TSG174 AAR

[Knowtalent]

Welcome to the TSG174 After Action Report thread. 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 attach 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.) In your post.
- How useful was your UA?
- Did you use spying to your advantage?
- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
- What techs did you prioritize ?
- What did you think of the map and settings?

 

[zxcvbob]

Diplomatic victory on turn 240.

- How useful was your UA?
- Did you use spying to your advantage?
- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
- What techs did you prioritize ?
- What did you think of the map and settings?

- UA (the double trade routes and double influence from trade missions) was very useful. UU... well, I forgot to build some great galleasses before I researched Navigation. They would have been useful for protecting my coasts well into the industrial era w/o requiring iron like frigates. But I had just enough iron so it was okay.

- I did not steal any techs; I never was the tech leader but I was keeping up okay. I kept a counterspy in Venice for most of the game, and I used spies to boost my CS influence. At the end I used all my spies as diplomats to give me enough votes for an easy win on the second world leader vote.

- The map type helped. Plenty of destinations for cargo ships once I was able to build a harbor. Adequate destinations even before getting a harbor.

- Immortal difficulty is a stretch for me. I've only played a few games. I was always watching my back, expecting France or Greece or Spain to declare war. It also meant I didn't try building many wonders. Colossus, Lighthouse, FP (missed that one), PT, Big Ben, SoL, and Sydney. I used the Colossus cargo ship to send food to Venice.

- Tradition, Patronage opener to unlock Forbidden Palace, Commerce opener to unlock Big Ben, Rationalism, Freedom. Then I came back and started filling in Rationalism, left side of Patronage, right side of Commerce) I took Arsenal of Democracy for my 3rd Freedom tenet instead of Universal Suffrage so I could start making my move on the world congress sooner, before the AI's could embargo the CS's. And because even tho' I was friends with almost everybody at this point in the game, I needed to beef up my military and the extra production was handy.

- Iron (Colossus), Astronomy (caravels), Industrialization (coal, factories, Big Ben), Replaceable Parts (SoL), Refrigeration, Radar (real fighters and bombers because I was at war), Ecology (Sydney Opera House), Globalization. I used Oxford much earlier than I usually do; I think for Astronomy.

- The map was fine. No barbarians was a little weird. Quick pace on a large map was not as big a problem as I expected, but I did build the Great Lighthouse and that helped a lot.

France, Spain, and Greece never did declare war on me. My friend Ramses did. He had a larger military than me and a slight tech lead at that point, but I did have submarines and was not far away from battleships and real bombers, and I was teching fast. I killed countless units while only losing a few myself, and I captured 2 Egyptian cities that had unique luxuries. I probably should have kept going and taken Thebes and Memphis too to totally cripple him (Memphis was his holy city) because he was able to rebuild his military and cause problems later for my other Freedom allies. I was actually friends with Alex for most of the game. Rome was the other superpower; he hated me but never did anything about it.

 

[patience007]

Turn 206 Diplomatic victory

- How useful was your UA?
Was really helpful in building up gold with twice the number of trade routes. Plenty of gold to buy all of the city states, keep other civs at war with each other, buy buildings in puppets and capitol, and fund numerous research agreements.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?
Stole a couple of techs, rigged a few elections, killed a few spies, diplomats.

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
Continents plus with a coastal start permitted lots of sea trade routes and good internal trade routes between puppets and capitol for growth and production.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
I’ve been playing on immortal lately and learned I need to build more military than on lower difficulties to help stave off (or survive) war.

- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
Full tradition. Full patronage. About 3 into rationalism then 3 into Freedom, finished rationalism, and the rest into freedom.

- What techs did you prioritize ?
Beelined Optics for Great Lighthouse. Next to Iron Working for Colossus. (Was happy to get both of those wonders on Immortal.) Next filled out lower techs and went for education, then plastics, then Globalization.

- What did you think of the map and settings?
This was a fun and quick game, despite being a large map, probably the fastest TSG I’ve played. No barbs was great with all of the sea trade routes.

 

[zxcvbob]

Turn 206 Diplomatic victory

- How useful was your UA?
Was really helpful in building up gold with twice the number of trade routes. Plenty of gold to buy all of the city states, keep other civs at war with each other, buy buildings in puppets and capitol, and fund numerous research agreements.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?
Stole a couple of techs, rigged a few elections, killed a few spies.

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
Continents plus with a coastal start permitted lots of sea trade routes and good internal trade routes between puppets and capitol for growth and production.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
I’ve been playing on immortal lately and learned I need to build more military than on lower difficulties to help stave off (or survive) war.

- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
Full tradition. Full patronage. About 3 into rationalism then 3 into Freedom, finished rationalism, and the rest into freedom.

- What techs did you prioritize ?
Beelined Optics for Great Lighthouse. Next to Iron Working for Colossus. (Was happy to get both of those wonders on Immortal.) Next filled out lower techs and went for education, then plastics, then Globalization.

- What did you think of the map and settings?
This was a fun and quick game, despite being a large map, probably the fastest TSG I’ve played. No barbs was great with all of the sea trade routes.

Did you win on the first vote or the second? The first one snuck up on me; I think everyone was in the atomic era rather than anybody hitting the information era. I saw it coming and could have bought all the remaining CS alliances, but w/o Globalization I would still be a couple of votes short.

 

[patience007]

I got it on the first vote, I had 45 votes and 5 diplomats (41 required). AI civs were very friendly and I had what seems like at least 20 research agreements.

 

[vadalaz]

Won on turn 157, was surprised I could actually tech to Telecommunications fast enough to have the UN vote after the second normal congress vote. I knew I wouldn't manage to ally all the CSs in time so I bribed a bunch of AIs to vote for me.

- Tradition/Rationalism/Order, in the end I spent two more policies in Exploration because for some reason I thought it was a tier 1 policy that gives you an admiral (which would complete 3 CS quests). Turned out it was a tier 2, so I just wasted those two. Could've put 2 in Patronage, but it didn't matter anyway.

- Tech: Optics (GMoV Monaco) -> Philosophy (NC, didn't bother with Oracle) -> Theology (Hagia Sophia to secure a religion) -> Compass (took 2 cities from Egypt with the UUs) -> usual science stuff

- Focused on getting 12 trade routes and gold buildings up in the capital in early Renaissance, ended up missing LToP for it.

- Religion was +1 production from boats, Tithe, +15% production and +2 faith from world wonders. Bought two GSs with faith.

 

[zxcvbob]

I had no idea you could bribe the AI's to vote for you! I probably could have won on the first vote instead of waiting for the second because I had tons of gold and most of the CS's already. I only needed a couple of more votes; one AI might have done the trick even if it cost me a fortune. Darius and Theodora were still friendly but also afraid of me because I had The Bomb.

 

[zxcvbob]

- Tradition/Rationalism/Order, in the end I spent two more policies in Exploration because for some reason I thought it was a tier 1 policy that gives you an admiral (which would complete 3 CS quests). Turned out it was a tier 2, so I just wasted those two. Could've put 2 in Patronage, but it didn't matter anyway.

Did you pick Order for the extra science from factories? Or because it was popular and you didn't want to piss-off the AI's? (or maybe both)

 

[vadalaz]

Did you pick Order for the extra science from factories? Or because it was popular and you didn't want to piss-off the AI's? (or maybe both)

Factories yeah, but more so the final Great Scientist tenet. Skyscrapers was also very nice.

The factories might actually hinder your GS generation progress in the puppets, because the city governor will choose to work engineer slots instead of scientist ones. So on the one hand you want the factory for the +25% science and on the other you might miss a GS timing if you get unlucky with the specialists. Sending 2 food cargo ships to a puppet helps convince the governor to work most of the specialist slots but even that didn't always make it pick more than 2 scientist ones.

I wish you could at least select city focus in puppets, seeing the cities build caravansaries and work merchant slots is a bit disappointing.

 

[beetle]

@Knowtalent and @AlanH, the submission form does not seem set up for TST174.

I lost to Alex by SV on T254, I would have won the WL vote two turns later.

I liked the map well enough to reply, avoiding the long war with Alex in the middle game which prevented me from taking his CS. That game I won on T221, the 2nd WL vote.

The set up has inspired me to try warmongering with Venice at Deity. That is still quite the trick for me!

 

[zxcvbob]

The set up has inspired me to try warmongering with Venice at Deity. That is still quite the trick for me!

My highest unit count games (well over 100) have all been with Venice, not the Zulus like you might expect. Mostly at emperor level, but I think I had 118 units recently playing at immortal. Venice warmongers very well (just ask Constantinople)

 

[leif erikson]

Submission system should work now. Please post if you have a problem with it. Thank you for your patience.

 

[raider980]

Loss T258. Rome Science Victory.

Around T130 I thought, "Wow, Venice is awesome. Why aren't they more highly rated in tier lists?". I had allied many of the city states, was swimming in gold. Everyone loved me so I didn't need an army. Heck, I didn' buy my first land military unit until like T150.

Around T180 I started to realize. People started getting mad about me having so many CS. Then I did something stupid and tried to pass Freedom as the world ideology, they didn't like that even though only one other had an ideology when I nominated it. Then on T203, this happened:

Spoiler War :

First Theodora and I thought, ok, I can handle her. Then Napoleon and I thought, oh no (he had the second most powerful army and was right next to me). Then Alex and I thought, game over. Luckily, Egypt had DoW me previously and I had gotten Volunteer Army and had built up a military by that point. I still thought I'd be toast. Even though Veince was down to zero health for many turns, they couldn't get any troops in to capture it so I was able to survive. And even take Greece's cities on my continent.

On the first world leader vote I didn't have enough votes to win. On the second vote I thought I was going to win even though a couple turns before Quebec City captured a neighboring CS, thus removing one of my CS allies. I had enough money to buy all the CS the turn before the vote and I had just enough votes to win.. But when the turn of the vote popped up, dang! Rome had bought out one of the CS I had already owned. The turn before the third vote Egypt captured one of my city states so I was one vote shy of being able to win even though I had all the remaining CS. A few turns later, Rome won. (I don't know why they didn't win earlier actually because they had only needed one Booster for like 20 turns.)

Even though I lost this was one of the most fun games I've ever played. So many highs and lows. Thinking I was going to be wiped out by the 4 civ alliance and then fighting them off was awesome. In fact, I'm going to keep playing. I've got to smite Ramses for stealing the win from me on that last vote.

 

[raider980]

My highest unit count games (well over 100) have all been with Venice, not the Zulus like you might expect. Mostly at emperor level, but I think I had 118 units recently playing at immortal. Venice warmongers very well (just ask Constantinople)

How did you get so many units with Venice? Almost the entire game I was fighting with the penalty for having too many units. It didn't really hurt that much since I had a lot of production and could buy units but it did make me try to limit my army size. Do you actually puppet CS or get the other cities from conquest? In this particular GotM I didn't puppet any CS because they were all terrible, on tiny islands.

 

[zxcvbob]

I did puppet a couple of CS -- first one was Monaco because Great Barrier Reef (it also had lots of oil, but I didn't know that at the time), and so it could send a food ship to Venice. The other was one halfway around the world that had coal, and could reach all those CS near Japan with cargo ships. I didn't buy Genoa (also has coal) right away because it was too close to Egypt, but I think I did eventually. And usually I get some cities from conquest; I took a couple from Ramses when he declared war and I turned the tables on him.

 

[Rogerio_AA]

Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game information: 1902 AD
Turns: 221
Final Score: 1392


- How useful was your UA?
Twice as many trade routes guaranteed a great flow of gold (and a few Science) since from the beginning of the game - accumulated until reaching the total of 16,000 Gold - that were quickly invested to buy influence of the CityStates, near the turn 200, to win by Diplomacy.


- Did you use spying to your advantage?
Yes, especially after Covert Actions Tenet - but the first Spy worked in Counter-Intelligence, in the Capital.


- Did the map help or hinder victory and how?
France declared war soon after the 200th turn, and the fact that the Capital was surrounded by seas and oceans helped me defend the invasion by sinking ships and units with few submarines.
Having a few nearby CityStates was a facilitator for the first TradeRoutes.


- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
I focused on accumulating Gold and maintaining peace and good diplomatic relations with the other Civs (the first units I built were the submarines, when France began to threaten the war), especially due to the 'Swords into Plowshares' Follower...


- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
I always start opening Tradition, but this time I opened Aristocracy too, to speed up the construction of the Great Library and The Great Lighthouse - which helped build other Wonders along the game (Chichen Itza, Hagia Sofia, Borobudur, Sistine Chapel, Broadway and the Small Wonders).
In the sequence I opened Liberty and Republic, to help in the construction of the buildings; I completed Patronage (but lost the Forbidden Palace) and Aesthetics, and I followed Freedom Ideology.


- What techs did you prioritize?
I prioritized the upper path of TechTree, always focused on Science and Culture.


- What did you think of the map and settings?
Play without Barbarians was very good to keep the TradeRoutes working, and did not need to make military units since from the beginning of the game!

 

[socralynnek]

Diplomatic victory on turn 183 (1790 AD)

Focused on money, growth in venice, well, where else could I focus on growth ;-)
I think I bribed only twice another AI to war, there were some wars even without my help that kept them busy.
Got denounced by Theodora on turn 155 or so (took over some city state ally), but by bribing Bismarck to attack her, that didn't result in being attacked, although I guess, I had units that wouldn't have had a problem fighting her off...
It was the first leader vote, but I managed to get globalization before the vote to have the extra votes from spies

- How useful was your UA?
The money just flew in, that was really helpful; acquiring Monaco quite early and Zurich some time later probably helped as well (also because of food to venice trade route); bought Genoa to complete my civilization, which also brought me a handful of units that probably helped to not being attacked.
So definitely useful for a diplo victory.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?
Counter intelligence, rigging elections and diplomats with globalization helped.

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
It helped. Was the first to meet quite a few city states, was not attacked during the whole game
Being first to meet all civs helped being host of the UN.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
Don't know. I think I did not try to go for some of the early wonders, the rest was unaffected, I guess.

- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
Full tradition, patronage partially until rationalism was available, but completed patronage before rationalism (to get more bulbs out of the free tech)
Took freedom, which only Darius adopted by the end. Still there were a few helpful tenets (e.g. half food, half unhappy specialists)
Opened commerce and even Aesthetics in the end and took one policy of each.

- What techs did you prioritize ?
Build great lighthouse early, then mostly upper part techs to also secure some wonders (hammers from work boats via pantheon and then hammers for followers also helped; with one city I was even first for the world's fair)

- What did you think of the map and settings?
I liked this one a lot, didn't feel easy, although map, civ, objective fit quite well together

 

[Maxerman]

Diplomatic Victory on turn 220 (1900 AD)

Fun game. Took awhile to get the world congress going because I could never find Bismarck. Turns out he was conquered by Darius I think and then liberated by Alexander with one measley city in the middle of the other continent. So Caesar being quite far ahead founded the congress. Alexander later eliminated Bismarck as well as Darius. I focused on going the OCC route, getting a number of decent wonders leading to good growth and religion. Second pantheon, picking God of the Sea (production from sea resources one). I believe I got Great Lighthouse, Hanging Gardens, Borabodur, and Hagia Sophia early on and several more later. I played it pretty straight forward just tried to ally as many city states as possible the entire game and focus on getting the techs in the right order. Never participated in a war until the end. After making my religion, world religion I started ruining my good relations with everyone. Leading to Isabella and Alexander attacking me around turn 185-190. They were no threat and instead I took Alexanders two cities by me on our continent and then made peace with Alexander. In the meantime Caesar had also declared war and him and Isabella did not want peace. Instead when I had made Freedom the World Ideology, I got attacked by Napoleon and Ramesses as well around turn 205-210. So in war with 4 (Spain, France, Rome, and Egypt), denounced by 2 (Japan and Greece) and 1 loyal friend, fellow Freedom believer Theodora. (picture 1-3) It got close, losing 4 city state allies to Rome, France and Egypt, and Rome getting fairly close to a Science Victory, but still winning with a margin in the end after researching Globalization (3 diplomats in the countries I could) and coup'ing the final city state from Isabella. (picture 4-7) In the end my religion had spread to 30-35 cities and I finished the game with43 population in Venice.

- How useful was your UA?

Only used the merchants for the missions getting gold and good relations. Extra trade routs is always amazing with Venice, failed to get the 2 extra from colossus which did delay I'd say, but gold for days the entire game along with 100+ GPT from Tithe.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?

Stole 4-5 techs and coup'ed the final city state from Isabella during my war in the end, as well as getting an extra 3 final votes from diplomats (Globalization).

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?

I would say helped in that there was never any threat of being attacked, but hindered in that it delayed the founding of the congress, because Bismarck was impossible to get to.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?

Not really at all, other than not greeding for the early wonders and making sure to at least have a few units at all times.

- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?

Chose half Tradition --> half Piety --> finish Tradition --> full Patronage --> half Rationalism --> Freedom (6 policies) --> finish Rationalism --> third Piety / opened Commerce / opened Exploration

- What techs did you prioritize ?

Optics --> Theology --> Mathematics --> (somewhere here wanted to get Colossus but didn't manage) --> Compass --> Banking/Printing Press (however failing to get Forbidden Palace) --> Scientific Theory --> Biology --> Plastics --> Ecology --> Telecommunication --> Globalization

- What did you think of the map and settings?

I enjoyed it!