TSG123 After Actions

Welcome to the TSG123 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!

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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 get Petra? If so, describe your path to it.
- Describe any significant interactions with other Civs and how it impacted your tourism.
- How did the delay from meeting the other continent impact your strategy?
- Share your thoughts about the Sacred Sites ban. Did it matter? Was it enjoyable or frustrating to be denied SS? Feel free to share both good and bad opinions (but keep it civil, haha).

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: 1740AD
Turns played: 258
Base score: 2295
Final score: 4500
Time played: 6:30:00

Arrived in 1900 and am hanging it up

Thanks for the game. Was interesting. Lots of war and my research was too slow to get a fast finish.

My research was very slow too. I didn't hit the Industrial Era until turn 201!

This one was really hard for me. Being immortal player who rarely wins culturaly or by domination, going for CV while alone on the continent with Monty was a real pain And the research was so slow due to regular wars with that aztec psycho. At least in the end his 25 unhappiness meant I was virually untouchable for his units (even more - two of his cities revolted and joined my empire). Netherlands was the cultural runaway on my map, but several 5k+ GM bombs were too much for him to handle.

- Did you get Petra? If so, describe your path to it.
Yes I did. Beelined currency and built it before NC.

- Describe any significant interactions with other Civs and how it impacted your tourism.
Was alone on the continent with Monty for half of the game, who was flooding me with units now and then. One of the german cities on the other continent joined me by revolting. That allowed me to send caravans to Mayas and Netherlands, which I was unable to do otherwise.

- How did the delay from meeting the other continent impact your strategy?
It did not.

- Share your thoughts about the Sacred Sites ban. Did it matter? Was it enjoyable or frustrating to be denied SS? Feel free to share both good and bad opinions (but keep it civil, haha).
With immortal continents it had no impact at all. On pangea/prince for example it would've make more sense to me.

- Did you get Petra? If so, describe your path to it.
I built Petra in my first expansion city. I think I may have built a monument first and then Petra, but this was because I hand not yet researched Currency when I got Collective Rule. I was debating whether to build Petra or Hanging Gardens first and went for Petra because it would make a bigger impact. In the end, I got both in the same city.

- Describe any significant interactions with other Civs and how it impacted your tourism.
Monty was my best friend. He joined in on my wars of conquest against Siam (who DOW me about turn 110) and Assyria (who I DOW after taking Siam's capital). In both cases, Monty captured the final city in our shared wars thus eliminating both civs without me getting the massive hit on diplomacy.

- How did the delay from meeting the other continent impact your strategy?
It didn't. The biggest impact was that Germany had warred with all three of the other civs, wiping out the Netherlands and reducing Sweden to only one city. By the time my army reached the other continent, Germany was a big power to be reckoned with. I attacked with one army in the north and the other in the south, burning every city except Berlin and Amsterdam (and the two Swedish cities which I liberated).

- Share your thoughts about the Sacred Sites ban. Did it matter? Was it enjoyable or frustrating to be denied SS?
The Sacred Sites ban wan't much of an impact. I tried to leverage religious buildings in hopes of spreading Sacred Sites from the AI. The Netherlands did take Sacred Sites (along with Cathedrals) but because of German aggression, they did not have the opportunity to spread their religion to my country. After conquering Amsterdam from the Germans, I bought several Inquisitors, but forgot that I also needed to have the religion in my cities (not just wipe out the other religions). I eventually spread their religion to two of my cities, bought two Cathedrals, and after 10 turns watched them switch back from religious pressure.

I will post some screenshots of my end game later on.

I did not submit my game, as I had to do a replay, but I decided to write about my second attempt anyway. I lost because I had not played immortal in a while except on Archipelago and I forgot that they can be very aggressive. Montezuma steamrolled over me, but actually not with a super early rush, but a more sophisticated army of catapults etc.

I decided to try again as I had never tried a cultural victory in BNW (have played less than 10 games of BNW and also seldom tried CV in G&K) and was looking for a challenge. I had no idea about the mechanics of culture, tourism and CV, so I decided I would learn by doing. I tried not to use my map knowledge etc. too much and decided to change my strategy only so that I settle both my 2nd and 3rd city in slightly more defensive positions (1 tile difference for both) and change what policies I would take. I managed to secure a win on turn 360, which was of course quite late, but I was not close to losing the game at any point.

Instead of original Tradition/Piety approach I took Tradition and Liberty and skipped Piety. Even without Piety my religion became the largest religion and got even selected the World Religion without my voting for it. I settled in place and then settled two early cities in NE and NW, left 4th city quite late and settled east as I needed a coastal city and I could prebuild all infrastructure before settling.

Like in the first game, Siam was super friendly all game, but actually Montezuma declared on me even earlier than in the first attempt, but I was more prepared with walls completed in outer cities and 1-2 more units. I managed to hold him off, but that resulted in a war that went of until turn turn 330 or so. Siam and Assyria were actually in between us, so we had no borders until Monty captured Assyrian cities and one citystate, after which he started another stage in the war against me after the initial attempt. My science was weak all game, and I started really building an army after I finished building all cultural etc. buildings, after which I managed to break Monty's spine and capture 3 huge cities. I thought I had nothing more to accomplish than revenge, so I made peace and waited the rest of the game for the tourism to accumulate.

I managed to gain Influential on Assyria first, but he was wiped out soon after. Then I got Influential on Sweden, but he was soon wiped out too. Then I got the others one by one all quite near each other, but I had to pump 4-5 musicians on Germany, as he was the strongest one. This was a fun game, as the AIs were waging war in all directions and the strongest AI was changing all the time. AIs were waging 2-3 wars at the same time, and at some point e.g. Germany was capturing cities on one front and losing cities on another front simultaneously. This lead to the AIs being very weak scientifically in the late game. Before my victory only one civ completed Apollo and even he got no parts ready. My early science relied much on spies, but in the end I managed to get the scientific lead, but at times I was churning up 3 times more culture than beakers. I think in the end my biggest mistake in this game was focusing on culture too much in early game and not on science. After I was happy with my autocracy policies (got it because Siam went that way), I even finished rationalism tree in the end.

- Did you get Petra? If so, describe your path to it.
Yeah, got it with beelining after National college. Got quite many wonders that I wanted, but lost some because I was so behind in science for the most of the game.

- Describe any significant interactions with other Civs and how it impacted your tourism.
War with Monty, but it was not an issue, as he was still not the last one that I got Influential on. Everybody on my continent got my religion and I kept a trade route with all others most of the late game so that helped.

- How did the delay from meeting the other continent impact your strategy?
I am not advanced enough to think about that really Probably I wanted to get ocean-worthy ships quite fast.

- Share your thoughts about the Sacred Sites ban. Did it matter? Was it enjoyable or frustrating to be denied SS?
Did not go with Piety, so did not matter. Dunno if it would have helped me to go Piety or not.

All in all it was a fun game and I learned a lot about CV and managed to win the game that looked quite hard. Normally I almost always go SV and can win 50-70% of Immortal games.

isopaha said:

I did not submit my game, as I had to do a replay, but I decided to write about my second attempt anyway.

*snip*

All in all it was a fun game and I learned a lot about CV and managed to win the game that looked quite hard. Normally I almost always go SV and can win 50-70% of Immortal games.

Click to expand...

Thanks for not submitting and I'm glad you enjoyed the game. Thanks for the write-up too, and welcome back to Civ5.

HR

Game: Civ5 GOTM 123
Date submitted: 2015-12-08 02:42:40
Reference number: 33607
Your name: VandyFan08
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1884AD
Turns played: 312
Base score: 1428
Final score: 2303
Time played: 3:57:00
Submitted save: Mark.Civ5Save
Renamed file: VandyFan08_C512301.Civ5Save

Overall a slower game than I would have liked primarily because I delayed national college in favor of Petra. Also could have shaved some turns off by having Germany kill The Netherlands earlier (they were the cultural runaway).


- Did you get Petra? If so, describe your path to it.

Yes, I had to beeline currency which ultimately delayed my ability to get out National College.

- Describe any significant interactions with other Civs and how it impacted your tourism.

I had an early war with Siam but kept him at bay fairly well. From that point, I kept Monty busy killing everyone else on the continent and we were best friends until the end. I did start one war with him to burn a few of his cities that had stolen territory from me but other than that we were primarily peaceful.

- How did the delay from meeting the other continent impact your strategy?

The delay allowed The Netherlands to become a cultural runaway. Thankfully, Germany and I were best friends and he was more than happy to do my dirty work taking them out. It would have been better if I could have joined in to allow for a quicker victor.


- Share your thoughts about the Sacred Sites ban. Did it matter? Was it enjoyable or frustrating to be denied SS?

Did not go with Piety, so did not matter.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 123
Date submitted: 2015-12-10 21:36:46
Your name: aliasMiya
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1931AD
Turns played: 351
Time played: 9:08:00


- Did you get Petra? If so, describe your path to it.

Yes! I only researcher pottery and mining before beelining to Petra, and then built it in my capital (I had two cities at this time, so it was rather obvious choice). I also got a ton of other wonders.

- Describe any significant interactions with other Civs and how it impacted your tourism.

I decided to do a peaceful route since I didn't want to risk losing my capital, so I didn't declare war on, or denounce any of the other civs. That way, I could have Diplomats, trade routes and open boarders all the time which modified my tourism output to the positive. I even managed to spread my religion to Assyria and Siam, which also helped. I could also maintain several research agreements which meant that I was the first to reached the Modern Era and first to pick an Ideology... alas, no one else picked Freedom as I did (so the diplomats were important).

I did pay Siam and Germany to go to war against each other several times to keep them off my back as I built a lot of wonders and I hoped that it would keep them from producing a lot of culture... it didn't go so well though since in the end, it was almost only the three of us left (Assyria managed to stick around somehow too... no idea how). Siam was the real cultural runaway, but Germany began building up its tourism and one the International Games, which really slowed me down, I tried to win that one...



I could probably have won faster if I had dared to go to war with my opponents, but since I was locked to the culture victory, I wanted to go hard core for that one!

- How did the delay from meeting the other continent impact your strategy?

I couldn't start pumping out culture to them until later, but it might have been good since I didn't have to met the German war machine until much later... that probably saved me from being attacked! I could focus on my culture instead which was what I had planned.

- Share your thoughts about the Sacred Sites ban. Did it matter? Was it enjoyable or frustrating to be denied SS? Feel free to share both good and bad opinions (but keep it civil, haha).

I actually didn't care one way or the other. I rarely go down the reformation policy and I didn't in this one either. By the time I was done with tradition, I could choose the aesthetic policy tree which suited me just fine.

(er, also, since this was my first submission, I was a bit unclear on when to save, so when I won, I clicked the "play one more turn" and then I pressed "next turn" and then I saved? But now I think I made a mistake?)

Game status: Diplomacy Wrong VC
Game date: 1921AD
Turns played: 341
Base score: 3077
Final score: 4525

After a strong start where I took many of Siam's settlers and workers I eventually took over our start continent.

Germany was very strong and took over their continent and built many wonders although I did get Petra.

We went to war and it rather dragged on. I then accidentally won a diplomatic victory as I forgot that the civilizations I liberated from Germany would vote for me. This was just before I was going to use nuclear weapons...something I should have done ages ago.

Ooops.

Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1856AD
Turns played: 298
Base score: 1598
Final score: 2708

- Did you get Petra? If so, describe your path to it.

I sent out a couple early settlers to try and get the two natural wonders, but otherwise I just focused on trying to get HG and Petra in my capital. I did HG first, which had me a little worried, since someone else managed to get Desert Folklore, I assumed I would have competition for Petra which I finished on turn 95.

- Describe any significant interactions with other Civs and how it impacted your tourism.

I had an early war with the Aztecs which surprised me, since I assumed it would be Siam since we were fighting for the same land. I managed to bribe Assyria to attack Siam and the Aztecs at different times to take the pressure off me. Which also took the pressure of my borders, since a bunch of the smaller cities close to my borders were burned by one war or another. Apart from my one relatively short war with the Aztecs, I managed to stay peaceful and have open borders with everyone else for most of the game.

No one else on my continent managed to get a religion going, so I spread it aggressively to my continent and then got World Religion passed. Which was helpful.

I used the trick of dropping a new small town in a convenient gap near my capital. Then prepped my post internet Musicians to be next to it, and 'sold' the town to the culture runaway and bombed away without needing to swim to the other continent first. I've decided to call this the Woodstock trick. (Create a temporary town in an unused part of your empire for a series of concerts)

- How did the delay from meeting the other continent impact your strategy?

It took me a surprisingly long time to even be able to send cargo ships to all the other nations. I realized I really should have sent out caravels much sooner. I was caught up in other things and didn't get around to building or buying one for a while. Definitely slowed things down.

- Share your thoughts about the Sacred Sites ban. Did it matter? Was it enjoyable or frustrating to be denied SS? Feel free to share both good and bad opinions (but keep it civil, haha).

I didn't mind the ban. I think on this map, Sacred Sites would have worked for someone. Especially the efficient early war players. Clear the continent, fill it with cities, have stupid amount of tourism about turn 150 as you start finding the other civs. I wouldn't have tried it, but I suspect if someone had pulled it off, they would have had one of the best times. What I liked about the ban is that Cultural victories tend to have two drastically different groupings of finish times depending on whether you used SS or not. This way we were all comparing various not-SS strategies.

These are my first four cities (the only cities I built). A few things to notice in this frame.

I have Protestantism spread to Rabat from Amsterdam. At one time, Fez also had Protestantism. This is the religion which has Sacred Sites (and Cathedrals). Once I captured Amsterdam from the Germans, I built 4-5 Inquisitors...forgetting that I also needed Missionaries. I was able to built one Missionary before Pacal managed to send a Great Prophet to convert Amsterdam. The bonus from SS was short lived and didn't have an impact on my game.

On turn 258 I am currently researching Plastics. Science was very slow in this game, even with Rabat maxed out.

Monty was friendly the whole game. This is because we shared wars to take out Siam and Assyria. Perhaps I also had a stronger military of more advanced units, although they were almost all on the other continent. Even though he was friendly, he planted a couple of GG to steal some of my land late in the game.

Marrakech is my culture/tourism city. In hind site, I think it would have been better to settle on the gold tile on the coast. Had the mountain (for an Observatory) been next to this tile, I would have done this. The trade off was the Marble which would not have been in the city radius (and I thought I might need the bonus to build wonders).

Rabat is my science center. I had caravans going to Rabat the whole game to boost population. After finishing Petra and Hanging Gardens I built my final Library followed by NC in Rabat.

I managed to finish Tradition, Liberty, and Aesthetics. I also opened Commerce. I went for Autocracy which is a diversion from my norm (I generally go for Freedom). My tenets:

Futurism: +250 Tourism to all Civilizations when a Great Writer, Artist or Musician is born.
Elite Forces: Wounded Military Units inflict 25% more damage than normal.
United Front: Militaristic City-States gift units twice as often when at war with a common foe.
Third Alternative: Strategic Resources provide double quantity. +5 Food and +5 Science in Capital.
Nationalism: Unit Maintenance cost reduced by 33%.
Cult of Personality: +50% Tourism to Civilizations fighting a common enemy.

I managed to build some wonders, but I captured many more.

Sukhothai (Siam)
Temple of Artemis
Colossus
Chichen Itza
Alhambra

Assur (Assyria)
Great Library
Great Lighthouse
Great Wall
Angkor Wat

Amsterdam (Netherlands...captured from Germany)
Oracle
Parthenon
Notre Dame

Berlin (Germany)
Statue of Zeus
(he must have been building units instead of wonders)

Palenque (Maya)
Hagia Sophia
Borobudur
Great Mosque of Djenne

My strategy for this game was culture/tourism via conquest. Early on I thought I would be more peaceful and spread SS to my cities from an AI religion. This idea didn't work out very well. My game took a turn on about turn 110 or so when Siam DOW. I thought I was far enough away and that my 8 or so units were enough of a deterrent. Initially I was overwhelmed and lost Casablanca a few turns into the war. I had to switch to military production for about 20 turns or more to win the war. Once I captured Siam's capital I regrouped and upgraded several of my experienced units. Monty took his last city which had been forward settled in the north of the continent. Since I had a strong military, I agreed with Monty to attack Assyria. The second war was much faster, and just like the first resulted in me burning most of the cities, capturing the capital, and allowing Monty to take the final (forward settled) city to knock him out of the game.

By the time the wars on my starting continent were complete, it was clear that my tourism generation would be enough to overwhelm Monty. He was friendly, had open borders, shared my religion, and wasn't generating much culture. I settled all of my GW, GA, and GM to create great works for tourism. At one point I sent a GM to the other continent planning to have a Concert Tour to push Sweden over the top, but by the time he arrived I was already well on my way to victory and didn't need to use the GM instead creating a great work after the long voyage.

Since I had a relatively strong force built up, I started deploying troops to the second continent for a conquest of the new world so to speak. Half of my army landed in the south near Amsterdam (it was still owned by the Netherlands, but was surrounded by German troops and fell before my troops were in place) and the other half in the north near Berlin (actually, there was another city north of Berlin which I burned first before taking the German capital). My initial plan was to take out all of the civs on the second continent, but since Germany had captured all by Stockholm from Sweden, they were not generating much culture and it was clear I could overtake them in tourism before finishing my conquest of the other two civs. Germany had perhaps 8-10 cities (including some Dutch and Swedish puppets) and the Mayans had 4 cities. The last city to fall was a late settled German city on an island to the west of the other continent.

I'll try to post more later, but I lost a Culture victory to the Mayans in 1927AD.

I managed to avoid any bad wars for most of the game, but eventually a double DOW from Assyria and Germany(who had already destroyed the Aztecs and Sweden, respectively) cost me all my previous war gains and put me on the defensive for the last 75 turns during which I just hoped to survive until the inevitable Mayan victory.

I'm resigning at turn 252, even though I've finally put Assyria on the defensive after their big attack in Fes. Assyria and Germany are the runaways. By fighting Assyria, the current leader, I can make Germany win. I can be a kingmaker but I can no longer be a king.

My plan was to take the Mayan capitol which had a weak army but most of the wonders. Around turn 230 I sent a small expeditionary force—3 cannons, musket, knight, lancer, GG—and started to bombard Palenque.

I find cannons a difficult unit. By the time you get one, any major city can put it into the red on the first attack. I was prepared to heal, get a promotion, go back in and eventually wear down the city.

What happened, after a few turns, was that Germany DoW'd Pacal and sent in six rifles plus cannons and knights. I kept my musket and knight next to the city in case I got a turn when Palenque was almost, but not quite, defeated but Germany, my friend, did a quick conquest.

I have no backup strategy left. I'm second in tourism and now on Immortal I can defend against the AI armies but for this game at least I'm toast.

One last detail: against the Aztecs I captured Lampang, north-west of King Solomon's mines, and liberated it for Siam. Not long after that Assyria took it and eliminated Siam entirely. I'm now in the process of taking Lampang for the third time. I don't think I'm going to do any more liberating, unless it's city-states.

Turn 185, achieved full continental domination. CS killed off the final civ so that the other continent won't denounce me. Now it's just a matter of time until the win. Tech was slow, but couldn't steal either. Probably would be 270-300 finish. Both Germany and Sweden got wonders, bribed them to war against each other. May take out one of them, we'll see.

Your name: sebtanic
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1921AD
Turns played: 341
Base score: 1689
Final score: 2483

End game was quite slow, as my science wasn't very solid.

I opened using a Trad/Liberty hybrid in order to get HG & Petra (which was successful). Turned out not to be necessary though. Should have finished Tradition sooner to get better pop & science.

Settled 3 cities, captured one from Monty when he DOWed me which I later annexed. Much later, a German city converted to my empire due to cultural pressure. This was helpful for sending the last GM to Mayan lands, which would otherwise have taken me quite a few turns.

A GM popped just after finishing Internet, which was cool. Ended up faith buying just one GM even though I had 6000 faith, so could have bought 3. Bought a GE too to deny Sydney to the Assyrians, but it didn't matter as I won before it was finished.

Sacred Sites ban didnt really matter as the other continent was too far away. Someone took SS a couple of turns before I finished.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 123
Date submitted: 2015-12-15 09:05:37
Reference number: 33628
Your name: beto_java
Game status: Science Loss
Game date: 1996AD
Turns played: 416
Base score: 1465
Final score: 1465
Time played: 4:47:00
Submitted save: fim_Ahmad al-Mansur_0417 AD-1997.Civ5Save
Renamed file: beto_java_C512301.Civ5Save

Your name: Sclb
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 2021AD
Turns played: 443
Base score: 7513
Final score: 8537
Time played: 28:45:00

Epic game since my early conquests on my continent put me behind Germany in tech. Despite me being able to eliminate all AI on my continent, no quick win is possible, I decided to just go for score. Likewise Germany has eliminated every civ on his continent, so it's down to 2 civs trying to influence each other, except Germany has conquered a huge number of wonders and has massive culture. Later he also built Great Firewall so I can just take my time and build up massive tourism in the meantime. All I have to do is to prevent him from launching SS, and it was done once I've reduced him to 1 city and destroyed his sources of aluminum. All that's left to do is to basically grow my cities as much as I can. I didn't annex most of the conquered city on other continent, as there isn't enough time to grow them too much before my tourism will influence Germany anyway. Culture victory is the only victory type that is difficult to time as once you get going, it is also difficult to stop. I have no idea how to get over 10k score. Maybe closer to turn 500?

Also I bought a lot of GW/GA/GM with my massive fpt. Almost all of them used to create great works, as I don't need more culture.

I lost track of how many future techs I got, but must be more than 20.
End population of my capital is 53 pop.

- Did you get Petra? If so, describe your path to it.
Beeline after getting construction for CB rush. Used liberty GE to rush in capital.

- Describe any significant interactions with other Civs and how it impacted your tourism.
Killed everyone on my continent, so picked up a few early wonders on the way, in addition to having massive land so I can get all the dig sites on my continent with significant number of landmarks. WC founded just before I took the final city of Assyria, so I have to stop killing and wait for CS to take it to prevent denounce from other continent. Meanwhile, Germany is happily conquering all of his continent. Later of course he would backstab me and Dow me in a few turns, and I took all cities except Berlin which contains Great Firewall, liberated Amsterdam which only had 2 wonders to prevent winning DomV. And just waited until my passive tourism build up enough to influence him even with Great Firewall to build up points. Conquered Berlin 2 turns before I would get influential with him.

- How did the delay from meeting the other continent impact your strategy?
More delay means more time to conquer my continent, and the other continent doesn't know about my warmongering.

- Share your thoughts about the Sacred Sites ban. Did it matter? Was it enjoyable or frustrating to be denied SS? Feel free to share both good and bad opinions (but keep it civil, haha).
SS isn't really efficient on this difficulty anyway.

t261

4 cities tradition, freedom, airports and archeologist

lost international games