TSG 275 Announcement

[vadalaz]

Welcome to Civilization 5 Game of the Month - GOTM #275
These games allow new and old GOTM fans to play Civ 5 in a friendly competitive environment. Each game will specify the Civ you will play and the Victory Condition to strive for.

How to play:
1) Download the savefile, then place it in the Saves\single folder. The default paths the folder are:
Windows: ...\Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 5\Saves\single\
Mac: ~/Documents/Aspyr/Sid Meier's Civilization 5/Saves/single/ or ~/Library/Application Support/Sid Meier's Civilization 5/Saves/single/
Linux: ~/.local/share/Aspyr/Sid Meier's Civilization 5/Saves/single/
2) On the turn of your victory (or defeat), use the "lemme play one more turn" feature and save the game
3) Attach your final savefile in the After actions thread - temporary solution while the GOTM website is being worked on

Where to discuss the game:
1) Announcement (this thread) - pre-game thoughts and questions
2) Opening actions - the first 100 turns
3) After actions - post-game discussion and feedback

Big thanks to @The_Black_Vegetable for kindly providing us with this map!

Game Settings:

Player (You): Alexander - Greece
Victory Condition: Culture (but all VCs are enabled)
Difficulty: Immortal
Map Type/Size: Continents/Large (10 Civs, 20 City-States)
Pace: Standard

The earliest finish date wins, with score as a tiebreaker.

Your Unique Characteristics:
UA: Hellenic League: City state influence degrades at half and recovers at twice the normal rate. Units within city-state borders do not cause a loss of influence and heal as if they were in friendly territory.
UU: Companion Cavalry (Horseman): 14 strength (+2 compared to the Horseman), +1 movement point
UU: Hoplite (Spearman). 13 strength (+2 compared to the Spearman)

Required DLC: All DLC
Starting Era: Ancient
Required game options: None
Enabled game options: None (You may turn on/off Quick Combat/Quick Movement using the game options menu at any time during gameplay.)
Game Version: This game was created in Civ5 Brave New World version 1.0.3.279

MUST READ!

Our most sacred rule: Do not replay any turns!
If you make a mistake, accept it, and try to recover through game-play. To ensure fair play and prevent results exclusions, please set your Autosaves to "1 turn". In the event of a computer crash while playing, just reload to the previous autosave, then play on the same way you played it the first time. Please let Leif or me know (either in the forums or through Private Message) if you experienced a crash and how many turns you replayed.

This game runs through November 15th 2025

@The_J
@Blake00

 

[The_Black_Vegetable]

Since I made the map, I will be playing this one out of competition, and I won't be sharing anything until the After Actions thread. Good luck everyone!

 

[Megalou]

Since I made the map, I will be playing this one out of competition, and I won't be sharing anything until the After Actions thread. Good luck everyone!

So, you are responsible for the bleak starting area? I guess an early granary is needed to get anywhere at all.

 

[ForkOfSpite]

I think the early food is good enough - two deer in Ring 1 for Pop 3 then switch to production and forest chops to get army / settlers / infrastructure. Gold would help (and lack of gold can be a problem if I out produce the economy), so I think I'll try to bully some CS. I'll probably start with Archery for units to force tributes plus maybe I can win an early war against whomever the neighbor is. Mining next probably followed by pottery and sailing, but I might need bonze working (hoplites) for CS tributes. Will need to squeeze in trapping at some point, too - might as well just stay in the Ancient Era forever.

One trap I'll try to avoid - shrine rush for food from camps.
============================================
Upon further contemplation - food is a bit bleaker than I initially thought. Okay for settlers at Pop 3 (buy the sheep and it looks like a forest hill by the mountains), but for normal production, it's weak. To avoid starving without infrastructure/improved tiles, would still need to work both deer. Flat capital, one sheep, and two deer = poor food and mediocre production.

Second reassessment - I won't pursue it, but maybe an early shrine for faith from pearls? Turn into a piety game, maybe?
============================================================================================
Final thoughts before starting ...

Realistically, I won't put up a competitive score (i.e., time), so I should be more concerned with winning and trying to do it quicker than I would expect for myself. I'm fairly confident I could win with a tradition science sim (slightly modified for the Aesthetics tree, and archeological artifacts). I'd expect to win around T300 or so, but that's just a guess (and therefore, my goal).

Another viable plan involves war. Capture one or two early capitals and try to dominate with good cities. Throw in midgame war (frigates, again? - it's on the way to Archeology anyway) to hopefully limit AI culture and steal their wonders and great works. Seems more complicated for me, but it might lead to a better score. One problem with early war is unit cap. The Liberty settler would help, but I don't think I could do an archer early war with Tradition - the unit cap would kill me until I actually capture a couple of cities.

I'd like to try the war path, so I might try to force it. However, if it looks too difficult (based on terrain, AI, and AI location), I'll go Tradition.

 

[raider980]

Ancient Era best era.

Not sure if I’ve ever tried for CV with Greece, will be interesting! The CS bonus should help a lot. Wish canals were a thing in Civ 5. I’d like to settle next to that mountain than build a canal across the frozen tundra tot he sea. I’ll move the warrior east to check out the view but I can’t imagine anything other than SiP here.

 

[raider980]

One trap I'll try to avoid - shrine rush for food from camps.

Why do you call this a trap? Its not one of my normal pantheon choices (almost never have taken it) and Pearls looks like a good possibility here; but just wondering why its a "trap"?

 

[ForkOfSpite]

Why do you call this a trap?

Generally ineffective for me. Rather use shrine hammers on something else (usually a worker because I'm not effective with steals). Deer tiles are reasonable on their own and improve with granaries. Camps help production of course, but in this case, I wanted to prioritize lighthouses.

So, IMO, long time to setup and doesn't contribute to faith-purchase great people later in the game. ("Trap" because I prioritized that pantheon at least once before and it wasn't as useful as I thought it would be.)

 

[Rhodro]

A new one already? We're eating good this month.
Greece's UA is very good, hopefully the CS quest rng is good too!
SIP 99% sure. There is no reason to move east, because then the 1st ring becomes really poor. 1 W or SW will also make a deer tile unworkable.

 

[RuntyBassoon143]

Hey guys, glad to see you’re all still playing. Start would be rough for deity but immortal looks doable.

Initial plan is CB liberty rush, hopefully find an upgrade to a hoplite, maybe build 1 more, but don’t think they’ll be needed. A couple companion cavs later for sniping but again not game changing. Liberty finisher for NC and push machinery before education, then transition to wide culture strategy.