TSG142 Opening Actions

[Hammer Rabbi]

Welcome to the TSG142 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.

- Where did you settle your cities?
- How did you spend your starting 5 Social Policies?
- Did you plan to use the UA/UU/UB? Were you able to convert any barbarian units?
- After some scouting have you settled on a Dom or Diplo strategy? Or did you decide before the game started?
- 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.

 

[zxcvbob]

I was gonna stop at 80 but the game got exciting and I played to 100. (I bet some folks win in less than 100 turns.) Napoleon forward-settled me and was building up a big army. Several people said he was plotting against me. I paid Shaka to declare war on him, and Shaka managed to capture Paris. [fast forward about 50 turns] Shaka asked me to declare war on America and I said "gimme 10 turns to get ready" When it was time to get started, Shaka backstabbed me and declared war on me instead of Washington. That was really stupid. I wiped out his military (I only lost one infantry, and I'm not sure how he managed to kill that one) and took Paris. Meanwhile Washington declared war on Shaka and is probably going to take Ulundi (I still might snipe it with an X-COM, but I'll probably just let him take it for now) France just had one city left, and he was building his military back up again and had a *bunch* of artillery on my border, like he was gonna try to attack me and retake Paris. His one little city had aluminum and my 5 big cities didn't have any, so when I caught him stealing a tech I declared war and wiped him out. All my friends hate me now but that's okay, I'm pretty close to taking control of the UN.

- Where did you settle your cities?
Berlin is on a hill next to that little lake and mountain. I also settled due west of there by the oranges, and another city southwest in all that jungle, and the fourth is on the east coast next to the river and the marble.

- How did you spend your starting 5 Social Policies?
Liberty, all the way. Saved the golden age for last. Then Rationalism opener and Secularism, Autocracy(6), then back to Rationalism to take Humanism and Free Thought. Now I've opened Commerce because I could use more gold.

- Did you plan to use the UA/UU/UB? Were you able to convert any barbarian units?
Hanse was one of the first things I built in all my cities, and I started cranking out cargo ships earlier than I normally would (before university) in my coastal city. I think I recruited one barbarian crossbow. The reduced unit maintenance is nice, it helps offset the reduced trade route gold from sending all my ships to City States.

- After some scouting have you settled on a Dom or Diplo strategy? Or did you decide before the game started?
I'm just having fun with it. A little dom, and little diplo -- actually I'm really late making my move on the CS's, and haven't met a few yet. I've researched Satellites so I know where they all are, and I have a destroyer headed that way to say "Hi". My coastal city is spamming missile cruisers for gunboat diplomacy.

- Did you play a practice game before release to get a feel for these settings?
Yes, but I didn't finish it. Futurism is really powerful with this late a start. I could accidentally get a cultural victory if I wipe out Austria (or if Mongolia wipes her out); she seems to be going for culture.

 

[zxcvbob]

Played another 20 turns and it's getting tedious. I have the biggest military and Gunboat Diplomacy, but most of the CS's are not impressed, even with missile cruisers and destroyers parked on their borders. Japan and I each have about half of the CS allies, and he's doing a good job of holding onto them.

Actually the best course of action might be to DoW Mongolia and wipe him out, liberating the captured CS's last.

BTW, I see a city state with a triplane. I didn't think they built air units.

 

[trendy]

- Where did you settle your cities?
I took liberty opener so had four settlers. Settled first one in place, and sent the other settlers in opposite directions from each other. Tried to keep settlements to at least two basic +food/prod resources (wheat, stone, etc) and 1+ luxes, but I got a bit desperate with my last one. Settled it on top of a silver lux about 5ish turns in after blindly running through endless jungle... The other two had good placement, one next to the citrus and horses, the other close to kilmanjaro with all the wheat and cotton.

- How did you spend your starting 5 Social Policies?
Spent four in liberty. Took all left side and workers. Opened rationalism.

- Did you plan to use the UA/UU/UB? Were you able to convert any barbarian units?
I rushed hanses somewhat fast. First prioritized getting up growth and science buildings though. Build order was roughly: aqueducts-->universities-->hanses. Rushed all the caravans in the capital while hanses were building in expos. +25% production about 25 turns in was verrrry nice, and helped rush out the army I'd neglected early. I eventually got out some panzers, but the map had such limited lategame resources where I'd settled (I somehow missed all but 7 of the oil in my settlements, and could only get three aluminum for the longest time...) I really couldn't spam them. Such a shame since they're so strong. Especially after I took lightning social policy in autocracy (no ZOC, extra attack, and extra movement). And as for barb units I got three or four CBs, which were helpful for early defense before I'd built my army.

- After some scouting have you settled on a Dom or Diplo strategy? Or did you decide before the game started?
I was resolute to win a dom victory before I started. The more I played the more I regretted this decision.

- Did you play a practice game before release to get a feel for these settings?
I set up a couple games with the same settings but didn't get past the first 10 turns. I just wanted to understand what differences there were with the different era.

 

[BigChiefLizzy]

- Where did you settle your cities?
West of mountain at start position near river, on in desert to west just east of horses, one further down south of same river to east of silver. Free one from liberty next to mountain southwest, near salt and Mt. Kailash. I scouted to the east but saw the coast and the land did'nt look great.

- How did you spend your starting 5 Social Policies?
All Liberty.
- Did you plan to use the UA/UU/UB? Were you able to convert any barbarian units?
Using about 10 panzers, some on front lines some to fend off city state attacks.
Built loads of hanses, I think they are helping a lot with my production and gold seems good - I needed gold to get cannon -> artillery.
Converted 1 archer and 1 gatling gun. Yippee

- After some scouting have you settled on a Dom or Diplo strategy? Or did you decide before the game started?
Domination - seemed it would be quickest, not so sure now.

- Did you play a practice game before release to get a feel for these settings?
No.

Have killed off France first (teched to artillery ASAP) bar one city, then America, Zulu, Austria (all a pain because of loads of Musketeers, Minutemen, Impi/Rifles.) Far slower than I'd hoped and Spain and Mongols declared war after I killed America completely (had bribed Zulu to attack him early and they took one of his cities). Mongols should be easy next, but Japan has built the Manhattan project and they and spain are next...

 

[Kendon]

I'd taken Paris and was moving most of the army to attack Vienna when America attacked me with quite a crowd, mainly minutemen. I was able to retreat with minimal losses but America took Paris.

I've since gotten it back along with New York and thinned out the Zulu army. I have a navy and small invasion force approaching Japan which my advisor tells me has not much army so we'll see. Austria and the Mongols are both starting to develop an air force. I built anti-aircraft guns before I built planes.

- Where did you settle your cities?
South settler in place for the capitol; one northeast who ended up as a port near Mt Kilimanjaro; one northwest who settled south of two citrus in the jungle east of Paris; and the fourth wandered southwest without running into anybody til it ended up in the mountain pass surrounded by Austria, the Zulus and the southern French city, Lyon. The priority there was to build walls and get the rifleman dug in.

- How did you spend your starting 5 Social Policies?
Honor opener plus four Liberty, leaving the golden age for later.

- Did you plan to use the UA/UU/UB? Were you able to convert any barbarian units?
I got two barbarian musketmen and a warrior who was quickly promoted to musketman. All became riflemen as soon as possible and are now infantry.

- After some scouting have you settled on a Dom or Diplo strategy? Or did you decide before the game started?
I picked Domination to see how a lot of riflemen would work against the AI UUs.

- Did you play a practice game before release to get a feel for these settings?
Yes, two. I did decide to open Honor because there were enough barbarians. I also built cannons early.