TSG134 Opening Actions

I got distracted by shiny wonders so have not yet done much war...

Pros: Got the three expo spots I wanted. All three are on mountains, two are on rivers, two are on hills, and two are coastal. I built Hanging Gardens which is pretty rare for me. I also built MoH, which should negate the mid-early game gold crunch I always seem to have. I got three workers from war spoils. I have met all the AIs. Both scouts still alive and leveled up. I have barb camps located for training up new units.

Cons: Missed last religion by a smallish margin. MoH came at the expense of having a small early army. I have not taken any cities, and have only just starting building Siege Towers. NC will be late (~T115). I wasted time on Oracle, missing only by a few turns because I built a Cargo Ship first (for a CS quest). Just starting Warrior (double cover now) and two CBs at this point. No Iron.

Hammer Rabbi said:

Do you plan to make use of Assuria's UA and do some conquering?

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Heck yeah! At the end, I want this to look like a DOM game on pause. It could still happen! First Arabia, then Portugal. Maybe Iroquois too. Siam gave me a DOF, so he gets to live at least until that expires. I also have DOF with a faraway AI who has no problems with warmongers. One friend can be enough!

Which neighbors did you go to war with?

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Hiawatha, at the invitation of Siam and Maria. They both peaced out before I did. Hiawatha is not exactly a neighbor though. I got three workers and decent amounts of XP before taking white peace myself. I was going to loose either my warrior or CB that turn (both were heavily wounded). I killed three Mohawk Warriors, taking zero losses, but Hiawatha thought I should be giving him all my cities, LOL!

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

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I picked up Stone Circles pantheon, and had the quarries up before improving the luxes. I really expected that to do the trick. At ~T60 there where still five religions left, but then they were all gone by ~T70. Very disappointing. I was up to 181 faith when the last religion went. As a consolation prize, I will have enough faith banked to buy the first religious building that comes my way. Faith income at the end should be good.

Describe your social policy choices and tech path.

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I am pretty conservative with GotM, so Tradition (filled T98). Patronage next, since Diplo is the designated VC. I have no expectations of winning before Globalization, so my game will go long.

I got the quarries online first, then trapping lux, then calendar. After that, I deviated from my typical play to pick up both Construction and Mathematics before Philosophy, since I was planning to get something from the UU. Next was Optics (late for my having three coastal cities), and I am working on Civil Service now.

I may be a total hypocrite here, having sacrificed my own early warmongering potential to a World Wonder, but having read through the posts now, I am not understanding the hate for this map.

belligerent said:

Yeah, I'm back to being grumpy about this game. I've tried pressing through and conquered a bunch of cities, but it's at the point now where I need to wait until Arty to keep going forward beyond that second mountain range.

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You got techs from the UA, is that not great? Did you not use the UU as part of your early push? Harsh terrain and moving one tile instead of two hardly matters. You have to stop to take the cities anyway. Movement from your core to the front line is slow (until you get your roads up), but after the initial 5 turn delay at the start, why do the hills matter? It is a one-time speed bump.

Double cover on trebs and canons is great! Yes, it is a shame to lose that sapper promotion. And cover on siege does not resist city bombardment. But I am always losing siege units to the city garrison and galleasses too. Double cover means those can be ignored!

And if you do pause until arty, those arty will be invulnerable. What kills arty? Bombers and Battleships. Cover II makes a huge difference, but the opportunity cost is usually too high. This should be a fun map!

This isn't the greatest start for conquest, but it's not terrible either. I think it would actually be a lot harder to attack into the jungle than out of it.

AHHRRGG (by about a dozen of ya...)

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Well now, THAT'S encouraging! (EDIT: Truly, no sarcasm intended.)

I'm still struggling to become proficient at Immortal. At 100 turns I was REALLY about to throw in the towel on this one. But after reading some of the (very respectable) player's posts above, I reckon it ain't just me. I shall carry on!

(Don't tell, but I'm at work, and can't post my game right now.)

(Re the EDIT: Five hours later, and I just re-read my own post...)

vadalaz said:

This isn't the greatest start for conquest, but it's not terrible either. I think it would actually be a lot harder to attack into the jungle than out of it.

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That's correct. I expanded very quickly into the jungles and those cities were under siege from neighboring AI constantly and never even close to falling. All that delayed my infrastructure though. Also it wasn't feasible to take more cities except the coastal Lisbon and a few Arabian cities.

beetle said:

You got techs from the UA, is that not great? Did you not use the UU as part of your early push? Harsh terrain and moving one tile instead of two hardly matters. You have to stop to take the cities anyway. Movement from your core to the front line is slow (until you get your roads up), but after the initial 5 turn delay at the start, why do the hills matter? It is a one-time speed bump.

Double cover on trebs and canons is great! Yes, it is a shame to lose that sapper promotion. And cover on siege does not resist city bombardment. But I am always losing siege units to the city garrison and galleasses too. Double cover means those can be ignored!

And if you do pause until arty, those arty will be invulnerable. What kills arty? Bombers and Battleships. Cover II makes a huge difference, but the opportunity cost is usually too high. This should be a fun map!

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I got rolling pretty good and probably gave up on it too soon. Admittedly, I have played Assyria like one time before, so my expectations entering a game with them would've featured more use of the ST than I got out of them based on the terrain. Like you said, I mowed through Arabia and a couple of Iroquois cities. The movement was just painful, and honestly I wasn't having much fun with it.

I also admit that my grumpiness probably detracted from that fun, and thus my decision not to press through and finish.

Instead, I'm playing an old IAG game with another Civ I have little experience with - Songhai, which has been challenging but more interesting.

In the end, I should've gone with my head on this and played a less violent, more "traditional" diplo game and it would've gone smoothly. Just didn't see the fun in being Assyria in that!

- Do you plan to make use of Assuria's UA and do some conquering?
Yes. My strategy is to follow a Domination path and crush any civs that get too uncomfortably close (Arabs) or seem to have grown/in the way to become too powerful (Iroqouis, Shosone).

- Which neighbors did you go to war with?
1. Spent my first 100 turns focusing on the Arabs first for being too close. I was behind on Sciences and score so I sent Portugal and Thai to DOW on Arab to weaken them before attacking their main cities.
2. Hiawatha being the next civ in my way and to prevent them from growing too powerful (him and Pocatello being top 2 - so I made them DOW on each other while dealing with the Arabs first).

- Did you get a religion? If so, which tenets?
Yes, but did not utilise it as I was the last 2 to found a religion and most useful bonuses have been taken. Took Quarries, Ceremonial Burial and another +Happiness tenet for temporary bonuses.
Adopted Arab's Muslim religion instead - Mosques, faith on desert tiles being the most useful.

- Describe your social policy choices and tech path.
Tradition first for early growth, going for full Honor as the likelihood and need of war escalates. To adopt Diplomacy policies later.

I'm a new player so I'd love some critiques on what I'm doing as well as people's alternative high level strategies. Not particulars as much as what they planned on doing coming into the game. I kept very detailed notes for the first 57 turns. I may have come into with a more long-term strategy so keep that in mind.

- Do you plan to make use of Assuria's UA and do some conquering?
No I didn't plan on using Assuria's UA to go conquering. I settled on trying to maximize infrastructure at the beginning parts of the game and if I needed to clean up some civs to make the vote work out later I would do so but not until I felt solid with my own infrastructure.

- Which neighbors did you go to war with?
Everybody ganged up on the Iroquois so I joined in when they asked to keep relations with the AI up. I think in hindsight mining the Arabs for Caravan Routes and workers would have been better. But I was scared by the difficulty so I didn't
- Did you get a religion? If so, which tenets?
No I didn't manage to get a religion
- Describe your social policy choices and tech path.
I went full Rationalism. Tech Path Mining-Animal Husbandry-Masonry-Trapping-Pottery-Sailing-Bronze-Working- and then I lost track. I'm currently working on currency. Here is the most recent screenshot of my game