TSG 157 After Action

[leif erikson]

Welcome to the TSG 157 After Actions Report. 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.).

- Describe your city settlements and tech/social policy strategy.
- What VC did you ultimately choose? Did you start the game with that in mind or change strategies later?


**Please use spoiler tags for any surprise details you'd like kept hidden. Thanks.**

Players are encouraged to provide feedback on the game. Some players like to replay the game, and although we will not record the results from a replay, you can still post your new experiences (please state if the game is a replay). Please refrain from posting videos until the deadline for submission is over.

 

[zxcvbob]

- Did you find the 'gift' first? What did you spend the gold on?
- Describe your city settlements and tech/social policy strategy.
- What VC did you ultimately choose? Did you start the game with that in mind or change strategies later?
- Did you use any of Spain's Unique Units? Did you settle/conquer/work any Natural Wonders to use their UA bonus?

Um, are those the right questions? They look copied from the recent Spain gotm.

This one was a lot of fun. (interesting choice of AI's, and Genghis had a whole continent to himself) I think it was impossible to win peacefully because Genghis and Attila were murdering all the city states, so in the modern era I got my warmonger on.

I pretty much beelined Globalization with a few detours for stuff like Railroad, Used Oxford to grab Globalization the same turn I finished Telecommunications, and it still took almost 400 turns for the first world leader vote. (I probably should have Oxford'd Telecom to trigger the vote, then researched Globalization the old fashioned way)

I'll upload/post my results tomorrow, they are on my other computer.

 

[leif erikson]

Yes, they were. Wanted to get the thread up and just copied and pasted. Apologies.

 

[zxcvbob]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 157
Date submitted: 2017-04-19 14:56:59
Reference number: 35368
Your name: zxcvbob
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1975AD
Turns played: 395
Base score: 2935
Final score: 3715
Time played: 8:38:00

I settled in place and started with a scout, monument, and shrine. Scouted around with my warrior but didn't go to far from home with him. Researched pottery first, then animal husbandry to reveal horses, sheep and cattle. Social policies were Honor opener, full Tradition, full Patronage, full Rationalism, Freedom(8), then started working on Commerce.

I settled 7 cities, one of kinda late (off the screenshot to the south) just to claim the land before an AI cluttered up my continent, and another very late up north, on the same site where I had just razed a Hunnic city, to grab some coal. ( I *thought* I would get coal from M'banza-Kongo.)

I built lots of wonders; the high priority ones were Petra and Colossus for the extra trade routes, Hanging Gardens, and Temple of Artemis (I got all 4 of those, Petra and Artemis were in Lodz.) The plan was to use Treaty Organization to seize control of the world congress and eventually ally all the CS's. I avoided building hotels because I didn't want an accidental culture victory (was probably not that great a risk)

These thread usually ask about uniques; I did build a few winged hussars, but late in the game because they were the least-hammer units I could produce to gift to CS's for influence (Arsenal of Democracy) I kept one because he started with enough promotions to get March and I thought that might be useful in a AT or helicopter, but I never used him. The Ducal stables were awesome.



Edit: I "just one more turn" and played 30 more turns and conquered all the AI's; puppeted all their cities.

 

[Billick]

Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1868AD
Turns played: 304
Base score: 1298
Final score: 2163
Time played: 3:58:00

Painfully slow start. I only built one scout, and got it killed due to carelessness. I had to hunker down to fight off barbs, so my early scouting was limited. I ended up only settling 3 cities total because of lack of good locations, and my NC was very late (turn 120ish). I got Petra, which helped a lot. I meant to get Colossus, but it went shockingly early. I got HG because the AI didn't go for it though. Attila warred me twice, and I made just enough military to fight him off. Policies were Tradition, Patronage, Rationalism, Freedom, and then opened Commerce. Turn 304 win was pretty okay considering the bad start.

 

[poxpower]

Awe damn it I was going to get it turn 244 but I took Japan's capital ( last guy standing ) by mistake and that's where I put my diplomat lol. So I didn't get the vote from globalization and so I had only 34 votes and I needed 35.
Makes sense though, I have 34/38 of all votes in the world, obviously I shouldn't be world leader haha.

So I'd win 20 turns later.

Mistake 1: Not passing world religion. Passed World Fair. Useless. I believe world religion is bonus votes?
Mistake 2: Murdered everyone except Oda and I let him keep Washington's capital. I can't remember but I think you get votes for capitals? So that's 2 votes I should have had.
Mistake 3: Putting a diplomat in his capital and then taking it, again under the assumption that a capital is worth votes.

If I had to replay this I would just ignore the AI and go straight to globalization, I do believe that's the fastest way to science. Probably would build a 3 city NC and then just 5 cities overall and turtle, but the lands are very very slow in this game and low difficulty = no science leeching from AI and slower worker steals.

Oh wells. The KING Ai is truly terrible though lol they weren't doing anything the entire game I could have built every single wonder.

 

[poxpower]

Tried again with liberty/tradition mix and no domination. 6 cities is just too much on King. The AI have nothing to trade for like 100 turns it's ridiculous.

Then tried again this morning with just 5 city full tradition. Again still feels so slow. I just quit when a random barb trireme pillaged 2 trade routes. That triereme came from Ghengis Khan's continent, but it went ALL THE WAY AROUND IT, snuck into one tile of water and took my stuff.
So basically it spawned 30 tiles away, then targetted my city moving through enemy territory without every dying just to come mess with me.

I just hate Barbarians on low difficulties. You ignore the AI the entire game and concentrate solely on protecting trade routes from barbs. That's all you do for 200 turns.

 

[Kendon]

Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1910AD
Turns played: 330
Base score: 1785
Final score: 2704

Six settlements, more than usual for me. Much of the game was barbarian hunting with Honor for the culture boost. Money was easy because the missionaries got out there with their collection plates ahead of the other religions.

Great scientists were saved for the end. There was money kept to buy public schools and research institutes as soon as they were available. The strategy felt efficient.

The only war was with the Huns. In spite of being at a serious technological disadvantage they invaded anyway and lost two of their three cities. As for their last city I wanted to have somewhere to send a diplomat for the end vote.

America and Japan were friends, loaning money to me and sharing research agreements, right until Polish city-state alliances passed the halfway point. Then they changed and said nasty things.

At the end of the opening sequence Mongolia threatened an invasion according to Japanese spies but early Polish caravels made it not a good idea. Mongolia then declared friendship. Mongolia conquered Almaty early so there was always the option to liberate Almaty if that vote would be needed, but it wasn't.

The disappointment was founding the United Nations and finding the World Leader vote was 28 turns away. The necessary 34 votes were in place and the Polish army was too powerful to be attacked but there was no way to speed up the next 28 turns.

 

[poxpower]

Turn 244 with full liberty into full tradition.
Early patronage is really completely worthless you can take it later. Ideologies also worthless. Ended with 39 votes with 34 needed, so I guess even globalization isn't needed? But you have to get it anyway since getting to info era is just one tech away from it and by the time to world leader vote triggers you'll have gotten it.

Maybe full tradition into full liberty would be better? I dunno. Getting early production bonuses is so strong but I did have to waste great engineer for my... 41 turn National College.. lol what. Such slow early growth. The capital is truly crap in this game.

 

[flairin]

Turn 244 with full liberty into full tradition.
Early patronage is really completely worthless you can take it later. Ideologies also worthless. Ended with 39 votes with 34 needed, so I guess even globalization isn't needed? But you have to get it anyway since getting to info era is just one tech away from it and by the time to world leader vote triggers you'll have gotten it.

Maybe full tradition into full liberty would be better? I dunno. Getting early production bonuses is so strong but I did have to waste great engineer for my... 41 turn National College.. lol what. Such slow early growth. The capital is truly crap in this game.

How did you get the icons to display the way you did? I'm talking about your city production, units, AI players... not sure how to toggle this?

 

[poxpower]

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/enhanced-user-interface.512263/

 

[slaya]

Diplovic after 362 turn. Felt like forever.. I think I waited about max turn (35!?) for the 1st vote after moving to info-age.

 

[beetle]

Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1939AD
Turns played: 359
Base score: 2422
Final score: 3411

…preferably in the post title

With the new UI, how does one add a title to a post?

Describe your city settlements and tech/social policy strategy.

I struggle so from the no-reloading constraint that I dare not deviate from 4-city Tradition. Patronage, because of the VC, while waiting for Rationalism to unlock. I am quite convinced that the strongest use of the UA is just to work the trees as normal.
I wonder-whored like a newb, so that was a fun change of pace. I also lost an early city, so very mediocre game, but I enjoyed it a lot!

What VC did you ultimately choose? Did you start the game with that in mind or change strategies later?

The VC was designated, so that’s what I pursued. Got WL at first vote, but that vote came very late.

Notes follow in the spoiler tag.

Spoiler :

T000 SIP
T004 ruins gives 50 gold
T006 discover Barringer Crater
T009 ruins gives 20 culture, open tradition
T011 Meet Atila
T018 lots of Barb warriors running about. I start researching archery.
T019 ruins gives +1 pop
T031 pantheon, pick Desert Folklore, but it makes me feel dirty
T032 start on the settlers
T048 settle Krakow on coastal hill next to Barringer Crater. It might not be great.
T071 settle Wroclaw N on the coastal river pearls, purchase a Library
T077 Genghis finds me
T084 I get a workboat to the Pearls, so happy is finally positive
T087 found the first religion. Papal Primacy and Monasteries
T114 Atilla making me nervous, but my units are far away
T115 Atila DOWs me
T117 Wrocraw captured and I loose my archer to a Trireme
T129 NC done
T158 Atilla beats me to Petra by 6 turns, he puts it in an expo
T173 build Borobodur in cap
T174 build Hanging Gardens in Krakow
T181 build Stonehenge in Krakow
T184 get beat to Mausoleum of Halicarnassus by three turns
T188 build Alahambra in Warsaw
T189 build Oracle in Krackow, meet Japan
T191 virgin GPr captured, mostly because I was not paying enough attention
T194 capture Tes, raze it
T199 Close out Patronage, open Rationalism
T204 resettle Wroclaw
T211 use GE to bulb Forbidden Palace
T217 build Angkor Was in Lodz
T218 build Sistine Chapel in Warsaw
T257 win WF by 1K hammers, no one else even manages a 2nd place. Close out Rationalism for Radio, open Commerce
T258 Adopt Freedom
T260 Make peace w/ Attila because otherwise I am going to loose my XB
T271 get the FLeas
T272 bribe Atttila to DOW everyone, then DOW him
T283 take Attila’s Court
T286 bulb Eiffel Tower
T287 Artillery and 3x double-tap-range gats online
T288 Attila offers me a city for peace
T299 Capture Choir w/ Petra and Machu Picchu
T297 build Brandenburg Gate. Use GG to steel Wine from Gehnghis
T298 propose WI, should have done that sooner
T299 America begs for 37gpt, which I give.
T300 bulb Statue of Liberty
T301 Genghis Khan builds Big Ben, I did not see that coming.
T302 all CS are allies
T311 Shaka asks for ~1200 gold. I give it to him.
T315 win IG by 2500 hammers, no one else even gets a 2nd place
T325 WI Freedom passes
T326 propose WR
T329 Oxford Ecology
T333 Labs are up everywhere
T337 bulb Globalization
T339 Ghengis DOWs Quebec City
T350 build SOH and Disney. I neglected to burn a GMu, so I will not be able to theme SOH
T356 bulb GFW
T357 open Piety, start to build GMoD
T359 build GMoD. WL vote
T360 win Diplo VC w/ 41 votes (needed 35)

Thanks for the fun map!

 

[joncnunn]

Game Status: Diplomatic Victory
Game Date: 1920 AD
Turns Played: 340
Base Score 1492
Final Score: 2226

Note: I experienced three times I had to use autosave: 1 time from a forced reboot from an automatic graphics card update and 2 times from brief power outages. (In one case there was a spring storm in the other, but in the other there wasn't any bad weather nearby)
I also used EUI

Standard 4 city tradition start except that I entered Reanance via the tech needed for Forbidden Palace instead of Printing Press; and so I ended up being beat as the first world council leader by one turn. (Not that it really matered since I completed FP in time to get a decisive edge on any vote that mattered.
Following that the normal standard tech path other than delaying entering the Industrial era while finishing construction of religious buildings until about half way thru the Modern era when I just clicked the beeline to Globalism button prefering the top.
City placement: Capital in place (I like coast for trade routes) ; unforunately though an iceberg in the south blocked coastal trade access from both my western and southern city to my capital until it was too late to matter and so I ended up running 2 food carvans + 1 food cargo ship to my capital for the first 60% of the game instead of the normal three food cargo ships.
I ended up with 2 captured cities though as a result of the second Hunic war. They stayed at puppets until I finished the last of the useful national wonders, at which time they were annexed (shortly after archeology) just to fire the governor in order to get them to build darn Monuments to acquire tiles via culture.
Three city states were eliminated during the course of the game, one by Mongols, one by the Zulus, and the other by ahem ... me (city state sided with Huns) ; I didn't bother trying to liberate any because I had the votes to win between all remaining 9 city states + World Ideology Freedom + Forbidden Palace

Following completion of Tradition, went into Patronage while waiting to be allowed into Rationalism, upon entering that era completed all Rationalism polices, then finished Patronage shortly before getting Ideology via entering modern era.
Freedom chosen for influence from city states for running cargo ships.
I think I might have opened Exploration after running out of useful tenets.

Religion:
Desert Faith (no brainer for this location)
Tithe
Monastery (due to Wine)
Religious Texts
Pagoda (when I was surprised to see it still available when I enhanced)
My 4 starting cities all got both religious buildings built; 2 faith based GE + 2 faith based GS were also built. A 3rd faith base GE spawned when I hit "just one more turn"

Use of UA: I just got thru policies faster.
Use of UU: I was happy that my starting warrior hit an upgrade ruin to become a Spearman. But that unit ended up being my only UU. However the second Hunic war was already over by then and so it was never used in combat.
Use of UB: Normal only I gained gain from building them instead of losing money from Pastures.

My capital's production was sub-par compared to normal and in fact for much of the game was only my second best production city: Consequently several national wonders and a world wonder ended up being built in my Western city instead of my normal everything in the capital.
The poor hammer production kept me from any temptations of building Petra and on the true path of build the normal standard buildings rather than waste resources on world wonders not related to the victory condition. My 2 City NC was also on the late side compared to normal. I had run the math during city production though waiting for 3 cities would have just delayed it significantly longer.

I actually entered the Information Age at pretty much the worse possible time for fastest victory; one turn too late to get the change of council leader from advancing to UN in before a regular proposal. (20 turns to vote on World Ideology & Hun's ban random luxury to get thru before the 10 turn to World Leader)
Consequently I ended up overshooting both the useful sections of tech & policy trees for a diplomatic victory by large margins
I did start this game around the time it opened but took quite a bit of real life time to complete it; it was frankly boring after the second Hunic war and so I could only stand 10 to 20 turns at a time following then.

World Policies at the end of the game:
1. World's Fair (I hosted)
2. International Games (I hosted)
3. Culture from national wonders (I imposed it on everyone else due to the nearby natural wonder)
4. Culture from great people spots (academies) and archeological sites.
5. World Ideology (Freedom)

While no major AI was wiped out, Japan & America both lost their capital and in fact most of their empires to the Zulu.
Consequently I reached cultural domination status over Japan (whose only cities left were late game colonies on my land mass) and was very close to reaching cultural influence over America (which was down to two cities on its starting landmass + 1 late game colony on my landmass; and was on its way to losing another war with the Zulu when the game ended.)

Edit: Attached screen shot following One More Turn (darn it, the view moved south on me and so Lodz got cut off; it's in the same spot as Pox Powder's.)

Great People:
The normal all natural born great people were Great Scientists tactic; the first X Great Scientists went to Academies; the number that went can be seen on the screenshot; with the wheat being along river and no fertilizer bonus resource in my capital, they were placed in otherwise useless terrain (desert) starting with the tiles that didn't have fresh water.
The rest were using bulbing science; and I forgot the number.

Archeology sites: I turned all archeology digs into landmarks; including a gift to Washington's colony. (They founded the city after I had started construction of that archologist.) None at all went to museums; in part because Japan colonized three archeological dig locations prior to me building my first museum.
My capital had 1, Lodz had 1, my Southern city 1, the conquered city state 2 (one on its landmass the other in 3rd ring of main landmass), and the conquered Hun city 2.

 

[choraltrickster]

Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date:1956AD
Turns played:376
Base score:3933
Final score:5244

Wow, I forgot how much fun it is to play a game on a lighter difficulty setting and dominate! This was a blast!

I had a tough start as I decided to gamble and try to settle next to the mountain so I went to see what was below the wine. Seeing it wasn't a river or hill, I grudgingly settled on the wine, went S-M-S. One scout got promoted, two ended up finding Atilla and I used them to block the two passes around the mountain, settling Krakow on the river south of Atilla's mountain range. With a couple of rams on my doorstep I bribed him to declare war with GK while I built a fort in the mountain pass. I then settled like mad, filling the space between my first two cities and putting two cities on the west coast. I tried to fill my trade routes too quickly and lost a couple of cargo ships. My one spearman was putting down barbs while I D'd up next to Atilla with Pikemen and CBs. He managed to settle four cities crowded at the top of the continent. I took them out with Landskenecht--which are amazing when you play King and can get them really early--XBows and Galeass and left him a city on a remote island to the NE before making peace. I had a large army and three galeass so I sailed them down the right side of GKhan's continent and rallied with a settler, setting up a city and taking Grand Mesa before GK could. I took out the CS as it was in the path to the Mongol cities. Once I had that land-mass for myself--no mercy, eliminted GK--I started to have to deal with Japan and Zulu who each settled on my initial continent. My force took these out and I now had a 19 city empire occupying two continents. All conquered cities were puppets except Karakorum. I made peace with Shaka and in the deal got a foothold city on his continent with Japan. I rolled towards a DipV and DomV at about the same pace, taking cities with my army, now made up of mostly hussars and gatling guns with a couple of arty and a half-dozen bombers. I had allied all of the CS but had to wait a while to get to the Atomic Age and open World Leader voting. I resurrected America and Atilla and left Japan with Washington as its sole city, taking the first World Leader vote in 376.

Social:
I opened and completed Liberty, opened Piety for GMosque, used Liberty finisher for GE on Hagia to get a religion (tithe, pagodas). opened Patronage for FP but left the rest until I finished Commerce. Ended with 6 Freedom policies, opened Exploration for naval movement and nearly completed Rationalism.

Science:
Can't remember exactly, but my early tree paths went something like Philosophy, Currency, Machinery. I usually leave most of the ancient wonders and focus on Oracle and Machu before going for XBows. I managed to get Petra in an expansion and had taken Desert Folklore. I entered Industrial via Industrialization which I don't usually do but decided I was in a strong enough position to hold my ideology of choice as I had already finished Protectionism.

Units:
XBows and Landskenecht; Hussars and Gatling Guns with a couple of canons and naval support; Artillery, Hussars and Frigate/Battleships

Mistakes/Regrets:
- probably should've settled in place, though it worked out getting the jump-start by setting on the wine and expanding quickly. my capital had terrible production though and just one lux.
- barbs really did a number on me early on constantly pillaging my cities and killing my trade routes. I should have built more units to clear them out and waited to control the seas/coasts before trying to set up cargo ships.

Built Early Wonders: Pyramids, Oracle, Machu, Sistine (Warsaw); Borabodur, GMoDj; FP (Krakow); Petra (Wroclaw)
Built Late Wonders: Eiffel, Broadway, BBen, Branden, Cristo,
Captured Wonders: AlHambra, HangingGs, Artemis (Beshbalik); Himeji, Angkor, Pisa (Karakorum); Parthenon (Osaka); Great Library (Ulundi); Globe, Chichen, Colossus, GLighthouse, GrW, Maus, Notre, Red Fort, Zeus, SHenge, TerraC (Kyoto); Taj (Satsuma);

This was so much fun! Thanks for continuing to support this even though there are fewer players! Looking forward to playing more.