TSG105 Opening Actions

leif erikson

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Welcome to the TSG105 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 Action thread once you have completed your game.

- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
- Did you spend much time doing reconnaissance before settling?
- Where did you settle and what did you build first?
- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
- What were your initial priorities?
- What tech path did you follow and why?
- What Social Policies did you choose and why?
- Has it been peaceful? Did anyone start a war?
- Did you use Faith to gain an advantage? If so, how?
 
First 80 turns
Spoiler :
Settled next to the mountain. Opened things up with 2 scouts then Temple of Artemis, which I got on turn 32 or 33. Meanwhile stole a worker from Singapore and rush-bought one as well. Didn't really get an opportunity to steal from Morocco, probably because my warrior went north-west first as it seemed like friendlier terrain for exploration. Managed to get only one scout past Maria unfortunately.

Didn't build a shrine, was hoping for one of the 3 ruins I got after t20 to be a faith one but that didn't happen. NC on turn 68, Oracle to finish Tradition on turn 79. I should've beelined Theology but I realised that a few turns too late - still hoping to get Hagia Sophia though, as that seems like my only real chance to get a religion at this point.

So far I'm allies with Vancouver and friends with Morocco. Should be friends with Portugal soon and I've finally found someone with Ivory which is my WLTKD lux... gonna get that in 2-3 turns.

Looking decent but I do wish there was more food in the capital.
Spoiler :
 
Ok so I'm doing quite badly, I'm stuck behind everyone.

I made some mistakes and lost a scout to barbs, also I lost 5 turns circling the mountain and being tempted to settle the coast on the hill next to the mountain. Got gold, extra pop, barb camp locs, scout upgrade from goody huts. Built 1 worker, got 2 extra from barbs ( one belonging to Achmed), and returned one to vancouver.

- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
I thought ''I'm going to be raped this game''
- Did you spend much time doing reconnaissance before settling?
5 turns, I was tempted to settle on the coast north east of the mountain

- Where did you settle and what did you build first?
See pics. And I went Scout > Scout > worker ( had 1 turn till archery), then wasted 4 turns building the scout before starting TOA ( but still I got it so meh).
- What were your initial priorities?
TOA + HG, got beaten to HG
- What tech path did you follow and why?
Archery, ANI, Mining, beeline to HG, but then I got beaten to it and just researched the techs to improve terrain
- What Social Policies did you choose and why?
OCC so tradition, just finished it this turn
- Has it been peaceful? Did anyone start a war?
Everybody is real friendly, got friendships with all AI's so far, and allied with vancouver I found by killing a barb camp and returnign their worker, I was also friends with valetta and got a free catapult from em ( from killign barb camp)
- Did you use Faith to gain an advantage? If so, how?
Nope

In hindsight: Scout more, solomon mines location ( see red dot on screenshot) would have been the perfect capital location :). Even if I did everything perfectly ( as in not waste turns), I'd still be beaten to hanging gardens, think someone built it in turn 62 or so iirc.

Screens:
Spoiler :





As far as I'm concerned this game is lost, the AI will beat me to space/culture/diplo vic.
Not worried about DoW's.

ofc. I'll continue out of curiosity.
 
- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
Never played OCC neither deity so my plan was to grow as tall as possible and survive...
- Did you spend much time doing reconnaissance before settling?
Foud the mountain nw but settled on 2nd turn next to mountain se. Would go to the other one had I seen all the horses and iron...
- Where did you settle and what did you build first?
Monument/scout/granary
- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
It did not. But big distance from the city states made me rush buy the first worker.
- What were your initial priorities?
Grow, grow and grow.
- What tech path did you follow and why?
Pottery, mining/masonry and wheel for growth, resources and UU. Then went after science.
- What Social Policies did you choose and why?
Finished tradition around turn 80.
- Has it been peaceful? Did anyone start a war?
Friends with Morocco and Portugal. They started to fight tho.
- Did you use Faith to gain an advantage? If so, how?
Ignored religion. Only took Monument to the Gods parthenon that helped me finish ToA, HG and Oracle.

So far so good. Managed to finish 3 wonders and slowly catching up with science. Was a little bit slow with Education on turn 117, but it's ok given I'm not that skilled player.
 
First 110 turns
Spoiler :
Settled next to mountain on t2. Agonized for a while about going to the other side, I could see the sea tile, but did not want to roll the dice.
Built 2 scouts and then ToA. Thought about HG, but I have never managed to get it on Deity, so again did not want to roll the dice. Opened Tradition into wonder help and got ToA on t29 (sacrificed some growth for it, but got it). Was hoping for a lucky faith ruin, no luck, but managed to found a pantheon (Fertility rites) after meeting 2 faith CSs Lhasa and Ife. Stole worker from Ife, and hovered around, stole a total of 3 my scout was killed on the third steal but I got the worker, and also captured a barbarian that had a worker with him near Morocco. So 4 workers. Beelined Theology and managed to found a religion building Hagia Sophia at t90, got Tithe and Swords into..., and around t109 I got 2 faith per World Wonder and 20% unit strength when near a friendly city with your religion. I have never taken this last one, but I am not planning to spread the religion and I assume I will have to defend Delhi at some point throughout the game, but frankly I think I should have taken Religious Texts. I have very little experience on OCC and none on OCC Deity so I am fumbling around.

Rest of build order I think was scout-scout-ToA-granary-library-shrine-archer-archer (delayed the monument until I got it for free to get a couple of units to do barb quests, but that did not work out, have not been able to kill any quest barb camps, but impact was not much as I had 2 culture ruins) -Oracle (and finish Tradition) t74-NC t82-Hagia Sophia t90. I did not note down when I got Edu, but I think 110, rush bought University (not convinced that was right thing to do). By the way, Hanging Gardens went really late, like t90, but I am fairly certain I would not have been able to get it.

My exploring was so so, I only have the warrior west of Maria. I don't have a lot of money as I bribed Maria to DoW Morocco, just because I was getting nervous. I am friends with Morocco, Maria, Venice, I think I made a mistake to renew my DoF with Maria, should have let it lapse and make her the warmonger, but forgot that was my plan.

I am at t116, and I think I am doing OK. My only ally is Ife (yes the guy I stole 3 workers from, ironic ain't it?) I discovered Ethiopia for him and paid him 500 gold, wanted the pearls for WLTKD. It is working out quite nicely even though he is hostile. Good growth. Here is a screenshot:

Screen Shot 2015-03-02 at 3.55.45 PM.jpg

In general, I am happy with this game so far. Of course I wish I had HG for the garden and maybe should have settled on the northern mountain, full of horses, iron and what not, but frankly, a mountain start with good production and decent food is fine. The only money I have spent apart from the Uni is to rush buy tiles and I have rush bought a bunch. I have very good faith for OCC. Not sure how to play the rest of the game though, I have not been able to find a good thread on deity OCC, if anybody can point me to one, I would be very grateful. Right now, plan is to focus on growth, play the diplo game to avoid getting killed, Renaissance through Astronomy, Observatory, rush buy Public School, take tech lead, then buy Lab, probably go Freedom. Anyway, we'll see what happens.
 
:rotfl:
Fastest game ever! I just lost my settler looking for that perfect spot people suspected. :p
Worst of all, i might have found it as there was another mountain with even more salt NW of starting location, but there was also a barb camp 1 tile away from my settler.
:backstab:
 
I settled next to mountain, then scout, scout, worker. Found religious CS and make them allied, (Liberated several workers, destroyed several camps) so religion was rather fast. I went beeline to Theology and then to Education and Astronomy (Oxford). I have Oracle, Borobudur. Finished Tradition, opened Patronage and Rationalism.
Turn 102 I finished University, turn 112 Observatory. So far it looks good, but I am afraid AIs are rather ahead.
In any case very intersting game.
 
I am still alive :king:

Settled W of the mountain on T1, although really thinking about moving to the sea side but I saw only 1 fish and lot of water, so decided against it.

Went scout-monument-scout,ToA (got it T37), granary, library, 3archers, NC (T72), Oracle was gone on T74 :mad:

Got Education on T107, 2 pop from ruins, one culture, gold , map and barb camps. managed to cut of the NW peninsula for long time so got a lot of tiles in the 4th and 5th ring.

Full tradition, commerce, rationalism. Slowly befrieding evryone.

Scouting was really hard. Also managed to get only 1 scout past maria to the E and took me a long while to meet everyone. It took also long to meet Morocco, as I movew SE, but got 30g from the bunch of city states there. Skipped religion, but got a pantheon from meeting city states and buying 1 horse to ally Ife.

No war so far at all. Nobody went rationalism except me.
 
110 turns in: I'm a little slow to the major science buildings, will have my university in six turns and and still need to research sailing-->optics-->Astronomy. I managed to get Temple of Artemis and Oracle. I never bothered trying for a religion. I'm friends with Morocco, Portugal and Valetta, Allied with Vancouver and Buenos Aires. 5 tradition, Aesthetics opener plus one (extra culture from happiness).

At start I built scout, scout, worker, granary, temple of artemis. I stole a worker from Ife and nabbed one from barbs (previously morocco's). I'm feeling OK at this point, though I won't be impressing anyone with scientific efficiency, that's for sure! I'll be glad to survive, as I've only won Deity once before, and never attempted OCC at any difficulty level :crazyeye:

Spoiler :
 
Delhi was founded next to the mountain. Luckily I managed to build the Hanging Gardens, so I still have a garden. I wasn't so lucky with other wonders, all the others I tried building were finished earlier by other civs. I am focusing on becoming allies with cultural and maritime city states because I don't know what else to do next to beelining universities, public schools and research labs.

- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
The main question was: Find a better spot (natural wonder mountain would be nice) or stay put? I decided the starting location was too nice to pass up on.

- Did you spend much time doing reconnaissance before settling?
No.

- Where did you settle and what did you build first?
Near the mountaint, built two scouts, then a monument and a shrine.

- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
No need to claim land, but scouting still necessary for ruins and contacts.

- What were your initial priorities?
Find good ruins. That did not really work though.

- What tech path did you follow and why?
Priorized teching to Hanging Gardens

- What Social Policies did you choose and why?
Tradition, seemed obvious for a OCC.

- Has it been peaceful? Did anyone start a war?
Portugal was in a war agianst Mororcco and Venice.

- Did you use Faith to gain an advantage? If so, how?
I had a pantheon I chose the wonder building bonus, for the Hanging Gardens and other wonders. I assumed Delhi would be converted to some foreign religion later on in the game.
 
Got ToA, but HG went on turn 49. BTW, my friendly state influence is declining 2 per turn and I can't figure out what's going on. (Hostile CS still decline at 1.5 per turn). Also, I'm not collecting 15g city-states I met later in the game. Is this a bug or a new feature? I gave up when I accidentally bought 1 iron for 25gpt thinking I was offering 25g.
 
It means you did two DOWs on CSs (either DOWed 2 CSs or DOWed the same CS twice). It has long been the case that you get one "consequence-free" DOW on a CS. if you want to steal multiple workers from a CS, don't make peace -- stay at war and steal the workers as they are created.
 
T59 NC
~T75 Oracle and finished tradition
~T85 religion (last one) thanks to religious CS(tithe, SiP), few turns later enhanced by HS (religious community, texts)

Really OCC means not much strategy involved, plan to max RAs - there is no choice on OCC
 

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- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
Find mountain, and hopefully a river. The lake only has one flatland grassland tile next to it so thinking of moving my settler.

- Did you spend much time doing reconnaissance before settling?
Settled on t7 or so. Dunno if that was much but I wasn't happy with the starting location. The location I chose is not much better in the long term either but at least had more river tiles.

- Where did you settle and what did you build first?
See screenshot... First was worker + research mining. Then granary, then chop out worker. Library, caravan, archers, then NC.

- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
Probably if there wasn't so much rough terrain I would've scouted more for a better spot.

- What were your initial priorities?
Get the salt tiles running, get NC up, grow, and keep the peace. Find friends.

- What tech path did you follow and why?
Mining, Potter, AH, Writing, Archery (calendar from ruins), Philo--> theology (Hagia Sophia for religion) --> CS (for freshwater food) --> education --> navigation --> Metal casting (for workshop)--> machinery (for ironworks) --> Architecture (PT) --> ST (public school)

- What Social Policies did you choose and why?
Tradition (as if anything else was an option in OCC) Aesthetics opener because I got an extra policy before rennaissance, rationalism.

- Has it been peaceful? Did anyone start a war?
Total peace with strong friendships.

- Did you use Faith to gain an advantage? If so, how?
Wanted interfaith dialogue but that was taken, so got tithe. Got 4th religion with Hagia Sophia.



 
Doing ok but lost one wonder and religon stuffs.

Started scout scout ToA. Went for HG, lost it with 2 turns around t67. Tried to found early pantheon but first AI got fertility rights. Furthermore, last religon was founded around t75 maybe 5 turns before I got a chance to found mine. Tried oracle but was built, so I got HG instead but maybe kinda useless without religon.

Have made 3 friends and diplo seems ok so far. Also got a martime CS allied.

Turn 118, recently hit astronomy. Got Education t106. Pop 17. 87 beakers pt.
 
Because it's Deity my priority was avoiding immediate defeat. My goal was to survive for 100 turns which now looks likely.

I settled in place, hoping the lake would be a defensive advantage. The build order was scout, monument, archer, shrine, elephant, elephant, elephant. Policies were chosen for quick culture: Honor, Tradition, Liberty for the worker and then the Patronage tree.

My first surprise was no nearby civs to attack me. All the ruins were really useful: no maps or barbarian strongholds, which are common on lower difficulties. Secondly, everyone was peaceful. My army, which had been essential in practice games, had nothing to do.

Now my main opportunity is to use city states for science. I have a chance to get Oracle in five turns but I started National College first and I don't think Deity easily forgives indecision.

I'm using Faith for money and influence with city states. We'll see how that works out.

Since I haven't been killed yet, I wish I'd settled by the mountain as everyone recommended during the announcement discussion. Oh well, next time I'll know better.
 
I had to go back and reload my turn 79 Save to get this picture after I completed the game of course! I started this game when it first came out but since I have been on hiatus from Civ it took me until today to actually finish up the game. This is one nice thing about the GOTM, that you have time to get around to your game when you want.

My game was not very fast and it wasn't the easiest in the opening but it was nice to get a little revenge playing as India since I got rolled pretty hard in the DCL India game. I guess I basically did what everyone else did like settle up against the mountain and hope to max out RAs. I was thinking about some early war but I was pretty lazy and decided not to. I did get HG and Oracle on my way to HS.

Religion Earth Mother, Tithe, Swords Into Plowshares, Divine Inspiration and Rel Texts

SPs: Full Tradition, Opened Commerce, Opened Patronage, Full Ratio, 6 Deep into Order after switching out of Freedom after I built the SoL. Everyone else went Order so I switched to stay friendly and Happy and I also built the Kremlin so I did get 2 out of the 3 Ideological Wonders which is nice.

I didn't want to break up the Religion and the SPs on two pages so I hope this is ok listing them all on here. I have some pics for the after actions page of the SPs and Demos.

Screenshot of Turn 80

Spoiler :
 
I settled just west of the mountain and tried to rush for the Great Library (got to within 8 turns by manually managing my tiles). After that, tried to get Temple of Artemis and Oracle, but failed on both, which is when I decided to just give up entirely on building world wonders and really focus on my city itself. Prior to turn 100, I had been shifting between food and production focus, but after turn 100 (at which point I had a library, the National College, university, and observatory by 110), I shifted to science focus. I'm now playing catchup with some of the techs I left behind and plan on using diplomacy to get everyone to get to war with one another.

- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
Didn't think I'd be able to get through this.

- Did you spend much time doing reconnaissance before settling?
Yes. Pumped out 2 scouts and sent them east and west.

- Where did you settle and what did you build first?
Settled one tile west of mountain and started work on a scout.

- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
I questioned whether I should build next to the lake or mountain. Thankfully, I settled next to the mountain and was able to capitalize on the observatory.

- What were your initial priorities?
Initial priorities were to survive and try to get the Great Library.

- What tech path did you follow and why?
Pottery >> Writing >> Archery >> Mining
I got Animal Husbandry from an Ancient Ruins tile.

- What Social Policies did you choose and why?
Tradition all the way. Tried to capitalize on its growth policies while focusing as much as I could on production in first 100 turns.

- Has it been peaceful? Did anyone start a war?
Yes, very peaceful, and DoF with Morocco, Portugal, and eventually Venice. Alliance with Buenos Aires (for culture).

- Did you use Faith to gain an advantage? If so, how?
Got the last religion available, but couldn't really use it to my advantage, as most of the good beliefs were taken.
 
I started this last night. I've never won a deity game, although I've gotten close once or twice. I'm on turn 110 and not dead yet, so that's something! :)

I've only tried for a couple of wonders, but I got beat by one or two turns on both of them. Losing ToA stung; that was like the third thing I started building after 2 scouts and was important to my strategy. The other was Zeus and I didnt mind losing that one. All the rest (like HG) have been gone before I even researched the tech for them.

It's been peaceful so far; I'm friends with both Morocco and Portugal, but the friendship is getting a little strained with Morocco because he caught me stealing a tech (and I apologized), and because I renewed my friendship with Portugal and she must have backstabbed him or something when I wasn't looking -- they used to be friends but now they are enemies. I've met Persia. I don't remember if I've met anybody else.

I went Honor opener, then full Tradition. I may take additional Honor (right side) policies while waiting for Rationalism to open up -- or I might go Patronage; haven't decided yet. I'm catching up in tech, but still behind. I have NC and a university built and I'm working both of the scientist slots. I just finished the grand temple, and national epic is next.

I built one elephant just because, and it has been useful for killing barbs. I thought they could move thru rough terrain w/o losing all their moves, but apparently not. Maybe that's the Carthage elephant, or perhaps Siam's. (they all look alike to me)
 
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