TSG 223 Opening Actions Thread

[vadalaz]

This thread is used to discuss the game's opening decisions and strategies through the first 100 or so turns. Here you can post questions related to the game and share your achievements/anger/frustration/victories while you play.

- 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 map type and raging barbarians affect your early decisions?
- Did you go for early conquest, or did you focus on infrastructure first?
- What Social Policies did you choose?
- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?
- Did you get a religion? What religious beliefs did you pick?

 

[Siddharta]

Just finished my playthough! This is my first GotM, so I'm kind of new to these threads. Any feedback welcome!

What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game? - How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions? - What were your initial priorities?

Looking at the starting terrain, I immediately liked tears of the gods. It's one of these pantheons that is very likely to get you a religion if you get 3 bonuses, so i definitely wanted a fast shrine. Religions are quite useful for domination victories especially IMO. The pearls encouraged fast researching of sailing, which is normally kind of annoying. However, raging barbarians + fractal is a very nice combination for ottomans, and getting out early triremes will allow you to snowball quickly with the prize ships. So early game was rushing pantheon, getting sailing + some early triremes and settling at least 2 extra cities for me.

Where did you settle and what did you build first?

I settled the gems and started with monument. Scouts are usually useless on fractal maps IMO. After monument I put some turns in a warrior and switched to shrine immediately after researching pottery.

What tech path did you follow and why?
Pottery (Early shrine as indicated) => Mining (for gem happiness) => Animal husbandry (getting the extra horse production) => Sailing (Early trireme snowball + pearls)

What Social Policies did you choose?
Tradition, because it is most useful for quick growth and early snowballing. I wanted a fast snowbally domination victory here with prize ships. Since most combat would likely be sea based, the great general from honor wouldn't be very useful, and also I wasn't sure if a) the honor bonuses apply to ships b) if I capture a barbaian ship with prize ships, would I still get the gold/culture?

What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?
I wanted great lighthouse, but got distracted and didn't even start it. I did get colossus, it was still available quite late so I kind of picked it up. I did not focus wonders here, they tend to get in the way of warmongering.

Did you get a religion? What religious beliefs did you pick?

As indicated before: Tears of the gods into quite an early religion with tithe + pagodas (gold and happiness are most important for early domination victory I think).

Moderator Action: Welcome to CivFanatics. Moved to TSG223 Opening Action thread. leif

 

[vadalaz]

Just finished my playthough! This is my first GotM, so I'm kind of new to these threads

Welcome! It looks like you meant to post this in the TSG #223 (Ottomans) opening actions thread. @leif erikson can you please move the posts to the correct thread? Perhaps @Nizef and I should add links to opening/after action threads in game announcements for convenience, and/or include civilization names in thread titles?

I wasn't sure if a) the honor bonuses apply to ships b) if I capture a barbaian ship with prize ships, would I still get the gold/culture?

All ships get extra XP from Military Tradition, and melee ships also receive the adjacent unit combat bonus from Discipline. However, you don't get extra production to melee ships with Warrior Code. You do get culture and gold even when you capture enemy ships.

 

[raider980]

Started off slow as on all island maps. Went scout, monument, shrine. Once I had scouted our not so large island I figured I'd need to get the top of the tech tree sooner rather than later not to mention we're the Ottomans. There looked to be enough spots for 4 good cities and maybe 5 on the Gem on the small island to the south (probably not though, not worth 2 faith).

Went full Tradition and then plan to go into Exploration. Got 3rd pantheon on T41, Tears of the Gods. Religion ended up being Tithe, Mosques, Iterant Preachers and +production for each follower since we are going to be production starved in this game in some cities.

When I met Dido I knew I better get my navy up and running so decided to go for a Galleas rush. And then when I spied a Carthaginian settler on my island I cursed myself for not stationing a unit on the east coast even though I had thought of it earlier. Well at least they didn't settle where I wanted to; I'll just have to burn that city to the ground later.

Not much happening so far, just exploring and building infrastructure. And even though we're friendly at the moment, I know a Carthaginian Quinnemarine navy will appear over the horizon soon enough and I need to be prepared.

 

[JeffreyLXV]

I'm so glad Civ5 GoTM is still at thing.

 

[jrwh]

Went for the gems/river/coast settle as discussed in Announcement Thread. Elected not to put a point in Honor once I realized just how small our island is; instead of farming a camp or camps, I'd rather keep vision on the whole island and not have them spawn at all. Decided 3 city Trad was the play given the layout. Researched Bronze Working fairly early to assess the iron situation, and whether or not I'd have to settle a 4th city to get it; it did end up changing my first settle from on the western marble to the adjacent hill in order to gain the only iron tile on the island, which will of course be important for frigates later. Overall a slow start due to not meeting many civs, going out of my way tech-wise for early BW and Fishing/Optics, etc.

Capital went: warrior -> start worker -> switch to shrine -> granary -> finish worker -> second worker -> settler x2 (at pop 5). Figured I wouldn't need a scout after two turns of initial warrior exploring (settled on t2), nor monument for going Trad. Thought the two warriors would be enough for the one or two barb camps I'd have to deal with along the way. I had one immediately to the north next to my expand which I cleared easily, then one spawn to the east that I just finished clearing which gave me problems, mostly because it was causing my game to crash every turn it spawned an archer. Glad that's cleared. It did capture a Carthage settler for me, so I'm leaving my troops over there to keep vision and block further potential settles.

Grabbed Tears of the Gods for a pantheon and founded a religion some turn in the late 70s. Got Tithe and Follower Production, nothing better available. Squeezed out 5 triremes, 3 to protect my trade routes feeding the capital, and 2 to explore. Also 2 archers since I had nothing better to build at the time. Currently still 2 turns from finishing my NC, like I said earlier, it's a slooow start. Prioritizing growth and science as much as I can; teching towards Civil Service and then Education/Universities, from there it's straight to Navigation and hopefully naval domination. Likely skipping workshop tech entirely.