TSG42 Game in Progress

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STOP - Please do not continue reading this thread until you have completed at least 80 to 100 turns in your game.

Please use this thread to discuss your goals for the game and your opening moves through about the first 60 to 80 turns.

- What were your initial priorities?
- What tech path did you follow?
- Any early wars and who started them?
- What Social Policies did you choose and why?
- How did you organize and improve your chosen city site given the low food?
- What is different in your G&K start versus what you would have done in vanilla?
- Did you find any other civs and when did you meet them? What did you think of your opponents?

I decided to settle in place to remove a few turns from the jungle I'd have to remove from the hill anyway. My religion went as follows:

Sacred Path
Tithe
Religious Community
Pagodas
Itinerant Preachers

Rushed to theology by bulbing the great library at turn 64. Then went scientist, great profit (enhancing religion) and then merchant for some quick money.

For Social policies I went full liberty into patronage and I plan to fill commerce as well.

Placing my 4th city basically caused world war 3 because apparently I was building cities to aggressively. I'm not really too worried about the wars but I do need some new trading partners so I hit up astronomy for exploration.

I'm up to turn 70 and things are going very well so far. I expect to pop my prophet any turn now.

I just plopped down my 4th city. Unfortunately I didn't get to put it where I wanted, because Sweden took that location, but slightly off from where I wanted it. However, I showed him by buying as many tiles as I could, taking the iron, horses and spices near his city. See the screenshot below.


Build order was scout, scout, pyramid, Atlatlist, monument, worker, settler, settler. I delayed the monument because I hit a culture ruin and took the Sacred Path pantheon belief for +1 culture from jungles.

Tech path was pottery, mining, calender, animal husbandry, then a beeline for construction. I got bronze working from a ruin. Now I have it queued up for currency then to theology.

Policy path Liberty to the free settler first. Then the free worker and the golden age. I should finish liberty in about 15-20 turns.

Bought a worker in the 2nd city while the capital was building one. Then saved the rest of my cash for upgrading Atlatlists to composites.

Thanks to all the barb camps and the close quarters I managed to ally 3 or 4 of the CSs and am friends with 2 others. This upset Maria, of course I'd already upset her when I settled my first city near her and told her off when she complained.

As soon as I saw Maria was nearby, I had planned to take her out asap. I already have 3 composites near her NW border, my scout/composite is headed up there and I'm just waiting on the iron mine to upgrade those warriors.

Sweden asked for a DoF fairly early which I accepted. So when Maria denounced me, I denounced her at the same time, hoping that I could get Sweden to join me in hating her. Hopefully, he'll stay friendly with me when I take Maria out. If not, he's next.

Boudicca took the pantheon for +4 faith for killed her her cities, so I expect she's going for domination.

At this point in the game I'm 1st in military, but 6th in techs. As soon as my capital finishes that worker I'm probably going to build a library before the next set of settlers.

Settled in place. After a couple of turns i realized that much more barbs were spawning than usual...well i forgot to read about ''raging''

Anyways everything went fine so far up to turn 70.

Capital buid order :

scout-half worker-half pyramid-finished worker-finished pyramid-attalist-settler

Tech order :

mining-pottery-calendar-bronze working-AH

I picked the Tradition path. I improved the incense and sold it. Loanded some gold then rush bought a settler at turn 28. I settled on the copper lux north of capital. Sold it and loaned some gold then rush bought a settler at turn 45. I stole a worker to Cape town. Capital finished his settler at turn 45 too. Sold spices form capital and rush bought a 3rd worker in Ukmal. Started GL in capital after last worker(turn 51) while other cities will work libraries in time for NC.

I picked the +1 culture from plantations for my pantheon.



I killed a barb camp to please Geneva and Ragusa.



Then both Austria and Sweeden DoWed me. Perfect...i got back my unique luxs and i can grow again

I rush bought 2 attalists to defend against Austria. Still waiting for Sweeden's units(2 attalists are parked near them). But i decided to let an attalist going for another barb camp east of here to please 2 more cs. GL is done(Drama), working for Theology. I will start the NC after a granary. I researched construction and i'm gonna upgrade some UUs to at least make peace with Austria(she only has 1 city) then i will take Sweeden's capital. I will also settle 2 more cities after the NC near truffles to the east and north of Capital of Sweeden, for a total of 7 cities. Then i think it will be enough until victory.



Edit : To turn 97

I finally made peace with Austria when i attacked his capital. I retreated and throwed a CB west of there to kill another barb camp. Got a bonus here. A barb captured a settler from Austria(she's really pathetic right now) so i got another free worker. The camp made me friendly with another cultural cs. I'm still building the NC, 2 other cities are building 2 more settlers and they will be ready when NC will be finished.



After iron working, i have a better idea where my other cities will be situated. I gathered all my troops near Sweeden and i will be ready in some turns to get my 7th and last city. I will rush buy a 7th worker as soon as i can into the most eastern city where 2 unique luxuries are waiting to be worked(also, 1 of them is needed for a cs...).

Tradition have been finished since a couple of turns. I also have a religion. Tithe and pagodas have been enabled. Some wonders are under construction. My first long count bous is a gs that i settled near my capital.



Edit : Turn 124

Just before entering Sweeden's territory he proposed me a peace deal :



God...i can't refuse that. I accepted peace immediately. Then i rush bought a university in my capital. Picked a great admiral from UA to sail east of Boutica's land. After some peace turns and growth and some wonders built like HS, CI and Oracle and other universities, my empire looks like this :



I continued my game until turn 160 and managed to liberate a cs and capture Sweeden's capital. Signed 2 RAs with 2 strongest AIs. Picked a great engineer for PT and got 50% RA boost from rationalism. Now working toward Plastics. No gs saved yet, 2 academies are up but the long count slows down gs production.

Just a comment that this game has the worst start in the history of Civ

Attalist, Monument, Pyramid, Worker, Attalist to open.

4 city Tradition, but I opened up Honor after opening Tradition. I didn't read the part about raging barbs, but there were so many of them and so many close city-states that it just seemed like the smart play. This worked out well as I've allied almost every city-state I met by turn 115ish, mostly by camp clearing quests.

I was able to GL into Theology for Baktun 5 around turn 70. I picked a GE and rushed Great Mosque and hard built Hagia to enhance my religion. Jungle culture, Tithe, Shrine happiness, Pagodas and cheap missionaries are the beliefs of the Birdman religion.

After dropping my 4th city by the 2 silver deposits by Boudica, the three neighbors ganged up on me, and all three failed horribly against my 4 attalists (composites) and 1 swordsman.

I am pleased with my choice of cheaper missionaries and Great Mosque vs faster spreading. It is about turn 130 and every civ and city-state (except Boudica who managed a religion) is following the mighty Birdman. Tithe is pulling in about 40 gold per turn. Now I can build my pagodas and save up for many GS.

First game back after a break (yay moving).

I went Monument, 1 turn of worker, pyrmiad, 1 turn attalist, then onto GL. I bought a scout, and opened liberty went worker then went 2 in for the settler. Timing of it meant I got Theology at turn 60, so I just barely eeked out a great person around T63 or 64. Chose a scientist and settled.

Finally started expanding. I was friends with Sweden and Austria and then when I built city 4 they both denounced me. Next turn they both DoW me. I am pretty unprepared at this point and do lose a city to Austria. I take it back ~10 turns later as my army comes online. Of course this means I have to wipe Austria from the planet so I do. Sweden is next on the block.

Edit: For the second GP from the UA I chose an Engineer with which I rushed Petra in my second city, which is at the base of the faith NW to the south east of the start. Nothing like a 1 1 1 8 tile. Will probably use a general to steal land from Quebac, as the city is already a powerhouse (4 pop less than capitol and 80% more production)

Looking at the jungles I decided to settle in place and build a scout first and then monument.

Warrior started exploring South and found Sweden very quickly. I don't think I ever found a capital of size one before. No units to be seen, but I figured one warrior wouldn't be able to take it. Found 2 ruins right next to him, one gave me a map revealing another ruin further south. Got 20 culture and one extra population. The scout didn't get to any ruins, having another scout pop one just one step ahead a couple of times.

Monument built and still no Swedish units in sight. I build an Atlatlist and bought a second one. The two archers, warrior and scout converge on Stockholm while capital builds granary. The scout approaches from the back, trying to draw fire while my archers fire at the city. And in the meantime the scout is luring some barbarians closer. Turn 33 I have my second city called Stockholm Cost: 1 scout. Nearly didn't make it though, if it wasn't for the barbarian help.

A few turns later Sweden, with no cities, offers me 49 gold for peace! His troops keep hanging around and are quite helpful against barbs. And what barbs, they're quite a nuisance. I can't seem to keep them from trampling on the improvements of my capital. I end up building way more units than I'm used to, just to keep them in check.

I build GL and then go for NC when I realize I forgot to build a pyramid. Faith is still not on my mind in this game. After that I change my mind and go for the Great Pyramids instead of the NC. I chose Sacred Path.

I built a city just north on the coast to get copper and wine, thinking this is the only coastal city I need. Turns out to be an inner sea. Doh! My free settler goes all the way North East to cut off Budicca, just under the truffles. It settles turn 87 and is where I'm at.

Vienna is still small. No threat now, but I'm wondering if I should take it out early. It's at a nice spot. There are at least two more good city spots along the river to the South of my capital. My capital doesn't have a whole lot of productivity, but some of the other locations look like they'll support some productivity. One more turn to build the Great Pyramids and I'm wondering if I should go for hanging gardens next, making it a large city that uses the jungle tiles. 2 food, 2 science and 1 culture is quite sweet. Thing is, I can't find what tech enables the jungle science. I thought it was Scientific Theory... Did this change in G&K?

Anyway, my score is twice that of the 2nd highest civ, yet unmet. The challenge will be not to get complacent. Lots of choices to make still. But looking promising.

I like this game. Not a great start and sandwiched in between 3 civs (although Celts cutoff by a small strip of land), but there was more land to settle than I thought. I am not enough of a micromanager to make the most of Maya's UA, so I decided to try to make the most of its UB. That meant building lots of cities, if I had the land.

I saw I was surrounded by jungle, though, and I really debated messenger of the gods vs. sacred path. Chose sacred path in the end because I met Austria and Sweden early, did not know I would have so much room and got an early pantheon.

Build order was scout, 1/2 worker, pyramid, finish worker, monument, settler. Planned to go for early religion with lots of pyramids. Because I was going to try and found several cities, I picked Liberty. It worked and I got Tithe, Asceticism, Pagodas and Religious Texts.

Austria was "afraid" one turn after meeting me. Sweden coveted my lands immediately. I think they must both have lost settlers to raging barbs, because neither founded a second city.

Sweden denounced me about turn 70 for founding too many cities (I founded 6 by then!), then he and Austria DoW'd me (she was deceptively "afraid"!). He never came after me, but she did. I happily obliged. Took her capitol, but left her alive with a single CB). Forced a sweet peace deal from Sweden.



I think taking out Austria early was a good move. Seeking a diplo victory with her in the game is very risky. She's harmless now. Too bad Sweden never likes me. I would so like t be his friend sometime! I'm going after him next...

LOL, after I set production focus with 3 citizens and was set on zero food during opponents move civ suddenly decided to reassign workers so 1 of citizens died.

The next turn after city grew back to 3 two barbarians moved exactly to only 2 food producing tiles so unlucky bastard died again.

Never had worse luck.

Moderator Action: Moved this post and Tabarnak's response to this thread. Once you open the save, please do not discuss the game in the Announcement thread because of unintended spoilers.

Turn 105:

Decided to be aggressive in this game and have successfully taken all of Austria's and Sweden's cities by turn 85. Just declared war on both of them again as a couple of their remaining units wandered pretty close to a few of my Comp Bowmen/Spearmen.

Plotting to take out The Celts over the next 20 to 30 turns.

Started with Atlatlist, Pyramids, Monument, 3 more Atlatlists, Spearman

I've settled 3 cities and have puppeted 3 more.

Just met England, as she just landed a Spearman on our shores.

Haven't enhanced my religion yet, but have taken +1 faith for jungle, pagodas, and Tithe so far.

Took the Honor opener first, and have been harvesting Barbs for culture ever since. Working on Liberty now, as I plan to go wide on my continent and enhance my economy through trade routes. Going to connect all the Lux resources and sell them to England and whoever the last civ is for the remainder of the game. Will be going Piety once I've completed Liberty (2 policies to go).

Suntechnique said:

LOL, after I set production focus with 3 citizens and was set on zero food during opponents move civ suddenly decided to reassign workers so 1 of citizens died.

The next turn after city grew back to 3 two barbarians moved exactly to only 2 food producing tiles so unlucky bastard died again.

Never had worse luck.

Click to expand...

I had some back luck like this in the past(raging barbs can be tricky in the beginning even at prince) and yeah it sucks. Especially in mp where the barb can spawn and move at the same time on your unique 3f tile at 0 food growth Need to make sure that enough food tiles are protected.

This is my first GOTM ever so hope this goes well. ^_^
Settle in place!

Policies planned is Honor, Tradition, Patronage then whatever depends on situation.

Great People chosen:
1. Great Prophet -> found religion
2. Great Engineer -> rushed Oracle
3. Great Scientist -> Academy
4. Great Merchant -> Trade Mission

Tech path: I rushed great library first, then beeline Theology. Then fill out war techs at bottom later.

Turn 52: killed Austria fast before the diplomatic marriage crap happens. I FEEL GOOD!!!!!
I'm working toward fast Theology. Great library done soon!

Turn 86: Great Prophet from mayan calendar then National College next turn!

Turn 140: Sweden foolish attack. *sigh* He built Great Wall though so I don't think I can take his cities.

Future: Austria, Sweden, Celt hate me of course so need to go to ocean and find other people.

Played the first 101 turns now. Decided to go wide to make use of the Mayan Pyramids, make a lot of cash and to ensure I did not meet the same fate as in TSG41. Going well so far, Sweden just declared war on me. Just enhanced my religion. Have founded 5 cities so far, just got my first UA GP, chose Great Prophet for Enhancing. Got the Pyramids wonder, hopefully I will get Stonehenge and Oracle soon enough. Maccu Piccu would be a good one too. This difficulty makes wonder pretty easy to aquire. Now, onwards, to victory!



Tech Order


Religion:


Build Order Palenque

Hi,

after having just crashed at T100 this seems to be a good time to give a brief synopsis of what happened so far:

We (for the Mayans this seems more appropriate ) decided to play this one wide while building 4 cities at first and going more wide after having build NC.

We settled in place and the early build order was scout-worker-pyramid-settler(T24). We rush bought a settler at T24 and build our 2nd city at the river between us and the Swedes.

At T26 we got a religion (2nd one) and took Sacred waters (+1 happy from river cities)- would have prefered the jungle one, but that was already taken - most likely by the Celts.

We declined DoFs from both Maria Theresia (especially her!) and the Swedes as well, because I was fairly certain both will DoW us when we build our 4th city - which should at the same time serve as a buffer between us and the Celts.

We ended up building our 3rd city close to the landbridge with the Celts since the CS to the north of our capital took to long to put the barb camp at the river onto their wishlist for destruction, so we settled the 4th city at the copper and wine after at least 1 CS (Cape Town IIRC) decided to want it gone. In the end the 4th city was build at T68 and we think we shouldnt have bothered with waiting for more CS to target the camp in the first place.

As expected we got a DoW a short while later (T71), but to our surprise Austria wanted to join in the fun despite being afraid and the Celts stayed out of it.

At T72 we got our GPers from the Mayan calender and took a GE to rush the Hagia and enhance our religion (sacred waters - tithe - pagodas - +1% production/pop - +30% conversion range). The 2nd GPers was a GS which was settled.

Around T90 the Swedes (just one city anyway) were destroyed and the capital puppeted (for now).

At T100 we are waiting for our remaining forces to arrive at the Gates of Vienna (hmm, we feel a strange craving for some Turkish sweets...) and get rid of Maria Theresia as well.

2 more turns for the Oracle which will be finally followed by NC (too slow/late I am afraid, but we will see).

My initial priorities were to build a solid base for science with at least four cities, and Tradition tree. I thought it might be tough with a crowded map and raging barbs, so I started with Tradition opener then the Honor opener.
I teched for Plantations, then Mining, and then went for Philo and Drama & Poetry while building the GL in the capital. with the GS I bulbed Theology T76 to get the Long count going. I think I misuderstood how the long count works. I expected to get another Great Person right away, but it seems I have to wait till the end of a calendar cycle. I imagine this is the same every game. Is it turn 85 or something? good to know for planning purposes next time. I also think it's funny how the game says the year is 5.14.15.6.2 on the Mayan Calendar - which is 850 BC in the rest of the world. Huh?! The rest of the world is counting down till the birth of Christ?!? how do they all know when he's coming? I believe the rest of the world is counting the years of rule of King-Whoever.

BTW, I really like the Mayans. Archers without having to research archery is cool, and I LOVE the pyramid UB! I'm not too crazy about building shrines that produce only 1 faith, but a shrine that produces twice as much faith, PLUS 2 science, awesome! Plus, I just founded my religion T77 (Mayanarama) and took the Feed the World option for +1 food in Shrines and Tmeples (applies to Pyramid too).

I also took the Oral Tradition for Pantheon, and also Tithe for the Religion. I think Tithe is amazing for cash, and should be great for a Diplo game.

This game was very peaceful at the start and I got good trades from all my neighbours and both Austria and Sweden Declared Friendship with me for quite a while, even after I planted my fouth city they remained Friendly. (bought 2 settlers and built one) But then I planted my fifth city near Stockholm (with another bought settler) around turn 74, which didn't initially piss them off, but then I drained my treasury to buy a Monument there T77. I think that, and maybe the founding fo religion turned them against me. both Austria and Sweden Denounced me T77when I founded the religion, and T78 then both DOWed me.

see attached image for what the map looks like at T81.

They didn't show up with any troops yet though, so I'm not sure how much of of threat they are. I'm racing my units back from helping City States though, and just took the Oligarchy SP for city defence. I'm hoping to use this opportunity to take Stockhom for the Furs and Salt he has. Maybe Vienna too?
I just have one more policy left (Aristocracy) to finish the Tradition tree, and then I think I'll move on to Patronage and forget about Liberty.

re: > How did you organize and improve your chosen city site given the low food?

I just settled in place and figured I'd just deal with the slow growth at the start by building a Granary, hoping for some Maritime allies, taking food based Beliefs, and quickly settling some other cities with lots of food. The jungle hexes could be really good later with Trading Posts in them.

Re: > What is different in your G&K start versus what you would have done in vanilla?

Seems like a different game now. before it was all about Liberty, early settler. Now it's about kickstarting faith, and city growth rate.

Re: > Did you find any other civs and when did you meet them? What did you think of your opponents?

Just the Celts, Austria, and Sweden. I liked them at first when they they were all playing nice and giving me gold. I might like them even better after they give me their capitals!

I've really enjoyed this game so far. Thanks Lief!

Very interesting game. Settled in place for the production, and had great trouble with the barbs and jungle in getting past pop 3. Went for the Wine/Incense pantheon after the Celts nicked +1 culture on plantations. Started with two scouts to get info to plan grand strategy - was planning to go peace monger tall, but of course first ran into Austria (I just knew they would be in this game)! Sweden too - they'd managed to take out a CS before I even met it. It looks like this is going to be an early pikes/catapult war to KO both - especially after Sweden DOW me around turn 95. Almost lost my first city by Mt Sinai (which got Petra with liberty finisher), but was able to sell lux to get composite bows. I won't settle for peace until both Sweden and Austria are dust - then I will build up and find the rest of the world.

4 cities currently - by Mt Sinai, by the silver on the east coast and NE by wine/copper. Capital has got Hanging Gardens (a Maya bonus), Great Library, Great Mosque (my enhanced religion - also Maya bonus - is so random with bonuses for wine/incense, papal primacy, plus monasteries, plus fast spread and feed the world - not much food there), and Oracle. With Mt Sinai and the wine/incense/monasteries bonus I'm at +28 faith per turn and most of the cities are turning my way. Just starting on patronage. I wonder what the other land mass (Celts+?) is up to?

Update turn 110

Stockholm has fallen! While having buyer's remorse on not taking tithe, I've noticed with my pledge to protect / patronage bonus / papacy bonus and religion, the resting point for CS is 45 point - permanent friend bonuses. Nice!

After my previous GOTM (#41), this seems like a cakewalk.

Didn't bother with a scout, started with Atlatlist - Pyramid - Atlatist, I think Great Library was next, though there may have been another unit built in there. Raging barbs combined with Atlatlist meant a monument was not a priority, since the culture was flowing in fast anyway.

Went for Honour starting policy, then switched to liberty, my first Settler and Worker were both from SP.

Initially, I was inclined to live and let live with other CIV's. However, I became emotionally invested in settling my third city in the desert near Sinai and using a great Engineer to insta-build Petra. Only Sweden's second city was positioned in a location that left me nowhere to build my city. So, naturally, it had to go.

Not too long after that, Austria DoW, but quickly backed off after I made mincemeat of his army. Being new to the game and not knowing of her special ability, I agree to peace when it was offered to me.

Past turn 200 now, victory for me seems inevitable. Virtually all the city-states I have met are either allied or friends with me (Papal Primacy (combined with aggressive missionaries) + Patronage Policy mean most of them have a base of 35). Also I am way ahead in the tech race.

Not sure if this is the right place to ask, but I have a couple of questions:

1: What can I do with captured missionaries/ GP? I declared war on Scotland not with any particular interest in conquering her, but just to stop the seemingly endless process of missionaries.

2. When I first went to war with Sweden, he challenged me the turn before I DoW. Not being sure of how hard it would be to take the city, I lied about my intentions. Now it doesn't seem to matter what I do, none of the other civilizations seem to like me. Is the there a way to fix this, or should I just go with it, and start wiping them off the face of the earth one by one?

3. I notice people while posting in the after action reports, seem to have a lot of details at their fingertips. Are people taking notes, or is there a way to extract this information from the replay file?

1. Do to them what holy inquisition would have done, unless playing as Sweden, in which case you can gift them to CSs. Don't know, never tried, but maybe alien prophets can be settled?

2. Is there a way to befriend other civs even if they don't like you? Yes. Spies.

3. No idea

re:

Suliz said:

3. I notice people while posting in the after action reports, seem to have a lot of details at their fingertips. Are people taking notes, or is there a way to extract this information from the replay file?

Click to expand...

I wouldn't doubt that some posters here have eidetic memory (at least about civ games), but I think most people take notes (or scan back through the notification log, but that only goes back so far). Civ4 (or maybe the HOF mod) had a way to turn on a log, but I'm not sure civ5 has that.