TSG 234 After Actions Thread

[Nizef]

In this thread you can post the results of your game. Please state your victory/loss date (preferably in the post title) and describe your path to glory in this post! Players are encouraged to provide feedback on the game.

- Did you play peacefully or warlike? Did you use your UU?
- What technologies did you prioritize?
- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
- How many cities did you have in the end and where did you settle them?

 

[The_Black_Vegetable]

Victory T270. A tougher game than I had hoped. I settled in place, after my warrior had moved onto a desert hill south and spotted flat desert. First ruin around T2 was the best you can get: culture. After that, I did not get that many ruins anymore, because Iroquois and Egypt both scouted towards me. Crucially, I did not get a pop ruin, so my capital was quite small for a long time. Initially, I kept it at 2 to get the shrine out faster, because I really wanted desert folklore (I did not meet Jerusalem until much later). I did get desert folklore, but I also had to grow slowly to pop 3 while building a worker. Two of my units were meanwhile camping Thebes and Onondaga for a worker steal, but it took a long time for those to happen.

I went 5-city tradition, but perhaps the fifth city, or at least its placement was a mistake. As you can see from the screenshot, Tanger was eventually a fine city, but initially it was in the middle of the jungle, and as I had planted it fifth, it did not have a monument either to grow to some better tiles. My plan was to buy the library there, but those plans were put on delay when Egypt and Iroquois double war-dec'ed me (served me right, for stealing their workers and settling right on top of them), so I had to buy an archer instead. I did eventually buy the library, but the NC was much later than I had wanted: T124 resulting in a T143 education (work shops first because I did not feel my cities could build universities).

At this point, I had kind of given up on a really quick science victory, so I decided to build some comp bows and go after the Iroquois and Egyptian capitals. I did manage to capture them, but it turned out that Onondaga was a dump, though Thebes was Ok (and it had Chichen Itza - also Oracle but that was of less use to me). Upgrading my army of around 10 ranged plus a handful of melee, I set sail for the other continent with some crossbows and knights, hoping to continue the conquests. However, that was not meant to be. 'Across the pond' I was greeted with Ship of the Line and longbows, and France had Great Wall and musketeers.

The best thing about this game was the capital: I did get Petra (despite not bee-lining it completely), and even Hanging Gardens after it. I had missed out on Temple of Artemis, though, and I felt I really could have used that wonder. I think in all my time of playing Civ 5, I have spent too much time being Aztec with Temple of Artemis, and that has given me an expectation of what city growth should be like. However, all of my Moroccan cities really struggled to grow. Part of the problem was tile expansion. Once the purchase price per tile goes over 100 gold per farm tile, I'm a bit reluctant to keep buying them, so it was only after T250 that all cities had most of their civil service farms. I don't care what FilthyRobot says - next time I'm engineering Angkor Wat (not really of course, since there are too many other things to build around that time, but it would certainly have helped my game. I did try it in Fes, but the AI beat me to it).

When it came to religion, I am a very boring person. If available I pick (religiously?) tithe, religious community, and pagodas (in that order - I hate not having production, even if it is the less contested belief in SP), and on the lower difficulty levels I choose Itinerant preachers (which I took here), though on Deity I would choose Messiah instead.

For the end-game, I rushed through it a bit, which means, as you can see from the final screenshot, that both Oxford and the engineer of Hubble came in one turn too late.

I'm curious to see what kind of games other people experienced. For me, it was all about a good capital, but having no good nearby locations for expansions.

 

[Rhodro]

Science victory at turn 253. This game was no competition. I think around renaissance I pulled ahead in all demographics categories except military might. That was fixed with the 6 foreign legions from freedom.

- Did you play peacefully or warlike? Did you use your UU? Besides stealing workers at the start, peaceful. AI's didn't dare to declare on me. Egypt denounced me once and gave me threats, but in the end didn't do anything cause he was overwhelmed by my economy and traderoutes. Hiawatha didn't even dare to convert my cities even though he was full piety. That was hilarious he was putting prophets back and forth on my borders for tens of turns until they got capped by barb pikemen.
- What technologies did you prioritize?
After opening actions, astronomy for caravels, Chivalry for kasbah and printing press for world congress to get world's fair. Then standard science track.
- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
I got 1 in patronage and 2 in commerce before rationalism. I could have timed that a little bit better I think to get 1 less filler before rationalism.
In the end I picked freedom because of the tons of cash for buying spaceship parts. I ended with 3 commerce and filled patronage.
- How many cities did you have in the end and where did you settle them?
5 all self settled. The last 2 cities I settled next to bratislava and antwerp, one on my main continent and 1 on the island. Shaka didn't bother me on the island cause I sent him a traderoute and we became friends.

I think i'm having a bit of trouble timing the Great Scientist bulbs exactly. I feel I got caught in some kind of science overflow turn cap. At some point you have a bunch of 1 turn techs and bulbing on those turns feels like a waste?

Spoiler :

 

[fiddlesticks]

Science Victory turn 234 for GoTM 234

Build order: scoutx3, worker, settler, settler, settler, granary. Bought archers (26, 42)

Ruins: culture(4), Map, 75g (12), pop(15), culture(16), scarcher(44)

Milestones: desert folklore(52), great library (63 - a late attempt gamble that paid off), ToA(74), 87 NC -> Petra. 124 Renaissance, 126 Rationalism, 142 Secularism, 156 Free Thought

Reflections: I eventually captured Thebes and Onondaga, but too late to really matter for the science victory. I had more happiness than I needed for most of the game as you can see below, and I probably should have founded another city. That would have sped things up by maybe 8-10 turns or more. I had a 5 turn wait at the end finishing the last tech.

 

[sebtanic]

Messed up big time on this one: I accidentally built the National Epic instead of National College!

I didn't notice until it was finished... decided to play on anyway.

Did 4 cities, standard Tradition. Spread Islam to my whole continent, and had tons of money from Tithe. Launched the Spaceship turn 299.

Spoiler t299 screenshot :

 

[armcie]

Peaceful game, other than stealing an early settler from the Iroquis. Hiawatha kept telling me that Egypt was planning on attacking, but they turned out to be my staunchest allies, being the only ones to join me in Freedom.

I had the least contested religion I think I've ever experienced at that level. Neither Egypt nor Iroquis founded a religion, so the continent was mine in that respect. Entering the Industrial era there was still one religion available to be founded.

Science victory at T314. One of these days I'll bother working out how exactly I should do that quicker. I know national college was late at around T125.

 

[zxcvbob]

I stayed up until 03:00 last night on this stupid game. Science victory on turn 369. I think the war with Egypt (he attacked me) slowed me down because I took a bunch of big cities and it took forever for them to come out of rebellion and start contributing anything. I built 2 spaceship parts and bought 4. I was building them in 5 turns, so buying that last one only saved me 4 turns.

I only settled 3 cities. Capital was settled in place; it looked like a slightly better spot than on one of the hills or on the copper. Hiawatha grabbed one of the spots that I wanted (near Kilimanjaro) but other than crowding me a little he was a surprisingly good neighbor. I built all of the early growth wonders; Temple of Artemis, Hanging Gardens, and Petra. My national college was a little late (turn 125 or so), I think because I prioritized Civil Service and Guilds (Machu Picchu) over Philosophy. Marrakech was busy building pikes and composite bows at that point anyway because I didn't trust Hiawatha or Rameses and my army was a little light from building all those wonders.

Social policies were Tradition, Commerce, and Rationalism. Ideology was Freedom. Another thing that slowed me down a little was taking Their Finest Hour before New Deal. That was right after Egypt declared war and had a massive army knocking on my door at Fes. That was probably an unnecessary precaution. I did build a few UUs but I just used them as normal cavalry; there was no desert where all the fighting took place (I guess Homeland Guard still came in handy a few times)

 

[leif erikson]

I stayed up until 03:00 last night on this stupid game.

Hope you sleep well tonight!

 

[Tiberiu]

I finished my game with t 311 SV. I exceeded Science needed once again by a lot and built many un-necessary Wonders and buildings. I put up 4 academies in the early mid game, most likely a mistake. I am not very good at getting quick science victories even if I didn't do all those things.

Another setback was my lack of early control on World Congress, so I couldn't propose useful things in the first vote.
Also only 5 cities were most likely too few.

Played peacefully until the last 10 turns when I captured a few cities with Freedom's units upgraded to Mechanized infantry and 5 Stealth Bombers. Never got attacked, because I did bribe the potential attackers just to not need to have an army.

Allied all CSs with Freedom's tenet that gives you 4 influence when you trade with them.
Liberty and Rationalism filled, and then a mix of Tradition, Patronage, Commerce and Exploration, Freedom.

 

[JeffreyLXV]

No war; no conflicts: no stealing workers nor settlers.
Rushed shrine to get Desert Folklore
Rushed to build Petra.
Tradition; Piety; Science, and Freedom.
Four cities total.
Unique unit (Berber calvary) did not factor. Kasbah seems nice, but Great People improvements were better with bonuses, I think. Trade routes were mostly internal, so unique ability also did not factor.
Buying Great People with piety seemed cool, but it must not be very effective. I have no idea how others can obtain such a fast science victory,
Anyway, had fun. Earned This Desert Life achievement for beating the game as Morrocco. The rocket and achievement notification are in the screenshot - w00t!

Edit: Added screenshot of Neuschwanstein Castle on Mt. Kilimanjaro.

 

[Megalou]

Spaceship launch on turn 295. I was apparently too brutal because I didn't become friendly enough with any one to sign a single research agreement. The others were mostly "guarded".

So there is room for improvement there. I suppose in Civ5, the distant civs will always get wind of how we have brutalized our neighbours in the early stages? In civ3 I recall that we could "cover our tracks" and retain a spotless rep (in spite of, for instance, playing Rome and owning a city called Trondheim).

I don't know how much more peacefully I should have played, though: Grand River, located smack in the middle of the jungle, ended up producing more than 200 beakers, for example. It's issues like these that makes the game stay interesting, I think, along with fantastic results from others, like @fiddlesticks .

Otherwise. the game went as planned but slower than I would have wanted. I founded no less than 5 cities around Marrakesh and two of them were bought with cash. Settling on the copper helped with that.

 

[Megalou]

I forgot to say that war with Egypt was accidental. I was going to offer 29 gpt for something but accidently offered 299. That was money I could not spare while saving to buy science buildings, so I had no choice but to declare war. Since Thebes had no less than four world wonders, I pushed on.

 

[Bosskhazen]

Science Victory on T357. Stayed up until 3:00 to finish it. Civilization is one hell of a drug.
I don't know how you guys manage to do it under 300 turns.

- Did you play peacefully or warlike? Did you use your UU?
It was peaceful game. I didn't use the UU. I barely built any army until late game to scare off Hiawata.
- What technologies did you prioritize?
After opening techs I went directly for Chivalry to have Kasbahs then started beelining for science techs.
- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
Full tradition, then Patronage opener, then full rationalism then Freedom to buy the space parts.
- How many cities did you have in the end and where did you settle them?
I finished with 4 cities

 

[raider980]

Rock the Kasbah. Rock the Kasbah. T337 SV.

Marrakech had so many Kasbah it wasn't even funny. And Petra for some amazing desert tiles. It was a smooth game, except for one little hiccup (detailed under the peaceful or warlike question). And I even played the science game correctly and built Apollo early enough that I could build spaceship parts when they were first available. I went down the wrong path though, I went to the top part of the tech tree first instead of the bottom to get the Spaceship Factory which may have shaved a couple of turns off the finish. I hard built 5 parts and bought the last one with the Freedom tenet. I also had to surround my cities with units to keep Askia from converting my cities to his heathen religion with a prophet; I didn't feel like DoWing him just for that.

- Did you play peacefully or warlike? Did you use your UU?

After the intial war with Hiawatha to keep him contained, I played peaceful. Until this happened.​

Spoiler Uh oh :

Shaka and Rameses were fighting a long war but since they were on different continents neither was able to really do any damage. In the meantime, on T188 I settled Quarzazate on Shaka's land - I wasn't going to antagonize him but he just left that prime city spot with crabs, fish, deer and sheep vacant so I just had to do it. I figured he wouldn't like that so I put up a defensive wall so that he couldn't take it.​

However, when Rameses peaced out with Shaka, he gave him Elephantine; right on my border! Come'on Rameses. I was friendly with Shaka and had trade routes and open borders but on T204 when I saw the Impi swarm coming my way I knew I was in trouble. Shaka smartly bypassed my heavily defended city near him and marched straight to my capital where I had only minimal defenses. I hastily built units and rushed them to Marrakech. The Kasbah helped here too with their fort defense property. I did have aTercio from a CS and a Musket but mainly Pikemen and an XB or two. But most of my heavy army was across the sea defending Quarzazate. Turned out it was enough to destroy the Zulu army and then I liberated Elephantine and gave it back to Rameses. Crisis averted.​

​

I did go on the offensive and captured the two Zulu cities south of Quiarzazate to prevent any further trouble from Shaka. He was peaceful the rest of the game.​

- What technologies did you prioritize?

Science, science, science. Did the typical beeline to the science buildings. After securing Petra and Kasbah of course.​

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

Opened Tradition as mentioned in the opening actions thread then full Liberty because of all the space, then into Patronage, Rationalism until I got first ideology - Freedom. Ended up finishing Rationalism and Patronage and even opened Commerce later. Then just in the nick of time I got the 3rd tenet level unlocked to be able to buy the last spaceship part.​

- How many cities did you have in the end and where did you settle them?

Total of 7 cities. Six of which were settled by T100 as detailed in opening actions. I only added the seventh, Quarzazate, later; this may have brought on the wrath of Shaka but he probably would have attacked anyway.​

A good game and a good victory!