TSG 227 After Actions Thread

[zxcvbob]

I've replayed the first 200 turns on this one several times. The secret to dealing with Rome seems to be beelining crossbows. (with detours for Optics and Civil Service, of course, and maybe Philosophy) Once you research Machinery you can go back and pick up all the techs you skipped (like Iron Working and Metal Casting) No matter how strong Rome's capital is, you can take it down with massed crossbows and a few impi (don't bother with catapults they are a waste of hammers, and you don't need trebuchets), kill all the legions and trebuchets that try to recapture it, then sweep down the rest of the continent razing all the Roman cities. Declare war on Persia and Songhai if they are still alive.

I can conquer my whole continent before even meeting anyone else, so they will still trade with my while I'm exploring. It works best when I resurrect either Persia or Songhai without giving them their capital, so they can fill in the lower part of the continent with crappy cities that I have open borders with. But in anycase, at this point I get stagnated by happiness problems even if I built or captured Notre Dame and have pagodas and circuses (etc) in my core cities and in Rome. Happiness seems to be my limiting factor and it doesn't matter whether I go Tradition or Liberty or Honor. I don't know how those of you who finished in less than 300 turns did it.

 

[dumpstertrash]

I've replayed the first 200 turns on this one several times. The secret to dealing with Rome seems to be beelining crossbows. (with detours for Optics and Civil Service, of course, and maybe Philosophy) Once you research Machinery you can go back and pick up all the techs you skipped (like Iron Working and Metal Casting) No matter how strong Rome's capital is, you can take it down with massed crossbows and a few impi (don't bother with catapults they are a waste of hammers, and you don't need trebuchets), kill all the legions and trebuchets that try to recapture it, then sweep down the rest of the continent razing all the Roman cities. Declare war on Persia and Songhai if they are still alive.

I can conquer my whole continent before even meeting anyone else, so they will still trade with my while I'm exploring. It works best when I resurrect either Persia or Songhai without giving them their capital, so they can fill in the lower part of the continent with crappy cities that I have open borders with. But in anycase, at this point I get stagnated by happiness problems even if I built or captured Notre Dame and have pagodas and circuses (etc) in my core cities and in Rome. Happiness seems to be my limiting factor and it doesn't matter whether I go Tradition or Liberty or Honor. I don't know how those of you who finished in less than 300 turns did it.

I didn't wait for xbows, I went Liberty and compbow with spearmen to take over the whole continent. Then Impis while I was conquering. Happiness buildings are a priority.

 

[sebtanic]

Happiness seems to be my limiting factor and it doesn't matter whether I go Tradition or Liberty or Honor. I don't know how those of you who finished in less than 300 turns did it.

I feel you -- I still feel that way with all those players who finish much faster than myself

In this particular scenario, I remember I took like 4 CBs and a couple of spearman around the left (western) side of Rome, to attack from the south where there was an open space (no jungle). It's important to always attack from an angle where the terrain is easy so your archery units can attack from range 2.

I used to be a terrible warmonger, but I feel I'm getting a little bit better recenlty. I read the "Attila Deity domination guide" here in the boards. It's ten years old but it is full of tips and tricks that still work. I then played lots of deity maps trying to win domination. lost abyssmally on most of them, but eventually I was able to conquer a map

One trick I learned there that's really cool is worker baiting. Always bring a worker or two to the front that can lure defending units out of cities, then kill those units while they are out in the open. It really works!

 

[zxcvbob]

One trick I learned there that's really cool is worker baiting. Always bring a worker or two to the front that can lure defending units out of cities, then kill those units while they are out in the open. It really works!

On one playthrough, I had to send a worker in to chop the jungle tiles just across the river from Rome because he hadn't cleared any (it took 6 turns to chop each one because I was playing Tradition.) I had composite bows and Impis standing by to kill anyone who jumped out to steal the worker. And several times they stole the worker anyway. I'd shoot the enemy unit a couple of times and then kill it with an Impi. The city would bombard the Impi and he'd have to retreat, and the worker went back to chopping. Caesar would bring another trebuchet into the city and we'd start the whole dance over again. *Eventually* I had clear shots at the city, and I had eliminated some of the defenders (and picked up some XP)

 

[sebtanic]

Never occurred to me to actually chop the Jungle for them haha

 

[Megalou]

But in anycase, at this point I get stagnated by happiness problems even if I built or captured Notre Dame and have pagodas and circuses (etc) in my core cities and in Rome. Happiness seems to be my limiting factor and it doesn't matter whether I go Tradition or Liberty or Honor. I don't know how those of you who finished in less than 300 turns did it.

I had happiness problems too because I razed too few cities on the home continent. The problem is limited, though, because of the fact that it doesn't get any worse with 30s than it is with 20! I think it is a grave design flaw: Utter chaos should break out if unhappiness reaches 30 or beyond, which it actually did in my game (while I was mopping up Aztecs and England and had difficulty joining their island to the trade network). But all I had to do was keep around 10% of my army near Ulundi to quell the occacional band of pikes.

 

[raider980]

Yea lord knows I hate happiness in Civ 5. But I’ve mostly learned to deal with it. I’ll sacrifice just about anything for happiness. Even pop and science; which is one reason why my games take longer than others.

It’s why I almost always go Order. Seems like happiness is easier to control with Order. Same with Tradition. And even when I don’t go Tradition, I’ll usually open it and take Aristocracy at some point, Aristocracy is a surprisingly powerful anti-unhappiness tool later in the game. Also almost always go Patronage and secure the mercantile cs as quickly as possible.

 

[Skiff49er]

Won turn 232, game diary and screenshots in this google docs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h_Of0-EOaTjsmFK5pX-Mto5qVcTNmzUtSlXMziVJ7XI/edit?usp=sharing

Self-analysis
-Should have gone tradition, liberty start didn't really offer any help. Only capital and one expansion seems to be viable for this start. Going liberty I ended up with three expansions. Slow game. A second expansion on a tradition start placed north on the gold is good for cargo ship to capital, but that works only with tradition or else happiness problems.
-I played pretty much razing all cities except capitals. But kept a few, in hindsight should have razed them. Thought that its possible to raze anytime after puppeting, apparently not...
-Didn't realize there were so many continents. Should have gone to look for other continents earlier.

 

[zxcvbob]

Won turn 232, game diary and screenshots in this google docs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h_Of0-EOaTjsmFK5pX-Mto5qVcTNmzUtSlXMziVJ7XI/edit?usp=sharing

Self-analysis
-Should have gone tradition, liberty start didn't really offer any help. Only capital and one expansion seems to be viable for this start. Going liberty I ended up with three expansions. Slow game. A second expansion on a tradition start placed north on the gold is good for cargo ship to capital, but that works only with tradition or else happiness problems.
-I played pretty much razing all cities except capitals. But kept a few, in hindsight should have razed them. Thought that its possible to raze anytime after puppeting, apparently not...
-Didn't realize there were so many continents. Should have gone to look for other continents earlier.

Unless you are Venice, you can annex a puppet city and then start selling buildings and raze it. You take a pretty big temporary hit to happiness if the city has much population. If you are Venice and want to raze a puppet city, since you can't annex it I guess you can give it to Attila Or leave it undefended during a war and let somebody capture it.