TSG40 After Action Report

[twothree]

Wow, ok so I think I've got the worst score here (by 1 turn by the looks of it!)

I beat you for the worse score by one turn.

Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 2004AD
Turns played: 424
Base score: 1236
Final score: 1471
Time played: 12:24:00

My first GOTM and my second game of Civ5. My first game of Civ5 was played on Prince difficulty where I won with a science victory in 1987 with the Incan Empire. So an increase in difficulty of one level cost me an extra seventeen turns.

I had only one military unit and six cities most of the game, which was the strategy I used in my first game. While on Prince difficulty the AI never declared war on me; however on King difficulty in the GOTM, Austria and Sweden both declared war on me at the same time.

Austria was the leading AI civ, but after declaring war never attacked me. Sweden however quickly took two of my six cities that were on his main island, while I built up a military. This was my first taste of combat versus an AI civ in Civ5. And I learned quite a bit.

I lost quite a few military units. First Sweden's navy sunk my embarked units. Then their bombers sunk my naval units. Finally, I figured out that I need to control the skies first, then the sea second, and then I could launch my invasion to retake my cities.

Eventually after I figured out how combat worked, I regained my two lost cities and also took all of Sweden except for their capital. After the long war ended, it was an easy path to victory.

 

[dojoboy]

Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 2022AD
Turns played: 445
Base score: 1210
Final score: 1359
Time played: 6:08:00

Finished the Freedom social policies branch, then went into the Commerce branch. Building the Hubble Telescope was a nice boost in space ship production. Happiness remained relatively high (38-44), which allowed me more GA's than I normally get. This was my second game at King and first victory.

 

[Ribannah]

Turn 223, 1565 AD
SCIENCE VICTORY
Score (HOF) = 2815


We left the Game In Progress thread on turn 210, when Edinburgh completed the Apollo Program with 18 techs to go and only one Research Agreement running. This is the report of the final turns.


210
Edinburgh finishes Apollo Program, buys a Nuclear Plant (Dublin is sitting on 4 Uranium) and begins Hubble Telescope.
Total research per turn is well over 1000 beakers.
Four of a total of five Great Scientists (two of them bought with faith) bulb. We get Advanced Ballistics, Military Science, Dynamite and Railroad, with a lot of overflow to boot.
Douglas starts on the Cockpit and Dublin, Cardiff and Truro begin a Booster (Edinburgh has sufficient Aluminum for the whole spaceship). Nantes keeps producing research.

211
We discover Combustion. Dublin adds 2 more Uranium to the pool. We manage a coup in Manila.

212
We Love The King Day in four cities because we finally aquired Ivory.
Combined Arms is discovered.

213
Edinburgh pops a Great Scientist.
We tech Computers.

214
Navigation arrives, still from the overflow (note that only one tech can be discovered a turn from the empire's normal research effort). The new GS easily bulbs Archaeology, creating new overflow.

215
We tech Biology and see several sources of Oil within our territory. There is still one Great Scientist, in Nantes, which gives us Refrigeration.

216
Cardiff has a railroad connection. We get Penicillin and the final Research Agreement yields Ecology. Still flowing...

217
Edinburgh finishes Hubble Telescope, gets a free Spaceship Factory and two Great Scientists. That means we progress to Telecommunications and Mobile Tactics. Douglas buys a Nuclear Plant. Carthage steals Astronomy.

218
Edinburgh finishes a Temple for the hammer overflow. We tech Robotics with some 400 beakers to spare. Also, we adopt Sovereignty and get to pick two free techs: Particle Physics and Nanotechnology. Edinburgh starts on the Statis Chamber.
Nantes is connected by railroad. It doesn't need to produce anything but we want the rail for speed.

219
Edinburgh grows to size 31. Douglas (on Maya-land) finishes the Cockpit which is now en route.

220
Dublin and Truro complete a Booster. Dublin's Booster is the first part to be added to the spaceship, as this city too is now connected by railroad. The one from Truro (Carthage and Sweden's landmass) is plunged into the water.

221
Edinburgh (at 280 hammers a turn) completes the Stasis Chamber and begins work on the Engine. Cardiff finishes and delivers its Booster.

222
The parts from Douglas and Truro arrive at our continental ports.

223
The final turn of our Golden Age that began on turn 195. Edinburgh finishes the Engine and the three last parts are added to the spaceship.

 

[Tabarnak]

Turn 223, 1565 AD
SCIENCE VICTORY
Score (HOF) = 2815

217
Edinburgh finishes Hubble Telescope, gets a free Spaceship Factory and two Great Scientists. That means we progress to Telecommunications and Mobile Tactics. Douglas buys a Nuclear Plant. Carthage steals Astronomy.

218
Edinburgh finishes a Temple for the hammer overflow. We tech Robotics with some 400 beakers to spare. Also, we adopt Sovereignty and get to pick two free techs: Particle Physics and Nanotechnology

Epic turns Ribannah!

And kudos to you to be the first guy(or girl?) that actually completed a spaceship below 230 turns using the Liberty tree, thanks to completion of rationnalism and hubble. Over 1000 bpt near the end? Yep that was the way to go. Your first game only? Gosh! I bet you can do a lot better

I didn't complete rationnalism and the Hubble telescope. I also didn't understand well how bulbing is working and RA formulas only after this game...only 850 bpt near the end...or it would have been a lot better. Next time i guess

Are you awarded about these new formulas?(bulbing is related to the last 8 turns of your bpt rate, etc.)

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

Epic turns Ribannah!
Are you awarded about these new formulas?(bulbing is related to the last 8 turns of your bpt rate, etc.)

Yeah, how can anyone actually know that just from playing the game? So much of the math can be figured out but that just seems like inside knowledge to know that its 8 turns. Truly remarkable though even if he didsnt know the 8 turns timing.

I just watched a MadDjinn babylon game and he knows to not try a coup at 75% but instead at 87.5%. Maybe that's intuitive but that's a level of gameplay knowledge im not sure im capable of "knowing". He hasnt posted the last part but he's probably gonna win a deity Sci vic around t250.

 

[Haggbart]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 40
Date submitted: 2012-07-24
Reference number: 26673
Your name: Haggbart
Your email: ***************
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1826AD
Turns played: 283
Base score: 1083
Final score: 1933
Time played: 3:50:00
Submitted save: GOTM Boudicca_0283 AD-1826.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Haggbart_C504001.Civ5Save

Went tradition, +1 camps, tithe, swords into plowshares. Later pagodas and itinerant preachers which really helped for happiness and gold. Also had to get Notre Dame, Chichen Itza and ceilidh hall in most cities for happiness.

Went NC, NE and CM with 3 cities, expanded to 4 and later to 7 (after Notre Dame and ceilidh halls). Had RAs going all the time, at most 8 at the same time. Also got Leaning tower, and porcelain tower from the free GE. Later only louvre and hubble.

Could probably have gotten even more gold from tithe, as Sweden and Carthage didn't found religions. But Pascal was very aggresive spreading his religion to them. The 30 % range on my religion helped a bit, though.

Should have found and allied all maritime city state earlier, as this probably would've helped building taller early.

Should also probably have had more workers ready to switch farms and lumber mills to trade posts after Free Thought and Economics.

Managed to avoid war all the game, even though I kept my military at a pathetic size. But with my tech advantage and lots of gold pr turn available to upgrade at any time, I'd say the biggest risk would be losing my RAs.

 

[Jeti]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 40
Date submitted: 2012-07-25
Reference number: 26682
Your name: Jeti
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1939AD
Turns played: 359
Base score: 1135
Final score: 1598
Time played: 7:31:00

I took happiness from religion and founded eight own cities for getting gold and science. I had only one puppet from Sweden.
Liberty > some Tradition > Rationalism.
In the end I had so much science that I got all needed Techs when first part of the spaceship was ready. So not good timing, but was all the time confident to win at least.
I had my first computer crash on G&K about turn 285 and got permission from AlanH to use the autosave.

 

[Ribannah]

Epic turns Ribannah!

(...)

Are you awarded about these new formulas?(bulbing is related to the last 8 turns of your bpt rate, etc.)

Thanks, I love it when a plan comes together.

I don't know the exact formulas, just that it depends on your science per turn. So I maximized that as best as I could, with five cities producing research for a number of turns, and waited with the Great Scientists for as long as I dared, not knowing for certain what to expect.

 

[leif erikson]

Your name: Jeti
Game status: Science Victory

Welcome to CivFanatics and GOTM.

Congrats on your win.

 

[Ribannah]

I just watched a MadDjinn babylon game and he knows to not try a coup at 75% but instead at 87.5%. Maybe that's intuitive but that's a level of gameplay knowledge im not sure im capable of "knowing".

What I learned is that with some money or by rigging an election first you can quickly get to such percentages.

The AI tried coups too in my game, but failed each time.

 

[Ribannah]

Should also probably have had more workers ready to switch farms and lumber mills to trade posts after Free Thought and Economics.

Not sure. We didn't have a single trade post. There simply wasn't time and we needed the production capacity, too.

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

What I learned is that with some money or by rigging an election first you can quickly get to such percentages.

The AI tried coups too in my game, but failed each time.

i did learn that when it was at 75% he gave 250g and it went to 87.5% and then coup'd. that alone was huge knowledge for me. but his unwillingness to risk the coup at 75% was something I will have to chalk up to either him learning it through trial and error or access to game knowledge that i am not privy to.

 

[Suntechnique]

Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1836AD
Turns played: 288
Base score: 1361
Final score: 2387
Time played: 3:34:00

My first GotM but about 10th Gods and Kings game. So fun to play with additional rules and restrictions

Strategy: my wife prohibited me to declare any wars So I accepted almost all DoF and went for mass RA. No cities outside of starting continent.

Policies: Tradition -> 3 Currency -> Rationalism
Currency gave me fast Admiral so I was able to find other half of the world for more RA before Astronomy.

Faith: food from camps, pagodas, tithe and faster religion spread. Not sure if it's best combination. Pagodas wasn't very useful, although Tithe got me about 75 gpt.
Pacal bombarded me with prophets, but I found out a strategy: danced around him with 3 units so he was forced to move to specially saved barbarian encampment.

 

[leif erikson]

My first GotM but about 10th Gods and Kings game. So fun to play with additional rules and restrictions

Welcome to GOTM, congrats on your win.

Strategy: my wife prohibited me to declare any wars So I accepted almost all DoF and went for mass RA. No cities outside of starting continent.

Does your wife play, or just monitors your game?

 

[Suntechnique]

Welcome to GOTM, congrats on your win.


Does your wife play, or just monitors your game?

Thanks!

Just monitor. She played few civ5 games but she likes to watch more

 

[Zaimejs]

Reference number: 26615
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1904AD
Turns played: 324
Base score: 1474
Final score: 2303

So I learned I don't do science victories on isolated maps well. I started okay, going full tradition and finding Carthage, Sweden, Mayans and Huns. Traded to them and bought settlers while I built wonders to start. Signed some RAs early, but think I should have switched farms to trading posts earlier to take full advantage of Rationalism.

Used the great admiral from Commerce to scout out the other civs. 100 turns of love fest. Around turn 175 I decided to go after Sweden and his Great Lighthouse, and to get some puppets. He had no allies so I denounced. I had no iron, but had allied a CS with 6 iron, and thus had 6 frigates and 6 privateers.

Then everything fell apart. His past supporters "reminded" me of their past relationships, and when I went to war Sweden... Ethiopa, Netherlands and Austria got ticked. They started denouncing, and a huge war broke out among a bunch of civs.

It was me, Carthage, Spain, Huns (Hun allies?!) on one side vs. the rest (Byz neutral). At first I was just at war with Sweden. I took him down to 1 city. Tried to get peace, but he refused and Dido wiped him out. Around turn 225, both Ethiopia and Netherlands DoW me. By that time I learned that my island had no iron or horses, but we had aluminum... and uranium!!!

Nuked Ethiopia 2x with a Carrier and bombs. Took 3 of his cities, including cap which was wasteland. Got 2 more cities in a peace deal, razed them. Brought nukes to Amsterdam and was almost ready to take his 2nd largest city, when he asked for peace. Random great prophet spawned near the end, which I took to Maya and wiped out his religion... ha!

I do not want to get on your bad side in MP.

 

[leif erikson]

Thanks!

Just monitor. She played few civ5 games but she likes to watch more

You're lucky. Mine now walks out of the room when I boot up.

Guess I cannot blame her, she has seen Civilization DOS through Civ5 G&K, suppose that could get a bit worn?

 

[Cromwell]

I appear to have made a terrible blunder this game: I decided I didn't like the hostile city-state on my island, so captured it fairly early on. This lead to two entertaining world wars, but it meant I only got one RA after 1600 or so, and spent too long bottomed out on happiness. The only time I ever saw a friendly face was planning to backstab me. Okay, that's not entirely true. Attila and I were buddies until the 19th century. Friends I deserved, I guess.

Is it ever possible to capture a city-state without alienating everyone? Is it the capturing or the DoW that gives you rep?

I really love the new citadels, and the naval warfare. In general, great people seem better balanced now. I do think that by making naval warfare more strategic, and more useful, it's set the AI back even further, particularly on water maps.

Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1949AD
Turns played: 369
Base score: 2056
Final score: 2816
Time played: 8:32:00

 

[FeiLing]

I capture Geneva @ Cromwell and totally got away with it. However the only others I've had met until that point where Dido and Gustavus and I already was befriending both.

A dow usually doesn't matter much if it's the first time. Taking any CS though counts as killing a whole civ and is very very bad. Instant warmonger usually. Either that changed with G&Ks or friends can look away for a moment shall such an incident happen^^

 

[Jussiut]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 40
Date submitted: 2012-07-25
Reference number: 26679
Your name: Jussiut
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1926AD
Turns played: 346
Base score: 1610
Final score: 2333
Time played: 9:00:00
Submitted save: BoudiccaWin_0346 AD-1926.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Jussiut_C504001.Civ5Save

Yeah, I know my time sucked but this was my first GOTM and I just recently moved to play on King. Also, I didn't really optimize my game enough and also conquered Sweden and Carthage that most likely distracted my mid-game. So those are my excuses why I'm one of the worst here!

But still, I enjoyed the game. I was surprised to find myself alone on an island but it was nice, I usually don't play islands. Tried to spam RAs but didn't beeline nearly enough for an earlier science victory, I'm pretty sure. Haven't really got used to optimizing my game for pure speed (usually just want to win and have a good time doing it) but I think I'll start optimizing my game more - it'd be a new challenge.