TSG114 After Actions

Welcome to the TSG114 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.).

- Did your preconceived strategy go as planned? If not, what adjustments did you make?
- Did your UU/UB play a big role? If so, how?
- Describe your sources of tourism. How did you choose to influence other Civs?
- 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 status:Culture Victory
Game date: 1580AD
Turns played:226
Base score: 1038
Final score: 2306
Time played:4:47:00

I went SS stratégy, but the game took me much more time that I was expected. Start was good, settled on Gold, went Mining and then Philosophy (with GL). Build two cities, NC and next settlers and settlers.

I went directly to Piety and in turn 80 I had full religion with Initial rates, Pagoda, Monasteries and Sacred sites. I found all AIs too, so I supposed it will be pretty fast. Two wars with Huns and Egypt slowed down me, although Imps were great. I lost two new cities too.

Unfortunately I did several mistakes (no trade routes to Shoshone and Japan), war with Shoshone in the end, late Musician guild – so everything was very slow . Sometimes my influence went up, sometimes down. In the end nice concert in Japan finished it.

Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1390AD
Turns played: 199
Base score: 1073
Final score: 2751
Time played: 3:06:00

Just made it under 200 turns with the SS-Strategy (SPs: Liberty left, then full Piety).
- Did your preconceived strategy go as planned? If not, what adjustments did you make?
It did. I could expand in every direction. The huns went for the celts first and kicked them out of the game, so i could build up like I wanted to.
- Did your UU/UB play a big role? If so, how?
Not really. The Impi were there when Attila attacked me but with his outdated army he wouldn't have stood a chance anyway.
- Describe your sources of tourism. How did you choose to influence other Civs?
I read and learned about the sacred sites strategy and tried it. My source of tourism were pagodas and mosques. I even sent missonaries to the end of the world to get the same religion influence bonus.
- In hindsight how would you have played it differently (if at all) for a faster finish?
Only one thing: I should have built 2 scouts in the early game instead of just 1. One thing that prolonged the game was that I couldn't find Pocatello. My influence on him started late and was the last to finish.

Thx HR for this game because i learned about a whole new strategy. I rarely went for a CV before.

Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1030AD
Turns played: 163
Base score: 949
Final score: 2965
Time played: 2:54:00

- Did your preconceived strategy go as planned? If not, what adjustments did you make?

My plan worked quite perfectly, as I planned the usual SS strategy mixed with war against the culture leader. Fortunately it was Egypt and I didn't have to walk across the map. I went liberty to Citizenship and then piety to Reformation and filling Piety.

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

I build 5 spearmen and upgraded them to Impis. With them and crossbowmen destroying Egypt wasn't hard. Also UB got me those sweet buffalo promotions. AU saved me quite lot of money which wasn't a problem after Initation Rites.

- Describe your sources of tourism. How did you choose to influence other Civs?

Only source of my tourism was SS with mosques and padogas. Biggest culture civ was Egypt and I destroyed them about 10 turns before I got enough influence on everybody else.

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

Maybe I should have build cities little more aggressive to get more faith quicker. I'm not sure was GL worth building, but I got to philosophy faster that way. In the end I played quite optically considering my skills.

Cultural victory on turn.... 386 . I had SS with cathedrals and mosques, but did everything too slow. I concentrated too much on getting a lot of cities and a lot of religion, but I didn't start the city spamming until I had a good base at T110 or so, so that was too slow. My tech nose dived after I spammed about 10 cities. Japan was the first to have high culture, so I made a city and sold it to him. That really ticked him off! He then hated me the rest of the game for expanding too much. Atilla eventually took that city and razed it, but the hate from Japan still stayed.

The Huns never attacked me. Every once in awhile they would denounce me, but nothing big. Egypt attacked me, just in time, too, because they had Notre Dame and I needed happiness. I was not in any other wars.

SS gave me about 56 tourism, and eventually I needed the International games to get the double tourism bonus. Then I spent my 12k faith on Great Musicians and bombed the Shoshone until it was over. I was making 347 tourism per turn, which was over 700 to the Shoshone. I needed to overcome 45k culture to win. I would have had a lot more faith, but I ended up popping 6 extra great prophets, What a waste! I had many holy sites, though.

- Did your preconceived strategy go as planned? If not, what adjustments did you make? I didn't pull off SS fast enough. Had to slog it out to archaeology.
- Did your UU/UB play a big role? If so, how?
Never built UB, UU helped just a tad against Egypt. Mt. Kilimanjaro helped more.
- Describe your sources of tourism. How did you choose to influence other Civs?
SS then archaeology spam. Went freedom for broadcast center bonus.
- In hindsight how would you have played it differently (if at all) for a faster finish?
I didn't go all out SS, I went in half-way to have a backup plan. I should have just done normal 4 city tradition and teched much faster for a quicker finish.

Thanks for hosting!

CV 172

Standard Liberty Piety SS, but Huns attacked so built army and when the Huns came back a 2nd time the Impis were ready.

Used SS only and took out Egypt.

Probably should have settled a city close to Shoshone to provide a trade route for quicker victory. Also whilst building NC settled another city so ended up with no NC.

My first BNW and GoTM game ended... in defeat (!)

I believe I expanded too much, too early, and had problems with happiness the whole game. My SS effort crippled me scientifically and economically. I had no large cities and both Egypt and Byzantine got lots of wonders and culture from CS which balanced out my tourism.

I had to do something so I built an army and defeated the Huns and the Celts, and took Egypt down around t300. I should've gone to war with Byzantine afterwards, they had like 15 wonders and lots of CS culture allies. But the game was already "lost", so I just played it out peacefully and took a note of all the new features, units and tech in BNW.

Just past 400 turns Byzantine won by diplo. I could not stop her peacefully from bribing the CS she needed.

Looking forward to TSG115, in the meantime I'll do some older TSGs to practise

Camv said:

My first BNW and GoTM game ended... in defeat (!)

Looking forward to TSG115, in the meantime I'll do some older TSGs to practise

Click to expand...

Welcome to CFC and Gotm! Thanks for joining us, posting and submitting. I'm glad you'll try some older TSGs for practice. It will help with that sting of defeat, haha.

HR

Game date: 1908AD
Turns played: 328
Base score: 3365
Final score: 5176
Time played: 9:06:00

I strongly considered the sacred sites strategy, but instead ended up with a late sacred sites and much conquest. I definitely kept too many cities which meant I couldn't fully implement my strategy due to happiness. My stalled conquest meant I had to play a much longer game.

I killed off Egypt, the Huns and Shoshane. I had kicked the stuffing out of the Byzantines and left them stuck on the end of the continent with two cities.

I was loathed by all civilizations and no-one would give me open borders...which obviously doesn't help!

A decent score however.

GG

Game: Civ5 GOTM 114
Date submitted: 2015-08-02 18:09:09
Reference number: 33058
Your name: fishbackpack
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1806AD
Turns played: 273
Base score: 1086
Final score: 2011
Time played: 4:14:00
Submitted save: TSG114_WIN.Civ5Save
Renamed file: fishbackpack_C511401.Civ5Save

Solid pre-300 game for me. I didn't try SS, but I did have to try to push as fast as tourism as fast as I could. I finally looked up an explanation for why people seem to LOVE salt starts, and I finally get it! What a powerful resource.

I played a very solid game with three cities pre-100. I could have finished faster if I went a little wider for aesthetics tourism bonuses.

Religion played into my victory a lot with having a dominant world religion. This made me both allies and increased cultural output. This is probably my first game utilizing religion effectively without having a religion-explicit strategy.

Fun GOT[half]M!

Culture Victory Turn 332: The plan was to declare war against whoever had the most culture. As the game went on my attack would be delayed by unhappiness. I should have razed more cities as kittenOFchaos suggests. The impis were effective, moving 3 tiles, plus all units visited Mt Kilimanjaro for speed over the hills.

Tourism came from the usual writers, artists and musicians plus archaeologists. Two main changes would have given me a faster finish. I should have razed non-strategic cities even when they had universities. Second, as J Kovic says, I should have gone for Sacred Sites religious culture on top of eliminating the main rivals.

140 with ss-strategy

Your name: guslaet
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 2039AD
Turns played: 479
Base score: 3230
Final score: 3400
Time played: 22:38:00
=====================================
You guys are all pros. All my life I played marathon, so I'm still learning how to play standard speed.

Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1878AD
Turns played: 309
Base score: 2426
Final score: 3977

This was a very poor game on my part... tried sacred sites for first time. Actually also tried hybrid with early liberty and early war to clear space for expansion. Got started too late on building tourism, spent way too much time in early wars, should have only focused on defense and not aggression. Turns out the AIs constantly declared war on me. They all hated me. Economy sucked as a result so had to spend time and energy on wasted technologies and buildings trying to stay even. Constant war also meant no open borders and trade routes which really slowed down tourism.

For faster finish I would have tried peaceful rather than aggressive expansion which also would have helped with happiness (trading for unique lux).

@guslaet: I too play epic or marathon when I play for our fun (love late game monster wars). I have done so since civ 2. When I play gotm I focus on speed though to increase efficiency and reduce mistakes.

Won using SS (with a twist) and eliminating Egypt in t246.

The twist was that I only had one religious building, which wasn't enough to win SS. So I hijacked Byzantiums religion (which had 2 religious buildings), conquered their holy city and converted each of my newly spammed cities to their religion first. Bought their 2 buildings, then converted to my religion and built Pagodas. Instant 6 tourism per city Took a while though.

In retrospect it wasn't even necessary to conquer their holy city. Would have been enough to just capture one of their missionaries. I could always buy their missionaries in my newly founded cities. This might have sped up my game but not sure.

All told, it went good and was my first real "wide" game. Had 21 cities in the end and was pumping out 90 tourism. Happiness wasn't a big issue as most cities were of size 1-3, which was offset by the happiness from religious buildings.

Impis were great for keeping Attila in check, conquering Constantinople and wiping out Egypt in the end.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 114
Date submitted: 2015-08-09 20:41:24
Reference number: 33090
Your name: Monthar
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1844AD
Turns played: 292
Base score: 1907
Final score: 3287
Time played: 6:33:00
Submitted save: TSG114_Cultural Victory.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Monthar_C511401.Civ5Save

I got SS and 2 faith buildings, but didn't spam enough cities. Plus I waited way too long to take out Egypt.

- Did your preconceived strategy go as planned? If not, what adjustments did you make?

Yes I went with my usual peaceful builder strategy which is Tradition, Patronage, Rationalism, Freedom. I usually open Tradition, finish it, start Patronage, switch to Rationalism and then usually Freedom but I also like Order.

I opened Honor for the barbarian culture bonus. I should not have finished patronage and probably should have gone with Aesthetics or however it is spelled.

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

No I have never played as Shaka. I had one Impi when Attila attacked. I fought him off. Later I took Florence from him in a second war, liberated it. I also built my forth city and started working on my culture.

- Describe your sources of tourism. How did you choose to influence other Civs?

I probably got most of my tourism from works of art. I did not go wide enough. The larger map was a problem for me. I also probably should have opened double scout. I produced a pile of culture but not enough tourism. Eqypt got too many early wonders I should have attacked them sooner. By the time I did they had nukes and boy were they not afraid to use them...

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

Until the last 30-50 turns I was doing OK, but Egypt got a bit of lead, not in tech, but they seemed to be able to gain cities from wars. I stayed at 4 cities for a long time which let me earn many social policies. It was harder to win elections on the larger map. I am used to having more money perhaps to bribe city states. I did not bribe very much focusing on culture and then on my ill-timed war with Egypt. I just needed 3 city states or about 3000 gold to win diplomatically at the end, but I ignored that option. I did get World Religion and World Ideology passed. I had friends, allies even, but could not counter the nukes. I am not a warmonger. I had some SAMs and some fighters but my armies and my great generals kept getting nukes.

I should have either not attacked Egypt at all and just won diplomatically like I usually do or I should have attacked them earlier when I had 4 or less cities. I also probably should not have Annexed the Vatican City during the war, I probably should not have attacked it at all. I should have marched through Dido's territory and attacked one of Egypts bigger city. Egypt was not afraid to nuke my cities or Vatican city, but might not have been so keen to nuke their heartland or Dido. I rarely wage offensive wars, but Egypt was clearly winning and I convinced the Shoshone to attack, but they did little, Sweden did more.

I think I should have picked my allies early and gotten rid of Attila as it was obvious by the number of wonders they were piling up that Egypt was going to be the culture that was hardest to overtake. You'd think have the World Religion and World Order would be enough, I built a lot of hotels etc. I would try as Shaka again to win culturally but on a smaller map, the game just takes too long from my stats

Time played: 6:21:00

A lot of it was late at night so I wasn't making the best decisions maybe, I think I completed at least 25 social policies. I had the tech lead too at one point but never pursued a scientific victory either. I just needed one more good city maybe and a better battle plan, or I just have to accept that my peaceful builder tendencies have been honed, I just build and trade, and then everyone decides I should rule the world, what's wrong with winning that way?

My final losing score was 1704. I definitely should have given up or voted myself supreme ruler 30-50 turns sooner, I had the money, 3 votes isn't much, 39 definitely takes longer than whatever you need to win on one map smaller. Map size is a variable few consider, Pangea, also allows some strategies to work better, if I was seriously trying to win this little competition I would have not built an overseas colony perhaps and I would have crushed Attila when I had the chance, I had Impi and trebuets which I can't spell this morning. But honestly I think it was the compound bowman that were my best units. I don't do early wars often preferring to wait until artillery and battleships, but I need to learn how to counter nukes better if I'm to become a warmonger.

Cheers,

Culture victory 1030AD, turn 163.

My initial plan was to get fast settlers from Liberty, then Sacred Sites from Piety, and expand as much as possible. Meanwhile cities that had built monument, faith, gold and happiness buildings would build units to crush everyone but the Huns.

Three major things happened which slowed me down. Firstly the Celts got the first religion and of course took Pagodas. I had to take Mosques and Cathedrals instead.

Secondly the Shoshone beat me to the Parthenon by 5 turns or so. I should have prioritised it more instead of finishing the Pyramids.

Thirdly the culture leaders, by a long long way, were the Shoshone, and I realised too late that my army would have to go through the Celts, Swedosh and Japanese to get there and would be too slow. I did have the brain wave of giving the Shoshone a city to send a trade route to but overall I switched from Impis to full on settler production just a little too late.

Oh and I had a rare barbarian uprising after conquering Constantinople and Adrianople. I ended up giving Constantinople to the Huns!

Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1755AD
Turns played: 261 (Second attempt - Not submitted)
Base score: 1623
Final score: 3121

This is my second attempt at a GotM and my first post. I hope to actually submit one before too long!

In my first attempt, I lost my capital to Attila on turn 73. Perhaps I could have battled on with 1 city and 1 archer, but I've started playing these to improve my finish times and that game was going to take ages. In the second attempt, I had to replay one turn as Egypt DoW'ed me and just I was congratulating myself on having a big enough army to fight them off, on the next turn a massive army appeared and Attila DoW'ed me. So I had to go back 1 turn and bribe Attila to attack elsewhere or I would have lost again.

Did your preconceived strategy go as planned? If not, what adjustments did you make?

On the first attempt I settled in place. On the second I settled on the gold which gave me a better start. As something of an experiment, I didn't touch Liberty or Tradition and went Piety and then Aesthetics. I was second to a pantheon, first to a religion and managed to get Pagodas and Cathedrals. (Mosques had gone). Managed to complete Piety, Aesthetics and 3 policies from Rationalism, before choosing an ideology. (And I was first to that by some distance). Buying a Great Musician with faith is what secured the final victory. Racked up a ton of faith (135 per turn at the end) and managed to get 10 cities and had no problems in building the religious buildings pretty much as soon as cities were founded or annexed.

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

Never played the Zulus before, but I like Impis. They were good for picking off stray enemy forces and pillaging around the cities. I had much more gold than I normally do, which is probably due in part to the lower maintenance costs. But religion and social policies were a much bigger factor.

Describe your sources of tourism. How did you choose to influence other Civs?

Mostly through Sacred Sites, though I built and filled the Globe Theatre as well as the Uffizi and some works of art in the Cathedrals. Egypt was the culture leader, but I had no problem overhauling that after conquering all but one of its cities. Japan and the Shoshone were the hardest nuts to crack, but I had open borders with them for much of the game and trade routes after building harbours. A concert tour in the Shoshone lands finished it.

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

Need to concentrate more on an early military. Kind of had a strategy to let Egypt build some wonders before conquering its cities, but it went and built Petra in a city that was working a maximum of 3 desert tiles and which I would have raised otherwise. As I didn't have Liberty really should have expanded more and earlier by conquest.

Thanks for joining us, linaker! Good luck and have fun!

HR