TSG73 Opening Actions

[xiziz]

- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
Slowed me down, think I'm still behind due to the Jungle. Settled on the coastal hill NW. Lots of calendar/plantation luxes, so went Oral Tradition for pantheon.
- What were your initial priorities?
Scout and prepare for war. Obviously I'm not fast enough preparing for war. Captured Constantinople(and eliminated Byzantine) T96, got the Stonehenge, not decided whenether I should adopt the Byzantine unfinished religion(Cathedrals and Mosques) or create my own.
- What tech path did you follow and why?
Pottery, Animal Husbandry, Archery, Mining, Bronze Working, Calendar, Masonry, Wheel into Construction(T73). Then Philosophy(T100). Next stops Metal Casting, Civil Service and then Education into Machinery/Physics/Steel. Setting up production and war.
- How did you decide your opening conquering plans?
Constantinople, good location so I wanted to take it out quick, also two unique luxes to help happy.
- What Social Policies did you choose and why?
Liberty felt right here, the savings to productions suited well in the low hammer environment. GE -> NC. Free worker & Settler
- Did you find the Kris Swordsman's random promotion to be useful/interesting?
Just finished my first two, taking them to Madrid in a few turns time.

Spoiler :

T0 Move warrior NE, Settler NW onto costal hill.
T1 Settle Jakarta on hill
T6 Ruins - Map
T22 Buy tile - Jakarta Deer
T29 Steal Worker(CS)
T46 Found Surabaya (North by Wine/Marble)
T69 Found Medan (South by Iron/Marble)
T78 DoW Byzantium
T96 Capture Constantinople (With Stonehenge)
T97 Spain & Huns DoW me
T102 GE -> Rush NC
T108 Steal Worker(CS previously allied to Byzantine)

Tech Order
Pottery
Animal Husbandry
Archery
Mining
Bronze Working
Calendar
Masonry
Wheel
Construction(T73)

SP Order
Open Liberty(T18)
Repulic(T25)
Collective Rule(T40)
Citizenship(T63)
Representation(T83)
Meritocracy(T102)

Religion
Oral Tradition(T45)(+1 culture on plantations)

Build Order - Jakarta
Scout
Monument
Scout
Shrine
Granery
Archer
Archer
Archer
Archer
Caravan
Warrior
Worker
Composite Bow
NC
Kris Swordsman
Kris Swordsman

Build Order - Surabaya
Monument
Archer
Library
Granery
Trireme
Circus

Build Order - Medan
Monument
Library
Composite Bow
Granery

 

[TheGrumpyBuddha]

I don't think I'm going to finish this one because of the slog factor but I got off to a pretty good start by avoiding the jungle -- walked south and planted myself next to a mountain and within 2 spots of 2 cows. Got the Great Library easily, ditto Oracle, stole settlers/workers and nobody DoW'd me though London denounced me a couple of times. Second settler planted around turn 75, next to a mountain and within 3 spots of 3 cows/sheep and a salt. Happiness not a problem even without doing much of Trad yet because Singapore freaking loves me and will for awhile (also have Salt, Spices, Gold, Marble).

Have 3 cities and can easily wipe out London/Paris/Attila in 30 turns prob after I build up, but I am not happy with the route I took tech-wise, in that after building the NC (only had one city, waited on planting the settler) and getting Civil Service around turn 85, I beelined to Machinery instead of getting Education first.

I think that was a big mistake as far as being able to post a great Domination time, and that's really the only reason to keep going - King is just too easy. But at this point I doubt I can post a pre-200 domination and I'd be shocked if the pros can't do it in less.

 

[Blicero]

Lots of hate in this thread! Poor HR.

I'm sticking with it to see how it goes. I like to try my hand at dealing with adversity. For all you guys whining about production, you just have to see the forest through the trees. Literally.

I settled on the hill one to the NW, built two scouts, monument, granary, GL, NC. I scratched my beard on the GL decision for a while when I saw 31 turns to build, but with production boost from liberty coming in one turn plus a couple of unemployed citizens, I decided to stick with it (got it down to 22 turns I think). While under construction I beelined to a quick BW which...

...combined with the two workers I stole from France and England I immediately went to work on those jungle hill tiles. I closed the session at T100 and production by then wasn't an issue anymore.

After BW I beelined optics so I could send my free settler over to that piece of land I spotted west of Byzantium. Ended up dropping a 2nd city right in the middle of al-Mansur's business. With it I grabbed gold and some nutmeg, and the Indonesian people are loving it. Moroccans less so, but we'll deal with that later.

War wise Isabella rushed me with a huge army of suicide warriors. Timely with the archer rush I was building and I razed Barcelona and capped Madrid. Atilla capped london, so that will be my next target.

So there I am at T100. Going for Machinery, then probably Astronomy. Would expect it to be gg then.

EDIT: with SS…

Spoiler :

 

[Lord Gruin]

- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
Settled in place. Built 2 scouts and a Monument first.
- What were your initial priorities?
Build the Great Library, then research what was needed to get the luxuries and find iron.
- How did you decide your opening conquering plans?
Didn't have any plans until I met all the players on the continent. About 15 turns ago, all kinds of Attila's units started appearing on my doorstep. Thought sure he was going to declare war. He had already had a skirmish with Napoleon. Moved what few soldiers I had to face him, bought another and built more. Ruined my economy and happiness, but he didn't declare.
- What Social Policies did you choose and why?
Started with Tradition to get extra production for the Great Library, the moved to Liberty.
- Did you find the Kris Swordsman's random promotion to be useful/interesting?
Have built a couple, but have not had them in combat yet.
Here is my position, showing some of Attila's forces still around.

Spoiler :

 

[Maverick_VII]

Tabarnak, could you help me out with a few points?

• Why buy the deer?
• Do you use the caravan for food or gold?
• Is 6 the go-to number for starting conquest with archers? What melee unit do you complement with?

Thanks!

 

[Maverick_VII]

Also, how do you get anything worthwhile for luxuries early? Now that you can't sell for gold without DOF, noone has enough GPT to make it good?

 

[Maxym]

I have answered inside the quote in red, hope it helps....

Tabarnak, could you help me out with a few points?

• Why buy the deer?
  
  Probably bc the tile will not be grabbed for a while by automatic border expansion and with granny it's a high yield tile and hammers are in short supply here as well.
  
  
• Do you use the caravan for food or gold?
  
  Tabarnak uses them for food mostly
  
  
• Is 6 the go-to number for starting conquest with archers? What melee unit do you complement with?
  
  With six you can afford upgrade to CB and enough TP clear units and bring down a cap. Starting warrior or even better spear and one more melee us all you need unless AI is sporting some tough ancient/classical UUs
  
  

Thanks!