TSG20 After Action Report

[NotSure]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 20
Date submitted: 2011-09-24
Reference number: 24939
Your name: NotSure
Your email:
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1814AD
Turns played: 277
Base score: 1204
Final score: 2189
Time played: 84:27:00
Submitted save: TSG20_0277 AD-1814.Civ5Save
Renamed file: NotSure_C502001.Civ5Save

I just did the Russia gauntlet and had a slow time because I didn't get the RAs going fast enough. Well, by slow I mean way behind Tabarnak, Vexing, Martin, etc. I thought this would be very easy but I managed to mess this one by REXing too hard. I settled 5 cities relatively quickly. I put one up by where Tokyo is in Tabarnak's game. This killed Oda. He didn't have two nickles to rub together all game. He was literally in the red until the mid 200's. The second effect of the REX was a hostile Cathy. These two issues and that fact that Siam and India were wiped out early led to very few RA opportunities.

See that little cluster of city states below Persia? Ya, Darius lost one of his first cities to Cape Town and struggled all game. I had to lend him gold twice to squeeze two RA's out of him. Just pathetic.

I messed around a little 'cause it was on Prince. I went full Tradition, spammed wonders, and went off the Education beeline to try the population growth strategy with HG. So, no markets for a while (too long apparently), but it's always fun to get the HG. Oh, and I didn't really play for 84 hrs.

 

[Aaronius]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 20
Date submitted: 2011-09-25
Your name: Aaronius
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1936AD
Turns played: 356
Base score: 2599
Final score: 3660
Time played: 7:39:00



After that suicidal GOTM19 it was nice to have a game I could win. This was probably the easiest GOTM ever. For one thing, it seems the GOTM always ask us to use a civ for a victory condition that makes no sense. Harun seems to be good with any VC since he is always so rich, but the science mission favors going large, which Harun is good at. The map and the starting location also made things easy since there were lots of great city spots and the empire was very easy to defend with nice CS nearby to top it off. Plentiful iron sealed the deal.

Having said all that, I totally indulged myself in this one. I built every single wonder except Angkor Wat I settled five cities and I built every single building in four of them. I would have played a peaceful game but Catherine just couldn't stop DOWing me. The first time I just ignored her until she begged for mercy. The second time I thought about going after her, but took her money again instead. But the third time she DOWed me, I took all of her cities but two. Turns out, that shut her up.

With raging barbs I almost always open with Honor and build warriors not scouts. It worked out really well this game. I was able to ally two CS just by farming the barbs. Not that I needed to save money with Harun and this map, but hey, every little bit helps. I signed some RAs early, but the other civs were so broke and I was winning by so much, I just quit trying after Renaissance.

At the very end of the game the other civs started getting really frisky. I've never seen Ghandi more aggressive for example. Siam and Ghandi killed Caesar who was my only friendship in the game. I would have done something about it if they weren't so far away. Alex attacked one of my CS and then settled a city right in the middle of my empire in a garbage desert location. He got to that spot by open boarders, then once he built the city he wouldn't renew open borders, and screwed up my main highway to the russian half of my empire. The peaceful Harun can only take so much insult, so I had to take half his empire. Oda just got on my nerves with his hostility and I had an enormous veteran army from my stomping of alex, so I reduced Oda's burden to the extent of all of his cities but one.

Good times for the Arabs...Angst for everybody else it seems.

 

[leif erikson]

For one thing, it seems the GOTM always ask us to use a civ for a victory condition that makes no sense.

The concept of GoTM is to stretch the mind into thinking of things you may not have considered doing before. Matching leaders to VC's is relatively easy. Selecting a VC that goes against the strengths of a leader requires purposeful thought and planning...

Had a weak spot for you all after TSG 19.

 

[Aaronius]

The concept of GoTM is to stretch the mind into thinking of things you may not have considered doing before. Matching leaders to VC's is relatively easy. Selecting a VC that goes against the strengths of a leader requires purposeful thought and planning...

Had a weak spot for you all after TSG 19.

No worries Eric.

We know you enjoy torturing all of us, and we all appreciate your hard work. It was just strange to have a GOTM that didn't make our brain's hurt...

 

[ElWanderer]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 20
Date submitted: 2011-09-27
Your name: ElWanderer
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1770AD
Turns played: 264
Base score: 1557
Final score: 2994
Time played: 11:33:00

My quickest win so far, but not massively fast. Looking at my list of research agreements, it looks like I didn't sign one until turn 137, which probably was a bit late. Catherine declared war on me late on, so I hammered her army then captured St. Petersburg. At that point she sued for peace and became "friendly". Riiiight, as if I believed that. Sure enough, she declared war again later with about 10-15 turns to go. The result of her cunning backstab was that I captured half her cities then she surrendered the remainder in the penultimate turn. That meant I finished at -17 happiness; would have been embarrassing if I'd gone to -20 and been unable to move my last spaceship part to the capital because of rebels! The war was quite helpful as it gave me a source of 8 aluminium to build more spaceship factories/hydro plants and two great generals for golden ages.

 

[Half Nelson]

Science Victory:- Score 818 / 1603

I had hoped to launch in under 250 turns, but am reasonably content with a 25-turn improvement on my previous best Science victory! I had no real problems and completed the SS parts very quickly in my 3 major production cities. I managed 17 RA, 8 GS, 2GE and 2GA. My problem was in setting up early RA:- my first was with Russia (turn 97) but I didn’t really get going until about turn 125 because I hadn’t made contact with anyone beyond the narrow land bridge E of Russia. This was guarded by a large barbarian horde which my scouts struggled to get past:- once they broke through I had RA galore. I should have supported my scouts with stronger units to speed up their passage at this point. An odd thing was that my initial scout could not embark after I bulbed Astronomy until I brought him back to friendly territory (delaying a detour around the barb camp), whereas my second scout (built after Astro) waded straight into foreign waters.

I also probably should have invested more into city states:- I only had 1 CS ally. I had decided to pursue a peaceful strategy but both Greece and Russia did DoW at different stages to little effect.

Thanks for the interesting map.

 

[caomengde]

After seeing some of these times to victory, I was slightly demoralized when Catherine and Oda are DOW’ing me at 204 and 205 respectively and we’re still in the same era . But I survived and managed to best my own Tech Win best by 100+ turns .

• I’ve just realized (thanks to the Game in Progress thread) that building the GL early is more powerful then I allowed it to be since I had already REX’d to 3 cities and therefore couldnt quickly build the NC for the 50% boost until I had built/bought two more libs...at least I think that's the way it would work. Will scour the strat threads for more info.

• Speaking of buying I opened Liberty (to REX and get space quickly as I have always have bad luck when I’m near Oda (Samurai truly rule)) then Commerce thinking I would need the gold boost synergy from the leader trait and harbor cities and use that for RAs, buildings and units.

• I did end up buying buildings and units but in hindsight I think if I had gone Liberty Rationalism I would not have had to buy as many units as they would have been more advanced (less unit trading during wars).

• I didnt really get rolling on RAs until after my altercations with Cat and Oda which was around turn 225ish. So in reality Rationalism was never a possibility for my 2nd tree.

• Perhaps Patronage would have been better the Commerce? I was running heavy specialists and the free units might have served me better before gold started rolling in.

• I found that my last round of RAs required me to pay up for some of them. I had about 7-8 copies of gold so that sufficed for some but others (Alex in particular) I remember giving him 150 gold on top of the 350 for the RA. Is this a reflection of my lack of military power at the time?

• Catherine is a sneaky untrustworthy dog and I’m telling all the world of her sins! Seriously though, she broke 3 RAs to declare war to try to funnel her swords and pikes around the mountains against two rifleman just to give my boys free xp...then ask for half my kingdom for peace.

• I feel like if I played another 100 turns Alex would be vying for the whole planet. He was slicing through everything and building up steam it seemed.

In review, I would still open Liberty but I would save the settlers until GL and NC are done then quickly settle them down and move on. Also I would have to move constantly to meet everyone so I can get RAs off the ground ASAP to grab Rationalism as my 2nd tree (although all of that gold was fun).

Thanks for this! I guess I will see about #19 and the other previous challenges until #21 comes around and keep reading to learn what others have done to tackle this challenge.

 

[xiziz]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 20
Date submitted: 2011-09-30
Your name: xiziz
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1918AD
Turns played: 338
Base score: 1760
Final score: 2626
Time played: 5:51:00
Renamed file: xiziz_C502001.Civ5Save

Finally had time to complete this, went very fast the last turns, bulbed the last six techs and built all parts within 20 turns. Probably should have conquered Russia sooner, and taken Japan too. First wide empire win for me, I was surprised how fast SP's kept rolling in, though I took Peity for happy, so going down freedom was out of the question, went for scholantisism before starting off and finishing order. Liberty-Peity-Patrionage(only to schol)-Order. Fun game, even if the AI were never really competition to begin with, going to try going wide this same way on a higher difficulty and see what happens, felt a lot more natural to play wide rather than tall as I usually do(and a lot safer).

Thanks for a good, if easy game.

 

[killerloop]

Not bad, but not good either. I managed to screw things up in the end game.

Spoiler :

1) I didn't manage a GE in time for speeding up Apollo (but got one at turn 206)
2) I wasn't able to raise enough funds for 3 SSFactories, I only managed 2, and a 3rd one on turn 207 or so.
3) I didn't manage happiness well (I forgot ), the GA I needed for Apollo came at turn 191 (when I finshed it!)

That's probably worth 8-10 turns, so not good.

I finally managed 14 RA's, last one signed on turn 163.
I started Apollo on turn 181, finished at turn 191
Had two GArtists from Louvre waiting as well for GA extension
At turn 197 I bulbed the last 4 techs, with 14 turns to buid Chamber and 2 boosters in Mecca, Engine in Medina and Cockpit & Booster in Damascus.

When Oda turned guarded turn 188 (2 turns before RA) I gifted him Baghdad. He finally DoWed me on turn 210!!!

My military for the whole game were the 3 units I buid in the 1st couple of turns: 2 warriors and a scout, that were upgraded with ruins and some money to a LSM, Pike and CBM.

I fought one 5-turn war with Oda (or 2 if you count the last turn )

I missed 2 civs the whole game for trading: Alex who was constantly broke, and Oda, who I gifted an RA, shortly after the 1st war when he was friendly. If they would have had money, finish could have been below 200 turns.
Also I had no luck with CS quests, vast majority were kill-CS-quests.

Staff, tx for a fun game again!!

 

[Tabarnak]

1) I didn't manage a GE in time for speeding up Apollo (but got one at turn 206)

You can't rush Apollo with a GE, it's a project, not a wonder.

How did you get coal and aluminium without settling cities? When i finished the game, cs couldn't work coal or aluminium yet(i settled 2 more cities for these ressources).

Edit : Ok i saw that Damascus is close enough to work alu. But what about coal?

Congrats! You beat me...again

...............................

 

[killerloop]

I built Baghdad for the Coal. After building 3 factories, I gifted it to Oda to secure an RA & get some additional money in the end game. Your factories don't get a penalty when they don't have coal, units do!

In hindsight I should have earlier thought about this, I then could have bought a bazaar, and sell the extra luxes. After expiration I could have sold it as I did now... Now I build a lib and a uni for nothing...., maybe then I could have bough 3 SSFactories.

I didn't know Apollo is a project, so that went ok then.

On beating you, I guess it's still 20 to 2 for you!!

 

[tommynt]

for some reason I got error when uploading ... like it isnt save after game end but it is imo

finaly got to end this, my seesions were very short espacially midgame I had to stop sometimes for mp duel requests.

Pretty straight forward game, 4 city setup - 3 could be placed at mountains for observatories.
No wars at all (build like 2 scouts and 2 warries).
Lost few scouting/clearing units to barbs - they spawn so fast ...

Got GL and Gardens in cap fast. tried allways sign RAs before adavancing to new eras.

In 195 I had to break my own RA agreement as I had traded all my alus to india for some unkown reason (mp games dont end often in space ...) and wanted my space factory.
but had oversigned RAs anyway and the last 2 gave me last tech + half another.

Had pretty strong reasearch myself 350 bakkers at peaks

Dunno why I keep doing singleplayer.
The whole trade sytsem with having to check trade windows nearly every turn for a "perfect" game is just very flawed. I got no good fix for that.


Maybe trades should be fixed to last forever and be only res for g/t - untill some1 cancels the deal.
Actually that d be a good fix imo.

I also didnt understand this median thing before this game. tried to manage it a bit better as usually after reading some posts about it

 

[markovnikov]

I'm a Mac player, so this was my first game post patch. Took me a little while to get my head around the RA system after so many months of blocking. Even so, disappointed I didn't make it in under 300 turns. I slept on a number of civs that were close to having RA cash and missed out on a number of occasions.

Still having trouble seeing what the guys getting in close to 200 turns were doing that was so different from me. Wouldn't mind hearing a bit more detail around what you guys think are the key strategic points and city management goals.

 

[tommynt]

basicly it comes to down to abusing game flaws.
Trading every res for ais gold, saving great scientsits till the end, generating lot of them and well signing ras all ober while having big cities yourself.

A very important point is to make sure that EVERY gold ai has flows into RAs for you, espacially at lower lvls.

Well read my sig

 

[subber]

settled on gold, that was a good idea. never had problems with raging barbs - didnt attack them until i had iron then went on them with a sword and that went pretty well. grew a little until out of the blue oda declared war. but he had nothing but warriors and a pike. took two cities and he settled for peace. russia also declared war but wasnt dangerous. took a city, settled for piece, this happend like 3-4 times. was far far ahead in tech, built most wonders.
I noticed that it was one of the worst games by the AI I have ever played. I was at no point in time in danger.
managed to sign a lot of RAs and popped like 8-9 scientists.

However when I compared myself with other guys in the in progress section, it looks like I am way behind when at turn 150 or so. I have serious difficulties for example to get to scientific theory early etc to drive my science per turn....


cheers


Game: Civ5 GOTM 20
Date submitted: 2011-10-08
Reference number: 24998
Your name: subber
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1840AD
Turns played: 290
Base score: 1553
Final score: 2677
Time played: 3:40:00
Submitted save: Harun al-Rashid_0290 - 1840 n. Chr..Civ5Save
Renamed file: subber_C502001.Civ5Save

 

[killerloop]

subber wrote:

I have serious difficulties for example to get to scientific theory early etc to drive my science per turn....

What I learned from previous GOTMs from my colleagues is that using 1-2 GS's to bulb Scientific Theory pays out vs. leaving them for the end bulb.
It advances your median for RA's (and increases your science output). Ideally your university build is immediately followed by a PubSchool build.

Since I'm doing this I can get closer to the winning finish times.

Any disagreement in the forum?