6otM89 Opening Action

[leif erikson]

Welcome to the 6otM89 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.

- How long did you search for a site for your first city? What criteria did you use?
- Where did you settle your capital city? Your second city?
- Did you make a plan for achieving a Domination VC, what are the major steps you planned to take?
- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
- What was your build order?
- Which Pantheon did you select and why? Did you get a Great Prophet?
- 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?
- 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.

 

[Casualty of war]

Well, drat. No sub-100 game for me. Still 3 capitals to go, Cree, America and Sweden. 2 Settlers (1 plus Religious Settlements) to go Northwest and Northeast to get the horses, had a beautiful scouting circle that gave me 3 first-meets, several Encampments for Great General points and the glory of Terracotta Army with Gran Colombia, bought/built a million Horsemen and Catapults.

Nubia picked a fight with me and my two friends, Brussels and Antananarivo. I eventually looped America and Cree into the war and ground down the world's biggest army in a war that lasted the entire Classical and then some.

Korea forward-settled me something fierce and I declared on them, trying to sort them out before they got Crossbowmen. They had an army poised to attack, thought better of it then got cut down in the open field as they were falling back.

I'm just about to pull the trigger on Teddy and the Cree, and whatever's left will take out Sweden. I'm at the point where I'm just going to take capitals and try to hold them for the win. Figure about Turn 115.

Spoiler :

 

[Half Nelson]

Turn 102. I settled in place and built warrior – settler – warrior – slinger, by which time my speedy starting warrior had met 3 CS (each giving an envoy meeting bonus) and generated enough faith for the free settler pantheon. City 2 was placed N of capital with a safe 3-adjaceny campus slot. City 3 was sent W to settle near an iron source but bumped into a Kongo settler and a barb camp which forced a non-ideal city placement. It also sealed the decision of first target. Kongo was conquered by horse and sword followed (very easily) by Korea who had placed cities with little heed to volcanic activity. My army (now including catapults and crossbows) is heading W to Australia who look a more meaty opponent with walls around all visible cities. I have 1 disaster-vulnerable niter source but will have bombards in 4 turns which should ease the path somewhat. I have strengthened my E borders with city walls and am friends with Cree, looking towards a military alliance.

Spoiler Spoiler :

Gran Columbia are by some distance the most powerful civilization I have played in CivVI. The movement bonus alone is strong, but backed up with guaranteed GGs at regular intervals which further increase movement and allow move & shoot siege from classical era is amazing. On top of all that, you can promote and move – shoot in the same turn!! I haven’t yet reached the stage where I can try out the UU or UI.

 

[Half Nelson]

Ooops, my attempt at a screenshot insert is extremely feeble. Any advice on how to improve this?

 

[leif erikson]

Instead of using the gallery, you can attach a photo to the post and click on full image. You should place it in spoiler tags as it will be quite large in all probability.

 

[Fluphen Azine]

Ran into a problem as I chose the wrong pantheon.
Not sure if I am going to finish the game as this is a major early game blunder that ruined my start.
I saved the game at turn 30 once I realized my egregious error.

 

[leif erikson]

Just go back to the autosave before the decision and replay from there.

Just let us know you did that.

edit - moved to Opening Action because once you open the save, should not post in the Announcement thread.

 

[elephantsidread]

Hope you don't mind this is turn 113 I forgot to top at 100.

You guys are too good. I'm struggling. Took two cities off the Kongo, neither capital, but may be about to lose them to a dark age.... and no niter in sight either.

I'm a newbie to Deity though. I'll play it out. Maybe If I can grab some niter I can get there still.

Maybe if I stick to these GotM challenges I'll work it out one day.

Spoiler :

 

[Fluphen Azine]

Just go back to the autosave before the decision and replay from there.

Just let us know you did that.

edit - moved to Opening Action because once you open the save, should not post in the Announcement thread.

Sorry bout that post.
I decided to just play it out.
I hate breaking that rule of no reloads, in any of my games.
Unless a crash.
It probably didn't cost me that many turns anyways.
I didn't finish under 100 turns but I was pretty happy with my result.

Spoiler Turn 65 :

Spoiler Empire at Turn 100 :

- How long did you search for a site for your first city? What criteria did you use?
Not very long as moving would cost too many turns.
Seemed like the best option.

- Where did you settle your capital city? Your second city?
Settled in place.
Second city was set up to get 3 pastures for faster culture.
That plan backfired when I had picked Plantations over Pastures for my Pantheon.

- Did you make a plan for achieving a Domination VC, what are the major steps you planned to take?
Build less districts and focus on military only.
Chop in districts later.
Gold rush Chariots and upgrade to Knights when possible.

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
Bronze Working, Horses and Iron Working to kill neighbors asap.
I placed some districts but waited till later to chop them in.
I rolled the Kongolese before they got up Ngao Mbebas.

- What was your build order?
Warrior x 2
Settler
Builder
Warriors and 3 Slingers
Monument

- Which Pantheon did you select and why? Did you get a Great Prophet?
Plantations by accident as I wanted Pastures.
No.

- How long did it take to find your neighbors? Were they hostile or friendly?
Not too long as I went West first which turned out to be the wrong direction.
Map was pretty tight so found most Civs relatively quick.
Going East would of been better perhaps if you got the Culture CS first meet.

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
I placed some like the Campus but didn't chop it in till later.
I missed and ignored the boost as I was focusing on military units instead.

- Did you try to build any Wonders?
I built Terracotta Army before the Pyramids.
I captured quite a few as I focused on Army for the most part
Wonder Building usually makes your game longer.

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
I focused more on Military compared to expansion this game.
I had 20 cities at turn 100.
I faith bought 1 or 2
Captured a Settler or two.
Captured most of my cities through Warmongering.

- How quickly did you get Trade Routes working, who did you trade with?
I traded with all of the AI for a bit as much as I could.
I didn't break any of the trade rules.
GPT was somewhat low this game but never seemed to be a problem.

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
Usual suspects running Agoge and Maneuver.
Eventually used Serfdom a bit and the +4 Combat Bonus Card.
Raid Card along with the 50% discounted upgrade cards.
Envoy Bonus Cards at the opportune time.
etc etc.

- Which Governors did you choose and why did you choose them?
Ping First to get faster culture as I didn't want to chop too early.
Amani for some Era Score.
Magnus for chops.
I ended up with all of them eventually.

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
I found a gold, trade, military and production CS first.
Later, I found the next door culture CS.
I allied most of them as the game allowed.
Focused on some Maoi and Alcazar.
I made sure to use the +1 Envoy Card each time I used my first Envoy per CS.

- How were the Barbarians?
Not too difficult.
No real issues.

- Any surprises?
How fast the game progressed and ended.
Map and Civ seemed like an easy set up to finish fast.
The AI didn't put up much of a fight.

 

[ky ky]

Hello y'all! First post on CivFanatics, been playing Civilization for a while and figured I'd join in on the GOTM fun (even if I'm a bit late). Here is my status at 100 turns in:

Spoiler :

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2143486124

Spoiler :

]https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2143486277

Spoiler :

[https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2143486564

How long did you search for a site for your first city? What criteria did you use?
Settled in place

Where did you settle your capital city? Your second city?
Second and third cities (Guayaquil, Maracaibo) founded for horses. Went for the pantheon that gives 1+ production and faith for strategic resources (my thought process being that I'd accumulate so much faith that I could eventually buy units with it)

Did you make a plan for achieving a Domination VC, what are the major steps you planned to take?
Rushed archers and horsemen. Plan was to overwhelm Korea and Australia early because I was afraid that they'd snowball in science and be nigh unbeatable. I'd use the profits to upgrade my army and overtake the rest of the world, although gold has been more scarce than I was hoping.

What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
Research order: animal husbandry, mining, archery, pottery, writing
Civics order: Early Empire, Political Philosophy, Military Tradition, Mysticism, Feudalism and Mercenaries

What was your build order?
Capital: scout, scout, slinger, settler, builder, settler spam
Other cities: builder, archers, horsemen, districts

How long did it take to find your neighbors? Were they hostile or friendly?
Found Nubia and Cree fairly quickly. Pretty sure I'd met all the Civs by turn 50. Surprisingly friendly (as in Civs actually wanted to be my friend) until I conquered Korea and Australia

How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
Didn't rush districts - built gov plaza in Guayaquil after it was unlocked, and campus in Maracaibo. Eventually built encampments in Guayaquil and Bogota, commercial hubs in several cities

Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
Emphasized settling 6 core cities to serve as a production core for future conquest, in retrospect should've put that production into units and districts. Conquered all of Korea and Australia, working on Nubia, Cree, and Sweden.

How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
First prioritized colonization to get core cities, now focusing on cavalry production and reducing unit maintenance.

Which Governors did you choose and why did you choose them?
Magnus for the pop saving promotion, Pingala for science and culture, Victor for loyalty, Amani for city states (although I bungled it and forgot to place her in Antananarivo, which is suzerained by the Cree and now I have to fight both rather than having the culture on my side)

What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
Cultivated Granada for unit production, many mercantile city states for extra GPT

How were the Barbarians?
Not too bad, managed to grab a meteor that gave me a heavy chariot and allowed me to easily clear out camps

Any surprises? + Analysis of situation
Korea and Australia barely had armies and I steamed-rolled them. Also they weren't significantly ahead like I believed they would be (Korea did have a turn 60 XBow but not the production nor gold to produce them). Only significant unit I've lost was a 0 promotion horseman when I got a bit cocky with Nubia and attempted to kill a low-health XBow with a low-health horseman. However, gold and production will be issues going forward if I aim for a sub-200 victory.

Looking forward to finishing the game!

 

[leif erikson]

Hello y'all! First post on CivFanatics, been playing Civilization for a while and figured I'd join in on the GOTM fun (even if I'm a bit late).

Welcome to CivFanatics and Game of the Month.

Best of luck in your games.

 

[Uberfrog]

Argh, I've screwed this up. Crossbowmen are the worst. I don't have enough of a tech lead on Kongo and between his Crossbow spam and Enacmpments my troops are getting shredded. I've got Cuirassiers now, which should help, but loyalty problems abound and I'm at war with everyone. I'm finding this Domination game an unfun slog to be honest. Trying to be too quick without making the right decisions has cost me a lot.

Korea and Australia went down very easy but Kongo is proving a lot more challenging. Maybe I'll finish this game when I'm in a better mood.

- How long did you search for a site for your first city? What criteria did you use?
Settled turn 1

- Where did you settle your capital city? Your second city?
Settled in place. Second city north.

- Did you make a plan for achieving a Domination VC, what are the major steps you planned to take?
Wanted to wait for Classical, and use a GG and CG stack to boost the warriors. This worked, and I took Korea no problems.

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
Beeline Bronze working for encampment and general

- What was your build order?
Settlers to get some cities down as the barbs weren't too bad.

- Which Pantheon did you select and why? Did you get a Great Prophet?
Free Worker.

- How long did it take to find your neighbors? Were they hostile or friendly?
Not long. They were friendly. I was not.

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
Encampment first for GG, then commercial hubs for cash.

- Did you try to build any Wonders?
Got Alhambra, nothing else.

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
12, although hilariously a northern Korean city I captured got razed by barbarians because I wasn't bothered to defend it.

- How quickly did you get Trade Routes working, who did you trade with?
Hunza, mostly.