TSG105 After Action

[Fluphen Azine]

- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?

I thought it was going to be very peaceful and a lot of RAs and that it would be a race to build the Shuttle. I did think about trying for some war but I would have to wait to see if the map and neighbors cried for some war or not.

- Did you spend much time doing reconnaissance before settling?

Not really... in my mind it was pretty clear that you have to take the Mountain for OCC.

- Where did you settle and what did you build first?

Next to the mountain... Scout First.

- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?

The terrain was easy enough to get on with some war but I decided to play peaceful instead since only one Civ was close by but did not try to expand aggressively next to me. OCC kinda makes you play a specific way. You pretty much get handcuffed for peaceful play and RAing it up!

- What were your initial priorities?

I wanted to try for TOA/HG but I decided on only the HG. I also tried to prioritize getting a Religion!

- What tech path did you follow and why?

Basic Tech Path to be able to get the HG, Oracle, NC, and HS.

- What Social Policies did you choose and why?

This game requires Full Tradition and Full Rationalism. I had too much culture too fast so I wasted two Policies before Rationalism. Better players will be able to transition from Tradition into Rationalism with better timing than I did.

- Has it been peaceful? Did anyone start a war?

I never got into a war but I did bribe some wars like Persia with Morocco and Portugal with The Netherlands but for the most part it was a very peaceful game.

- Did you use Faith to gain an advantage? If so, how?

I did get a Religion and used it to get extra faith from Wonders,Growth and Gold.


Write Up: The game was pretty straightforward and simple. However I was behind Portugal most of the time in tech. Portugal could of blasted off before me since they finished the Tech Tree before myself but The AI seems to like to try for CV and let the player have ample time to win. My win came on Turn 320 and it was a little tense but I think Portugal only completed 4 out of 6 Parts but I was worried that they would blast off before myself.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 105
Date submitted: 2015-03-20 13:04:09
Reference number: 32454
Your name: Fluphen Azine
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1900AD
Turns played: 320
Base score: 922
Final score: 1440
Time played: 2:36:00


Screenshots

Spoiler :

 

[ssjos]

Hi everyone,

I lost to conquest rather late, would appriciate some tips on how to improve my late game diplo! How do you avoid getting DoW:ed???

Early game went ok, lost a wonder or two.
Mid game went great, several RA, took tech lead.
Once I got to chose ideology I took freedom (maybe mistake because my neighboors took order autocracy etc.) Was friend with 4-5 AI and neutral with rest. Venice was getting killed but I was still friend with him for RA.

Sometime when I enter information age most of my previous allies denounce me and are guarded/hostile. Got a double DoW from distant AI that didnt sent units.

Finally, when I finished spaceship factory, I got double DoW from my neighbour marroco and washington. Had decent tech lead at this time but he sent swarm of units.

I held out perhaps 50 turrns, killing some 50 units finally died. I had 5 rocket artillery 2 infantry and 2 bazooka at start of war. Lost science lead and focused all production on units throughout wartime.

How do I prevent getting DoWed in late game? (information age+)

 

[sebtanic]

Take the same ideology as your friends have. I took order because my allies had it, it kind of sucked and I couldn't buy any spaceship parts but at least I had 5 stable allies throughout the end of the game.

There were lots of wars on the east side of the continent but they didn't affect me.

 

[Khalid]

I think the most important think in the late game is the ideology choice. If you are the first to choose then it's a bit problematic, as the other AIs will choose different idelogies.

My observation is that the AI always goes for a free ideology (not chosen by anyone before to get 2free tenets) and then chooses based on it's preferences and maybe strategy.

In this case there were civs, who like freedom and I wanted to get freedom as well. I knew I would sometime in the future change ideology to the majority one, so I wanted that ideology to be freedom. Therefore I chose Order first and spend only 3 tenets in there for the science from factory boost.

Portugal got autocracy, Morocco freedom. Then Venice,Ethiopia, Persia freedom, America, Netherlands Order. I waited some turns to renew RAs for the last time with America and Netherlands and switched to Freedom. Managed to get frindly with Ethiopia and Persia for that as they didn't want to be friends before.

Washington got wiped out by Portugal+Persia+Morocco.

The only threat in the end was Portugal, who denounced me and said that they have nuclear weapons to back their words, but I managed to bribe a war between her and the freedom coalition (of course without me). I gave both sides open borders, so they could cross my teritory and kill their units there as a Great performance for me

 

[Manpanzee]

This was a fun map. OCC + science means not much to manage, which means a very quick playthrough.

I had quite a strong game. Could've actually won a few turns faster, even... I forgot that with only one city my endgame would be constrained by the ability to buy only one part per turn. Anyway, I guess I was lucky to get all the wonders I tried for -- Temple of Artemis, Hanging Gardens, Oracle, Hagia Sophia, Leaning Tower of Pisa, Porcelain Tower, Statue of Liberty, Cristo Redentor, Big Ben, Neuchwanstein, Hubble. I got 3 Great Engineers (one faith bought, two naturally spawned), which were used for SoL, Cristo, and Hubble.

I mostly did the same thing as everyone else -- settled in the obvious spot, took Tradition and Rationalism, spammed Research Agreements, etc. I also took Scholasticism in Patronage, but I didn't pick it up until after finishing Rationalism, and it didn't feel like it had a huge effect. OCC is very different -- it's really "all about those Research Agreements", and fortunately I was able to sign a ton. Another difference I see with OCC is how to use Scientists. Normally I mmmaybe plant one Academy, and then probably bulb a couple times around key techs before the endgame push. With OCC you want to plant more, and I saved all non-planted for the endgame. But "more" planted in this case merely meant two Academies instead of one. I deliberated a while on planting the third and am not sure whether it would have been right or not.

Other differences I noticed playing OCC: I didn't propose World's Fair first congress, since I assumed I couldn't win. I went with Cultural Heritage Sites, which passed (very nice). World's Fair happened anyway and I was actually able to get to Silver with a turn to spare. I also used Oxford VERY late (for Nanotechnology), since I knew my Scientist bulbs would be weak and I needed to make up for that somehow.

Reading through the Opening Actions thread, the big difference I see is scouting. I built four Scouts before anything else, and thus was able to meet all AIs and City-States quickly. I also found a lot of ruins, which was nice. All the Scouts let me get a free pantheon -- I took God-King, which I think made a big difference for the early wonder rush.

 

[MiDEvIL]

I haven't done a GOTM in years, but I saw a post on facebook promoting it and decided to try this one, quite a challenge for me. I made some poor early game decisions but managed to survive several wars thanks to a defensive pact with Morocco (thank you Morocco, for nuking Lisbon for me.). However, I realized at around turn 270 or so that I was hopelessly behind in Science when Washington built the Apollo Program and rather than face certain defeat I went for a different VC.

My first Deity victory so I don't feel too bad, even though the goal was Science.
That said it was fun and I learned a lot from this thread about strategy.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 105
Date submitted: 2015-03-27 17:58:56
Reference number: 32498
Your name: MiDEviL
Game status: Diplomacy Wrong VC
Game date: 1918AD
Turns played: 338
Base score: 743
Final score: 1108
Time played: 6:51:00

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

Welcome back, MiDEvIL. Congrats on the 1st deity victory and, imo, bigger congrats on having a Defensive Pact actually yield anything, haha. Well done!

Stick around, we do two of these a month and there are plenty of older GotMs to play and even discuss in those threads (but not submit as the deadlines expired).

Thanks
HR

 

[Ozymandias9891]

I retired just before turn 200. I knew I was going nowhere in this game by that point...

 

[bc1]

Barely managed to eeke below T250, even though started out quite good: got writing in early ruin -> chopped great library, then got artemis, and hanging gardens. Maybe my order choice was inferior to freedom: smaller pop vs +25% factory science; rushed 4 space parts with great enginneers, rushing with cash would have freed faith for 3 great scientists instead... Also my choice of god king pantheon instead of fertility was kinda weird

Spoiler :

Game: Civ5 GOTM 105
Date submitted: 2015-04-02 03:21:44
Reference number: 32524
Your name: bc1
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1685AD
Turns played: 247
Base score: 993
Final score: 2026
Time played: 9:56:00

 

[Mesix]

I decided to try another old GOTM. This one really dragged out because the peaceful OCC makes my turns short, but the deity AI players take time to process turns. About half way though I turned on quick combat/movement so that I wouldn't have to watch the animations during AI turns. Here is my OCC empire on the turn 268 when I launched my ship:

Spoiler :

I was able to get quite a few wonders, most of them in the post Industrial Eras once I pulled ahead of the AI, but also a few earlier wonders which was surprising. I managed to build:

The Oracle
Borobudur
Porcelain Tower
Big Ben
Neuschwanstein
Statue of Liberty
Cristo Redentor
Pentagon
CN Tower
Hubble Space Telescope

Spoiler :

For policies, I went full Tradition, started Patronage, started Commerce, full Rationalism, finished Patronage, finished Commerce. I went for Freedom as an Ideology.

Spoiler :

- Did you use your War Elephant?
No, I only built a few early units (2x scouts, some archers, and a spearman). The rest of my army was gifted from the military CS allies. I was actually deleting units for much of the game so that I could stay below my maximum force limit.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?
I was able to steal 3 techs IIRC. Once I got into the Industrial Era, I pulled ahead of the AI players in tech.

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
Pangaea makes it easier to explore and meet all the AI players. The mountains in the middle slowed exploration a bit until I could get open borders and/or sail around.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
Yes. Because it was deity, the AI players were more advanced and had better military forces. I used 3 rounds of research agreements because the AI had a good amount of research and also the OCC limited the number of GS I could generate. Spying was also more useful than on lower difficulty settings.

- Was Faith helpful to achieve victory? How?
Yes. My pantheon helped with early culture generation and my religious beliefs helped growth. I was also able to buy 3x GS and 2x GE with faith in the late game.

Spoiler :

- Did you utilize your Mughal Fort? How?
I built it (or probably bought it since I was swimming in gold most of the game). Not sure that it helped with much of anything.

- Were the 20 City-States helpful or useless?
The CS were very useful. I opened Patronage after finishing Tradition and eventually completed the full Patronage tree. I was allied to most of the CS for much of the game which helped with culture, happiness, faith, and gifted units. I was even gifted three great people (GE, GM, and a late GS which shaved a few turns off the end game).

 

[zxcvbob]

I just quit at turn 275. About 20 turns ago, Washington and Maria backstabbed me, breaking research agreements and declaring war. At the time, I was the tech leader, but just barely. I've been holding off Washington's attacks, but if I kill 3 of his units for every one of mine that dies, he wins the war of attrition. Meanwhile both he and Darius have out-teched me.

I'm spending all my gold just trying to hang onto a CS ally that has oil for my bombers. My good friend Darius keeps buying them up. So I won't have enough gold to buy spaceship parts if I ever got that far.

I should have known it was hopeless 200-something turns ago when I got beat building ToA and then a few turns later someone finished HG. Can't win w/o one of those. Delhi has been on food focus and I've had a maritime CS ally for most of the game, and it still has only 25 pop, smaller than any AI capital and smaller than most of their expos.

 

[Mesix]

I didn't have Hanging Gardens or Temple of Artemis. The Oracle is the only Classical Era wonder I nabbed in my game. I had a peaceful game with 4x civs signing multiple research agreements. Deity OCC is the situation where research agreements really shine. I think between the 4x civs I had 9-10 RA throughout the game...most of them with Porcelain Tower and Rationalism bonuses.

 

[stormtrooper412]

I'm gonna give this another shot, I played and won a DiploV because I didn't see the designated VC, derp

 

[zxcvbob]

I didn't have Hanging Gardens or Temple of Artemis. The Oracle is the only Classical Era wonder I nabbed in my game. I had a peaceful game with 4x civs signing multiple research agreements. Deity OCC is the situation where research agreements really shine. I think between the 4x civs I had 9-10 RA throughout the game...most of them with Porcelain Tower and Rationalism bonuses.

I had Porcelain Tower and full Rationalism, and a peaceful game with continuous research agreements with everybody -- until Washington and Maria sucker punched me. I still couldn't stay ahead in science. I think my problem was population. How did you grow Delhi? You didn't cut down all those jungle tiles did you (to build farms?) I had trading post on all of 'em. Maybe I should have put plantations on the bananas. (I think there were 2 banana tiles)

 

[Mesix]

The most important thing in OCC is to get full Tradition as soon as possible to maximize the growth bonuses. I also went for Freedom Ideology for Civil Society (specialists consume 1/2 food).

My religion included Feed the World (like having an extra Granary) and Swords to Plowshares (+15% growth).

Scout early and find as many CS as possible. Send teams of 1 melee and 1 ranged unit to hunt barbarians and fulfill quests for CS. Don't underestimate the power of CS for both food bonuses and culture bonuses. Early on, getting 1-2 cultural CS can double or even triple your culture per turn (making Tradition finisher faster and opening new policies sooner). Return CS workers captured by barbarians and keep any workers/settlers from AI civs captured by barbarians. In this OCC game I only had 2 workers, and I didn't build either of them. Once I improved all the tiles near my city, I deleted one of the workers to raise my unit cap and kept one around to imrpove distant tiles and fix improvements in case they were pillaged.

As far as jungles go, I also built trading posts on all of the standard jungle tiles. The jungles which had bananas and gems I left unimporved to get the maximum benefit from the University jungle bonus.