TSG142 After Actions

[Hammer Rabbi]

Welcome to the TSG 142 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 your era-based choices for your VC condition.
- What Policy trees did you focus on?
- If you went for Diplomacy, which World Wonders did you get?
- If you went for Domination, describe the order you took the Civs and with which tactics/units. Did you need Panzers?
- In hindsight do you wish you had tried the other VC instead?

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]

Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1200BC
Turns played: 70
Base score: 882
Final score: 6300
Time played: 3:06:00

Lovely opponent list with all those musketmen UUs. The map was very good though, so the game didn't take long.

- Describe your era-based choices for your VC condition.
I went for domination because I thought DiploV would be pretty awkward in these settings, since everyone starts with Printing Press and you can't really time the World Congress.

- What Policy trees did you focus on?
Liberty to Collective Rule, then Honor.

- If you went for Domination, describe the order you took the Civs and with which tactics/units. Did you need Panzers?
1st army: France - America - Zulu
2nd army: Spain - Japan - Mongolia
Then both converge onto Austria

I researched Rifling first because I thought I wouldn't need artillery at all. In the end I did get to Dynamite and that sped things up a bit with the Zulu and Austria, so maybe skipping Rifles and going for Artillery right away would've been slightly faster, not sure.

- In hindsight do you wish you had tried the other VC instead?
Nah, I like late-era DomV. For peaceful games I prefer Ancient era starts.

 

[x2Madda]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 141
Date submitted: 2016-09-01 23:51:09
Reference number: 34796
Your name: x2Madda
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1905AD
Turns played: 325
Base score: 1865
Final score: 2869
Time played: 3:17:00
Submitted save: TSG141_End.Civ5Save
Renamed file: x2Madda_C514101.Civ5Save

Took me far too embarressingly long, not afraid to admit I got side tracked expecting to just cruise control to victory after a great start
This map can be beaten in 60 turns quite comfortably.

- Describe your era-based choices for your VC condition.
Regardless of Era if domination is on the table I will go for it. Its almost always the fastest way to win.

- What Policy trees did you focus on?
Rationalism and Freedom

- If you went for Diplomacy, which World Wonders did you get?
I didn't but I didn't knock it off the table either. Wonders were meaningless, the AI built them for me which was very kind of them.

- If you went for Domination, describe the order you took the Civs and with which tactics/units.
France was next to me so he fell first, then america then south to shaka and maria then east to mongolia and japan.

Did you need Panzers?
Waste of oil that can be used on bombers to be quite honest.

- In hindsight do you wish you had tried the other VC instead?
Nope! Peace wouldn't last, not with shaka around and you know it

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 141
Date submitted: 2016-09-01 23:51:09
Reference number: 34796
Your name: x2Madda
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1905AD
Turns played: 325
Base score: 1865
Final score: 2869
Time played: 3:17:00
Submitted save: TSG141_End.Civ5Save
Renamed file: x2Madda_C514101.Civ5Save

Seems you have posted the results from 141 in the 142 thread? But you did describe 142 Dom results and not the CV result above? Just curious is all.

HR

 

[Yarin]

Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 675BC
Turns played: 88
Base score: 786
Final score: 4623
Time played: 1:57:00

- Describe your era-based choices for your VC condition.
Figured good scouting and gold generation will be key for diplo and neglected science for a while. Other civs were too fast to modern era so being fast to atomic wasn't needed. Then my science caught up and I spammed to info era asap to trigger voting.

- What Policy trees did you focus on?
Two in rationalism and 3 in patronage right off the bat.

- If you went for Diplomacy, which World Wonders did you get?
LToP -> engineer -> FP (was afraid Washington's gonna build it), SoL

- In hindsight do you wish you had tried the other VC instead?
No way, I suck at domination and everything really went well in this game.

 

[Absoleus]

Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 225AD
Turns played: 124
Base score: 2177
Final score: 9070

Really not optimized victory, no coal in my 4 cities when i decided to go straight to indus to get factories, 3 poor aluminium before conquering Austria who had plenty of it. Delayed arties too long in the beginning. And the montain chains didn't really help my troops to move around. Also completely forgot to get more workers to properly upgrade my main cities tiles...

- Describe your era-based choices for your VC condition.
Decided to tech to industrialization to get first ideology, but no coal at all was a bad, bad surprise.
I started by building the Ironworks in my cap, then HB NC, HB pisa tower from which I chose a GE to rush the Taj for golden age and HB the sistine chapel. I immediately built caravans in all my other cities for internal food trade routes.

- What Policy trees did you focus on?
I opened rationalism then focused on completing liberty. Chose a GS and built an academy in my capital that I placed near a mountain for observatory.
I went Order, but the whole map was going autocracy and freedom, so I quickly began to have happiness penalties which made me go straight for Austria after conquering France and America.

- If you went for Domination, describe the order you took the Civs and with which tactics/units. Did you need Panzers?
I mostly used arties at the beginning then quickly switched to bombers and panzers, I was way ahead in science the whole game. Could wonderwhore (I can't help wonderwhoring) and get almost everything but got beaten by Austria on Branderburg, pissed my off and delayed my victory A LOT.
I took France - America - Austria - Zulus - Japan (sneak captured the cap with a destroyer as Spain diminished Kyoto's health to 0 with bombers but had no units to take the city, haha), Spain and finished with Mongols (who were my only Order allies).

All in all, had a lot more fun than I thought, as it was my first non-ancient era start ever.

Spoiler :

 

[zxcvbob]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 142
Date submitted: 2016-09-03 02:29:00
Reference number: 34802
Your name: zxcvbob
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 560AD
Turns played: 138
Base score: 1224
Final score: 4533
Time played: 5:04:00

I screwed up. I thought I would cruise to an easy diplomatic victory using Gunboat Diplomacy, but the CS's were not impressed with my military. Even when I had nukes and the largest military by far, with missile cruisers and destroyers on their doorsteps, about half of them wouldn't budge. I was buying them up, but so was Japan. I would get a diplo victory eventually, but I noticed that America was only one space ship part away from launching (even tho' I was 5 techs ahead, he *might* have all the techs he needed) I'd had the foresight to build the Apollo Project, so I started building rocket engines and space capsules, etc in all my cities, and I declared war on America to distract Washington.

His cities were over 200 strength. I dropped atomic bombs on most of them, and he hit Paris with a nuclear missile, but I had bomb shelters everywhere so it didn't hurt much. I focused on killing his units first, then I captured/razed Orleans. I was just about to take New York when I finished the last piece of the spaceship and blasted off. (wrong victory type)

I used Futurism to exert influence over everyone without having to focus much on culture. That part of my plan worked. I had about 50% influence over everyone and most of them had dissidents. I proposed Autocracy as the world ideology for the next world congress and I think I had enough votes to pass it. That was mainly to sow chaos, the 2 extra votes would just be gravy.

--
I might play this one again. Plop my cities in the same spots and go for domination using artillery, cav, machineguns, and AA-guns. (you can tech to Ballistics pretty fast if you beeline it) Then research Biology to get oil for planes and panzers. The panzers aren't really necessary, but they are a lot of fun

 

[jessie23]

Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 325AD
Turns played: 128
Base score: 2382
Final score: 9528
Time played: 3:55:00

- Describe your era-based choices for your VC condition.
I want to play with panzers and planes. Domination it is!

- What Policy trees did you focus on?
Liberty, Commerce Opener, Autocracy

- If you went for Domination, describe the order you took the Civs and with which tactics/units. Did you need Panzers?

France > America > Zulu > Austria > Mongolia > Spain > Japan

I built 10+ cavalry and upgraded them all to landships and then panzers. It was great fun.

The AI's lack of roads really slowed my artillery down. I was pinned down for several turns getting them in place to take Austria out.

Once I gained access to nuclear weapons, thing sped up. The nukes came down and the panzers ran in right after. That is how I conquered Spain and Japan.

I would have won one turn faster, but my destoyer was one hex too far away

- In hindsight do you wish you had tried the other VC instead?
I had lots of money all game. I don't think Diplo would have been as exciting.

 

[pahakuutti]

Game status: Domination Victory
Turns played: 91
Base score: 1738
Final score: 9655
Time played: 8:00:00


- Describe your era-based choices for your VC condition.

My plan was to grow my 3 tradition cities as big as I can and focus on science. So, that I can tech to Panzers as fast as possible.
I started warmongering when I had Cavalry + Artillery. In the end of the game, my main units were Modern Armor + Rocket Artillery.

- What Policy trees did you focus on?

Full Tradition, then filled Rationalism until I got to choose ideology (Autocracy).

- If you went for Domination, describe the order you took the Civs and with which tactics/units. Did you need Panzers?

1st army: France (Artillery + Cavalry) - America (Artillery + Panzer) - Zulu (Rocket Artillery + Panzer) - Austria (RA + MA) - Mongolia (RA + MA)
2nd army: Spain (Artillery + Panzer) - Japan (Rocket Artillery + Panzer)

- In hindsight do you wish you had tried the other VC instead?

No. Warmongering with Panzers was fun.

 

[zxcvbob]

Those of you who won a domination victory in less than 100 turns (some, much less) did you start your warpath immediately, or get ironworks, hanse, universities, roads, and trade routes up first? I started again, and declared war on Napoleon on sight. I've killed a few of his musketeers and stole a settler that was being escorted by one of those muskets (he has not killed any of my units) but I'm not making any headway. Mostly I'm marking time and earning experience until I get artillery.

I wonder if I started about 15 turns too early, and I should have instead bribed Shaka to declare war on France to soften them up. I'd get artillery a lot faster if I use Oxford for it, but right now only Berlin has a university and the other cities don't have much production.

 

[beetle]

Domination Victory and tun 379 (1959AD), base score: 2233, 8932 adjusted.
I had to wrap it up a bit faster than I had planned as I was six turns from winning by CV. Two civs had started on Boosters, but they had a ways to go.

- Describe your era-based choices for your VC condition.
- What Policy trees did you focus on? Rationalism, then Autocracy.
- If you went for Diplomacy, which World Wonders did you get?
- If you went for Domination, describe the order you took the Civs and with which tactics/units. Did you need Panzers?
- In hindsight do you wish you had tried the other VC instead?

I did a practice game and found the Diplo VC out of reach — too many SPs for how I like to do it. So that was my era-based choice, and no, I do not wish I had tried the other VC instead.

I went full Liberty. Use the finisher as GE for LToP, got GE for LToP, and build Taj Mahal for with that. I figured the early GA would be a nice boost.

France was first; I barely sniped Paris from Shaka — who was last because he was friendly all game. Washington lost his cap to Shaka, so that put him out of the queue. Austria was second because she backstabbed me and I wanted to kill her off before she married any CS. I DOW’d her a little prematurely as soon as I allied a CS she was competing over with me. Genghis was next, but I left him with one trash city. He had Madrid, so that spared Spain, and Oda was next. I left him him alive too, because I was running out of time.

Yes, I needed Panzers. Much more than that actually. GDRs, Nuclear Missiles, and Stealth Bombers.

 

[trendy]

Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 600BC
Turns played: 91
Base score: 1756
Final score: 9755
Time played: 10:10:00
Submitted save: victory Bismarck_0341 AD-1921.Civ5Save
Renamed file: trendy_C514201.Civ5Save

I could have finished a turn sooner, but forgot to spam my bombers. I was kind of fatigued from how sloggy it was getting to Spain and Japan.

- Describe your era-based choices for your VC condition.
Rushed arties, then took ST for public schools. After that I rushed panzers then finished the game with bombers, rocket artillery, and XCOMs.

- What Policy trees did you focus on?
Filled out all liberty except meritocracy. Opened rationalism, then secularism, then filled out autocracy.

- If you went for Diplomacy, which World Wonders did you get?
- If you went for Domination, describe the order you took the Civs and with which tactics/units. Did you need Panzers?
I took out France, then Washington, then Zulu and Mongolia simultaneously with seperate armies, then austria while I took out Spain then Japan. Army was mostly artillery with a few meat shields for half the game. Took a few panzers and a bomber but didn't have much oil. Finished out with XCOMs and a few artillery.

- In hindsight do you wish you had tried the other VC instead?
Yes. So much yes lol. May not have beaten fastest time, but would have been faster than I was this game. And would have taken less play time too.

 

[Ribannah]

DIPLOMACY VICTORY
Turn=79 (329)
Score=1552
HOF=2369


We met the last rival on turn 13 which set the timer. Could have finished about 5 turns earlier otherwise. We ended with the whole tech tree and thousands of spare gold, despite wars against Spain, France and Mongolia.

Berlin was settled on turn 1 (flat land for the Windmill) two tiles away from the Gems, so we could finish the Ironworks before the other cities started. Sent Settlers in 3 directions to find the coast, and all the Musketmen to find everyone.

Cities
0 Berlin (Gems, Cotton, Horses, Iron, Oil)
4 Hamburg (coast near Mt. Kilimanjaro) (Pearls, Marble)
7 Munich (at Mt. Kailash) (Salt, Incense, Horses)
12 Cologne (at Cerro de Potosi) (Gems, Truffles, Coal)
22 Frankfurt (desert) (Marble, Horses, Cotton, Iron, Oil)

Went 4x Liberty and Rationalism. The idea was two filler cities for a total of six but Mongolia got in the way and then the wars began. So we put one in the desert instead and ended up with some very long roads.

In hindsight, Munich was settled too far away. It thereby missed the Silver, Uranium and Aluminum.
Cologne also missed some Aluminum, but found Coal.

Berlin (early builds)
4 IRONWORKS
6 Water Mill
7 Aqueduct
8 Stone Works
11 NATIONAL COLLEGE
14 Windmill
19 Settler
22 Observatory
25 Hanse
26 University
31 LEANING TOWER OF PISA => Great Engineer
32 PORCELAIN TOWER (Great Engineer)

Hamburg, our coastal city, sent Cargo Ships to the City States to boost the Hanses. One requested Caravan went from Cologne to Jerusalem.

Key moments
44 Berlin completes the Statue of Liberty. We take Representation as our free tech and our eternal Golden Age begins
57 We tech to Telecommunications in one go with 3 Great Scientists and Oxford

The wars
45 Spain declares and invades Berlin lands, we have no units present
50 Spain accepts blank peace after losing 4 units and noticing we have Infantry
53 Mongolia and France declare, carpets of units swarm faraway Munich
56 Mongolia capture Kuala Lumpur
65 Our Infantry captures Beshbalik
66 Our first Panzer takes Lyons
69 We liberate Kuala Lumpur
71 Paris is ours
72 So is Karakorum
73 France eliminated
76 Mongolia eliminated


WORLD CONGRESS
13 Founded in Berlin (25)
13 Proposal: World's Fair
39 World's Fair passes
39 Proposal: Cultural heritage Sites
52 World's Fair won by Germany
53 Germany stays leader (9 votes)
58 UNITED NATIONS
68 Cultural Heritage Sites passes
79 Germany World Leader

Policies
0 Liberty, Citizenship, Republic, Collective Rule, Rationalism
22 Secularism
36 Ideology FREEDOM: Avant Garde, Civil Society
39 Universal Suffrage
48 Humanism
52 Free Thought (World's Fair)
53 Patronage
57 Meritocracy; Philanthropy (GW)
59 Scholasticism (GW)
63 Commerce
74 Wagon Trains
75 Sovereignty (Sydney Opera House)

Technology
18 Fertilizer
26 Industrialization
29 Scientific Theory
34 Electricity
36 Rifling
40 Steam Power
43 Replaceable Parts
46 Radio
49 Plastics
52 Biology
55 Flight
57 Electronics
57 Atomic Theory, Penicillin, Ecology (3xGS), Telecommunications (Oxford)
58 Globalization
59-79 The rest (3xGS)

Wonders
31 Leaning Tower of Pisa (Berlin)
32 Porcelain Tower (Berlin)
44 Statue of Liberty (Berlin)
74-79 Six bonus wonders (and Apollo Program)

 

[Kendon]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 142
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 450AD
Turns played: 133
Base score: 2194
Final score: 8438
Time played: 19:02:00

This was fun. It's like a whole new game. I've seldom reached stealth bombers before, let alone giant death robots which turned out to be more vulnerable than they sound.

Answering the last question first, I wish I'd tried Diplomacy. I thought the science would take too long but instead the first World Leader vote was before turn 100.

Usually I focus on Patronage but this time I developed military units rather than culture. I finished Liberty but Rationalism was still incomplete at the end. I had three policies in Freedom.

I took Paris and headed for Vienna but America attacked me so Washington and Ulundi were next. I sent a fleet to Japan but wasn't prepared for their battleship on the adjacent lake. It took a long time to defeat Japan but the clever maps are a big reason I keep playing Games of the Month.

Final attack sequence was Mongolia, Spain and Vienna last. Vienna was my friend almost up to the end. I had nuclear weapons I could have used on Madrid and Vienna Everyone else was under nuclear disarmament. That would have saved ten turns but I wasn't going to finish among the leaders anyway and it felt immoral.

My beginning strategy was to use late-era units that don't usually come into play, certainly not against competitive AIs. My towns were settled far from my own capitol, as near as I could put them to other capitols. If I'd managed to settle a town near Madrid I would have saved a few turns.

 

[MPoxon]

Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 175BC
Turns played: 108
Base score: 813
Final score: 3871
Time played: 1:58:00

This turned out to be quite an interesting game. Everyone DoW'd me except Washington which was quite interesting. Just about managed to defend myself but the AI wiped out quite a few of my allied city states. Managed to scrape a diplomatic victory in the end by paying off washington to vote for me and paying Gengis to make peace with me before wiping out another CS. Japan also started buying up CS's early on so managed to embargo him though congress (was already at war by then anyway)

- Describe your era-based choices for your VC condition.
I always struggle with late game Domination games. I am not the best at domination so I tend to build up a big army first that I am sure I can win with. With late era start I normally either struggle to finish in time or neglect since too much and end up getting out teched. Diplomatic it was!

- What Policy trees did you focus on?
Rationislm and Patronage starter

- If you went for Diplomacy, which World Wonders did you get?
LToP, FP, Castle on the hill thing.

- In hindsight do you wish you had tried the other VC instead?
I might try a domination game with this save out of interest, not sure if I will be able to beat it though.

 

[FireFree3]

Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 100AD
Turns played: 119
Base score: 2567
Final score: 11160
Time played: 7:51:00

In general, played quite poorly in the middle where everyone declared war with me except Japan. Need to stablize when Stealth bombers clear everything in sight.

- Describe your era-based choices for your VC condition.
I was flip-floping between Science (I had wrong memory on the required VC) and Domination.
When everyone declare wars to me after I wiping out France, I have no choice but to get my military out and clear everyone.

- What Policy trees did you focus on?
Liberty (5), Rationalism (2), Freedom.

But Order is the most dominant Ideology in the game, I was suffering from unhappiness from the ideology.

- If you went for Domination, describe the order you took the Civs and with which tactics/units. Did you need Panzers?

France, America, Zulus, Mongolia, Austria, Spain and Japan
I forward settled (near france, and then near zulus) and rushed to Arti to wipe out France; when I fights with Zulus, America suddenly backstab me and I nearly rage quit at that point as I nearly lost all my arti.

- In hindsight do you wish you had tried the other VC instead?
Cultural game may be interesting here.

 

[TrailblazingScot]

Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 325BC
Turns played: 102
Base score: 2129
Final score: 10645
Time played: 3:46:00

I'll try to write a more detailed write up later.

3 policies into Tradition to get Opera Houses for free and allow me to build the Hermitage early and make culture quickly. I put two into Liberty, followed by collective rule once I generated enough culture.

I fought an early war against Spain as they had an unescorted settler.

Relatively early in the game I got the Zulus to declare against France. Eventually the Zulus defeated France. Pretty soon afterwards everyone was at war with the Zulus and I re-called France to life by Liberating an appalling city. I took all the other French cities, all the Zulus cities and then all the Austrian cities.

I decided on a diplomatic victory as I was moving through the tech tree quickly. It just took a long time to get the first World Leader vote - which I won. I could have scored more points, but I traded score for speed as real life is intervening.

 

[Knap]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 142
Date submitted: 2016-09-16 23:28:00
Reference number: 34852
Your name: Knap
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 425BC
Turns played: 98
Base score: 1611
Final score: 8478
Time played: 9:00:00
Submitted save: Bismarck_0348 AD-1928.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Knap_C514201.Civ5Save

 

[Knap]

- What Policy trees did you focus on?
Liberty honour freedom

- If you went for Domination, describe the order you took the Civs and with which tactics/units. Did you need Panzers?
France, US, Zulu, Austria, Mongolia Spain Japan
Artillery infantry bombers and Panzers - finished just before using Nuke or Giant Death Robot.