TSG181 After Action

[leif erikson]

Welcome to the TSG181 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?​

 

[Ozmandius]

OK, been a while since I tried a Prince so decided to give this one a try.
Completed a Domination victory around T225.

How useful was your UA?
Useless. Started attacking as soon as possible so no one was ever bigger than me.

Did you use spying to your advantage?
Nope. Only got a spy at the later stage of the game. Was tech leader and no AI controlled any city state so just left the spy in my capital.

Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
Mainly hinder. It was big and full of rough terrain which slowed down both movement and attack. When I showed up at Venice around T90 is was still completely surrounded by jungle which really bogged down the attack (more below).

How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
A lot. At Prince level the AIs (and city-states) basically do nothing. They are no threat. The raging barbarians were a bigger problem actually.

What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
Full Honor. Couple of random others after that but it didn't really matter. Never got to ideology.

What techs did you prioritize?
Archery! Very first one. Then luxury good techs, then library (to get Great Library and then NC) then Civil Service ( a mistake, should have gone straight to ...) then Comp Bow, then University and Acoustics (a mistake .. should have gone straight to ...) then Optics (to get embarkation), then Heavy Crossbow, then Industrialisation (not neccessary and got it just as game ended)

What did you think of the map and settings?
As mentioned, map was huge and terrain slowed me down (so much jungle on way to AH and at Venice and a lot on the other continent. Roads did not exist since AI basically don't develop anything (including luxury goods so no one to trade with) at Prince Level. On first continent, AIs only had 1 city (max 2). On second continent they got up to 3. None of the AIs had more than 2-3 units (perhaps their workers, colonists and units were constantly being stolen/killed by the raging barbs?).


What happened ...
Been a long time since I played at Prince but I did remember that AIs basically just sat there.

Decided to go to immediate full offensive. Researched archer (first two builds were Stele and Scout) and then built 4 archers. These 4 archers and starting warrior I sent north were they took over Madrid (quickly), AH (quickly once I got there, captured capital and burnt down a second city they had just started) and Japan (quickly once I got there, captured capital and burnt down a second city they had just started). This was maybe T80 and I just got Comp Bows so upgraded and then headed back south where they helped with Venice.

My next 5 builds were 4 archers and a horseman (thanks to horsies I found near Madrid) which I sent west. Took over Shoshone capital (left them 1 city to the south) and headed to Venice. Botched the first attack on Venice. Completely surrounded by jungle .. had to walk right up to the city before I could attack .. and Venice almost killed my horse so I had to peace out. By the time war started again my other army had showed from Japan and Venice went down.

Starting continent cleared around T100. Got ready to head to second continent and found I had forgot to research embarkation so sat in Venice for 10 turns or so till that was done.

At this point I realised I had done a lot of research wrong. Really all you need to finish the game is Comp Bow (the final Persian capital had walls at 23 when I showed up T200+). What you should do for tech for speediest victory (resist the urge to build every wonder!) is Archery, Lux Goods tech, Writing (Great Library to Philosophy is OK .. should have built both armies by then and nothing else to do), Comp Bow, Optics, Crossbow. Don't bother settling or developing cities other than Lux Goods and strategic materials. You get gold and culture from killing barbs and a lot more gold from getting tribute from city states. Many times one unit showing up was enough to scare city-states into giving tribute. Maybe I should have created a third army to go after Persia since I found them last (alone on their island to the far south) but I didn't really know that at the time. Never built one boat the whole game (never had a coastal city either till I captured the Persian capital at the very end.

Anyway, once I got embarkation, I headed west out of Venice hoping to find the other continent. Luckily, there were coastal waters all the way. Unluckily there were hordes of barbarians ships that had to be cleared out of the way. Luckily there were lots of little islands you could drop an archer on who would clear the barbs out while the rest of the troops floated past. Must have been 20 turns or so to cross over.

Found the French and took Paris, wandered north and took Siam. This was around T150 and here I upgraded to Crossbows. At this point, I still didn't know where any other AIs were located so headed west from Siam and took to the water and headed down the coast. After Paris, I should have used 1-2 units to scout in other directions. Sure didn't need them all against Siam.

Back on continent 1, I did create a third army to finish off the Shoshone (entirely unnecessary) and then used that army to farm barb villages for culture and gold and city-states for tribute (very necessary). Never kill the barb villages .. just sit there and wait for units to show up.

Found the Aztecs (who actually had more than 2 units!) Took over his 3 cities (should have just kept the capital and burned the other two down). Around now I did finally meet the other AIs (Gao, Byzantines, Persians). Actually had to go back to get Gao and then split my forces into two, one of which took the Byzantines and other the Persians (after a very long march)., My crossbows were all double shot extended range by this time and they really had no chance.

In hindsight, I could have done better if I had done tech in the correct order, been a bit more efficient in my tribute gathering, had not bothered to settle a second city (just to the north by the copper) which never really got big enough to be any help, and scouted better on the second continent.

Did get a religion which was helpful. Now that I think of it maybe if I picked Holy Warriors I could have sped things up, though most of my troops were already built by the time I could have used that. Possibly it would have been helpful in the second continent to speed up scouting.

If I have time maybe I'll try again to see if this advice really speeds things up or not.

[1 week later]

OK, tried again following my own advice.
Completed in 182 Turns but mostly due to dumb luck.

Home continent went about the same as first time except got off the continent 10 turns earlier since I had embarkation ready this time.

The crossing seemed a bit easier this time .. perhaps there were less barbarian villages spawning ships? Anyway, saves a few turns on the crossing as well.

Landed near Paris, which was more developed this time (Jungles were cleared) so easier for me to attack. Most important though was just as I started the attack A Persian scout walked by and said "Look! My capital is just over that way!!"

Once Paris fell, I split my forces. One headed to Persia (and eventually the Byzantines). Meanwhile, the force leaving Paris the other way bumped into Gao and Thai units so that was two more capitals found. That force took the Thai capital, then Gao, then Monty (just beyond Gao). But just luck that I found the capital s so quickly.

Anyway, it does seem that if you want to go for a speed win, scouting out capitals as quickly (or luckily) is really important.

Oh yes, did take Holy Warriors for my religion but that did not have much impact. Both my main armies were long gone by the time I was only to buy faith units.

Finally, on the very last turn, I made it into Rennaisance ... could have done it a bit earlier but wanted to keet cheap missionaries. None of the AIs had made it that far yet.

 

[zxcvbob]

Domination victory in 371 turns. The first world leader vote was about 3 turns away and I had more than enough votes for it.

I've never played a huge map before, and I assumed I needed Astronomy to get to the other continent. Initial scouting to the east seemed to bear that out; I didn't think to send a scout west. So my plan was to sweep my continent, then explore the oceans and find everyone else and take them out with frigates and privateers. I settled in place and quickly got a settler out to grab the copper. Build order was something like stele, scout, archer, archer, granary, settler, archer. Copper City built Petra as soon as it unlocked. My third city was Madrid, which I annexed right away. Next I attacked the Shoshone, and the UA might have actually helped there a little because he had lots of cities. During that war, I also settled another city on the east coast on a hill near the holy mountain and the salt. I think Japan fell next, then Venice and Austria at the same time. 200 turns to totally capture my continent and get a nice economy set up, while hiding from the rest of the world so they wouldn't know what a monster i was.

It took a while to scout out the map, even with Great Lighthouse and the Exploration opener, and giving some of my caravels the extra sight promotion. I thought i was going to get to found the world congress. In retrospect, maybe I should have stayed at war with either Venice or Shoshone but not taken their last city until after finding everyone else and starting the world congress. Since they wouldn't have met anybody, I don't think anyone would care...

Imagine my surprise when nobody except Persia was on the coast. I attacked Theodora next; razed everything except a coastal city that had Solomon's Mines and Constantinople. Persia was next. Then Monty. I destroyed the Aztecs with just 2 highly promoted infantry units (upgraded Minutemen; my cannons, Gatling guns, and even cav and lancers couldn't keep up) Last, I declared war on France and Siam at the same time. (Goa had been capture by France) For that last war, I had bombers, tanks, rocket artillery, and a 4-range battleship as well as those level-8 infantries so it went really fast once I bombed all those stupid elephants.

Social policies were: Tradition opener, full Honor (right side first), finish Tradition, Rationalism 3, Exploration opener and Maritime Infrastructure, Autocracy 6 (Gunboat Diplomacy), full Commerce. I totally finished both the Tradition and Honor trees before Rationalism unlocked because all the culture from killing barbs, the Military Caste policy, and building Oracle and Sistine Chapel.

Techs that I prioritized: Astronomy, Industrialization (to get to the industrial era so I could stop buying useless missionaries every 3 turns to avoid another useless-but-expensive prophet from spawning), Steam Power (for faster embarking), and Flight (Prora).

I thought the map and settings were interesting. Especially almost nobody being on the coast. i should have suspected something when Venice was landlocked.

 

[arieltal]

Victory on turn 375

i've played the game on the same day it was published, so i don't remember exactly what happened, but i decided to share since it's part of the fun

settled in place, chose fertility rites as a pantheon, (though i would have taken the one with the +4 on natural wonders if i had seen the holy mountain earlier..)
second city was on the coast near the mountain (uluru was it?) adjacent to the fish, third one was to the south near those horses.
the immediate area was all plains, not great for growth, but as i learned later it didn't matter that much..
was first to found a religion, took ceremonial burial, which was unnecessary most of the game, (that is until i started conquering and razing cities, that's when it was very useful)
also chose the follower belief where i can purchase military units with faith, (was generating a lot of it)

i waited till i got crossbowmen to start fighting, took out spain first, left them with one city, then austria, again i left them a city, (later i killed them both since they kept stealing techs with their spies)
meanwhile japan killed venice, which was later captured by the shoshones, that also captured kyoto.
after i was done with maria theresa, i turned to pocatello, he had many cities at that time so i've had a nice UA bonus there for a while..)
taking him out was more difficult, he had a good military and i have taken many detours to building unnecessary wonders..
i took all of his cities, there was a peace deal in which he offered me almost all of them.. (got me to unhappiness for a while there)
i went to the other continent which i found with my caravel (didn't know i could get there with just optics..)
at first a sent a small army, which scouted the area, had two crossbowmen and a knight hanging around the aztecs capital, he was at war with france,
that allowed me to take it in one turn, i waited for france to weaken the city, and then declared war and took it with the knight,.
his religion had the reformation belief where you can purchase late game military with faith, which was great for me..

than i sent my military from venice area to the other side of the continent, took out siam first, wasn't very efficient at that war sadly.. but won after a long siege..
sent some ships to fight the persian coastal capital, took a while to take it, i allied all the city stated in the game as soon as i could. so it was easy to retreat to kuala's territory to heal up while keeping the pressure on.
after siam i went to france area, i had some minutemen that i got from a city state, napoleon had the great wall which was a huge bummer for me.. could have taken him out a lot sooner without it..
(also that's when i learned that if YOU discover d- 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?ynamite, it doesn't guarantee that you will obsolete that wonder.. apparently the owner has to discover it.. )
at that time, france owned the songhai's capital, after i took paris, he gave to me in a peace deal)
last one was theodora, took that city very fast i had artillery and cavalries, it wasn't a very defensive location..

i've made a lot of mistakes in this game, many choices which i regretted soon.. could have won a lot sooner had i not concentrated on one enemy at a time..
at the beginning all it took was 3 crossbowmen and a melee to take a city in 2 or 3 turns.. could save a lot of time had i sent several armies to different enemy cities.. (was generating enough faith to buy a unit every few turns..)
i took piety and tradition, partronage and rationalism, don't remember which ideology i went for, but probably was order..

- How useful was your UA?

only at the beginning, and then again against pocatello.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?

didn't spy much, just used them for city states, except one which was on counter-intelligence (wasn't a very good one )

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

map was difficult at first, i'm used to higher difficulties, so i was looking at the area around me as the only viable land to claim..
better scouting would have shorten the game considerably..

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?

stupidly, it didn't..

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

first went piety for the fast shrine, then tradition, i think patronage was next, and then rationalism..

- What techs did you prioritize ?

science techs first, military techs second.

- What did you think of the map and settings?

was allright if remember correctly there was no ruins, which enabled me to skip the initial scout and go for the stele first

EDIT: i found the save file, thought i deleted it but i just moved it, probably so it would be easier to find it for the upload system..
anyways, i also finished the honor tree, and order was the chosen ideology

 

[RHA_GTM]

Domination Victory
Turn 296
Final score 3897

I built NC on turn 47 (personal record) and started conquering the world on turn 240 with landships and artillery. Built the Iron Curtain on turn 249 (free courthouses). Raced over the map and eat my way thrue cities with landships and tanks, artillery couldn't keep up. Finished with Theodora 56 turns later. I probably needed about 10 more turns to reach XCOM, but I didn't need them after all.The most advanced military unit I encountered was a musketman.

The whole game I had solely internal trade routes for growth. This was possible because I found a religion, picked tithe (1 gold per 4 followers) and made it the dominant religion on my continent.

- How useful was your UA?
Useless. I began with 4 cities on turn 240, but I attacked 3city Spain first, then 4city Austria, 6city Shoshone (I also had 6 cities by that time), 3city Japan etc..
The stele was very nice though.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?
Nope. But I never ever killed that much spies before, at some point almost every turn. (I did pick the counter spy tenet from Order).

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
Hinder a bit, since I had to cross a large ocean and most capitals weren't coastal.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
Thought it would be fun to attack with an army from the future. On a high difficulty I would have attacked way sooner, since on a high difficulty it isn't that obvious I can pull off a technological advanced army.

- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
Tradition, first 3 of Patronage, 3 of Rationalism, full Order.

Picked Order due to the combination of science and military. Built The Kremlin to mass produce landships. The +25% science from factories is also very neat. The Iron Curtain suits my needs best, as I only had internal trade routes and because of the free courthouses before my big expansion adventure around the globe.

- What techs did you prioritize ?
Biology. Need oil for a fast army and as it turned out, oil was almost nowhere around. After researching biology, I had some time to collect oil.
And the one needed for landships. Because landships move very fast and don't get stuck that much in the jungle.

- What did you think of the map and settings?
I liked the map very much. I normally play huge maps on pangae, but this adds an extra element.
Prince isn't much of a challenge for me though.

Edit: I conquered Persepolis pretty early (somewhere around the time I conquered Austria) with 4 frigates and a privateer, though I captured the city with a knight I earlier used for scouting when the defences were down.

 

[billybgame]

Just submitted a tech victory 1985.....sadly, finished this about a week ago, so not sure on some details.

I know I spotted that prime 2nd city site just to the North, along the river with horses and lots of other bonuses...got that, then proceeded to have my empire in that whole SE quadrant of the map. I was best buds with a number of military city states, so I had a massive wall of defenders....put along our eastern border. I had also taken Madrid from Isabella after she continued to spread her stupid religion, even after I kindly asked her not to. The Iroquois were hated war mongers and took out every other civ on our continent, but they never declared on me, due to my intimidating forces. I even denounced him after his great general took one of my happiness resources. It would have been some war, had it come to it.

I maybe could've won earlier other ways. I was allies with nearly all the city states, and wasn't even trying that hard. And, I built a later city on an unoccupied island, so couldn't most of my civ wonders. So, could've certainly done better.

But, good to be playing again, and we will take it.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Settled on desert hill 2 NE, 3 scouts then a stele. Settled second city south to get the gold and the third down on the coast for ivory. I beelined for composite bows, then went after Izzy first, then Pocatello. The in order: the Doge, Maria Theresa, Tokagawa, Napoleon (he had Askia’s capitol so I took that as well), Rammy, Theodora, Monty, and Darius with frigates and caravels. I used artillery, winged hussars (from one of the city states) and minutemen (also from a CS) on Siam, Byzantines, and Aztecs. I built several wonders just for giggles and won on turn 270. I suppose if I had a laser focus I could have won a lot sooner, but I was enjoying myself.

- How useful was your UA?

I only fought one war (Pocatello) with more cities, so it really didn't come into play. The UU was a non-factor. I upgraded one, but he never got into the action. The stele on the other hand was very nice. Got the second Pantheon (desert tiles) then Bugsyism was the first religion founded and came to dominate the world. Didn't have to work on that at all.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?

Because I had a tech lead, my first spy worked counterintelligence and nailed a lot of foreign spies. Second spy went to rigging elections.

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

I was wondering if the designers put that coastal lane between continents. That was quite handy. Probably cut 20-30 turns off the end of the game.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?

I win about 30-40% of my deity games, so this wasn’t hard for me.

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

Opened honor for barb farming. Love farming barbs for culture and gold. Finished liberty. Opened patronage. Opened commerce. Finished rationalization. Never got further, so no ideology.

- What techs did you prioritize ?

Construction first for CBs, then philosophy (for NC), guilds (for Machu Pichu. I wanted to build it). Education, Astronomy, then finally Dynamite.

- What did you think of the map and settings?

They were fine.

 

[beetle]

Fun game! T361 (1941), Base score: 2470, Final score: 3430.

At Prince, I wanted to make HCA work. I was not in any hurry, as I wanted to enjoy Clauswitz, but I also wanted to win before having to vote against myself as WL. Also, I wanted total domination. I just barely made that all work, WL vote was in turn turns, and I killed the last city on the turn Clauswitz ran out. Screen shot shows two of three self-founded cities, the third is far to the W coast to pick up the other NW on the starting continent.

I cleared the starting continent (with XBs) before meeting anyone in the “new world” so that gave me some trades for a bit while I regrouped with UU, Cannons, and Gats.

Also, I have to say that I loved barb radar from, as that was really helpful since I had a lot of open space.

I used inquisitors on all the rival Holy Cities, just for RP, and built Wonders like a newb, including GLi for Philosophy. Great fun!

 

[socralynnek]

Retired on turn 240 due to lack of time.
Didn't play this optimal for fast finishing anyway (settled 4 cities, then conquered Madrid and Austria, because they were the ones with different religions on home continent)

Surely was on the way of winning, but did not yet build an army for the other continent.
Maybe should have focused more on techs if not going the conquer-as-fast-as-possible approach...