TSG55 After Action Report thread

[dthompson32]

I played one last time, and managed a turn 122 finish. I was able to get education to pop on turn 92 and Astronomy on turn 101 using the saved GS. I could get closer to Glory/Tommy times with better early management of my armies. I took about 5 turns too long taking out Vienna, I think using the settler on the north coast to upgrade the northern army is a better move than the southern coast. Once you take out Persia you have a nicely upgraded army that can't get to Stockholm in time.

Also, I tested the theory about Monument to the Gods, but found the extra faith to get religion earlier and more troops was a better deal than getting GL and NC earlier. Getting two SPs in commerce prior to Astronomy is a good deal though, 4 moves through ocean makes a big difference.

I also tried settling on the truffles to see if it made a difference, but the RNG is such that someone else will get to Mt Kalish first every time if you do it. Getting to the NWs first is a pretty big deal for this game.

 

[Maxym]

Looks like you became an expert at this game. I was wondering if Messenger with 3 cities connected might not get even faster astro. Extra faith is nice but unnecessary. Settle 2nd next to kailash then one in between and connect asap even when losing gpt.then settle cerro later. Take out ethiopia when you can spread religion there and connect that city too. I never got around to testing it. Maybe you can give it a go.

 

[WarIsPeace]

Yeah, that's right, i suck
Last time i played warlord game i think was Civ3. I've been way to careful all the game long. Avoiding multi front wars and sending twice the amount of units required to capture any city.

Glad I'm not the only one who overplayed this one. No submission from me, but I did have about the same finish time you did. It was fun. Thanks to the GOTM organizers. I wish I had time to replay it after reading the tips from the others here.

Earlier in this thread there was a comment about "Can the AI even win at this level?" and Halcyan2 responded, "Just have to ask the newbies who are new to the game and get trounced on the lower difficulty levels! (Especially those who haven't played previous Civs)." Excellent point!

I remember one of my very first Civ5 games where I wanted to sail around my continent with a trireme but was blocked by Washington's borders. I didn't really understand open borders or he wouldn't give them to me or somesuch, so I just DOWed him so I could move my trireme where I pleased. Unfortunately this brought lots of American tourists to my lands in the form of minutemen. I fought to the bitter end but lost definitively. I've come a long way since then, but apparently I don't know how to play in a hurry.

 

[z00t]

I massively overplayed it as well, 237 turns i think. It was my first game of G+K and my 3rd game of civ5, used to play a lot of civ4. I lost a bunch of units on my first attempt to take out ethiopia and as a result was overly cautious of the combat system for the rest of the game. Also completely overlooked religion. It was a fun learning experience though and this thread taught me a lot in the post game analysis. looking forward to the next months game

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

For so few games under your belt for civ5 that is a good time. You'll drop turns pretty quickly. Good luck and thanks for joining us.

 

[tommynt]

Looks like you became an expert at this game. I was wondering if Messenger with 3 cities connected might not get even faster astro. Extra faith is nice but unnecessary. Settle 2nd next to kailash then one in between and connect asap even when losing gpt.then settle cerro later. Take out ethiopia when you can spread religion there and connect that city too. I never got around to testing it. Maybe you can give it a go.

there was cerro on this map???

Dont think I EVER found it, guess this might have hurt

I found 4 cities before NC usuful on this map, with getting a bit gold from ais from CS and other civs I could buy library in city 3 and 4 while building granny with prio.
1 City with all jungle and buying university there 1. gave real good teching.
And with cap producing gl/nc/oracle 2 cities with some prodoction are just needed imo

Only thing which slowed me down werent enough units in water when astro hit, 4 early packed archers d just do the trick on homeland

 

[dthompson32]

there was cerro on this map???

Dont think I EVER found it, guess this might have hurt

Yeah, up in the northeast peninsula of the starting continent right next to Prague. You head past Siam and keep going east through the mountain pass. I'm finding on replays dropping your 3rd city there creates a very nice cash flow. It's also why Monument to the Gods isn't such a great deal, you can be generating 28 faith per turn around turn 35 or so if you take the right pantheon.

On my last replay I bought all my troops with faith and used cash for settlers, libraries, granaries, and universities.

Of course it is pretty easy to maximize results when you are seeing how everyone else did it, know the map exactly, and have played the same game a few times. Even so, I still haven't matched your time on first play through.

 

[glory7]

there was cerro on this map???

Dont think I EVER found it, guess this might have hurt

I found 4 cities before NC usuful on this map, with getting a bit gold from ais from CS and other civs I could buy library in city 3 and 4 while building granny with prio.
1 City with all jungle and buying university there 1. gave real good teching.
And with cap producing gl/nc/oracle 2 cities with some prodoction are just needed imo

Only thing which slowed me down werent enough units in water when astro hit, 4 early packed archers d just do the trick on homeland

no wonder I got earlier time for this one. I found cerro very early so I could rush buy settler from kaliash city and settle 3rd city near cerro - 20 gpt and 8fpt from one tile was just too much. That place also have river wheat for growth.

 

[Monthar]

no wonder I got earlier time for this one. I found cerro very early so I could rush buy settler from kaliash city and settle 3rd city near cerro - 20 gpt and 8fpt from one tile was just too much. That place also have river wheat for growth.

There is even one riverside coastal tile you can settle this city to have both Cerro and whales, and be able to buy/build the workboat for them. You'll have to buy 2 tiles to get Cerro quickly, but if you haven't bought any other tiles, they're fairly cheap.

 

[ahte]

Turn 169 on my first GotM, could be worse! Could also be a LOT better...

I thought I'd done a pretty good job with my early scouting, but managed to completely miss Cerro until I sailed my invasion force past the NW corner of the continent. But settling Mt Kailash early with Spain is just... wow. Like most people seem to have done, I ended up using Holy Warriors for the bulk of my army, plus a couple of gifted Legions from the southern city-state. I hadn't realised city-states could gift you units you didn't have the resources for - early on they kept giving me Legions without me having the iron to support them, making them barely any better than warriors.

I made two significant mistakes: First, I played the early game far too cautiously, I could probably have knocked over Ethiopia and Byzantium much earlier using half the number of troops I threw at them. Second, I simply didn't tech Astronomy fast enough to get a really competitive time. I think I'll replay this one a couple of times to try and get the hang of teching a lot faster, because frankly it's pretty mind-boggling seeing how quickly some people were managing!

All in all, really fun game. It's nice to play on Warlord once in a while to realise just how much better you've gotten

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

Turn 169 on my first GotM, could be worse! Could also be a LOT better...

Welcome to TSG! Nicely done and I'm glad you enjoyed it.

 

[fromar]

Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1670AD
Turns played: 244
Base score: 2128
Final score: 4433

I have never played on the lower difficulty, also massively overplayed. By the time I was taking on the last civ, I had artillery. I also did total elimination - that probably wasted some time. At the end of the game, Persia was the only civ left.

 

[Keepitsimple]

Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1400AD
Turns played: 200

I played it all wrong. Built like 10 settlers. Finished Vienna with great war bombers while having 70 happiness and 800 bpt..

 

[WaveOfDoom]

Your name: WaveOfDoom
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1575AD
Turns played: 225
Base score: 2044
Final score: 4542

Not nearly as fast as I wanted. I just like to build too much! Plus Austria built the GW, which also slowed me a down. Oh well, next time.

 

[dembo]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 55
Date submitted: 2013-03-03
Reference number: 28438
Your name: dembo
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1570AD
Turns played: 224
Base score: 1935
Final score: 4397
Time played: 4:42:00
Submitted save: Isabella_0224 AD-1570.Civ5Save
Renamed file: dembo_C505501.Civ5Save


I was pretty happy with my speed, however...

...I made a massive error - I knocked seven bells of what-not out of India, brought them to their knees and then made them accept a huge war settlement. Great, right?

No, it was only once I'd finished conquering the second continent that I realised I'd taken Mumbai but not Delhi

So, I spent maybe 30 turns at the end which I didn't need to - backtracking to finish India off properly!

Ho hum. Live and learn. Was fun to put the pedal to the metal and try and burn through a basic game as aggressively as I could. Thanks for the challenge!

 

[TimeWeaver]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 55
Date submitted: 2013-03-03
Reference number: 28440
Your name: TimeWeaver
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1360AD
Turns played: 197
Base score: 1816
Final score: 4656
Time played: 9:42:00
Submitted save: Isabella_0197 AD-1370.Civ5Save
Renamed file: TimeWeaver_C505501.Civ5Save

This one was a pure joy! A bit low on difficulty (a nice change of pace) and an exciting map.
I used a couple of scouts and hadn't the best of luck with those huts. I got maps and barbarian camps. However, one of those maps actually pointed me to that hoyl mountain to the north, so I rushed over there with a settler and took hold of that land. Otherwise, I built myself a warrior and ICS culture early on. I sorta took turns pickin policies from the honor and liberty tree, and also I attacked almost on sight (except city states, those I let be, with one exception - see below). I discovered Ethiopia and Byzantium early on, and became their warsworn enemy pretty much immediately. However, I just attacked military units to get xp, and let their settlers go and settle as they pleased. Then I took their cities and annexed them (a few production and horse/iron ones, I annexed). I let like three peace agreements pass, usually I refused peace. I did the same with all civilizations on the big main continent. I also found that golden wonder in a city state to the north east, and diverged from my strategy - basically I invaded it and annexed the city state.
I didn't build almost any science buildings at all, I used workers (almost all of them were captured ones) and they built roads, connecting all of my cities. My building strategy was commerce, so I managed to build an economic beast of a spanish civ (with a little faith and happiness on the side, as it were). I was nearly never in the unhappiness segment despite war throughout the game. I built a lot of wonders (perhaps half of those available). When I let an admiral go exploring to the west (over the ocean), I realized that I had to reach astronomy, so I started go more sciency. The troops I already had, so it became a waiting game. After several centuries, I disembarked groups of soldiers to the west and east, and just assumed that the three civs that were left had no chance against them: It was mainly conqistadors and tercios, with a couple of caravel overcoats. That last phase was just an abbatoir, I kept going against their capitals till they fell (almost on the same turn).
It wasn't the fastest victory, but it was a mighty empire with lots of happy faces and loads of dosh.
Lovely, dovely!

 

[TyfoonTurk]

t128

everything went ok,

tradition opening, settled next to kailasi and potosi (first one to discover)

one with nature, tithe, divine inspiration (i read natural wonder instead of world wonder) and holy warriors (not needed actually)

bought universities in all cities

education on 95 and astronomy on 101 with a GS

also went for naval tradition policywise to get an extra naval movement

 

[Yannarosh]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 55
Date submitted: 2013-03-08
Reference number: 28465
Your name: Yannarosh
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 100BC
Turns played: 111
Base score: 672
Final score: 3054
Time played: 2:57:00
Submitted save: Yannarosh - GOTM55.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Yannarosh_C505501.Civ5Save

Heya guys! Long time lurker here. Haven't posted a game since the beta gauntlets but I'm glad to be back to this great community!

So, I was about to write something useful about this game but as I read the thread I realised all <120 finishes followed pretty much the same strategy.

Every game I ve played as Isabella there's always NW nearby so I open double scout->monument->granary (bought) then chop the GL like a madman. First bought settler settled close to the faith NW and second one settled next to gold NW. Second settler settled like 10 turns later than he should have cause of barbs in my way and 2 barbs standing on the spot where I wanted my city.

SP
I opened liberty and switched to commerce before opening the settler policy in order to get a great admiral. However I annexed some capitals to squeeze some more science and my liberty finisher was delayed more than expected. My capital actually produced a GS 1 turn before the liberty finisher and then I had to choose between a GM and GG. Took GG but I think GM would have been better.

Religion
extra faith
holy warriors
cheaper missionaries
100g per city converted

I think this game is pretty much a race to Education. Astronomy will easily follow 6-7 turns after from specialists and GS bulb. I also think its a very luck dependent game as theres no mid or late game decisions to be made. If you get to discover both NW first its a great boost. Unfortunately didn't get any tech ruins at all so I only managed to get to education @t91.

PS
I ve been always playing by the HOF rules regarding AI deals but not anymore! I've recently switched to the dark side (hi tommy!). As I practice milking the AIs in my last 2-3 games I see my game has elevated a lot. I used to think its cheap but really its another game and it takes some practice as most of my openings have been altered. I also often do silly mistakes like DoW an AI to get 50g while theres a 15g per turn deal running from my previous peace treaty.

Anyway thanks for reading !
See ya at GOTM56 where a lot more things can be said!

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

Heya guys! Long time lurker here. Haven't posted a game since the beta gauntlets but I'm glad to be back to this great community!

Welcome back (and to the dark side, haha). Good luck and enjoy!

 

[Chris1229]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 55
Date submitted: 2013-03-09
Reference number: 28470
Your name: chris1229
Game status: Domination Victory
Game date: 1545AD
Turns played: 219
Base score: 1200
Final score: 2790
Time played: 12:41:00
Submitted save: Isabella_0219 AD-1545.Civ5Save
Renamed file: chris1229_C505501.Civ5Save

First CivV win. like some others said should've split my forces and taken out two AI's at a time, and also should've prioritized astronomy.

Still learning the systems and mechanics of Civ5, which means it takes me a while to complete a game and I forgot a lot of the stuff I meant to put in this post. oh well hopefully i will remember more next time.