TSG 223 After Actions Thread

[vadalaz]

In this thread you can post the results of your game. Please state your victory/loss date (preferably in the post title) and describe your path to glory in this post! Players are encouraged to provide feedback on the game.

- Did you prize many ships with the UA? Did you use your UUs?
- How many armies did you have and what was their composition? Did you go for world conquest with naval units, land units, or a mix of the two?
- In what order did you capture the enemy capitals? Who was the toughest opponent?
- What techs did you prioritize and what social policies did you choose?

 

[Siddharta]

Hi, I just finished my playthrough and I was victorious! My first participation in GotM.

- Did you prize many ships with the UA? Did you use your UUs?
I captured a TON of ships with the unique ability, especially in the early game with the raging barbarians on. It is just SO much fun, I really enjoyed this playthrough. On top of that, all the opponents had unique naval units, and it's equally as fun to just capture other civ's unique naval units and use them against them. Very very cool map!
I used a couple of Janissary's to tank city shots. Did not really build Sipahi's, or any cavalry unit at all. There really wasn't much use for cavalry on this fractal map.

- How many armies did you have and what was their composition? Did you go for world conquest with naval units, land units, or a mix of the two?
My first conquest I used mainly land units (composite/crossbow/Swordsman), since early on you cannot get ranged naval units. After I got galleass technology, I didn't actually produce any extra land units I believe. Every enemy capital was sea based, so I conquered all other civs with Galleass/Frigate/Caravel/whatever ships I captured from the enemy

- In what order did you capture the enemy capitals? Who was the toughest opponent?

Byzantium => Carthage => Korea => Portugal => England => Netherlands. The hardest one was Carthage. They actually attacked me first after I had just finished Byzantium. I was still building up galleasses at this point, and had some trouble early on with their quinquiremes. Byzantium I conquered mainly over the land, and I was kind of disappointed they built 0 naval units. So I didn't capture a single one of their unique ships, which is the earliest ranged naval unit you can get!

- What techs did you prioritize and what social policies did you choose?

I went pottery first for the early religion through tears of the gods. I went fast towards sailing (get the trireme snowball going with prize ships + raging barbarians) and Optics for the lighthouses. Then I went for construction quite early for the land conquest of byzantium with composites. After this philosophy for the national college, then the harbor tech (can't remember right now) and education. I went pretty fast for navigation to get Frigates and basically conquered the world with them.
Social policies: tradition => opened exploration => rationalism. I just went into autocracy a couple of turns before victory.

 

[armcie]

Victory on turn 264. Was a fun one. I do like an islands map, though I'm not usually so violent on them.

- Did you prize many ships with the UA? Did you use your UUs?
I barely built any land units, let alone my UUs. Snatched a few barbarian ships, which stayed with me through the game, giving me more mellee ships than I'd usually take to battle. I also captured two Naus and two Ships of the Line, plus a handful of galleases.
- How many armies did you have and what was their composition? Did you go for world conquest with naval units, land units, or a mix of the two?
Purely naval for me.
- In what order did you capture the enemy capitals? Who was the toughest opponent?
I went east with Galleasses around the time I discovered Astronomy. A single army wiped out Carthage, then Korea (who had some convenient iron, as I was ready for Frigates). Portugal fell next, and at that point I saw England had their Ships out, so they needed to go. A quick diversion to Venice (who seemed to have lost all their Merchants to barbarians) made a good stop off point to upgrade caravels and Nau to ironclads.
At this point I wanted to finish things quickly. It was me, Byzantium and the Netherlands left in the game. My fleet was to their West, and my homelands unprotected to their East. So I split my fleet of about a dozen Frigate class, parked them outside the relevant capitals, paid William to declare war on Theodora, then nipped in to take the capitals.
- What techs did you prioritize and what social policies did you choose?
Top half of the tech tree. Frigates were going to be the key to this game.
Policy wise, I opened Tradition and Honour, then filled out Tradition. From there my choices where more haphazard - I took Honour's left hand path for faster xp, opened up Exploration for the boat boosts (England beat me to the Lighthouse) and then once I began world domination, realised that the happiness from sea buildings was necessary. Put two policies into Rationalism too.

Probably the most fun I've had in a Gotm for a while.

 

[urbis]

Domination victory 1665AD (turn 241).

Kept a little log of progress:

• Settled in place
• Ruins to north gave 95 gold, to the south gave faith in time to get Tears of the Gods pantheon
• Built Scout > Monument > Worker > Settler > Settler
• Researched AH > Pottery > Mining > Sailing > Optics
• Honour (Discipline > Military Caste to get the happiness and culture x 3 early cities), maxxed then exploration maxxed and a couple of rationalism tenets
• Serendipitous period while first city size 3, building 2 settlers, after getting Tears of the Gods pantheon, and could use the 3 population to work pearls, gems and gems, (which would starve the city if not building a settler), allowing me to rush toward a religion.
• Turn 41 founded Fort Sunset on southern marble
• Turn 54 Founded North Harbour NE of silk
• Turn 55 ruins on NE island gave faith – religion lining up nicely
• Turn 56 founded Tengrism with Initiation Rites (for fast gold) and Pagodas
• Turn 63 snatched a Byzantine worker and got away with scout and worker
• Turn 73 snatched a second Byz worker with same scout and made peace
• Turn 83 used the Great General from Honour to chop a forest and add bison and gems to city
• Turn 131 took Andrianople after a long friendship (including large loans from them that I won’t have to pay back - am I a bad person?); used artillery corp of 6 catapults and a trireme to take the city, no losses
• Turn 139 took Constantinople for loss of only a scout, made peace, leaving them with harmless little city of Nicea off coast
• Turn 163 Took Carthage with same corp of 6 catapults plus several triremes, for loss of only 2 triremes (after telling a very small white lie about my intentions… everyone will hate me for it… must be a bad person)
• Turn 167 And Utique, for loss of a single catapult. Fleet expanding via capture of 2 quintrieremes
• Turn 173 And Hippo Regius (at cost of just a catapult), making peace and leaving Carthagians with just Gades, a weak island city
• Captured lots of prize ships so far – got a fleet of 14 ships, think I only built half of them
• Aiming for Venice next – they’re the only civ above me on scoreboard; will try to get them fighting with Dutch/English first
• They don't learn, and I am a bad person - keep reassuring them my units are just passing through, they keep letting me get into position for sudden assaults
• Turn 200 attacked Venice with trebs, a pike, a couple of janissaries, 2 gallei, several caravels, and several older ships. Captured Venice 203 at cost of a couple of ships and a couple of land units, inheriting its 13!!! Wonders
• Turn 206 made peace with Venetians, who generously gave me Hanoi and some gold too
• Turn 222 have conquered Netherlands, moving western expeditionary force to attack England, gathering many frigates etc in east to attack Korea
• Turn 230 took London with about a dozen ships and several cannon and janissaries, with no losses
• Turn 235 took Seoul and Jeonju, made peace with their remaining city, sold Jeonju to Portugal for cash. Last capital to capture is Lisbon – already got frigates, privateers, cannon, and janissaries converging on their island from several directions
• Turn 241 took Lisbon with a horde, victory 1655AD.

Fun game, thanks organisers

 

[Axolaan]

I won a domination victory on turn 201.

- Did you prize many ships with the UA? Did you use your UUs?
Not really. I did capture some ships, but I used privateers which always have that ability, and I didn't capture any unique units, frigates or privateers. My own unique units were worthless for a naval-based war, so I didn't build any.

- How many armies did you have and what was their composition? Did you go for world conquest with naval units, land units, or a mix of the two?
I had 1-3 armies (navies really) throughout the game. One small one to defend my island against Dido, one to take capitals and one to soften up my last few targets with caravels and privateers, and also steal their trade routes. I merged and split them off throughout the game based on which units were most useful for taking cities, especially galeasses/frigates with range and/or logistics. I used a few land units to target Byzantium and pillage their land, but other than that I only used naval units to take cities. I could have embarked an army to attack Byzantium, but galleasses appear so early in the tech tree that I didn't bother.

- In what order did you capture the enemy capitals? Who was the toughest opponent?
My first target was Theodora. Until I got her capital, I would not have iron to make frigates with. I took her capital on turn 165. I used her iron to upgrade my range galleasses to frigates, and at that point I might as well have stopped researching because the other capitals fell one by one relatively easily. Dido was the only civ to declare war on me and occasionally send troops. Venice on turn 173, Amsterdam t179, London t188, Seoul t194, Carthage t198 and Lisbon t201, all using frigates. My toughest opponent was probably Dido, since she was to only one who actively opposed me by attacking my cities. An honorable mention goes to Korea for their turtle ship slams.

- What techs did you prioritize and what social policies did you choose?
I mostly ignored science and went straight for galeasses and later frigates. Any other techs were just to get to those two faster, or get happiness. I have been experimenting with honor lately, but I got a little too creative this game by getting the full honor tree as my opener. If this had been a land campaign, this would have helped quite a bit, but unfortunately the map is not great for early war, and the general bonuses were next to useless. The gold from kills helped, but tradition would have been strictly better here, yielding gold and happiness from the start of the game, with a lot more growth.

 

[JeffreyLXV]

Turn 295
1850 AD
Domination Victory

- Did you prize many ships with the UA? Did you use your UUs?

I finished with 45 naval units ranging from galleys to battleships and the vast majority were captured prize ships. The game stretched out a bit because I was trying to finish the Barbary Pirate achievement, but apparently, it's bugged. I learned the Gods & Kings DLC must be disabled to complete that achievement.

- How many armies did you have and what was their composition? Did you go for world conquest with naval units, land units, or a mix of the two?

A handful of land units; lots of frigates, caravels and privateers; some ironclads; a couple of battleships that were nearly fully promoted; 45 naval units and four admirals.

- In what order did you capture the enemy capitals? Who was the toughest opponent?

Carthage, Seoul, Lisbon, Venice, Amsterdam, London, Constantinople. Elizabeth's Ships of the Line and Longbowmen were the most dangerous but overwhelmed by +1 range frigates.

- What techs did you prioritize and what social policies did you choose?

Prioritized getting frigates.
Liberty; Exploration; Freedom

 

[jrwh]

Domination victory, turn 182, 1220AD

- Did you prize many ships with the UA? Did you use your UUs?

I got some caravels and triremes (plus one dromon I used to farm a barb camp to ally a CS), especially from England, who made a lot of boats, but never seemed to get to ship of the line tech. In fact, I never saw a single frigate or privateer besides my own the entire game. Venice had one or two great galleass, Korea had some turtle boats or w/e their UU is (more on that below), and Byzantium and Carthage had a lot of their low-tech UU. I deleted all the triremes I captured immediately, and eventually most of the caravels too.

- How many armies did you have and what was their composition? Did you go for world conquest with naval units, land units, or a mix of the two?

I used two fleets, six frigates each + some privateers and caravels. I went with entirely naval conquest, which was (not, if you really think about it) surprisingly quick compared to land wars, given your ability to avoid expands on your way from capital to capital. I didn't fight a single non-capital, and made peace immediately after capturing each one, outside of William taking three extra turns or so to give in.

I didn't bother attacking anyone until frigate tech, and no one bothered me along the way. The plan was to get twelve galleass and immediately upgrade six to frigates at Navigation, sending them west to conquer Constantinople asap (this is bleeding into the next question), providing me with six more iron to upgrade the rest of my galleass and send them east. I may have been able to shave several turns (8-10?) off my finish if I started focusing the galleass earlier, skipping universities in my expands since no tech past Navigation was necessary. I only ended up making ten before I reached Navigation, and hard built the remaining two frigates after getting the extra iron. To make matters worse, I upgraded four triremes to caravels at Astronomy, thinking I'd use two to explore and two as capture units until my privateers were out, but it was a poor use of gold. I spawned a GS with 7 turns left on Navigation, which I could have bulbed, but I didn't have the gold for immediate frigate upgrades anyway, so I planted it instead.

- In what order did you capture the enemy capitals? Who was the toughest opponent?

Western/Initial Fleet:
Constantinople turn 156 (forgot to SS until the next turn)
Venice turn 163
Amsterdam turn 169
London turn 177

Eastern Fleet:
Carthage turn 167
Seoul turn 176

Both Fleets Merge:
Lisbon turn 182

Korea for sure was the toughest opponent. They had a turtle ship and h'watcha both in the capital with easily the highest def of all the capitals (40+), nearly one shotting my ships, and only four tiles to attack from. I let a couple frigates get low then backed them out, attacked with my remaining three while sacrificing a few yellow caravels on the fourth tile, eventually got greedy and even lost a frigate, then burned my GA to mass repair and finish it off. Carthage also had very high city def, but very little in the way of units. Overall, the eastern fleet had it much rougher, on top of getting a late start.

I think I also could have potentially captured Lisbon 1 turn sooner if I did my last attack of the turn with a privateer instead of frigate; I didn't realize it would get so low from the first three shots. It would have been close enough to be worth trying, not like I was short on privateers at the time, but I had already attacked in such an order that I couldn't move it next to the city.

- What techs did you prioritize and what social policies did you choose?

Pottery off the bat for shrine + granary
AH + Mining next for tile reveal + improvements
BW (ew) for iron reveal, ended up influencing my western expand location so that I got the only iron available though, so probably worth it
Masonry + Calendar for lux improvements
Sailing + Optics for trade routes, lighthouses, triremes
Civil Service for river farms
Education for unis
Navigation

Full Trad for growth and (ideally) fastest possibly teching to Nav, opened Explo right as my conquest started (was pretty happy with the timing of that) for the extra movement, got a second point in it for happiness near the end. Overall, my culture was very low and slow, never hard built any culture buildings or anything like that, but it definitely didn't need to be prioritized for this particular game, and did everything I needed it to do for me.

- What could I have improved about this game?

First of all, I think I spent too long on the "building up" phase of the game; I grew way more than I needed to, with every bit of my production worked and maybe 8-10 unemployed citizens to spare. I should have unworked all 0-prod growth tiles and gone all-in on galleass immediately as the tech was available, and then managed my gold stockpile better for frigate upgrades.

I also mismanaged my happiness from the Venice conquer up til almost Korea. Venice didn't have either of his fishing luxes improved, so I bought and hard-built a pair of work boats that took 8 turns to send over that way. I could have sent my spy to Genoa (the only happiness CS on the map as far as I could tell) for a coup earlier than I did, and Netherlands had two luxes I could have demanded in addition to or instead of all his gold and gpt when I made peace. I finished Notre Dame one turn after taking Carthage, so I managed to avoid rebel troops temporarily, but I had a couple barb knights spawn on my capital a little later. I eventually sorted out my happiness issues via Circus Maximus, zoos, improving Venice's luxes, and coup'ing Genoa.

Overall, I enjoyed the game. The build-up phase felt very slow, but once I set loose, there was little to no resistance, and I plowed through.

 

[zxcvbob]

I almost missed this one. Just noticed it when I posted my pathetic attempt at #224 Domination on turn 270. This was a lot of fun. I started with Carthage, when Dido sent a settler to my island. By then I had 3 cities and there was room for one more but I hadn't settled there because it had no resources except for one fish tile. But I had a pike guarding the location, and I could use an extra worker. At the time, Dido was the tech leader and had the strongest military. It took me a while to whittle her down mostly with galleasses. Halfway through that war I upgraded 6 of them to frigates and things started moving along a little better. I captured all of her cities, razing one I think.

Next was Korea, and it fell very quickly. I did leave one Korean city because it would be very hard to attack without indirect fire or multiple ships with Logistics that could move in, fire twice, then get out of the way. Alas I didn't capture any turtle boats. I did sink one with a caravel.

Then Portugal. Halfway thru the Portuguese war, Theodora beat me to Notre Dame by one turn; she also denounced me. While still working on Portugal's last city (it had Machu Picchu) I declare war on Theodora. Elizabeth also wanted Machu Picchu and declared war on Portugal, so I had to be careful to make sure I didn't let her capture it. So obviously now I had 2 navies. The one attacking Byzantium was inexperienced so I had to send some janissaries and a cannon along to help. I captured all 4 of the Byzantine cities, and razed all but Constantinople.

The next victim was Venice. He had several nice wonders, including Forbidden Palace and the Great Lighthouse. My experienced navy started working on Venice while the newbies were still mopping up at Constantinople. Venice fell in about 2 turns without putting up much of a fight, then I captured his other 2 cities too. They were nice cities so I didn't raze them. Happiness is starting to be a problem, but I can usually keep it just above 0.

Who's left? I think just Netherlands and England. I took out William first, then Elizabeth. Liz put up a good fight. I would have preferred to attack London first and capture it; game over. But the positioning of the cities made more sense to take it last. She had captured a city state (without looking at the map I think it was Genoa) and I liberated it. If you look at the pic, you'll see a captured Ship of the Line. I wanted to use it to hep take London, but it was quicker just to use my frigates and a sea beggar.

My social policies were Tradition, Exploration (I don't think I quite finished Exploration), and the right side of Liberty. Right at the end I had to pick an ideology (3 factories) so I took Freedom and picked two happiness tenets.



Props to whoever thought of this one. Having all opponents with unique ships was brilliant.

 

[sebtanic]

Domination Victory t214 here.

Settled on the Gems, and got Tears of the Gods like mostly everyone else I guess.

Built two expo's before NC: One near the Silk on the northern coast, and another one tile east of the Marble.

FIrst policy was Honor, which was almost a complete waste as only one barb camp ever popped up on my island. It didn't pay off until I got Discipline near the end of my game.
After Honor opener I went full tradition, then one in Exploration and the last policy before winning was Discipline which helped me in my final wars against Korea, England and Portugal.

Got a religion turn 78 (tithe, pagodas).

Path of conquest:

I attacked Carthage first, because they had settled Gades on my island. Took it with CBs and a spear. This was a slow and excruciating war, and definitely the toughtest one in this game. At times I wasn't even sure I would win. Not until I had the tech for Galleas was I able to turn the tide and conquer the enemy's capital with a mixed army of CBs, a spear, 4 or 5 Triremes and several Galleases.
I did take several Quinqueremes with prize ships, which helped assuage my losses (lost some triremes). After this war I had 3 Quinquerems and ust one Trireme of my own making left over.

t155 finally conquered Carthage
t179 Constantinople - this was easy compared to Byzantium (had Caravels and Frigates by now)
t187 Venice - easy peasy (with 6 Frigates+1 Caravel). Venice had Great Lighthouse, Notre Dame for happiness, and lots of other wonders.
t195 Amsterdam fell for the first time, but they fought back with land units
t202 Amsterdam captured definitely

Built another fleet of 6 Friagtes and 1 or 2 caravels to go east towards Korea. They had a number of turtle ships which took 4 shots or so to kill. I was able to capture two ot those. Unfortunately the Ocean's geography only allowed me to use them near the Korean coast, but they did help somewhat, shielding my Frigates from enemy fire.

t205 Seoul
t211 London - England had the largest military of all my opponents. So I sent my whole fleet from Amsterdam, and also some additional Frigates from Korea. I took London with little resistance, but Elizabeth was almost able to capture it back by counterattacking it with Longbows from out of the hills 3 tiles away, where I couldn't reach them with my ships. When London's defense was close to 0 and just before they got some infantry in to capture it back, England decided to sue for peace for some reason, which I gratefully accepted.
t214 Lisbon - Easy win with 4 or 5 Frigates from Korea and a Caravel

 

[raider980]

Domination Victory T240. Continuing from Opening Actions thread where the beginning was quite slow. But it picked up after T100. T124 Dido DoW me with a fleet of Quinquereme's as suspected; and I was ready. Thanks for the Quinqueremes, Dido. And it was off to the races.

- Did you prize many ships with the UA? Did you use your UUs?
--- Yes, I prized a lot of ships. I must have captured 8-10 Quinquereme's from Dido's initial attack through to my capture of Carthage on T145. Once you get a couple of those powerhouse vessels it just snowballs. I didn't capture any Great Galleass' or Ships of the Line; but got at least one each of the rest of the UU ships. The toughest were the Turtle Ships, those things ain't no joke for defense. I ended up using my captured Turtle Ships as bait for Sejong's others. So most of my prized TS's got killed and I only ended up with one; but that was ok because they're quite useless for the rest of my attack on other AI since they can't go into ocean. Didn't build any UU's; well maybe one or two very late for no real reason.

- How many armies did you have and what was their composition? Did you go for world conquest with naval units, land units, or a mix of the two?
--- I had only one fleet that I used to capture all the capitals. I left a few ships at home for defense which turned out to be unnecessary. Only used naval units except for a few land units for Carthage and Byzantium. Then a few tagged along later to keep the peace in the conquered capitals. I also took range before logistics so my Frigates could stay out of city range and all pile in since many of the capitals were pretty well placed so there weren't many sea tiles within two hexes.

- In what order did you capture the enemy capitals? Who was the toughest opponent?
--- Order of capture was:

• T124 Dido
• T145 Enrico
• T180ish Constantinople
• T196 Korea
• T? London
• T? Portugal
• T240 Amsterdam for the win
• The toughest was a tie between Dido because I had to create my navy during that war and Sejong because of his city placements and those turtle ships.

- What techs did you prioritize and what social policies did you choose?
--- Prioritized the top row because of the island map. Went full Tradition then the essential Exploration, a few in Patronage. Got Ideology near the end and took Order for happiness for the last couple captures.

A great setup, map and game!

 

[Rhodro]

Just got a domination victory on turn 201. I slacked a bit in the endgame, getting complete kills on all enemies (except england having 1 city left, netherlands I only took their capital). I think I should have just left 1 frigate at each capital and move the rest of the fleet to the next capital. The enemies did not put up much units at all after losing their capital.

- Did you prize many ships with the UA? Did you use your UUs?
Yea prize ships was amazing. I only trained 1 trireme and gained all my melee ships this way. That saved a decent chunk of hammers I think. I didn't capture any unique ship from the other factions, except 2 turtle ships. They got deleted because I couldn't sail them to other capitals.
I built the 2 UUs, but only for the build all units achievement, since all cities were capturable with boat I didn't see much need for land units.

- How many armies did you have and what was their composition? Did you go for world conquest with naval units, land units, or a mix of the two?
I had 1 main navy that captured most cities. I left a few units around the map to defend captured capitals. Filled the navy back up all the time. In the endgame I made a 2nd navy. I think I could have made the 2nd navy earlier. Still made too much buildings I think.

- In what order did you capture the enemy capitals? Who was the toughest opponent?
Byzantium, Venice. Then Carthage attacked me. Korea, Portugal, England, Netherlands. I wouldn't say any of the opponents were very though. Besides Carthage they didn't make that much units. Carthage did cripple me for a bit because she killed my trade routes when she attacked. I saw here coming because I had one ship giving vision on her movements. I was planning to denounce her to hopefully stop her attack, but she attacked 1 turn before...

- What techs did you prioritize and what social policies did you choose?
I focused on getting frigates ASAP when I saw all cities were coastal cities. I got construction and workshops very late this game. That was a good fun choice and very different from most games I play. After that I went for Military Science to get brandenburg gate, for fun, but the game was already won before that.
I took full tradition and a few policies in exploration. The Naval Tradition happiness was very important at the mid game. Lastly I put a few policies in rationalism but they were not important to the victory.

Thanks for setting up this game! I love it that Game of the Month is still running after all these years.