TSG 281 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 Korean 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?

 

[FireFree3]

Turn 264 SV

- Did you play peacefully or warlike?

Mainly peacefully. However, Huns attacked me mid-way, but it's easy to hold it off. I also tried to plant a city at the middle of Zulus (maybe bombing for fun), they attacked, but there's no match for my infantry using unique swordsmen.

- Were Korean unique abilities useful to you?

Yes, I think. The research boost helped a little bit. UU are not useful.

- Which ideology did you pick?

Freedom.

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

Finally 5, but mainly 4. Three on coasts, and they were well fed with cargo ships. Seoul is not so attractive.

This game is slow, as we can't really feed Seoul well. With 3 well-fed coastal cities, happiness is a problem. I'm not good at land attacking, so, can't beat any close civs, and also they are all friendly.

I mis-managed the faith, because I reached industrial era before getting 200 faith! So, I can't get any Great Prophets and can't start the religion, even though there are still places. At the end, I can only get one GS from faith (from another religion).

The cities' placement is good for playing peaceful games.

 

[The_Black_Vegetable]

T229 science victory, but perhaps Korea on a salt start (not that many salt nodes though) with even an observatory capital deserved a bit more.

In the openings thread, I announced that I wanted to go beyond the five cities I had at the time (three of my own plus the Iroquois and Brazilian capitals), and indeed I expanded further. I settled a single city on the coast (which never became really good without cargo ship support), and in the Renaissance I went after Stockholm too. I forged that plan when I saw he was making Petra, and it was reinforced when he followed it up with Chichen Itza (I wanted the wonder for myself, but my cities never had time to build it).

I built a few Hwach'as, bought two more, upgraded my archers to crossbows and embarked the army. I captured it around turn 170, but I'm not sure it was worth the investment (I did not really need Chichen in the end). Since I then had an army (including one Keshik from Almaty), I kept going north into India, although capturing Delhi around turn 200 did not really help my game.

Due to the mediocrity of my game, I lost interest a little towards the end, and it reflected in the quality of my end game play. Typically, I judge a game by how early you can get all the science to research all the necessary techs. Then, it is 'a matter of technique' to ensure you have enough culture (to finish rationalism and purchase space ship parts) and gold to buy the parts. Culture was not a problem, but my gold had been poor all game long, and I needed almost 10 turns to get enough gold to buy all the parts. I could have sold some buildings to bring my victory down a turn, but I don't like spoiling the cities I have spent the whole game building up - I typically only do so in a game where I feel the finish time is very good.

Having finished the game, I'm still not sure what the best setup for the game is. There is room to found a significant number of cities, and though many spots are decent, none are really amazing, so it would be hard to find the happiness for a setup with 6 or 7 cities. In addition, I don't know whether conquering your neighbours was a good idea here. I could do so here with only a small investment - but early game investments are still pretty costly.

 

[lerrocco]

SV283
Such an easy game, the trick is the timing, to get a quicker victory.

Also, am I limiting myself with only 4 cities?

Early war to take Onondaga, then turtle to win. Attila was a constant threat in the sense he was desperate for a war but was impotent.

In this game I did, admittedly, take the easy route of no clicks, I could have beaten Atilla, even taken all his cities, but chose to improve my defence with 1000 gps of Landsknechts. I could have won earlier with a land war, but after last month's clickfest, I didnt have the energy.

Freedom Ideology. Quick game for me, 2 sessions.

 

[Megalou]

SV turn 247
I went with Order but I think for the last time. The setup with engineers and sceintists combined is a bit too complicated and requires a mathematical accuracy that I am not prepared to seek. Sure, the science factories are powerful but they come at a time when the game quickly approach the end: Build three factories straight away at full production cost or wait for the Modern age to get full value for the tenet? The solution is probably to buy three factories straight away when Industialism+coal comes in, but in this game I didn't have enough money for that. Fun game though, lots of things happening when you're on a pangea.

 

[Axolaan]

I won a science victory on turn 248.

I hadn't played a gotm to completion in a while, so I was pretty rusty after playing a lot of Lekmod. I first settled Jeonju and Busan, and settled Daegu after my national college. My strategy was supposed to be that I would go for a quick national college, into settling two coastal cities and taking Rio. I quickly realized however that I didn't have the happiness for it: I hadn't met any of the AI's on the eastern peninsula, and the relative lack of luxuries near me meant that I had to build happiness wonders like Chichen Itza and Notre Dame.

Other than a brief attack by Attila, my game was peaceful. I played the rest of the game as a standard 4 city tradition science game, and due to Korea being busted I ended up getting a sub-t250 science victory. For future science victories I would like to take some of the AI's cities: I'm always afraid that such a war will slow down my game, but the best times are usually achieved by people who do this.

Policies: Tradition 5, Piety 1 (Organized Religion), Rationalism 5, Order 6

 

[Megalou]

due to Korea being busted

Not sure what you mean here.

 

[Axolaan]

Not sure what you mean here.

I meant that they are overpowered, with most civs I would have never gotten a science victory before turn 250.

 

[Megalou]

I meant that they are overpowered, with most civs I would have never gotten a science victory before turn 250.

Ok, thanks. Nice write-up btw!

 

[raider980]

SV T297. I started out warlike but ended up peaceful. Atilla did attack but I fought him off easily since he was in the heart of my empire surrounded by Korean troops. Then the Korean army took the fight to Atilla. We captured his closest city and kept it since it had Copper. Then razed his other expo leaving him with only his capital; that should neuter him for the rest of the game.

The UA was definitely useful; the best in the game and the reason I was able to finish before T300. Didn't build a single UU though; with Korea you don't need them though. After the war with Atilla, I built a few more cities on the coast down south since Pedro didn't seem interested in them. They were very good locations and allowed sea trade routes. Ended up with six self-founded cities plus Ystad taken from Atilla. Went with the Freedom Ideology since its the best for SV and was able to launch without competition on T297. A nice, smooth, fun game.

Spoiler Launch! :

 

[sebtanic]

Won turn 250.

4 city tradition. Settled Lake Victoria just in time before a Brazilian settler arrived there, fortunately there was a barb camp in its way and I put my warrior next to the camp to block the settler.

Then Jeonju on the river to the north, with Truffles, and after NC I put a harbor city (Daegu) on the south coast near the Pearls. Wanted to put it a bit further north next to the mountain initially, but Iroquois settled Grand River there and it would have been boxed in and without a lux. The souther spot is much better for production I think.

Stole workers/settlers one each from 4 of my neighbours (Brazil, Shoshone, Attila, Siam), but never conquered any cities and played peacefully afterwards. Got some gold from the peace deals, but not much (like 1 gpt or so, they wouldn't agree to more than that).

Rest was standard science play. Beelined the science techs, and popped all the GSs except the first one which founded an Academy since we have a unique bonus as Korea. Got Freedom, and bought all spaceship parts with gold.

One thing I did differently this time was that I used the Rationalism finisher for Plastics.

Timing the GSs worked well this time, but near the end of the game I lacked gold to buy the last space ship parts. I sold 2 Hospitals for 90g each to have enough gold to buy the last part t249, and launch t250.

I got a pretty useless GE shortly before the end. If I had paid more attention to specialists I could have got a GM instead and finished the spaceship a few turns earlier probably. I used the GE for Neuschwanstein since it gave me a few extra gpt.

 

[glory7]

SV T226.

Haven't played SV till the end for a while, so my end game was a bit rusty.

Maybe I should have taken some cities or built 1 more.

 

[sebtanic]

SV T226.

Haven't played SV till the end for a while, so my end game was a bit rusty.

Maybe I should have taken some cities or built 1 more.

View attachment 755481

Wow, almost the exact same city spots as me, except you settled Jeonju and Daegu in a different order. I wonder what you did different!

I sent food caravans to my capital during the whole game from the three other cities. Did you send them to the expos instead? I guess since they are smaller, they'll grow quicker.

 

[glory7]

Wow, almost the exact same city spots as me, except you settled Jeonju and Daegu in a different order. I wonder what you did different!

I sent food caravans to my capital during the whole game from the three other cities. Did you send them to the expos instead? I guess since they are smaller, they'll grow quicker.

I just realized that our citi spots are the same! I think 3rd and 4th city order was different due to bard camp (had to clear north first to settle).

I sent 3 food caravans to capital too. When I had more than 3, I started sending some to expos too.

 

[The_Black_Vegetable]

I wanted to try the map again, since I felt the Korean nation deserved a better game than my first effort. However, I played the early game a few times, but I never really got the quick start I was hoping for. Also, I'm still not sure what the best approach is, because to me the city locations are not obvious. The capital and the Lake Victoria settles are obvious and are good cities, but I felt there were no other really good locations early on. A city on the river north might be possible, and perhaps also something towards the west mountains, or even beyond, to the deserts near Atilla for a Petra attempt. Coastal cities are also possible, but without cargo support from the capital they are slow. Also, because of all the rough terrain and barb camps in the way, they are slow to settle.

In the game I played through, I went for just the capital and the Lake Victoria settle initially. The capital then built Great Library, Busan built Temple of Artemis. After NC I settled the two coastals down south, but those cities were slow to get going as I did not get any workers down there quickly enough. I did end up capturing Rio, and, as an afterthought, also Onandago. Seeing that I was not going to trouble the 200-barrier in this game either, I lost interest in the end a little again, but still I managed to shave off some turns for a T217 victory.

One strange thing; throughout the game I had been warring the AI and then making peace for a favourable deal. However, towards the end of the game, none of the AI would give me anything for a peace deal anymore. I had noticed this in previous game with specific circumstances: 1) they lost their capital, or 2) they still had more army than me, or 3) they only had one city left. None of that applied, however, so perhaps the AI had reached a threshold of being annoyed at my treachery.

 

[Megalou]

However, towards the end of the game, none of the AI would give me anything for a peace deal anymore. I had noticed this in previous game with specific circumstances: 1) they lost their capital, or 2) they still had more army than me, or 3) they only had one city left. None of that applied, however, so perhaps the AI had reached a threshold of being annoyed at my treachery.

You know how the AI will only give you 3 gpt for luxuries once they have reached a level of dislike that amounts to “ neutral minus”. I’ve always imagined that if the AI are positive “ underneath” the war situation, they will give you plenty for peace. If they were hostile already when you DOWed them, won’t they give you the finger in a peace deal just as in a peacetime trade deal?

 

[The_Black_Vegetable]

If they were hostile already when you DOWed them, won’t they give you the finger in a peace deal just as in a peacetime trade deal?

Perhaps that was just it. I am familiar with the mechanic of course; in the early game, it can be really powerful to trade a spare luxury for 240 gold when making peace after a worker-steal war, and I did notice that later on, they would gve me a lot less. For them to offer me nothing at all is a new experience though. I should note that they would give something in a peace deal, but only if I also offered them something in return (like a spare luxury, or a city from another AI that I had just razed).

 

[zxcvbob]

Science victory on turn 299. The civsave file is on my other computer (the one where it's hard to do screenshots) so I will have to edit this and add it later. I've played it several more times, and my number of turns gets worse every time. Attila is a major pain; even when he's not much of a threat he settles a city near my borders just so he can steal my land with great generals. Of course I'm then obligated to declare war as soon as it's convenient and kill him, which is quite a distraction from what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm always limited by happiness until the Modern era, even with pagodas everywhere and building Chichen Itza and Notre Dame (which I don't always get both of them)

Four cities, Tradition, Freedom.

ETA: (looks like the first play though, I didn't have to kill Attila, just fought him off once or twice)