TSG130 After Actions

Hammer Rabbi

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Welcome to the TSG130 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.).

- Were you first to the World Congress? First to Ideologies?
- How many City States were eliminated? Did you liberate any?
- Describe your World Leader votes and circumstances. Did it take more than one to win?
- Did Siam's UA bonuses throw off your timing or improve it?
- In hindsight, did the Archipelago map play a significant role in strategy?

Please use spoiler tags for any surprise details you'd like kept hidden. Thanks.

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.
 
Game: Civ5 GOTM 130
Date submitted: 2016-03-01 15:00:52
Your name: bjelar
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1848AD
Turns played: 294
Base score: 1214
Final score: 2093
Time played: 4:44:00

That was ...interesting.

The starting position was great, but Alexander means trouble... The other AI (America, England, Netherlands) also tend to buy a lot of city states.

I chose to go 50% peaceful 50% war which was almost certainly a mistake. I could not keep the peace, and had to fight two world wars which delayed the win enormously.

- Were you first to the World Congress? First to Ideologies?
England was first to world congress, and held it (with my help) all the way to the information eara. I did get ideology (order) first, reaching modern eara a few turns before my third factory.

- How many City States were eliminated? Did you liberate any?
England captured Ife during World War II. I took it back (liberated it). Other than that, I think they all survived.

- Describe your World Leader votes and circumstances. Did it take more than one to win?
The wars hurt my economy and relation to CS badly, so even if I did manage to get peace 4 turns before the first WL election, I was only close (39/44) at the first election. I did misplay it, I shouldn't have asked Whashington for friendship on turn 1 after peace (he declined) and waited two turns. He had 3000 gold that I could have used to secure the last few votes.

- Did Siam's UA bonuses throw off your timing or improve it?
I played a practice game yesterday, so I can't blame my misplays on the UA.

- In hindsight, did the Archipelago map play a significant role in strategy?
Yes, I kind of like Archipelago it tends to limit AI expansion so noone runs away with it. A fun game.

Spoiler :
turn 116 Education
turn 152 Willhelm DoWs me
turn 153 Whasington DoWs me
turn 155 Printing Press
turn 163 Leaning tower
turn 173 scientific theory
turn 174 porcelain tower
turn 176 finally got white peace with America and the Netherlands
turn 200 modern era, order ideology
turn 215 plastics
turn 224 First resarch agreement :(
turn 236 England (which we did research agreement suddenly hates us and DoWs us. Netherlands DoWs too)
turn 240 America DoWs us too.
turn 253 information aera
first world leade election turn 272
turn 265 liberated Ife from England, and got peace deal with England. Not looking good for 1st election
turn 266 globalization
turn 268 peace with the Netherlands
turn 270 peace with Washington, but too late... The Netherlands just built some wonder and took 4 city states
turn 272 only got 39 out of the 44 needed. Now I need to click "end of turn" twenty-odd times to win :(
turn 283 51 delegates out of 44 needed, but no WL election... Ten more turns.
turn 294 55 out of 44 needed. Winning next turn.


Thanks for the game!
 

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Game: Civ5 GOTM 130
Date submitted: 2016-03-02 01:03:33
Reference number: 34021
Your name: budweiser
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1864AD
Turns played: 302
Base score: 1550
Final score: 2583
Time played: 4:08:00

I'm disappointed because it took so long for the AI to tech up. I was waiting on them forever, should have killed them.

Spoiler :


Spoiler :


It should be noted that Alex committed suicide in the 190s when he got Washington to do a double DoW on me. Having built just two cities, he was gone in the ealry 200s leaving behind half the CS for me to become allies with.
 
Game: Civ5 GOTM 130
Date submitted: 2016-03-04 09:29:00
Reference number: 34026
Your name: Yngve
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1810AD
Turns played: 275
Base score: 1142
Final score: 2076
Time played: 4:06:00


- Were you first to the World Congress? First to Ideologies?
Got beaten to world congress, but after that I went further and further ahead of the computer players in tech.

- How many City States were eliminated? Did you liberate any?
None where eliminated to so none to liberate.
Early religion from salt pantheon and religion ruin on the island made it easier to control the City states, was not really a problem buying them up, and became a tech race to get UN.

- Describe your World Leader votes and circumstances. Did it take more than one to win?
Won on the first one with a landslide; Had world religion, world ideology, globalization, and all city states (a little overkill). Had to wait almost 30 turns on the vote after getting high enough in tech thought :-(.

- Did Siam's UA bonuses throw off your timing or improve it?
Well had good bonuses all game from that so probably improved, I went small with only 3 cities to, so all the bonuses became a big part of my influence.

- In hindsight, did the Archipelago map play a significant role in strategy?
Interesting for a archipelago, nice to have like a small island rather than the usual tiny ones where its room for only one city. Didnt play a big role but I went small and focused on getting city states early and staying peacefull.

The other civs where peacefull to me throughout the early game, with only Alexander doing one war abit out in the game, but several of them tried to war me once my world congress suggestions got a bit out of hand. Was easy to defend with my tech advantage and got some favorable gold deals with peace offerings.

Fun game, but have to admit I prefer continents or pangea. My social policies was kind of a mess, did the free Wats, but didnt complete any trees before late because rationalism became available.
 
The other civs where peacefull to me throughout the early game, with only Alexander doing one war abit out in the game

Nice. Not killing Alexander, and thus avoiding the warmonger penalty, is huge. I just didn't think it would be possible.
 
Nice. Not killing Alexander, and thus avoiding the warmonger penalty, is huge. I just didn't think it would be possible.

Was kind of expecting to have to defend against him earlier, and was no need to kill him when he first attacked later. Happy with that, could run several research agreements later because of my decent attitude points towards the other civs.
 
Turn 318 DV.

I had to wipe Greece out after I took the spot he wanted and he attacked me. Mostly peaceful after that.

My biggest mistake was over-emphasis on gold and CCs and lagging tech-wise. I ended up being allied with all 20 CCs for the last 80 turns or so, just catching up on tech.

Overall, this game was a lot easier than most Immortal games go. I think this is the first time ever I didn't feel constrained by the # of policies. I got Liberty, grabbed the Statue of Liberty, then switched to Order and grabbed Kremlin.
 
Game: Civ5 GOTM 130
Date submitted: 2016-03-05 01:15:38
Your name: strake
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1828AD
Turns played: 284
Base score: 1409
Final score: 2516

- Were you first to the World Congress? First to Ideologies?
I wasn't first to WC. I was trying to finish off Greece before meeting too many people. As it is, it took so long I still met half the other Civs. I just kept trading with them and eventually most people liked me. I was first to Freedom by a long shot. Two of the other civs followed me.

- How many City States were eliminated? Did you liberate any?
I think I only lost 1 city state to marriage, because I wasn't paying attention to how long they were allied. I think I lost another to conquest very early, but didn't liberate any.

- Describe your World Leader votes and circumstances. Did it take more than one to win?
Runaway victory on the first vote. Had like 10 more votes than I needed. The really sad part is that I was a measly 600 beakers short of a victory 20 turns earlier. With 7 turns to go before the next vote, I realized, I was close to having enough scientists to jump the next two eras. If I had counted that up just a couple turns earlier, I could have switched all the cities to Research and probably gotten the turn 263 victory.

- Did Siam's UA bonuses throw off your timing or improve it?
I didn't think about it too much. Around turn 150, I just started buying city states as soon as I could afford another one, starting with the food ones. I was playing hard with catch up at that point, so I was happy with whatever bonuses I could get, and didn't really try to time anything else until I was trying to beat the 2nd to last vote.

- In hindsight, did the Archipelago map play a significant role in strategy?
Oh big time. Once Greece was gone, I was able to just settle in and build and mostly ignore everyone else. I knew with a few ranged troops and a couple boats I was safe enough from any DoW.
 
Game: Civ5 GOTM 130
Date submitted: 2016-03-05 17:19:31
Reference number: 34033
Your name: RyAnne
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1822AD
Turns played: 281
Base score: 1376
Final score: 2457


- Were you first to the World Congress? First to Ideologies?
Netherlands founded WC, I was first to Idealogy (took Freedom)
- How many City States were eliminated? Did you liberate any?
No city States were eliminated (I was able to spare Hanoi from American wrath a few times by becoming it's ally with gold during their war with Netherlands)
- Describe your World Leader votes and circumstances. Did it take more than one to win?
By the time city-states joined the World Congress, I was allied with most, giving me control of voting
- Did Siam's UA bonuses throw off your timing or improve it?
Ehh, I didn't have rigid timing in mind :crazyeye:
- In hindsight, did the Archipelago map play a significant role in strategy?
I knew I could turtle and play defensively while strengthening my economy

In the early Renaissance Era, England, America, Austria, and the Netherlands all DoW'd me (America was also at war with Austria during this time). I ended up losing some trade routes and units, and time... much time building Galleass and Crossbowmen to defend myself against English Caravels, Dutch Seabeggars, and amphibious American Minutemen. Eventually I won favorable peace deals with Austria and Netherlands, and eventually made with peace with England and America much later, settling into an uneasy calm for the remainder of the game.

Screenshots:

http://imgur.com/a/iLZK0/all
 
I will not post because I reloaded once. But I succeeded to get Alexander out very early, before either of us could meet anybody.

Declared on turn 25, while my city was making archers. Took the first settler + warrior with just my initial warrior not even upgraded to phalanx, and the scout. The second one with those plus two archers. I added third and a trireme, which died in the assault on Athens, which fell on turn 47. I started meeting other civs a few turns afterwards.

In my game, America declared on Austria very early, and took their capitol twice before turn 150. With Austria and Greece out of the way, I was the only one to develop patronage. Netherlands and America dominated the first 300 turns until America had the bad idea to DOW me. Being already allied with 18+ CS, and having a defensive pact with Netherlands, I barely saw a few of of his units getting to me. America took Erevan, and Netherlands liberated it.

Same stuff later when England declared on me. CS took two English cities and burned them.

Policywise I opened tradition, then switched to faith so I could be the first pantheon and religion. I succeeded to get the 4 free wats, but it meant a late NC, followed almost immediately by Oxford. After completing tradition, I went full patronage while raising money and culture. First to ideology, I chose freedom which I completed quickly and then took a few in rationalism, exploration, and faith.

I settled 5 cities on the island, which is probably too many to ensure a quick victory, but this way I was sure no IA would settle my island.

I did not beeline information age, which was an error, so I lost a lot of turns in the modern era, while I dominated the WC, getting world religion, world ideology freedom against EVERYONE, plus a bunch of wonders. I did some naval units, but really I could have handled just upgrading the units given by military CS.

Ended up 1940, turn 340, with 54 votes. base score 1812, 13 wonders.

Globally it was fun to play. I never tried to attack that early and was surprised how smooth it went. I only lost a trireme to take Alex out. I should definitely be more methodic in the late game to get that diplo victory earlier.
 
Won on turn 309, 53/42 votes. Missed information era by 1 turn as usually :) Wiping out Alex early on and being the only one with freedom didn't help but hey, those AIs are really harmless on watery maps. I even made freedom the world ideology just to make them suffer a little bit more :D

However, I didn't upload my game. Accepted the peace deal giving my two cities to England by accident. Reloaded from autosave instantly, but I guess it still breaks no replays rule :(
 
I will not post because I reloaded once. But I succeeded to get Alexander out very early, before either of us could meet anybody.

However, I didn't upload my game. Accepted the peace deal giving my two cities to England by accident. Reloaded from autosave instantly, but I guess it still breaks no replays rule :(

Thanks to both of you for adhering to this rule. We very much appreciate it. As a reminder, if the reloads are due to crashes you may submit them but please PM one of us if a crash occurred. And Yarin, things like that have stung me many times so I know how you feel. :cry:

Thanks for discussing your results regardless of submitting. Hope to see more results down the road! :goodjob:

HR
 
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1765AD
Turns played: 263
Base score: 1659
Final score: 3190
Time played: 3:42:00

Settled on the hills have sent the warrior to the east. Built a scout and with the warrior grabbed three ruins and quickly scouted the continent. After that I attacked the Greeks when their first settler came out and got another worker from that. I sent over 3-4 archers and gained a few more workers and Athens. Oh yes, I did this before anyone met me so no warmongering penalties (for once!).

After that I completed Tradition and Rationalism and just developed my continent and my allies. I did go to war again, against America and all it achieved was a few sunk boats and a favorable peace treaty with lots of gold per turn.

1765AD...not bad by my standards! Perhaps showing the value of not warring too much and not building lots of cities. I was SORELY tempted :)

:mischief:
 

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Game: Civ5 GOTM 130
Date submitted: 2016-03-08 14:20:17
Reference number: 34045
Your name: Dexter
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1720AD
Turns played: 254
Base score: 1101
Final score: 2202
Time played: 5:17:00

Were you first to the World Congress? First to Ideologies?
First to both. Dominated the World Congress throughout the game passing World's Fair, World Ideology (Freedom) and World Religion (Buddhism).

How many City States were eliminated? Did you liberate any?
None, all of the city states survived.

Describe your World Leader votes and circumstances. Did it take more than one to win?
Won on the first vote with all of the city states allied, plus extra votes from Globalisation, Forbidden Palace, World Ideology and World Religion.

Did Siam's UA bonuses throw off your timing or improve it?
Difficult to judge, I focused early on cultural city states to try and race through policies, although arguably slowed down grabbing the Rationalism policies. Don't think I've ever had such a strong culture game at Immortal or above and that certainly helped with completing CS culture quest.

In hindsight, did the Archipelago map play a significant role in strategy?
It didn't change my strategy much, other than going for a worker to start with rather than scouts and popping out some triremes for exploration. Although the map definitely helps hugely in slowing down the AI. Without the ability to expand aggressively it greatly reduces the threat of a runaway and almost felt like I was playing at a difficulty level or two lower.

I did enjoy some good luck in my game, early on I was able to block Greece from settling the mountain spot to the North through some judicious movement of my starting warrior (upgraded to spearman). Greece of course subsequently declared war but I was prepared and easily beat them back. After that Greece was never a threat the rest of the game and only towards the end started making a half hearted effort at allying city states. My other stroke of luck came with America wiping out Austria and eliminating any threat of city states being married.
 

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Your name: InaneObserver
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1550AD
Turns played: 220
Base score: 1484
Final score: 3372
Time played: 5:26:00

Settled the E hill/river tile, which may have been a mistake. 5 city Tradition. I delayed Printing Press for a little while and aimed for 2 votes before leader vote. 3 policies in commerce and bulbed a GS to rush-buy Research Labs.

I miscalculated my fpt and bought a GE to rush Statue of Liberty, so I was 1 turn late to 2500 faith (2 GS), but still managed to get to Info Era 1 turn before the 2nd vote with one faith-bought GS and 4 others standing by.

Spoiler :


- Were you first to the World Congress? First to Ideologies?
Yes.
- How many City States were eliminated? Did you liberate any?
None.
- Describe your World Leader votes and circumstances. Did it take more than one to win?
First vote, Forbidden Palace, Globalization, all CS and World Ideology
- Did Siam's UA bonuses throw off your timing or improve it?
Prioritized culture CS to rush to Scholasticism, and gold to buy alliances faster. It kind of snowballs.
- In hindsight, did the Archipelago map play a significant role in strategy?
I was going to go peaceful but then I saw Alex close by with little space to grow, so built 3 archers and rushed him. I was lucky with his first settler; I blocked his path with a scout and picked off the warrior while he was taking the long way around. Stole one more settler and 3 more workers. Only having to take 1 city meant that every time I saw culture borders with my Trireme, I could back off and avoid first contact until after Alex was out, and so avoid the warmongering penalty (still not sure whether they have to have met the victim). Took Athens on around t45-50 and started meeting the neighbours.

No early wonders because of archer rush. After 3 city NC I settled SW island for Citrus and 2 silver, and SE for cotton and copper. I spent a lot of time faffing around with the excess archers and scouts for ruins etc, but lost quite a few of them.
 
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1795AD
Turns played: 269
Base score: 1801
Final score: 3398
Time played: 5:49:00

Pretty suboptimal play due to messing around with free Wats. Ended up with full tradition, liberty, rationalism, left side patronage, right side commerce, 6 Order due to high number of culture CS coupled with UA and winning WF. 4 city NC, captured Athens very early, England saw it but later was friends along with America and Netherlands. I needed to borrow their gold to annex CS. Later planted 2 more cities on islands for total of 7 to make use of liberty.

- Were you first to the World Congress? First to Ideologies?
2nd to WC due to wanting to delay, first to ideology via oxford radio.

- How many City States were eliminated? Did you liberate any?
All CS intact, Austria lost Vienna and was too weak to annex any.

- Describe your World Leader votes and circumstances. Did it take more than one to win?
Won first vote due to massive number of votes from allying all 20 CS, world ideology, FP. As always, triggering the vote in the first place is the most difficult part for fast game. This time I missed the window and had to wait ~20 turns.

- Did Siam's UA bonuses throw off your timing or improve it?
Massive culture from CS made it easier.

- In hindsight, did the Archipelago map play a significant role in strategy?
I should've frigate rushed to speed up the vote process, it should be easy on this map type.
 
Fun game, thanks! I might replay to clear my continent. I almost lost early and almost miss the designated VC. Thanks WW!

Filled out Tradition, Aesthetics, Rationalism, Commerce, and then opened Patronage at the end. Only a couple early WW but everything after Oxfording Radio. Base final score was 1802, I did not think to copy stats from submission screen.

Were you first to the World Congress? First to Ideologies?
No, not by a wide margin. I was never host. I was first to Ideologies and the only civ in Freedom.

How many City States were eliminated? Did you liberate any?
A few, sorry I did not count. I did not liberate any as I was pretty much turtling. Except I needed to kill Alex at end. Austria was eliminated, and Attila was going down.

Describe your World Leader votes and circumstances. Did it take more than one to win?
Shoot, I did not track that either. Being as my win was so late, the vote must have happened a few times! My only goal was winning before a CV. I beat that by just seven turns.

Did Siam's UA bonuses throw off your timing or improve it?
I got to Classic just in time not to have to waste policies to pull off the free Wat trick -- so I liked it! But really, it is kind of hard to track the UA effects.

In hindsight, did the Archipelago map play a significant role in strategy?
Yes, in that I totally counted on being isolated at the start. That was a serious mistake!

Spoiler log of some significant events :
T000 Move to hill to pick up one more salt. Monument 1st since no need for scout on Archipelago.
BO: Monument, worker (start), shrine, settler, settler, worker (finish), worker, worker, work boat, work boat.
T007 BC.
T008 Neighbor, blah.
T010 Think about DOWing, but pass.
T014 Open Tradition.
T060 Game crashed. Reloaded wrong file. Things looking bad! Give away salt.
T061 DOW. I have 1 spearman.
T072 Attackers all dead. I lost a worker because I was careless.
T074 Found.
T093 Accept silver and gpt from Alex for peace.
T181 Late settler for 3rd expo/4th city.
T196 Coup failure.
T208 Win WF.
T243 ruin: +1 pop in cap!
T273 turn writer into GW because I thought it was a GMu!
T283 America starts to raze Sparta. Makes me kind of sad!
T286 Alex uses a GG on me and denounces me. I denounce back, bribe two AI to DOW, and will DOW next turn.
T287 No one is rich, so I cannot borrow to bribe away Alex CS allies. Oh well. DOW it is. I take Athens with just Infantry.
T303 Settle old Sparta spot since I don’t want to share continent. That will slow NVC and NSA.
T330 DOW Alex. He is at war with everyone.
T338 Win IG by a large margin.
T354 Kill Alex. Buy 7x Landsknechts for 25 influence each.
T356 Sell Argos to Washington for 40 gpt. Pay Washington 13 gpt to DOW William who just denounced me.
T357 Washington take Attila’s Court — I loose my Diplomat! But I think there is time before the vote. Faith purchase GPr, but that was a waste as he will not get anywhere before the vote. Should have been a GW to get me Philanthropy. Another round of Landsknecht donations.
T360 Win ISS, closer than I would have liked! Three turns to vote. Is that enough time for another round of Landsknechts?
T363 Even without Attila, I have 48 votes and only 43 needed. No one has any SS parts. CV was 7 turns away, even with avoiding GMu.
 

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Game: Civ5 GOTM 130
Date submitted: 2016-03-10 05:10:34
Reference number: 34060
Your name: KissMyAxe
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1908AD
Turns played: 328
Base score: 1180
Final score: 1815
Time played: 6:20:00
Submitted save: TSG130_Start_Diplo.Civ5Save
Renamed file: KissMyAxe_C513001.Civ5Save

My first finished GOTM. Ever. This was fun. Thanks a lot.

I don't think there were any close calls. Except maybe one when I put my brand new spy in Vienna and discover that they are 9 turns away from completing the Forbidden Palace. Hopefully, Washington had an axe to grind with Austria, and I had some coin to spare. So, I paid America to declare war on Austria and Forbidden Palace was canceled.

I definitely shouldn't have listened to all the Free Wats talk (yes, I got them -- not worth it). I kept bumping into different policies like a blind puppy in a pitch black room. I was absolutely all over the map. That said, I have almost forgotten how wonderful Patronage is on higher difficulties: at some point Scholasticism was giving me more science than my cities...

Also, I am now absolutely certain that Papal Primacy is absolutely useless. Should have gone Tithe. Charitable missions, on the other hand, might have made my game. 10/10, would adopt that belief again. Religion, overall, was quite useful; as was the Piety tree (+25% gold with Temples!) Also, opening Commerce for the 25% more gold in the Capital was fantastic. I made Sukhotai into a trade mecca with a combination of trade buildings and a few customs houses. Not being Venice, I easily racked 400+ gold profit each turn, while maintaining a sizable army and navy.

Were you first to the World Congress?
No. I think Netherlands was. The protracted was with Alex has hindered my exploration efforts.

First to Ideologies?
No, third to adopt an ideology. But, I did adopt Freedom first.

How many City States were eliminated? Did you liberate any?
Only Yerevan. Haven't liberated it, but could have.

Describe your World Leader votes and circumstances. Did it take more than one to win?
Won on the first vote. Was allies with all the remaining 19 city-states, World Congress Host, Forbidden Palace and World Ideology. I think I had like 50 votes, with 43 required for the victory.

Did Siam's UA bonuses throw off your timing or improve it?
They definitely helped, especially when it came to culture and faith. Can't really say anything about timing, though.

In hindsight, did the Archipelago map play a significant role in strategy?
Yes. It made it easy to run lucrative trade routes. Made it easier to defend when I was DoW'ed (the infamous "World War").
 
Game: Civ5 GOTM 130
Date submitted: 2016-03-11 02:09:20
Reference number: 34061
Your name: fyar
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1755AD
Turns played: 261
Base score: 1439
Final score: 2767
Time played: 10:29:00
Submitted save: Ramkhamhaeng_0262 AD-1760.Civ5Save
Renamed file: fyar_C513001.Civ5Save

This was a fun game... good choice, Hammer Rabbi!

This was also my first ever Game of the Month. I think it's even the first time I've cared about my turn finish time. As long as I won, I never cared what turn number it was. But knowing that it was a sort of competition changed my mindset.

Religion played a big role. Itinerant Preachers meant it could spread across different islands, and Catholics were paying about 100gpt in tithes by the end. My rapid growth plus ideological pressure from France put me on the cusp of unhappiness at times but mosques/pagodas in every city kept me in the black (not to mention +5 faith, +4 culture per city). I had 125 faith per turn without any holy sites or policies in Piety beyond the opener. Faith-bought engineers secured me the Statue of Liberty, Sydney Opera House, and Hubble (just for kicks). I also had successfully spread to Greece and the Netherlands (my game-long ally), both of the civs without a religion (a third, the Huns, was eliminated). Perhaps most importantly, I converted 12 out of 20 city-states, fulfilling lots of city-state quests and ensuring that my influence in those cities would last.

I was preparing for war from Alex for the entire game, after I zoned out his settler from my expansion location, settled right in his face, and then bought the silver just two tiles from Athens. He finally declared war sometime in the Modern Era, but by then I had a tech lead over him. Even though I had neglected my navy (it's an Archipelago map, dummy!) and had a bunch of Greek ships blockading my city, I still kicked his butt on land and he offered me 32 gpt for peace.

Alex's invasion ruined my plan to go take out Paris (for the Sistine Chapel, Colossus, Machu Picchu, and a number of other juicy wonders). In the end, it was a standard, peaceful, 4-city Tradition diplomatic victory. In addition to abusing Freedom's Treaty Organization tenet I was making 500 gpt by the end.

- Were you first to the World Congress? First to Ideologies?
Yes on both. I was bummed out to find out I had no coal, so I beelined Radio so that I could beat France to Freedom. (He was the tech leader and the culture leader... he later went Autocracy.)
- How many City States were eliminated? Did you liberate any?
None. Whenever Maria Theresa had a city-state ally, I kept tabs on her money. If it ever got close to 1000 I was ready to pounce on her city-states.
- Describe your World Leader votes and circumstances. Did it take more than one to win?
Nope. I won on the first round: every city-state, world ideology (freedom), and Forbidden Palace. Good thing too, because I committed a colossal blunder. I left my spies to rig the city-state elections up until 6 or 7 turns before the vote, thinking that they could relocate as diplomats in time to use Globalization. I forgot how long it takes for them to set up their stupid embassy. I missed the extra 5 votes from Globalization by 1 turn. Oh well... no harm, no foul. :)
- Did Siam's UA bonuses throw off your timing or improve it?
To my surprise, I think going for the Wats trick (and therefore delaying the Tradition finisher) actually helped my growth! By going through Patronage into Consulates, by the time my influence with all the city-states had increased to 25, about 8 of the 20 were asking me to discover the lands of France. Maybe 4 or 5 of them were maritime. After simply paying 1gpt for an embassy, and a small 250 gold donation to a few key CSs, Sukhothai had 30+ surplus food per turn... without the Tradition bonus! By the time I completed Tradition, Sukhothai was at 40+ surplus food per turn. In this particular circumstance, thanks to Siam's UA and a little good fortune with city-state quests, I don't think going to Consulates for the Wats trick slowed down my growth at all. By the end, I had the 3 largest cities in the world, and my 4th city was tied for #6. (Only 1 pop behind #4.)
- In hindsight, did the Archipelago map play a significant role in strategy?
It definitely slowed down my National College because I had to go settle my 3rd and 4th cities on another island. It wasn't online until maybe turn 105 or 110 or so.

Thanks for posting this game, Hammer Rabbi! I've attached a few screenshots (since in the other thread I couldn't get the spoilers to work). Did anybody else win this game while going completely peaceful? I'm curious because I know it was tempting to go to war once you saw Alex on your continent, knowing his tendencies for expansionism and city-state competitiveness. But I never DoWed anybody, and the only DoW against me was from Alex, but there were no cities exchanged.
 

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Game: Civ5 GOTM 130
Date submitted: 2016-03-11 17:35:200
Reference number: 34062
Your name: aafritz17
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1912AD
Turns played: 333
Base score: 1504
Final score: 2278
Time played: 18:56:00
Submitted save: Ramkhamhaeng_0333 AD-1760.Civ5Save
Renamed file: aafritz17_C513001.Civ5Save

- Were you first to the World Congress? First to Ideologies?
No, Liz was the first host. I actually voted for her the first time, to keep alliance-spamming Wee Willy from getting any additional traction.

I was first to ideologies, though. Teched Industrialization on T208, got the third factory on T224 (should'a used cash on the one in a sub-par expo). Took Freedom, which, in hindsight, was kinda meh...

- How many City States were eliminated? Did you liberate any?
Just one, Ife, by England. I meant to liberate it, got caught up in something else, and let Liz off the DOW-hook before I remembered to do that.

- Describe your World Leader votes and circumstances. Did it take more than one to win?
Just the one vote. Not sure of the number, but I had, I think, 51 votes. Had been Host for a while, so World Religion and Ideologies were mine, had teched Globablization, and had 18 C/S allies.

- Did Siam's UA bonuses throw off your timing or improve it?
I would say it improved my timing, as the sheer force of 39CPT from each C/S must have offset the bad choices I’m CERTAIN I made from time-to-time. Although it did cost me a few turns when I got a policy two turns before I teched Education, so the free Wats were delayed until the next policy.

- In hindsight, did the Archipelago map play a significant role in strategy?

Helped in two ways:

First, I encountered Alex on T8, then on T22 caught him heading toward the NE gems (which I had already claimed!) Knowing we were quite alone, I immediately killed the warrior (with my scout/archer), stole the worker, and immediately sent 3 more archers to Athens. Alex was out of the picture on T40, and my next meeting of anyone else was Liz on T57.

Second, on T269 Wee Willy issues me a DOW. At the time I had something like 15 C/S allies. He, uh, never came CLOSE to my homeland. There was one of my allies everywhere he tried to sail! That would be (for him) an archipelago-world-problem!

He did throw me one curve during that war, though. He asks for a treaty, and I see he has nearly 15,000 coins. “Sure, I’ll peace-out, for, say, 14,000 of those.” He wouldn’t go for that, so I start going down the ladder to see what he would do. When I stuck 10,000 in the box, it dawns on me that - as long as we’re at war, he can’t talk to my allies, but the minute there is peace, with his boat-load of cash, he’ll buy ‘em all! Needless to say, I never considered another of his offers.
 
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