6otM93 Opening Actions

[Eyswein]

Welcome to the 6otM93 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.

- What was your plan for achieving a Culture VC? What are the major steps you planned to take? What events, if any, changed the plan in execution and to what new plan? Any interesting decision points?
- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
- Where did you settle your capital city? Why? Your second city? Why?
- Early order for technology/civics? What did you prioritize for technology/civics?
- What was your early build order in your capital and other early cities? Military units / Civilian units / Districts & city development / Wonders / Civ Unique Unit & Infrastructure? Most critical or interesting?
- Pantheon chosen and why? Religion, beliefs chosen, and why? If none, why?
- What governments did you select? What policy cards did you use? Why?
- What secret society, if any, did you join and why? Impact to VC plan?
- Which Governors did you choose and why did you choose them?
- How long did it take to find your neighbors? What did you do for early diplomacy/trading? Peace or War (and by you or them)?
- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you nurture to your side?
- Did you achieve Dark/Golden/Heroic ages? What dedications did you take and why?
- How were the Barbarians? Any great/horrible tribal villages?
- Any surprises/frustration/elations?

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

 

[DanQuayle]

I didn't play many games with Secret Societies enabled, but the AIs definitely seem to be doing better (faster progression).
In my game, Kupe completed the Apadana on T46 (when I didn't even have PP yet).
It was also my first game where I managed to get the 4 free governor titles.
I also tried to go builder first to try to get Religious settlements, but I still missed it. (4th pantheon on T19)

 

[hhhhhh]

T1-24: Early Ancient Era

Start with Mining. Scout out on T6, builder out on T13 (move to stone or diamond), improve one on T14 (+1 faith as Ethiopia). Take God-King on T14 (+1 faith again), improve another on T16 (+1 faith), so taking amenity into account, you get 2.1 faith for T14 and T15, 3.2 faith after that. On T22 it's 26.6 faith so if you are lucky you can pick Religious Settlement on T22. You can get your first settler on T21 so this Religious Settlement settler is worth 110 production.
Just a quick calculation. I could be wrong on this. The plan for population is to work the stone and then the diamond tile. Building order is Scout-Builder-Settler-Monument. Want to use the gold from the diamond tile and God King to buy the second scout.

This was the original plan I posted in the announcement thread, and I sticked to it.
Got 40 gold from a tribal village so the scout is quicker. Want Voidsinger but didn't find it yet.

Unlocked Pantheon on T24. Religious Settlement is already gone. (Bummer! So is Desert Forklore and Sacred Path but those can be ignored for this game.) Same as @DanQuayle, 4th pantheon. And it's hard to decide what pantheon to choose. I may go with Goddess of Festivals and stick with 2 cities for the start. The two bananas in capital will get me 3 cultures. So two cities should work.

I will settle the 2nd city two tiles to the SW of Tsingy da Bemaraha. (Cannot find good spot on hill to settle is another pain point of this map.)

Scouting is painful in this game, so many mountain ranges... May need to buy another scout. With 3 scouts and a city of awe, the era scores should be enough for a classical golden age. And look at the bay names - Gulf of Dariên? Looks like Gran Colombia must be in this game.

T25-45: Second half of the Ancient Era

T25: Met China in this turn. First impression of -6. I decided to not send delegation and use gold to buy a scout (found an outpost 5 tiles near by capital). He's far and he may denounce me but so be it. (Already got 14/25 and 4 points on the way, and there can be even 3 more from outpost.)

Blunder #1 - I made a domestic trade route, I should have made an international one (to La Venta). Should I have done that I'd get maybe 50+ extra faith due to Ethiopia's ability. Since I decided to go with a two-city start, I didn't get a chance to get Pyramids yet. But I will chop Oracle soon.

T45 Classical Era is certainly early. But I manage to get a classical golden age (31/25). Maybe I shouldn't work so hard to do circumnavigation. I'd got a golden age anyway.

T45-84: The Classical Era: Oracle, Pyramids and Settlers

T48: faith bought the settler for my 3rd city. Two city start certainly feels different.

T51-52 Chopped Oracle in my capital and a few districts for it. At 8 civic the Oracle is 3.5 chop + 8 production (64 * 1.25 * 3.5 + 8 * 1.25 = 290). Normally the order I go is Pyramids - Government Plaza - Oracle in three different cities. Going Oracle first is a bit funny.

Blunder #2 - I chopped a +4 Holy Site in the Oracle City. But it was almost certain that I cannot get a religion at that point. OTOH, looking back, if I don't get this HS then I cannot get the medieval golden age. Maybe I should chop the theater square earlier - I end up missing all classical era Great Writer, which is painful.

Settled a city near the deserts to get the Pyramids. But that city will be low in production so it cannot do much other than getting the Pyramids.

After this I got a bunch of settlers, after settling them down I will have 9 cities. Is this enough for a culture victory? Probably. But I still don't see a winning strategy here - maybe I need to settle more after I got Theocracy (and rush Flight to win?).

Medieval Era comes on T85. Feels super fast, and I was at 65/65 for the golden age. (If I saved the circumnavigation then this won't be that tight. But normally I get golden age easily so I didn't pay that much attention.) I have to agree that AI are more competent.

Declared war on Russia to expel his envoy at Nan Madol. Oh man AIs are so competitive at city states right now I have to use a 3-promotion Armani in Classical Era to obtain suzerainty? I also got the chance to pillage one of Russia's HS.

Levied Nan Madol for 1 era score and to do a bit exploration. Still don't get Voidsinger yet. Duh.

T85-100: Early Medieval Era

Chopped Kilwa Kisiwani on T91. Found Caguana. Seems like I have to rush Flight.

Found two more tribal village on T95 and T98, still no voidsinger initiation. Met all Civs

Settled a few more cities and I even get the largest empire era score. About to chop/build Mausoleum but I'm not sure if that's a right decision - I probably won't end up getting lots of Great Engineers. Let's hope this is not blunder #3.

AI is suffering from Barbarians - Dutch capital was under Siege and brought down to 0 HP by barbarians. A northern tundra city of Russia is also suffering.

Spoiler T100 Screenshot :

I'm happy with the faith generation from Ethiopia - settled a city with 5 amber so it's 25 faith from that. But on this map it's hard to find hills to settle.

 

[guslaet]

Found a bug with the random civic tree: discovered the Civic that allows Monarchy before discovering Political Philosophy. I didn’t have any green cards, so I cannot approve the new government, not revert back to the one with two cards. Had to reload the save in that turn and not to choose Monarchy.

 

[hhhhhh]

Found a bug with the random civic tree: discovered the Civic that allows Monarchy before discovering Political Philosophy. I didn’t have any green cards, so I cannot approve the new government, not revert back to the one with two cards. Had to reload the save in that turn and not to choose Monarchy.

6oTM93 is not a random civic game, you may want to reply to 6oTM94.