TSG47 After Action Report

[arieltal]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 47
Date submitted: 2012-11-03
Reference number: 27589
Your name: arieltal
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1908AD
Turns played: 328
Base score: 1752
Final score: 2695
Time played: 4:10:00

got attacked by the Celts several times, at first Austria Dowed me as well, but after the
poorest performance i've ever seen, she just lost all her troops and became a good ally
for the rest of the game.
alexander started slow, but at some point started building many cities, got to be a real
problem, especially due to his unique ability.. so i dowed him and payed austria to take
his last city.. good riddance.,
got to be the richest civ in the game, the discovery of Mt. Kalidah(?) gave me a head
start as i built a settler from that money, also discovered grand mesa i think i was,
played the game post patch, was nice to see the enemy pillaging my tiles, had to aim
to kill those units before they get the chance to pillage and heal.

policy wise i went Tradition full, patronage full, (almost everyone went patronage.. was scarry..)
then opened rationalism and order opener.

 

[Hyperion529]

Yeah I know. First time ever above Prince. This game motivated me to start my first King playthrough though As Spain too because their powers seem interesting to me, when at first whne I first read it I thought it absolutely sucked. But yes, back on topic, is it okay to ask here how do you handle the Celtics? By turn 80-85, I was attacked by 5 composite bowmen and two melee units and a siege unit. How did you guys fend off the Celtics.

normally i try to rush for the great library to get the science lead, but this being immortal i expected early invasions and teched accordingly.
i bought lots of archers with faith (holy warriors belief), teched to construction early for composite bowmen and upgraded them with the gold i got from selling my horses and luxuries. working the faith wonder gave me 20 faith per turn with the +faith from natural wonders pantheon, so i was able to buy an archer every 4 turns while still getting the infrastructure up in my cities. the hills and mountains between my territory and the Celts made it easier to defend with ranged units and drive them back into the woods.

 

[ense7en]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 47
Date submitted: 2012-11-03
Reference number: 27590
Your name: ense7en
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1860AD
Turns played: 300
Base score: 1234
Final score: 2056
Time played: 10:46:00

This was played with the new patch.
I experienced two rather unfortunate bugs.
Firstly, capturing a city resulted in auto-annexing :<
Secondly, my happiness went from 9 to -8 overnight somehow in my saved game.
I just dealt with it and played on.
GGs also showed 0% boost to nearby units for me?
And the broken pathing in the patch, ugh...
Pillaging is nice though.

I really dislike diplo victories.
Doesn't matter how you play it, it's ultimately about saving gold (or acquiring it) and waiting till that last turn to ensure your victory, since nothing else before that really matters.

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

 

[Aaronius]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 47
Date submitted: 2012-11-03
Reference number: 27591
Your name: Aaronius
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1892AD
Turns played: 316
Base score: 2038
Final score: 3234


- How did you use your UU's?

I didn't. Built one Conq, upgraded a couple LS to Tercios, and built one. When I finally discovered the lost continent of military city states, I considered settling with my Conquistador, but there was really no compelling reason to do so.



- How did you use religion or spying to your advantage?

This ended up being a big religion game, with Mt Kailish to the north. I worked that mountain to the first pantheon (culture from jungle) and the first religion (christianity: cathedrals and world church). I was planning on a peaceful game of religious dominance. I enhanced with Mosques and Religious texts, so my religion would spread itself amongst the close packed empires.

Spying was pretty hard core this game b/c competition for CS was fierce. In the early game it was just war war war. In the midgame my empire really started chugging along, and I picked up lots of CS with surprising ease. Towards the end game tho, it just got wild, with everybody conducting coups, and buying off CS. I must have blown 10000 gold fighting mainly with Sweden down to the wire, and using the spys to conduct coups saved probably 10000 more.


- How did diplomacy go with your neighbors?

I had excellent relations with all distant neighbors (Sweden, Siam, and Maya). I wanted to be a good local neighbor but it was not to be. Austria, then the Celts, then Greece all DOWed me. The second time Celts DOWed, I took their capital. The greeks and Austrians attacked a 2nd 3rd and 4th time, and I simply defended and took money for peace. When I got artillery Austria DOWed a 5th time, and that was the last mistake they ever made. Sweden began puppeting Siam around the same time I razed the Austrian empire. Together, Gustav and I next attacked Greece, and I ended up capturing and razing all the cities. I placed a couple new cities in similar locations just to fill the space and capture some crabs, and to have a northern port just in case. With 1 turn left I took everybodies money and DOWed them all. Now they will die.

 

[Browd]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 47
Date submitted: 2012-11-03
Reference number: 27594
Your name: Browd
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1878AD
Turns played: 309
Base score: 1499
Final score: 2457
Time played: 5:34:00
Submitted save:
Isabella_0309 AD-1878.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Browd_C504701.Civ5Save

Not pretty, but a win. Boudicca fell one turn after my last game-in-process post, and I was able to puppet Edinburgh (I had done the cache validation and retrieved the two missing files before continuing). That ended my efforts at warfare -- at least, until two turns before the vote. After allying 9 of the 10 remaining CS (Alex had liberated Hong Kong a few turns earlier, so I didn't bother with it) with a last dash of gold and a quest or two (hello, Great Merchant), I nuked four of Alex's cities (and most of his navy) to prevent him from couping (he had no gold to speak of, so bribery was not a fear, and Gus was not a concern generally).

Unfortunately, a bit of Marrakesh was in the blast radius, so they went from allied to negative 60 influence, leaving me with only 8 CS votes. But, I had the extra vote from building the UN, so I was assured of victory (Gus also voted for me -- he was at war with Alex and must have loved my nuke-fest -- so I ended up with one more vote than needed).

After dispatching Boudicca, I just teched and cultured to save my life, and generated as much gold as I could. Gus did sail for Madrid at one point with some frigates and privateers, but a few gatling gun and rocket artillery rounds left his ships at the bottom of the bay.

My religion ended up in 56 of the 57 cities on the map (and did yield more gold than community property would have - 153 gpt at the end vs. 114 for community property - turning point was about turn 180).

Like ense7en, I'm not a big fan of diplo victories -- as this one illustrates, they are too easy to manipulate at the end -- feels sort of cheat-ish.

 

[RedRover57]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 47
Date submitted: 2012-11-02
Reference number: 27581
Your name: AE_
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1605AD
Turns played: 231
Base score: 952
Final score: 2069
Time played: 7:39:00
Submitted save: TSG47_Isabella_0231 AD-1605.Civ5Save
Renamed file: AE__C504701.Civ5Save

Played with the new patch. Had some problems with the AI being very aggressive. Austria, Greek and the Celts declared on me several times.

Could you give some details? How did you finish so quickly? Doesn't seem possible. In my replay I'm on turn 290 and nowhere near Globalization. Had to build a huge army/navy to take out the Celts, which is really putting a drain on my finances. Siam is a huge runaway (wiped out Sweden and the Mayans) and has almost every CS ally (I have 2 allies but that's it).

Edit: Turns out I have corrupted files which made the game much more difficult than usual. For example, I haven't been getting any combat bonus from GG proximity. So my game is a wash. Still - turn 231 is pretty crazy as no one else has posted a time anywhere close to that yet. Congrats on a great game!

 

[Attaturk]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 47
Date submitted: 2012-11-04
Reference number: 27596
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1530AD
Turns played: 216
Base score: 986
Final score: 2293
Time played: 3:52:00

Settled in place, two scouts, two workboats, GL NC
2nd city on the hill near Natural Wonder - Scout - Library
3rd city on the hill near crabs and fish - Archer - Library
4th city south near the marble - (bought library) - granary

(Hut pop Archery) - AH-Pottery-Sailing-Writing-Philosophy-(bulb Drama)-Construction-...-Education

bought 3 settlers

After I placed 4th settler, Austria, Boudica and shortly afterward Greece declared on me

Overall strategy was, use archery units to defend and beeling, education, scientific theory and plastic.

All scientists were saved, Started bulbing around 190. Prior to plastics and research labs. 500 bulb per turn at 190.

Policies:

Full Tradition
Patronage left three
rationalism + 1
order
commerce

Got wonders: GL - HG - ND - Pisa (got eng) - PT (using Eng) - Taj - Lovre

Sight from Conquistadors was quite helpful and two nearby wonders got me 1000g in the first 20 turns was awesome.

Religion:

Workboats - 100g - +15% hammers - +1 food temple/shrine - 30% cheaper missionaries

Spread religion to my cities and two nearby city states.
Bought two inquisitors and missionaries in case I capture some capitals (but I didn't)

After all of my naturally occurring GS have been born, I bought
1 GS for 1000faith
1 GE for 1000faith (got me UN to 3 turn)
1 GM for 1000faith (send it on a trade mission)

 

[Arilian]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 47
Date submitted: 2012-11-04
Reference number: 27599
Your name: Arilian
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1625AD
Turns played: 235
Base score: 726
Final score: 1544
Time played: 2:46:00
Submitted save: GOTM47-Isabella_0235 AD-1625.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Arilian_C504701.Civ5Save



Settled in place. Soooo bad choice. But I did not have any reason to settle 1 right before I scouted the east pearls.

3 City, one on the swamp sugar and one on the west cotton. Jungle is awsome science.
Policy:Full tradition 3 Paton 3 Rati 1 Order.

Bought settler from 500g settled on sugar.
Pantheon One With The Nature for 20faith/turn and turn 2x religion.
Religion was tithe (I was sure I need to spend a lot to CS)+Pagoda and Holy warriors (used it for 2 pikemans at the end not worth it) +30% range as enhancement.

Built 3 scout at the beginning but did not found out until the end that I could had another wonder at optics.

Maria attacked me first as I remember defended quite easily with archers.
Boudicca attacked me several times, never a serious threat.

I saved scientists, and I forgot about one, I just realised I still had one after the I discovered Globalisation with Oxford. grrr. This lost me around 6 rounds.

Also misclick bought something for 1000+ gold so at the end I sold all my building after the un was complete to be sure I have enough gold to buy everything.


I may replay this, as this could be an awesome finish time, if played right.

 

[Bezhukov]

"I may reply this as this could be an awsome finish time, if played right."

Yes, the free first religion and two cities could be a little nuts. Looking forward to Tommy finishing around 180.

Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1745AD
Turns played: 259
Final score: 2717

Went with liberty ICS. NC with GE from liberty finisher.

Religion:

Messenger of the Gods (+2 Sci per trade route) pantheon
+ 2 gold per city, +15% production, pagodas, and +30% spread

Never built a missionary, but religion spread throughout continent naturally, and fast. Alex and Maria didn't found one. Got most pagodas up at 200 a pop.

Policies: Full liberty, Patronage +20 base level, Rationalism opener, Order cheap factories, Rationalism +2 sci per specialist, sci from trading posts, Order cheap maintenance, production boost

Techs:

popped AH, pottery, calendar, archery, sailing, wheel, writing, construction, then beed education, astronomy (needed harbor for cap, seven CS's were asking for another Natural Wonder).

That made the warring a little bit of a slog. Alex built a nice city for me near the iron and crabs, but that's the only one I ended up taking. Siam ate Sweden and Maya, and I ended up friends with Alex and Siam (they both like Order). Maria went tall wonder building and never declared. Celts and Alex alternated giving me nice peace deals.

Once the UU's showed up, the wars stopped, and the Mil CS's kept enough troops coming to maintain the peace. Settled a city south of the former Sweden to get salt and on the mil CS continent.

Misjudged the end (first GE got UN down to 3 turns, so didn't need second, could have bought a Great Scientist with that faith), costing around 7 turns. Ended up allied with all CS's for last 50 turns or so - made sure to soak up all AI gold selling luxes, then when deal ran out, that lux that I was missing would fulfill a couple quests give me some WLTKD's.

"- How did you use your UU's?"

Was hoping to go a conquering - would have been huge, but the AI got scared and I didn't want any diplo penalties for DOWing since I needed buyers for my stuff.

"- How did you use religion or spying to your advantage?"

Religion was insane. +2 gold per city kept all units upgraded and Marrakesh permanently allied. Pagodas were huge for happiness and culture. Diplo boost from sharing religion with Maria and Alex kept them buying my stuff.

Sat spies in capitol until promoted, then went a couping. No AI ever had more than one CS allied the whole game. I was surprised how well that went. Had an extra spy mid-game who did the rounds for intrigue diplo boost.

Wonders: built forbidden palace and louvre, got beat to sistine, GE'd (faith) porcelain tower.

 

[Bezhukov]

Settled in place. Soooo bad choice. But I did not have any reason to settle 1 right before I scouted the east pearls.

Ribannah suggested it in the announcement thread. I figured there was another coast to the west and wanted to leave room for a city there. It was hard to resist the production from fishing boats pantheon with all those pearls, but I was determined to get messenger (+2 sci per trade route) as that's the only way to keep up tech with late NC.

 

[Gamewizard]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 47
Date submitted: 2012-11-04
Reference number: 27602
Your name: Gamewizard
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1730AD
Turns played: 256
Base score: 1238
Final score: 2427
Time played: 10:04:00

Great game! I really liked the setup: resource distribution, CS/Civ placement, NW placement, diplomatic civs. The lake to the west that separated my capital from Boudicca must have been red from the bloodshed.

In my game Sweden was the only Civ that managed to save insane amounts of gold. Alex conquered all but one Austrian city. Everyone hated Boudicca...she kept trying to fight me only to lose lots of units to myself and CS allies and then would give me lots of gold/resources for peace.

First time in a Civ V game: Boudicca is warring with poor little Pacal, he gives her his only other city to her for peace, and later in the game Siam conquered that city and liberated it back to Pacal! Great to see AIs liberating cities finally.

Sweden was a jerk, bullying all my CS allies and building all the wonders a couple turns before I would finish them.

I decided to go with Ribannah's plan of settling 1 east, to get next to the desert and hoping for more, but the extra pearls were a welcome consolation prize instead. I too used the natural wonder money to rush buy a city and drop it on the hill near it for +20 faith with One with Nature.

Also neat: I built a city on the militaristic CS island for Old Faithful, was gifted a horseman at that city, used him to pop a ruin and he upgraded to Conquistador. I settled him inland next to the sugar and mountains to complete that nice little combo.

The AI made a worthy attempt to thwart election day, stealing a couple CS away at that turn, but I still had 10 votes FTW.

This would have been a fun domination game. I would have carpeted the map with Modern Armor and Stealth Bombers.

 

[Tesuji]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 47
Date submitted: 2012-11-04
Reference number: 27603
Your name: Tesuji
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1824AD
Turns played: 282
Base score: 1115
Final score: 1991
Time played: 6:59:00

Settled in place I started down Tradition and try to get at least 4 cities squeezed in there. Built two scouts to try to get to the natural wonders as fast as possible. Got there first for 3 out of 4, although the 4th one came a bit late. By turn 52 (I think) I had my 4 cities. One on the east coast to the bottom, one on the N-W coast near Marrakech and one West near Boudicca. Immediately spent some gold to purchase some key-tiles so I could promise not to expand any more. Still pissed here off.

I did manage to squeeze in some archers so shortly after I settled my 4th city both Boudicca and Alex declared war. Especially Alex sent a huge army over. It took me all my tactical skills to stay alive. Development was greatly reduced due to the need of building more and more composite bowmen in order to fend them off.

Just when I had cleared them all off, Austria and Boudicca declared war together. This time it was easier. I had settled a general near marrakech (which p-ed it off) so anything coming from the North was stopped in its tracks there. Boudicca gave me Dublin and some gold for her failed efforts.

It was only by turn 140 before I built my first university. This was also around the time Austria finally gave up and I had time to build some science. Missed out on Chichen Itza by two turns because I hesitated building it for a few turns. Ouch.

I had built a pantheon and chosen God of the Sea. I must have had a dozen boats to profit from it at one point. But I didn't manage to start a religion and had to sit and watch other religions slowly strip my cities of their bonus. Built a late 5th (6 if you count Dublin puppet) city to get the extra pearls and sugar. Came in handy as I often had every extra luxury sold.

The end play was still tight. Sweden had huge amounts of cash, about triple of what I had. When I built the UN I came in last with one vote I traded large amounts of GPT for cash from Alex so he wouldn't have any cash to buy allies. Then I spent nearly all my cash to get me 9 allied CSs and then declared war on Sweden. He wouldn't be able to bribe them when at war with them. The very last turn one of the CS got still compromised by a spy by Thailand, making the count 8. Luckily Pacal voted for me.

 

[Arilian]

I do not think there is any reason to loose one turn and settle 1E if you do not know the map.
And I am not implying anything here - I just think whoever did this, mad a bad choice - and got lucky.

It's like bluffing all in with 2-3 and winning with full house.

 

[Gamewizard]

I do not think there is any reason to loose one turn and settle 1E if you do not know the map.
And I am not implying anything here - I just think whoever did this, mad a bad choice - and got lucky.

It's like bluffing all in with 2-3 and winning with full house.

It was a gamble, sure. I'd say that perfectly describes my poker game! LOL!

 

[Tesuji]

Like Arilian, I'm wondering what would prompt anyone to move the settler east. Even when you move the warrior across the river first, there's nothing showing that makes me think it's worth losing a turn to make the settler follow. Sure you get closer to sugar, but you need Masonry before you can clear the swamp anyway. And you're swapping several unknown land tiles for unknown sea tiles, which usually is a very bad bet.

 

[Gamewizard]

You cannot see what tiles are to the east from the starting position. I moved there hoping for more desert tiles for the desert folklore pantheon. I had moved my warrior south along the coast before moving the settler, which in hindsight was probably a poor move.

 

[Maxym]

Game date:1575AD
Turns played:225
Base score:1557
Final score:3460

Hands down my best Civ 5 game so far. I did get into some early trouble with Austria and Celts and it delayed my expansion a lot but after that I managed to stay on track, buying my science buildings and filling them up with specialists. Hit plastics on t 187 i think, started bulbing t 195. 5 turns to finish UN after one GE pop and then i thought i was coasting to easy and very competitive victory on turn 215.

NOPE, i got 8 votes even though i had allied 10 CSs. How does voting work nowadays? DO you have to buy them before last turn, i had 2 or 3 last turn aliies. Or does it have to be most of last ten turns before the vote? Can someone explain, please

I took out my frustration on the celts, moving my army south after taking Athens and wiping them out completely before last vote. Still only 9 votes even though i had every CS allied axcept 1 and one taken over by Alex.

Will post some screenshots and details a bit later. Looks like it would have been a top finish so far, buy 1 turn. Ataturk

AI getting creative: Alex steals my only iron with a GG, sounds like a casus belli if i ever needed one. Decide not to wait for his next dow and go for him after taking all his Gold, so no mercy until i take his cap.

Spoiler :

I press on, razing his citadel and capturing Argos to open the way to Athens, his response:

Spoiler :

I guess he knew he will take Argos back, I lose my march rifles, ouch
I take it right back and use my extra GG to grab a foothold past the rivers. It took a long time to get Athens even with a citadel as he had naval support and seemingly infinite supply of units and i had only 1 melee unit to soak up damage. Only after i got to globalization i detoured and got MGuns and it was over quickly.

Spoiler :

I took messenger of gods, tithe, cathedral, % prod and defender of faith and that last citadel would not exist if not for that because as soon as my GG and gatling were across the river he attacked with all he had, completely surrounding me and taking the Gatling to 3 or 4 health. You can see it in Argos now, with almost no health bar left. I managed to extricate it after i planted the GG. It was agamble but i needed to take it as my army was a bit on a light side, thats all of them in that shot, lol. So i finaly got to use the defender bonus.

took tradition (full) then two on the left in rationalism (oracle), then order and patronage last.

When the fist vote came i had 9 CS plus my UN, i thought i was a shoo in but no

Spoiler :

In retospect I did not need the 5th city for my 4 city tradition opening. If i had managed to place my 4 cities on time and held onto them, and saved my faith (I only had 1 scientist) sub 200 is very doable.

Still it was the funnest GOTM yet for me, amazing possibilities but very difficult to execute, lunatic neighbours who were perfect opponents in diplo game: Rammy, Alex, Maria and a psycho Celts to keep you on your toes from the get go. Only 12 CS made it hard to get to 9 votes, keep games like that coming. I know some players will struggle, but for others it is what we have been waiting for

 

[Tesuji]

NOPE, i got 8 votes even though i had allied 10 CSs. How does voting work nowadays? DO you have to buy them before last turn, i had 2 or 3 last turn aliies. Or does it have to be most of last ten turns before the vote? Can someone explain, please

This nearly happened to me. The last turn one of the AI corrupted one of my allies with a spy. Or one of them bought more influence in your case and passed you as an ally? You should get a message, but maybe you were too upset to pay attention to it? I was lucky to have one spare one and Pacal voted for me. No AI vote for you? (I was wondering if you could count on at least one AI vote.)

Still a good score!

 

[BuddhaBubba]

Well, I did alright considering it was immortal up until I made the mistake of being greedy with Boudicca and tried to take Dublin. Perhaps it really wasn't my fault because Greece and Austria both DOW'd me when I was only a couple turns into the (4th, 5th, 6th?) Celtic war.

It was just basically Greece, Austria and Celtia taking turns trying to conquer me and me doing a pretty good job of fighting them off.

But at the point where they were all against me at once I gave up. Will look at other people's AAR's to see how I can learn from this. There's probably a whole nother level of strat that I missed

 

[Maxym]

This nearly happened to me. The last turn one of the AI corrupted one of my allies with a spy. Or one of them bought more influence in your case and passed you as an ally? You should get a message, but maybe you were too upset to pay attention to it? I was lucky to have one spare one and Pacal voted for me. No AI vote for you? (I was wondering if you could count on at least one AI vote.)

Still a good score!

No, as you can see i have 9 CS as allies, i assume i get the UN vote for myself not two votes for someone i voted for. I got few CS on the turn of the vote, mainy becuase I was afraid i would be supplanted by spes or bribes and delayed allying them.