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.