TSG85 Opening Action thread

[leif erikson]

Welcome to the TSG85 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. We are going to try something new and limit your game description in this thread to the first 100 turns. Anything after that should be posted in the After Action thread once you have completed your game.

- What did you do differently because of the Deity difficulty?
- Did any of the Iroquois civilization bonuses help you? How did you take advantage of them?
- 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?
- Any early wars, who started them and what was the result?

 

[Gustavus Rex]

My first try on GOTM. Screwed up my first 100 big time. I can't see a CV being possible at all but we'll see.




- What did you do differently because of the Deity difficulty?

Nothing. Played as usual on Immortal level and that might be one of the reasons I missed Stonehenge - the first big mistake.



- Did any of the Iroquois civilization bonuses help you? How did you take advantage of them?

I got confused. I did research the wheel and I did have forest between cities. Still no conection. Do you need bridges over rivers as well or does the borders between cities need to be together? Rather bad bonus in that case I think.



- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?

Made me go for Stonehenge havin lots of forest to chop. Missed it though.

- What were your initial priorities?

Getting Stonehenge - expand.



- What tech path did you follow and why?

Calendar - trapping - philosophy - the wheel - optics - education



- What Social Policies did you choose and why?

Full tradition. Mistake no 2, I should have gone for liberty I think.



- Any early wars, who started them and what was the result?

Just me stealing a settler from Pedro.



3 cities up. Met most of the other civs. I'm dead last at everything. Poor army, poor happiness. I think I'm screewed.

 

[budweiser]

I played a very confused first 65 as well. I popped Calendar so took the huge risk of Stone Henge and lost by 3 turns. I bought a worker with my fail gold and started in on making camps. Then I meandered through the tree. haha. I have 2 coastal cities and Goddess of the Hunt. I would like a third city up on the crabs, not sure if I can get it before Pedro. I haven't done any kind of trading yet and still need to clear some barb camps. I will fill tradition and take patronage. Might open Liberty and get back on my original plan. I really wanted to have a Republic for this and I still can. I will research D&P before philo and try for the third city.

I was really disheartened to see the Maya and I am thinking they need to die.

 

[Alphons Rodulfo]

This is really slow going. At turn 100 I have got two mountainside cities and a settler ready to found a third. I have discovered all other civs and of course I am the laughing stock of Arborea. But if things will go according to plan I will make a glorious recovery.

- What did you do differently because of the Deity difficulty?
I think I might have played extra cautiously.

- Did any of the Iroquois civilization bonuses help you? How did you take advantage of them?
They have yet to kick fully into action. I have some Mohawks, but there is little for them to do except be on their guard. The forest helps some in connecting cities and moving units around. I have not researched the longhouse yet.

- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
I feel somewhat safer from attacks from other civs, being protected by forests.

- What were your initial priorities?
After a first scout I built a shrine because I wanted Godess of the Hunt. I did get it. Founding a religion is impossible though.

- What tech path did you follow and why?
First trapping for camps, then writing for libraries, then archery to counter barbarian axemen, then masonry to access marble, then philosophy.

- What Social Policies did you choose and why?
Tradition, for cultrure and growth.

- Any early wars, who started them and what was the result?
No wars. All is quiet. Maybe ... too quiet?

I got confused. I did research the wheel and I did have forest between cities. Still no conection. Do you need bridges over rivers as well or does the borders between cities need to be together? Rather bad bonus in that case I think.

The forest tiles act as roads only in friendly territory. That means inside your borders. And perhaps inside the borders of befriended city states, I am not sure about that.

So if you want to connect cities you have to build roads on those tiles outside your borders. Or buy those tiles.

Moderator Action: Please use the quote, multi or edit buttons instead of making several posts in a row. Thanks.

 

[strake]

Turn 97, and I am sooo far behind on tech. I moved to settle next to the mountain, ate the deer to do it. Hopefully it will help me catch up on tech eventually. Assuming I ever manage to see the renaissance era. I've been spewing settlers and troops. I managed to become not last in soldiers, and have pushed back against the always hidden barbarians (already spawning swordsman) to plant 3 more cities. 2 of them also on a mountain. So the core is set, now to see if I can actually grow it. I've only met 4 people, and have scouted maybe 1/4 of the world. My only exploring scout died a few turns ago, so way behind there, too.

- What did you do differently because of the Deity difficulty?
I built troops earlier than usual in the hopes that my neighbors wouldn't DoW me just because I looked juicy. Also kept shouting down the voice in my head that kept asking about whether we could get a wonder.

- Did any of the Iroquois civilization bonuses help you? How did you take advantage of them?
the bonus movement inside my borders is nice. Haven't taken advantage of free city connections because I planted my cities too far apart.

- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
Arborea convinced me to go tradition to boost growth since I wanted to leave much of the forest up.

- What were your initial priorities?
local scouting to pick city sites, and then everyone stayed home to defend the area while I tried to get 3 more cities planted. I built a shrine to pick up the growth pantheon, and otherwise I needed enough troops to avoid war, and tried to set things up for growth. granaries, caravans, cut a few forests along the rivers.

- What tech path did you follow and why?
pottery, archery, writing, and then work down the tree towards the UB. Side trip for sailing when I planted a city near crabs.

- What Social Policies did you choose and why?
Tradition. Opted for the slower start in order to have the hopefully better long term growth.

- Any early wars, who started them and what was the result?
I stole a worker from a city state, and sent a bunch of troops towards Brazil, but he never sent any settlers towards the land I wanted. So we are friends for now.

 

[TLHeart]

Not good on diety, but trying anyway

settled in place. built 2 scouts, then a shrine, still took 25 points to get my goddess of the hunt.. 1 food from camps. Then I built a granary, as food is scarce. Everyone is so far away, steeling a worker is not in the cards... do get a worker from a barb camp.

Build another worker. then monument. Then a caravan, and setters. have to pause on the settlers a get some archers built, the barbs are already using horsemen, and swords...

Get a settler from collective rule, and finished building the other two...

Settle to the north near the crab and river, and south by the marble... Turn 50...

Missed oracle by 3 turns...

4th settler is being escorted by a brute. Gets attacked by a horseman, and sword, and I loose the settler.... to a barb camp I was moving my archers to take...

Finally recovered my settler, and moved farther south, to settle near Mt Sinai.. turn 90

Slow going, and the religious wars have begun.... cities getting converted by 3 different civs.

turn 95 and both of my scouts have died, and I have not found everyone yet.

Friendly with Brazil, Austria, and the Maya... Shoshone are neutral.

 

[kb27787]

$#)@#)$(#@)$(# had goddess of the hunt taken on t18...
t120 or so in... education researched (late)

Disastrous opening (decided to wander and not settle in place, ended up settling inland mountain-river combo) stole a worker off Pedro and off a CS...

Got screwed by barbs pretty quickly... and on arborea it takes FOREVER to catch up to a barb who stole your settler.

Got 4 cities up finally, with 5th religion (not yet enhanced with fertility rites, tithe and swords to plowshares), 15fpt thanks to Sinai but horrible tech and growth so far... still fpt is what might save me in the end should the game go long... I'm going to keep my religion just in my capitol and let Protestantism spread to my satellites (pagodas + sacred sites of all things)

but MAN the GotM staff really decided to make a HARD map for a deity CV (Pacal to snatch the religion and Pedro to snatch the wonders), with very little food.

 

[Gustavus Rex]

200+ turns.

I could not manage to snatch a single articacts-wonder. AI:s seems all very competitve on those and my eifel and broadway was gone before I got to radio wich i " oxforded"

On top of it there is no coal or aluminium within my borders,

I have a hard time catching up. I know I can't win a CV and probably not even a SV.

I want to reroll and kill them all!!!!!!







Skickas från min iPhone via Tapatalk

 

[golem]

Tutn 120 -
I went for liberty, made three cities, later fourth near the Linz - as I decided to attack Austria. I conquered Linz with a lot of Longswordmans, but did not manage Vienna - one stupid citi state (Wittenberg) allied with Austria send rather big army to me - it slowed down my attack too much. So now I have five cities, but I am very back in science, just researched education.

I foundate Buddhism, but all good things were out - so I do not think it will be of any help. My capital is size 10, AIs has 20.

Longhouse is really great, the production is pretty good. I skip Mohawk Warriors, even did not tried to attack with them.

I am not sure if to go on /too much time in desperate effort to survive/ or reload the game and make some small changes in my decisions. It means no submittion, but chance to win.

Maybe for the Deiti games we could make challenge B for loosers . For me it is challenge to win it even with reload.

 

[Tabarnak]

Maybe for the Deiti games we could make challenge B for loosers . For me it is challenge to win it even with reload.

I will enter this category for this time!

Everything looked fine at the turn 120 when i got Education with 4 cities ready to build one(so 4 unis 12 turns later). On that turn i decided to go for Navigation. Pedro was building ALL the wonders necessary for a good culture game

Everything was fine at that point...his capital had 40 so...6-7 frigates should be enough. But when i had to wait for Navigation he began to build strong defence wonders. Himeji, Red Fort, name it(he got like 80% of all wonders). When i reached his capital on turn 150 he already had 85 ...85!!!

He managed to kill a frigate in a single turn with 1 Xbow only . Even with 4 shots on him he could repair ENTIRELY the turn after

Haha ok so i immediately quit the game. What could i do better? I made it almost all perfectly...one other solution was artillery....but why the i would want to go that way when Archeology is completely on the other side???

Anyways that game was brutal...if i had stay peaceful i would have slowly killed myself.

 

[budweiser]

T154, I'm out. Losing everything I want by 1 turn. First, Stone Henge, then FP, then finally Uffizi. Mohawk rush was really what it takes I think.

 

[kb27787]

I will enter this category for this time!

Everything looked fine at the turn 120 when i got Education with 4 cities ready to build one(so 4 unis 12 turns later). On that turn i decided to go for Navigation. Pedro was building ALL the wonders necessary for a good culture game

Everything was fine at that point...his capital had 40 so...6-7 frigates should be enough. But when i had to wait for Navigation he began to build strong defence wonders. Himeji, Red Fort, name it(he got like 80% of all wonders). When i reached his capital on turn 150 he already had 85 ...85!!!

He managed to kill a frigate in a single turn with 1 Xbow only . Even with 4 shots on him he could repair ENTIRELY the turn after

Haha ok so i immediately quit the game. What could i do better? I made it almost all perfectly...one other solution was artillery....but why the i would want to go that way when Archeology is completely on the other side???

Anyways that game was brutal...if i had stay peaceful i would have slowly killed myself.

wow if a master has to give up what hope do I have?
We'll see tonight as I continue but I suspect my peaceful ways would slowly strangle me as well.

 

[Monthar]

I was the first to an ideology and went Autocracy. Shortly thereafter Shoshone went order then Brazil went Freedom followed by Austria going order which put me into an immediate revolutionary wave and killed my happiness. At this point I'm temped to just abandon the game.

The idea of playing the Iroquois on this map type was great. Making it a cultural game on deity with them was horrible. This is not a good civ for either cultural or deity and putting both together was just too harsh. I'm not even surprised to see top deity players rage quitting on this one. Even with a beeline to longhouses, the AI was pumping out longswords and crossbows before I could even get enough Mohawks and composites to attempt to start a war.

I wish we could have multiple saves like the Civ 4 GotM games, so those who want more challenge can have it while those of us who have no hope at the default difficulty for that game can have the slightly easier version instead.

 

[notyourtypical]

This has been rough.

T122 Education. I have 4 cities. Settled in place, 1 west on the coast/river, 1 south on the river mountain, 1 by Mt. Sinai. I built my NC in the city by the mountain; it is a liability now, but I hope to benefit from all the jungle after universities. We'll see. My capital is size 10, but it is effectively capped here unless I send food its way. Actually, none of my cities will really grow past 10 without a huge investment.

Right now I'm planning on beelining Navigation. I'll pump out as many Galleasses as possible and hopefully have the cash to upgrade them, and I have a Liberty GP coming up: either a scientist to pop Navigation quicker or a merchant to get cash for upgrades. I think I may target Pocatello and let Pedro build more wonders. Hopefully I'll get lucky. There's a lot of coastal capitals and cities near the coast, so I might go for Battleships afterwards. I think the only chance I have is to wipe out all but one.

Also: The Iroquois UA is crap. Case in point, two cities with 1 unconnected forest between them. I build a road in the forest, get a city connection. But if I want to move a unit, it expends all its movement points entering the tile. This screwed over my barb defenses on multiple occasions.

Mohawk rush was really what it takes I think.

Even if you got them super fast and upgraded a few Warriors, it would still take 15 or 20 turns to march to an AI on this map, at which point your window may be passed.

 

[Manpanzee]

In around T100 now; things aren't perfect but I'd say my civilization looks pretty good.

National College came T92 with three cities -- capital settled in place, another on the coast about 6 tiles south of the capital, and one on the coast on the south side of Mt Sinai. The Mt Sinai city has 3 fish, 2 whales, and a Lighthouse already up. Founded a fourth city by the crab post-NC, but unfortunately Austria forward settled up there two turns before my settler could get down. So that city is going to miss an Ivory and a Fish, but it'll still be good. I'd like a fifth city in the mountain pass to the south, for space-filling purposes as much as anything, but I need to get my happiness up first.

I got Goddess of the Hunt and founded a religion with Swords to Plowshares. Enhancer will be Religious Community. I have two cargo ships and the capital is going to be a food/production powerhouse eventually.

The map seems to make warfare really difficult, so I plan on staying peaceful for a while. I'd like to take the Mayan and Brazilian capitals eventually, though. Austria is a bit up in my grill, but they've got multiple contested borders with Brazil, so I think I should be able to keep those two busy with each other for a while. Brazil went full Honor (!).

 

[strake]

Turn 167.

Got a great engineer a dozen turns ago, decided to save him for my first wonder. Assuming I ever got caught up on tech.
Stole a tech this turn. Got Architecture. The tower hasn't been built yet, the other two have. I've kind of given up on a culture victory, but have been holding out a slim hope for maybe getting a science win, and I have 3 research agreements going, so the tower would be great thing to sneak.

Switch the build, pop the engineer, hit end turn.

BOOOOOOOOOONNNNNGGGGGGGG

!&%$#&*!!!!!

Throw something at the wall.

remember to save game before temporarily rage quitting.

 

[kb27787]

50 or so turns in from last time (had to work late so don't have much time) t180 or so...

Starting to see a glimmer of hope... got lucky with some WLTKD... capitol size 23 but starting to run out of good food tiles to work...

faith is ok now... culture is abysmal, tech rate is recovering somewhat... still very late to ST... everyone else except Maria Theresa entered industrial a handful of turns ago.

Most importantly, still has not completed a world wonder Askia (that bastard who took goddess of the hunt and decided to spawn way across the world so I could never ever have that religion) beat me to Sistine by 3 turns.

The only silver lining is winning WF (and overinvested way too many hammers, but I got into a golden age just on the very same turn WF began, how lucky!)

Now I'm going to try to sneak PT in and hopefully get a hermitage up (thankfully my capitol is not short on production) and hope for the best in the latter half of the game. The bad thing is the wonderwhore is America who I have no easy way to have access to, so if need be my musicians might need to go for a marathon swim.

Well, all things considered, if this was an open victory condition then I'd say I have SV in the bag (friends with the whole world) and no shortage of customers for the tons of iron and truffles I have. But CV is a whole different animal altogether.

Spoiler :

 

[glory7]

cap BO: 2 scouts - granary - scout - shrine - settler - archer - 2 cargo ships - library - archer - NC - settler - something - longhouse(!!!) - something

2nd city BO: granary rush bought - library - something - longhouse -something

After 10 turns, I thought that without cargo ships or goddess of hunt, my cities won't grow. I was pretty lucky with the ruins, as I got culture ruin at t5 (so opened tradition early) and got faith ruin later to get goddess of hunt. To use cargo ships (instead of caravans), I settle my 2nd city at the coast, instead of river hill mountain spot.

As I used all my trade routes to boost food, I could not get sci boost. I went 2 city NC, and built 3rd and 4th city right after. I saved gold to rush buy lighthouse at the 3rd city - and that was one of the best choices during this game.

I had spearman upgrade from the ruin and that spear took one worker from brazil. I also took one worker from the CS below - I had not met any other civs till then, so it was obvious choice. Right after the peace treaty, brazil asked for DoF and I got lots of gold out of him (selling lux, horses, irons...)

When I saw that lots of AIs going for aesthetics and getting wonders, I decided that I have to take these with force. no war before t135, so I bribed austria to attack brazil and france to attack shoshone. Shoshone has GL, GLight, GW, Uffizi, Sistine, and some more, so needs to die. Austria and Maya asked for DoF after that, and I gladly accepted. 2 RAs (brazil and austria) to come. will attack shoshone with frigates and artys + some land units. Longhouse is just too good in this map.

SP: full tradition (like t90) - rati - secularism (GW)

btw, this spy is a hero - he took education, steel (could have been acoustics, but I ignored it), and economics.

 

[Manpanzee]

This map is very strange. I'm at T150 and my capital is size 21 with amazing production. My science is poor and with all these hammers the capital actually has nothing useful left to build (the Maya snatched the Porcelain Tower, which was supposed to keep me busy til Scientific Theory). I'm just building units for now but I don't see a useful way to go to war anytime soon.

I can't remember the last time I was last in science at this point of the game. Usually this is about where I hope to be taking the tech lead. But I feel no danger of being attacked. When I saw all the Maritime city states I decided to gold focus a bit and run external trade routes. GPT is over 100 and I've already allied 4 Maritime city states with at least two more available for purchase. With five cities growing, I should have crazy pop and hammers in the mid-late game.

But I don't know how I'm going to win. Peaceful science/diplo would be very easy on this map, but I expect I'll need to go to war and the terrain doesn't look friendly for that. Maybe I can actually win International Games and maybe that could be enough, but that's generally not a reliable plan on Deity.

 

[Tabarnak]

@glory7: Looks like a great start!