TSG25 Game in Progress

[danglading]

- What were your initial priorities?
I wanted to get explorers in the water ASAP (to chase down the promised goodie huts, meet all my future conquests, and find choice sites for expansion), and I wanted the Great Lighthouse (triremes with 7 moves? yes please!).

I settled in place, built a worker, then a scout, then started on the GL. I sent my warrior along the only available path, popped a spear upgrade at the first goodie hut I found, then ran into Suleiman. My spear and scout defogged the island I started on, then headed back to the capital to await Optics. My initial triremes began defogging to my west and north, picking off occasional barbs along the way. My second city went due south to pick up the ivory and my third (from Collective Rule) will head to one of the two islands to my west/northwest.

- What Social Policies did you choose and why?
I took the Honor opener first, for the culture bonus from barb kills, then shifted to Tradition opener followed by Aristocracy to help my shot at the GL. Next I took the Liberty opener with my next target being Collective Rule, for the Settler bonus.

- What tech path did you follow?
Pottery->Sailing - Go for that GL and get some triremes in the water!
Mining - Hook up the nearby resources.
Writing - I needed opened borders with Suleiman to get my troops back home, and I might as well take a stab at the GLib.
Currently working on Optics to get my units off my island. My upcoming path is Archery->Animal Husbandry->Bronze Working->Iron Working.

- Did you prioritize any Wonders?
As stated previously, I put the Great Lighthouse at the top of my list. The added mobility and visibility, on top of the Civ ability, figure to grant me some extreme flexibility moving forward. I popped it on turn 62! Woohoo! My triremes are cruising around the globe like they're in the America's Cup, and the insta-lighthouse is sure nice.

Now I'm taking a stab at the GLib. If I get it, I'll use it on Compass, to get my trade network going. If I get beat (17 turns to go... ), I'll get some extra cash and buy some extra troops or something.

- In this game, more City-States were added, how did this affect your strategy?
So far, not much. I mostly want to meet as many of them as possible as fast as possible to get the cash bonus. From there, I hope to buy up some allies for the resources, but I've never been able to consistently generate the cash needed to keep many CS allies at once.

- How does the larger map size and Epic game speed affect your strategy
Also not sure, really. I feel I need to expand harder and faster than normal, to take advantage of the extra map area, but other than that I'll have to see. It placed even more priority on the extra movement from the GL, that's for sure.

Having a great time so far, hopefully I'll get some military units before long and start laying down the

 

[leif erikson]

I had to restart my game for a reason that I think should not disqualify me. I was exploring with a trireme thru french territory. I decided to go thru paris to get to the water on the other side. I chose a square that was not revealed but the program allowed it. When the unit moved inside paris it was revealed that the tile I was moving to was actually land. Both adjacent water spaces had a unit in it, and my trireme only had one move left. Thus I was stuck and the game could not continue. I believe that the game was in error by allowing me to move a trireme onto a land space, so I think I should be able to restart. What do you guys think?

You should have your autosaves set to 1, so it saves each turn. You may go back to the autosave and try to replay it the same way you originally did as best as you can remember, except for moving the Trireme.

I do not think this is an error in the game, imnsho you should not take such chances with your better units. Just because the game allows you to move doesn't mean you should? In my years of playing gotm, I have learned that I should move a single tile/hex at a time because guessing, or in my case more of impatience, causes me to sometimes move where I wished I had not. Please always try to leave yourself an out because the software will not do that for you.

Leif: I guess I assumed that you were the map maker, but based on your response above I'm thinking that's not right. So, out of idle curiosity, where do the GotM maps come from? Who makes them? I noticed that there was some fairly spot-on speculation in the "What to do with GOTM 25?" thread the day before the game was actually posted, so are the games based on another series somewhere? Again, I'm just curious about these sorts of things.

I create and test all of the maps on my PC. That does not mean I understand everything that Firaxis does nor does it mean I am the best player here that understands all Civ5's game mechanics. Unfortunately, I do not.

The speculation was done by downloading the save early and extracting from it the knowledge needed to create what you saw based upon earlier announcements. Speculation such as that causes confusion and I would appreciate it if it did not happen again.

 

[danglading]

Oops! I hope I didn't get anyone in trouble!

 

[Aaronius]

You should have your autosaves set to 1, so it saves each turn. You may go back to the autosave and try to replay it the same way you originally did as best as you can remember, except for moving the Trireme.

I do not think this is an error in the game, imnsho you should not take such chances with your better units. Just because the game allows you to move doesn't mean you should? In my years of playing gotm, I have learned that I should move a single tile/hex at a time because guessing, or in my case more of impatience, causes me to sometimes move where I wished I had not. Please always try to leave yourself an out because the software will not do that for you.


I create and test all of the maps on my PC. That does not mean I understand everything that Firaxis does nor does it mean I am the best player here that understands all Civ5's game mechanics. Unfortunately, I do not.

The speculation was done by downloading the save early and extracting from it the knowledge needed to create what you saw based upon earlier announcements. Speculation such as that causes confusion and I would appreciate it if it did not happen again.

OK Eric. I'll be sure to admit that I cheated then... my autosaves are every five, so I went three turns back. Oh well. I don't think I'm doing so hot this time anyway...

 

[Aaronius]

Well here I sit 100 turns from my last post. I now have a four city empire with my capital settled in place (2x gold, and gem); and cities to the south (ivory), western island (sugar), and northeast (triple gold). I’m considering a fifth city on the island to the NW, but it only has one more gold.

The worst AI in the game (Alex) just went hostile for no reason and told me my army was puny. I have two archers, two spears, one sword, and six triremes. Last turn I got the tech to build a knight or two, and just got the tech to upgrade to crossbows. After that my plan is to beeline for my Ship o’ Line unique upgrade. I don’t think my army is all that puny.

I’ve met every AI in the game. When I met Rome he was neutral so I made a lot of trades and free borders to make him friendly. He went friendly, I got open borders, then two turns later he went hostile (trying to win the game in a similar manner), then two turns later flipped back. Rami did something similar earlier. I’m wondering if Alex will do the same in a turn or two. These leaders are acting crazy...

I have six RAs complete and seven more signed right now. I got my first two wonders with HS and then used the GE to get PT. I lost out on four other wonders I went for. At least the PT will make my remaining RAs better, but the AIs are signing so many with each other I don’t think I’m getting ahead.

If this were any other game than GOTM I would just chill, defend, and try to win with science or diplo. Since the designated VC is domination I feel like I have to go to war now….

….but I have a very sinking feeling about how its going to go.

 

[leif erikson]

OK Eric. I'll be sure to admit that I cheated then... my autosaves are every five, so I went three turns back. Oh well. I don't think I'm doing so hot this time anyway...

Didn't say you cheated. There are times when there are legitimate reasons for reloading a save. I just gave you a mulligan.

The TSG Series is designed to help us identify issues and learn about Civ5. Everyone has learned a valuable lesson concerning scouting and keeping track on movement in order that one doesn't lose a valued unit. Surely you are not the only one this has happened to?

You should set your autosave interval to 1 though. That way you need not replay turns unnecessarily. Good Luck.

 

[shoshonte]

Spoiler :

- What were your initial priorities?
Rex fast, hook up iron/horses, conquer. Luckily Santa left me some iron down south which I picked up for my 3 city along with the ivory and fish. Dropped some reindeer near the capital too to build chariot archers too which was nice.
- What Social Policies did you choose and why?
Went Liberty to get the free settler/worker then went honor for the barbarian bonus and great general (that's all the Social policies I picked up so far) The settler and worker were for fast rexing and honor is pretty self evident.
- What tech path did you follow?
Pottery-Writing-Bronze Working- Sailing-Iron Working (free from Gl) AH-Trapping -Wheel-Archery-Mathematics
- Did you prioritize any Wonders?
Great Library for the science boost and free tech. I'll probably pick up the rest from the AI
- In this game, more City-States were added, how did this affect your strategy?
I've only found Geneva so it hasn't effected me much. I allied them for 8 turns just long enough to get some horse folk from them.
- How does the larger map size and Epic game speed affect your strategy
Honestly not sure if I can win this one but I'm going to try. Takes forever though. I guess that's a good thing on a large map.

Don't know why there are two spoiler tags. If a mod could fix it I'd be obliged.

leif edit - The vb code for bold needs to be inside the code for spoiler, you had the bold before the spoiler code.
btw, that cyan is a real eye test against the gray.

 

[kingpapawawa]

yeah, i should have built more longbows, but they only take 2 or 3 points of a city, and the city regenerates about 5 or so per turn, so even with 3 longbows, even if they arent having any other units you have to deal with, 3 longbows wouldn't suffice, it would take forever. I also have 2 Ships in the fight by now, doesn't help. Well, and that i'm at -11 happiness right now doesn't help either..

i love this situation. 3 longbows and 1 horseman plus a boat or two and i pound the city for 15 turns.

 

[Tabarnak]

Played until turn 130.

Went pottery-writting to start the GL as soon as possible. What a surprise when i saw a message saying that the GL has been built in a far away land at turn 50 I was still at 11 turns left. Wow...i never seen such thing at immortal. Probably a civ that stepped on a hut and got writting.

Anyway i continued and hard teched optics. I got 3 free techs with some ruins like wheel, calendar and mining(first ruin). Then i spammed some triremes to clear the land around to eventually spot iron tiles. I built another city from Liberty and built NC in my capital some turns after.

I discovered most civs around, selling stuff and gathering (not spent a single penny yet). When iron was discovered, i searched for iron around...but....damn...where? A 2 iron tile close to me? Ok...but elsewhere? Where, dammit? AHHH i see some...far far away close to Berlin. YES!

Alright so i throwed a settler and a worker immediately. I couldn't settle on it because Essen was close. I had to hurry to not let Harun settle another city and steal the place.

Spoiler :

With 8 iron, i can build a massive army of SotL, throw 2 armies in 2 directions and get Suleiman first. Why? Because he's sitting on even more iron! And he got a juicy cap. Research is slower than it was supposed to be because i lost the damn GL. I got extra at least.

Edit : Currently building HS in capital for PT later. I wonder if i will rush a university or hard build it. I think i will rush it to get a faster gs, since i missed the GL and got extra . Less for upgrades, but a faster gain of Suly's land.

 

[trueblue]

i was almost done with this game, thinking i had got off to a very poor start. A bit of confusion due to complete kills had me take more of sulla than i would have liked. however i am four capitals down and plugging on.


only 2 cities for me since happiness will probably be a problem at some point. taking a single capital is one thing but its prudent to take another city beside it, as germany is proving right now,a three(for example) city immortal AI can run over a single puppet. ok i annexed berlin but i dont want to take that hit very often.




got the GL and went straight for SOTL, getting the usual stuff on the way.

folks, the SOTL should be the only iron unit you ever build...

 

[trueblue]

oh aye. rememeber you can always sell or gift cities to an AI...

 

[Tabarnak]

Turn 200 :

A GS from Liberty and PT gave me navigation around turn 170. I got 8 trained SotL ready for 2 armies in action. A 6 iron tile was sitting close to Suly's capital. I throwed 2nd army to Egypt far away north west. I suspect that Rome may be close to them and they got great wonders to capture.

Got Egypt first. Then Suleiman after. His iron tile remained to his 2nd city ....but not so bad finally because 2nd German city got 6 iron too. So i attacked him while i captured Rome's capital(easiest capture). They are en route for Tokyo now.

I'm presently holding German city to keep iron and i will get Berlin in a couple of turns. Then i will get Harun a bit later. I upgraded 5 remaining triremes that i throwed to Persia. They will clear north east side with Siam and Songhai.

France and Greece for the final assault. I keep France for later because his capital is the most difficult to access so i'm building some crossbowmen too for later.

I have 13 SotL and a couple of weak units. Everyone hates me. Excellent.

 

[Tsaghen]

I almost never played on archipelago so I'm gonna try a strat, hope it works out fine.

My objective is to win with a massive fleet of Ships of the Line and one Pikeman to capture the cities.

As all capitals will be coastal it seems likely that the AIs will try to build the sea wonders first. Since I don't remember ever seeing The Colossus built before The Great Lighthouse in other games I will start by it. If I succeed the AIs focus should switch to Colossus which I should grab too.

I settled on the Gold for the extra production and since I won't research The Wheel anytime soon I have no use settling on a 1 tile long river, better free the spot for a 2 food farm with Civil Service.

Tech : Pottery — Sailing — Mining (sold Gold right away to buy my first Trireme) — Bronze Working — Writing — Optics — Compass (free with GL) — Philosophy

My plan is working so far, got both sea wonders and since GL wasn't built by then I tried and just got it (turn 91).

I was planing on starting with Honor opener because my first two Warriors should be done exploring quickly and have nothing else to do until Optics than to bash barbarians. Add to that all the barbarian ships my Trireme will sink while exploring, it should be worthwhile.
Fate decided otherwise as my first Ruin gave me culture so I took Liberty opener for very early Worker from Citizenship. As there was no rush for land exploration I started with Monument so I had my second SP quickly. Later I took Tradition opener and Aristocracy as I was building only wonders so far.

With the early Worker I was able to Hook up the second Gold and the Gems (had to purchase the tile) pretty early, sold it all for more Triremes and 2 Work Boats. It payed out very well since I discovers 21 CSs so far —first for almost all— and missing only one AI —that's a lot of gold from selling Open Borders—.

WLtKD resource is Pearls which I don't expect to get anytime soon since only Alexander has access to them and he hasn't hooked any yet.

I'm gonna get Collective Rule in a few turns and probably settle on the 3 Gold spot. I have time to decide since NC won't be built for another 20 turns is so. That's the downside of my plan, didn't realize it until now.

Second ruin gave me an upgrade to Spearman. I just started to hunt ruins on other islands, got survivors as third.
Meanwhile my fleet is now 5 Trireme strong. I think I'll start recalling everyone soon and attack Sulleiman's second city with 6 so they get the range promotion before I head to his capital.

 

[trueblue]

I settled on the Gold for the extra production and since I won't research The Wheel anytime soon I have no use settling on a 1 tile long river, better free the spot for a 2 food farm with Civil Service.

i wish to discuss this move.

and i ask for your opinion?


i have no use settling a move away from a river so that i can better free the spot for a two food farm after i get CS.

personally id slap a granary down for the boost from the wheet and deer. and when i get the worker ill mine those hills. no?

 

[VulturuL]

If you will settle on the gold you will receive the gems later.

 

[Tsaghen]

By the time the Granary is built I have annexed the Deer tile so it ends up the same.

City on plains = 2 food + 1 hammer + 1 gold
Mined Gold = 3 hammer + 2 gold
Total = 2 food + 4 hammer + 3 gold

City on Gold = 2 food + 2 hammer + 2 gold
Farmed Gold (with CS) = 3 food + 1 hammer + 1 gold
Total = 5 food + 3 hammer + 3 gold

In the end I get 3 food for one hammer, it's a great deal ! Before CS it's 2 food, still a good deal. At the beginning of the game I benefit from an extra hammer and gold without screwing my growth. That looks powerful to me in a game where I will neither research The Wheel nor Economics.

As for the Gem I bought the tile for 150 just as my Worker had finished mining the Gold.

Little plus, when you move the Warrior on the Deer you see that there is nothing important to grab in the south of the third ring, leaving the NW unrevealed. Settling on the Gold give you access to that part in case there is something, which incidentally was the case

 

[ElWanderer]

T147 and I'm trying to race to ships of the line. Except I probably won't be able to build any for lack of iron... I'm starting to wonder if I shouldn't instead aim for longbowmen. I guess it should be less of an issue if/when I can conquer the Ottomans.

I'm going through the Liberty tree. I went worker-settler after the opener, which is the opposite order to that which I'd usually take. In this case, it worked as at the time my warriors had a serious barb infestation to clear out. I will complete the tree with my next pick.

I built the Great Library on turn 66. The Great Lighthouse fell a few turns earlier. Kinda wish I'd been able to get that one too.

The Ottomans offered me a research agreement, then declared war on me a few turns later. Thank goodness I had declined the RA and instead sold them luxuries. I've run over two of their settlers they foolishly embarked, along with two or three other units...

 

[Tsaghen]

Turn 165 update.

So I had regrouped my 8 Triremes and declared war on Sulleiman around turn 130. I trained them for a while on his second city because I will need range promotion for Istanbul later. Ended up having to take his third city also for more firing tiles on the capital. Meanwhile my whole fleet got +1 range and 4 had Indirect Fire.

Istanbul fel on turn 165 —wiping out the Ottomans— just as I completed PT and bulbed Navigation. Thus gaining access to a 6 Iron tile I got my first 6 SotL which are now headed towards Germany and their two 6 Iron tiles.

I got Oracle, Chichen Itza and HS —took GS to bulb Astronomy later— too meanwhile.
Since Chichen Itza I burned all my GP and GG for Golden Ages, got like 50 turns.
I didn't sign any RAs this game to save my gold for buying and upgrading Triremes.

 

[trueblue]

i cant believe how long this is taking.

and im getting the same graphical glitches as Tabarnak. those red squares happen in other games for me too. its never been bad and im too lazy to sort it out, there must be a setting somewhere.

 

[Mazer Rackham]

Turn 200 :

A GS from Liberty and PT gave me navigation around turn 170.

I'm at turn 161 and on pace to get Navigation at 169. I was able to get GL, and along with the PT GS points I will pop a scientist just a few turns after I finish Compass. I'm impressed with how quickly you were able to complete the map after getting your SoLs! I hope I am able to match your success.

Here's a quick recap on my progress up to turn 161:

Spoiler :

I used the GL for Philosophy and went Liberty. Put the free settler on the Ivory down south before hitting optics. Purchased a library in the 2nd city and build the National College ASAP. Prioritized going Iron Working, then Sailing/Optics, Education, then Compass with the plan to bulb the two techs to get to SoLs.

I found a 6 Iron spot east of France. Nappy didn't like it when I plopped a city down there, but there won't be any friends in this game anyway. My plan is to take out Sully first to grab the 6 Iron plot near Istanbul and get 2 separate armies conquering the world. We've actually been at war for quite a long time, but he hasn't sent anything since I squished his initial assault.