I had liberated. I made peace with the USA and headed back over to the Aztecs. I soon liberated Austria and started to push for victory. Long story short, it was just a bit too late.

I could have won this game. I needed more culture and money. Open borders let the AI take ALL my artifacts. I also didn't get Hermitage until far too late. I also built a lot of roads (vital for war) but I didn't remove them afterwards. I should have done something about Bogata earlier in the game. It was too firm a friend with the USA and was in a critical position...it had to go.

All in all, I was surprised to have been in with a real chance. I could have won this game if it was a Science Victory that we were aiming at. I'm kind of surprised to have survived as well as I did given how many AI decided to attack.

GG

Edit 1: Perhaps I should mention that I was gifted a Giant Death Robot by Sofia

Obliterated by Germany on turn 56. Tried to go for MoH, only to be beaten to it by Austria by one turn. I guess Deity is still a bit too hard for me.

Picrasso said:

Obliterated by Germany on turn 56. Tried to go for MoH, only to be beaten to it by Austria by one turn. I guess Deity is still a bit too hard for me.

Click to expand...

Thanks for playing this one and discussing it with us. You can still replay and test some new strategies or plans. You can't submit the results but you can always practice to learn more about Deity as well as look at others results in these threads to learn from.

HR

I survived the initial attack by Germany but couldn't build an army fast enough to survive the second war. I retired at turn 120 when I lost my second city and the German army outnumbered me something like 10 to 1.

I gave this one up on t177. I could have fought the good fight (I had enough decently promoted units to hold off America, Brazil, and Siam from taking my cities), but the damage had already been done: Tikal was sacked once, and Hamburg twice, Austria was buying a new city about every 5-6 turns, and my economy was too far behind the rest of the world for me to realistically catch back up (Public Education probably wouldn't have been finished until around t190).

I think my number one error was in building MoH; finishing my first 3 cities ASAP and then taking out Germany (as it seems all the successful players did), would have been a much more solid plan. Lesson learned, I will not muck around with early Wonders when playing Deity; by the time you finish one, you have no more room to found any cities in, and the AI armies are knocking on your door!

Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1864AD
Turns played: 302
Base score: 1178
Final score: 1963
Time played: 11:41:00

Wow! I'm so excited to do this writeup... this game was the most intense, hang by the thread game of Civ I've played in a long while. Crazy is that my game ended exactly the same date as Wild_Woojsha, but was completely different!!! (Austria didn't buy up the world). Also, it was my first deity win, no small thanks to Pacal and the Long Count! This will be a long write-up, so take your time.

Great first 130 turns. Settled in place, executed my strategy outlined in the announcement thread. Namely, get religious idols for the silver (turn 20), steel a worker or two (1 from Bismark, 2 from Sofia)*, build MoH (turn 43). *I've seen many posts about steeling workers from CS, in particular making peace immediately after. I watched Acken's Maya Diety video here and employed his strategy: farm the workers as long as reasonable, which for me was only 2.

Only had a few adjustments outlined below:

What I wasn't planning was taking the settler earlier than the worker from Liberty, which I was able to do because I could delay the worker social policy. I also did not plan on Petra, but after seeing all the desert, and all the SILVER!, I decided to make a run for it rather than beeline theology for the Long Count (which I still got by turn 101) . In the end I think the strategy was very successful, and was able to built Petra turn 77 - two turns after founding my religion. The difficult task was that it was build not in my capital, but in my second city, so as soon as I founded Tikal (turn 37) I had workers frantically improving with farms and mines to get the city up and running ASAP.

I'm not entirely sure what year I finished the NC, but I think it was around 90. Everyhing, however, turned especially sour for me during turn 133. I had everything planned perfectly for the Forbidden Palace. Got to banking early (turn 130), unlocked Patronage (turn 132), spawned my GE from Long Count and immediately hurried Forbidden Palace (turn 133). Turns out that America built the damn thing in between the next turn!!!! UGh!!!!! Not only did I not get forbidden palace, but I wasted my Great Engineer for what equaled 500 gold!!!! At this point, I declared the game over, or at least a chance for diplo vicotry. This is deity after all!!

Luckily for me, I played the mid-game really well in spite of my wasted GE. I timed the Leaning Tower (turn 143) and Porcelain Tower (turn 167) perfectly. What I was able to do is spawn a Great Engineer from the Liberty finisher on turn 142, building the Leaning Tower for a Great Scientist which I used for my second academy. I then got to work shortly thereafter for the Porcelain Tower, which also gave me a GS, which I bulbed (had finished the Universities and was working the academies 8 turns prior) so it got me a slingshot in mid-game science. This technique, coupled with espionage and Research Agreements (made stronger from PT), I was first in technologies by the end of the Renaissance heading into the Industrial Age on top. I bulbed Industrialization from Oxford, rapidly built 2 factories and bought one, which get me first to ideologies.

I choose Order - not for any particular reason. I know that it is not ideal for Diplo (as the guides seem to prefer Freedom or Autocracy), but I love the tenets in Order, particularly on deity. I focused a lot of energy over the ensuing years to increasing culture production to move quickly through the tenets, and was fast to get Spaceship Pioneers, which I was going to use to bulb Globalization that turn. Everything was perfect for a sub-300 turn 282 win. Then the unthinkable.

Washington and Siam both declared on me same turn - the two most advanced civs (other than me) with the two biggest militaries. I'm doomed. They were probably pissed because I had just forced World Ideology thought he congress for the last two votes I needed. Even with the handful of units I received from military city states, my standing army was the laughing stock of the world. Again, totally doomed.

I was able to get Austria to declare on both of them, not that she was much help against the might of America. It was up to me to defend my empire from Washington, who by the way had just completed Manhattan Project. I diverted my newly spawned scientist (from Spaceship Pioneers) to bulb military techs which I was much behind in, and eventually used the GE to build the Hubble Telescope, which I then bulbed more military techs. I was able to defend the Mayan border from an onslaught thanks to a great CS buffer zone, but I sadly, very sadly lost 2 city-states to Washington's bloody hands (I briefly liberated Kyzryl but quickly lost it again).

Believe it or not, that is when things go really tense. The upcoming second World Leader vote was 10 turns away and I needed three things to happen perfectly:

1) After Satellites I found the 2 remaining City States (Ormus and Kabul). It is important to note that Austria married into 4 CS. I needed to quickly meet them so that I could buy them out.

2) Needed to avert a nuclear holocuast from Washington, either me or, as we will see, Pedro.

3) Discover Globalization and move my diplomats.

During the war against Washington I slowly built a miltary that I was moving toward Seattle (and ultimately Washington DC to claim what is rightfully mine: the Forbidden Palace.) During the seige, I found a carrier that had just moved off my artic coast with two Atomic Bombs hidden in the hull. Luckily I had enough Rocket Artillery and Bombers to sink it that turn. I proceeded to take Seattle and sell off buildings as I happily burnt it to the ground!!!

After I took Seattle I set my sights on my next big target before Washington DC, Boston. Just as I did so, I noticed three Atomic Bombs had moved into the city within range of Chitzen Itza and Palenque. EEEK! Time for Peace, or face imminent destruction (I had delayed my bomb shelters as I built military units - had two turns left on them sadly.) Despite all of my efforts, America would not agree to a peace deal surrendering either CS they captured, so I accepted peace without giving up Seattle in return. 6 turns until Second World Leader Vote. Move my diplomats back into every capital.

America Declares on Brazil. America nukes Brazil. Big Time destruction. I notice that Rio is on the verge of destruction. I need Pedro to hold his captial just a few more turns so that I can retain the diplo vote from globalizaiton! If he loses his capital he has to relocate it and it will take my diplomat 5 more turns to 'make introductions'! Oh No!

During all of this, I sent two paratroopers to hop across the surface of the oval-earth to make contact with the two remaining CS, which I did. I then borrowed a big loan from Austria to immediately buy over 200 influence with each of them. Thanks Maria Theresa! You're the best! I then sent the paratroopers straight toward Rio to gift them to Pedro to hold his capital. One of them dropped in next to Rio, and I gifted him. At this point, note that America had reduced Rio's defenses to absolutely zero with atomic weapons and perpetual onslaught from Rocket Artillery. All Washington needed to do is move in a troop and Rio falls - along with my chances at victory more than likely. The paratrooper holds and pushes away attackers. The next turn I try to send in another paratrooper, but my open borders agreement expires and he wont sign another (even though I'm clearly trying to help!).

In the meantime, I spawned another GS from my universities and bulb globalization. 2 turns left.

I impatiently wait with my paratrooper on Pedro's borders as I know Rio is going to fall again down to zero HP every turn. My previous, now his, paratrooper dies in battle defending Rio. I have 33 of 33 required votes, unless of course, Rio falls.

1 turn left. Waiting....

0 turns left! Victory is mine! Rio holds!!! Thanks Washington for not sending in any infantry. Now you're the best! (Although secretly can't wait to reload the save and annihilate his pompous ass....) What a game!

Museum of Hallicarnasus 43
Petra 77
Leaning Tower 143
Porcellin Tower 167
Christo Rendertor 245
Manhattan Project 260
Kremlin 268
Hubble Space Telescope 294
Appolo Program (just in case) 296

Questions:
How does the forbidden palace operate? Is it whoever is in control of the Forbidden Palace receives 2 extra UN votes, or the person who constructed it originally?The description says 'permanent votes' which makes me believe it is actually the original builder, but I had to go for it anyway.

Is there a way to ensure that I don't lose my GE hurrying a Wonder that will get built by another civ in between turns? It seems like there should be a fail safe against it, so that if I hurry production with a GE it guarantees I am the one who actually builds it. Thoughts?

- Describe any significant Diplomacy benchmarks: Techs, Policies, etc that shaped your vote-gathering strategies.
Even though I went straight for it not getting Forbidden Palace hurt. It meant that I had to ally with every CS and get a World Ideology.

- Did your UU/UB play a big role? If so, how?
Pyramids are amazing. I moved them straight up the queue as soon as they were available (turn 10). The UU isn't great unless you are going for fast domination.

- Describe your choice/use of Great People from the Long Count for a Diplomacy strategy.
Turn 101 GS - for early academy
Turn 117 GW - to get quick policies
Turn 133 GE - for a failed Forbidden Palace
The rest were to appease CS. Did use a great general for a citadel to acquire access to aluminum up north.

- In hindsight how would you have played it differently (if at all) for a faster finish?
Throughout the game I didn't actively thwart Austria's efforts to marry CS. I'm not sure it would have helped long term as loans for money's sake are a bad investment, but if I had only had two of those CS I could have won 20 turns earlier perhaps. Note, I'm not sure this would have been possible without the almost perpeutal warfare between all the civs in the game, especially those induced by Pacal!!!

Thanks for the great game! After all that stress, I need a chieftain game!

Wow! I'm so excited to do this writeup... this game was the most intense, hang by the thread game of Civ I've played in a long while. Crazy is that my game ended exactly the same date as Wild_Woojsha, but was completely different!!! (Austria didn't buy up the world). Also, it was my first deity win, no small thanks to Pacal and the Long Count! This will be a long write-up, so take your time.

Click to expand...

It's great kicking this game's butt on Deity. Watching Austria destroy Bismark, Washington, and Siam was very satisfying, but I was on the edge of my seat my entire game too. I wouldn't have won turn 302 if she hadn't have bought the final city state and removed Siam from the game 5 turns earlier. Your early game was much better than mine, but what happened with forbidden palace was just brutal...

I can't believe I actually won this one!

I played the piety/small strategy that I linked to in the opening thread. I had 3 crappy cities with 6 silver and 1 clam as my only luxes.

I was last to get a religion, and of course uttely failed to spread it anywhere. Even though I spammed 3 great prophets in close succession (one from piety finisher t114, one from faith and one from Maya cycle), Siam's Buddhism was far too strong. He had all the theology wonders, and whenever I converted a city near him it converted right back the next turn. No idea how he did that but I just stood no chance.

Therefore I decided to settle for Buddhism as a world religion. I let it spread to my 2 expo cities and waited for World Congress. Austria was host, but apparently Siam was second. They proposed World Religion right away which I and Germany supported - it was accepted t221. +2 votes in the Congress for me! Just had to make sure my 2 expos stayed Buddhist, which I did by buying Buddhist missionaries from time to time.

Shortly after, Siam and Austria adopted Autocracy, so I just followed them as they were the main runaways and had heaps of tourism (especially Siam). Invariably, t242 World Ideology:Autocracy was passed. Another +2 votes for me!

Meanwhile Austria went marrying everyone in the Eastern part of the continent, and conquered all of Monty's lands...

t261 the UN were founded and luckily enough I had just reached 18 delegates at that moment (as opposed to Siam's 16), making us host - 2 more extra votes!

t275 first world leader vote, no way I could win this as I was still far away from Globalization. I had 18 delegates just as Siam did, so came in for a tied 1st place - another 2 permanent seats secured. Still going strong!

2nd world leader vote was due t297. I got Globalization just in time, and had barely enough money to buy all but one of the remaining city states that Austria hadn't gobbled up yet. I DOWed Siam so he wouldn't buy my allies back, and my Diplomat fled the capital... I couldn't DOW anyone else as I needed the votes from the diplomats! So sure thing, Austria bought one of my allies and I failed victory by 2 votes.

I thought I was done for as I couldn't hope to fight Siam's far superior army (I had Gatling guns, they had planes and Bazookas). However I paid Austria to DOW them, and after a couple of turns Siam offered peace... hehe!

3rd vote was t319 and this time I got it right. Again, I had just enough money to ally all the city states this time. This left me 3 votes surplus, meaning I could DOW 3 rival civs. Only 5 were left, and two of them (America and Brazil) had no money. Siam, Austria and Iroquois were all swimming in gold, so declared on those three. Victory was mine (my 2nd deity win ever!)

It was really close. One turn earlier, I wouldn't have had the money to ally all the CS. One turn later, Rio was conquered by America which meant one less diplomat...

This was a very insightful and exciting game! I almost rage quit after the failed t297 victory, but then decided to give it another go.

I learned a lot from this game: How to keep the AI peaceful even though you're last in military, and how to manipulate them diplomatically to fight each other and not myself. Plus, I'm amazed that it's possible to win on deity with a crappy 3 city empire. You just have to be willing to use some dirty diplomatic tricks (just as in real life - just been reading about Greece and the Euro crisis... let me just say politics is a dirty business, period.)

Regarding the piety/small strategy: I'm not at all convinced that going piety is better than going tradition. With tradition I would have had 3 tall cities instead of 3 crappy ones, and more happiness. Of course, if I'd have managed to spread my religion it might have been a different story, but with Siam having all the Theology wonders that was absolutely impossible.

First 100 turns: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=13902172&postcount=20

It was really nervous game. If I was late by two turns to info era I would finish in ~215.

I picked order, despite description from game it is my favorite ideology for diplo victory (not much time for freedom growth [that's why my cities are small - I stopped grow after plastic) not need to rush buy anything].

Built a reasonable 4 city tradition empire and was moving along reasonably. Was friends with the west half of the world, and had troubles with Germany pretty much from the beginning. Avoided war for a while by bribing people to attack someone else whenever I got news they were going to sneak attack me. Had a serious war with Germany from turn 200-225 or so. I held him off, and eventually pushed him back and pressured his city with my artillery. Asked what it would take for peace to see what he would offer before I took his city, and he's all "I'll give you peace if you give me all 3 of your cities." Wait what? don't you have that backwards dude? That should have been a sign. I forgot he was fighting a war on two fronts, and had a lot more troops I wasn't currently seeing. I took his city, and then got him to accept a basic peace treaty.

Over the next dozen turns, I get rumors that America, and Siam (both friends) are planning to backstab me, and that the Aztecs and Germany are planning an invasion. Great.

And then Germany shows up on my border with 20 Cannons and Infantry. I kill a bunch, lose a few troops, and there is still 20 or so troops pushing my borders. He takes his town back, and then takes one of mine, and now I'm down to 3 troops and he still has over a dozen I can see. I decide it's time to retire since Germany is going to push me hard, and even if I manage to get peace, I'm sure one of the other 3 will just immediately finish me off.

I'm still not comfortable with Deity so this was a great learning experience overall. Thanks for the game.

I resigned about turn 110 after Germany flattened me.

For fun I tried this game a couple of different ways with different strategies but no matter what I did I could not stop the endless wave of troops from around turn 80.

I need to learn how to defend against superior numbers as I just can't seem to find a way to avoid losing all my units very quickly - they can't defend and escape in one turn and I am always outnumbered...