TSG41 After Action Report

[Robert Smith]

Video

Nice move to use Admiral to enter deep ocean before Astro!!
Was the only reason to take Quebec (close to healing/friendly terro.) the Admiral? In my games Dido build tons of naval units. I love your navel fleet x Frigates and one Scout
Edit: I tried a 4th attempt and first contact with Spain was T119 (using 4 Droman against Dido and Rome to get a Admiral). But Freedom T167 so no chance for a sub 250

I have only made a "fast" look on your video. I couldn't see if u enhanced your religion or not (did u skip Cathedrals?).

World church looks very powerful!
This is a religious victory (and culture and almost domination)!

I don't understand number of hammers in Capital 9:45:16 170.8/turn.
It looks like several (4?) 5H+ river tiles (2 Wine, 1 Dessert and 1 Ivory).
18H from buildings (no windmill)?
Modifier 20+20= 40%?
Pls enlighten me

Edit: I understand the hammers but I still have some questions regarding GE
N.B. with Stoneworks you get 173.6 Hammer (+1 terrain +1 Building =2*1,4= +2.8)

1 GE in T126 => Capital manufacture (T127)
2 GE ? in T218 (incl. 1 from Pisa) => Hurry CR (T241), Capital manufacture (T255)
1 GE in T243 (Chinese puppet, does this affect your own threshold for next great person?) => Capital manufacture (T259)
1 GE in T255 (Liberty) => Capital manufacture (T255)

You hard build Sixteen Chapel (T145) and Louvre (T193)
Is World church so powerful that most of your culture comes from puppets & religion and it's not worth to hurry Sixteen or Louvre (GE from T126)?

Was your goal to hurry SoH and that is the reason you didn't build a manufacture with the 2:nd from T218 until T255?

 

[Enkeli]

My first ever GTM and my first post on these forums. This was really fun and challenging, thanks to the ultra-aggressive Augustus Ceasar. Rome eliminated Carthage around turn 100 and came at me with about 4 legions, 2 horsemen, 2 archers and two Ballistas. I had two archers, two composite bowmen, a spearman and one cataphract. I came very close to dying, but the positioning of my third city (which Rome attacked) won the day. After conquering my own continent I was never in danger of losing, because for some reason I got a massive tech lead over the civs on the other continent. In the late game, I built some battle ships and infantry and invaded Gandhi just for fun. He was the leader on the other continent, but only had musketmen and knights against my modern-era units.

Good things that worked in my favour: (1) Adrianopole on the western coast with Petra. This city got a massive amount of production fast and together with the production in Constantinople, I was able to grab most of the wonders. (2) Just as I was about to conquer Rome, Augustus Ceasar offered me peace with about 4600 gold. I couldn't pass up on that offer, though I did declare war again after 10 turns. I used this gold to buy up lots of city state favour.

My religion was based on boosting happiness - I took ceremonial burial and the policy which gives 2 happiness per temple, plus the bonus for spreading religion 30% further. I was really disappointed in picking the world church policy though. In the late game, it only gave me about 60 culture per turn, even after expending several great prophets to spread my religion. It would have been better to boost happiness even more, so I could have used my great artists to build even more landmarks. I didn't pick monastries, because I planned to use lots of puppet cities, and figured that the +2 culture per temple bonus would help more.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 41
Date submitted: 2012-08-10
Reference number: 26879
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1862AD
Turns played: 301
Base score: 1865
Final score: 3108
Submitted save: Enkeli_C504101.Civ5Save

 

[scaramonga]

VIDEO

Nice buddy. One question.

This is the only one of your GOTM videos that don't play on my Android device? Anything different

 

[Lad]

First GOTM post for me as well.. I'm not really a cultural victory fan hence why I really wanted to try this one. I'm quite impressed by people that manages to win cultural under 275 turns there are lots of things I still have to learn from this VC.

I had the tech lead for almost half of the game, then China started conquering everybody on her continent and outtechd by alot for the second half. I couldn't seem to get anywhere close to her tech level even by signing RA's (which I rarely use since I'm an immortal warmonger). My 3 cities really couldnt pump up enough BPT and it did hurt me military wise. Maybe if I puppet'd my continent first it would have helped but I couldn't get rid of Caesar until late 1800's without having to invest too much into war units.

Also, 13 Landmarks? that's twice as much as me! I couldn't get Citchen itza so I was kinda blowing alll my GA's for GAges.. I'm not a real fan of replaying maps but I might give this one a shot.. Last Cultural victory i won was with Gandhi back in 2010 for the achievement !! so yeah I could definitely use a little more practice.

Glad to be here and I can't wait for the next challenge, keep up with the good work guys!



Game: Civ5 GOTM 41
Date submitted: 2012-08-10
Reference number: 26880
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1911AD
Turns played: 331
Base score: 1368
Final score: 2072
Time played: 4:13:00
Submitted save: Theodora_0331 AD-1911.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Lad_C504101.Civ5Save

 

[GhostSalsa]

I don't understand number of hammers in Capital 9:45:16 170.8/turn.
It looks like several (4?) 5H+ river tiles (2 Wine, 1 Dessert and 1 Ivory).

Those four manufactories should be freedom-boosted. Three are plains I think and all are river with hydro boost, I can't tell if any are hills, so it looks like 12,12,12, and 11 hammers

Funny that while looking at the pause of the video in full screen I kept clicking on Return to Map...

 

[Morcar_civ5]

Funny that while looking at the pause of the video in full screen I kept clicking on Return to Map...

It's funny, but today i was thinking of a kind of interactive replay, which could be replayed in civ 5 itself. Imagine you load someone's game replay, start it and after a while click "stop replay" and do any things you want (including clicking "return to Map" and everyhting else ), and when you are done with your "playing" you just click "continue replay" and it continues from the point it was stoped. Would love to have this in CIV 5!

 

[RV93]

first time poster. Hi!


Reference number:

26882

Game status:Culture Victory

Game date:1917AD

Turns played:337

Base score:1744

Final score:2602

Time played:

6:27:00

cultural vicories arent really my thing but i gave it a try.
Rome being a pain after they quickly took out dido. the terrain on our bolders resulted in some sort of cold war untill i managed to dig into their territory whit an offensive citatel. lots of thing which could've been better.
but it was my first entry so expect more later

 

[leif erikson]

It's funny, but today i was thinking of a kind of interactive replay, which could be replayed in civ 5 itself. Imagine you load someone's game replay, start it and after a while click "stop replay" and do any things you want (including clicking "return to Map" and everyhting else ), and when you are done with your "playing" you just click "continue replay" and it continues from the point it was stoped. Would love to have this in CIV 5!

Have you checked out this replay utility that ALanH created for us?

 

[leif erikson]

first time poster. Hi!

Welcome to CivFanatics and GOTM.

Congrats on your win.

Many others were not so fortunate.

 

[kcd_swede]

I can sum up my first attempt at this game by quoting Julius Ceasar: "Veni, vidi, vici."

BC era conquest loss to Rome.

I like totally forgot that if you don't build an army, you WILL get attacked by your neighbors.

 

[airneck]

My second GOTM

Game: Civ5 GOTM 41
Date submitted: 2012-08-11
Your name: airneck
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1959AD
Turns played: 379
Base score: 1136
Final score: 1514
Time played: 4:01:00




I tried to avoid war most of the time, because I already knew how Caesar can be a pain ...
Anyway he attacked me 3 times, got myself a pretty massive army, everything on the east front. First it was Bowman, then Catapult then Cannon then Artillery... and so on
Artillery on mountains are so strong and almost unbeatable..

20 turns before the end, Dido who was friendly DoWed me for the very first time
Backstabbing she said : True indeed.

Founded City#2 and city#3 round turn 80 and 110...
it was too late I'm afraid to win before turn 300.
My main goal was to have big cities. I'm pretty glad with them.
So I choose religions and beliefs related to food and happiness.

Policies
Full Tradition, Full Piety, Full Freedom -> Full Patronage and finally Full Liberty... hesitated with commerce

Here are few screenshot of the last turn.
Now I'm gonna read all your different stratégies for a fastest victory
I really enjoy the idea that we share something altogether playing and sharing tips and ideas.



final turn , the world... uh my small world

Spoiler :

the capital

Spoiler :

final demographics

Spoiler :

religions

Spoiler :

 

[airneck]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 41
Game date: 1854AD
Policies: no Piety cause it suxx Tradition -> few from Liberty -> 4 from Rationalism -> Freedom
this way u get a bit less culture traded for the power of science from left part of Rationalism. And culture loss would be compensated by Sidney's Opera which I usually miss going Piety path.

Nice idea
I thought Piety was a "must have" playing Cultural Victory, but you proved me wrong...
Anyway your strategy sounds efficient
Congrats

 

[Morcar_civ5]

Have you checked out this replay utility that ALanH created for us?

Thanks for the link, leif (and thanks too AlanH too for creating this)! Looks very nice! I wish i had found that earlier! Would love to have this link in every "RaC" thread!

 

[Robert Smith]

Those four manufactories should be freedom-boosted. Three are plains I think and all are river with hydro boost.

You r right, prev. post updated with new questions

 

[xiziz]

Managed to hold on for a long time, but the romans finally marched Constantinoples streets in AD 1490, not a chance once Carthage went down, held off Ceasars first wave of legions and ballistas without trouble, but got crushed once he came charging with trebs, musketmen and crossbows, though I reached tech pararity with him pretty quick, the sheer number of units invading made it impossible to stop romes advance. One city was definatly not the way to go, especially when someone grabbed petra before I even reached currency.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 41
Game status: Conquest Loss
Game date: 1490AD
Turns played: 209
Base score: 435
Final score: 435
Time played: NA
Submitted save: TSG41_xiziz.Civ5Save
Renamed file: xiziz_C504101.Civ5Save

Post T80 major events

Spoiler :

T88 - SP Oligarchy, close tradition
T89 - Free Aqueduct
T91 - Peace between Rome and Carthage
T94 - Cathedral in Constantinople
T95 - Great Library built in faraway land
T96 - Petra built in faraway land
T99 - Terracotta Army in Constantinople
T101 - Rome DoW Yervan(CS)
T101 - Bynantine Golden Age
T113 - Oracle built in Constantinople
T114 - Ruins, Scout upgrade
T136 - Haga Sophia(GE)
T136 - Enhance Religion (Iterant Preachers & Religious Community)
T140 - Rome defeats Carthage
T146 - Rome DoW Byzantine
Stopped logging here, was pretty sure I was going down.
T208 - Rome conquerd Byzantine

Spoiler :

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

i did finally finish it on my 3rd try. t348. i could break 300 somewhat regularly in vanilla but now these new mechanics have thrown me off completely. did it with 3 cities and should have gone a 4th on the coast for SOH. i broke 1000cpt which was interesting but i had just started my 5th policy tree on t299.

ah well, monkey off my back i guess.

 

[CappyAA]

My first GOTM post also turned out to be my first ever attempt on Emperor. I didn't realize I had to save after the finish and submit to the site, but here's my stats:

- Culture Victory
- Year AD 1946
- Turn 366
- Score 1361

I also have a screenshot of my four cities one turn before the finish:

Spoiler :

Overall, I feel happy with the game. Although I see games with 100 less turns and I know I have a lot of work to do to get better. I have been planning my games around Tabarnak's 4 city Tradition method, so I used that to start. I felt pretty comfortable with my first 75 turns or so, although I did think about opening and finishing Liberty after the Tradition opener to save the 4 culture buildings for the opera houses.

I placed my 2nd and 3rd cities simultaneously to the east - one was directly on the marble. The other city captured the salt and 3 gold tiles in front of the lake. Rome and Dido were both pissed at that and attacked me immediately. Dido was easy to repel, also because they were fighting Rome as well. Rome came at me hard and almost took my city. I got a GG before he did and placed a citadel at the edge of the city, making it that much more difficult for him to capture. The rest of the game was filled with several Rome attempts, but no serious threats.

I think I was behind for so long because I was late to meeting the rest of the civs. I had no trading partners or RA partners because Rome/Dido hated me. I made friends with Spain, India, and China for a while, until they inexplicably all DOWed me at the same time. None of them sent any units at me for the 40 or so turns we were at war. The funny thing was that Spain and India paid me a ton of money/resources for peace without any battles ever taking place.

I feel like I have some mid-game gaps in my game that I need to work out before I take a full-time jump to Emperor. China was the runaway empire and was way ahead in tech. I had to bribe a few civs to war them or I probably would have lost. When I completed Utopia, China was 1 part away from completing the spaceship, so I really didn't have much time to spare.

I am going to play the GOTM 40, as it's back down at King and more in my comfort zone, but I had a great time playing this one.

My question to everyone here is: I'm not sure what my specific areas for improvement are. Is there a specific forum that's appropriate here to post screenshots every 10-20 turns or so to ask for feedback/advice?

 

[ense7en]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 41
Date submitted: 2012-08-11
Reference number: 26896
Your name: ense7en
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1909AD
Turns played: 329
Base score: 1762
Final score: 2710

First GOTM i actually played all the way through.

I did a bit of OCC initially before finally putting down a couple other cities and spammed wonders from my capital for the first bit.

Meanwhile, Rome started spamming cities, and he and i warred a bit.
Rome soon wiped out Dido, and then the nearby city states.
That's when i decided it was time to deviate from wonder spamming/culture building plans and focus on building up some units to take him down a notch.

First took back Brussels and liberated them.

Spoiler :

Then the former Carthage cities with the help of Frigates from the coast, and finally all but one crap city he'd placed in the northern tundra.

Spoiler :

Annexed Rome and razed one of the crappier cities; puppeted all the rest and liberated the two CS.

While the war with Rome did set me back a bit, it made for a lot of gold for the rest of the game and no other wars to worry about.

Policies: did all Tradition then all Piety then all Freedom then all Patronage then all Commerce.

Spoiler :

Peak culture before starting Utopia.

Spoiler :

End game city output.

Spoiler :

Tech tree

Spoiler :

My main area

Spoiler :

Former Rome/Carthage

Spoiler :

Capital's wonders (Sydney Opera House i made in Adrianople):

Spoiler :

Once i dealt with Rome i didn't have much to worry about, though Monty did manage to wipe out China, all but wipe out France, and stifled India and Spain pretty badly.
Definitely was the runaway by far, just luckily he only got one spaceship part done before i finished.

From looking at other people's games it appears i have a lot to learn to speed things up, not surprisingly.

I did make one huge mistake when i moved my settler...i somehow thought i could still build Petra after moving the settler, and even teched with that in mind...only to realize i was a fool.
But i got every wonder i wanted IIRC, often much later than i should have.

 

[metalmadt]

Second run

T264, start freedom T177.

Made one major mistake so I'll go for a third run.

 

[Tabarnak]

Second run

T264, start freedom T177.

Made one major mistake so I'll go for a third run.

Nice improvement! Did you go full Liberty or Tradition? Or a mix of them like DaveMcW?

177 hmm? Robert Smith entered freedom even sooner(i think i entered this tree around 190 in this game, haven't replayed it). It seems more obvious now that it will be THE ultimate key for fast cultural victories.

I changed my playstyle a bit in my last games and focus on Education as fast as possible instead of Metal Casting and it pays really big later with faster snowballing. I tought it would make a difference to build workshops early but it doesn't seem to be the case anymore with proper strategies.