6otM24 Opening Actions

leif erikson

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Welcome to the 6otM24 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.

- Where did you settle your capital city? Your second city?
- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
- What was your build order?
- How long did it take to find your neighbors? Were they hostile or friendly?
- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
- Did you try to build any Wonders?
- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
- How were the Barbarians?
- Any surprises?

Please use spoiler tags for any surprise details you'd like kept hidden. Thanks.
 
- Where did you settle your capital city? Your second city?
Rather than settle on the start hex, I moved a couple of hexes west to the one between the coast and the river. Second city (Cumae) a little northeast of that, on turn 56 (much later than I meant to, but I had some barbie trouble).

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?

Techs: Pottery, Mining, Sailing, Animal Husbandry, Archery, Bronze Working, Writing, Masonry, Wheel, Shipbuilding (should have done this a couple of techs sooner), Astrology, Celestial Navigation, Iron Working.
Civics: Craftsmanship, Foreign Trade, Military Tradition, Early Empire, Mysticism, Political Philosophy, Drama and Poetry, Recorded History.
Policies: Discipline and Urban Planning (my defaults unless I'm going for religion). Changed Urban Planning to Colonization on turn 50, then back to Urban Planning on 67, along with Conscription. Classical Republic on turn 78 (Urban Planning, Ilkum, Charismatic Leader and Inspiration); temporarily swap out Inspiration for Discipline on 88.

- What was your build order?

Scout, Builder, Granary, Slinger (build one, buy one), Galley, three Settlers, another Warrior, Campus, another Galley, Water Mill, Great Library.

- How long did it take to find your neighbors? Were they hostile or friendly?

Hojo Tokimune on 50, Gilgamesh on 54, Tomyris on 61, Roosevelt on 92, Pedro on 99. Hojo was hostile; the other three all offered friendship. On turn 116, I declared war on Hojo just to nab a Settler he'd brought too close to my turf, then made peace immediately afterward. Later, he offered me friendship, too!

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?

First Campus (Rome) begun on 63 and completed on 74. Second, in Cumae, but I forgot to record when I built it.

- Did you try to build any Wonders?

Only the Great Library.

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?

Yes, but peaceful. Four built, including Rome, with the intention of building two more to make sure no one else sneaks onto Rome Island. My fourth city (Aquileia) I built across the water to the west in order to get the iron.

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

I met Kandy early and established suzerainty. The other civs were too far ahead for me to get a foothold with any of the others, except Toronto. I screwed up and left the wrong diplomatic policy in place for a while.

- How were the Barbarians?

The first camp was a piece of cake, but the second was a major nuisance. I made a couple of tactical errors and lost a promoted Archer and a Scout. Later, while I was crossing the water to found Aquileia, a barbie Quad took out one of my Warriors. I hate losing units. It's inefficient.

- Any surprises?

Kind of surprised I managed to get the Great Library. Also kind of surprised that I lost those units to the barbies. I'm usually more careful than that.

I don't feel quite as good about this start as I did about my 60tM 23 start. I think this one's going to be a lot more hassle.
 
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I don't feel quite as good about this start as I did about my 60tM 23 start. I think this one's going to be a lot more hassle.
Whooo, yeah. It's not going well. Probably going to have to abandon.
 
Again, providing a somewhat detailed write-up. Hopefully it will provide some ideas to other and looking for analysis to help me play better. The limits I used are no joint wars, no trading works/relics, no trading cities. I’m sure I copied something down wrong; and probably some other stuff worth tracking and some things not worthwhile.

- Where did you settle your capital city? Your second city?
Settled 1 NW on Gypsum – never tried a no fresh water start so thought it would be neat to try after Victoria mentioned it; 2nd city 5NE on river/coast
- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
Science: Mining-10, AH-28, BW-33, Archery-35, Sailing-40, Pottery-45, Writing-51, Shipbuilding-65, Irrigation-75, Currency-75, Astrology-80, HBRiding-82, Wheel-83, IW-87, CelNav-91, Engineering-94, Machinery-99
Culture: CoL-7, Craft-21, FT-34, SW-39, MilTrad-45, EE-45, Mys-48, PolPhil-61, G&R-69, MilTrain-73, DefTac-79, Feud-86, Merc-92, D&P-100
- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
7-Survey/Urban; 21-Agoge; 39-Cons/Ilkum; 45-Maritime; 48-Cons/Colon; 61-Oligarchy: Cons/Colon/Charismatic/Strategos; 69-Urban; 73-Agoge (for Strategos); 86-Autocracy: Cons/Mari/Urban/Serf; 92-x/Maneuv/x/Prof; 100-x/x/x/Maritime; on 61 wanted Oligarchy for war; on 86 wanted Autocracy to have 2 each military/economic policies
- What was your build order?
1-ROME: Scout-6, Builder(Q,Q,F)-14, Settler-21, Slinger-24,27,29,31,33; buy tile for Encampment and place it-33; Encampment-39, Builder-43,48; Settler-58,73; Granary(g)-80, Warrior-77,80,83,85; Horseman-91 (for CS quest), HChar-94,95; Bath-98
26-OSTIA: Slinger-33, Warrior-38, Builder-45, buy chop tile-46, Galley-46,47; Settler-53,63; Builder-72, Warrior-75, Campus-87, Builder(g)-87, CommHub-100
57-LUGDUNUM: Builder-75, working on CommHub
61-MEDIOLANUM: Granary(g)-75, Warrior-78,81,83,86; Builder(g)-86, Galley-88,89,90,90,91; HChar-94,98
69-AQUILEIA: Granary(g)-75, Builder(g)-86, Campus-97
79-RAVENNA: BatRam(g)-98
82-POKROVA(captured capital): Builder(g)-86, Mon(r)-87, Granary(r)-89, Walls-90, WM(r)-92, HChar-96,98; BatRam(g)-98
- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
Built 6 - capital, 5 created settlers, ZERO captured settlers; only 1 captured city
- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
Encampment-39; 2 Campus-87,97; CommHub-100
- How long did it take to find your neighbors? Were they hostile or friendly?
49-Japan(see me), 49-Scythia(see them), 64-Sumeria(see them), 73-Egypt(exchange), 89-England(see me), 96-America(exchange); overall friendly, made friends with those I couldn’t attack within 30 turns that were willing, Scythia currently has me denounced (occupy their capital)
- Trading? Generally tried to keep one of each lux and trade all excess lux for gold; one hiccup was trading all my coffee when I was Suz of Lisbon, then lost Suz, so no coffee dropping two cities from happy to content; 49-Scythia 203g/1gpt; 49-Japan 157g/1gpt; 62-Scythia 180g; 66-Friends Sumeria, 70-Friends Japan; 78-Japan 170g/2gpt & 22g/8gpt; 80-Egypt 180g; 86-Japan 88g/2gpt; England 134g/4gpt & 8g/6gpt; 94-England 89g/7gpt
- Wars? Just one so far, Scythia 76-86; captured capital and received 234g/34gpt/2lux/iron in peace deal
- Did you try to build any Wonders? Nope
- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
28-unmet defeated; 32-Kandy; 45-unmet defeated (both now owned by Scythia); 64-Hattusa (98- 3 envoys); 67- Lisbon (91- 3 envoys); 91-Preslav; 92-Geneva, 96-Toronto; Suzeran of none (was Lisbon for a while)
- How were the Barbarians?
9-BE to SE (des-29), 18-BEto NE (des-32), 31-BE to S (des-39); 41-BE to NW (des-?), 44-BE to W (des-52), 45- BE way S of Scythia; the early ones near me were no problem at all-just gave me some experience and boosts; later barbarian quadriremes were horrible – sent 3 galleys in group to W thinking they could handle any lone quad, but ran into a group of 3 quads, now 1 galley sunk, 1 about to be, and the third in full retreat home
- Any surprises? The map. I was expecting something like a continents map with maybe a twist, but this was nothing like a normal continents map. I didn’t adjust fast enough even when I realized it. And the barb quadriremes – messing me up big time.

- Strategy, actions, and analysis.
Initial plan
: I was thinking there would be ~3 AIs on my continent. Tried the no fresh was start – hope was 1-2 gold trades in 1st 20 turns and an early warrior/archer rush in 30s for captured settlers and nearest two neighbor’s capitals early; surprise – no neighbors.
Initial actions: Warrior started SW, Scout start N. Didn’t get to E side of island until in the 30s due to getting bogged down in terrain and BE spawns. Decided to settler spam and get some galleys to explore. I stopped at 6 slingers & 2 warriors, built an encampment, made 3 builders for chops/mines/farms, put out 2 galleys, then built four settlers; also decided to get Writing to place Campuses.
My analysis: I believe Rome on coast would have been better start as it would have had forests vice rainforests to chop, so I could have built ~6 galleys between the two cities; I would have understood the environment much, much better. As it was, I shouldn’t have stopped at 8 military – I should have been prepared for finding someone close and built at least 12 total archers/warriors to leave 2-3 on island to protect new settlers while moving to attack as soon as I saw an AI. Also messed up on science – went to Writing first which caused an 11-turn delay for Shipbuilding; great - all my military can stare at each other.
First (and so far only) war: I meet Scythia T49 - they show me their capital (wow, would have been nice to be able to move right away); also meet Japan, but no idea where they are; continue to move galley N around Scythia big island, after Ship T65 I see their cities are still D<20, so start 5Arch/1War that way – more warriors follow with new warrior spam. I also see 2 nice harbors to capture, but didn’t pay attention that the Pokrova harbor was still in construction. When I get it surrounded, they only have 3 warriors in area (one in city) and all cites were still D<20; declare war on T76, kill warriors in open, pillage, and start siege; on T80 warrior in city turns to swordsman and pops out 2 horse archers on same turn, one city D20’s and rest D>30…and horse archers coming from S…then swordsmen from N; capture T82, hold on losing 2 warriors and 2 archers in battles with all military in area injured, some severely. Amazingly Scythia accepts peace on T86 and give me all their gold/lux/iron.
My analysis: Lucky ducky! Delay above led to this.
Other actions to T100: Additional warrior spam; Legion/Crossbow upgrades; lots more galleys to find everyone; HChar spam for Knight upgrade. Forgot to build BatRam’s, so finally buy two on T98. Two armies of land units sailing toward England and Egypt respectively. Barb Quad’s are causing me major issues – total rout of galleys heading west. Now I want Cartography for Caravel strength, Stirrups for Knight upgrades, Math for faster sea movement, Apprentice for +mine production, then more advanced military.
My additional analysis to T100: Besides above, I never got my two harbors for the boost (zero to date), great admiral, and trade routes. Note that all the AI have harbors, but zero encampments, so I kept thinking I’d just capture them. Poor city planning led me to drop a couple Districts on top of improved tiles - on tiles I should have left improved – should have thought that out better. I should have emphasized navy much more – currently just an exploratory force facing evil barbs and not really able to protect my sailing land forces. I don't think I did the no fresh water start properly - pretty much held at size two for a long time and my second city ended up being better quickly.

MAJOR INQUIRY!!: Do Roman auto-roads work across water? For example – if I had built a coast city on the SE side of Scythia’s island that was within trade range of Rome via coast tiles, would the captured capital have then built a road to that coastal city to connect it to Rome? If yes, that road could greatly speed the movement west.
 
Good job taking Tomyris' capital. I waited for legions and took a small city south of her capital but she took it back with a caravel. Lot of jungle around there to move through.
 
- Where did you settle your capital city? Your second city?
Cap city right where i started because fresh water is going to be great with all that wheat improved. Second city was north of Rome right next to the 2 food / 2 production tile.

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?

I wanted mining to get production up because it seems to be lacking, after that my plan was archers to finish off barbs, then get currency/apprenticeship for comm hubs and the +1 production to mines. Now on to iron working and legions.

- What was your build order?
scout, slinger, slinger, settler, settler, settler, settler.

- How long did it take to find your neighbors? Were they hostile or friendly?

They found me I didn't get ships fast.

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
First district was a campus at capital, but i had comm hubs up in all 5 of my cities by turn 100.

- Did you try to build any Wonders?
nope, maybe apadana soon, probably not tho.

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
yes, rushed early empire and have 5 cities up that are all improved and have at least 1 comm hub. None captured yet.

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
+50% settler card was a must early on, then +50% builder card once i got to political philosophy.

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
I've only met Kandy which sucks but my plan was never to get a strong sea presence early. I'm hoping for a gold or science CS very soon.

- How were the Barbarians?
pretty easy, once i cleared them i used my army to get vision of my entire island so no more camps could spawn and i could detect aggressive settles from the AI

- Any surprises?
Cleopatra hates me :[
 
- Where did you settle your capital city? Your second city?
on the beginning hex 2nd east to get the coffee 3rd north to get second searess.

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?

the naval techs were the most important to me

- What was your build order?

scout builder warior slinger warior slinger 2nd city gallyes

- How long did it take to find your neighbors? Were they hostile or friendly?

by turn 105 i know tojo vic cleo and gigamensch, by the actions of vic i know about the existence of teddy and thomyris

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?

first encampment then campus 2nd city campus harbor 3rd harbor going to put either com or harbor in rome as well soon

- Did you try to build any Wonders?

no arsenal of venice (?) would be a good one later on i guess

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?

i have a terribele timing on buildings settlers, i prefer conquering or stealing yet there were no victims
i build 3 on my own(incl. capital...)

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

useless kandy later toronto and one thats science based i invested envoys just on the science citystate

- How were the Barbarians?

easy to defend no horse invasion like last time

- Any surprises?

i have such a bad timing with conquering. kandy got its walls up while i was just getting my first gally out and as i was going to attack toronto with quadrieme, gally + great general and legions, archers they got a karavell + walls in 2 turns where im just 3 turns from the city away so i rangequitted i dunno if i saved the game :D we'll see.
i dont find it easy to early expand on island maps maybe ill have to give it a second try or risk a bit more
 
MAJOR INQUIRY!!: Do Roman auto-roads work across water? For example – if I had built a coast city on the SE side of Scythia’s island that was within trade range of Rome via coast tiles, would the captured capital have then built a road to that coastal city to connect it to Rome? If yes, that road could greatly speed the movement west.

I tested this out after finishing the game. It works!!! In the right circumstance it is awesome to speed movement for follow on reinforcements.
 
Where did you settle your capital city? Your second city?
I moved a couple of hexes west to the one between the coast and the river. Second city south on the coast to get the fur
- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?

Techs: Pottery, Mining, Sailing, Animal Husbandry, Archery, Shipbuilding , Celestial Navigation, Iron Working.
Civics: Craftsmanship, Foreign Trade, Military Tradition, Early Empire, Mysticism, Political Philosophy, Drama and Poetry, Recorded History.
Policies: Discipline and Urban Planning (my defaults unless I'm going for religion). Changed Urban Planning to Colonization on turn 50, then back to Urban Planning on 67, along with Conscription. Classical Republic on turn 78 (Urban Planning, Ilkum, Charismatic Leader and Inspiration); temporarily swap out Inspiration for Discipline on 88.

- What was your build order?

Builder, , Slinger Builder Slinger,2 Galley, 2 Settler after pop6 ,Campus,.. Great Library.

- How long did it take to find your neighbors? Were they hostile or friendly?

Hojo Tokimune on 50, Gilgamesh on 54, Tomyris on 61, Roosevelt on 92, Pedro on 99. Hojo was hostile; the other three all offered friendship. On turn 116, I declared war on Hojo just to nab a Settler he'd brought too close to my turf, then made peace immediately afterward. Later, he offered me friendship, too!

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?

First Campus (Rome)around 50 ,Bath

- Did you try to build any Wonders?

Great Library. Coliseum late in the game

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?

7 cities ,third one to get the iron on the western continent ,3 more on mine to get the barb and Tojo out, 7th right on the little island next to Tojo caps to heal my navy

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

I met Kandy early and got most of the other one as the Suzerain focusing on the science and gold one
- How were the Barbarians?

kept them in check with one archer and one soldier
- Any surprises?

the colosseum was still up for grabs around turn 130
 
- Where did you settle your capital city? Your second city?
I moved my settler one tile NE (seems like im the only one who settled east :rolleyes:) second city near the mountains in the center of the island, the third north of my capital and the 4th at the eastern end of the island.
- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
I decided not to go for a religion, hence i did focus on science and production. after discovering that I was on a small island I focused on the marine technologies.
- What was your build order?
I always start with scout-builder.. after that probably slinger/warrior and then some time after that a settler (don't recall exactly)
- How long did it take to find your neighbors? Were they hostile or friendly?
all my neighbors found me. mostly friendly. see last question.
- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
a built a campus pretty early in my capital. i also put one in my second and third city. baths and comercial hubs/harbors and IZ are next.
- Did you try to build any Wonders?
I started the pyramids in my second city on that one desert tile that was not a flood plain. not finished yet.
- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
4 built, none captured.
- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
i went with the +1 prod for every city policy card. Later i shuffeld in the +100% for ships and +30% for builders for example. I went with oligarchy.
- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
Kandy first, then toronto and mohenjo-daro. kandy has the most envoys since i saw it quite a bunch of turns earlier than the other CS.
- How were the Barbarians?
tough but managable, they couldn't touch any of my cities.
- Any surprises?
suprise joint war in turn 91 (victoria and pedro declared war on me right after victorias declaration of friendship ran out!) did not see one single unit of them yet, though!
 
So that's an interesting map! Funny in particular how everyone met the AIs in a different order.

At Turn 100 I just started conquest, taking Egyptian coastal cities with a navy (2 galleys, 2 quads) and briging a few war chariots to upgrade and keep going on land.

- Where did you settle your capital city? Your second city?
Rome 1NW on Gypsum. Then Cumae next to the mountains at the northeast, just 1 tile from coast (which I didn't see until I settled due to jungle).

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
Mining, Pottery, Bronze Working, Writing (didn't expect to meet anyone for the Eureka), then half finished many techs waiting for Eurekas. I tried to get currency early though.
By turn 100 I have mercenaries and knights, waiting a few turns to upgrade to accumulate more funds.

- What was your build order?
Worker, Settler, Slinger, then a few warriors with agoge. I undercommitted forces and lost two warriors to the barb, but then the continent was clear. I purchased a trader on T30, and at T36 turned on early empire and built settlers in both cities.

- How long did it take to find your neighbors? Were they hostile or friendly?
Met Gilgamesh on T53, became friends, met Cleo on T63, was friendly first but later denouced, was able to start a joint war (with Gilga against Cleo) around T90 just in time for Defensive Tactics eureka.

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
Encampment first in capital, campuses everywhere else (I think my first two cities built their district around T45, when the settlers were done?). Commercial hubs or harbors as 2nd districts. Baths when possible of course, they're so cheap!

- Did you try to build any Wonders?
No.

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
6 built, 1 settler on its way, and 1 conquered from Egypt. 5 of my cities are on starting island, 1 is on the skinny island to the west to grab iron.

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
I started with Classical Republic when I got Pol. Phi. (around T60 I think?), then switched to Oligarchy for unit building and war.

I used the Great Scientist and Great General cards to secure the first GS (Hypatia!) and GG. I picked Divine Spark as a pantheon, and got 2 more medieval GS, including the medic one which has joined my army along with the GG.

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

Only Kandy and Toronto. Got 1 envoy to each for capital bonuses, but I'm saving all my envoys for better options.

- How were the Barbarians?
Not too hard on starting island, but my city on the western iron island has to deal with horses now. I'm happy legions can repair improvements!

- Any surprises?
Obviously the continent layout, I couldn't go with the legion rush plan and decided to skip to knights and ship support. But Rome is a great Civ for peaceful expansion as well, so it was fun.

Spoiler Rome at T102 :


 
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