TSG 149 OPENING ACTION REPORT

[Knowtalent]

Welcome to the TSG149 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 Action thread once you have completed your game.
- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
- Where did you settle and what did you build first?
- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
- What were your initial priorities?
- What tech path did you follow and why?
- What Social Policies did you choose?
- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?
- Did you go for early Faith? How did you use faith
- Any surprises?

 

[Kendon]

What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
Often I play to avoid losing but on Prince I expect to win so I decided to try what looks like a consensus among the GoM fast finishers: go for the biggest population by taking neighbouring capitols quickly.
- Where did you settle and what did you build first?
As zxcvbob suggested, I moved one tile to settle between the two salt. First to be built was a scout.
- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
I wanted to find other civs, defeat them and get a port. Building an army considerably delayed settling the port.
- What were your initial priorities?
My priorities were to promote my units with barbarians and find city-states. That second goal was completely unsuccessful.
- What tech path did you follow and why?
I got Writing but then stayed on the bottom with the military choices til the swordsman. After that the target was Education for universities in the jungle cities.
- What Social Policies did you choose?
Full Tradition, Patronage left side to get city-state science, then Rationalism. I also took one Honor. Without it dealing with barbarians gets tedious.
- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?
I decided not to build the Great Library. Instead I'd start with the Temple of Artemis and use archers to conquer the nearest AI. Next was Petra. I'm ahead on science so I have a good chance for Hanging Gardens, Temple of Zeus and Notre Dame.
- Did you go for early Faith? How did you use faith?
I started out going for faith but I had to sell my shrine to avoid losing a composite bowman. The water mill also got sold. If I get a religion it will be the last one. If I get lucky I'll take tithe, great prophet and the two growth beliefs; food from shrine and temple, and 15% growth when not at war.
- Any surprises?
No city-states was the big one. The trireme is starting to find them but on my starting land mass I found none.

 

[socralynnek]

Well, I should have better written this when I reached 100 turns, but I won't spoiler anything here (didn't finish yet but have played like 200 turns so far)

- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
I think I didn't win a TSG so far in the timeframe (started going deeper into Civ V only a few months ago), I thought this will be my first win; approach: settling 4 cities, tradition, then on the way do everything that will help science

- Where did you settle and what did you build first?
After I moved the warrior, I settled in place (wanted full land tiles), probably bad, because Petra might have been a good idea for the capital (missed Petra with my 4th city by one turn...)

- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
It was clear that 2nd city will be a port, which I did quite fast, still didn't send scouting units to the sea early enough, that should have been faster
Had to invest more in barb defending units than expected

-Initial priorities
Besides science I very quickly focused on maximising culture (those ideologies came handy in my last science try)

- What Social Policies did you choose?
Tradition full, Liberty opener, Commerce opener

- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?
Great Library, Oracle, Mausoleum, Hanging Gardens

- Did you go for early Faith? How did you use faith
No early faith (maybe I should have gone for it?)

- Any surprises?
Not meeting city states early, being able to make much money surpluses quite early was surprising
Negative surprise: Not doing as well as I thought...

 

[gerishnakov]

I'm actually coming up on 300 turns in the game now, but I won't spoil anything. Civ just crashed on me so it seemed like a good opportunity to post in here.

-What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
I was initially disappointed at the low difficulty level, but I thought what the hey, I've not played France much and Science doesn't seem like an obvious victory condition for them. I had something of a thought that once I got the Musketeer I'd try and wipe out everyone else on my continent, but that was about it in terms of opening strategy.
- Where did you settle and what did you build first?
I moved on tile up on the same side of the river with the idea that, given the profundity of desert hills and zero flood plains, I might like to build Petra; the salt's not bad too. As it turned out I kept thinking I could wait on Petra, this is only a Prince game after all, only for one of the AIs to just beat me to it. That's Civ I guess.
- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
Well I knew it'd be a while before city states really came into the game, so I knew I was never going to use Patronage. I suppose I also focused less heavily on exploration than I might have done, given that I wouldn't be looking to get the 30 gold for finding City States first.
- What were your initial priorities?
Scout out the surrounding area for close-by AIs and potential city locations; grow my pop as quickly as possible (for science!).
- What tech path did you follow and why?
Overall I aimed for the techs that would boost my science and food output, for obvious reasons.
- What Social Policies did you choose?
Full tradition, leaving... the one that grants +1 happiness for every 10 pops in a city til last, which timed nicely with my capital reaching 10 pops. Then I took the Piety opener to quickly crank out a couple of temples to boost my faith output, and by the time the next policy rolled around I was in the Renaissance, so I started on Rationalism.
- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?
ALL THE WONDERS!!1! In all seriousness it hasn't been hard to get pretty much any wonder I wanted. I started with the Great Library for the early Great Scientist points, and then much like with my tech choices I mainly built wonders that boosted food output; I believe the following two I built were the Temple of Artemis and the Hanging Gardens.
- Did you go for early Faith? How did you use faith
Not at all; I was the second to last player to get a pantheon (Earth Mother), and I ended up founding the last religion (Protestantism renamed Calvinism). I'm not sure my religion has been a great help thus far; its main benefit is probably only coming into use now I'm in the late game and have a pretty good faith output thanks to Divine Inspiration.
- Any surprises?
The Celts not being the first to found a religion - seriously?