TSG 255 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]

It's turn 100, I am tradition, and I have four cities. This must be a completely standard game

Before the game began, I wanted to make a concerted effort to focus on domination and not build random wonders, but so far I'm not completely satisfied with the game. To start with the beginning, zxcvbob correctly intuited in the announcement thread that the move onto the gems might move us away from our second luxury, although the move was still worth it. The first snag I hit in trying not to build wonders was finding beautiful desert hills south of the capital, so I had to have a Petra city there. I went scout-scout-shrine-settler, and stole a worker off Venice, Ottomans, and Wellington. Despite building the shrine as early as possible, I only got third or fourth pantheon, which was disappointing on Emperor, but there is nothing that can be done about it.

After getting my Petra-to-be city up, I built two caravans (so a minor detour for sailing), and when I hit mathematics I did build some siege towers. Apart from going down tradition, I had opened honor and from my early gold I managed to buy some archers, and I walked over to Venice with my army, collecting some CS tribute on the way. Fortunately Enrico had not build too many units, since the city is on a hill, and I think he got walls up as well. Curiously, my double survivalism scouts died to the city shot (no Goddess of Protection), while my supposedly weaker archers were fine. Strange.

Most of my army then went north to Istanbul, with two units peeling off to deal with a barb camp. In the screenshot below, I have just managed to take Istanbul, but I made hard work of it. I was playing too fast (the intention was just to play the first few turns, but in the end I blitzed through the first 100 turns in half an evening), and was simply rushing units in, so I lost about half my units to Suleiman's armies. Taking stock, I have taken two capitals, but I only have a very modest army. What's more, my sim is not particularly amazing either. My cities are small, my tech is bad despite getting optics and trapping from my UA. I did get Petra at least, but I failed Hanging Gardens by two turns (I decided quite late I wanted to try it anyway). Finally, my scouting is very poor. I have only met Carthage, as Istanbul's borders prevented me from scouting earlier (and I did not tech optics for it).

One thing I am not sure about is what to do with the conquered cities in a quick (or what should be a quick) domination play through. I can't stand the governor building walls and caravansaries, so I end up annexing the cities usually, though I feel these cities will be very slow to get going, and it will make building a heroic epic difficult. Also, I only noticed while writing this report that Venice also only has one unique luxury.

 

[zxcvbob]

It's turn 119. I've conquered the Ottomans -- they still have one pathetic city -- and Venice, but I'm not sure what the way forward is. (Domination is my weakest game) It has been a lot of fun so far. Dido is much stronger than me although she is the next logical target.

First I declared war on Venice just to kill a great merchant that was about to buy a CS that I was allied to. But while I was at war with Enrico, I basically ignored him except to plunder any caravans he had. Meanwhile I declared war on Sulieman and took most of his cities. Then circled back to Venice and easily wiped him out even tho' Venice was built on a hill and had walls. But now I'm stuck because I don't see how to attack Carthage, and I can't find a path to Greece w/o Astronomy. (obviously there is one because I've met them) I'm wondering if I should have gone Liberty instead of Tradition with a little Honor mixed in. I need to take Commerce next just afford the roads I'll need to connect my empire.

A city SSW would be nice if Petra is still available. I'm not sure if it is.

 

[Rhodro]

At turn 120 I just killed Carthage after Ottomans. I have a scout and siege tower next to venice but probably have to bring over reinforcements.

- 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? On the gems, the hill, 2 good tiles in first ring and gold of the gems is pretty good. 2 scouts, monument, granary. Later another scout because first one upgraded to archer. Lot's of scouts and caravans.
- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions? Hard to find good expansion spots. I forward settled Ottomans because he had a non-hill easy to reach capital so he was the first target. Sadly that city has the same luxuries as Istanbul. I settled a city south for petra because I counted a lot of desert hill sheep and desert river hills. Lastly i settled kar tukulti south on the coast after getting national college up. I figure we might need some frigates this game. My scouting is still going west of Carthage and I still have to scout east of venice, there might be something there.
- What were your initial priorities? Comp bow rush ottoman.
- What tech path did you follow and why? Standard pottery, AH, mining, archery. Comp bow tech, Philosopy, Petra tech, Engineering, Civil service, Workshops, Univercities. I got a few techs from conquering, which was nice, because they were off my tech path, like sailing, optics and bronze working, so i didn't have to deviate for them.
- What Social Policies did you choose? Liberty because of rushing ottoman. I also think the happiness from city connections is gonna help. Commerce opener.
- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them? I got pyramids and petra. Oracle was gone before I wanted to start it after national college. I hoped to get chichzen itza but it went a few turns after i started it, shame because i thought i was decently fast with civil service.
- Did you get a religion? What religious beliefs did you pick? No, didn't focus on religion at all. Desert Folklore would be nice but im already on turn 120, i have no faith momentum at all so I won't be able to build many religious buildings. I'm probably gonna skip religion this game, except if i can catch a great prophet somehow.

 

[The_Black_Vegetable]

Interesting placement of the Petra city, grabbing those extra two sheep tiles - once your borders reach them, of course. I settled a more 'traditional' city on the flat grassland river tile, because there are also some decent tiles south (and I wanted the city to grab the silk), but yours has three more Petra tiles including two sheep.

 

[raider980]

- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game? - What tech path did you follow and why?

• Figured I'd try and use the Siege Towers even though I've never had much success with them in the past. So I started to beeline Mathematics, but then I realized it was pretty far up the tech tree and I'd need other techs on the way so I deviated for some essentials.

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

• Settled on the Gems River next to the Mountain since its was the obvious choice. Not sure it was the best since it messed up expansions options a little. Went Scout, Scout, Shrine, Monument.

- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions? - What Social Policies did you choose?

• There were plenty of luxuries for quite a few cities but they were spaced in such a way that made figuring out city spots difficult. And since this is domination, I didn't really want to self-found that many cities. If it weren't domination I would have gone Liberty and founded like 6 - 8 cities. But as it is, I opened Tradition and then went Honor.

- What were your initial priorities?

• Initial priorities were to locate the nearest Civs so I could plan the siege tower attack. Once I met Venice I knew who would be my first victim. I wanted to take him out before he could buy a CS. I DoW'd him for a worker on T18 and stayed at war. And I just managed to take Venice on T101.

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

• Not yet. Have a Pantheon - picked happiness from cities on rivers since all my cities will be on rivers and I figure I'll need happiness.

Been a fun game, glad I was able to take at least one city with Siege Towers. I'll try for Istanbul but I may want to keep him as a trading partner and go for

Spoiler A civ that perhaps everyone hasn't met at T100 - some above haven't met them :

Greece across the sea, that would be risky though.

Spoiler T101 - shows Civs that not everyone will have discovered based on the above posts :

 

[enKage]

Just around turn 160, when I finished, what I wanted finish 30 turns earlier 8 cities settled, 1 conquered. 5 opponents met.

- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
I extremely rarely play Civ5, as it is the weakest in franchise, and haven't played for months / years (I even forgot how to win deity liberty), so decided to go at least GOTM from time to time, just not to forget the game. Because difficulty settings were 1 difficulty below what I used to play, I gave it a try

- Where did you settle and what did you build first?
On gems, scout / monument / worker and bought a shrine (wanted to exclude protective pantheon, but dd not manage)

- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
Lots of luxuries = liberty, even though domination is far easier with tradition. But I hate tradition and as usual went liberty.
Very few villages and first meets

- What were your initial priorities?
Settle north to block Ottomans and take horses. Unfortunately, barb spam from the north, so first settler went south for copper, 3rd city on gold north, and another one further north to provoke Suleiman. Fifth city south for silver.

- What tech path did you follow and why?
There was too long time not playing, so I don't even remember tech patchs.
After initial mining and writing, I went for National College, then switched for bottom techs. When I had all 5 libraries, I realised, I can build National Epic, not College -_-. So my College went late, around turn 115. Good thing is I had early National Epic as well

- What Social Policies did you choose?
Liberty, but due to not remembering, what gves College, I stayed with 5 cities only for much too long. At turn 130 Liberty completed, 2xWarfare, 1xCommerce. I will unlock Drama soon for wuicker writers

- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?
So I lost Stonehenge (I had nothing else to build) by 1 turn, Mids by 2 turns. So I took Parthenon. I got Machu Picchu as well, as it is mega important wonder for Liberty, especially domination.
I will sonn get Esthetics, so would go for the third wonder.

Regarding National Wonders I have late College, early National Epic and just finished Heroic Epic. It is time to pump up units with additional morale and take the world.
I also vave 2 guilds and already got 1 artist and 1 writer (National Epic + garden + writers guild, so I am prepared to use Royal Libraries )

- Did you get a religion? What religious beliefs did you pick?
Did not plan, but got it. I wanted to block city strength pantheon, but lost it. So I took faith from gems and got a religion. Most of the believes were taken, so I choose +1 happines for every 2 cities and cathedrals (no pagodas ). I still did not enchanced.

----------
Of course Ottomas declared on me, and I had prepared 1 turn to construction. Upgraded 4 archer and counterattacked for Constantinople (this is NOT Stambul ). I build a citadel on narrow path between this city and the rest of Ottoman land and got peace. Currently I killed a huge carpet of pikes and some Jannisaries, as Ottos wanted to retake their capital.

I stay friendly to Venice, they already have taken Mallaca, but I need them for trading. I can kill Venice as the last civ

 

[Bemep42]

In the previous domination game, I played one city to get to the Berserkers as quickly as possible. Here, from the sciences, only mathematics and constructions are needed and the ability to build many units, therefore ...
101 turn, Liberty, 17 cities, including Venice, Malacca (from Venice, I took for peace, planning to liberate, but there was no such function), Istanbul, Edirne and Ankara. Maybe 1-2 cities are superfluous... but I'm planning a few more My 1st army (4 CB, 3 ST, 2 swords, 1 catapult) near Carthage, I'll start a war in a turn or two. The 2nd army for Greece is beginning to be built. Together with the cities, I captured sailing, hunting, IW and drama. I have all the ancient and classical technologies except engineering, on the 99th turn I was the first to learn philosophy and began to study theology. Didona has a CS, Darius has guilds, and some one else has engineering.
On the 84th turn, I closed liberty, planned to take a scientist, but at the last moment changed my mind and took a admiral to search for contacts. It turned out to be unnecessary - already on the 85th turn I met Persia, then India and Greece (92). the only contact I found as a admiral was Alma-Ata. The last my institute was opened honor. On the 101st turn, I built Petra, about 87 Pyramids. I did not try to build other wonders (I captured the Great Library and the Great Lighthouse in Venice), I plan to build an Oracle, a Colossus (in Malacca, IW was only in Turkey and Carthage learned it a couple of turns ago) and Zeus (Only I have the honor) On same turn 84, I strengthened religion (tears of the gods, church property, pagodas, asceticism, itinerant preachers), half a turn before that, AI took away mosques.

 

[jrwh]

Moved to gems to settle, went Liberty comp bow rush. First expand north along the river on the gold, second expand south for Petra. Everything else will be conquered. NC Turn 89.

Tears of the Gods seemed the obvious pantheon choice. My prophet was five turns late and I missed pagodas by one turn because of that, had to settle for mosques. About to enhance next turn, haven't thought about what I'll do with it yet.

Got Pyramids in Assur, engineered Petra in Nimrud with Liberty finisher. Missed a long hard build of Mausoleum in Nineveh by two turns. Chichen Itza probably upcoming in Assur or Nimrud, maybe ND later on. Will see if any other wonders are cheap/quick, but my focus is on happiness at this point.

I went for Istanbul first (turn 76) and Venice second (turn 88), I would have done it the other way around if I had known where Carthage was earlier. Had to DoW Ottomans a second time and take their last city to get to Carthage faster, which is now the second civ I've complete-killed. Was hoping to get (what I think is) the whole continent wiped out before meeting anyone else, but Greece showed up and is already mad at me, even though he hasn't met anyone else, he somehow knows I'm killing people off I guess.

Plan is to settle in for a bit of sim city, get aqueducts and universities up, see if I can't finish off the rest of the map with frigates (I'm making assumptions about what it might look like, some scouting is in order) after I take out Carthage. Which will also require flipping these conquered coastals asap, as I built none of my own.

Spoiler :

 

[Megalou]

Can someone explain this? Surely the temple should yield 3 faith?

 

[Nizef]

Can someone explain this? Surely the temple should yield 3 faith?

View attachment 708944 View attachment 708945

That is correct: Base 2 faith and add 1 faith from Organized Religion (OR) = 3 faith per turn from Temples. I usually check the total amount of faith before choosing OR and directly after choosing it. Say that you have five cities, all with Shrines but only two with Temples. Thus, you have seven faith buildings that benefit from OR and you get a +7 faith boost to your religion/faith accumulation.

 

[Megalou]

I see, the +1 is added elsewhere, thank you @Nizef .