TSG 166 AAR

[Knowtalent]

Welcome to the TSG166 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 attach 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.) In your post.
- 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 ?

 

[dedmoroz345]

Hi boys and girls!

I'm win this map with 302 turns and 2191 score. i forgot to use my carnaval . i spent artist to make wonder

- How useful was your UA?
yes, but i used it very seldom

- Did you use spying to your advantage?
No, dif level was prince, and i used spies to get influence on CS

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
map is very easy there are a lot of space on your continent, you can easily wipe out your neighbors

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
i took my continent, and capitals on other.

- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
Full liberty, then aesthetic, then patronage open, rati open, full order

- What techs did you prioritize ?
Writing, Construction, Edu, PP, ST, Radio, Archeology, Platics, Refrigeration

I think i can play much better: more often use carnaval, take refrigeration after archeology and dont go to plastics, because there are a lot of jungle which with brazilwood camps make enough tourism for victory.

Good easy game, in the end some boring ...

P.S. Next time try to win peacefully with this strategy

 

[YomoKimyata]

Won a (mostly) peaceful cultural victory on turn 337 (year 1917 in game) with a score of 1329. I generally play on Emperor with an occasional dip into Immortal, and most of my victories are either science or domination, so this was a nice refreshing change of pace and I learned a number of things during the playthrough. I feel pretty confident that on a replay I could break 300 turns without a Sacred Sites strategy, since I made a few fundamental boneheaded mistakes.

How useful was your UA?: Very much so, but I misplayed my golden ages, both in terms of missed wonders and in play of my Great Artists. I missed both Chichen Itza (this one really hurt) and Taj Mahal by a few turns each, so the eternal Golden age which began naturally at around turn 286 should have been continued from the previous golden age starting in 195. Also, I ended up with three unused Great Artists that I eventually put into Uffuzi -- had I managed things better I would have put them in there much much earlier which would have helped out a bit with tourism. UB was very useful. UU was a non--issue.

Did you use spying to your advantage?: Not in the slightest. By the end of the game I was 12 techs ahead of the average so only used spies to stop anyone from stealing my stuff. What I should have done was train up my spies then use them to curry favor with some of the CS -- I essentially ignored CS throughout the game and still had 80% of my army supplied from military CS who I "accidentally" became friends with.

Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?: I'm going to say hinder, but as the above poster noted it was an easy map with peaceful neighbors. Taking over the continent would have been easy (my CS-supplied army as mentioned above was still #3 in military by the end of the game. I made some decisions based on the assumption that most of the map would be jungle, so that affected some decisions, like deciding to go peaceful (except for punking Persia when he tried to settle one of my chosen sites) or by choosing +1 culture for jungle tiles when it came to pantheon. The three neighbors I had seemed to have trouble with barbarians, since they took a long time ot expand and their economies were at negative gold for the first 100-150 turns, which really put a crimp in my economy since I had no one to trade with. Having better trade in the pre-150 era would have really put a boost on early growth.

How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?: I mostly play emperor, so I ended up with a lot more wonders than I expected. I got greedy and that's how I missed Chichen Itza and Taj. I did end up with Eiffel Tower, Hanging Gardens, Sistine Chapel in Rio; Globe Theatre Leaning Tower, Temple of Artemis and Uffizi in Sao Paulo; Notre Dame and Porcelain Tower in Brasilia; and Broadway in Salvador -- that's a lot more than I would attempt at a higher level.

What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?: Again, I got greedy and started with the left branch of Liberty for a quick start then got the opener and Aristocracy from Tradition. That got my four cities up (capital on river hill, forward settled Sao Paulo on river below KSM with 2x bananas and Dyes in the third ring, coastal city to the west on top of horses and finally on the river hill next to Mt. K) by around turn 62, with National College in the high 90s IIRC. On a replay, I'd consider full Tradition and just warring to take back any spots that the AI might swipe. Followed this up with full Aesthetics and Rationalism. Ideology was Freedom and no one else had time to found one. I took five policies in Freedom, and in retrospect should have taken only three and finished off Rationalism earlier.

What techs did you prioritize?: I screwed up here as well. I delayed refrigeration way too long since I totally spaced about hotels until pretty late -- I was too concerned with science and chased plastics first.

Thanks for the game! I look forward to more in the future.

 

[raider980]

Cultural Victory turn 300.

The Maya and Persia were way too close. I knew I had to take The Maya out or else I'd face serious missionary spam all game. If this were a regular game I'd have tried Archers but since its GotM and there's no reloads I waited until CB. (That's one thing I've noticed; when playing the GotM I'm much more cautious.) I took them out rather easily. And it turned out they had a really good religion so I wouldn't have minded the missionary spam, hahaha. (And I had to deal with it from Ram anyway and he had a bad religion).

I debated whether to take out Persia, and I left it up to fate. If he got a religion, I'd take him out; if not, he could live. Well they got the last religion. So they had to go. I decided to go for it with my CB's and it worked, was a lot easier than I expected.

All this happened before I met the other continent so I was safe from the warmonger hate; except from Ram, he hated me all game. That's ok though, I hate him too; always.

Rest of the game was peaceful. And the AI kept giving me open borders (except Ram, ha). They practically begged me for it, even when my carnival's were spreading tourism to them like mad. It's almost like they didn't know they were playing a game with a cultural victory condition .

- How useful was your UA?
................ Carnival are awesome. Wish I would have contacted the other continent sooner.
- Did you use spying to your advantage?
................ Wasn't really necessary. Got a few city states with it.
- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
................ Helped because I could kill two civs and the rest of the world didn't even know of my treachery.
- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
................ Was able to do a lot more since it was Prince.
- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
................. Went full Tradition. Then full Aesthetics. A couple in Rationalism. Then Freedom ideology.
- What techs did you prioritize ?
................. Prioritized the culture techs more than normal since it was a CV condition. Other than that I did like I normally do, winged it. I don't pay too much attention to optimal tech path; one reason I'll probably never be a Deity player.

I almost didn't play it since it was Prince (I normally play Immortal) but decided to since my last Brazil game I got destroyed by Shaka. And glad I did, it was a fun game! Thanks!

 

[zxcvbob]

I usually play Emperor level. trying to move up to Immortal, but mainly I've been playing Civ 6 for the past month so I'm a little rusty at '5. When I do play 5, I seldom dip into Aesthetics, so this game was a treat. Culture victory on turn 325. I built the writer's guild early and worked both slots continuously; I bulbed one writer after the Worlds Fair, but I created great works with all the rest. I delayed the artist's guild until ideology time (I should have built it earlier.) I never did get around to building the music guild.

Unique ability and unique tile improvement were awesome. Unique unit, not so much. I did upgrade one warrior all the way to a highly-promoted Pracinha (he has cover and march), but by then the game was almost over. I may "just one more turn" and declare war on Darius just so that Pracinha and my range/logistics/cover/march/ignores terrain Gatling gun can play.

The difficulty level meant I could build wonders that I generally skip. (like Stonehenge, Parthenon, Great Library, Chicken Itza) I think I built at least 15 wonders, and they are scattered around in my 4 cities for the Flourishing of the Arts boost (Machu Picchu was built after FotA, so it probably didn't help.) Social policies were Tradition, Aesthetics, Rationalism (finished all 3), and the Exploration opener. I took the Freedom ideology with 9 tenets.

Pacal tried to convert my holy city with a great prophet before I could buy inquisitors, so I declared war just to capture his prophet (only 3 zaps left, unfortunately) I stayed at war with him the whole game, using his last city for target practice to level-up my units. Played peacefully other than that. Persia and Siam kept converting my full-of-wonders city down by Solomon's Mine, which kind of stung because I had the Sacred Path pantheon, but eventually I got that under control w/o having to declare war. BTW, I used that Maya prophet to convert all 3 of Siam's cities; that distracted him for a while. I'm not sure why Darius hated me. Just too close, maybe. I was friends with everyone on the other continents and had open borders for most of the game.

"What techs did you prioritize?" Machinery and Refrigeration.

 

[DougBSA]

Welcome to the TSG166 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 attach 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.) In your post.
I barely won in Year 2048. I only built three cities using Tradition and conquered one city to the north which I puppeted. AI to North sued for peace giving me another puppet on north coast. Should have declared war 10 turns later and conquered his capital. Could have also annexed the puppets once I got happiness under control. built Great Library and several others, never established a religion.
- How useful was your UA? Very useful but I didn't generate many GA
- Did you use spying to your advantage? Stole a few techs but not very useful
- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how? It was tough contacting other continent. I had to kill some trade caravans to build cargo ships. once they got going and initiated trades my tourism started wearing them down.
- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions? Felt free to go after more wonders including Great Library, Sistine Chapel, Uffizi Louvre (but didn't utiolze the theming bonuses) Sydney Opera House, Eiffel Tower.
- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose? Tradition, aethestics completed both and got all needed ones in Freedom. Also unlocked honor, commerce and exploration for initial benefits. having only three citites accelrated gettign policies but I suffered from lack of civ wide production.
- What techs did you prioritize ?

Really emphasized the techs I needed for wonders. Should have gone for caravals earlier.

Great game and I really enjoy this level to learn better skills.

 

[glonnon]

Never won a Brazil game before, tried diety several time but never got a good start, in hindsight you don't need a good start. Screwed up with carnival and built the carnival wonder just as golden age ended, since it was my second golden age, couldn't use the golden age to generate tourism with off continent civs. Probably cost me 30-40 turns. With the carnival I could've turned the off continent civs in quick order but I had to scramble and get a trade route to Portugal, right at end I got a prophet and missionary to turn her to my faith. The carnival is a wicked tourism advantage, not sure if any way to get one other than chicken itza but sure could have used a golden age at the right time.

Looked at opening map and saw jungle, I hate jungle for first city, so I ran my settler one way and my warrior the other hoping for a wonder. I found the best wonder 6 hammers with the warrior but the settler stumbled on a great city site. It was close but decided a 7-10 turn delay on a settling was not worth the wonder, plus it was surrounded by jungle, ICK. Wanted to go Honor but the culture for jungle religion was just too good an idea so I went liberty. I got my first settler with culture and started the piety tree. I was horrified to see Siam with three rungs up the piety tree and ready to steal reformation. I almost started a war and began to question my decision to not go honor and pump out archers. But somehow I lucked out and nabbed reformation. I worked up the liberty tree and got the admiral at about turn 120, by popping oracle. I failed to get the great lighthouse but did open exploration, I found all the civs in about 20 turns, got lucky and ran into a stray Portugal spearman. Funniest thing Siam grabbed the mosque which probably cost me 5+ turns with the delay in religion avalanche but I had hopes I could steal religion with him also getting monastary. If I could steal his religion I could build 4 religious buildings in each city. But he wouldn't put out any prophets for the longest time and by the time he did. I forgot the plan, in hindsight a war with Siam would have been well worth a prophet grab, he sent it right thru my civ but somehow got past the units I planned to poach any Budhists I could. At the point I could grab his prophet I was already into the hitting next mode. Overall the game got sloppy when I built chicken Itza two turns before the end of my second golden age. Bannanas, Brazil and jungle can really cause an avalanche in gold and culture.

Overall techs didn't play a part, keeping my pop down kills me but is necessary with sacred sites. If I had a carnival left I would have let my pop grow because it is more fun but had to spam about five one pop cities because I screwed up the carnival. The spy had no impact and I should have used to seduce a happiness city state, in hindsight. The prince level means the other civs are best treated with contempt, just take what you want and steal workers, prophets and demand cities if you can handle the happiness hit. I was shocked when AI beat me to the great lighthouse. Amazed me to see AI pass up chances to attack my units and barbs. Honor is a good opening on prince because the AI lets you kill all the barbs. But overall I played sloppy because the one window the prince civs had gold I wasn't able to pocket it, because I hadn't stolen enough workers, peace treaties allow a good trade which I couldn't take advantage of because I didn't steal enough workers. I had a barb camp near my silver mine and could have milked this for a bunch of gold but again was too lazy. I only had one worker at about turn 70 and eventually built the pyramids because I was milking the culture out of the bannanas and jungle. I was too lazy to steal workers which is very easy from the prince civs because they tend to have very few units. I was unable to unlock faith buildings and units reduced at 20% because of my other needs, this limited how fast I could build all my religious buildings. My only tech priority was to stay in the early ages where faith has value.

Rather fun game after the beat down I took with the Dutch Diety game. Getting off continent with sacred sites is an interesting problem, but was confident that any carnival would reign in any civ with a big culture at the prince level.

 

[socralynnek]

Cultural victory on turn 252 (1710 AD) (Sacred sites)
Went liberty then piety (and in the end part of aesthetics which brought some golden age)
Early pantheon via hut (or was it even via meeting city states?), took the jungle culture.
Religion via settling near 'old faithful'
I was able to even convert the cities of the Maya twice to my religion via a Prophet (in between a prophet brought their religion back)
Research then to caravels was a little slow, but after I found them all, some Golden Ages helped...(and that Portugal lost its capitol to Monty...)
Even had two cities on their continent near Sugar and furs, I think I had about 15 in total.
Wasn't at war the whole game.

 

[Suliz]

Cultural victory turn 308. Would have saved myself a few turns had I not confused Siam and Persia and detonated a great musician on the wrong Civ.

Lulled by the difficulty, I was too slow and ended up with only 3 self-founded cities, as Persia grabbed the location south of Rio I was looking at.
First city - settled in place
Second city - NW of Rio, two hexes SE of the Iron (Pacal had settled close by, so I quickly expanded my borders to secure the Iron)
Third city - On the East coast, east of a mountain and next to another Iron)
My fourth city was a gift from Pacal to stop me taking taking it - he literally had no army at all.

Made no attempt to curry favour with city-states, but endeavoured to avoid war. The only conflict I had was with the Maya, who I started a brief war with (hey, I warned him to stop sending missionaries, but would he listen...)

- How useful was your UA?

Obviously, pretty darn useful. In the 120-140 turns, I would guess at least half of them were held during "Carnival!" (maybe closer to 2/3)
- Did you use spying to your advantage?
Not really, most of them were kept at home defending against spies.

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
Jungle baby! All that extra science gold and culture definitely helped.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
Low difficulty level let me build more wonders than I would otherwise attempt. Less competent enemies also made me feel safer beelining Education and Acoustics.

- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
Tradition, Aesthetics, a couple of Rationalism, Commerce opener, Freedom

- What techs did you prioritize ?
Mostly stuck to my standard plan National College, Education, etc. with a few add-ons to cover needed techs (water and ocean travel) or to enable the building of specific wonders (Chichen Itza in particular)

 

[zxcvbob]

I may play this one again and go Liberty, and take a great admiral for the finisher.

 

[civ1230]

Won in 1957, I went for liberty, aesthetics, then piety. The last few turns snowballed after Persia and Siam made peace with me.

 

[letsgobucs]

CV win 213
UA was vital built my strat around it.
Spying didn't come into play.
Map hurt a little for SS maybe could have done better teching Astro sooner.
Difficulty allowed a lot of early wonders SH GL Pyr Ora CI with GE
Opened Liberty to Collective rule then piety to reform and MoH back to liberty to meritocracy leaving rep for culture bomb. Two aesthetics culture centers then representation on turn 199 for a carnival 15 turns.

Techs Calendar masonry Philo BW Civil service, astronomy, metal casting accustics

I probably could have shaved 5 10 turns by taking representation one policy sooner on turn 180. I had only met 6/8 and had a Great artist coming along so it would have been worth the gamble as I had a caravel on each side of the other continent I ended up finding portugal and shoeshine in like 5 turns from that decision point. I also probably built one too many cities. Really hurt my plan not having a culture CS early threw off the timing of my plan from my practice games

Had a lot of fun with this one thanks for putting it together. Never played Brazil or did a SS spam before this month.

 

[beetle]

CV T315, 1890AD. Base score was 1799, adjusted 2855.
Lucky for me to have the extra day to submit. I played it early (lazy SS), finish the first week of January, but forgot to submit until today.

FYI the Rainforest map doesn't necessarily generate one Pangaea-like landmass. I tried a practice game with the strategy you had in mind (any cultural game is Sacred Sites or bust for me, all-or-nothing), and was surprised to discover I had a continent with only 3 other civs on it.

That was a good tip, but it came too late to help me. I did not reply sooner, since I had already played the map.

I don't see how it would be possible to pull off a SS strategy when you need to tech Astronomy in order to meet all the civs. You skip on so much infrastructure and population (and therefore science) that it would take ages to reach the tech. Then you gotta build caravels and actually meet people. But hey, if you can do it I'll be super impressed. Or maybe you get lucky and this particular map is not split into continents.

SS only worked for me because the difficulty was low. I did not get Astronomy particularly early.

 

[billybgame]

I tried this one, but gave up in disgust in like 2015. In retrospect, I should have taken out my entire continent, I guess. Like others here, I took out the Mayans, and had 8 cities, so thought that would suffice. But, Siam was a pain in the arse the entire game! He built a crapton of wonders, and was the bane of my cultural win. I could have pretty easily built more units and taken them out before meeting the other continent, but I know it would have just killed my happiness. It was already a constant struggle. I wonder how those who did take the continent for themselves managed that one.....I guess razing helps, then rebuilding, later.

Anyhow, I would have won this one in the 1900s, if not for Siam. He was only at 70% influence, and I could see the writing on the wall, so gave up the ghost.

Just recalled, think I should have submitted it anyhow, but forgot about that. Oh well.