6otM117 Opening Actions

[Eyswein]

Welcome to the 6otM117 Opening Actions thread.

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

This thread is used to discuss the game once you've started playing through your first 100 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 100 turns. Anything after that should be posted in the After Actions thread once you have completed your game.

- What was your plan for achieving the 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 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 game modes affect or impact your play?
- How were the Barbarians?
- Any surprises/frustration/elations?

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

 

[Kraftster]

Have been getting back into Civ the past few months and feeling I have my legs under me enough to take on some GOTM. 115 turned out to be my first deity victory, beating Hammurabi by 4 turns to SV.

Naturally, I figured with that success it's time to not just play the games but post as well. Ran a little over to T120. Went full on rex with this game because there're are so many good coastal city locations, and I rarely see a rex opportunity I can pass up. With that, I haven't done a damn thing towards the religious and domination victory conditions. I figure it's time to turn on the military and navy very soon. If I can avoid a DOW, I think I can catch up. Sitting at 80 cities and about to flip two more, one Maori and Portugal to the SW and S of the southern tip of our landmass.

- What was your plan for achieving the 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?

I just couldn't bring myself to rush a religion with so much land to settle and with so many incredible campus locations. I plan to go heavy navy and try to swallow up Portugal with waves and waves of Jongs.

- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?

Obviously had to plan for God of the Sea and settle all those beautiful coastal cities. Unfortunately, unless I can take Portugal out as soon as I get Jongs, I will probably miss out on all the faith buying opportunities for my navy.

- Where did you settle your capital city? Why? Your second city? Why?

Settled in place. Was perfectly fine sacrificing harbor location to get the +5 campus as early as possible. Moved SE for city number two, and then pumped out settlers to settle the coastal spots to the East on either side of Jerusalem, as well as expanding up and down the main land mass.

- Early order for technology/civics? What did you prioritize for technology/civics?

I didn't feel pressed to move in any particular direction. Just focused largely on techs w/ unlocked eurekas.

- 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?

Scout, Slinger, Settler, Builder, Campus. Pretty typical until Magnus came on and I could start pumping out settlers.

- Pantheon chosen and why? Religious beliefs chosen, and why?

God of the Sea. Easy choice.

- What governments did you select? What policy cards did you use? Why?

Focused largely on bonus production towards relevant builds at the time, sticking with +50% settlers for a while.

- Which Governors did you choose and why did you choose them?

Magnus

- 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)?

Knowing I was going to rex and aim for peacemongering to start, I sent out just about everything I could for gold. No DOWs yet.

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you nurture to your side?

City states largely suck for my game thus far. All the military CS will certainly come in handy as I shift to unit production here very soon.

- When did you have Dark/Golden ages?

I debated forcing a dark age out of the gate because I felt confident I could hit heroic next era, but ultimately, I did not want to risk any unexpected loyalty problems messing with my game plan, so I went to 12/12. I did fairly comfortably hit golden age next era, which I hoped for primarily to turn accumulated faith into builders, as I largely neglected improvements up until that point in favor of expansion and campuses.

- How did the game modes affect or impact your play?

No effect.

- How were the Barbarians?

Pesky coastal outpost is making navigating the seas to the SW pretty rough at the moment, and galleys just turned into caravels, so that is going to continue to be messy for a bit, but I will be able to buy the outpost tile when the Maori city flips to me in a few times and slowly deal with it.

- Any surprises/frustration/elations?

Frustrated that I more or less ignored victory conditions for 120 turns, but I think I will have a very strong base here, and it will be fun to see if I can still push in the direction of domination without my own faith generation at the moment. Domination is my least used VC, so at Immortal, this will be a very good test for me. Confident I could win this as a SV from here, but I really do hope I can make a military push.

Edit: Two other notes.

One off the wall move I made was to pay full price (gold) for the first Great Admiral, which was free Quad and +20% to ranged naval. I figured with the plan to pump out Jongs, over the long run this boost would be worth the splurge of 1,100 gold.

Also, given the potential to benefit all but two of my cities in significant ways, I built Machu in capital. No business doing this in a domination game, but again, my peacemonger ways getting the best of me.