TSG 272 After Actions

[vadalaz]

In this thread you can post the results of your game. Please attach your final savefile, 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.

Quick links: Announcement thread | Opening actions

- Did you play peacefully or warlike?
- Were the Siamese unique abilities useful to you?
- Which ideology did you pick?
- How many cities did you have in the end and where did you settle them?

 

[zxcvbob]

Diplo victory on turn 292. Peaceful (but I may JOMT and get my warmonger on) I assume the extra goodies from city-states was useful, because I'm getting an insane amount of food and I finished Tradition and almost all of Patronage before Rationalism unlocked. I picked Freedom, and I only had 3 cities (but what cities they were!) I was going to settle one more by Kilimanjaro but William got there before I had even started on the settler so I let him have it.

I built 23 wonders, and notice I'm about to finish 3 more. Also the International Games are on and I've contributed about 2000 hammers. Tourism is intentionally low, but I might build hotels and airports real quick just as the Games are finishing.

I realized about 10 turn ago that I was 1 vote short somehow even though I was allied with all the CSs and had Forbidden Palace and the world ideology. That was just enough time to send out a couple of diplomats and rush Globalization with 2 scientists.

The elephant that has focus right now just got back from a mission that earned about 500 points of favor with a CS (I think it was Singapore) There was a quest to clear a camp on an island, and barbarian workers were everywhere and I returned them.

 

[ABigCivFan]

Turn 254 Diplo victory.

- Did you play peacefully or warlike? Mostly peaceful, only had a small war to take over Inca capital in the beginning, wanted a city with mountain for some wonders, and it was a good city spot with desert.
- Were the Siamese unique abilities useful to you? Very useful for all the extra food, culture, and faith allowing quick science and policy gains
- Which ideology did you pick? Freedom to power through science to information age and Globalization
- How many cities did you have in the end and where did you settle them? Settled 4 cities and captured 1 city

Spoiler 36k culture from 5 great writers :

Spoiler Turn 254 Finish :

 

[The_Black_Vegetable]

Turn 200 diplomatic victory. In the openings thread I described how I feared my science would stall in the mid-game, but those fears proved unfounded. My two late settles still developed fine, and the conquered capitals did ok too (although I don't think they contributed a great scientist) - very likely this was the Siam bonus at work with 7 maritime city state allies.

Very early on I decided on the plan of killing the AI to bring forward the vote to the Atomic era, but having finished the game I realize there was actually no need. Getting the vote one era earlier might open up the possibility to finish the game with one world congress cycle, but I did not attempt that, and with two voting cycles I actually made the information era easily enough. In the end I continued to attack the AI. It seems you can leave two AI alive (at least on a standard map) to trigger the atomic era vote, although I did notice that the required votes to win world leader was reduced by one after I finished off the Netherlands (with only Polynesia left).

My tech was pretty decent - I managed not only globalization, but also made it up to satellites, despite generating both a merchant and an engineer. When I discovered satellites, I actually noticed there was one city state I had not met - Singapore on an island. Somewhat embarrassing, but I did not need it to win the vote.

In this game I forsook my beloved Freedom in favor of Order. Normally I like to go Industrialization first, to get factories online and get the production going for a busy period (factories, public schools, hydro plants and stock exchanges), but now I had to get to Radio in a hurry to be able to propose World Ideology. Hence, I had the ideology already, and since all my cities except for the capital would struggle to build factories, this seemed like a good time to pick factory science.

In the end game, when it was clear that I would be in time for the vote, all that remained was to try and bump up my score a little by growing more population and building some wonders.

 

[lymond]

I always feel there is something missing with my Diplo game..something that accelerates things at some point instead of clicking buttons nonstop, waiting for the WL vote. Still the best diplo time I've hit, but I reached Globalization at like t190. T221 Diplo Victory...still a huge improvement for me. AIs were mostly no help at all this game. Willie was a mess.

I basically built about every wonder in this game while focusing on cash and research...had most of the CS allied not long after my first report in perpetuity.

I did end up taking Moscow late after Cathy was brave enough to sneak a settler by me (well, it wasn't sneaking as I let her lol). I was DOF'd with everyone but Ash and Cathy, ofc. AIs had so little money, but I was able to scrounge some moolah for key purchases.

The AIs seemed especially punchless this game, even for Prince. Nice land though, and I always like me a Petra cap.

 

[fiddlesticks]

Diplomatic victory turn 167 (168)

What a start! Early strategy was to start off with a couple of scouts, then a worker, a shrine (pantheon in the 40's), then settlers. I bought units with cash, and with a good army score got most of the AIs early gold in peace deals and managed a couple of tributes.

The set-up strategy was to get some early wonders - GL, Petra, and Terra Cotta in Si S. while the cap and expands built the full range of units available at the time for my tech. This produced two capable prince armies really easily. One went east to the Inca, then up to Garbage Dump, the other went west to Polynesia, then up to the Dutch and a mixture of the two took their time to head east to take out Songhai in time to coincide with hitting modern to buy a few more turns in cycle 1 of the WC, which bought enough time to earn enough faith for a 2nd GS and finish Oxford on countdown turn 1 into Atomic Theory. Printing Press was turn 119. I bulbed to get into the Renaissance through acoustics then teched toward PP naturally.

Policies were full tradition, patronage opener +1, rationalism +1 left, +2 right, then scholasticism in patronage, then finish rationalism (radio).

 

[The_Black_Vegetable]

Wow, what a finish time. I figured a one-cycle game might be possible here, but I did not suspect it would be possible while hitting Printing Press earlier than me as well. Did you save Oracle for Renaissance, or build it early for the Great Scientist point?

 

[fiddlesticks]

Yes, I used Oracle for science from specialists a few turns after bulbing acoustics. I forgot to mention that the early unit push was to capitalize on the CS bonuses.

 

[vadalaz]

@fiddlesticks do you remember what the fastest Prince+ diplo finish on HoF is? I think T167 probably beats it, yes? The site is down so I can't check. Either way, that's a really good time, well played!

 

[sebtanic]

I eliminated everyone except Russia and Netherlands, and won turn 213.

The first 90% of the game were fun, but as usual in DiploV the last 20 turns or so were an anticlimax. Just clicking next turn all the time with nothing to do except to make sure that all the CS stay allied by throwing money at them.

Timeline after turn 100:
t138 Printing Press
t139 Rationalism opener
t185 Atomic Theory (bulbed 2 GS)
t186 UN
t213 won

It was a 2-cycle win. The votes were world's fair (which didn't make a difference, even though I won it of course) and Word ideology-Freedom (wasn't neded either, had enough votes without it).

Now I'm wondering if I could have made it 1 cycle only, and thus won earlier, by delaying printing press?

It seemed too complicated to calculate how many turns I'd need for all the technologies between Printing Press and Atomic Theory. But maybe better players have an idea how to do it.

 

[sebtanic]

When I discovered satellites, I actually noticed there was one city state I had not met - Singapore on an island.

Yeah Singapore was a fun one in my game. I discovered them with a scout, and instantly freed 3 workers for them. Then they managed to let one of their workers get re-captured by the barbs, and I freed it again. Easiest ally ever!

 

[fiddlesticks]

Thanks @vadalaz! The great start, Siam’s bonuses and the friendly oval map all helped. I think my early ruins were all pretty good too.

 

[Megalou]

I got a t250 victory. I was frustrated at first about missing the second cycle - choosing to burn down one of Assyria's last cities prevented me from Oxfording Lazer. But it was the first time I really tried to be precise about the cycles and the elimination of all but 2 AI civs, so I believe this was good practice. Very nice to read how the best players fared, congrats and well fought everyone!

 

[zxcvbob]

I've played this a few times. (haven't really beaten my 292 turn by much, though) I've figured out that I need to build settlers *early* to get prime cities -- and still I might need to park a scout near the best spots to shoo settlers away. I'll probably miss out on a few good early wonders that way, but the city is more valuable. Save up some gold to buy at least one library in an expo (that doesn't even need a library yet) so it doesn't delay the NC. And the first expo can help out building wonders or settlers; the capital doesn't have to do everything.

All that said, is Great Library worth it when you have enough hammers to easily get it? It still takes maybe 15 turns at a point in the game where 15 turns is a *lot*, and it's still possible one of the NPCs will beat you to it. (I tend to prioritize GL in culture games more than in science games, but this one was diplo) I have been building GL and Petra, then going back and picking up HG if it's still available. The Mausoleum might be better than HG in this game...