6otm28 Opening Actions Report

[Knowtalent]

Welcome to the 6otM 28 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 city?
- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
- What was your build order?
- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
- How did you place your districts?
- 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?
- Were your neighbors peaceful?
- How were the Barbarians?
- How did having a neighbor affect your game?
Please use spoiler tags for any surprise details you'd like kept hidden. Thanks.

 

[Victoria]

OP Aztecs... Crap Victoria. I just cannot behave myself and slow down... It took me about 3 hours to get to T100. Lacking culture but on the + side its the first time I have got to 23 cities at t100 but to be fair Monty is on another world compared to Victoria who I normally play. Playing a GOTM is like having some ice cream with a strong Civ like this but would be dull to play all the time. Great map and fun game as usual... not as challenging as the last one.

Spoiler :

- Where did you settle your city?
When my eagle saw what was behind the woods I decided to take a punt and went west but took me 4 turns to settle.

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
Mining for first builder and then pottery, writing, irrigation. After that I did not really care

- What was your build order?
In my cap, builder-jag-scout-campus-monument. In my stolen city jag (bought scout) jag jag

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
Campi everywhere. I built an encampment for an envoy and commercial for the maths eureka. I am trying out playing with few commercials early but its damaged my culture a lot.

- How did you place your districts?
I place them next to my city so that if I build another district they get adjacency. Most cities have not expanded enough for any other decision and mountains were missing in the aztec arena.

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
Built 4 including the cap + 2 from stolen settlers. Captured 17. Will capture another 2 in the next 3 turns and that will give a nice round 25 and leave Qin, Cleo and Philip untouched. The rest are gone.

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
Fairly straight forward. Discipline/urban planning, replacing with agoge and stuck with that for a long time and the warriors do not have maintenance. I pushed to PP (turn 41) and did not really care what I took after Foreign trade. I cannot remember when I reached Feudalism I think it was around 60.... but my culture seems not to be strong now because I could not be bothered with coliseum and too meritocracy too late... I just get carried away with the game and want to slick next turn. At least with the Aztecs its all a bit more forgiving. The eagles are just OP and plenty of lux around meant it was not hard to get to +10.

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
Science was the only one I cared about. Sent a scout both ways and found them in reasonable time for a change I have 12 envoys at the moment, was hoping for more but that's fine.... +245 science without enlightenment but only +94 culture.

- Were your neighbors peaceful?
I dunno, they were tasty and sacrificed with a little struggle.

- How were the Barbarians?
I had barb armies East and West and was surprised when 3 barb camps came at my bottom towns my eastern army went to deal with them and I got some chariots going to replace them for my last offensive, against Tomyris. (2 cities left).

- How did having a neighbor affect your game?
It was funny... I mean when ones chariots are stronger than Gilga's you know its GG
I missed out on Pyramids by delaying it... Gah! Damn neighbours, still the gods are happy, much has been sacrificed.

You did not ask about religion so I will tell you. God of the harvest, Jesuit Education and Papal primacy. No surprises there although i am wondering if god of the forge may have been better or just stupidly good.

Weird bug... my knight got the feudalism eureka before I had even finished defensive tactics. I played as if I was waiting to feudalism and as it was did not bother for a few turns after anyway.

 

[casualplayer]

By turn 100 three civs were completely gone, and only two were my fault.

Planted in place and cranked out a quick Scout hoping to find helpful friends in the vicinity. That worked out real well! I did swipe one of Japan's initial Settlers with my starting Jag so I had two cities before Turn 10. I turned that starting Jag into several Builders made from dead Japanese Warriors, bought my second Jag at full retail after a couple of Slingers and then was cranking Jags out at 4 Turns per because of all my helpful City-State friends. Iron Working came super early and Rookie Aztec Player Me proceeded to upgrade all his Jags on their inexorable march Northeast. When I think of the lost potential Builders!

My game went haywire when I freed a City State from the Western neighbor and afterwards I could no longer place or earn Envoys. Annoying, because I had a pretty good game going.

 

[Glencairn2]

- Where did you settle your city?
After the EW saw the distribution of the Japanese, I decided to settle in place.

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
Mining, Pottery, Writing, Irrigation, Animal Husbandy, Archery.

- What was your build order?
EW, Slinger, EW, Campus.
I wish I would have added some Scouts, by T100 the map is almost unexplored, gonna change that soon.

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
In the cap I built a Campus fairly early, but after taking a Holy Site even before the Campus, I found myself surprisingly way in lead for the first Great Prophet, so I gave religion a shot as well. Overall priority was Campus, Commercial Hub, Industrial Zone/Holy Site.

- How did you place your districts?
Next to city for adjacency, some Holy Sites next to Natural Wonders.

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
Early on expansion was done by the sword, stole Settler from Japan, taking one CS, Barb Settler, Japan´s Cap, two more CSs. After that the other Civs somehow loved me, so I decided to go for a more peaceful approach and built Settlers myself. By T100 4 cities captured, six built (incl. stolen Settlers), with 2 more coming in the next few turns.

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
The most effective definetly were Ilkum and Serfdom. Corvee might be the reason why I was able to secure Pyramids and Petra in the Cap, dunno.

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
Stockholm was probably the most effective one, but I decided to leave the Commercial and Industrials for Helping the CHs and IZs.

- Were your neighbors peaceful?
Can´t really tell - after taking out Japan everybody loved me. Backstabbed friendly Tomyris over bringing a Settler waaay too far to my territory and trying to convert my cities, but didn´t approach her further. There´s rumor about a great war taking place in the West, but due to the lack of exploration I cannot really tell.

- How were the Barbarians?
Nice for free promotions.

- How did having a neighbor affect your game?
On this map as Aztecs, it seems way OP.

 

[Victoria]

I wish I would have added some Scouts, by T100 the map is almost unexplored, gonna change that soon

You must change that, intelligence helps a lot as do science and money CS. I even bought a Second scout

 

[Arnold_T]

going pretty well at t100 I think ...

- Where did you settle your city?
beside the Oasis and the hill, hallway between the Tea to the south, and the Wheat to the north

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
built 7, captured 15. plus I'm sitting with a stolen settler (from Egypt) that I need to settle somewhere

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
suz of only Stockholm and Preslav. trying to find more Science CSs

- Were your neighbors peaceful?
not sure. I was pretty rash to declare war on them. I didn't realize till this game how powerful the Aztecs attack bonus can get. I'm at +13 attack bonus from luxs now! and I didn't realize it applies to ALL Aztecs units, not just the Eagle Warriors. Love the Eagle Warriors ability to generate workers too. I have postponed upgrading them to Swordsmen to keep that ability, but I guess I have to start upgrading them now, since I'm starting to lose some to enemy crossbows.

- How were the Barbarians?
barbs were not too bad

- How did having a neighbor affect your game?
loved stealing one of Japan's starting settler, and then finishing him off by turn 45.

at t100 I have eliminated Japan (t45), Sumeria (t85), and Tomyris (t100). Egypt has just a few cities left. need to take out China, then Rome, and then find the last civ.

I guess I should start concentrating on science soon! generating 103 science and 66 culture right now.

 

[wraithek]

So, no-DLC game, after 100 turns I'm at war with everyone I met except Germany (they're not my Neighbors though). Medieval era

Spoiler :

- Where did you settle your city?
In place

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
Mining first to get the marble and copper, then pottery-irrigation to get the spices, then writing.
Foreign trade first, then the other three to get to political philosophy, researching the boosted ones first to use the boosts.

- What was your build order?
scout, many eagle warriors. (I got two builders and a trader from goody huts)

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
Campus pretty soon, then later commercial, entertainment (to build colosseum) and then industrial in the capital. In the second city one campus. In the third commercial+theater. In the captured city, aqueduct.

- How did you place your districts?
Campus near the two mountains in the south, commercial between campus and capital next to the river. Entertainment up between my first three cities to optimize the colosseum yield. Industrial left to marble and copper. In other cities, placed to maximize adjacency bonuses.

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
Not too much, built one city with my settler + two with stolen settlers. Captured one Roman city.
Now I have 2 more stolen settlers to use.

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
first the ones for recon units to get a scout ignoring terrain. got it pretty fast as I found a ton of goody huts and two natural wonders. God king to get a pantheon (god of the forge), Then +50% hammers for melee units to spam EWs. Also +50% to settlers and -20% to purchase tiles from time to time. +2 great scientist almost all the time. Now I have -1 maintenance, +100% campus adjacency, +2 envoy points, +2 great scientist.

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
allied with hattusa, geneva and kabul. Met some more. at war with chartage (allied with rome).

- Were your neighbors peaceful?
They all declared war to me. Rome first (in the process to destroy them now), USA then and norway last.

- How were the Barbarians?
No big deal, good xp source for my EWs. But some rebels spawned in rome territory while I was there and they killed one of my EW.

- How did having a neighbor affect your game?
I usually play peaceful but I built many more warriors than usual. Both to use the EW bonuses and because I am surrounded by 3 civs, which of course all declared war to me.

Spoiler :

20171209150615_1

• wraithek
• Dec 9, 2017

 

[Ferocitus]

This was my 1st ever GotM and a real eye-opener!

This took me longer than I expected because I usually only play at marathon pace.
Also, there should be an award for that special kind of stupid where somebody
forgets for 100 turns that Aztec builders can hurry construction of districts.
My only excuse was that my wife downloaded "Have I Got News for You" and "The
Vikings" (storming York) during my 1st 100 moves. Does that kind of distraction
affect war IRL?

Spoiler :

- Where did you settle your city?
Started sw on the tile with tea.

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
mining and anything to help build more military units.

- What was your build order?
Hulk smash. Lots of Eagle warriors. Stole builders and settlers everywhere once I
had a football team of Ewarriors on the rampage.

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
No campuses for about 60 turns. I wanted to weaken everyone I could, especially
Scythia and Sumeria after eliminating Japan.

- How did you place your districts?
Higgledy-piggledy for a start but encampments where they would not mess up other districts.

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
Steal as many settlers and builders as possible. Had 10 cities by turn 100.

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
Emphasised everything military for the first 100 or so turns.

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
Preslav, Stockholm, Hong Kong and Bandar Brunei.
I just kept piling envoys into the first two so no other civ could flip them
against me. Took Hong Kong easily with one archer and a couple of Eagle Warriors.

Science from Stockholm helped a lot, but nowhere near as much as Preslav helped
me to get more military units.

- Were your neighbors peaceful?
Japan ran away like a chicken when I took their first settler.
The others denounced me almost continuously for the entire game because I was
unswervingly agressive for the whole game. A DV would have been very easy.

Millwall Aztecs chant:
Noone likes us,
We don't care!

Egypt and Spain tried to be friends a few times. As if.

- How were the Barbarians?
Easy to tame. Most came from south where I could stop them easily. Preslav and Stockholm
helped with the eastern barbs.

- How did having a neighbor affect your game?
They were dead or dying meat from the very start.

 

[cheffster]

I knew after stealing a settler within the first 5 turns and playing Aztec that this would be a game of rapid progression, and at least for myself this game turned out to be record breaking.

Spoiler t102 :

- Where did you settle your city?
2 tiles SW of settler

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
pottery-writing asap to zone campus districts then mining, animal husbandry, etc

- What was your build order?
settler (captured) -> scout -> eagle warrior x2 -> builder x1 -> eagle warrior x6 -> builders (captured 15-20 within the first 80 turns from the eagle warrior passive)

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
Campuses every city asap. Started completing them around t50.

- How did you place your districts?
adjacency where I could, most importantly started construction immediately.

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
Here is where things got completely nutty.
At turn 102 I managed to acquire 27 cities.

Having basically 2 settlers starting out, a constant supply of new builders being captured from eagle warriors, major bonus attack from luxury resources and a Pangaea map meant I could go to town on expanding and conquered most of the map by t102.

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
Kept Oligarchy for a long time, never had to bother with builder cards. Around turn 80 or so switched to Monarchy and exploited the 150% harvest production overflow from ancient walls to build universities in almost every big city. Used builders to help finish districts in lower production cities (at one point had >15 builders captured from warmongering -> built Pyramids to give captured builders an extra charge)

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
Science SS of course I got 3 envoys/suzerain asap esp stockholm.
Gilgamesh had captured Toronto and Mohenjo which I later liberated.

- Were your neighbors peaceful?
i dow'd and conquered everyone but China

- How were the Barbarians?
not too bad, I did end up having to use ancient walls overflow in a few cities to make units to fend them off.




https://imgur.com/a/zdprT

 

[antimony]

Playing the non-DLC game. 17 cities, 146 sci. per turn on T100 which is close to my best game with an average Civ, but of course it could have gone a lot better with this map.

Really strong opening with two spices boosting capital growth, opened builder-settler with settler out on T18 and craftsmanship the turn after. Then proceeded to spam eagle warriors (8 or so), with which I was able to convert 6-7 builders and steal 3 settlers from Norway and America. The problem is that I got only one city from Norway in those early wars, no ranged support for the eagles made it too costly to deal with Teddy's +5 archers. I conquered Teddy's 4 cities around T100 with knights and only got started on the western front against Trajan.

Infrastructure-wise, I used a large feudalism builder wave (10 or so from most cities at the time) to get campuses up everywhere, missed the colosseum on turn 80 (which seems early for the AI, they didn't use to prioritize it) but at least got the pyramids. Right now, the main bottleneck for a SV seems to be gold, with no commercial CS around. Main source of gold at the moment is raiding Roman pastures.