TSG 220 Opening Actions Thread

[Nizef]

As before, an opening actions thread has been created for us all to share initial comments of where this game is going.

 

[Tiberiu]

We can post about our progress here, no? Thank you for creating this map.

This start was very fun to play and I can't wait to see how fast I can finish the game and compare results with other players.

Here is how my game is going so far. (with screenshots for turn 50,100 and 150). Edited to add turn 200 progress.

Spoiler :

I decided from the start to play with the restrictions of no white peace, no bribing and no lump sum gold taken in any possible way. Also, no cities can ever be traded in any way. This makes for a fair game vs the Deity AI.
The game has been considerably harder, but it is also more satisfying.

I settled on the Marble. Thanks to the early Faith CS I could get first pantheon. I stole 1 worker from Brussels and 1 settler each from Brazil / Ottomans.
pantheon: Sun God (turn 9)
Wonders: ToA (turn 29), Oracle (turn 60), Machu Picchu (125)
Religion: I was slow to get a religion but I got Mt. Kailash as my first city settle so I got Pagodas and Tithe and later Religious Community. One of the best religions there is!
I missed my desired city spot to the Ottomans, I wanted a city on the hill to the coast of the capital. This has caused a great deal of pain but I have managed to get things together eventually.

I lost the city of Linz countless times starting turn 146 and only recovered it permanently on turn 171.
Lost 2 elite units and also failed 1 coup at 72%.

fun and weird event : My Warrior was a Pikeman before I could produce Spearmen. That is a first time.

turn 50:

Turn 100:

Turn 150:

turn 200: Built Eiffel Tower, finishing Brandenburg Gate, won World's fair, tech leader. Ottomans have been neutralized with the help of Voluntary Army. First to ideology turn 179. Capital will be 200 production powerhouse after I'll get a Factory.

 

[basior]

Hello everyone,

I've got turn 0-100 update.

Spoiler t0-100 :

Settled on Marble and after initial scouting found 2 good spots for expos 1st coastal E by the furs and 2nd W coastal on gold. Got a sun god pantheon so granary wasn't needed right away - beelined archery and stole some workers/settlers (1 Brazil, 1 ottoman settler and 1 form CS) Did some barb shooting and xp farming Brussels then decided to give my troops to Lhasa for upgrade. Not the best city but it will allow me to march on Attila and Rome after diplomatic marriage is completed. Was also lucky enough to get Pyramids. As I got my CB from CS upgrade I beelined Philosophy and rushed Oracle (W expo) and NC in (cap) around t80-85. Then killed Attila with Cb. Now it's turn 100 and Im ready with Machinery and positioned to attack Rome. My next targets will be Brazil, Monty and Suleiman (probably with 2 nd army) Also planning to embark some of my troops to the other continent. Got pretty reluctant with troops training as I didn't know there was a shallow water pass to the other content. Have to decide between frigates, arty or all in XB.

 

[basior]

We can post about our progress here, no? Thank you for creating this map.

This start was very fun to play and I can't wait to see how fast I can finish the game and compare results with other players.

Here is how my game is going so far. (with screenshots for turn 50,100 and 150). Edited to add turn 200 progress.

Spoiler :

I decided from the start to play with the restrictions of no white peace, no bribing and no lump sum gold taken in any possible way. Also, no cities can ever be traded in any way. This makes for a fair game vs the Deity AI.
The game has been considerably harder, but it is also more satisfying.

I settled on the Marble. Thanks to the early Faith CS I could get first pantheon. I stole 1 worker from Brussels and 1 settler each from Brazil / Ottomans.
pantheon: Sun God (turn 9)
Wonders: ToA (turn 29), Oracle (turn 60), Machu Picchu (125)
Religion: I was slow to get a religion but I got Mt. Kailash as my first city settle so I got Pagodas and Tithe and later Religious Community. One of the best religions there is!
I missed my desired city spot to the Ottomans, I wanted a city on the hill to the coast of the capital. This has caused a great deal of pain but I have managed to get things together eventually.

I lost the city of Linz countless times starting turn 146 and only recovered it permanently on turn 171.
Lost 2 elite units and also failed 1 coup at 72%.

fun and weird event : My Warrior was a Pikeman before I could produce Spearmen. That is a first time.

turn 50:
View attachment 661116

Turn 100:

View attachment 661117

Turn 150:

View attachment 661118


turn 200: Built Eiffel Tower, finishing Brandenburg Gate, won World's fair, tech leader. Ottomans have been neutralized with the help of Voluntary Army. First to ideology turn 179. Capital will be 200 production powerhouse after I'll get a Factory.

View attachment 661138

Nice cap! Sun god in its full working! Are you going for x coms?

 

[Tiberiu]

Nice cap! Sun god in its full working! Are you going for x coms?

Thanks! Your beggining strat also looks very good.
I think I will go for a lot of airplanes to conquer stuff. I don't think I will get to xcoms. Seems like Bombers and paratroopers will be enough and I have tons of elite gatlings.
But...

My issue is I can't capture cities because I'm on revolutionary wave, so I might just go ahead and bulb my scientists for the Internet, building Sydney Opera + CN tower along the way.

 

[raider980]

This has been wild beginning. I was at war with 3 of the 5 AI I had met in the early game all at once. That has never happened before. The AI are all attacking each other. A capital has been lost. Several cities have been lost. I got a T80 something NC, which is very early for me on Deity. Exciting things happening all around.

Spoiler Up to T100 :

To start out my warrior went south, ouch, ugly terrain. The marble it is for my capital. T1; settle Vienna on the marble. Decided I wasn't even going to go for a religion so went AH first instead of Pottery. (This notion would change when I meet the two religious CS). Got pretty good ruins: Map, Culture twice, Mining, Gold, Scarcher.

T24 Atilla asks me to DoW Caesar. Sure why not, it would be good to get those two fighting and I'm not really near Rome.

T25 A lone Brazillian settler appears. Yea, I'll take that. At war with AI #2. I'm just going to throw caution to the wind this game.

T26 Pantheon - Sun God.

T36 Hmm, an Ottoman settler escorted by a warrior appears to be coming for my first expo location and may beat my settler there by a turn or two. Oh nice, barbs have attacked the warrior and got him down to a sliver of health. I can probably block the settler so the barbs can capturre it but he might just settle prematurely and I'd lose my spot. So I attack, killing the warrior and taking the settler. At war with AI #3!

T71-72. A great set of turns. Monte takes Rio on T71. They peace out. Then on T72, Sulieman DoW Monte. And a GPr is born. Found Viennese Protestantism with Tithe and Mosques.

T75. Oh no, it happened again. My second scout (a scarcher) is trapped in another AI territory. Will need to just wait for open borders or war.

As of T100; Monte has Rio. Sulieman has two of Monte's cities. Rome is about to lose a city to Atilla. And I'm at peace down in my corner of the world. I would really love to marry Lhasa for Sri Pada but I'm not allied atm and they have no quests. I might just marry LaVenta now for all their army. Unfortunately, I don't have a plan for when to attack or how. At least there are a couple coastal capitals that I can see.

 

[Nizef]

Based on your excellent reports, there still is a demand for Deity games! Btw. the number of GotM games will increase for the rest of the year. Vadalaz and myself aim to offer two games a month! We will use the "old" style rotation of difficulty (Prince-King-Emperor-Immortal-Deity), which means that there will be 3 MORE games on Deity and 3 on Immortal during 2023.

 

[raider980]

Hello everyone,

I've got turn 0-100 update.

Spoiler :

How on earth (or a CiV map) do you get Xbows and trek them all the way to Atilla's Court by T100? That's crazy! I'll never understand how good players can do the things they do.

 

[basior]

I upgraded them in Attila's Court after capturing 3 cities with CB. Also it very good practice to at least try to pre build some roads to your next victim.

 

[raider980]

Based on your excellent reports, there still is a demand for Deity games! Btw. the number of GotM games will increase for the rest of the year. Vadalaz and myself aim to offer two games a month! We will use the "old" style rotation of difficulty (Prince-King-Emperor-Immortal-Deity), which means that there will be 3 MORE games on Deity and 3 on Immortal during 2023.

Oh cool! Does that mean the "old" way where the first of the month would rotate between Prince-King-Emperor and the second one of the month rotates between Emperor-Immortal-Deity (or maybe just Immortal-Deity? can't remember).

I upgraded them in Attila's Court after capturing 3 cities with CB. Also it very good practice to at least try to pre build some roads to your next victim.

Still impressive; never hit XBow that early! I won't get XBow until T130. But just married Lhasa and got a lot of CB and Pikes and may just go for Atilla too, but he's got two cities in the way of Atilla's Court so maybe not.

 

[Nizef]

Oh cool! Does that mean the "old" way where the first of the month would rotate between Prince-King-Emperor and the second one of the month rotates between Emperor-Immortal-Deity (or maybe just Immortal-Deity? can't remember).

Old in the sense that the games will follow a certain recognizable pattern and not have two games of equal difficulty level in succession. What we have been outlining is that 221 will be on Prince, 222 on King, 223 on Emperor and so on.

 

[Tiberiu]

I'm preparing to finish my first Game of the Month... now turn 275 and I've achieved my goals from earlier.

Spoiler :

I've managed to create a good capital with powerful Science and Production and surprisingly I have also created a small defensive fleet starting out with a single Privateer. A few frigates, ironclads, even a submarine which I've upgraded to Nuclear version, and many caravals that have scouted the map and pillaged a few cargo ships.
I'm still the tech leader and I haven't even used my Scientists, plus soon I'll build Hubble. I should probably build the Great Firewall so that they can't steal my advanced techs.
Since there are now so many anti-air units out there, I think the simplest way is to bulb Stealth Bombers, and nuke the strongest capitals with the nuclear submarine.

edited for grammar

 

[luvencedus]

I've always struggled with Deity games... Trying to move on tho
Turn 120, managed to settle 3 cities, but Attila is about to snatch my north city. Didn't manage to settle on east coast, Ottomans blocked my, so I plan to grab it when opportunity will arise.
Got plenty of happiness from gold/silver/citrus and trading the last one when needed. Also Vienna has 15pop (thanks to God of Sun pantheon) so can build up really fast.

 

[sebtanic]

Turn 121 here. Going well so far.

What an awesome starting location! So much space for some powerful cities, especially with the Sun God pantheon.

I settled in place and built 2 scouts, then a monument. Stumbled upon a culture ruin right away and decided to go Tradition. My first settler went to Mt Kailash and got there in time for me to buy the tile before the city state got it. Settled next to the river, 2 tiles SE of the NW, in order to get the salt relatively quickly.

My second expo was supposed to go on the eastern hill on the shore, but Brazil beat me to the location. So I sent the settler west instead, to build expo 2 on the gold. This turned out to be a great spot as well, with lots of fish and precious metal: Silver, gold, and iron.

I DOWed Brazil planning to raze his city and build the eastern expo anyway. Sent some 4 CBs over, but he was allied with La Venta who had Pikes. Pikes! I wasn't even close to having pikemen at that point. They effectively prevented me from taking Brazil's city, so I changed plans and used the CS troops for target practice instead to gain some XP. Made peace with Brazil soon after, who are now my main trading partner.

My army went west torward's Attila's Court. When I got there, the Hunnic capital was already down to half its hit points. They were being conquered by Rome.

I almost managed to take them out first, but they were defended by a Range 3 promoted Horse Archer. It effectively blocked my army from taking the capital even though I got quite close. Rome actually beat me to capturing the city, thus eliminating the Huns. On the upside, this means that Rome takes the diplo hit instead of me.

I DOWed Rome right away and took Attila's Court easily now since it wasn't properly defended. It did change sides a couple of times, but at turn 121 I can say it is now definitely mine. I'm upgrading my units to XBs and Pikemen.

EDIT: Oh and Attila's Court had Statue of Zeus, which is awesome as it was the first city I conquered. Now I get a +25% bonus for all future conquests ​

Next session I play, I will make a decision whether to send my army to Rome or towards the recently discovered continent to the west with France on it. It may be worth taking them out before they start their culture/tourism spam thing.

 

[basior]

turn 100-159

Spoiler t 100-159 :

t100-139
After a long crusade finaly captured Rome(3 Cesars’s cities in total). Rough terrain and lots of good tier troops cartainly made it quite tricky. Lost 2 meele units. Monty and Suleiman DoWed me. As XB will quickly becime obselete the plan is to kill Aztecs and Brazil with what i have atm and wait for Frigates to finnish Suleiman. Then planning for t180ish Dynamite for Napoleon and Gaja. Policy wise I went full Liberty and experimented with Honor's left brach (as my troops were gifted to CS to upgrade and didn't have much time to farm). Techwise, at turn 139 I went for frigates before Arty.

139-159
As planned I attacked Aztecs (2nd army plus trebuchets) and Brazil (1st army) from Kathmandu and Brasilia/São Paulo sides. Lost 1 XB promotion on insta heal and a knight. With 5 frigates and a privateer im planning on taking Istanbul and making peace. Land armies splitting to swim to a new continent form both sides. Bribing AIs to fight (I think France will easily attack) each other and take like an easy city or two. Upgrade to Cannons,Cavalary and proceed. If I see heavy resistance then I'll wait for the Arties.

 

[zxcvbob]

Turn 228. I don't think I'm going to win this one. But unlike Rome, Brazil, and Aztecs, I'm not losing I'm just far behind (about 10 to 12 techs behind the remaining AIs). Too far behind to make a move. Soon I need to figure out which ideology to pick. Attila picked Order. Suleman picked Autocracy and had already built Prora. I'll probably have to go Order because that's what France picked, then declare war on Suleman (if he doesn't DOW me first) and capture Prora. Suleman is the tech leader at the moment. Unlike most deity games, I'm still hanging in there. I'm actually friends when both the Huns and Ottomans, but that will change as soon as I pick an ideology, unless one of them backstabs me before I get that far. AFAIK, nobody built Statue of Liberty, so Freedom is tempting (and is the ideology I'm most familiar with) but I know I can't take on Attila and Suleman at the same time. Maybe Gajah Mada will build it and I can steal it.

Spoiler :