TSG50 After Action Report

Game: Civ5 GOTM 50
Date submitted: 2012-12-21
Your name: groorg1
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1953AD
Turns played: 373
Base score: 1816
Final score: 2454
Time played: 11:32:00

I'm proud that I won this game. I got off to what I thought was quite a good start, founding five cities quite quickly on Liberty start. I figured that getting a quick start to the Empire, with lots of gold evident, would yield big money early, and the science from the impressive array of cities I started with would carry me swiftly to Globalization. It would have worked, but as usual I played it very loose with the military, and wasn't paying enough to attention to world politics.

I don't know how it went in other games, but in mine Rome and Japan were ravaging menaces. The Romans started trashing city states and took out the Mayans, and eventually the Greeks, unbeknownst to me. Meanwhile, I was friends with India, but Japan first took out England, and then around turn 190 leaped on me. The eastern half of my empire was on fire by turn 200, and I spent the next ~ 100 turns battling for my life. Japan initially took two of my five cities and actually besieged Vienna and my southernmost city. I beat them back and took back one city, before my army was destroyed in the desert. Then a Japanese counterattack took the city back. I counterattacked again and retook both cities and Nagoya, a border city of Japan's.

This was around turn 250. I was feeling good, but then India stabbed me in the back. I was forced to cover Vienna again, and nearby city-state Quebec besieged my northernmost city, coming within a hair's breadth of taking it. I lost all 3 cities I had gained, but India mercifully signed a peace treaty. Around turn 270 my technology, which had been robust because my 3 surviving core cities were very strong, and pumping out military, gave me a decisive edge. By turn 300 I stormed through Japan with Great War infantry, hussars and artillery, upgrading through to tanks and infantry. I even liberated Geneva; I figured they'd be allies forever, but almost immediately they dropped to "friend"; not sure if I got overthrown in a coup or if there was a glitch there.

By turn 330 I had Japan off the map, but at that moment India stabbed me again, and my entire military was just returning from the Japanese. The Romans looked like they were going to invade, but instead took out the last 2 Japanese island colonies. I breathed a sigh of relief.

Then city-state Jakarta declared war on me and took my southernmost city, one of my 3 core cities. I got it back after 2 turns and then took Mumbai, forcing the Indians to sign a peace treaty, but it was ugly. At that point I quickly got the Japanese cities up and running economically. Rome had destroyed its opponents and outnumbered me probably 2 to 1, but seemed patiently waiting for something... and at that point I finally was able to crank out a Diplomatic victory, winning on turn 373.

NOT at all how I expected that to go. Religion played a large part and I continued to buy Pagodas and Mosques in all conquered cities throughout. A continuing supply of Great Engineers proved very useful with key Wonders, but I felt like I could have gotten to the UN a touch earlier. As it turned out, I managed the vote with 1 city-state to spare.
 
Great write-up! Fighting, getting set back, reclaiming territory, losing territory, taking it back again and more, losing more cities, taking them back and more, and then winning. Nice! :goodjob:

I even liberated Geneva; I figured they'd be allies forever, but almost immediately they dropped to "friend"; not sure if I got overthrown in a coup or if there was a glitch there.

On Geneva, liberating a CS apparently only gives you 60 influence, so you are allies for one turn and then just friends (should be more influence--at least the 90 influence Sweden gets for gifting a Great Person, but there you are). Dropping some gold on them right away assures continued ally status (assuming that is a good use for your gold).
 
Thank you! I didn't realize liberation was so meager a benefit -- I seem to remember it being a lot more effective in the past, sometimes generating what looked like ~ 150-200 points? Has that changed in a patch without my noticing or was I just dreaming it? (Maybe I always had good relations with a city-state before it was taken and liberated, I don't know.)

I should mention a few other things. The pantheon belief I was using was the city-state influence one, so I was motivated to convert cities as much as possible (part of my original idea for winning). Also, the Hussar proved effective for a brief period of the war, but I only built about 3 and they were either killed or replaced by armor units after a brief stint. Coffee House seems really nice and I did notice I was getting a ton of great people.

Great write-up! Fighting, getting set back, reclaiming territory, losing territory, taking it back again and more, losing more cities, taking them back and more, and then winning. Nice! :goodjob:



On Geneva, liberating a CS apparently only gives you 60 influence, so you are allies for one turn and then just friends (should be more influence--at least the 90 influence Sweden gets for gifting a Great Person, but there you are). Dropping some gold on them right away assures continued ally status (assuming that is a good use for your gold).
 
Game: Civ5 GOTM 50
Date submitted: 2012-12-23
Your name: willardgrant
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1898AD
Turns played: 319
Final score: 2546
Submitted save: Maria Theresa_0319 AD-1898.Civ5Save
Renamed file : Willardgrant_Maria Theresa_0319 AD-1898.Civ5Save

I decided to neglect Austria UA and just buy as many CS for the vote win.
Settled in place and found quick 4 cities (Tabarnak Tradition strategy). A fifth one founded later. Elizabeth DOWed me early but 6-7 CBs made all the difference so I puppeted Nottingham and London, England was wiped out later by Japan.
Capital built many Wonders including SH, Petra and UN.
I founded a religion first (Christianity) and spread it to almost every city of the world. Desert folklore, Tithe, Pagodas, Feed the world and Itinerant preachers helped with growth and money.
Social Policies went full Tradition, full Patronage, opened Rationalism, Commerce, and Autocracy in the end.
Espionage went all to rig elections of CS. Allied all CS in my continent.
Japan DOWed me during the Industrial age but he was held easily and war ended some turns later.
In the other continent, many wars between the AIs. Caesar eliminated Pacal and Izabella (both were liberated later by Alex).
Beelined to Telecommunications for the UN (hurried by GE) and immediately declared on Alex after buying almost all of his allied CS.
During the 10 turns until the vote I managed to puppet his Arretium (conquered earlier form Rome) and Mycenae.
Won easily with 17 votes.
 

Attachments

Game: Civ5 GOTM 50
Date submitted: 2012-12-23
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1580AD
Turns played: 226
Base score: 1007
Final score: 2237
Time played: 4:52:00
Submitted save: Maria Theresa_0226 AD-1580.Civ5Save

Lost of Machu Picchu hurt me a lot. I got some difficulties to find money for science buildings. Got friendly and friendship with India all the time then Romans later. Isabella got wiped completely by Rome and Greece.

Not a bad game, but not a good one either.
 
Game: Civ5 GOTM 50
Date submitted: 2012-12-26
Reference number: 27992
Your name: ense7en
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1846AD
Turns played: 293
Base score: 2229
Final score: 3843
Time played: 10:55:00

- How did you use your UU's?
- How did you use religion or spying to your advantage?
- How did diplomacy go with your neighbors?
- What effect did fewer AI and more space have on your strategy?

Would be interested to hear any thoughts on game setup. :)

Really didn't use Hussars as by then i was deep in war with a large army already.

Religion was extremely useful for gold production due to Tithe.
Pagodas and Choral Music (+2 culture/temple) helped with happiness and culture. Desert Folklore was very strong and got it going.

Later in the game, i used faith to buy many great artists for a nice long never-ending golden age, and the very end, a couple merchants for +2000 gold for trade missions :D

Spies were mainly used for rigging CS elections since i was way ahead in tech almost the entire game.

Diplomacy didn't really exist with my neighbors. England and India both settled beside me, and India ABOVE me too.

I took out England other than their last crappy city, which Japan wiped out in a hurry.
I then took out India other than their last crappy city, which they sat on basically all game other than settling one other.
Japan took over two city states, so i liberated both those during my war with them later on. I also liberated England twice from Japan in that war.

I have one concern with the map creation, and that's the lack of resources/luxs for some city states.
It's obvious it's not a stock created map due to them lacking luxs, which i found annoying. To me, city states should always have a lux, not just a natural wonder, for example.
Florence had only Old Faithful. NO luxs, and no strategics, which just doesn't make sense and makes them a highly undesirable city state ally.



Anyway, this was a rather fun game. With it being king, i was able to basically get any wonder i wanted, and many more i really didn't need.

My main goal in this game was not to get the fastest time, but rather to actually get enough culture to grab lots of policies i wanted.
Took all of Tradition, then right side of Commerce (extra happiness is really nice).
Freedom i opened to get the +25% great person boost, which worked well with the Coffee House +25% boost :) Later i grabbed reduced food costs for specialists here as all my main cities had 4+ slots being worked. Bought a fair number of artists for golden ages with faith later as well.
Patronage i took all the good policies in (till +science from CSes).
Finally i finished Commerce for the extra trading post gold + boost to Merchant trade missions, which made me 4000 gold.
By NOT taking Rationalism, i knew my finish time would be a lot worse than it could be. But i was okay with that :)

I was absolutely swimming in gold by the end of the game, over 1100gpt, which was part of the plan all along, and it let me easily fund ally status with all the city states for the entire latter portion of the game.

I could have married many more city states (just married two) as i had tons of happiness mid-game and never had to worry about it ever since then, but i decided to stick with the cities i had other than taking out Japan.

The war with Japan was rather annoying, as they had the Great Wall combined with their zombie units, which made it tough, even with Artillery.
I may have found them to be a rather annoying foe all game, so at the end of the war just before making peace, i left them with one crap city, and then plopped a citadel right beside it. Haha...just a bit of spite there.
That city had only ONE unworked forest tile and resource-less ocean tiles and proceeded to starve down to one pop.

Screenies at the end, t293

homefront, northwest, northeast, and south
Spoiler :
home-nw.jpg

home-ne.jpg

home-se.jpg


tech tree
Spoiler :
techtree.jpg


social policies
Spoiler :
policies.jpg


demographics
Spoiler :
demographics.jpg


religion and religion spread
Spoiler :
religion.jpg

religion%20spread.jpg


economics
Spoiler :
economic%20overview.jpg


and the UN voting results
Spoiler :
un%20vote.jpg
 
Game: Civ5 GOTM 50
Date submitted: 2012-12-30
Reference number: 28009
Your name: Wargizmo
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1590AD
Turns played: 228
Base score: 1025
Final score: 2277
Time played: 4:23:00
Submitted save: Maria Theresa_0228 AD-1590.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Wargizmo_C505001.Civ5Save


Settled on the gold mountain. Went for 2 cities opener and then bought up Tyre and Quebec.

Social policies: Full tradition then patronage (opener + aesthetics), Left side rationalism, philanthropy and then Commerce opener to finish.

Strategy: Stole a worker from India and then peaceful the rest of the game. Almost all gold went on buying tech buildings and signing research agreements until the end of the game. Relied on aesthetics and quests to get favour with CS until the last 10 turns.

Opening:
Capital Built: Worker -> Granary -> Shrine -> GL -> HG -> NC -> Petra -> Market -> Mint
Rush bought: Scout x2 -> Settler -> Warrior -> Water mill
Free: Monument (legalism), Library (GL), Garden (HG), Amphitheatre (Petra), Aquaduct (tradition)
2nd city: Granary -> Library -> mill -> lighthouse -> Oracle
Rush bought: Trireme

Religion: Desert folkore (duh), Tithe, Swords to plowshares (amazing), Religious community, Religious texts; Faith went on 1 missionary after founding, 2 great prophets (plus 1 from hagia), 2 great scientists. By the end I had most of the map covered and was pulling in about 75 gpt from tithe.

Tech: Pottery -> Mining (ruin) -> Calendar -> Writing -> Hanging gardens tech -> philosophy(GL bulb) -> Petra tech -> Civil service -> Universities -> Acoustics (Oxford bulb) -> Workshops -> Printing press -> Public schools -> Labs -> UN tech.

Screenshot from last turn:

Spoiler :
nLGl4.jpg
 
quick question, Wargizmo: when you married Tyre and Quebec, did they get free aqueducts/cult buildings from Tradition? i doubt it works that way but im curious if there is some interesting mechanic regarding free buildings and Austrian marriages.

great game. t228 is impressive. ive never gotten a diplo vic that early at any diff level.
 
quick question, Wargizmo: when you married Tyre and Quebec, did they get free aqueducts/cult buildings from Tradition? i doubt it works that way but im curious if there is some interesting mechanic regarding free buildings and Austrian marriages.

great game. t228 is impressive. ive never gotten a diplo vic that early at any diff level.

Nope. The AI had already built aqueducts but they still had maintenance costs, in both cities but I had to build the monument.
 
Game: Civ5 GOTM 50
Date submitted: 2012-12-30
Reference number: 28014
Your name: quizman
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1896AD
Turns played: 318
Base score: 1768
Final score: 2806
Time played: 9:20:00

An enjoyable game with a reasonable finish by my standards, but nowhere near the finishing times of the best on this forum.

- How did you use your UU's? I puppeted and later annexed Antwerp on the SE corner of the continent to provide a staging post to go to war with Japan. Oda was harassing my city states near his border and it seemed simpler to take him out of the equation. I was amazed at the huge happiness hit that I took and it put me off repeating it elsewhere. Built coffee houses for the production when I had nothing better to build, but not a priority. Did not build (or need) a single hussar.

- How did you use religion or spying to your advantage? Faith was mostly spent keeping rampaging Indian prophets in check. I was always leading the tech race so spies were mostly used in city states. I bought two great scientists with faith too.

- How did diplomacy go with your neighbors? Not well. I was friendly with Rome throughout, but they were just about the only RA's I managed. To my complete surprise, India was 1st to DoW, just when I was arming up for an easterly attack from England. Easily repelled and then I captured and puppeted his capital for the wonders it contained. Also, I removed England from the game before she got to longbows and became too aggressive. As mentioned above I needed to clip Japan's wings to stop the constant city state harassing. Got a good peace settlement too. Towards the end I was getting bored so when battleships became available I set sail with 3 of them and an army of infantry to attack Greece. It was more out of annoyance than anything because of the constant city state coups his agents were staging. I even liberated the Mayan capital on the last turn. (He was out of the game before I had explored that far afield.)

- What effect did fewer AI and more space have on your strategy? More trouble than it was worth. It meant that cities were spaced further apart and with some dodgy southern terrain, moving units around was painfully slow. It also left room for more barb camps to turn up unexpectedly much later in the game than normal. Additionally the lack of RA's from having fewer AI's definitely proved a hindrance.
 
Your name: zinad
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1750AD
Turns played: 260
Base score: 1129
Final score: 2171
Time played: 5:07:00

Settled on gold hill, built 3 additional cities. I married Quebec around turn 200. Gave a nice science boost.

Policies:
Full Tradition
Patronage Opener
Rationalism without Finisher
Order Opener (For buying Great Engineer for UN)
Rationalism Finisher (the two free thechs reached Globalization)
Patronage Philanthropy (From Sydney Opera House rushed with last great engineer)

Religion:
Desert Folklore / Tithe, Cathedrals / Religious Community, Itinerate Preachers (I prefer Religious texts)
 
Turn 344 Victory

Your name: BigChiefLizzy
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1924AD
Turns played: 344
Base score: 1791
Final score: 2633
Time played: 5:56:00

As usual for me got too carried away with wonder building, and that combined with lots of early warring slowed me down too much. Got GL, Petra, Taj, LT, PT, Oracle, Eiffel Tower, Pentagon, Alhambra, BG, Chichen, Louvre in Vienna, lost out on hanging gardens to India, and Notre Dame to Rome.

Settled in place, then india settled mumbai north of mountain near marble (one of my favoured spots, so I settled north of mumbai on sheep hill, and one other city north of capital, on coast near whales.

England DOW/rushed india and took mumbai, so I declared war on England and captured mumbai for myself, then Japan DOW's on england as well and captures london just before I can get into position to take it myself. As london seems to have the only iron nearby and I don't trust Japan I wait a few turns for Japan to move his army away from London then DOW. Take London for myself and liberate Geneva (captured by Japan earlier). Then end up in a long painful slogging match with Japan before I took his capital.

Friends with Rome and India rest of game, 3-4 research agreements from each. Maya wiped out by Rome one turn after I met them. Then he wipes out spain and attacks Greece (again). I DOW on Greece and manage to puppet Athens, but it was another costly war, not sure it was worth it.

Full patronage tree, full liberty and 1 in honor (bad timing of research), and all bar one policy in rationalism tree.
 
Game: Civ5 GOTM 50
Date submitted: 2013-01-02
Reference number: 28037
Your name: glory7
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1380AD
Turns played: 198
Base score: 1604
Final score: 4112
Time played: 6:28:00
Submitted save: glory7_0198 AD-1380.Civ5Save
Renamed file: glory7_C505001.Civ5Save

I wrote what I did for the first 100~ turns in the progress report. In sum, I used tradition 4 city opening and settled on river desert btwn me and England, on top of dye, and on top of marble. Desert forklore, tithe, pagoda, religious community, 30% further spread for the religion. I bought 6 pagodas and 3 GPs.

After entering renaissance era, I realized that I needed 2 more cities to boost my spt. Instead of building my own, I took delhi and London. I had to fight with England anyway as it took my first cs ally geneva so I needed to liberate it. After that, I took kyoto and osaka from japan as I had army anyway and those cities were good places for gpt and wine.

Annexed delhi and london when resistance ends. Bought courthouse, granary/library and university if needed. Beelined for plastics and used one GS to get it faster. I planted 2 GS.

Saved more than 3k to buy 3 lab immediately. bought 2 more later and hard built one (I had 6 main cities - 4 of my own and delhi, london). spt peaked 1300+. Got chem and fertilizer and beelined for globalization. Used 4 GS (1 from faith, 1 from Porc Tower). I was planning to buy one more GS but I realized that I could use oxford for the last tech. Hence, I bought 2 GE with faith instead. I rushed one GE for the UN and it showed 2 turns... so my 2nd GE only saved 1 turn.

spt was 532 at t153 when I bought 2 public schools and 769 at t166 when I had public schools up in 5 cities (all except london). 621.62 from cities, 54.2 from CS, 93.24 from rat opener. I had many CS allies but spt from them was too small. I should have focused more on getting rat tree, as usual. spt jumped to 1053 at t177 when I bought 3 labs after popping up plastics. around 1350 at t183-186 when I bulbed 4 GS. While writing this, I just noticed that I built the UN 12 turns after getting plastics (t189)...

Overall, I am happy with sub 200 finish.
 
Game:
Civ5 GOTM 50

Date submitted:
2013-01-03

Reference number:
28042

Your name:
beto_java

Game status:
Diplomacy Victory

Game date:
1950AD

Turns played:
370

Base score:
1363

Final score:
1841

Time played:
3:48:00

Submitted save:
final_Maria Theresa_0370 AD-1950.Civ5Save

Renamed file:
beto_java_C505001.Civ5Save
Moderator Action: Moved to TSG50 AAR thread. :)
 
Game: Civ5 GOTM 50
Date submitted: 2013-01-03
Reference number: 28043
Your name: Eva
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1886AD
Turns played: 313
Base score: 1006
Final score: 1622
Time played: 3:35:00
Submitted save: Maria Theresa_0313 AD-1886.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Arilian_C505001.Civ5Save


Hello
This game was actually played by my wife so I do not know anything about it :)
I will try to convince her to create an account if she plays more of them.
Also she had to reload the last turn as she did not know she need to press 'one more turn' as I forgot to tell her.
 
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1700AD
Turns played: 251
Base score: 2115
Final score: 4230

I finally overcame my Liberty affliction and played this as a straight 4-city Tradition start. I played the game over 2 periods with a break at Xmas, so memory is a bit hazy. Built up a small fleet of Galleass to ease capture of London and harass Japan. Beelined to Flight for GW Bombers and a late expansion to conquer Indian, Japanese and (at endgame) Greek capitals. I almost ended up with the wrong (Domination) victory condition in my march across the globe and needed to protect Madrid from the Greeks during the UN countdown! It was my best G&K effort since the patch last autumn and I am slowly getting to grips with the current RA/GS mechanics.

Happy New Year!

PS:- I made one Diplomatic Marriage (I can see it being powerful in non-Diplomatic games). Coffee Houses were OK and helped GS generation. I thought Hussars would be great until I realised that +50% flank attack was basically only +5% attack strength.
 

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    Austria victory.jpg
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  • Austria 2.jpg
    Austria 2.jpg
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settled on the gold. didn't have the best start losing the GL by a few turns to India, then also the Hanging Gardens, but I had a very quick first four cities (by T45), then a fifth up north by the Whales, and I went to war with India to take Delhi. Delhi ended up being my second best city (cuz of the GL and HG). got to Education by t107 I think, and tech failry quickly after that. I signed one RA with Rome, but too late to make a difference, it actually finished at t205, after I'd already built the UN. I didn't marry any CSs until the very end (just for fun, I had extra votes I didn't need). I would have married some military CSs if circumstances had allowed, but I wasn't getting the quests from the military CSs this game.
I also took Japan's and Englands caps from them at the end just for fun.
Fun game, thanks HR!
 
t240

settled on the gold, went for three desert cities (riversheep and fishmountain) before NC

after settled one more up north, when gandhi lost his settler to barbarians

went for Petra ofcourse, and rush buyed all the science buildings

no HG and no puppets

did not complete rationalism unfortunately, but bulbed 8 GS + 1 RA on the end towards Globalization. used a GE for UN and build it in 3 turns.

just had enough money to buy all the CS, did not knew the changed system. is there any way to see if a civ is planning to plan on you?

BTW: diplo marriage could be good, if the tradition policies would also effect these cities. then you would get a normal city for 500 with some units and with some luck nice buildings.
 
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