TSG116 After Actions

[Hammer Rabbi]

Welcome to the TSG116 After Actions 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.).

- Describe any spying results: stolen techs, coups, or diplomacy.
- Did England's unique traits ultimately play any role or advantage?
- Did you meet your benchmarks? Better or worse?

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.

 

[jshelr]

Hey, thanks for the game setup. Going to come in around 1900 Not sure what went wrong and might even play it again.

 

[Billick]

Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1970AD
Turns played: 390
Base score: 1669
Final score: 2139
Time played: 5:28:00

This was my first crack at a GotM. This was also my first time playing as England ever.


- Describe any spying results: stolen techs, coups, or diplomacy.
I stole a couple of techs on the bottom of the tree while I was focusing on the top.

- Did England's unique traits ultimately play any role or advantage?
Japan declared war on me as my longbowmen were coming out, so I rolled them. I then took Spain so I had the whole continent. I didn't use ships of the line at all, which was probably a big mistake. Sight bonus helped with exploration a bit, and of course the extra spy helped with stealing techs.

- Did you meet your benchmarks? Better or worse?
I didn't really have a benchmark in mind other than winning the game. I'm sure I'll be at or near the bottom of the table, but I had fun. I'm interested in seeing what strats people used. If I have time, I might replay this game for practice. Thanks for setting up the game!

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

This was my first crack at a GotM. This was also my first time playing as England ever.

Thanks for checking out CFC and GotM! Glad you had fun and good luck in the next one.

HR

 

[Huston]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 116
Date submitted: 2015-08-17 02:36:54
Your name: Huston
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1919AD
Turns played: 339
Base score: 1403
Final score: 2094
Time played: 3:51:00

I didn't finish as early as I was originally expecting. Not sure how. Always takes time to get to particle physics after getting all the other spaceship part techs. While I never submitted, because I played after the submission date, the Immortal Korea I was before the 1900s I believe, or maybe around the same time...

It was a fun map, maybe I should have moved London instead of settling on spot. When I found Carthage, they only found their capital, and Poland was on two cities. Not sure what was going on, but Poland then started to grow a lot and when Carthage finally planted their second city, in about 1850, Poland attacked and took both the cities. The AI just didn't seem that good and was not much help, despite constant RAs

 

[Wild_Woojsha]

Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1928AD
Turns played: 348
Base score: 1497
Final score: 2169

Took way longer than I was expecting, I followed the normal path and only built 4 cities. I was gonna get a screenshot, but it wouldn't print screen right and I didn't feel like trying to fix it. I tried order for the first time, and that was a mistake. Freedom is always the way to go for science games, would have won this 20 turns earlier if I had. I did not have enough Great Engineers to pull this off. I didn't participate in a single war, which also is probably why it took so long. But oh well, I still got it done and done right. I used my spies to ally every city state since I had a massive tech lead, and used none of england's traits to win.

 

[StrideColossus]

Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1939AD
Turns played: 359
Base score: 1657
Final score: 2333

Fun game, should have been much earlier but the temptation to go offensive with England is just too tempting. Spent most of the mid-game in wars with Germany and Poland who were picking on our mate Dido (who got severely shafted with an inland start!)

Also chose Order for a change which proved to be a poor choice, I managed to generate a couple of GE's and faith-bought more but I think Freedom would have been a much better choice.

- Describe any spying results: stolen techs, coups, or diplomacy.

Managed to get all but one spy fully promoted by planting them in our capital to catch enemy agents, then farmed them out for CS election rigging.

- Did England's unique traits ultimately play any role or advantage?

Not directly.

- Did you meet your benchmarks? Better or worse?

I thought this might be hard since at Prince level it's tricky to get RAs so you're pretty much on your own in that respect. Maybe I should have focused more on tactical war-mongering to get good scientific/production capitals rather than just randomly attaching whoever picked on Carthage

 

[Wild_Woojsha]

I was feeling bad about my time, but I think this may be standard for this map. I bet I could have gotten below turn 300 if I had expanded early instead of waiting until turn 85 to build my last 3 cities. Choosing Freedom would have taken care of 20 wasted turns at the end of the game, and maybe even warmongering a few wonder filled capitals might have let me charge through the final few techs even faster with more total overall population. But oh well, at least I am not the only one who took 350ish turns to do this.

 

[Coilean]

Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1826AD
Turns played: 283
Base score: 1571
Final score: 2805
Time played: 9:53:00

Spoiler :

Was hoping to go sub t250, but didn't even come close. Started off with scout/worker/granary/shrine/settler/settler before finishing GL/HG/NC, then built 2 more cities, as happiness permitted. Didn't make any use of UU/UA (although I guess the extra spy was probably worth an extra CS ally, throughout the game).

Went for the standard Tradition/Ratio/Freedom, with a little commerce/exploration for Maritime Infrastructure and Mercantilism. Never bothered making any RA with the AI's, maybe could have shaved a few turns off that way, although my feeling is the Prince AI is too pathetic at science to make them worth the cost.

I Planted the first GS, used 3 to bulb plastics, 3 more for Satellites (this was probably premature, I didn't wind up needing the extra production time, and missed out on ISS anyway), saved the last 4 to bulb Mobile Tactics; Rationalism finished Nanotech, Oxford finished Particle Physics. Maybe could have shaved off 10-15 more turns, if I had gotten the timing right for Satellites with my WC vote.

 

[Sclb]

Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1818AD
Turns played: 279
Base score: 1743
Final score: 3169
Time played: 6:42:00

First time GoTM submission here, although I'm used to playing on deity so this is a nice relaxing game.

Totally peaceful SV, very tempting to wipe out Oda but never bothered. Every unit was gifted by military CS except the starting warrior.
Settled London on the coast next to a mountain within range of Kilimanjaro for the observatory.
4 coastal cities with 2 city NC in order to fit GL in build order.

Standard 4 city Tradition/Rationalism/Freedom with Commerce-mercantalism and patronage opener. Wonder spammed and ended up with following 22 wonders: GL, GLH, HG, Oracle, CI, HS, ND, Machu P, Petra, SC, PT, LoTP, Globe, Taj Mahal, Big Ben, Brandenburg, Red Fort, SoL, ET, Broadway, HST, Neuschwanstein. I think building that many wonders distracted my game as I'm sure I could've won much faster with that start.

GA/GW was all used for bulbing (no great works). GM was used to fill Broadway only. Started bulbing GA after winning WF. CI with tier 2 freedom policy and a well timed Taj Mahal, was able to get permanent golden age until end of game. I probably needed the gold so I planned for that.

Oxford Radio, planted first 2 GS, saved rest for bulbing after reaching atomic. Faith bought 3 GS, along with 2 from HST, and free tech from Ratio finisher went to Nanotechnology. Also bought 1 GE to finish CS quest and to rush HST.

Pantheon was One with Nature, Religion with Tithe, Pagoda, Divine Inspiration, RT. Ended up with over 90 fpt at the end and never built a single temple.

WC proposal was Worlds Fair (won), +culture from WW, +culture from NW (extremely easy as no competition from prince AI. I could've won diplo V if I went directly to globalization.

Signed 0 RA since I think it's waste of gold at this level but I could be wrong.

Also this might be the first game that Oda doesn't backstab me, probably it was because I kept an army near his border.

- Describe any spying results: stolen techs, coups, or diplomacy.
Lost 1 rank 3 spy to failed coup, rest were successful although not many opportunity to coup anyway since AI never had many CS allies. Every spy was rank 3 due to extremely successful training in London. AI tech was too slow to ever bother with spying.

- Did England's unique traits ultimately play any role or advantage?
Extra spy means extra coup, but not much difference since most spies were just placed to keep my influence level from dropping. Extra movement + GLH means extremely fast naval unit for exploring. Never used LB or SoTL in this game.

- Did you meet your benchmarks? Better or worse?
I thought I can do sub 250 but it went much slower than expected possibly because of too many wonders. Also AI was poor and going Freedom might be a mistake. I had to raise most of the gold to buy spaceship without help from borrowing from AI.

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

First time GoTM submission here, although I'm used to playing on deity so this is a nice relaxing game.

Welcome to GotM! Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for playing. Good luck in the future GotMs!

HR

 

[Camv]

Tried one GotM earlier, but failed miserably. But this time I had complete control all the way.

Game date: 1952AD
Turns played: 372
Base score: 1914
Final score: 2586
Time played: 6:53:00

Thanks for a great fun game

- Describe any spying results: stolen techs, coups, or diplomacy.
I was way ahead of everyone so used two spies to do coups and the rest for diplomacy.

- Did England's unique traits ultimately play any role or advantage?
No, I didn't use UU. UA didn't make any difference.

- Did you meet your benchmarks? Better or worse?
Around my benchmark, I was hoping for a pre 350 finish, but I lost York (my main science city) to Japan which burned it!! I was one turn late to take it back. Along went 1 WW I didn't get any RA because everyone hated me after I wiped Japan completely off map in anger of them razing York.

 

[Groin_Apologist]

Ugh. How is getting sub-300 turn wins even possible with a science victory? Witchcraft!

My typical difficulty level is now emperor (though I am still on 'small' worlds admittedly, and I can't always win at this level), but I must be missing something as I just don't see how you guys are able to do it (particularly with a science victory, as it necessitates nearly finishing the tree...)

Due to the Prince difficulty level, my game was never in question, but I don't see how you are ripping through the science tree so quickly. And I can't seem to glean much from these posts, as they don't seem to be doing things much different than I did.

Is Tradition really that much better than Liberty? Because this is the only major early-game difference I am seeing.

The only other thing I can think of is working to keep good relations with other Civs for the research agreements? Is there a secret to this as well, because it seems the other Civs are pretty pugnacious in this game, no matter how I try to play it.

What is your secret? Help a brother out!

 

[sebtanic]

Finished t317 (1894 AD).

I was aiming for sub 300 but couldn't make it. Maybe I should've stayed peaceful instead of attacking Japan. Couldn't resist the temptation to shoot those longbows at least a bit. Built a ship of the line too, but the war was over before I could get it around to one of their cities It helped in destroying some barb camps though.

Anyway, the war on Japan cost me around 20-30 turns building units... Conquered two of his cities easily with LBs. Those cities did generate some science in the end so it wasn't totally wasted.

Also, I guess I should have settled all my 4 cities pre NC, instead of 2 pre NC and 2 after. The earlier you settle them, the more they grow and the more science you get...

Some landmarks post-t100:
t125 settled Nottingham on the bananas next to the montain, on the land bridge towards Russia
t139 settled Hastings east of capital, near the original starting location
t164 attacked Japan (at Spains request)
- got 2 cities, and another one in a peace deal, soon after. Sold the 3rd one to Spain due to happiness issues. Spain proceeded to raze it for me
t238 permanent GA till the end
t271 won WF, popped about 4 writers ~8turns later, gave me like 1 policy each

@Groin the WF trick is quite useful (writers give a lot more culture 8 turns after winning WF). Also, save all your Scientist to pop near the end (I built just 1 academy with my first scientist, stacked the rest). Use artists for golden age - more efficient near the end of the game / when you have +50% GA length policy from freedom. As for diplomacy, keep the AIs happy by denouncing someone everyone hates (Shoshone in my game), and generally be careful not to warmonger too much.

Stole just one tech (Iron Working , which saved me like 2 turns lol) and only ever did one very early RA, pre rationalism. Aimed to do another one late-game but AI never had the money. Once I donated some money to Germany so he had the necessary 400g, but he additionally wanted two luxes, open borders and gpt for the RA so I was like, screw it.

Policies: Full tradition - Exploration opener - Exploration +3 shields in coastal cities (all my cites were coastal) - Rationalism - Freedom - Right Commerce for cheaper space ship parts

 

[TrailblazingScot]

Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1900AD
Turns played: 320
Base score: 2769
Final score: 4326
Time played: 6:31:00

I think this will prove to be a high score compared to many, but it is not a particularly competitive end date. The reason is obvious...I cannot resist warmongering. Probably the main penalty for this was less research agreements as a result.

This map gave us beautiful land for a 4-5 city empire. However, Kyoto was just too tempting as I had taken Desert Folklore as my pantheon. I was pretty vile to Japan and took their workers and settlers to develop my empire. I then took Kyoto once Spain proposed we do so. Spain took two Japanese cities which I later liberated. I tried to make things up to Japan as Spain invaded again and gifts included battleships.

My other main conquest was Berlin as it had all the wonders I lost out on and plenty more besides. One wonder (Chichen Itza) I lost out on the same turn and Notre was missed by a turn. This meant Berlin had to be mine, but I then decided to wipe Germany out as they wouldn't give me crabs in return for peace. Ending up with three German cities and warmonger hate cancelling out my liberator bonuses was probably a costly mistake. I can't be bothered finding a suitable save to retry that bit just to see what difference just taking Berlin would make to my end date.

I had fun, but I needed to be more disciplined in my approach for a quicker time although I was producing a tonne of culture to get all the social policies I needed. In fact, the resulting tourism meant I almost won by culture. The end game was a race to get into space before winning by culture.

I could have also shaved two more turns off in the end game, but I thought my Great Engineer would completely build the stasis chamber in one turn. This mean I sent it to a city that was closer to the capital instead of to Nottingham that had most of the chamber built. Oh well.

GG

 

[Muskie]

So I won, but not in a timely manner. This was my first victory ever as England though I think it is a solid Civ. I also earned the special Pope badge because I went with my usual strategy for the most part.

- Describe any spying results: stolen techs, coups, or diplomacy.
I avoided war the whole game. I made a lot of trades so used agreements to boost my science. I also had a lot of city state allies which earned me a little science. I controlled the voting but the order I voted things in, not voting in Science bonus until after World Religion and World Ideology may have been one of my many mistakes.

- Did England's unique traits ultimately play any role or advantage?
I like having one extra spy and although I avoided war I built the unique units and I definitely sailed around. I wish a bigger deal was made of circumnavigating the world in CiV.

- Did you meet your benchmarks? Better or worse?
This is my best score as England but not in my top 5 or 10 scores. I probably could have won diplomatically 25 or more turns sooner. After my Shaka cultural obsession I didn't know what to do with my great artists, I actually sent two musicians on tour but I wonder if my writers and artists I should not have created great works. By dominating two cultures it helped in my trades, but I think going with some sort of perpetual Golden Age strategy may help in a pure science race like this one, it may help a lot.

I went Freedom and I think it is versatile just like I like Patronage, however for pure science you might want to skip Patronage or not go back and complete it like I did and also since it isn't just science that matters but production, I think Order may be better.

Although I stayed at peace there were many wars. Germany fell first. Both Dido and Catherine were reduced to a single city. Japan beat up on Spain but never wiped them out, then late in the 2000s Spain took Kyoto and Belgrade became the capital of Japan.

I still prefer the smaller maps, but I can win scientifically. I think me winning by domination would be the stretch. Diplomatic is definitely my natural victory condition. I never produced science though I focussed on it and chose trade routes to maximize science. I had a really strong religion, Shoshone beat me to two wonders but I used the gold to buy trade ships both times. I was tempted to go with the science religion spreading gambit but it is hard to make that work, Papal Primacy is my goto, I even earned the special badge, because I honestly never play on big maps.

Not that there should be any doubt, but my sub-optimal just for fun strategy earned me this:
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 2030AD
Turns played: 460
Base score: 1626
Final score: 1767
Time played: 3:26:00

I took a screen shot I just have to think where to host it. I put spoiler around it saves me bandwidth I guess. JPG proved much smaller than PNG.

Spoiler :

 

[delight]

Very easy game (in temr of AI competition), just clicking through the rounds. Tried an extreme tall game, just 3 cities. But after t200 it seemed too slow so i built another. Probably should have built 4 cities right away. It was fun popping all the great scientist in the end, had never done that before. I prefer a fight against the AI to just trying a fast win though.


- Describe any spying results: stolen techs, coups, or diplomacy
Could steal a few early techs, but soon everybody was way behind. When Spain declared war on Japan joined in the war, trying to snatch Tokyo, but failed to get it before Spain. Everybody was friends with me most of the time.

- Did England's unique traits ultimately play any role or advantage?
Hardy, little bit of spying, but next to no wars.

- Did you meet your benchmarks? Better or worse?
I tried to play a real tall game with 100% focus on food & growth. I thought it would be faster. than it was.




Game: Civ5 GOTM 116
Date submitted: 2015-08-23 16:37:19
Reference number: 33154
Your name: delight
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1954AD
Turns played: 374
Base score: 1465
Final score: 1979
Time played: 5:45:00

 

[Monthar]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 116
Date submitted: 2015-08-24 04:01:31
Reference number: 33159
Your name: Monthar
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1886AD
Turns played: 313
Base score: 1700
Final score: 2741
Time played: 5:12:00
Submitted save: TSG116_Science_Victory.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Monthar_C511601.Civ5Save

After moving the warrior I spotted the coastal mountain and moved the settler next to it. For most of the game I went with 3 city tradition.

I went Order, so I founded a 4th city near Jerusalem to steal their coal and the Vatican's coal.

I'm sure I could have finished much sooner if I'd made internal trade routes earlier and for longer to grow the cities faster. Also if I'd stuck to building science and just buying what I needed. That would have also meant avoiding building wonders.

 

[Kendon]

Science Victory Turn 351

By the time we got spies English science was well ahead. That meant counter-espionage promotions followed by city-state manipulation. No one else had anything worth stealing.

England's sailing speed was the big help. Most of the wars were over by the time longbows and Men of War arrived.

My benchmark was efficient wars. From turn 100 DoW both of Japan's cities were taken by turn 109. Seville was captured turn 117 but then I noticed Madrid was my potential top trading partner so we maintained fortified borders til the end of the game.

Germany had the Great Wall. I attacked Berlin turn 204 and was given Hamburg 7 turns later. Then the trebuchets sat three tiles away from Berlin and waited to become artillery. DoW Bismarck turn 255, take Berlin turn 257. I ended up with 8 cities, 6 of them captured, all but two focused on science.

I saved my Great Scientists for the end. With Scholasticism I got a lot of science from my CS allies. I should have saved a Great Engineer for Hubble. Also my science got ahead of culture—getting Space Procurements earlier would have saved moves.

I also paid more attention to declarations of friendship. I kept at least one friend from turn 79 right up to the end which meant I could not only borrow money, but also loan money for research agreements. Being able to do that makes a big difference to having control over the game.

Catherine was a reliable friend until she suddenly denounced me, halfway through a term, not long after I attacked Bismarck so friendships can be unreliable, but of course we all know that.

Bulbing scientists at the end means space components all have to be bought. There's no time to build, maybe one at the most. At 2590 gold per item, total cost is 15,540. I had half of it on hand when I started buying, and that helped a lot.

 

[guslaet]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 116
Date submitted: 2015-08-25 02:49:44
Reference number: 33164
Your name: guslaet
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 2031AD
Turns played: 463
Base score: 2749
Final score: 2988
Time played: 10:45:00

- Describe any spying results: stolen techs, coups, or diplomacy.
Stole just a couple of techs. Then used spies to get the unit-giving-CE, then new ones as Diplomats, and finally some to protect my techs.

- Did England's unique traits ultimately play any role or advantage?
The sea movement bonus is quite useful. Used it to get rid of Spain (my greatest science opponent).

- Did you meet your benchmarks? Better or worse?
Not really. I must learn to focus. I just enjoy this game to much.