TSG77 Opening Actions thread

Welcome to the TSG77 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.

If you make a video of your game, please do not post a link until the game has closed.

Please use this thread to discuss your goals for the game and your opening moves through the first 100 turns. Anything after that should be posted in the After Action thread once you have completed your game.

- What did you consider in your decision of where to settle your capital?
- What were your initial priorities?
- What tech path did you follow and why?
- Were there any early wars and who started them? Did Japan behave or ...?
- What did you think of the terrain?

- What did you consider in your decision of where to settle your capital?
I settled on the hill to get out of the jungle.

- What were your initial priorities?
A shrine for Sun God and also a scout.

- What tech path did you follow and why?
Pottery>Mining>Writing>Construction>Math because Japan was too close and fighting Samurai would haved sucked.

- Were there any early wars and who started them? Did Japan behave or ...?
Japan's lands made a fine addition to my own. The only problem was I wasn't thinking and accepted friend ship. I had to wait until t74 before that was over.

- What did you think of the terrain?
I thought wow, nice city sites, but I am addicted to Tradition. I haven't been able to go east (LOL), there is a barb in the way of my scout.

T95 Japan is dead. Colossus in Berlin, size 14. Two puppet cities. Will build NC next.

I took that coastal hill that kept the Gems and the 3 visible triple foods within range, and it just got better. Expecting a fat cap before this is done. Size 4 by Turn 22, and hammering out another Settler to nail down the other sweet spot a smidge to the north. Had to steer Japan's Settler southward to keep him from sniping it and provoking a scuffle.

I went Pottery>Writing>Calendar>Mining>Philosophy>Drama>Theology then hell bent for Education. Should get it ~Turn 115 with cash to immediately buy 2 Universities and pop to staff them. 2 city NC on Turn 82 then started settling eastward with blocking coastal Observatory cities. Such good dirt.

My built units had terrible luck, getting dogpiled by Barbs and killed, but I managed to get a Scarcher and "recruit" a Spearman and Archer. It was enough to keep the neighbors polite and I have DoFs with Japan and Askia.

Once I get the Cargo Ships going supplying food to my cap my only real problems should be staying happy. I will probably stay peaceful as long as Japan goes along with that plan. Edo would make a nice addition to the empire.

- What did you consider in your decision of where to settle your capital?


Like Bud, I settled on the hill to get out of the jungle but close enough to gems.


- What were your initial priorities?


Growth was first priority but then spotted a second city site so switched to expansion before it got nabbed by Japan.



- What tech path did you follow and why?


Beeline education but detoured to bronze for needed lux.


- Were there any early wars and who started them? Did Japan behave or ...?


Japan has been friendly throughout despite my pathetic military. Every time he plots I point him at the local pariah for 10 GPT.


- What did you think of the terrain?

Initially pleased with the wine and citrus but then saw Japan had essentially the same so limited trade opportunity and no gain from conquest so I went peaceful.

Mountains have kept the other rabble out so I only need to manage one neighbour.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ugly start but may be able to recover.

1. Settled the capital at the initial start position, on the gems might have been better but I captured an early workers so happiness is not a problem.

2. Managing city for growth, went for GL>NC one city start, then planted 3 more cities. Did Scout>Warrior>Shrine, if I did it again I might try 2 Scouts as my first met an early icy death at the hands of 2barbarchers.

3. Writing>Mining>AH>Calendar>BW>GL-Philosophy>Education captured 3 early workers so had to get BW to make them busy. Science seems to be moving along, when I did my 1st Caravan seems that I must have been about even science wise w/Japan.

4. Worst strategy has been military, hoped to capture units early but archers & hatchetmen tore me apart in the hills. Wasn't able to capture 1st barbcamp till T74. Need to refine combat strategy to play Immortal. On the bright side captured 2 workers from barbs near Milan and also returned 1 twice so we're allies for the forseeable future. Wanted to go full Tradition to start but caved in & bought honor- another mistake would go Honor early or not at all. Japan is apparently sympathetic, have DoF. I do like the idea of an early annex of Japan in this game as I anticipate that there will be war in the future.

5. Immortal exposes my weakness in my settlement strategy. Failure to settle my 2nd city till T73 after NC probably contributes to this. got citrusx5, sugar, gems, wine, bananasx2, horses, 1 river city, 1 mountain city. Would have liked to inhabit the mountains but too late- William. Exploration has been very poor 3CS.

If I can keep the peace might be able to get unis up quick & outtech, CS strategy is way behind need to get a scout out w/open border, trireme before it gets any later.

An interesting game and one where some quick times would be possible I would think, but not by me, I'm making a bit of a mess of it.

I settled in place and while I was disappointed to see more sea tiles to the south instead of food resources or grassland, the bananas will keep growth ticking over and the jungle tiles will be lovely once a university is built.

I started building scout-scout-granary-archer. One of my scouts upgraded to an archer and explored well, the other was destroyed by evil barbarians. However I was able to get the lie of the land quite well in the first 20-30 turns and quickly realised that Japan would be the only potential threat to me. So it made sense to wipe them out, and this thought was confirmed when they settled Osaka in the great barrier reef spot to the north of my capital.

This is where things went wrong. Tried to take Osaka around turn 45-50 with 3 archers, 1 spear and 1 warrior, and this failed by a whisker, at the cost of several of my units. Having intially teched Pottery-Archery-Mining-BW-Writing I then had to divert from a science route and tech to Construction and Mathematics. This also meant I had to give lots of resources to units and was unable to build a city east near the mountains, which I would have preferred to be my science city, but it was taking too long so I built NC in Berlin around T80 once my newly constructed force was off to definitely destroy the Japanese this time. So 50% less science in my main science city later in the game, but a boost from having NC in my biggest city earlier on. Will be interesting to see what other people did in terms of NC in cap vs in mountain city.

The Japanese easily fell this time to 3 x cats, 3 x spears and 1 CB, but was about T95 by the time they were done. I took three cities from them and have annexed two but one is still a puppet. Haven't built courthouses yet as had plnety of happiness. I haven't built a single settler or worker - captured plenty of workers from Japan also ones that had been taken from city states by barbs.

Met a fair few CS early and destroyed 4-5 barb camps, plus found a few natural wonders, both of which gave me friendly or even allied status with some merc CS, so happiness wasn't a problem early on. I was a bit dopey though and didn't sell my happiness resources for a good 15-20 turns before I realised I had so much happiness, so losing out on perhaps 2-300 gold from trades. Got a golden age around T75 though which I don't think I've ever done before.

Also went for a religion - I don't usually on Immortal, but got some faith in a hut, enough to get the pantheon that gave me 2 x faith from gems, and along with a shrine in Berlin this was enough to get me a religion, 3rd or 4th so many good beliefs gone but I took Tithes and Cathedrals which isn't too bad. I have lots of faith now as Kyoto had Stonehenge and I'm also (at T115) just 2 turns from Borabodur in Berlin.

All the world hates me for my treatment of the Japanese (another problem of not having succeeded at war the first time, as I hadn't met so many other civs by that point). Only Songhai are my friends. William and Ram declared war on me but I don't see what good it will do them. Didn't come across too many barb camps so that UA not too useful, but the 25% off land unit maintenance is great - a big boost to the gold reserves.

Now need to grow my cities, I think they are 11,7,6,5 at the moment, 52 science per turn and currently researching CS, then will be able to get Ed. Just so frustrating that I messed up killing Japan as I'm about 20 turns behind where I would be otherwise. Civ is always like that though, "if only", that's what makes it so compelling. An interesting game so far so thanks to all who had a hand in its construction.

- What did you consider in your decision of where to settle your capital?

I wanted a game where I got the Great Library, and in my test games - settling in positive food areas made me too slow by about 12 turns. I also wanted to have a coastal city so I wasn't keen on Gems first up, but once exploring there and see it was on the coast as well I plotted on the Gems.

In my test game I also experimented with pushing a military agenda, worked well against the Barbs but not so much against other Civs - as I'm not getting a huge tech advantage and being up against anyone elses UU is a loosing situation.

- What were your initial priorities?
- What tech path did you follow and why?

With that tested, I prioritised science techs and pumped out weak armies to tackle the Barbs. This helped build my army and I opened up Honour as first policy for the bonus and culture. After that I've gone Liberty and some Tradition for the free buildings.

As I went further east with my armies I ended up with 6 "free" workers by turn 70 or 80.

- Were there any early wars and who started them? Did Japan behave or ...?

Amazingly yes - I wasn't fast enough to settle directly north, I was about to settle NE when I saw them with a settler... I risked taking it, war be declared, nothing happened, negotiated peace and then a turn later they offered DoF. Surprised me!!!

- What did you think of the terrain?

Interesting, enticing and a bit challenging. The opening screen shot looked like there were great things in store, but I'm struggling to find anywhere amazing for my 4th city - looking like it's all about hoarding that Citrus and Gems for lots of trades.

I'm running a bit behind, I tend to aim for Education & Uni's about t120 (I know others can do better, but it's my rule of thumb to see if I'm at least slightly on track) and its not looking too good. I want to maximise the use of the Hanse and trade, and probably war Japan and other tech-challengers with Panzers.

But certainly don't think I'm playing at my peak here...

- What did you consider in your decision of where to settle your capital?

I moved the warrior to the hill, saw all the food and moved the settler there. The site had plenty of food and enough hills to make it a monster.

- What were your initial priorities?

Finding out how screwed I was land-wise, having met Japan turn three and sending my scout down that narrow stretch of land leading to the east.

- What tech path did you follow and why?

Pottery> Mining > Animal Husbandry >> Philosophy >> Civil Service > Sailing >> Education. Got Bronze Working from a ruin, or I would have put that after Philosophy to get the citrus hooked up. At T100 I'm almost done with Education. I was going to max out science ASAP, only picking up a couple side techs for happiness(BW) and gold generation(Sail).

- Were there any early wars and who started them? Did Japan behave or ...?

Japan coveted my land from the start, but strangely went northwest with his first city. His second went almost on my doorstep, by the citrus on the river just west of Berlin. After that he asked for a DoF, which I was fine with. I met Songhai and Celts, and saw that Songhai took an unmet player capital.

- What did you think of the terrain?

Wasn't bothered by the jungle, since it had both bananas and citrus, T100 and Berlin has as much population as the three Japanese cities combined.. The thin strip between Berlin and the mainland made me research sailing earlier than I wanted. The Great Barrier Reef lead me to go for four cites, as I wanted two on the north coast to send food to each other to make up for the lesser amount of food they had compared the the south coast cities.

- What did you consider in your decision of where to settle your capital?
-- I was going to settle on the gems but when I moved the warrior one space to the left I saw that it'd put me 3 away from previously hidden bananas/citrus, so instead i moved up a couple and settled on the non-jungle hill on the coast. Seemed to work quite well.

- What were your initial priorities?
-- Early expansion/steal a worker. Failed to steal one of Japan's workers but c'est la vie. Decided to go Liberty/Tradition, not sure that was the right call but it worked okay because of the close proximity to culture CSs. When I found the GBR - awesome! Had to advance settle on Japan up north, but it was worth it -- two luxes and two GBR spots, have to go for it, right?

- What tech path did you follow and why?
-- Zoom to bronze working, calendar, etc., dodged to Construction in case Japan got frisky, then to Philosophy. Got a four-city NC (bought the last library) on turn 90, took awhile to build it. GBR + early caravans from Japan definitely sped up the science.

- Were there any early wars and who started them? Did Japan behave or ...?
-- Surprisingly, through turn 210, when I quit, no agg at all. Probably because of early trading, maybe because they had a huge barbarian issue (odd), dunno.

- What did you think of the terrain?
-- I was annoyed at first, thought there would be no room to expand, but if I could have dealt with the happiness hit, easily spots for 7 cities if expanding to the east. I settled for 5, just not enough luxes.

I went with 5 cities total, got to education around turn 115, Scientific Theory around turn 175. 600bpt on turn 200, which I'm *never* going to complain about, especially on a jungle start where I wasn't able to steal a worker from an AI.

I broke down and tried the science overflow exploit on turn 210'ish, popped a couple of scientists. There were only three or four techs that others had that I didn't (Archaeology, chemistry, etc.) but it still was enough to get three or four free techs and also pay for Plastics. At which point I quit, disgusted with myself .

They really need to get rid of that bug. It's a huge, huge exploit, drains the fun away from the game.

budweiser said:

- What did you consider in your decision of where to settle your capital?
I settled on the hill to get out of the jungle.

- What were your initial priorities?
A shrine for Sun God and also a scout.

- What tech path did you follow and why?
Pottery>Mining>Writing>Construction>Math because Japan was too close and fighting Samurai would haved sucked.

- Were there any early wars and who started them? Did Japan behave or ...?
Japan's lands made a fine addition to my own. The only problem was I wasn't thinking and accepted friend ship. I had to wait until t74 before that was over.

- What did you think of the terrain?
I thought wow, nice city sites, but I am addicted to Tradition. I haven't been able to go east (LOL), there is a barb in the way of my scout.

T95 Japan is dead. Colossus in Berlin, size 14. Two puppet cities. Will build NC next.

Click to expand...

Wow, very different path than I took. I will be very interested to see what your stats are at turn 200.

TheGrumpyBuddha said:

Wow, very different path than I took. I will be very interested to see what your stats are at turn 200.

Click to expand...

You might say I nipped that problem in the bud.

I cant comment more in this thread, but you can read my after action report.

budweiser said:

You might say I nipped that problem in the bud.

I cant comment more in this thread, but you can read my after action report.

Click to expand...

Sure, keep me in suspense ... no problem with them in my game, though -- I confess I was a little surprised, but with only 3 cities and a massive tech disadvantage, I think they just kinda gave up on life. Also, we both had DoF with Songhai, probably didn't want to piss him off.

- What did you consider in your decision of where to settle your capital?
Getting it plunked down ASAP to get the beakers and growth going. I did move my warrior NW to make sure I didn't like that spot better, but ended up settling in place.

- What were your initial priorities?
Exploration and growth. Within a few turns I'd found the GBR, so getting city #2 up became priority #1. I got lucky and stole an archer out of a hut with my initial warrior within the first two turns, and snowballed that into a decent-sized army, if low-tech, and currently have 5-6 workers, only one of which I built. The rest were "rescued" from barbs.
- What tech path did you follow and why?
Beeline Philosophy, double back to AH, BW, Optics for exploration & lighthouses. It's now about turn 105 and I'm about to get education.

- Were there any early wars and who started them? Did Japan behave or ...?
Nobody on the east end likes each other. Nobody's messed with me yet. Even Japan is behaving. Probably because we're each other's only possible trade partner at this point.

- What did you think of the terrain?
Jungle makes for Bleh opening game. Didn't get NC until turn 75 even with prioritizing, because no hammers. Plenty of hills hiding, so I can chop a couple of jungles if I have to. Plenty of mountains east. I should end up with 2 observatory cities. We'll see if that helps.

Hi there, everyone! My first GOTM, and my first attempt above Prince. Just started playing Civ5, but have played everything from Civ1 on up.

Anyway:

- What did you consider in your decision of where to settle your capital?

Wanted to SIP so as not to fall too far behind. I'm already at a disadvantage by being new to the game and playing up in difficulty.

- What were your initial priorities?

Exploration, mostly. Wanted to work the gems even though I didn't settle on 'em to avoid bronzeworking.

- What tech path did you follow and why?

Opened Pottery-Writing-Mining. Since it is a Science victory, wanted the jump on the Great Library. Mining/BW to work the gems and hopefully find iron (didn't) Got calendar for lux, Philosophy for NC, then set to Beeline for EDU.

- Were there any early wars and who started them? Did Japan behave or ...?

No wars that I know of. Japan DOF'd quickly, prior to T10. Around T72, Spain denounced an unknown and Songhai wanted me to join against Netherlands.

- What did you think of the terrain?
Interesting. I'd have re-rolled the start, but only because I'm not used to the benefits of mountains (observatory) and jungles (University)--older versions of Civ still playing with my mind!


T80
2 cities...had to rush the city on the northern coast because Japan was running a settler up there...didn't catch it until he was close. Was gonna hold off a few more turns (had settler ready).

Lots of captured workers (from Barbarians). Raging barbs is good for that, I see. Only 1 for 4 on using the UA on camps, though.

Got Great Library on T44, First scout upgraded to archer on his second ruins. Got an early culture from ruins, a couple pop boosts, the rest gold.

Set to get NC by turn 86, I think.

Found/met Japan, Spain, Songhai, Netherlands, Siam, Celts. Found Barrier Reef early (might even get to settle it, now that I blocked off Japan. Gotta hurry though, his settler is still waiting on my border some 20 turns later!). Found Barringer crater, and found 5-6 CS.

kayelbe said:

Hi there, everyone! My first GOTM, and my first attempt above Prince. Just started playing Civ5, but have played everything from Civ1 on up.

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Welcome to the GOTM. Sounds like you have a pretty good start, best of luck in your game.

I'm a virgin for GOTM, this is my first. Hoping for a friendly science victory, as recently I've been dominating my opponents via honor and shaka's will. Regular immortal player, i dabble in diety when I want to punish myself.

What did you consider in your decision of where to settle your capital?
Moved north and grabbed the hill, without jungle.

- What were your initial priorities?
Sun god asap, get to hagia sophia to secure religion, get 2 decent expo's.

- What tech path did you follow and why?
Pottery>Mining>Archery (block Japan from settling my way)>Calendar>Bronzeworking>Theology

- Were there any early wars and who started them? Did Japan behave or ...?
Japan was rather close, but he offered me an early DoF when I had 2 archers (1 from scout, and one bought). I took the DoF, and soon found Songhai who a few turns later offered me his DoF. Boudicca plowed through to Sukhothai, and Genghis Khan has captured 3 CS'
- What did you think of the terrain?
No river, but wonderful terrian. The 2 Great Barrier Reef tiles made a very nice addition to my 2nd city, which is settled 4 tiles away from Kyoto. I'll use a great general later to capture his pearls. Other then that, my 4th city is blocking the access to my 3 main cities, ill expand again to the south, staying on the coast for the wonderful looking science city (mad food/river tiles!!)

- What did you consider in your decision of where to settle your capital?
Remove Jungle on hill, have early hammers to build faster my first settler. Cause I moved my warrior north and saw wine and reef coral.

- What were your initial priorities?
Plant my second town on wine where I can catch dyes over Japan. Look if I can plant four cities before fortify Hamburg.
Fortunately, he just plant 2 town T100. I have time before he'll backstab me.
Have sun god and don't bother with religion. Wait for Shinto if he comes.
Meet every AI.
Wipe this jungle.

- What tech path did you follow and why?
Pottery - AH - Mining - Iron Working- Calendar - Philo - Construction for Coliseum - Sailing for caravan - Education (not yet cause NC T90, but thanks Great Barrier T100 Theology is near end, Education T105-108 normally.

- Were there any early wars and who started them ?
Only Boudicca looking for help. No war yet. Waiting Japan backstab.

- What did you think of the terrain ?
Jungle sucks. Despite this, it's a terrain for Sun god (capital and city on south west near sugar). I have late pantheon cause my build order Monument - Scout - Warrior - Shrine.
I cross fingers to have Oracle T103. After that CB to finish bunker against Japan. Hope peacefull game or maybe I'll need to wipe Japan with XB. He's on a square place and seems to focus wonders.

I try opening Honor cause raging barbs. It seems interresting, but in this terrain pretty low for me. I just rallied one camp, failed in four next (???). So, my army is only one archer. This is surely why I'm late T100, land elite came late.

I am having a bad start. Lost my initial scout. Didn't find other civs until very late. Didn't get to trade initial luxuries for awhile. I found my second cities near GBR on a hill, which was a wonderful spot. But my lack of scouting is hurting I think.

Found pantheon pretty late, but was able to get sun-god. I don't know how long this will last as my neighbor Japan has religion going pretty strong. But his Shinto has plantation and monastaries benefit, so maybe I will let him convert my cities without much resistance.

I am not attempting for any wonders. Oracle would be nice, but my production is too low. I'm depending quite a bit on gold-purchasing. Was planning on saving for univeristies but having some happiness issue - with internal cargo ships and sun-god, population is increasing quite a bit.

To add, made friends with Japan and Songhai. There is a spot I want to settle my fourth city, but it's close to Songhai and will be difficult to defend.

leif erikson said:

- What did you consider in your decision of where to settle your capital?

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I wanted to settle on a hill, as I usually do.

- What were your initial priorities?

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Scouting and getting my culture going.

- What tech path did you follow and why?

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I followed my usual tech path, onwards to Philosophy. My aim was to maximize bpt. But then were was Japan...

- Were there any early wars and who started them? Did Japan behave or ...?

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I don't remember about the other early wars. But Japan... the settled almost in my face. I took revenge by settling near Kyoto and taking it together with Osaka later on.

- What did you think of the terrain?

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Jungle sucks. Apart from some other issues I struggled with the lack of production...

Overall, I find the game quite challenging. The jungle, Japan nearby, but not that many good trading partners makes the game difficult for me. But I'm optimistic about finishing with success.