TSG136 After Actions

[Hammer Rabbi]

Welcome to the TSG136 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 hindrances you didn't account for with your military strategy.
- Which unit mix did you decide to focus on for conquering?
- Did you find the Krepost to be valuable or unnecessary?
- Did you need/use Cossacks? If so, describe their use.
- What are your thoughts on the neighbors/map/Victory condition?

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.

 

[vadalaz]

Your name: vadalaz
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 850BC
Turns played: 81
Base score: 383
Final score: 2393

- Describe any hindrances you didn't account for with your military strategy.
Barbs pillaged my luxuries a couple of times but it didn't hurt too much.

- Which unit mix did you decide to focus on for conquering?
Archers, chariot archers, spearmen, scouts

- Did you find the Krepost to be valuable or unnecessary?
Never built it

- Did you need/use Cossacks? If so, describe their use.
Nope

- What are your thoughts on the neighbors/map/Victory condition?
Fun and quick! Aztec capital was in a pretty annoying location and he got walls in the city, so it took a bit longer to end the game than it should have.

 

[jshelr]

nice time Vadalaz

I did mostly the opposite, proving your strat. Built two cities, ToA, to see if it would help, and then kreposts. Spammed units mostly after that.

The civs were all in the classic warmongers group and actually declared on me first. Had some nice battles. It would have been much better to get off to a quicker start.

Thanks for the game



- Which unit mix did you decide to focus on for conquering?
Mostly ranged units semi-protected by swords and pikes

- Did you find the Krepost to be valuable or unnecessary?
It helps, but only if you are slow.

- Did you need/use Cossacks? If so, describe their use.
Did not take quite that long


Game: Civ5 GOTM 136
Date submitted: 2016-06-02 16:22:01
Reference number: 34443
Your name: jshelr
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1780AD
Turns played: 266
Base score: 1536
Final score: 2898
Time played: 6:15:00
Submitted save: Catherine_0266 AD-1780.Civ5Save
Renamed file: jshelr_C513601.Civ5Save

 

[Haphaz]

I've never played a game of Civ and nearly ragequit for good as much as this one, yet still dig out a victory. I'm elated!

Looking on here and seeing a T81 win? On Turn 88 I'd lost my only other city and had the Mongol hordes at the gates of Moscow.

I don't normally do Emperor level GOTM and I've never completed a domination one, but having just won my first Deity game with consentient's Deity guide and as it was a small map, I was lured in by Hammer Rabbi.

I'd tried a two-city Liberty expand, but was beaten to expansion spots by Mongols, Aztecs and Celts. In trying to expand, my army was only 4 units when the Aztec army attacked. I just fended them off with composite bows when Mongolia attacked, taking St. Petersburg, my only other city. Ragequit one. Contemplate deleting save.

I load back in and retake St. Petersburg with comp bows and push on to their capital, taking it at T133. I then find out the rest of the five civs I'm up against (thanks Hammer Rabbi!). I'm not taking on Impis and Samurai. Ragequit two.

After lunch, I begin to think I can maybe do it and my Liberty finisher Great Engineer pops up. I decide to complete the Great Wall and deny it to my rivals. The Zulus build it when I click next turn. Ragequit three.

Going back in again, I use the wonder refund cash and upgrade to crossbows. I then return to the Aztecs and knock them out by T153. But my gold per turn is critically low (about -25 per turn) and stays that way for almost the rest of the game (I so wish I'd gone honor first). Just 3 civs left, after the Zulus stomp the Celts and declare war on me. I fend them off and debate taking on Japan to secure my flank, but decide against it. Then a wave of Samurai descend on my Mongol capital while I'm fending of Zulus around Mt. Kilimanjaro. I'm outnumbered, way out-teched and outflanked. Ragequit four.

A good long while later, while debating a GOTM forfeit and trying again (for 'fun', well revenge), I decide to press on. I evacuate Karakorum and lose it on T188. But a retreat and judicious great citadel use with range 3/attack 2 crossbows keep me in it. I retake Karakorum on T218 and force a peace for Japan's second city on T224. I tech up to artillery (with much help from spies) and decide to attack Tokyo to remove the threat (and for the gpt kills for the honor finisher). Tokyo falls on T270. I instantly then DOW the Zulus with extreme prejudice (for the cash - my treasury is about 50 and I'm at -50 per turn gpt). Despite dynamite somehow not obsoleting that great wall, a combination of Cossacks and Artillery push back the Zulus for a T295 win.

No Russian ever sailed in a boat.

 

[bolmovic]

Your name: bolmovic
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1260AD
Turns played: 186
Base score: 965
Final score: 2608
Time played: 2:13:00

Bah! I had a good and fast start, a solid army, but capturing all the coastal capitals took a long time (captured them in turn 60, 87, 121, 131, and finally zulu's in 186). It took over 50 turns to finish Shaka, I needed x-bows to beat his impi. He decimated my army twice.

Describe any hindrances you didn't account for with your military strategy.

- Coastal capitals, hidden behind mountains really slowed down my army. The impi were way stronger than I expected. Next time would do Shake first.

- Which unit mix did you decide to focus on for conquering?

Archers + CA + spearman

- Did you find the Krepost to be valuable or unnecessary?

Unnecessary, never built one.

- Did you need/use Cossacks? If so, describe their use.

Nope.

- What are your thoughts on the neighbors/map/Victory condition?
Great game to practice my tactical military skills! Location of capitals was not ideal and should have beaten military civs first. Still wondering how I could ever achieve a <T100 win.

 

[zxcvbob]

Turn 165 and I quit. Gonna start over and see if I can do better next time. Shaka and Monty double-teamed me. I fought off Monty, and I was killing lots of Impis but he seemed to be building them faster than I could kill them. Earlier in the game, I had to fight-off Genghis. Seems like I was on defense and behind the curve the whole time except for one brief war with the Celts. The gold I got from kills didn't amount to much, but it was my only source of income; I used it to buy walls in Dublin. The only reason I survived Monty's attack was I managed to build the Great Wall; he still managed to get really far into my territory with his vast army of swordsmen and chariots.

At the start of the game I moved my warrior north and saw Kilimanjaro, so I spent 2 turns moving my settler to the northeast silver. Built 2 scouts, monument, warrior, krepost, then pretty much just alternated archers and spears for a while. I found tons of ancient ruins; I got a scout upgraded to an archer which was nice, and a culture ruin, a free tech (Mining), and a +1 pop. The rest were garbage like "crudely drawn map" or "reveals barbarian activity".

I never founded a second city; I stole one from Boudicca when she forward-settled me in a decent location (it had horses.) I annexed it as soon as I got my national college built. Shaka took Edinburgh and now we were neighbors. (but if I hadn't taken Dublin, he would have and we'd still be neighbors a lot closer to Moscow.)

Barbarians captured a CS worker for me so I didn't have to build one. Normally I return those for the 45 influence, but I needed a worker.

I went straight Honor, right side first. I filled the tree 2 turns too soon and couldn't save the policy for Commerce so I opened Patronage. I should have seen that coming and moved my city garrisons out for a few turns.

This is not how my practice game played out at all.

Oddly enough, I founded a religion pretty-much for free. I built a shrine very late in Moscow, and Dublin had a shrine already (that's all it had.) I must have picked up some faith from a CS along the way, because that was enough to get a late pantheon and Desert Folklore was still available.

I think I may try that "zerg rush with scouts" thing on the Mongols. (I actually did capture Dublin with a scout, but only after a spearman didn't quite take it) Just build scouts and archers until I get to chariot archers. Plan on most of the scouts dying. It should work on cities with a strength of 10 or less.

 

[MPoxon]

Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1905AD
Turns played: 325
Final score: 3944
Time played: 7:27:00

First of all Haphaz, thanks for your post. I had just rage quit my game and was not planning to go back to it and was intending to post on here explaining what had happened. I read your post and thought actually no I am not going to quit I am going to carry on and try and pull it back round.

I was very confident from T100 having just taken out Gengis and liberated two city states, I had an awesome army, Statue of Zeus and Oracle, science was good, happiness was good and I was a couple of policies off of full honour.

T110 I march my Army to take out the Aztecs. By T130 I have taken two Aztec cities trying to take the coastal capital, I just cannot get enough CBs at one time to do any decent damage to the city to enable me to take it. My army had been decimated by the Aztec capital and then I get a double DOW from the Zulus and the Japanese. I march what is left of my army back up in defence.

The next 100 turns I spend defending wave after wave of Impi and Samurai. I have 3 cities just spamming out units. I finally manage to push back Japan and take 2 of his cities, I didn't bother with the capital as it had Great wall and I did;t have enough units to comfortably take so I negotiated a good peace deal instead. The Zulus have how wiped out the Celts and are not knocking on my door. 50 Turns later a manage to take 1 city from the Zulus but the Impi are strong and killing a lot of my units.

At this point I look at my game with 3 cities, F all science and on liberty social policies thinking why did I not go tall science and rip it up late game with superior units like I normally do. I was going to quit here but I decided after reading Haphaz's post to crack on. The game changer would be dynamite so I beelined this tech and built a lot more cannons to upgrade.

With 10 Artillery units I finally started to make some headway with the Zulus and pushed them back and took their cities one by one.

With Celt and Zulu capitals now under my control I march an army to take Japan.

Dynamite makes great wall obsolete - not in this game for some reason!

Japan taken then shorty after Aztecs dealt with. T325 finish which is truly appalling BUT I feel good for not giving up and ploughing through.

- Describe any hindrances you didn't account for with your military strategy.
Double DOW as described above and Coastal cities very difficult to get enough units around to capture

- Which unit mix did you decide to focus on for conquering?
Early game CB, Pike, Horseman and Catapult combo. Late game Artillery, Muskets and knights

- Did you find the Krepost to be valuable or unnecessary?
Not sure I noticed the other benefits over a normal barracks

- Did you need/use Cossacks? If so, describe their use.
I was hoping not to find out. Actually very surprised with the Cossacks Cavalry are a bit weak late game and I only really use them to take out AI lux tiles to make them fight weaker. Cossacks I used in Combat quote a lot and they very strong against wounded units.

- What are your thoughts on the neighbors/map/Victory condition?
Thanks for bundling all the legendary warmongers on one small map on high difficulty Rabbi :good job: FFS!

Looking forward to the mid month easier GOTM - No stitch ups please Rabi! Nice relaxing easy game please

I might try a replay on this and see if taking out the Zulus early before they get Impis makes a difference. Only issue is really you need to take out Japan, Mongols and Zulus early as they are all very dangerous if allowed to create a big army.

 

[MPoxon]

Your name: vadalaz
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 850BC
Turns played: 81

81 Turns!?!? How???

 

[Haphaz]

First of all Haphaz, thanks for your post. I had just rage quit my game and was not planning to go back to it and was intending to post on here explaining what had happened. I read your post and thought actually no I am not going to quit I am going to carry on and try and pull it back round.

That made me smile. I'm very happy to be the catalyst of your victorious comeback - it's all the sweeter when it's against the odds

My Emperor level+ domination tactics come from the masterful consistent's guide: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=547630
Essentially comes down to power spikes caused by ranged units. If in doubt, beeline artillery!

Hammer Rabbi - many thanks for such a devious challenge!

 

[MPoxon]

My Emperor level+ domination tactics come from the masterful consistent's guide: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=547630
Essentially comes down to power spikes caused by ranged units. If in doubt, beeline artillery!

Thanks for that Haphaz, I will have a look through that at some point. Looks very good from the quick skim I had just now.

I am enjoying these GOTM challenges, I am learning a lot and it has really upped my game, well maybe not this month but you know what I mean.

 

[TrailblazingScot]

Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 940AD
Turns played: 157
Base score: 1498
Final score: 4832
Time played: 3:30:00

Slow and steady. No advance without security and this is the result. 81 turns...pfft!

In terms of pantheon I went for culture from pastures and I think it was worth it.

After hunting barbarians I strangled the Aztecs by capturing their settlers which gave me many workers. I settled three more cities before sending in sufficient forces to defeat the Aztecs. I bribed the Mongols to fight Japan and built one more city.

The Zulus took Edinburgh and whilst their units were still damaged and the defenses in Edinburgh were still weak. In the same breath I took on the Mongols and handled things badly. I threw my catapults forward too early and his pikeman killed many units.

The Zulus gave me a city in a peace treaty and during this period I wiped out the Mongols and Japanese. As soon as the peace treaty with the Zulus ended I finished them off.

Edit: I built many wonders this game, but for a very good reason. I have never built the Terracotta Army (and perhaps the Great Wall) and I righted this wrong. The result? I have finally got "The Wonder Years Achievement". This was also my first victory as Russia

 

[Sclb]

Your name: Sclb
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 175BC
Turns played: 108
Base score: 512
Final score: 2438
Time played: 3:19:00

- Describe any hindrances you didn't account for with your military strategy.
Stupid amount of barbs that spawn camps blocking my path to AI, which takes a couple extra turns to clear, slowing down my conquest. Also I got several lux pillaged but not that big of a deal since my army is huge. Also the unit cap is much lower than I expected and I ended up just disbanding units once I see I no longer need a large army. Also should've started building roads to the west but I kind of forgot about it and also delayed me a bit.

- Which unit mix did you decide to focus on for conquering?
Lots of scouts for bait & capture etc, workers for baiting garrisons, spears/warrior as meatshield, archer + chariot archer, CB at the very end.

- Did you find the Krepost to be valuable or unnecessary?
Waste of hammers, not that I have any since I was way over unit cap.

- Did you need/use Cossacks? If so, describe their use.
No way this will get past Classical era anyway, as I have no library or science.

- What are your thoughts on the neighbors/map/Victory condition?
I need help on planning more efficient paths and ordering of conquest, seems that it took my army too much time on traveling. This is also the first time I've built Terracotta army with liberty GE and it actually helped since it took my army too long to return. And 81 turns? I would love to see the strategy for that later.

 

[zxcvbob]

I'm replaying it. This time I moved my settler up to Kilimanjaro (which I discovered before I settled last time) because the extra culture and food are worth more than the extra silver tiles at the starting location. Also by settling next to it, I can buy all the tiles around it and keep AI units from getting the "altitude training" promotion.

I attacked Mongols pretty early; I wiped them out (they just had the one city) on about turn 40. Everybody hates me now; even Monty. I annexed Karakorum; built walls first, and then started cranking out archers.

Bought a settler and built infrastructure for a while, then declared war on the Aztecs. Somewhere around turn 80 I captured both of their cities. Now it's turn 140 and I just conquered Japan.

The Celts are next, then the Zulus, and I think that's everybody. I can't believe how much better this is going. I haven't heard a peep from Shaka for 50 turns or so. My fatal mistake last game was agreeing with Shaka to declare war on Boudicca. He asked again this time and I turned him down; I needed to keep the Celts between us as a buffer. Plus, I lost a few units taking Dublin, and I needed those units to fight the Mongols.

I went straight Honor again. Finished it long before the medieval era, so I opened Liberty to unlock the Pyramids. I'm working the right side of Liberty now; probably will skip the left side.

Edit: I just finished the replay on turn 186. It ain't 81 or 102, but I'm pleased with it. Emperor is at the edge of my comfort level, and I'm not used to pre-industrial era domination games. Captured the last AI city, which was Ulundi. Shaka had a nice little 2-city empire with lots of wonders. I guess because he was isolated by the Celts' Great Wall, he built a pretty big military but played peacefully.

 

[fimbul]

oh dear, way behind vadalaz and didnt manage sub 100...

Your name: fimbul
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 325BC
Turns played: 102

- Describe any hindrances you didn't account for with your military strategy.
barbs killed a GG and lost two capture units which delayed the final capital.

- Which unit mix did you decide to focus on for conquering?
archers, chariots, spearmen, eventually composites and horsemen

- Did you find the Krepost to be valuable or unnecessary?
useless when aiming for sub 100...

- Did you need/use Cossacks? If so, describe their use.
:/

- What are your thoughts on the neighbors/map/Victory condition?
oval's a nice mapscript, dunnoe why its not allowed in HOF runs.

 

[vadalaz]

I need help on planning more efficient paths and ordering of conquest, seems that it took my army too much time on traveling. This is also the first time I've built Terracotta army with liberty GE and it actually helped since it took my army too long to return. And 81 turns? I would love to see the strategy for that later.

Well I did get pretty lucky, my warrior's first move revealed Mt Kili, so I settled the grassland tile beside it, which turned out to be horses. Didn't need a monument so I never built any buildings this game.

Policy-wise I went Liberty -> Citizenship -> Republic -> Honor -> Discipline. Worker first because Emperor AIs take too long to get their workers out, and archer-rushing the first capital gets you a second city about as fast as Collective Rule anyway. Originally I was planning to take Collective Rule later to forward-settle Monty and citadel-bomb him. He planted a city there himself though, so I ended up capturing the expo, buying some coast tiles and citadel-bombing the tile just east of Tenochtitlan. Took some Honor policies just to kill barbs quicker.

Conquest order:

1st army -> Mongolia and Japan. Deleted the units after taking Kyoto.
2nd army -> Celts and Zulus. Delayed taking Ulundi and just kept it at 0 health.
3rd army -> Aztecs. AIs predictably shoot the unit sitting on the citadel tile, so Monty's 24 def city attack didn't do much. Took Tenochtitlan and Ulundi on the same turn.

Other small things:

- Abused peace deals as always, selling whatever I could early in the game to buy more units. Waited for Shaka and Monty to be willing to give up their expos in the peace deals, so that I'd take all their gold instead.
- Annexed and starved all captured capitals to 1 pop. That allows buying and building units there, and the unhappiness isn't worse than letting the puppet grow to size 3.
- Bribed Shaka to attack the nearby CS as I was approaching him and blocked his second settler. Killing his units was surprisingly easy, somehow I didn't even lose the scouts I was willing to sacrifice to move his spearmen out of position.

 

[TrailblazingScot]

- Annexed and starved all captured capitals to 1 pop.

You're a monster.

 

[zxcvbob]

Didn't need a monument so I never built any buildings this game.
[snip]
Other small things:
- Abused peace deals as always, selling whatever I could early in the game to buy more units. Waited for Shaka and Monty to be willing to give up their expos in the peace deals, so that I'd take all their gold instead.
- Annexed and starved all captured capitals to 1 pop. That allows buying and building units there, and the unhappiness isn't worse than letting the puppet grow to size 3.
- Bribed Shaka to attack the nearby CS as I was approaching him and blocked his second settler. Killing his units was surprisingly easy, somehow I didn't even lose the scouts I was willing to sacrifice to move his spearmen out of position.

It's interesting that you didn't built any buildings. As I was building the National College (well after turn 100) I was thinking "that's a lot of hammers that will probably never pay off." I should have skipped it and built more pikes instead.

So you settled peace deals to get all their gold, waited 10 turns, and attacked again? Hmmm. I thought you got all their gold when you sacked the last city (but they never seem to have much gold by then)

 

[gooberman]

I hate all of you guys. I rage quit this.

I don't see how you guys can take cities so easily without loosing units.

Maybe I'll try it again.

BTW I hate you guys....

 

[Sclb]

I hate all of you guys. I rage quit this.

I don't see how you guys can take cities so easily without loosing units.

Maybe I'll try it again.

BTW I hate you guys....

There's no point to build anything other than units, and you can throw units such as workers, scouts, CS gifts as bait so that your betters units can survive. The AI is rather predictable on which units it will focus fire on. It only gets difficult if you impose no ranged units rule and it will be possible to lose good melee units.

 

[jessie23]

Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1730AD
Turns played: 256
Base score: 2107
Final score: 4131
Time played: 3:15:00


- Describe any hindrances you didn't account for with your military strategy.

I briefly lost my first expand by Kilimanjaro when I underestimated the Mongols.
Fighting Shaka when he had Impi was not a smart move. I lost several veteran units in that fight.

I still have a lot to learn when it comes to these fast Domination victories.

- Which unit mix did you decide to focus on for conquering?

CB + Swords for Mongolia and the Celts
XB+Muskets for Zulu
Cannons + Muskets for Japan and the Aztecs

- Did you find the Krepost to be valuable or unnecessary?

I built them, but apparently it isn't necessary.

- Did you need/use Cossacks? If so, describe their use.

I upgraded 3 knights to Cossacks at the very end. They were tough enough to absorb punishment from the Aztec capital until the cannons wore it down.

- What are your thoughts on the neighbors/map/Victory condition?

The map was much more open than the test game I played. Kilimanjaro was a nice treat. Very fun!