TSG 243 Opening Actions Thread

[Nizef]

This thread is used to discuss the game's opening decisions and strategies through the first 100 or so turns. Here you can post questions related to the game and share your achievements/anger/frustration/victories while you play.

- 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 get a religion? What religious beliefs did you pick?

 

[The_Black_Vegetable]

Shaka as a neighbor again!
I was not sure I would meet any civs on the starting island, because for the one practice start on the Ice Age map I had the starting island to myself. When I met Shaka's spearman, I therefore switched my monument build to a scout, fearing I would lose all ruins otherwise. After the monument and the scout I built a shrine, then a worker, and then two settlers. I'll need more cities than that for a half-decent science timing, but I did not like my settle options, so I'm hoping to conquer some capitals later in the game.

My pantheon pick was a mistake. I saw all the deer surrounding my capital, so I went Goddess of the Hunt. However, it took a very long time before I got trapping, which I should have known. With coastal starts, the tech path can be quite crucial, because in addition to the luxury techs (including masonry and calendar here) and maybe writing, you also need sailing and optics. Around turn 50 I decided I might want to try Great Library anyway, so I starting researching writing, but fortunately the AI built it around T55, before I could waste any hammers on it.

Some things are going quite well this game, with Shaka seemingly contained after some on-and-off warring, and I got a nice barb camp quest with a worker in it for Bratislava. Also, I got a late Hanging Gardens (T101), after I had Sweden declare war on Maria Theresa, who was building it. On the whole, though, the game feels a little slow. Some coastal games, like the Carthage one from GotM 241, just get off to a real quick start, with the cargo ships up early between fast-growing cities. This game feels a little slow by contrast. I am crawling my way to education, which I look to reach around turn 120. In the Carthage game, I had reached both Education and workshops by that time, but on this occasion I hardly have any technologies on the way to workshops.

 

[Megalou]

Shaka as a neighbor again!
I was not sure I would meet any civs on the starting island, because for the one practice start on the Ice Age map I had the starting island to myself. When I met Shaka's spearman, I therefore switched my monument build to a scout, fearing I would lose all ruins otherwise. After the monument and the scout I built a shrine, then a worker, and then two settlers. I'll need more cities than that for a half-decent science timing, but I did not like my settle options, so I'm hoping to conquer some capitals later in the game.

My pantheon pick was a mistake. I saw all the deer surrounding my capital, so I went Goddess of the Hunt. However, it took a very long time before I got trapping, which I should have known. With coastal starts, the tech path can be quite crucial, because in addition to the luxury techs (including masonry and calendar here) and maybe writing, you also need sailing and optics. Around turn 50 I decided I might want to try Great Library anyway, so I starting researching writing, but fortunately the AI built it around T55, before I could waste any hammers on it.

Some things are going quite well this game, with Shaka seemingly contained after some on-and-off warring, and I got a nice barb camp quest with a worker in it for Bratislava. Also, I got a late Hanging Gardens (T101), after I had Sweden declare war on Maria Theresa, who was building it. On the whole, though, the game feels a little slow. Some coastal games, like the Carthage one from GotM 241, just get off to a real quick start, with the cargo ships up early between fast-growing cities. This game feels a little slow by contrast. I am crawling my way to education, which I look to reach around turn 120. In the Carthage game, I had reached both Education and workshops by that time, but on this occasion I hardly have any technologies on the way to workshops.
View attachment 689087

In my game Umgungundlovu was founded no less than 3 tiles further to the west. If you founded Novgorod before Shaka founded Umgungundlovu (I'm a masochist just for writing that name twice), which seems highly likely considering how soon you built your two settlers, that is probably the reason. I settled Novgorod on the tundra 2 tiles northwest from you. I had also picked Goddess of the Hunt. I like it because it stacks with granaries and the deer. Religious Idols would have been a good alternative, though.

Unlike me you could settle a city 4SE of Novgorod, so why not? Are you planning to capture Umgugundlovu (third time!) instead or are the archers just fishing for promotions? It does look a bit meagre to capture a town with a CB using just 3 archers.

Our games are rather similar but I made 2-3 really sloppy mistakes.

 

[raider980]

Wow, that was a fast 100 turns! I tried something that I rarely attempt - and it was successful; Shaka is out of the game!

I ended up settling in the original spot - after moving the settler east to see if there was anything better and then moving back after realizing there wasn't. Build order was Scout, Scout, Shrine, then a lot of units. Because this was an Ice Age map I figured there wouldn't be may good spots for cities so I went Tradition. But then after meeting Shaka I switched to Honor. This turned out to probably be unnecessary because I beat Shaka fairly easily to my surprise. So I have half Tradition and half Honor; not a great strategy. But hey, I took out Shaka!

Tech path was erratic, due to it being Prince and taking more chances and also meeting Shaka so close; but when I realized we were on a small continent I had to try for sailing and compass earlier than I would normally. I started beelining Construction for CB when I met Shaka but then ended up changing my mind after I realized I probably wouldn't need CB. That is crazy; I am never able to make Archer rushes work - I can think of only one other time that it was successful.

No wonders so far. Don't have a religion yet but will surely get one. I took Goddess of the Hunt for all the deer; thought about the Silver and Gold one if it were a higher level I probably would have gone that way. But on Prince you don't necessarily need a faith pantheon.

The highlight of the game so far was of course taking out Shaka. I originally planned on trying to hem him in but then my Scout spied a lone settler heading out of Ulundi. That opportunity could not be passed on so I took his Settler. I had also built 2 Scouts early before I realized it was such a small Continent so they both just hung around Ulundi to try and prevent Shaka from settling any more cities. It was weird, his Warror seemed to be afraid of my Scouts and ran away from them at every turn. And his spearman did the same - ran away from my warrior and archer; so I chased it down and killed it. I pumped out four archers and them, along with my starting warrior, a spearman and my Scouts (with help from my Honor GG) captured Ulundi on T67! Finally sweet, sweet revenge for all the past games!

Oh and I wiped out Shaka before meeting any other AI and when I did meet them they did not realize the depth of my treachery; no negative modifiers at all. We were commenting on this question in the last game after actions - so its definitely the case that if neither of you meet an AI, they won't know that you have wiped someone out.

Spoiler The Fall of Ulundi! :

Spoiler T101 :

 

[RuntyBassoon143]

I started taking notes but I was tired and once I started warring I got lazy. Started off scout, monument, shrine, worker, then archers until Collective rule, settler, granary, a few more archers. Shaka founded one city on the forested plains east of the dyes. I took both of his cities, then used my GG to citadel bomb Belgrade and steal their incense.

Happiness and Gold was a problem early but eventually I met Austria, Sweden, and Indonesia to get some trades going. Used gold to ally Melbourne and Colombo later to keep growing after getting aqueducts down.

Education a bit later than usual due to lack of trade routes and slower growth from unhappiness, which caused me to go for workshops before university. Then straight for Astronomy to meet the rest of the civs.

Now my cities are growing quickly, economy is booming, and the game is basically over.

Probably won’t bother to finish due to low difficulty level.

T0: settle in place
T4: free pop ruin
T5: culture ruin, open liberty
T7: meet Shaka
T12: discover Ulundi
T15: map ruin
T24: steal settler from Shaka
T32: steal settler
T33: steal worker from Belgrade

 

[The_Black_Vegetable]

@Megalou I got an archer upgrade which was very useful in keeping Shaka contained. The warrior and the archer together could ensure that if he did walk a settler in my direction, I could kill the escorting warrior and kill it. In the end, he did not try, and I only got two workers from him, but it was useful keeping him in a corner.

I did not want his capital though, because it did not have any unique luxuries, and for the same reason I did not found a fourth city in the south east. Initially I was eyeing a spot on that coast to grab the cacao, but when Riga claimed it, I did not bother any more. As for Umgungundlovu (copy-pasted from your text ), I did in the end take it, but only to sell it to Portugal. My general was used to steal some tiles from Ulundi, although it would have been better served to steal incense from Belgrade, but for some reason I did not think of that.