TSG 177 After Action

[leif erikson]

Welcome to the TSG177 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 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.) In your post.
- 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?
- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
- What techs did you prioritize ?
- What did you think of the map and settings?

 

[patience007]

Turn 255 domination victory!

How useful was your UA?

The Huns’ unique abilities were really useful in this game. Being able to raze cities 2 pop at a time helped keep happiness in check. Getting a starting tech was nice since there were no ancient ruins. Since I took a OCC approach (until I started puppeting/razing opponents’ cities) I needed all of the production I could get and the extra from pastures was welcome.

I built 2 batting rams but only took one city with it, wasn’t fast enough to keep up with the horse archers, most cities were taken with a horseman. The horse archers were crucial for the win, they remained useful taking France, Inca, Constantinople, Greece, Iroquois, Persia, and Asyria – more than half the opponents! By the time I got to China and the other western civs, they were too weak.

Did you use spying to your advantage?
I stole one tech from China and killed a butload on spies in Atilla’s Court.

Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
I rarely play huge maps and was skeptical I would be able to complete it in under 300 turns, that turn limit put a fire under my ass though (even though I did not take my first city until t98) to wage an early attack before the star unit, the horse archer, became obsolete. Despite all of the rough terrain (and there was a lot of it on this map), the horse archers ruled supreme on this map. For the last civs I defeated – China, Spain, Babylon, and finally Venice – I embarked all of my units over that large western lake which was a bottleneck but workable.

How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
I was a little less reluctant to approach such an epic game with a 300 turn limit on King difficulty; it seemed it may be doable. I was able to get a lot of life out of the horse archers due to AI’s slower tech. I was also able to get artillery to really speed up the end of the game for ½ of China, Spain, Babylon, and Venice.

What Social Policies did you choose and in what order?
Full tradition then full commerce. Since I basically build all of the military units in the capitol (until the last 30 turns of so where I began annexing high production and tactical cities), I wanted it to grow as large as possible.

What techs did you prioritize ?
Writing for GL to philosophy for NC. Filled in masonry and trapping for luxes, then theology for HS and prophet/religion, education, machinery for x-bows, ironworks, and road movement. By the end of the game all of the cities were connected except Venice (the final capital). Finally, long push for chemistry (cannons) and dynamite (artillery) began.

What did you think of the map and settings?
It was nice to not have barbarians, there was plenty of warring among nations to keep the military busy. Barbarians on a huge map likely would have been a hassle plundering trade routes and pillaging tiles. I did miss the goody huts.

I really enjoyed this game! Probably could have been faster if I had began the war sooner and gone rationalism instead of finishing commerce (since I ended up with plenty of gold), but I was satisfied with the result.

 

[zxcvbob]

I ran out of time. Won a high-score victory instead of domination. (I'll submit it later; I might have to replay the last turn because my game locked up when I hit the "just one more turn" button.)

At the end, I was at war with China (just getting started on that one), Babylon (almost done there, just mopping up), and I still had Venice and Spain to go. Venice and Spain would be easy, China not so easy because of her 2-shot Gatling guns and the Great Wall. If I keep going, I will split my military and use half to take out Venice and Spain, and the other half to just chip away at China and kill most of her units. Then attack Beijing from both sides; and probably walk citadels up to her doorstep to counteract the Great Wall (I have lots of generals)

- How useful was your UA?
The double-speed city razing was very important. And the extra production from pastures was nice. The city names thing, well I never built a settler so didn't use that at all.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?
Not particularly until the very end when I had several spies. I used them as spotters in the enemy cities I was about to attack next.

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
The map *type* was fine. But all the rough terrain was crazy! I thought Assur was going to be hard to capture because it was surrounded by jungle, but there were a couple of hills I could shoot from, plus the city wasn't that strong yet. I moved all my units in at once and took the city in one or two turns. Faced the same thing when I got to Constantinople, with forest instead of jungle, and no hills. Constantinople was about 50 strength, with frigates nearby. It took me at least 30 turns to take that city -- I sent in a worker guarded by a musket w/ cover promotions to chop a few strategic forest tiles so my horse archers and cannons could attack the city. Also I captured Adrianople first and puppeted it, drawing much of the Byzantine navy down to try to recapture it, where I could kill them from the shore. After taking Constantinople, I razed Adrianople.
I had a road all the way from Attila's Court to Paris to Palengue to Constantinople to Athens to Babylon.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
Don't really know. I guess for the most part the AI's were easy to kill, there were just so many of them and so much ground to cover.

- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
Full Tradition, then Honor (left side only), full Commerce, Autocracy.

- What techs did you prioritize ?
The bottom row, mostly. But I had to go back to the top and get Astronomy so my embarked units could move a little faster and enter deep water, and the culture techs because I was falling behind there. No particular tech except Dynamite. I used Oxford to get Replaceable Parts so I could upgrade my rifles to GW Infantry.

- What did you think of the map and settings?
Are you sure this was a normal pangaea map, and not a frontier map? All those mountains and choke points.
Barbarians would have come in handy at the beginning of the game (source of early XP) but later they would have made the game very difficult when most of the cities were razed. I would've had to leave too many units behind to protect my puppets.

 

[beetle]

I played pass the end-of-time screen to eventually win by Dom on T420.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 177
Date submitted: 2018-12-23 13:51:22
Reference number: 36267
Your name: beetle
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 2000AD
Turns played: 420
Base score: 3177
Final score: 2269

How useful was your UA? — UA was useful for planting initial city and for razing after early conquests. The AI put there expos in terrible locations. Usually I would puppet, but the double-razing speed is too nice to skip. I should have gone Liberty though, too much empty space.

Did you use spying to your advantage? — Spying only got me one (!) turn on Archeology, then I was the tech leader. It was easy enough to level up says from counter-espionage though.

Did the map type help or hinder victory and how? — The map type definitely hindered victory. Huge is kind of tedious for domination.

How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions? — I did a few Wonders.

What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose? — Tradition then Autocracy, filling in with Commerce.

What techs did you prioritize? — Bronze Working for Barracks, then Masonry to build Quarries for a religion. Writing and NC was late, but that was okay.

What did you think of the map and settings? — I am not a fan of turning off ruins or barbs. No barbs nerfs Honor, so I went Tradition. It also means Scouts cannot level up, so the map takes longer to unfog. No ruins is less fun, and no culture from ruins means one less early policy.

…Writing for GL to philosophy for NC.

Reading about that clever move makes me want to play this map again!

 

[zxcvbob]

I played pass the end-of-time screen to eventually win by Dom on T420.

I'm thinking about doing that. I'm pretty sure I can beat 400 but I don't know, my horse archers aren't doing much anymore (still good for harassment to distract enemy units away from my artillery, etc) I didn't know the submission page was working; thought we were just supposed to attach our civ5save file.

Edit: Domination victory on turn 341. China was much easier to kill that I expected. And Spain was harder. (so which win do I submit?)

 

[zxcvbob]

Reading about that clever move [Great Library->National College] makes me want to play this map again!

I tried it last night. Got about 200 turns into the game before I quit. Built GL, NC, a temple, stoneworks, and the Mausoleum before I really got my warmonger on. France was a lot harder to kill because he had composite bows and my HA's didn't have range or logistics yet. Assyria was actually easier because he'd chopped a couple of strategic jungle tiles. Now it's taking forever to capture Persia because he has knights, (came out of nowhere and killed one of my horse archers) and Persepolis (sp?) is 44 strength and my HA's do little more than knock the dust off his castle battlements -- but I can shoot 8 times, and do a little more damage than the city can heal. Another half dozen turns and I'll take it and all its wonders, meanwhile the other AI's are getting stronger too.

So I have a thriving capital and I'm swimming in gold, and a close second in science, population, and manufacturing. But the domination is going much more slowly. OTOH, I might have artillery by the time I get to Constantinople and Beijing, so the western battles could go quickly. I'm building a road to west of Paris through the mountain pass to move my muskets and (in 2 turns) cannons because HA's and knights aren't gonna cut it. I had to send a pike, crossbow, and longsword to help out in the war with Persia.

 

[flairin]

I was rolling through turn 112, having taken out 4-civs. Then it took 70 turns to take out the next two. Then by turn 230 I threw my hands up! The remaining civs threw an embargo on me. I had razed Sparta with ancient units despite this (the a couple horse-archers w/double attacks plus extra range), but the embargo killed my happiness. I could take out their medieval units (longswardsmen, impi -- yes they had an impi) but I didn't have enough units after I just lost one of them. My plan was to continue on to the capital, then take those units down to theodoras capital where I had about 10 units waiting (all together I would have had 16 ancient era units that could have done the job). If I wasn't so tired and hadn't made a few mistakes I could have kept going

 

[urbis]

Success! - domination victory turn 277, 1814AD.

How useful was your UA?
Liked the extra production from pastures, and got excellent use from battering rams (and to a lesser extend horse archers) even when they should have been obsolete. Seemed like the AIs didn't built enough melee units to defend against the rams.

Did you use spying to your advantage?
China was my biggest competitor, ahead on points till near the end. I stole one tech from them, but don't think I got much other benefit from my spies (and didn't need it).

Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
Was good having land access to all competitors - would have been tricky if any had been on another landmass. I built roads everywhere, and at one point was worried about their cost so started unbuilding them, but ended the game with 5000 gold so no problems. Pillaging land and selling buildings in cities I was razing was very lucrative

How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
I've been playing emperor for a long time, and recently graduating to deity, so took the approach that king should be easy. Only built one settler (and got one from liberty), and went heavily militaristic early, attacking a neighbour as soon as I had several rams and some support units. Taking cities proved easy, with minimal loses, so I guess I could have moved even quicker.

What Social Policies did you choose and in what order?
Full liberty, one tradition as a filler, then full commerce to keep my roads cheaper and get extra happiness and be able to buy great merchants with my otherwise useless faith (I went for a religion but narrowly missed out). Didn't get as far as ideology.

What techs did you prioritize ?
Mostly prioritised the bottom parts of the tree for military.

What did you think of the map and settings?
Enjoyed the map, would have found a harder level more interesting, enjoyed not having to protect my long roads from barbs.

Thanks game organisers!

 

[Nizef]

Dom victory turn 221 on the SECOND attempt. I messed up the first attempt at turn 231 when I still had Beijing and Venice to go. China, France, Assyria and the Iroquois DOW:d me and the Iroquois had about 15 cities! I would probably have won anyway, but needed a new army since HA would not have been enough. Anyway, HA was good enough on the second attempt (except for Beijing (strength 45) but it fell very quickly when I brought in a couple of Trebs). On the second attempt I annihilated both France and Assyria early and I crippled all other AIs to only one or two cities (except China, but their four cities so late in the game made no difference).

- How useful was your UA?
Essential. Well, I mean the extra production and burning cities at twice the speed, not the name part.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?
Stole one tech from China early on but mostly defended with my spy.

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
Definitely hinder. A lot of bad terrain and insane choke points combined with starting in the SE corner of the map made moving the troops very slow. Poor Bratislava, I kind of moved most troops trough their territory.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
It meant I went for HA and BR directly instead of developing the capital, thus not even reaching Industrialization before the end of the game.

- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
Full Honor and full Commerce.

- What techs did you prioritize ?
Bottom half. I only reached NC at turn 130.

- What did you think of the map and settings?
The map was not one of my favourites; too much jungle and very long distances. The Hun challenge is OK to do once or twice but gets boring after only a few times. Since I am more of a builder-type of guy I get no kicks from running around the map as a poisoned rabbit (do not know if they are able to run, but you get the picture). I kind of missed the barbs and the goody huts. King was suitable for this challenge on this type of map especially with the 300 turn cap.

Noteworthy: I founded an accidental (!) religion on turn 190 without first getting a pantheon. This has never happened to me before!?? So I got to choose the pantheon at the same time as the other beliefs. Was this some kind of bug or have this happened to any of you guys as well?

 

[Xaviers Crown]

Replayed it a few times to see how fast I could get. Was able to secure a domination win in 185 turns

 

[zxcvbob]

I'm impressed you were able to build the Great Wall. I just tried Pottery->Writing and then beelining Engineering (with God-King for my pantheon, so an extra beaker from that), and China still built the Wall before I'd even finished researching Engineering. I didn't notice if she'd built the Great Library.

 

[Xaviers Crown]

I'm impressed you were able to build the Great Wall. I just tried Pottery->Writing and then beelining Engineering (with God-King for my pantheon, so an extra beaker from that), and China still built the Wall before I'd even finished researching Engineering. I didn't notice if she'd built the Great Library.

No real need for the GW other than it can significantly slow you down if a Civ like China gets it
ps - Probably better to get Library/NC out as opposed to building a shrine to get a pantheon

 

[zxcvbob]

China didn't slow me down near as much as I thought in my game, in spite of the GW. She just builds it so fast, I wanted to see if I even could build it and I couldn't. Still impressed that you did

 

[InnocentBystander]

First time with GOTM, was lots of fun! Got the DOM victory on turn 225 on my second attempt. First attempt I got to turn 250 and ground to a halt against China, hadn't pumped out enough units. Second time around focused exclusively on unit building. In another play through I would have annexed more conquests to increase the unit carpet. I was fortunate in my second attempt that I hit China just before Chu-Ko-Nu and by the time I took the capital they had only got 2 out. Spain actually ended up building the GW as a result because China was interrupted and the GW didn't really factor in because there was plenty of unoccupied land near the Spanish capital.

- How useful was your UA?

City razing to get rid of all the crap AI cities was essential. In my first play through I left most civs with 1 city and this came back to bite me so on the second play through I annihilated all civs until the final set (China, Babylon, Spain, Venice, Greece) when I was pushing to finish.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?

Barely, flipped a city-state for additional happiness to get through the unhappiness burden near the end.

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?

The map and terrain were very large and so after the first round of conquests of the four nearby civs units created in the capital were so far away they barely factored in.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?

Low difficulty meant I didn't bother with science at all and focused on winning the game with rams and horse archers. Final army consisted of a few remaining fully promoted horse archers, former rams upgraded to trebuchets and knights for capture. I think I overdid this though, I had almost no infrastructure and was losing -50 gpt by the endgame and only staying in the black with city-state gold steals, pillage, gold on kill and city caps.

- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?

Full Honour and then a few in commerce and one in rationalism.

- What techs did you prioritize ?

Bottom half.

- What did you think of the map and settings?

A fun map but the two internal lakes really slowed things down.

Noteworthy: I founded an accidental (!) religion on turn 190 without first getting a pantheon. This has never happened to me before!?? So I got to choose the pantheon at the same time as the other beliefs. Was this some kind of bug or have this happened to any of you guys as well?

I had this happen on my first attempt as well!

 

[golem]

Victory turn 212. I did one city and then Horse Archers, Horse Archers, Horse Archers ....Only China was a nut, here I had to do good army with cannons.

How useful was your UA?
Horse archers did it - I conqered with them all civs - only for China I used cannons. With logistic and range promotion they are unbeatable.

Did you use spying to your advantage?
No

Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
Yed, no oceans helped.

How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
King was rather easy, so I just build the armies. No troubles with unhapiness.

What Social Policies did you choose and in what order?
Full honor, one tradition, patronage.

What techs did you prioritize ?
University, Gunpowder

What did you think of the map and settings?
Enjoyed it.

 

[socralynnek]

First try:

Founded 3 cities, went liberty, founded a religion built a few wonders in the capital, meanwhile started warring, also with the nice but slow battering rams...
Left France with one city, captured Maya.

But while I was rebuilding, 2 civs declared war on me at the same time (Iroquis and one of my neighbors)
That would have slowed me down too much, I guess, so I didn't continue that one. I guess I wouldn't have won before turn 300.

Played a second start, OCC, starting with honor, focussing on a few more things giving promotions and starting war earlier, with hrose archers and horseman.

That went much better, I guess, if I continue, I will be able to finish that one before turn 300...

 

[RHA_GTM]

Turn 261
Domination victory

Summary:
Turn 66: Paris; 2 battering rams
Turn 90: Assur; 2 battering rams
Turn 115: Persepolis; 3 battering rams, 2 horse archers
Turn 135: Onondaga; 3 battering rams, 2 horse archers
Turn 150: Palenque; 3 battering rams, 4 horse archers, 1 knight
Turn 175: Constantinopel; 3 battering rams, 3 horse archers, 2 knights
Turn 200: Athene; 1 battering ram, 4 trebuchets, 2 Landsknecht, 7 knights
Turn 216: Madrid; 1 battering ram, 4 trebuchets, 2 Landsknecht, 2 crossbows, 6 knights
Turn 222: Babylon; 5 trebuchets, 1 Landsknecht, 2 crossbows, 5 knights
Turn 225: Venice, China, Byzantium, Iroques, Maya and Assyria DoW me AND actually have sneak attack armies at the borders of Constantinopel, Palenque, Onondaga and Assur. I defended myself succesfully by buying lots of Landsknecht, as they move the same turn you buy them. In 1 city I bought 5 Landsknecht in 1 turn.
Turn 237: Venice; 4 Cannons, 2 crossbows, 4 knights
Turn 261: Beijing; aprox. 12 artillery, 1 Gatling gun, 5 cavalry

- How useful was your UA?
I used battering rams to the max. 1 is actually enough to conquer a small city.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?
No.

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
Normally a pangae map is very helpfull, but that mountain wall is insane.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
I attacked very quickly with only 2 battering rams and neglected my science a bit in favorite of building units.

- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
Full tradition, full commerce, no ideology. I wouldnt have survived the combined sneak attacks without Landsknecht.

- What techs did you prioritize ?
Astronomy, so I could launch a second army and cross the ocean. Conquered Madrid and Venice with that army and then combined my two armies to conquer China.

- What did you think of the map and settings?
Never seen such a mountain wall stretching from the north to the south pole. Awesome, I will remember that.

 

[RHA_GTM]

Full honor, not tradition...