6otM91 Opening Action

[leif erikson]

Welcome to the 6otM91 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 Culture 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.

 

[Chysp]

I haven't tried Greece before, and I'm not a great Deity player, but at Turn 100, I think things are going decently well. It probably won't be a fast victory, but I think I can win this one. Managed to squeeze out both a Classical and Medieval era Golden Age (both Free Inquiry) that is fueling my science right now, and my plan is to get Frigates out to suppress some of the stronger culture opponents.

- Where did you settle your capital city? Your second city?
Settled in place. The second city was SW, towards the Galapagos Islands. I've slowly filled out the island (though I have one more slot I've been putting off) to settle on further islands.

- Did you make a plan for achieving a Culture VC, what are the major steps you planned to take?
Knowing this is an Archipelago map, my priority was exploring off the island with Galleys. I got a Builder from the one tribal village on the island, and ended up using that for exploration (and getting tribal villages on small islands) as soon as I got Sailing.

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
Sailing > Celestial Navigation > Shipbuilding. I wanted to get off this island as soon as possible to meet civs / city states.

- What was your build order?
Monument > Settler > Galley > Trader > Galley > Government Plaza > Harbor > Ancestral Hall were my initial builds in Athens. I've mainly been prioritising Settlers in my capital since. Other cities have generally gone Harbor > Acropolis.

- Which Pantheon did you select and why? Did you get a Great Prophet?
I was a little slow getting my pantheon, even with Yerevan just to the south, but still managed to get Religious Settlements just after I built my first settler. I haven't bothered to go for a religion.

- How long did it take to find your neighbors? Were they hostile or friendly?
I found everyone near the beginning of the Classical Era. I'm beelining Frigates, but there's basically no Niter nearby which is going to make that a bit challenging.

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
I wanted the Ancestral Hall, so I prioritised the Plaza in Athens. Harbors have also been crucial for trade routes and science, but my science is going to plummet when the Medieval era ends.

- Did you try to build any Wonders?
Yes, Oracle and Pyramids. At Turn 100, I've nearly finished Mausoleum in my Galapagos city. Other wonders I'm going to try and get will be the Venetian Arsenal to help with the military push, Cristo Redentor, and the Eiffel Tower.

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
I've settled six more cities, with another Settler about to settle near Hong Kong.

- How quickly did you get Trade Routes working, who did you trade with?
Right now I am only trading internally, but I have seven routes active.

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
Double adjacency harbors and +50% settler production have been my most important policy cards so far.

- Which Governors did you choose and why did you choose them?
Magnus in the capital for the pop.free settlers and better trade route food, and Pingala in my Galapagos city for the culture and science.

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
I haven't met any cultural city states yet which is a bit annoying - right now, Babylon and Brussels are my besties.

Spoiler Empire at Turn 100 :

 

[JesseS]

- How long did you search for a site for your first city? What criteria did you use?
Settled in place. I liked having both luxury tiles in my second ring and staying close enough to the mountains for adjacency and appeal.

- Where did you settle your capital city? Your second city?
Second city went northeast, to the bananas.

- Did you make a plan for achieving a Culture VC, what are the major steps you planned to take?
My general strategy was to use faith and city states to power the cultural game. Both the Capitol and second city got +3 holy sites as the first district. I made a plan for an early Oracle in the Capitol. Other cities built an acropolis first and locked in a holy site/harbor/campus second, depending on district adjacency possibilities. Basically, the plan was to use faith with monumentality golden ages to expand and purchase settlers/builders/archaeologists/naturalists, build acropolis early enough to get all of the great works of writing/art/music, and get enough science to research radio, computers, and steel.

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
Astrology, mining, and sailing early, then basically teching around the tree to avoid wasting eurekas. Started beelining towards machinery and Kilwa once my science became decent. With machinery finished, I'm about to push back towards the top half of the tech tree.

- What was your build order?
I think I definitely messed this up for the archipelago map. I defaulted to scout/slinger/settler/monument/holy site in the Capitol and monument/holy site in the 2nd city. Wish I’d skipped the scout and slinger, as they ran out of things to do after 20 turns or so. Yerevan was fog busting on the island so barbs weren’t an issue. Also wish I’d gotten 2 galleys out earlier for exploration and a hoplite, as I missed the classical golden by a few points.

- Which Pantheon did you select and why? Did you get a Great Prophet?
Earth Goddess for the longer term faith generation potential, with all of the coastal tiles. I got the 3rd or 4th great prophet and picked work ethic.

- How long did it take to find your neighbors? Were they hostile or friendly?
I found Arabia towards the end of the ancient era, then Macedon, Phoenicia, Indonesia, and Persia. 2 civs left to discover. Not particularly friendly neighbors on the whole. Only Phoenicia is friendly. I sent delegations and opened borders but their agendas mean they’re probably going to hate my guts all game. At least it’s a naval map, so I don’t really have to worry about any attacks.

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
Holy sites went up fairly quickly, followed by acropoli. Placed some harbors and campuses but haven’t built them yet.

- Did you try to build any Wonders?
Got Oracle around turn 65-70, got Pyramids around turn 90, am about to finish Apadana around turn 100 (noticed it was still available and had nothing better to build). Kilwa is about to be chopped, with Magnus getting established and builders moving into position. I planned out Petra for some great sheep desert hill tiles.
Weirdly, the AI has barely prioritized wonders this game. Great Bath is still available.

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
The first 80 turns were slow and I only managed to settle a total of 5 cities on my home island. With a medieval golden age, I purchased 4 settlers and settled cities on surrounding islands. I have enough faith for another settler, just waiting for my forward city to grow to pop 2.

- How quickly did you get Trade Routes working, who did you trade with?
Trade routes were slow, as I wasn’t building harbors/commercial hubs early. I’ve got 1 good trade route going to Dido (like 15 gold, 3 culture).

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
Used urban planning/god king/discipline at first. Went for mysticism and +2 great prophet points early. Slotting in colonization once I could. At PP, went classical republic. Ran 100% holy site adjacency, 100% theater square adjacency, and urban planning regularly, slotting in the wonder-building, tile buying, +1 envoy for the first, and military production cards as needed. At turn 100, I’m researching merchant republic.

- Which Governors did you choose and why did you choose them?
Pingala with 2 promos (culture, then science), Magnus for chopping wonders, then grants for Pingala.

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
This is probably the worst part of this map. No cultural city states! I found Yerevan on my home island and suzerained them just through quests. Levied for the mercenaries and shipbuilding boost, to take care of a barb camp on an island I wanted to settle, and get more exploration done.
Of the city states I’ve met, my main priorities are Geneva and Bologna. I’ve also suzerained Brussels.

- How were the Barbarians?
Easy. Cleared one camp with the warrior and no others have spawned on my home island.

- Any surprises?
I found out that you can embark levied units before shipbuilding, if the city state has researched it.

Spoiler Show turn 102 empire (forgot 100 turn save) :

 

[Vlad Dracula]

How long did you search for a site for your first city? What criteria did you use? Settled in place I contemplated moving but then decided I could just buy the dye tile if needed.
- Where did you settle your capital city? Your second city? In place 2nd on rice
- Did you make a plan for achieving a Culture VC, what are the major steps you planned to take? Get some Acropoli with good adjacencies
- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why? ah,astrology,sailing,eurekas
- What was your build order? Scout,slinger,settler,builder
- Which Pantheon did you select and why? Did you get a Great Prophet? Divine Spark. Sadly no.
- How long did it take to find your neighbors? Were they hostile or friendly? I've found all but two I think.Elanor and I are friends.
- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize? Holy site.I wanted to boost my culture game through faith.Unfortunately I forgot to plug the prophet card in and missed getting a religion.
- Did you try to build any Wonders? I built the Oracle which may have hampered my colonizing.
- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns? Just four.I probably should have got a couple more.
- How quickly did you get Trade Routes working, who did you trade with? One to Arabia around turn 50
- How did you play your governance cards, priorities? Barb card,God King,and production to start.Then colonization,corvee,and production card.I switched out corvee for holy site card after building the Oracle
- Which Governors did you choose and why did you choose them? Pingala to get some early help with culture and science.I probably should have picked up Magnus sooner though.
- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side? Yerevan and Fez are mine.Also met Hong Kong,Jerusalem,Bologna,and Bandar Abbas.
- How were the Barbarians? Caravels became annoying around turn 80 or so.
- Any surprises?

 

[hhhhhh]

I hope I'm not too late to the party. As a new user I was only aware of Game of the Month yesterday.

Spoiler Turn 100 :

- How long did you search for a site for your first city? What criteria did you use?
Settled in place. The starting location is good enough so I don't move.

- Where did you settle your capital city? Your second city?
Settled 2nd city near Galápagos. 3rd city is Ephesus for Government Plaza.

- Did you make a plan for achieving a Culture VC, what are the major steps you planned to take?
Early on just regular development. Not much land so cannot get too many wonders.

- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
The Monasticism policy is very sweet. I put it on after getting Drama and Poetry. Early classical era I had 40 science, 10 culture. And it's probably the first game ever that I got the inspiration of Games and Recreation.

Spoiler T88, end of classical dark age :

- What was your build order?
Scout - settler - settler. Got a builder from tribal village but it was taken by barbarian ship when 2 charges are left.

- Which Pantheon did you select and why? Did you get a Great Prophet?
Earth Goddess. Wasn't so sure about it since Religious Settlement was available but since I planned to build Holy Sites and Acropolis it's not bad. Got me 1500 faith when the classical dark age ended. Yes I did get a Great Prophet, the last one. I chose Religious Colonization (3 cities, 2 with HS, so automatic a major religion) and Work Ethic. Not sure if Work Ethic is a good choice, it only grant me 10 production right now. The other possibility is Jesuit Education.

- How long did it take to find your neighbors? Were they hostile or friendly?
Found Arab and Macedon. Arab wasn't very friendly.

- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
- Did you try to build any Wonders?
* Oracle.
* Temple of Artemis for capital growth.
* Chopped the Pyramids in a sh*tty city on the island where Hong Kong is. I think @JesseS's choice of Pyramid location is probably better. But that sh*tty city is good for seaside resorts if I need that.
* Petra is planned. Although I wasn't sure I need that.

Spoiler A view of the crappy city :

- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
8 city by Turn 100. 6 on the starting island. Forward settled Arab (on the island where Bologna is). Another settler on the way. A few turns after T100 I grabbed a settler from Dido. People in this game hate her anyway (she killed a city state) so it doesn't hurt my diplomacy.

Spoiler The forward settlement :

- How quickly did you get Trade Routes working, who did you trade with?
Slow. Traded with Hong Kong for a quest. Then internally from capital since I needed the growth.

- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
Used Autocracy for Oracle. Then Classical Republic for a while. Believe or not I'm on Monarchy right now. In a few turns I will switch to Theocracy.

- Which Governors did you choose and why did you choose them?
Started with Amani since she helps a little with exploration. Then Magnus. Then Pingala, culture - x2 Great Person Point and eventually science.

- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
Everyone I met except Zanzibar, Jerusalem and Brussel. I can get Brussel too but I don't want their border to expand.

I levied Fez for 200 gold. It is totally worth it - took 4-5 tribal village with those units (got 3 eurekas!). And killed a barbarian camp. And the Mercenary inspiration.

Spoiler City States :

- How were the Barbarians?
Not too bad but a ship did took my builder. I didn't get my builder back when I clear that outpost. Probably someone else's ship took it.

- Any surprises?
The only volcano on my island (the one near Corinth) erupted 3-4 times and the tiles are really really fertile.

Moderator Action: Edited post for language, please do not fool the autocensor. leif