TSG 155 AAR Thread

[Knowtalent]

Welcome to the TSG155 After Action Report thread. In this thread you can post the results of your game. Please state victory date and score (preferably in the post title), as recorded in the Hall of Fame, and the most important: your path to glory!
STOP - Please do not continue reading this thread until you have completed and submitted your game.
Please use the Civ5 game submission page to submit 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.).
- Did you use your UU?
- How useful was your UA?
- Did you use spying to your advantage?
- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
- Was Faith helpful to achieve victory?
- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
- What techs did you prioritize ?

 

[zxcvbob]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 155
Date submitted: 2017-03-21 02:51:26
Reference number: 35303
Your name: zxcvbob
Game status: Time Victory
Game date: 1960AD
Turns played: 250
Base score: 2007
Final score: 2007
Time played: 8:02:00

I used 3 chariots and a spearman to capture Custco and Tiwanaku early (Pachacuti is a terrible neighbor) I didn't take Machu because I didn't want everyone to hate me yet. (someone else took it shortly after and razed it; I don't remember who) Then I played peacefully and friendly for a while, spamming wonders and funding an occasional war. One of the first things I built was a shrine, and from that I got the first pantheon. Religion was Desert Folklore, Tithe, Pagodas, Religious Texts, and Guruship. My religion spread like wildfire, and all the gold was quite handy.

The techs that I prioritized were all early ones: Pottery (shrine), Archery (ToA), Mathematics (HG), and Currency (Petra). I think I took Plastics for my Rationalism finisher, and Satellites from Oxford.

Social policies were Tradition, Honor (right side), Patronage, Rationalism, Honor (left side), Commerce opener and Wagon Trains.. Ideology was Freedom.

At the very end I declared war on Polynesia and puppeted all his cities except for Nineveh which I liberated. Everyone except Suleiman and Ashurbanipal hated me, but it didn't matter anymore because I controlled the world congress. Last 4 turns were just click click click to run out the clock. That was enough time I probably should have started another war and taken a few more cities.

 

[aafritz17]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 155
Date submitted: 2017-03-22
Reference number: 35307
Your name: aafritz17
Game status: Time Victory
Game date: 1960AD
Turns played: 250
Base score: 2102
Final score: 2102

I built a bunch of War Chariots, but I wouldn't say they were a good unit. They're okay in their era, but they upgrade to Knights and I only had a few horses.

The UA was great though. I hard-built 22 wonders, plus Petra with a Great Engineer. (And WHAT a powerhouse Thebes was after that!!)

The UB was good, too. The extra happiness was VERY useful when I couldn't find unique luxes for expos 7 through 28.

I think spying might have got a city/state ally or two, but didn't stay focused on that. Neighbor Liz built several Wonders early on, and I (poorly) planned a war to take them away from her. She had the largest army, so I dropped a spy in her capitol to get a look around. But, when I finally did DOW her, she had allied SO many C/Ss my economy/happiness went in the tank. Plus, because I couldn't get horses to upgrade my War Chariots, I'm fighting Riflemen with them (had Artillery, but it quickly became unprotected!!) After a few turns off gaining no ground, I finally decided it wasn't worth the trouble, went to negotiate peace, and she says "The end is near." So I killed a couple more units, and she gave me Coventry. Guess I let her off the hook with her Wonders, though.

The map was somewhat troublesome. There was a bunch of the backside of the continent I never saw. Our little sea was totally ice-locked, and I never got a city on the other shore so I could explore.

I played vadalaz' formula (opening thread) for the end game. After World's Fair I pumped Settlers almost non-stop. Built 24 cities, plus got 4 from peace deals (2 of those from wars in which I fired less than 5 shots total). Had tons of Faith, so bought 3 or 4 Great Prophets, had 42 cities as True-Believers at the end. Went Liberty/Freedom, and a few others (4 in Piety for Reformation). Tech focus was usually the next Wonder. At the end it was cheapest tech available, while burning through, I don't know, 8 or 9 Great Scientists.

zxcvbob, I see my score is barely higher than yours. Might be due to that last thing I did. On turns 248 and 249 I moved every unit home -- and deleted them. Bought tiles. And more tiles. And more tiles. Wish I knew how many I bought. They're only one point, but... After "One more turn" I had only 4 military units.

Missed one other maneuver by a turn. Had a Great General on China's border, couldn't get Open Borders from her for anything. I wanted to drop him on a Truffles coastal tile she had (and next to my city and also a mountain, so it had to be on that tile). So on T249 I DOW her, but because it was forested, he could only move in, not explode. Should have done that a turn earlier.

 

[zxcvbob]

zxcvbob, I see my score is barely higher than yours. Might be due to that last thing I did. On turns 248 and 249 I moved every unit home -- and deleted them. Bought tiles. And more tiles. And more tiles. Wish I knew how many I bought. They're only one point, but... After "One more turn" I had only 4 military units.

I had 5 "real" cities and 7 puppets. (some of those puppets were good cities and I should have annexed them) I settled 3 cities, took 2 early in the game and annexed them, captured another in the mid-game (that one really should have been annexed) then took all the rest in the last few turns:

It never occurred to me to buy tiles, but I don't think I could have anyway because my cultural borders were pretty big already. And you can see that I let a bunch of faith and gold go to waste.

 

[Billick]

Game status: Time Victory
Game date: 1960AD
Turns played: 250
Base score: 5884
Final score: 5884
Time played: 16:39:00


- Did you use your UU?
I made a few which helped with early wars.

- How useful was your UA?
Pretty useful. I build quite a few wonders.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?
Not a whole lot. Standard prince strat of putting one spy in the capital and then rigging key city states.

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
The map was odd in that Polynesia was blocking the West half of the map from the East, so it almost played like a continents map.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
Diplomacy wasn't that important, because the AI didn't have a lot to trade, and I didn't have to fear their military.

- Was Faith helpful to achieve victory?
Very. I went DF, tithe, pagodas and mosques. Lots of culture happiness and huge faith generation. I was getting over 700 FPT by the end of the game.

- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
Tradition opener, left side of liberty, finished tradition, finished liberty, part of rationalism, 6 points into order, finish rationalism, then a few spare points in patronage and the aesthetics opener to be able to build the wonder.

- What techs did you prioritize ?
Mostly focused on science techs.

This was the first game I did trying for score, and I think it went pretty well. I tried to conquer as much as possible while expanding as much as possible. I may have expanded too fast, as I was having happiness problems even with the burial tombs and faith buildings. I managed to conquer the whole map around turn 220. This was definitely the best CN tower I've ever had, the best Neuschwanstein, and the most use I've ever gotten out of medical labs. I think I had around 75 cities give or take by the end of the game. The game got quite slow by the end. At turn 170 I was kind of wishing the game would be longer than 250 turns. By turn 230 I was wondering if the game would ever end.

 

[btg]

Spoiler :

Game: Civ5 GOTM 155
Date submitted: 2017-03-25 11:08:59
Reference number: 35309
Your name: BTG
Game status: Time Victory
Game date: 1960AD
Turns played: 250
Base score: 6049
Final score: 6049
Time played: 7:38:00
Renamed file: BTG_C515501.Civ5Save

Fun but looooooong game.
Like everyone else had a very OP Petra monster capital that was size 62 by the end. Destroyed the Inca early since they were annoying me and sending settlers left and right, even though I was first to fwd settle them on the faith mountain. Then took England by storm just before they got Longbows. In the last turn of that war a lone longbow was spotted having a cup of tea. Alas, too little, too late.

After that just growing and settling as I filled in both Tradition and Liberty. That plus pagodas, burial tombs meant happiness was growing despite me having 15 cities at that point. So then I decided to use my technical advantage and destroy the rest of the world. I conquered the entire world in a span of about 25 turns from 224 to 249, with that annoying denouncer Suleiman last, most of his cities one-shotted by Xcoms and Giant Death Robots against his muskets.

The questions:
- Did you use your UU?
Yes to destroy the Inca and the English. Was using stealth bombers, xcoms and giant death robots in the next wars.

- How useful was your UA?
Very. Both the Inca and English had weak cities so they went down with almost no resistance.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?
Not really. Killed a few spies stealing my techs, since I was always way ahead of everyone in techs except the Iroquois for a short period of time.

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
It really helped. Endless amount of DF faith, plenty of luxes and 2 really good NW for cities 2 and 3. Plus barbs took at least 3 Ottoman settlers which meant I could squeeze cities 9-11 in their face pretty much.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
It made me not care about details. You can't go wrong with Petra, HG city with DF as faith pantheon. After that it took like 3-4 turns to build wonders in the capital.

- Was Faith helpful to achieve victory?
Sure, but probably not crucial. I had 560 faith per turn by the end, and before starting the final war I was still at about 200 faith per turn. Had way more faith than I knew what to do with. With egypt the Burial tomb replaces the need for 2 faith buildings, so just went with pagodas and then growth. Had more than 10 cities over size 30 by the end, and Thebes at 62 (2nd largest was close to the Ottomans at 39 or 40).

- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
A couple in tradition, open Honor for barb culture. That paid off as I made allies of city states for clearing camps, so quickly filled up tradition, then got a quick 2 ones into liberty and settler spamming after that. Chose freedom since I planted so many Great people that I figured good to have extra bonus there. Could have chosen any of the other ones too.

- What techs did you prioritize ?
After lux techs beeline to Petra, then beeline to build faith wonders, then beelining the science techs after that, with a short detour into navigation to be able to explore the world.

 

[raistlin1967]

I did have a computer crash at Turn 200. I had hit End of Turn, then went to bed, woke up next morning to a black screen. Once it recovered I loaded the last auto save and continued where I left off. I hope you will still be able to accept my submission. Very fun game.

Thank you.

 

[socralynnek]

Score about 2500.

Focused on faith early, then built wonders while having 4 growing cities; especially the money from tithe came in handy
Outteched everyone, but met two civs quite late (America and Iroquis)
Focused on allying cultured CS but also found one late.

Then founded four more cities in the last 50 turns and captured 6 or 7.

Milking score was also interesting. Never did that before. And I know I could have done a lot better...