TSG18 After Action Report

[leif erikson]

Hi everyone and welcome to the TSG18 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!

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.).

Players are encouraged to provide feedback on the game or map. 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).

 

[thio]

Well.. this was the shortest game ever.. was defeated by about turn 100 by egypt.

Series of very very bad luck on attacks and overpowered heal all promotions, the battle i started to get an additional worker destroyed me early on. Game would have probably been fine if i had just waited a bit longer. I managed to get a lot of wonders and good tech.

 

[trueblue]

Win. Turn 366. Woeful.


First time ive played as the ottomans and i wasnt impressed. war is easy enough without all the boosts to it they receive, UU's and part of the UA.

went wonder heavy as it was king. GL, Oracle, CI, HS, PT, Sistine, HC, kremlin, Taj. missed the damn HG. best wonder out there, the HG.

settled in place and built two more cities. one as close to sydney as possible, one south west of the mountain SW. eventually decided to take egypt, leaving them one city. tradition max, liberty max, patronage max.

arabia beat me to the UN but i was never in danger of loosing the game at any point.

 

[kcd_swede]

I won! Hurrah!

Not pretty, but squeked it out. I started with the GLib/Nat College opening, but saw the gems site near thebes and planted a second city there and had to make an extra library. But it was a very nice site, and glad I didn't have to fight for it.

I went from there pretty much beeline to Optics, then filled out the worker techs. I also went wonder heavy... can't remember them all. Then Edu and Oxford.

Optics got me a lot more ruins, which gave me a handful of teir1 techs and saved me the trouble of researching them. Also got some culture, and an upgrade, a map, and cash, plus twice got an extra citizen. So pretty good yields there.

I settled my 3rd city way up north at a 3 (or was it only 2?) iron island with fur. Then I took the whales site. Capitol was settled on the coast getting a fish (on the other side of the isthmus) and 2wine/wheat/banana/cotton. Eventually coal, but I didn't ever mine over my trading post there (+2 science for jungle at that point).

I also settled East of Thebes for the pearls, and got iron and 3 fish as well.

I was only involved in 1 war (thank goodness, since I played it very inefficiently, losing 3 units total). 2 longswords, a crossbow, a catapult, and a pike against Thebes with 2 pikes and an archer. Lost the cat right away. Lost a GG right away to amphibious war chariot too. But eventually got another longsword and pike up there and finished off Thebes, and took cash for peace. This got me Chichen itza and another wonder (forget which), that was very useful. Plus lots of whale that with wine was enough to trade around to keep my folks happy. I annexed Thebes too early... should have let the revolt end first, I think. Anyhow, had to wait even further for enough cash to buy courthouse, so I times that badly. But was able to keep to just -1 happy, so it wasn't too bad.

So I had 4 cities on the mainland and 2 on islands. Never settled another.

Policies I took the firt two in Tradition (wonder bonus) and then filled out Liberty completely. Then took the first in commerce, the first in Rationalism, and the rest (all but two to complete) in Piety. Spammed markets/banks/stock markets and paved over all my farms with trading posts... was building cash at the end.

Never got to globalization (13t left when Aravia builds UN). I had 2 GE's saved for building the UN, too. Oh well... At the time I had only 6 votes to Arabia's 4, but I used GE for golden age and was making 420 gpt... so was able to buy up the 3 non-aligned CS's for 1000 each, and then outbid England and Arabia for the rest I needed.

10 votes... could have got 11 but didn't need to.

What I should have done better.... hmmm.... probably focus on getting city states earlier... the bonuses they give are not to be disparaged! Instead I spent lots on RA's... which was nice, but less sustainable, I think. Tough balance, there.

Anyhow... despite aiming for an early jump on tech pace, I ended with a pretty pathetic tech rate (less than 200bpt) one until the end when the CS research bonus kicked in (400bpt).

Haven't figured out how to get a big empire with all the unhappy penalties. Is a big empire even the best way to get high GPT?

Oh well... not a contender for honors, but it was a pretty tight race (Arabia building space parts and landing massive army on my shores) so it was exciting at least. I guess king is the level where I am challenged but am still capable of winning. (At least on this patch, we'll see what the next one does.. ).

Also, I noticed something weird (I think)... I had only 1 turn to go on a tech when an RA finished it for me, but I didn't see any carry over to the next tech. Did I just not notice, or is this the correct game mechanic (no overflow on RA's)?

 

[leif erikson]

Time to celebrate

Congratulations

Nice work Swede.

 

[Maxym]

RA do overflow but not necessarily to a tech you want, I think it's random into any open tech. Does anyone know exactly? Congrats on your win

 

[caeru71]

1976 Diplo win.

 

[nthexwn]

My gameplay summary:

Ramesses is a dick, Suleiman is useless, Harun cheats, and archipelago warfare is frustrating...

 

[kcd_swede]

RA do overflow but not necessarily to a tech you want, I think it's random into any open tech. Does anyone know exactly? Congrats on your win

Thanks. Yeah, that's probably what happened. I had another RA mature on the following turn, so it was hard to tell where all the beakers went. Since another RA actually did so I got two tech on the same turn, I guessed that it was supposed to carry over... I must have just overlooked it.

My gameplay summary:

Ramesses is a dick, Suleiman is useless, Harun cheats, and archipelago warfare is frustrating...

I agree! I would like to mention that as frustrating as it is for the human, archi warfare is even more frustrating for the AI. Perfect for a peaceful game... one destroyer is a pretty good safety margin.

I would like to ad to my game description that I maintained friendly relations with Napoleon and Harun and Ghandi and Bismark throughout. Was friendly with Washington until the very end... after my second refusal to give him lots of money after a DoF, he denounced me... and he didn't like me dealing with his enemy. Ramses of course denounced me several times over the course of the game... but that was better than eliminating him and being a villain. The only +diplo modifier that didn't evaporate on Napoleon was returning a settler captured from barbs (I had just finished deleting all my workers, and it was too far to be worth bringing home... I was pleasantly suprised that it was worth so much diplomatically, though). This modifier stayed for over 200 turns, maybe its permanent?

Maybe I should also add that I didn't build a single UU, nor did I turn any barb ships (I only killed one, and it just died) so the trait was useless as well.

 

[Tabarnak]

I bulbed 13 techs to start the UN around turn 244, used a ge to accelerate the wonder and still have 12 turns left to build...

Good thing because i wasn't completely ready to ally more cs. Germany began to ally a bunch of them. I throwed 1000 gold to recuperate one but with no success . Unreal.

At 1 turn from vote i had 8 cs allied. One ally was stolen by germany 2 turns before. I throwed a last 250 gold left to him and i could re-ally the cs...phew!

Picture of a close race(didnt declare war to anyone or have been declared, it was a 100% peaceful game) :

Spoiler :

 

[xerex]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 18
Date submitted: 2011-08-20
Your name: xerex
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1906AD
Turns played: 326
Base score: 1069
Final score: 1644
Time played: 4:37:00

Somewhere around 1780AD I beelined til Ecology, had a GS ready to bulb Globalization, and a GE to accelerate a bit the UN. Victory at my fingertips!
.. except.. noooo.. there is one additional "link" right before Globalization that requires you to research 12 more expensive techs
When did that happened?!? It has been a while since I did a Diplo... Also I should read the update logs before playing argh.

PS: I played with latest patch 1.0.1.383

Edit: I found the answer to my own question. "Globalization now requires Computers, and the cost is increased". Since 1.0.1.332 (June, 27th). That was ages ago, wasn't it?

 

[killerloop]

Sorry Tabarnak, I've beaten you by 2 turns

edit: I finally found out how to upload an image!

Spoiler :

Harun must be cheating, he had at one time almost 290 gpt! At that time within 20 turns he allied 10 more CS's (and had 13 CS'S allied, the other 3 were indian)

I bulbed my final 8 techs on t232 with 5 GS, Oxford and 2 from SciRev, didn't have a GE, till turn 260 where I finally got my GE from Liberty, and was able to bulb the rest of the UN (only 2 turns )

Money & Happiness were the big issue this game, I was only able to ally 1 CS for a couple of turns around turn 200 or so.

I had to wait till turn 162 before I could declare war on Ramses to finally (turn 178) get his capital with 2 LSM's, 2 cannons and an X-bow. He kept on sailing in pikes and chariots. Also he managed to build an archer and a caravel in one turn, that started bombarding me (that's cheating IMHO).

I settled initially 3 cities: Capital on the Northern wine, Edirne (t39) SW of bananas, and Ankara (t74) South on the middle wine. At t126 I sttled Bursa right of the iron on the NE island.

Opening was pottery/writing. Bought a worker t24 with loan. at t43 I had optics and sent out my warrior and 2 scouts to discover the world. At t60 I finished GLib (bulbed Theo), that I build "softly" focussing on growth only, being at size 9 at turn 60. Build HS on t90, PT on t91. Hard build ND on t142. At around t100 I opened Rationalism.

Overall, game was slow, but peacefull. India/Engl/Germ were fighting each other. Harun was the runaway civ (but not techwise!).

The endgame was tight. 10 turns before I finshed UN, America asked me to join war against Harun. At that time I already snapped 6 allies away from Harun, he still had 7, and 3 were still indian. I thought it wise as with the money Harun was making (~250gpt) it would be not possible to snap my allies away being at war. I still could buy the 3 allies from India was my plan.... In the 1st turn of war Harun buys an indian ally !!!!
I sell everything I have, to be able to buy the last two allies from India, but I only manage to buy one. For 5 turns I'm in a tricky situation, if Harun buys the last ally I'm in a bad situation. He doesn't, phew!!! Then Lhasa (my ally) becomes an issue, being heavily under attack by Harun, but with gifting 2 cannons and 2 infantry I manage to keep Lhasa alive (2 turns before the end it was bombarded red with 2 cavalry waiting to take it) PPPHEEEEEWWWW!!!!
The rest is history, t263 Diplo win.

Tx Staff for again a great game , by no way this was a standard, easy King win

 

[leif erikson]

Tx Staff for again a great game , by no way this was a standard, easy King win

Best not tell Swede that, his win might turn into a loss...

 

[killerloop]

nthexwn wrote:

Ramesses is a d..k, Suleiman is useless, Harun cheats, and archipelago warfare is frustrating...

I agree mostly:
Ramses is plain stupid! (and has frog-legs, ever noticed !?)
Suleiman is useless! (I didn't build any ship nor UU)
Harun cheats, definitely! (over 250 gpt for over 80 turns)
Archipelago scouting is frustrating! (I didn't need oversea warfare, I only took Thebes)

My summary:
no happiness => slow growth => little money => no CS => slower growth and no lux=> even less money & happiness => slow RA's: LOOOONGGGG game => no sleep, but.... FUN!!!

 

[Tabarnak]

Harun must be cheating, he had at one time almost 290 gpt!

Yes, and Germany too for me. Strangely, Harun allied only a few cs.

PPPHEEEEEWWWW!!!!



by no way this was a standard, easy King win

Toughest king level game ever.

Egypt was hostile, France and England had serious difficulties to generate gold, letting me only 4 decent RAs/buyers partners.

 

[kcd_swede]

Best not tell Swede that, his win might turn into a loss...

Well... I'm glad nobody told me that before I played. My confidence level is shaky enough. But hearing this, maybe I'm not so far from an emperor level win after all?

 

[Banman]

Won in 1952 AD, turn 372 ...

my summary --> Egypt easily intimidated, Arabia ran away with all the cs's, I waited til I had cannons to take Thebes and Egypt gave me its nearby islands ... otherwise completely peaceful game. After Egypt was pushed back, began the long race to peel away arabia's city-states and get the UN --> was a close thing at a few points, since Arabia was running >250 gpt for most of the game (checked the graphs after --> arabia cleans up with harbors, his trade routes were almost off the charts) and was science leader for awhile. Managed to squeak it out in the end though ... was a fun game!

 

[basta]

Won on turn 350, but wow what a next-turn slogfest for the last 200 turns!

I went GL+NC and settled 4 other cities, then a 5th on a barren island up on the top of the map to get iron and furs. Probly should have settled one, even 2 less--didn't really need them in the end.

Anyway, Egypt and Arabia joint DoWed after I got the NC and was settling, so that was an interesting start, and why I plopped the iron/island city. Only Rameses showed up for the war, though, and I took three of his cities and left him on the small rock next to his capital, with one tile of the 3-tile island part of my empire--very satisfying, that.

Harun offered peace when the capital fell.

After that, built science and gold buildings as much and fast as I could to slog through the tech tree and buy off the CS. Hard-built HS and burned a GE for PT. Badly mangled my RAs; I should have signed many more deals and mis-timed the 2 free rationalism techs which were just wasted on a single available tech with 2 turns left and the one immediately following (grrr!); otherwise I would have finished 30 turns earlier.

After beelining Econ, I just clicked on Globalization and let the tech tree run autopilot, which is quite mad and needs to be re-tree-ed (if that's a word). I still had crossbows with my research labs! You get infantry before rifles! I had about 1000 beakers running at the end but it still took forever. Someone else pointed out that the tree runs to the last tech before, then circles back for another +40-turn slog through military techs: talk about frustrating and especially, T.E.D.I.O.U.S.

Anyway, besides strong but sloppy science, I had tons of gold and enough culture to complete Liberty, Patronage and Rationalism. I had all the CS bought and paid for by turn 150, so the last 200 turns seemed a bit pointless, because nothing happened. Harun made noises, but in the end was a happy camper, and Rameses taunted me from time to time from his barren two-thirds of a rock.

 

[Maxym]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 18
Date submitted: 2011-08-24
Reference number: 24791
Your name: Maxym
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1826AD
Turns played: 283
Base score: 1124
Final score: 2007
Time played: 15:20:00
Submitted save: Suleiman_0283 AD-1826.Civ5Save


It's been a fairly hard game for a king, but not really a serious challenge or particularly exciting one. I messed up starting location by not settling on wine, especially as I got calendar very early and for a lack of worker did not connect my luxes for a long time.

I waited till UU to take out Thebes and one more city on island with iron to the north, four Janis was enough. I left him alive hoping he would play nice and trade and sign RA
But he did not I kept buying CS and signing RAs like mad through the Renaissance and those got me through industrial era, but then blew it by not paying for penalties and AI loans asap and ended up in a sad era of about 30 turns without one and seeing my hoped for fast finish evaporate. Also did not realize I needed two GE to rush UN

I think I could have popped few more GS. I settled the first two and kept the rest, maybe four or five at most. Other then that not sure what else to do to improve, looking forward to some super fast finishes and their write-ups.

I finished with 15 CS allies and never was threathened, as I had a few boats and kept five UUs and GG in case someone tried something funny. Harun was the dominant civ with US and egypt not far behind until I attacked them. Eventually I displaced US as number two. Kept tech lead all game long.

 

[xiziz]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 18
Date submitted: 2011-08-25
Your name: xiziz
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1973AD
Turns played: 393
Base score: 1096
Final score: 1405
Time played: 8:50:00

120 turns slower or so than my last diplo victory, made a bunch of errors but the main reason it took me longer is because I tried to go wide instead of tall, which I have not done since back when the game was first released. Ended up having happiness problems early on, but was making 250gpt the last hundred or so turns, which was nice and really helped with the citystates, I had them all as allies the last hundred or so turns. Only missed two votes, one from Sidney which I ended up conquering after using since egypt first tried to invade me for getting promotions on my ships, and one from Sidon which america conqured the turn before the vote. I did not take any notes during this game, but I had three cities before turn 50, and before I had hooked my lux up, which got me in trouble early on.
Ended with 8 cities of my own and four puppets. I might add that almost all the AI's were broke the entire game, I chose to trade lux with them for the spare change they had instead of RA, in retrospect, this was probably wrong.

Spoiler :

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