TSG 267 Opening Actions

[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?

 

[zxcvbob]

I overshot turn 100 quite a bit, so I'm going to play on to about turn 200 and put this in the after-actions thread. (nobody has posted there yet so there won't be any spoilers for me)

 

[The_Black_Vegetable]

I also overshot by a little bit, but I will post the T103 screenshot here anyway. I thought I would settle in place, but then I thought I would gamble and move onto the cow, to get the hill directly in range for production focus. Early production was low without a 2-1 tile and settled on flat land, but I still completed my second scout before starting the shrine quite late, but I got an early pantheon anyway thanks to first-meeting Vatican city.

First two settle locations were a no-brainer for me: the hill-coastal river locations on either side of the capital. Three connected coastals is anyway ideal for sending trade routes between the cities. Of course, three cities is not enough for a quick science victory, so I wanted to more cities later, but first I wanted to get some wonders, and then the NC as well. Temple of Artemis is one of my favourite wonders, and I was lucky to get it on T70. Hanging Gardens was another high priority since Rio was not on fresh water, and I got it T83. Any other wonders I might have been interested in went fairly early (though I rarely play emperor so I'm not sure): Grreat Library turn 50, Cusco; I would have needed to one-city to get that wonder. I had been teching towards Iron Working when Colossus went T89, and Cusco also built Petra T93. In the screenshot you can just see that Borobudur went T103 - another wonder that I like to get, and actually frequently manage on Deity so I was disappointed to miss it here. I have a sneaking feeling that either Egypt or Maya is in the game. I did get Mausoleum in the capital, and will try get Chichen Itza, since happiness is problematic.

For religion I have Tears of the Gods, Tithe, Production (first pick), and Pagodas (lucky it was still there when enhancing). After NC I planned to settle two more cities. One north (I hated to settle on wheat, but I felt it was best to get the most tiles), and one was supposed to go on my archer. However, once Hiawatha started spamming cities that was no longer possible - my fault I suppose for building wonders instead of settlers. I could still settle on the spices, but then I lose the mountain, and anyway one fish has already been taken.

My current plan is not to stay on 4 cities but to do some naval conquest instead. I have iron, I have gold, and ~six frigates should be able to do the job on Emperor. Cusco is a prime target with Petra in it, and I will look out for the Colossus city as well. Of course, going early navigation is probably a bad idea, although the blow is softened somewhat by the fact that it allows me to build two observatories.

 

[Megalou]

Settled on gems as planned. Another fish came in range. The ample gold from gems was mainly used for workers, of which I believe I bought 2 or 3. Worker factories were hard to set up - I should have chosen Bogota rather than Vatican City because there were no good lurking-tiles for the worker-thief near Vatican City. (As you know, if we stand on a hill two tiles from their border, they see us.) But the opportunity was there to get an early worker from VC.

I had a good start except for having a settler captured by a barb in the most ridiculous way: The escorting scout was parked in Rio to save gold through the Oligarchy policy, but forgot to move out as the settler moved out. The next turn I took a chance moving the settler forward without the scout, and was penalized. I think it took around 10 turns to recover it.

Social policies: Full tradition, Patronage opener into commerce opener.

Wonders: Mausoleum, Hanging Gardens, Stonehenge, Colossus, Oracle. National College came in very late - although before the spoiler cut-off. I watched a PCJLaw video recently which hinted that in a trade-off between early growth and early NC, the former is preferable.

Missed wonders: A few, but no dire ones yet.

Edit: Religion: Pantheon is sacred path (+1 culture from jungle). Soon after turn 100 I was to select the founder and follower beliefs, which are tithe and divine inspiration (+2 faith per wonder).

Exploration was difficult but fun. I had to declare war several times just to get past choke points. In the case of Shoshone, that paid off really well as I got Silk and a lot of money from them. Here is a fun trick where I'm about to make peace, but trying to get my spearman kicked our on the far side of Moson Kahni in order to keep exploring. The plan worked, but the spearman found itself locked in, not having gone to swimming school when it was a kid.


I like the fact that we don't know the type of landmass.

 

[Megalou]

I also overshot by a little bit, but I will post the T103 screenshot here anyway. I thought I would settle in place, but then I thought I would gamble and move onto the cow, to get the hill directly in range for production focus. Early production was low without a 2-1 tile and settled on flat land, but I still completed my second scout before starting the shrine quite late, but I got an early pantheon anyway thanks to first-meeting Vatican city.

First two settle locations were a no-brainer for me: the hill-coastal river locations on either side of the capital. Three connected coastals is anyway ideal for sending trade routes between the cities. Of course, three cities is not enough for a quick science victory, so I wanted to more cities later, but first I wanted to get some wonders, and then the NC as well. Temple of Artemis is one of my favourite wonders, and I was lucky to get it on T70. Hanging Gardens was another high priority since Rio was not on fresh water, and I got it T83. Any other wonders I might have been interested in went fairly early (though I rarely play emperor so I'm not sure): Grreat Library turn 50, Cusco; I would have needed to one-city to get that wonder. I had been teching towards Iron Working when Colossus went T89, and Cusco also built Petra T93. In the screenshot you can just see that Borobudur went T103 - another wonder that I like to get, and actually frequently manage on Deity so I was disappointed to miss it here. I have a sneaking feeling that either Egypt or Maya is in the game. I did get Mausoleum in the capital, and will try get Chichen Itza, since happiness is problematic.

For religion I have Tears of the Gods, Tithe, Production (first pick), and Pagodas (lucky it was still there when enhancing). After NC I planned to settle two more cities. One north (I hated to settle on wheat, but I felt it was best to get the most tiles), and one was supposed to go on my archer. However, once Hiawatha started spamming cities that was no longer possible - my fault I suppose for building wonders instead of settlers. I could still settle on the spices, but then I lose the mountain, and anyway one fish has already been taken.

My current plan is not to stay on 4 cities but to do some naval conquest instead. I have iron, I have gold, and ~six frigates should be able to do the job on Emperor. Cusco is a prime target with Petra in it, and I will look out for the Colossus city as well. Of course, going early navigation is probably a bad idea, although the blow is softened somewhat by the fact that it allows me to build two observatories.
View attachment 729175

Darn, I didn't see the crabs up there by Brasilia until just now. I was wondering why you'd settle there (other than the fact that it's coastal). But no Petra then...

 

[The_Black_Vegetable]

Indeed, no Petra, that would have made the city really good, but it's Ok as it is. I missed a beat not settling on the gems though. For some reason, I did not even consider it. Of course, I could not know there was another fish there, but there might have been. Also, currently my capital and Sao Paolo are too close to each other, with the latter not really having enough tiles.

 

[Rhodro]

- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
Map type that i don't know well, so have to be flexible.

- Where did you settle and what did you build first?
SIP because I didn't feel the gamble of moving was gonna pay out.

- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
Scouting was difficult, a lot of difficult terrain and mountains. I saw 2 good settle spots, 1 south for petra with an insane amount of desert hills and north coast.

- What were your initial priorities?
Get settlers out.

- What tech path did you follow and why?
Rather generic, but with focus for petra.

- What Social Policies did you choose?
Only tradition so far. It took me very long to finish because i didn't get any culture ruin so it didnt snowball.

- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?
I got mausoleum (2 CS wanted it) and petra. I lost a late TOA with only 1 turn to an unkown civ

- Did you get a religion? What religious beliefs did you pick?
Faith from gems pantheon I got from a 20 faith ruin. First prophet -> tithe + pagoda's. Then i bought 1 pagoda and then a missionary.

I think my plan is gonna be civil service -> universities -> observatories as i can get 3.

Spoiler :

 

[The_Black_Vegetable]

@Rhodro nice one getting Petra. I saw the desert hills but did not 'dare' attempt it. I was also worried that the city would be completely garbage without it, although I see now there is at least some growth in the area.

 

[Bol]

Pretty standard opening for me: I took a little gamble moving to the gems, knowing I could fall back to settling the cows; I'm glad I did since it looks to be by far the best starting spot!
2x Scout -> Shrine (+ 20 faith from ruin for early gems pantheon) -> 3x Settler: the first two expansions are no brainers, and I really like the northern spot with a unique lux + 2x fishes + river wheat, although it might be a little shy on production.
Quick tradition from a culture ruin, finished it around T90 (awesome, before starting NC, which I finished T99).
As for religion, I picked Tithe as always and Pagodas although in retrospect I should have taken production first; I bought a Missionary and then I wanted to enhanced, but I just bought the first pagoda to not go unhappy.
I got ToA around T70 and I'm now going for Colossus; after that I hope to get HG and then I think I'll stop wondering for a while (e.g. I think I'll skip Sistine, given how many woodcamps are available); Oracle and Mausoleum are still there, but I think I'll pass on them.

I was debating settling a 5th city immediately (south of the Spices) but the tile had a barb camp on it so I'm delaying it after NC: I'm settling it on T103.
I don't think it's a great spot and it does not have a great margin for growth, but as long as I grow it to pop 15 and it works 4 jungles, that's fine.
I'm also getting Spices via trade, so I probably will leave it unimproved.

Next priorities are getting them wonders, CS into Education (and then probably Astronomy for early Renaissance), developing the 5th city and transition into Pagodas + Woodcamps for a fast Free Thought.
I'm still undecided if it's worth Frigating the Inca down (probably not, he only has Terracotta for now).

 

[raider980]

When the warrior moved west and didn't see much and then the settler moved to the Gems and saw the second fish, I figured it was a good spot and settled on the Gems. Went the typical Scout, Scout,, Monument, Shrine. Not many ruins; got a couple of pops but no culture. After exploring a bit I saw we have a decent amount of land with some mountains forming a natural border to the southwest. That was good since the city spamming Hiawatha is over there across the mountain range.

Decided to go Liberty and go for 6 or 7 cities. Got 3 up fairly quickly and was going to go for 3-city NC, but with Hiawatha there I feared he'd get Optics before I could finish the NC and send settlers to grab the Spices to the West. So I sent out a 3rd settler to grab those and bought the library there. Still got the NC on T90 or thereabouts. Next, sent out two quick settlers for the 5th and 6th cities. I wanted to block off the mountain pass so Hiawatha couldn't come through and encroach on my land so I stationed a Scout in the one-tile pass. Even though it meant my scout couldn't scout, it turned out to be a good move because shortly after I spied an Iroquois settler coming my way. I also got greedy and sent my 2nd settler way down south to grab the Gems down below Grand Mesa. Probably a bad move because there's very little food. But I had Tears of the Gods so wanted those Gems and Hiawatha always lives rent free in my head so had to go get them early. Hopefully I can get one or two more cities up in the far north, there are some unique luxes up there; I just have to beat Hiawatha to them.

Got a Religion: Tears of the Gods, Tithe, Pagodas, Faith from Wonders, Internat Preachers. Got all the wonders I attempted; only two, ToA and Pyramids; hopefully I can get Oracle and Hagia Sophia next. Went for a GS with the Liberty finisher and settled it on the grassland SW of Rio.

Going pretty good so far. Have only met 4 AI Civs (although not the same 4 as those above) so that's not great but looks like everyone else is in the same boat (and that boat is probably a Caravel which we'll likely need to find the rest). My science is more comparable with others who've posted so that's good and maybe I'm getting better at early science. But happiness is a problem so I haven't been able to grow as much as I'd have liked.

 

[lalasingularidad]

Haven't played Civ 5 for a while and decided to try this one.

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

Never played as Brazil before so I will want to put as many wood camps as I can, at least to see nice tile 2x2x2x2 color tiles (green, blue, yellow, pink). I was initially planning to go aesthetics and Chichen but I will most probably not follow this path (and will loose Chichen).

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

Initial settle decision was very hard. I moved warrior SE and saw mountain river spot but with not that many ressources and no marble. I decided I would loose a turn to see what was NE with the settler and then I realized gems where coastal and went for it. I am very pleased with that choice (so many gems in this start helped so much with gold which I usually struggle as liberty and with amazing faith).

Build order was something like scout > monument > shrine > granary > (buy worker) > scout > worker > settler x 6 > (buy work boat) > Pyramids > Temple of Artemis > Colossus > Stone works > Library > NC

Expands built a work boat, 3 archers and then granaries/water mill and then libraries.

I was lucky with ruins I think as I got : culture, spear, gold, tech, pop. I was able to open liberty very quickly.

Finding a religious city state also was really nice as I finished my shine about that time and got gem faith a few turns latter.

- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?

Capital did not seemed very strong so I considered and then chose liberty. I also saw 10 unique luxury, a mountain range on the south and apparently no one on north so I went for liberty. I was able to grow pop 6 before pumping out settlers.

Complete isolation from neighbors also was nice since I delayed a little bit my military (expands built archers but not cap). My neighbors didn't like me building so many cities and we are now at war (which means no gold from them, but gems help with gpt).

However I'm doing very bad with exploration. I only met two AI and can't get out by land or sea because they war me.

- What were your initial priorities?

Liberty opener so build settlers, improve luxuries, build road, manage growth and happiness, get camps for city stats quests (happiness and culture). Wonders weren't a priority but as I finished my settlers, my capital was able to 10 turn many of them which were still available so I went for them.

I settled that amazing Petra city (20 tiles) and use liberty finisher to engineer it (was very afraid this would not work).

I delayed a lot my NC as I am just starting it now by turn 100. But most of my science comes from many cities, not from my capital, so we'll see how it goes.

- What tech path did you follow and why?

Potery > Mining > AH > Masonry > (Calendar from ruin) > BW > Sailing > Mathematics > Writing > BW > Currency > Philosophy.

Tech path was dictated by luxuries and wonders.

- What Social Policies did you choose?

Liberty (finished turn 85 or so). I will open piety next turn to build shrines and temples, and then probably put some points in piety (for faith and gold).

- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?

Pyramids, Temple of Artemis, Colossus and Petra (engineer). Got all of them ! Now building Oracle in my Petra city (but spoiler, will not get it).

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

Of course ! Gem faith. I got religion by turn 60 or so and enhance buy turn 80 before any other religion. I went for tithe and pagodas, then temple happiness and spreads further.

Im now killing Budapest for 8 cities and starting to struggle with happiness, but coliseum, pagodas, temples will soon arrive. I hope I will be able to grow now on, and sim city till the end.

 

[Nizef]

Haven't played Civ 5 for a while and decided to try this one.



Never played as Brazil before so I will want to put as many wood camps as I can, at least to see nice tile 2x2x2x2 color tiles (green, blue, yellow, pink). I was initially planning to go aesthetics and Chichen but I will most probably not follow this path (and will loose Chichen).

First time in GotM? If that is the case: Welcome!