TSG23 Game in Progress

Welcome to the TSG23 Game in Progress thread. This thread is used to discuss the game once you've started playing. There are no reading or posting restrictions as such (apart from normal decency), although we encourage players 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 about the first 80 to 100 turns.
- How did you decide to work with the start location?
- Were there any early wars and did you start them?
- What Social Policies did you choose and why?
- What tech path did you follow?
- What Wonders did you prioritize?
- How did the crowded map affect your play?

Once you've completed the game, head over to the TSG23 After Action Report thread.

- How did you decide to work with the start location?
Settled in place, was content with that decision.
- Were there any early wars and did you start them?
Japan came early for both me and India, we had trouble for a while even with the 2v1 situation
- What Social Policies did you choose and why?
Chose Tradition instead of Liberty after i saw that i probably didn't have a good place to settle another city.
Followed with piety since there weren't any cultural/maritime CS (and i thought it was a culture game )
Followed with 2 points in freedom (no money for CS)
Maxed the CS path finally after i got around the map with a caravel
Maxed Freedom
Maxed Honor
- What tech path did you follow?
Culture first most of the time, sometimes stopped to take something military, or bulb an expensive tech with a GS
- What Wonders did you prioritize?
Science > Culture > Other
- How did the crowded map affect your play?
Usually i build more than one city myself. I think it affected the AI a lot more than me. They put down their cities very close to each other.


Started off with one-base GL+NC and managed to befriend 2 of the military CS via barbcamps.

This got me a nice little army to defend myself when japan declared war. The war was dragged out quite a bit though, since i decided i would want to puppet some cities instead of going for a one city challenge

It was all in all surpisingly easy. i made some horrible mistakes with my forces and lost quite a lot, but managed to break japan at about turn 200, having my capital +4 puppets. I played peacefully for a while. People tried to take out japans capital, which i wanted to prevent, so i surrounded their land with my forces. The dear samurai didn't like it and i was forced to conquer him, again with losing about half my army (so many deaths this time..)

I will finish the game at about turn 320 with a culture victory, since i doubt i will make diplomacy. Darius has 20k gold and about half the map (has conquered 3 civs himself), so i want to finish before he gets through to me.

I won't be competing for the top in this one. As of now, I have a 3 city setup and am 5th in score. First in tech, but money has been a major issue.

- How did you decide to work with the start location?



- Were there any early wars and did you start them?



- What Social Policies did you choose and why?



- What Wonders did you prioritize?



- How did the crowded map affect your play?

Played first 100 odd turns.


- How did you decide to work with the start location?

Went north to the top lux so I could observatory later on. settled a 2nd city on west coast... not sure why! couple of deers and a fish for food. again, room for an observatory.
Should have settled on bottom iron with the fur; I've hit -1 happy now...

- Were there any early wars and did you start them?

i've explored nearly everywhere - missing the final AI i think. few wars off and on over on the west side where it's more congested.
japan just spamming cities. they will declare on me soon. I need to take his southern city; gems+silver + all of his iron.

- What Social Policies did you choose and why?
lib branch so far.
- What tech path did you follow?
beeline theology; then iron; now sweeping up lower techs. need happy techs now.

- What Wonders did you prioritize?
got great lib; nat college, HS and just building PT.

- How did the crowded map affect your play?
not so much crowded map - just no start spots! i'm friendly with everyone, so raking in the open
borders so far with that many AI.

Turn 102 :

- How did you decide to work with the start location?

Same as DaveMcV's analysis. so i settled on the west gem hill. Great, i realized a bit later that i can catch a 3rd lux.

- Were there any early wars and did you start them?

Japan! He throwed on me like 4 -5 warriors early but i repulsed him and finally conquered his capital befure turn 100.

- What Social Policies did you choose and why?

Liberty, i wanted a few more cities.

- What tech path did you follow?

Some lux techs, iron then en route for education.

- What Wonders did you prioritize?

GL,HS and PT in capital, Oracle in 3rd city.

- How did the crowded map affect your play?

Not much difference excepted that all my neighbors are guarded.

...

I settled a few more cities among the coast and cought the silver near Japan's border. Askia and Ghandi became guarded pretty fast. This move irritated Japan and decided to attack me.



I resisted at his warriors and waited for iron from the GL. Good news, there is plenty of them but more importantly, Japan can't hook any iron. I started HS in cap, Oracle in silver city and have built temples in coastal cities.



I attacked Oda and some turns later i captured his capital. That was pretty close fight, he built walls in there and have lost some units. Legalism gave me 2 wats in coastal cities and temples in 2 others. 2 scouts are ready to explore when i will finish compass.



Now i will sign my first RAs, Ghandi is finaly making money but Askia is always broken. I will maybe annex Japan's capital, i don't know yet. I will probably buid ND in silver city and let him without a wat for a long time(that's why i may want to annex Kyoto). I will ally some maritime cs too to keep cities growing.

(Edit) Turn 137 :

Made peace with Oda, got negative income for a couple of turns but managed to sign 2 RAs because Darius found me and he's friendly. My 2 scouts discovered the other continent and found everyone excepted 1 civ. I continued to sign RAs.

I've built ND in silver city and built workshops everywhere. I annexed Kyoto and captured Sidon to pleasure Tyre. This got me 1 extra city and 1 extra ally with a unique lux. Great, my situation is much better now. I will continue to sign RAs and ally some cs if possible. RAs before cs for sure. At least other civs are not broke like mine from my continent.

started this yesterday evening / night with my longest session like ever (usually some1 want to duel me or i gotta paly WoW ...).

After 114turn I think:
Settled west diamonds
Got pretty lucky with warri - could block india scout by DoWing him, so he could not steal my hut --> +1 pop
Scout found more: cult + writing.

Wanted steal some japan worker just to figure it dont have it that fast on immortal.
Got his money instead to buy 1
My scout went on to asiyaka and tried steal worker there - for some reason warri in cap didnt attack me - but then I got raped in between barbs - lost stolen worker.

At size 4 I got free settler and started another right after - settled 2 pretty good spots (east coast with 2 fishes in range and and close to japan at wheat/diamonda). Figured way too late that I should build a 4th city at the flood wheat south of Japan - built in in like t80 - too late to get all stuff for free wat and for some reason i didnt even get ANY free building there

Well in like turn 60 I figured that Dowing asiyaka was horrible idea - I finaly got open boarder and could scout all the other civs. Started RAs at like turn 91 - think also a bit late - buyed some of the new found CS states before.

Cap built - Henge - settler - GL - cult stuff - Hard built CI, Notre and PT aswell - settled GE from Liberty.

War like: In like t50 both Japan and India wanted pact of friendship - just to backstab me like 5 turns later - sry this is just brokken - Japan luckily suicided his units into my city and then I had Iron and could counterattack - killed 1 city - Peace to get his gold and killed cap 10 turns later with loosing 3! swords (never ever lost that many I think) I had loads of units as I had allied the 3 MS on my side (with 2 barb missions and some gold) - then went on to kill India - killed his cap in like t110 before I save this.

I would really like have HG as my cap grow suckz a bit (otherwise its real great spot)

when looking at tabarnaks SS i m doing better as him

wtf your cap is only size 8???? also settling this east spot at the sheep/sishes is way better as the spot with 1 dear only imo

This was the best start to an emperor game I've ever had. Been having some good results with King lately so maybe I'm ready.

The story for me was early wars. I Settled my 2nd city right underneath Osaka for the silver, and for what I later found to be bountiful iron. I knew this would only hasten Japan's certain declaring on me, so I built warriors and archers and beelined for iron.

He declared on me long before I had iron but I managed to fend him off and took Osaka in time. Made peace for a all his gold and luxuries - and I immediately declared on Ghandi.

This was about turn 120 I think. So I won't say more, except that I had a huge army of swordsmen ready to dominate my continent. Then the plan is to be peaceful the rest of the way. Explore the rest of the world. Sign RAs and save enough money to buy of city states for the Diplomatic win.

tommynt said:

when looking at tabarnaks SS i m doing better as him

wtf your cap is only size 8???? also settling this east spot at the sheep/sishes is way better as the spot with 1 dear only imo

Click to expand...

You doing better than everyone else. What is different?

I often play games where my capital is barely larger than any other settled cities. In this game though, i deliberately stayed at 3 pop after settler pumping when i built the GL(at emperor, they can built it under 50 turns).

First of all it's not a 1 deer only spot, i'm working 2 deers, 1 sheep and there is 1 grass, 1 plain and 1 hill riversided on the other side of mountains. It already popped me a gs. Not bad after all.

My game is looking slow, but i'm pretty sure this will pay off a bit later. Unfortunately, i couldn't reach other civs before turn 110 so my first RAs came online a bit late.

This is just my third game at standard speed (tryout with TSG19 and played TSG22 to the end) and I think I'm starting to get the timing right. Compared to marathon there is not much time to fight and wars look like skirmishes.

I read a bit here before starting and followed the advice to settle on the west gem. I believe I wouldn't have thought of it by myself.
Since space was going to be a problem I went exploring quickly, warrior on the east coast and scout on the west. I discovered Ghandi when his scout was going to beat me to the first ruin I spotted so I tried I trick I read here, declared war on him and got survivors, that was worth it ! He offered a clean peace a few turns after and was friendly right away. Great start so far.
Meanwhile my scout found a culture ruin. So far I had only found lots of mountains and no good spot for another city so I was still considering playing OOC. I took Liberty to be ready and since land around the capital will require lots of improvement the free worker from Citizenship will come in handy.
The scout then discovered the Gem, Silver and double Wheat spot along a river, perfect spot for my second city so I picked Collective Rule to settle there before Oda ; two turns later and Oda would have beaten me to it !
I ended my lucky ruin streak with an Archer upgrade for the scout. That allowed me to clear some barbarians near while ready to come defend against Oda so I didn't need to build more Warriors.

Capital build order : scout (rapid exploration), monument (I wanted to expand quickly to get the luxuries and a few policies fast), granary, warrior (in case Oda was agressive), GL, Stonehenge (since it wasn't built yet I tried), Settler (found a nice spot SW of Kyoto, beat Oda and Ghandi there by a few turns), Oracle, Hanging Gardens.
Tech : Calendar for incense, Writing, Mining, AH, Philo, Theology (from GL), Trapping (for camps), Math (for HG, wanted a big capital to ensure a good beaker and gold output), IW (my army was only 2 warriors so it was a security against Oda) then finally started Education.

No troubles with Oda, he got friendly and since I had IW on the way I send the scout/archer back to explore. Payed Askia for passage and discoved most of the AIs and CS. I had to pay a few more open borders but sold mine to everyone except Alexander who stays neutral. That allowed me to sell lots of Luxuries bringing loads of cash so I took Patronage and Philanthropy and started allying CS. First Rio because maritime and provided Wine which my capital required then Brussels for a new luxury which boosted my culture a lot thanks to the UA. Later Brussels asked for Cotton so I allied Monaco for even more culture. No luck otherwise on CS missions, roads for Rio and Monaco (that's gonna take some time !) and kills otherwise.

Trun 93 now.
Only one AI not discovered and just a few CS, scout/archer is on his way home. I want to start fighting soon, at least for training units. I have a large supply of iron available so I can go for a 6 melee 4 siege army.
Just finished Hanging Gardens in capital and Pyramids in second city (needed the workers badly with 3 cities) which had built HS before (took GE for UN or earlier if I'm short on an important wonder, think I'll use it on ND).
I wanted a fourth city to take full advantage of Legalism but there's no good free spot left. Plus, even though I'm first on score (because of wonders I guess), I feel my beaker output is low so I want NC and also HE before I start building my army (Oda still scares me, he's neutral now because I settle my two cities close to him).
12 turns to Education and ready to pick Legalism. Does Wat takes precedence over Monastery ?
I haven't signed any RA yet. With such a tiny army there were likely to be broken by war so I invested in CS to take advantage of the UA. AIs are broke anyway for now so I think I'll wait for PT and maybe even Rationalism before starting on RAs. It might delay the win date in the end though, really not sure what to do here.

Going OK after tricky start (lost first 2 scouts to barbs!!). settled on the N gems:- looked wrong decision at turn 50 but happy(ish) now. Took Liberty, free settler was moving to nice NE river spot along coastal hill path but was beaten by Oda, so settled against mountains to grab Barrier Reef. City 3 to South (on hill which turned out to have 6 iron):- this city is beginning to develop well now I have the fish in play. Early wars with Japan, slaughtered his attacking forces with 2 archers and a trireme. To avoid being blocked in, I captured Sidon and annexed it as my fourth city. Got GL, then PT/HS at around turn 105. Delved into Tradition for Wats before completing Liberty. Started Rationalsm just before complete of first RA Have met everyone and have 4 new RA in place. Military build-up complete around turn 145 and moving on Oda:- taken 1 city and heading W to his capital (I have ele/Treb/LS and he has an iron deficit weakening his Samurai. I am just first in score, with three competitors close behind.

Its now t160 about

Think I ll end this pre 200 turns

Could affort running about 7+ RAs all time from turn 95 on - latly even Ras with 8-9 (untill when I thought they were enough) being pretty much all time GA with 150+ gold helps I guess.

Last turn (t150+) been pretty much press end turn - got Japs, India and Shonghai down to 1 city and getting units from 4 military CS - WAY too many ..

Just hope no civs with running RAs Dows me before end - well oversinge d 2 Ras I think - just no massdows pls

If things go well I should hit globalization about t180

My median pushing suckz a bit - but i am trying ....

- How did you decide to work with the start location?

West on hills, mining 1st, buy worker around t12 or so

- Were there any early wars and did you start them?

I took on Japan when I run into a settler/warrior combo around t20. I took them on with my warrior & scout, securing the nice 3 wheat spot SE of Kyoto for a 2 city NC setup. Mid 50's I started to erase Japan and Ghandi to get me my part of the continent. Also I stole a worker from Sidon.

- What Social Policies did you choose and why?

Liberty, for settler

- What tech path did you follow?

mining. beeline CS with GLib, then Cal, beeline iron, beeline astro, beeline steel

- What Wonders did you prioritize?

cap: GLib, NC, HG, Oracle, PT
2nd: SH, HS
3rd Kyoto: ND

- How did the crowded map affect your play?

Getting my army up earlier then normal, early war with Japan for a good 2nd city spot!!
Backside: early wars made all AI's guarded for most of the game.....

- How did you decide to work with the start location?

Same as DaveMcV's analysis. so i settled on the west gem hill.

- Were there any early wars and did you start them?

O yeah, Japan! He went after me almost as soon as i settled my 2nd city by the one tile lake NE of his cap. I got beat to the sweet silver location even though i prioritized liberty settler for the first time ever. I lost that city and a worker stolen from Tyre to three Warriors without killing even one . Then made my desperate stand by Sidon's river with them my newest and only ally providing bombardment and my 2 W and 1 A taking the Jap hordes apart. ONce i hooked up iron i took Osaka (silver) and then my original 2nd city and Ghandi burned another one of Oda's by the Potosi NW. That was our 1st of 3 wars. I started the other two, taking his cap and then all but 1 city. I helped Askia libarate two of his but did not take them for myself as i considered them marginal. As a curiosity Oda survived till the end fighting both Askia and Gandhi almost non stop and even took one of A's cities towards the end, still not having iron

- What Social Policies did you choose and why?

Liberty, i needed the GP as i got beat to both GL and Oracle by few turns each and did not want to lose out on HS and PT.

- What tech path did you follow?

mining, then writing, iron then en route for education.

- What Wonders did you prioritize?

GL (did not get it), Oracle (did not get it),HG (first time ever built it) HS and PT in capital, NC in 3rd city by mountain NE of my cap on the coast - big mistake had to nurse this one along to have decent pop, and if i built it in cap with HG it would have outperformed even w/o observatory

- How did the crowded map affect your play?

a bit since i lost out on early ideal 2nd city to Oda and had to settle for two more marginal ones. I tend to settle only 1 or 2 cities anyway preffering to take them away from other kids on the playground, a habit i cant shake in every Civ version

I got a question for Tabarnak if you see it; HOW did you get 4 cities so fast??? i know i am slow, i still have not settled 4 cities ever i think, in all GOTMs we played

Maxym said:

I got a question for Tabarnak if you see it; HOW did you get 4 cities so fast??? i know i am slow, i still have not settled 4 cities ever i think, in all GOTMs we played

Click to expand...

I like this particular start;

Capital build : scout-monument-warrior-settler-settler

When warrior is over, free settler from Liberty is available. Capital can build settlers faster and work highest tiles at 3

scout-monument-warrior is exactly what a capital needs to be at 3 with +2 all the time without ruins. 2nd policy falls online at this point too(without culture ruins). Workers after(usually 1 from cs, 1 for free from Liberty, 1 built from capital and 1 buy or simply 2 buys if enough ). Research and work lux tiles to get out of rapidly.

I don't think I'll be troubling the scoreboard with one. Settled in place, built scout (who got killed by barbs) monument, granary, Great Library. Took liberty and marched the free settler up the coast to the fertile river valley, arriving one turn before a Japanese settler. On founding, the location of Kyoto is revealed, very close by. Cue anger and then war from Oda. Despite killing two of his warriors, he has four more and a spearman in range of my damaged city at turn 50. I have blundered and may lose all my units and/or the city. Should have got walls up or more warriors.

Edit after playing on: feh, overestimated the ability of the AI to co-ordinate an attack again. Lost a unit or two but otherwise fought off Oda until he asked for straight peace. Built the Oracle, Hanging Gardens, Hagia Sophia, Porcelain Tower and Notre Dame, then bulbed Astronomy to enter the renaissance in 25BC. Pity no one seems to have any money (me included as a result) to enter into any research agreements.

This is my first game ever on Emperor, so I'm not playing for big points here. Not even for a win Any suggestions are highly appreciated. I'm at turn 114 now, last of the base point ranking (about half as much as the leading AI) and struggling.

- How did you decide to work with the start location?

I settled in place after my warrior didn't see much besides mountains on NE hills.

- Were there any early wars and did you start them?

I was just harassed by some barbs from the south. They managed to pillage my gems and wheat and I had to withdraw my worker to the save confines of the city for some turns. I didn't spend much thought on defending my city, so I had to take care of the bars with city bombardment only.
Oda started a minor war with Askia, but besides that the game is very peaceful so far. Probably I'm on nobodys radar as I'm not really a lucrative target

- What Social Policies did you choose and why?

I went for Liberty and Collective Rule to get the settler, but I was too late. Oda beat me on turn 32 to the silver/wheat spot off NW. So I put my 2. city next to Great Barrier Reef. Since then I stuck with the Liberty line and took Citizenship and Republic - totally forgot about Honor. I guess the +25% against barbs would have been quite useful in the past

- What tech path did you follow?

I focussed on techs to make use of my tiles. Started off with mining and got masonry off the first hut. Next I took pottery, then writing. Focussed back to AH, Trapping. GL gave me Philosophy, then I took Calendar. Moved to sailing then as I was stuck on the southern part of the continent and could not expand.
Now on turn 114 I've just finished Civil Service and started Education. As money is always an issue I've also researched Currency.

- What Wonders did you prioritize?

GL in first city, Colossus due to lack of gold (mistake?), National College in Great Barrier Reef city, National Epic in first.

- How did the crowded map affect your play?

I could not expand and have been stuck with 2 cities for the most part of the game. I churned out a settler right after the first trireme, hoping that I find something good near the E coast. Wasn't so... I had to sail the full trip, going aaaaaall around the continent to find this little island with spices. Just in time to see the Ottomans approaching with a settler! I wanted to play nice, but in this situation I had to sink them with my trireme. 3. city is now placed on top of the spice on the island.


I've met all but one of the AIs, struck 3 RAs so far, home continent is quite friendly, CS on home continent are either friends or allies. I've two pikes and two archers hunting for barbs on the home continent and just got a swordsman. I'm happy to have access to 2 spices soon, so I might be able to turn this game a bit more to my favor. Oda is the one I'm most worried about, but it looks like he doesn't see me as a threat or a good target so far...

Not sure what my focus should be for the next turns...

Edit: Update at turn 150

...I completed Liberty for the free Great Person and took an Engineer to rush Porcelain Tower later. Education was just some odd turns off completion. I also managed to complete Hagia Sofia and I took another Engineer. With Education finished I not only rushed Porcelain Tower, but also Notre Dame. I didn't find any useful wonder in the techs in the near future and thought a happy boost is not a bad thing. Two turns later Gandhi beats me on Machu Pichu - I had still 5 turns to go for it.

Question: should I have spend the GE to rush the last turns of Machu Pichu? I guess so...money is a problem for me now. Any feedback from the experts would be highly appreciated.

The DoF with Oda ended and he didn't want to renew it. Which made me wary. Open borders was still in place and I could scout his teritory a bit with units gifted to me from the northern CS. I saw that Oda still had not developed the iron next to the silver/wheat city, so I put Chariot Archer on top of the tile. Oda didn't really seem to mind as he busily developed tiles around a newly found city from him. Some turns later I saw the first samurai as he massed some troops on my northern borders. When he watered them I freaked and asked Gandhi for a defensive pact. Oda used the last turns of our open borders to put the units next to my cap. And then he declared war to Gandhi!

Question: Although it was quite obvious that Oda planned to cross me, do you think the defensive pact with Gadhi provoked Oda? Gandhi also has a settlement west of Oda, so there might be a slim chance, that Oda wanted to go for that.

Welcome to CivFanatics and GOTM.

Please keep reading, these players will help you improve your game.

Good Luck.

Started this one when I realized I could finish in time.

This was my first game more difficult then King and I am not sure it was the easiest start! Turned out though the OCC from game 24 on warlord was good prep.

1) Initial spot looked good settled there. Turned out the way the map was not a good spot! But who knew... Second city was south west to nab fur. I have a strict must have a new luxury rule I follow. Didn't spot the reef until it was to late for city 3. Commited a blunder when I deforested the tundra to SW of capital.


2) Crowded map has forced me into a 2 city challenge, but I am doing alright. Capital is a wonder factory. I nabbed colossus which is a big help too. Currently tech leader.

3) Army is of capable size, but I am a pacifist until arty when I go all revenge of the wheenie on people. Japan eventually DoW on me past the 100+ turn, but has been largely ineffective. I am going to hold em in war until Arty, and then go on the offense. Nobody else seems interested in attacking me. Lots of friends due to no particular expansion and medium sized army.

4) I always open with Tradition. I did commerce second and it is half done.

One thing I have really learned this game is that if one does not go all out on expansions every luxury essentially equals a new RA. That has been my method this game. I didn't realize it at first, but it has gelled in my head as a plan. I have sold off even the last of each luxury for most of the cost of an RA. I have 4 luxuries I am not using for happiness because of my small size. That equals 4 RAs in perpetuity. That is a significant boost.