please critique my opening

So I decided to post a game and let you guys tell me what I'm doing wrong. I began with about 150 turns. I included a log of turns as well hopefully you can tell me how to better improve my game.

Started with Hattie spiritual/creative is one of my favorite trait combos. Quick early border pops without any hammers spent on early monuments not to mention cheap libs theaters and colliseums with Creative. Spiritual for cheap hapy buildings once I pick up a religion and free civic changes. Emporer level, epic/normal Hemispheres map 7 civs. I got stuck on a continent with just Boudicca. Yay!

Turn 1--research mining build a worker, explore with warrior.
Turn 5--pop hunting from a hut
Turn 11--mining complete move on to archery
Turn 15--pop map warrior eaten by a bear no more exploring for now=/
Turn 22-- archery complete->BW begun
Turn 23--worker complete, build archer worker moves 1SE to get corn online
Turn 24--worker begins farming corn.
Turn 23--worker moves to hill to begin mining riverside grasshill
Turn 38->41-- worker completes mine, worker moves on to next riverside grasshill to mine
Turn 42--BW complete free switch to slavery, no copper in sight research AH
Turn 47-- worker moves on to riverside plains hill to mine
Turn 48-- archer complete begin another archer, this archer begins exploring.
Turn 52--archer built. forts Thebes, begin another archer.
Turn 54--mines complete worker begins roading to set up next cities etc.
Turn 55--AH complete begin writing
Turn 59--archer completed and begins exploring. begin building another archer
Turn 65--archer complete, begin another archer
Turn 68--archer complete, begin settler
Turn 71--writing complete begin mysticism
Turn 78--Mysticism complete begin Polytheism(working towards Lit)
Turn 79--Settler complete begin worker.
Turn 80--Memphis founded NE of Thebes to pick up horses Barracks begun, research lowered to 70% worker moves to farm FP
Turn 85--Thebes complete worker builds another worker. worker moves to hook up horses
Turn 91--worker completes FP farm begins another
Turn 92--worker complete in Thebes, begin settler. worker begins mining last grassland hill in BFC of cap
Turn 94--Poly complete begin Aesthetics.
Turn 99-- mine complete, horses complete riverside mine begins in Memphis. Thebes worker begins roading to southern copper site.
Turn 102--settler complete, begin lib
Turn 105--chariot whipped in thebes, Barracks whipped in Memphis(this probably should have been done earlier) begins chariot pumping.
Turn 108--heliopolis founded, begin barracks down to 50% science already =/
Turn 113--Memphis whips lib after completing chariot, then pumps chariots again
Turn 115--Thebese finishes Barracks and begins chariot pump.

basically I pumped chariots until copper was hooked up then started with axes, fighting off invading barbs and then guess what!? Yep Boudicca declares on me, at which point I left the save, I have enough of an army to handle Boudicca but I can't conquer her without some severe blows to my economy and there's a few barb cities and their placement isn't bad. So please give me suggestions and criticism... be brutal I'm trying to learn here. Thanks.

I tried it myself for comparison. Glanced at your report but didn't read it. Didn't necessarily expect to do better than you, I play Emperor and Immortal and resign a lot.

I started Mining -> Hunting -> AH -> Archery (didn't see the Horse yet) -> Fishing -> Pottery (half from hut) -> Writing. Enough to keep the Worker busy and research prereqs first.
Started something like Worker, Scout, Scout, Warrior, Settler, Archer, Archer.

Explored enough to see that:
* the vicinity has a good chunk of grassland and rivers, 4 happy, and several health resources - adequate for peaceful space
* jungle between us and Boudica
* looked blockable, especially with Creative
So I figured I could expand into the region just south of the jungle (decent sites) and later backfill the south. I signed OB, planning to cancel it if I ever saw Celtic Settlers.

I also noticed that Boudica didn't get an early religion, and so I thought I'd exploit the UB and try to bulb Christianity with the goal of making our continent a 1-religion continent for diplo (keep her off my back) and OR and maybe the AP. So Mysticism, Poly... Then I noticed the Oracle was up and with Marble nearby decided to make a run for it. Priesthood, Masonry, Mono. Hooked up Marble halfway though. Got it in 925; took Theology and sent the free missionary to Boudica. I think I was just lucky with that; I think 925 is a bit late (in some games, very late) for the Oracle on Emperor.

Meanwhile, I had cottaged the four flood plains. Cottages for space (probably space. If I were to finish this game I might try to take out Boudica later and conceivably go for Domination, but more likely I would be too lazy, and go for space instead). No cottages in Thebes at this point; not enough food and there are some wonders I want to build.

Then I researched Monarchy for growth (with Wine) and started BW while running Obelisk prophets in Thebes (which also had the Oracle) and then building the shrine. I'm building the Hagia Sophia for the heck of it (but I do have Marble, OR, and got Theology early, and I do have a lot of land to develop) and then will make a run at the AP for production and defense.

Not sure what I'll research after hooking up metal; probably Math -> Calendar (happy) -> Currency (trade commerce) -> COL (CS prerequisite) -> CS (Bureaucracy with HR, although Thebes isn't the best cottage site; haven't really thought that through).

Meanwhile (in addition to expanding and fogbusting) I had the second city in a War Chariot loop. A barb city popped up on the northeastern Wine, so I took a break for a Barracks, built up 6 WCs, and autorazed the barb city after farming it to get one War Chariot (initially at 5 XP from barbs in the south) up to level 4 for Heroic Epic.

~~~ Me: 5 cities, pop 20, 20 beakers, 50 hammers, 50 strength units, 2+2 GPP.

I'm a little vulnerable, but I have good diplo. My pop also pumps my power rating a bit. I do need to find and hook up metals to round out my military with Spears. If Boudica came in with Gallics and Horse Archers (she's on HBR now) I wouldn't have much fun beating them off with Archers, Walls, and War Chariots. But I suspect I could, unless she really got me by surprise.

Looking on the power graph, your rating is almost equal to Boudica's and mine is about half of hers. From espionage we know that she met someone else, must have been across the water. I may have just gotten lucky. It's also possible that she's planning to declare on me soon. It's also possible that the shared religion (and perhaps earlier OB? I'm getting +2 from it) caused her to plan to attack the other civ she met, instead of me.



~~~ You: 3 cities, pop 15, 25 beakers, 15 hammers, 75 strength units, 6+6 GPP.

Looks like you might have had barb troubles. I may have fogbusted more than you. Also, I expanded toward Boudica. Maybe you got unlucky with the barb city to your Northwest, but I did have a very early Archer fogbusting that tile. I would not have built Copper city so early. It's not in Boudica's direction, and War Chariots are enough. In 380 I am building a Settler for it (to get the Fur; I haven't finished BW yet), but I also have 3 northern blocking cities (decent ones) and am building a settler for a fourth (to replace the autorazed barb city).

You went for early BW. Seems like an iffy move when you have a shot at War Chariots. Maybe if you had exploited the early BW by chopping around Thebes, but you didn't.

Literature is a fairly reasonable research target after Writing, but the fact that you didn't say much to explain why you chose it suggests that you may not have thought in enough depth about why you made that choice... and about what (if anything) else you were going to do with Aesthetics... and why. Also, given that you were going Aesthetics, you probably should have settled by one of the Marbles rather than the Furs. I don't know, maybe you figured you would be busy with Axemen and Settlers and therefore you wouldn't need the Marble for a while.

Boudica's army doesn't look like it will be a big problem for you. You have the stack of WC's anyway, and you have the ability to build both WCs and Axes (and Spears).

You might want to break from Literature for Masonry, which you need for the Marble anyway, so that you can whip a Walls in Memphis. You can see that she's a little ways off from Construction. On the other hand, it's probably also a good time to fire the Scientists in Memphis, so that you can build more units.

You didn't mention your plans for the Great Scientists that you're going to get from the farm/specialist economy that you appear to be building. You may have a plan, but the fact that you didn't mention one suggests that you might not have thought it through enough, or about whether something else would be better.

Aside:

looking at my save, I'm confused as to why my Heliopolis is getting trade routes (connected to capital only by river, and no Sailing). Obviously I never understood the details of that. What's going on?

You don't need sailing for river routes, only for coastal connections.

To the OP: I don't see what's so bad about your game. She declared on you, so what? You don't need to take her out now, just defend your land. She will suffer the war weariness so it's easier to kill her later. Also your troops will get experience.

I probably went with BW out of habit since it's so useful, axes, slavery, chopiing. I probably should have gon AH first, but I'm always concerned about spears showing up during a chariot rush.
I go after lit for the Great Library and to have Aesthetics as trade bait. The rough idea is to get TGL in my cap and make it a temp GP farm. I use one GS for an academy in cap and then start settling, unless I can bulb something useful like Philo/Edu. I don't tend to war much until gunpowder if I have room to REx, once I get lit I usually go Math-->Currency-->COL-->CS, I can usually trade for Math and HR with Aesthetics, if I have trade partners. of course these plans change as the game happens depending on what is needed. I was planning on annexing the barb cities to the north of Thebes until Boudicca DOW'd me.
As far as economy goes I tend to begin with a specialist economy and as my cities grow I switch over to a CE, scientists are better up until CS wich is when I am usually making the official switch at least in the capital. I leave smaller cities with a few farms if low on food resources, but early in the game food=>production and science, commerce is not that helpful off the bat.

oh and thanks for the reply. I'm not trying to defend my play style, just tell you why I'm doing things, if you have better ideas please let me know.

Suggestions on where to go from my save point are also welcome.

If I could get a few more comments and possibly some direction I'll continue this game. This part is usually where I have the most problems. Thank you for your time.

I don't know how to play on emperor, but I think about a thing especially...

Did you think about creating Stonehenge, or is it too difficult on emperor?

Otherwise, always exploit Stonehenge w/ Egypt.

lord_joakim said:

I don't know how to play on emperor, but I think about a thing especially...

Did you think about creating Stonehenge, or is it too difficult on emperor?

Otherwise, always exploit Stonehenge w/ Egypt.

Click to expand...

I think stuttrboy is playing a Creative civ, so expanding borders are free.

Yes, but Stonehenge allows two priests in every city. (Egyptian UB replaces monument)

MyOtherName said:

Yes, but Stonehenge allows two priests in every city. (Egyptian UB replaces monument)

Click to expand...

Fair point, though wouldn't building SH kind of defeat the purpose of choosing a Creative leader?

The Rook said:

Fair point, though wouldn't building SH kind of defeat the purpose of choosing a Creative leader?

Click to expand...

not as egypt imho

Stonehenge is nice for ramses and the hammers from GPs aren't anything to sneeze about but I'm trying to play a somewhat "pure" game. I try not to use wonders as a crutch unless I have the specific resource and/or industrial.

I think The Rook is saying that if one is planning on building stonehenge, then one should pick Ramses instead of Hatsheput.