6otm42 Opening Actions report

[Knowtalent]

Welcome to the 6otM 42 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 cities?
- 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?
- Any surprises?
Please use spoiler tags for any surprise details you'd like kept hidden. Thanks.

 

[BarbarianHunter]

Never started other than ancient era. I'm wondering if this is some weird bug, or later starts can settle within 2 hexes. I've never seen this before. I don't want to try and settle, as it's against the rules to restart a game, but it looks like I could.

Spoiler DON'T LOOK, UNLESS YOU'VE COMPLETED 20 TURNS :

Moderator Action: Moved to Opening Action thread. Once you open a save, please do not post in the Announcement thread. Thanks. leif

 

[Monthar]

It's normal to be able to settle closer when the cities are on different land masses.

 

[BarbarianHunter]

- Where did you settle your cities? Anywhere I could safely get to. With the King level I forward settled fairly aggressively, figuring I could fill in the open spaces later.
- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why? Apprenticeship 1st for the hammers, then Military Engineering for the niter, then crossbows, then stirrups.
- What was your build order? Don’t recall, settlers I think.
- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize? Commercial Hubs and campi, then an entertainment district for the Colosseum and then Theatre Squares.
- How did you place your districts? For adjacency. Have a pretty good position for the govt. plaza and a bunch of +4 districts around it.
- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns? 17 total. Built 12, captured 5.
- How did you play your governance cards, priorities? Went for Classical Republic and sat with +50% settlers, +30% builders / 5 charge builders and Revelation wildcard.
- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side? Cultivated Kabul and Hattusa with 6 envoys each, placed 3 in Bandar Brunei before I found Zanzibar. Will drop 6 in Zanzibar ASAP.
- Were your neighbors peaceful? Spain declared a surprise war on me and took one of my cities for a time. This motivated me to suz Kabul and upgrade to crossbows and knights.
- How were the Barbarians? Any respectable barbarian worth his salt would be ashamed to be caught in the same camp as any of the creampuffs I met.

Narrative: I've never played past a few turns on one of these TSL Earth maps. There sure is allot of water. I’m not sure where everybody is (France), but I was able to expand with vigor with London creating a settler every build cycle past turn 200.

I soon found the Spanish, Arabians, Chinese and Indians. At first they were great trading partners, China especially! In fact I rushed military engineering to trade niter with them, then bought 2 builders for around 260 and 280 gold, mined the niter, then sold the niter to Chandragupta and Phillip for about the same as I paid for the builders (the Chinese were tapped out). Leaving me with an 8 builder charge profit which I levered into 16 extra hammers at essentially no cost to me!

Spoiler :

Things were humming along nicely, until Spain declared a surprise war on me, taking over Birmingham with Pikes on turn 190. I dropped 4 envoys into Kabul, upgraded my units to crossbows and knights, and recaptured the city by turn 202. It has been a bonanza of +100% experience ever since! I proceeded South to reconnoiter Madrid to see if I can determine what motivated the crazed Spaniard. Unfortunately, after taking his capital city, I knew nothing more of his motivations than before. More research is required…

Spoiler :

I managed to snag a great prophet with nothing but the Revelation policy card but will now have to build a holy site to activate him.

Chopped the Kilwa Kisawari on T216, and that bit about the rooftops being entirely made out of wood is no joke! Allot of lumber (forest) went into that thing! Chopped out the Colossus there as well.

Spoiler :

Being suzerain of Kabul is a difficult situation to find oneself often times. I mean, I have a few encampment districts and what-not but the +2 unit bonus in my capital and +2 stable bonus from the only encampment with a T1 building in Madrid seems a frail argument for dropping 6 envoys. So I declared war on Chandragupta to make use of the +100% experience bonus for initiating combat. And we initiated quite a bit of it.

Finished the Indians on the game centennial, T236.

Spoiler East --- Patna :

Spoiler West :

 

[kcd_swede]

I put London on the west side of Britain. I put the other settler on the Continent, and am shocked to see that I do not get a free melee unit. I guess the Civpedia means that UK is part of Europe... and moresoe Eurasia. But... well... whatever, it is a game. Very slow start with tech and culture civics. IDK if it is because I suck at this, or because of the MidEvilk start. Probably some of both. Anyhow, I have learned Europe is crowded but the rest of the world cannot be... so exploring is my first priority.

 

[Eyswein]

Completed 100 turns (through T236)

Spoiler Details :

- Where did you settle your cities?
west settler for (west) London, then 4N for Leeds (in Scotland), then across Europe from the west coast (of France) all the way to the Ural Mountains; later on moved to South America
- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
Science: Apprenticeship (for better mines), then Cartography (boost for Exploration and ocean travel), then focused on getting to Military Science (for Redcoats)
Culture: focused Exploration (for Merchant Republic), then headed for Suffrage (Democracy)
- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
Started with Autocracy (Conscription, Survey, Urban, Land) for the faith in the hopes of getting Goddess of the Harvest; sadly, did not get it so went with City Patron Goddess; Naval Infrastructure as I’m building Dockyards everywhere I can; mainly money/culture/science bonuses
- What was your build order?
London – buy 2 tiles, Gov Plaza, Ancestral Hall, 5x Settlers (with Magnus), then some land military, then an Industrial Complex w/ +5 production, then Galleys/Quads
Leeds – (with Laing) builders and land military (just to get to 8 total for Mercenaries bonus), Campus, Dockyard
- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
Immediately. London: T141- Gov Plaza, T165-Ind Comp; Leeds: T173-Campus; then focused on Dockyards (or Commercial Hubs inland), Campuses, Theater Squares, and a smattering of the others; one early Entertainment Complex for the Colosseum
- How did you place your districts?
Mostly for synergy, be it with each other or to provide the factory bonus to cities
- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
Absolutely – 35 cities so far (27 built, 8 captured)
- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
Met all of them. After building Kilwa Kisiwani, focused on getting both culture, then both commerce, then 2 industrials to my side for the bonuses.
- Were your neighbors peaceful?
For a long time yes. I have alliance with Saladin and Poundmaker; T205 - Zulu declared war on Saladin so I ‘liberated’ 4 Zulu cities; T224 - I declared war on China; probably going to become more warlike except for allies as trades were great, but are going to crap
- How were the Barbarians?
Not a significant factor
- Any surprises?
I hadn’t played a score victory since R&F was released; I thought religion was 4/8, but the 3 AI that have religions have religious score ranging from 20-26; I was still able to pick up a great prophet, no other AI was after one; was hoping Saladin would get a religion with a good building for the cheap faith buy – no luck on that. Can’t tell how the religious score is calculated so just have the prophet hanging out for now.

Spoiler Main Map :