TSG 271 Opening Actions

[Nizef]

This thread is used to discuss the game's opening decisions and strategies through the first 150 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?

 

[Megalou]

This spoiler was written on turn 134. I will not read other people's spoilers until I've reached turn 150.

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

A complex game with many possibilities, given the large map and the unusually high number of unique luxuries in the vicinity of Beijing. I agree that it is a domination-friendly map, firstly because several secluded towns can be built to the west without danger of invasion. Secondly, with the water between us and England we can prepare ourselves undisturbed. The only immediate threat appeared to be Mongols. Paradoxically, I thought it safe to declare war on Mongols early. I only captured one worker from them, but have stayed at war constantly. In that way, I had the option to sign a white peace if they should send a "stack of doom" (the term was more accurate in Civ3). That never happened, so now I have gone on the offence instead.

My goal is basically to win the game without heavy modern warfare, but of course things are dragged out since it's a large map.

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

Settled on the incense. It wasn't going to cost a one turn delay and happiness would come in quicker. 3 scouts followed. Moving away from the wheat tiles was a slight minus in the early stages. Compared to those who might have settled on the hill, it's minus one hammer of course.

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

It felt interesting to go for Liberty for once. There was enough space for it and the VC encourages it. I wanted an early settler for Mount Uluru and the 3 different luxes surrounding it. There was an obvious risk that Polynesia would snag it otherwise, and I didn't want to build a shrine, which at a high large map pantheon cost is ineffective anyway. So I actually built a settler before Collective Rule.

I also decided to settle Mount Sinai. This was a more doubtful choice, given the lousy growth opportunities. When the pantheon came in I picked One with Nature and got 8 faith from that. How does that compare with 1c,1f,1g,1p,1s from God-King? It is a bit better, but you'd have to take into account that one city is unproductive. Again, it's a complex game.

- What were your initial priorities?

Like I said, Uluru. Then there was the usual worker stealing. I got 5 workers from Wittenberg and one from Mongolia. Pretty ineffective. Did anyone do it differently? I didn't dare to declare war on Polynesia too, and I never attack more than one city state because of the penalties.

- What tech path did you follow and why?

I really couldn't see a pattern to follow, since almost all paths led to something useful. Down the road, I started focusing on the techs on the lower part of the tech tree. The ultimate target is Chu-Ko-Nu but also workshops, since I have chosen Guruship (+2 production if town has a specialist) as my second follower belief.

- What Social Policies did you choose?

Liberty only. Help was provided from Prague to get there a bit faster than the snail flies.

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

I have only gone for National College, which was completed somewhere around turn 110 by the free engineer from finishing the liberty tree. I've been tempted to go for other wonders but have resisted so far.

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

Indeed. Faith reached 20 fpt rather early.
Pantheon: One with nature.
Founder: Tithe
Follower: Holy Warriors
Follower 2: Guruship
Enhancer: Holy order (-30% cost for miss and inq)

It will be interesting to see if Holy Warriors can make a difference.

Goodie huts
1. Barb locations. 2. Pottery, good, because I started with mining. 3. Map. 4. Bronze w. 5. Archer upgr. 6. Map. 7. Culture, not perfect but very good timing - this seems to me to be one of the biggest early luck factors. 8. 30 faith. This was actually not enough to build a pantheon, but Uluru was worked a few turns later.

Other stuff

I have also been at war with Zulu and Assyria, plundering trade routes from both those civs and Mongols. All AIs are or have been at war except Polynesia, with or without my instigation. Zulus have taken a chunk of Assyria and India has been destroyed (stupidly enough before I could complete the mission of finding their lands). I'm hopeful that I will benefit from mutual AI destruction but there is a risk that Shaka grows very strong.

Screenshot
The biggest let-down is of course the growth. No food Caravans, tour routes for science and the money instead.

 

[The_Black_Vegetable]

I'll post my first 100 turns as usual instead of the 150, because I think the first 100 have been interesting enough already. I won't read @Megalou 's post until my game reaches 150.

I've had an amazing start! When playing on epic speed, I'm often on my best behaviour; as the game feels super slow, I do everything in my power to somewhat approach the pace of normal play. So, I won't get distracted with wonders (build something for 20 turns and then lose it? No thanks), and I'm also much more diligent in my research choices. Even though I am aware that best play is often to research technologies until 1 turn and then to switch, in most of my games I'm too lazy for it, or I intend to do it but don't pay attention. For this game, I have managed to do that very well, and I'm pleased with the pogress of the research (though chu-ko-nus are still a ways off).

I received two major boosts in the early game. I spotted Uluru when my capital was 2-pop (directly after having built scout-scout), and I wanted to build a settler as quickly as possible. Normally I prefer to build settlers at 3-pop at least, but it took more than 15 turns to grow to 3 and the settler took 'only' 18 turns, so I went settler after the second scout, and hoped I would get a pop ruin, which I got almost immediately! The second big boost was that I got two risk-free worker steals from Samoa early on.

There are some big decisions to be made early game for a domination attempt: how many cities to go for, where to plant them, and which policy trees to take. I went for boring old tradition again. I have seen very strong players do amazing things with liberty honor, but I still like to have a good economy with a couple of strong core cities. I ended with three cities of my own, although I was actually building another settler when I saw the Indonesian city pop up. Perhaps a good thing, since Elizabeth would have been annoyed if I had settled the desert hill next to the cotton, but my initial plan was to get some incense for trading (luxuries or money).

My coastal city is perhaps not the strongest. It has a unique luxury, but it's pretty slow until it gets more tiles, and eventually I will need to research optics to make it good - and I still need to make the work boat for the crabs. I did consider also putting a city right where Turfan is, but I thought it's better not to piss off Mongolia rather than to piss him off but have a good defensive city.

On turn 99, I finally started the warring. Polynesia has Goddess of Protection which is slightly annoying, but I think his cities are vulnerable enough that my units should be able to deal with him. I managed to get him to declare on Shaka as well, which hopefully will result in a friendship with Zulu down the line. Earlier, I had paid Mongolia to war Polynesia, but his units did not seem to progress beyond Zurich, but I have also just paid him to war Japan (3 gpt ), which is much more useful, since they are bleeding units against each other.

 

[sebtanic]

Turn 144 here. I have just conquered my first victim's capital, Karakorum.

Mongolia is down to one city, and I will have Chu-Ko-Nus in 7 turns.

Here's a screenshot:

Looks like Japan and Polynesia are up to something. I hope they don't double DOW me, since Polynesia is too close to my capital. I bribed Japan to fight Mongolia and Assyria to keep him off my back, hopefully that will be enough.

I did pretty well with worker stealing this time. The CS I tried to farm was Colombo, but after the initial worker they took ages to build another one. In the meantime I got like 3 or 4 workers from the barbarians, and one from Mongolia that was wandering around by itself. When I got another one from Colombo, I decided I had a big enough work force for now and made peace with them.

Taking 4 turns to repair pillaged improvements is a bummer. Pillage repair is rather difficult on this speed. Polynesia has the Pyramids, so once I take them out it should be easier.

I got super lucky with ruins:
Turn 4 - 30 culture, turn 5 - Map (A good one! It showed me Zurich and Polynesia, plus a ruin next to them... they beat me to it by 1 turn though), 1 pop, 30 culture again, Animal Husbandry , 90 gold, Scarcher upgrade, another pop , camp

Policy wise I went full Tradition. I feel we need a solid science base to be able to win a large map on Deity. Got NC shortly after turn 100, and then went straight to Machinery without even getting Civil Service in between.
Pantheon: Goddess of the Hunt (Food from camps), no religion yet but a prophet should appear any moment now.