TSG103 Opening Actions

[leif erikson]

Welcome to the TSG103 Opening Actions thread.

STOP - Please do not continue reading this thread until you have completed at least 80 to 100 turns in your game.

This thread is used to discuss the game once you've started playing through your first 100 turns. Apart from normal decency, the only posting restrictions are to please not post videos until the deadline is finished and to use the spoiler tags for screenshots. Here you can post questions related to the game and share your achievements/anger/frustration/victories while you play. Please remember that we are running a family friendly site, so express anger or frustration with this in mind.

Please use this thread to discuss your goals for the game and your opening moves through the first 100 turns. Anything after that should be posted in the After Action thread once you have completed your 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 and why?
- Who was the first to declare? About what turn?
- Did you use Faith to gain an advantage? If so, how?

 

[Alphons Rodulfo]

Turn 90 report

Shaka's carpet of death and destruction was no surprise, but still it was intimidating enough. How many more units would be hidden in the grayed out areas of the map?

I was able to finish researching construction just in time, the moment the Zulus declared war I could buy city walls for Mecca . The city's defences and a number of archers made short work of the invaders and now a group of Arabian composite bowmen and a great general are camped outside a Zulu city that is ripe for the taking. Low happiness and lack of a unit that can actually capture the city prevents me from doing so at the moment. I hope I can get a horseman out soon. Shaka is producing impis now, the Zulu need to be curtailed soon before they can build an impi army.

I settled in place, it was such a nice spot. Reasonably quick Mecca was able to expand thanks to two population ruins. No culture or religion from ruins, unfortunately. I contemplated a second city along the coast, but that would be uncomfortably close to zulu lands. So a second city was founded to the west, near ivory.

Two triremes made contact with a couple of city states, but I have not been able to befriend one. I do have two sea trade routes with city states.

Policies: Opened honor and tradition and now continuing with the liberty tree.
Religion: I build a shrine because I saw no other source of faith. I got a late pantheon and picked Earth Mother.
Wonders:I am glad I did not try to build the Great Library or Petra, they were gone very soon. Mecca is now building pyramids.

 

[Bleidraner]

t80, and already at war

Spoiler :

Settled in place, with an initial idea to turtle until XBows, the start looks great, Pangea+ is usually big and in Immortal I may get an early wonder. First 3 ruins, 2 maps and barbarians located. 4th and 5th ruins, 1 pop, 1 culture, yeeess!

But then who is our neighbor? Shaka! Hate that guy. I am on expert on him, on the receiving end, I have never played him. Ok, no turtling, it is a race to see if he gets to Civil Service and Impis before I can take his cap. Build 4 archers, beeline construction, granary and shrine will have to wait. I calculate that I will get ToA on t40, which should be OK in Immortal, so start building that with my liberty worker chopping both woods and mining the salts.

I redirect my 2 scouts and warrior to the tiles surrounding Ulundi, wait for an opportunity and steal a worker from Shaka. Miraculously my warrior survives the steal, and starts making its way back to Mecca with the worker. I make peace with Shaka, who offers me 1 gold, I take 33 cash instead. My plan is to DoW him as soon as I am ready.

Meanwhile, somebody builds ToA on the turn I was finishing it, and its an unmet civ. I cannot believe it. Could have built my shrine and my granary, and a couple extra archers. Well, will have to live with(out) it. My liberty settler comes online and I start walking it towards a faith wonder that is close to Ulundi. I plant it next to the mountain and river, this has the potential to be a great expo, although it is is far from my cap, I need to plant another city in the middle somewhere, but that will have to wait as I am almost ready for war.

I upgrade my 4 archers to CBs and they start making their way towards Ulundi with a couple (all) of workers. I start building Pyramids, to replenish the workers and prepare for war. My plan is to position the CBs well and do an initial volley to get things going, but half way there, another worker steal opportunity presents itself, and my warrior goes for it, so have to improvise the attack and do it the slow way. So worker bait a couple of archers, pillage repair, and carefully manage the health of the CBs with strategic retreats. Ulundi finally falls on t74. I do a good peace deal with Shaka, which I may live to regret, but my economy is not doing great. At t80, my CBs are healthy, I have built a couple more CBs to protect against potential barbarians, and I am building another settler.

I am not sure what I am going to do next. I need a plan, and I don't have one yet. Taking another cap with CBs is out of the question for me, but I cannot linger long as Casimir is wonder whoring and starting to run away. I am friends with Netherlands and India, but I am certain Montezuma will come for me very soon now, although we have fought against a common enemy and traded. There are 2 civ I have not met yet, and need to build a boat or 2, as I need to start meeting CSs, the sooner the better.

Let's see what happens.

@GOTM staff: Aaaand I crashed on t90. Never had a crash on a GOTM, is there a process to report it like in the HOF?

 

[leif erikson]

@GOTM staff: Aaaand I crashed on t90. Never had a crash on a GOTM, is there a process to report it like in the HOF?

Yes, just send us a Private Message letting us know what turn and how many turns you had to replay. When replaying, you should try to do the same things you originally did in the same order. We ask that you set your autosaves to 1 turn so you do not have much to replay.

No need to send a PM for this one. Good Luck.

 

[Bleidraner]

Yes, just send us a Private Message letting us know what turn and how many turns you had to replay. When replaying, you should try to do the same things you originally did in the same order. We ask that you set your autosaves to 1 turn so you do not have much to replay.

No need to send a PM for this one. Good Luck.

Thanks Leif. Only had to replay one movement (trireme 4 tiles east), not even one turn. Have autosave in 1 by default.

 

[leif erikson]

Thanks Leif. Only had to replay one movement (trireme 4 tiles east), not even one turn. Have autosave in 1 by default.

Thanks.

 

[Shaleghi]

Hi,,, So i settled in place and started scouting... found shaka,, and Aztecs. I build 2 more cities to the west and build walls. Shaka forward settle straight in to me. He declares war even before impi's. I had composit's and him not. So i could burn his 3rd city which was 5 tiles from my cap. Next city he has imps and made a hole in my army and Aztecs got another army coming my way. I manage to burn Shaka's next city and made peace. Now fighting heavily with Aztecs who got knights. With my tech i went for uni... so by now my mil units is out of date and Aztec's musket-men show up. Made peace with him fast. Poland got an army on the west and i think he will want to take Shaka's capital but I want it also. So after uni tech i will go for mil techs to take out shaka.
I got my own religion and it going ok but Netherlands religion is spread to all Aztecs and Shaka. It should be ok later.
happiness is fine thanks to markets then trade.
Building military units and loosing some have set back production of buildings. So bit behind there,, Science.

 

[Khalid]

I settled in place. My plan was to go liberty, develop and then hit with camel archers and continue until I conquer the whole world.

Build order: scout, scout, monument, granary, archer, archer, settler (after free one), pyramids.

Tech: Pottery, AH, Mining, Archery, -> Construction, -> Philosophy, -> Civil Service, -> Education (T119)

I found Shaka as my neighbor, so this would be tough. Managed to steal a worker from him early (just managed to get mining, when he was home) and never settled for peace. Used his wariors to train my archers. Finally settled for peace to get his second city when I attacked it with CBs. I did not have the hapiness to take his cap as well.

Second city for Uluru - earth mother (I did not settle the desert due to no hapiness resources there), tithe, pagodas, hammer bonus, religious texts. Third city W for ivory.

Hapiness was really an issue. I spend about 15 turns unhappy when barbs pillaged my salt and my army was fighting Shaka.

Now everything is fine. NC at T89 with the golden age, free engineer build oracle for commerce opener. Economy rocks, I love bazaars. I make 50-60gpt, have a bunch of friends (India, Netherlands, Askia, Poland) who buy my lux for gold. I bought bazaar, got copies of luxuries, sold them for gold and build next bazaar. Love this.

Shaka has one imp now, but Poland took another of his cities, so he is crippled now. Monte is back in the jungle, paying lot gpt for luxuries.

I have stopped selling horses now as I need them for chariots (to be upgraded to camels). I think I leave Shaka for now and go after Monte, not too piss off too many of my firends now as I love the gold from them. I need more horses

Spoiler :

 

[Picrasso]

Spoiler :

Settled on the spot. Built two scouts first. Found Shaka and a nice place for a city. A sort of Riverrun situation, on a hill and protected by rivers (Damascus). Went for Tradition first for the culture boost and then full on Honor.

I made a mistake not going for Sailing early. Pangea Plus of course means CS in the water. I still was the first to meet most of them.

Found a very nice (intended?) spot right next to Shaka. Mountain, river, Uluru, horses. ASAP bought the tile. Pissed Shaka off a bit I fear.

Religion: +100 when converting and Pagoda's. Used that first 100 G to pump out another Settler.

I met some cool friends: William, Ramkaeng, Gandhi and even Alex. I am very distrustful and a bit scared of Shaka. Did manage to steal a worker a barb had just captured from him. I also managed to build ToZ, which might be helpful if I had troops. Science is not going well. Probs gonna build two more libs and then the National College.

William asked me to DoW on Monty. Did so b/c William would get the bulk of the fighting while - hopefully - weakening the Aztecs. Can't see much of the war but it's still going.

***

So, should I feed Shaka convoys and religion? He seems to be playing a one city challenge - which is strange. If we could team up I could use him against Monty and Poland, but he doesn't want to. Nor has he ever DoW'ed me. Or should I get my army up and conquer Ulundi? Decisions, decisions.

EDIT: war is upon me!!1

 

[Fluphen Azine]

Slight Write Up

Spoiler :

I moved over to the desert to get Petra and I forgot to actually worry about building Petra lol! I missed it and went to war with the Zulu pretty quick wiping them out with Poland. After that I went to war with Poland and traded blows for some time. I got Monty into the mix and as I was about to start pressing into Poland I got the back stab from Monty and had to deal with about 20-30 troops. They slowed me down but I took it personal making peace with Poland and going up to destroy Monty instead which I did and sold most of the cities to Siam with the intent on taking them back in the late game.

I thought I had a save from turn 100 but all I had left was turn 136 so I hope it is ok showing it on this thread.

Spoiler :

 

[leif erikson]

It is fine.

Wow!
That was quite a ways to move your settler to found your capital. And you took Ulundi.

 

[tribefaninnc]

I'm more of an Emperor player, but thought I'd give this a whack. Sorry, forgot a screenie.

Spoiler :

I scouted the NW hill, but settled in place.
T5: Hello Shaka! Ugh, I shoulda expected that.
T11: Hola Montezuma! Ugh, I shoulda figured that too
Found Uluru, Netherlands, and Poland shortly thereafter.

Got decent luck on the ruins. T2 +pop, T4 free archery tech, T9 20 cult, scout upgrade at T23
Settled Medina on T33 at the confluence west of Mecca
Opened a mix of Honor and Liberty

With the early archery, I decided to try an archer spam rush on Shaka to preemptively avoid the carpet. DoWed Ulundi on T50 with 4 arch, 2 warr, char arch, GG and another char arch on the way.

Funny aside at this point, which I shared in another thread:
I resisted the urge to DoW early just to steal a worker. The worker hides in the grey just before I DoW. Fine, I move in for the siege. The worker pops up right next to my chariot archer 2 turns later. I take it as spoils of war. The siege wears on, but I'm not making much headway. A couple turns later, out pops a settler from the city and it moves THROUGH my sieging troops. I take it. A couple turns later, out pops a SECOND settler and again it moves THROUGH my troops toward my land. I take it. Thanks Shaka!

OK, back to the game coverage. The siege lasts 15 turns, but I'm unable to take Ulundi. City strength of 20 plus the tough terrain around the city really made the archers less effective than I wanted. Full retreat with 2 CA, 1 A, 1W, GG. Only having 2 horseys really was kinda a kick in the pants here!

Heal up, upgrade to longbows, build T88 Statue of Zeus.
Come back with 2 CA, 3 CBows, 2 spear, 1 warr, GG
Better luck. I take Ulundi on T95, though 1 Impi crushes a couple troops, then retakes the city. I rush a couple reinforcements to replace what the Impi crushed. I manage to take the city back for good on T105 with last rushed melee with a just built Impi lost in the city. If he got loose, I probably would have had to retreat again.

Played a few more turns, in the process of taking out the second Zulu city, then decide what's next. I guess probably pause, get NC up, get Civil Service, then rush to chivalry. I guess I need to find a few more horseys also.

I guess the preemptive strike was a success. The battles were costly, but I (just barely) avoided Death by Impi, which was the primary goal. Getting the free workers and preventing him forward settling probably made it worthwhile.

 

[Morcar_olmig]

Settled in place. Taken Ulundi around turn 75 (first captured his settler on t35), finished NC on 90st, then taken Warsaw on turn 102, where Casimir was continuing to build wonders until very end (he build last two wonders in 2 turns), so a total of 5 wonders (Stone, Manchu, HG, Chicen Itza and smth else) were captured what led me to lead in the score. Meanwhile Aztec built the GW, but they are located mostly in jungles anyway. As of now Ghandi, William, Siam and Monti has almost same military as me and Alexander has even bigger. I think i will next march towards Ghandi then Alexander (as farest point) and will try to create army №2 to try to put pressure on those in the north. I'm planning to have Machinery in 15 turns (with GS from Liberty). Let's see, at this point everything goes ok.

 

[Kendon]

I've just taken the Consulates policy expecting to see my CS influence boosted by 20 but instead it only went up by 6. Is this related to the Immortal difficulty level, the fact I'm playing on an iMac or is it a bug?

After defeating Shaka I had Casimir, William and Ramkhamhaeng declare war on me simultaneously. Casimir made peace after I took Krakow but the other two are still saying "Lost the will to fight?"

 

[Bleidraner]

I've just taken the Consulates policy expecting to see my CS influence boosted by 20 but instead it only went up by 6. Is this related to the Immortal difficulty level, the fact I'm playing on an iMac or is it a bug?

After defeating Shaka I had Casimir, William and Ramkhamhaeng declare war on me simultaneously. Casimir made peace after I took Krakow but the other two are still saying "Lost the will to fight?"

Kendon, the effect is not instantaneous, you go up by about 1 per turn until you reach 20. Looks like you pledged to protect, and then consulate, and you checked in the next turn. Or something like that. Hope this helps.

 

[Kendon]

Bleidraner, thanks. It looks like you're right. At turn 146 I have City States ranging from 12 to 20 influence and I could easily have trespassed enough to make up the difference. Antananarivo which my trireme can't pass without trespassing is down at 2.

I also see the AIs are ignoring the city states. The only other ships I've seen are barbarians and I've always gotten 30 gold for the first discovery.

 

[Bed]

Hello

I am back at civ 5 (a bit deceive by BE) so i decided to try this gotm to see if i am not too rusty

I settled in place and started a 4 city tradition start. Everything was ok (4 cities healthy, lots of gold trade agreements, friend with almost all earth bazaar in each city, CB in each city) and 5 turn before i discover chivalry Shaka and monte dowed me
shara took one of my city with his impies and i decided to retire, the game was lost

i did not managed well, i should have destroyed zulu with my CBs before he discover impies...