TSG 131 Opening Action Report

[Vacuuman]

What was your approach to this game?
Never done a OCC before so I was curious how it would be different from my normal game. I thought the protected starting location looked ideal.

Did you spend much time doing reconnaissance before settling?
No, I didn't see anything that would outweigh the bonuses available from settling in place. I love coastal trade routes and a mountain for observatories and defense.

Where did you settle and what did you build first?
Settled in place, built 2 scouts and a granary. Let Tradition build the monument, skipped a shrine altogether, wasted a few turns building a worker (which was never completed) and built GL as soon as I had the tech.

How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
Not much, but the protection provided by the map made it easier for me to go full science and neglect military.

What were your initial priorities?
Growth, Great Library, and Petra, and I got all three. I also wanted a quick pantheon for Desert Folklore, but I didn't really have to prioritize it too much with the 2 religious city states being so close.

What tech path did you follow and why? I go pottery first almost 100 percent of the time, and there was certainly no reason to divert from that strategy here. Potter>Writing for the GS, mining>Philosophy, took Drama and Poetry from the GL and beelined currency for Petra.

What Social Policies did you choose? Tradition, and thought about trying for Piety before thinking better of it. Opened Mercantilism before advancing to the Renaissance age and starting on Rationalism. If I were good at timing my era jumps I would have planned it that way anyway, but I just got lucky this time.

What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them? Got everything I tried for and a few extras. GL>Petra>Oracle>Hanging Gardens were the big ones (I let ToA go by the wayside). I also threw in Colossus and Borobodur (to leverage Tithe)

Did you go for early Faith? How did you use faith? Got my pantheon on turn 6 and took Desert Folklore. Founded my religion with Tithe and Swords into Plowshares. Enhanced with Religious Community and the enhancer that gives you cheap missionaries and inquisitors (I might as well get the most out of tithe).

Any surprises?
I guess how many warmongers are in the game. I have DOF and Research Agreements with everyone on my continent so that makes me feel a bit better.

Spoiler :

Shaka and Assurhurbanurbadurbagurb

are probably going to be a problem at some point, but I'm so far ahead in tech that it may not matter.

Also, how nice the AI is when you don't have an early war. I did steal a worker from Cahokia, but only after I had DOF with Russia and Korea. I have no negative Diplo modifiers and it feels pretty good.

Finally, I don't every remember being this far ahead of the pack this early in the game. I'm on turn 129 now and

Spoiler :

I'm 9 techs ahead of the nearest competitor, and more than a whole era ahead of Mongolia.

Maybe it's nothing special, but I'm new to this thing.

I only made 2 mistakes that I probably would have reloaded for in a normal game. I wasted 3(?) or so turns after my first GS trying to build an academy on an oasis before realizing that I couldn't. So I moved him to the wheat instead. More significantly, I wanted to bump Genghis up to 200 gold so we could make a trade agreement, but I accidentally gave him a 15 gpt deal instead of 15 total. Oh well.

 

[Babinski]

I had a blast. Just steamrolling, getting everything I want rly. Education at t85 is allright I guess. Will try to keep the momentum up and focusing on growth now.

- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
Wow, that dirt! I like SV. I like good dirt. Lets go!

- Did you spend much time doing reconnaissance before settling?
Moved warrior as usual but just out of habit.

- Where did you settle and what did you build first?
Settled in place and opened up with 2 scouts and a worker before starting GL-NC-ToA-HG-Petra and so forth...

- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
Continents-only 2 scouts

- What were your initial priorities?
Focus more on growth, buying granary early etc.

- What tech path did you follow and why?
Pottery/writing/mining/animal husbandry/iron/--currency with philosphy after GL. Then Civil Service before Theology because of the wonders qued up allready.

- What Social Policies did you choose?
Tradition-Patronage-Rationalism-Freedom-Liberty. Opened up one in Patronage before Rationalism. Saving finisher for an expensive tech in late game.

- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?
Well...all of em. Besides few crappy ones, but this was redicolous.

- Did you go for early Faith? How did you use faith
shrine never happened coz of the CS:s. Just that opening, with culture hut and pantheon before t6.

- Any surprises?
Had friendship with russia but lost it after building stonehenge. Greed I guess ^^

 

[donkeyfish]

Hello, I´ve never posted here before but thought I would start playing these GOTM to compare my play with others (i.e. better players). I did however forget to take screenshots, will do for the "after actions" thread

- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?

I dont have much experience playing neither emperor nor OCC, so my approach was safety first. Contemplated doing a "test" with another map, seeing whether all GL, ToA, HG and Petra is doable, but didnt bother to IGE a similar map. Instead planned on prioritizing the "archery"-wonders (ToA, HG and Petra). Especially when I discovered that Russia and Korea both had Writing by t18

- Did you spend much time doing reconnaissance before settling?
Settled in place, didnt even move my warrior first! I did do some "off-game" reconnaissance, trying to look for some emperor wonder timing info online without much luck

- Where did you settle and what did you build first?
In place. Started monument, got culture ruin, switched to scout. Monument - Scout - Finish Monument - Worker - ToA - 2xBowman (for quests, had 6 camp quests)- Petra - NC (bought lib) - HG - CI. Bought worker and granary as well. Was able to steal a worker from Russia, so should have skipped one (bought a Water Mill instead e.g.)

- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
Decided to go currency asap, thinking Petra was the most important wonder. Initially I was planning a quick shrine, but met two faith cs before pottery was finished. Warrior north was a lucky move, giving 2 culture ruins, AH ruin and pop ruin as well. I decided to prioritize an early worker for wonders instead of scouts/bowmen. Lot of cs quests skewed my decisions towards units around t40, had 5 allies by t65.

- What were your initial priorities?
Get monument, worker, shrine and then wonders. Scout enough to buy something nice early (like worker or granary). Shrine was quickly unnecessary, two units when quests made them useful.

- What tech path did you follow and why?
Pottery - Writing (for GS) - Archery (for ToA) - Mining (for Gold/Silver lux) -> Currency (for Petra) -> Philosophy (for NC) - BW (for Iron) - Drama (for Guild & free amphi) -> Civil Service (for food + I thought CI was doable on emperor) -> Edu (t95 I think, punished for my chicken GL bail) -> Astronomy (for Observatory + meeting other continent, my city wants Spices which I dont see on my cont)


- What Social Policies did you choose?
Full tradition (t78), Patronage opener, Patronage + influence for money (heading for the + science one), Rationalism opener. After GL went on t62(!) (thought it would go earlier), I got complacent and decided to delay the oracle to time with a natural policy and astronomy on t10x (108 or 109, dont remember exactly), but Sejong got it 1 turn before me !#"$#! Should have paid attention and orchestrated a little east-asian conflict. Everyone hates Wu, so would have been easy.


- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?
ToA (t41), Petra (t66), HG (after NC), CI, Hagia Sophia, Oracle (failed). Will probably get everything I want from now on.

- Did you go for early Faith? How did you use faith
Desert Folklore on t4 or 5 I think, got Tithe and Swords into Plowshares t46, enhanced with +15% production and faster spread t82. Possibly +2f from wonders or foreign city would have been better, have all the hammers I need anyway. 5000 faith for 3GS looks doable, possibly 6000 for 3GS + 1 GE. Will have two faith cs allies probably rest of game. I enhanced about the same time as the 2nd religion was founded, so good opportunity to spread if desired.

- Any surprises?
- Thought wonders would be more contested, should have been more ambitious early on with GL to Philo for quick NC plan and then ToA, Petra, HG. With OCC and this start there´s really nothing else to build but wonders after a while since all buildings take 1-2 turns. I would still have had ToA, HG and Petra by t80 at least, which seems sufficient on this map.
- Catherine offered me a DoF 5t after I stole her worker, which usually only happens to me with nicer AI´s like Ghandi or Pedro. Then she got wiped out by China on t90-something. She acted more like Theodora in this game.
- I declared war on Ghengis to plunder a caravan, but I wasn´t able to pillage it right away. My scout was on the same tile as his caravan with 1 movement left, still the pillage button was "dark" after the DoW. Should´ve DoWed first and then moved scout onto caravan.
- If you build ToA on t41 and Petra on t66, there is a real possibility that a GE spawns !"#!&# before the uni specialists kick in. Should have gone GL -> NC -> Petra instead to avoid. I can at least leave the GE in the cap to avoid prophet spawn saving faith, but could have done the same using worker (I think).
- Wasnt able to sell much due to poor AI´s. Had 35-40+ smiles t50-t100, beggin for the AI to get some cash. After getting several merc allies early, I really wanted to build settlers!
- The Grand Temple took 1 turn(!) to build, pretty sick city this Babylon
- Even with a couple of serious mistakes, I will still probably get Public Schools <160, but no AI money and slow tech rate will probably mean 0 RA´s.

 

[KingDante]

- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
I planned for a rush to early Petra, and that I would want to spam wonders throughout the game. I knew that science would be somewhat difficult to achieve after the industrial era, due to only a single city, but that I could likely use city states to bolster my science production.

- Did you spend much time doing reconnaissance before settling?
No, I settled in place.

- Where did you settle and what did you build first?
Scout, Scout, (Bought worker), Granary, ToA->GL->Petra->HG->NC->Oracle

- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
Terrain = Desert Folklore focus with Petra were high priority. Continents map setting didn't really effect my early decisions. I still wanted two scouts because I wanted to hit as many goodie huts as possible. Those huts would help in ramping up production quickly for wonders.

- What were your initial priorities?
1. Found a Desert Folklore religion
2. Secure Temple of Artemis for long-term growth
3. Secure Petra for production and growth
Other wonders such as Great Library and National College were wanted, but less crucial priorities. Growth was the most important thing. I was never worried about fighting a war, because Emperor is usually fairly easy on defense. I definitely stopped being worried once I saw how far away my neighbors were.

- What tech path did you follow and why?
Pottery (seeking shrine)-> Archery (ToA) -> Mining (production) -> Writing (Academy)->Currency (Petra)->Education->Astronomy

I chose this path because the sole goal for the first 100 turns was to secure the wonders and religion I needed for a long-term game success. I knew that early science was less important than early and sustained growth, so NC and Universities were delayed in favor of growth wonders.

- What Social Policies did you choose?
Full Tradition with plan for patronage science.

- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?
ToA (37), GL(48) - Bulbed Currency. Tough decision on whether to start Petra first or Hanging Gardens. I decided I could risk Hanging Gardens second because my production would be much faster. Petra (60), HG (65), NC (69), Oracle and Collossus between 69-80, Chickten Itza (86), Borobodur, Hagia Sofia. I also picked up writers guilds at some point in there when it cost 1 turn to build.

- Did you go for early Faith? How did you use faith
Yes, I founded my pantheon on Turn 6 for Desert Folklore, after finding 2nd religious city state on turn 5. I founded my religion on turn 42 choosing Tithe for gold, and the +2 faith per world wonder, for mass faith production. Knowing I would spam wonders, this was singularly the best follower belief available. I was able to later pick up the +30% spread distance belief, and the +15% production belief.

My goal with faith was to supplement my gold production throughout the game, and then to have a mass store of faith for scientist purchases at the end of the game. Once I pick up astronomy, my current plan is to send my two excess great prophets to the other continent to convert them to my faith.

- Any surprises?
I was mainly surprised how easy it was to get both ToA and GL. I normally play Immortal or Deity, so the fact that I could get not just those but all five of my planned start wonders was amazing. (ToA, GL, Petra, HG, Oracle)

At this point, the game is in a very easy position for me. I know I will win, it's just a matter of what time.

 

[Wild_Woojsha]

- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?

Time to build a lot of wonders and buy a lot of buildings. And I was right.

- Did you spend much time doing reconnaissance before settling?

Settled before moving my warrior.

- Where did you settle and what did you build first?

In place, built scout and worker, bought a second after meeting all city states. After first worker, built granary than straight into the Great Library and TOA.

- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?

Scouting seemed to be a chore, moving my workers around all those hills and rivers were a major Pain in the behind, but otherwise I just worked hard to improve every tile as soon as my population and borders grew to provide it.

- What were your initial priorities?

Two workers, meet all city states, Get through my list of early wonders, get a religion up fast and spread far. Get horsemen up so I can take them everywhere.

- What tech path did you follow and why?

Pottery to writing, then mining, animal husbandry, took archery from ruin, bronze working, drama and used GL for Philo, then beelined up math to currency and to civil service, education, etc.

- What Social Policies did you choose?

Full Tradition, with patronage left side mixed in. Finished tradition with the Oracle.

- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?

Great Library, Temple Of Artemis, Hanging Gardens, Petra, Chichen Itza, Collosus, Mausoleum, Machu Pichu, and I am just getting started!

- Did you go for early Faith? How did you use faith

Got desert folklore early thanks to vatican and wittenberg being next door to each other in the direction I sent my warrior. Took religion early thanks to that, with Tithe, Swords into plowshares, then enhanced with Holy Warriors and Itinerant Preachers. Used holy warriors to build 5 horseman so far.

- Any surprises?

I had so much fun I forgot to keep track and didn't take any pictures... I'll take some at the end, this game is going wonderfully.

 

[Alienka]

- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
I've played on Emperor only once before (I lost then) and I've never tried One City Challenge. So, I read the discussion in the announcement thread to get an idea of what I should do.

- Did you spend much time doing reconnaissance before settling?
No. Moved warrior as usual, but better place would be hard to find =)

- Where did you settle and what did you build first?
Settled right on the spot. Built Scout - Monument - Granary (with a pause to make GL) - NC - Petra - HG - Trireme (wanted to search for possible neighbours not in my continent) - Oracle - ToA

- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
Desert strongly influenced my choice of pantheon

- What were your initial priorities?
To find out who I'm playing with, to boost science and city growth.

- What tech path did you follow and why?
Went for Writing (got Mining from ruins) for scientist - Philosophy for NC and Oracle - (free Drama from GL) - Math for HG - Currency for Petra - Optics for observatory - Education for unis.

- What Social Policies did you choose?
Tradition (opener + Aristocracy) - Honor (opener to see barbs) - Patronage (opener + Philantropy + Scholastic)

- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?
Got everything I tried: GL, Petra, HG, Oracle, ToA.

- Did you go for early Faith? How did you use faith?
As others, got faith from city-states and was able to found pantheon early.
Chose Desert Folklore, then on turn 55 Papal Primacy and Divine Inspiration (faith for wonders) as my religion, and on turn 87 Pagodas and Religious Unity to enhance it.
The latter maybe was a mistake.

- Any surprises?
Quite easy start is a surprise itself =) after my previous unlucky try. Although, now I see that my start is not very great
Also - very friendly atmosphere. Apart from Wu Zetian all others quickly had mutual alliances. And as soon as I had Edu, I got offers of RA from all the friends. Chengiz, though, a few turns later offered to declare a war against Korea =)

 

[slaya]

Lost my free scientist on turn 20. I tried to rush GL by choppin the nearby forest, didn't even think I needed mining... Any other done this HUGE mistake? Gonna continue playing (after reloading), not submittin tho :/

 

[WackenOpenAir]

Pregame thoughts:

Expecting this game to last till the mid-high 200s, getting 5 GPP scientists (1500gpp) should be easy. Getting 6 might be uncertain, 7 probably impossible.
That 6th costs 600gpp and is worth 8 turns. Working hard to get more GPP may or may not get that extra scientist, but on average 75gpp would be worth 1 turn.

I expect research by myself to max out around 700-750.
I could get more from CS alliances maybe, dont know how much that is worth, not an aweful lot, but maybe getting many of them might max me around 1000 bpt or so.
So i expect each end game bulb to be worth 8k.

I need to decide if i want to weaken/eliminate AIs so that i can grab the mid-game wonders whenever i want at end game or if i want to use them for science agreements.
I might even want to help 1 or 2 of them to grow bigger so that my science agreements are worth more.(turn 86 update: clearly they are hopeless useless scrubs but i am already drowning in gold so i might do some RAs anyway)
I assume my UA scientist growth is aditive with other bonusses, that would reduce the value of pisas 25% and it would probably be better to build it late, but ill calculate that when i get to the point where i could build it.

Religion should be more succesful than my last GOTM. Ill need tons of faith, tons of scientists, i might want to consider actually pushing my religion onto others this game, making it something big.
I will reconsider that later though, i have never done it before so its not an easy thing to judge for me.

Happiness will be no factor in this game so i dont need any of that from faith and mercantile CSes have no value for me as allies.
Gold should be plentiful, but ill need to purchase some space parts in the end and i might want to buy lots of science agreements and of course the science buildings.

Petra, Granary, Water mill, Hanging, ToA
All of them give me food. Listed in order of ROI.
Its just petra that stands out though while the rest is very much in the same league.
ToA is on the bottom because its initial ROI is terrible while i estimate its value over the whole game not to exceed hanging gardens.

Besides that Great Library and possibly Collosus.
Great library first could give me free currency so that i can build Petra next and then ToA-hangings with petra's insane production.

Aristocracy first should help me building all those wonders. I think getting them all faster will provide more than i lose on a delayed landed elite.
More importantly of course, i want all the wonders and i dont want the AI to beat me to them.

Execution:

The map designer gods favored us with 2 nearby religious CSes so there is no need for a shrine. (Desert Folk obviously)
I was in doubt between tithe and 2 faith per city but chose Tither both because im not certain i will be able to convert many cities and because buying scientists has diminishing returns anyways while i will need a crapload of gold to buy space parts.
I chose religious Communities first because i wanted that help on building my wonders.
I get Devine Inspiration and reliquary at the enhancement on turn 75.

I got culture from an early hut, but l still built a monument because i wanted aristocracy first and thus delay my free monument a bunch.
My warrior and scout both got upgrades and fought valiantly to gain a cultural Bucharest's alliance.
I sold all my luxuries and horses, used the gold to buy cultural Prague as well by turn 53.
I had a bunch of other friends due to building wonders, but those dont matter. Only culture really matters, more food multipliers ASAP.
I completed Tradition by turn 67.

I purchased a worker by turn 25.
I Captured one from nearby CS around turn 35.
I Liberated one around turn 50. Overkill, but it was from a mercantile CS so no use returning it. Just disbanded it when all my tiles were improved.

Education on turn 86 and purchased a university right away.

Build Queue

Scout(5), Monument(12), Granary(19), Worker(25 purchase), Water Mill(29), Great Library(40), Petra(52), ToA(59), Hanging Gardens(67), NC(71), Stable(74), Mint(76), Market(78), National Epic(81), Chichen Itza(86), University(86 purchase)

Made an error here with that stable-mint-market. Should have gotten chichen first because it finished right when my GA ended. Stupid. Playing too many turns in 1 go makes me lose focus
Maybe NC was also worth building before Gardens and a possibly even ToA, but i tried getting civil service before Philo. Failed at that anyway. (else NC would have been delayed even more and i didnt consider that an option)

Tech Order

Pottery(9), Writing(10 free), Archery(14), Husbandry(17), Wheel(21), Math(29), Mining(31), Currency(40 TGL), Drama(42), Trapping(?), Horseback(?), Calendar(55), Philosophy(63), Civil Service(71), Theology(76), Education(86)

 

[zxcvbob]

I started this one last night. I'm on about turn 150; they went pretty fast
- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
I thought, "how many GS's do I settle, and how many do I stockpile? (I haven't come up with an answer yet) I have 2 academies and 2 GS's standing around right now.

- Did you spend much time doing reconnaissance before settling?
- Where did you settle and what did you build first?
I moved my warrior north to take a peek, then settled in place on turn 0.
first thing was a scout, then a monument. Normally I would interrupt the monument to build a shrine, but I met 2 religious CS's so a shrine wasn't necessary.

- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
Such a great starting location; lots of hammers, lots of food, easily defended. So I wonder-spammed.

- What were your initial priorities?
GL, Petra, and HG.

- What tech path did you follow and why?
Writing, Mining, then beelined Currency.

- What Social Policies did you choose?
Tradition, and Patronage. Will open Rationalism after I get 3 policies in Patronage. I was really torn between Patronage and Commerce, but thought Patronage might be better with just one city.

- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?
Let's see if I can remember the order: GL, Petra, HG, ToA (was surprised it wasn't gone yet), Oracle, MoH (a city state wanted it), Sistine, Alhambra, Forbidden Palace. I might be leaving one out. I built Oracle before national college, but then I built Oxford right away to get Astronomy and unlock the observatory. When I was ready to build a lighthouse, I saw that the Great Lighthouse was still available to build in 4 turns and a regular was 2 turns; I went for it and got beat after one turn. (I didn't want the merchant points, but the extra sight for naval units and the extra 1 GPT would be nice)

- Did you go for early Faith? How did you use faith
I'm trying *not* to use faith yet, to save it for GS's later, but I'm getting so many prophets! Desert Folklore, Tithe, Plowshares, Religious Texts, and I don't remember what else. So I'm using it for growth and GPT. Maybe I shouldn't have build my Grand Temple until I hit industrial era, but I wanted the extra religious pressure.

- Any surprises?

Spoiler :

Korea went all-out Piety. China eliminated Russia on about turn 135 with a composite bow rush (my GP stood by and watched the last city fall) I was afraid my research agreement with Russia would be lost, but it finished one turn before. I'm at least 10 techs ahead of everybody, including Korea. I have open borders with everyone, but I also have an inquisitor in my city because I don't trust my friends.

The beakers per turn I'm getting from CS's allies pathetic.

Mongolia is warring with the CS's (no surprise there), and I need to pick which DoF's to renew when they come up again -- probably just Korea, and make friends with Assyria. I need to get Mongolia and China to fight each other...

 

[WackenOpenAir]

I'm going to have the Great Mosque and I am going to be spamming cheap missionaries that will give at least 100 or 120 Beakers X3 when I crash them into Sejong and who ever else.

Lets see if it pays off. I was getting 120 beakers on missionaries last night against Gaja cap.

I read somewhere that you get 10 beakers per converted citizen, you know if that is correct ?

 

[jshelr]

This damn city may be the strongest I've ever built

 

[Ribannah]

T100
Babylon

pop=23
science +201
culture +43
faith +27
happiness +40
gold +60
tourism +0
trade 4/6


What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
I thought we were going to get a lot of faith (as well as food and production). Chosing beliefs seems to be the key decision. We went with

6 Desert Folklore
46 Tithe, Swords into Plowshares
75 Religious Community, Religious Unity

The idea is to let the City States profit from our beliefs for more output from Scholasticism, and have more research production later on. On the other hand, Divine Inspiration and Reliquary could produce one more Great Scientist from faith (at 6000f). It all depends on how long the game will be.

Did you spend much time doing reconnaissance before settling?
Moved the Warrior. He told us to settle in place.

Where did you settle and what did you build first?
Opening build order was: Monument, Scout, Granary, Worker, Great Library.

The second ruins gave us 20c but we completed the Monument anyway. The free one is later in the Tradition tree than it used to be.

How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
OCC means we are doing Tradition for a change.
The terrain say prioritize Petra, so we did. Took Currency as our free tech from the Great Library.

What were your initial priorities?
(1) To get 2 Workers out there as we'll be growing way too fast for just one. Since we don't steal Workers, we had to build the second one.

16 Worker 310g (wheat, iron, ...)
28 Worker (sheep, silver, silver...)

Didn't need to improve one of the Sheep because the first Academy was put their early.

19 Academy (Sheep)
91 Academy (Sheep)

What tech path did you follow and why?
Straight for Writing, then the utility techs, followed by Mathematics.
Drama and Poetry for the free Amphitheater, Horseback Riding (bought a Stable), Philosophy, Civil Service, Education, Astronomy.
Now going to pick up Machinery for the Ironworks.

5 Archery (ruins)
9 Pottery
15 Sailing (ruins)
18 Writing
21 Mining
25 Bronze Working
28 Animal Husbandry
31 The Wheel (39 Water Mill 400g)
39 Mathematics
40 Currency (Great Library)
48 Drama and Poetry
50 Trapping
55 Horseback Riding (Stable 500g)
57 Calendar
65 Philosophy (69 National College)
73 Civil Service
78 Theology
87 Education (University 660g)
88 Optics
93 Compass
93 Astronomy (Oxford University) (96 Observatory 780g)
94 Iron Working
95 Masonry
96 Construction
97 Engineering
98 Metal casting
100 Guilds


What Social Policies did you choose?
5 Tradition
11 Aristocracy
18 Oligarchy
35 Legalism
58 Landed Elite
74 Monarchy
86 Patronage (filler needed as we allied with Prague)
93 Rationalism (spent the first Great Writer, which appeared that very turn)
96 Secularism (Oracle)

What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?
Got the ones I really wanted. Stonehenge went to Russia but the extra Great Engineer point would have been a problem.

40 GREAT LIBRARY
52 PETRA
60 HANGING GARDENS
65 TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS
79 CHICHEN ITZA (Golden Age 83-97)
96 ORACLE
99 COLOSSUS

Did you go for early Faith? How did you use faith
Yeah.
We founded, enhanced, and just acquired our second Missionary.

Any surprises?
The Cocoa just outside our borders. We got one already, it gave Babylon its second We Love The King Day (first was from Whales).

 

[aafritz17]

- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
After reading through the Announcement thread I realized how significant timing was gonna be: timing of policies, timing of techs, timing of Wonders.

- Did you spend much time doing reconnaissance before settling?
Not one iota. Settled before I even moved the Warrior.

- Where did you settle and what did you build first?
In place, and built Scout-Monument-Scout. Couldn’t find a Worker to steal, so built one next. THEN I found one. Oh well, needed two anyway…

- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
Main thing from the terrain was how loudly it yelled “PETRA!”

- What were your initial priorities?
First priorities I established were to tech Writing (for GL) and to steal a Worker.

- What tech path did you follow and why?
Writing for GL; (ruins gave me Mining on T3, and Bronze on T7); Currency for Petra; Philo for NC; Education for University; and Astronomy for an Observatory.

- What Social Policies did you choose?
Full Tradition, then earned a policy 3 turns before I could open Commerce, so I opened Patronage. Next one opened Commerce on T107.

- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?
I got all the Wonders I tried. GL T43, Petra T59, HG T70, Oracle T78, TofA T85, Great Lighthouse T107. (Like someone else said, it was only 4 turns, and, also, SOMEONE on the other continent has built Terracotta Army and Statue of Zeus… Whoever they are, I TOTALLY prefer to face them at sea…)

- Did you go for early Faith? How did you use faith?
Couldn’t not! Two C/S produced Desert Folklore on T9, which led to a Great Prophet on T48. Tithe and Pagodas.

- Any surprises?
Yeah, a couple.
1) Bet you experienced folks knew this, but I’ve never read the second part anywhere. I knew a free building from a Social Policy doesn’t come until you tech the building (e.g. Amphitheater from Legalism, but not ‘til Drama is teched), but a free building from a Wonder comes immediately, regardless of whether you’ve teched it or not.
2) Ya can’t “Back” out of choosing “Found a Religion”. Wasn’t sure if I wanted to plant the GP, or found a religion (partly dependent on available beliefs). Chose “Found…”, looked at beliefs, then wanted to back out to check something on the main screen. I could get back there, but the GP was already burned, and the only option on the screen was “You may now found…”. And I hadn’t chosen any beliefs! Glad it at least let me back in for those!

 

[zxcvbob]

Wasn&#8217;t sure if I wanted to plant the GP, or found a religion (partly dependent on available beliefs). Chose &#8220;Found&#8230;&#8221;, looked at beliefs, then wanted to back out to check something on the main screen. I could get back there, but the GP was already burned, and the only option on the screen was &#8220;You may now found&#8230;&#8221;. And I hadn&#8217;t chosen any beliefs! Glad it at least let me back in for those!

Just curious, why would you *not* want to found a religion? Even a crappy one would let you build a Grand Temple for the extra faith and would protect your (presumably Desert Folklore) pantheon from being overrun. I can understand maybe not enhancing a religion if there's nothing good left; an extra holy site is worth more, or spread your religion such as it is to 4 CS's that want it.

 

[aafritz17]

Just curious, why would you *not* want to found a religion?

You're right, of course, and my wording was probably not quite accurate.

I started at Prince about two years ago, am comfortable at Emperor now. Finding CFC and so many great guides etc has... well, I guess it's made me fanatical! Lately I have been POUNDING my head trying to get my first Diety domination (or any Diety VC, for that matter), and have been simply letting religion slide by without any focus. For this game I hadn't even considered religion, and when the opportunity came, I had to reconnect all those brain-circuits. At first I thought "What the hay, I'll just plant him!", but, thankfully, my synapses caught up in time!

 

[belligerent]

Just joined, first GOTM. Generally an Imm-level player, but tried this OCC out and finished last night.

Some early thoughts:

- Wow, what a starting position! Settled in place without really even thinking about moving.
- Popped two Faith CS early on for free pantheon, went DF and delayed building shrine.
- Started scout > monument > scout > granary > bowman > caravan >
- Stole two workers, one from CS, one from AI. AI had me cornered that I didn't see, so that one didn't work out (lost scout and worker). Ended up getting second worker from barb capture.
- Teched Pottery > (Mining via ruin) > Writing > beeline Math/Currency > beeline CS > Astronomy > Education
- Settled free GS on sheep/hill.
- Prioritized Petra over Hanging Gardens but ended up with both. Started building HG, paused, built Petra, finished HG.
- Gained tech lead in the Classical Era.
- I did a lot of gold purchasing as I was able to sell literally every luxury and strategic I had early on. I had no happiness problems, so I generally sold all the gold, silver, and cocoa I had and never worried about happiness. This snowballed early.
- Gold purchases I can remember: work boat, library, market...
- Also used gold for cultural CS alliances, and eventually maritime CS when I found them (would have prioritized maritimes).
- Religion: chose tithe, S2P first; shrine/temple food and RT second. Eventually had enough SPs to finish Piety and took faith for GP Reformation belief.
- Social policies: Tradition (full) > Patronage opener and 25% gifts > Rationalism (full)

A few things I could've done better early:
- Faster worker steal. I didn't have anything working tiles until probably 35 or so.
- Less time fighting barbs after second promotion. For some reason, I was hell-bent on clearing camps when I should've been exploring more. Raging Barbs was irritating in this game for clearing camps as well as later on for losing cargo ships.

 

[Kendon]

I settled in place, planted the first Great Scientist, took Tradition and Aristocracy to speed up the necessary wonders. Then I took Honor and chased barbarians with my bowman, scout and warrior. In my practice game I missed Temple of Athena, so here it was GL, Petra, Hanging Gardens and Oracle.

AIs were friendly even after I took a worker from Belgrade which Korea and Russia were protecting. My second worker was Russian from a barbarian camp and I kept it but, now that Babylon is built up, one of the workers is about to be laid off.

No surprises. I've started Piety for the reformation belief: Jesuit Education. At turn 100 I'm mainly working through the Patronage tree.

It's been peaceful and I've made lots of friends but Sejong is settling closer and closer. He didn't renew our DoF. It might be time to shift the building focus over to the military.

 

[aliasMiya]

I'm on turn 100 so here we go!

- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?

Since the difficulty level was pretty low, I decided to go for some more early wonders than usually to give me a headstart from the IA so that I could tech up faster.

- Did you spend much time doing reconnaissance before settling?

Nope, mountain, two rivers, ocean access, two different luxuries. Pretty perfect settleplace for me!

- Where did you settle and what did you build first?

First thing was a scout and then I went right into a worker so that I could improve the land while I built the Great Library to get a free tech. Only when that was done did I go in and build monument and shrine.

- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?

Since I was on a hill with two rivers on either side, I felt very protected and could postpone the military and focus on my wonders. Didn't affect me much more than that.

- What were your initial priorities?

Get the Great Library and then get Petra.

- What tech path did you follow and why?

I did a bit of an error. I did go for writing first, but since I don't usually bother with wonders, I forgot to go after Petra and went my "normal" route to get composite bowman and then education. Thankfully, I remembered before I lost too much time and I got Petra.

- What Social Policies did you choose?

Since this was a one-city challenge I figured Tradition would do just fine. I didn't want to bother with honor and I didn't plan to go a religious play (but I did get an early religion thanks to finding the right ruin and getting first pick on pantheon, dessert folklore which lead to an early prophet, but I didn't know that when I choose my first policy.) At turn 100 I just finished that tree.

- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?

I tried for and got: Great Library, Petra and since the Hanging Gardens were still in the list and only one known AI had chosen tradition, I went for it and got it!

- Did you go for early Faith? How did you use faith

I didn't go for it, but since I got dessert folklore and an early prophet, I sorta started playing it, but I'm still not certain how much. I have reformed my religion and went for buildings, tithe and stronger missionaries because I have a vague idea about using missionaries to get city states when they ask for my religion. But we'll see.

- Any surprises?

Not yet, but I have only discovered my continent so we'll see if some show up later in the game!