TSG208 AAR

[leif erikson]

Welcome to the TSG 208 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]

Awesome game. Thanks, KT!

Diplo victory on turn 354. I thought I had enough votes for the first world leader vote but I was short by 2 and nobody would sell me their vote (I should have offered Sulieman my very nice little city by Gibraltar for it. It even had a wonder), and I had to wait 30 turns for it to come around again.

- How useful was your UA? Oh, my goodness! It was way overpowered. I found Great Barrier Reef just a few turns in, and it was reachable by my first expansion. I had to wait for Madrid to grow to pop 2 so I could buy a settler. I almost bought 2 settlers, but I couldn't protect 2 at once yet. (don't remember what else I bought right away, I think both GBR tiles) I bought a second settler not long after that when I had 500 gold again. My holy city was Barcelona. What I probably should have done with the GBR gold was buy a settler and a shrine and just one GBR tile, and go full Tradition before opening Piety.

- Did you use spying to your advantage? Yes. I leveled-up my spies by counterspying in Madrid, then sent them to city states. I never stole any techs. Much of the game I was the tech leader (sometimes would fall behind but then would catch up and jump ahead again) At the end, I sent most of them out as diplomats; the diplomat in Paris saved me a couple of times by warning me that France was about to declare war -- I quickly paid him to attack someone else. I kept my two master spies in vulnerable city states.

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how? The natural wonders certainly helped. I think having Ethiopia as a buffer between me and Napoleon helped too.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions? I usually get my ass handed to me at Immortal level. So I played defensively and built more military than usual. Also tried to keep out of wars and keep everybody else fighting each other. I did have one early war with Ethiopia when he deluged me with missionaries and prophets, but I stayed in my own borders. (That's where I got my first holy site) Once I had inquisitors at my major cities (which didn't take long at all) I settled peace and we were reasonably friendly after that.

- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose? Piety opener, full Tradition, finished Piety (which delayed Rationalism by 2 policies but I needed the culture more than science) Rationalism(4), Freedom(9), and a few policies in Commerce and Patronage. I didn't need to finish Rationalism because I had To The Glory of God reformation belief.

- What techs did you prioritize? All of them? I don't really remember. Sorry. I guess Globalism was important.

- What did you think of the map and settings? I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a bit of a dilemma figuring out which pantheon to pick. One With Nature was obvious and that's what I took, but Religious Idols would have provided a bunch of much-needed early culture as well as faith.

 

[fiddlesticks]

Turn 215 Diplomatic Victory.

The boost from the Great Barrier reef catapulted Spain to the head of the pack in science faster than I'd ever experienced before. I took wonders I never go for at Immortal (Colossus, Great Lighthouse, etc.). Once in the lead with wonders, gold and happiness rolling in it was a easy stroll to victory. One downside was that I popped a Great Merchant early on in Madrid and set back my Great Scientist counter, but it didn't seem to matter too much. Turns out I planted it on a coal tile which sped up factories for the Order science policy boost later on.

I ended up settling Sri Pada and Mt Fuji for two great expands. Sri Pada I stole from Vancouver with a GG after warring Zurich for quite a while.

I gifted extra gold to Haile and I was friends with Enrico and Napoleon the whole game as well, so no military issues. Late in the game I stole a great prophet from Suleiman when I saw a flotilla of 3 GPs heading for Barcelona. The other two ended at the bottom of Barcelona Bay.

Ethiopia went religious and took Jesuit Education, which helped speed Public Schools and Labs in Barcelona and Seville.

- How useful was your UA? I agree with @zxcvbob - on a start like this Spain just steamrolls through the game. I bought the Settler for Barca, a worker for Madrid's wheat tiles and, after meeting Zurich and scrounging a few more gold, a shrine in Madrid.

- Did you use spying to your advantage? I took Steel from Napoleon, then the next most useful spying action was the extra votes after getting Globalization. These saved me since two city-states flipped the turn before the vote (I was lazy and didn't reinforce my weak ones with the Smaug-like pile of gold I had at the end).

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how? Three great wonders to settle. Exploration was slow, but I built 2 Caravels right after Astronomy and found everyone quickly after that with the Great Lighthouse bonus.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?

- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose? Full Tradition, Patronage (2 - to gifts), then Rationalism (3 to University buff), Order (3 - to Factory buff), Patronage (City-state science), finish Rationalism, finish Patronage, 2 more in Order.

 

[JeffreyLXV]

Defeated on turn 334. Accidently awarded my delegates to Haile Selassie.

- I never played Spain before. UA is powerful in the beginning especially with The Great Barrier reef counting twice.

- Only used spies in city-states and then as diplomats with Globalization.

- Map had me secluded so I isolated and prioritized infrastructure and money.

- Immortal difficulty, but it did not seem like it. Every civilization made it to the end (Including Venice, but barely).

- Tradition, Patronage, and all the tenets of Freedom (I thought I needed the achievement) and a a bite of Exploration and Commerce.

I forgot to propose World Leader until the end. I kept thinking it was an automatic vote. Very chill game. Played in the evening to relax and make me sleepy. I'm still learning some things in this ten year old game, and relearning things I forget.

Gained both "Never expect the Spanish Inquisition" achievements. Yea, I reloaded a quick-save to get the victory.

Thanks for having this.

 

[urbis]

Dominations victory (I know, wrong type...) 1625AD.

Settled in place
Built Scout > Monument first
Researched pottery first
The ancient ruin to NW upgraded my unit to spearman
Joy at turn 6 discovering Great Barrier Reef (double joy for double reef and 1000 gold)!
Bought a worker turn 6 and a settler turn 8 - settler went west to work the reef, creating city 2 turn 14 (much quicker than I'm used to). Used cash to buy Reef tile for a fabulous start

Went for Liberty > Exploration
Tried for Great Library but beaten by 4 turns :-(
Turn 115 chariot archer gets upgraded by ancient ruin to Conquistador - was excited about this, but found less use for the unit than expected, as I wasn't seeing great locations for an offshore city
About turn 135 got first Tercios - exciting units for a warmonger, made good use of them

 

[ssjos]

First time played in long time - Won diplo 1685 t247.

Settled in place found reef - bought 2 settlers (should have taken 1 + 1 worker). Had some trouble getting workers in general. Founded 4 cities in the peninsula and went tall after that. Lost great lib with like a turn or 2 but in the end I could since out enemies anyway.

 

[Jovan Kukic]

Turn 236 Diplomatic victory.
Great barrier reef helped me with science. I missed Great Library. I played peacefully. Although I usually hate Venetia when going for Diplo, I didn't attacked them, because they liked me and we made research agreements. I also assumed that avoiding war will reduce chance for others to DoW me. Those capital diplomat votes are worth it.

 

[beetle]

Oh my gosh what a fun game, what with GBR, but so frustrating at the end!

I had every intention of playing nice. But I was the only Freedom civ, and the AIs hate that of course. Yes, I cleared the continent, but I swear, they made me.

T290 Haile DOWs. He has two cities. What does he think is going to happen? T298 Babylon DOWs. Also, with only two cities.

Just missed the first WL vote. Then the next one too. I was all set for the third: Globalism. Freedom as WI. My religion as WR. Spies all assigned as diplomats. Allied with almost every CS. Then the turn before the vote, Germany, France, and Venice DOW me — and it is just enough for me to miss the vote, and I have to wait another 20 turns.

France got to kept Paris, even though it was the third time he DOW’d me.I didn’t really want Berlin, but Bismarck would not make peace. Enrico was ready to surrender at that point, but by then, I decided he did not deserve to keep Venice. By the time the last vote came up, I was two turns from an accidental CV.

Diplomacy Victory, 1958AD, T378, Base score: 353, Final score: 4708.

Thanks for the map!

 

[Zlither]

Fun game despite (lots of very) stupid mistakes all game, but especially in the beginning - such as accidentally starting a war.
Turn 301 - stayed with only three cities, which was another mistake.
Like beetle, only Freedom civ, but fine as all the city states were my friends, so no happiness problems.
Got my religion (which only had my 3 cities) and Freedom both approved, which *really* annoyed everyone.