TSG53 After Action Thread

[Cpt Oblivious]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 53
Date submitted: 2013-01-21
Reference number: 28154
Your name: Cpt Oblivious
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1898AD
Turns played: 319
Base score: 1234
Final score: 1958
Time played: 4:31:00
Submitted save: TSG53_CptObliv.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Cpt_Oblivious_C505301.Civ5Save

I knew I'd get the win easily, but there were a few personal goals I set along the way; one of which I didn't meet (sub-300 finish), the other I did (breaking 1000 culture per turn during the game: peaked at 1024). I was also surprised to see that just going the natural spread route (only used one GS for converting India at the end since they were being jerks), I still managed to have 44 cities under my religious banner by the end of the game, and likely would have had 50 if Ghandi wasn't so intent of converting city-states

I had my timings down for the most part (two policies off the Freedom opener, but I used those to pick up Tradition opener and free UBs in my cities from Legalism.) TBH, There was a point around turn 160-180 where I could have militarily crushed pretty much anyone - got Hanoi as an ally early and they fed me an army of Legions to go with my Pictish Pikemen - and made a huge puppet empire. Had I gone the warmongering route rather than peaceful (no wars all game), I could have probably easily shaved 30-40 turns off with the puppet culture, if not more. So playing it "safe" gave me a disappointing result. :/

Policy Path was:
Liberty > Piety > Tradition Opener + Legalism > Freedom > rest of Tradition > Honor

Tech Path was:
Pottery > Writing > Calendar, GL to Philo while focused teching straight to Mathematics (which gave me GL, NC, and having HG underway by turn 50) > Civil Service > Education > Acoustics > Chivalry > Printing Press > Banking > GS bulbed Economics and Oxford'd Industrialization > Sci. Theory > Radio > Archaeology > Plastics

Ultimately, the teching worked since I was really only concerned about 3 wonders that I could have potentially seen getting taken from under me at this diff. level: Great Library, Hanging Gardens, and Chichen Itza, but managed to grab them all (and everything else shiny you'd want for cultural game, but I expected that)

Religion was Goddess of Festivals, Ceremonial Burial (debated between this and Tithe, but by the end my Happiness and Gold were both so high it wouldn't have ultimately made a significant difference), Cathedrals, Monestaries, and Religious Texts

 

[Browd]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 53
Date submitted: 2013-01-22
Reference number: 28155
Your name: Browd
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1846AD
Turns played: 293
Base score: 1080
Final score: 1862
Time played: 4:09:00
Submitted save: Boudicca_0293 AD-1846.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Browd_C505301.Civ5Save

Another slow culture game. For the life of me I can't seem to speed these up. Did 3 cities (suspect 2 cities (or 4) might have been better)--SW hill, Petra site and third city west between the gold and the copper. No wars (Cathy DOWed at one point, but never fired a shot and paid a bunch of gold for peace when Hiawatha started chewing on her rear). No puppets (a bunch of cultural puppets might have been a good idea -- finished the game #1 in military -- had 3 pictish warriors and 2 archers that finished as pikes and x-bows, and the rest were CS gifts).

Biggest fail was how long it took to find all of the Cultural CSs (didn't find Prague until I was finishing the last policy). Second biggest was discovering I wasn't working a couple of landmarks mid-game--don't know how long that lasted. Third biggest was finishing Patronage before taking right side of Liberty (to Representation) -- bad call. Fourth was probably letting my smallest city do Louvre (it needed a wonder for Reformation)--took way too long to build. But all those probably cost me maybe 10+ turns. Real problem was I got to Industrial at OK time (about turn 179), but didn't have the culture going at that point to power through as quickly as I should (even with GAs straight through, didn't finish Freedom until after turn 220--averaged about 7 turns per policy at that point). Just too slow.

 

[Streams]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 53
Date submitted: 2013-01-22
Reference number: 28156
Your name: Streams
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1874AD
Turns played: 307
Base score: 795
Final score: 1303
Time played: 4:34:00
Submitted save: Boudicca_0307 AD-1874.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Streams_C505301.Civ5Save

Nothing fancy, as the game score shows; simple, peaceful, full of mistakes auto-imposed one city challenge, although given the difficulty level now would've been the time to experiment with expanding.

Got a good start (well, almost, as I've postponed the city in order to discover a little more), dominated everyone in research (even Hia-city-spammer-watha), got the religion into every settlement (mistake no. 2 - got cathedrals and monasteries instead of something that would've taken advantage of the fact that I was present all around the world) and with papal primacy it was easy to get every city state as ally at some point.

I made everyone as a friend, and things were dandy, and I've waited for the whole game for someone to attack (mistake no. 3), and there was Russia at turn 300 ready to come pummeling. Not in a hurry, was she?

Hiawatha kicked Alex into Oblivion short after the start, and became the main target for everyone else. Up until the point were I wanted to try to see how paying for war works, and I turned Sweden against Russia. Sweden had been pummeling Hiawatha to the ground, but since that moment, everyone started going after Sweden, and the northmen started losing ground on all fronts. Suleiman bullied Ghandi the whole game, letting him only with Delhi.

I need to check up on some pointers around here as I just didn't know where to put the pedal to the metal in the late game.

Mistake no. 4 (something like 3): I ended the game with the 2nd biggest army, and it was just waiting there. I need to do some practice on Domination and Diplomacy as this was clearly one big lost potential.

But even for a cultural, once city wait, the game was fun. Celtic abilities are nifty and kept on playing. After the game ended I went after Cathy and pushed here back and got Moscow. I want the longest name achievement.

Thanks for the game!

edit: Tradition got me going fast, but I was underdeveloped in tech, so Freedom was the last tree I could get into (after Patronage and Piety were already done and Liberty was opened). Had I had a few more cities would've helped.

I tried to use the spied in order to share intrigue with someone that had done this with me, but only Suleiman had info for me, and nobody went after him. Oh well.

Read around here a little, and I've finally understood how prebuilding works and need to test this next time. What I did was just a mess (having buildings within 1 turn of completion and just linking them with Utopia in between. It took a long while). Also good ideas to put Great People on Incense tiles, as I've just sold them the entire game for pennies.

 

[FeiLing]

Also expected a faster victory. A huge mistake I made was not buying Aqueducts (thinking I'd get them for free anyway some turns later with the Tradition finisher). That hindered my growth quite a bit.



T1: Settled on Hill for +2 faith per turn.
T6: Upgrade Ruin (now Pictish Warrior); Scout pops. Pantheon founded: Goddess of Festivals.

T7: Culture Ruin (ScoutA); SP: Liberty opened.
T10: +1 Pop Ruin (ScoutA).

T16: SP - Republic taken. All my units scouting are severely hindered by barbs. A camp must be cleaned very soon too, as it blocks my settling spot.

T19: Barb Ruin (ScoutB).
T21: Faith Ruin (ScoutA).
T26: SP - Collective Rule.

T27: Upgrade Ruin (ScoutB is now now a Scarcher (with +1 sight); Culture Ruin (ScoutA).
T30: +1 Pop Ruin (Scarcher); GL started.

T31: Dublin settled.
T37: Settler bought.
T44: Religion founded - Tithe & Monasteries.
T45: Cardiff settled.





T47: GL finished. Since I was unhappy and Milan had double Influence from gold gifts I decided to hard built my last settler and buy the CS instead with the cash... yes it's hostile... then again there's a nearby barb camp eventually helping me with that issue.

T59: Truro settled next to Sinai. Gonna have to buy a Library there soonish and start Petra after the Monument is done (should be researched by that time). Since I'm unhappy the city can actually work Sinai right away... hoping to enhance the religion before someone else is able to found theirs and steal me the Cathedrals^^

T60: Starting Pyramids in Edinburgh; however I'm afraid of Gandhi going for HG soon as he usually does. Or Oracle. I need both. And Chichen Itza before the two Golden Age SPs arrive would be good too...

T66: Poor Suleiman. My Scout discovered 2 barbarian Settlers and 1 Worker near his borders - And my Scarcher discovered Washington be building the Pyramids (sure... the only capital I didn't have full vision of before -.-). Hopefully I finish it before him.
T68: Returned a Worker to Suleiman, still Guarded.

T69: Barb camp cleaned for Prague (Cultural CS) and Worker returned. Oh yeah! Monastery bought in the capital --> now at 35 cpt and 20 fpt.





T71: A Barbarian Settler that came directly from Delhi moved next to my healing warrior. However, it didn't belong to Gandhi, but the Ottomans. Since I strongly believe returning 2 civilian units to a civ doesn't increase the positive diplo modifier further than with just one and it's also very close to my cities I kept it.

T74: Scout trapped in the Ottoman Empire (...); NC, Petra and Stonehenge started. Washington going for the Great Lighthouse now, all others are seem to not be ready for wonders yet. Excellent. Encampment cleared for and Worker returned to Wittenberg. I've really been lucky with that stuff, lol. Too bad about all the CS on this map are 'hostile' and it won't last for too long.

T78: Delaying the NC for the HG, since Delhi has started working on it this turn. 19.55 production (12 turns) - should be fine.

T86: Athens has fallen to Hiawatha. He has 7 cities now -.-





T89: Religion enhanced - Cathedrals & Intinerant Preachers. Hanging Gardens finished, time for NC. Gandhi switched to Stonehenge, which Cardiff will have finished in 7 turns; np.

T91: Civil Service researched. Next in queue: Construction-Guilds-Chivalry-Theology-Education-Acoustics

T97ish: Stonehenge done. Cardiff working on Terracotta Army now, so it can expand to the many Copper tiles there sooner. NC done in the capital, going for Chichen Itza now. Also bought a Monastery in Dublin, which will start to work on Machu Picchu after the Colosseum finishes.

T100: SP - Piety opened. 50 cpt & 32 fpt atm... -5 happiness losing 2 more CS soon, but with Chichen Itza finishing soon I'll stay above (below? ) -10.

T106: Petra done and Monastery bought in Truro. Mount Sinai will be worked now permanently at 1/1/1/8 and grant me Cathedrals at a pretty decent rate.

T109: Chichen Itza done.





T116ish: Kuala Lumpur allied (500g for 65 influence); SP - Organized Religion; Terrcotta Army done.

T121: Prague allied (250g for 30 influence).

T129: SP - Reformation (15 turn GA + 33% more culture).

T130: Machu Picchu done; Oracle done; SP - Mandate of Heaven; Great Engineer generated. Hiawatha started working on the Great Mosque of Jenne, but it won't help him much - my religion is already knocking at his doors (capital). 35 gpt from Tithe. He does have 10 cities by now though and definitely is the leading AI.

T137: Acoustics researched. GE used to rush Sistine Chapel (would be 17 turns w/o).
T138: SP - Legalism --> 4 free Ceilidh Halls. Now at 236 cpt (GA).

T145: Gandhi finishes the Great Wall. SP - Religious Tolerance - gathering SPs every 8 turns now (without GA).

T152: SP - Landed Elite.

T154: GS used to reach Architecture.





T159: Hermitage done.
Just noticed (when he declared war on Washington) that Hiawatha burned down Sigtuna which used to be a size 10 city with 4 citrus, 3 bananas, 2 pastures and gems ¯\_(&#12484_/¯

T160: SP - Monarchy. Now 260 cpt (GA).

T166: Another stupid Great Prophet spawned... I think the 3rd useless one. So much Faith wasted. Well I'll keep one to quickly pop down a Holy Site on a Coal or Aluminium source should one pop up later. At least finally Tradition is completed (new SP).

T169: Upgrade Ruin (Scout). Not kidding^^. The Iroquois are the first AI to finally found a religion. Too bad my religion is pressuring his capital by 120 points. Tithe currently grants 78 Gold per turn.

T171: Physics stolen from Hiawatha. And I saw he has Steel as well already.

T174: Oxford gives me Archaeology. 2 Museums bought and filled. 380 cpt (w/o Ga).

T176: Liberty finished. GE taken and used to rush the Louvre.

T182: SP - Freedom opened.





T184: The last natural wonder on the map was found and 4 city states were happy about it. Without the +2 sight promotion I'd have never found it (due to no coastal cities).

T189: SP - Constitution; Taj Mahal done; 28 turns of GA left. Cap is size 20 (only) - 5 landmarks and 5 artists are being run (in the cap), but funnily the 4 Incense tiles aren't worked. CPT is 685 (next is 3575, so pretty much 5 turns per SP).

T191: Notre Dame done (2 turns before Catherine).

T194: SP - Civil Society. Catherine wants to pay me 78g for Open Borders... wonder what that could mean? ("Neutral")

T197: Leaning Tower done. GS chosen.
T200: SP - Democracy.
T206: SP - Free Speech.
T207: Porcelain Tower done. 2 GS bulbed to reach Radio. Broadcasting Tower bought in capital.
T212: SP - Universal Suffrage - Freedom finished. Now 1003 cpt.
T213: Chemistry stolen from Hiawatha.





T217: SP - Piety finished. Still 6 more (one full tree) to go
T223: SP - Patronage opened.
T229: SP - Philantrophy.
T235: SP - Scholasticism.

Gandhi converts one of my cities, which is pretty cool as all I lose is the benefit of Tithe (wayne?) and Goddess of the Festivals. His Hinduism however comes with +1 for plantages, so culture wise it evens out my pantheon perfectly plus it allows me to buy a Pagoda (on top of the existing Cathedral and Monastery), which actually may help me... who knows, maybe those 10ish extra culture per turn save me a turn in the end.

T241: SP - Cultural Diplomacy. 1200 cpt for the last 2 policies...
T248: SP - Aesthetics. 810/8655 @ 1207 cpt = 7 more turns.
T251: Statue of Liberty finishes in Dublin.

T255: SP - Educated Elite (Patronage finished). Utopia started with Walls, Armory, Constabulary, Arsenal and Stock Exchange queued up pre-built for some overflow production. Capital is at 31 pop and 159.6 production per turn (for Utopia). Apparently it will take 8 turns (including the exactly 360 hammers overflow). There are however still 6 forests ready to be chopped. Since 360+7x159.6 is 1477.2 in total the chopping should shave off an additional turn.

-------------------

T262: Utopia done.

My settler gauntlet game before this also with the Celts ended on T192... so T262 doesn't feel satisfying at all. But well... only 1 attempt here.

Spoiler :

PS: Tithe was giving >150 gpt at the end.

 

[Kanorin]

First GOTM submission here! I'm currently also playing GOTM 52, but domination games take so long, so I needed a break from it!

Finished with a CV on turn 293 in 1846, which I think is my best cultural finish time (out of maybe 3 or 4 CVs?). When I saw the map I thought I should be able to do even better (a wall of mountains to the west for protection? and Gandhi to the east? Can't get much safer than that).

My previous shot at a good CV time (different map) I ended up settling too many cities (I think capitol + 4 cities) and realized this mistake after reading some guides on this site. So this time I went way far the other way and just settled one city in addition to my capitol (on the hill near Mt. Sinai for Petra). In the end, having just two cities - even though my capitol was size 25 by the end of the game - hurt my science enough that I only unlocked the tech for broadcast towers with 1 policy left to go . I probably should have settled at least 1 more city, maybe 2.

Religion: Like everyone else who played this map I'm sure, my religion swept across this map like wildfire. I took goddess of festivals (which was amazing), cathedrals and monasteries (awesome), Mesiah (an ok choice among no great choices - maybe texts would have been better), initiation rites (100 gold on first conversion - bad choice), which I think ended up being a big mistake. It was my first time trying initiation rites and I figured it would give me a huge boost in the early game (it did) and that I didn't expect the game to go long enough for tithe to kick in to maximum effect. But actually if I played the game again, I'd probably do world church instead of initiation rites - Tithe would have been better too I think.

Wars: Since this was my break from the domination game, I decided to go extremely peaceful. I was everyone's friend for about 1/2 the game - enjoyed the 10% GP boost from sweeden, and somewhere around turn 190 or so Catherine was getting beat on by Gustav and Hiwatha, so I joined in and puppetted 3 of her cities. That was the only war declared by or on me. I probably should have been a little more aggressive early and puppetted Delhi for a better finish time. I'm pretty sure my puppets only produced about 3 or 4 CPT, since they never felt the need to build any culture buildings after monument

Wonders: I'm pretty sure I got every wonder through Big Ben except for about 4. I got all of the heavy culture wonders. I didn't have enough science to reach sydney opera house or Cristo Redentor, which was a result of poor science (even though I was only about 2 techs behind the leader at the end).

Great People: This part of the game I played fairly well. I ended with about 10 landmarks and 3 holy sites. Had a continuous golden age for about the last 60-70 turns. I thought that a great engineer would be able to hurry the utopia project, so I saved my liberty finisher for a GE for last (which I thought was quite clever). Turns out you can't hurry the UP, but at least the settled GE gave me a nice 12 production tile to help with the UP.

Policies: Started Tradition, got half way through, then opened and finished Piety, finished tradition, opened liberty and took 1 or two policies to get the +1 CPT, then started patronage and got 3 policies in that tree because I hadn't unlocked the industrial age yet. Finally got to the industrial age and finished freedom a bit late in the game - with just 3 or 4 policies to go after that.

City States: Didn't find Kuala Lumpur until fairly late and Prague until even later. Better exploration probably could have shaved off 3-4 turns.

Overall: Great game and map. Very enjoyable game for my first GOTM submission. My biggest area of improvement would be to find that sweet spot between culture and science. Not hitting the industrial age until relatively late (with respect to my policies) hurt my overall finish by quite a bit (no CR, no opera house, broadcast towers only for last ~10 turns). I'm pretty sure I could have finished about 20+ turns earlier if I had settled another city or two early for more science, but who knows if that would have ended up in a DoW and a huge setback. Maybe 1 extra city and prioritizing a few scientist specialists instead of artists would have done the trick.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 53
Date submitted: 2013-01-23
Reference number: 28164
Your name: Kanorin
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1846AD
Turns played: 293
Base score: 1073
Final score: 1850
Time played: 5:15:00
Submitted save: Kanorin_TSG53 finish.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Kanorin_C505301.Civ5Save

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

Welcome and congrats on your first submission! I hope you enjoy these games and write-ups.

 

[Aaronius]

On behalf of the Mac players, I would just like to welcome myself back. I decided to OCC this one. Culture 307. Nothing much to write home about. Hiawatha was a bit of a runaway, and probably would have made things really nervy above King. As it was, he never had the feathers to take me on, and after I won, I spent a few turns just punching him in the mouth.

 

[BWS]

LOL! Hilarious commentary, Aaronius

 

[Monthar]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 53
Date submitted: 2013-01-24
Reference number: 28173
Your name: Monthar
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1858AD
Turns played: 299
Base score: 1595
Final score: 2703
Time played: 6:54:00
Submitted save: TSG53_Won_Cultural.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Monthar_C505301.Civ5Save

Policy Order - Tradition, Piety, Patronage, Freedom, Honor.

I only had one war, because the Iroquois DoW'd after they captured all but one Russian city. I took two of their cities and the Russian capital from them before they would agree to a white peace.

I think I might have finished sooner if I'd planted more GA's earlier instead of staying in a golden age for half the game. I built a few holy sites as well.

In the end I had my religion in most of the cities and city states.

 

[drubell]

Your name: drubell
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1886AD
Turns played: 313
Base score: 1392
Final score: 2245
Time played: 3:58:00

This was my first culture game for G&K. I know 313 isn't too bad a finish but I really thought I was doing better than I was.

I did full tradition first, went to Liberty for the 33% city culture bonus, then did full piety and then full Freedom. Finished Liberty and used used the Liberty Finish to get a GE for Cristo, then just wait to wait until Patronage finished off.

I don't know how many turns I lost from this but I actually had forgotten that you need museums to get broadcast towers. I teched to Broadcast Towers and then saw I couldn't build them yet so then I had to tech all the way from sailing up to museums. But I did have the money to purchase museums in every city so that hopefully saved some of that problem. But I think that mistake cost me a lot of turns.

Goddess of Festivals, title, cathedrals. monasteries, itinerant preachers.

Picked up almost every wonder. Purposefully chose not to pick up Porcelain Tower because I didn't want to bump up my great person points with a scientist.

I didn't do many RAs. I wonder if I should've done more, but on the other hand, it was difficult enough for the AI to have money to even do trades with me.

I also horribly miscalculated the ratio of using artists for landmarks vs golden age. I ended with somewhere around 60 turns left on my golden age. I should've had more landmarks instead.

 

[gkreitz]

Game:	Civ5 GOTM 53
Date submitted:	2013-01-27
Reference number:	28189
Your name:	gkreitz
Game status:	Culture Victory
Game date:	1810AD
Turns played:	[B]275[/B]
Base score:	1836
Final score:	3338

Went for 2 cities (moved 1sw to settle cap, 2nd city was Petra city by Mt.Sinai) to try something a bit different. Tried mostly ignoring diplo with the AIs and protected all city states as soon as I found them. Was considering getting a big puppet empire, but never really had enough money to buy troops early enough when it mattered (both cities were almost constantly wonder spamming). I did kill off Gandhi (he only had his capital) which meant that noone settled near me and both my cities could eventually expand and grab almost their full 5 radius. In the end game, I also ran over Catherine and most of Hiawatha's lands to make it a bit more interesting than pressing "Next turn".

I always feel that I'm a bit too slow in culture games, but not quite sure what to change. I guess settling only 2 cities was too low. Also, reading through the other posts, I realized that my SP path was suboptimal (trad, switching over to piety immediately when it becomes available and grabbing that except temple, finishing trad, finishing piety, opening patronage (probably also first left, don't quite remember), then freedom, ... I probably generated a bit too many GS (settled 3, and bulbed 2-3 more) as I tried to make sure I was not late to industrial era.

 

[Pizzaspy]

Your name: Pizzaspy
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1898AD
Turns played: 319
Base score: 1499
Final score: 2379
Time played: 6:12:00

Felt I should have been much quicker, but happy with the 1800's I guess

Had pretty much the perfect religion setup. Itinerant preachers had my religion dominating before any others could get going. Monastaries/World church/Cathedrals was raking in the culture.

I focused completely on religion and culture, and wonder if a science push in the mid game might have served me better. Getting to Freedom earlier would have been huge, and wonders like Cristo/Sydney ( which I didn't get to in time for them to be a factor )

I ended up going
Tradition > Piety > Patronage > Freedom > Liberty

The other mistake I made was not having a coastal city. I didn't discover all the city states as I was land locked. So missed out on some culture and food there. Near the end I was gifted a great admiral and started exploring, which was kind of funny.

I went 2 cities...which is another question. Would be interesting to crunch the numbers ...I started to wonder if the ability to build culture buildings and have artists would have been more valuable than the savings on social policy cost.

Anyways, fun to play an easy setting for a change. It felt more like a fun race than a tense grind.

 

[pholtz]

Civ5 GOTM 53
Date submitted: 2013-01-27
Reference number: 28194
Your name: pholtz
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1988AD
Turns played: 408
Base score: 4541
Final score: 5606
Time played: 73:30:00
Submitted save: Win_Boudicca_0408 AD-1988.Civ5Save
Renamed file: pholtz_C505301.Civ5Save

Ok, I played this game mainly to get the Longest name achievement. So that meant 33 cities, most taken by conquest. I ended up annexing all of them so had huge culture and money income at the end (over 3300 culture per turn).

It was also an experiment to see whether such a huge empire could get a culture victory before time expired.

So this game was played mostly as a domination game, I believe at the end the Ottomans were the only other civ in control of their capital. My biggest rival was Hiawatha, but he went down fast once I attacked him. I'm not that good with early conquest, and didn't really start taking cities until I had cannons. After that it was pretty much non stop war until I got 32 cities, then founded the 33rd. The hardest cities to take were often the CS's whom if they declared on me, and they were nearby, I would take instead of making peace after finishing off the ai civ.

My religion spread everywhere with very little missionary work on my part. All my cities had both pagoda's and cathedrals. With Tithe, I had very little problem with gold income.

I guess it's not the number of cities that causes problems in a cultural win, as eventually, once you get all the cities built up, the culture they make makes up for the extra culture per policy. The problem is the extra time it takes to get so many cities built up (and to conquer all of them).

Anyway, had fun, even though the game was long, and I got the achievement!

 

[Neuro]

Game: 	Civ5 GOTM 53
Your name: 	Neuro
Game status: 	Culture Victory
Game date: 	1675AD
Turns played: 	245
Final score: 	2926
Time played: 	8:54:00

This was one of the roughest games I've ever played, but for reasons completely independent of the game itself. The first 150 moves or so, I played while battling the flu, which usually consisted of me playing 15-20 moves, and then the Nyquil kicking in and I had to lay down for a bit. Around turn 150 I was getting into the really micro-manage portion, so I stopped for a few days, and when I was feeling better I finished it off.

I see a lot of people decided to go with the 4 city Tradition opening. I'm not a fan of it for culture games, I prefer to go 1 or 2 cities, since with 4 you have to build at least one wonder in each, and it takes forever to get going, etc.

Since this was Prince level, and the Pictish Warrior is such a strong UU, I figured I'd crank out a few and puppet my nearest neighbors. That Pictish guy is amazing for early conquest, especially when you combine the no-move pillage ability with the +25 health you get from pillaging, *plus* he's always 20% stronger than a normal spearman.

So I started by moving to the hill SW and my warrior east. Ran into Gandhi very quickly, found Mining and Unit Upgrade, and a couple of CS. Initial build was Scout, sent him west, he found 3 more ruins for gold, map, and culture. Ran into Washington at this point as well, then had to double back since that valley dead ends into a wall of mountains. Scout came back and went south then west, found another ruins for upgrade to archer, and while he scouted around, the Pictish stayed near home and picked off Barbs.

Here's my initial builds/research/sps/etc:
Build order: Scout/Monument/Granary/GL/NC/HG/CI/Oracle. I actually built the Oracle to 1 turn before completion then switched over to CI. It took the other civs forever to get writing, so I felt confident in delaying the Oracle, plus I had put an Embassy in all the other capitals so I could see when they started building a Wonder. I also deliberated avoided Stonehenge, hoping the other civs would go for it first.

Techs: Pottery, (Mining), Writing, Calender, Animal Husbandry, Masonry, then I think Bronze Working. I built the GL in the 40s, which I put into Philosophy.

Social Policies: Tradition, Liberty, Citizenship, Aristocracy, then Piety, Mandate of Heaven, and Organized Religion.

Religion: I picked Goddess of Festivals, Cathedrals, Tithe, then Monastaries and Religious Texts.

Around turn 40 I milked the AIs for all the gold I could and bought 3 Pictish Warriors as soon as I got Bronze Working, then sent all four + archer over to Gandhi. I finished him off on turn 49, rested the warriors for a few turns, and then moved them up to Sully. My archer had gone ahead to scout and managed to grab Sully's undefended settler, muhahah. I used his settler to lure his warriors away from Istanbul and finish them off at range, safe from the city. My warriors finally caught up from slogging through all that forest, and by pillaging Sully's lands in between attacks, took out Istanbul quick.

Unfortunately, all other targets were on the other side of the world, so I started a slow march back to home with my troops. With some careful micromanaging, I was able to complete Chichan Itza on turn 90, and immediately go into my first Happiness Golden Age on turn 91, along with completing the Oracle that turn and selecting Reformation for another 15 turns of GA, followed by the GA policy in Liberty several turns later, for a 45-turn GA.

While this was going on, I founded Dublin over by Mt Sinai, which would be my Petra city. I had to get Petra built before I could take Legalism, so that Dublin would get the UB and not an Ampitheater. I believe I got Acoustics done in 113, but I'm not certain. I know I beelined Acoustics after getting Civil Service, then I went for Chivalry for Alhambra. I was mainlining cough syrup and nyquil at this time, so things are a bit blurry.

I know I brought my army home, and when they got back to Edinburrah I upgraded them all to Pikemen, but Pikemen who kept their 20% bonus and No-Move Pillage! I sent these bad boys along the southern passage to jump on Catherine, who had started a war with Hiawatha, and her troops were completely out of position. I took St Petersburg, Moscow, and Novograd, leaving her with one of Hiawatha's cities she took, Osinaka I think. I figured I had enough puppets for now (plus, getting to anyone else would require slogging through miles of jungle), so I stopped my conquests here.

I finished up the Tradition tree, giving me UBs in both my cities, and Ampitheaters in my first two puppets, along with Aqueducts in those four as well. I took two in Patronage while waiting on Freedom to open up.

Speaking of Freedom, I got Architecture opened in the 130s, but Archaeology was a long ways away, so I started timing my next Great Person pop to be a GA-GS double pop. I researched up to Astronomy, popped my GS to get most of Navigation done, and built Oxford to finish Archa. Freedom unlocked on turn 158!

The rest of the game was just micromanging everything. After my first 45-turn GA ended, I pushed as much happiness as I could to get my 750 happy GA started. It went off in turn 181, and I managed to finish out Freedom tree before it ended and pop Taj Mahal (I had it built out to 1 turn and held off for the Freedom finisher).

I built Pisa, popped GE from it to build Louvre, and built Porc. Tower in Dublin. I used the GS from the tower to get to Radio, on turn 206. At this point, looking at my culture and my research, I realized there was no way I would get to Plastics before I completed all 5 trees, so I started thinking about stacking my overflow. I took a short break and researched the actual mechanics of overflow stacking and I finally figured out how it worked (every other time I tried, I never got it to work right), so I sat down and worked out the math of what I would need. I figured I could put out 100+ hammers a turn near the end, so I needed buildings that were 100 hammers apart. I decided to go with Mint (100 hmrs), Theater (200), Arsenal (300), Stock Exchange (360). The only thing past this were wonders, so I built Big Ben up to 1 turn, and when I finished Liberty I grabbed a GE and used it to pop Eiffel Tower up to 1 turn and then waited.

Six turns before I would hit my last policy, I did the prebuild, and for once it worked correctly. I managed to get Utopia down to 6 turns, and I had moved all my workers to the forests to try and chop the last 5 forests to shave off another turn, but I was about 25 hammers too short. Oh well, 245 is still a good time, though I suspect tommynt will come in with some mind-bogglingly lower score.

A few notes about this game: I stayed Guarded with the other civs for almost the entire game. Killing off other civs earns you a huge diplo penalty apparently. Also, I probably could have puppeted more cities if promotion saving had been enabled. I was surprised to see it wasn't, since nearly every other GotM was. Also, the Announcement said this was a Mystery Map, but the save game file is clearly marked Pangaea, so not sure what that was about. Also, I never did find the last Natural Wonder. I'm assuming it was Krakatoa somewhere that I never found.


Final note: While many find it cheating, I certainly abused the AI on trades and such. And if you think that grabbing their gold and DoW is bad, some of the ways you can abuse them are far worse. For example, say a barb unit is about to pillage your Lux, so you decide to sell it to the AI and get some gold for it. But what if the AI has more gold than the lux is worth? You can get the extra too, because when one part of a deal is broken, the whole deal is broken, so if he has 300 gold, sell him lux + 2 GPT for all 300! But wait, there's even MORE ways to abuse this situation. What if the AI has 6 gpt of his own? You can get that too! First, buy his 6 gpt for gold. You then buy all that gold back for Lux + GPT. When the barb pillages your lux, the second deal is broken, meaning you no longer owe him GPT, but the first deal is still in effect, meaning you not only got all his gold, you also got all his GPT!

Ok, enough rambling, time to go to bed!

 

[pkf]

Nice writeup, great time!

I'm not sure about the 2 city vs 4 city idea. It's a tradeoff between lower policy costs and science output, I do believe that the availability of Goddess of Festivals is a strong point for 2 cities though. Also I guess on lower levels puppeting really helps your science output.

Out of curiosity, do you think going Republic and Collective Rule first might be beneficial, as in saving 500 gold or hammers/growth? Or do you lose too much on the Piety tree since you need to open Citizenship anyways?

Damnit, I just realized I had opened with Ceremonial Burial and Monasteries instead of Cathedrals. Someone hit me.

 

[caeru71]

Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1951AD
Turns played: 371
Base score: 1275
Final score: 1722

Thanks for the game.

 

[seshat]

@Neuro, thanks for your comment. Gotto print it out to remember some of your tips!

 

[feelsgood]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 53
Date submitted: 2013-01-31
Reference number: 28217
Your name: feelsgood
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1945AD
Turns played: 365
Base score: 1002
Final score: 1372
Time played: 4:20:00
Submitted save: Boudicca_0365 AD-1945_01-30-2013.Civ5Save
Renamed file: feelsgood_C505301.Civ5Save

I've been playing many of your GOTM games recently and have really been enjoying your maps.

As for this map, I stuck to the standard 3 city setup. Went for extra faith from quarries and played a non-aggressive game. Obviously I had major religion and spread it to most of the globe. Often hilariously bothering my neighbors with it, however I did stay friends with everyone pretty much the whole time. The Iroquois did finally attack me near the end, after they had wiped out Greece and Russia. I was prepared though and defended my turf until the cultural victory. Look forward to the next game.

 

[leif erikson]

Welcome to CivFanatics and GOTM.

Glad you decided to join, play and submit. Best of luck in future games.

 

[Circuit]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 53
Date submitted: 2013-02-02
Reference number: 28231
Your name: Circuit
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 2022AD
Turns played: 445
Base score: 2294
Final score: 2577
Time played: 8:27:00
Submitted save: GOTM_TSG_53.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Circuit_C505301.Civ5Save

This is my very first GOTM game, so I suppose I have an excuse for having the slowest so far.

I had two brief wars with Russia and America then had a peaceful phase until I had finally had enough of Russia's Great Prophet in my territory, so I conquered Catherine. Ghandhi and Suleiman came next, and I managed to keep civil relations with Washington, who was carving out a very fine empire for himself in the Western half of the continent, and I focused on keeping him at bay, all the while ensuring perma-Golden Age and trying to boost my culture output.