The First 25 Turns

[Fluphen Azine]

Messing around with Civ VI again.
Starting a series with the first 25 turns to share and get better.
Hoping for criticism, ideas, thoughts, sarcasm and fun.
Feel Free to play a game up to turn 25 and share in this thread.
Feel Free to just Lurk or point out my many mistakes.
All thoughts are welcome.

Deity
Standard Settings
Standard Sized Map
Gathering Storm Disaster Level 2
I chose Teddy and went with 7 other Random AI.
(Never met one which is unusual for my games)

Spoiler Turn 1 :

I go into the game with the mindset of Warmonger.
My last game I played up to turn 100 I played peaceful and really hated it.
Obviously I just don't get out settlers fast enough.
I had 8 cities and it seemed to be going very slow for peaceful play.
So of course I come into this game with the War mindset and the game trolls me as usual.

Start seemed better than my usual so I wasn't mad.
I moved the Warrior to the NE Hill and Settler SE to settle SE of Sheep.
Foreign Trade Boost at start of game was nice as you can see in the picture.
I went Slinger First cause I wanted War with Generals and Stuff.
With this start what would you do?
After some scouting it appeared Monument or Builder First may have worked out.
Some people swear they can go Builder First in a High Percentage of Deity Games.

I researched Animal Husbandry First into Mining afterwards.

I decided to work the 2F 2P Sheep instead of the Fissure.
Growth over Immediate Science I guess is correct?
Scouted with the warrior through the mountain passes to the East.

Nothing really happened and on turn 8 I started another Slinger.
On Turn 12 I found my first Hut and got excited with the Tooth of the Prophet.
This turn was eventful with finding Akad, a Military CS which goes with the Warmongering Theme.
The Natural Wonder Eyjafjallajökull which was great but inside of Akad.
Changed to Oranges and Science in the Capital to grow faster.
Not sure if the +1 Science is better than the Sheep to be honest?
I was hoping to ally Akad and use Melee Troops to bust down walls but I don't think I have neighbors.
So Sad

Spoiler Turn 13 :

Turn 13 I found my first Barb Camp and the Second Slinger was finished.
I went with a Scout next. Perhaps that was the wrong?
I can't help but want a scout with Pangaea Maps.
I could buy one with gold but saving for Builder or Monument perhaps... I dunno lol.

Turn 15 comes along and I choose Discipline and Urban Planning.
Second Barb Camp shows up to the East of the Marble inside the Mountains.

Turn 16 I decide to start researching Bronze Working.
Still thinking War, Encampments, Great Generals and 3 Barbs should die soon.

Turn 17 Warrior takes out Barb Camp.
Forgot what it gave me along with the gold.
Scout is finished so why not build a Warrior to help kill that new Barb Camp!?

Turn 18 we Find the CS Nan Madol which is pretty good since I was first meeting!
Switch over to Potter since the land is aplenty, open and seems safe.
Starting to change idea or plan. Also thinking about Religion and Astrology.

Spoiler Turn 19 :

Turn 19 was pretty sweet with a Free Builder from a Hut.
Free Settler from Pantheon.
I decided to go settle on the oranges cause I am conditioned to settle on luxuries.
My plan for the builder was to improve the Sheep first.
I was thinking about buying the tiles to get the Gypsum but seemed like a lot of gold.
Also it is by the Volcano and the Marble is in a worse spot.
Do you improve them and just deal with the fallout later?
I decided not to. I planned on improving the Two Farms with the Sheep.
I tend to forget to improve 6 Farms for Feudalism so trying to get that done early.

This place is so open and safe it is confusing me.
I want to expand asap.
I want to build wonders.
I want to build Holy Sites and get a Religion.
Too many choices is messing my direction up.
This is why I like to just focus on the War Machine.

So what do I do? I go and switch to Astrology.
I fall for the trap of trying for a Religion.

Turn 21 Warrior is finished and I start on a Monument because I suck lol.
Everything tells me to just push Settlers out but I am going for the Religion Gambit instead.

Turn 23 Foreign Trade finishes and I figure why not really trap myself and go for Mysticism lol.

Turn 24 and I settle my first Expo and see the Bananas close to Nan Madol.
I spend the 135 Gold to get them but that is probably wrong.
I start building a Monument in the Expo.
I wrote something down that looks like Baltimore but that can't be right lol.

Spoiler Turn 25 :

Turn 25 and I get a slinger promotion of Volley.
I find Brussels and get excited about the 15% wonder building possibilities.
I was not first to find Brussels so I would expect my first Civ meet and greet soon.

Summary
I just never adapt well.
In hindsight I just think I need to pump out settlers.
I just fall into the builder mode trap too often.
Talk about messing up a nice, easy and isolated start!
Anyways, posting this makes it more fun for me and hopefully you.

 

[Fluphen Azine]

Spoiler Bonus Turns 85 :

For personal amusement I played up to turn 85 so far.
Praying for 10 turns and Building Wonders really slows me down.
I fell like it is just better to build a bunch of settlers.
Turn 85 and only 5 cities that I basically bought with Faith and Gold from Gold Age.
I didn't plan out the back to back Golden Age well enough and am going to miss out.
Next Turn for Colosseum if the AI doesn't troll me.
I managed to get Pyramids and the Oracle.

Governors were Amani...
Magnus x 2
Ping
Liang
Ping + Culture

I am getting 6 and 7 Charged Builders now and it was nice to save a couple at one charge to get the extra.
I dunno... ICS now for some fun I suppose.
I need Warmongering to have more fun lol.

I took Ancestral Hall so there is that.
I got Feudalism earlier than usual around turn 70-75 I think.
I feel silly waiting till I get Holy Sites everywhere before I find my Religion.

 

[Victoria]

What a lovely set of mountains you have and your first holysite is positioned where a campus would get +5 adjacency.
Yes holy sites get good mountain adjacency but what VC are you going for... Dom? It seems to be in which case campus... and what a lovely campus map it is. Use your map to your advantage.
And on that point Nan Madol? While not a game changer, this CS is awesome and I look at how much water you settled. You have gone Amani first and have Nan Madol to yourself and no settled water (1 tile lakes are great for Nan Madol)
Opening a slinger is fine and if horses turn up close by (which they do) you can rush horses and take out that neighbour. It sort of is one of the reasons you open slingers, to be able to get to archery fast which is on its way to horses... then you build another slinger. These first builds are vital builds to get going and you are pathing down an area that is starting to look unlikely.
I think you have answered most of the rest with settlers but your wonders are like “I am going for a CV” big time. You seem wonder obsessed and I would never build all of the ones you have. Do not wait for ancestral, it can be a bit of a settler trap. 50% at early empire is fine. When they get expensive at about settler #5 you are naturally a better position for AH to take over.
Opening builder or scout would both have allowed much better play on this map and you can just say unlucky because a close neighbour would have been useful. I’m not going to go further down that road but as people are taking note of LL’s post (who tends not to play peaceful), he opens builder and on this map I would have done the same because there is 2 hills and a much needed wheat.
Your playstyle is fine for emperor and can still get you a deity win so it’s not the end of the earth... but Nan Madol, Wonders and settlers....

Did you save the start? To be able to replay the start with posters advice is the only way to see how good or bad their advice is. That is the real value of posts like this. You used to do many posts like this and I would throw some advice in there but not see a replay but instead another game start, often with the same things being done. That is all fine and if that is what the real value is to your posts there is another forum for let’s play’s. To be fair sometimes you did replay... but I can see you like wonders so why play deity, emperor is more enjoyable for wonder mongering.

 

[Fluphen Azine]

What a lovely set of mountains you have...

Thank You for your reply.
I apologize for this thread in the wrong area.
Bad Habit from Civ V Strategy and Tips where this thing wasn't a problem.

I never really have a Victory Condition in mind when I play.
I sort of want to do everything.
I don't know all the bonuses for the districts... I find the key to be difficult to read.
I want to learn all of that but my desire to just play takes over.
I think the most fun for me is to live with whatever decision I make at the time.
I like the tension that my poor play creates on Deity.
I don't get that on any other level so if I played Emperor I might as well just play Settler.
Your post is helping me think about why build a Wonder or District before doing it.
Usually I see I can get it and I always read about get the Colosseum, Pyramids and Oracle.
Scrambled Brain I suppose.

This game went pretty good to me at least.
I found Kumasi and allied up for more Culture.
My Faith output was at about 200 per turn and I used Choral with Crusade and took over Dido onto Canada and Alexander.
Using the Faith to buy the Army.
The AI was at war with each other the whole game so they are very low tech/culture this game.
And you show up to their land and they have no Army... so you know.

I rarely go for Culture, Religion or Diplo.
So if I can't get Domination fast enough I try to blast off into Space.
Not very good at it but I find it fun or addictive.
Sharing the game and pictures makes it more fun for me.
I don't like replaying the same start and I forget to save the start file many times.
Sorry bout all this.

 

[Victoria]

I like the tension that my poor play creates on Deity.

We live in a surprisingly similar world. If I am doing too well sometimes I will do strange things to break it or on purpose I will just spam skirmishers
... but yeah, without seeking advice you are sort of spamming the wrong forum.

 

[Casualty of war]

That's a shame you're not going to be able to really leverage Teddy's Same Continent combat bonus. But those mountains are supremely defensible; 2 Encampments with Crossbowmen are going to be able to tell the rest of the world to go away. Turtle up and pick a victory condition.

Your Colosseum won't reach Los Angeles, and it could have while still covering all your other cities. But you will have 2 great double-Wonder spots to place Theater Squares, so there's that.

All I can say about my first 25 Turns is that I like to have a second city down by then; everything else is subjective. There's not just one way to play this game.

 

[Fluphen Azine]

That's a shame you're not going to be able to really leverage Teddy's Same Continent combat bonus. But those mountains are supremely defensible; 2 Encampments with Crossbowmen are going to be able to tell the rest of the world to go away. Turtle up and pick a victory condition.

Your Colosseum won't reach Los Angeles, and it could have while still covering all your other cities. But you will have 2 great double-Wonder spots to place Theater Squares, so there's that.

All I can say about my first 25 Turns is that I like to have a second city down by then; everything else is subjective. There's not just one way to play this game.

I thought it was 6 tiles away from LA.
In hindsight I should of just expanded and put up campuses everywhere.
My problem is the carry over to me from what happened to me in my last game or two.
When I am getting ravaged by the AI and Barbs it makes me go into the next game thinking all out war.
It's just funny how this game was isolated but all I am really thinking is I want to kill my neighbors.
I eventually got to go kill them with Artillery and Tanks.
I post this to get a better understanding of the first 25 turns.
It seems that builder/settler is possible even when getting attacked.

Also I was asking some specific questions like volcanoes and luxuries.
Should you bother improving them?
In the late game they kept getting erupted on since it was two volcanoes.
I didn't want to put districts in that area because of that as well.
Even though this may seem like spam/let's play I was hoping to get strategy from posting it.
Players pointing out my mistakes actually helps me learn.

Thanks for the comments though... I appreciate your input!

 

[Casualty of war]

Well, Luxuries, absolutely. If they get erupted on, and it's your only source, it breaks the trade deal, you can then repair it and sell it off again. And you get some Era Score for stubborn optimism, I guess. Repeated eruptions can turn some hexes into the best Farms and Mines ever.

I would have been strongly tempted to settle on the Oranges for your original city.

Districts I don't mind putting near volcanoes if I'm not going to put any buildings in it or only first tier. Having a University, Temple or Factory wiped out by lava is no fun.

But I'm maybe a C+/B- Deity player, so take what I suggest with a grain of salt.

 

[Fluphen Azine]

But I'm maybe a C+/B- Deity player, so take what I suggest with a grain of salt.

I am probably a worse rating than that.
I think I have always counted the Colosseum wrong since you mentioned LA wasn't getting the bonus.
I guess you count the city center as the 6th tile and not six tiles to the city center.
Thanks for mentioning that.

I finished the game anyways and it was a turn 290 SV.

I am going to start to try to read the map better for the next game though as comments have suggested.
I guess going builder/settler is more viable than I thought.
I got to get better at caring where the districts are placed and the bonuses.

Some pictures if anyone wants to look them over...

Spoiler Turn 290 :

 

[playshogi]

I thought I would try this, deity, standard speed, continents & islands map, all else random. Cyrus is the civ randomly picked.

Turn 1 – Dreadful start, no hills plus tundra, I head south

Turn 2 – Discover a natural wonder that gives 1 hammer 1 faith on adjacent tiles. Found capital, not great. Work a 1 food 2 hammer 1 faith tile to get religious settlements quickly. Scout first.

Turn 8 – Discover La Venta first, switch to working 2 food tile.

Turn 10 – Pop hut, get another scout, warrior heads to barb camp to kill it. Reach pop 2 building worker second. Horses in 3rd ring of capital. Meet China.

Turn 15 – Pantheon done. Rage quit when I see religious settlements is taken.

 

[Fluphen Azine]

I thought I would try this, deity, standard speed, continents & islands map, all else random. Cyrus is the civ randomly picked.

Turn 1 – Dreadful start, no hills plus tundra, I head south

Turn 2 – Discover a natural wonder that gives 1 hammer 1 faith on adjacent tiles. Found capital, not great. Work a 1 food 2 hammer 1 faith tile to get religious settlements quickly. Scout first.

Turn 8 – Discover La Venta first, switch to working 2 food tile.

Turn 10 – Pop hut, get another scout, warrior heads to barb camp to kill it. Reach pop 2 building worker second. Horses in 3rd ring of capital. Meet China.

Turn 15 – Pantheon done. Rage quit when I see religious settlements is taken.

I feel your pain.
I just finished a nice 54 turn Deity Standard Continents game.
I played as Hungary this time and Persia was next door.
Hated me at first but I thought I turned it around so I started getting out campuses and settlers.
As soon as he got 4 or 5 Immortals he decided to roll me.
Perhaps he didn't like me dropping that third city in his face??

 

[Gary Krieger]

I tend to play nothing but deity, highest score is around 6,000 by game end. Can't seem to get it higher. (so any help on that would be awesome)

My first 25 rounds is based completely on a couple things, so it can vary.
First thing I always build is a slinger. It's imperative on deity to get archery before you are attacked. Second thing I always build is another slinger.

At this point I need to assess whether or not I am near an opponent or not. If there is one I continue to build slingers and try hard to kill something with them to get a boost towards archery. Then I am attacking the nearest opponent with 3+ archers as soon as possible. Careful with your warrior, the computer likes to snipe him dead.

if no opponent real close, I build one settler and need a focus on population growth for location. (the primary city settlement needs to have production!)

I will actually time my first 25 rounds and see actual rounds. The last game I just finished (about 10 minutes ago) was an all out brawl through to the end, but was over before I could nuke. The computer is very adapt at sneaking late game wins, so I am always targeting any opponent that is closing in on a victory.

 

[Bangau]

I tend to play nothing but deity, highest score is around 6,000 by game end. Can't seem to get it higher. (so any help on that would be awesome)

Tip on that: if you like to play a 'high score' game every now and then (like I do as well, bit of simcitying...) try an Eleanor 'peaceful domination' game on a large or huge map. Takes forever off-course, you'll be managing 50+ or even 100+ cities after a while, but you'll really get a huge score at the end. I got 7500 or something once and am now doing a huge lakes map. Am aiming for a 10K+ score!

Tip: disable the culture victory, it's very hard to prevent when hoarding ALL the great works... on the other hand: it can be a nice challenge to see how high a score you can get before you get the culture victory!

 

[Victoria]

Score victory is for masochists

 

[Bangau]

Score victory is for masochists

Maybe the whole civ franchise is...

 

[Lily_Lancer]

T1: My advice is settle in place and start with builder.

Settle in place: Geothermal is the best to settle since it provides you 1 extra science. For food I see a sheep and a wheat in the 2nd ring so there's no big problem until you reach a population of 4 or 5. But that's not sth. to consider in early game.

Build: My advice is not to build slingers. Slingers themselves are much worse than warriors in term of combat strength. They are only useful when you upgrade them to archers. If you don't plan upgrade them in a few turns you'd better not build them.

T7...: Still, you shall build settler and not slinger.

Akkad: Given this wonder Akkad I'm thinking of capturing it. Capturing CS is not very easy in the current patch but still working, especially when the CS is on the same continent as you.

Yes the Suzerain bonus is good but an early city with natural wonder is. You know things snowball, right?

To capture Akkad maybe I'll do builder-settler-slinger-slinger...(upgrade to archer) rush. 4 or 5 American archers are enough to shot down its walls and capture it. Then you get the wonder.

Another route is the delay the capture somehow in order to let it build an encampment first, then you additionally get a free encampment. This order is builder-settler-settler-archer-archer-... You first get 3 cities then use 5 American archers to take Akkad down.


Then you focus on building up you own empire like the perfect +5 campus or sth, and preparing for a musket rush to turn down your neighbor. He is on another continent so the +5 UA doesn't work and you have to do the rush in a later and more reliable way.

 

[Lily_Lancer]

I tend to play nothing but deity, highest score is around 6,000 by game end. Can't seem to get it higher. (so any help on that would be awesome)
.

Georgia is best for high scores. Golden age point count towards scores and the best way to get scores is through dedications.

 

[MarigoldRan]

1 Slinger early is fine for the archery boost.

Also, if you can provide a save, I'd like to try it.

 

[Fluphen Azine]

1 Slinger early is fine for the archery boost.

Also, if you can provide a save, I'd like to try it.

I got whacked on the knuckles about not providing a turn 0/1 save file.
I don't have it for this game... sorry bout that.
I was also instructed that this thread is in the improper place.
Sometimes I just don't think ahead.
I thought 25 turns might be a good concept to share and learn some more since it doesn't take long to post up 25 turns for anyone.
I just need to get better at reading my situation and not being scared to go builder/settler first.
I've been working on placing districts in more optimal places which actually does make a big difference.
Now I need to get into learning how to chop better and not worry about building anything and everything.
I find it very easy to get lost in builder mode where I am building district after district and building after building.
I would like to win fast but my general finish times seem to be around 240 to 300 on Deity Standard Pangaea or Continents.
Some players on this forum are just GrandMasters where I am more likely rated 1500.
From many of the posters I did learn a few things though so it does have some value.
For instance... make sure you place your +5 campuses in the right spots.
I have been concentrating on learning how to place Aqueducts and Dams with IZs.
Even though it isn't necessary I admit it provides more production than I used to have.
I kinda like how it works but it might not be the optimal choice.
My main problem is reading how the river runs to understand if you need 1 or 2 Dams.
Don't build Slingers when you can build Settlers.
Attack and Capture City States when they have Natural Wonders.
Build Wonders for a reason... not just because you can.
And a few other gems.

 

[Fluphen Azine]

We can try another one.
I went All Random
Deity Standard Settings Standard Map
Disaster Level 2

The Starting Location looks really good.
Far better than I usually get.
Here is the picture and save file if you want to play along.
I will do a 25 turn write up looking for pointers.
Below is the Screenshot and Save File for Turn 1.

Personally I was thinking of moving to Settle the Plains Hill Tobacco.
I don't know if that is good or not.
I was thinking of getting away from the Volcano and also to get the Faith faster for the Free Settler.
Of course faster Trade with the AI as well.

Spoiler Turn 1 Zulu :