TSG26 After Action Report

[Wilde]

Alright! I don't normally do well with these games but keep trying.

Probably could have shaved a bit more off my time, but under 250 turn would not have been possible. I used two GS to get the bomb...never know.

Once I saw the map layout, I rushed to make 5 cities. I was worried the AI would settle on my continent and I would have to remove them by force. Got the Great Library around turn 20 and about turn 200 had all the AI as allies. I completed Liberty first, then Patronage, but did take the opener for Rationalism once available. Not too many RAs because the AI wouldn't make them with me, only India did. India wiped out Montezuma and Persia so I was limited in only trading with India, England and Arabia. In the end, I kept doing a 1 for 1 trade on resources instead of selling for cash. All my units that were gifted I kept about five around and deleted the rest in my territory for cash. In the end, I was over 1000 and 200 (going close to 500 gpt with a Golden Age) per turn. No wars for me.


Game: Civ5 GOTM 26
Date submitted: 2011-12-22
Reference number: 25377
Your name: WildeComputers
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1984AD
Turns played: 264
Base score: 1034
Final score: 1292
Time played: 7:31:00
Submitted save: TSG26WON.Civ5Save
Renamed file: WildeComputers_C502601.Civ5Save

 

[Maxym]

Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1800AD
Turns played: 185
Base score: 1383
Final score: 2469
Time played: 10:27:00

finished faster then expected, seemed slow to get going. Signed 6 RAs 3 and 3 but last 3 delayed a bit due to my habit of spending all available cash. I was hoping to find a way to other AI and delayed Astro hoping for Medieval RAs in the end delaed meeting them by 20-30 turns. This would have made a big difference i think, but still prolly not enough to beat TAbarnak's time.

Settled 4 cities but delayed them till after NC, another mistake i think. Then 5th late in the game to the wset of Mecca to grab ALUM. not necesary it turned out as i never built the dam. It was also my first game i think without any wars not even on CS. Harun hated my guts but never declared. I had 8 allies before building UN (1 GE and 1 turn) then bought the rest from everyon else and they did not have the cash to stop me. Fun quick game.

 

[Onan]

Hi everyone,

Pleased to submit my first ever diplomacy win for this GoTM.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 26
Date submitted: 2011-12-22
Reference number: 25376
Your name: Onan
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1872AD
Turns played: 206
Base score: 1258
Final score: 2029
Time played: 10:35:00
Submitted save: GOTM 26 - Diplo - Final.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Onan_C502601.Civ5Save

I will do a bit of a write up later. Time for sleep now.

Okay, thought I'd be lazy and just post some pics...little did I know the .TGA hell I was about to embark on. Even with Steam, the default hotkey f12 seems to reload a past game!?! This happened to me once during my game, so if inspected will likely show one 'reload' due to this completely unforeseen event! And even with the Steam screenshot manager, it seems not very straightforward to just copy the files into a picture manager to resize and such. Feh, like an hour looking at all that crap.

Anyway, on to the good stuff. Likewise with many who've posted, I liked the look of the continent and expanded quickly. So Straight to collective rule for the settler for New York, which I settled NW of the mountain near the gold to the south. I settled Washington east of the bend in the river next to the cow, so it could reach...everything! deer, wine, both stone, bananas...! probably unnecessary but I couldn't resist.

After starting liberty to there, I detoured to Tradition. I wanted to keep the culture rolling, and having built monuments in the first two cities I couldn't resist the early free temples from Legalism. Also got landed elite later. Finished liberty. Opened Freedom to maximize GP, then went rationalism, left side to sci rev. Finally patronage opener and aesthetics for a good base for mass bribery.

Boston was settled NE of the mountain on the NW coast; Philadelphia was settled on the point SE of the silk, on the NE coast. Final city sizes: W-19, NY-16, P-15, B-13. (Hard to convert all that good screenshot info into 1000s of words.)

So, I did a bit of a mixed strategy. No RAs for a long time...in fact I think it took Gandhi offering me one to start them off. Arabia was hostile after I got wonders he wanted. All wars (except AI trying to dogpile me near the end) were initiated by me. These were to fulfill quests: I took out Brussels for Sydney, and Quebec City for three other CSs! Finally I turned my sights on Mecca, thinking this would also get me four more wonders, but no, just one. I figured having some puppets would really help with cashflow and endgame bribery.

One thing I did early, given the masses of hills around NYC, was to build HG there. This then became a bit of a wonder pump, ending up with Ironworks, Machu Picchu, Oxford, Statue of Liberty, the Taj, and Pyramids. In Washington I had Big Ben, Brandenburg, the four national wonders, ND, GL (t34, which I thought was early, but not as early as some here!), HS, Oracle, and UN.

Had 3-4 RAs popping as I entered the last stretch...may've had 1-2 'left over'. Bulbed the last 10 or so techs with 8 GS, Sci Rev a few turns earlier, and Oxford. Hard built UN after that while racking up cash, didn't know enough prep a GE, too. As the vote approached, popped a GM for a quest, used it for a trade mission to Tyre. I think it was probably just England, Persia, and Arabia that DoWed me at the end, but too late. Arabia tried to take back Mecca, but the rifle and cannon I left behind, upgraded to infantry and rocket artillery, held off his pike and cannon just fine.

Once the vote hit I had more than enough cash. Made them all allies then spread the extra cash around just in case others might try to buy them between turns...I had 12 votes, all but one with the blue bar maxed. Like I said, first diplo victory ever for me, so it was a learning process.

Fun game, I like that it was small and quick, as I spend too much time on civ already! Interesting to try the mixed approach and see that the time that I turned out is quite respectable. And having a few wars made it a little more fun, too.

I'd be interested to hear from the pros what they think of my approach. I'm sure some of the wonders were unnecessary, maybe the wars too, but I guess I dislike playing everything in a 'gamey' way, narrowly focused on the VC. In general, I think it would be pretty fun to set up a game without a designated VC, to see what happens, allow that freedom of playstyle...but I guess the competitive types would just go domination. Just some thoughts.

Nice to finally submit one. Purposefully didn't read about anyone's finish times, so I wouldn't get discouraged before I got started....

 

[vixafox]

Nice map for the peaceful types. No wars, except for a token declaration against Gandhi 4 turns from the end to prevent him buying up the City States before the UN vote. Uncharacteristically it was Gandhi that was the warmonger in my game and, at the end, he had a large empire, with a good cash flow. I won the diplomatic vote with 18 votes to 1.

 

[Arilian]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 26
Date submitted: 2011-12-26
Reference number: 25393
Your name: Arilian
Your email:
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1850AD
Turns played: 195
Base score: 1090
Final score: 1847
Time played: 1:26:00
Submitted save: Washington_Diplo_195.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Arilian_C502601.Civ5Save


I could have been mutch better, but did not have the patience to play seriusly after turn 80 because it was too easy.

I managed GL - CS, but lost HG after a few turn.
Started with 3 city, full liberty, and late game planted 2 more city for sci+gold.

Other policies was Rat and Patron (got 1 GS from CS) and allied to Maritime soon for pop.
Both completed at the end.

It was an overkill, I had 3000 Gold, all CS allied, 300gpt (GA) and the manhatten project for fun at the end. Should have spent more money to RA-s (Monty and Elzy never had any money for RA, had to feed them) and explore with optics earlier. turn 150 is definately doable, maybe i will try it again.

 

[tommynt]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 26
Date submitted: 2011-12-27
Reference number: 25395
Your name: tommynt
Your email: Moderator Action: Email address deleted Please don't offer your email addresses to spammers.
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1610AD
Turns played: 151
Base score: 1042
Final score: 2315
Time played: 3:44:00
Submitted save: GOTM26_t151win_tommynt.Civ5Save
Renamed file: tommynt_C502601.Civ5Save

could finaly submit, writeup was done in previous post.
Decent finish time imo

 

[Arilian]

see, Told you 150 is possible

 

[tommynt]

well for some it is for other its not

 

[Ribannah]

DIPLOMATIC VICTORY
Turn 147
HOF=2656


Turns 105-147

As I feared, the AI was of limited help. Arabia declared on us again, thereby killing our research agreement. They had 5 allies this time, but quickly caved when they were faced with a Minuteman promoted to Infantry. That worked well by the way: the unit kept its ability.

There was only enough cash between the lot of us for three other RA's on turns 110-111, making a total of five that came to completion this game. Fortunately, that was all we needed. A grand total of 8 Great Scientists, together with Oxford and Scientific Revolution, did the rest.

Of course, after all the banks were built our income quickly rose to over 300gpt, which was plenty to ally with all the city states we wanted, even some that were in the red.

Ages of scientific discovery went by in a flash. We halted the Time Machine after Globalization, and built the United Nations in a single turn with just the one Great Engineer (and some chopping and overflow).


Policies
120 Free Thought
136 Scientific Revolution

Cities
146 Chicago (2 Incense)

Allies
114 Genoa
119 Quebec City
127 Sidon
134 Stockholm
138 Edinburgh, Almaty
140 Florence
141 Belgrade
144 Tyre
146 Kuala Lumpur, Kathmandu

Technology
105 Steel
107 Gunpowder
109 Chemistry
111 Military Science, Steam Power (2 RA)
114 Fertilizer
116 Archaeology
120 Biology, Electricity (Oxford), Refrigeration (GS), Plastics (GS)
124 Replaceable Parts
126 Metallurgy
128 Rifling
131 Dynamite
135 Railroad
136 Telegraph (2 RA), Penicillin + Ecology (scientific revolution)
137 Electronics, Radio (RA), Mass Media (GS), Combustion (GS), Flight (GS), Radar (GS), Computers (GS), Globalization (GS)
146 Rocketry

Washington
108 Public School
110 THE PORCELAIN TOWER, Great Scientist #5
111 Great Scientist #6
115 Factory
117 NATIONAL EPIC
120 OXFORD UNIVERSITY
121 Colosseum
122 Temple
125 TAJ MAHAL
129 Hydro Plant
131 Great Scientist #8, Great Engineer #2
136 Barracks
137 STATUE OF LIBERTY
138 UNITED NATIONS
142 Stock Exchange
144 Theatre
145 Settler
147 Hospital

New York
105 Mint
114 Public School
120 Factory
122 Temple
125 Bank
137 THE LOUVRE, Great Artist #1, Great Artist #2
146 Stock Exchange

Boston
108 Windmill
111 Market
119 Public School
124 Bank
127 Great Scientist #7
136 Stock Exchange
140 Monastery
143 Harbor
145 Temple

Philadelphia
107 Windmill
109 Colosseum
114 Seaport
116 Market
120 Public School
122 Temple
125 Bank
130 NATIONAL TREASURY
134 CIRCUS MAXIMUS
142 Stock Exchange
146 Hospital

Atlanta
105 Observatory
108 Market
114 Public School
120 Factory
123 Seaport
124 Temple
126 Bank
128 Minuteman
133 Stock Exchange
138 SISTINE CHAPEL
140 Mint
144 Solar Plant
147 Hospital

 

[Tabarnak]

Bravo Ribannah!

 

[tommynt]

gj - wonder a bit how u kept all those city happy to have your cap grow so huge to get UN with 1 engi - I had to built it in 5 turns

 

[ninim]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 26
Date submitted: 2011-12-30
Reference number: 25413
Your name: ninim
Your email: xxx
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1972AD
Turns played: 256
Base score: 1158
Final score: 1503
Time played: 3:28:00
Submitted save: TSG26_End.Civ5Save
Renamed file: ninim_C502601.Civ5Save



Whee! I actually finished my GOTM! Great concept, was so much fun! When I play by myself I tend to abandon the game halfway through and start a new one due to lack of patience >.< aaaand also I kinda tend to reload an older save if (when) I mess up... So this time I had a good reason not to do either and gee did I like it!

It was my first time playing America, first time playing on Quick speed, and first time going for a diplomatic victory :O which is surprising considering I'm usually playing the peaceful way...

Which meant this map was great for me of course!

Unlike many here I went for a bit more cities - I had 7 scattered around my continent. Partly because I felt it's "appropriate" to have your whole continent under control, partly because I've never really known how to manage happiness properly with more than

I think I would've been able to finish faster, if it wasn't for the fact that by the time I hit Industrial age I realized I had more or less already won... and then I ended up messing around a LOT in the end. I built a huge army I never used just because I could (which cost me a ton of upkeep of course) and didn't focus on research enough...

Ah well! I had SO much fun!

Hmm...looks like the previous GOTM can still be submitted for 2 days...maybe I'll still have time...!

 

[Ribannah]

gj - wonder a bit how u kept all those city happy to have your cap grow so huge to get UN with 1 engi - I had to built it in 5 turns

Happiness was barely in the green for most of the game, despite +14 from world wonders, 5 colosseums, Circus Maximus, and Humanism. Several times, we paid the AI gold for one of their resources.

Washington was size 23 when the United Nations were built. In the turns before, the capital left the Statue of Liberty 1 hammer from completion, and then built a Barracks before completing it. This gave a lot of overflow. Our Workers then chopped 3 forests which we had saved for that moment.

 

[Maxym]

I had a 1 turn UN, with 1 building overflow. I had saved some forests and workers as well. But they weren't needed in the end. Does anyone know the formula for converting GEs to hammers? It seems to depend on city production.....

 

[Onan]

Can someone link to an explanation about how overflow works? I've heard of 'pre-building' too...same thing?

 

[Ribannah]

It depends on the population of the city. The formula is something like 300 + 30 * size, on standard speed.

On Quick, at size 23, I got 663 hammers (203 + 23 x 20) of the needed 1005. Another 343 came from production (131), chopping (33) and overflow (50 + 129).

Overflow is maxed out at the number of hammers of the last build. So you cannot get more than 50 overflow from something that is 50 hammers to build, no matter what your production is.

But you can cascade. Prepare a number of builds that are nearly completed and then complete them all in a row, from the smallest to the largest.

So, in my game, the Barracks (50 hammers) gave 50 overflow, which then got expanded to 179 from finishing the Statue of Liberty that had only 1 hammer to go. Since the Statue is way larger than 179 hammers, you get to keep it all for the UN. But had I finished the Statue first and only then the Barracks, I would have had just the 50 hammers of overflow for the UN instead of the 179.

 

[Tabarnak]

Can someone link to an explanation about how overflow works? I've heard of 'pre-building' too...same thing?

It's more or less building things at 1 turn of completion and finish them near the end to produce overflow.

For example, i build a building(50/60 ), a wonder(190/200 ) and a unit(90/100 ) at 1 turn of completion. I'm at turn 200, i produce 20 per turn and i will start the UN at turn 203.

At turn 201 i finish the building and i get 10 of overflow (20-10=10).
At turn 202 i finish the wonder and i get 10 of overflow.
At turn 203 i finish the unit and i get 10 of overflow.

For a total of 30 that can be transfered in the UN.

I know that DaveMcW wrote something about this but i'm too lazy to search.

Edit : Like Ribannah said, just make sure that you don't lose the overflow at something that cost less than the total overflow. So basically finish cheap things first.

It's weird because i rarely do this trick, probably because i mostly produce my 2 engineers in time for the UN. But this strategy can be good if you finish very early like Ribannah or tommy(when you don't have time to produce 2 engi). In fact it works best for Projects like Utopia and Apollo(and last parts of the spaceship).

 

[Onan]

Cool, thanks for the explanations, guys. I wonder if this factors in to MP games. For me it's probably something I wouldn't do--1) I probably wouldn't remember or have time; 2) it seems too 'gamey'. Then again, I never really knew how, so...who knows!

 

[Banman]

Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1938AD
Turns played: 239
Base score: 1313
Final score: 1823
Time played: 2:34:00
Submitted save: TSG26finWashington_0239 AD-1938.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Banman_C502601.Civ5Save

was a fun (and surprisingly quick game), settled in place (lost me the stone since I was on plains ), got every wonder I really wanted (GLib, HG, HS, PT) and a bunch of others besides. planted most of my GP, ended up with four academies and at least four manufactories around Washington (was a real monster by the end). Could've managed my RAs more, that's a part of the game that I never seem to want to pay close attention to, and probably could have been more efficient in my teching path. I thought small map would make territory grabs more important so prioritized exploration early, but turned out was isolated on the continent and switched to building emphasis. No war, though Arabia rattled sabers a bit.

 

[Arnold_T]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 26
Date submitted: 2012-01-02
Reference number: 25429
Your name: Arnold_T
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1795AD
Turns played: 184
Base score: 1330
Final score: 2418
Time played: 7:12:00

How did the small map and quick speed affect your game?

I usually play quick speed and smaller maps, so it was business as usual for me. I'm not very experienced with Diplo wins though, so it was a good learning experience for me. Fun setup, thanks Lief!
One way I found to generate favour with the city-states was to NOT finish off the barb camps near them, and just keep killing the barbs as they pop up near their borders. I had one barb camp lodged between Sydney and Brussels most of the game that I first parked a Trireme beside, and later a couple of archers. At one point Sydney's and Brussels' borders both expanded so that I could kill one barb and generate favour with both of those city-states at the same time. Very cool! Until I moved a unit through the barb camp by mistake - ending the party.