TSG57 After Action Thread

[Gooble]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 57
Date submitted: 2013-04-01
Reference number: 28625
Your name: Gooble
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1866AD
Turns played: 303
Base score: 2586
Final score: 4310
Time played: 7:48:00
Submitted save: TSG57Gooble.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Gooble_C505701.Civ5Save

My first GOTM. Made loads of mistakes, so a very late finish opposed to the rest of you. Otherwise great fun and easy going though.

I went for fast expand and wantd to get best use of terrace farms, but I stupidly missed out observatories. Didn't want to spend time warring, but finally took Japan, Byzantium and America in late game, when I was technologically far far ahead of them.

Note: I use 1 mod in the game: Christian Religions. It is my own mod (haven't published yet, still some glitches) - it changes the icons and texts of religions and some related buildings and wonders to fit a Christian theme. The changes are purely cosmetic, there are no rules changed in any way.

Note 2: I don't usually have much time to play one session, sometimes I played only a few turns, once I actually only loaded the game and then quit it again, as I unexpectedly needed to do something else.

 

[AE_]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 57
Date submitted: 2013-03-27
Reference number: 28596
Your name: AE_
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1535AD
Turns played: 217
Base score: 1337
Final score: 3109
Time played: 5:45:00

I Had a nice and peaceful game with tradition and 6 cities:

Spoiler :

I was really happy with how I played this game, and was hoping for a fast finish time compared to the others. So I was a bit frustrated to find out that I was 18 turns behind Glory7. So i forced myself to replay this map with a more AI-abusing and aggressive style. This is the result:

Spoiler :

With the advantage of map knowledge and AI-abusing I managed a turn 202 win instead. So now I quess I will try this tactics for the next games and see if I can win one of these GOTM.

 

[leif erikson]

My first GOTM. Made loads of mistakes, so a very late finish opposed to the rest of you. Otherwise great fun and easy going though.

Welcome to CivFanatics and GOTM.

We all make loads of mistakes and seeing them helps us to improve. That is what we are all about.

Congrats on your win and best of luck in future.

 

[Gooble]

Thanks, Leif!

 

[TimeWeaver]

Alright, that was a weird game!

I got off to a decent start, but soon I got involved in a war with Japan that really didn't go very well. I took one city, the capital, and then I went after Byzantium's. However, my troops failed me, so I had to retreat with what I had left. Then Japan and I got into fisticuffs again, and I won, and left one city. Then America, Byzantium and Japan ganged up on me and declared war on the same turn. After that it was one long war game, very much like a domination game. Meanwhile, I did decently scientifically and especially economically, but it all took much longer than you guys. I expect I'll be among the very last here, but my score will be decent at least, since I ha conquered almost the entire world, hehe!

Game: Civ5 GOTM 57
Date submitted: 2013-04-02
Reference number: 28632
Your name: TimeWeaver
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1874AD
Turns played: 308
Base score: 2913
Final score: 4775
Time played: 12:22:00
Submitted save: Pachacuti_0308 AD-1876.Civ5Save
Renamed file: TimeWeaver_C505701.Civ5Save

 

[Maxym]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 5

With the advantage of map knowledge and AI-abusing I managed a turn 202 win instead. So now I quess I will try this tactics for the next games and see if I can win one of these GOTM.

GG AE, even with map knowledge and AI abuse, 202 is a very impressive time. How did you approach it? What did you change?

 

[AE_]

GG AE, even with map knowledge and AI abuse, 202 is a very impressive time. How did you approach it? What did you change?

Thanks. I didn't change to much. In both games I started with GL and NC before settling more cities. But in the second game I constantly DoWed my 3 neighbors which gave me more gold for an early worker, and settlers to build more cities once NC was complete.

I had more luck with huts in the first game, and also allied more CS early. But allying CS early might not have been a good thing since they were mostly cultural and meant that I got a lot of policies in the patronage tree, which had the effect that my speed through the rationalism tree wasn't very fast.

In the second game I also annexed Constantinople and puppeted Kyoto which helped with gold and science.

I guess that the biggest advantages with a more aggressive/abusing style is that you:

Can afford to found more cities earlier.
Can buy more science buildings faster.
Can keep all your luxuries and still get a lot of AI money.
Don't have to worry about a surprise DoW from the AI.
Get a lot of benefits, mostly in form of gold, luxuries and science, from conquering other cities (especially capitals).

 

[glory7]

I guess that the biggest advantages with a more aggressive/abusing style is that you:

Can afford to found more cities earlier.
Can buy more science buildings faster.
Can keep all your luxuries and still get a lot of AI money.
Don't have to worry about a surprise DoW from the AI.
Get a lot of benefits, mostly in form of gold, luxuries and science, from conquering other cities (especially capitals).

this clearly shows that it is better to play aggressively. At least for difficulty levels emperor and below, RA opportunities and other trading opportunities (lux for WLTKD) are not good enough to justify "peaceful", or I'd rather say timid, playstyle in terms of stable and faster finish.

 

[Ozymandias9891]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 57
Date submitted: 2013-04-10
Reference number: 28688
Your name: ozymandias9891
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 2006AD
Turns played: 426
Base score: 1078
Final score: 1268
Time played: 3:15:00
Submitted save: Pachacuti_0426 AD-2006.Civ5Save
Renamed file: ozymandias9891_C505701.Civ5Save

I got off to a great start, but what ruined me was two wars with the Japanese near the end of the game.

 

[schmiddi]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 57
Date submitted: 2013-04-11
Reference number: 28691
Your name: schmiddi
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1981AD
Turns played: 401
Base score: 1670
Final score: 2087
Time played: 3:46:00
Submitted save: TSG57-Pachacuti_0401 AD-1981.Civ5Save
Renamed file: schmiddi_C505701.Civ5Save

My first Win on king difficulty.


I settled 5 cities in all.
Toku got nasty somewhere midgame, so i conquered some of his cities too.

 

[Mistwraithe]

Great game. Tiwanaku in what appears to be the most common river spot was absurdly powerful producing over 300 production when building a spaceship part at the end of the game (helped by having the Hubble Telescope bonuses but still!). I think Tiwanaku alone was probably beating each of the AI civs (in their entirety) in terms of research, production and maybe even gold at the end of my game.

The Inca bonuses are pretty amazing on a map like this. Obviously the Terrace Farm is great in the right locations but the Great Andean Road is also pretty awesome, I must have saved thousands of gold on roads/railroads because of all the hills.

I haven't uploaded my game because I'm treating these as training exercises and at one point I concluded I was being too nice to the AI (I'm trying Glory7's aggressive approach) and reloaded from about 15 turns earlier to try it again. End result was a 226 turn finish which I'm happy with. I mistimed Oxford University and didn't use its tech, plus had a Great Scientist left so it would be easy to knock a few more turns off that by starting my bulbing earlier.

Of course getting down to 199... I've got a moderate way to go. But it has been fun experimenting and this was certainly my fastest science victory.

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

Thanks for not submitting if you are reloading from many turns back. It sounds like you know and understand the rules but for others who might read this, should you wish to submit in the future we'd prefer if you set the autosaves to every turn (if it isn't already) and only reload from 1 turn prior in the event of a crash.

I'm glad you are learning from these methods and that this Training series is indeed training. 226 is a very good time, even with reloads. Keep at it and good luck.

 

[Hardarson]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 57
Date submitted: 2013-04-13
Reference number: 28709
Your name: Hardarson
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1970AD
Turns played: 390
Base score: 2763
Final score: 3542
Time played: 12:44:00
Submitted save: Pachacuti_TSG57.Civ5Save

Decided to move to the coast and start from there. After some minor troubles with barbarians, I went on to found 5 more cities.

Didn't plan to acquire many just dig in, turtle and then speed science along. Was involved in a minor skirmish with my neighbour in Byzantine. However after using my UA (which was much fun), managed to destroy large number of their force and received a city from them (Antioch).

Got religion going and spread it with much fervour. Even to the point that Japan decided to get nasty. They DOW'ed me and took Antioch, after I tried to repel them and seize a city or 2. After that I decided to dig in and exact revenge. Went quickly through the step and while they were busy with American and Byzantines, I did some advancement and finally was advanced to really get them good.

With Incan tanks, air and assortment of military goodness, I went to war with them. At that time they had been going for some CS and another nations. Devastated their economy and wiped out the Japanese military power. Conquered about 6 cities in the first round with further 3 taken in spoils. Then I found another which I wanted also and added 3 more cities to my sphere, after a short war with the Japanese. After that, several nations wanted to get even with them and they were pressed hard.

Got along splendidly with my other neighbours, even better after that display of power against Japan. Did stop my spread of religion and let it have it's normal pressure.

Used religion to get a edge, but selected some bad policies for a science game. Was thinking too much about culture at the time. But used it to my advantage.

Used spies mainly to stop spying in my capital and assert dominance over the CS.

First game on this difficulty level and used some tactics that I found on the site. Got a good start but became too focused on other things for a while. Along with preparing for war, as I found out, can be a little costly and takes up resources.

 

[Sadato]

T243 SV.

It was really funny, I am not used playing King so I did weird things for the lulz.

I attacked Japan, USA and Byzantines and eliminated them, signed 0 RAs during the game xD

Game: Civ5 GOTM 57
Date submitted: 2013-04-15
Reference number: 28720
Your name: Sadato
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1665AD
Turns played: 243
Base score: 1781
Final score: 3710
Time played: 4:46:00
Submitted save: TSG57_SadatoEnd.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Sadato_C505701.Civ5Save

 

[Yannarosh]

Phew! just made the deadline for submission.

I wasn't sure if I was gonna participate on this one but I decided to give it a try the last few days.

A few things worth mentioning:

1. Very unlucky with ruins. I only got 1 tech and that was fishing...

2. I managed to go straight into rationalism without taking a policy in patronage around t110 if I remember.

3. Couldn't milk my neighbours as much as I wanted as they went bankrupt pretty early. That basically meant that I wasn't able to instabuy public schools and labs.

4. Ratio finisher came at a very neat timing allowing me to get both the tech that gives spaceship factory (robotics?) and the next one that gives a spaceship part.

5. I had planned a very crucial GS near the end to give me the last techs, but a GE was produced somewhere else without me being aware. That cost me a few turns.

6. I need to learn how to hammer overflow. Building everything at default turns is what hurts my game the most atm.

Very impressive game Glory7.. Mine was similar to yours. What impresses me the most is how you are always 2-3 pop ahead in every city. 1 more can be explained because of 1 more pop from an early ruin. But consistently 2-3 ahead everywhere means I'm allocating my citizens wrong.. Do you keep everyone at max food tiles during the early game. I try to work a few good production tiles early on. I feel like maxing growth early on will delay GL and NC and that will delay settling all my other cities. The only reason I fill specialist slots other than science pre labs is if I need to catch a timing.

 

[Arnold_T]

terrible finish time for me, and I was thinking of not completing, and not submitting, but decided to finish it up and submit anyway in reponse to TyphoonTurk's call for more submissions.

My main problem was lack of time to focus on this game, I played it over 3 weeks in mostly 20 minute periods. I often forgot what my strategy was during the last session

I ended up with Tradition policies, but probably should have gone Liberty since I built building six cities and annexed a couple of japanese cities as I wiped out all the neighbours on my continent.

Seems like there was a lot of space for expansion on this map (more space than usual). Is it just my imagination, or did anyone else think that? and was the map designed that way?

fun game, thanks HR!

 

[glory7]

Phew! just made the deadline for submission.

I wasn't sure if I was gonna participate on this one but I decided to give it a try the last few days.

A few things worth mentioning:

1. Very unlucky with ruins. I only got 1 tech and that was fishing...

2. I managed to go straight into rationalism without taking a policy in patronage around t110 if I remember.

3. Couldn't milk my neighbours as much as I wanted as they went bankrupt pretty early. That basically meant that I wasn't able to instabuy public schools and labs.

4. Ratio finisher came at a very neat timing allowing me to get both the tech that gives spaceship factory (robotics?) and the next one that gives a spaceship part.

5. I had planned a very crucial GS near the end to give me the last techs, but a GE was produced somewhere else without me being aware. That cost me a few turns.

6. I need to learn how to hammer overflow. Building everything at default turns is what hurts my game the most atm.

Very impressive game Glory7.. Mine was similar to yours. What impresses me the most is how you are always 2-3 pop ahead in every city. 1 more can be explained because of 1 more pop from an early ruin. But consistently 2-3 ahead everywhere means I'm allocating my citizens wrong.. Do you keep everyone at max food tiles during the early game. I try to work a few good production tiles early on. I feel like maxing growth early on will delay GL and NC and that will delay settling all my other cities. The only reason I fill specialist slots other than science pre labs is if I need to catch a timing.

It seems that we pretty much did the same thing, but early ruin helped a lot for me. iirc i got pop and early culture (so that I could skip monument). I got 4 cities where I wanted them (including ideal petry city and uluru city), so that might have helped too.

For pop growth, I am not sure - I think it might due to early tile improvement (I bought worker pretty early). I don't fill other spe slots too.

 

[drubell]

I had posted this game on the LP board but should have also linked to here too. I recorded my game because I wanted to see why it is that I can't manage to get Plastics before T210 in my science games (and this game likely would've ended on T280 or so since I'm in the situation where I normally have my science victories). I recorded the first 200 turns because anything else past it would just be cleanup; getting labs, generating GS, and blasting into the last techs with Apollo, factories, and spaceship factories.

I think the major mistake that I made is that I underestimated how much trouble I was going to run into with happiness with none of my extra 3 cities having quick and easy access to luxury resources while also taking Fertility Rites and Swords into Plowshares as beliefs (Pagodas instead of Swords into Plowshares probably would've been one of the best differences I think). I focused heavily into growth without taking measures to prevent the unhappiness that came with it in time.

Getting RAs was a real pain in the butt, at least for me. AI don't generate enough cash on King so I had to constantly hope that the AI would stockpile enough cash for RAs before spending it. I only ever got one RA and I had to pay extra to get it.

Either way, since many of you got very impressive turn times, I was hoping someone could at least skim through some of these videos and give some general notes about what went wrong here. I'd appreciate the time a lot.

T46- Great Library
T54- National College
T59- Tiwanaku and Machu settled
T65- Stonehenge built
T70- Pyramids built
T78- Ollantaytambo settled
T90- Oracle built
T93- Oda declares war!
T98- Religion founded
T102- Petra built
T108- Education finished
T124- Astronomy finished
(Stopped listing notable turns)


http://youtu.be/DobVNUjKoOA - Part 1- Operation National College

http://youtu.be/1mUeb0hDMpM - Part 2 - Operation Expand and Defend

http://youtu.be/FujtXlVVFQU - Part 3 - Operation Universities and Observatories

http://youtu.be/N90s-SIerQc - Part 4 - Operation Meet New Friends

http://youtu.be/ohE_ZEI2E1k - Part 5 - Operation Crush Japan and WHERE'S THE COAL?!

http://youtu.be/IapdM2cHwS8 - Part 6 - Mission Abort

 

[marekb]

I think that the main reason for not getting plastics as fas as you want is that you build GA instead of expanding into 4 cities. It is an illustration of what The Pilgrim wrote in some other thread. Building GA->NC you would get NC faster but building 4 cities first you would finish faster. Play the map second time and try to follow (more or less) Tabarnak 4 cities opening and skip wonder until you settle 4 cities and the defence is built. I am sure you finish much faster. If you hurry up and manage to settle second city next to Uluru you would probably end before turn 230-240.

I was playing this game in a completely peaceful manner. In the first play I located my cities a little badly (only capital was next to the mountain). Founded cities in t29, 29, 30. Don't remember when I built NC, build HG in Cusco (helped a lot) in t96. Finished in t257. Later I replay, settled 3 cities next to mountains (and built observatory later) t32, t34 (one of them near Uluru) and t83. I delayed 4th city to get NC first. This time (again without a single war) I finished t230. Of course a map knowledge help a lot as well as the fact that I finished GL in t56 without worries (in my first game I skipped GL).

 

[Golar]

Hello guys i'm new to civfanatics. Gotm57 brought me here. I would like to ask about early builds for scientific victory in this map (and in general).

1) Should i wait 4 pop in my cap to build a settler ? What's the right timing?
sooner = better?

2) At what turn should i start GL, HG, NC in which order ?
I popped Philo with GL, right ? Or should i wait for civil service/ theo?

3) Do you give money to CS early after a quest complete in order to be/stayed allied ?

4) What pantheons / belief do you take ?
I took desert folklore, ceremonial, divine inspiration.
But i was thinkin about messenger of the god, interfaith dialogue since my tech rate early is very low. In this case i should build more happiness buildings in my citys early on.

5) Do you build Pyramids?
I tend to steal worker from cs, buy one very early (my first buy) and maybe later build one or two more.

6) Do you build granary early in your cap since extra food can contribute to hammers when buildin settlers ?

7) Is it worth stoping improving some (great) tiles to start makin roads ( in this map with the inca they are basicaly free). Or maybe invest in more worker (see 5).
How many workers for 4 cities? 4,5,6 ?


8) Most cities doesn't expand cultural borders to hills (near mountains!). Is it worth to purchase them early even if it cost 100-185 gold ?

9) I build library as a first buldings in my new cities in order to rush NC.
Is buying better ? Or delayin a bit in favor of growth (granary/windmill)?

10) Is StoneHenge a must early ? At what turn you build it ?

11) When do you start to build an army? (how much an when)
I don't see the point of buildin one in king except if you want to annex other civ's cap. In which case, is 5 ranged, one horse/melee is enough to take a cap? (without any tech lead).
In most of my games, i'm more a techmonger than a warmonger which leads to easy war later : so i'm not very good at taking cities without a tech advantage.

12) Is it worth investing turn to build harbor, lighthouse in your cap for 2 fishes?
Do you build or buy fishboat?
When i should get a trireme to scout? As soon as i hit sailing ? buy or build ?

13) Should i avoid, at any cost, to fall in unhappiness early even if it's for 3-4 turns ?

14) Do you build cultural buildings just after science ones?
I prioritize science>production>gold/culture. I put faith alone because it's situationnal, in this map uluru+desert folklore+stonehenge+divine inspiration give plenty of faith
I tend to rush build market and workshop for early national wonders but with 4/5 cities it came a bit late in my taste, due to science buildings requirements.


PS :

Sorry if my syntax/grammar isn't correct i'm not native english.

I've tried some youtube video like tommynt, DaveMc, Tabarnak and others which definitively improve my games but they are quite soporific to watch entirely.

I know i ask a lot in once, i thank in advance anybody who can help me

I hope i post in the right place Hammer Rabbi!