TSG106 After Actions

[Hammer Rabbi]

Welcome to the TSG106 After Action Report. In this thread you can post the results of your game. Please state victory date and score (preferably in the post title), as recorded in the Hall of Fame, and the most important: your path to glory!

STOP - Please do not continue reading this thread until you have completed and submitted your game.

Please use the Civ5 game submission page to submit your final, first play through, .Civ5Save file, saved AFTER the victory ceremony if you were not conquered (using the "Lemme play one more turn" feature.).

- How did your strategic response to the map work out?
- Describe any significant cultural benchmarks. Policies, Wonders, Wars, etc.
- In hindsight how would you have played it differently (if at all) for a faster finish?
- Did the map delay expectations on the game?

Players are encouraged to provide feedback on the game. Some players like to replay the game, and although we will not record the results from a replay, you can still post your new experiences (please state if the game is a replay). Please refrain from posting videos until the deadline for submission is over.

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

My apologies on the delay in posting these. Hope you didnt forget too many details from when it was fresh in your mind.

HR

 

[Haphaz]

T297 Culture Victory

I wasn't going for a quick Sacred Sites victory, so it didn't affect me too much - I was already going for research and playing for a longer Eiffel / Hotel push. Was a surprise though - with raging barbs and previous experience of 8-civ culture games I built a small military early on. (I have flashbacks to a previous GOTM where I tried the Sacred Sites victory tactic and got stomped on when I hadn't built a military).

I could have gone sacred sites when I knew I was safe, but otherwise I was enjoying building my little civ. I didn't fancy micromanaging a huge war to take down the rampaging Ottomans and their culture.

Execution:
Settle in place after umming about resources.
Built Scout and Archer for defence against barbs.
Settled second city in the northern desert, rushed liberty for Petra - that city built many wonders.
Focused on population and guilds in the capital.
Went for optics early - managed to overhaul most of the civs' culture easily.
No wars - just relentless great works and tourism.

Peaceful game, thanks! Wasn't what I was expecting from recent GOTM experience.

 

[Khalid]

T275 culture victory.

My game continued to be quite slow as the result of the beginning phase. I beelined education and then astronomy, archealogy.

Rome was wonder spamming. Another wonder spammer was Bismarck. He and Ottomans were building culture as well. So I built some Frigates + some units from city states and attacked Bismarck first. Before wiping him out signed open borders with everyone, before that I didn't trade embasies, so nobody knew, where I was.

Wiped Bismarck, then DoWed Ottomans and wiped them out easily as well. The third culture leader was Hiawatha, but he got muskets and it was more or less the same time to run culture over him.

Went autocracy for the +250 tourism. Found out that it doesn't apply to the ones I get from wonders/policies. So I got 750 tourism from 1 born and 2 faith purchased musicians.

At the end my open borders expired 2 turns before I finished. I sold 1 Ottoman city, 3luxes, 10 strategics and 200gpt to Hiawatha to open borders and bomb him with 2 last musicians to finish. I didn't know that the tourism value of musicians is fixed at their birth. I saved them, but the early ones were only for 140 tourism.

Tradition full, Aestetics full, Exploration full, Autocracy 3, Patronage for the +20 resting point. Allied almost all of them.

Spoiler :

Game: Civ5 GOTM 106
Date submitted: 2015-03-18 04:14:41
Reference number: 32444
Your name: khalid
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1810AD
Turns played: 275
Base score: 1818
Final score: 3305
Time played: 5:02:00

 

[golem]

Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1840AD
Turns played: 290
Base score: 1556
Final score: 2682
Time played: 3:56:00

I went Sacred sites and peacefully build cities on my continent. After Astronomy I found out that there is no chance to win without war, so with five frigates I conquered Germans, next Rome and in the end several Ottomans cities.

 

[Stellarnight]

T330 Win.

God you guys are good

Would like some tips and hints.

I started off and finished with liberty because i thought i could expand rapidly. Turned out i just turtled on my island. Raging Barbs did prevent me from settling my second city too quickly. Only managed to settle around turn 80 mark. Got Petra for Antium though. I turned it into a science city.

In the end i only have 3 cities. Completed Liberty, Patronage, Exploration and most of Freedom. Should i have gone rationalism instead of freedom so early or skip exploration? I didn't manage to fill up The Lourve anyway.

I finished with 200 Tourism. Was that a good number?

I played a peaceful game as well. Germany had the highest cultural defense. Should i have gone aggressive against him?

 

[Mandaliet]

This is my first time playing one of these. I thought I did a good job but everyone else so far was much better. Oh well.

My details:
Game: Civ5 GOTM 106
Date submitted: 2015-03-21 16:12:50
Reference number: 32462
Your name: Mandaliet
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1973AD
Turns played: 393
Base score: 1502
Final score: 1925
Time played: 5:02:00 (I spent an hour or two tabbed away from the game. I'm not sure if that's included in this number.)

I generally avoid war and that turned out to be very useful on this map where I had a continent to myself. I was going to beat up Ife and take their mountain but I realized that would be very difficult thanks to their difficult terrain, so I just allied with them and got a faith bonus that way.

The Roman bonus almost demands expansion, so my first policy was Liberty. Then I did Aesthetics and started on Exploration once I had some caravels. When I was done with those it was time for an ideology so I chose Order and quickly got to Dictatorship Of The Proletariat, helped along by my World's Fair victory (which I spent way too much production on). I had 5 cities for a while until I got Resettlement, when I built two more that weren't really necessary.

Being surrounded by salt helped with my religion (plus everyone wanted to trade with me once I found them). First I went for cathedrals because they would surely be taken up quickly, then I took the production bonus, which is my favorite, though I seem to be the only one to favor that, at least compared to the AI. I used Hagia Sophia to get the Great Prophet to enhance my religion because he wasn't showing up normally so I used that faith on cathedrals.

I was able to build most of the tourism-aiding wonders and I got the doubled bonuses for Sistine Chapel, Uffizi, and Notre Dame. I was surprised at how quickly my tourism took over everyone else's but that must be because I'm used to playing at a higher difficulty. The hardest civilization to out-tourism was the landlocked Iroquois, so I sent over some Great Prophets and Great Musicians and eventually they were wearing my blue jeans.

 

[leif erikson]

This is my first time playing one of these. I thought I did a good job but everyone else so far was much better. Oh well.

Welcome to GOTM.

Just keep playing and soon you will be keeping up with them. Best of luck.

 

[Mandaliet]

Welcome to GOTM.

Just keep playing and soon you will be keeping up with them. Best of luck.

Thanks!

 

[Yarin]

For the first time in my life I tried a fast SS after I found Sinai. Managed to settle it before Ife. With faith from Ife and Sinai I found religion really quickly ... only to find I'm on a closed island. Made trireme to make sure I'll be unable to reach any other civilization, but my many-city-monster was lagging heavily in science by that time.

Finally contacted Germany on turn 205 or so He was already a runaway civ alliyng cultural CS like mad. Finally managed to get influential over him by flooding him with GMs some 2 turns before I destroyed Persia who was the other runaway in this game.

Had well over 100 fpt from the early stages of the game which resulted in 10 or so prophets after I filled the whole island with cities with pagodas/mosques
Full liberty, piety and aestethics. 2 rationalism and 5 autocracy.

 

[TrailblazingScot]

Conquest victory in 1890AD (I think). Edit: Ah, I was supposed to play for a cultural victory. Oh well!

Rushed through the game whilst watching House of Cards.

I settled in place, quickly discovered Mt. Sinai and that I was isolated. I quickly established a religion, Great Library and NC, but missed Hanging Gardens.

Once I eventually headed over to the other continent I decided that Frigates could allow me to quickly take out Berlin, Persepolis and Istanbul with the assistance of Privateers. I was relatively hesitant and shouldn't have been as I had quite the technology advantage.

When I got to Freedom the Foreign Legion allowed me to take the inland capitals...but, once again I could have avoided unnecessary delays, but it was fun to take out most of Greece and wipe out the Iroquois.

GG.

 

[ssjos]

Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1470AD
Turns played: 207

Turn 207 culture victory. Started out for sacred sites but as I reliazed I was alone I stopped expansion and invested in science instead. Fast SH, GL NC, If i remember correctly I also got HS.

Anyway, once scinece was under way I settled many cities. Most things went pretty well. Some trouble once I tried to settle on other continent for trade routes since two enemy civs DoWed me and wiped out an outpost each.

Ended with Freedom GM and 1 or 2 GM spawned from acoustics. No AI eliminated.

 

[strake]

Turn 301 Victory

Spent a long time just before my first social policy going back and forth about whether I was going tradition, liberty, or piety. At the time, the barbarians had blocked my scout, so I didn't yet know I was on an island by myself. I eventually decided to go Tradition, and see if I could do a mostly peaceful archeology/hotels approach. Which worked out fine, but a little slow.

Went for GL-NC and then pushed out 3 settlers, and planted 3 coastal cities dividing up the island. Did a Petra in the southern desert - mostly avoided the northern desert. And settled in for a nice building game.

My mid-game needs work. I felt like I was all over the place, and building wonders I probably didn't need, or being slow to push great works and culture buildings. I really don't have a feel for the balance between pushing science for the race to Archeology and then Hotels vs the culture buildings so you can get all the policies and have places to put great works.

Eventually it all fell into place and I had everyone but the culture runaway Greece by turn 275 or so. But even he fell when the hotels started getting built. I used the trick of selling him one of my cities at the end in order to save 12 turns of traveling my final great musician. And so just missed my goal of winning by turn 300.

 

[CatGarfield]

Oh dear, around t220 I realized I've pretty much forgotten how to play the game . I invested too little on religion (and therefore future tourism), too much on science and my city placement was a bit questionable. Very sloppy play and my overall strategy was way off what it should have been. In the end I had way too much culture and no reasonable SPs to take. My World Congress decisions were bad. And in the end game I forgot I was able to buy great musicians to bomb the Germans, who were the cultural leaders of the AI. My last great musician didn't make it Germany in time, plus I had enough faith to buy another one. The last 20 turns I just waited for my tourism to catch up the cultures of Russia and Germany, while I could have overtaken them both with the musicians. Oh, well .

Plus I could have taken them out militarily, but I was too lazy to continue the war with Germany after taking Berlin (multiple wonders I had ignored) and Hamburg with artillery and some great war infantry, and I didn't want to sail all the way to Russia and her Great Wall. Germany and Russia were by far the strongest AI, the others were weak and very friendly towards me.

I built the HG around t240 in Neapolis on the southern peninsula, since no-one else had taken Tradition. Weird.

 

[Kendon]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 106
Your name: Kendon
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1956AD
Turns played: 376
Base score: 1626
Final score: 2168
Time played: 11:16:00
Submitted save: Augustus Caesar_0376 AD-1956.Civ5Save

Once I realized I'd be alone til Astronomy, to save money I stopped building army, concentrating on growth, religion and picking the best culture policies from various trees. The caravels met everybody fast and I had two neighbours, Germany and the Iroquois, available to share a religion. It was all very peaceful and, well, civilized.

If I'd gotten ready right then to attack the leaders I would have had a faster finish. Everyone was attacking everyone else. As it turned out Alexander became a universal war target but even after I finished him off by liberating two Persian cities I ended up being denounced, called bloodthirsty and generally having my long struggle to be nice ignored.

Half the turns were used building before I met any other civ. I had four big cities, three using jungle for science. It might have been better founding more cities for more pagodas and Rome's 25% building advantage.

The good news is that influence developed evenly, with great musicians touring the high culture countries. From first contact to the end there were almost continuous trade routes and open borders.

I should have gone for the Printing Press as soon as possible. For some unknown reason I hesitated and that meant victory arrived before the big bonuses from International Games really got used.

 

[R.G.A.M.]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 106
Date submitted: 2015-03-26 01:14:28
Reference number: 32490
Your name: R.G.A.M.
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1987AD
Turns played: 407
Base score: 1777
Final score: 2193
Time played: 5:56:00

I have tried a game with the same settings before to test how effective would be a warmonger culture victory. It was fun because I have been isolated in a continent, but able to find other civilizations before astronomy.

Later, I have started this game, and I find myself once more isolated. Now without being able to find someone else before astronomy.

I have decided to go in a peaceful way. Started with Stonehenge for fast religion (and even able to build GL). I have chosen Itinerant Preachers hoping my cities would affect other continent… and it worked! As soon as I have caravels, I have found that the nearest continent already have cities with my own religion.

With raging barbarians, I have decided to go first with honor (later full tradition and then full aesthetics). I have found only two camps, and they have never return to my continent after I destroyed them (both cases as missions for City States). Maybe I have wasted a policy.

The religion thing was pretty funny. Mine was the first religion, and later I have realized that Persia, Shoshoni, Russia and Greece have found the others. That means that I could spread my religion almost for free in the continent where Iroquois, Germans and Ottomans have placed.

I have chosen to stay like a good peaceful guy, powering my culture and tourism. Later, one of the ottoman cities have converted to my puppet. This is the first time I have stealed a city by culture, it was so fun!

In my case, Greece was the civilization with more culture (after me). I have bought with faith 3 great musicians after Olympic Games but… Greece decided to denounce me because I have proposed mine's religion as world religion.

I have bribed Russia to war against Greece (it was easy, because she have chosen Liberty after me). Some turns later, with my great musicians in place (3 each of them with more than 2500 power), I declared war to Greece only to spread my tourism.
After some turns, being Greece decided to propose peace, giving me a city. I didn't even need to fight with an army.

The game lasted after some turns, when I have gone to Internet. About two turns after that, I have won the game.

I find I need to learn a mix between army and culture for a warmonger fast cultural victory. But I have enjoyed a relaxed game without worrying about compete for land or religion.

P.S: My religion was the Khala.

 

[leif erikson]

Welcome to CivFanatics and GOTM.

Congrats on your first victory!

 

[StrideColossus]

I abandoned my attempt at somewhere around the turn 300 mark, I would have won but it have would meant either spending several hours clicking next until I converted the last civ or wiping them out totally. From the other posts it seems that wiping out the cultural leaders is the only approach if you want a quick-ish win?

Am wondering whether this mechanic should be changed: the total culture generated by a civ remains the same even if they are reduced to one crappy city in the ice. Seems a bit daft, perhaps the culture target should reduce if a civ loses a city? That way you can stymy a civ so that you become influential without having to wipe them out completely.

Thoughts?

 

[Sempronius]

The start threw me off, I had expected to have more barbarians and rivals nearby. I decided to stay peaceful and turtled up on the island, which worked well overall except for Germany. I really should have wiped him out early, but I wanted to try being peaceful. I had cultural dominance over everyone except Bismark and I was only at 70% with him by the 450 turn mark, so at the next vote for world leader I went ahead and won it as a diplomatic victory.

 

[R.G.A.M.]

so at the next vote for world leader I went ahead and won it as a diplomatic victory

Are you breaking some GOTM rule if you don't use all your votes to avoid diplomatic victory?