TSG56 Opening Actions thread

Welcome to the TSG56 Opening Actions thread. This thread is used to discuss the game once you've started playing through your first 100 turns. There are no 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.

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 the first 100 turns. We are going to try something new and limit your game description in this thread to the first 100 turns. Anything after that should be posted in the After Action thread once you have completed your game.

- How did the terrain affect your early decisions?
- What were your initial priorities?
- What tech path did you follow and why?
- Were there any early wars and who started them?
- What Social Policies did you choose and why?
- Was your UB helpful?

Nevermind.

first time I'm participating in a GOTM. I hope I do everything right.

100 turns done and I'm still alive. I love playing Ethiopia for the Stele and hope I'll be able to spread religion well. With all the water around, I went for God of the Sea. I should have picked the 2 later beliefs better as I have none for money, and I guess I'll need lots of money for Diplo victory. Let's see how it works out.

With water in the north and the south, I figured I'd be on a small island. So I decided to explore shortly even with my settler. I didn't want to end up in the middle of an island with no other city option if I could build 2 or 3 cities on the edges of the island. I built my capital in round 2 on the plain in the west. I'm pretty happy with it. My second city is east of the northern mountain. That was a lucky spot. I didn't see the elephant on the northern island at that time yet. Third city is down at the mountains.

Build order: Stele, Granary, Shrine, workboat x3, trireme, settler...
I bought a worker and a settler with policies from the Liberty tree.
Since I usually play (speak: fail) on Deity level, I'm not familiar with World Wonders. In this game I actually built Great Lighthouse and then missed Colossus by 2 or 3 turns :-(

I decided not to build a city on the island/continent to the west as I didn't want to be stuck between Russia and Netherlands. I'm happy if they fight each other. I'll try to avoid having any borders with other civs.

I'm currently in round 102: 232 points, 4 cities (9,6,4,1), 16 techs, allied with Milan.

Finnrat said:

first time I'm participating in a GOTM. I hope I do everything right.

Click to expand...

Welcome to CivFanatics and GOTM.

Best of luck and hope you enjoy the game.

Going to be tough to get a fast win. Catherine is a beast in my game.

She is number one in my game too, I am 108 turns in and no Education yet. I decided to be peaceful as well, was afraid to settle on Williams side of the pond. He was not friendly to begin with. Keeps paying full price for whales so I am happy. Cathy is my BFF but I am sure she will jump me at some point. I have one warrior and two triremes, lost one to barbs completing Milan quest, but my cities are well placed and she can access only one without swimming. I need few more boats and few archers to feel safer. But no time to build them.

My admiral just met first civ across the water. Things should speed up soon. I can't find a spot for 4th city

Went GotS, tithe, 15% growth and production, and holy order. Pagodas were gone already, I was 3rd to get religion.

I think someone wanted a tough immortal challenges in strategy thread, this might be it, with no worker to steal, no one to trade with early, and not much chance of CB rush. I am sure it's doable if prioritized, but not an obvious choice on this map.

not doing too great, but then, this is my first serious immortal attempt in a long time...

I settled my cap next to the mountain to the east on turn 2. it's become a nice city. obviously i discovered i was alone on that little archipelago thing. i decided there wasn't room for 2 good cities there and that the map type was probably islands, so i went exploring. first I scoped out the island to the north, only to find crap city spots remaining due to the two CS already there. then i explored west and found some nice looking hills, rivers, forests. I hadn't discovered any other civs yet and was assuming that area was a relatively small island, so I sent a settler over there and founded my 2nd city (turn 59). A little while later, I discovered Will and Kathy and Will was quite close to me. I knew he would attack me eventually. I managed to get a 3rd city (turn 79) on the Western edge of Will's continent on some gold and near the faith natural wonder. It has a perfect choke point so I can easily defend that one if he attacks it. At this point, I had 3 cities in good spots and decided to stop building new ones. Had to prepare for an inevitable war with the Dutch.

In turn 79, an unmet player was killed, then in turn 82 another was killed. I don't know what is going on over on the other continent but I'm glad I'm not there. I rushed out as many archers as I could get before completing construction and shipped them all over to my 2nd city, which was the most likely to be attacked. I think I had 4 or 5 stationed there.

Sure enough, on turn 95 or so, Will DOWed me and swarmed me with a crapload of swords, archers, warriers and a couple catapults. I had a bit of gold I was able to save from trades with Will and Kathy, and got a bit more from Kathy, but she usually never had the full 240. At this point, I had been trying to buy/build libraries in my satellite cities so I could build my NC, but that had to go on hold. I used my money for more units/upgrades and had my capital pump out more CBs. He put up a serious assault, pillaged my 2nd city and knocked it down to yellow, but I was able to kill about 15 units and lost about 5. Finally on turn 111 he gave me peace. I was down to just 3 CBs left defending the city and 2 of them were hurt. He gave me all his gold (97) and some GPT. On that turn I also finished all the tradition policies.

So, now it's back to getting my NC up as my main priority, even though it's late. On turn 111 I'm at +28 science, score of 200 (which is 6th out of 6) and I have 3 cities. I know Will is gonna come at me again though as soon as he can build back up another army. Good thing is I finally got a GG so I'm sending him over to that city to construct a citadel. The city is in a good defensive position on a hill/river and there's some forests and jungle around. I don't think he'll ever be able to kill me, but having to build so many units and defend is hampering my ability to do anything else.

Still, I can't see how I'd be doing any better if I didn't expand to his island. There's not enough stuff on the starting spot for more than 2 cities. I'd be getting outteched like crazy and would have very few luxes. The island to the north sucks. And below the island is Kathy's territory and she would easily destroy me if I had tried to settle there.

Well, for what it's worth since i've never submitted anyway, this will be the first GOTM i started that i won't finish.
Starting location was worse than watever i imagined. Trying to settle a second city (first being capital) caused Russia to DoW me. On the other continent, Alexander was already a monster when i first met him, and i got astronomy pretty quickly. But before that he wiped everyone but Whashington. Now George is capturing CS as they are allied to Alex, but he can't take a single city from him.
But worst of all, this game is bugged like i've never seen any CiV game. I got blamed for breaking promisses i didn't make. Alex failed a coup and as a result became ally of the CS.

Well, "too much is te veel" as William would probably say. At least he was a nice guy.

Well, things aren't going so well. I am number 5/6 in most everything, but I think that is because someone someone on the other continent is wiping out other civs. 2 Capitols lost so far. The Dutch seem to be mostly #2 and Cathy is #3, mainly due to losing one of the 3 wars those two have fought.

I settled the cap on the first hill to the left and then placed city #2 on the other side of the mountain. City locations seem OK, but I am wary about putting anything closer to Will & Cathy. They are friendly, but just that 90% Friendly. Anything I do to tick them off will lead to an immediate invasion. I am short on gold and happiness.

Looks like a learning experience for me. I haven't done too well with Immortal+ since G&K was released.

- How did the terrain affect your early decisions?

What a strange map. I thought it was islands for a long time, then found out I'm on a continent, but they can't get to me. I decided to abandon going for CBs early and go for a single city NC before expanding. No idea what is happening on the other continent, so all I can do is grow and try to push my science as best I can.

- What were your initial priorities?

Sailing then Optics when I saw how isolated I was.

- What tech path did you follow and why?

Sailing and Optics, then up to Philosophy, after that beeline for education. I figure I'll need to get a strong science baseline to compete later. That and a strong navy.

- Were there any early wars and who started them?

I DOWed Catherine to steal one of her settlers. I have yet to lose a unit to her, but I thought she would have offered peace by now. Having one less trading partner is probably hurting me.

- What Social Policies did you choose and why?

4 city Tradition and now going for 2 in Commerce for a Great Admiral.

- Was your UB helpful?

Yes, got the second pantheon and took God of the Sea.

Detailed notes on my game so far (118 turns):

T0 - Going in I think I'll need a tall empire based on sea resources, so I'll use a tradition opening but open up sailing first. Workboats instead of workers to start with a focus toward Astronomy to take advantage of the mountain.
T1 - Planted city 1 next to the mountain, researching pottery and building a scout. Sending the warrior west since the terrain looks smoother that way.
T4 - Well that was a waste, looks like we are on the tip of a peninsula, sending warrior back the other way.
T6 - City 1 grows to size 2
T8 - Scout spawns, take a look to the east and we might be on a island, or landlocked by mountains. Ruins give a population increase, and the mountains are definitely impassable. This is going to be interesting. Going to build the Stele since there is not going to be a need for more scouts and we won't be trading for awhile. Looks like I can fit 2 more cities on the island, I might want to go 1 city NC.
T10 - Researching sailing
T12 - Well what do you know, there is land just to the north. I need Optics.
T17 - City 1 grows to size 4.
T18 - Stele completes, going to put a turn in on building a granary until sailing next turn.
T19 - Starting to build a Trireme. I hate how slow it is to get started on water maps. The other Civs will probably have Frigates by the time I find them. Starting research of Optics.
T20 - Opening Tradition anyway, even though land is limited.
T22 - Someone has a Pantheon, they took Goddess of the Hunt
T25 - I get a Pantheon, picked God of the Sea, also next policy is available and took Legalism
T27 - Trireme finishes, starting a work boat.
T28 - Found Milan, I'm first
T29 - Found two unclaimed ruins on two islands due north. I'll send my scout that way once I can get it in the water.
T32 - Optics, putting my units in the water, researching Writing to head for the NC.
T33 - Ivory available on that next island, I could fit a city on it, barely.
T34 - Found Rio and tundra, now I know where the pole is.
T35 - Work boat done and fishing on a whale, someone completes Great Library (no surprise), new policy took Landed Elite, stealing a worker from Milan (I can't remember if it will be able to embark or not), starting to finish the Granary
T37 - Ruin gives a map, marble available up near Rio
T38 - Ouch, Barbs almost killed my scout
T39 - Culture ruin, the stolen worker can swim
T41 - Put my warrior on the other side of the island finding Warsaw, only got 15 for it, so there is another Civ here on the other side of the mountains, starting to research calendar
T42 - 60 gold from ruin, Granary finished and starting another work boat
T46 - Found the Grand Mesa and Catherine, she has no money so no point in selling my whales or DOWing her right now.
T47 - Met Columbo, and Russia is trying to take it. She really hates not have room to grow.
T48 - Another whale being worked, starting to research Philo and build a Library
T50 - Found ice to the south, this isn't a very large map. Took Aristocracy to help build the NC, not sure if I will get another policy before I can start building it.
T51 - Met a Dutch scout. Traded embassies to find out where he is and sold a whale for 146 and 3 gpt. My Trireme is on the wrong side of this landmass. Scout found a ruin with a useless map of water.
T52 - Heh, Columbo is winning against Catherine.
T54 - Library done, taking a chance on building the Great Lighthouse. I have enough cash to buy a Settler once NC is done. Need some hammers so will research mining next.
T56 - Looks like Catherine has 3 cities now.
T60 - Catherine builds the Hanging Gardens.
T62 - Warrior is starting to explore now, looks like it is a continent after all, we are just on a landlocked tip.
T63 - Catherine just left a settler open for theft, might as well get some cash and DOW her. Found Manila and killed a barb Trireme for it.
T65 - Running with the stolen settler, found a good city spot, unlikely to be able to get it though, and close to Catherine which is dangerous. Philo is done, starting to research Mining. 3 turns for the Great Lighthouse then start NC.
T68 - Finished Great Lighthouse, the +1 sight let me find Sri Pada, Mining is done so starting to develop the silk, starting to build NC, researching AH to see if there are horses and to develop the sheep
T70 - AH done, I have some horses
T72 - Archery done, going to push for Theology now and try for the Hagia Sophia
T76 - Took Monarchy, starting to get to the end of the continent, so there will be 5 other Civs I can't get to until Astronomy. Need to decide where to put cities, if I put them down with Dutch and Russians I'll likely get caught up in land wars, but my little section doesn't have very good city spots.
T79 - NC is done, buying a settler and building an archer. I'm going to stick one city on the jungle to the east on the tip to use those sea resources, another city up on the marble on the island to the north, and maybe a 4th next to the mountains southeast to get the sea resources there, the 4th location is pretty poor.
T81 - Drama and Poetry finishes, starting Theology, generating 29 bpt
T82 - Sold whales to the Dutch again for 66 gold and 5 gpt. Finished archer starting to build another settler
T83 - City 2 is settled, starting a work boat, but need the city to grow
T88 - 3rd settler is done, sending with an archer to the northern island. Building some work boats
T91 - Theology done, beeline to education
T92 - Took out a camp, making Florence and Genoa friends. Start building Hagia Sophia
T94 - Golden age starts, buy 4th settler
T95 - 3rd city settled next to marble on north island, building a worker there
T96 - Taking out camp next to 3rd city and Barbs makes Rio an ally and Milan is a friend
T97 - Tradition completed
T99 - 4th city founded and my Trireme has 2 promotions killing Russian boats
T104 - Prophet finally spawns, makes Milan an ally, Hagia Sophia in 2 turns so will be able to enhance quickly. 4th religion, so the Cult of Bacon takes Ceremonial Burial for the happiness boost and Cathedrals.
T106 - Hagia Sophia finishes, enhance religion with Asceticism for happiness benefit in shrines and Holy Order for cheaper missionaries. Pretty underwhelming choices, but maybe I will get CS quests to spread my religion. Start building a shrine.
T108 - shrine done, building more boats to defend against Russia
T111 - Opening Commerce for a Great Admiral, I need someone to sell these whales to
T113 - Sold whales again for 114 and 4 gpt. Going to save money for University instead of buying libraries
T114 - A Great Artist pops, turns out I have a free ampitheater I guess I got it with Legalism because my Stele was already built. Starting a golden age.
T116 - 4 Triremes built now, starting the Great Mosque
T118 - Catherine loses another two boats to my fleet. 5 more turns to Education, Catherine is number 1 ranked at 478, with Dutch number 3 at 385. I'm 5th at 281.

Cities are size 14, 4, 2, 2 right now

stickyfingers said:

Still, I can't see how I'd be doing any better if I didn't expand to his island. There's not enough stuff on the starting spot for more than 2 cities. I'd be getting outteched like crazy and would have very few luxes. The island to the north sucks. And below the island is Kathy's territory and she would easily destroy me if I had tried to settle there.

Click to expand...

If you have GotS pantheon settling on the ivory on the north island is not bad - with 2 fish and several river farms it's a decent city. After settling my capital next to the mountain I put my second city up there. My third city was settled on the hill next to the mountain to the SE and this turned into an amazing city, with 4 sea resources, deer, ivory and 2 sheep. It's in a defensive enough position to not worry about Cathy, particularly since she was at perma-war with William and not concerned much with me. My fourth city was on the west coast of my main island, for the other 3 sea resources over there. The main problem though is that it takes a while to get these cities going - they really start to take off after harbors and seaports. Also having to tech the top of the tree meant an NC after T100 and I didn't get unis until after T150. By the time I started getting frigates Cathy was a runaway (she spammed out 11 cities), although William has been defending his territory well.

I haven't been able to spread my religion (Tithe, Pagodoas, +1 food from shrines/temples and Itinerant Preachers) much beyond my territory as William has a strong religion (he was first to enhance) and Cathy also grabbed one. In terms of wonders I have only been able to get Colossus in my capital, the other wonders have gone very early.

I'm just checking in to comment that I picked the very same pantheon: God of the Sea, Tithe, Feed the World, and Pagodas, only that the enhancer available was Religious Texts instead. Suited to the map, certainly.

Tough game so far, I am behind in everything. I went for a strong religion focus but unexpectedly William is too, and is spamming missionaries like nobodies business.

Similar to others: God of sea, tithe, pagodas, happy temples, religious texts

I went liberty and used the GE to grab Hagia Sophia. Now heading into piety.

Have 3 cities and am about to settle my 4th, and then my plan is to build a ridiculous navy and hope some military aggression can help me play catch up. Wish I could side with William as Cathy is always scary, but his religion is messing up my whole gameplan!

Turn 1- Moved settler east to be next to mountain and pick up some hills. Begin Stele because I want to guarantee God of the Sea. Turns out this was the right move because a scout would be worthless before optics. Tech pottery first.

Turn 11 - I have realized I am isolated so I build a granary second waiting for Sailing to finish.

Turn 14 - God of the Sea

* Builds: Workboat-->Worker
* Tech: Mining --> Writing, hoping for GL
* Policy: Tradition starting with aristocracy to help get the GL

Turn 34 - GL built in a faraway land Still have 2 turn left on writing but i switch to Calendar in hopes of getting Stonehenge.

*Build: Workboat-->Stonehenge
*Buy: Workboat

Turn 44 - My whaling fleet is being blocakaded. Great, now I need a Trireme, but I can't afford it until I finish Stonehenge. I buy the Silk tile so I get full value from my worker chopping it into SH.

* Tech: Calendar-->finish Writing-->Optics

Turn 47 - Stonhenge built in a faraway land Still being harassed by the galley

* Build: Tireme-->Library-->Scout-->Great Lighthouse

Turn 59 - Start the great lighthouse. Surely I can get this one. Scout and warrior sail off in opposite directions. My Trireme has defeated several pirates and found that the island to the north has several ruins.

*Tech AH-->Philosophy

Turn 71 - The Great Lighthouse built in a faraway land Gonna be one of those games

Turn 76 - Start National College. At least no one can steal this one from me.

*Buy: Settler with cash from Cathy for whales

Turn 80 - An unmet civilization has lost it's capitol

*Cathy offers a declaration of friendship. Lets see how long that lasts

Turn 84 - Finish NC, settle Harar in position to pick up Ivory, more whales and the Grande Mesa (which I buy so Warsaw doesn't get it).

*Tech: backfill resource techs and then get D&P to head into Theology. Maybe I can get one of those wonders.

*Build: I think I squeeze out another worker and Trireme.

Turn 88: Start building Oracle. Wonder spamming may be a mistake, but there is a City State quest for it.

Turn 99: GREAT SUCCESS! A great prophet is born and I get the oracle. I hadn't even noticed but one of the city states I met wanted a prohpet, so I have 2 allies now (I also took out a barb camp for them with my archer/scout). I had finished tradition already, and in a fit of religious fervor I take Peity as my free policy, but I wonder if Patronage might not have been a better choice. I name my religion Rastafarianism and take Interfaith Dialog and Swords into Plowshares. Cathy founded early and I suspect I will not be able to spread my religion wide, which means my missionaries can get quite a bit if science for me while passing the peace pipe in Russian cities

I decided to try to conquer first civ I will met, so I did all for fast war. Build city on place, than went for writing and optics. Send scouts and find Dutch and Russian. After Optics I went for Iron working, saving money for upgrades. Fortunetely Iron is near, so I did not need to make another city. In turn 76 I conquered St.Peterburg, after short ceasefire turn 101 Moscow. After I discovered Steel (with help of GS) I finished Catharine.
Next I saw a lot of Dutch units and Wiliam declared war on me. For my LSw it was piece of cake to destroy his warriors and CBs. Next I conquered Ultrecht. Turn 150 I am in front of Amsterdam. But this town looks pretty strong, not sure if I manage. But I will try.
I went for Liberty and then for Patronage So far I still settled only one city, next four are puppets. Did not met any other player so far, no researching Machinery. I keep two allies, Colombo is basic for my hapiness.

Fun game so far. The challenging start puts far less pressure on the opening turns, and I decided to take this game slow and fun.

I started by moving the warrior east. I was originally going to settle on the SW side of the mountain, but when my warrior saw the cattle across the water, I decided to take an extra turn and settle on the eastern side of the mountain instead, to put it closer. I started on a Stele instead of Scout first, because I wanted to get the first Pantheon, plus on Immortal I figured scouts would be less valuable because the AI gets so many units they grab all the Ruins anyway. I also knew that with this start, on Immortal, there was no way I could get Great Library or Stonehenge, and I was right, both of those went in the late 30s, and HG went in the 50s.

I started with Pottery, then Sailing->Optics once I realized I was isolated. The one ancient ruins gave me Culture bonus, and I took Tradition with it. I built the Stele, then a Granary, then a Trireme and a Work Boat. Met William and Catherine quickly, and once I got my first work boat hooked up to Whales, I sold them to William, used the cash to buy the second work boat, hooked up second whales, and sold them to Cathy. I took God of the Sea, so those really helped out, and I sent my Warrior to the northern landmass, and bought a Scout to explore the rest of my continent.

My warrior found 3 ruins up north, one of them giving me +60 faith, which helped me found the second religion (Cathy got the first). I took Tithe and Swords to Plowshares, as I figured I'd be playing a nice peaceful game. I managed to get the first enhanced religion by building Hagia Sophia, one of two wonders I was able to build (The Oracle being the other). Someone on the other side of the world is building wonders like crazy, I'm guessing Ramses, they have 5 so far.

It's turn 120 now, and I'm 9 turns from Astro. I have three cities; two in my area, and one by Sri Pada and those three gold mines. So far, no one else has lost their capital, and while Cathy is number one, she's not a complete runaway. She fought a long war vs William, to an apparent stalemate. All religions are gone, and William never founded one, so I'm trying to quickly get mine established over there, which is hard cause Cathy's is slowly creeping across the continent.

It's actually kind of nice not being so far ahead of the rest of the world, maybe my spies will actually be worth something!

Well, after this I lost pretty hard I may try to replay with a different strategy and post an AAR without submitting.

t112 - education

3-city tradition on peninsula, optics -> philo -> edu, god of the sea, tithe and swords

t64 - philo
t73 - NC (1-city)
t88 - tradition

city sizes 16-6-5

allied with rio and milan

no wars

First GOTM for me and it's going pretty good. I started with two cities on my initial land mass, then settled two more on the mini-continent to the north. Went for God of the sea pantheon, Pagodas and Itinerant preachers.

After a while, William started wonderspamming and was running away badly so I went for navigation and sacked Rotterdam and Utrecht (sold Rotterdam to Alex for 150 gold to keep William from retaking it).

Later on, Catherine backstabbed me (surprise, surprise!) and threw a carpet of doom at Utrecht which I managed to hold thanks to the nice defensive position of the city. Thanks to all the target practice I now have 5 frigates with range promotion, I figure they will come in handy later on, especially when I can upgrade them to battleships.

I'm at turn 217 right now and currently the tech leader and Catherine finally gave me a lot of money for peace after I captured Yekaterinburg and threatened Novgorod, both on the northern shores of the bay to the south of my starting position. I'm not really sure how well set-up I am for a diplomatic victory, but my economy is really strong thanks to Tithe and great spread of my religion, so we'll see how things end up!

My first immortal game ever.... Starting position is quite suboptimal (at least for my level of play)

Moved settler and settled adjacent to the mountain, went for sailing / optics, build scout & stele, granary etc.

Scout explored island to the north, killed 2 barb camps, made 2 city states happy. Settled 2nd city south of the Alps near the mt uluru, bought the tile so cs doesn't get it. City starts to run ok.

2 cities ftm, turn 80, will buy library in 10 turns and built NC (should be around 10 turns)

Went tradition will finish it in a few turns, beeline now for education

Got GotS / pagoda/tithe

DoF by Russia, yay!

Will settle 2 cities on northern iland and see where it will lead me

Will be a tough game, objectif to win, don't care for number of turns