TSG33 After Action Report

[sebtanic]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 33
Your name: sebtanic
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1991AD
Turns played: 411
Base score: 1392
Final score: 1697
Time played: 14:29:00

Wow what a game!

Short version:
Almost got wiped out twice, first by Suleiman, but managed to eradicate him. Then went cultural until Hiawatha dowed in mid-1900s with a monsterous, technologically far superior army. After initial setback managed to take several of his core cities plus his capital. Cultural win in 1991, beating Ramesses who was at that point still 2 policies away from building Utopia.

Lesson learned:
Shouldn't have kept Hiawatha alive as it was rather clear he would start trouble sooner or later.

Long version:

Spoiler :

I decided to go military, so settled in place and beelined iron working. Took honour for some culture from dead barbs, then tradition opener.

The military approach saved me from early extinction, as Suleiman showed up in t38 near my capital with 4 warriors and 1 spear. He set me back quite a bit, because he pressed hard on Rome and killed off my first settler.

In t62 I finally founded Antium on the coast near the 6 iron spot to the SW. Got Legions and wiped out Suleyman. I decided to leave Hiawatha alone, which would much later turn out to be an almost fatal mistake...

Built Cumae in the sweet spot to the NW and went pacifist until the 1900s with my 3 own cities & 3 puppet cities from Suleiman. Built culture head to head with Egypt. By 1950 most city states were my allies, including all of the cultural ones. I built a couple of units to deter any would-be attackers, and even thought about taking out one of Egypt¡s cities, but then decided not to as I would have had to leave my homelands undefended.

When Hiawatha took out all the other civs one by one except Egypt, I offered Ramesses a defensive pact which he willingly accepted. Not much later the unthinkable happened: I was 2 or three policies away from Utopia when Hiawatha declared and dropped an atom bomb on the former Ottoman capital, severly damaging most of my army which was parked near in anticipation of a possible Iroquois invasion.

Istanbul fell, and things looked bleak. I had no air force at all and the Iroquois bombers threatened to annihilate what was left of my army completely. I managed to build an atom bomb too, only to have it destroyed by his second nuclear attack the turn I moved it to attack position!

Meanwhile, Hiawatha had built most space ship parts in quick succession and was only missing cockpit and the 3rd booster. He was in future era when I was just starting modern... I was sure that this time I was facing defeat, thought about retiring but then decided to make a last honorable stand.

Then came the turning point. For some reason he decided to use his entire air force to wear down Vienna, failing to have any ground units near to actually take the city-state. This allowed me to slowly rebuild my forces for the counter strike. Defending against his death robots and modern armor with my rocket artillery and mech inf, I made my way towards his capital, nuking his cities one by one, then softening them up with rocket artillery and bombers til they were ready to fall.

Having completed the honor tree proved quite useful, as the gold I made from each of his destroyed units went directly into the acquisition of new units for the Romans

He somehow managed not to complete his spaceship even though his capital was surrounded by high-pop, high-production cities. He also managed to never get anywere close to any of my 3 core cities. Thanks to the help of Egypt who put up quite a fight in the Southeastern corner of our continent, I managed to complete Utopia in 1991 against all odds.

 

[rfxmills]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 33
Your name: rfxmills
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1900AD
Turns played: 320
Base score: 966
Final score: 1509
Time played: 4:58:00

Renamed file: rfxmills_C503301.Civ5Save
Date submitted: 2012-04-28
Reference number: 26164

My first effort at GotM... great one to start on! I did so many things wrong, but got a win in the end.

I settled in place (1W would have been better getting marble in the 3rd ring for an extra WW boost, and a big chunk of iron in the 4th). I never founded another city as I was too busy building wonders, fighting barbarians and searching for city states to find good locations before Suly had penned me in and taken all the best spots.

Lesson Learnt: I had money available to buy a 2nd scout which would have allowed me to see what was around me earlier.

With a second city out of the window I concentrated on making Rome an absolute powerhouse, managing to get GL, Oracle and HG early on. And with a maxed out tradition tree it really took off. I only missed out on 7 wonders in the rest of the game, and CI was the only one which would have really helped.

Learn Learnt: Not getting a 2nd city meant that Rome had to do everything, and I dropped behind in science. One at the Rock of Gibraltar (I see it was a popular destination) would have allowed me to get an observatory and reduce the burden on my capital.

Suly was allied Florence and attacked a few times. I didn't have any iron during this stage, so I just had to hold him off as best I could and counter-attacked once I got some legions and ballistas capturing Florence. Despite having the GW and janissaries in the field, Suly got absolutely slaughtered by Hiawatha who took all his cities, apart from one I nabbed near the dyes. I was attacking his final city by the Rock of Gibraltar from the South, thought I plenty of time to take it when a rogue Iroquois rifleman ran through the forest from the North and took it

Lesson Learnt: Don't try and xp farm in a GotM game!

After that I stayed out of wars and got plenty of RAs. Iroquois were a run a way and my only neighbours. They played nice with me and attacked everyone else, but nobody got conquered even though the English went down to 1 city. On about turn 300 I only had a couple of policies to go so he back-stabbed me. Using 8 artillery and a couple infantry he wiped one of my puppets and El Cid, he'd be with me since the beginning I managed to churn out a couple more artillery in Rome which also had 101 thanks to the Kremlin so they lost lots of units amongst the field of landmarks leading up to Rome before giving up. I didn't need the CS culture anymore, so I let Brussels drop from ally status... and they backstabbed me going from at war with the Iroquois to their allies against me in a turn! I had a few spare GEs lying around so I converted some landmarks to manufactories and got the Utopia project out in 10 turns.

Lesson Learnt: stay allies with CS when at war with an AI who has 20k in the bank!

 

[leif erikson]

My first effort at GotM... great one to start on! I did so many things wrong, but got a win in the end.

Welcome to GOTM. Sounds like you had fun learning.

Keep up the good work.

 

[rfxmills]

Definitely enjoyed it. It was my first go at Emperor actually... I wondered why they were expanding so quickly! Looking forward to seeing the results, some very good turn counts posted above!

I've got a dilemma about whether to replay this or move onto the next GotM now

 

[StrideColossus]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 33
Date submitted: 2012-04-29
Reference number: 26177
Your name: StrideColossus
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1933AD
Turns played: 353
Base score: 1193
Final score: 1704
Time played: 5:34:00
Submitted save: Augustus Caesar_0353 AD-1933.Civ5Save
Renamed file: StrideColossus_C503301.Civ5Save

Settled in place, founded second city in the popular spot next to the rock of Gibraltar.

Went for GL (for IW), HG and Oracle to get a good start on growth and science.

Managed to get allied with Brussels early doors by putting a warrior and archer between the barb camp and the CS and farmed the barbs

Sulieman attacked early, as he seems to have done to everyone. Took two cities, puppeted the one on the coast, razed the other and took Instanbul. The Iroquois were also in the fight but waited for the right moment to take the capital. Sadly they took his only other city on the same turn.

Got into a bit of a mess with the Iroquois after that, they kept attacking but was struggling to make any headway against them, partially because the land to the north of Instanbul was all forest which suited their UU, and also because he has allied the 2 CS to the east (Bucharest? and Warsaw). In the end gave up trying to go on the offensive as we just had two many fronts to deal with, went Patronage to get the minimum CS rating thing (never used it before), waited for peace and then piled money to get them onto my side. Waited for another declaration but it never came!

Annexed Instanbul which built SOH as well as a lot of defensive buildings (which again I very rarely do). Relatively straight run to pump out the culture, built Utopia in Rome, managed to shave it down to about 14 turns I think by a bit of terrain jiggery-pokery. Didn't have any aluminium so couldn't get hydro plant and went wrong way on tree to get solar plant (which should have been the way to go given we started in the desert).

Lessons learnt: pay attention to who is cosying up with CS nearby.

Good fun game. Lack of coal made it a little interesting (had to annoy Japan by stealing their CS to get some for factory).

 

[Onan]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 33
Date submitted: 2012-04-24
Reference number: 26147
Your name: Onan
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1920AD
Turns played: 340
Base score: 1357
Final score: 1995


...did this as a OCC. Bravo to Attaturk, I thought I had a decent time for a OCC! I enjoyed playing this game as not only was it cultural victory, but as a warmonger with only one city. I allied 4-5 cultural CS for most of the game. Early war vs. Ottomans, conquered them with only two cities. Conquered Hiawatha after several wars, close to the end--he would never give me better terms than even for peace. England attacked two or three times but never achieved anything. Egypt was huge but friendly, only denouncing me just before I won. Japan and Egypt had several short wars.

...also did this without RAs, except 2-3 offered by AI. I hate managing those things, too gamey for me.

 

[Half Nelson]

Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1838AD
Turns played: 290
Base score: 1081
Final score: 1896

Just made it! Not had any CiV time last few weeks, but got this one done over weekend. Built 4 cities, only one puppet (Istanbul). DoF with Hiawatha throughout. Had plenty culture (5 allied cultural CS for almost whole game) but science lagged a bit:- this is surprisingly important in culture games to get new age CS bonuses. I didn't have a real industrial powerhouse city so Utopia was a frustrating 9 turns (even with 500 hammer overflow!). I think I should have opened Tradition as first policy rather than Liberty, but I wanted an early second city (although it turned out there was no top-notch spot close by). I decided to build a fourth city only because the RoG spot was so inviting, not sure whether it was a good idea.

Very stimulating game:- fewer AI makes diplomacy more important.

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

been away for awhile. love these GOTM setups and did this one for the first time last night. ive never gotten better than 1934 on any culture vics and this was no different. probably the worst time here that still won. won in 1985 (thats like 400+ turns i think). the only remarkable thing was that no one was close to a victory before that. Hiawatha had built apollo but no parts. Egypt was way ahead in diplo but hadnt built the UN. It was weird for sure to go that late and not expect an defeat. I only went o war once very briefly with Suleiman. He was completely defeated in the 1700s by hiawatha who then went on to conquer Elizabeth. Japan was consuming CS's (3 that i remember). I only settled 3 cities and took a puppet from Suli who immediately sued for peace. I was friends with Hiawatha the WHOLE game. I returned two of his settlers to him from barbs and we were pals ever since. Signed maybe 11 or 12 RAs, not in good waves though. 4 with Hiawatha, 2 or 3 with Eliz, Egypt, and Japan before they went hostile. Didnt get Hagia but got most of the others. Lost out to 3 less necessary wonders to Egypt in the last 4 turns which was irritating. He also sniped Hagia from me very early on. I allied 4 CSs overall but only 1 remained, the others were back and forth purchases with others. Built the UP in 21 turns during a GA.

Still was fun even though when I got into the 1700s i could see that there was no way to get sub 1900 let alone sub 350 turns.

I still have TSG34 and 35 to do, should be fun. Been occupied elsewhere in life. These sub 270 wins are just astounding. I hope Neuro does a vid, as incredible as DaveMcW's gameplay is I'd like to see someone else get there with a different strategy.

As always, thanks for the great game setups, Leif.