TSG68 Opening Actions thread

[mikeocarroll]

Turn 100, I've got 3 cities and about to hit the Shoshone, having finally got catapults online.

My tech is very slow and I'm only just researching NC now.

Bullied a bit of gold from city states early on and have a trade route up and running with Assyut which is quite lucrative. Also have pillaged a couple of Shoshone trade routes.

Started with Honour opener and then went Liberty, still a couple of policies to go though until I get my free GP.

Will head on to Civil Service now and impis but am worried about my slow tech. If I can sort that out then the game should be quite straightforward, otherwise I'm in for a major struggle.

This is my first Brave New World game and I'm really liking the trade route concept. Haven't quite worked out what all the new culture stuff is about but hopefully as Zulu I should just attack everyone and not worry about namby pampy stuff like culture.

Interesting game so far - thanks!

 

[godotnut]

I tried a novel strategy (for me at least) as a warmonger. I hunkered down and built wonders in my capital for the first 75 turns or so. I didn't found any cities at all, figuring I would take them and that I would need all of the happiness I could get, since you can't raze capitals. I also didn't do my usual worker steal from one of the city states, thinking it would be best to avoid the warmonger penalty until necessary. I ignored religion, but I did wind up taking Brazil's holy city.

Policies: Tradition>four free culture buildings>finished all of honor>then took the happiness and gold bonus in capital from tradition (turn 130).

Build order: worker>granary>Great Library (turn 41)>National College>scout>Statue of Zeus>Zulu barracks>impi>impi>catapault>impi>catapault

When the first two impis and the cata were finished, I declared on Shoshone, taking and keeping a good city he founded between our two capitals. While these units healed I finished another impi and cata, then went for his capital, which as others have noted was in a tough position. I BARELY made it, because he popped the Great Wall just as I was about to finish him, but I finally did take it, leaving one impi and one cata. Took his capital around turn 95.

Continued build order: impi>caravan (needed money)>Heroic Epic>unit spam

Once I had two impis to escort my cata, I sailed east and quickly took Brazil's capital, razing one other city, and leaving him a third somewhere (I know not where). Finished Brazil around turn 110. I also converted the Shoshone capital from puppet to under control, so I could use it to build some things like caravans, boats, etc., while my capital focused on units.

Germany is getting out of control, and it may have been a mistake not to go after them right after Shoshone, but they have double my army and are number one in most categories in Demographics. I decided I needed a city under my control near them to launch an attack from, so I could upgrade, heal faster, etc. So I am going after Poland first, then there will be a massive confrontation with Germany. I stopped right around turn 130, ready to attack Poland.

I could probably wipe out the rest of the civs (besides Germany) in 50-60 turns or so, but by that time, Germany will have grown into a true monster, and my impi will be pretty outdated, so I am going for the toughest nut to crack right after Poland, hoping to wipe him out before it gets worse.

I am not a great warmonger. I'm not going to be competing for the top prize by any means. I would be happy with a sub 200 win, which I think it possible for me, assuming things go OK with the German war.

Zulu are a lot of fun. The promotions are cool and with all the unit enhancing building in my capital (Zulu barracks, statue of Zeus, Heroic Epic), my units emerge with some truly awesome promotions.

 

[Tesuji]

Turn 120 now. Going OCC here stayed with Capital all the time so far. I focused on the GL-NC start. Then i started making archers. With GL i could get philo, construction and optics pretty fast and get an unusual warpath seeing this weird and ''large'' map. Why optics? Because the carnage begun with Assyria. Why Assyria? Well there is the kilimanjaro wonder wandering close by. I need to get a free upgrade for my future units.

So i have sent 6 CBs to him around the turn 70.

What build-order do you use? I tried this: scout, scout, granary, GL, NC. Stole two workers from Pocatello. That way I get the NC by turn 55, but no way can I build 6 archers by turn 70. I'm about two archers short, which is considerable in such a short timespan.

 

[Tabarnak]

What build-order do you use? I tried this: scout, scout, granary, GL, NC. Stole two workers from Pocatello. That way I get the NC by turn 55, but no way can I build 6 archers by turn 70. I'm about two archers short, which is considerable in such a short timespan.

I got time to build 2-3 turns archers. Rush bought 1 of them.

BO was scout-scout-granary-GL. Worker chopped forests. Bought the forested hill tile to get maximum hammers and a 2 hammers tile at the same time. Chopped more forests to get archers.

 

[tibbie]

I've been a lurker in these forums for some months (as the BNW got released) and have tried 4-5 of the latest TSG - it's been fun, I've learned a lot, so decided to share some thoughts. It is up to T160 though, so not exactly opening action, but for me this still felt like "early" action. Apologies, if this is against the rules.

Domination is not my usual victory, but from what I've heard, playing Zulu could turn out rather fun!

- What did you consider in your decision of where to settle your capital?

Settled on the nearby hill as I didn't want to waste more turns on finding a "perfect" spot.

- What were your initial priorities?

I used several advice from Moriarte's liberty domination victory guide and Glory7's Zulu domination guide, so I pretty much followed the recommended policy and unit/building order. It is for Deity, but I believe it's useful advice nevertheless, basically you learn alot by reading how they reflect around, well, everything

Building order in the capital: Scout -> monument -> scout -> granary -> shrine -> 4 archers. Two scouts made it easier to explore this map. Not convinced about whether shrine was very useful. As the initial pantheon bonus I took +1 culture from pastures because there's lots of them around. But is this extra culture actually gonna be of help? Also, my capital grows slowly so I might have to boost it with food caravan. Or simply accept that it's not gonna have any super impressive outputs.

Social policies - will follow Glory7's recommendation of maxing liberty -> commerce

- What tech path did you follow and why?

Pottery -> archery -> mining -> masonry -> calendar for cotton & wine -> construction -> bronze working. I was very confused about Writing and how much I should focus on science at this point.. but I know I need education and those universities up at some point

- Were there any early wars and who started them?

First conquests - Shoshone-Brazil
I started planning the war against Pocatello when building my ranged units and took Shoshone as soon as I felt confident. He sneak-expanded way too fast, and he also stole Pyramids, which was unforgivable. Burned the city he planted next to my capital, took over Te-Moak and Moson Kahni - all were rather weak. I almost think I could have gotten Shoshone earlier!? Their capital conquered around T100. The location was tough and I spent quite some time planning the movement. He built Great Wall couple of turns before I invaded which was actually quite funny. My army at this point = 4 composite bowmen, 1 warrior and also 1 newbie spearman and 1 newbie catapult.

Moved on to Brazil, but did not attack before I upgraded my ranged units and got the impi. Took Sao Paulo and Rio. I chose not to eliminate any civs so both Shoshone and Brazil were generously left one city each.
Although I think the start of this game has been smooth, somehow I have wasted lots of turns! Nevertheless, Brazil was out around T160.
On the positive side tho - none of my units died. They have quite some experience now. I've managed to pretty much balance the game and thus I do not suffer any serious setback a la "oops, -12 happiness, where did this come from". I have two DoF with Venice and Germany. I have 3 cities of my own, and 4 conquered cities, access to several lux resources and.. LOTS of pastures. I'm sitting with 20 something Horses in total and alot of productive cows and sheep!

The other wars/conflicts so far - Germany took over Assyria rather early. There's also some tension between Germany-Poland (really? ) and Portugal. Perhaps this opens up for bribing a DoW between some of them at some point..

- How did you use your UU?

I trained impis before attacking Brazil. They seem to be a very good melee unit, although at this point the conquested cities haven't exactly been very hard. I guess their unique bonuses helped them with everything - to stay alive, kill the enemy units, provide protection for ranged and invade the cities Right now the movement bonus is what I like lots! Still, I'm also very impressed by my crossbowmen right now.. hoping to turn them into mad killing machines with Logistics and Range

- Was your UB helpful?

Yeah

- What differences did you have to consider in this game versus G&K?

Hard to comment, although I did play some G&K. Perhaps the big changes like religion, tourism, caravans, policy-tied world wonders? I can't really see any obstacles or problems, but perhaps it's the lack of experience of G&K?

 

[leif erikson]

I've been a lurker in these forums for some months (as the BNW got released) and have tried 4-5 of the latest TSG - it's been fun, I've learned a lot, so decided to share some thoughts. It is up to T160 though, so not exactly opening action, but for me this still felt like "early" action. Apologies, if this is against the rules.

Welcome to CivFanatics and GOTM.

This is ok, in future, the reason we try to get everyone to comment at about turn 100 is so that no spoilers emerge, such as locations of other civs, advanced resources or other such things. So please try to keep it to around turn 100, thanks.

Best of luck in your game.

 

[tibbie]

Thanks, and yes I'll try to keep next posts for sub-T100 action, I understand the spoiler problem of course.

 

[Suliz]

At turn 95, it has been a complete disaster. The only reason I am still in the game is I suspect the other civilizations took pity on me.


- What did you consider in your decision of where to settle your capital?

Settled in place, really couldn't see anything close by that looked any better.
- What were your initial priorities?

Scout-monument-shrine-great Library

- What tech path did you follow and why?

Went for writing first. I took the Tradition and grabbed the +15% wonder production policy, took the pantheon wonder bonus, and still lost GL by 8 turns to Bismarck (turn 42)

- Were there any early wars and who started them?

After wasting so much time and energy trying to get the GL, I was in a bad way. Only one city, no workers etc. So, rush bought an archer, and DoW a city-state to grab a worker. I right clicked on the worker, forgetting that the ranged unit would attack rather than capture, so I lost a turn there. I got the worker next turn, but it gave the CS an extra turn to shoot at me. I got pinched between the city and a barb camp and lost both the archer and the worker.

So, it was now turn 55, I have one city, no workers, and only unit, a warrior on the other end of the world (my scout was lost as well).

Fast forward 30 turns, I plant a second city down (south) and am looking at trying to head east to plant a third. Unfortunately there is a barbarian camp in the way. I am building a Chariot Archer to deal with, when with only 2 turns to go, a barb archer wanders into town, and pillages me only developed horse resource.

I think we can safely say I am not going to win.

- How did you use your UU?
Still don't have one.

- Was your UB helpful?
Not so far.

- What differences did you have to consider in this game versus G&K?

 

[pikaadel]

I settled in place and pretty followed glory7's zulu deity guide. I only planted 2 cities: 1st one to the east between marble and truffle to forward settle on shoshone
2nd in the south next to the gems.

When I started scouting around, I saw coast to the north, west and south and I feared this might a small continent map so I delayed my 2nd scout. But then I started meeting the other civs and explore the rest of the landmass. I have now met all the civs.

I stole two settlers from Shoshone: 1st one early caught unprotected by my scout nd the 2nd one was just roaming between my 3rd city and Florence. weird ??
Also stole two workers from Florence.

I have finally conquered Moson Khani with 4 CB and 1 spearman. One of my archer has got the range promotion and the other ones almost. Now I just need to upgrade them and choose my next victim

Research has been quite slow so far as I got Writing quite late and still haven't built NC. And I am only getting 4 from my trade routes with Assyria... Anyway I think it's picking up, teching Machinery now and then to Civil Service.

- What did you consider in your decision of where to settle your capital?
Settled in place, I like to settle on hills usually but not knowing what the map was like, I went for the coast.
- What were your initial priorities?
Get a group of archers and farm xp
- What tech path did you follow and why?
rush xbows, cause they own
- Were there any early wars and who started them?
Apart from me DoW the Shoshone and CS, no early wars
- What differences did you have to consider in this game versus G&K?
the gold... since gold income mainly come from trade routes and selling luxs, its pretty hard to keep these going while you're warmongering. And like other have noticed, AIs are very poor now...

 

[MACKA0ili]

First time doing a gotm and I am glad because I would have rage quit this game otherwise. But sticking to it has turned out to be really fun. Shoshone are being a pain but I think I have them if I power through. Its turn 130 and I've only taken one of his cities more worried about the other civs but I'm slowly catching up in tech especially since I now have a spy. My army is pretty pathetic right now with 2 chariot archers (why did I even build these) 3 impis a comp bowman and my last catapult. I need to tech up to compass soon to get some kind of navy. I spent too much time doing all the exploring all the new dlc stuff instead of building an army so it looks like this is gonna be a long game for me

- What did you consider in your decision of where to settle your capital?

Went up north and settled in the grasslands between two hills. Got some good growth going and plenty of cotton (even more once I took a city from the shoshone). I have another city on the coast by the gems and another in production.

- What were your initial priorities?

Never played bnw so I was pretty focused on trying out the new features.went with monument>2xscout>ikanda and focused on exploration to try and found the world congress and building xp for my spearmen for all the buffalo upgrades. I even built a caravan to get some free science and gpt from the potacello.

- What tech path did you follow and why?

I went for mining and bronzeworking and then did as much as I could to tech up to civil service. Missed out onn pretty much all wonders except for zeus which actually made me allies with florence.

- Were there any early wars and who started them?

Started wars with shoshones to get free workers. All 5 of them were liberated from Native American tyranny . However I neglected to build up to composite bowman and an now stuck trying take his capitol. The jerk kills 3 of my catapults with one barrage from his city each.

- How did you use your UU?

I am using it defensively blocking off all units going in and out of his capitol. It's become a war of attrition so I'm sending a squad up to take out his northern cities until I can build enough archers to take the capitol.

- Was your UB helpful?

Yes but I think I invested too much into using it instead of building archers like I normally do.

- What differences did you have to consider in this game versus G&K?[/QUOTE]

I've been a lot more diplomatic this game then I usually am. I have DOF's with Portugal Venice Brazil and Germany and have just gone to war with Poland for Germany. I managed to get 167 influence for florence from quests and am racking up the social policies. My gpt is the highest I've ever had with my trade routes and selling all my excess cotton. All of this diplomacy is going to make backstabbing them all the more sweeter.

 

[leif erikson]

First time doing a gotm and I am glad because I would have rage quit this game otherwise. But sticking to it has turned out to be really fun.

Welcome to CivFanatics and GOTM.

Glad you stuck with it. Next you can read what others did and, hopefully, improve your game. Best of luck.

 

[dthompson32]

Turn 100 now, the game is pretty peaceful, but that will change soon.

- What did you consider in your decision of where to settle your capital?

I went ahead and settled in place. The capital isn't on a super growth path, but then having played Zulus once before, happiness is really a challenge once the wars get rolling. So I'm ok with not growing quickly. Having resources and granary tiles is useful.

- What were your initial priorities?

Start exploring, and get 2 more cities up and running in decent locations. I had a hard time deciding which policy tree, and flirted with Piety. But in the end I went Liberty.

- What tech path did you follow and why?

I stayed at the bottom, and did an early sailing because I thought I was on a large island to start. Moved up to optics, which has helped with exploration, since I got cut off by borders pretty quick. I still haven't built the NC since I've been churning out archers and spearmen in my capital, but all the libraries are up. Finishing research on construction now and will upgrade archers, then will research civil service to upgrade the spearmen. One thing I did that was unusual was heading for barracks early, obviously.

- Were there any early wars and who started them?

None yet.

- How did you use your UU?

Don't have it yet.

- Was your UB helpful?

I've used it to upgrade with the unique promotion, we will see how it works out.

- What differences did you have to consider in this game versus G&K?

Biggest difference was taking a time out to build some caravans. That helped the cash flow rather nicely.

 

[dthompson32]

This is turning into an interesting grind. I'll be very curious to see how quickly some of the elites were able to complete.

I'm up to turn 232 now and I only need to take Morocco's capital, Berlin, and Assyria's (which Germany is holding).

The shape of the continent, and terrain has been quite a challenge. After taking one of Poca's cities early, I had to skip him because he built the Great Wall, and was so well situated with his capital. Instead I moved my army north and took Warsaw and Lisbon (then Warsaw again, when Maria took it from me while I was assaulting Lisbon ... oops). Getting around the city states and cities that the other civs just plopped down randomly is a challenge. My first army kept moving, took Brazil's capital and just finished off Venice. I'll somehow get it up to Morocco next.

Meanwhile I built a bunch of cannons and a second army and took Poca's capital finally, and am marching on his new capital that is dug in between my main territory and Warsaw. If I can get linked up, them my second army will be able to smash Germany easily.

I have the largest army by far.

I am finding that the best thing about the Zulu is the promotion bonus. My units are very hard to kill, and they all have 6 or 7 promotions now. My crossbows are all have logistics and are now getting increased range.

 

[Arnold_T]

I'm halfway thru my game now, and just reading here ...

and I only need to take Morocco's capital, Berlin, and Assyria's (which Germany is holding).I have the largest army by far.

yikes! Germany is holding the Assyrian capital in my game too. You mean I have to go back and get that one for myself?! that's an inconvenicence. and I thought I was so lucky having it fall to Germany before I took Berlin.

 

[Blicero]

No food, no water! Settled on T3 and ended up going for the hill to the NE of the starting location, as at least there I could get two more cows in the 3rd ring.

Bee-lined construction, then education; will hit machinery next and off I go...

Grabbed the Pyramids (though was shocked to see 4 civs go Liberty). Took Moson Khani with CBs on T106, but did a little boot camp on Adenaki for while. He built the GW right before I captured it, so thank you, Poke.

Poland looks ripe so may head that way now.

Oh, wait! The culture borders of MK just revealed the back door into Brazil. And with 12 city defense on Sao Paulo and nothing but green grasslands all around, I suppose I need to think about this no more...

 

[joshua43214]

After accidently taking a dom victory in TSG69, my old thirst for domination came back. I was excited to see this one still up. Never having played the Zulu before, I rolled several 120 turn practice games on Emperor to get a feel for how bad the AI is and what to expect from the Zulu.

I settled in place, even a bad start like this is fine on Emperor.
BO: scout, monument, scout, worker, archer, archer, Pyramids, archer, Lklwa, spear, archer, spear,..., library building now.
Used the free settler from Liberty to settle the coast between the gems and the wheat to the south. I would have stuck to one city, but I wanted to be able to send a TR into the CS, and I know from experience it is easy to hit the unit supply limit in an early rush so having a second city is good.

Stole a worker from the Shoshone pretty early, he promptly cranked out two cities, one completely blocking the north, and the other near me. He tried to settle even closer, but I stole that settler while I was patrolling his borders. He got walls, CB's and spears out faster than the AI did on my practice games. He was actually developing about as fast as the AI does on Immortal. As a consequence, I was not able to exp farm his borders with my archers, but had to send them in as is to take his two expos, both of which I put to the torch. It is turn 99 and I am going to push on his cap from the north with my CB's and hope to get the job done before he puts up the GW. I was only able to meet Assyria and Poland before I got shut out, so I am delaying more scouting until the Shoshone are done to minimize the warmonger hit with the unmet AI's.

Policies: full Liberty (got GE with finisher), Commerce opener. Plan to take commerce 3, and then consulates before heading Autocracy if the game lasts that long.

Tech: pottery, archery, mining, masonry, BW, bee line to construction, trapping, writing, bee line to CS. Will probably grab either phylo, optics, or head to machinery next depending on whether I get Pocatello's cap right away or not. Bpt is very low, but this is not a problem. I only intend to go as far as artillery, 4 well promoted x-bows will conquer everything I have met so far, will not bother with more than optics unles I have to swim deep water to meet the rest.

I find the Pyramids questionable in this game. I wound up with 6 workers for 2 cities, and had to delete half of them. It also seriously delayed getting my archer force out because the start is so hammer starved, which had a serious consequence on how well promoted my archers are. If I played this over, I would crank out 4 archers and get them well promoted so I would have 4 nice units with range by this time.