6otM84 Opening actions Report

[Knowtalent]

Welcome to the 6otM84 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 bother with Culture?? 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?



- Any surprises?



Please use spoiler tags for any surprise details you'd like kept hidden. ​

 

[Casualty of war]

I may not have the fastest game, but I'm having the most fun. Unlike Poor Harald.

Spoiler :

 

[isopaha]

- Where did you settle your cities?

Settled on thermal fissure, then 2nd city quickly, after which I waited for ancestral hall in 2nd city.

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

Built quite a late first district, Campus in capital, after which 2 holy sites in great locations.

- How did you place your districts?

I went for Sacred Path pantheon, so Jungle and other adjacencies secondarily. I had a chance to get a +9 Holy site, but have just a few +8's.

- Did you bother with Culture??

How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?

I have founded 7 and captured 3.

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?

Scripture at this point, for maximum adjacencies.

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

Antioch and Vilnius Suzed, soon Jerusalem, which I met surprisingly late.

- Were your neighbors peaceful?
Phoinicia DoWed me after first getting OB, but I survived quite easily and wiped her out.

 

[Vlad Dracula]

- Where did you settle your cities? Settled in place second was on the river south next to the horses.Third was near the iron sw of the capitol.Fourth was south of two near more horses.



- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why? Grabbed mining while I was looking for a wonder which I found early then did astrology for the holy site.God king and the barb card.



- What was your build order? Scout,builder,slinger,slinger



- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize? I built a holy site on the copper fairly early.I think it was a +6.



- How did you place your districts? I have two really good holy sites.


- Did you bother with Culture?? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns? I have no theater squares but I'm still doing decent with culture.Built four captured both of Dido's



- How did you play your governance cards, priorities? God king and barb card.Then agoge and settler card.The priority was getting a religion and a big enough army to dissuade the neighbors form getting adventurous.



- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?Valletta,Jerusalem,Antioch,Cardiff,Vilinius and other the cultural one.I cultivated Jerusalem.



- Were your neighbors peaceful? Nope.I converted one of Dido's cities and she declared.She gone now.Shaka attacked Jerusalem and will pay as soon as I have protectorate cb.



- Any surprises? Dido coming at me with only two cities and pretty much no production.

 

[Zedseayou]

- Where did you settle your cities?
I've settled four more and captured three. One next to the chocolate west, one between diamonds and dye east, one south near stone and silver, and one north by Pico do Cabugi. I wasn't really sure how best to settle here, there's not that much production around and the rainforest/mountain range makes almost all the adjacencies good.

- What was your build order?
I went Astrology -> Mining to improve tiles, then Writing I think. I built one scout, slinger, got a free builder, and then started settlers and put 3 more out after the +50% policy came out.

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
I put a Holy District next to Vesuvius almost immediately. It's cost me some turns in repairs, but the adjacency was really nice. I couldn't bear to put a campus over the Stone by the fissures though, since there seemed to be few hammers around. Might have regretted that. Mostly Holy Site -> Campus, some Commercial Hubs as well.

- How did you place your districts?
The Rainforest adjacency is hard because I have to think about whether I'm likely to chop that forest later in the game. I don't think I placed particularly well, haven't really got any district clusters forming between cities.

- Did you bother with Culture?? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
8 total, as described above. I took Choral Music (Culture on Shrines/Temples), so that's been a pretty large source of my culture.

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
I've been swapping policies and governments a lot, to deal with switching to war as described below

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
Most important one was Jerusalem, where the Holy City pressure has been helpful in getting my religion started. I feel like I should be further along with the spread though.

- Were your neighbors peaceful?
Nope! Shaka forward settled me, and then DOWed when his city converted from Loyalty. I wiped him out with 3 archers and a spearman, but that has made everyone angry at me. Dido and Tamar proceeded to surprise DOW me later on the same turn, causing me to lose one of my cities briefly. I'm going to wipe out Dido I think and leave the rest; trying to balance getting religious pressure out.

- Any surprises?
I haven't played GS much and not in a long time, so I'm surprised at how much Apostles cost and also some of the mechanics of RV. I didn't know they could be killed in war, for example. I also don't really know how to play with the natural disasters yet, I've had to do some rebuilding from volcanic eruptions. I also totally forgot about the map type and never researched Shipbuilding for ages; so it was a surprise at the first World Congress when two more civs showed up. I need to figure out how to get apostles over there.

 

[Uberfrog]

Finally got round to starting this GotM, the Easter long weekend providing a good opportunity to play!

I'm a bit rusty, but having a lot of fun so far with this great start. Vesuvius looks beautiful nestled in that mountain range.

It's turn 100, Zorastrianism is founded in honour of the eternal flame of Vesuvius. Shaka and Dido (despite her getting Stonehenge) have been converted by missionary rush. There's a small matter of a war with Georgia, but nothing my troops can't handle (after some desperate shifts in production focus!)


- Where did you settle your cities?
Rio was settled in place, taking advantage of a lovely +6 Holy Site by Vesuvius and a +8 Campus between the hot springs and the jungle. Second city was settled South, then a third to the East.

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
Made a beeline for religion and writing to get the districts up as soon as possible. With two great campuses I'm now shooting into the middle ages with two great scientists as well.

- What was your build order?
Scout, Slinger, Builder (paused because I got a free Builder from a village), Slinger (barbarians!), Builder (when my free builder died in a Vesuvian eruption!). It was an eventful start to the game...

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
Holy Site next to Vesuvius as soon as I could. I tried to be clever and chop the copper but the builder was burioed by a pyroclastic flow before he could

- How did you place your districts?
To take advantage of these whopping jungle and natural wonder adjacencies

- Did you bother with Culture?? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
Yes I've been pretty peaceful, focusing on a quick spread with missionaries.

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
Pingala first for the science, then Liang to rush to the immunity from natural disasters. She's now protecting my valuable Holy Site that sits on the slopes of Vesuvius.

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
Jerusalem is always handy to exert that early religious pressure.

- Were your neighbors peaceful?
Tamar declared a surprise war which took me... by surprsise. Lost a few units and some turns of production fending her off but she's gone now. Definitely my first target for taking over cities.

- Any surprises?
Getting a free Builder who was then promptly killed by a volcano was a pretty good reminder of Gathering Storm's mechanics (as my previous civ game was a Rise & Fall multiplayer match!)

Spoiler Turn 100 Empire photo :

 

[Email10]

My plan for this one: Settle in place, get a strong Holy Site up quickly and be more aggresive than in the GOTM83 to try to get a quicker victory. The rain forest around promises a plentyful land for Brazil that I hopefully can use.

- Where did you settle your cities?
I settled my first city in place. Didn't see any reason to move. For my second city I decided to put it in the south at the river. Even if the land was better to the East, West and North I wanted to secure this spot before Dido or Shaka went there. The land in the North & East was secured for me by the City State neighbours. For my third city I decided that I wanted a coastal city to secure a faster victory by getting Sailing and Ship Building quicker with Eurekas.

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
As in my previous game I focused the research where I had Eurekas and sometimes I pushed for Eurekas for important techs such as Irrigation and Horseback Riding.

My Research order was: Mining, Astrology, AH, Pottery, Writing, Wheel, Archery, BW, Irrigation. I got Eureka on all techs in the first 100 Turns.

My Civic order was: Foreign Trade, Mysticism, Craftmanship, State Workforce, Early Empire, Political Philosophy. All of those I got with Inspiration but after that I didn't manage to get a lot of inspiration. My Culture generation was very good however compared to earlier games I have played, thanks to the strong Holy Sites and Choral Music.

For Policies I went for Discipline and God King to start. I had to fight a lot of Barbarians in the first 20-30 Turns so Discipline came in handy. God King game ve the Pantheon faster and after I had got it I switched to Urban Planning.

My Pantheon was Sacred Path for even more bonus from the Rainforests.

I went for Oligarchy Turn 56 after getting Political Philosophy.

- What was your build order?
In my capital: Scout, Warrior, Settler, Holy Site, Warrior, Repair pillaged Holy Site, Settler, Repair again..., Shrine, Settler
In my 2nd city: Slinger, Monument, Slinger, Holy Site
and with my 3rd city I started with a Monument

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
My Holy Site (+8) in the capital was finished on Turn 27. At the same time I was surrounded by Barbs who immediately pillaged it and made it useless so I had to waste some turns to reparin it. I build a +5 Holy Site in my 2nd city and my next district was a Campus in my 3rd city. I didn't build a lot of other types of districts. I built Carnival just for the fun of it and also the Government Plaza. I also captured some Harbors and Encampments.I continued to build strong Holy Sites in my cities in the Rain Forest to boost the Faith production. I got the second Prophet (first went to Dido who built Stonehenge) on Turn 63 and founded Zoroastrianism on T64 with Choral Music (for Culture) and Missionary Zeal (for faster movement = hopefully faster victory).

- How did you place your districts?
With the plentfyful Rainforest tiles and Mountains it was easy to choose the best spots. All my districts gained +5 to +8 adjacency bonuses. I took care to not remove any of those Rainforest tiles to keep the bonuses.

- Did you bother with Culture?? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
Choral Music gave me a huge boost in culture thanks to my strong Holy Sites. I built some monuments as well but never built a Theatre District as I didn't see the use for it. Pingala was also helpful.
I built 5 strong cities, captured 2 from the Zulus and razed 2 more and then I have just captured 1 from Phoenecia.

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
Pingala x2 in my capital for science and culture boost, then I went for Moksha x2 in my second city to get stronger Apostles later in the game.

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
All the 6 on our continent. My first suz was Jerusalem, then Vilnius and on Turn 100 I had 5 of 6.

- Were your neighbors peaceful?
Very, it was always me who attacked first. I built some archers, chariots, swordsmen and then horsemen and went on to destroy the Zulus. I'm now progressing on Dido. Harald and Matthias are fighting in the north and Matthias has captured Harald's second city.

- Any surprises?
In the first two eras, I managed to complete all City State quests - that's 12 envoys for free and many suzerains
I managed to get very few huts, only two of them, but the outcome was satisfactory: 1 relic and 1 envoy.
The barbs were annoying and often caught me off-guard when my units were far away. Only around Turn 35-40 I started to control them.
Getting Golden Ages went surprisingly easy. For my first one I went for Monumentality and for my second for Exodus.

Spoiler Turn 100 :