Tsg 139 opening actions thread

Knowtalent

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Welcome to the TSG139 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?
- 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 was your plan for using piety and exploration?
- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?
- Did you go for early Faith? How did you use faith
- Any surprises? :mischief:





Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk
 
Yeah, first one :)

- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
I thought I should go rather wide with a strong cultural religon and fill liberty, piety, rationalism and exploration....and then maybe order or freedom.

- Where did you settle and what did you build first?
Moved one east on the gems, sacrificing the observatorium for a strong start.
build order
- scout
- monument
- shrine
- 4x slinger (1 bought) - raging barbs is a pain
- worker
- settlers

- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
Terrain looks good, settled 7 cities - maybe a bit too much for me to handle efficiently. t105 total pop 33 and still a long way to education.
DoW Maya and India for two worker steals and delaying them a bit.

- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?
Got all of them so far - Pyramids, MoH, ToA, Oracle
Planning for Petra/Colossus for extra TRs

- Did you go for early Faith? How did you use faith
After discovering GBR I took one with nature as a pantheon...don't know if that was good.
Founded t72 (tithe pagoda)
and then had to buy a missionary because the GBR city grew out of the religion at one point..argh

- Any surprises?
This GBR ;)
and forgot once about the withdraw ability from the slinger, loosing a worker for a few turns....but I guess that's not what you meant with surprises ;)
 
- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
I had some ideas but eventually decided that I should just play the map and try to adapt to whatever happens

- Where did you settle and what did you build first?
Monument-Scout-Shrine-Worker-Pyramids-Spearman-Slinger-Settlers. Planted Tiwanaku (Collective Rule) near the salts and built one settler there as well

- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
Lots of space and luxuries = Liberty

- What were your initial priorities?
No ruins meant Monument first and only 1 scout. Stole a worker from the Maya and a settler from India

- What tech path did you follow and why?
Pottery - Masonry - Bronze Working - Archery - Lux techs - Construction - Philosophy, pretty standard

- What was your plan for using piety and exploration?
So far I only have the Piety opener. Going to finish Liberty in 8 turns to engineer-rush the NC, not sure what to do next yet

- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?
Got ToA and Pyramids

- Did you go for early Faith? How did you use faith
Not really, no need to rush too much on Emperor. So far my religion is Gems+Pearls / Tithe / Pagodas

- Any surprises?
Nebuchadnezzar actually planting an academy :)

Spoiler :
 
I downloaded the game this morning and played about 74 turns before my computer crashed. It's going pretty well. I haven't caught up with the AI's yet in population, science, military, etc. But I'm making fast gains in all those areas. I'll probably post a follow-up in about 30 turns since I'm a little early for this thread.

- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
Wasn't sure whether to go Liberty or Tradition. (decided on Tradition+Piety but I think Liberty would be good too) Main reason I picked Tradition is because I have so many good tiles in the 2 and 3 ring at Cusco and none in the first ring.

- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
- Where did you settle and what did you build first?
I almost settled in place. I ended up moving to the grassland tile next to the mountain for an eventual extra observatory. It was tough going at first because there wasn't a lot of food or hammers until the city started expanding -- that's why I opened Tradition first.
Spoiler :
First expo is down south close to GBR, the second expo is on the marble to the east. Gandhi is my neighbor, and I've met the Maya but haven't traded embassies yet
Both expos are coastal and I don't remember if this is continents plus or pangaea plus, but the plus means most of the CS's will be on islands. I haven't met any yet, although I can see there's one offshore close to Tiwanaku. (I better buy some tiles there, you know which ones, even tho' they are expensive before that CS gets them.) I don't remember the exact build order, except I built a monument first and no scout because no ancient ruins. My warrior scouted the immediate area pretty well because of the move thru hills thing. Monument, granary, shrine, slinger, worker, settler, library, settler, composite bow. I bought a worker at Machu just a few turns ago. I'm friends with the closest AI and selling him gems and marble, that's probably worth more than the worker I might have stolen if I'd even seen a worker.

- What were your initial priorities?
Deal with the barbs, scout as best I could with a warrior and a slinger, get my expos up. After my expos finish their libraries (they built monuments first) Tiwanaku needs a lighthouse, and Machu should build a trireme and start exploring.

- What tech path did you follow and why?
Pottery, Mining, Archery, then pretty much beelined Construction. Then back to Writing, Sailing, and not sure what was next. I think I'm about finished with Philosophy now, then on to Civil Service and Astronomy.

- What was your plan for using piety and exploration?
- Did you go for early Faith? How did you use faith?
I founded the first religion. (Tears of Gods, Tithe, Pagodas) I'm planning to take Glory of God for my reformation belief to buy scientists before I finish Rationalism. Theocracy should make up for not taking Commerce. No particular plans for Exploration, but it's a policy tree that I like but seldom take; should be interesting.

- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?
I haven't built any wonders yet; thinking about ToA while waiting for my Expos to finish their libraries. Or Oracle; haven't decided which. (I will unlock Philosophy before the expos finish libraries) The Mausoleum is tempting because I have stone and marble, but I don't want the great merchant points. I might build the Great Mosque when it's available.

- Any surprises?
Not yet, but the game is young. My computer doesn't usually crash this early, does that count? ;)
 
- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
There may not be enough SP to grab full piety + exploration + another starting tree in addition to rationalism + tier 3 ideology, so I'll have to adjust as we go through the game.

- Where did you settle and what did you build first?
West on the coastal river mountain. Monument scout shrine spearman Pyramid slinger settlers ToA. First expo also built 2 settlers and Stonehenge.

- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
Lots of hills/mountains/luxury, wide open, so excellent liberty wide start. That will also help with getting most out of piety. Early wonders such as Stonehenge, Pyramids, ToA will be built at this difficulty, but not sure about later medieval wonders.

- What were your initial priorities?
No ruin = lower priority for scout, ended up only building 1.

- What tech path did you follow and why?
Pottery, Bronze, Masonry, Archery, lux, Construction, Optics, Philosophy

- What was your plan for using piety and exploration?
Prioritize Piety into reformation for buying GP as finishing rationalism seems impossible, only going to get exploration for the happiness and hammers then finish later.

- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?
Got all of them: Pyramids, ToA, MoH in capital, Stonehenge in expo

- Did you go for early Faith? How did you use faith
Only build 1 shrine until taking piety opener which was my 6th policy. Pantheon was gem/pearl faith. Didn't find GBR until after founding pantheon but even then I don't think I would've picked OWN. Got Tithe pagoda. Also got Stonehenge which will help with the lack of early faith CS.

- Any surprises?
India being weak on this map. DoW India for settler and worker, and didn't make peace until he gave me his expo and lumpsum for lux. It was in bad spot and I razed the planted another city on the coast. Didn't need to DoW Mayans since India was just too vulnerable. Might DoW him again to get another good peace deal in the future if he decides to not play OCC anymore. I don't plan on taking Delhi since I wanted a buffer for Babylon or Mongolia.
 
What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
Very interesting game settings and instructions! I do not mind running Piety, but full the requirement to fill out Exploration means choosing between Rationalism and Ideology, so I knew I would have to think about that, and see how the game unfolds.

Where did you settle and what did you build first?
Looked for the coast, ending up settling to SE on T3. Spotted GBR on T5. My cap location was great, but I spoiled the GBR for settling. But if GBR was not there at all, I would have had no complaints. So why am I complaining?

BO was scout, monument, shrine, then Slingers until size 4, then 5x settlers, then more slingers until I had six of them. Expos did shrines before monuments.

How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
Loved the mountains for UI. Decided I would try and have all cities coastal. Settings meant only one scout (since no ruins), and wandering in the beginning -- to find the coast.

What were your initial priorities?
Try and get a religion, then get slingers online. Initially, I was planning on just three cities, but was open to more if the terrain was good. Expanding beyond four cities got me the early DOW that I expected, but it was fine.

I had five cities all in uncompromised coastal locations. All on mountains, some with fresh water, none with more than a hex open to the ocean. Gandhi expanded West, leaving a big gap between my cities, so I put my only inland city there to fill in. After NC, which was quite late, I settled a seventh city in the “island” due West.

What tech path did you follow and why?
Pretty much top to bottom because I needed everything. Waited on Construction until I had six slingers alive and well (so eight or nine with war attrition). NC, then Civil Service, and Workshops before Universities (which was kind of unnecessary, since I was not building them).

What was your plan for using piety and exploration?
Opened Piety, was first (!) to a religion, took Mosques and latter Cathedrals, and Jesuit Education. I had to open Tradition because Exploration took a while to unlock. Run Exploration until Rationalism unlocks, as the hammers and happy are strong in that tree (iff your cities are coastal).

What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?
My first expo built MoH. I also tried for Oracle and Hanging Gardens, but missed those. Cap would get GMoD, but that was a good bit after T100.

Did you go for early Faith? How did you use faith
I picked Tears of the Gods which works only because the gems do not have to be improved. Picked up a couple Pearls too. I had two faith buildings, and got 14 of them without any problem, all for 200 faith (or less). Actually had two unwanted GPr spawn because I forgot to purchase missionaries -- twice. Then Jesuit Education for the science buildings. Public schools were 480 faith and I had 100+ fpt, so they did not take long!

Any surprises?
LOL, did not notice map was raging barbs until posting in this thread. Raging barbs is how I usually play, and I like the UU so I had slingers early. Often, I skip archers entirely, and get CBs ASAP instead.

Didn’t do any worker stealing.

Reforming before Enhancing. I guess that is common with a Piety opener?

Founding first, especially with Pacal on the map, even with opening Piety.

Workers were late, but it did not seem to hold me up much because the land was so fertile.

I struggled with gold for quite a while, and was negative gpt until roads were up. Late workers were part of the problem. I often have early gold problems, but I had expected Piety to take care of that for me.

All religions were founded on my starting continent. So I was able to successfully missionary spam the three far-away civs, all before Astronomy.

Double DOW is always a surprise when it happens, but I figured it was inevitable and had six near my front line. Pacal and Gandhi declared before having their armies in place, so that seemed odd. I killed a bunch of units, but not enough to get anyone to logistics or range. Gandhi offered white peace quickly. Pacal held out a bit, and wanted a city. He had Pikes and CBs, so no surprise that I lost a couple slingers. I bribed Genghis to grief Pacal after making peace.
 
- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
1. Can I settle on Coast + Mountain?
2. Is Settling in Place worth it? From what is visible, SiP is likely the best option. There needs to be a good reason to take the mountain tile, because it will cause a slower start.
3. Approach: Go Tradition, and get a religion to help with culture problems.

- Where did you settle and what did you build first?
Settled in Place. I initially scouted two hills to the west with warrior. Found the sea, but no resources. Determined it was better to take the fast start, than the 50% science boost later. Also recognized that this could cost me a fast time, if I was wrong.

Build order: Scout (Only 1 due to no ancient ruins) ->Warrior (raging Barbarians) -> Shrine (Need to rush religion) -> Worker (Needed to improve gems, during settler building, and no CS found yet) -> Settler -> Settler -> Settler

- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
Preference is for coastal cities due to eventually getting exploration. I also needed a religion because I was forced to go Piety. Terrain meant that mountain settles should not be an issue, so I planned to settle all expansions on mountains once I chose to SiP.

- What were your initial priorities?
Need a religion, and needed a very efficient 4 city tradition. While I wanted to expand to up to 7 cities, based upon the amazing city spots, I stopped at 4. I didn't want to limit my ability to reach all of the culture policies that I needed. I also rushed out settlers quickly so that no one could steal my target spots.

I settled my 4th city on Turn 56, and completed National College on T86. Was a great start.

- What tech path did you follow and why?
Pretty standard science opening. Pottery (Religion) -> Animal Husbandry (Horses) -> Bronze Working (Iron) -> Writing (Library) -> Philosophy (National College) -> Construction (Terrace Farms) -> Optics (Lighthouse) -> Education (University)

- What was your plan for using piety and exploration?
My plan was to make zero use of them for the most part. I considered having to get them mostly a Nerf and didn't try and take advantage of it too much. With piety, I did commit to going for an early religion but I do that every game because faith = science. The use I did eventually plan to get out of piety was Glory of God for writers.

I had zero plans for exploration. Plan was to finish it last, after I had completed Tradition, started Piety, picked up 4 policies in Rationalism, finished piety, and finished religion.

- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?
National College (T86), ToA (T95), HG (T105), Working on Oracle for culture

- Did you go for early Faith? How did you use faith
Yes. First pantheon, Gems and Pearls Faith on T25. Founded Religion and picked up Tithe, and Pagodas. Plan was to use it for culture generation. Hopefully I can get Mosques as well.

- Any surprises? :mischief:
Spoiler :
Great Barrier Reef was a nice find. I didn't really scout much this game though. Didn't see the point. With 4 city tradition, no ruins, science only victory, I knew I just had to turtle to win.
 
In my test games the AI quickly settled around me while their armies were threatening by turn 50, so I opened with Archery and built ToA, planning to take their cities.

I settled on the coast by the mountain—a slow start but maybe good later with Exploration. My scout found the Great Barrier Reef so that's where I put my second city.

I made sure to get three slingers so I'm about to have evasive composite bowmen. Money and happiness were a struggle but now that my trireme is exploring money's much better. The Maya have two cities near me so I'm positioning to attack.

I used Liberty up to the settler, plus Honor for barb culture, and the result is I'm now ready to start on Piety but, with not even a shrine so far, I could end up without a religion. Otherwise the foundation looks good and on Emperor I'm content just to win, so I'll persist.
 
- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
I planned on founding 4 or so cities and building lots of wonders.

- Where did you settle and what did you build first?
I founded on the plains just to the NW T1, second city went on the horses to the south.
Build order: Monument, Granary, G Library, Pyramids, a bunch more wonders...

- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
Other than founding positions, not a whole lot.

- What were your initial priorities?
Great Library for Philosophy and Pyramids for workers.

- What tech path did you follow and why?
Mostly the top (not Sailing) but also Construction and Mathematics for wonders.

- What was your plan for using piety and exploration?
I haven't started them yet but I got my religion going well so piety should be helpful.
I've finished Tradition and started on a few others.

- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?
ToA, G Library, Pyramids, MoH, Hanging Gardens, Oracle, Hagia Sophia, Grand Mosque, Borobudur, and I think I got Chichen Itza. Yes
- Did you go for early Faith? How did you use faith
Yes, was the second to pantheon and religion and enhanced right away. Did faith from gems/pearls, Mosques/Pagodas (should have done faith from wonders), Tithe, and I forget what else.

- Any surprises?
It was really easy to get all of the wonders.
 
Hey, this was my first attempt at a GotM, and even though I got spanked, the idea was fun enough that I'm playing it a second time (Not sumbitting scores)

What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
I read the rules, because a friend of mine's casually mentioned it a few times. Seemed like a fun setup idea, I kind of wish I'd found this place earlier.

A science victory meant I prioritized setting spots by mountains.

- Where did you settle and what did you build first?
I took my axe straight west,and saw I was on the coast. I moved the settler nw and settled on that forest by the sea. Started with monument, into shrine then GL. Then dudes to escort my free settler from Liberty

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

- What were your initial priorities?
Build GL, just enough dudes to escort through raging barbarians. Even for Raging, someone made my barbs extra angry this game.


- What tech path did you follow and why?
Writing for Library, into iron working (with GL) for colossus, then swimming techs and construction.

- What was your plan for using piety and exploration?

- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them
I opened with GL (just before 50 iirc), and eventually got collossus 85ish.

- Did you go for early Faith? How did you use faith
I got Tears of the gods for Gems, and then watched the tile manager never grow out towards the gems.

- Any surprises?
Several. Pascal beat me the coastal city by the desert and marble north of the GBR, and then beat me again to the mountain with all the citrus (by turn 70ish) while my settler and escort got gooned by barbs.

Even for Raging barbs (the way I usually play) these barbs were extra angry.
 
OOOOHHHH!!!! WRONG BUTTON RAGE!!!!

Plant the Liberty Great Scientist, don't research Civil Service!
 
- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?

EZ game. I wanted to just settle a bunch of coastal observatory cities with liberty.

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

I settled cusco on coast even if it's far from all its good ressources. I made a worker first lol.

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


I saw lots of mountains and coast so I tried to settle a city on every mountain coast I could :D

- What were your initial priorities?

I retried the game a bit with tradition and liberty. The raging barbarians really screw the game up big time in a really unfun way.
To cover the barbarian lands so they stop spamming units, you need a bunch of cities, which angers the dumb AI and makes them kamikaze settle you and dow, which basically just slows you down from what you want to do without giving the AI any advantage. I hate when the AI does that, basically just screwing himself to screw you, it's like playing with your angry little brother who's mad at you because you said pokemon was stupid, so now he's just doing every possible stupid move to make you lose this game of Monopoly or whatever haha.

- What tech path did you follow and why?

Just luxury techs. I tried a liberty game where I teched straight to construction for the farms. Everything I try is either too slow or lets the idiot AI settle the stupidest cities on my lands.

- What was your plan for using piety and exploration?

I know from experience that you can get more than enough culture to fill out a bunch of trees so my plan was just to go for full tradition or liberty and then piety with jesuite education to spam a bunch of pagodas and boost my culture / faith / science. Exploration would just moderately help midgame with all my cities due to the +3 production. That's about all that does in a science game.

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

My plan was to get oracle, borobudur, hagia sophia and collossus, but I'm struggly to figure out the correct number of cities to settle before NC. I think 3, but then you run the risk of the AI spamming crap cities on your lands which forces you to war them to get them back, massively slowing your midgame down.

- Did you go for early Faith? How did you use faith
- Any surprises? :mischief:


Well obviously when I saw the great barrier reef I went for natural wonder faith. +8 faith gets you super fast religion.

Tradition does seem to be the way to go. The AI at this difficulty is just too bad and gets angry when I settle 4-5 cities too fast. Liberty is also way too prone to unhappiness at these difficulties because the AI can't connect luxuries, you can't steal workers fast ( also no city-states nearby that I can see) and this is continents so you can't even meet half the civs until later. With Inca you also want a ton of hill tiles which you never grow to with liberty, costing you hundreds of gold overall.

So I'll try again with 3 city NC tradition into 3 more cities afterwards. There's definitely 6 good spots you can settle on this map. I'll also tech archery way earlier and build like 4-5 slingers to deal with those dumb barbs.

I don't know if I'm allowed to replay games and submit though but whatever, this is very fun to try and figure out, except for the raging barbs which I hate but yah :p
 
Also I am replaying it to get a good time, not because I'm worried about winning lol. It seems pointless to just win science on King, obviously I will eventually, but it's really fun to see how you can optimize a start. That's the best part of CIV for me.
 
Also I am replaying it to get a good time, not because I'm worried about winning lol. It seems pointless to just win science on King, obviously I will eventually, but it's really fun to see how you can optimize a start. That's the best part of CIV for me.

I've been replaying some of the older GOTM's, and sometimes I post a report in the After Actions thread. #132 (Renaissance-era start at Immortal with Japan) was a good one for playing the same game over and over to try different approaches.
 
Raging barbarians required some significant adjustments to what I thought I was gonna do going in. I did play it straight though, no reloads. There were some awkward moments. LOL.
 
- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?

I figured that, since I had no choice but to push through Piety, I might as well make getting a strong religion a priority. I also wanted to make sure that I build 4-6 cities in places near mountains to get the best use out of my terrace farms.

- Where did you settle and what did you build first?
I settled in place, as I usually do. Even though there were no ruins, I built scouts until I finished researching pottery, then built a shrine and 3 or 4 slingers after that, to ward off the barbs. I wanted a number of scouts out to know where the barbs were going to be, and also to make sure I would meet all my neighbors despite the definite attrition they'd experience(only one survived until turn 100). I didn't bother with early warriors because slingers could withdraw, so I knew I wouldn't lose them as fast as warriors.
- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
I was surprised by how many hills near small mountain ranges there were, along with the resources around. It made it certain to me that, if I could block off neighbor access, I'd be able to have a strong core without warring.
- What were your initial priorities?
Primarily it was to get a strong, spreading religion, block off my area from AI expansion, and protect my improvements from the rampaging barbs.
- What tech path did you follow and why?
I went Pottery, Archery, then worker techs, with construction my first real target, so I could get the terraces up fast.
- What was your plan for using piety and exploration?
I didn't have much of one for exploration, but for piety I wanted to get a religion to maximize it's use, and that I might as well embrace it by finding a useful way to use faith. I figured I would hope to get the reformation that lets you use faith to buy Great Scientists.
- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?
I was busy making sure I could fend off the barbs around me, so the only ones I got were the Statue of Zeus and Hanging Gardens. Though, I lost out on a couple others, gaining enough gold to buy a settler, so at least it wasn't a total waste.
- Did you go for early Faith? How did you use faith
Yeah, it was my focus for the most part early on, shrine was the first thing I built in each city.
- Any surprises? :mischief:
Um, just the aforemention suspicious mountain range placements. I was a bit surprised to find so many opponents starting so close to me, though.

Outside of those things, I was busy building slingers, so I didn't have a chance early on to build any settlers, so I was pleasantly surprised to see no one was interested in my future domains. Until, I finally went and built a settler, only to find Pacal was sending two settlers to settle on my northern citrus groves. I tried herding them into the barbs, but they wouldn't have it, so I had to declare war on him to prevent it. I took one, but the other settled in a stupid location. I was able to settle the citrus groves, and while I slowly besieged the Mayan city, I build a second settler to settle on the coast to the east between the mountains and the fishes. I finally took it down, razed it, and got the Mayans to give me their second city in the peace deal. I didn't want it though, couldn't afford the unhappiness, so I was able to trade it to India in exchange for 7 gpt, and they promptly razed it(the AI is really dumb sometimes) I had taken the pantheon that gives extra food for bananas and citrus, so those two spots were important. By around turn 100, I was nearing a religion, had 3 cities, had a growing economy, thanks to enough border patrols to keep barbs out and thanks to getting my caravans out fast for once, and had secured the areas I planned on settling.

OH, I was surprised by how much the Mongols were settling. While Babylon and I had 3 cities, and the Maya and India had 2, the Mongols had 7 and were working on encircling India.
 
Hi, long time lurker. This is my first serious attempt at a GotM as I usually don't finish my games and/or play multiplayer. I did several practice games, none of which I played past turn 170 or so. Probably should have stuck out at least one or two to see how many policies I could realistically squeeze in by the end, and practice the endgame, but oh well :lol:.

- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?

I want insane growth to fuel my science, and allow me to work guilds ASAP. I also plan to wonder whore as much as possible to help with culture and acquiring policies. Oracle will be huge, as will many others.

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

After scouting two tiles west with the Warrior, I was surprised to discover coast. I decided to take it as I planned on a Tradition strategy and feeding my cities with trade routes anyway.

Build order: Monument, Archer, Worker, Settler, Archer, Settler, Settler, Shrine, Granny, Library, couple turns in Oracle, NC.

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

After my first practice game it hit me that I should try opening Honor and farming barbs, since I was building archers to fend them off anyway. I'm not sure if it's worth it long-term, but early on each barb kill is almost a full turn's worth of culture production, and I wanted to make use of the raging barbs somehow.

No ruins + movement bonus on hills = no scouts and monument first. Archer immediately after monument to start farming culture from barbs.

Because I chose the slower initial starting location in favor of Cargo Ships later, I wasn't able to get out as many Archers and Warriors as I had practiced.

- What were your initial priorities?

Open Tradition ASAP with monument-first build. Get out Archer(s) and open Honor just in time for barbs to start appearing. Settlers + claim land ASAP. Finish Tradition.

- What tech path did you follow and why?

Archery -> get Archer out immediately after monument.
Animal Husbandry -> hoping for horses on my empty plains/grassland tiles for some production. Won't have worker steals early enough on Emp to need Mining just yet.
Mining -> I hardbuild a worker after Archer, and I want to start chopping for my Settlers + getting luxes online.
Masonry -> Need quarries for happiness + production.
Trapping -> Truffles @ my first expand. Should have gone Pottery here, had to delay Granny 4 turns @ first expand. Put 4 turns into a worker instead.
Pottery -> Granny first @ expands #1 and #2. Shrine then Granny @ cap after 3rd settler.
Writing -> Libraries after Grannies in cap + expands #1 and #2. Library first @ expand #3.
Calendar -> omw to Philosophy.
Philosophy -> NC + Oracle after Libraries.
Sailing -> Cargo Ships + Pearls in expands while cap builds NC.
The Wheel -> omw to Construction.
Construction -> Terrace Farms.
Drama and Poetry -> Standard path to Theology and Medieval. Also has National Epic, Ampitheaters, Writer's Guild. Will want these ASAP.
Theology -> Medieval, possible faith wonders.

- What was your plan for using piety and exploration?

I don't plan to use them much at all, really. I'm just going to fill them out by the end to meet the requirements of this challenge. I'll likely take some fillers in Piety before I can open Rati, so I'll delay shrines + temples in my expos until I get the reduced build time and perhaps extra faith.

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

I haven't had time to grab any wonders just yet. I will grab Oracle immediately after NC, and we'll see from there. I did put some turns into it while I was waiting on my last library. Parthenon is certainly an option, as is Hagia for a quicker enhance. Alhambra is another I will target after Unis and Obs' for the increased culture output.

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

No. I delayed faith much more than I'm used to playing deity and multiplayer, as it seems possible to do so on Emperor while still grabbing desirable pantheons and religion bonuses. Since I'm not getting a reformation belief in a timely manner with my Tradition play, and I'll have so much growth and production from terrace farms anyway, Jesuit Education won't really be a thing.

I was able to easily get Tears of the Gods with a late shrine (discovering two pearls made that a simple choice). I will start building more shrines + temples after I open Piety, and hopefully grab Mosques + Pagodas to fuel social policy acquisition and the purchasing of GEs for key wonders later.

- Any surprises?

The coastal start was a big surprise which I didn't practice for at all. Work boats + Cargo Ships + Triremes to protect myself, farm culture, and explore have become a thing.

In my practice games I was able to get many workers from barbs. Unfortunately with no nearby CS in this game I had to hard-build almost all of my workers, and also wasn't able to gain any easy Allies. Early on I tried to grab an Indian settler from a barb camp NW of Tiwanku but it ended up getting taken by India from the other side, which I couldn't see (unseen units clearing my camps is something I learned to be careful about in my practice games!). I DoWed to grab it anyway, and lost a 3 science trade route in the process. Not sure if that was worth it, but I know Gandhi is very forgiving so I did it anyway.

The barb camp that spawned SE of Ollantaytambo was a very welcome surprise and is well-protected from being cleared by other civs. Easy culture farm there. I had briefly considered settling 1 tile further east to grab the extra GBR tile, and perhaps take One with Nature. However, doing so would have cost me the sheep and cattle tiles to the west, and cleared this camp upon settling.

Spoiler :

It was really tempting to take the tile SW of the mountain in the north with all the Citrus, other resources, and eventually Sugar, as well as another coastal expand somewhere NE of Machu, but I decided to stick with 4-city Tradition and not get too greedy.

I just derped and lost an Archer to a Spearman at the camp I was farming north of Machu, and since I don't really want to build any more Archers atm I cleared it with the Warrior. My NC seems super late but growth is ready to explode.
 
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