6otM86 opening actions

[Knowtalent]

Welcome to the 6otM86 Opening Actions thread.
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STOP - Please do not continue reading this thread until you have completed at least 80 to 100 turns in your game.


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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.

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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?

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

 

[Email10]

First, I have never tried for a Diplomatic Victory before so I researched a bit how to get it and what are the keys. What I found out: Get a lot of Suzerains and Alliances to pile up Diplomatic Favor. Be sure to get the Statue of Liberty, help during emergencies and win the key votes.

So I want Envoys en masse, meaning I will go for the Apadana and Kilwa Kisiwani. Potala Palace would be nice for the extra Diplo Policy Slot and Országház for extra Diplo Favor. I also need a good balance of Science, Culture and Gold to support expansion. If I can get some other useful Wonders like Forbidden City, Pyramids and Colosseum, that would be nice too. Another key will be to get Cartography fast to meet civs and city states on the other continent(s), so I definitely want an early Coastal City. I also want at least 3 Okihtcitaw to scout my continent fast and meet everyone.

Ponding the start locations first - I chose between the Fox (+1F/+1G), the Chocolate (+3G) and the Plains Hill (+1P) to the NE. The Plains Hill didn't promise a lot of good inner ring or outer ring tiles from what I could see and the Fox neither. I moved the Warrior to see more tiles around the chocolate and was happy with I saw. Happy enough to spend one more turn moving before settling.

My build order in my Capital was: Okihtcitaw, Okihtcitaw, Settler, Monument, Campus, Settler

Science Order:
- Animal Husbandry, to find horses and get fox and sheep on-line
- Pottery, for my unique bonuses
- Writing, for an early Campus, I have a nice +4 Campus slot in the capital next to the fissures
- Mining, to enable chopping
- Masonry, because I discovered a nice Pyramids spot in my second city
- Archery, to fight barbs
- Bronze Working, to find iron and chop rain forests

Civics:
I pretty much beelined to Political Philosophy to get to the Apadana and fast Government Change
- Foreign Trade
- Early Empire
- Craftsmanship
- State Workforce
- Political Philosophy

My first five Tribal Villages gave me: Eureka Bronze Working, Inspiration Early Empire, Builder, Envoy, +20 Faith. I got a few more later in the game that gave me Gold if I remember well.

I was the first to meet Buenos Aires, but had to send envoys to the others.

My first Policies were Survey (to boost my unique unit, didn't prove too helpful though) and God King (to get a Pantheon). After I got my Pantheon I switched to Urban Planning & Discipline. I used the Builder 30% and Settler 50% as well once I was build that.

I sent delegations and traded as much as I could with the other Civs and made Friends with everyone. I haven't been allowed to set up Alliances yet.

After the first 100 Turns, I have settled 7 cities, am quite happy about the start and feel I'm progressing well towards my goal. I think the main problem will be to avoid other Victory Conditions. I'm far ahead the others in Science and Culture. The Era's are progressing very slowly. I have just discovered Cartography and have set sail to discover the new world.

Spoiler Turn 100 :

Important events:
T5: Discover continent, Foreign Trade boost
T8: Met Suleyman, sent him Delegation and sold Chocs for 10 Gold + 1/turn
T10: Barb Camp to NW, beaten halfway down by Suleyman. Bought another 2/2 tile to work
T14: Cleared Barb Camp
T17: Decided to buy an Okihtcitaw as I didn't see a need for a Builder just now. One of my Okihtcitaw finds a barb camp that has been beaten badly by Babylon. Manages to kill the spearman and clear it for another 50g
T19: Met Sumeria, sent him Delegation. He has found a nice relic but is not prepared to sell it. Suleyman refuses to declare friendship
T21: Got my free trader from Pottery and sent him to Suleyman because I want to settle my next city between us to block him. This should speed up my settler thanks to roads once it is finished. Met Kongo and sent him a delegation as well
T22: Buys a Slinger to fight a Barb Camp to the NE
T25: Built my first Mekewap on the Grassland Hill for +1 Prod, +1 Gold, +1 Housing & +4 Era Score. Suleyman accepts my Friendship request
T28: Big Fail - lost my trader to a barb scout. I could have easily protected him with my Warrior next to him but was too unconcentrated. Discovers Geneva and Giants Causeway next to it. Builds a Farm on the Rice for Irrigation & Craftsmanship boost. My free builder proved very valuable
T30: Settled my second city, NE of Bananas just south of Suleyman -> starts to work on a Monument. This site has a +6 Campus tile between two fissures. My first Okihtcitaw gets his 2nd promotion and is now fast! I have reached 25 era points to secure first Golden Age. Barb Camp spawned just south of my Capital
T31: Pantheon thanks to 20 Faith from Village -> Fertility Rites. Religious Settlements was gone.
T34: Unmet player completes Great Bath
T38: Completes +4 Campus in capital, gaining 2 Envoys
T41: Assign Magnus to Second City to preparing chopping for Pyramids
T47: Starts to build Pyramids in Second City, Unmet player completes Stonehenge
T51: Wihkasko-Kiseyn finished Pyramids. Reassigns Magnus to Capital to prepare for Apadana
T52: Declares Friendship with Kongo and Sumeria. Upgrades Magnus
T53: Third City found on Coast to the SW of Capital. Not a very good site but I need a Coastal City to start researching towards Cartography
T57: Switches to Classical Republic
T59: Pingala appointed. Kongo has settled a city on the flood river to the SE. Need to replan my city building
T61: Suleyman defeats Lisbon. I wasted an envoy there. We enter a Golden Age and chooses Pen, Brush and Voice.
T66: Completes Apadana in Capital. Becomes Suzerain of Buenos Aires
T67: Suzerain of Geneva
T67-87: Government Plaza + Ancestral Hall in Capital, Settled 4 more cities, Suzerain of Babylon and Hongkong.
T87: Completed Hanging Gardens
T100: Completed Petra

 

[Casualty of war]

No Religious Settlements when I got my Pantheon, so Goddess of the Hunt for me. This plus Temple of Artemis should make for a nice little nexus of cities. I'm going to have to be careful not to wipe out a neighbor with Loyalty pressure if they get a Dark Age. I need to make a sandy city, for the Pyramids and probably Petra, but I'm afraid it might wipe out Sumeria from Loyalty. Their cities are tiny due to terrible placement.

I lost a ridiculous amount of early units because Kongo let a Horse Barb camp run wild and they just happened to stumble across me too. Almost lost a Settler too. Kongo did, which got repurposed to my uses.

I founded a no-Holy site religion with Stonehenge. I need to build at least one Holy Site next to some woods but haven't figure out where to put it yet. I don't have to worry about losing the Diplo Tower until someone else in the world founds a religion.

Spoiler :

 

[TheFinalChiTown]

- Where did you settle your cities? (see screenshot)
- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why? Techs: astrology (religion), archery (Temple of Artemis), apprenticeship, cartography. Civics: pol. phil., recorded history, feudalism, now going for reformed church.
- What was your build order? scout, settler, slinger (gold), builder (tribal village), settler, holy site
- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize? holy site first. i've seen a bunch of GotM players that prioritize holy sites over monuments with the expectation that you'll take choral music. seems to work well.
- How did you place your districts? next to mountains for adjacency.
- Did you bother with Culture?? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns? i've found in my other diplo games that it's hard to NOT win a culture victory. so, i plan to boost all my culture through religion and pantheon (+1 culture from plantations) instead of theater squares.
- How did you play your governance cards, priorities? mostly urban planning until ancestral hall was done. then colonization. added scripture and natural philosophy once they became available.
- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
- Were your neighbors peaceful? yes.
- Any surprises? yes, pleasantly surprised that the capital had a killer Temple of Artemis spot (+10 amenities!)

Spoiler :

 

[MrRadar]

- Where did you settle your cities?
Capital SIP, other cities in the screenshot

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
I got Astrology from a tribal village, so I went for it pretty soon. Also hard teched Irrigation.
Went for Classical Republic.

- What was your build order?
Cree scout, builder, settler, iirc.
- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
Not supersoon. HS and Campus.

- How did you place your districts?
See screenshot

- Did you bother with Culture?? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
I picked Goddess of Festivals pantheon. The amount of plantations is very divine
5, or maybe 6, because there's a settler travelling to city spot and I forget if I settled it before t100.

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
Nothing unusual, just ordinary stuff swapping charismatic and diplomatic, having urban development in, after I was done with the God King for the pantheon. Just ran Scripture a lot because of the +5 HS and both Classical and Medieval Golden Monumentality.

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
2 scientific, 2 industrial and one trade. First prioritized scientific, then trade, then it was industrial ones' turn. Buenos Aires barely survived an attack by the Otomans, the mountains helped, I guess. I've blocked access just in time to save it. Then Kongo attacked too. Finally it got walls and now it's target practice for its men manning the walls.

- Were your neighbors peaceful?
Yes, mutually. I plan no wars, but will befriend and ally them all.
Gilgabro settled one city too close to me and lost it to a loyalty flip.

- Any surprises?
The ferocity of the barbs. Goodness me! I lost two warriors to them, and they ate two my traders. Prince difficulty lulled me into neglecting having some troops for too long. But it seems Gilgamesh took the brunt of their attacks, because there were a couple of camps down south in the snow there. Eventually I had to send my archers on an odyssey to take them out, because Sumer was powerless and suffering.

Also the abundance of various resources. Looks like, money won't be a problem, and I have 3 nice wonders in my capital already: ToA, Apadana and Oracle. Sweet!


T96 screenshot:

Spoiler :

 

[enKage]

I play it only because it is Poundmaker. I never play Prince so didn't know what to expect, but era proges is so extremely sloooow that diplo victory would take ages


- Where did you settle your cities?
2NE. 1 turn lost, but far better spot (2f2h5g from the start and second 2f2h without border expansion)

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why? Unlike other Cree games, I started with early irigation, I got eureka from TV. Definitely not special, typical cree play - early pottery, early markets. Unlike most my games, delayed cartography - I don't know why o_O Astrology late, noone build holy sites anyway. Pretty early jungle choppin - +7 campus was waiting for it

- What was your build order? Oki, settler, builder, Oki, Oki in 2nd city. Slingers bought. I was unaware barbs are such a problem on prince

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize? +3 campus. +7 campus, +4 campus in 3rd city (north east). 4th city started with GP as it would be my trade capital (I took foxes from original capital to make a total of 6 camps/pastures)

- Did you bother with Culture?? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns? Culture is poundmaker bottleneck, so I went plantation pantheon. I believe I stopped at 7 cities or so.

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side? No free envoys at all, but still managed to ally every by quests. Ottos took 2 of them and I wait for diplo resolution to take them back

- Were your neighbors peaceful? Towards each other - yes. Towards CS - no

- Any surprises? Surprise is how big problems are districts for prince AI - i founded first rligion very late and so on