TSG 228 After Actions Thread

[Nizef]

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 play peacefully or warlike? Did you use your UU?
- What technologies did you prioritize?
- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
- How many cities did you have in the end and where did you settle them?

 

[sebtanic]

Won turn 274.

My overall strategy was go for Sacred Sites, going wide. I didn't want to do the infinite city spam (ICS) thing though, because I don't think it's much fun. I'm also not sure if it would work on continents where you need Astronomy to find everyone.

Instead, I planned to let the AI build most of the wonders and then conquer them. I built lots of Sea Beggars with Logistics (Barracks and Armory in the producing cities). I needed a land army to conquer France though, which were cultural leaders. So I decided to go Volunteer Army. I think this was a mistake though, as it took far too long to tech all the way to Radio. Foreign Legions seemed overkill, and they arrived late to the battlefield anyway. Beelining Artillery would probably have been enough.

Spoiler t274 screenshot :

(OT: anyone else think the screenshot looks a bit like a map of Russia? Just noticed )

Couple of details from my game:

Settled capital on the hill SW for extra production.
Settled Rotterdam on the Marble tile close to Sri Pada.
Got Stonehenge and Great Library. The Faith from SH and Sri Pada secured me an early religion.

Pantheon was Religious Idols (+1 faith and culture from Silver)

Went 2 city NC (or 3 city? Can't remember. I think 2 city though.) My 3rd city, Utrecht, went west of the mountain to the NW of the capital, with horses, Dyes, and lots of fish tiles.

Built 2 cities to the east later on, to build some faith buildings and to fill up the space towards Spain basically.

t105 got Sacred Sites
t143 bulbed Astronomy

France was cultural leader, so I would have to take them out. They also built most of the wonders in their capital.
Spain was second so I attacked them too. They had Great Wall in Madrid, but it didn't help them much against my Sea Beggars
I took Madrid in t207, Seville shortly after. Left them Barcelona so the rest of the AI wouldn't hate me too much.

t248 I was influential with everyone except France
t255 finally got Volunteer Army, now I still had to move the Legions from my capital all the way to France

t268 took Paris
t274 eliminated France and won CV

Fun fact: I had all 4 religious buildings in Madrid. Spain had cathedrals, I had Pagodas and Monasteries, and someone converted them to the religion that had Mosques. I took advantage to buy the Mosque and then switch them back to my religion again

In hindsight I wish I would have skipped Volunteer Army and just gone Artillery + Muskets.
Sea Beggars are fun, but it's a pity they come at the same time as Frigates. Frigates are really powerful too, arguably even better than Sea Beggars. Had fun taking cities with them though.

Still, it felt good to win before even researching Archaeology.

 

[fiddlesticks]

Culture victory turn 232.

1 - settle hill. Scout x3, Worker. Pottery ->AH -> Calendar ->Trapping ->Archery ->masonry -> Writing -> BW -> Philosophy -> Wheel
3 - DoW Spain to box out a scout and preserve a ruin, which ended up being a map
11 - 85g
12 - meet Panama and Vancouver 1st
19 - Pop3, start settler
29 - Map ruin
31 - Worker steal from Spain
36 - Settle Rotterdam on Marble, buy Sri Pada
41 - Legalism
42 - Sun god pantheon
43 - DoW Panama (stole 4 workers eventually
54 - Aristocracy
55 - Found Utrecht
62 - DoW Spain, capture settler t63
63 - Granary -> Stonehenge (2 CS quests)
70 - Take Barcelona in a peace deal

I founded Groningen shortly after Utrecht but forgot to note down when. It ended up being my 2nd best city with the fish and Petra.

144 - opened Rationalism
211 - hit telecommunication
213 - Great Engineered national Visitor Center.
228 - Researched Internet

I teched to radar before internet by mistake, forgetting about the double tourism. I also noticed I didn't finish a museum in Amsterdam where the tourism would have been multiplied.

In the late game I founded Breda on an incense tile on the other continent and sent trade routes to France and the Iroquois. Shaka was in the process of stomping France when the game ended. I airlifted two Great Musicians to Breda to end the game with concert tours.

 

[raider980]

CV T348 It amazes me how fast others can win. I didn't even capture Madrid until T230 something.

Continuing from T88, after I took Nottingham and razed it to the ground, I went to attack York and London. Liz offered my York in a peace deal so I took it since I needed to build my civilization and not fight at that moment. England would not be a factor for the rest of the game.

Founded Groningen by the mountain in the NW as my 4th city. Spent the T100's building my empire and plotting the attack on Spain because she had some good wonders and was annoying me as Isabella usually does. Took Madrid on T230 something with Frigates and Sea Beggars.

Met the other continent and realized I'd need to take Napoleon out in order to win a CV beause he had way too much to overcome. So started moving my Frigates, Sea Beggars and some ground troops across the sea toward France. Luckily Marseille was on the coast nearest me and made for a good landing spot. My Frigates and Sea Beggars made short work of the city and took Marseille T250 something. Peaced out because Napoleon offered a lot of gold and some Incense. A couple turns later he asks me to DoW Monte with him and asks for a DoF! Napoleon's ego knows no bounds, but no, sorry; I'm going to be attacking you again soon so can't be friends. Ten turns later, I attack France again and take Lyon and Orleans. Peace out again to regroup.

T309 a triple DoW on Napoleon happens. The Zulu, Iroquois and Aztec all attack Troyes at once. Not sure I've ever seen 3 AI attacking a city from all sides with each of them having a good chance to get it. Of course, Shaka wastes his Impi against GWBombers and GWInfantry. Hiawatha fails to bring any melee units. And Monte has a Swordsman on his front lines. I help break the city down with Gats and Artillery but don't want to capture it because of happiness. Finally Monte somehow sneaks a Lancer in and takes the city. This was quite an entertaining little skirmish.

Spoiler Triple DoW and Attack on Troyes :

I end up taking Paris and Tours a little later on the same turn to finish off Napoleon. He was surprisingly quite gracious in his defeat.

Monte was the next highest culture leader and since I had all those Battleships nearby I figured I might as well take him out to get a victory a little sooner. His cities easily fall to the onslaught; Hong Kong takes Troyes, burns it to the ground, and I capture Monte's three main cities. Liz somehow sneaks in there to take Texcoco to end Monte's reign.

From there it was just a few short turns and a couple of concert tours in Sweden until Victory. A good, fun game!

Spoiler Victory! :

 

[dumpstertrash]

Culture victory T269, but was originally T267
I'm so mad at myself.. I forgot to save the after victory and had to replay the last 10+ turns and got blocked by a few units. I'll post both win screens where you can faintly see the turn timer in the background on the quicker win, but I'll post the slower time win because that's the actual saved one. As you can see I lost two turns, so it's officially T269.

I'll pick up where I left off in the opening actions thread. I got my reformation belief and went Jesuit Education, less time building science buildings and more time building culture buildings and wonders. Finished Aesthetics and went Freedom. No rationalism and no war other than a worker steal early. France ended up getting wiped, like it mattered, he was pathetic and had no use in the game. The Iroquois were the largest concern because they had the most culture, but he was friendly and everything went smooth. Overall a cakewalk. International games started the turn I won, 3 musicians was all it took to finish it.

I see Fiddlesticks went more science heavy. I had thought about that direction very early on but didn't think it'd work well. And was I wrong lol.

Anyway, no conquering. If I'm going to win a CV I'd rather it be peaceful.
My last photo showing my turn 267. I was so happy at first man. I should still be happy, it's only 2 turns and only had to replay like 13, but those stupid CS units getting in my way on the replay just made me go mental.

EDIT: I was tired and angry posting this last night, and misread National Visitor Center that Fiddlesticks did and thought it was the CN Tower. Don't really know what I was thinking there. And @fiddlesticks , how did you get sooo much tourism late and manage to build all of your science so quick? What does your turn 150 so 232 look like? Because that's definitely where I struggle the most.

 

[Rhodro]

Culture victory at turn 255.

I'm amazed at fiddlesticks game, that game ended with double the base tourism 20+ turns earlier. Seems hard science is the way to play. I focussed more on getting all the theming wonders so I beelined stuff like globe theater.

- Did you play peacefully or warlike? Did you use your UU?
Destroyed my own continent, annexed London and Madrid. Have to say London ended up a beauty with those river polders with hydro plant. Like others I also saw France needed to go. I marched my 5 xbows and 1 horseman over there. The xbows had range promotion from the wars and training on CS on my own continent. (I don't make peace with CS after peace with civ immediately, this gives me more training time.) With 3 range I was able to take paris slowly, while being able to pick his scary unique units off without losing a single xbow. There was 1 scout with double survivalism and medic upgraded to xbow that was very useful.
I did not use sea beggars.

- What technologies did you prioritize?
Techs for cultural wonders > science.
- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
After tradition + aesthetics i mixed freedom with rationalism. Somewhere also picked up exploration for louvre (which i couldn't even build before finish). Had so much culture i also got commerce till merchantilism but that was also not really used yet. Big ben also not build yet.
- How many cities did you have in the end and where did you settle them?
3 self found, madrid + london annexed, paris + lyon puppet.

 

[zxcvbob]

CV on turn 390:

- Did you play peacefully or warlike? Did you use your UU?
- What technologies did you prioritize?
- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
- How many cities did you have in the end and where did you settle them?

Both Liz and Isabella settled towards me very quickly, but didn't encroach on my workable tiles. I did get 3 awesome cities founded, but not the 4 or 5 that I wanted. I intended to rush towards Navigation and take Madrid with sea beggars, but that didn't happen. I was friends with both of them for much of the early game and had several research agreements. I did build a lot of SBs, and Navigation was important for the seaports and a prerequisite for Archeology. I never declared any wars.

Besides Navigation, I guess I prioritized Acoustics (Sistine Chapel), Radio, Replaceable Parts (SoL), Refrigeration (hotels), Telecommunications, and Internet.
Social policies were Tradition, Aesthetics, Rationalism, and Freedom. I also opened Commerce and Exploration to unlock Big Ben and Louvre.

Out of the blue, Isabella declared war on me (as she is prone to do.) I think that was the modern era but it might have been industrial. Actually I was probably in the modern era and she was industrial. I just defended and killed wave after wave of conquistadors, cannons, rifles, and lancers. I bought one battleship and it and my SBs were going to take Madrid, but England and Sweden declared war on Spain and the bay was full of Swedish units and I couldn't get close enough to the city. My battleship could still hit it, but instead I just watched; thinking without my help Gustavus would lose enough units he'd have to withdraw, then I could capture it. But he didn't mind losing units, he had plenty of reinforcements. Just before Madrid was about to fall I made peace with Spain and took Barcelona in the peace treaty. Liz and Gustav quickly finished her off.

I played peacefully after that (it's easier to get open borders that way) until the information era. The International Games were coming up soon, but I was just a few turns away from winning without them. I was influential with everyone except Liz. She and Gustav declared war on me, kicking out my diplomat and plundering my trade route. So now it's 30-something turns to win instead of 2. I just did the rope-a-dope thing again; my cities were almost 200 strong. Between the two of them they captured a couple of my CS allies and killed I think 4 of my units total. (a lancer that a CS had given me, two destroyers that my upgraded SB destroyers had just captured, and a nuclear sub that got surrounded and couldn't quite shoot his way out.

In the end, I had 4 cities; I annexed Barcelona as soon as it came out of rebellion. Now I'm gonna JOMT and punish Sweden and England I'll probably just raze a couple of Swedish cities, capture Madrid, liberate the CSs he took, and make peace, but I will totally eliminate England.

 

[zxcvbob]

I've replayed it using straight Liberty and even then the free settler is not quick enough to settle to the southeast by the oranges and all those marshes. What seemed to work well was to take the Tradition opener then full Liberty, but start building the first settler *immediately* upon hitting 2 pop and sending him towards Spain. The free settler comes in time to settle on the marble, then settled another city to the north. I wanted to settle one more on the southern coast near England but Liz claimed that too fast. It was a totally different game, but the number of turns ended up about the same because Shaka didn't wipe out Napoleon this time, also the International Games came way too early to leverage it with the national visitor center and Internet even tho' I got there as fast as I could. (at least I had most of my hotels up)

Fastest might be straight Tradition like I did the first try, but build 2 settlers as soon as possible and send the first one towards Spain. That also might be risky because while building settlers you're not growing and not building granaries, libraries, or military.

Time to try TSG 229

 

[Megalou]

Thanks for a this map!
I didn't realize how useful sacred sites are, very interesting. I picked Pagodas and built plenty, but didn't seriously consider the Piety branch, since I tend to view any religion I can get my hands on to be a mere bonus. Too hasty, it seems.

Some peculiar details from my late game then:

I didn't want to attack the AIs' cultural leaders, France, but when they were on the verge of conquering Florence and grow even more, I had to intervene, having a ship nearby that was really just scouting.

This submarine was incredible when it came to protecting my fledgling colonial world. It must have killed over 20 unfortunate swimmers. You can also see a Dutch island town nearby, Groeningen. It was, unlike Florence, intentional for the sake of making a trade route with France possible, for the sake of tourism bonus. France was the most remote AI, which was probably intentional in the game design(?) (I suppose the Groeningen settler was already on their way when I captured Florence, or I would probably not have built it.

Another weird thing was that Lake Victoria was the very last land tile that I found. And I did search for that last natural wonder! I had also been in the area 100+ turns earlier, revealing all but two or three tiles, which made Lake Victoria more unlikely to be where it was.

The "French connection" came really late and I wasn't as effective in the early stages as some players here at all. Instead I had to supercharge the tourism late, reaching over 600, which could have been even more if I had timed my maximum output with the International games, and sending several musicians to France. And with the help of Hanging gardens Amsterdam eventually reached size 47 , which is probably the biggest city I've ever had. That was just before the end, on turn 342.

It was fun, but it wasn't really a hard game to win, since the AI fell way behind in tech, and I could have wiped out France if nescessary. But I wasn't sure that victory would have been instant in that case. I thought that their culture would remain on the board, even if it went to +0 per turn. Thanks, @sebtanic for clarifying that it isn't so.

 

[The_Black_Vegetable]

Culture victory turn 231, through a combination of hard tourism, futurism, and harassing all the AI on the map to slow them down.

The early game was very satisfying. I got two expands out quickly, bought a granary with peace-deal gold, and got two cargo ships going. Then, the priority was getting libraries up reasonably quickly, into Colossus and into NC. I did not prioritize other wonders very highly, but still got many of them: Hanging Gardens and Oracle both being built in expands, before the capital later returned to wonder duty with Chichen Itza and Borobudur. My religion was One with Nature (I eventually captured York which had Uluru), religious community and temple happiness (and then I forgot to build a temple in my capital for the longest time).

When I noticed early on that both Madrid and London were coastal, I knew I wanted to try sea beggars. In the early game, I had stolen from both Spain and England, and harassed them a bit with my spearman too. Sometimes, on the lower difficulty levels, the AI does not recover well from that, and in this case both Elizabeth and Isabella had undefended 20-strength capitals by the time my navy of six frigates and six sea beggars showed up. Disappointingly, only Monty had a coastal capital, so for the rest my navy was busy capturing, razing and selling every city the AI had settled on the coast. This type of 'bad behavior' perhaps feels against the spirit of a cultural victory, but it does help slow the AI down, in all demographics including culture produced.

I had also produced a small land army of four trebuchets, two knights, and a pikeman (the starting warrior), which I initially trained to raze Spain's inland cities (I don't like missionary spam on my own continent), and I embarked that army all the way to Paris. I had expected that to be insufficient, but there were no units near Paris (Napoleon was fighting multiple other wars, which may or may not have been instigated by me ), and my land units, aided by ranged frigates took down the capital no problem. Later, upgraded as cannons, they took Orleans, and were one turn away from taking Lyon, though it was no longer necessary, as my musician bulb into his land was sufficient.

One thing I had completely forgotten about for a long time was polders. Of course, Amsterdam had only one, but there might have been a beautiful polder city between Madrid and Amsterdam. I toyed with the idea of settling it late, just to make some polders, but my cities were always busy, and happiness was at a premium too. Fortunately, London had some flood plains, and it became a really nice city (Madrid, by contrast, was awful till the end).