TSG71 After Actions

[Maxym]

Ok, thanks for shedding some light in this. I don't actually consider it an exploit. Its not that easy to do, and if you invest some time in micromanaging you should be rewarded for it. I wish they had more of this kind of things not less.
Any way, so what happens if you get exactly 100 points on each a scientist, a merchant and an engineer that turn? In any case thanks for the answer.

I am with you on this one, it was a neat mechanic and one that rewarded planning and micromanagement. I wish we had more of those not less, hope they put it back.

I think the GP generation is done with fractions, so you see a 10 but it is 10.25 in reality and the ties will be resolved by fractions. I wonder what happens if the numbers are truly equal to the last decimal place and generated at same rate. Maybe then you can pop multiples....

 

[dthompson32]

I did another play through using the elimination strategy, and got a DV on turn 249. I was able to time everything perfectly, using Oxford to put me in the Industrial Era exactly when I needed factories and had generated enough faith that a Prophet would spawn, but instead got to keep accumulating. Then using GSes to finish all the lower techs right before I got my last SP in Rationalism to take Radio with the free tech. Finally, I had exactly enough GSes to get to Penicillin 1 turn before the world congress vote.

Only two problems with this play through, I should have taken Printing Press earlier, I think I could have squeezed out a few more turns. And I never could get Ulundi to create a food trade route to Venice until very late in the game. I never could figure out why Zurich had no problem creating it, but Ulundi (and the rest of my puppets) couldn't.

I was able to conquer the entire world with 4 Great Galleas and 1 Trireme. I only upgraded to a Caravel and Frigates just before attacking Constantinople. I think some extra ships would make it go faster. Faster conquering will mean more science sooner.

I'll do this one more time and keep track of how it played out.

 

[mad-bax]

Turn 335 DV, and very happy.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 71
Date submitted: 2013-10-23 00:38:48
Reference number: 29940
Your name: mad-bax
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1914AD
Turns played: 335
Base score: 1849
Final score: 2801
Time played: 5:07:00
Submitted save: Enrico Dandolo_0335 AD-1915.Civ5Save
Renamed file: mad-bax_C507101.Civ5Sav

I really enjoyed this game, and can't really work out why I'm so slow.

Research was just, Pottery, writing, sailing, mining, masonry, bee-line iron working and then mathematics, bee-line education.

Builds were scout (disbanded after about 15 turns), monument, granary,shrine, GL, cargo ship, NC, colossus, oracle, hanging gardens.

Stole a worker from Antwerp and bought workboats when I could.

I've never built as many wonders in a game before.

Policies were
Tradition opener, Liberty to collective rule, then aristocracy, then completed liberty but took patronage opener in time for Forbidden Palace.

Religion:
God of the sea, Tithe, Divine inspiration, swords to plowshares, messiah

Ideology: Freedom
5 X row 1
3 X row 2
1 X row 3

I had to wait 16 turns after getting to the information age before getting the vote, which I won be 2.

I get the PP timing discussion now. I really didn't before. If I was going to do this again I would definitely delay PP.

Anyway, really cool and well designed game guys

 

[acinod]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 71
Date submitted: 2013-10-23 02:44:05
Reference number: 29941
Your name: acinod
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1790AD
Turns played: 269
Base score: 1234
Final score: 2328
Time played: 2:13:00
Submitted save: Enrico Dandolo_0269 AD-1795.Civ5Save
Renamed file: acinod_C507101.Civ5Save

Think this is the first time I'm not last in the game of the month compared to everyone else and actually did quite well!

What I did right: going Tradition and Rationalism. Settling on the 2nd hill to the left (you will grow so fast with 5 fish and 3 pearls) Rushing Great Library to get into Philosophy so I can build NC and Oracle to finish Tradition ASAP. Focusing fully on tech. Converting Zulu's to my religion, the first thing they proposed in world congress was for my religion to be world religion! So I got that and my proposed World's Fair at the same time! Ally with ALL city states by around Modern Era.

What I could've done better:
I side tracked a bit with the other trees. Wanted to get Chemistry for the mine production and fertiliser for my other farms but realised I put academies on all my farms so it was useless. I also went down to get Colossus but I didn't use any trade routes at the start of the game. Only had one going from Antweep to capital for food. There just wasn't enough time to build cargo ships and all cargo ships were bought. Also Venice has WAY too many cargo ships you end up swimming in gold and everyone loves you. By side tracking down these two paths, I was a few turns slower to Scientific Theory and Education which would've been way better in the long term. Also should've blew my Great Scientist earlier because you just need to get to Telecommunications and not Globalization.

Also one last thing, I shouldn't have even bothered with Patronage. Pledge to Protect I'm not sure how useful because it wasn't long after that I just bought all city states and became allies. I'm sure it was ok though but I shouldn't have filled up the tree. Should've finished Rationalism first, get the first few policies for Freedom and then finish Liberty for a Great Scientist so I can get to Telecommunications faster.
Wish I could've played again, I finished this game in like 2 hours!

 

[Monthar]

And I never could get Ulundi to create a food trade route to Venice until very late in the game. I never could figure out why Zurich had no problem creating it, but Ulundi (and the rest of my puppets) couldn't.

You need a granary for the food and harbor for the range in the cities to set up the trade routes. Since you're playing as Venice, you can buy those buildings in the puppets instead of waiting for them to build them. Also, you might want a few of then sending production instead of food, so buy the workshops for those instead of the granary.

 

[dthompson32]

Since you're playing as Venice, you can buy those buildings in the puppets instead of waiting for them to build them.

*facepalm*

I had no idea I could buy buildings for them.

 

[Monthar]

I guess the 8th time is the charm. I got it down to turn 240.

I started with archery, built 3 of them and with my warrior took out the Zulu. This let me use my first 2 trade routes (from sailing) for food transfer between the two cities.

I didn't buy any city states this time. Instead all my merchants went on trade missions.

As soon as I unlocked the UU I went after Morocco then Japan. I used a GS to bulb frigates and upgraded the my fleet then went after Portugal and Indonesia.

Then I kept my fleet and all the land units (gifted and the Zulu war units after upgrades) near the Byzantines since they were the only one left to go patronage. As I suspected they would, they built the Forbidden Palace not long after the World Congress was created. As soon as I saw the FP was built I took them out.

I used Oxford to get Radio. Rationalism finisher for Biology so I could buy a couple of GS's to bulb to Penicillin a few turns before the 2nd vote.

I entered Industrial with Industrialization, bought a GE and rushed Big Ben.

I saved my writers for bulbing policies.

Policies
All of tradition
Commerce to the purchasing discount.
All of Rationalism
Exploration to the +production in coastal cities while waiting on the correct timing to finish rationalism.

I went Order after buying 3 factories thanks to the commerce + Big Ben making them cheaper. with cheaper building purchases and happiness from monuments. I would have gone with faster great people but I needed the happiness more.

I went for boosting the University science and science from trade posts as the first policy after picking my ideology. After that I grabbed the tenant for science boost from factories. Then it was back to Rationalism for the gold from science buildings.

Edit:
Religion "In The Navy"
God of the Sea
Tithe
Faith from wonders
15% production boost
Itinerant Preachers

 

[Smote]

And on my 4th try...

Turn 217!

Spoiler :

Keys:
Build Order: Worker, 3x archer, shrine, granary, Great Library, National College, Oracle (with tribute and gold from great merchant: buy granary in Ulundi, buy lighthouse in Venice, buy cargo ship in Ulundi), many work boats

Used Monthar's archer rush to hit Zulu with 3 archers, then CS to right. Collect tribute from CS to bottom left after zulu before killing other city.

Rush Compass, build 4 galleass + trireme. Arabia built great lighthouse here, which I promptly captured.

Give all the extra cities to China (keep only Arabia's capital!). This is to avoid the -5% science which slows you down. Sometimes China will even pay you. China will always keep them or burn them. I tried this with Portugal once, but he liked to liberate them to achieve his goal of diplo victory- not ok!)

Printing Press after compass, then go to Industrialization, then tech towards Penicillin. Use saved GS to get to Plastics, use Rationalism finisher for it, then buy GS with faith, use that to get to Penicillin, use Oxford to finish it. Be careful because the GS comes in with no actions so you need to get Rationalism finisher 3 turns before council, get the GS 2 before council, then make oxford and use GS 1 before council to reach atomic at the right moment.

I could have blown some great scientists and Oxford to reach Radio ASAP and lower the council timer from 25 turns to 20 turns, as well as securing a World Ideology, but it turns out its not necessary. I could not do this and reach my tech goal in time. GS are more effective later on.

Hosting council + Forbidden Place + World Religion + 15 CS allies is what you need to win. Getting to Modern in time to set a World Ideology is actually not required.

The hardest part is planning when you should take Printing Press, to synchronize a council vote with when you expect to hit Atomic Era. Allying the CS is fairly trivial, Venice makes gold extremely well with its double trade routes.

One mistake I made in my previous tries was focusing on religion too much. Just make sure you get God of the Sea pantheon (its critical in this start) and then ignore it. Don't build Boroborodur or Hagia Sofia... its not worth it!

I didn't actually get enough culture until after the 2nd council to hit all my social policy goals, which were:

Full Trad
Exploration/Maritime Infrastructure
Patronage
Full Rationalism
Order Finisher

I focused on allying all the cultural CS throughout the game, though I didn't quite make it to Order finisher.


Benefits of rushing compass:
Total control of the council, from the first session onwards.
No competition on wonders
No competition on allying CS
Less cities to capture and lower city powers if you do it early
Less annoying AIs trying to talk to you/denounce you
Slower Printing Press timing than Education -> Printing Press. This is actually a benefit, because if you already have Astronomy, its possible to reach Atomic Era by the 2nd council, as I did. If you get university faster and printing press faster, it can actually be a little slower overall if the council comes before you are ready. I tried Education -> Printing Press instead of Compass rush one game. Results of first council: World Religion (Failure! 4x downvote). Arts Funding (Success! 3x Upvote). Started over right there

I also tried Archaeology before Printing Press, but it slows you down too much.

 

[Monthar]

Please put the screenshot inside a spoiler tag, because it makes the post very hard to read due to extending the width of the post.

Great job on getting the win down to such a low number. I didn't even think about selling/giving away cities. That probably saved a lot of time.

 

[s8g]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 71
Date submitted: 2013-10-23 13:16:26
Reference number: 29943
Your name: s8g
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1911AD
Turns played: 332
Base score: 2006
Final score: 3039
Time played: 5:13:00

- How many City States did you acquire with Venice's ability and did you take any cities through combat or peace deals?

Through the game, I took five cities via the UA (but one only in the last turn) and three from Shaka. That was probably too much for my usual tradition-focused approach, either I should have chosen liberty or used the GMs only for one or two cities.

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

Firstly, I didn't want to get a religion, but then I got to my pantheon I still could choose "God of the Seas". So I founded a religion mainly focusing on growth and spread it around the world.

- How did diplomacy go with your neighbors?

Very good. Even Shaka was peaceful. Only late in the game I fought him. Sadly evenrybody hated me, after I took him out of the game, but that was irrelevant, I was already on the path to victory.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?

I relied more on wonders. But I should've played more risky. I could've fought more wars.

- Did the the patch change how you play a diplomacy game or change how you treated the AI?

Not, that I'm aware of.

Players are encouraged to provide feedback on the game.

Generally it was a fun game. I played Venice for the first time and it was somewhat different from a normal game.

 

[Smote]

Please put the screenshot inside a spoiler tag, because it makes the post very hard to read due to extending the width of the post

Good idea. Done.

 

[dthompson32]

I was trying to use two fleets, and lots of puppets, but it hits too much of a happiness penalty, so I'm giving Monthar and Smote's strategy a try. I got PP on turn 158, but it is unwieldy.

I swear this is the last time I'm doing this GOTM

 

[tommynt]

Won this turn 210.

I Did this kill all but 1 strat but in fact I didnt needed it - had in end 3or4 unused scientists and pt and Pisa 1 turn from finish so i could have easiyl entered last era aswell.

Could n should have poped PP a bit earlier ... But aim was t200 and so I thought poping t160 d be good enough but all the era switches deleay things a lot.

Think sub t200 win might have been possible

I got full video footage and will upload if some1 is interested:
strat:
I basicly built 2 triemieres as fast as possible and sent em together all around world to demand tribute then 25t later another pack of 2 to do same.
Then went right towards navigation and build/upgarded 3 ships to kill all world - non cap cities been gifted all to china

 

[Grimhand]

Well ..... darn.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 71
Date submitted: 2013-10-26 10:10:28
Reference number: 29950
Your name: Grimhand
Game status: Incomplete Retired
Game date: 1320AD
Turns played: 192
Base score: 297
Final score: 297
Time played: 4:30:00
Submitted save: TSG71_Retire_0192 AD-1320.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Grimhand_C507101.Civ5Save

I must have gotten too sucked into the pacifist merchant role. I set up several trade routes with Shaka and thought that would keep him on a leash. Bought a university in Venice, started Oxford, and thought I was on the path to supremacy. Then, on turn 129, Shaka DoW'd me. He rolled through Venice with sword and CB because I had foolishly ignored my military (and had just spent all my money on the university). Worse - I know better than this. Painful (re)learning experience.

But why retire? Well, when I lost Venice my capital moved to one of my puppeted CSs....and stayed puppeted. It was like my people had said "Well, he's stupid, he lost Venice to Shaka, no way we're letting him run things anymore!" They forgot to take my checkbook, though, so I could still buy things. After some screwing around with some ideas, however, I finally decided there was no way to build up a large enough military to take Venice back while trying to work through two puppeted CSs. So I retired.

Of course I replayed, taking Shaka out as early as I could (archer rush). Got the DV on turn 351, first election.

 

[Smote]

I basicly built 2 triemieres as fast as possible and sent em together all around world to demand tribute then 25t later another pack of 2 to do same.

Smart.

 

[jessie23]

- How many City States did you acquire with Venice's ability and did you take any cities through combat or peace deals?

I took Antwerp and Lhasas using Mercants

I took all of the Zulu and Japan. I took the majority of Morrocco's, Portugals, and Indonesia's cities

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

Pagodas and +2 Faith / world wonder were very useful.

Kept a level 3 spy in the capitol to shoot enemy spies.

- How did diplomacy go with your neighbors?

I did whatever I wished. If they mouthed off too much then I sent in the frigates.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?

I was confident that I could go to war with few repercussions. However I was also lazy and played far from optimally.

- Did the the patch change how you play a diplomacy game or change how you treated the AI?

It takes longer to get all the votes now.

----------------------------------

Things got out of control towards the end as I waited on the vote to arrive. I ended up winning a cultural victory one turn before I would have won the diplomacy vote. I just couldn't shake that urge to build some hotels.

Venice got up to a whopping 75 population. I had fishing boats heading there from every city that I owned near the end.

I need to focus a little more on getting a better time score. If I had played smarter I probably could have had a finish before 1900 with ease.

 

[comatosedragon]

Well, I was going to post a screenshot of my diplomacy winning game (turn 341); but after seeing some of you guys end turns, that would just be embarrassing. Well, at least I finished this game.

Spoiler :

Game: Civ5 GOTM 71
Date submitted: 2013-10-26 21:00:37
Reference number: 29955
Your name: comatosedragon
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1920AD
Turns played: 341
Base score: 1075
Final score: 1580
Time played: 2:52:00
Submitted save: Enrico Dandolo_0341 AD-1921.Civ5Save
Renamed file: comatosedragon_C507101.Civ5Save

 

[joshua43214]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 71
Date submitted: 2013-10-24 23:09:57
Reference number: 29945
Your name: joshua43214
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1870AD
Turns played: 306
Base score: 1096
Final score: 1796
Time played: 8:25:00
Submitted save: Enrico Dandolo_0306 AD-1872.Civ5Save
Renamed file: joshua43214_C507101.Civ5Save

My first 100 turns are in the opening actions thread. I predicted a 300 turn win at the outset because I LP'd the game and I suck at doing LP's lol.

After puppeting Antwerp (no freaking granary at T104?!?), I just focused on getting to Globalization and improving my economy. I delayed printing press for as long as possible so I would be closer to the info era before the counter started. I probably should have taken printing press 20 turns earlier, but this is a hard timing to finesse. I did nail the end timing though to get through the atomic and info era right before a WC vote. Bulbed from electronics to telecommunications, blew a GW to finish rationalism to bulb telecommunications, then used a saved and a faith bought GS to finish globalization over 4 turns to get the delegate boost 3 turns before the last WC vote.
I did not tech as well as I could have, which cost me 25 turns because I should have been able to get to electronics by T260 rather than T285ish.

Puppets Lhasa late, probably should have just grabbed one of the closer mercantile CS's earlier.

I did send two food routes into Venice, and 1 each into the two puppets.

This is my first LP,
Link to playlist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpK6fr3Rits&list=PLcD3FdQc1MC4-4cBZpLQr4Hp-CABsSaR8

The first 2, and the 5th are probably the most valuable if you do not want to sit through the whole thing

 

[comatosedragon]

Something I just noticed -- I hope somebody can clarify this for me-- Why is my "Time Played" incorrect? It is saying 2 hours 52 mins, when I know the game took at least twice that long -- from ~3pm - 9:30 pm? I see other peoples' posts and their time played seems more reasonable (although I wasn't there, so I obviously don't know). I played this game in one sitting, without any breaks.

 

[EDP]

Game: Civ5 GOTM 71
Date submitted: 2013-10-27 14:11:14
Reference number: 29957
Your name: EDP
Game status: Diplomacy Victory
Game date: 1966AD
Turns played: 387
Base score: 2003
Final score: 2601
Time played: 7:28:00
Submitted save: Enrico Dandolo_0387 AD-1967.Civ5Save
Renamed file: EDP_C507101.Civ5Save

Not the best finish date, but a record size (for me) capital population... 61! I'm glad I managed that. Mainly because of cargo ships sending food to Venice almost throughout the entire game.

See attached screenshots of Venice's city screen and a map view after the winning turn. Won with 35 votes, where 35 were needed: close call!

Could have shaved off some turns if I hadn't gotten so many cities. I bought 4 CS with merchants and got 3 regular cities from peace deals. I forgot all these puppets increase the cost of techs significantly. I should have traded a few puppets away.