TSG 145 After action report

[Knowtalent]

Welcome to the TSG145 After Action Report thread. In this thread you can post the results of your game. Please state victory date and score (preferably in the post title), as recorded in the Hall of Fame, and the most important: your path to glory!
STOP - Please do not continue reading this thread until you have completed and submitted your game.
Please use the Civ5 game submission page to submit your final, first play through, .Civ5Save file, saved AFTER the victory ceremony if you were not conquered (using the "Lemme play one more turn" feature.).
- Did you use your UU?
- How useful was your UA?
- Did you use spying to your advantage?
- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
- Was Faith helpful to achieve victory?
- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
- What techs did you prioritize ?
- Peaceful Diplomacy or Gunboat Diplomacy?

 

[x2Madda]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 145
Date submitted: 2016-10-15 19:18:13
Reference number: 34943
Your name: x2madda
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1868AD
Turns played: 204
Base score: 2360
Final score: 3868
Time played: 5:08:00
Submitted save: TSG145_End.Civ5Save
Renamed file: x2madda_C514501.Civ5Save

- Did you use your UU?
Everyone will use England's UUs on this map. Everyone.

- How useful was your UA?
Made this game a breeze, felt like I was playing on Prince to be honest it was so easy!

- Did you use spying to your advantage?
No. Never had a need too, saved up money to mass buy city states and was #1 in tech. Oddly the AI never spied on me all game, never had that before.

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
The map type, the player civ, the UUs the UA, this was clearly meant to be an easy GOTM as we approach Civ6. Minimal effort needed to win this one even by players who may not normally go above Prince.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
I sold luxury resources hard and fast, gritting my teeth through the unhappiness in order to acquire maximum riches. Its nice when the AI does infact actually have money!

- Was Faith helpful to achieve victory?
Not in the least, it barely made a footnote in this game to be honest.

- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
Tradition (obviously), Opened exploration, Rationalism (again, obviously), Freedom (because of course I did).

- What techs did you prioritize ?
Ship of the line! Once I had my local resources hooked up it was all guns ablazing on getting my OP units massed produced. The map is quite a tricky demon in that regard but I managed it.

- Peaceful Diplomacy or Gunboat Diplomacy?
Why would you ever try peaceful? The AI is NEVER going to vote for you unless you liberate them and Attila just can't figure out water.

--
Crashed on turn 70, this seems to be an issue with EUI when playing windowed. I thought the latest version fixed it but apparently not so whatever, I can play full screen, I'm a big housecat.
I hate Assriya, I hate his stupid face, I hate the stupid way he denouces me all the time and I hate his stupid face. Venice did me a favor and reduced the number of city states which I apprechiated by letting him live, everyone else just built wonders for me and allowed me to take their capital and satellite cities which was ever so nice and thoughtful of them!

The starting landscape was awesome, I settled on the spot and I do not regret that one bit! A barb camp moved in next door right away but the AI decided that they were going to sacrifice themselves to try and remove it for me which meant I could spend time moving my settlers peacefully right next to that natural wonder. Oh you know the one! Using the +4 faith from NW, I watched in huge annoyment (its a word, look it up!) as I was 2nd to LAST to found a religion as the great prophet in the sky just ignored me.

Turned out to be pointless anyway, I never cared about religion, completely skipping over the +2 delegates world congress proposal.
My warmongering also meant the AI gave up! Completely unprepared for navel combat the AI simply but trimeres which I simply sank and then they bent over and capitulated. A few inland cities that I really didn't care for but throwing horses at them seemed to do the trick.

I enjoyed this final GOTM. Sure it won't be the last one for Civ5 since Civ6 launch is bound to be bumpy at first but after that we will move onto Civ6 with a fresh slate and maybe, just maybe, I will finally beat Acken at a GOTM (I doubt it).

Press GOTM to pay respects.

 

[jshelr]

Finished 1874 or thereabouts Not much to report. 4 cities and lots of food shipping among them. Got Petra and Colossus to boost food shipments early. But still the game went pretty slowly.

 

[mc_norris]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 145
Date submitted: 2016-10-18 00:34:40
Reference number: 34957
Your name: mc_norris
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1825AD
Turns played: 190
Base score: 890
Final score: 1561
Time played: 1:43:00

 

[zxcvbob]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 145
Date submitted: 2016-10-19 15:51:11
Reference number: 34959
Your name: zxcvbob
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1952AD
Turns played: 246
Base score: 2004
Final score: 2708
Time played: 6:17:00

The game got really tedious around turn 150 and I almost didn't finish it (combination of large map, lots of seas with little or no access, and quick pace) But a few wars spiced things up again I won with votes to spare on the 2nd world leader election. I could have won on the first vote if I'd thought to buy Guangzhou from Ashurbanipal and liberate it. I checked afterwards and he was willing to sell it for 3 luxes and 400 GPT. Poor Attila was having major ideology problems at the end; switching back and forth between Autocracy and Order because his people were so unhappy with both.

- Did you use your UU?
- How useful was your UA?
- Did you use spying to your advantage?
- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
- Was Faith helpful to achieve victory?
- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
- What techs did you prioritize ?
- Peaceful Diplomacy or Gunboat Diplomacy?

UA was very useful on this map. I should have taken the Exploration opener sooner (I ended up almost finishing that tree at the end) for the extra sight, because +2 movement helps a lot more if you can see where you're going. I didn't realize that embarked units also get the +2 movement. As far as UU's go, I built lots of longbows and then never used them, but the ships of the line were awesome. I used them to destroy China (I let Assyria capture her last city after I pounded it to zero health and then made peace) and to destroy Greece's navy and start chipping away at Athens while my one shiny new battleship made its way there. They could have taken Athen without the battleship but it would be costly. Then I upgraded them all to BB's and killed all of Alex's land units as he tried to recapture his capital. Vienna was next, and it fell very quickly even tho' it was over 120 strength.

I used spies mainly for city state influence, and then as diplomats at the end.

This is my favorite difficulty to play at. The AI's are worthy adversaries, but they don't cheat *too* much. Of course they were hobbled somewhat by the water map. I really wanted Petra, and the AI's really like Petra, so I beelined Currency at the expense of some other useful early techs and wonders.

My religion was Earth Mother, Tithe, Swords to Plowshares, Religious Art, and Religious Texts. It was useful but not game-changing. I should have bought a couple of scientists at the end.

Priority techs: Currency (Petra), Astronomy (observatories), Navigation (SOTL's and privateers), Biology (oil), Flight (Prora and triplanes), Electronics (battleships), Penicillin (marines), and Globalization. I avoided Dynamite because I took Great Wall from China, and when I captured cities the enemy units were stuck moving one tile at a time in their former territory while I picked them off from the water.

Tradition, Patronage, Rationalism, Autocracy, Exploration. Gunboat diplomacy.

Attached is a screenshot of my core empire at the end. Hastings was settled extremely late to grab some oil, and for access to the North Sea. Also I annexed Athens, and had 3 puppets with wonders.

 

[GunnarStahl]

I played the game! Unfortunately, I reloaded... so I won't be able to submit my save file.

I didn't saw it was on QUICK so, I went a pretty bad way first... still, I played it on my own! First time ever I played on Emperor. Enjoyed it!

Moderator Action: Greetings, glad you enjoyed the game. Moved your post to the After Action thread as once you open the save, you should not post in the Announcement thread as you may spoil the game for another player.

 

[btg]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 145
Date submitted: 2016-10-20 17:10:45
Reference number: 34964
Your name: BTG
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1866AD
Turns played: 203
Base score: 2375
Final score: 3893
Time played: 3:54:00
Submitted save: Elizabeth_0204 AD-1868.Civ5Save
Renamed file: BTG_C514501.Civ5Save

- Did you use your UU?
Of course, everyone will use ship of the line in this game.

- How useful was your UA?
It was very useful to more quickly explore!
Problem for me was getting past the Huns early enough. Didn't find everyone till turn 114 when I had already gotten to Printing Press.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?
To schmooze some to win early votes, though I didn't really need it. Rest with city states as I was completely eclipsing everyone in research.

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
Help. Nice starting location, 2nd city by the GBR, and 3rd city next to mountain and petra desert. Food trade routes to make them grow fast, and didn't then even bother to build a 4th city though I could have. It was nice to have the extra happiness for FAST wars and killing Venice, Greece, Austria, China and Carthage. Would have done Attila next but then world leader vote triggered lol.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
I guess not much. I got all the wonders I tried for except the Oracle. I had 2 production monsters, my capital and my petra city to the NE.

- Was Faith helpful to achieve victory?
I guess it was only marginal. It helped with the early economy (tithe) and apart from that I did Borobudur to spread it to Assyria, Byzantium and Huns. After that I didn't bother doing much besides killing other missionaries and prophets and then voting it in as the World religion, supported by the ones that had it as religion so I unnecessarily bribed Attila to vote.

- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
Tradition first obvi. Then opening patronage doing the left side, but focusing on Rationalism as soon as it was open and finishing it a bit later. Then Freedom and some policies from there.

- What techs did you prioritize ?
First beeline to build petra, then beeline for religion stuff and ocean access, then beeline to printing press. After that heavy science focus picking up all wonders I wanted, then along the way picking up ship of the line, immediately building 2 navies that got busy killing civs. First navy to China, 2nd navy started with Venice. Then navies converged on Austria and Greece and then finally super upgraded battleships to finish off Carthage in a couple turns. About 12 battleships and 3 ironclads by the end.

- Peaceful Diplomacy or Gunboat Diplomacy?
Gunboat diplomacy and backstabbing mostly.

 

[sebtanic]

Won t194.

Built just 3 cities, in the usual spots (SIP, GBR, and north next to the mountain).
Venice beat me to Forbidden Palace so I conquered them with Longbows and Ship-of-the-Lines. Otherwise, a very peaceful and laid back game.
It was fun to explore the large map and find all the city states.
In hindsight, should have done that quicker for a faster finish. As the World Congress cycles were fixed I don't think I could have gotten a faster victory any other way.
Killing all except 2 neighbors was out of the question this time, would have taken forever and killed happiness...
Fun game though!

 

[Vacuuman]

Your name: Vacuuman
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1810AD
Turns played: 187
Base score: 1160
Final score: 2071
Time played: 3:43:00

Aside from an early war on Theodora to capture her capital, I played a very peaceful game. I was rewarded with several DoF's (and plenty of research agreements) from everyone except Theo (who I stayed at perma war with to prevent her from denouncing me) and Attilla, who would later send a very poorly planned attack at me and become a global pariah. I never built a single SOTL, and I only used my upgraded archers + CS units to defend my homeland. Built 3 early cities and a late 4th on the Desert/Mountain spot around turn 105 or so. Nobody built Petra so that late 4th city ended up being my #2 science and production city.

In the end I finished fairly quickly, although it's hard for me to judge since I don't usually play on quick speed. I realized that I had to buy CS quick before Austria and Venice grabbed too many and I won the World Leader vote on it's first go-round with 5 votes to spare. Looking forward to more GOTM and learning about CIV6, although it will probably be a little while before I fork over the money for a new and untested game.

 

[Kendon]

Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1852AD
Turns played: 196
Base score: 1124
Final score: 1905
Time played: 8:32:00

Last question first: the most peaceful game I can remember playing. It was late game before anyone attacked anyone. Finally Attila made a halfhearted approach to my border city but with infantry facing his siege towers he attacked Theodora instead. The difficulty level encouraged me to be peaceful, and the map type made invasion harder.

Faith was pivotal. Money from Tithe bought science buildings as soon as they were available. Being ahead in science kept things peaceful. Techs fast-tracked astronomy, then science.

I started full Liberty with one Honor. I know it's not the fastest but I like to build things. Patronage was next, Rationalism and Freedom for the ideology. Freedom didn't make much difference. None of the ideologies are oriented toward a diplomacy victory.

Spying was decisive at the end when all six spies became diplomats after Globalization. That was enough for first-round world leader. I also had the world religion and the world ideology.

UA mattered start to finish. Not only was the ship range impressive but it was similar for the embarked military units who were at the far edges of the shallow water when Astronomy finished. They scouted in different directions til they hit land, then went looking for barbarians to get more culture.

I did one silly thing. Hastings was my Great Barrier Reef city. I put it right opposite the Reef tile, which of course became a barrier to ships in or out. I had a coastal landlocked city. I have to remember not to do that again.

 

[zxcvbob]

I did one silly thing. Hastings was my Great Barrier Reef city. I put it right opposite the Reef tile, which of course became a barrier to ships in or out. I had a coastal landlocked city. I have to remember not to do that again.

Oh my, I almost did that too. I didn't even know it was a problem until you said something here. I settled one tile over because I think I'm on a hill for an extra hammer, but more importantly it picks up another luxury tile (truffles?) in the third ring.

 

[sebtanic]

I did one silly thing. Hastings was my Great Barrier Reef city. I put it right opposite the Reef tile, which of course became a barrier to ships in or out. I had a coastal landlocked city. I have to remember not to do that again.

Same here...

I wanted acess to the salt to the northeast, and the river tiles to the east. Figured I'd get the truffles in the 4th ring eventually, anyway. Not so... in the end I had to use a great general to get them.

 

[pahakuutti]

Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1835AD
Turns played: 192
Base score: 2386
Final score: 4113
Time played: 19:10:00

Took ages to finish this one.

- Did you use your UU?
Of course.

- How useful was your UA?
It helped.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?
Not much. Some city state coups etc.

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
The map was a bit tricky. Spent so many clicks maneuvering my fleet and capturing almost everything.

- Was Faith helpful to achieve victory?
It helped a lot with early happiness. In the end i had so much faith points, that I didnt know where to spend it all. Just bought prophets for fun.

- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
Full Liberty, Piety (3), full Rationalism, full Patronage, Exploration (3) and Order

- What techs did you prioritize ?
Ship of the Line.


Strange thing happened when i was about to settle a new city (see attachment).

 

[usslaidback82]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 145
Date submitted: 2016-10-25 21:24:19
Reference number: 34982
Your name: usslaidback82
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1914AD
Turns played: 227
Base score: 1452
Final score: 2135
Time played: 11:39:00
Submitted save: usslaidback82_227_1914.Civ5Save
Renamed file: usslaidback82_C514501.Civ5Save

Well, that was a pretty feel-good way to participate in my first Civ5 GOTM. I have to say how suprised I am by how easy it was. I obviously made a few stupid mistakes (blocked off ocean access with the barrier reef, like Kendon; missed the victory by 1 delegate on the first round of voting because I COULD NOT find the final CS in time. Oh well, live and learn.

I do have a question about achieving the vote in the atomic era, though. In one post from another GOTM I read that you only need to eliminate half of the rival Civs to trigger it, but Sebtanic (see above) mentions killing all but two. Can some clarify which it is? Either way, this is my first attempt at a diplomatic victory and I didn't even know you could speed it up like that until about turn 160. That definite would have changed my strategy (I played a very peaceful game until getting bored near the end and wiping out Attila).

- Did you use your UU?
A little bit, but not nearly as much as I apparently should have.

- How useful was your UA?
The extra movement on water was truly magical.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?
I did use a couple diplomats to buy votes for certain purposals, but the spies were not pivotal at all. I took a fairly early tech lead, so they didn't help there. They did provide some delegates at the end, though

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
The starting location was so good that I think anyone could win this one with little trouble. Sooo much production and gold, and GBR... not to mention a complete lack of threatening civs in the general area until I was already an era ahead in tech. The one issue I had was finding Florence in a timely manner, which costed an entire 17 turns.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
Not sure about this one. This was only my 4th BNW game and the other three were on King difficulty to understand the mechanics (I played quite a lot of the Vanilla version a few years ago, but it's really a different game).

- Was Faith helpful to achieve victory?
Nope.

- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
Full Tradition, most of Patronage, Commerce opener, full Rationalism and Freedom (which was not as helpful as I thought, but was cool for the Statue of Liberty...)

- What techs did you prioritize ?
Astronomy, Printing Press, the pretty much just the upper half of the tech tree.

- Peaceful Diplomacy or Gunboat Diplomacy?
Boringly peaceful. I feel that was my biggest mistake. Should have built fewer cities and burned more to the ground.

 

[sebtanic]

I do have a question about achieving the vote in the atomic era, though. In one post from another GOTM I read that you only need to eliminate half of the rival Civs to trigger it, but Sebtanic (see above) mentions killing all but two. Can some clarify which it is?

It's all but two. For that specific GOTM, "all but two" was the same as "half of the rival civs" because there were only 6 civs in total (so if you killed three, there were just two left apart from yourself).

 

[MPoxon]

Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1932AD
Turns played: 236
Base score: 1134
Final score: 1597
Time played: 4:17:00

Last GOTM for me on Civ 5 now they have released the Mac version Looking forward to GOTM on Civ 6. Many thanks to the GOTM staff for the running these, they have been great fun and fantastic to learn from.

- Did you use your UU?
Ship of the Line is one of my favourite UUs, Truly devastating in a pack especially once they get the 1+ range promotion. I have conquer a whole map (small islands using 5 of these and 1 Caravel).

- How useful was your UA?
Again UA is fantastic for these types of map, especially if you get Great Light house as well.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?
I used one spy in the capital for defence and to level up the rest were rigging votes. Late game diplomats in capitals for extra votes.

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
Map was good for a Civ like England

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
Very straight forward, a nice chilled out game.

- Was Faith helpful to achieve victory?
Did not bother with faith

- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
Full Tradition, full Patronage, full Rationalism and partial Freedom

- What techs did you prioritize ?
Astronomy, Printing Press, then Education techs.

- Peaceful Diplomacy or Gunboat Diplomacy?
I should have gone gunboat but won quite easily peaceful but took longer than I would have liked.