TSG113 Opening Actions

Welcome to the TSG113 Opening Actions thread.

STOP - Please do not continue reading this thread until you have completed at least 80 to 100 turns in your game.

This thread is used to discuss the game once you've started playing through your first 100 turns. Apart from normal decency, the only posting restrictions are to please not post videos until the deadline is finished and to use the spoiler tags for screenshots. Here you can post questions related to the game and share your achievements/anger/frustration/victories while you play. Please remember that we are running a family friendly site, so express anger or frustration with this in mind.

Please use this thread to discuss your goals for the game and your opening moves through the first 100 turns. Anything after that should be posted in the After Actions thread once you have completed your game.

- Describe your opening strategy choices. How did the terrain/neighbors affect this?
- What Social Policies did you choose and why?
- When did the Long Count begin for you? How do you plan to use it?
- Did you found a religion? If so, what belief choices were made?
- Were you first to the World Congress?

I am just about through my first 100 turns on my second Deity game ever, and I am not dead yet!

- Describe your opening strategy choices. How did the terrain/neighbors affect this?

Settled in place, and opened with two scouts, teched pottery for pyramid, and saw all the citrus to my east. I grabbed a ruin which upgraded my warrior to a spearman, and immediately found germany. He had a warrior and a settler and was heading for my citrus! So I DOWed him and killed his warrior and captured the settler as my first worker prior to turn 15. I then ignored him and he made peace with me several turns later. I didn't start building my expos until turn 50 since I wanted a nice army of atlatists first, and was still somehow dead last. I built my expos and libraries in all of them by turn 90, and was working on national college when Bismark ambushed me with a carpet of doom. At least I thought it was a carpet of doom, but my city, atlatists, comp bows, spearmen, and chariot archers held him back until I could get a peace treaty. Lost one worker, chariot archer, and a couple atlatists, but no cities and am still not even last in soldiers. Ten more turns and I will have national college up and all of my food caravans and cargo ships running to grow like crazy.

- What Social Policies did you choose and why?

Tradition first, which I have completed. Opening patronage next and working it until rationalism, and then rationalism until autocracy. I think I will have enough autocracy allies in the game to keep me from going too unhappy while I beeline for those gunboats.

- When did the Long Count begin for you? How do you plan to use it?

Began around turn 90ish, haven't gotten a Great Person yet and am probably going to get a GE for forbidden palace. Any little bit helps especially with Austria in the Game!!! I plan on milking her for loans as soon as possible, I will NOT let her save any gold whatsoever, she can spend it ALL on me. 4gpt = 102 gold, over and over and over.

- Did you found a religion? If so, what belief choices were made?

Got the last one around turn 90ish, and somehow got Tithe and Feed the World! This, and God-King as a pantheon, makes a pretty powerful set of beliefs. Looking forward to seeing their affects later on, and have enjoyed god-king for the 70 turns so far.

- Were you first to the World Congress?

No one has founded it yet somehow, but I have met everyone so if I ever make it there I will be the one to found it. However, I am close to dead last in tech so I doubt I will get it.

Through 100 turns and not going as well as I'd hoped but still have a pre-100 NC and should have Education by turn 107.

- Describe your opening strategy choices. How did the terrain/neighbors affect this?

Moved warrior and settler west for 2 turns and ultimately settled on Hill/River east of Silver. I was immediately forward settled by Bismark (typical) and went scout-scout-pyramid in my build order.

Used one of my scouts and warrior to steal a total of two workers and two settlers from Bismark so got my 3 cities up relatively quickly and started trade routes. Hope this early cash will let me buy my way into universities.

Bismark stayed at war with me all the way to turn 70 so was forced to build 4 atlatists early on to help defend the cities. Almost lost capital in early war but was able to push him back. As soon as we signed a peace deal, Siam declared war on me. Thankfully I had roads up so shifted my experienced troops south quickly and held him off.

Got peace with Siam and have been growing as best I can with this land.

- What Social Policies did you choose and why?

Went Tradition and am about 3 turns away from finishing it out. I knew I was going to turtle to Freedom so it made sense for me to go tradition. Going to open Rationalism after this.

- When did the Long Count begin for you? How do you plan to use it?

It started at turn 86 and I got a great artist to double pop a golden age for 18 turns. Really helped finish NC and other early buildings.

Going to use the next one for a Great Engineer to aim for Forbidden Palace. Thought about Leaning Tower but too slow from a science perspective.

- Did you found a religion? If so, what belief choices were made?

Founded Desert Folklore for my pantheon and was earning about 10fpt but still couldn't get a religion. Clearly not doing something correctly...

- Were you first to the World Congress?

No one has founded yet but I doubt I'm going to get it.

Defeated on turn 47. I think it's a new record

Maybe for you, but Germany wiped me out on t44!

It was horribly played though, it was as though I never expected them, basically one spear and a pair of Atls will keep you safe but they were a critical 2 turns away so, whelp

That seems odd for you stormtrooper. You must be getting bored of the game to get rolled that early. I have noticed that you have been struggling a bit lately. Perhaps you are trying new more difficult ways of winning and or openings. I was really happy to see Germany so close.

Long story short I pretty much beelined to construction and destroyed Germany but left Berlin intact so I did not upset the neighbors. The bad news was that I never settled any of my own cities and used two of germanys for puppets and later I took out one of Washingtons as well that was too close.

I have pretty much been playing friendly with Siam and Austria and the rest and the only problem with not killing Austria early is that if she starts to marry alot you can't Liberate the CS's.

Another problem that I found and I am sure others have seen it before I just noticed it is that sometimes when I save my game mid turn and Load the game back up from the save after taking care of real life some of my choices were as if I did not do them. One major difference was that I gave Washington peace and saved the game to take care of something else and when I loaded up the save it was as if I never gave him peace and we were still waging war!

This game is going to be a pretty easy win from after turn 100 for my game. It could go over turn 300 but once again I am starting to feel the slog or boredom that this game gives me in mid and late turns. It might be time for me to just hang up this game and other video games as well and try to concentrate on real life !

Yeah you're definitely right, I do need a break because despite my good efforts, I've had a string of really unfortunate events on multiple maps. It's due to my not-so-obvious bad playing but it's definitely starting to feel like a chore. I'll continue my work on the spreadsheet though and hope things get better as I move along. Pity, because lack of extra-curricular work this month freed my schedule a fair bit but for nothing ...

The German empire grew stronger at about T131. Guess my 4 comp bows and one pike wasnt enough to deter him. He forward settled me, but I spent too much emphasis on sucking to do about it. I was a few turns from crossbowmen when I got DOW'd. But by then I had 0 comp bows to upgrade. I had set up 3 cities on the coast of that little lake for some cargo ship fun. Washington took my preferred spot west of the lake while I was building the NC at T90, so my third was south. Bismarck took my cap first anyways, so that didn't matter.

Steamrolled on T77... So sad! I was trying a small-peity game, and it was looking hopeful because my two neighbors were religion-free. Except for getting forward settled by germany and then DoW'd, haha.

I'm gonna try it again for funsies and see if I can get past an immediate aggresive stage with Germany.

I decided to go 4-5 cities Liberty. Sensing that growth was going to be an issue, I decided the extra production and increased land area would benefit me more. I got an Engineer from finishing liberty and at the first long Count. I used them to construct Hagia Sophia and Borobudur, hoping to expand my religion and make monies/friends; It's kinda working? I founded the second religion and got Pagodas/tithe to go with my Religious Idols pantheon. I assumed Germany would be eyeballing me, and was able to muster a defense with two Spearmen and 4 (eventually 6) Composite Bowmen. After painstakingly thwarting his attack and updating my military, I bribed Austria into joining the war against Bismark. I've started filling out Patronage and will probably go into Commerce after... Austria will need to be dealt with following the end of Germany, and Landsknechts may help. We shall see!

Here is my empire as Berlin falls (and is subsequently liberated) on turn 108:


Palenque:


I was not the first to the world congress

Decided to settle in place for the Pearls. Scout-Monument-Pyramid. Got Religious Idols for all the Silver lying around. Tried for MoH but got beaten to it by Austria by one turn... After turn 50 Germany DoW'ed and quickly overwhelmed me. Turn 56 and I was dead.

Berlin fell on turn 99. I feel it was a mistake to do it that early, it would have been much nicer to grab the city with a wonder or two and with two working universities at around t.120. but it's a nice start as I have gathered some cash along the way and I can at least buy them Uni's.

The future is looking good: with tons of resources to sell and opponents conveniently situated next to each other and away from me I can sail peacefully and attain that diplomatic victory.

Unless something terrible happens, of course, so I am contemplating whether to strike Monte & Hiawahwah preventively or to go straight for science. Both options are tempting, yet the peaceful way seems like a one with least resistance.

t101: still alive! 3 cities, with 5/4/3 pop

I'm trying the piety/small strategy described here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=521674 (warning: long read!)

So far my diplomacy has been good enough to not get dowed. Actually I'm friends with Germany, Brazil, and Austria. Aztecs are the bad guys, almost everyone else denounced them so I joined in on the fun for improved relations with their enemies.

Founded in place, first expo to the west, on river/mountain spot between two silvers. 2nd expo 4 tiles SW of capital on the coast, with access to fish, stone and 1 silver. There were juicier spots further east, but I didn't want to risk contested borders with Germany.

Even though I focused hard on faith (got +1 fpt/cpt from Silver/Gold) I was last to found a religion. Siam is pushing their religion hard, they got all the Theology wonders. My cheap missionaries don't seem to be effective at all, the first one barely converted a CS (which promptly got purged by a Siamese prophet, all my influence is gone) and the second one can't even convert a CS with 2 spreads.

Currently I'm just into medieval. Need to focus on growth now and catch up on science as cheap missionaries don't seem to cut it (I might try Evangelism reformation belief though). If I can't spread my religion with a GP or two I'll have to accept Siam's and make it the world religion. However that would help them win culture and they have lots of wonders already.

It's scary being small... I wonder if I can turn this around! I'm last in almost everything, 7th in soldiers (only Brazil has less), 6th in land and 5th in GNP.

On a positive note, Austria settled near the Citrus to my east, so they will act as a buffer to Germany Germany put a city way down south though, by the gold. That would have been a juicy location for me too, but too far away to effectively defend on deity and might have upset other civs.

Intense fun game so far! (Hope I don't get steamrolled soon, peaceful diplomacy is really quite a different game to play, you never know what's gonna happen next )

Hammer Rabbi said:

- Describe your opening strategy choices. How did the terrain/neighbors affect this?
- What Social Policies did you choose and why?
- When did the Long Count begin for you? How do you plan to use it?
- Did you found a religion? If so, what belief choices were made?
- Were you first to the World Congress?

Click to expand...

Opening strategy choice. How did the terrain/neighbors affect this?

I settled in place, for the double silver and pearls. My warrior was sent immediately east, revealing a lot of desert. Made the decision then, to target desert folklore with my 2nd city in the middle of the desert with floodplains. Made a quick note of Germany as my immediate neighbor, and planned for an early defense against invasion. [This really scared me. I hate playing against Germany]

My original plan was to make two scouts -> Pyramid -> Mauseleum, for the GP bonuses. However, that failed when I was beaten to the Mauseleum.

I noticed that there was up to 5 silver in my immediate vicinity, so I considered choosing that pantheon instead, but it was taken prior to the founding of my pantheon.

I settled my second city right below the floodplain desert with bison adjacent. This provoked Germany into an early Turn 30 ish war which lasted 55 turns. I barely held them off, and at once point had about 15 archers and catapults in my lands, while I constantly shot down Germany's warriors before they could take my expo or capital. (Expo was in the red at zero health for a long time)

During the war (maybe turn 70 ish) I settled my third city in the peninsula to the west, right between the two silver.

Current status = Turn 101 - Year BC 0350
Capital: Pop 7 (1 wonder - Borobodur) building Hagia with 5 turns left.
First expo: Pop 5
2nd expo: Pop 4

Points = 338, Leader = Siam with 701, 2nd place= Washington 594

My only Medieval tech is theology at this point. My goal is to secure my base, and begin to build the foundation for a tall thriving metropolis. I want to spread my religion across the map. I am going to use religion to fund my diplomatic victory using Tithe if possible. I also am looking forward to the Renaissance so that I can use spies to catch up in science.

Screenshots to be added later.

- What Social Policies did you choose and why?

Tradition opener, and filled up the tree. The plan was to build a small 3 city empire, because on Deity the AI tends to target you more once you reach 4 cities. I wanted to focus on a very tall empire while running a peaceful game.

- When did the Long Count begin for you? How do you plan to use it?

Long Count began somewhere between turn 75 and turn 85. I was very slow building libraries because I was sidetracked while trying to build the Mausoleum. It's turn 101 right now, and I still haven't built the National College. Although my 3rd library is about to finish, so it will be prioritized shortly.

Long counts:
1. (Turn 90-ish) GE was immediately used to build Borobudur and make 3 missionaries. These were sent out to convert my neighbor Germany (post-war Germany) to my religion of Judaism. This was successful and currently 3 of Germany's 4 cities are Jewish. He is now friendly with me, even though he fought brutally against me for about 55 turns. (From about turn 30-85)
2. Turn 101-Year BC 0350. - GS dropped in capitol for +8 science academy.

- Did you found a religion? If so, what belief choices were made?

Pantheon: Desert Folklore
Founder: Tithe (Sweet! - was really happy with this pick. Gold will buy us diplomatic votes)
Follower: Feed the Earth (+1 food for temples and shrines) Goal is to grow tall cities.

Very happy with these choices. I would have liked a building, but I was the last religion to be founded. Growing quickly though. As of Turn 101, I have 8 cities following the Jewish faith, and the leader has 11 cities, while the remaining 3 religions each have 3 cities.

- Were you first to the World Congress?

Not yet founded.

KingDante said:

- Were you first to the World Congress?

Not yet founded.

Click to expand...

Welcome to CFC and Game of the Month! Thanks for the detailed write-up and we look forward to see how this plays out. Good luck!

HR

Like so many I'm trying small Piety: four policies so far at turn 80. I've tested Germany to see what he'd charge to attack Hiawatha and it's affordable but I haven't closed the deal yet. I also became friends with Hiawatha, so it's just like real-world politics.

I'm 11 turns from finishing Theology: no Long Count yet. World Congress is unthinkably remote. I got the second religion with Tithe and Pagodas, Religious Idols for the pantheon, the same choices as RyAnne.

Germany settled the citrus two turns ahead of me. Now my third city is a long way south with the gold and marble, not far from Siam. We'll see if that becomes a problem.

Kendon said:

Like so many I'm trying small Piety: four policies so far at turn 80.
I'm 11 turns from finishing Theology: no Long Count yet. World Congress is unthinkably remote. I got the second religion with Tithe and Pagodas, Religious Idols for the pantheon, the same choices as RyAnne.

Click to expand...

What was your build order? Did you hard build a worker, steal one very quickly, or what? I'm not understanding how you can get a Prophet fast enough for the second religion. I have tried several replays and still can't get better than the 4th religion. I can get Tithe, but all the buildings are long gone.

Edit: I keep building MoH, which may explain it. It's just so tempting with its benefits.

kayelbe said:

What was your build order? Did you hard build a worker, steal one very quickly, or what?

Click to expand...

My build order was Scout, Monument, then Granary until my first policy, Piety, when I switched immediately to Pyramid, now built at double speed.

My scout took a CS worker around turn 15.
Be within 2 tiles of the worker. Then, on the same turn: declare war, take the worker and make peace. That way the city doesn't shoot back at your scout. On the following turn apologize to any AIs protecting that city state. Since you're now at peace the CS can't take its worker back. The worker and scout can go their separate ways.
In this case the worker was four turns from my capitol.

On Deity I never try to build wonders unless a GE gives me a jump start, or unless I'm pretty sure I'm the first one to a technology.

Diplo Victory means there is not much science needed, so I decided to play 3 cities tradition game. Settled all three cities in early 40ies, NC in second half 60ies.

I got theology on 64 turn what gave me 72 turn GS!. Education on 87 turn, but hard built all universities (gold for CSs and RAs - though only one, because only one friend - Brazil).

I can form WC on 115 turn, what should give me sub 190T victory, but would I manage to be in info era in time???