TSG 127 Opening Actions Thread

Knowtalent

Knowtalent

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Welcome to the TSG127 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 Action thread once you have completed your game.

- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
- Did you spend much time doing reconnaissance before settling?
- Where did you settle and what did you build first?
- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
- What were your initial priorities?
- What tech path did you follow and why?
- What Social Policies did you choose?
- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?
- Did you go for early Faith? How did you use faith?
- How did you do your scouting?
- How did you manage your happiness?
- Any surprises? :mischief:
 
Posted by x2Madda:
x2Madda said:
At the time of this post I couldn't find an opening actions thread for game 127 so please move this post to it when its up.
The following is in spoiler tags for a reason so don't spoil it for yourselves.

Spoiler :
I found an unsettled(settler) Geneva(city state), not sure if that was intentional or not
Click to expand...
Moved here from the Announcement thread.
 
What did you think about before starting the game?
I thought that the starting position was awesome. I planned to found desert folklore based religion, rush great library, and then Petra, for a super capital city. I was very happy with starting next to the mountain, on river, in the desert, and on the ocean. Absolutely amazing start location.

I decided that I would go tradition, with 4 cities if possible. Peaceful game if at all possible. That's my strong point.

Did you spend much time doing reconnaissance before settling?
No. Settled in place. My warrior scouted to the left, beforehand, but I knew the spot I was in was perfect.

Where did you settle and what did you build first?
I settled in place. It was a perfect position, as mentioned above.
Build order: Scout, Scout, Settler, Great Library, Temple of Artemis, Settler, Settler(purchase), Petra

How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
The terrain was the paramount deciding force. The huge amount of desert meant that I was going to beeline religion, so that I could make a desert folklore religion. The mountains determined where I placed my cities, so that my first 2 expansions were both settled in desert next to mountain and coast. This was for late game science with observatory.
The map settings had no effect on early decisions.

What were your initial priorities?
1. Pantheon: Desert Folklore
2. Great Library
3. Petra

The main goal early on was to settle my four cities as early as possible. I didn't want to have to worry about losing city locations to AI, and having to start a war. This worked out well.

What tech path did you follow and why?
Rush to Writing->Rush to Currency for Petra-> Beeline Science techs for the rest of the game

This was all designed to make my capital as strong as possible, so that it could max out growth, and anchor my science plan. I needed to get to Information era as soon as possible, for the victory condition.

What Social Policies did you choose?
Tradition (Grow as tall as possible)
Opened Patronage (Need to eventually ally all city states)

What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?
I wanted Great Library and Petra from turn zero.
By the time turn 100 came around, I had built Great Library, Temple of Artemis, Petra, and Hanging Gardens in that order. All in capital.

Did you go for early Faith? How did you use faith?
Yes, I intended to build a shrine, but never did. I discovered Geneva on Turn 4 giving me 8 faith. (Captured the settler to become a worker turn 5.) Then I met Vatican City turn 11 giving me another 8 faith. This let me found Pantheon Desert Folklore on turn 12 without any faith buildings.

I used faith primarily as gold production with Tithe, and happiness boost, using Pagodas and Mosques. I founded the first religion on Turn 52. (Tithe, Pagodas)

How did you do your scouting?
My starting warrior went straight west. This proved fortunate because I found Geneva on turn 4. I also produced two scouts as my first two builds. This gave me a lot of vision before I settled my first city. They also popped a lot of goodie huts which gave me writing on turn 10.

I found Napoleon on Turn 15. I wasn't happy with where he was situated because I thought he might take my targeted settle locations, but I eventually beat him to it.

How did you manage your happiness?
Primarily Religion. The religious buildings helped support my happiness growth early game, after my initial luxuries ran out. This was crucial because France never wanted to trade luxuries.

Any surprises?
Absolutely! Geneva was a crazy surprise. How did that even happen? It gave me an early worker, without having to attack another city state, which really helped. I was also very happy with how large my continent was, and
Spoiler :
that it only had 2 other AI on it.


Overall, I'm setup well to win the game. At this point, I know that I will win. I'm hundreds of points ahead, and it won't even be close. Now, we'll just see what turn I can win on, and how many points I can get. I was also pleasantly surprised with all of the desert in good city locations. My first 3 cities were all in desert, and this combined with desert folklore gave me a huge advantage.
 
I settled in place and sent my warrior west, then north, and was surprised to find Geneva hadn't settled a city. Obviously, I immediately took the settler for an early worker, and proceeded to continue on my plan explore the continent and then decide my definite plans. Initial capital build was scout-scout-monument.

I knew that if there were 2 or less AI on my continent I wanted to eliminate them as soon as I could to secure my homelands so I could ignore military, and I wanted to tech as fast as I could, getting GLib and Petra, but most other wonders and religion or not were up in the air.

I ended up getting enough faith from city-states to found a pantheon, so I got desert folklore simply to be able to grab a religion without building any shrines. I tend to dislike desert folklore in general, but with so many actually great desert tiles for Seoul and my planned Busan spot, I figured it was worth it.

I went Liberty instead of Tradition, for the free scientist once you finish it, plus I wasn't sure how many cities I might end up settling, and I always love that free settler early on.

I don't remember exact timelines, but I found France and the Mayans one after the other with my scouts, and decided to harass them whenever they would send out workers or settlers. This worked quite well during the first 100 turns, as I declared war on them 3 times each, taking a worker or settler each time, the last time getting the Mayans to also give me their second city in the peace agreement, which I promptly razed.

For some reason, the Mayans teched incredibly slow this game, even compared to France. At turn 75, a caravan I was setting up said I was 9 techs ahead of them, compared to 4 for France. Sadly, I couldn't take them out with France in the way, and Paris was very defensible because of all the jungle that I'd kept his workers from chopping.

So, by turn 100ish, I had 4 cities, one to the east next to the Incense, one to the south on the shore surrounded by dye, and then one to the southeast, near where I burned a Mayan city to the ground and some cocoa. With my clear tech lead, I was finally prepared to declare a real war on France and the Mayans, and I had managed to build the GLib, Petra, and another wonder in Seoul, and Pyramids in Busan.

I actually got enough gold from my religion(went tithe), caravans, peace deals and failed wonder attempts that I had outright bought the settlers for my 3rd and 4th cities and hadn't actually spent any turns building settlers or workers, despite also having an army of 12 workers.
 
The terrain made Petra a priority. Building wonders means not building soldiers. The dense forest also delayed conquest. Nonetheless I'm currently attacking the Mayan capitol.

Happiness was okay. Lack of hammers was the problem, at least until Petra.

My second city is on the 6 iron by the river to the east. I got the Great Library, Petra and I'm three turns away from Hanging Gardens with Oracle to follow. Policies were Honor; Tradition plus faster wonders; Piety plus extra faith from shrines; and Patronage.

Surprises: At the beginning of this game my warrior found a city-state settler. It was around turn 10, so I saw it as an early opportunity to steal a worker. I declared war, took the settler and suddenly the city-state was gone from the board, never to return. Looking back now it makes sense; but over maybe a hundred games I've never seen a city-state settler before.

(I see now everyone discovered the wandering settler.)

I also didn't notice that the power cord on my gaming laptop had come loose, until the game shut down on turn 97. It was in the middle of a sequence of moves so I went back one to the auto-save and replayed the turn exactly. I assume that's okay but I thought I should mention it.
 
The start is interesting. Desert has its advantages but it is really just sand, so it'll be late before we get to flourish. We are Korea though, and that makes it a little easier to get to Currency. For a change, the National College will have to wait. Timing is crucial in this game. :mischief:

We began Seoul in place and went Monument, Scout, Granary as usual, while the Warrior explored.

The Geneva Settler just stood there chewing qat and watching the scenery instead of founding, so we put it to work for us. They probably forgot to read the rules, or simply ignored them. A nice early boost. On the downside, a Barbarian camp popped up near our borders and they came for us before the Warrior had returned. Meanwhile our Scout went east and found our two neighbours, Maya and France.

Between them, our early explorers found 5 ruins which gave us maps (T1), culture (T10), gold (T18), survivors (T19) and again culture (T24). The Scout then wriggled its way past yet another Barbarian camp and discovered Mt. Sinai with another large patch of desert. Maybe someday we could settle there, too. :)

Policy path is our usual Tradition opener followed by a slow Liberty tree. There is so much to improve around the capital that we need a second Worker, especially since we want the capital grow big to make the best out of Petra. Despite opening Tradition, whatever money we could collect would still go to buying tiles: the second Spices, the two Silver and other hills around the capital.

Social policy
10 Tradition
14 Liberty
23 Citizenship
35 Republic
57 Collective Rule
76 Patronage
96 Meritocracy

Because religion would come quickly we built a Settler while researching Writing, and sent it to the Crab / Incense spot east. Since Busan was founded before we got religious, it still got the pantheon although it lost it when it turned size 3. :king:

The free Liberty Settler arrived too late for that, but settled on inland desert anyway, again for two luxuries, and also to box in France. Religion would spread soon enough. All other expansions got founded late, after Petra, for a total of 8 cities.

Cities
0 Seoul (2x Spices, 2x Silver, coast, river, mountain, desert)
46 Busan (Crab, Incense, Iron, coast, river, mountain, desert)
61 Jeonju (Dyes, Furs, Iron, river, mountain, desert)
85 Daegu (Silk, Horses, coast, river, mountain, desert)
90 Pyongyang (Cocoa, Iron, mountain, jungle)
91 Kaesong (Marble, 2x Spices, Horses, stone)
97 Suwon (gems, 2x Sugar, Horses, coast)
100 Gwangju (Incense, Iron, coast, mountain: Mt. Sinai, desert)

France and Maya both grew to 2 cities. The second Mayan city annoyingly sits on the northeast tip of the land while our doubly promoted scout can see the border of a City State behind it. We can't sail there before Open Borders. :sad:

Thanks to Geneva and Vatican City we didn't need a Shrine and were the second one to get a Pantheon. :scan:

Religion followed quickly and we picked Tithe and Pagoda's, but waited to enhance it while Missionaries and Pagoda's still cost 200f. Some AI were also quick and the first of them took Mosques anyway, which was not very nice of them. :(

Religion
15 Desert Folklore
46 Taoism: Tithe, Pagodas
Missionaries: 63 (Vatican City, Jeonju (68))
Spread: Busan (75), Daegu (89), Pyongyang (96), Kaesong (100)
Pagoda: Jeonju (85), Daegu (93), Pyongyang (99)

A breakthrough occurred on turn 55 when Seoul completed the Great Library. The Korea bonus gave us Mathematics and we could pick Currency as our free tech. :goodjob:

The capital then started on Petra right away, which was completed on turn 70, followed by the Pyramids and another Worker as we hadn't found any Workers to liberate from barbarians. Therefore, the capital didn't start on new Settlers until turn 79. :eek:

Seoul
8 Monument
13 Scout
22 Granary
23 free Worker (Citizenship)
26 Scout
32 Archer
38 Water Mill
43 Settler (size 7)
55 GREAT LIBRARY, free Library
58 free Settler (Collective Rule)
70 PETRA: free Caravan (food to Jeonju)
77 PYRAMIDS: 2x free Worker
80 Worker
82 Settler (size 10)
84 Settler
86 Settler
88 Settler
90 Settler, WLTKD (Dyes)
91 Worker
93 Worker
94 food (Cargo Ship) from Busan
95 Worker
99 Aqueduct

As the early cities were on desert and the others began late, Metal Casting was prioritized over Civil Service and Education. Because gold from the AI is scarce on Prince it is still a long time before we can build the National College but that's ok. We are Korea and will eventually get a nice bonus from it, right? For now, it's all about growth and production.

Technology
9 Pottery
17 Animal Husbandry
23 Archery
31 The Wheel
35 Mining
41 Writing
47 Calendar
53 Bronze Working
55 Mathematics (Korea bonus)
55 Currency (Great Library)
57 Sailing
62 Optics
65 Masonry
68 Trapping
73 Construction
82 Engineering
89 Iron Working
99 Metal Casting

Allies
66-73 Vatican City (camp, Taoism)
77 Florence (camp, Worker)
80-87 Sidon (camp, barbarian)
 
Ribannah said:
The start is interesting. Desert has its advantages but it is really just sand, so it'll be late before we get to flourish. We are Korea though, and that makes it a little easier to get to Currency. For a change, the National College will have to wait. Timing is crucial in this game. :mischief:

We began Seoul in place and went Monument, Scout, Granary as usual, while the Warrior explored.

The Geneva Settler just stood there chewing qat and watching the scenery instead of founding, so we put it to work for us. They probably forgot to read the rules, or simply ignored them. A nice early boost. On the downside, a Barbarian camp popped up near our borders and they came for us before the Warrior had returned. Meanwhile our Scout went east and found our two neighbours, Maya and France.

Between them, our early explorers found 5 ruins which gave us maps (T1), culture (T10), gold (T18), survivors (T19) and again culture (T24). The Scout then wriggled its way past yet another Barbarian camp and discovered Mt. Sinai with another large patch of desert. Maybe someday we could settle there, too. :)

Policy path is our usual Tradition opener followed by a slow Liberty tree. There is so much to improve around the capital that we need a second Worker, especially since we want the capital grow big to make the best out of Petra. Despite opening Tradition, whatever money we could collect would still go to buying tiles: the second Spices, the two Silver and other hills around the capital.

Social policy
10 Tradition
14 Liberty
23 Citizenship
35 Republic
57 Collective Rule
76 Patronage
96 Meritocracy

Because religion would come quickly we built a Settler while researching Writing, and sent it to the Crab / Incense spot east. Since Busan was founded before we got religious, it still got the pantheon although it lost it when it turned size 3. :king:

The free Liberty Settler arrived too late for that, but settled on inland desert anyway, again for two luxuries, and also to box in France. Religion would spread soon enough. All other expansions got founded late, after Petra, for a total of 8 cities.

Cities
0 Seoul (2x Spices, 2x Silver, coast, river, mountain, desert)
46 Busan (Crab, Incense, Iron, coast, river, mountain, desert)
61 Jeonju (Dyes, Furs, Iron, river, mountain, desert)
85 Daegu (Silk, Horses, coast, river, mountain, desert)
90 Pyongyang (Cocoa, Iron, mountain, jungle)
91 Kaesong (Marble, 2x Spices, Horses, stone)
97 Suwon (gems, 2x Sugar, Horses, coast)
100 Gwangju (Incense, Iron, coast, mountain: Mt. Sinai, desert)

France and Maya both grew to 2 cities. The second Mayan city annoyingly sits on the northeast tip of the land while our doubly promoted scout can see the border of a City State behind it. We can't sail there before Open Borders. :sad:

Thanks to Geneva and Vatican City we didn't need a Shrine and were the second one to get a Pantheon. :scan:

Religion followed quickly and we picked Tithe and Pagoda's, but waited to enhance it while Missionaries and Pagoda's still cost 200f. Some AI were also quick and the first of them took Mosques anyway, which was not very nice of them. :(

Religion
15 Desert Folklore
46 Taoism: Tithe, Pagodas
Missionaries: 63 (Vatican City, Jeonju (68))
Spread: Busan (75), Daegu (89), Pyongyang (96), Kaesong (100)
Pagoda: Jeonju (85), Daegu (93), Pyongyang (99)

A breakthrough occurred on turn 55 when Seoul completed the Great Library. The Korea bonus gave us Mathematics and we could pick Currency as our free tech. :goodjob:

The capital then started on Petra right away, which was completed on turn 70, followed by the Pyramids and another Worker as we hadn't found any Workers to liberate from barbarians. Therefore, the capital didn't start on new Settlers until turn 79. :eek:

Seoul
8 Monument
13 Scout
22 Granary
23 free Worker (Citizenship)
26 Scout
32 Archer
38 Water Mill
43 Settler (size 7)
55 GREAT LIBRARY, free Library
58 free Settler (Collective Rule)
70 PETRA: free Caravan (food to Jeonju)
77 PYRAMIDS: 2x free Worker
80 Worker
82 Settler (size 10)
84 Settler
86 Settler
88 Settler
90 Settler, WLTKD (Dyes)
91 Worker
93 Worker
94 food (Cargo Ship) from Busan
95 Worker
99 Aqueduct

As the early cities were on desert and the others began late, Metal Casting was prioritized over Civil Service and Education. Because gold from the AI is scarce on Prince it is still a long time before we can build the National College but that's ok. We are Korea and will eventually get a nice bonus from it, right? For now, it's all about growth and production.

Technology
9 Pottery
17 Animal Husbandry
23 Archery
31 The Wheel
35 Mining
41 Writing
47 Calendar
53 Bronze Working
55 Mathematics (Korea bonus)
55 Currency (Great Library)
57 Sailing
62 Optics
65 Masonry
68 Trapping
73 Construction
82 Engineering
89 Iron Working
99 Metal Casting

Allies
66-73 Vatican City (camp, Taoism)
77 Florence (camp, Worker)
80-87 Sidon (camp, barbarian)
Click to expand...
That is a wonderfully detailed report :thanx:

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk
 
I wonder if the turn time will be competitive with several of the peaceful tradition approaches including my own 4 city ones. This one has right side liberty first and pretty late cities leading to late NC.
 
- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?

I thought I should really make use of the science benefits to found the congress first, get the Forbidden Palace and rush Globalization, if necessary.

- Did you spend much time doing reconnaissance before settling?

Yes, but not for being indecisive. Just busy chasing the shiny wonders.

- Where did you settle and what did you build first?

Settled in place. The location was... more than ideal! I think I went the normal Scout -> Monument -> Worker -> GL -> Shrine

Spoiler :





- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?

The terrain seemed great for going tall, getting Petra and Desert Folklore (one of my favorites!)

- What were your initial priorities?

Getting GL, HG and Petra.

- What tech path did you follow and why?

Pottery -> Writing for GL, Calendar -> Mining for lux, beelined Maths for HG and Currency for Petra.

- What Social Policies did you choose?

1 deep in tradition (for chasing wonders), then 3 deep in Liberty. The latter was probably a mistake, but I was busy with wonders and didn't think I could waste time on distrac.... erm, settlers.
Spoiler :



- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?

Great Library, Hanging Gardens and Petra. Got all of them. I also built Colossus, even though I haven't planned to... Just because I could :p

- Did you go for early Faith? How did you use faith?

Wasn't very early, but I got it. I found a religion, mostly focusing on helping me with city state relations and growth.
Spoiler :



- How did you do your scouting?

Just one scout early, around the capital to find suitable spots. Was looking for luxuries, food, desert and a mountain. Found all of them! :)

- How did you manage your happiness?

Luxuries were enough.

- Any surprises?

Not that I could see so far, although the starting location is crazy (in a good way).
 
First Civ 5 GOTM. Having established that there was indeed a mountain at the start location (thanks guys) I SIP and built a scout. Early scouting suggested there was plenty to explore so I immediately built a second scout (something I haven't done before).

I'm guessing that to get a quick win a three/four city tradition game is the way to go, but I was tempted by all that lovely space (and luxuries!) and decided to go wide. My previous attempts at playing wide ran out of steam (happiness) at five or six cities, but armed with a new plan I thought I would try again. I did think that maybe I was missing the point of the GOTM - trying to achieve a specific goal efficiently - but I couldn't help myself! I'm pleased to see that Ribannah also went wide (so I'm not the only one), in fact my game has many similarities to to his, except his is much better!

At turn 100, I have 8 cities but only 28 pop and 41 Science, an enhanced religion (DF,Tithe,Pagoda,Mosque,+30% Spread Range) with (mostly) natural spread to 16 cities, Petra. No NC yet :blush:. Lots of potential. Having fun.:D

- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
Science, Tradition, Desert Folklore, Petra, see how it goes... (That plan didn't last long!)

- Did you spend much time doing reconnaissance before settling?
No, moved warrior south, then settled first turn.

- Where did you settle and what did you build first?
SIP and Scout, Scout, Shrine, Monument

- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
Completely changed my plan to wide/liberty as described above.

- What were your initial priorities?
Still Desert Folklore and Petra, land grab.

- What tech path did you follow and why?
Whoops, don't remember :blush:

- What Social Policies did you choose?
Liberty tree complete. Not sure whether to take trad opener next or start patronage.

- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?
Only Petra, Yep

- Did you go for early Faith? How did you use faith?
Built one missionary before enhance, probably unnecessary (still have one conversion left). Because I planned on keeping pop low in expansions, religion spread naturally very quickly.

- How did you do your scouting?
SE a little with warrior, first scout went west. Soon got bogged down escorting my settlers and captured settlers/workers. Should have build an extra unit or two I think.

- How did you manage your happiness?
Keeping pop in expansions small, luxuries were enough for a goodly while, briefly went negative a couple of times. Started on colosseums around turn 70 I think. Current happiness +5.

- Any surprises?
The failed CS settler - wasn't sure if this was a 'trick' that would make winning diplo harder if I didn't get him to settle. But took him as worker anyway.
 
Diplo Victory means there is not much science needed, so I decided to play 3 cities tradition game. Thanks to desert folklore got religion on turn 44 (tithe, SiP), enhanced on turn 67 (religious community, messiah).

Wonders:
51 Great Library
73 NC
87 Petra
98 ChI

Education on turn 97 which isn't great, but with two cargo ships + tradition finisher + SiP Seul grows each 3-4 turns and I will try to time Oracle with secularism. This plus Korea UA + all coastal-mountains cities should give me sub 200t victory :).
 

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Quick update- managed to get Secularism by Oracle on turn 108, 109 turn first GS (planted).

To got rationalism in time I had to research acoustic - now for sub 200t victory I can't form WC ~125t (two sessions), so probably I will try delay WC to ~160t to get to info era in one session.

Forming WC so late on prince shouldn't be a problem, I guess?
 

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If I remember correctly, it takes 48 turns from Printing Press to win in one cycle (30+10 turns waiting, 6 changing eras, 2 voting), so for a sub-200 you need a T151 PP. You'll actually win on T200 since the countdown begins the turn after you research PP, but the game and GoTM/HoF count it as a T199 victory.
 
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