6otM49 Opening Action

[leif erikson]

Welcome to the 6otM49 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 quickly did you get Trade Routes working, who did you trade with?
- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
- Which Governors did you choose and why did you choose them?
- Was your first age a Dark Age? Did you take any Dark Age cards?
- 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.

 

[BarbarianHunter]

- Where did you settle your capital city? Your second city? See images, 2nd was Jambi near the ivory.
- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why? Sailing then shipbuilding. Working on cartography.
- What was your build order? Settler, builder, galley, settler
- How long did it take to find your neighbors? Were they hostile or friendly? Friendly. Good trading partners. Settled the culture wonder and China is in the area. Am thinking on DoW, but as (un)luck would have it, they are the #1 in technology. The other cities adjacent to the coast look to be loyalty challenged. We will see, the era turns in 7 turns and I am golden.

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

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- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize? Didn’t build districts for quite some time. Campus spam @ present.
- Did you try to build any Wonders? Tried for Artemis but failed.
- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns? Expansion took longer than otherwise as I went for the culture wonder (which is getting me to mercenaries faster). 8 cities founded.

Spoiler :

- How quickly did you get Trade Routes working, who did you trade with? Fairly quickly, route is to Babylon.
- How did you play your governance cards, priorities? +100% naval unit overflow and settler overflow.
- Which Governors did you choose and why did you choose them? Chose Magnus but forgot to place him for like 10 turns. Then Amani to Babylon for era score.
- Was your first age a Dark Age? Did you take any Dark Age cards? Barely avoided a dark age.
- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side? Suz Babylon. Thinking on taking over Toronto after everyone hates me and diplomacy no longer matters.
- How were the Barbarians? Standard.
- Any surprises? None.

Spoiler :

EDIT: I built 4 galleys hoping for a coastal target. Nothing. I ended up parking them near the Piopiotahi and waiting for settlers to arrive .

 

[RollTheDice]

- Where did you settle your capital city? Your second city?
In place and the second to the south coast.

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
I went for classic republic although that really hasn't been much help without any districts. Tried to generate as many boosts while emphasizing shipbuilding early on and boosted Cartography.
On civics want to head to the one that unlocks the unique unit.

- What was your build order?
scout-slinger-settler-slinger-builder-slinger
I also got a free builder from a tribe the scout found before actually building one

- How long did it take to find your neighbors? Were they hostile or friendly?
It took a long time as I found Korea via their galley in the west around turn 75 as I went North pretty late.
Its my first game on Immortal and I've only ever played as high as king before and I am used to being friends quickly but seems like everyone is unfriendly towards me.
Egypt seems most predisposed to be friendly but currently shows unfriendly.

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
My first district came around T65 was the plaza.
I now have 2 harbour districts and a campus complete and 5 in various states of completion: 2 Campuses; 1 Commercial hub; 1 theatre and 1 encampment.

- Did you try to build any Wonders?
No I am too scared about what Immortal was like to even try religion or wonders.

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
I didn't capture any but have 8 cities self built.

- How quickly did you get Trade Routes working, who did you trade with?
I only have one trade route which is internal and it was the first thing I bought for gold after hard researching the trade route civic as a priority. I am trading luxuries for cash with Korea, Norway, and the Dutch.
I am paying for OB with Norway, Egypt, and China and I sold OB to the Khmer who are at someone still in the fog.
- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
Mostly the settler and builder boost cards and bought a quadtireme with faith.

- Which Governors did you choose and why did you choose them?
Magnus for the chops, Liang, and Amani for Suzerain bonus.

- Was your first age a Dark Age? Did you take any Dark Age cards?
Yes first age was dark but on turn 98 I reached a golden medieval age thanks to tech boosts and meeting most of the other civs. Didn't use the dark age cards.

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
Babylon, Zanzibar, and currently toying with keeping Toronto for production should I ever get IZs up.

- How were the Barbarians?
Relativey tame so far. I dawdled on a request by Toronto to take out a barb camp near them and they took care of it themselves.


- Any surprises?
Really enjoying the map and opportunity to play an immortal game with some room and interesting twists.
Korea founded the final religion so the mapmaker allowed players to get a religion if they focused on it. The religious leader is unknown to me but maybe Saladin?
Korea seems to be the runaway leader in tech and the Dutch, Egypt, and China are ahead of the rest who seem clustered around my level although I'm seventh.
Norway are the domination threat it seems.

 

[TomeTraveler]

- Where did you settle your capital city? Your second city?
Settled in place, second city on the ivory next to the river. Both cities have been rather slow-growing, exacerbated by the fact that I place my government district two SW of the second city, blocking the only spot where I could have made a feudalism farm triangle.

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
AH, Mining, Sailing, Writing, Archery, Bronze Working, Shipbuilding, picked up a number of other techs and my last three have been Apprenticeship, Cartography, and Education.
Trade, Craft, Empire, Mysticism (for envoy to Suzerain Babylon), State Workforce, Political Philosophy, Military Tradition, Drama and Poetry, currently five turns from finishing Feudalism.

- What was your build order?
Builder, Settler, Monument, Builder, Galley, Galley, Warrior, Settler, Builder, Archer, Campus

- How long did it take to find your neighbors? Were they hostile or friendly?
It took forever! I did well at being first to find many CS, aided by a quick faith-bought galley, but did not run into China until turn 54.

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
Fairly late but the first was a campus in the capital, and a government hall and campus in the second city. I also have harbors in the capital and third city, which I settled north of the river to the south of the capital, a campus in the fifth, and another two turns from finishing in the fourth.

- Did you try to build any Wonders?
I built Artemis in the second city and am one turning from finishing the Great Lighthouse in the capital (unless Harald chops his between turns).

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
I've tried to expand reasonably but not with two much neglect of tech or maritime power, currently have six cities (the sixth is in the hills SE of Mohenjo-Daro) and a settler is en route to the spice island to the east to make a seventh.

- How quickly did you get Trade Routes working, who did you trade with?
First one very quickly off to Babylon for an envoy though I had to rebuild the trader after losing it to barbs. I currently have two trade routes, both internal.

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
It was a relief not to have to play God King to get a pantheon (though I was rather surprised to be second). I've run Urban Planning the whole game, swapping between Discipline, Maritime Industry, and Agoge early on until achieving Political Philosophy and switching to Classical Republic. Colonization, Charismatic Leader or Diplomatic League, Literary Tradition for most of the time since.

- Which Governors did you choose and why did you choose them?
Picked Magnus for chops and settlers, Liang for the builder charge, Pingala for the boost, and Amani to take Stockholm away from Seondeok.

- Was your first age a Dark Age? Did you take any Dark Age cards?
Narrowly avoided a dark age, gaining the twelfth point just before the turn. On turn 98, my next turn will be a golden age.

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
Babylon, Stockholm, and Mohenjo-Daro are all mine, and I have two envoys in five others, thanks to Charismatic Leader. None in Hong Kong, and one in Zanzibar, which I think would be the next I want to bring into my fold.

- How were the Barbarians?
Not terribly annoying though I did have to take a bit of care as I didn't build much in the way of troops.

- Any surprises?
Seondeok is going to be tough to overcome unless I can cut her down to size once I get Jongs.

 

[TheBoulderite]

- Where did you settle your capital city? Your second city?
Capital city was founded in place, with the second city being in the northern part of the island between the three mountains. Campus adjacency bonuses, y'all.

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
I started with your run of the mill sciences and policies, but focused mainly on the ones pertaining to sailing. If I can maintain my navy, I'll be able to avoid problems later.

- What was your build order?
Focused on the buildings to get the city running, then built a holy site for the religion and science bonuses within and then turned to a campus.

- How long did it take to find your neighbors? Were they hostile or friendly?
Only met two so far, Norway and Korea. Korea seems like the bigger threat of the two. However, someone unknown keeps conquering city states and that concerns me a little bit.

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
As mentioned, I started with a Holy Site and then turned to a campus.

- Did you try to build any Wonders?
Built the Oracle for help with Great People in the long run.

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
Built only one other city.

- How quickly did you get Trade Routes working, who did you trade with?
Traded with Babylon and Toronto.

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
Prioritized science, and also production.

- Which Governors did you choose and why did you choose them?
Established Pingala in the capital to get the science infrastructure up and running.

- Was your first age a Dark Age? Did you take any Dark Age cards?
First age was a dark age, took the card that boosted science output by 75%.

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
Met Babylon, Toronto, Mohenjo-Daro, and one other. Sent all envoys to Babylon for the science bonuses.

- How were the Barbarians?
Insignificant.

- Any surprises?
The island my capital is on was a lot bigger than I thought it would be.

 

[Mesix]

- Where did you settle your capital city? Your second city?
I settled in place and settled my 2nd city to the south with a third to the east making a nice triangle.

Spoiler :

I also built a 4th city to the south in the Tundra and missed the wonder which would have made this an awesome city by 4 turns (a bit later in the game). Seriously, why does this wonder not require tundra (or better yet snow) tiles in the city to build it?

Spoiler :

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
I went for sailing (with the eureka) and then astrology. I wanted to get an early religion to pick up God of the Sea and Choral Music. My early policies chased the inspiration bonuses as I explored on the way to getting a government in place. Not sure if this happened before turn 100 or not to be honest. I know I did not find a natural wonder until later in the game.

- What was your build order?
I built a scout (only 1 since it is an island type map) and two slingers before realizing that I was alone on my land mass.

Then I built a galley to explore the seas.

I built a Holy site and a Shrine to get the early religion.

Then I built a worker and a settler (I also bought 2nd worker)

I built a 2nd galley for the eureka and to explore faster.

- How long did it take to find your neighbors? Were they hostile or friendly?
I did not find any neighbors until my galley started sailing about. It may have even been the classical era at this point. I don't remember for sure. They were friendly.

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
I built Holy sites in all of my cities first. Choral music makes a holy site valuable for civics. I am trying to not build any theater square districts in this game.

- Did you try to build any Wonders?
Not in the 1st 100 turns.

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
As mentioned above, I only have four cities at turn 100. I have a 5th settler on the way to settle near the natural wonder to the north.

Spoiler :

- How quickly did you get Trade Routes working, who did you trade with?
At turn 100, I have only one internal trade route. This has been a very slow start.

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
Played +1 gold/+1 faith along with the bonus to fighting barbarians until I had two cities.
Played +1 production in all cities and +100% to build naval units later.

- Which Governors did you choose and why did you choose them?
Magnus (for bonus chopping and settlers which do not consume population)

- Was your first age a Dark Age? Did you take any Dark Age cards?
No, I had a standard Classical Age. I was close to getting a Golden Age, but with so few barbarians and no civs to meet on my land mass there were not enough opportunities to get the necessary points.

Okay, it didn't happen until turn 104, but I managed a Golden Age for the Medieval Era. I picked Monumentality to spend the faith from my holy sites on Settlers and Workers.

Spoiler :

If I had managed to get a Golden Age in the Classical Era, I would have more cities and more worker improvements by turn 100. Once my settler reaches the north, I put Magnus in Jakarta and buy two additional settlers with faith to get three cities situated up here. Jarkata will eventually have my Government Plaza.

Spoiler :

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
Toronto and Babylon were nearby and early friends. I found some others as I explored as well.

- How were the Barbarians?
Not enough barbarian camps to get my Golden Age

- Any surprises?
Not really. I am not used to playing a game where I am alone on a continent. Even when playing watery maps, I generally spawn on a big landmass with 2-3 AI players for some reason.

My early push for religion payed off. I only really planned for God of the Sea and Choral Music and was not so happy with my other choices. At the time I thought Stewardship would be a good way to get bonus science and gold without investing faith in buildings (which I wanted to spend on settlers and workers). In hind site, either Wats or Meeting Houses would have been a better choice. Religious colonization was a good move, because every city I settled on far flung islands received the loyalty boost and the bonus production for fishing boats.

Spoiler :