TSG198 After Action

[leif erikson]

Welcome to the TSG198 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?​

 

[billybgame]

Moderator Action: Moved the edit to the Spoiler thread because it is a spoiler.
Edit:

I have started and am a bit past 1 AD. I tend to get discouraged playing Prince. I've won games on Prince, but sometimes I just don't get how the AI civs, when it's supposed to be equal footing, are creating Wonders left and right, and how they are founding religions already, when I have 60 turns until I get a Great Prophet. One AI civ just enhanced their religion and I'm still 30 turns away from my GP!!!

And, mind you, I was the first Civ to choose a Belief as well. I get it that I don't have 3 cities like some....but still not getting at all how that could have that much more religion to zoom past me like that.

This is why I usually play Warlord. Sure doesn't seem like a level playing field to me. Prince in Civ 5 seems like King in Civ 4.

Is it just me?

 

[Nizef]

Here are a couple of pictures of my game until t100 and a few lines: I built Stonehenge, Great Library and Hanging Gardens. I recruited two workers myself and stole one from Kiev. First religion with GodKing (!), Tithe and Pagodas. NC roughly on t75. I didn´t bother with triremes just yet, so my scouting has been more or less non existing. I don´t know, if I will continue but it has for sure been a rough start (as I assume was intended), even if I am first in most demographics.

EDIT: I played until t150. I reached Education as late as t127 and took out Sejong on t149 for fun.

 

[raider980]

Nice game so far. I got the 2nd or 3rd religion and didn't know what pantheon to take, no specialized ones were good so I took Fertility Rights. I did get Tithe and Pagodas also. I delayed NC way late, like T135, so I could build other wonders. I figured I didn't really need the science and wonders were actually available unlike on Deity. I also built more triremes than normal; barbs kept pillaging my trade routes and I was losing gold.

Spoiler T101 Screenshot :

I have started and am a bit past 1 AD. I tend to get discouraged playing Prince. I've won games on Prince, but sometimes I just don't get how the AI civs, when it's supposed to be equal footing, are creating Wonders left and right, and how they are founding religions already, when I have 60 turns until I get a Great Prophet. One AI civ just enhanced their religion and I'm still 30 turns away from my GP!!!

And, mind you, I was the first Civ to choose a Belief as well. I get it that I don't have 3 cities like some....but still not getting at all how that could have that much more religion to zoom past me like that.

This is why I usually play Warlord. Sure doesn't seem like a level playing field to me. Prince in Civ 5 seems like King in Civ 4.

Is it just me?

The AI love Piety. At least half of them seem to take it every game. So they'll go for the religions and then spam missionaries at you so no, its not just you. But you should be able to get a religion still. What pantheon did you take? Sometimes the only way to get a religion is to take a faith generating pantheon; but on Prince you should be able to get one with Shrines in all your cities, maybe Temples too. And heck, religion is not that important in Civ 5, its kind of like just a bonus so if you don't get it let those AI missionaries come.

As for wonders, there are certain wonders the AI loves so you just gotta go for the ones they don't. And on higher levels like Immortal and Deity I usually don't even bother trying to build them except for a select few like Oracle, Pyrimids/Hanging Gardens, Neuschwanstein, Hubble.

 

[Hobse]

This is my first submission to GOTM, and the first one that I've actually played all the way through. Quite enjoyed myself... though the game itself was a horrendous train wreck.

I really enjoy playing as Venice, mainly because the idea of being a money mogul is quite fun and all those trade routes is just so tasty!

I bought two city-states as puppets relatively early, so was feeling rather boosted, but Russia was a real pain in the neck the entire time. The final straw was when I bought out an ally city-state of hers, which she didn't react well to. I wasn't ready for the war, and lost everything down to just Venice again. Tried to rebuild my empire, paying off pretty much everyone and blasting through Research Agreements, which was kinda working. The Zulus went to war with me once, but I just ignored them and other than a trade route that got eaten, they didn't do any damage to me before finally peacing out.

I lost to a Time Victory by Russia (I haven't played many games to the end so I didn't even realize that was going to happen), and didn't even make it into the Atomic Era. I've never attempted a science victory before, not sure that I've played on Prince before, and generally play for domination victory. I also don't think I've played on this map type before, and the ocean was a really interesting thing to have to deal with, though it made defense a lot easier.

Had a great time, but was definitely not successful!

Thanks for the good time! I think I may go play the Civ IV game, because I'm really enjoying these types of things.

 

[Jovan Kukic]

Turn 392 Science(space race) victory. I intentionally skipped diplomatic victory for two times, by assigning not all of my votes. I had much ca$h in this game. I mostly played peacefully, until I got enough modern units from city states and money to buy buildings in captured cities.

 

[raider980]

I was ahead so I got a time victory at T400 but failed the GotM due to time running out without a science victory. I didn't realize how fast the turns go by on Prince until it was too late. Around T250 I noticed that I had better hurry up but couldn't get enough science to even get close to the spaceship part techs. I would have needed 40-50 more turns proabably.

Venice has so many trade routes I couldn't even use them all, had to build so many cargo ships. I SiP and didn't even build a scout until after I could embark. I bought six CS in total:

• T74, Kiev with my first MoV
• T236 Samarkand
• T245 Kathmandu
• T254 Lhasa
• T318 Ur
• T398 Hong Kong, just to see how much more science I would get by owning the city vs having it as an ally. It wasn't a big difference - only 34 more science.

- How useful was your UA?

Venice is fun to play sometimes but so different that its almost a different game. Double cargo ships is awesome. So much money and enough left over for lots of food cargo ships.​

- Did you use spying to your advantage?

When I got my first spy I was #1 in tech so I put it in my capital for defense. Stole a couple of tech - key one being Industrial - but mostly used them for CS alliances.​

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

I like water maps, it probably helped due to all the cargo ships we could generate and everyone was coastal.​

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?

It was Prince so I played around too much in the beginning and didn't keep my eye on the victory at the end. Built too many unnecessary wonders and didn't concentrate on science enough.​

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

I went Liberty for the free MoV to take Kiev. (Edit. I was incorrect, I took Kiev with my free MoV from tech.) I ended up finishing Liberty then taking a few in Patronage, the wonder one in Tradition, a couple in Exploration, opened Aesthetics, Freedom ideology and finished Rationalism along the way. Freedom didn't help because I didn't even get a chance to buy spaceship parts.​

- What techs did you prioritize ?

Unfortunately not science techs. This led to my loss.​

- What did you think of the map and settings?

I liked the map. Not sure about the 400 turn limit. I guess it should have been doable and I should have realized it meant no messing around even though it is Prince. ​

Spoiler T400 ran out of time screenshot :

 

[zxcvbob]

I had the same thing happen as raider; time victory. I had 4 of the space ship parts finished and was about to start Particle Physics or Mobile Tactics. Then I had Combustion to Nanotechnology to go. And I had enough faith to buy one more great scientist in a few turns.

Not sure that I wasted any time... I should have bought research labs in my puppets instead of letting them build them. (I did buy all the science buildings in Venice) I wonder if Patronage is the path to victory on this map? I may try it again and see I did Tradition, Honor opener, Exploration opener, Rationalism, Commerce, Freedom(6), and was working on Exploration. Honor was a wasted policy but I got that back with the Oracle. It was a fun game.

Edit: here's a screen shot of the heart of my empire. I also had Kathmandu, Ulundi, Nobamba, and one other former Zulu city. Ulundi and the one I can't remember were recently captured. Nobamba was taken in a peace treaty a long time ago and grew into a very nice city.

 

[zxcvbob]

Played it again. To minimize the effect of map knowledge, I put my all explorers on autopilot. Tradition, Exploration opener, left side of Patronage, Rationalism, Commerce, Freedom. Won a science victory on turn 385.

The science from the city states was pitiful, but an extra 100 beakers per turn still helps a little. I think more importantly, I built Brandenburg just for the 2 extra GS points, and I built it pretty early. And I managed my specialists a little better to get a few more scientists and less merchants. (I still got plenty of merchants, mostly in my puppet cities)

 

[Caracal]

My first GotM, grats to everyone that finished. I almost got there ...

Nope couldn't finish in time. I almost got there, another twenty turns or so would have done it. I got sidetracked a couple of times, one time to many as it turns out. I panicked when I saw how close Russia and Korea were and over built my military,. That set me back early. OTOH, they didn't t declare war Then in the mid game I went wonder crazy and build way to many wonders having nothing to do with science. Stupid me.

Finally, Catherine passed Arts Funding early on and I spent 30 or so turns making friends with City States to get it revoked. I should have just lived with it. I might replay it just for my own satisfaction.

Edit: I think my plan was sound, I just didn't follow through. Liberty, Rationalism, Freedom - nothing else. (well, if you want FP to play defense for WC get the Patronage opener). Turtle to Education and Compass, use Oxford to get to the Renaissance to start Rationalism ASAP.

Liberty give you two MoVs and a GA, very nice to start. Freedom for Space Procurement. I took some Piety policies waiting for Rationalism. OR and Theocracy are nice and getting a Reformation belief is also nice.

Make friends, gift the friendly AIs a little gpt and excess resources you wont need, regularly gift them flat gold when you are friends. .I was friends with Germany the entire game! Get lots of Research Agreements - no matter the cost. Gift AIs the gold they need for the RA. They will agree to the RA but often want more - that's OK, give it to them. And pay attention to the timer, Stop getting RAs around turn 350 or so. I made this mistake - getting RAs too late to do any good.

Get a religion if you want but generate as much faith as you can (for scientists later)

Build all the science and GA wonders: Pottery-Writing and start GL right away. Turtle to CS for CI. Oracle and LTP are also nice. You can't have everything. By the time you get to Renaissance you should be far enough ahead to get any wonder you want. Stay focused, don't go crazy like I did and spam wonders that won't help with the science victory.

 

[Nizef]

To all readers of this thread. If you are interested in other games that other players are playing, you should check out the Strategy&Tips section. We have a new thread called Other Enjoyable Civ 5 Games and there is also quite an active community around the Enjoyable Deity Games thread.

 

[zxcvbob]

If you replay it, 1) the God-King pantheon is enough to get you a decent religion and the extra hammer and culture is very helpful early. I built Hagia Sophia to enhance it (actually delayed finishing that one waiting for the natural GP to show up to save about 100 faith) 2) Eliminate Russia early; you can do that with 2 or 3 galleasses and a pike or landsknecht. Your friends won't mind (much) and you haven't met half the civs yet so they won't know. 3) Captured AI cities work just as well as purchased city-states for Venice, you just don't get the free monument and aqueduct (assuming Tradition), and it saves you a merchant for a trade mission.

 

[Caracal]

I replayed the game, won on turn 276. I did some planning before I started and targeted a finished on 275, so pretty close!

Not sure why you would want to take out Russia unless its to puppet some cities. Moscow is a good early trade city and they don't really pose a threat. You need good relation with everyone ( for research agreements) and getting war monger penalties hurts - for a while anyway. I eventually became friends with Russia and got a couple of research agreements - she did eventually denounced me - oh well.

I had five friendly civs for the almost whole game and we signed RAs every 30 or so turns, I saved all my faith and bought two Great Scientists around turn 265 for the final two techs. I had ten puppets. Towards the end, before starting the Apollo Program, I began switching over cargo ships from gold routes to production to Venice. I timed it so Apollo was done just as I finished Satellites. Hubble took nine turns, I was planning on getting a GE for Hubble but my puppets kept generating Great Merchants! The vagaries of Venice.

Edit: Fun game but I think I've had my fill of Venice for a while.

 

[billybgame]

Just finished and like quite a few I read here, won a time victory. Wasn't even close to getting a science victory. Amazing that I won by score. I had the lead for a long time leading up to turn 400, then the annoying Napoleon built the Prora and took the lead with 2 turns to go. I had a few cities grow the last turn and researched Rocketry that very turn, and won by 1 point! 940 to 939. I laughed out loud as I thought I had lost at the very end.

I am highly interested in how you can win a science game in this one on turn 276. What year is that? I think I did think fairly well. Left my jungles and had lots of science. The one issue was( think it was France) got 33% more GA passed and I had to live with that for a long time. Napoleon was a major irritant in my game. I think many times, I should focus on taking him out early, like I do Alexander.

I had 10 cities. 7 city-states bought with MoVs and puppeted two Shoshone cities he planted on my island.

How useful was your UA?

The extra trade routes Venice gets are awesome for buying all sorts of stuff, but because it ended turn 400, was never able to buy any spaceship parts. Oddly, this game was the reverse of normal. Normally, I have the techs before I get the Policy to buy the parts. I never even got there, and got Rocketry on my last turn.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?

The only spy I sent elsewhere was to Paris, as I knew he was trying to out-culture everyone.

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

Not sure. Only war I had was with the Shoshone, who settled two cities on my island. So it was more peaceful. So I guess it helped.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?

Didn't really. This is how I would play on Warlord. But, then again, I didn't win a science victory.

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

Started with Tradition, given small empire, naturally. Then Patronage, which is almost always my 2nd. Rationalism, naturally next.

- What techs did you prioritize ?

Not sure if I am wrong in my tech strategies, but I always think it's best to go for the quickest techs to learn. I never beeline anything. I think in the long run that is disadvantageous.

- What did you think of the map and settings?

Thinking 400 turns is too short for this game...turn 400 was 1980.........we had one victory very close to it, and one turn 276 that I cannot even fathom.

 

[FritsF1]

Turn 366 science victory

- How useful was your UA?

With all the trade routes there was plenty of money. The city of Venice could focus on wonder building, the other buildings could be bought.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?

Not really, the AI was most of the time too far behind to steal techs. The city states could be bribed with all that money.

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

All that water was great for Venice. A peaceful game was easy on this map. No war was declared on Venice and defending would have been easy.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?

It made early wonder building possible, which was fun. I build the Great Lighthouse, Colossus and the Oracle before National Collage. It was probably better to prioritize the NC. I did not realize there was a turn limit so I was lucky to finish in time. On a higher difficulty level the AI would have been more helpful to get a faster win. To get research agreements I had to give/loan the AI the money first, since most of them were nearly broke.

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

First Tradition and the left side of Liberty (for the great merchant). Than full Rationalism and Freedom (for the space part buying), after that some random policies.

- What techs did you prioritize ?

Science focused

- What did you think of the map and settings?

I prefer the standard size map, I don’t like to conquer a huge world. But for a science victory I didn’t have to travel around the world so it was fine.

 

[Mantis Toboggan M.D.]

Turn 352 Science Victory.

- How useful was your UA?

Not being able to build expansion cities of my choice is kinda annoying. I still tried to make the best of it. I puppeted Hong Kong nearby to send food to Venice and then Manila mid-game to trade with nearby civs. This ended up being only marginally helpful because all my best trade routes were from Venice anyway and Manila was too far to feed Venice. I also puppeted a Zulu city settled near Venice and later on bought Hanoi for some extra science.
All the extra trade routes were great and I never lacked gold. I ended up purchasing nearly every building I wanted after the renaissance. Since I wasn't building anything I ended up wonder whoring, which was easy since I was so far ahead of everyone. I ended up with 16 wonders.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?

I was leading in science when I reached the renaissance so I only used spies to counterspy and flip city-states. This barely mattered since I bought most of them with my dragon's hoard anyway.

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

Did playing as Venice on an archipelago map help? I don't know, you tell me.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?

I usually play on Immortal so a King game was pretty leisurely. I was much more willing to grab competitive wonders and go out of my way on the tech tree early on. I grabbed Stonehenge so that I could keep my culture pantheon and have extra faith for scientists at the end. I never would've done this on a higher level. I also didn't build my National College until around turn 125.

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

I cleared Tradition first and foremost, followed by patronage. Thanks to Sacred Path and all my CS alliances, I had tons of culture and led in culture all game. I cleared Tradition, Patronage, and nearly Rationalism before the modern era. I went with Freedom for specialist bonuses and space procurements. After that I finished up Commerce.

- What techs did you prioritize ?

Iron working for Colossus, optics for the free merchant, banking for Forbidden Palace, acoustics for Sistine Chapel, then from this point forward aiming towards plastics and penicillin for the labs while grabbing whatever wonders become available.

- What did you think of the map and settings?

I usually play on higher difficulties so this was pretty easy for me. Venice on archipelago is basically cheating. I ended up basically playing a hybrid between aiming for science, culture, and diplomacy. I could've finished science earlier if I'd focused on it at the beginning instead of messing around with culture. And I had to skip a world leader vote because I had enough to win diplo.

 

[socralynnek]

Not enough time to finish this one.
But it is really a nice map for Venice /Science.

I guess, I was on a good way (will finish until the end of the month I guess)

 

[beetle]

Time VC since we were not warned in OP that we needed to hurry.

 

[fatusblobus]

Failed. I was 2 turns away from SV when the Time expired on turn 400. Won TV quite comfortably.

- How useful was your UA?

Very useful, By the end I picked up 6 city States. Should have prioritized this earlier, possibly with the Liberty Tree. I had decided to go down the patronage route with the +25% science boost from CS allies, but I later realised that I would have made more science from just puppeting cities instead.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?

Mainly to rig city states. I was so far ahead in tech that I couldn't steal from anyone. My own spy must have killed 30+ spies in the Capital.

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

Helped. The size of the map and the isolated island start position meant that there was no worry of war. I didn't fight a war the entire game.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?

Difficulty was low enough that I felt comfortable going for multiple wonders that I would not have gotten on higher difficulties, especially in the early game. Specifically I picked up Great Library, Stonehenge, Parthenon, and Hanging Gardens, in that order. Also difficulty meant that there was little worry about AI declaring war.

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

Finished Tradition, then Patronage, then Rationalism. Went Patronage for the happiness and science bonuses from city states. Took freedom ideology to get the purchase Spaceship parts and to get Statue of Liberty for production boost. In the late game I also completed the Commerce tree.

- What techs did you prioritize ?

Went for education to get the University. Then followed the tech tree to get to research labs, then for the spaceship parts. Really should have prioritized philosophy in order to get the NC earlier, left that too late while building wonders which is probably why I didn't make it past the finish line.

- What did you think of the map and settings?

Yeah, seemed decent. I do find Prince a little boring though. Prefer playing on Emperor or above, you're never sure if you're going to get that Wonder, or if an invasion is on it's way. Didn't get that feeling at all with this game. Especially later on when I had nuclear submarines and the AI were all moving around with Caravels still

 

[sebtanic]

Turn 369 science victory. My capital was size 44 when I won.


- How useful was your UA?

Pretty good, annexed 4 city states total, first Hong Kong, then Mogadishu and Lhasa, and in the late game (around t300) when I didn't need all that culture anymore, Kiev.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?

Not really.

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

Took a while to find everyone, but not a problem.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?

Built lots of wonders, and never had to worry about invasions.

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

Started with a liberty/tradition hybrid (tradition for growth, liberty for 2 free GMs). Then Rationalism, Freedom ideology to be able to buy space ship parts, and then Commerce. Also got some Patronnage in between. Had huge amounts of culture from CSs and wonders.

- What techs did you prioritize ?

Typical science beelines

- What did you think of the map and settings?

Good game, a bit too easy maybe!

EDIT: Forgot to upload the final save.