6otM46 Opening Action

[leif erikson]

Welcome to the 6otM 46 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 soon did you attack them and in what order?
- How were the Barbarians?
- Any surprises?
Please use spoiler tags for any surprise details you'd like kept hidden. Thanks.

 

[CPWimmer]

Where did you settle your cities?
Settled in Place for City 1. City 2 was west in the desert near the coastal Cotton - in the end a poor location driven mostly by my desire for trying to get the Nubian Pyramid achievement. City 3 was SE of the capital near the Mercury. City 4 was S of City 2 within reach of Spice. Nubian Founded City #5 is TBD, probably near Amber/Tobacco between Sparta and Sumeria, S of Hong Kong.

What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
Tech (Wanted UU and UI as soon as possible, then focused on commercial, science and military upgrades while following eurkas)
Animal Husbandry->Mining->Archery(boosted)->Masonry(boosted)->Pottery->Writing(b)->Irrigation(b)->Bronze(b)->Currency(b)->Horse Back(b)->Iron Working(b)->Wheel(b)->Apprenticeship(b)->Construction(b)->Engineering(b)->Stirrups->Machinery(b)->Military Engineering(b)->Math(b)

Civics/Policies (just a general push forward, with a no major strategy)
CoL[Discipline/Urban Planning]->Foreign Trade(boosted)->Craftsmanship(b)[Agoge]->Early Empire(b)->State Workforce(half/b/+Conscription)->Mil Tradition(b)->Drama(paused)->Political Philosophy[Oligagarchy/+Cha Leader/+Strategos]->Drama(completed)->Recorded History(b)[-Conscript/+Maneuver]->Games&Rec(b)->Def Tactics[-Maneuver/+Conscription]->MilTrain[-Strategos,-Cha Leader/+Ilkum+DiploLeague](b)->Feudalism[-DiploLeague/+Serfdom+Cha Leader](b)->Mercenaries(b)


What was your build order?
City 1 Build Order:
Slinger/Builder (paused)/Slinger x2/Builder (resumed)/Settler/Builder/Slinger x3/Settler/Trader/Archer/Warrior/Archer x2/Granary/Campus/Library/Commercial Hub/Market/Ram/Heavy Chariot x3/Archer/Trader/Monument/Builder
City 2 Build Order:
Monument/Warrior x2/Builder (paused)/Campus/Commercial Hub/Granary/Market/Builder (resumed)
City 3 Build Oder:
Ancient Walls/Campus/Water Mill/Heavy Chariot x3/Commercial Hub
City4 build Order:
Monument/Builder/Water Mill/Granary/Campus/Library
Cairo build order:
Repair Granary/Builder/Commercial Hub/Market/Settler/Heavy Chariot x3/Archer/Builder
Argos build order:
Granary/Monument/Heavy Chariot x2/Builder
Sparta build order:
Repair Granary/Repair Monument/Encampment/Trader/Heavy Chariot/Archer/Heavy Chariot/Water Mill/Builder


How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
First district was a Campus in City 2 for the Pyramid. Focused on Campuses and Commercial Hubs with a single Encampment.

How did you place your districts?
Focused on the standard agency bonuses, plus the pyramid bonus.

Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
12 Cites so far. I founded 2 cities with Settlers I built myself, 1 with a captured settler, and the rest of my empire is from captured cities.

What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
Suzerain of Babylon, Stockholm, Buenos Aires
On good terms with Kabul, Preslav, Zanzibar, Carthage, Nan Madol
Captured Kandy (and Antioch, but they had already lost independence)
At war with Hong Kong

Were your neighbors peaceful? How soon did you attack them and in what order?
Yes, they were all peaceful... Poor them:
Turn 32 DoW on Gorgo to steal a settler, white peace on Turn 42
Turn 42 DoW on Saladin, wiped him out on Turn 50 (captured 1 city)
Turn 52 DoW on Gorgo, wiped her out on Turn 65 (captured 2 cities)
Turn 83 DoW on China, wiped them out on Turn 98 (captured 4 cities including Chinese controlled Antioch)
Turn 83 DoW on Spain - war is in progress, Kandy (Phillip's ally) has been recently captured to allow better access to Spanish territory
Turn 88 my best bud Gilgabro gave me mucho dinero to Joint War against Gandhi - next stop for my Chinese invasion force

How were the Barbarians?
The barbarians are noticeable, but I've been mostly using them for staging that first promotion - which I keep unspent for a future heal. They did kill my single scout who had fast movement in forest and hills (thanks to Matterhorn).

Any surprises?
I was initially surprised that I was the first to post in this thread, and then realized that there are posts in the AAR thread. I assume we have some sub-100 turn victories from people who are more optimized players. For the most part I played this game in my normal style (some, but limited chopping). I probably have more infrastructure than I need for this particular game. If this were a "normal" game I probably would have started to turtle up after finishing off Saladin & Gorgo and worked on settling all the extra land in that region and gone for a Science Victory.

 

[TomeTraveler]

- Where did you settle your cities?
Seeing no concrete reason to move, I settled in place. Second city was to the east, two hexes below the single mountain and northeast of the gypsum. As of turn 100, those are my only founded cities though I have just built a settler to build a port city northeast of the second city.

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
Tech: Mining, Animal Husbandry, Archery (for UU), Wheel (for melee unit to keep up with UU), Bronze Working (to reveal iron). After a few more basic techs I went for Currency, Engineering, Horseback Riding, Apprenticeship, Stirrups, finally started picking up some naval techs around turn 90.

Civics: Craftsmanship, Foreign Trade, Military Tradition, on to Political Philosophy, Military Training, Feudalism.

Policies: Discipline and God King till Pantheon, Agoge and Urban Planning while building an army, Government to Oligarchy as soon as possible running Conscription, Professional Army, or a build-bonus military policy as needed, also swapping between Caravansaries, Urban Planning, and Serfdom by situation, and Diplomatic League/Charismatic Leader. Wildcard has been Oligarchic Legacy since I have been eligible for it.

- What was your build order?
Scout, half a builder (popped a builder from a village), Slinger, Scout, Settler, Slinger (bought a monument), the other half of the builder, Pitati, Warrior, Pitati.

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
I was busy conquering Saladin before I built any districts, beginning with an encampment in the capital. Followed that with a government plaza (and warlord's throne) in the Capital and then a commercial hub. Second city built a campus and encampment and will follow shortly with an industrial zone. Aside from holy sites and a campus in I took over when conquering cities, my conquered cities so far have built a couple more commercial hubs.

- How did you place your districts?
Usually simply by adjacency bonus, as I haven't really had terrain for building Nubian pyramids and since I'm building armies rather than infrastructure for the most part.

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
Built: 2, soon to be 3. Conquered: 8

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
See above.

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
I had exceptional luck in meeting City-States first. Of the twelve I've met so far I think I gained the bonus envoy from eight or nine of them. I made a priority of Kabul early on, and stuck Amani in Kandy to get a cheap relic for the faith--I ended up founding a religion by taking the religious golden age benefit as I didn't see a whole lot of benefit in the others while I was busy conquering. As of turn 100, I'm suzerain to Kabul, Babylon, Kandy, Stockholm, Carthage, Zanzibar, and Lisbon (had Buenos Aires as well but lost it a turn or two ago).

- Were your neighbors peaceful? How soon did you attack them and in what order?
They've all been waiting for me to attack them (I have three civs yet to meet). DOWed Egypt on turn 50 and conquered about turn 60, Greeze 75-83, Sumeria 94 and ongoing, taken one city so far. I've also sent a second army after Philip and denounced him, with formal war planned in two turns.

- How were the Barbarians?
Moderate early on, not terribly light nor heavy, though I did lose my eastern scout blundering into a bit of an army.

- Any surprises?
The passivity of the AI, it has been awhile since I have played on Prince. I don't think I've seen a single City-State conquered, none of the AI Civs have walls up yet, it is almost as if they're not trying.