TSG 159 After Actions Report

[Knowtalent]

Welcome to the TSG159 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.).
- 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?
- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
- What techs did you prioritize ?
- Did you use Atomics? (I will be disappointed if you didn't )

 

[zxcvbob]

This is embarrassing. It was a fun game, I might reload a previous save and try to recover:

Your name: zxcvbob
Game status: Science Loss
Game date: 675BC
Turns played: 88
Base score: 1241
Final score: 1241
Time played: 3:49:00

1. - How useful was your UA?
2. - Did you use spying to your advantage?
3. - Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
4. - How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
5. - What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
6. - What techs did you prioritize ?
7. - Did you use Atomics? (I will be disappointed if you didn't )

1. The unique ability was awesome in the later game. I would capture cities and my happiness would go up. At the end I think it was 87, and only that low because I hadn't built all my courthouses yet.
2. I used spies totally for CS influence. A big part of my strategy was to control the world congress and to get free resources from my little allies. I should have used at least one spy as a spy or diplomat to keep better tabs on my enemies (and friends)
3. Map was a hindrance. I really should have settled a late city in Panama to form a canal. (but what would you call it?)
4. Emperor is my favorite difficulty because the AI's seem competent and they put up a good fight
5. I started with 2 in Patronage, the rest in Exploration, and Freedom. I filled Patronage, 6 in Freedom, and most of Exploration. I opened Commerce rather than do the great admiral thing in Exploration.
6. Ecology (for the aluminum and SOH), Telecom, Satellites, Nanotech, Stealth.
7. I nuked Poland back to the stone age because Casimir was on the verge of a science victory, even tho' I was the science leader. Meanwhile, Indonesia was quietly building spaceship parts and apparently didn't assemble the last 3 until they were all built because I was monitoring the victory screen and he was nowhere near finishing it. The loser screen was a total surprise to me, and I had to One More Turn to see who won.

Next time, I'll nuke everybody. I had plenty of uranium, production, and gold; I could have hit everybody with a surprise nuke on the same turn without declaring war first. (Probably everybody except America and France because they were not threats; mop them up last)

 

[Kendon]

Your name: Kendon
Game status: Science Loss
Game date: 700BC
Turns played: 87
Base score: 664
Final score: 664
Time played: 5:34:00

zxcvbob survived one turn longer than me. Right now he wins and I guess I'm second since I see only two submissions. The announcement drew a lot of comments. Maybe some other players who also lost haven't submitted yet.

It's such an original start it's like a whole new game. I didn't play my practice games through to the end. That was a mistake. Here I moved my settlers around looking for oil or coal. There wasn't time for that.

The UA was partly wasted because I didn't realize that annexing conquered capitols would increase happiness. Spies went to city states. With the map I worried my capitol might be on an inland sea so I looked for a port to the south. Once I traded embassies and saw my neighbour I should have moved my third settler in that direction for a faster attack.

On Emperor I was more defensive. I see now there wasn't time for that. I should have started building artillery immediately.

Social policies were Tradition, Honor (missed the no barbs comment), Rationalism, and two in Exploration. I took Autocracy. In my practice games most AIs took Autocracy. Here no one did. From the mid-game on my citizens were very unhappy.

I was first to have the atomic bomb and then I went for mechanized infantry. In this era getting land ships would have done the job of scouts. That would have been smarter. Everyone had anti-aircraft so bombers weren't very effective.

Poland hit my capitol with an atomic bomb before my infantry got close to his capitol. I had a nuclear missile ready to launch from my sub on turn 88 against Indonesia but their space ship launched on turn 87; so I was eager to use atomic weapons but I misjudged the time I had available.

I was glad to see this game posted. Two weeks after Hammer Rabbi left I didn't see a Game of the Month. I wondered if maybe they'd stop and that was disappointing because there's so much more to these than to the regular games.

So, thank you, Knowtalent. Hammer Rabbi was a great coordinator – always aware, never intrusive – but I will say you get full points for originality. I'll try this game again and I look forward to the next one.

 

[zxcvbob]

@Kendon: Was the loss a surprise to you? (I nearly lost my practice game to science, so I was watching for it but Indonesia sneaked up on me)

I'm really liking the idea of playing totally peacefully until I control the world congress; build up a large nuclear arsenal, and without warning nuke everybody on the same turn. I may have to try that on a replay...

 

[Kendon]

I noticed Indonesia had built a rocket booster but I was busy trying to attack France through the mountains to the north so I delayed. When I saw the second booster I sent an expeditionary force including an atomic bomb and nuclear missile toward Indonesia.

The mobile infantry and artillery took six turns to cross the ocean and four more to close in on the Indonesian army which also included X-com units. I landed two Indian X-coms but they were overwhelmed. There were two rounds of fighting before I realized the nuclear attack had to happen right away.

Altogether I'd estimate 15 to 16 turns from Indonesia's first booster to its victory launch.

On my first replay I've captured Warsaw on turn 36. I think now the key opening choice is Freedom and Volunteer Army. Promote the six foreign legion. Send half east and half west along with the opening infantry. Leave one infantry to look after things at home. Start building artillery because there's no oil for landships or bombers.

I'm going to try another opening with that strategy.

 

[Knowtalent]

This particular GOTM was done as a total lark, the fact that you guys are replaying it makes me happy.

 

[golem]

Your name: golem
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 775BC
Turns played: 84
Base score: 862
Final score: 5387
Time played:2:22:00

I settled in place, send troops to recon the world and did two cities near for cargo ships with food. Social politics - Rationalism, all for free technology. I chose Freedom, but not sure if it has any influence to the game. I build Factories, Universities, Observatory, Public school, Oxford, Paratroopers.
Beeline Nanotechnology - .and XCOM, XCOM.... - probably 100times. No spies. No other units. My Infrantry was already sitting next to capitals, so paratroopers had an easy job. First was France, next Germany, Indonesia. America started to be difficult., but finally I managed.
The worst fight was Carthago - rocket artillery, tanks against me, lot of troops, some city states allied. Last classical non nuclear fight was with Brazilia, but they were pathetic. Warsaw had defence 154, it was too much to my X-coms. I used two Atomic bombs, next 8 Xcoms and it was done.

Next time I would prefer something peaceful, I felt as really bad guy. Thanks for nice game.

 

[Rogerio_AA]

Your name: Rogerio_AA
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 300AD
Turns played: 127
Base score: 3468
Final score: 13872
Time played: 10:01:00

- How useful was your UA?
Was very usefull to bring Happiness, due the high number of conquered cities.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?
Nope. Only used the Diplomat to maintain the other Civs in peace with me.

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
Nope, the map had a lot of natural barriers, has been need build a lot of railroads to move my units, quickly.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
I runned to Nuclear Weapons before the AI Civs.

- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
I got the Bonus Settler of Liberty Policy, and the Exploration Policy to improve de Production of Coastal Cities.

- What techs did you prioritize ?
Running to Nuclear Weapons and Mechanized Artillery.

- Did you use Atomics? (I will be disappointed if you didn't )
I've used a lot! Dozen of them!

 

[aafritz17]

Civ5 GOTM 159
Science Loss
Turn 97 450BC
Base Score 862
Final Score 862

Ah, shoot. Yeah, both the UA and the map were problems. Shouldn't have been. But, no production, no oil, no aluminum at the spawn site. Should've built a couple of Settlers for oil right away, but (with additional conquered cities coming) I was worried about the UA. Shouldn't have been, had plenty of happy most of the time. Oh, well.

Just couldn't get enough units into Indonesia. Had Jakarta reduced to rubble, but I couldn't take the city, and he got the SS launched.

Germany was one turn behind him, but I took Berlin just after his 5th part was built. Of course that was coastal, and just across the one ocean. We had been friends, and I was trying to keep that until the end. Brazil was going to be a problem, too, for the same landlocked reason. But he wasn't near victory, and I had plenty of nukes offshore, just waiting for a tank or two to get there.

With regard to Social Policies - opened Tradition T0 (for border expansion). Then, next turn, took Order: Socialist Realism and Young Pioneers (happy from Monuments and Workshops, because...) Resettlement (new cities +3 population, so Mumbai & Vija start with 7) and Skyscrapers, all on T1.

Tech priorities were Nuclear Fission, Combined Arms (for Tanks, but ONLY HAD 5 OIL FOR MUCH OF THE GAME!) Then Penicillin (needed many trade routes to feed all those Resettlement citizens!) and then Advanced Ballistics for Nuclear Missiles.

 

[aafritz17]

This particular GOTM was done as a total lark, the fact that you guys are replaying it makes me happy.

Yeah, think I will, in spite of my signature. Gonna start nuking EVERYBODY NOW, and damn their torpedoes!!!

So, the TSG157 was the Small Continents with Poland, and then this game. Both with significant lack of production at the spawn site. Must mean the next one is gonna have a Petra start! (Except...wasn't TSG155 the Egypt game in the desert? Guess we had Petra in that one.)

 

[Knowtalent]

Yeah, think I will, in spite of my signature. Gonna start nuking EVERYBODY NOW, and damn their torpedoes!!!

So, the TSG157 was the Small Continents with Poland, and then this game. Both with significant lack of production at the spawn site. Must mean the next one is gonna have a Petra start! (Except...wasn't TSG155 the Egypt game in the desert? Guess we had Petra in that one.)

I try and mix things up a bit, some easy, others a challenge. Not sure just what I will do next month, I may mix in a couple of scenarios...

 

[poxpower]

Personally I don't like all the late start games though I have to confess I haven't tried them before
Just seems to defeat the point of a snowballing game like CIV.
Anyway maybe add a point system like the Deity challenge games had? Maybe that's too complicated to keeps tabs on.

Anyway thanks for keeping this going!

 

[Knowtalent]

Personally I don't like all the late start games though I have to confess I haven't tried them before
Just seems to defeat the point of a snowballing game like CIV.
Anyway maybe add a point system like the Deity challenge games had? Maybe that's too complicated to keeps tabs on.

Anyway thanks for keeping this going!

I am by nature an Ancient era builder, that is why I started including the scores in the results, but every so often I enjoy a silly themed game.
The various challenge series with the points were a lot of fun to do, and I can see them as a way to add to the game. It would require more time on my part to come up with challenges and points and would have to be on the honor system, but we could try it.

 

[socralynnek]

Spaceship loss on turn 94 (to Indonesia)

I had only conquered Poland and was about to conquer Rio.

Troop Logistics is not my strength and that was done improper by me.
Builidng nukes would also have been necessary.

Sciencewise I was doing fine, the first to Giant Death Robots and XComs. Never used them before as all my late area games were peaceful ones...

Also found out that spamming XComs is a good strategy on such maps.
Never had an atomic area start before, that was also quite different and interesting.

 

[beetle]

Domination Victory, 100AD, turn 444 (119 turns), Base score: 2508, Final score: 10904, Time played: 7:17:00

I played this game in the spirit it was offered. Thanks so much @Knowtalent, I very much enjoyed it!

I was waiting for Nuclear Missiles to come online. Poland, unfortunately, was not so patient, and he took Mumbai just before I was ready to roll. I quickly took back the city and then bombed Warsaw, but that is why Mumbai is tiny. Unfortunately, my nuke on Warsaw caught an American unit. (I had a spy in Warsaw, so it must have been in the second ring.) America sent an Atomic Bomb my way, and Vijayanagara was hit hard (as I had not built Bomb Shelters.) So two patches of orange, but one-way bombing would not have been as much fun. And more fallout, I knew, would please @Knowtalent!


Germany gets special mention as I nuked Hamburg and Munich off the map. Stupid AI planting cities 3-hexes apart meant I could hit both win one missile. Look for the dark stains in the middle and east coast of Africa.


Here is the DOM VC screen (with more fallout). Nuclear Non-Proliferation was passed, but I had already build my nukes at that point, and had one left to take care of Indonesia’s inland cap, which otherwise would have been very annoying. I left France alive because I was worried about triggering a CV. That was silly, since one can always get the DomVC after any other VC type, regardless if it is the player or AI.


Edit 6/21 to improve my grammar, and for adding a couple sentences for clarity.

 

[johnniewalk]

Your name: sam
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 400BC
Turns played: 92
Base score: 783
Final score: 783
Time played: 4:54:00