TSG49 After Action Report

[beestar]

Game won by Science victory, T338.

Oh wait, I was supposed to go for a Culture Victory.

And it was supposed to be me who won, not Willem.

Willem became a monster in this game, trashing even the early warmonger Genghis Khan. He had Giant Death Robots by T330 or so and I was too far behind in tech to even think about scratching him (turn lengths on my computer were getting ridiculously slow and it wouldn't have been fun even if it had worked).

I need to be a lot faster in my Culture Victory technique. See mid-game writeup for details, but basically I need to know the 'accelerators' like Chichen Itza, Alhambra, etc., and not get tempted by puppeting 80% of Ramesses empire!

G&K is a heck of a lot better than the original game though

 

[Half Nelson]

Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1918AD
Turns played: 339
Base score: 1003
Final score: 1497

This was tougher than I anticipated. My head said TRADITION but my fingers still picked Liberty:- hence slow city growth. I settled my 4 cities quite aggressively so got into several early wars with Egypt and Netherlands. I built nearly all the Wonders I hoped for, except Alhambra. Sigtuna, my Petra city to N, was a Wonder monster. All seemed to be going well (although city 4 on W coast was slow growing) when I received simultaneous DoW from my two long-term foes around turn 220. By this time I was falling behind a bit in tech as the AI expanded into the open spaces and my NE city (Helsinki) was overwhelmed by a large Dutch army backed by WW1 aircraft. Fortunately this was only my third-rank city and, this being TSG, I rolled up my sleeves for a fight. I teched immediately for Infantry then Flight (whilst suffering an uneasy flightless 10 turns of air bombardment). With Flight and two top-notch cities with barracks etc, I churned out fighters (which tore up the Dutch bombers) then bombers which, alongside infantry-upgraded Caroleans, allowed me to recapture Helsinki. All thoughts of a sub-300 victory ruined, I spent some time experimenting with air warfare (not really used it much in CiV thus far). It turns out that well-promoted WW1 air units with air-repair are very strong, even against WW11-era units. I had perma-GA for last 110 turns or so, but it was difficult to generate much culture from CS because Greece and the Dutch had huge pockets and bought up most of them. The Mongols also captured a couple of cultural CS, further diluting the pool. I remained friendly with Greece and Mongolia throughout and should have signed more RA with them than I did. I was very successful with tech-stealing using spies, the AI seemed to have no effective espionage in capital cities. I eventually crossed the finish line with my slowest CiV victory ever (IIRC).

 

[Monthar]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 49
Date submitted: 2012-12-12
Reference number: 27877
Your name: Monthar
Game status: Conquest Loss
Game date: 1740AD
Turns played: 258
Base score: 210
Final score: 210
Time played: 3:38:00
Submitted save: AutoSave_0258 AD-1740.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Monthar_C504901.Civ5Save

My heart just wasn't in it and probably won't be as long as the rules can't be enforced.

 

[killerloop]

t274 OCC Cultural victory

settled E of wine, final city size was 37.

did a traditional GLib opening, got it around t50, then NC, beelined for Petra and HG, when I found out that for Petra you need be next or on top of desert...

I'm wondering if for a Culture game OCC till ~t100 is the way to go. Your capital can focus completely on building wonders, all the rest you buy (or comes with wonders). Even in science you keep up. Question is if there's still space to settle, but you could capture as well.... If you befriend a miltary state early, the units you get are ok to keep the enemies out. This worked till the end. I guess I bought only 3 archers.


couple of bigger mistakes:
1) I should have planted my 1st GS immediately, I only did this after ~30 turns when I was unhappy with the bpt. This probably costed me ~5 turns.
2) I didn't see a GP slipping in. I lost my faith end ended up with faith enough for 2 GAs. That costed me also ~5 turns.

I should maybe have invested heavier earlier in military. I have fought wars with everyone except Kahn. He was friendly whole game, but only wanted to sign a DOF once ??!?, one RA from this period
Finally Harun became friendly and signed a DOF and RA. This one didn't help, it came in too late.
At ~t215 I must have triggered an AI setting, RAmses, William and Alex DOWed me.

Had no luck with with gifted GPersons: I got myself 2 Admirals, funny for a country w/o a harbor And when I got them I couldn't gift them as all non allied CSs were at war with me as they were all allies of William.

I also wonder why in my battles I got myself 2 Admirals too? Should I report this as a bug? If you do not have harbors, why a GAdm? Still, I could have build a harbor of course.

In the end William was the runaway, he got all the CSs allied except my 3 culturals, my Manilla and my Marrakech. Running with over 200 gpt as of t220 (I once saw over 400) he could have taken them as well, but didn't. BTW Florence was captured by Kahn ~10 turns after I allied them (~t70), that was a waste of my "well invested" 1000 gold! In this game Kahn didn't settle at all, he just captured all the CSs around him.

Another strange observation I had was Monaco. When I found it it was already in the hands of Kahn. In one of the wars with Alex, Alex liberated it. When I then try to ally I couldn't, I had to send a scout over to re-find it. Is this a bug???? After re-finding them I allied them, but not for long, Kahn conquered again .

Tx GOTM-Staff, for again a good game,

H

 

[Brigg]

Ugg t387 retired. Still getting used to G&K.

Eqypt started an early war that lasted until I took over. I couldn't keep a CS ally, if Mongolia didn't knock them over, Greece would steal them. Allied a CS, and Greece would take them and I would be 149 behind.

Spies. I hated Spies. Coups were common.

I spent the entire game at war. Once I forced peace on Eqypt, William attacked. I beat him back and then Mongolia carpet of doomed me. I lost most of the cities I took from William over a 150 turn war, but managed to Both William and Mongolia were turns away from a science victory.

Really too slow on everything, getting a faith/culture/science balance took way too long.

 

[Halcyan2]

Had no luck with with gifted GPersons: I got myself 2 Admirals, funny for a country w/o a harbor And when I got them I couldn't gift them as all non allied CSs were at war with me as they were all allies of William.

I also wonder why in my battles I got myself 2 Admirals too? Should I report this as a bug? If you do not have harbors, why a GAdm? Still, I could have build a harbor of course.H

I've always wondered what happens if you are completely landlocked and you gain a Great Admiral. Is he stick in your city, in the middle of land, for all time?

 

[killerloop]

No, the Great Admirals were dumped off the coast on the nearest sea tile

 

[AE_]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 49
Date submitted: 2012-12-12
Reference number: 27880
Your name: AE_
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1852AD
Turns played: 296
Base score: 2023
Final score: 3428
Time played: 11:53:00
Submitted save: Gustavus Adolphus_0296 AD-1852.Civ5Save
Renamed file: AE__C504901.Civ5Save

It was a really fun game, but I am really bad att achieving fast finish times when playing culturally.

Maybe i will do a replay and aim for 3 instead of 5 cities and see where that gets me.

Spoiler :

 

[Arilian]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 49
Date submitted: 2012-12-13
Reference number: 27886
Your name: Arilian
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1790AD
Turns played: 268
Base score: 928
Final score: 1750
Time played: 2:54:00
Submitted save: Gustavus Adolphus_0268 AD-1790.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Arilian_C504901.Civ5Save


Most of my writeup in the In Progress reports.
I needed to press next turn a few more time and had to read in civ fanatics, how pre building works. I am still not sure that I fully got it but still build UP in capitol in 7 turn.

I still have the pop up bug unfortunately, and I have the latest version, I had to reload an autosave when attacked mongolia to liberate a cs, and I auto annexed the cs... Did the same anyway and liberated it. Also did not get a popup for some ruins.... but I know i got something from them I tested that already before.

I totally failed to spread my religion, all I did is protected my capitol with units so Arabia could not converti it again. Had to buy a GP to reconvert for production and hermitage bonus... but at least it gave me cathedrals, that arabia choosen before me for religion.

Maybe I will try with 1 city and settling on the wine sometime, I think it should be around 5-10 turn faster with the same conditions.

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

that's weird to still get the annex bug. since the hotfix i havent experienced it once. and i think the ruins pop ups arent a bug just a game simplification. i think i only get them for free techs, unit upgrades or map reveals. stuff like free gold/faith/culture/population and barb camps are just quick text lines on my screen. but it could be since ive never investigated it in the bugs forums.

im not sure what you can try other than clearing cache and verifying versions to see why the annex bug still occurs. it's worth a try. that and updating drivers.

 

[leif erikson]

Could also use the verify game cache in the STEAM control panel for Civ5 to see if all the files updated correctly.

That may be what HR said?

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

yeah, 'verifying versions' meant that but wasnt specific enough. thanks for clarifying it.

 

[Maxym]

I figured with new gotm still not here, I might see how much difference would playing it correctly make. So I focused on doing it the way I thought I should have originally:
Stick to one SP tree, get 4 cities, rush to industrial and freedom, get cathedrals, keep AIs fighting etc.

It definitely worked out better, 23 turns less in fact but some of it might be due to map knowledge. I settled in same spots to avoid that bias, but discovered some CS earlier and I tried to get Genghis busy somewhere else and if i had to I paid him to leave them alone. It cost a fortune. In the end he still conquered all of them on his side, and to keep entertained I sent an expeditionary force to liberate Monaco and Brussels. They did but i made a mistake, I should have taken his city first then liberate them coz my forces were slowly melting away and I could not upgrade them. They were semi obsolete when they got there. But I knew he could not threaten my heartland so I kept at it till victory turn.

I was also able to build more wonders and Harun was a non factor in this game, Egypt, Dutch and Alex split the wonders between them. My wars were less succesful as well as I didn't build any UU. I also was more of a tech lead and it actually made my tetching slower as in last game I stole lots of military techs and only
Y one this time.

 

[beestar]

I'm still getting the auto-annex (pop-up) bug, but someone on the forums pointed out a way to fix it. You can press F6 to go to the technology tree screen, then click the "EXIT" button in the bottom left (do not use the 'Esc' key to get out of the screen!). All your queued-up popups will now trigger, including the Annex/Puppet/Raze screen.

I'm not sure what the game state is between conquering the city and doing the F6/exit thing. I think the city is annexed until you resolve it?

 

[warning:crazy]

My first post in 2 years.. Long time lurker (since 2005 apparently, which I don't quite remember but hey). My first gotm try in 2 years (I very barely remember that. I was shocked to find out that there was a GOTM in 2005 and that I tried to play it.)

I normally play on Warlord and have moderate success so I was suprised that I lasted until the 1800s. I decided that since that was when my UUs kicked in it would be a good time to go on the offensive and get some puppet states. So Will, Khan and I declared on Egypt. Except those 2 didn't help at all and Ram destroyed my army, which was very outclassed. I think the ibggest difficulty I had with the.. difficulty was how behind I was in Tech. I was throwing Knights against paratroopers. It didn't go well.

Still, it was fun, and I learned a lot.

 

[Bezhukov]

Max,

There's a nice city site with a desert river, crabs, and gems that can be used as forward base against Genghis. Also has Aluminum and Oil and two fish, so it should pull it's weight culturally in time. If you grab desert folklore, its also a nice source of faith.

I got a 273 finish with 6 cities.

 

[BuddhaBubba]

Game status: Science Loss
Game date: 1985AD
Turns played: 406
Base score: 758
Final score: 758
Time played: 4:22:00

Well, even though I lost, still an interesting game. Egypt declared war on me around Rennaissance (I think, it was such a long war I forgot when it started!) and it lasted all the way to when I lost to Mongols

The cool part about it was that I actually held off the Egyptians who were one unit upgrade ahead of me if not two (ex: I was still playing with Caroleans when they had Infantry). Still made it to 4 social policy tracks completed (Trad, Piety, Freedom, Honor and one policy in Patronage). Prob. could have picked better policies (e.g. the one in Liberty that reduces the culture cost of new cities). Either that or I should have been a little more warlike and puppeted some cities early (though I did take one Egypt city).

William was my best buddy and a good buffer from the Mongol / Greek hordes. Sinbad got killed off pretty early. Look forward to reading other people's experiences and may play a second game just for practice. Oh yeah, happy hannukah!

 

[leif erikson]

My first post in 2 years.. Long time lurker (since 2005 apparently, which I don't quite remember but hey). My first gotm try in 2 years (I very barely remember that. I was shocked to find out that there was a GOTM in 2005 and that I tried to play it.)

Welcome back.

Best of luck in future games. Keep on learning, that is what we are all about.

 

[tommynt]

Won this finaly turn 226,
Had pretty high science so I could get christando 2 SP before end - not sure if it did even shave a turn
Did quite some utupia prebuilding so I built it in 5 turns with a HUGE Production City Petra FTW

early bo in progress thread - nothing special after on had huge gold influe and loads of gifted units so all other civs been scared and loaned me heavy for peace

in end +1500 cult
like 650g/t
1000 bakkers

a picture says more as 1000 words

btw again my sp order - i really liked it

full tradition
3 liberty till reuced sp costs
piety
fill liberty
patronage

 

[pholtz]

Finally, the game is done. Are you sure this was standard speed? It seemed like Epic to me

Won on turn 364, 1944. That's about 20 years better than my previous Culture Victory, and that was on Prince. I know I made lots of mistakes, but getting better.

Score was only 1451.

Not sure how you get all the other information you guys are displaying, I'll need to read up on that and get the game submitted. Time of the game will be a bit LONG, as I occasionally leave the game running as I leave the computer for a while. I'll also get a better write up of how the game went soon. Need to read all of your reports first.

Ok, uploaded my file, editing to add that info:

Game: Civ5 GOTM 49
Date submitted: 2012-12-14
Reference number: 27891
Your name: pholtz
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1944AD
Turns played: 364
Base score: 1049
Final score: 1456
Time played: 18:09:00
Submitted save: W_Gustavus Adolphus_0364 AD-1944.Civ5Save
Renamed file: pholtz_C504901.Civ5Save