TSG 227 Opening Actions Thread

[Nizef]

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 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 get a religion? What religious beliefs did you pick?

 

[raider980]

Whew, a slow start but things are picking up now. Even Spearmen with Ikanda promotions are awesome (even though I lost two of them in the Battle for Rome).

Ruins were: Utterly worthless map reveal, pop, archery, culture. I was dumb and lost 1 pop in Ulundi after building my first settler because I forgot to change the tiles back for food.

- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
Thought about how best to smash everyone with Impi. The choice was Liberty or Honor but needed to wait for the lay of the land to tell me.

- Where did you settle and what did you build first?
Settled in place. I moved the warrior north to check out a reason to settle on the wine like mentioned in the announcement thread and... there was nothing but bare tundra up there. Went typical Scout, Scout, Monument.

- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions? - What were your initial priorities?
Terrain wasn't as brutal as I was expecting. I tried to send an early settler to the Silver down south but Rome beat me to it. Surprised the AI expanded so quickly on King. My settler was a couple moves from the prime Silver hill when bam, up pops Antium.

- What tech path did you follow and why?
Headed to Impi but needed to get to optics because of that big lake.

- What Social Policies did you choose?
Opened Tradition as usual. Then chose full Honor after the land didn't seem that amenable to Liberty.

- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?
I don't usually go for early wonders. And never go for Colossus or Great Lighthouse because the AI seem to like them. But I didn't have anything to build in Ulundi and happiness was killing me because the AI didn't have anything to/didn't want to trade, so I put everything into hammers and goth both Colossus and GLH!

- Did you get a religion? What religious beliefs did you pick?
Got a religion. Pantheon was Goddess of Festivals because of the wine. Got Tithe and Pagodas too.

Here's a screenshot of T101 and one of T128 & T134 in spoilers. Nothing more is revealed in maps of the later screenshots that's not in T101 and it was the first eventful thing that happened so included it here.

Spoiler T128-T134 :

The Battle for Rome. Rome actually DoW me at some point. Well good, I was going to attack them anyway because they took my awesome silver spot. I fought off Caesar's attack and took Cumae in a peace deal because it was in a very well defended location and didn't feel like fighting for it. It was also a terrible city in Jungle and desert so I burnt it to the ground. Then 10 turns later I attacked Antium, took it and burned it to the ground too so I could build my own city in a better location. One turn before I was in position and about to attack Rome itself; bam, up pops the Great Wall! I still got the city but it wasn't nearly as easy and I lost two well promoted Ikanda Spearmen.

 

[dumpstertrash]

Just wanted to quickly write about how my game is going so far, I will add a screenshot later.

I scouted north and grabbed a pop ruin. Found the NW and a few CSs. Popped writing through a ruin, a map and an upgrade on my scout. Found Romans, Persians and Songhai.

Since it's a Dom vic and we want quick times I went Liberty. I recently won a game going full Piety as Shaka and built/faith bought a massive army and Dominated the world fairly quickly, but figured Liberty would be faster.

Scout-Scout-monument-worker is how I started. Got my free settler and sent him to the river desert tile close to the NM. I now wish I was not on the river, and instead settled the coast. I very much might need an east coast city to build ships later.

I settled my 3rd city north to grab the gold. Decent production with horses and some deer. Stole some CS workers, built granaries and archers and some spearmen. sent a food caravan to my NW city so I could easily work 10gpt tile. Then after teching Construction I upgraded units. Also got a CS ally in the process (the mercantile one for happiness).

By turn 76 I declared war on Rome. Probably too early but no big deal. Sent some workers to build roads towards Rome for better CB movement. Lost a warrior, spearman and CB. All totally avoidable too, just bad planning on my part. Conquered Rome by turn 95. Got my NC up by turn 85ish. Didn't take Antium, but Rome is totally neutered.

Now my army is marching towards Persia. I see their capitol and one city to the SW of it. It's turn 106 and my army is about to launch an attack. I'm 3 turns away from Civil Service and my cities are making happiness buildings, markets, a courthouse and more military units. I will flood my enemies with death.

Last note, I have a GE sitting in my cap for until I hit Civil Service. I will use that to pop Oracle and use the SP for Commerce. I have a feeling very few ppl will trade with me. Askia and Persia have no economy to speak of and no extra luxes to trade (well, Persia has 1 extra lux but he's about to die anyway). Commerce will work well since I get happiness from every lux, plus I always want more $$ to manage my military.

 

[dumpstertrash]

Screenshots of turn 106. Forgot to mention I did ally another CS by taking out a barb camp and returning 2 workers after I took Rome. Also demanded tribute from 2 other CSs. Anyway, feel free to ask me anything about the game rn.