[R&F] Gorgo Opening

[Hawaiidoc]

Hi all, new to Civ6 (just a few days) and only had a brief time at 5 (I kind of stopped playing about 10 years ago and am just coming back).
.
I've decided to do my learning with Gorgo - I like the mechanics with her, and she doesn't seem to OP with the UUs (Hoplite seems to suck). I was playing on normal and it is pretty much like all Civ games, there really isn't challenge at that level. So I decided to just jump to deity and work it out.

Unfortunately, I have two issues. First is that when I first started on Prince, I always had a Civ within spitting distance (10 tiles or less) and was told that was normal. So, I've started out playing like that, and following Victoria's advice keeping it to one city and militarying up. (Is that a word?) Unfortunately, in about 20 starts on deity, I haven't even found another civ until the timer is counting down on the ancient era, let alone been able to start warring early. So my question here would be, what are key buildings I should be looking at in this case, how many cities, and how soon to make the decision that, hey, war ain't happening, so build a settler.

The second issue is Hoplites. Are these even worth making? (My current thought process on the overall plan is going to be focusing on the bottom half of the tech tree, hopefully leveraging the misc card advantage by getting the two card wonders there (Military and Misc), and all the while keep expanding militarily while building culture behind me for an alternative path and protection from tourism.) This would mean I'm going into swordsmen, and the stupid hoplite upgrade path won't work.

Any thoughts?

Thank you!

 

[Victoria]

she doesn't seem to OP with the UUs (Hoplite seems to suck).

She is not as good as Pericles but she is still very good for a fast culture victory. She is my second most played civ so quite happy to chat about her with some confidence.

Are these even worth making?

Yes, you get the +4 era points so be aware of it you need them to get a golden, if not then wait for the next era or if someone like Tomyris is nearby.
One issue is they again need and adjacent hoplite so you really need to build 2. These 2 with Oligarchy are in fact an early chance against cities. Often on deity they have built a chariot and station that in a city which buffs its strength and the hoplites do make a difference, with or without Oligarchy. The main issue with the hoplites is against archers and swords so when I play with them I will have them as second rank support with the option to com through or going on a flank.
Ideally you do need a spear in your army for a eureka now and there is sometimes a CS than needs that quest done with spear or hoplite.

So on to general deity play.
Gorgo is someone that wants to fight early so a small map helps rather than a standard. There does seem to be quite some chance on standard she gets left in a wide space. There is nothing wrong with starting scout of you want to... there is nothing even wrong with going for a non aggression win which is well within her grasp. The first thing I will do with her is to get an army up just in case there is a nearby civ but if I start suspecting this is not the case I will convert. You can also take the approach of starting build and switching to aggression if need be but on deity you can get caught out by a rush. Certainly because of your great culture push which is only really of value very early at least one warrior at the start to double your chance of killing barb camps and barbs is useful.
A builder early is giving you + production and food and does catapult your civ as well as getting you to Agoge faster when your army gets a 50% discount so I often feel this is just the right way to go for the bulk of the army. The real strength of Gorgo over Pericles is getting to Theaters faster by killing things. Spamming those theaters gives you great envoys and if used wisely with the double envoy card can get you a lot of suze. Just be careful about who you put envoys into early on deity because most CS get killed, as Gorgo freeing teh CS and then putting additional envoys in can be a lot better.
So cheap faster theaters which means lots of cities quickly through both dom & growth. Chopping and pillaging are really key points to doing well but often missed is making as much gold early as you can to buy a settler, monuments or even a strategic granary. This is standard play rather than Gorgo play.

One BIG issue with the current maps is you can spawn in an area no barbs ever spawn in... this is disastrous for Gorgo... but you can get the opposite and have a barb camp spawning every time one dies and you get a never ending feed of culture.
I am always tempted with Gorgo to get an encampment first and get military tradition ASAP for the +2 GG points and get that iron. Gorgo benefits from a sword rush and if you find no swords you can use your hoplites, the are sadly not able to benefit from a general but early enough they do fine against a city, two of them with archers and warrior in support.
Gorgo has sort of been nerfed by the pillaging rules because pillaging quarries gives a lot of culture now but it is still a benefit but her real benefit is in cheaper theaters with additional adjacency, extra envoys and a wildcard. She can get a GG early... or a GS or any other G if you want to try a different victory condition.

 

[Hawaiidoc]

Thank you for the help!

 

[BK*]

If you want to early rush hoplites imo build a holy site to get religion and crusader. Next is encampment and get a general. Bring a ram and a hoplite archer army can make a great early rush. Saxy Gamer has a great early rush Gorgo video where Alexander starts very near him. Saxy also has tons of videos you should watch about various game aspects.

 

[Victoria]

Saxy also has tons of videos you should watch about various game aspects.

Just tried... another streamer type. No tx.

 

[Fluphen Azine]

Just tried... another streamer type. No tx.

I brought his videos up in another thread months ago.
You basically said that youtuber/streamer don't know Jack Squat
Which is true. I just find your disdain for his content humorous.
I only watched one of his videos about the math behind culture/tourism which ended up being misinformation

 

[Victoria]

I just find your disdain for his content humorous.

My disdain is not vitriolic though, there is good stuff in there but the danger with incorrect information is it sticks in your head. If you are going to do these things you should know what you are saying or say you do not know for sure.
For this chap my disdain is in fact his voice, it is a super fast super cheerful streamer voice and for some reason they annoy me personally.
Potato McWhiskeys voice is fine in comparison and I have watched some of his. You do glean things from vids and they can be useful. You just have to be careful re content.

 

[kb27787]

Hi all, new to Civ6 (just a few days) and only had a brief time at 5 (I kind of stopped playing about 10 years ago and am just coming back).
.
I've decided to do my learning with Gorgo - I like the mechanics with her, and she doesn't seem to OP with the UUs (Hoplite seems to suck). I was playing on normal and it is pretty much like all Civ games, there really isn't challenge at that level. So I decided to just jump to deity and work it out.

Unfortunately, I have two issues. First is that when I first started on Prince, I always had a Civ within spitting distance (10 tiles or less) and was told that was normal. So, I've started out playing like that, and following Victoria's advice keeping it to one city and militarying up. (Is that a word?) Unfortunately, in about 20 starts on deity, I haven't even found another civ until the timer is counting down on the ancient era, let alone been able to start warring early. So my question here would be, what are key buildings I should be looking at in this case, how many cities, and how soon to make the decision that, hey, war ain't happening, so build a settler.

The second issue is Hoplites. Are these even worth making? (My current thought process on the overall plan is going to be focusing on the bottom half of the tech tree, hopefully leveraging the misc card advantage by getting the two card wonders there (Military and Misc), and all the while keep expanding militarily while building culture behind me for an alternative path and protection from tourism.) This would mean I'm going into swordsmen, and the stupid hoplite upgrade path won't work.

Any thoughts?

Thank you!

If you have an isolated start, realize that it is a blessing... lots of space for barbs to spawn in and no one to compete with you for them. Get some archers and enjoy the culture farm until you start expanding and limit the spaces they can spawn in. Get one hoplite for 4 era score, but save it for medieval heroic age. A classic dark age I feel is even better than a golden one because of the cards (which you as Greece have a wildcard slot right away to slot them). I would avoid exploring at all in the 1st age.