TSG 61 Opening Actions

[Hammer Rabbi]

Welcome to the TSG61 Opening Actions thread. This thread is used to discuss the game once you've started playing through your first 100 turns. There are no posting restrictions as such (apart from normal decency), although we encourage players 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.

STOP - Please do not continue reading this thread until you have completed at least 80 to 100 turns in your game.

Please use this thread to discuss your goals for the game and your opening moves through the first 100 turns. We are going to try something new and limit your game description in this thread to the first 100 turns. Anything after that should be posted in the After Action thread once you have completed your game.

- How did the terrain and map affect your early decisions?
- What were your initial priorities?
- What tech path did you follow and why?
- Were there any early wars and who started them?
- What Social Policies did you choose and why?
- What Wonders did you build or miss out on?

 

[Tammo]

Hooray, I'm the first
Played 111 Rounds now, love the map! Here are my first actions

Short Story
Settled on the hill east from the starting Location

Build Order Capital
Monument, Warrior (raging barbarians made me scared), Granary, GL (R42 or 43) (I didn't have to build a Shrine, cause I was the first to find Jerusalem and second the other religious CS, so I got lucky and the first Believe (I chose fertility rites for growth)), archer, horse archer, NC, ToA, HG, Oracle (must be T 75), Water Mill, TA, Chichen Itza...

Buy Order
Worker (T30), Settler (T70)
Worker updated the horses and the cow (2 are great), the plain horses, Wheat, Cotton, Silver and now he is farming along the River
Got another Worker from a barbarian Camp near the religious CS around T 60, he helped a lot, I hate working non modernized tiles (CIV 4 habbit, I think ).
Settled something like T 75, one turn before Oracle finished. So the free Aquesuct was there from the Start.

Build Order Houston (Second City, I think this is due to Scorge of God, so the americans should be here )
Monument, Granary, try to get Petra (one CS demands it, and i can't build this in the Capital (dont know why).

Religion + Faith generation
Cause I got a Pantheon ~T5, i didnt build a shrine, and planned to ally with the religious CS near my Capital
Killed some barbarians and cleared some camps near the religious CS, been allied with both since turn 70 or so, so I got a Religion like T 80 and enhanced it ~ 105, took fertility rites, papal primacy, Divine Inspiration (build 6 WW so far, this seems to be good), Cathedrals (for the artist slot), holy order (I plan to spread my religion to all the CS around me, I need a lot of missionarys).

- How did the terrain and map affect your early decisions?
First decision was to move the settler on the hill and found my city there. Its kind of a Civ IV habit to settle on hills. Production bonus is always worth it! First I planned an OCC but the spot near the mountain in the east was to tempting to not build another city there. Its on the Coast, near a mountain and full of Ressources. Since there are so many CS near my Capital I decided to found a Religion with the CS-believe and take Patronage to be always at friend status with the CS. I was surprised by the amount of free culture moving throug my lands (barbarians) I knew, there where raging barbarians but I'd never played this.
I was thinking about Wonderspamming, to get the Culture.
Scouted with my second warrior and I know nearly all of my Continent know T111. Just the little piece west of England...

- What were your initial priorities?
My first priority was to get the GL and take Philosophy for free. I thougt it would be great to have the National College for the science bonus. Second priority was to open up honor and get a decent army (like 2 Warriors, 2 Archers) in order to farm some culture and befriend or ally with some CS due to kill some barbs. Also I wanted to build ToA and Hanging Gardens cause the Capital should be BIG. I wanted to time the Generation of great persons so I get two at the same stage. I'm proud that I managed to get an artist and a scientist same time (first ever!)

- What tech path did you follow and why?
Masonry, Writing, Calendar, Archery, mining, the path to mathematics, the technology for theaters and after it I followed the path to Education more or less

- Were there any early wars and who started them?
England declared war on spain turn 50 or later, dont know

- What Social Policies did you choose and why?
Honor opener cause I wanted to kill barbs for Culture,
Tradition Opener, Aristocracy for the Productions Bonus for Wonders (I found Ramesses he got writing fast (perhaps R 15 or so) so I thought this would help), Legalism (for the free Theater and a monument in the other city (wasn't founded), Landed Elite for the Bonus, Landed Elite for the gold, Oligarchy for the Aqueduct .
Patronage Opener and the Polocies up to the one, which grants 20 Influence on CS. I Plan to Open Piety after this.

- What Wonders did you build or miss out on?
Didn't miss any wonder I build. Started with the GL, took NC, ToA, HG, Oracle, Terracotta Army, Chichen Itza
I think this collection is self explaining for a Cultural Win
I took the belief which grants 2 faith per Wonder in order to have a serious Fountain of faith so I plan to Wonder Spam, since this is King

Last a Picture of the Hunnic Empire T111

Spoiler :

 

[glory7]

Settled on the hill east of the starting point. Met 2 religious CS in like 5 turns and got first pantheon. Religious idols seemed to be the best choice.

Cap BO: monument - scout - warrior (granary bought) - worker - GL (lost it at t42...) - 2 settlers - ToA - library - HG - NC - wonders like CI, terracotta
2nd city: east of cap, coast silver. granary - library bought - stable - oracle - Machu Pichu.
3rd city: NW of cap, "petra" city. granary - lib bought - petra - wonders

SP: tradition opener - honor opener - tradition fill (around t80) - piety till RT (oracled reformation).

tech: pot - mining - writing - archery - calendar - drama - currency - philo - education - acoustics - astronomy - architechure - archaeology.

Met 3 civs around t15 - got gold from them to buy granary. I spent early hammer and gold on units (bought warrior,scout, and archer), especially when I saw that there is a barb camp 3 tiles SW from my cap.

As I saw lots of barbs, I decided to take a different path this time and opened honor right after opening tradition. There were two "culture farming" places - barb camp near cap and barb camp near 2nd city (2 tiles SE from the city). Both of them are isolated from other CS or civ so I did free-farm. That gave me lots of culture and I could finish tradition around t80.

The problem was GL. I honestly did not expect AI to get GL at t42, at king level, even though it was Egypt with good starting position. I was about to ragequit when I saw the messege.

I decided to expand early and delay NC (original plan was 1 city NC and expand). Did not have enough gold, so hard built 2 settlers. I used oracle earlier than usual as I feared that somebody like egypt might take it.

After getting petra up (I admit that I was really scared of losing it), I built 1 horse archer and 2 rams and killed egypt (t122) and got "my" wonders, including GL, back. And I annexed egypt cap for my 4th city. I attacked Spain with 2 rams and got 2 cities including the cap (England already killed all of her units before so 2 rams were enough). Of course, London was the next target.

I was surprised to see that I actually entered ind era before t160, as I thought missing GL and late NC would mean really slow tech. I did not even use Oxford. My spy leveled up by staying at cap and killing other spies, and went to iro cap and stole several techs in the bottom line as I was beelining for archaelogy.

 

[Vintage Port]

Put my current game I'm playing on hold to play this one as it really intrigued me as I've never played Attila.

This has been an interesting map but I'm all over the place with policies/techs/culture and my timing is way off. Not used to playing this way. I'm just glad it is King so it is a bit more forgiving

I thought going in (before I explored) that I would do a 2 or 3 city CV. Keep the number of cities small and try to grow them big and work a ton of specialist spots. I ended up only doing 2 cities total, settled 2nd city to the East on the coast. I kept debating on a desert city to the NW near the Nat Wonder but just couldn't pull the trigger. All that wheat kept calling my name. It still isn't settled but it is turn 100 now and I doubt I will settle any more cities.

I was very late getting NC - turn 100. I had planned a 2 city NC but it took me almost 10 turns to get my settler to the coast as the camp I thought would be easy to clear kept pumping out barbs. I believe there were about 5 barbs when I sent my 2 units to the coast.

I also wanted to time my Trad social policies to get 2 free amphitheaters and totally blew the timing of building my monument in my 2nd city (by 1 turn) as I killed too many barbs and had to put an extra couple points into Honor. Not a bad thing but my timing is messed up.

I did snag Temple of Artemis, Stonehenge and about to complete Terracotta Army. Next up is CI, but I think I'm a bit late due to my slow science/NC. We will see if I get it, not sure how early it goes on King.

I've been abusing Egypt beating on their units and their capital taking peace instead of finishing them off. I may just let them build a few more wonders for me and puppet them later. I'll use and abuse them for a little longer.

Frustrated that Spain and England are cash starved. It has really slowed me down not being able to sell my lux for decent gold. Only one with gold is Egypt and he denounced me as soon as I stole a worker from a CS under his protection. I told him to shove it, he didn't like it too much

Spain and England don't seem to mind that I'm beating him up as they are too busy waring themselves.

Overall this culture stuff is bizarre and I have no idea what my finish time will be like. My science sucks - that is all I know. I need to get Uni's up ASAP and somehow get to Astronomy. Seems a long way off.

Definitely been fun and interesting though.

One dumb move was clearing the barb camp to the SW. I should have just kept farming barbs but got paranoid when Spain had a unit nearby and thought he might be able to clear the camp, so I cleared it. that was a lot of potential culture I am now missing.

EDIT - one other thing I find weird is I'm the only one who has a religion (Religious Idols, Tithe and Divine Inspiration (+2 faith per world wonder). I've bought one missionary and should be getting my 2nd prophet soon to enhance. Weird being turn 100 with the only religion. I plan on wonder spamming in my 2 cities to increase my faith so that I can spread my religion faster as well as purchase great people with faith later). I think I can really pump out the faith after I get my cities growing like crazy.

 

[Hieschen]

I am around turn 100 now

2 Cities, cap settled on the hill by the river, 2nd one in the desert between all the wheat. Hope to get petra there, if not, city will be cooked… I have to think how to find a GE, seems not a giveaway to get.

Very funny game, opened honour and i harvest (literally) the 2 barb camps. My timing was off once so got silver mine pillaged, doh.

Capital build Oracle, SH, Terracotta, NC and the NAtional Epic(?) the one which boosts GP.

Opened honour, finished tradition, opened piety. Got a religion, even though spanish scout beat me to both religious CS, so only 8 instead of 16 faith. Got my religion T80, took pilgrimage & cathedrals, before took culture from pastures (never used it, but if i don't try here, i will never use it)
Beelining now for Chichen Itza and not HS and Education. Will see what this brings.

Spain and England on each others throats, Ramses doesn't like me, took his wonders it seems. They are all piss poor, so not a lot of money to be milked. Have to hard build more than usual.

Seems a fun game, no coastal city, so world discovery will be very late.

I am now pondering if it is worth to continue harvesting the barbs or take my ponies and go knocking on some neighbours doors?

 

[Vintage Port]

Turn 120 update:

Put in spoiler since this thread is for the first ~100 turns

Spoiler :

My religion is enhanced (RT and Religious Community). One more missionary and everything should be under control and spreading like wildfire.

Crazy thing is, I'm still the only Civ with a relgion Turn 120 and no other religions yet? Bizarre. Anyone else having this situation?

Weird things going on lately in my games it seems. Like my immortal game where it took until turn 131 for an AI to research writing.

 

[Tammo]

Turn 120 update:

Put in spoiler since this thread is for the first ~100 turns

Spoiler :

My religion is enhanced (RT and Religious Community). One more missionary and everything should be under control and spreading like wildfire.

Crazy thing is, I'm still the only Civ with a relgion Turn 120 and no other religions yet? Bizarre. Anyone else having this situation?

Weird things going on lately in my games it seems. Like my immortal game where it took until turn 131 for an AI to research writing.

My answer is in the spoiler

Spoiler :

I didn't notice, but first religion by another civ was founded ~ T130

 

[AE_]

I am at turn 135, and I just started researching Architecture. I will probably get Archaeology close to turn 155.

My game looks very similar to Glory7's. But I got the GL, and have only conquered Egypt.

A big mistake in my game was that i didn't research optics before turn 90, so it took a long time before I met Brussels and Yerevan

 

[ellgieff]

This is the third GOTM I've downloaded, but the first I've got to 100 turns without feeling like I've completely messed it up (hence the first I've posted about )

I've never done a culture win, never played Attila and haven't been playing this game for long, so it's been an interesting learning experience.

Settled my capital on the hill just east of the start, and Attila's court has been producing ridiculous hammers.

100 turns I have 3 cities - one on the desert hill by the coast, and one between all that wheat. Things are going OK, although I'm wondering if I should be being more aggressive with my neighbours.

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

The silver all around the start made me want to get religious early (for Religious Idols). My early BO in the cap was monument -> Scout -> Shrine for this reason. Liz grabbed Stonehenge, though, which I think I should've prioritised higher.

- What were your initial priorities?

Get a pantheon, get mining, get the production capabilities of the capital pumping.

- What tech path did you follow and why?

I've been a little lost on the tech path. Kind of all over the show, rather than beelining for anything. I grabbed Drama with the GL for a free amphitheatre - I'm not yet number crunchy enough to try to time the polices such that I can get free amphitheatres all over.

- Were there any early wars and who started them?

Isabella asked by to go to war with Liz. I declined politely, and she fought on her own. I was surprised that Darius was afraid of me, although I was even more surprised to find that horse archers didn't require horses, and have built more of those than I expected.

Having never played for a culture victory before I planned to turtle, but right now it feels like I'm stalled rather than building up.

- What Social Policies did you choose and why?

I opened Honour first for the culture from barbs, but have messed that up by clearing camps. A particularly egregious mistake was killing a barb in a camp with a horse archer, just in time for Liz to clear the camp, grab the worker that was there and complete quests for both Jerusalem and Antwerp.

Then Tradition, which I just filled at 98. Tradition because, well, it's so very good and I don't expect to settle any more cities.

- What Wonders did you build or miss out on?
I've built GL, TOA and the Pyramids, Liz got Stonehenge and I'm building the Oracle now ...

It's been interesting so far, for sure.

 

[pkf]

settled on river hill 1E. got free pantheon from meeting the 2 CSes, picked monument of the gods as I thought I would have too little use too late of Religious Idols. Helped speeding up wonders significantly, got GL t39 because i was afraid of Egypt (he had Writing 10 turns before me and great start).

cap was monument-scout-worker (granny bought)-GL-(2 warris bought)-NC (settler bought)-SH-HG-Stable-Oracle.

Had no luck with the religious CS so I had to get SH and just founded (t82) and will have cathedrals late. Had to buy 2 warriors to keep up with the camp spawn SW of cap. Got all other encampments for culture CS and gave worker back to Prague.

Second city was founded right after NC was done, bought granny and built lib, now building Petra, hopefully getting it - 4 CS want it, 3 of them cultural. That would be an insane (and lucky) boost to my culture.

Policy was straight up Tradition, now Patronage to Scholasticism and then Piety for RT.

I will probably not settle a third city myself but conquer instead.

 

[Maxym]

to Egypt of course, i never expected king AI to be so efficient, even Egypt.

But i figured i will get it back, it set me behind of course, hence such late education.
I settled two more cities, on coastal silver, east of cap and near NW desert. That was a gamble as i did not expect to have GE to rush it.

Got early pantheon, despite being 2nd to one of religious CS, took DF, but maybe idols would have been better. Took honor opener after trad and farmed barbs. But had to kill one camp as english warriors were about to destoy one.
When i disbanded the one next to cap, it had four quests on it

Decided to go after Egypt early once Liz took his only other city, with two HA, warrior and ram, and i took the diplo hit. Liz was next, with three HA, two rams, warrior and scout. Lost the warrior and scout as bait. Left her one city for now, and working on Izzy (t145) now. I wiited for both of them to get wonders of their own, even though i wont annex those cities it might pay off.

I was late to most benchmarks, and i am sure i will continue to be, but it is still a fun game, Attila the culture warrior

Hope for sub 260 finish.

Spoiler :

 

[ense7en]

I see a common theme here, people losing GL early.

I'm very glad i didn't bother going for it.

Instead i went for Temple of Artemis as first wonder.

 

[cvillfan]

Hi everyone. I have been lurking for a while but this is my first post and first GOTM. I thought Atilla/culture was interesting. I am not doing as well as some of you, but here's my summary at Turn 100:

- How did the terrain and map affect your early decisions?
I settled on the hill directly to the East, just like it seems everyone did. I explored up to the Northwest and met the two religious city-states, met jerusalem before anyone else, so I figured I could get an early pantheon.

- What were your initial priorities?
I wanted to get some faith and culture generation. Being Atilla, I decided to try to do it through agression. Built a shrine and got my pantheon on 26. I had never played with raging barbarians, but by the turn I was taking my pantheon, I had barbarians surrounding my capital. There was a camp very close. Decided to take God of War in hopes of getting a bunch of faith from farming that camp. That was mildly successful, but then Spain had to come in and kill the camp with a scout. I took the first two tradition policies and then opened honor for +culture from kills. Built/bought about 4 archers and a horse archer and went around farming camps for culture.

At turn 100, I should have a great prophet any turn now. I will have the second religion, the first was founded on 98.

- What tech path did you follow and why?
I deviated some, but my general thrust was to get to philosophy ASAP. I ignored the great library, and it turns out I was right to do so. When I got philosophy, I decided that the Oracle is more important than NC in this game. Completed Oracle at 97 and should have NC at 106.

- Were there any early wars and who started them?
England and Spain have been fighting on and off. I was briefly at war with Genoa because I stole a worker.

- What Social Policies did you choose and why?
I opened tradition, took the culture building policy, then opened honor, then filled out tradition. I have 7 policies so far.

- What Wonders did you build or miss out on?
I built a national epic and the oracle. I am currently building a national college. I have been spending a lot of my resources on military so that when I get construction (4 turns left) I can open a can on someone.

I am a little behind on most of my goals (didn't have the early cash flow. Difficult to improve luxuries with all those barbs around!), but I do have a second city that I didn't get up until 75 or so. That one I founded over on the coast by all the silver. I bought a library in that city to facilitate the NC. Now I am teching up to construction and I think I will probably try to take genoa, because they have a really nice location and those three cities together can be nice and defensible. I can then go after Egypt and puppet those cities. That's the plan for now anyways.

 

[leif erikson]

Hi everyone. I have been lurking for a while but this is my first post and first GOTM. I thought Atilla/culture was interesting.

Welcome to CivFanatics and GOTM. Best of luck in your game.

 

[zxcvbob]

I was looking thru the list of old TSG games, and this one intrigued me, so I started it last night. I went straight from vanilla to BNW way back when, so I'm not sure exactly how G&K works. I settled on the hill to the east and first thing I built was a monument, then a warrior, archer, granary, shrine, horse archer, HA, HA, and I don't remember after that.

I tributed all the CS's and this pissed-off Ramses immensely because he had pledged to protect them all. I captured Lhasa and puppeted it, and about that time I got my Liberty settler and sent him east to the coast by the mountain. Egypt and Spain jointly declared war on me, and I killed tons of Spanish units (mostly warriors and catapults), leveling up my HA's. Egypt didn't do much; just sent an occasional chariot to Lhasa for me to kill. When I'd destroyed the entire Spanish military, I offered her peace for all her gold and GPT so I could focus on Thebes. I captured Thebes without much trouble and puppeted it; it was Egypt's only city. I did lose one of my two battering rams. Isabella turned friendly soon after the peace deal, but I know she is deceptive like that. I paid her to DoW England; figured that would keep them both busy.

I annexed Lhasa because it's a really good city, also I wanted to build a wonder there for the culture bonus when I get a little deeper in the Piety tree (Machu Picchu) and so it can buy a cathedral.

I could push into the Renaissance era, but I'm lollygagging in Medieval so I can buy cheap cathedrals and missionaries longer. Also I'd like to clear this continent before meeting the rest of the world.

Honor opener, full Liberty (free worker before free settler) and a great scientist for the finisher, then started on Piety. Not sure what policy trees to go for next; Tradition or Commerce. I'm supposed to fill 5, right? and I've locked out Rationalism by opening Piety?

I had to go back to Honor for a free great general when Isabella and Elizabeth DoW'd me around turn 150. Apparently even tho' they hate each other, they hate me more. Spain laid siege to Attila's Court with pikes, conquistadors, and many many catapults. AC is on a hill and has walls, so it was never really in danger; I targeted the cats first and rushed a few pikes to block the conquistadors. Eventually I killed all her pikes and most of the conq's as they tried to retreat, and pushed to the nearest Spanish city, I think it was Barcelona. I captured and razed it and was about to advance on Madrid when she offered me all her gold and all her luxuries for peace. I'd lost several good units in that last battle so I accepted. Conquistadors are dangerous because they can see you from a long ways off and you can't see them. They can take out a HA with one punch, and one even managed to kill a not-quite-full-health longswordsman. So I'll need more pikes next time, and muskets, and knights with March*. Now I'm marching to England. I don't know exactly where London is because she never would give me an embassy, but I know where York, Nottingham, and Hastings are, and London should be right behind that. I will burn all of their cities down except London and Madrid. I need to make some room so my barbarian friends can come back.

I've built quite a few wonders and I stole Stonehenge and Great Library from Egypt. I think the only wonders I was building and got beat were Zeus and Great Lighthouse. I stopped building Zeus when it was almost done because I needed some pikes more than I needed another wonder. I'll have to update this tonight with the wonder list. Attilas Court built ToA, Oracle, Pyramids, and the Great Mosque. Southwold built Petra, Colossus, and Mausoleum. Lhasa built Machu Piccho and is currently working on Circus Maximus. Someone on another continent built Notre Dame before I'd researched Physics.

*HA's are nearing the end of their usefulness w/o a lot of promotions and I only have 3 or 4 veterans left, so I need to build a barracks and armory then train a few more and upgrade them right away to knights. I think I can take Accuracy II and March for my two promotions.