TSG99 After Action

leif erikson · Nov 30, 2014

Welcome to the TSG99 After Action Report thread. In this thread you can post the results of your game. Please state victory date and score (preferably in the post title), as recorded in the Hall of Fame, and the most important: your path to glory!

STOP - Please do not continue reading this thread until you have completed and submitted your game.

Please use the Civ5 game submission page to submit your final, first play through, .Civ5Save file, saved AFTER the victory ceremony if you were not conquered (using the "Lemme play one more turn" feature.).

- Did you use your Winged Hussars or Ducal Stables?
- Did you use spying to your advantage?
- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
- Was Faith helpful to achieve victory? How?
- Did you get Poland to Space?

Players are encouraged to provide feedback on the game. Some players like to replay the game, and although we will not record the results from a replay, you can still post your new experiences (please state if the game is a replay). Please refrain from posting videos until the deadline for submission is over.

Would be interested to hear any thoughts on game setup.

caeru71 · Dec 2, 2014

Casimir the Great left Europe for Alpha Centauri in 1912 AD.

StrideColossus · Dec 6, 2014

Game: Civ5 GOTM 99
Your name: stridecolossus
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1915AD
Turns played: 335
Base score: 1977
Final score: 2950

- Did you use your Winged Hussars or Ducal Stables?

Ducal Stables in every city I built (I think) as we had quite a few pastures. Built a few Winged Hussars but mainly just because I could, not because I needed them.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?

Only for allying CS and counter espionage, we were tech leader or close to it from the off.

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?

Managed to get quite a lot of wonders early on: built GL, sling-shot to Philosophy, used Liberty GE to build Oracle. Later built Hubble to speed getting the final few techs. Should have used more specialists to get even more beakers, would have shaved off several turns.

Was fun working out in Europe where we started.

The barbs were a real pain at the start of the game (had to check whether we had Raging Barbs on or not!) forcing a switch to Achery so we could actually get some exploring and expansion going.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?

Was expecting it to be harder to be honest, the only problem I had was that most of the other civs never got past neutral relationships as they had no economy, no trades available, etc. so our only friends were Rome (DoF most of the game) and Russia who was our buggest rival (and therefore primary target :ar15:

)

- Was Faith helpful to achieve victory? How?

Faith from all those salt was a nice little earner meaning we were one of the first civs to get a pantheon and a religion. Pagodas helped happiness earlier on and bought several GS with faith later in the game.

- Did you get Poland to Space?

Casimir reached for the stars in 1915.

Haphaz · Dec 6, 2014

Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1896AD
Turns played: 318
Base score: 1883
Final score: 2988
Time played: 4:14:00

Don't normally play Emperor, but with Poland and Science, I can manage that. And I did. Went Liberty (to help expand and because of the Tradition nerf), then Tradition then Rationalism.

- Did you use your Winged Hussars or Ducal Stables?

Ducal Stables are great. Winged Hussars, not so much, but I played peacefully. Russia was a pain and DOW in the industrial era. Too late for horses. Just about held my frontline, but had to use AAA for once.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?

Not really. Took too long to get techs off Russia. Was tech lead from Renn onwards.

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?

I was expecting loads of barbs, after one of the posters on the announcement thread deduced the start was in the Baltics. But all the City States helped contain the barbarian wilds. Knowing the geography of Europe helps find the civs.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?

I decided I wasn't skilled enough to hog wonders, so I tried to go cold turkey and not build any. I cracked when I got the great engineer from the end of liberty and chose the Hanging Gardens over National college. I also made sure to build an army, rather than risk it.

- Was Faith helpful to achieve victory? How?

Didn't do faith because it leads to micromanagement hell. Was funny watching all the other religions trade missionaries in my land. Bought one GS to bulb the last tech though.

- Did you get Poland to Space?

Aye! Was quite efficient on the great scientist / buy parts rush for once.

- Game setup

Europe map is fun, thanks! I liked having lots of options (Poland as a civ is flexible).

Exemy · Dec 7, 2014

Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1927AD
Turns played: 348
Base score: 1598
Final score: 2315
Time played: 6:34:00

First GOTM game in several years and I think second submission. I've played about 4 or 5 total GOTMs total with several defeats/nonsubmissions. Not sure if there a rules what to post here, so I'll be as vanilla as possible.

Had to buy Explorer pack for this one, so first time playing this map. Took to about 950AD to finally get the tech lead and stayed there until the end. Had about a 17 tech lead over the next Civ at the end.

- Did you use your Winged Hussars or Ducal Stables?

Yes to Ducal Stables no need to for Winged Hussars. I made my other city placements based on Ducal stables and to a lesser extent Luxury resources. My game was War free for me so I never used the Winged Hussars. Had to bribe a neighbor to attack another CIV around turn 150 when it looked like they were going to attack me. That eventually turned the whole world against them so they left me alone after that.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?

Only to rig elections and kill other spies. By the time I got my first one I was unable to steal any techs.

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?

I don't think I am good enough in CIV to make a specific map work for me.

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?

I think I am decent on Emperor and can win 70 to 80% of my games. I am a Wonder happy player, so I tried to tone that down and not play that aspect - and bee-line toward Science buildings. I did go into the game wanting the Great Library (turn 40), Hanging Gardens (turn 101) and Forbidden Palace (turn 176). Once I was far ahead I lost focus and built others that went necessary victory helpers.

- Was Faith helpful to achieve victory? How?

I didn't get a religion and didn't even look at any benefits of my religious city as they were changing all the time. Only when it popped up that I could purchase something with my faith did I even look to see what it was. I think I purchased 2 mosques, 2 GS and near the end I purchased a GE to not waste my Faith - made me feel better at the end

- Did you get Poland to Space?

Yes, I am a terrible end game micro-manager so that plus at least three mistakes I made during game play cost me an earlier victory. Oh well.

- Game setup

This was a fun game. Could have pulled a Diplomatic victory before Science but I held off, anyone else?

Thanks for the game and any feedback, as I am always looking to improve.

leif erikson · Dec 7, 2014

Exemy said:
First GOTM game in several years and I think second submission.

Welcome back, glad you enjoyed the game.

Fayl · Dec 9, 2014

Spoiler submission :

I have some extra time, so I'll try more detailed writeup.

First of all, I quite liked the map. Never played on Europe before. It felt quite easy, but it's probably because I usually play on immortal.

The plan was to get nice 4 city tradition and be generally friendly to everyone.
I found a lot of ruins at the beginning (including writing tech), but I couldn't find any civ until turn 20+ -- I found celts that have just got their settler out. I managed to capture it and bring home (very long way home, I had to build another one in the cap to upgrade lux). I got a second one from barb camp on my way back.
The build order was something like: scout, monument, shrine, settler/granary, worker, archer, settler. Got NC with 3 cities, can't remember when exactly, but it was quite late (80-90).

I settled in place (I spotted a mountain to the south with initial warrior move and it was quite tempting to go there, but I felt it was too risky). With my first settler I forward-settled netherlands (to get his silver and ivory fast). The second one went to the left to get copper and double salt. I wasn't sure about the last settler; I thought about gems even further to the south west, but england settled there, so I chose tundra river with furs to the right of the cap.
I also took amsterdam from netherlands (with 2 pikes and 3 crossbows) when rome attacked them and took/razed their other cities. I left it as a puppet until the ~t280 to build sydney opera there.

I went full tradition, then patronage (left side, for allied CS science), then commerce (right side for mercantilism), then ratio -> freedom until lvl2 tenet for specialists -> finish patronage -> freedom spaceship parts for gold -> full aesthetics (yeah, because why not

). Poland feels soo OP with social policies; I didn't even try that hard to have so many (no museums at all, operas and music guild late game, hermitage right before hubble

).

The happiness was the main problem until around industrial era. I was at 1-3 happiness all the time and had to build circuses/arenas in most cities. Afterwards I had no problems at all (I was the cultural leader, despite not trying very hard, and in the late game I was the only one with high happiness). I was in perma-golden-age since modern era (initially natural + 2 artists, later aesthetics and additional artists; tenet +50% duration).

I got pantheon quite early and took faith from salt (quite easy choice). Somehow I was 4th to get a religion (I had to wait soo long for GP, I think I had -7 turns on the prophet counter when it finally showed up). I took tithe and 15% food. For the enhancement %production from followers and extra pressure range.
Thanks to borobudur I got my religion going well in all my cities + northern CS + russia (as they had no religion).

In the first WC, science funding was passed, other important ones I got were world ideology, world's fair (won marginally because I forgot about it until it was 50% complete) and ISS.

Spoiler t150 :

Spoiler t200 :

Spoiler t250 :

Spoiler end :

Screenshots were made after the game was finished (reloaded from saves) because I had to switch the client to english.

Alphons Rodulfo · Dec 10, 2014

Let's see if this submission finally gets me a place in the top three. At least I did manage a sub-300 victory:

Spoiler :

My first time playing Poland and a first time on the Europe map. I had a slow start, I was hoping for a culture ruin but initially my ruins were almost worthless (maps and camp locations). There wasn't much excitement in this game. No wars, just a gradual build up. I built four cities. The capital was settled in place and the other cities next to nearby mountains. I stopped settling because I could not find more reasonable mountainside spots.
Social policies: opened Tradition, then Liberty, Patronage and Rationalism. The nice thing about getting extra policies was that I could finish two trees (Liberty and Patronage) before Rationalism was unlocked. I got one great scientist from a city state, next to some other great people.
Later I picked Freedom for the ability to buy spaceship parts, which enabled me to quickly end the game once the latest required technology was researched. Religion included the food and production bonuses.
A setback was the lack of friendly relationships. I did my best to please the other leaders, but only the Romans signed a declaration of friendship, which meant that I only had two research agreements.

And now the questions:
- Did you use your Winged Hussars or Ducal Stables?
Not really. I think every city had only one pasture. I only built a few warriors and archers at the start, so I did not use the Hussars. I did have a few Mandekalus, gifts from a city state.
- Did you use spying to your advantage?
It was not very influential. Maybe it helped getting some city states a few turns earlier.
- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
A nice thing about the map was that Africa could only be reached through the east. Luckily a intrepid scout happened to move that way and he discovered a lot of ruins and some city states. Apparently Napoleon, who was camped in Africa, had not bothered to scout his continent.
- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
Perhaps it allowed me to be relaxed about defenses.
- Was Faith helpful to achieve victory? How?
Yes, it helped in growth, wealth and Great Scientists.
- Did you get Poland to Space?
Even better, I got them to Alpha Centauri. Aliens beware!

Thanks for this training game! I hope the 100th will be extra special. Or perhaps we will see the start of the real series?

Khalid · Dec 11, 2014

My game was very similar to Alphons. Poland left for space in AD1830 (T285).

Plan was to go Tradition 4 cities, but I was Quite slow in the beginning. Only got NC around T85, education T120. I hoped for an early culture ruin, but got 2 pops, gold and archery, which was not bad. Forgot to buy the salt spaces early when I could, so ithat I could actually work some good tiles :cry:

But I managed Quite good the later part of the game and build of the rocket.

Build scout, scout, shrine, monument, settler. Went full tradition than full patronage, 3 rationalism, order up to spaceflight pioneers. Finished rationalism in the information era and finished another L3 tenet from order. The policies were so juicy, especially all the relations with city states and the science and Great people from them.

Settled 4 cities initially (at the river crossing NE, near silver S and near copper W) and later another one at the gems next to sea. This was my trading city with Cargo ships.

I managed lots of wonders (Oracle, HG, chichen itza, borobodur, mausoleum, pisa, porcelain, hubble and some random ones in between)

The game was very peaceful. Only Rome attacked me (he had one city between Brussels and Netherlands) as I did not want to join his attack on Russia. But I saw his units moving around my borders, so I was a bit prepared. A gattling and some knights and longswords wiped hid army out. I then settled for peace for 43gpt. I wanted to attack russia, but never got myself into army building. Only late game I build army just to feel safe, because Russia started expanding really fast. I also build Hussars, just because i could. They just blocked Russia from destroying La Venta.

Spies were usefull only for city states and killing others in Warsaw.

Founded second religion with pagodas and production bonus and earth mother. Pagodas were good at improving unhappiness together with circuses. I used missionaires from Borobodur to spread it and got much city state relations with it. It naturally spread to all russian mini-cities, which so massively increased pressure (with religious texts), so I just piled my faith later. All the others were trying hard with missionaries and prophets, but my religion just got back in a couple of turns.

Halfdan Helgrim · Dec 13, 2014

Been playing GOTM since TSG40, so guess it is time to make my first post.

Settled in space and went 4 city Tradition.

- Did you use your Winged Hussars or Ducal Stables?
No. Built the stables pretty late.
- Did you use spying to your advantage?
Defence until level 3, then couping in city states.
- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
There was plenty of space for 4 good cities.
- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
I did not worry about the other civs, so just played like I was alone. Did conquor the two top cities from Netherlands, when they declare war.
- Was Faith helpful to achieve victory? How?
Was able to spread religion pretty far and earned a lot of cash with Tithe. Also got 3 GS and 1 GE.
- Did you get Poland to Space?
Yup. In Turn 264. Actually thought this would be sub 240, but think I burned the GS too early.

leif erikson · Dec 13, 2014

Glad you joined in on the fun. :goodjob:

Been playing since TSG40, excellent!

Best of luck in future. :thumbsup:

slaya · Dec 13, 2014

Halfdan Helgrim said:
Settled in space

I just LOL'd. :cry:

I played a similar map, finished turn 355. Dunno why I couldn't play, it said I didn't have the required DLC, which I should have :rolleyes:

Beto_Java · Dec 15, 2014

Game: Civ5 GOTM 99
Date submitted: 2014-12-15 06:37:14
Reference number: 32046
Your name: Beto_java
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1902AD
Turns played: 322
Base score: 1785
Final score: 2789
Time played: 4:58:00
Submitted save: final_Casimir III_0322 AD-1902.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Beto_java_C509901.Civ5Sav

Sempronius · Dec 15, 2014

Game: Civ5 GOTM 99
Date submitted: 2014-12-15 20:19:15
Reference number: 32050
Your name: Sempronius
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1989AD
Turns played: 409
Base score: 1841
Final score: 2272
Time played: 117:31:00
Submitted save: Casimir III_0409 AD-1989.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Sempronius_C509901.Civ5Save

- Did you use your Winged Hussars or Ducal Stables?
Not really, I played peaceful other than the two times I was attacked (England then France).
- Did you use spying to your advantage?
I used spies on defense and as diplomats, after the first 50 turns I didn't have an issue keeping up (or ahead) in tech.
- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
It was interesting to play in Europe, but I don't think it affected the outcome.
- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
I was able to relax a bit and have more fun, though I probably took too long to finish.
- Was Faith helpful to achieve victory? How?
I didn't have my own religion, but I was happy to buy cathedrals and pagodas as the other civs converted my towns.
- Did you get Poland to Space?
Yes.

I had planned on a 4 city Tradition, but England was about to put a settler near some nice gems, so I surrounded her unit with some horses until my purchased settler could take the spot. Then I made two more and ended up with 7 cities. I went for Order, but switched to Freedom as I had 20 unhappy faces only a few turns later, that change kept me happy for the rest of the game and ensured a lot of research agreements. I had the only nuclear missile in the game when the UN passed a ban, so I saved it for the last turn and used it on Rome, who had just denounced me a few turns before.

Acken · Dec 16, 2014

Wanted to try a wide game and see how it goes. Made 8 cities total My middle and late game were fine but my early game felt so damn slow hitting education turn 119. Probably should go only for 4city NC instead of 5cities. Still got a decent finish time at 233.

Policies: Full trad/lib, Rationalism, Freedom, Commerce

- Did you use your Winged Hussars or Ducal Stables?
no
- Did you use spying to your advantage?
no
- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
lot of space which is good
- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
Easy game, many wonder easy to grab
- Was Faith helpful to achieve victory? How?
Not really.
- Did you get Poland to Space?
Yes of course.

Game: Civ5 GOTM 99
Date submitted: 2014-12-16 01:24:23
Reference number: 32051
Your name: Acken
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1615AD
Turns played: 233
Base score: 2032
Final score: 4417
Time played: 3:43:00
Submitted save: TSG99_Win.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Acken_C509901.Civ5Save

Victory SS, sold 2 labs because I needed extra gold, so bpt is around 1700 before it.

Spoiler :

Kendon · Dec 22, 2014

Game: Civ5 GOTM 99
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1919AD
Turns played: 339
Base score: 3158
Final score: 4713
Time played: 16:56:00

To start with your last question, this is my first victory ever at Emperor level. The GoTM training series must have taught me something.

Ducal Stables made a big difference to production. Pastures became as important as mines on hills. The Winged Hussars were good against barbarians, taking camps in one move by knocking out the defenders.

Spies mainly showed me any Wonders being built in foreign capitals, plus keeping important CSs allied. The map type minimized naval trade and warfare. The main hindrance was rare coal, delaying Ideology.

At this difficulty level I assumed my chances were nil, so I went with my usual Liberty opening, hunting barbs while waiting for a nearby Civ to destroy me. I guess because I was following a path where the consequences had become familiar I survived into the mid-game with a lead in Technology which then grew.

Foreign faith was helpful because Russia kept converting my cities so I had to attack to get rid of all the missionaries and prophets. That gave my military early experience before the usual warlords could attack. Napoleon shifted to culture which looked to be the runaway competition, except it's expensive in beakers, so he couldn't defend when my army landed. My own Great Prophets kept conquered cities converted for money from Tithes. Later on faith was a good GS source.

At the end I had 14 cities. Anything too small to support a university had been razed.

Narciseris · Dec 23, 2014

Game: Civ5 GOTM 99
Date submitted: 2014-12-23 10:06:52
Reference number: 32092
Your name: Narciseris
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1961AD
Turns played: 381
Base score: 3960
Final score: 5210
Time played: 20:43:00
Submitted save: Casimir III_0381 AD-1961.Civ5Save

- Did you use your Winged Hussars or Ducal Stables?

yes I did, Loved the winged hussars... while early in the game, I was peaceful... just pandering to my neighbors to keep the peace. That was until the advent of artillery, and I tell ya I just loved giving my hussars +1 visibility then nuking every unit in range.

- Did you use spying to your advantage?
alas, I just hid my spies in my cities in an attempt to keep people from taking my tech... it mostly worked.

- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
First time on this map type, so hinder as I had no clue what to expect...

- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
well, I raced to get the great library and I got it... woot, missed several other bench mark wonders to the computer, so that made me sad.... and crave artillery even more, so I could go get back what the computer had rightfully stolen from me.

- Was Faith helpful to achieve victory? How?
I always get tithe and production when building religion, so yea... kinda, I was rolling in the dough so to speak and managed to buy all the city states allegiance, so that was kinda nice.

- Did you get Poland to Space?
oh yeah, unfortunately around turn 200 I realized I had a long way to go and would not, be in the top 10 for time, I really need to work on speeding up my civs somehow... so I focused on taking my time and demolishing the computer, that was nice... but 20 hours worth of play time, ugh .... anyways second posting, looking forward to game 100 and thank you guys for putting these together.

Blastoid Stalk · Dec 26, 2014

Game: Civ5 GOTM 99
Date submitted: 2014-12-26 19:14:07
Reference number: 32104
Your name: Blastoid Stalk
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1959AD
Turns played: 379
Base score: 2657
Final score: 3542
Time played: 18:57:00
Submitted save: Casimir III_0379 AD-1959.Civ5Save
Renamed file: Blastoid_Stalk_C509901.Civ5Save

This is my first civ GOTM month in a very long time. I used to play the CIV 4 ones back around 2004-2007. Still getting the hand of civ 5 and the expansions and was clumsy and non focused at times which slowed me down. I need to learn how to leverage city states more. The sheer volume of them overwhelmed me at times and i basiacally ingnored them getting little benifit from them.

I had two wars, the first was a pre-emptive strike taking out Russia's capitol right after getting the winged hussars with an army composed almost entrirely of winged hussars, crossbows cannons and musketmen. it was a weird combination but was fun to figure out. A little later Rome ambushed me trying to take my GP city. it was actualy a smart move as he timed it right after getting riflemen and gatling guns (which i did not have). it was an interesting tactical fight where I was able to use the mobility of my hussars and cavelery to fend off the attack.

In my game the Netherlands were mainly taken over by Rome. France became the other major power once I took Moscow. they completely wiped the celts out and were doing a good job on Rome when I quit the game. France seemed to be going for a cultural victory while England was on its way to a diplomatic. Nonbody else got beyond the Apollo Program.

fun to play these games again.

leif erikson · Dec 26, 2014

Welcome to CivFanatics and GOTM. :wavey:

Good job and best of luck in future. :thumbsup:

slobberinbear · Dec 30, 2014

Long time away from the forum. I had a fair game, 1919 space. Overall I think I was delayed by building to 7 cities, allowing some Great Merchants and many Great Engineers to spawn, wonderspamming when I had the techlead, and building nonessential things like tourism buildings just to see if I could flip some of Elizabeth's cities.

Stables/Hussars? Yes to stables. Built a few Hussars but never used them; they and some other units were my main Catherine deterrent force. I kept hitting F9 to check my power level and built / upgraded as necessary to avoid being a target.

Spying? One counterspy, one guy staging coups in Mombasa for their Ivory, and everyone else was a diplomat in key AI neighbor civs -- Russia, Netherlands, and England. I would say that when you have the tech lead, it's hard to get much use from spies/diplomats unless you are going for a diplo victory.

Map Comments -- I liked the map. I liked having Catherine to the East of my Poland and being terrified the whole game that she was going to DoW me. It kept me honest. There was plenty of land to get down cities and I could have settled 10-12 if I was focused on that. As it was I only settled 5 and then later on two more suitable science sites to avoid having the spots taken by the AI.

Faith helpful? I would say heck yes in my game. I kept checking Global Politics and noticed that nobody was taking Piety. So I went Earth Mother (like most here I suspect -- salt + iron = faith) and chose World Church and Itinerant Preachers as a way to get more culture and more policies. This in turn led to an embarrassment of Policy riches. By the end of the game, I had completed the tradition, liberty, aesthetics, rationalism trees, had taken 13(!) Freedom policies, and 3 commerce policies for good measure. So yeah, I used faith to further abuse Solidarity to the tune of 40 policies by game's end. I would estimate that my religion contributed between 15-20% of my total culture output.

The funny thing was that Augustus was the only other religion spammer and he was relentless in sending his missionaries (with Holy Order) into Russia, which was my religious hunting ground. Intinerant Preachers and the occasional missionary (combined with my earlier spread / pressure and the Grand Temple in Warsaw) allowed me to neutralize the only threat to my religious spread.

Space? Yes. Ended up using Freedom policy to buy about of the spaceship parts.

TSG99 After Action

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Warlord

Warlord

Warlord

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weakling

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Settling in place.

Chieftain

Chieftain

Deity

Prince

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Chieftain

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