TSG 219 After Actions Thread

[aafritz17]

DO NOT READ THIS THREAD IF YOU ARE STILL PLAYING YOUR GAME!

After your game is completed, you can post your strategy, tactics, and other comments here.

 

[zxcvbob]

Culture victory on turn 255. It was a very quick game in spite of the epic pace.

I declared war on the Maya kinda early to steal a worker, then stayed at war so he couldn't expand or even improve his western tiles. I went Tradition, Aesthetics, Rationalism opener, Patronage opener. My strategy was plain old culture victory because I didn't think Sacred Sites would work on this small a map. I built Great Library (for the great writing slots as much as the science) and instead of taking Philosophy I took the one that unlocks Parthenon and writers' guild. When I finished Aesthetics, I made peace with Pacal and sent him a trade route. He was afraid of me because I was so far ahead by that point, so he was happy to declare friendship and exchange open borders. I took a great musician for finishing the Leaning Tower and did a concert tour. Got the victory on the next turn. I never did check for a theming bonus for Great Library; I should have, although Pacal was so far behind he probably didn't have any great writings.

 

[zxcvbob]

I wondered if Sacred Sites was viable on such a small map. With Theodora, it is. I tried it again and got a CV in about 218 turns. Then decided to try for a sub-200 win.

I declared war as soon as I met Pacal and killed his warrior and scout, and I stayed at war the whole game to keep him from developing. I did miss out on stealing a worker that way. I settled several more cities this time and I got it down to 179 turns. I'm pretty proud of that but sure it could be done even faster. The key is stop building so many wonders and build settlers instead! (I still built a lot of wonders) I took One With Nature for my pantheon this time and I settled the eastern natural wonder very quickly -- in each play-through my initial build order was scout and then settler. I think my fourth city was the western wonder. Here's my screenshot (I see that I screwed up and let Kyzyl claim the furs, I could have had those)

Again this one doesn't count but I like it:


There's still room for maybe one more city way over to the east, plus you could capture and annex a CS for 3 more faith buildings.

 

[Adama]

T351. Just my second Civ 5 GOTM, but I thoroughly enjoyed this level and this game. I didn't exactly know how to win a cultural victory, but I had an idea of the basics. As I figured, on this level, I just bee-lined toward ... {Did I mention my ADHD?} Oh, look... another wonder ... let's build thaa-aat ! Did I mention my enjoyment of an adult beverage(s) while playing the first few hours? That certainly made it fun, if not efficient ... Yeah, well, anyway, I just kept moving toward the right side of the tech tree and looking for culture etc. etc. until the poor Pacal just gave up on T351~I think I won a victory by continually giving him the opportunity to ask, "Are you done, yet?" Thanks for a very enjoyable romp!

 

[shinjx]

T176 on the first try. I ran a trial in the same setting, and concluded that 1) This game won't go deep into Renaissance, 2) the opponent will be at around 15 to 20 CPT, 3) one GM will cover around 1/3 of the tourism required. With these in mind, I went down as below:
Cities: Took four cities overall, but the capital, and one city close to Sri Pada did most of the job.
Policy: I opened Liberty, beelined free settler (to settle near Sri Pada), then took Piety, and beelined Reformation. Then, I took free worker (Liberty), opened Aesthetics, then completed Liberty. Took Great Musician as reward.
Wonders: Stonehenge, Great Library (took Drama/Poetry as reward), Pyramids (2nd city), Parthenon, and Oracle.
Science: Beelined Calendar, Writing, Drama/Poetry, then Guilds. The game ended before Artists' Guild completed.
I didn't DOW Maya until last turn, as I needed to keep a trade route alive, and workers came out very late. Just built Pyramids for free workers.
I had around 2/3 of the tourism required, and got free GM on T174. Didn't have techs yet for open borders, so DoW'd Maya T175 for GM access, and bombed tourism. That was enough, and won the game at T176.

 

[Axolaan]

I went for the sacred sites strat, resulting in a victory on turn 151. I first got up to the settler policy in liberty, then settled 7 expands for a total of 8 cities. I would have been able to cram more in there if I had planned beforehand though, that would have definitely helped. All of my other policies were in piety to get my reformation belief as quickly as possible. I warred the Maya once to prevent them from settling, then bribed them to get a declaration of friendship once I had all of my cities down. In hindsight I could have made a few improvements: opening piety straight up might be the better play here, since you can only settle so many cities anyway and you would get sacred sites much sooner. I also built the writers' guild and parthenon later than I would have liked, and I forgot to send a trade route for the tourism bonus.

 

[armcie]

Victory on T190, wit sacred sites. Opened up with God King, then Beelined Civil Service to get open borders. I declared war whenever I saw a settler, but managed to maintain enough relations with the maya that he gave me those open borders when available. I had monastries in all the cities, and mosques in most by the end of the game. Maya founded their own religion a few turns from the end.

Some thoughts:
* As I didn't make any Pagodas, would I have been better choosing something else? or building less cities?
* Would constant war have been better, as maybe he wouldn't have built culture buildings?

 

[billybgame]

Just entered turn 241....maybe could do faster but would have to ponder. Biggest issue was not having any tourism at all until later than I'd like. Had a great writer sitting around. Probably should have bought an amphitheater or two. Just didn't have enough culture to get to Sacred Sites much earlier so not sure how could do nearly 100 turns earlier.

 

[armcie]

Just entered turn 241....maybe could do faster but would have to ponder. Biggest issue was not having any tourism at all until later than I'd like. Had a great writer sitting around. Probably should have bought an amphitheater or two. Just didn't have enough culture to get to Sacred Sites much earlier so not sure how could do nearly 100 turns earlier.

I think the method is to open with Piety, so reformation is the 4th policy you unlock.

 

[billybgame]

Problem is, I mainly do Liberty firstly and get a G Prophet as my reward thus creating my religion....then soon after I have my 2nd GP, so get 3 religious buildings. I fear going the other way, might not work out that way. On Chieftain maybe not....but Pacal is a tricky foe.

 

[zxcvbob]

Problem is, I mainly do Liberty firstly and get a G Prophet as my reward thus creating my religion....then soon after I have my 2nd GP, so get 3 religious buildings. I fear going the other way, might not work out that way. On Chieftain maybe not....but Pacal is a tricky foe.

If you go straight Piety you will get to Reformation too soon; even if you built Stonehenge you probably won't have a religion yet. (so take the policy that gives a discount on missionaries and religious buildings and you'll probably get your great prophet before the next policy comes around) If you take just the Liberty or Tradition opener and then switch to Piety, you'll get to Reformation just a little slower and maybe will have your religion founded in time. OTOH, if you go straight Piety and save Reformation for last or next-to-last, you'll get a GP for the finisher and can enhance your religion with it.

Opening Piety and beelining Reformation isn't the answer (perhaps it is if you don't build any monuments.) But taking too many policies in Liberty, Tradition (or Honor) before switching to Piety will delay Reformation too much for a quick Sacred Sites win.

 

[fiddlesticks]

Culture victory turn 134.
Social policies: Piety->Organized Religion->Religious Tolerance->Mandate of Heaven->Reformation->Theocracy->Aesthetics->Fine Arts
Ruins: Population->Culture->Barb Camps->Mining->Scarcher
Cities: 1. Constantinople on Hill for production, 2. Adrianople by Sri Pada for faith, 3. Nicaea by Cerro for faith and gold, 4. Antioch on wine for faith and culture, Varna, Ohrid, Nicomedia
Religion: Pantheon - One with Nature, Religion: Monasteries, Conversion Gold (helped by a caravan and settlers), Festivals. Enhance: Pagodas and +25% spread speed.
Wonders: Great Library, Parthenon
Diplomacy: War with Pacal early to kill warrior, 2nd war to steal settler, then bribes to open up borders.

Pacal went Honor resulting in +6 culture per turn. I'm curious what social policies he took in other attempts. I think Piety is the best at only +3 culture per turn.

 

[Axolaan]

Pacal went Honor resulting in +6 culture per turn. I'm curious what social policies he took in other attempts. I think Piety is the best at only +3 culture per turn.

He went for Honor in my game as well. I think your result shows that going for piety first is the best strat. I didn't even get close to purchasing faith buildings in all of my cities.

Just for fun I tried culture bombing with the great musician from liberty in a second attempt, like aafritz17 suggested. I only got about halfway through Pacal's culture. In theory it should be possible, but I don't think it will ever be consistent. Maybe with Poland though...

 

[zxcvbob]

Culture victory turn 134.
Social policies: Piety->Organized Religion->Religious Tolerance->Mandate of Heaven->Reformation->Theocracy->Aesthetics->Fine Arts
Ruins: Population->Culture->Barb Camps->Mining->Scarcher
Cities: 1. Constantinople on Hill for production, 2. Adrianople by Sri Pada for faith, 3. Nicaea by Cerro for faith and gold, 4. Antioch on wine for faith and culture, Varna, Ohrid, Nicomedia
Religion: Pantheon - One with Nature, Religion: Monasteries, Conversion Gold (helped by a caravan and settlers), Festivals. Enhance: Pagodas and +25% spread speed.
Wonders: Great Library, Parthenon
Diplomacy: War with Pacal early to kill warrior, 2nd war to steal settler, then bribes to open up borders.

Pacal went Honor resulting in +6 culture per turn. I'm curious what social policies he took in other attempts. I think Piety is the best at only +3 culture per turn.

That's crazy! I've played this quite a few times and haven't been able to get below 170. Maybe I need to take a different bonus belief for more culture instead of going for 3 faith buildings (Monasteries, Pagodas, and Cathedrals) Pacal usually does a mixture of Tradition and Piety in my games.

 

[raider980]

T265 CV. I thought I was doing pretty well but I'm slow compared to others. Not surprising, I'm not exactly efficient when I play. For example, I didn't bother converting Palenque to my religion or getting open borders until the game was almost over. I also opened Tradtion just by force of habit, that delayed the settler from Libety and my reformation. I also built way too many wonders, just because I could.

I tried Sacred Sites and it worked well. I got Monasteries (instead of Pagodas for the Wine bonus), Mosques and Cathedrals and was able to get all three in almost all my cities before the Rennaissance. But the faith was coming so fast that I ended up with extra GPr before all my cities had the buildings. OWN was my pantheon and I settled Sri Pada first and Potosi third. Ended up with 7 cities and managed to block Pacal from even having one expand. I should have settled one more way to the east on the edge of the map.

Interesting Pacal went Honor in a couple of the games. He went full Tradition plus some in Peity and Patronage in mine.

A fun quick game!

 

[sebtanic]

Won turn 166.

Here's a quick log of my game:

Ruins: culture, pop , map, Calendar , barb camp, map
Build order: Scout, started settler (thanks to pop ruin), shrine, finished settler, monument, worker, settler, SH, settler, Oracle...
Research: Pottery, AH, (popped Calendar), Mining, Archery, Writing, Philosophy

t27: One With Nature
t34: Settled Adrianople SE of Sri Pada
t68: Religion: Initiation Rites, Monasteries, Mosques
t73: Settled Nicaea, SE of Cerro de Potosi
t80: Sacred Sites
t86: DOWed Pacal to take settler
t97: Stonehenge
t122: Enhanced religion (Pagodas, Itinerant)

 

[Wuji]

T124. Hi, I am playing GOTM for first time and I am not sure about the rules, so please bear with me or eventually dont involve me in the competiton for this month. I played a couple of games to get the proper strategy, because I read in the opening thread others did too, but according to rules it is not be allowed to do so? I am not sure about that. Otherwise, my first game had about T210 victory or so (I did not save it), the second game T170 victory. It is the first time I tried to play cultural victory so I did not know before many possible strategies, so thank you for motivating me to explore new aspects of the game.

 

[leif erikson]

Welcome to the Game of the Month!!

Thank you for giving it a try. Glad you learned from it and enjoyed it.

You should only submit your first play through and you should not read spoilers beforehand. You can replay anytime you wish to help you learn as you go. Glad your fellow players write ups helped.

 

[armcie]

I played a couple of games to get the proper strategy, because I read in the opening thread others did too, but according to rules it is not be allowed to do so? I am not sure about that.

You shouldn't practice on the actual map we're playing, but the suggestion was to try some games with the same settings, so you can experiment with how to get a culture victory on this sort of map with this civ.

 

[Wuji]

I see, so next time and I will stay away from competition for this month