TSG134 Opening Actions

[Hammer Rabbi]

Welcome to the TSG134 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 Actions thread once you have completed your game.

- Do you plan to make use of Assuria's UA and do some conquering?
- Which neighbors did you go to war with?
- Did you get a religion? If so, which tenets?
- Describe your social policy choices and tech path.

Please use spoiler tags for any surprise details you'd like kept hidden. Thanks.

 

[belligerent]

This map is just awful for Assyria IMO. Don't know if I'll even finish this game.

 

[strake]

- Do you plan to make use of Assuria's UA and do some conquering?
I had every intention at the start of diving in for some early conquering. Then I explored, and saw about a million hexes of jungle and forest and hills between me and the nearest capital, and decided I didn't want to try and move siege towers through all that.

- Which neighbors did you go to war with?
Zero.

- Did you get a religion? If so, which tenets?
Switching gears from early conquest to science tall, i decided to forgo religion and hope for the best.

- Describe your social policy choices and tech path.
I went for Tradition, 4 cities, late NC. Two of the cities have coastal mountain with cargo ships feeding them, the other two have plenty of food. My tech tree was a meandering mishmash trying to balance science, money, and defensive troops.

 

[belligerent]

- Do you plan to make use of Assuria's UA and do some conquering?
I had every intention at the start of diving in for some early conquering. Then I explored, and saw about a million hexes of jungle and forest and hills between me and the nearest capital, and decided I didn't want to try and move siege towers through all that.

This is the frustration, if you will, for me with this game/map. Might as well be playing with the "neutrals"... part of what makes games interesting is how you use the unique abilities of the Civ. This map just totally neuters Assyria and makes this a boring, vanilla game IMO.

 

[vadalaz]

T100, opened with 3-city Tradition, things look okay but I'm making stupid mistakes

Spoiler :

Forgot to buy the Cocoa tile and lost it to Porto, settled my 4th city when I was 2 turns away from finishing NC, completely forgot I was still building it. Had to rush-buy the library, and I'm about to lose 2 CS allies so I could really use that gold. Going for a T103 Hanging Gardens, Ahmad is also building it though, so I might miss it. DoW'ed him to increase my chances.

- Do you plan to make use of Assuria's UA and do some conquering?
I got Iron Working for capturing Medina, and I think Harun has researched Guilds, so I should get that when I take Mecca.
- Which neighbors did you go to war with?
Harun. I've been at "war" with all AIs except Pocatello though for worker steals, caravan pillages and peace treaty gold.
- Did you get a religion? If so, which tenets?
Faith from Gems, Tithe, Pagodas. My cities are flipping to Harun's religion though, which has Mosques and Monasteries. I'm considering going Piety to get a lot of faith buildings up.
- Describe your social policy choices and tech path.
Full Tradition. Lux techs -> Philo -> Construction -> Civil Service. Haven't decided the next tech I'm going for yet, it's either Education or Machinery. I kinda want to go Machinery for fun, especially if I do get Guilds for capturing Mecca.

 

[bahamuto]

- Do you plan to make use of Assuria's UA and do some conquering?
Nope, going to try to build up my Tech as fast as possible. Build up some money to start bribing City States.

- Which neighbors did you go to war with?
Well I did grab a worker, but I forgot from who at this point, I think Arabia.

- Did you get a religion? If so, which tenets?
I was torn between Stone Circles and the one for Gems. I did end up with Stone Circles though.

- Describe your social policy choices and tech path.
Tradition... but with the amount of barbs in my game... wow I should have went Honor.

 

[belligerent]

I toughed out another 35 turns and will keep pressing on here now that I'm over being Mr. Whinypants.

- Do you plan to make use of Assuria's UA and do some conquering?

I am. At war with Harun/Hiawatha right now. Hiawatha got Medina in a peace deal, set it ablaze on the turn I DOWed Harun. Jerk. So I'm at war with both, and conquered Medina. Got Horseback Riding for it. Eyes on Mecca next (with two wonders) and some other old tech I haven't bothered with yet.

- Which neighbors did you go to war with?

As mentioned, Arabia and Iroquois, though the second was unplanned. S'OK. Bloody wars are better...

- Did you get a religion? If so, which tenets?

No.

- Describe your social policy choices and tech path.

I lacked the info needed to make a good call on SPs when the time came. Head said Tradition, heart wanted Honor. Went Honor. Probably a mistake now that I've seen most of the map, but we'll see. Bloody wars should be able to give me plenty of gold to sustain through the lull, and then I hope to snowball it through Commerce and Autocracy for a big old gold rush via death. Eventually, I'll just win Dip by attrition, at least that's the goal!

This map is going to make that exceptionally painful to achieve, I think... On the plus side, I'm not worried about ticking everyone off and having to spread my army out because of the turtle-tastic map.

 

[bjelar]

This is going to be a long game

-My first two settlers got captured by barbarians
-My two scouts died before scouting the continent
-I only just got my first trade route going (no caravans possible and too much barb activity for ships)

I am nowhere near building NC yet at turn 100. Four cities up and I got ToA and that masonry wonder that I NEVER build. Things are beginning to look better, but I lost 50 turns somewhere...

No wars and no religion (too)

Full tradition and first two in patonage.

EDIT: Oh, and my cargo ship got plundered on turn 105

 

[jessie23]

- Do you plan to make use of Assuria's UA and do some conquering?

Naturally, until I saw the hills. Holy jungle Batman!

- Which neighbors did you go to war with?
Harun. I caught his first settler unguarded and immediately DoW and grabbed the worker. Then I chased down a second worker. This happened while I was 1/2 done with hard building a worker, so now I have 3! 3 workers!

- Did you get a religion? If so, which tenets?
Completely ignored religion in favor of expanding

- Describe your social policy choices and tech path.
Tradition all the way. Wanted Liberty until I saw the terrain.

 

[Sclb]

- Do you plan to make use of Assuria's UA and do some conquering?
Yes, but saw all the bad terrain and didn't bother, except I did expand very aggressively with 9 cities. I also have an army but didn't bother to advance until my infrastructure is complete.

- Which neighbors did you go to war with?
Arabia and Portugal so far, didn't take any cities, was total stalemate except I did plant a few cities around them.

- Did you get a religion? If so, which tenets?
Yes, took DF since I planted capital to the east, maybe wasn't good idea and the gems might be worth more. Did get religion with mosque, couldn't get pagodas, enhanced with happy shrine since I needed the extra happy for wide.

- Describe your social policy choices and tech path.
Left liberty, then right liberty. Took free GPr to enhance since my religion is quickly disappearing due to Arabia's. It's either that or GE, but my capital wasn't ready for NC yet since I waited for all 9 cities. Tech path was usual wide liberty so far, priority on lux, resources, delayed writing until ready for libraries. Also prioritized Construction since war is inevitable. Due to many wars, NC will be around 120 which is pretty late. Thought about Petra but wasn't worth it due to not enough desert tiles and not wanting to waste GE on it.

 

[KingDante]

This map is annoying. I had every intention of conquering my two closest neighbors with my unique unit. Due to terrain this became a nightmare. It's turn 100 and I've conquered zero cities. I should have just stuck to peaceful 3 city tradition.

What a waste of a game for me. Probably won't finish it. Just frustrated now.

 

[belligerent]

This map is annoying. I had every intention of conquering my two closest neighbors with my unique unit. Due to terrain this became a nightmare. It's turn 100 and I've conquered zero cities. I should have just stuck to peaceful 3 city tradition.

What a waste of a game for me. Probably won't finish it. Just frustrated now.

Yeah, I'm back to being grumpy about this game. I've tried pressing through and conquered a bunch of cities, but it's at the point now where I need to wait until Arty to keep going forward beyond that second mountain range. The jungle and mountains just make it damn near impossible to play Assyria the way they're intended to be played. This is a pretty poor map given the Civ in play and easily the worst GOTM I've done (of the eight or so I've played now). Disappointing. Think I'm calling this game... even if I can press through, it's just not much fun.

 

[Sclb]

Yeah, this is not going well. I've captured 2 cities and getting close to the 200 turn mark. All this after I decided to build wide liberty core which is way not optimal. Probably not even gonna bother with arty push since those cities come way too late to matter. It's better to just finish the game off. Probably need some atomic/info era units to liberate CS if it gets ugly.

 

[RincewindOtti]

oh dear


- Do you plan to make use of Assuria's UA and do some conquering?
Yes, I did plan that!
And although I usually think, that diplo wins triggering elections in atomic era by killing the others is too much trouble...it really was my intention...honestly!
Yeah and then there was all the jungle...
...and I changed plans into a slightly unfocussed 4 city tradition

- Which neighbors did you go to war with?
Portugal for a few worker steals.

- Did you get a religion? If so, which tenets?
Yes 3rd with tithe and cathedrals (using tears of the gods) but the religion from Arabia is flipping my cities but it has pagodas so...why not

- Describe your social policy choices and tech path.
Tradition (finished t100).
Lux techs, iron working (really wanted colossus) THEN philosophy (really wanted colossus) into t102 NC

 

[sebtanic]

I was quite happy with the map, as I decided to go liberty/wide and it gave me room for some intial expos, and then puppets from conquest.

Opened tradition, then full liberty minus the policy that trigeers Golden Age. Opened patronage instead to delay the GA a bit.

Settled 4 cities total:
- Capital in place
- 1st expo on the coast to the SW, between mountain and sea, near Arabia (has two bananas, 1 fish, some hills, some jungle) - mainly settled there for strategic reasons to later expand towars Portugal and Arabia, have trade routes, and/or launch attacks on them.
- 2nd expo on the river near dyes in the southern jungle, with horses, gems and lots of hills - will be my production center
- 3rd expo on the cotton on the SE coast.

Got a pantheon (culture from jungle tiles), but no religion. After some early culture from my jungle cities, I adopted Islam from Arabia soon enough, and they had pagodas

Once I had my cities settled I moved my 2 siege towers, 2 crossbows, 1 spearman, 1 warrior towards Arabia, he got suspicious so I had to DOW him a couple turns before I was
ready. Lost a scout, a CB and a siege tower, but soon after I was able to conquer Medina and Damascus. Medina was in the midst of the jungle, on a river between salt and horses, and Damascus SE of the Cerro de Potosi natural wonder.

My cities are growing rather slowly, mainly due to lack of happiness. I am still building the NC in the capital, due in 11 turns.

Currently debating whether I will continue my conquest and take two cities from Portugal, or become peaceful in order to have better relations with AIs and less unhappiness/upkeep.

 

[zxcvbob]

This map is just awful for Assyria IMO. Don't know if I'll even finish this game.

I agree, it's horrible. I decided to try pure Piety+Patronage. I have 3 cities and am about to settle a 4th (will have to rush-buy a library in that one because I don't want to delay my National College much longer.

My religion is Tears of the Gods, Tithe, Religious Community, Peace Gardens, Itinerant Preachers, (did I leave one out?), and Evangelism.

I'm at least 8 techs behind. I have a spy already; he's parked in a city state rather than stealing techs. I'm stockpiling missionaries. When I have enough missionaries to last me a while, I will beeline Astronomy, build observatories, and start stealing techs to catch up.

AI to the south founded the last religion and quickly built Borobudur but I haven't seen any evidence that his missionaries have done anything (hasn't even converted his own cities back.)

I'm friendly with everybody and DoF's with a few. I did get denounced for being a "friend of my enemy", but the next turn she wanted to swap open borders and is friendly again. I might be a trap but I don't think so.

I have almost no military, but I did build one siege tower and I may build another one. They may come in handy eventually for that sapper thing they do. My land is pretty defensible and my production is high.

It's a really weird way to play Assyria. If I win I expect my number of turns to be pretty high.

 

[kayelbe]

I'm on a replay now because my original strategy was a complete failure.
Didn't gain much on the replay as far as intel goes, but it's a replay nonetheless.

Went 4-city Tradition and way behind in tech as of turn 100. Capital is about 10 pop and other 3 cities are about 5 pop. I have food caravans up, but it's still gonna be a long game.

Only wars were a couple worker steals early. Friends with the wrong civs, it seems. We'll see how this turns out...

 

[Antimatzist]

- Do you plan to make use of Assuria's UA and do some conquering?

Yes - but not that I had a choice. Maria expanded east, her third city even got my second Gem tile! But let me tell you, this war was no fun. Fortunately, her cities were pretty much unguarded and her defense focused on my puny ships, so I could easily conquer two of her cities, but I stopped before the capital, as I don't think it's worth the effort (would also have borders with many other civs then...). The two tehcnologies were definitely nice, and I think I'm doing pretty well. But the war slowed me down by a lot, only founded my second city SE at the cotton, but now no more space is available. ARGH!
- Which neighbors did you go to war with?
see above. But I won't go to war with anyone else, will focus on defense for now.
- Did you get a religion? If so, which tenets?
Nope. Pantheon for grwoth, though, but barely.
- Describe your social policy choices and tech path.
Tradition; Lux Techs and then trying to get some war going on. Now I'll need to focus on money, get some trade routes running...

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

- Do you plan to make use of Assuria's UA and do some conquering?

Yes - but not that I had a choice. Maria expanded east, her third city even got my second Gem tile! But let me tell you, this war was no fun. Fortunately, her cities were pretty much unguarded and her defense focused on my puny ships, so I could easily conquer two of her cities, but I stopped before the capital, as I don't think it's worth the effort (would also have borders with many other civs then...). The two tehcnologies were definitely nice, and I think I'm doing pretty well. But the war slowed me down by a lot, only founded my second city SE at the cotton, but now no more space is available. ARGH!
- Which neighbors did you go to war with?
see above. But I won't go to war with anyone else, will focus on defense for now.
- Did you get a religion? If so, which tenets?
Nope. Pantheon for grwoth, though, but barely.
- Describe your social policy choices and tech path.
Tradition; Lux Techs and then trying to get some war going on. Now I'll need to focus on money, get some trade routes running...

Welcome to GotM and CFC! Thanks for playing and posting about it. Good luck on the finish!

HR

 

[Antimatzist]

Thanks! It's actually my second GOTM, but the Hammurabi Science Victory was pretty straight forward and easy compared to this one. I hope it goes well - hopefully will finish it today...