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