TSG 264 Opening Actions

[vadalaz]

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.

Quick links: Upload submission | Announcement thread | After actions

- Have you ever played British Isles or Settler difficulty before?
- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
- What tech path did you follow and why?
- What Social Policies did you choose?
- Did you get a religion? What religious beliefs did you pick?

 

[qontroL]

I hope you can forgive me for uploading my T102, I had to wait 2 turns for my happiness to settle. I already know it's not going to be a very quick finish, part of me wants to play out this game and then replay it again, because I already want to try a different approach.

I've never played British Isles nor Settler, so I had no clue what would happen. My first Ancient Ruins popped a Settler so I already knew I was in for some weird stuff. I looked at your checklist and saw that Barbarians cant enter my territory, which Im still getting used to.

The description said it was rich in resources so my gameplan was to go Liberty. (In hindsight, with the city-states nearby I probably would've gone Liberty -> Collective Rule -> All of Tradition -> Finish Liberty).
I currently have all of Liberty AND Patronage finished (AND I opened Commerce) which is obviously a massive mistake, I should've probably delayed allying these city-states until after Astronomy and I would've been able to fill out the Rationalism Tree extremely quickly, whereas right now my policies will be quite expensive already since I've already unlocked 13 policies.On a positive note, I've already been gifted a Great Person by a city-state!!! Please welcome Phormio, the Great Admiral!!! ( )

I got a religion and grabbed all the growth options with initiation rites, I figured I could use the early gold to buy universities. But I ran into another problem. I was a bit too aggressive early and now nobody wants to be my friend.
In terms of Wonders I have a bunch. ToA/GL/Pyra/CI/Oracle/Stonehenge. I'm actually super curious to try if you can use the Great Library to unlock Education for free or if the AI will have grabbed it by then.

Either way, I'm off to a strong start (it's a bit hard not to on Settler), I have 6 cities, one of which got super delayed because Barbs captured my Settler (oops). I have 9 City-State Allies. Sadly only 2 of them are Maritime City-States.
I have given up on finishing the game quickly, so instead I am going to use Phormio, my fantastic Admiral, to prove the world is round and meet as many Maritime City-States as possible.

I do have a question. I've explored a ton of my island, and at this point I cant help but wonder if the ''British Isles'' are literally the british isles (and not ''based on'') because this shape is literally the shape of England. I will assume it is and using that info it would certainly help me find all the City-States quickly.

Quick screenshot:

 

[lymond]

- Have you ever played British Isles or Settler difficulty before?

Neither to both. I had no idea what to expect although did catch that thing about free workers/settlers. I missed the barbs don't enter borders

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

To focus more on getting a stronger science finish. I expect settler level may have some drawbacks especially in terms of ASI

- What tech path did you follow and why?

Pot>Masonry>Writing>Trade Routes>TGL>Philo felt best suited here

- What Social Policies did you choose?

Tradition went by so fast that when I had to open up a new policy tree I went with Liberty as nothing seemed much better at that time. Maybe Patronage, but I could not even open Commerce. I have actually completed Tradition and Liberty at this point.

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

Sure. C'mon, we are Boudi even with a lack of forests. Stone Circles for quarries seemed to be the pantheon based on knowledge at the time, and I think that still holds. I did not even notice the other marble yet across the mountain. Anyway, there were not a ton of quarries, but every city had at least one. I also went the usual Tithe, Pagodas, Mosques, and closed with Itinerant as it seemed best here (actually I've started really liking it more than text though both are good)

Pagodas/Mosques are nice for the culture, but if I knew that happiness would be so crazy on settler I might have gone with food and production, or culture.

Spoiler Pics :

Greater Celtia:

Biz said something he should not have:

Mighty Edinburgh:

Anyway, we will see how this goes. At some point, I realized that my happiness seemed to getting higher the more I settled or captured cities

I moved to gold and plopped the city there and adjacent hut popped a settler. I wish I popped another early settler but did get a couple of workers. No worker stealing this game. I got another settler from a hut on an island above Lizzy though later which I used for the Salt city to the NW.

I've never been good at managing number of cities and the impact on science and culture, but have been focused on getting those buildings to offset. I'm so used to Civ IV where the more cities the better to win faster space.

Barbs are completely docile, but I did not realize this at first and moved a worker or two away from them.

Attacking Biz now just for the heck of it. Rome is a terrible city but I will probably grab all the caps on the island, and likely befriend whoever is in Ireland. I don't think research agreements with the AI in general are gonna have much impact here at all.

Oh, for wonders, after TGL in Edinburgh for Philo, and getting the important build, that city is just wonder spamming. Truro built Mids and the Great Lighthouse though.

In hindight, Astro probably should have been a bigger priority.

 

[The_Black_Vegetable]

Barbs are completely docile, but I did not realize this at first and moved a worker or two away from them.

The barbs can't (or very unlikely?) enter your lands, but they can still steal unprotected settlers and workers (as happened to me and @qontroL ) and will attack your scouts.

 

[The_Black_Vegetable]

I had never played settler difficulty before, and not the British Isles map either. I had read a report of one player that used new random seed in combination with ruin saving and loading to get a crazy fast science victory (like turn 120 or something), so I knew a quick finish time might be on the cards. Not anywhere near 120 of course, but perhaps I could break 200 for the first time. I don't actually recall my personal best, but I think I had a few games in the 210-220 region.

I decided to go Liberty and plant a reasonably large number of cities. Currently, the count is 12, although one was a happy accident from finding a late settler ruin. I also opened tradition and picked Aristocracy to help with wonder building. I also opened Piety to build shrines and temples quicker and to build the Great Mosque of Djenne, although seeing the build time I'm actually regretting that a little bit. My plan for future policies is to open commerce to be able buy science buildings from public schools onwards.

In the T100 screenshots, I have just researched Education and bought a university in the capital. I don't have a national college yet though, and it will be tricky to build one in a timely manner. Right now I don't even have all my libraries up, and the NC build time is considerable - 20 turns, although I am currently working many flat grassland tiles to grow a little. The map is a little crazy in places, for example that sugar south of Singapore (I actually considered taking Singapore, as it has 6 luxury tiles, although I've now settled some of them). However, there are not too many granary resources, so growth prior to civil service is a bit slow. Production in my Liberty cities is not amazing yet either.

For religion I went stone circles, tithe, religious community, mosques and reliquary. I always pick religious community since I can't stand low-production cities, but I did consider swords to plowshares here too. However, I wanted the culture and faith generation from mosques. Anyway, I might still do some war later. I did already declare on the AI a couple of times to get gold deals (they occasionally had some gold to my surprise), and generating a general or two might not be bad either (for coal, but also for Mausoleum and reliquary). Berlin is also a nice city, although whether it will speed up or slow down the science victory I don't know.

 

[pietro1990]

So i picked tradition and plan to only settle 4 cities.

- Have you ever played British Isles or Settler difficulty before?
yes but not on setler difficulty
- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
settling 4 cities and using internal trade routes to grow verrry fast because hapiness is not a problem on settler difficulty
- What tech path did you follow and why?
going for great library and get philosophy get the oracle wonder. Then go straight to education and pick up techs for luxury resources and the lumbermill
- What Social Policies did you choose?
tradition and piety for the jesuit choise so i can purchase my research buildings!
- Did you get a religion? What religious beliefs did you pick?
yes i picked pogodo's for hapiness


So i decided to not make it to easy to only settle 4 cities. I bassicly settled on places where i can get multiple resources and was pretty close to the capital.
I somehow feel i could do better but i am playing at the idea of higher difficulty and i am not used to the maximum hapinesses you have !!

Lets see if i get a better win timing then the person's who go liberty and with more cities i only settle 4 cities. I might settle a extra city if i see i don't have ulluminium.

My goal is to built the national temple and get high faith output so when i each scientific theory i can just buy my public schools and after that research labs.
I ignore military because on settler AI never declare's war on you.

Wonders who i want are probably scientific one's and hapiness one's. Don't know how i get my screenshots on the post so i ad them as a atachment !!

 

[raider980]

Have you ever played British Isles or Settler difficulty before?
- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
- What tech path did you follow and why?
- What Social Policies did you choose?
- Did you get a religion? What religious beliefs did you pick?

I also have never played the British Isles or Settler. There are some serious bonuses here. I am following a random haphazard tech path. Not really trying for a fast win time but trying to get as many cities as possible early and see how that affects science later.

Social Policies are coming fast and furious. I went full Liberty, then into Tradition for the opener and the bonus to building wonders. I'm going to also try and build every wonder in the game. I've gotten them all so far, no AI has any, including: GL, Pyramids, Stonehenge, ToA, HG, Colossus, and am building MoH and Hagia Sophia now.

Also going Piety to get a Reformation. I didn't even try for a religion, not building andy shrines at first, but with the Celtic UA I got one anyway. Picked some different religious elements than usual; Pantheon is Fertility Rites because I'm going to try and grow many large cities because of the happiness bonus - as someone else mentioned, I was surprised to see my happiness actually go up when I settled a new city , Tithe because it really is by far the best and really only one worth taking, World Church which I don't think I've ever taken for more culture since happiness won't be an issue, Swords into Plowshares for even more growth and I also don't plan on fighting, Divine Inspiration - might be faith overkill but I keep forgetting that the Celtic UA relies on unimproved forest, its not just that you can't imporove it with something that won't chop it but you can't do anything on it, so a lumber mill is out., and Holy Order because I'm going to try and get every city and CS in the game to the one true Celtic religion.

I've got 12 cities so far and there are still many good spots left as the AI is not expanding much at all. Here's the Celtic Empire at T104 in all its glory in maps:

Spoiler T104 :

 

[jrwh]

I haven't ever played this map or difficulty. My plan going in was to go wide, and I got 15 cities down so I'd say mission accomplished. Probably a bit too many honestly, I suspect I won't achieve an optimal time here. But fun nevertheless to just grab a ton of land given that it's settler. The map type also seems to offer a ton of luxuries and river settle locations.

Thought about Stone Circles, but went with Tears of the Gods instead as it looked like I had quite a few spots to settle on top of gems, whereas it would've taken awhile to get quarries improved. Decided on 2gpt per city over Tithe or Initiation Rites as I think I'll get the most benefit that way. Production first then enhanced with Mosques and Itinerant Preachers.

Got a settler with the first ruin and planted Dublin on like turn 2 or 3. Got another two settler ruins I think, also bought three or four with gold. Speaking of buying with gold, I got the 25% off policy out of Commerce, bought my last two libraries, timed GL to finish with Civil Service so I could get right into Education, and used the Liberty finisher GE to insta build my NC which would have been 21 turns otherwise. So I just got NC done in these screenshots, and have gold purchased around six or seven universities so far in my biggest cities.

Opened Liberty to the free settler, opened Trad for border growth, back to Liberty for the free worker, back to Trad for wonder production, finished up Liberty then got into Commerce. Will open Rati next as Acoustics research should time up nicely with the next policy.

For wonders I got Pyramids first as soon as I finished settler production, then ToA, then Oracle to get me to the gold purchasing policy, then I started just making a bunch of stuff in expands while doing the GL timing in cap to bulb Education. Stole some workers and settlers from Germany and Rome, got a few from ruins, hard built several. Have one per city now.

Really need to get this growth going next, will start purchasing aqueducts as soon as I'm done with unis. Still catching up on tile improvements.

Spoiler :

 

[elotar]

OK, as I see I'm quite far from best time, as at turn 100 I only got 5 cities and 75 science.

Started Tradition-Piety as I think, that tons of faith can be used for Jesuit education.

Also difference in my approach is that I settle on the coast. But then spectacularly barbarian galley plundered one of my sea trade routes