TSG 125 After Action Report

[sebtanic]

@alias Did you try bribing them to go after someone else? For me it worked like a charm. I was surrounded by Roman cities, dozens of Roman battleships and carriers were going back and forth just outside my naval borders (while I had frigates & caravels), plus they had up to 6 planes in many cities long before I had even researched flight.

I did try to keep up militarily (had atillery while they still had cannons), but still Rome was like 10x my military strength. I'm not sure I could have defended myself if they had seriously invaded me. I mean, my 3 main cities were coastal and with their navy alone, they could have taken them in a couple turns (of course AI may be too stupid for this but you never know).

What I did was just pay them 5gpt or so (yeah, really cheap) to attack India and later Indonesia. For some reason they never went after me, I guess they jsut don't like to fight multiple wars at once.

 

[ABigCivFan]

251T Cultural win.

Utilized Spains UA and settled some natural wonders to churn out high faith. The faith was later used to buy GAs and GMusicians.

GE rushed Petra in the desert city. constantly bribed AIs into war, Japan got huge but was helpful in tying up Netherlands and Ottomans.

I messed up on diplomacy so missed some key Research agreements to advance in tech, did not even build airports at the time of win. Used 2 GMuAlso wasted a GMusician at the end and had to wipe out India in 2 turns with battleships and artys. Could be better but it was fun. Thanks for the game!

Attached 2 screens, one at 251T and one at 224T when i bulbed 2 GWriters after World fair bonuses.

 

[Sclb]

Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1765AD
Turns played: 263
Base score: 1469
Final score: 2825
Time played: 11:23:00

Pretty easy game due to extremely slow teching deity AI which I haven't seen in a very long time. In fact culture leader was only in industrial era when I won. If I had prepared for that it would've been a much faster win if I just took his capital by force. Madrid contains most of the culture/tourism wonders. Barcelona has the other wonders and Petra, as well as all guilds. This is a setup I like to use for liberty games when it's better to spread the load so that capital won't have to build everything. Both cities are coastal so they exchange cargo ships.

The other interesting fact was that Rome had his city flipped due to ideological pressure to me 3 times, and each time I sold it back and flipped back several turns later, in effect I took all his gpt. I have never been able to flip deity AI's city without passing world ideology or DoW before. I think this map also shows that liberty can compete with tradition. If I was able to get better timing on IG I would've won many turns earlier. Winning WF is trivial with liberty. I was also able to get culture to NW to pass so it makes NW even stronger as it outputs tourism also modified by UA.

Persia got first Freedom, so I happily followed him and kept as friends. I manipulated Rome to kill Japan, so that effectively puts Rome as enemy of the world and it would be easy to bribe wars to keep tech pace slow. That also kept my territory safe as I don't need any troops other than a few for barbs.

Note that I have to replay turn 253 due to a bug. One of the AI city flipped to me in between turn due to Ideology pressure. I sold the city back to that AI without setting the production of the city and I was unable to proceed in the game due to that. Couldn't get to the next turn since it still thinks I haven't chosen production for a city which I no longer have.

- Did you use your UU?
Only used conquistador, for exploring new world, and planting cities to gift to AI for GM bombing to speed up the end.

- How useful was your UA?
It pretty much carried the game due to getting me first religion with Fuji and huge science with GBR. Also the gold allowed me to buy settlers despite losing one to barbs.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?
Stole many techs from India since he's tradition, big cities, and not tech leader. Once I'm out of tech to steal, used that spy to coup several mercantile CS. Rest of spies placed in CS or as diplomats or in capital.

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
In a peaceful game, I wouldn't bother planting cities in the new world and it's too late to grow them. The other problem with terra map is the crowded home continent and I was able to take advantage of that and start many wars so that AI will be slowed significantly. Most notable was getting Rome to kill Japan early so that the threat is removed. New world also contain many easy to access digsites which helped.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
Deity meant no early wonders but I was still able to get petra with GE. Once it's renaissance and I got several wonders, the game is basically over.

- Was Faith helpful to achieve victory? How?
Yes, bought 3 GM, 2 GA. Only needed 1 GM for concert tour since my tourism was extremely strong once IG was underway and several other wonders completed. I was also able to get One with Nature pantheon for huge boost and Pagoda/Monastery religion. Later someone spread Mosque, Sacred Sites, and Jesuit education at certain times and I was able to take advantage of those also.

- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order?
I have more SP than needed. Full liberty, Patronage opener, Aesthetics into culture center, Rationalism into secularism, Commerce opener, Freedom to Universal Suffrage, Exploration opener, ... Rest I just put into whatever needed most while getting 6 freedom and finishing aesthetic by the time IG comes.

- Did you settle any cities with Conquistadors?
Only at the very end of the game where these are intended as gift to AI for my musician's concert tours.

- What techs did you prioritize ?
Astronomy into Renaissance, Printing Press for founding bonus and Piza, Architecture for Uffizi in case Sistine wasn't available which it wasn't, Scientific Theory, Archaeology, Radio into modern for ideology and Eiffel tower, Refrigeration for hotels, Plastics, Railroad, Internet, Radar for Airport. Rest doesn't matter.

Spoiler :

 

[TrailblazingScot]

Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1898AD
Turns played: 319
Base score: 3474
Final score: 5514
Time played: 11:12:00

God, that took forever...over 11 hours and I wasn't playing slowly.

I have never been good at cultural, but I felt I learnt many new things this game. I still made some awful mistakes, but mainly in the end game when I was tiring. The worst had to be ignoring the value of airports...I only built two and I won the turn after I rush built a few. Another thing I learnt was you can do a rock concert in a country you are invading Had I know that, Rome would have fallen to my culture far sooner.

In terms of the game I settled in place and sent my warrior off to the left. I put two scouts into my queue and proceeded. I found the Persian scout to be headed south, so I sent my scout that way and found the first natural wonder. Bought a settler and sent it south and it worked the wonder for quick culture. I pestered India and Ottomans to secure that nice area near the copper and slow them down.

I soon discovered Great Barrier Reef (well, the one next to an island, I didn't get to the other one until others had found it) and bought more things. With Liberty and money from Natural Wonders I expanded to 6 cities. I lost out to the west to Rome who plonked a city next to all those lovely gems, citrus and bananas.

Eventually Rome took out Japan, I took out Ottomans (thanks for the wonders) and I tried to secure plenty of city states. I also put a few cities in the new world. I went Liberty for the Foreign Legion, but switched to Order (loss of one policy) to follow the Dutch. I regret not waiting to build Statue of Liberty, then switching. I do like this approach.

I have so many cities as Persia gave them all to me in a peace treaty after I invaded them. I kept most as puppets. The Dutch attacked India, so I joined in and wiped them out before invading Rome. I had to invade Rome as they wouldn't give me open borders, were a different ideology and were the only cultural holdouts once I sent rock bands to Holland.

Once I invaded, I realised I could sent a rock band to a country I was at war with and used my final GM on Rome...had I kept back another GM instead of blowing it on the Dutch I would have won far sooner and saved myself an hour of my life.

GG.