Welcome to CivFanatics and GOTM. 
Congrats on your win, look forward to watching you improve your game.
Congrats on your win, look forward to watching you improve your game.
TSG40 After Action Report
- Thread starter leif erikson
- Start date
chazzycat
Deity
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2010
- Messages
- 2,918
Game: Civ5 GOTM 40
Date submitted: 2012-07-28
Reference number: 26713
Your name: chazzycat
Game status: Diplomacy Wrong VC
Game date: 1872AD
Turns played: 306
Base score: 870
Final score: 1426
Time played: 5:36:00
Submitted save: GOTM40-VICTORY.Civ5Save
Renamed file: chazzycat_C504001.Civ5Save
This was my first GOTM try, and apparently I suck at reading...hence the wrong VC. It was a good game though.
I started off this game in my head wanting to go honor, and go kill some stuff with picts, CBs and catapults. That plan didn't last long. I started with 2 scouts to line up with a granary as the third build, with that wheat & deer. This paid off for me, as I discovered I was isolated before choosing my first policy. I also got pretty lucky in getting a warrior upgraded to a pict from a ruin. That one pict along with an archer I built later just killed barbs and collected faith for days. I didn't even have to research bronze for a long time.
My quick assessment of the landmass lead me to believe it would be a good time to try playing an OCC. I had gotten pretty good at it in vanilla but hadn't tried in G&K yet. My reasoning was that there weren't many luxes or good city spots, and I believed that Edinburgh had everything I needed to win - great food, production, and gold potential. So I went tradition, heading towards landed elite. My eventual path would be legalism-->landed elite-->aristocracy-->monarchy-->oligarchy.
After the granary I built a worker, and I also bought another with my first 310 gold. I improved deer, wheat, and furs first. Of course by that time I had a pantheon and selected goddess of the hunt, a no brainer. Next was a quick shrine and then I went for the Great Library. Since it's king and there's lots of forests around, I got it pretty easily, selected philosophy and built NC next. Next I built a quick trireme to explore and then...the Hanging Gardens. The free garden kicks ass when you're not on a river.
On turn 73 I founded Judaism, the first religion. I took tithe of course, since in an OCC you always need gold. My second belief was divine inspiration - 2 faith for each wonder. At this point it occurred to me that I could maybe just wonder spam my way to victory. On turn 99 I enhanced it and selected religious art and messiah. I had concluded that the map was not suitable for natural spread, I would have to do it myself, hence messiah to get more & better prophets. Religious art is pretty good for OCC - building hermitage literally doubled my CPT.
After finishing tradition, my policy path was commerce opener-->patronage opener-->rationalism opener-->philanthropy-->freedom (complete). I had made up my mind by this point to go for the diplomatic victory, because I had never done it before in an OCC and it seemed doable. To that effect I spread my religion to all the CS I could find. My idea was that via tithe, I could basically just take the CS money and give it back to them for free influence...it actually kinda worked.
The AI tend to leave you alone and be friendly if you are isolated on a landmass and stay with one city. I befriended everyone on the map at one point I think. Of course RAs abounded. My only diplomatic mistake was sending a prophet to convert the mayan's holy city...Pacal didn't appreciate that. He actually retaliated and converted Edinburgh which was fun. Not a big deal though, I had a prophet around.
I just kept spamming RAs and wonders during the midgame, piling up culture and faith that allowed me to win a lot of the city state quests as well. I had already allied the two nearly faith CS long ago via a combination of barb quests & gold. In my city I got a university up early, and started getting some academies going. My BPT was pretty solid throughout the game, and with all the RAs I didn't have much of a problem dominating the AI in the tech game. I was up by several ages at the end.
For faith my strategy was pure GP...first prophets to convert a bunch of folks and then some scientists and artists for golden ages. In the end I had 6 prophets, 3 scientists, 2 artists, and 1 engineer purchased with faith. I switched to order at the very end just to get a GE for the UN.
Golden ages were a significant part of the strategy, with a MASSIVE happiness surplus due to all the CS allies and wonders. I almost broke 100 at one point. With the freedom finisher and Chitchen Itza, I was in a golden age for ungodly periods of time. I naturally birthed two artists, got two more from the Louvre, plus the aforementioned two from faith, for a total of 6 GAs from artists alone. Add in several happiness GAs and Taj Mahal...well you get the idea. All that gold put me over the top with keeping the city states allied.
Regarding espionage, it was slightly frustrating because I could not steal a tech the entire game, so I had problems getting my spies leveled up. I kind of made up for this with numbers, since I was generally a couple ages ahead of the AI. The CIA or whatever national wonder definitely helped a lot and was super quick to build. I parked them all in my CS allies to keep the influence up via elections and prevent coups. There were only a couple thefts from me, and they were old techs I didn't care about.
There was one surprise at the end of the game, in that about half of the AI all DOW'd me as I was getting pretty close to the UN, taking several CS allies with them. They never got close to hurting me, but they did manage to take out one of my CS allies, reducing my ally count to 11. That concerned me slightly, since I needed 11 votes. In the end though, three of the AI ended up voting for me, so it wasn't as close as I thought.
Date submitted: 2012-07-28
Reference number: 26713
Your name: chazzycat
Game status: Diplomacy Wrong VC
Game date: 1872AD
Turns played: 306
Base score: 870
Final score: 1426
Time played: 5:36:00
Submitted save: GOTM40-VICTORY.Civ5Save
Renamed file: chazzycat_C504001.Civ5Save
This was my first GOTM try, and apparently I suck at reading...hence the wrong VC. It was a good game though.
I started off this game in my head wanting to go honor, and go kill some stuff with picts, CBs and catapults. That plan didn't last long. I started with 2 scouts to line up with a granary as the third build, with that wheat & deer. This paid off for me, as I discovered I was isolated before choosing my first policy. I also got pretty lucky in getting a warrior upgraded to a pict from a ruin. That one pict along with an archer I built later just killed barbs and collected faith for days. I didn't even have to research bronze for a long time.
My quick assessment of the landmass lead me to believe it would be a good time to try playing an OCC. I had gotten pretty good at it in vanilla but hadn't tried in G&K yet. My reasoning was that there weren't many luxes or good city spots, and I believed that Edinburgh had everything I needed to win - great food, production, and gold potential. So I went tradition, heading towards landed elite. My eventual path would be legalism-->landed elite-->aristocracy-->monarchy-->oligarchy.
After the granary I built a worker, and I also bought another with my first 310 gold. I improved deer, wheat, and furs first. Of course by that time I had a pantheon and selected goddess of the hunt, a no brainer. Next was a quick shrine and then I went for the Great Library. Since it's king and there's lots of forests around, I got it pretty easily, selected philosophy and built NC next. Next I built a quick trireme to explore and then...the Hanging Gardens. The free garden kicks ass when you're not on a river.
On turn 73 I founded Judaism, the first religion. I took tithe of course, since in an OCC you always need gold. My second belief was divine inspiration - 2 faith for each wonder. At this point it occurred to me that I could maybe just wonder spam my way to victory. On turn 99 I enhanced it and selected religious art and messiah. I had concluded that the map was not suitable for natural spread, I would have to do it myself, hence messiah to get more & better prophets. Religious art is pretty good for OCC - building hermitage literally doubled my CPT.
After finishing tradition, my policy path was commerce opener-->patronage opener-->rationalism opener-->philanthropy-->freedom (complete). I had made up my mind by this point to go for the diplomatic victory, because I had never done it before in an OCC and it seemed doable. To that effect I spread my religion to all the CS I could find. My idea was that via tithe, I could basically just take the CS money and give it back to them for free influence...it actually kinda worked.
The AI tend to leave you alone and be friendly if you are isolated on a landmass and stay with one city. I befriended everyone on the map at one point I think. Of course RAs abounded. My only diplomatic mistake was sending a prophet to convert the mayan's holy city...Pacal didn't appreciate that. He actually retaliated and converted Edinburgh which was fun. Not a big deal though, I had a prophet around.
I just kept spamming RAs and wonders during the midgame, piling up culture and faith that allowed me to win a lot of the city state quests as well. I had already allied the two nearly faith CS long ago via a combination of barb quests & gold. In my city I got a university up early, and started getting some academies going. My BPT was pretty solid throughout the game, and with all the RAs I didn't have much of a problem dominating the AI in the tech game. I was up by several ages at the end.
For faith my strategy was pure GP...first prophets to convert a bunch of folks and then some scientists and artists for golden ages. In the end I had 6 prophets, 3 scientists, 2 artists, and 1 engineer purchased with faith. I switched to order at the very end just to get a GE for the UN.
Golden ages were a significant part of the strategy, with a MASSIVE happiness surplus due to all the CS allies and wonders. I almost broke 100 at one point. With the freedom finisher and Chitchen Itza, I was in a golden age for ungodly periods of time. I naturally birthed two artists, got two more from the Louvre, plus the aforementioned two from faith, for a total of 6 GAs from artists alone. Add in several happiness GAs and Taj Mahal...well you get the idea. All that gold put me over the top with keeping the city states allied.
Regarding espionage, it was slightly frustrating because I could not steal a tech the entire game, so I had problems getting my spies leveled up. I kind of made up for this with numbers, since I was generally a couple ages ahead of the AI. The CIA or whatever national wonder definitely helped a lot and was super quick to build. I parked them all in my CS allies to keep the influence up via elections and prevent coups. There were only a couple thefts from me, and they were old techs I didn't care about.
There was one surprise at the end of the game, in that about half of the AI all DOW'd me as I was getting pretty close to the UN, taking several CS allies with them. They never got close to hurting me, but they did manage to take out one of my CS allies, reducing my ally count to 11. That concerned me slightly, since I needed 11 votes. In the end though, three of the AI ended up voting for me, so it wasn't as close as I thought.
Guys, I am playing on an older laptop (Core Duo 2GHz with 2GB RAM), and the vanilla version worked very well for me, even at HD resolution. With every update and especially with G/K I realize the game becomes extremely slow, especialy the combo large maps/lots of players/late game... Now at turn 250, it becomes pretty much unplayable
Anybody with similar experiences?
cheers
Anybody with similar experiences?
cheers
Guys, I am playing on an older laptop (Core Duo 2GHz with 2GB RAM), and the vanilla version worked very well for me, even at HD resolution. With every update and especially with G/K I realize the game becomes extremely slow, especialy the combo large maps/lots of players/late game... Now at turn 250, it becomes pretty much unplayable
Anybody with similar experiences?
cheers
With my Core Duo 2GHz and 4 Gb RAM, the game is laggy from the beginning, so consider yourself lucky
In "tactical mode" (in 2d) however it runs quite smoothly, except for the large maps in late game.Try 2D. In my opinion it's even easier on the eyes.
Played with 4 cities. Got a pretty good start I think with Education and Porcelain Tower pretty fast. Afterwards, I struggled a bit with the timing and the research agreements. Waited with taking my two free techs from rationalism also until too late.
Pretty nice with the faith, didn't really focus on spreading my religion but it helped getting some Great Scientists with faith. Not sure about how many academies are good two have. I think I had 5 outside Edinburgh and total bpt in the end around 1000.
Must say though that the game was a bit boring since we were stuck on this island going for scientific and after winning the game recently on Immortal it felt very easy. Always way ahead in tech and the spies were only used for counter espionage. Should probably have used them for revolts. It was also a very peaceful game with very few wars and no one declared me war even though I had very inferior military for a long time.
Unofficial (replay):
1852 science win
The bad:
missed Chichen Itza (the Celt UB means lots of GA's)
never friended Dido, Attila, Maria (game was pretty wartorn, though I didn't instigate any wars or build enough units to take advantage)
missed Pagodas (Haile founded the first religion, so the Celts were Jewish
)
a little late getting the RA's rolling
left a deer SE of capital uncamped until about turn 120
settled a couple colonies (on islands north of Maria and SW of Pacal) a little late to get up to speed, delaying Hermitage and Oxford)
the good:
(a) annexed the two local city states using 3 picts and 3 compbows trained on barbs
I think this is the optimal strategy for this setup:
(1) the tiles (including luxes and the Natural Wonder) it gets you are outstanding. Even opening up the river tiles for the northern iron city (which you have to build for the income selling all that iron) was big.
(2) you can do it before you get a diplo hit
(3) it takes advantage of your UU, which would otherwise be problematic as a science win wants to be friendly with everyone and there is no one close enough to rush
(4) you need the money you could conceivably buy them off with for RA's
(5) you get all the faith you need from your UA, so religious CS's are a waste
(b) got 4 free UB's by filling out liberty before getting the free culture buildings from tradition. Used the free engineer from liberty completion to grab Macchu Picchu in a new city west of the capital (delayed settling it to get National Library on three cities, then annexed the city states), and the GA let me get both Great Mosque and Hagia Sophia (great prophet enhanced religion)
(c) opened scout, monument, settler on 3 (one pop from hut) got worker from liberty (along with worker boost) stole two workers from city states as soon as they appeared, and built Pyramids after getting granary, library, barracks, and 2 picts and 2 archers from capital, with help from chops. Didn't have to build any workers for a long time. Pyramid engineer grabbed Forbidden Palace.
(d) second city on river NW of capital became a monster with the tiles opened up from annexing the city state and Hydro Plant
(e) settled two very productive and lux rich (and later coal rich) cities on west of Sweden's land. He was cool with that due to my nice army. A little late getting a city near the Maya crabs west of his capital, but later built Sydney there after stealing a couple of his landmarks with a GG.
(f) we love the king pretty much constantly. Often traded several luxes for missing lux, as this opened up quests for luxes I was temporarily missing and didn't need the happiness during frequent GA's.
Religion:
Goddess (my first playthrough I actually settled my capital inland and took desert folklore - that was insane religiously, but too hammer poor). Hidden benefit on this map - since you evangelize most of the map, the extra food for the AI/city states gives you extra income from tithe and makes your RA's better.
Shrines and temples +1 food (same as above, wanted to run a lot of specialists with rationalism specialist bonus, later Statue of Liberty, so needed to feed them)
Tithe + 30% spread radius: utterly insane. None of the wide civs founded religions, so only about nine cities/CS's ended up non-Jewish
Mosques (wanted Pagodas, but close enough): makes sure you've got the faith to spam GA's (from GA's) at the end game and the culture to finish Rationalism while also getting a couple Patronage policies and opening Freedom. Also very nice for border expansion on new cities.
1852 science win
The bad:
missed Chichen Itza (the Celt UB means lots of GA's)
never friended Dido, Attila, Maria (game was pretty wartorn, though I didn't instigate any wars or build enough units to take advantage)
missed Pagodas (Haile founded the first religion, so the Celts were Jewish
)a little late getting the RA's rolling
left a deer SE of capital uncamped until about turn 120
settled a couple colonies (on islands north of Maria and SW of Pacal) a little late to get up to speed, delaying Hermitage and Oxford)
the good:
(a) annexed the two local city states using 3 picts and 3 compbows trained on barbs
I think this is the optimal strategy for this setup:
(1) the tiles (including luxes and the Natural Wonder) it gets you are outstanding. Even opening up the river tiles for the northern iron city (which you have to build for the income selling all that iron) was big.
(2) you can do it before you get a diplo hit
(3) it takes advantage of your UU, which would otherwise be problematic as a science win wants to be friendly with everyone and there is no one close enough to rush
(4) you need the money you could conceivably buy them off with for RA's
(5) you get all the faith you need from your UA, so religious CS's are a waste
(b) got 4 free UB's by filling out liberty before getting the free culture buildings from tradition. Used the free engineer from liberty completion to grab Macchu Picchu in a new city west of the capital (delayed settling it to get National Library on three cities, then annexed the city states), and the GA let me get both Great Mosque and Hagia Sophia (great prophet enhanced religion)
(c) opened scout, monument, settler on 3 (one pop from hut) got worker from liberty (along with worker boost) stole two workers from city states as soon as they appeared, and built Pyramids after getting granary, library, barracks, and 2 picts and 2 archers from capital, with help from chops. Didn't have to build any workers for a long time. Pyramid engineer grabbed Forbidden Palace.
(d) second city on river NW of capital became a monster with the tiles opened up from annexing the city state and Hydro Plant
(e) settled two very productive and lux rich (and later coal rich) cities on west of Sweden's land. He was cool with that due to my nice army. A little late getting a city near the Maya crabs west of his capital, but later built Sydney there after stealing a couple of his landmarks with a GG.
(f) we love the king pretty much constantly. Often traded several luxes for missing lux, as this opened up quests for luxes I was temporarily missing and didn't need the happiness during frequent GA's.
Religion:
Goddess (my first playthrough I actually settled my capital inland and took desert folklore - that was insane religiously, but too hammer poor). Hidden benefit on this map - since you evangelize most of the map, the extra food for the AI/city states gives you extra income from tithe and makes your RA's better.
Shrines and temples +1 food (same as above, wanted to run a lot of specialists with rationalism specialist bonus, later Statue of Liberty, so needed to feed them)
Tithe + 30% spread radius: utterly insane. None of the wide civs founded religions, so only about nine cities/CS's ended up non-Jewish
Mosques (wanted Pagodas, but close enough): makes sure you've got the faith to spam GA's (from GA's) at the end game and the culture to finish Rationalism while also getting a couple Patronage policies and opening Freedom. Also very nice for border expansion on new cities.
You may have said this but would like to be a bit clearer.
Winner is the earliest finish date with a Science victory.
I think he did, he just doesn't know how to communicate friendly with people
I actually had no idea - I guess that's what I get for jumping directly down to the savegame for so many years.
My win took 387 (AD1967) turns, so it doesn't seem worth submitting. I probably shouldn't have tried to do this fast, especially after my first real OCC attempt. Six cities, 105 population, 1135bps.
Thoughts from watching the AI:
1. The AI has only a slightly better idea of what to do with all those trees than I do. I was constantly and unsuccessfully asking myself what to chop and when. If you opened my game, what would probably jump out at you was all the LMs on my continent.
2. The AI was peaceful, but just towards me. I was involved in 0 DoWs, and my combat losses were one scout when I took the +Def upgrade over the 50hp. At first, the AIs would try to dogpile each other on their own continents (Sweden vs. Carthage vs. the Huns, and occassionally vs. Ethopia alongside with the Spain vs. Austria vs. the Dutch conflict). Then, later, it seemed like the AI would try to all gang up on one to break the deadlock, but were never successful in doing that. The only real military progress was Austria taking the 2 Northern Dutch cities.
3. Speaking of Austria, for whatever reason, they weren't able to buy CSs like they typically do. I think they only got 2 bought the whole game, and they weren't doing badly, either. I think maybe their money ended up getting tied up in a lot of RAs. There were way more AI RAs being signed than in my recent games. Money seemed to be tight a lot of the time.
4. I was lucky to find AIs with cash to sign more than 4RAs per cycle. I'm guessing this is my fault.
5. The lack of lux resources limited everyone's expansion...except for mine, which frankly it should have. I'd say maybe 65-70% of the land was under anyone's control at the end.
The mistakes I think I made:
Turn 5- Got the first pantheon, but went Goddess of the Hunt. I know a lot of people did that, but since I didn't develop my first deer until after the Renaissance, I think I didn't get the benefit I should have. If you are wondering why, it's because, IIRC, camps cost the bonus for parking cities next to forests.
*Turn 9- Cultural Ruins on turn8 give me my first policy decision. I go Liberty over Tradition, the fact is that the initial continent can really only support 4 cities. Fighting unhappiness for about a third of the game, and then finding I overcompensated really made my game inefficient.
Turn 20- got writing from a hut. Should I have researched it before then? I went Pottery, AH at that point. Turns out, there were no horses.
Waited 'til Turn 57 to start Stonehenge. Got beat to it by 1 turn on Turn 84.
While I founded my religion on Turn 58 (Church Property and Pagodas), I was about the third religion to enhance.
Turn 86 I founded cities #4&5 and I spend the next 100+ turns trying to fight the unhappiness. Definitely should not have built that last settler...or settled to the far West of the continent.
On the other hand, I did get the GL, Leaning Tower, PT, and the Oracle for early wonders. I used the GE to get the National College on turn 120. Frankly, that's good for me. Missed ND, but got the Eiffel Tower. Built the Hubble, but, waiting for it to build I just ended up building the last piece where my Hubble was. It seems like a "spike the ball" wonder rather than a useful one.
This is a game where I was reminded of things I learned last GotM, but I forgot to do, again. =/ I'll be interested to see what y'all put in for what I should have done.
Thoughts from watching the AI:
1. The AI has only a slightly better idea of what to do with all those trees than I do. I was constantly and unsuccessfully asking myself what to chop and when. If you opened my game, what would probably jump out at you was all the LMs on my continent.
2. The AI was peaceful, but just towards me. I was involved in 0 DoWs, and my combat losses were one scout when I took the +Def upgrade over the 50hp. At first, the AIs would try to dogpile each other on their own continents (Sweden vs. Carthage vs. the Huns, and occassionally vs. Ethopia alongside with the Spain vs. Austria vs. the Dutch conflict). Then, later, it seemed like the AI would try to all gang up on one to break the deadlock, but were never successful in doing that. The only real military progress was Austria taking the 2 Northern Dutch cities.
3. Speaking of Austria, for whatever reason, they weren't able to buy CSs like they typically do. I think they only got 2 bought the whole game, and they weren't doing badly, either. I think maybe their money ended up getting tied up in a lot of RAs. There were way more AI RAs being signed than in my recent games. Money seemed to be tight a lot of the time.
4. I was lucky to find AIs with cash to sign more than 4RAs per cycle. I'm guessing this is my fault.
5. The lack of lux resources limited everyone's expansion...except for mine, which frankly it should have. I'd say maybe 65-70% of the land was under anyone's control at the end.
The mistakes I think I made:
Turn 5- Got the first pantheon, but went Goddess of the Hunt. I know a lot of people did that, but since I didn't develop my first deer until after the Renaissance, I think I didn't get the benefit I should have. If you are wondering why, it's because, IIRC, camps cost the bonus for parking cities next to forests.
*Turn 9- Cultural Ruins on turn8 give me my first policy decision. I go Liberty over Tradition, the fact is that the initial continent can really only support 4 cities. Fighting unhappiness for about a third of the game, and then finding I overcompensated really made my game inefficient.
Turn 20- got writing from a hut. Should I have researched it before then? I went Pottery, AH at that point. Turns out, there were no horses.
Waited 'til Turn 57 to start Stonehenge. Got beat to it by 1 turn on Turn 84.
While I founded my religion on Turn 58 (Church Property and Pagodas), I was about the third religion to enhance.
Turn 86 I founded cities #4&5 and I spend the next 100+ turns trying to fight the unhappiness. Definitely should not have built that last settler...or settled to the far West of the continent.
On the other hand, I did get the GL, Leaning Tower, PT, and the Oracle for early wonders. I used the GE to get the National College on turn 120. Frankly, that's good for me. Missed ND, but got the Eiffel Tower. Built the Hubble, but, waiting for it to build I just ended up building the last piece where my Hubble was. It seems like a "spike the ball" wonder rather than a useful one.
This is a game where I was reminded of things I learned last GotM, but I forgot to do, again. =/ I'll be interested to see what y'all put in for what I should have done.
Aaronius
Neanderthal
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2007
- Messages
- 230
Unless it's changed recently, it depends on the population of the city, rather than its production. Formula was previously 300 + 30x- not sure whether it still is or not.
Thanks for the info. That makes sense as the first GE gave me exactly 330.
Haphaz
Warlord
Game: Civ5 GOTM 40
Date submitted: 2012-07-29
Reference number: 26727
Your name: Haphaz
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1930AD
Turns played: 350
Base score: 1593
Final score: 2275
Time played: 5:10:00
My first GOTM - very many thanks to the organisers. It looked a good challenge to move onto after Steam achievement hunting - the starting position with the Celts and the +1 food for camps was too appealing
As it was my first GOTM, and I'm not used to playing without the safety net of reloads, I played cautiously with lots of scouting and not going for as many wonders. It was a nervy game. I was also paranoid the scenario-setters might spring a surprise (coming from playing too many Civ II scenarios where dragons come out or something)
As to strategy, I agreed with the players who thought there were too few luxury types to stick to the main island. When I saw the continent to the east with the marble, silks(?) and pearls accessible from one city, I resolved to expand. Realising this would probably bring me into conflict and having been burnt while playing a few games on King for not expanding enough and getting swamped (I prefer more relaxing games at Prince), I also wanted to nobble my two neighbours, Carthage and Sweden.
That was a mistake in retrospect. Interesting to think about how the lack of luxuries led my strategic thinking to end me up turning into a warmonger. While it did secure my borders it also nobbled my chances of getting any more than 2 research agreements at any one time. Managing 9 King level opponents at the diplomatic level was much harder than my usual 3 opponents on Prince. I had to get used to big bloc politics and managed to get jumped on by 3 civs at once. I always had the tech lead, so not a big problem, but there's always that fear a massive invasion force is lurking somewhere. Rest of the game was fairly routine, although my endgame use of great scientists and build orders was not optimal. Practice on future GOTMs should change that. Thanks again. Great game.
Date submitted: 2012-07-29
Reference number: 26727
Your name: Haphaz
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1930AD
Turns played: 350
Base score: 1593
Final score: 2275
Time played: 5:10:00
My first GOTM - very many thanks to the organisers. It looked a good challenge to move onto after Steam achievement hunting - the starting position with the Celts and the +1 food for camps was too appealing
As it was my first GOTM, and I'm not used to playing without the safety net of reloads, I played cautiously with lots of scouting and not going for as many wonders. It was a nervy game. I was also paranoid the scenario-setters might spring a surprise (coming from playing too many Civ II scenarios where dragons come out or something
) As to strategy, I agreed with the players who thought there were too few luxury types to stick to the main island. When I saw the continent to the east with the marble, silks(?) and pearls accessible from one city, I resolved to expand. Realising this would probably bring me into conflict and having been burnt while playing a few games on King for not expanding enough and getting swamped (I prefer more relaxing games at Prince), I also wanted to nobble my two neighbours, Carthage and Sweden.
That was a mistake in retrospect. Interesting to think about how the lack of luxuries led my strategic thinking to end me up turning into a warmonger. While it did secure my borders it also nobbled my chances of getting any more than 2 research agreements at any one time. Managing 9 King level opponents at the diplomatic level was much harder than my usual 3 opponents on Prince. I had to get used to big bloc politics and managed to get jumped on by 3 civs at once. I always had the tech lead, so not a big problem, but there's always that fear a massive invasion force is lurking somewhere. Rest of the game was fairly routine, although my endgame use of great scientists and build orders was not optimal. Practice on future GOTMs should change that. Thanks again. Great game.
Welcome to the GOTM and congrats on your win.My first GOTM - very many thanks to the organisers. It looked a good challenge to move onto after Steam achievement hunting - the starting position with the Celts and the +1 food for camps was too appealing
Glad you enjoyed it.
stickyfingers
Chieftain
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2012
- Messages
- 40
Game: Civ5 GOTM 40
Date submitted: 2012-07-29
Reference number: 26731
Your name: stickyfingers
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1914AD
Turns played: 334
Base score: 1083
Final score: 1640
Time played: 6:25:00
Submitted save: Final Turn Save - Celts 1914.Civ5Save
Renamed file: stickyfingers_C504001.Civ5Save
This was my first GOTM, 3rd G&K game after a long break from Civ. This was my first win on King in G&K. I'm not the greatest player and my opening strategy kind of back fired on me. I tried to hook up all the luxes and sell them ASAP only to discover I had no neighbors. When I finally got a boat, I picked the wrong side of the island to explore. By the time I found Maya, Sweden and Carthage, it was pretty late. Carthage DOW'ed me pretty soon after meeting, for like, no reason, and then I couldn't sail through there anymore to find everyone else. I settled 4 cities total on the island. Eventually I did find the other civs, and once I began trading and signing RAs, things picked up. Carthage would never give me peace though, even though no side was actively fighting the other. So after my cities ran out of stuff to build and I had a bit of a tech lead, especially on her, I built up a navy of frigates and privateers. I made puppets of her capital and one other city and she gave me peace and like 5,000 gold - which I have no idea how she managed to amass since it was probably 2x more than the rest of the world combined. Anyway, the puppets and gold helped and I pretty much cruised to victory from there. In retrospect, I probably should have just went on a conquering spree. I had a pretty sweet navy and I could have easily taken a few more puppets. Guess I played it safe since I was on track to win the science victory without any more fighting. The only other bit of action came at the very end. As I was assembling my spaceship, Atilla made a desperate, but completely futile, attack on my puppet cities. My battleships and infantry made short work of his longswords and trebs.
Date submitted: 2012-07-29
Reference number: 26731
Your name: stickyfingers
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1914AD
Turns played: 334
Base score: 1083
Final score: 1640
Time played: 6:25:00
Submitted save: Final Turn Save - Celts 1914.Civ5Save
Renamed file: stickyfingers_C504001.Civ5Save
This was my first GOTM, 3rd G&K game after a long break from Civ. This was my first win on King in G&K. I'm not the greatest player and my opening strategy kind of back fired on me. I tried to hook up all the luxes and sell them ASAP only to discover I had no neighbors. When I finally got a boat, I picked the wrong side of the island to explore. By the time I found Maya, Sweden and Carthage, it was pretty late. Carthage DOW'ed me pretty soon after meeting, for like, no reason, and then I couldn't sail through there anymore to find everyone else. I settled 4 cities total on the island. Eventually I did find the other civs, and once I began trading and signing RAs, things picked up. Carthage would never give me peace though, even though no side was actively fighting the other. So after my cities ran out of stuff to build and I had a bit of a tech lead, especially on her, I built up a navy of frigates and privateers. I made puppets of her capital and one other city and she gave me peace and like 5,000 gold - which I have no idea how she managed to amass since it was probably 2x more than the rest of the world combined. Anyway, the puppets and gold helped and I pretty much cruised to victory from there. In retrospect, I probably should have just went on a conquering spree. I had a pretty sweet navy and I could have easily taken a few more puppets. Guess I played it safe since I was on track to win the science victory without any more fighting. The only other bit of action came at the very end. As I was assembling my spaceship, Atilla made a desperate, but completely futile, attack on my puppet cities. My battleships and infantry made short work of his longswords and trebs.
Robert Smith
Prince
I try to replay this using your excellent write-up
But it's very hard even when using quick save/load
The first ruin has to be culture and 2:nd has to be +1My first true game of Gods & Kings. I'm still doing things wrong
Policies
7 Tradition +20in 1st ruin
13 Liberty +1
22 Republic
37 Collective Rule
59 Citizenship +20
and when 1 more culture (6 ruin in total on starting island)With some luck you can get GP in t60. I got in t59 (with F11/F12)
2 tech ruins, my guess AH and Writing?
The hardest one:Exploration
One scout was promoted with visibility 2 and upgraded to Archer at a ruins. Warrior that followed our Scout befriended 3 City States with the removal of a single barbarian camp. and the Pictish Warrior that followed our Scout befriended 3 City States with the removal of a single barbarian camp.
33 Carthage
43 Sweden
75 Maya
- Maya also like the Douglas site for 2:nd city
- Sweden also like the Truro site for 2:nd city
8 ruin incl 2 south of maya: 2 Tech, 2 Culture, 1 civ, 1 (or 2) upgrade and/or 60 faith from ruin (not sure if it's enough with 2xCS Ally)
But anyway, it's good practice
airneck
Chieftain
Game: Civ5 GOTM 40
Date submitted: 2012-07-30
Reference number: 26735
Your name: airneck
Your email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1924AD
Turns played: 344
Base score: 936
Final score: 1376
Time played: 12:57:00
Submitted save: Boudicca_0344 AD-1924.Civ5Save
Renamed file: airneck_C504001.Civ5Save
My first GOTM
A lot of DoF, about 20 RA...
I stopped RA when I finished Appolo, believing that I could rush to the stars on my own. I thought also that I need something like 60 turns to end the game.
That's was stupid because the rate of GS was really slow
Nobody atttacked me ever.
Tried bo be friendly with all the guys.
Never really understood how Dido thinks... and I built few unities, just in case she turns mad someday.
Wonders in Edinburgh
Great L, Chichen, Porcelain Tower, Hubble, Torre di Pisa and many more
Missed for 2 turns Taj Mahal and another one I can remember.
Was surprised that the Scientists or General couldn't anymore start Golden Ages. Would have helped a lot.
Probably did a lot of mistake in the policies choices...
Choose Order which was probably stupid.
Don't really understood religion... and its use.
enjoy Spies
I'm afraid that my cities were too small
With all my cities focused on Science, building science... my maximum SPT was 668...
couldn't go higher
Built my 4th city west of the island.
I believe it was a waste of time and energy
Was 90% of time food focus to grow
Turn 300
Policies
Final Turn #344
Anyway, that was fun to play, knowing that a bunch of good fellows play the same game. And now, I'm gonna read your notes and LEARN !
Thanks.
Date submitted: 2012-07-30
Reference number: 26735
Your name: airneck
Your email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1924AD
Turns played: 344
Base score: 936
Final score: 1376
Time played: 12:57:00
Submitted save: Boudicca_0344 AD-1924.Civ5Save
Renamed file: airneck_C504001.Civ5Save
My first GOTM
A lot of DoF, about 20 RA...
I stopped RA when I finished Appolo, believing that I could rush to the stars on my own. I thought also that I need something like 60 turns to end the game.
That's was stupid because the rate of GS was really slow
Nobody atttacked me ever.
Tried bo be friendly with all the guys.
Never really understood how Dido thinks... and I built few unities, just in case she turns mad someday.
Wonders in Edinburgh
Great L, Chichen, Porcelain Tower, Hubble, Torre di Pisa and many more
Missed for 2 turns Taj Mahal and another one I can remember.
Was surprised that the Scientists or General couldn't anymore start Golden Ages. Would have helped a lot.
Probably did a lot of mistake in the policies choices...
Choose Order which was probably stupid.
Don't really understood religion... and its use.
enjoy Spies
I'm afraid that my cities were too small
With all my cities focused on Science, building science... my maximum SPT was 668...
couldn't go higher
Built my 4th city west of the island.
I believe it was a waste of time and energy
Was 90% of time food focus to grow
Turn 300
Spoiler :
Policies
Spoiler :
Final Turn #344
Spoiler :
Anyway, that was fun to play, knowing that a bunch of good fellows play the same game. And now, I'm gonna read your notes and LEARN !
Thanks.
stickyfingers
Chieftain
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2012
- Messages
- 40
oh, i have a noob question since this is supposed to be a learning game...
is there any trick to signing RA's? it became pretty expensive by the end of the game. the first problem was the other civs didn't have enough gold. so i started gifting them the amount they were short. then i would propose the RA and they would still say no. by the end of the game, i had to include 300 gold to get them to accept. that or a resource/luxury if i had one available. so by the end of the game, i had to pay 350 for the RA, 300 for the gift to get them to sign then often about 150 in a gift so they have enough to propose the RA in the first place. so that's 800 gold per RA. pretty pricey, no?
i was normally able to scrounge up the money because i could sell basically a lot of resources. but still, it's annoying. it doesn't make a lot of logical sense either. the AI doesn't deem an apple for an apple trade to be fair unless it receives an apple and an orange?
is there any trick to signing RA's? it became pretty expensive by the end of the game. the first problem was the other civs didn't have enough gold. so i started gifting them the amount they were short. then i would propose the RA and they would still say no. by the end of the game, i had to include 300 gold to get them to accept. that or a resource/luxury if i had one available. so by the end of the game, i had to pay 350 for the RA, 300 for the gift to get them to sign then often about 150 in a gift so they have enough to propose the RA in the first place. so that's 800 gold per RA. pretty pricey, no?
i was normally able to scrounge up the money because i could sell basically a lot of resources. but still, it's annoying. it doesn't make a lot of logical sense either. the AI doesn't deem an apple for an apple trade to be fair unless it receives an apple and an orange?
stickyfingers
Chieftain
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2012
- Messages
- 40
ohhh, thanks. i thought that was just the cost of the RA. like it starts at 200 or 250 but eventually goes to 300 or 350 i think. but it's the added cost AND you have to give them a gift.
another question - what is the best strategy for using great scientists? going for a science victory, you end up getting a bunch of them. I used all but one to bulb techs but in retrospect, I probably should have used them to build academies? I'm guessing build them around cities with high pops but not a ton of production? and put them on an otherwise bad tile?
chazzycat
Deity
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2010
- Messages
- 2,918
right, the cost goes up by 50 each age, regardless of the difference in your tech level. The 100 per age difference is on top of that.
Regarding scientists, the general consensus seems to be plant the first few as academies in your NC city, then later save them for bulbing expensive techs. But its tough to say exactly where that break even point is. Bulbing earlier in the game can be really good too, if you are headed towards specific technologies that will dramatically help you by reaching them earlier (bulbing artillery during a tough war, for example).
Regarding scientists, the general consensus seems to be plant the first few as academies in your NC city, then later save them for bulbing expensive techs. But its tough to say exactly where that break even point is. Bulbing earlier in the game can be really good too, if you are headed towards specific technologies that will dramatically help you by reaching them earlier (bulbing artillery during a tough war, for example).
Ribannah
Fighter Druid
Overview of the ruins we poppedThe first ruin has to be culture and 2:nd has to be +1
With some luck you can get GP in t60. I got in t59 (with F11/F12)
2 tech ruins, my guess AH and Writing?
3 20c
6 75g (Edinburgh buys deer tile, revealing another ruins)
10 survivors
17 map
21 95g
62 upgrade
107 survivors
109 80g
117 20c
119 survivors
122 65g
125 map
127 camps
136 20c
Maya and Sweden both settled their second city more southernly.
Iron was completely irrelevant in this game. Nantes was settled where the 3 Deer and 1 extra Furs were.
Well, there you go. We took Optics early. Our +2 visibility Scout reported promising land to the east even before that. A Worker was sent south to explore ahead of the Douglas Settler. We knew that there was land to be found, because a Quinquireme went there and didn't return.
