TSG123 Opening Actions

Welcome to the TSG123 Opening Actions thread.

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

This thread is used to discuss the game once you've started playing through your first 100 turns. Apart from normal decency, the only posting restrictions are to please not post videos until the deadline is finished and 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 the first 100 turns. Anything after that should be posted in the After Actions thread once you have completed your game.

- Describe any significant details like new cities, wonders, wars, and religion.
- Have you met any civs on the other continent yet? If so, how?
- Have you settled on a strategy for tourism yet? Please describe if you have.

Turn 95 for me.

Good start in some ways, very slow in others, and I'm expecting to have a war on my hands any turn now.

Settled in place, started monument, scout, granary, shrine, worker. I managed the 2nd pantheon, surprisingly, but of course the first pantheon went to Desert Folklore, so I settled for faith from gold. That also meant that someone else presumably had a nice desert start so beelining Petra became even more important.

Capital managed to build ToA, HG, and Petra which I just finished on turn 95. I have two expansions, one next to the Mines Wonder, and the other within 2 tiles of the other wonder (gold and production I think - Red Rock?). So on the surface that seems like a reasonable start.

Now for the problems that need to be solved real soon now:
- There are no less than 8 troops with in 4 hexes of my borders as Siam and I encroach on each other.
- I'm still a long way from my 3rd library, so I won't have a National College for possibly 20 more turns.
- I really need to plant my 4th city site to close up my borders and keep Siam from sneaking a settler in there.
- Of course my planned 4th site, even though it's behind our contested borders is still probably close enough to his towns to have me breaking my promise to avoid settling or buying land near him. Although at the time that promise did actually have him move a few troops away from my border.
- I only have 1 trade route so far.

At the moment my strategy for tourism is to finish my infrastructure and hopefully get caught up on science before too long. Then we'll do the dig sites/hotels/Internet finish with Freedom broadcast towers. Hopefully. Assuming I can hold Siam off.

Thought I'm doing really fine when converting one of Rammys settlers into worker and plundered his caravan around turn 20. Then I got first panthenon (desert folklore) and built Petra so my capital was kicking ass. Meanwhile Rammy got almost wiped out by Monty and Assyria. Logically I sent their painfully huge armies after each other. Little did I know I'll soon end up with one assyrian city and 15 aztec around me Even workse, Monty somehow managed to find a religion, so no diplomatical bonus for sharing.

(He finally declared war around turn 170 so this is going to be interesting. Not really sure I can handle him...)

Turn 105 (sorry, lost track of the turns. I'm sure you all understand)

Started almost exactly like Strake. Got first pantheon (desert folklore, ofc) but somehow wasn't able to get first religion. It seems like I've fallen behind though in pretty much every category. All the wonders are getting snatched up and I can't make Petra the old fashioned way because I have been prepping for war (more on that in a second). So I'm waiting for that good ol' Liberty GE to steal Petra. Met Rammy, Montezuma, and Ashur all through scouting.

I screwed up and didn't put my first expansion far enough out to deter Rammy's settlers. He put one pretty close to me (at Grand Mesa) and then Ashur came in and stole the spot I was en route to (3 wines in range. We'll call it Napa). Well, I settled near the mines wonder and became BFF's with Rammy. Built some spearmen and cata's to take Napa when Ashur declared war on Monte. Perfect. Best chance I'll ever get to make sure I don't get boxed in to a small peninsula. I'll probably die once they get bored of each other. I'm rocking 2 spearmen, 2 catas. Ashur alone has 3 pikemen, 3 archers at least. My scout is watching their war.

No plan on tourism yet. Never tried it before so I'm kind of bumbling my way through. I hear I need writers though?

My game is off to a decent start. I have explored my continent and have a nice religion going. Seeing so much desert nearby, I knew that I had to make early faith a priority to grab Desert Folklore.

My initial build order in my capital was:

Scout
Monument
Shrine
Library
Units (scout and archer IIRC)
Stonehenge
Settler
Pyramids

In Rabat (founded with settler from Collective Rule) I bought a Monument and built a Watermill followed by Petra and Hanging Gardens. That is why it is just now building a Library. Fez has already finished a Library and I bought one in Casablanca, so I will be able to build the NC in Rabat as soon as the Library is finished.

I have three caravans. Two are external (to CS) providing the bonus from the UA and the third is delivering food to Rabat.

Here is my budding empire on turn 100.


This is how I have developed social policies up to this point.

Tradition Opener
Liberty to Collective Rule
Aristocracy
Aesthetics Opener

I was originally planning to go for a blend of Piety, but since Sacred Sites is out and I am already generating quite a lot of faith, I thought bonuses to GA, GA, and GM would be nice.

Here is what my social policies look like at this point.


Research has been a bit slow so far. At turn 100 I am 1 turn away from Philosophy. I am building my final Library so that I can start building NC in a few turns.


I was able to snag the first Pantheon by making my Shrine a priority. Desert Folklore is a massive benefit for Faith generation on this map. I am hoping to spread Sacred Sites from an AI religion later in the game if luck plays out. I also took Religious Texts, which might make it difficult to keep an AI religion later in the game.

I moved my warrior to the hill in the west and found coast. I decided to settle on the coast and go from there.

I scouted out Siam and stole a worker and a settler from them. Subsequently I have limited Siam to two cities and have turned a few settlers to workers. I built a city on the iron by the river to get a high production city and it was there I built Petra. I took Great Scientist on completing Liberty and put it in the Petra city in part because it was next to a mountain and will become my best city at some point.

I burnt one of Siam's cities and got another through a peace treaty. Soon I'll go for their capital.

My only real annoyance was missing out on the Pyramids and Oracle, but in all other respects I have been quite lucky. The Aztecs have kept to only two cities and Assyria had a war with the Aztecs. I think I will conquer everyone on my continent and then decide on what to do from there.

I tried to go for liberty. I should have abandoned that idea after I saw Monty and Ashurbanipal so close. Double DOW after forward settling the pile of wine from Monty and Rammy, they have both taken one city each because while I have 6 workers I had no military except a warrior and archer. I have one now, but it is too late. This may be the end for me. I paid Ash to go after Monty, but now Rammy has Pikes and Monty cut off my coastal expo near the sugar. I knew better than to do this, but...

Wild_Woojsha said:

I tried to go for liberty. I should have abandoned that idea after I saw Monty and Ashurbanipal so close. Double DOW after forward settling the pile of wine from Monty and Rammy, they have both taken one city each because while I have 6 workers I had no military except a warrior and archer. I have one now, but it is too late. This may be the end for me. I paid Ash to go after Monty, but now Rammy has Pikes and Monty cut off my coastal expo near the sugar. I knew better than to do this, but...

Click to expand...

I had a half way decent army at turn 100 and still had a tough go in my first war. I had forgotten how many units the Immortal AI churns out. I lost Casablanca to Siam and had to build CB in all four (later three) cities for about 20 turns after Siam DOW me. The upside was, after winning one war, I had the military I needed to win more!

Mesix said:

I had a half way decent army at turn 100 and still had a tough go in my first war. I had forgotten how many units the Immortal AI churns out. I lost Casablanca to Siam and had to build CB in all four (later three) cities for about 20 turns after Siam DOW me. The upside was, after winning one war, I had the military I needed to win more!

Click to expand...

I built most of my cities in places where the terrain has made it impossible for them to do anything, and have slaughtered Monty's jaguars as they approached. Rammy has been at war for 20 turns and just now swiped casablanca since he has pikes and I've got warriors and archers still. The composite bows are rolling out though, hopefully I can turn it around and smash all three of them to one city before I meet the rest of the world.

Losing my solomon's mine city to Monty really made me mad though! I thought I had built it in a place that made it impossible to take, (and I was somewhat right now that I am trying and failing to retake it ). I really need to start taking more screenshots, I must have killed 10-15 jags so far, they just keep coming.

I built about 7 cities and that's what made them cranky. All 5 of the ones I have left are pumping out comps and spears to retake my empire. I also promised, after settling Grand Mesa, not to settle close the Rammy anymore and then settled Casablanca next to all the wine. I am pretty sure that diplo-backstab of mine caused this. Asher approved, hopefully he will be a good ally and I can box him in where he can't do anything.

- Describe any significant details like new cities, wonders, wars, and religion.

Built 7 cities, which made my neighbors so angry they DOW'd me turn 80. Lost two of those cities so far, pyramids are my only wonder. Wanted to build Petra with liberty finisher. We will see if I can pull it off.

- Have you met any civs on the other continent yet? If so, how?

Siam, Aztecs, and Assyria so far. Siam and Aztecs are currently at war with me. Assyria is at war with the aztecs for Gold Resource for 30 turns. Couldn't pay him to attack Siam too. One day hopefully, when I get my revenge.

- Have you settled on a strategy for tourism yet? Please describe if you have.

Filling out Aesthetics, building culture buildings and guilds, sending out legions of archeologists and stealing great works from captured cities later if I can, Hotels, airports, and internet to catch the victory. Got to survive the present first though...

I seem to have left out the questions.

- Describe any significant details like new cities, wonders, wars, and religion.

At turn 100 I had 4 cities and I had my religion founded and enhanced (see above).

I was able to build some wonders. In Mararakech I have built Stonehenge and the Pyramids. In Rabat I have built Petra and Hanging Gardens.

There hasn't been any wars yet as of turn 100.

- Have you met any civs on the other continent yet? If so, how?

Not at turn 100. I have only scouted my continent and Astronomy has not yet been discovered (there are no spies so no one has entered the Renaissance yet). I suppose it would be possible to get a Great Admiral from Liberty finisher or to earn one from naval combat, but this hasn't happened either.

- Have you settled on a strategy for tourism yet? Please describe if you have.

I went with two faith buildings for my religious beliefs in hopes of getting SS spread from another civ later in the game. I am also planning to use all of my GW and GA for great works instead of saving GW for World's Fair and burning GA for a perpetual Golden Age like I generally do. I will also warmonger to take out any high culture AI civs for the win.

My opening strategy was beeline Hanging Gardens and Petra. After 106 turns I've got that done but not much else. My northern city is near King Solomon's Mines but Siam and Assyria also have cities there.

The armies are forming. Assyria looks like the big one. They seem to be targeting Mongolia. I've seen that happen in other games.

My trireme has just entered a passage leading away from my home continent. Maybe I'll discover something new.

My first 100 turns went very much according to plan. After sending the warrior to he NE hill, I decided to settle in place and beeline HG and Petra.

Built monument, then shrine for an early DF pantheon. Got religion on t76: World Church as I was a bit low on culture at the time, plus Pagodas for happiness etc.

Beelined writing, then mining, then currency. Completed HG t70 and Petra t86. Also got the Mausoleum as a bonus, on t93.

Built 3 cities, one to the north on the river near Solomon's mines, and one on the shore to the east with lots of wheat and fish. Puppeted another one from Montezuma when he DOW'ed me, towards the north with cocoa, wine and gold (this may have happened after turn 100 though).

Haven't met any civs form other continent yet.

Went for early workshops (after currency) to get some GEs, so my tourism strategy was to rush some Renaissance wonders, then BL archaeology for some artifacts.

I have four cities up across the western side of the continent, circa turn 105. I paused there and saved for a screenshot simply because that is when I complete Petra albeit very, very late.

This was a weird game. I think literally every wonder was available for taking, with the exception of the Theology wonders. I had two expos build early wonders. IIRC, the Great Library was stil out there at turn 50. So I was pretty fearless about going for Wonders in this game - I think I got beat and got fail gold once all game.

- Describe any significant details like new cities, wonders, wars, and religion.

Capital build order: Monument - Begin Scout - Shrine - Finish Scout - Archer - Settler, Settler, Granary, Chop ToA, Hanging Gardens, Petra [very late at 105]

Social Policies: Filled Tradition, opened Aesthetics.

Tech Order: Pottery - Archery - Mining - Animal Husbandry - Bronze Working - Calendar - Writing - Sailing - Beeline Currency

Built Oracle, Chichen Itza in Expos.

Expo sites were similarly, albeit not precisely, located near Mesix's. Screenshot later when I came home, but I put the capital on the SW gold on the shore after seeing horrid desert to the north when moving the Warrior. I prioritized an early Cargo Ship at my other coastal expo to feed Marrakech.

I had one early war with Siam - I took a worker and settler early on from him. I also DOW'd Attanavario for an early worker. After the initial three worker enslavements, I built three additional workers at expos to get to 1.5 workers / city. The Siam war was fun and I also used the archer / warrior in place to complete a barb quest for Budapest. Budapest built most of my military and we were game long allies.

In addition to Budapest, I was also early allies with Cahokia - they had an early quest for a trade route, which matched up with the Moroccan UA.

As of turn 105, I still hadn't built the National College which ... was lame but can be corrected - I started NC immediately after Petra. I will have a Great Engineer from the points from Petra by Renaissance timeframe for a Cultural Wonder. Education was on a T120 timetable due to Currency beeline and early military.

I prioritized early shrine - out on T16 at the expense of early capital growth to get Desert Folklore. I got 1st pantheon at T25 and first Religion. I took Cathedrals to have a place for more works of art. I did not enhance first and had not enhanced as of T105 - I focused on early spread.

- Have you met any civs on the other continent yet? If so, how?

Not yet. I hadn't even built a trireme by T105. My scouting was not great.

- Have you settled on a strategy for tourism yet? Please describe if you have.

My goal as of T105 was to hit Archaelogy first and then fill as many spots as possible with Artifacts. Possibly go Autocracy / Futurism route depending on cultural runaways.

It's been a long time since I've tried one of these, but I've been getting really into Civilization again recently, so I thought I'd give this a try even though the victory and difficulty are well outside my normal comfort zone.

- Describe any significant details like new cities, wonders, wars, and religion.
I settled in place, then built a couple scouts before a monument and a shrine and a settler. I founded my first city forward near Siam with the 3 wines in it's radius and a chance for a 3rd level culture pop of the natural wonder. I spent some time building some infrastructure, then popped out 2 more settlers while my capital was still 5 pop. Founded Fes near Cahukto with the sheep, iron and deer, hoping to get the cash to bring the Mines into my border, but Assyria founded right next to it about 25 turns later. My 4th city went on a desert hill between my capital and my 2nd city, with some stone, gold, iron and lots of wheat nearby. I'm hoping to be able to build Petra there soon, but I might need to rush a GE.

I somehow managed to found the first pantheon(and the only one on this continent still at turn 100) and took the desert faith pantheon. Ended up founding the second religion, took money for foreign followers and + peaceful food growth to try to promote peaceful relations on my continent, since there's no way I can handle anyone militarily at Immortal, even with a larger army at this point than I would usually have built. There's been 3 or 4 religions founded, but mine is still the only one on this continent, so I feel confident it'll be a nice boon for my safety and treasury.

Went Tradition and Piety for my policies so far. I don't plan on having a large empire, maybe 2 more cities backfilled, and getting the Hanging Gardens in the capital is helping me catch up to the AI in population.

I realized early on that this was going to be a very tough game, when I got a notification that I had 3 techs while everyone else had at least 6 already. Oof

- Have you met any civs on the other continent yet? If so, how?
Nope, just the 3 civs on this one. I don't even have any coastal cities yet, thus haven't researched Sailing yet, so it'll be awhile before I go looking. The next one I build will be though, so I'm planning to research that once I finish with Guilds so I can rock these Kasbahs.


- Have you settled on a strategy for tourism yet? Please describe if you have.
Nooope. I've only ever won one game through culture in Civ V, and never won a game of any kind over Prince level in it, so I'm mostly just hoping for a respectable showing.
Planning for lots of culture buildings and trying to tech fast to catch up and hopefully get lots of those...what, Great Writers and Musicians that I'll need?

- Describe any significant details like new cities, wonders, wars, and religion.

I'm a bit over 100 turns now, but I'll try to just talk about the first 100. I have three cities. I started out with picking up just pottery and up to masonry (so I could improve the marble before I started building wonders) and then beelined to Petra. My first build order in my capital was:

Monument (I skipped a scout all together since I knew there was no ruins to pick up)
Shrine
Granary
Worker
Archer
Settler

I had done a bit of scouting with my warrior and found the Solomon's mines where I decided to place my second city. It had chocolate within reach which I wanted, but gaaah, just before my city reached it, stupid Monty came and placed a city right there and grabbed it just ONE TURN before my city expanded to it! If I happen to end up in a war with him, I'll steal it with a great general...

Anyway, in my capital, I went on building another archer, worker and caravan before it was time to get Petra. I chopped the two forests within reach to speed up production and I got it! Since the Hanging Gardens were still around by the time I finished, I figured I could at least try to get it (if not, I could use the money) since no one I knew about had picked Tradition. And I got that too! Yay!

By this time, I had also got Dessert Folklore and together with that, I was the first to get a religion and thus I got Cathedrals which was the building I wanted for the extra Great Work of Art slot.

After the wonders, I settled my third city almost in between my two first, close to Siam and bought up the two wheat and iron right next to Siam's borders (na-na-na-na-na). Siam wasn't very happy over this, but we are friends, and I've bribed him to go to war with Monty (and hopefully burn down the city that stole my chocolate!) so I don't think he will be too much of a problem yet.


- Have you met any civs on the other continent yet? If so, how?

Nope, I haven't had any cities on the coast yet, and I haven't bothered exploring, but that is my next mission.

- Have you settled on a strategy for tourism yet? Please describe if you have

As soon as I got my first great work of writing, I bought open borders with the three other players I knew, to spread my tourism more effectively there. I also have trade routes with them all (so the modifiers for the tourism output will be as big as possible). I'll build the Musicians Guild as soon as it becomes available and then just make sure to pump out great works as fast as possible!

Turn 0 update:

• Warrior moved to left gold revealing coastline and 2nd desert hill.
• Settled in place. My alternative was settling on the western gold. I chose not to do so, because it would have made Petra less valuable. I’m going all-in on a Petra rush.
• Begin scout production (I didn't realize there were no ruins)

Turn 17 update:
Completed Shrine. No pantheons yet founded. I’ve discovered two city states. (Cahokia and Budapest. Capital is population 3. Siam found.

Turn 26 update:

• Completed hard build of first worker. Aztecs found. I founded first pantheon (Desert Folklore +1 faith for all desert tiles). The key choice here was between Desert Folklore, Sun God, and +1 faith/culture for gold. This was a difficult decision. There is a ton of gold and a ton of wheat in my vicinity. However, because I was able to be first founded pantheon, I decided the benefits of a quickly growing religion outweighed the lack of culture and growth.
• My city growth has stalled at 3 population. I’m concerned now about being able to hard-build petra.
• I’ve opened Tradition on turn 25.

Turn 50 update:

• 2nd pantheon founded on turn 32. (I must have won by only a turn or two)
• Stole a 2nd worker from Cahokia. Will use both for chopping the two forests for Petra.
• Currently building an archer, will likely build my first settler after that is completed. I’m bee-lining Petra at this point.

Turn 68 update:

• Founded first religion Judaism on turn 68. Chose Tithe and Mosques. Mosques instead of Pagodas because I think the extra faith will be more valuable for great people and faster expansion than the extra happiness. Tithe because the extra gold is just invaluable. There are only 2 pantheons right now, which gives me a lot of hope for a dominate faith game.
• Completed my 2nd settler on turn 68 as well. Rabat was founded north of Marrakech a few turns earlier.
• I’m 5 turns from Currency and when I can start on the Petra. Trying to decide whether or not to produce 5 turns on my first caravan right now or 5 turns on my 3rd settler before Petra. I ended up choosing Settler. Next decision will be whether to take it to completion (the extra 2 turns) or start on Petra those 2 turns earlier.
• Culture: I have Tradition (4) down to Landed Elite. Will be maxing Tradition before opening anything else.

Turn 82:

• Siam declares war on Turn 80. My capital is captured on Turn 82. I surrender the game.
• He forward settled Lampang and desired all of my lands. His army was absolutely huge. Apparently the AI have no problems with zero gold and massive negative GPT. My city was captured in a single turn of attacks. Clearly I have much to improve on.

- Describe any significant details like new cities, wonders, wars, and religion.
4 city liberty start, pretty small cities due to too much desert near start. Best option is conquest to get better land, since Siam took the good expo spot. Siam conquest slower than expected since he actually had a good military on immortal which I didn't expect. Razed his expo and replanted city with better spot. Took his capital on 117 and that takes him out of the game, Aztecs should be next to fall, since he's already crippled by Assyria when they took his capital. Petra built in my coastal capital on the gold, with liberty GE rush. DF pantheon into pagoda/RC religion, should be easy to get it dominant on my continent. Also note that Assyria has Colossus,ToA and GL, so very likely I'll take him out regardless if I meet other civs or not. Once he's out of game, I'll be safe since AI are bad at naval, so it doesn't matter what the other continent do. Going to hard build Machu Picchu in the city next to Soloman's mine.

- Have you met any civs on the other continent yet? If so, how?
No, and I don't want to meet until I take out Assyria.

- Have you settled on a strategy for tourism yet? Please describe if you have.
Domination on my continent, spam landmarks on my continent, then we'll see from there. Either peaceful rush Internet or conquer with rushing radar/battleships.

Also my gold income is bad until Machu Picchu, so I don't have gold to buy CS. That and I'll need the gold for XB for the rest, since Siam already had CB when I conquered him. I haven't played Immortal in a while so I'm a bit off on the AI's window.

Turn 99

2 cities, built Petra, then Hanging Gardens in the capital, about to build the National College. I got the second pantheon (desert faith) and the second religion (tithe and pagodas). Require one more Social Policy to complete Tradition.

Settled in place and beelined Petra since it's not going to be much of a Tradition Capital without that. Rabat founded on the river to the north, just below the second mountain. With a couple of flood plains, one deer, granary and water mill, it should have enough food to make use of King Solomon's mines and be a good production city. I made Rabat the Holy City as its closer to other cities/CS.

Agonised about whether to choose pagodas or cathedrals. In the end I went for pagodas thinking I might still get cathedrals but the hindus nicked them. I should enhance my religion in the next 5 turns and mosques are still available...

Met Monty, Ash and Ram. So far Monty has had a short war with Ram and is now close to capturing Ash's capital. Ram has a religion, 5 wonders so far and a coastal capital, so he has to die. Neither of the other two have a religion, so I'd like to be friends with both, but that's going to be difficult as they are likely to hate each other. Feels like grabbing a tiger by the tail but Monty is my priority friend. He's more likely to forgive me if I declare war on a culture leader on the other continent.

Have you met any civs on the other continent yet? If so, how?

No

Have you settled on a strategy for tourism yet? Please describe if you have.

I'm naturally a peaceful player but I think warring is the way to fast finish times. I'm hoping to stir enough trouble on the other continent to be able to stay friends with some whilst taking out the culture leader on the other continent and maybe the cathedral loving hindus. I'll try to get the Sistine Chapel, Uffizi, Eiffel Tower and Hermitage, pick up some works of art from wars and dig up lots of artefacts. Beeline the internet.