TSG138 Opening Actions

[Hammer Rabbi]

Welcome to the TSG138 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.

** If you won this GotM before turn 100 then please only post in the After Actions thread!
- Where did you settle your cities?
- Describe your opening policy choices.
- Did you get a religion? If so, which tenets?
- Did you start this with a VC in mind or did you already know you wanted to go for Score?
- Did you play a practice game before release to get a feel for these settings?

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

 

[Sclb]

This might be the first GoTM that I might lose, didn't expect deity advanced start AI to be so fast. Might not even be possible to go for score as NW neighbor took my expo twice and looks like he might launch before 200 turns unless I can kill him, but it's difficult now as he has both nukes and air. I really want to see if anyone can pull off science or even harder, domination.

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

Well I see Sclb has finished now, but in general, regardless of win or loss, Score will still be tallied for the results thread, even if you dont go the whole 200 turns.

This one is tougher than I expected for you. I may have had an easier time in my efforts than most which is REALLY surprising since Sclb is generally a better player than I am.

Apologies for any frustrations this one is giving you.
HR

 

[vadalaz]

This might be the first GoTM that I might lose, didn't expect deity advanced start AI to be so fast. Might not even be possible to go for score as NW neighbor took my expo twice and looks like he might launch before 200 turns unless I can kill him, but it's difficult now as he has both nukes and air. I really want to see if anyone can pull off science or even harder, domination.

I stole a worker from the neighbor very early, and he suicided all his starting pikemen into my expo. This gave me enough time to build up infrastructure and attack a bit later with muskets + cannons during the Liberty golden age. I think the better plan might've been to just rush him with crossbows when he had 0 army after his failed attack, but I'm not sure. I'd probably get my chain-denouncement earlier then and that could mean trouble.

- Where did you settle your cities?
Capital in place, 2 expos to the west near the luxuries. One more expo much, much later to connect the Crabs for WLTKDs

- Describe your opening policy choices.
Full Liberty - Secularism - Freedom. I think Autocracy would've been better for fast DomV and better spies, but Freedom has the best growth tenet, plus Universal Suffrage has nice synergy with Persia

- Did you get a religion? If so, which tenets?
Second pantheon and last religion, Earth Mother + 100 gold + Shrine happiness + 15% production

- Did you start this with a VC in mind or did you already know you wanted to go for Score?
I'm going for score, so this pretty much means a delayed DomV. I'll take the last capital on T199

- Did you play a practice game before release to get a feel for these settings?
Nope

 

[Sclb]

Same thing happened with that neighbor in my game, but then other AI joined the war and I had to make peace to move troops, and he later DoW me with rifles + gatlings + cannons and actually took my expo easily. I was able to get it back with artillery, but later he finally retook it with GWB + rocket artillery and that's the point where it was unwinnable. Also Scholars in residence was passed, so it might have accelerated the science a bit.

 

[beetle]

Wow, I am humbled to have had better luck than Sclb! Everything below was in the first hundred turns, and things did not get dramatic until after that…

Where did you settle your cities?

I knew I wanted a coastal cap, went North for the river, then had to give that up because the CS was too close. I settled the cap on the incense. Worked out okay.

Expo went to spot suggested by the UI, so inland to the NW. Turns out that caused me be forward settling Assyria. Oops.

I converged all three pikes towards him, opening a DOW by taking one of his two settlers. I killed two of his pike and could have stretched the war out more, but I did not want to interrupt a worker trying to finish a quarry (for Stone Circles).

Describe your opening policy choices.

Full Tradition. Then two or three in Rationalism, then Ideology — just like a normal game.

Build order was Workshops and other hammer buildings, then Libraries and Universities.

Tech tree I beelined Porcelain Tower (missed it) and then Electricity to Oxford Radio. Natural GE went to Eiffel Tower. I was second to Ideologies and first to Freedom. Missed SoL by quite a bit though.

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

Yes, no problem at all. Going first and starting with two shrines is a nice change of pace. Stone Circles pantheon, then happy from Shrines and Temples. I had a good choice of faith buildings, but they are not much good with the accelerated start.

Did you start this with a VC in mind or did you already know you wanted to go for Score?

Yes, looking for SV because I have no idea how to play for domination with these settings.

Did you play a practice game before release to get a feel for these settings?

Yes! And that was a good thing too, since my instinct was to open Rationalism into Commerce. That does not work well at all. My other instinct was to pick Pagodas. They do not work either. My two test games saved me from those mistakes, and I really doubt I could have won with those two choices.