6otM101 Opening Actions (only ~50 turns)

[Eyswein]

Welcome to the 6otM101 Opening Actions thread. Only 50 turns this game due to the game speed.

STOP - Please do not continue reading this thread until you have completed at least 40 to 50 turns in your game.

This thread is used to discuss the game once you've started playing through your first 50 turns. Apart from normal decency, the only posting restrictions are to please not post videos until the deadline is finished and 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.

Please use this thread to discuss your goals for the game and your opening moves through the first 50 turns. Anything after that should be posted in the After Actions thread once you have completed your game.

- What was your plan for achieving a Score VC? What are the major steps you planned to take? What events, if any, changed the plan in execution and to what new plan? Any interesting decision points?
- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
- Where did you settle your capital city? Why? Your second/third city? Why?
- Early order for technology/civics? What did you prioritize for technology/civics?
- What was your early build order in your capital and other early cities? Military units / Civilian units / Districts & city development / Wonders / Civ Unique Unit & Infrastructure? Most critical or interesting?
- Pantheon chosen and why? Religious beliefs chosen, and why?
- What governments did you select? What policy cards did you use? Why?
- Which Governors did you choose and why did you choose them?
- How long did it take to find your neighbors? What did you do for early diplomacy/trading? Peace or War (and by you or them)?
- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you nurture to your side?
- When did you have Dark/Golden ages?
- How did the 5 game modes affect your play? (Apocalypse, Dramatic Ages, Heroes & Legends, Secret Societies, Tech and Civic Shuffle)
- How were the Barbarians?
- Any surprises/frustration/elations?

Please use spoiler tags for any surprise details you'd like kept hidden. Thanks.

 

[Casualty of war]

Picture is Turn 91, first turn of the Industrial. So far, Golden throughout but it is getting difficult. I had to slow down some Era-earners until I finished Taj Mahal. I haven't met the last civ or circumnavigated yet so I should be able to get another Golden then launch Era Score should account for a good chunck of the rest.

I tried to King Arthur/Questing Knight rush the northern neighbor; it failed while still gaining me quite a bit of Eurekas, Inspirations and Era Score. I turned 3 Scouts I received from Tribal Villages into a mounted army but once I took their capital, one, two, three floods killed my Hero inside and dropped the population too low to withstand the Loyalty pressure. The same flood frenzy walloped me the second time I took their capital.

I got a double first meet so I initially got Amani then Liang, promoted til she could give me some environmental protection. Then Ultimate Pingala in my biggest city, Tikal. I jammed my capital right up next to Kilimanjaro and took the pantheon for volcanic soil, suspecting I might have some nearby real soon.

I have as tight a Maya core as I could manage and then some stragglers that are dealing with the penalty.

Spoiler :

 

[A. mexicanum]

Turn 52.

Well, I never play online speed, so I don't know how to properly play that. I guess it is easier to defend, since you can quickly build units, but harder to fight, since units become obsolete quicker. Yet I find it harder to decide which builds to prioritize, although it should not make a difference, besides units.

My plan for the game was/is to build my core empire around my capital for the leader ability. Push science to overtake the AI and conquer their citys late game, while getting the climate change under control.
I decided not to do an early war for several reasons.
1. Settlers become expensive and I want the AI to settle my citys.
2. I want as few units that require coal or oil as possible.
3. Most importantly: I really, really suck at it. (And I believe it is even harder on online speed.)

So I moved inlands to found as many citys as possible, and from what I could see, it seemed like a perfect grid (capital +12 citys) might be possible.


Well, turns out it was not possible, but 9 out of those 12 is not too bad. (7 so far, 2 more to go)

I took Pingala as Govenour to keep my capital working (floodplains and Kilimanjaro, oh boy).
Voidsingers as Secret society. Had preferred Vampires, but did not get them so far. Maybe I can snatch a few citys with them before going to war.
I got Himiko as first Hero and took suzerainity of Wolin, levied its miltary to snatch a few citys from Gilgamesh (around turn 35). But I only got warriors from Wolin, and Gilgamesh got its walls up just in time.


Only golden Ages so far, but I imagine that becoming very difficult late game.
So far everything is going well. My science is still pretty bad, but I don't have many campuses yet and not met any scientific city state, so I hope that will change soon.

Edit: For some reason I can'tupload any pictures to my media and therefore can't put them in my post, so I attached them at the bottom. 2x early city planning and my empire on turn 52

 

[Email10]

I played around 20 turns on this game, selected Hermetic Order early as my Society for an extra science boost only to discover 0 (!!) ley lines. After discovering more and more of my continent, it was clear that this was a bad choice as no ley lines at all could be found. Maybe not game destroying, but it destroyed the fun at least for me regarding the societies.

So I replayed and selected Voidsingers instead but with more or less the same strategy apart from the society: Get some 7-8 nice cities up 6 tiles from my capital, close to luxuries, then build campuses close to the plantations and enough military to hold off any surprise wars. Builders have been important for me as they are key to secure the growth of my cities and I have used Liang a lot for the extra builder charge and as well Magnus for some good chopping. I have survived an early surprise war around turn 30 from Sumeria who brought a Vampire and some Warriors but no War Carts. It was at the same time as I researched Archery so fighting them off with my UU was not difficult. I also had Hercules as Hero who built a Holy Site, a Government Plaza and an Observatory while helping out in the war.

I settled my capital 1 SE of the starting position in both games, next to the 3 Sugar for the +3 Amenity bonus. It might not have been the best choice as I discovered later as the Magic island to the West was then 7 tiles away and the amount of cities I could squeeze in within 6 tiles was very limited. The mountain chain SE of Kilimanjaro was annoying for this as well.

On turn 50 in my new game I have 5 cities, all within 6 tiles of my capital and one settler en route. One settler was unfortunately lost in a flood. I'm last in Science and Culture but not so far behind. If I can develop the Bermuda Triangle city a bit more and build some more Observatories I will catch up the science quickly.

 

[Uberfrog]

Merry Christmas all!

Moved my Settler east on Turn 1 to discover Kilimanjaro, King Arthur and the Hermetic Order. Having all the game modes activated sure makes turns eventful!

I settled over the river, allowing two good campuses next to the sugar. I discovered Maui a few turns in and used him to drop some resources, including luckily an extra sugar. Two +6 Observatories in my first two cities - neat! He discovered a workable Bermuda Triangle to the west, which while more than six tiles away from the capital, will generate more than enough science to make up for it.

The AIs are friendly so far, but the barbarians are giving me a bit of a headache as I try to spam out my settlers. I'm also managing to keep on top of Era score so far.

I chose the Hermetic Order to try the new and improved ley-lines and because I'm building lots of Observatories for the unique building to go in. But the same as Email10, I've not found a single ley-line yet

Heroes mode is new to me, and while I've discovered many I've not spent any hammers recruiting them which is probably not smart. Once I'm established I'll try to take a more aggressive footing and hopefully some of the more warlike heroes will come in handy. Shuffle mode has me checking the tech and civics trees regularly, and Apocalyspe mode has given me two 1000 year floods in my beautiful Observatories.

Spoiler Turn 51 :