[BNW] TSG_213 After Action

[aafritz17]

Welcome to the TSG213 After Action thread. In this thread you can post your Path to Glory? Please title your post with the victory turn and date (and your score, if recorded in the Hall of Fame).
STOP - Please do not continue reading this thread until you have completed and submitted your game.
Please attach your final, first play through, .Civ5Save file, saved AFTER the victory ceremony if you were not conquered (using the "Lemme play one more turn" feature.)

You might also answer some of these questions in your post:
- How useful were your uniques? The Camel Archer, if you teched that far, opens a potential trap. Did you discover it? (Hint: How many horsemen did you upgrade?)
- Did the difficulty level affect your tech and/or social policy choices?
- Did you prioritize a religion? If so, what beliefs were important to you?
- Did you enjoy your game?

 

[rickyvaughn]

Turn 151 DomV

I had dreams of a t130 something DomV, but ended up with t151. After the slow start, it is what it is. If I had to do it again, I wouldn't have built the shrine. I think it ended up costing me GL. Missed DF anyway. I took Plantation Culture, which may have helped slightly. The Ottomans were far and away the best AI in my game. He took both DF and GL from me along with several other wonders, including GW which made the final assault a couple turns more lengthy.

Fun game @aafritz17. Appreciate the work you're putting in.

 

[vadalaz]

Turn 93 domination



Settled on the Silver and went Mining first to get the peace deal snowball rolling as soon as possible. Build order: 3x Scout - Monument - Scout - Archer - Chariot etc. Never built any buildings other than Monuments in Mecca and Medina. I hit pretty good ruins - early culture, two Scarchers, free Archery, some gold. Lots of early CS tributes too.

SPs: Collective rule (settled Medina on Copper) into Honor right side. Tech: Mining - Wheel - Calendar - BW - Construction - Trapping - Horseback

Sent first two armies in opposite directions and eventually built a third one for Carthage. City capture order: Persepolis (48), Assur (57), Constantinople (65), Marrakech (68), Carthage (79), Babylon (85), Istanbul (93). Could've probably captured Istanbul faster, but I chose to play it safe. Suleiman went Tradition so he had Oligarchy, he also built Terracotta and had a bunch of Swordsmen and CBs.

 

[VitkaCZE]

Turn 151 DomV

I had dreams of a t130 something DomV, but ended up with t151. After the slow start, it is what it is. If I had to do it again, I wouldn't have built the shrine. I think it ended up costing me GL. Missed DF anyway. I took Plantation Culture, which may have helped slightly. The Ottomans were far and away the best AI in my game. He took both DF and GL from me along with several other wonders, including GW which made the final assault a couple turns more lengthy.

Fun game @aafritz17. Appreciate the work you're putting in.

incredible pace

 

[VitkaCZE]

Turn 93 domination

View attachment 637088

Settled on the Silver and went Mining first to get the peace deal snowball rolling as soon as possible. Build order: 3x Scout - Monument - Scout - Archer - Chariot etc. Never built any buildings other than Monuments in Mecca and Medina. I hit pretty good ruins - early culture, two Scarchers, free Archery, some gold. Lots of early CS tributes too.

SPs: Collective rule (settled Medina on Copper) into Honor right side. Tech: Mining - Wheel - Calendar - BW - Construction - Trapping - Horseback

Sent first two armies in opposite directions and eventually built a third one for Carthage. City capture order: Persepolis (48), Assur (57), Constantinople (65), Marrakech (68), Carthage (79), Babylon (85), Istanbul (93). Could've probably captured Istanbul faster, but I chose to play it safe. Suleiman went Tradition so he had Oligarchy, he also built Terracotta and had a bunch of Swordsmen and CBs.

Man if you didnt post the prtsreen I wouldnt believe it. Next time record whole game on video. I would learn so much!!!

 

[VitkaCZE]

Turn 93 domination

View attachment 637088

Settled on the Silver and went Mining first to get the peace deal snowball rolling as soon as possible. Build order: 3x Scout - Monument - Scout - Archer - Chariot etc. Never built any buildings other than Monuments in Mecca and Medina. I hit pretty good ruins - early culture, two Scarchers, free Archery, some gold. Lots of early CS tributes too.

SPs: Collective rule (settled Medina on Copper) into Honor right side. Tech: Mining - Wheel - Calendar - BW - Construction - Trapping - Horseback

Sent first two armies in opposite directions and eventually built a third one for Carthage. City capture order: Persepolis (48), Assur (57), Constantinople (65), Marrakech (68), Carthage (79), Babylon (85), Istanbul (93). Could've probably captured Istanbul faster, but I chose to play it safe. Suleiman went Tradition so he had Oligarchy, he also built Terracotta and had a bunch of Swordsmen and CBs.

I tried to replay your way. Its so different from what I am used to.

Turn 93 domination

View attachment 637088

Settled on the Silver and went Mining first to get the peace deal snowball rolling as soon as possible. Build order: 3x Scout - Monument - Scout - Archer - Chariot etc. Never built any buildings other than Monuments in Mecca and Medina. I hit pretty good ruins - early culture, two Scarchers, free Archery, some gold. Lots of early CS tributes too.

SPs: Collective rule (settled Medina on Copper) into Honor right side. Tech: Mining - Wheel - Calendar - BW - Construction - Trapping - Horseback

Sent first two armies in opposite directions and eventually built a third one for Carthage. City capture order: Persepolis (48), Assur (57), Constantinople (65), Marrakech (68), Carthage (79), Babylon (85), Istanbul (93). Could've probably captured Istanbul faster, but I chose to play it safe. Suleiman went Tradition so he had Oligarchy, he also built Terracotta and had a bunch of Swordsmen and CBs.

I tried to reply your game.
What pantheon did you choose? And at what turn did you make it to attack Carthage? I couldnt collect some reasonable army (due to barbarians) until end 70. But it seems that by that time you have been already finishing.

 

[VitkaCZE]

Turn 93 domination

View attachment 637088

Settled on the Silver and went Mining first to get the peace deal snowball rolling as soon as possible. Build order: 3x Scout - Monument - Scout - Archer - Chariot etc. Never built any buildings other than Monuments in Mecca and Medina. I hit pretty good ruins - early culture, two Scarchers, free Archery, some gold. Lots of early CS tributes too.

SPs: Collective rule (settled Medina on Copper) into Honor right side. Tech: Mining - Wheel - Calendar - BW - Construction - Trapping - Horseback

Sent first two armies in opposite directions and eventually built a third one for Carthage. City capture order: Persepolis (48), Assur (57), Constantinople (65), Marrakech (68), Carthage (79), Babylon (85), Istanbul (93). Could've probably captured Istanbul faster, but I chose to play it safe. Suleiman went Tradition so he had Oligarchy, he also built Terracotta and had a bunch of Swordsmen and CBs.

The way you play it is so different from my style. Its very effective, but honestly, not so entertaining. I prefer to play it slow and build some empire that stands the test of time

 

[vadalaz]

@VitkaCZE, I got my pantheon only after capturing Persepolis which had Stonehenge. I chose river happiness, so just +1 happiness in Medina. Should've probably taken something else, maybe some faith pantheon to get a quicker religion for the +100 gold founder belief.

I decided early on that I'd get three armies, have the first two take 3 capitals each, and the third army take the last one, Carthage in this case. Carthage is very close to Mecca, so the troops from the capital can get there very quickly, and Carthage's corner start means that it's easy for your first or second army to just go past it.

To get an army very quickly you need lots of gold to buy units. The two big sources of early income on Emperor are peace deals with AIs, in which you sell them luxuries or trade gpt for lump gold, and city-state tributes once you have enough troops to do that. My first two armies were composed of 2 Archers, 2 Chariots, 1 Warrior and 1 Scout. Here's a couple of turn 48 pictures:


I've noticed I made a mistake here. I was sitting on 600 gold because I was waiting to connect Horses in Persepolis to buy more Chariots. What I should've done was to take 4 Horses from Carthage in a peace deal. This would have allowed me to buy more Chariots sooner.

 

[sebtanic]

Turn 159 win

t98 Carthage
t124 Assur
t135 Marrakech
t139 Persepolis
t151 Istanbul
t158 Constantinople
t159 Babylon

It was nice how my two armies conquered their respective last capitals almost simultaneously. My Camel armies met almost no resistance, except in Byzantium where some Cataphracts were able to surprise attack and inflict some damage. Nothing too serious though, I withdrew them to a nearby allied City State and healed them quickly. All in all they may have slowed down my northern army by a couple of turns.

The Ottomans were the most powerful AI in my game too. They had Great Wall, but it didn't make as much of a difference as I feared. Camel Archers have enough movement points to attack cities with impunity regardless, if you attack via flat terrain.

This was a very fun game. It was almost a bit too easy with the Camel Archers!

Great learning experience for a Domination Noob like me though. I used to skip Domination GOTMs in the past, but now I see how cool they are

Thanks @aafritz17 and y'all who are participating here!

 

[sebtanic]

To get an army very quickly you need lots of gold to buy units. The two big sources of early income on Emperor are peace deals with AIs, in which you sell them luxuries or trade gpt for lump gold, and city-state tributes once you have enough troops to do that. My first two armies were composed of 2 Archers, 2 Chariots, 1 Warrior and 1 Scout. Here's a couple of turn 48 pictures:

Congrats for you very quick win! Impressive!

I have a question though, what do you mean by peace deals? Do you actually DOW an AI and then get a lump sum of gold in a peace deal soon after?

I thought the only way to get lump sums from AI was to have a Declaration of Friendship.

 

[rickyvaughn]

He wars the AI, then waits til they will make peace and he has a lux hooked up. You can get lump sums in peace deals. Sells the lux for as much as they can pay and then DOWs again after 10t to break the deal and sell the lux again.

 

[Rhodro]

I had a 193 win. Waited way too long making my 2nd army. I did get petra in my 2nd city, but don't feel like it added to the win.
I did have a fun spy that couped the city state close to persia right before i dowed him, only 54% change for succes.

Amazed by the speed of others.

 

[vadalaz]

I have a question though, what do you mean by peace deals? Do you actually DOW an AI and then get a lump sum of gold in a peace deal soon after?

Ricky's answer above is correct. It's a very powerful tactic for domination games on Emperor and below. AIs often spend their gold once they have enough to buy a warrior/archer, so by taking their gold early you get to buy a unit and they don't.

 

[zxcvbob]

I just finished, domination on turn 262. I had trouble deciding between settling on the sugar or the silver. (I liked the extra hammer and the extra defense from the silver, but probably don't need any defense in this game. By settling on the sugar I could delay building a granary and built scouts and archers instead, so that's what I did. My free settler settled on the copper to the north, then I built another settler and forward settled Carthage (which she had already done to me. Damascus is not on the hill where it belongs because one of her cities was too close)

I did not build a shrine but somehow I got a pantheon for free early enough to get Desert Folklore. I had 8 faith from meeting a religious city state, and I probably completed a quest for them without even trying by killing barbs. I'm not sure that I ever built any shrines.

Social policies were Honor opener, left side of Liberty, right side of Honor, finish Liberty, started working on Commerce. The only wonder I built was Pyramids, and I had one more turn to finish Red Fort (I didn't want Sulieman to get it) when the game ended.

First victim was Persia on about turn 50. Then Carthage about 15 turns later, and next Assyria, then Morocco. Mostly I used chariot archers, scouts, and spears (maybe archers for Persia, don't remember). Later I built a couple of horsemen for taking cities later in the game when a spear or pike might not survive the city bombardment, and eventually I used lancers for that. The game slowed way down after Assyria because I didn't have enough gold or happiness to charge full-steam-ahead into Morocco. And It was probably around Morocco-time that I upgraded my chariot archers to camels. I played this game off-and-on for a week and don't remember a lot of the early details. I do remember I could never get the peace deals to work that Vadalaz is talking about; I must not be doing it right.

Theadora was really annoying with her missionary and prophet spam. I declared war on her before I was really ready just to capture a couple of prophets and kill a dozen or so missionaries. Then sent my camel archers over and took care of her (I did leave her one good city just because I didn't want it) Halfway thru the Byzantine war, I declared war on the Ottomans too. Istanbul had the Great Wall, so all the Ottoman cities were tough. As soon as they healed from the Battle of Constantinople, my western army attacked and eventually captured Babylon (previously captured by Sulieman), and I then liberated another Babylonian city to resurrect Nebuchadnezzar. My eastern army captured a couple of crappy Ottoman border cities and killed wave after wave of janissaries. I used a great general to steal some land from Istanbul where I could safely get close enough to attack it, and when I through I had it beaten down enough I started suiciding lancers into it and the 3rd one captured the city. I'm going to "just one more turn" now and take the last 2 Ottoman cities; one is ready to fall, and I'll probably give it to Nebuchadnezzar. The other will fall quickly enough now that I can safely reach it, and I think it has the Great Lighthouse.