TSG136 Opening Actions

Welcome to the TSG136 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.

** If you won this GotM before turn 100 then please only post in the After Actions thread!
- Describe any scouting that changed your initial strategy.
- Describe a plan or order in which to conquer your neighbors.
- Did you get a religion? If so, which tenets?
- Describe your social policy choices and tech path.

Please use spoiler tags for any surprise details you'd like kept hidden. Thanks.

I hosed myself on turn 94 by DOW the Aztecs. Turn 95 brought a DOW by the Mongols on me, and I didn't see it coming. Mistake. Khan took my first expo up by Kilamanjaro, but I'll get it back shortly. Just going to slow things down. Fortunately, I already had NC up, so it doesn't delay that. Otherwise, things were going pretty swimmingly.

- Describe any scouting that changed your initial strategy.

Well, I settled the silver by the rivers, then immediately saw Kilamanjaro up north and wished I'd settled there instead. Oh well... it was my first expo. The terrain didn't seem to lend itself to fast horses/CAs so I am going a little more standard speed domination path. (i.e. I went for Pyramids, did more barb farming and CS quest stuff).

- Describe a plan or order in which to conquer your neighbors.

Aztecs WERE first, but the turn after, the Mongols DOW me, so now I'm defending and trying to recapture my first expo that I foolishly left naked. Eventually, I think Aztecs will still be first, followed by Boudicca as my neighbors.

- Did you get a religion? If so, which tenets?

Nope. I have zero faith, though I could still get one. Probably just conquer one.

- Describe your social policy choices and tech path.

Lux techs, writing, philo, currency, horses, civil service, construction

Honor opener

Full liberty (left side first) - GE for Oracle, took free GG in Honor and will take the 50% XP next before opening Commerce.

Things were going swimmingly... then... Dumb on my part.

Hi all! New CIV player here from sunny California.

- Describe any scouting that changed your initial strategy.
Settled on silver northeast and discovered the natural wonder. My initial strategy was to build scout, monument, worker and after that only military units. Quickly discovered Genghis and decided I would take him first. The scouting did not change my plan, I realized it would not be a super fast game with three capitals on the coast with limited space for archers/catapults.

- Describe a plan or order in which to conquer your neighbors.
My initial strategy was to go for an early archer / CA rush and take at least two capitals very early. I took first capital (Genghis) around turn 60, but the second one (Japan) took a long time because he was hiding behind three other cities. This really slowed me down. Plan is to take the other ones counter clockwise.

- Did you get a religion? If so, which tenets?
Nope.

- Describe your social policy choices and tech path.
Social: liberty (left) + worker, honor
Researched only military technologies, started with AH.

- If you won this GotM before turn 100 then please only post in the After Actions thread!
LOL - Dream on!

- Describe any scouting that changed your initial strategy.
I did very well from early scouting, first two ruins were zzzz barb locations and map but then got +20 culture, Gold, +1 population, AH tech and spearman upgrade for my warrior. Not bad considering I only built 1 scout.

- Describe a plan or order in which to conquer your neighbours.
Ghengis which I have taken his capital just before T100, was hoping to take him long before but I am playing it safe. I have got used to reloading when things go wrong in my practice games to work out the best strategy so I am making sure I have enough units to comfortably take a city for this game. Ghengis has also taken a City state so will liberate that. Plan to take Japan next though I see he is constructing Great wall so may head back south and take out the Aztecs

- Did you get a religion? If so, which tenets?
Nope, did not bother with a Shrine so 0 faith

- Describe your social policy choices and tech path.
Honour opener for barb kill culture. Did very well out of that running 2 x barb farms. Then Liberty left side for free settler and back onto Honor. Will go Commerce once Honor is done. Tech path was a bit all over the place. Pottery for Granary, then Archery, I got AH from a ruin, mining and then writing and onto beline National College before going back along the bottom for military techs. Still Managed to get Statue of Zeus which was a bonus but was beaten to Terracotta army.

bolmovic said:

Hi all! New CIV player here from sunny California.

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Welcome to the forums and good luck with your first GOTM

belligerent said:

I hosed myself on turn 94 by DOW the Aztecs. Turn 95 brought a DOW by the Mongols on me, and I didn't see it coming. Mistake. Khan took my first expo up by Kilamanjaro, but I'll get it back shortly. Just going to slow things down. Fortunately, I already had NC up, so it doesn't delay that. Otherwise, things were going pretty swimmingly.

Things were going swimmingly... then... Dumb on my part.

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I have just had a similar thing happen but a double DOW on around T110 so I won't mention too much but needless to say major change in strategy and I am now marching my army back to defend. One unit per city in defence is not going to cut it!

I think I have now scuppered my chances of being in the first half of the results table.

I may have lost the battle but I will still win the war!

Not quite sub 100 but close so I'll still post here.

- Describe any scouting that changed your initial strategy.
Found NW soon after start, and wanted to train huge number of scouts as scouts can easily capture cities with hill double movement promotion.

- Describe a plan or order in which to conquer your neighbors.
Mongols, Celt, Shaka with 1 army, Monty, Oda with the 2nd army. Turns out this plan is not optimal as it takes too long to get to Oda and cost me sub 100 win. I ended up taking Oda with a 3rd army and some returning from 1st. 3rd army is basically free from GE rushing Terracotta army.

- Did you get a religion? If so, which tenets?
No shrine, and only got late pantheon. Probably will get one if the game goes on longer.

- Describe your social policy choices and tech path.
Liberty 2 city, AH first for horses, then archery, lux tech as needed, optics for embark.

Wow this will be a fun one I think :


- Describe any scouting that changed your initial strategy.
Well finding Mt Kilimanjaro told me where to put an expansion. After that I didn't really change... I probably should have...

- Describe a plan or order in which to conquer your neighbors.
After scouting all the civilizations, I'm planning on Monty First, and I want to make friends with Shaka. Monty has grown pretty big, so I'm hoping other civs can get on the band wagon. Maybe Oda after that.

- Did you get a religion? If so, which tenets?
Wasn't in my plan, maybe I should have thought about it.. but I don't think it is necessary.

- Describe your social policy choices and tech path.
Going Liberty, wanted to 'Rush' with CBs, I finished Liberty and I may not end up attacking anyone before XBs.

I want to say Hammer Rabbi was having some fun on this one. 5 aggressive civs on a small map. This might be a tricky one with any VC much less domination. I made the mistake of waiting too long to attack anyone hoping to have Shaka be my friend, but I might just have to bite the bullet after the Aztecs got 4 cities now.

Hah! They've put all the warmongeriest civs in this map! It's ridiculous.

** If you won this GotM before turn 100 then please only post in the After Actions thread!
Lol no. Though I can see how it's close to possible.

- Describe any scouting that changed your initial strategy.
It definitely made me speed up my army production, I had intended to start building a big army at CB time but instead made a whole bunch of archers after seeing who I was up against. I would say Kilimanjaro and the distribution of luxes and rivers didn't *change* my strategy per se, it just determined where my expos went.

- Describe a plan or order in which to conquer your neighbors.
I got Mongols capital first. They were close by, AND had two new luxes, AND I had a straight shot to their capital. By the end of that war, Zulus were still #1 in a lot of things - population, science, army size. And they hated me, so if I DOWed anybody else they'd probably stab me in the back. They had just taken the Celts' capital. So I declared war on them next and took the Celtic capital, I'll take their original capital next, and that'll clear up the right side of the map for me. I'll have to decide between Aztecs and Japanese next, it'll probably be whoever looks like they're stronger.

- Did you get a religion? If so, which tenets?
No. Zero faith until the Celts spread their religion to me, which had both pagodas *and* mosques. So then I got some shrines to eventually get those buildings for happiness. Accidentally got a pantheon but that'll just get erased, I want to convert to Catholicism.

- Describe your social policy choices and tech path.
Social: Liberty and honor opener so far.
Tech: Pretty even research along different paths in the ancient era. Then got CB. Went for Currency, then researching the bottom half of the tree for XBs.

T103 and I have Khan's and Oda's capitals. I've got everyone except Oda at war with me presently, which is entertaining since we are in the middle of the map.

- Describe any scouting that changed your initial strategy.

Like most, found Kilo and decided to plant the free city there. Khan was so close that he became my third city.

- Describe a plan or order in which to conquer your neighbors.
Khan and Oda, then I was going to team up with Shaka to take out Bod, but he went early and got to her capital first. Then Khan and Monty DoW'd, so I'm taking my two armies and going to try and hold off the Zulus while pushing Monty to death.

- Did you get a religion? If so, which tenets?
No religion.

- Describe your social policy choices and tech path.
Policies have been full liberty with GE for Teracotta.
Tech path has been all along the bottom until I needed calendar for incense. Still have not researched writing yet!

I played a couple of practice games, and I did not have the warmonger loadout that we have on this game. It'll be a slog and I may have to start sciencing up in order to get to a place where I can take the last 2 out, but it'll be entertaining!

Get rid of Shaka before he gets Impis!

I planned to settle the Silver but after moving there, saw we were just one tile from the coast. I like having the option to build a caravel, so I took another turn moving.

Hammer Rabbi said:

Describe any scouting that changed your initial strategy… Describe your social policy choices and tech path.

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I am answering these together because scouting changed my SP plans. But after spotting the NW, I decided to change plans for four city Tradition. When I run Liberty, I always wait on the free settler. So Tradition lets me get an expo faster. Plus, much to my surprise, it looked like I could pretty easily put down three expos. I started on Settlers as soon as I hit pop 4.

Turns out, on small maps, four cities triggers the “Reckless Expander” hate. And then I got a a scout and starting warrior killed, so that put me behind.

Describe a plan or order in which to conquer your neighbors.

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I had decided to turtle until the UU came online, so a nice relaxed game for a change, but the Western neighbor almost spoiled that for me!

T89 the Northern neighbor, who has me quite worried, asks me to DOW the NW AI, which I agree to. The NW neighbor looses his expos but then builds the great wall. We both stay at war with him until I eventually kill him off (but not until T211).

T93 The Western neighbor DOWs me. I was not ready, but I had the cash to rush buy a CB and I had two others that were not far off. Fortunately, the AI does not know how to war. He gets my cap in the red, but only by suiciding his melee units on my city walls. T104 all his units are dead, and T107 he gives me his only expo for peace. I raze it, and he never gets around to building another city. He is second on my sweep list (but not until T224).

Did you get a religion? If so, which tenets?

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Yes, did my usual scout, scout, shrine. T39 I got a pantheon, but OWN was gone already. I picked up Desert Folklore, but there were also two other good choices available! I founded third religion on T95, but all the faith buildings were gone already! Took happy from Temples and ended running Piety after closing Tradition. Took all the buffs around missionaries, built all the religious wonders, and had the whole map converted by the end of the game.

ftl said:

Hah! They've put all the warmongeriest civs in this map! It's ridiculous.

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Agreed, that was a bit of a fun surprise! Really put me off any ideas I had for a quick game! I decided instead to turtle until the UU came online.

I captured the Celts capitol on turn 99 after a 10-turn delay when my original attack – two composite bows, catapult, chariot, sword and spearman -- wasn't decisive. Now two turns later the Zulus and the Mongols have both declared war on me. I see that's been a common experience.

As it turns out these civs were my preferred order of attack but I don't think it will be quick. The Mongols have the largest army (the Celts the smallest) and when the Zulu army approached my city it already had an Impi.

Scouting persuaded me to get more workers to build roads through the hills and trees even though all my units have stopped by Mt Kilimanjaro for the hill promotion. I don't have a religion yet but it's a couple of turns away and there are three left. I'll take Tithe and Feed the World.

I've stayed on the bottom of the tech chart to promote the troops. I took Liberty for the worker and settler. Otherwise I'm focusing on Honor. I've got Statue of Zeus and Temple of Athena. In a couple of turns a Great Engineer will arrive to give me Terracotta Army just before Genghis kills me.