TSG 265 Opening Actions

[Nizef]

This thread is used to discuss the game's opening decisions and strategies through the first 70 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]

I could not help myself and rushed through the first 67 turns. I settled in place. I did not want to waste a turn to settle on a hill, especially on quick speed, although as it turned out that would have netted three more Petra hills. My first thought was to go 4-city tradition and later buy city states for more science, but I saw too many spots I wanted to settle, so I ended up with 6-city tradition (the west-most city does not fit in the screen shot, and was settled for gold and cocao).

When I saw Kailash I wanted to rush a settler there to skip building a shrine, but there was actually no need. First-meeting a religious CS on quick speed before anyone had founded a pantheon meant I got to pick desert folklore early. My early scouting was pretty good. I snagged a lot of ruins and the barbarians were not bothering me too much. I also got an early spearman upgrade, but I was disappointed not to be able to tribute as all the CS were on hills. Perhaps buying a warrior would have tipped the scales?

I think my game is going Ok, although it does not feel super fast. I spent a lot of time building workers, and building and buying archers, because after a while the barbarians started to become a real nuisance. Also, my scouting of the map is absolutely terrible, since I needed all my units to defend my land. I suspect, though, that this is a Frontier map with multiple continents, so I will have to go astronomy if I want to found the World Congress.

So far I got the key wonders I wanted: Temple of Artemis (I paused settler building after the third settler to increase my chances of getting it), Hanging Gardens and Petra. I attempted a late Great Library in Salzburg, but was beaten by a couple of turns. I'm never sure on these Prince-level games how hard I should prioritize it. Another problem with my current setup is that my two coastals are too far away for cargo ships, although early cargoes would have gotten pillaged anyway. I would have liked Mausoleum, but it went relatively early. I don't remember the exact turn, but I've seen that wonder go later in Deity games.

I think I will go workshops first, having already researched iron working to attempt Colossus, and construction since it looks likes I will need some colosseums. I plan to postpone Oracle until medieval to open commerce, so my cap currently has some time to get some infrastructure up like a market.

 

[Megalou]

I also settled in place and for the same reason, a turn missed isn't worth the hill hammer. The start wasn't half bad. I was the first to meet a religious civ (Jerusalem), and thanks to the quick pace that immediately gave me the pantheon, Desert Folklore of course.

Another nicety was that Jerusalem was so beset by inefficient barbarians that I eventually got Jerusalem's alliance simply by killing barbs near their borders. The downside to all the barb clashes was, for me too, slow exploration of the map. But this was ok because we could do without luxury trade on prince level.

I went for an early Great Library-National College sling shot. Needing to hurry a library in my first expo, the Mt Kailash town, stung a bit because the money could have been saved for a settler, but a 7 turn NC is rather nice when there are also wonders to build. Speaking of which, I got Great Library, Temple of Artemis, Hanging Gardens, Petra, Parthenon, Oracle, Great Wall (only 2 turns and wanted by two city states) . Later Chichen Itza, Notre Dame, Angkor Wat are among those I may have gotten before turn 100. Good ones missed included Colossus, MoM, Machu Picchu and Stonehenge (which I had just started to build and was going to take only 2 turns but was snatched from under my nose nonetheless.

Religion came in swiftly: Pagodas, tithe, Swords into Plowshares, Messiah. Divine Inspiration was a viable option, but I think happiness will be in shorter supply than faith.

As for policies, the Monachy tree was finished rather swfitly. I then took a detour to Patronage but managed to reach the renaissance on the same turn as Oracle was completed, so the free policy was used to open rationalism.

The map below shows a prioritized capital and rather small expos. The Klagenfurt settler was actually captured and delayed by maybe 8-10 turns.

 

[fiddlesticks]

I decided to move and settle the marble. I also wanted to do a GL->NC rush, and settling the marble gives the production bonus without having to research masonry. My early build order was scout x 3, granary, (buy worker), GL, NC, archer, worker, Petra.

After that I've built HG (important to compensate for the no-garden spot), 2 settlers, Chitzen Itza, a market and now into a university.

Religion is DF, gold on conversion, pagodas and wonder faith.

I want at least two more cities as I'm lacking in that department. I want one on the forest tile by the silver NW of Graz, one on the hill the barb spearman is on, and one further west of Graz for gold. I'll buy a settler for the silver location and build two in the capital. I'm 10 population behind TBV's game at the same point!

 

[The_Black_Vegetable]

I'm 10 population behind TBV's game at the same point!

Actually more, I had one more city to the west that does not fit on the screen shot. Still, I have a sinking feeling you will beat my finish time, although whether you will meet @Nizef 's expectation (revealed in the after actions thread) is another matter.

 

[fiddlesticks]

No way I'm beating 133. That would be amazing, but I'm sure there are a few who could come close.

 

[Nizef]

My thinking was based only on my own test game. I finished on t161 and from that I calculated that some of the best players should be able to come close to t133.

 

[fiddlesticks]

The best similar games in the HoF are low 140’s, so I think anything in that range would be really good. @vadalaz has a 141 science win with Siam (small, quick, frontier) for example.

 

[sebtanic]

Played until turn 100 so far. At t100 we have:

• 207 science
• 4 cities with pop 23, 17, 16, 4
• completed Tradition, 3 in Commerce, opened Rationalism
• founded Linz about 5 turns ago, when I decided it was time for some sea food routes. Built a Cargo Ship in Salzburg, only to realize it can't reach Linz without Compass. So I'm currently researching that
• plan is to tech to Economics for coffee houses, then Scientific Theory

Completely peaceful so far. Didn't even steal a worker.

We're the only Civ with some decent coffee, so I'm sure we will win this one quick

 

[Rhodro]

It's turn 72 and I have 6 cities up with 41 pop.
I didn't SIP, I moved to the river hill.
I got Petra, HG, Colossus, but failed ToA sadly.
Also got an early religion because of the religous CS nearby. Desert Folklore, Tithe and pagodas. Used my faith so far to purchase 1 pagoda, a prophet that's gonna spread to nearby CS and the next prophet is gonna enhance. I really need to spread my religion to get pagoda's up faster before they start becoming more expensive in renaissance.
The sea cargo is going to Ife for now, I didn't want to delete a cargo ship to build a new caravan for food, felt too painful haha.
If i get oracle it will open commerce. I will also open patronage.
Tech wise i think i will go workshops after civil service, it will give another trade route and i need to hard build aquaducts in my last 2 cities.

Spoiler :

 

[jrwh]

- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
In contrast to last game, I wanted to occ for awhile before expanding here. GL > HG > Petra rush before expands looked good, and I figured I'd NC right after that for good measure. I still have 0 libraries outside of the capital, so that was probably the right call. I gold purchased a settler before building the NC and walked it over to plant the furthest west city as soon as NC finished, the rest were 1-2 turn hard builds with the insane production in the capital by that time.
- Where did you settle and what did you build first?
Decided to move SW to the hill for Machu potential, since this capital is a production powerhouse. Took a peek in that direction with the warrior first and saw an additional Petra hill down there, so went for it.
3x scout > granary > 2x scout > worker > GL > HG > Petra > gold purchase settler > NC > 4x settler > 2x caravan > 2x horseman > water mill/stable/stone works/workers > Borobudur > circus > Chitzen > WG > Uni > very late Oracle
- What Social Policies did you choose?
Full Tradition, am looking to get gold purchasing from Commerce with my next policy + Oracle before getting into Rati. Want to buy my last two aqueducts that I didn't get from Tradition, and then the science buildings.
- Did you get a religion? What religious beliefs did you pick?
Didn't have to build shrines or rush for the Kailash due to the neighboring religious CS' helping me to early DF, so that was nice. Took Tithe and production first to help with the wonder building, Pagodas were still available anyway on enhance, and took Itinerant to spread this everywhere and help with my gold. I used the Borobodur missionaires to convert the big circle of CS' around me, so I'm pressuring the entire visible map atm.
- Additional Thoughts:
Raging barbs is a chore. Got tons of ruins, and all three of my initial scouts got archer upgrades, so I made two more. Still haven't gotten much scouting done though with all the barbs around. Did assimilate like four barb-captured French settlers into the empire as Austrian workers. Stole a naked Danish settler that wandered over by Bogota. And a couple of Bogota workers, still at war with them. But it's taken me forever to start pushing out of my lands and finally get some of these CS quests done. Even so, I'm getting no happiness from it, because none of them have been able to improve their luxes yet. And with the lack of scouting, I haven't found much in the way of trade partners either. Will be going for ND asap to help with the constant happiness issues, and have been churning out circuses and coliseums prior to libraries. Pagodas are coming up as my cities convert. It feels kinda bad having three cities so close to, but not on mountains for observatories. But I didn't want to move my capital farther from its Petra tiles, or Graz to not be river/coast, or Linz to not have Kailash in it.

Spoiler The Austrian Empire :