Welcome to the 11th edition of the Lonely Hearts Club for BTS. In the Lonely Hearts Club we explore strategies to cope with one of the most dreaded situations in Civ IV ( possibly the main reason for reloads after the military collapse one :p ): starting in isolation....

For the 11th game in BTS the choosed leader was Ramesses II of the Egyptians:
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x257/r_rolo1/LHC%20BTS%20XI/Civ4ScreenShot0050.jpg

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x257/r_rolo1/LHC%20BTS%20XI/Civ4ScreenShot0051.jpg
Ramesses is one of the more respected leaders in Civ IV. It has a strong UU, good for a early rush, a powerful and early UB and Ind/Spi as traits, a quite strong combination. A lot of times Ramesses is used to run what some posters call "Religious Economy" ( aka making all the wonders religion related and the A. Wat and run a full priest economy with extra beakers and cash from religious buildings ), but even without that the extra speed in wonder construction and the ability of shifting civs without anarchy is a big deal.

His UU.
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x257/r_rolo1/LHC%20BTS%20XI/Civ4ScreenShot0053.jpg
The War chariot... basically a beefed Chariot ( in spite of the immunity to first strikes make of him a quite good archer eraser... as archers normally are the main garrison of the more ancient areas.... :devil: ). I'm sure that lots of people already read and/or tried a WC rush and I'm quite sure that they found that it is a strong move, especially if you somehow get the Stonehenge ( captured city becames productive much faster ). But in isolation they will be not much more than barb hunters and HR garrisons :(

His UB.
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x257/r_rolo1/LHC%20BTS%20XI/Civ4ScreenShot0052.jpg
The obelisk is a beefed monument that allows you to hire 2 priest specialists. As some players already showed, this specialist slots will be the first appearing in the game, and combined with Representation and A. Wat, these priests became very powerful specialists...... Of course that they will generate Prophets as GP , and some people shun them because of the lack of good bulbing options. But for a economy based in the religion, they are welcomed .....

The start:
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x257/r_rolo1/LHC%20BTS%20XI/Civ4ScreenShot0049.jpg
I really don't like this start.... not much of resources in BFC and one of them is a calendar one ... meh. But it has a decent ammount of food and wood to chop, so it is not that bad

Again a small request ( not mandatory :p ) :

We ask the participants to do, if possible, a write-up with the victory save and a description of your game ( strategies, techs researched, wars,...). All the info should be in spoiler tags ( to not disturb other people's games ). If you want ( we would like to :p ) post reports at this moments of the game:

Checkpoint 1 - when we have explored the island and are aware of what resources it has. Its not so important when this is, but this is a time to discuss city sites etc. Don't look into a checkpoint 1 spoiler until you have reached this point yourself.

Checkpoint 2 - first contact - when we have met all the other AIs. At this point we can discuss our strategy to get to this point and our plans for dealing with them.

Checkpoint 3 - when we are committed to a victory condition (or at least think we are).

Checkpoint 4 - Victory (or defeat).



The last words are to wish good luck to all :goodjob: . And let the games begin!

Saves

Noble (http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/91629/Lonely_Ramesses_Noble_BC-4000.CivBeyondSwordSave)
Prince (http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/91629/Lonely_Ramesses_Prince_BC-4000.CivBeyondSwordSave)
Monarch (http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/91629/Lonely_Ramesses_Monarch_BC-4000.CivBeyondSwordSave)
Emperor (http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/91629/Lonely_Ramesses_Emperor_BC-4000.CivBeyondSwordSave)
Immortal (http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/91629/Lonely_Ramesses_Immortal_BC-4000.CivBeyondSwordSave)
Deity (http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/91629/Lonely_Ramesses_Deity_BC-4000.CivBeyondSwordSave)

P.S We don't have any kind of problem with defeats and reruns. Just play and enjoy ;)

Hmm...well, I guess I completely missed the last one after not finishing the Ragnar game (I just gave up), but this one looks promising. I actually like the start: very cottagable, corn gives plenty of food, and there are floodplains.

PS- how did you get all 6 saves in one post?

^^External internet drive mounted in Gmail account ( my CFC upload drive is completely full with SG saves :( )

The save links are taking me to a gmail login page.

Problem corrected, Jet ( forgot to open the drive.... in a provisional basis they are in the CFC upload area )

I'm VERY excited about this one. I absolutely love playing Ramesses.
Angkor Wat + Stonehenge, Pyramids, U of Sankore, AP, and S. Minerat w/ Ind/Spi = Sex.

1/2 prices temples giving +2 :science:, :hammers:, :gold:, 50% wonder production, and being able to hire 2 preists off the getgo with stonehenge owns, not to mention free civic changes.


I'm going to be playing this one on Immortal, Ramesses has ideal traits for the ultimate settled specialist/wonder economy.

First attempt with Ramesses. I'm normally a CE type of guy who prefers the financial leaders. But Ramesses doesn't seem suited for that type of play. How did this end?


In disaster! :lol: I tried the emperor save and was doing okayish. Founded Taoism and Islam and I realised afterward I should have slingshot and went for confucianism as well. As I said, I normally don't wonderwhore much and the religious techs were a bit awkard for me. Maybe I shouldn't have made that kind of strategy. I built most of the wonders I aimed at, pyramids (forgot to switch to rep until 30 turns later... again I don't build wonders! Stupid ind trait), GL, Angkor Wat, and a few more just for the hell of it. overexpanded (again, I'm used to financial income, not SE) got all my workers disbanded, but somehow I still stayed in the game. Was actually ahead when I came in contact with mansa and had a monster capital producing tons of GP points and fueling my research. Still, Sury managed to snatch lib 3 turns ahead of me due to a golden age and I figured I was screwed when it came to space or time win. Diplo, or military was also out more or less. So it became a culture gamble. Had two decent holy cities and my wonderheavy capital which I focused on. Went up the tech tree for the three 50% culture wonders and ET. I might actually yet have won this one if it hadn't been for Sury. He declared war on me and while I had enough troops to repell him, he managed to land a small invasion force in one of my holy cities and that was that. With most infrastructure gone there it was no point to drag it out. GG, gamble failed. I might make a second more carefully planned try, but it kinda feels like cheating when you already know the map.

@Pe Ell
I would suggest you a retry... the map is not that generous and ramesses with cottages is simply :nono: ( I know a certain poster that would :wallbash: if he saw this... Hint: no cottages ;) )

And about knowing map = cheating... then I'm a cheater in all of the BtS LHC :lol: Seriously, if you try it after playing another map, you won't remember much.....

@cheffster
I gave the map a test try ( in noble... always the first level I make ) and I suppose that what you suggested is the way to go with this map, mainly because the map has few good city sites... with a religious type economy your cities can be rubbish and still be useful. And the Ramesses traits joined with the UB make it very doable and powerful

Immortal

Gave this one a go and am doing decent. I wanted to move the capital so that it got a levee, and I moved 1NE to scout, then went into the forest 1N of the orignal spot. This got me the pig, but I would have to later split it up with another city. As for the start, I went for stonehenge and got it, and missed the oracle by ~3 turns in my 2nd city, which is on the coast to the east with the pig and lots of mines. I could have chopped a forest to get the oracle done, but I wanted to *greedily* try to go for the civil service slingshot (had ~3 turns left on CoL, needed some 7 turns for mathematics). Wasn't very bright of me, but it turned out to be ok.

After the oracle miss, I picked up monarchy and head for the great library. I ended up getting the GLB in my 2nd city, and meanwhile rexed the continent. First contact came early with Frederick, and a little while later I sent out a workboat and found pretty much everyone. For some reason, suleiman teched really fast in this game (compared to the other LHC games I've done), but I still beat him to liberalism in 1050, picking up printing press. GP wise, I've gotten 1 preist that was settled, 1 scientist that made an academy, 1 scientist for a GA, 1 scientist to pop education, and will have antoher one soon to probably make another academy. Right now I plan to get the taj mahal w/ that tasty marble, will build 1 more city that will get farmed up, and might be able to get a war in the future . Suleiman and Mansa are with me in tech, but right where I left off the other continent somewhat went into a world war. Here are some screen-shots (right after I got literature and right when I got Liberalism).
167967

167968

About cottaging, Ramesses does have good synergy with a SE for a high-food economy and lots of specialists, but I personally still find it usefull to build some cottages here and there. You would need 2 farms in order to have enough food surplus to hire an extra specialist, and since I only ever have 1 GP farm, even with mids, by exchanging 2 cottages all you're getting is just 1 extra specialist, which even with mids, isn't really worth it imo. 1 Specialist giving + 6 :science: or :gold:, or cottages which after not too long would give 8 commerce instead, and then alot more after printing press, etc.
But it depends, since cottages don't give any :hammers: it might be better to build 2-3 farms per city and hire 2 priests, but after that I prefer cottaging.

Monarch

Yup, I have to give this a try in a obsolete style method someday, since there is both stone and marble. This one is in a CE through :blush: But I have used priests and still use religious stuff...

There's been a Suleyman??? I never met one, maybe he started near Raggy... :lol:

That start isn't exactly isolated, met everyone with a workboat too... because I founded a city at the right location :crazyeye: After the borders expanded, I noticed a little island and built a workboat to explore it... WHAM, I nearly crashed into Sury's boat :lol:


Checkpoint... 2.5, perhaps?

Started and moved the settler one north, too. Hey, that capital is a classical example for Sisis riverside ironworks city :lol: A little short on early prod though. My second city was built in the south to claim the pigs while still working quite some mines. Later copper popped in one. :goodjob: Then I built stonehenge in thought of a theology bulb. Settled another city further to the south to claim copper and built the mids, somehow no AI was interested in it and I finished it by 720 BC. Then expanding a little too fast, settling the first prophet to solve a bit of the issue hoping for another prophet but the mids kicked in and I got a engineer. Then I researched Theo manually and used the Eng for the Apostolic - better me than them. My workboat stumbled into Sury, Mansa and Freddy, and Theo was excellent trading fodder because I was 7 techs behind or so. There were religious issues, but Surys Hindu spread to me, allowing me to convert 5 turns to Hinduism, then trade and go back to Christianity. Got both Sankore and Minaret, and won Liberalism Race by one turn (thank god I diverted all EP to Sury!), claiming Printing Press for my cottage-heavy empire. I was going straight to Democracy grabbing the Taj in the progress. I started some other wonders in a city but they never finished, fueling my research. Now I'm 2-3 techs ahead of Mansa and even more ahead of the rest. Oh, and I met Louis, Raggy and Qin too. Louis seems to prepare war on me (he also has astro) so I'm beelining to Rifles.

Oh, and: Spiritual rocks. Absolutely.

The game should be won by now, question is whether I want to win by space or by domination. I'm leaning to the latter, getting tanks and SP and rushing over everyone.

That was a lot of fun! I decided to try out the Emperor save...


I basically ended up playing an Obsolete-style WS/SSE strategy (except with cottages!) Seeing as Ramesses is industrious and we're isolated, there's not much else to do! :D

Early wonders:

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/4186/wondersol0.jpg

Managed to grab every wonder I was aiming at except University of Sankore, and much later, The Three Gorges Dam.

Continent view around 1500 AD:

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/179/continentut9.jpg

Trudging along nicely to space, until...

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/2585/culturalmg4.jpg

Can't have that!

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/8522/powergraphoa3.jpg

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/5430/razelm8.jpg

Finally:

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/6917/space1ny2.jpg

In the mean time, the French pay for their insolence:

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/2614/parisbs0.jpg

And we're off in 1972!

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/4601/space2dd7.jpg

Took its sweet time, but the isolated start and Sury's attempt at a cultural win delayed the launch considerably.

Save: http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/63131/AutoSave_AD-1972.CivBeyondSwordSave

In my Monarch game, Sury had the 2 shrines of the dominant religions in 1 city. It was a prize. Knowing the AI will go down the scientific method line over the Infantry line made the war easy. I attacked sury with cannons and infantry. The next turn, everyone declared on me. It was a battle, I gained some cities from surry, then lost them to China or the French. Some of the stacks they sent were huge. I ended up retreating out of the city under seige, they would take it....then i would take it back with my CR2 Infantry.

I got peace with the French, then China....then Sury capitulated to me. I then attacked and capitulated Ragnar, then the french, then China. I think it ended in 1860ish.

To clarify, I was running a SE in my first game but I was so unused to it so I messed it all up. Had no timing and didn't know what to bulb. But now for my next trick:

Emperor


I did three restarts, giving up fairly early just so I'd get a feel for the tech tree and what to do in different situations. Finally I was ready to make a second real attempt. Isolated start and ind just screams wonder heavy so I set up an economy using priest and scientist while my capitol built every single wonder, well nearly. Oracle slingshot for CoL, popped philo with a scientist, bulbed theo with a Great prophet and half bulbed/half research DR. That gave me four religions and luckily enough 2 holy cities, elephantine and memphis with my capitol getting tons of culture from all its wonders. I soon had all the shrines built and explored the other continent around 500 AD with a workboat.

Mansa and to some extent fredrick became my tech buddies, was soon up to friendly with mansa after I got lib and switched to free religion. Diplo bonuses would have killed me if I hadn't. I kept up in tech fairly well and went for the cultural wonder ones. I built enough of an army in time to repell the AI, which proved neccecary when Ragnar, Sury and Luis declared war on me the same turn around 1860. B*stards. By that time I had one city above 50k culture and two other above 30k. Memphis and Ele was both making 800-1000 k a turn (capitaol at 1400 a turn) so I just needed 25 more turn or so. Here's some screens right before the inevitable.

http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee7/PeEll77/th_LRsouth.jpg (http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee7/PeEll77/LRsouth.jpg)

http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee7/PeEll77/th_Lrnorth.jpg (http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee7/PeEll77/Lrnorth.jpg)

http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee7/PeEll77/th_LRcapital.jpg (http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee7/PeEll77/LRcapital.jpg)

http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee7/PeEll77/th_LRwin.jpg (http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee7/PeEll77/LRwin.jpg)

Cultural Victory in 1888! Woho! :king:
And not a single cottage built the whole game. :p

Took the immortal save:
I got oddly lucky a couple of times.I pop mysticism from a hut and decide to go for hindu after mining. This was kind of a cheap shot since if I'm beat I likely only sink a couple of turns into poly, and I was headed for oracle anyway. So I found hindu--maybe the only time I've done that w/o myst at immortal. In my early scouting I had missed a couple of tiles and as they looked like desert I ended up delaying scouting them (I was using warriors only to fogbust). This led me to miss the stone initially and found my second city on the hill by the pig/fish to the NE. I pop an early engineer with my capital forge and he builds the mids.
While I wonderspammed the capital (SH, Oracle--MC, Mids, AP, Glib, Uof S, Shywedegon Paya,Chicken, Angkor) so far, I build the colosseus in Memphis. This led to an early border pop and got me to the island and over to the other continent. So I got pretty early contact and trading while having the luxury of the continent to myself to develop at my leisure. A trireme stood guard just to make sure. To top it off the other continent is doing a good job of warring amongst themselves. At 1020 I'm about to pop lib, and if I trade edu around I pick up all the usual missing techs. I also pop gold. Not sure if I'll finish--seems a bit too easy now (5 settled GP and more on the way).

my save is here:

I've seached out the entire Island....so point 2
Went wonder crazy. Not used to the normal speed, I'm a marathon player usually.

Built Oracle, took Metal casting, put in a forge, popped a GP first..oh well, built city in desert to claim the stone/copper/pigs.

Missed the Great wall, as I said, too used to slower speeds, built Pyramids, rep STRAIGHT AWAY :goodjob:. Built Pathenon, GL, Colossus, Statute of Zues, missed Mausaleum, Thinking of grabbing the free Great artist for Music, that'll be a first.

Met 2 AI's, or they met me with the work boats....Wow..dind't exepct that.

Someones waging a MAJOR war, GG's popping out.

Behind in Tech's, Settling my 6th city, Traded Literture for Iron working, and have just teched Machinary.

I"m a bit lost on tech order...all over place, teching at a good rate, but will have to trade my way out...it seems like...

I don't expect to win....have to wait and see how things turn out.



:confused: Hmm

decisions...decisions....:confused:
After much reflection and consideration, I decided on a Cultural victory with a space race as a back up.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/74511/Civ4ScreenShot0006.JPG

Its a most interesting diplomatci situation, mostly Buddist, with one standout being Ragnar the Hindu.

I was considering a UN victory, but couldn't figure away to get Ragnar as my opponent, as Louis has Greatest Pop, and is proberly more loved than me.

I'm keepin up with the AI's in research, and production is a monster in my capital thebes.....

I've just achieved Railroad and the Machineguns...so I'll spam 3/4 in each city while I tech up the cultural wonders tree, then swing back into the Military again.

It would seem they are all quite happy to stay on own island, Surry and mansa, are Cautious with each other, and both have large stacks on boarder cities with each other, so I think its just a matter of time before they war, if at all:confused:

Ragnar, DESPITE being constantly DOGPILED. has maintained his empire, and a tech rate to stay alive, I'll be feeding him some most likely Railroad.

Surry is Trying a Cultural Victory on me, Louis, is trying a diplomatic Victory, I accidently voted for him in an apocolitic victory, thought it was for leader..:mad: DOH!!!!!! fell short....Phew......

The others...Quin, is behind, and Domination, Ragnar same again, Mansa, I assume Space, Frederick? dunno lost like I was

Interesting time ahead, have to see how I go.

I usually just kill all, and be dammed with Diplomatic relations, but this game, as I came from behind with tech's. I did some favourable trades to the AI's and ended up in a defence pacts, Frederick and Louis have one as well.

:eek: you'll have to peek to see :lol:
1976 space race victory

I was oringinally going to go for a cultural victory, but Mansa and Surry, were BOTH going for this. I couldn't seem to get enough culture, even with the 3 cultural wonders and building Catherdrals for the 4 religions I had spread to me. They both must have set Culture to 100%, as they both fell off badly in the teching.

As I had both Mansa and Surry challanging me for the Cultural wonders, I had to rush a few in my capital, not an ideal situation, but it claimed them.

Only other late wonders I built were, SoLib (mid game), and 3Gorges Dam.

Built the internet, so went from being down 6 techs, mostly useless ones, to being up a couple...NICE...

From there, it was Labratories, Robotics for mech Infantry defence, and a few bribed wars on the other land once I felt safe defensively.

Bribed wars with a few techs, kept feeding Ragnar to keep him alive and a target, UNGRATEFUL LITTLE s**** Declared war on me, right after having made peace in another war, that I bribed for him....Proberly bribed himself.

Frederick kept having 'too much on his hands'...finally attacked...Ragnar I think. Got mansa dogpiled...end of his threat, same for Surry, and burnt down both their 3rd cultural cities, handly on the coast for me.

I missed the space Elevator, as I messed about too much, thought I had it easily, then couldn't build in capital, had to build in 5th hammer city...not happy Jan.

Frederick actually built it, both Engineer corps, as well as another, but still couldn't get to Fussion BEFORE i'd Launched.

Louis, was the score leader, with nearly my Island mass to self, all productive lands, so really more land then me. It was no wonder.

Once I started the war bribes, they 'Friendly alliances' Quickly fell away, with Qin, ready to back stab, Ragnar happy to attack ANYONE. Surry, bribed into attacking Mansa, I then bribed Ragnar to attack, and i did so myself, burning down his 3rd cultural city, 4th was on Ocean aswell, but didn't need to burn it.

Rangar was ONLY AI, who landed troops on my home lands, only because I wanted the GG points for wiping them out in my lands.

Very UNEVENTFUL game, UNTIL I decided, I was safe and bribed some wars, not worrying about diplomacy.

Damm Louis, tried for Diplomatic through UN, and the Apoltolic palace, till went free religion.

In final stage of game, I was just bribing, didn't care about the tech's, was selling ragnar techs from steel onwards for 10-50 gold, as I wanted him as target. But to be able to defend self.

Bribed Surry to first war with Plastics, but as was going for Cultural, it didn't matter. After that, it was bribed wars, or self initiated wars. Alway's nice to see 2 V's 1 wars.

I could have gotten a much earlier space race, if I'd been focused on it, and not so Laxidacial...

But for what is really only 1/5 games at normal spead over 2 yr's..I feel I did really well...
Need to work on my Cultural victories..

Having a crack at Monarch... Checkpoint 1:

Settled in place.
Turn 7: Popped a hut for a map.
Turn 21: Adopted Slavery
Turn 30: Truffles? How delicious!
Turn 35: Popped hut for 37 gold.
Turn 36: Popped hut for hunting.
Turn 39: Settler built.

I'm quite excited by this start. Thebes looks like it would work very well with Bureaucracy, should I choose to cottage some of the land. But best of all... stone and marble! I'd like to get these hooked up from cities 2 and 3.

So, I'm thinking I might as well try to Oracle slingshot Metal Casting, for cheap forges. There's various seafood resources dotted around, so I may have a go at the Pyramids for Representation - maybe run a hybrid economy. And considering I like building coastal towns, Great Lighthouse seems like a no brainer. If I can found Confusianism, I'll probably run Organised Religion too.

Cultural victory is a possibility here, but we'll see.

Meh, I have nothing better to do today. Checkpoint 2:

Decide to run a hybrid economy of sorts. Decided to have a crack at the Pyramids - being Industrious and having stone and all. Besides, I'm Egypt! The Pyramids belong in Egypt! I'll run a few cottages here and there, build The Great Lighthouse, and then build whatever wonders I fancy in the capital. Must make Civil Service a priority too.

Turn 42: Popped Pottery from a hut. Great! The Oracle slingshot to Metal Casting is made slightly easier.
Turn 43: Memphis founded 1S of the marble.
Turn 61: Heliopolis is founded south of the capital, to claim the stone after a border pop.
Turn 64: The Oracle is finished in Thebes. Took Metal Casting as my prize for those cheap forges.
Turn 85: Elephantine founded north of the capital, on the coast. The boundries cross with Thebes, so it can help with growing cottages while Thebes builds stuff.
Turn 86: The Great Lighthouse finished in Memphis.
Turn 91: The Pyramids built in Thebes. Immediatly switch to Representation
Turn 96: Alexandria founded on the eastern coast near the Pig.
Turn 98: Founded Confucianism in Helioplois. Immediatly converted.
Turn 102: Great Prophet settled in Thebes.
Turn 108: The Colossus finished in Memphis. Hadn't planned on building it, but it came fairly cheaply. Helped a little with the economy too.
Turn 115 (1AD): Pi-Rameses[b] founded on the western coast, to get the Pig and Horse.
Turn 118: [b]The Parthenon complete in Thebes.
Turn 119: Switched to Organized Religion.
Turn 125: Great Library complete in Thebes. Gives the research a nice boost.
Turn 126: Popped a Great Artist in Thebes. Dissapointing - the odds were so low too (around 5%). I'll save him for a Golden Age or something.
Turn 133: Giza founded. Little town on the river, near the otters. Should provide a few more cottages.
Turn 135: Settled Great Merchant in capital.
Turn 139: Met SURYAVARMAN II. Not sure how, but he's there. He also founded Buddhism. Also of note on this turn, I missed out on The Hanging Gardens by a single turn in Thebes. I'm not too dissapointed though - I only spent a few turns building it, and I've got over 300 gold as a reward. Nice!
Turn 149: Mausoleum of Mausellos built in Thebes. Hooray for longer Golden Ages!
Turn 157 (940 AD): Optics researched. Met MANSA MUSA, who is just east of me. He's already researched Paper, and he'll beat me to the Liberalism race if I'm not careful. Might have to try and do a bit tech trading.


I left it there. I'm teching at a decent rate now, and should be able to win the Liberalism race, hopefully. Building a few Caravels to go out and find the others civs, and hopefully scope one out to declare war upon. Should that happen, I'll probably plod along towards Military Tradition after Astronomy. I also might found another coastal town on the southern point of the island to grab that Fish. I dunno, we'll see.

Here's how it's looking;
http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s89/thecomradetom/pirameses.jpg



End result!
Lost it by 4 turns. Mansa Musa won a cultural victory in 1921, 4 turns before my spaceship was due to arrive at Alpha Centauri. Gutted. Was agonisingly close a Diplomatic Victory too. Just could never get the final 50 or so votes I needed. So I'm dissapointed to lose this one.

I made a decision after Astronomy to leave a domination victory - trying to break onto the other continent would be too difficult for me. On the other continent, the main players at first were Mansa Musa (tech fiend) and Suryvarman, but Sury soon lost influence and fell by the wayside. In his place rose Qin (of China), who suddenly started teching like crazy in the latter part of the game. Ragnar and his Vassal - Frederick - were only minor players, and Louis had a large empire but wasn't really achievement much tech, military or culture wise.

So. I managed to keep up with and have a slight tech lead over Qin and Mansa Musa. But then, towards the end of the game, round about the time Qin and myself built the Apollo Programme, Mansa started pouring everything into culture. I was left in a really tough spot. If I built up and declared war on Mansa Musa, I'd probably lose the space race to Qin. So I tried to bribe other nations to go to war with Mansa Musa, but it didn't really achieve much. In the end, I decided to go for broke, and poured everything into getting my spaceship launched ASAP, and hope I beat Mansa to the punch. Unfortunatly - despite having 3 consecutive Mausoleum of Mausellos enhanced Golden Ages at the end - it wasn't enough, and he beat me by 4 turns.

Gah.

Monarch

My game didn't really follow this order so I put the whole in this spoiler. Note please that this is my first LHC Game.

Checkpoint 3: I'm going for culture. No question there, no matter what happens.
So, I research Mysticism > Polytheism > Monotheism. I pop Mining, Masonry, later BW from huts. Thats why I turn them off in my games...
Capital Build Order: Worker > Warrior > Warrior (not sure) > Settler > Stonehenge.
Found Memphis (Marble Site) to help with the Oracle. I accidentally research Meditation before Priesthood, giving me acces to Oracle even later. I have also researched Pottery and Writing. Cap builds a Settler for one of The Big Cities, Heliopolis, near Horse, Pigs and lots of hills. Cap builds Jewish missionary before Oracle (I love Spiritual; both for diplomacy as for Religion switches. When you have no state religion, every religion present gives +1 culture, holy city +5. And I can switch out of slavery as soon as I used it (no slave revolt!!). I take Theology from Oracle (Christianity founded in Heliopolis, as planned). Missionary goes south to Fish/Stone/Copper spot and waits there. Cap builds settler -> Alexandria founded in Pig/Fish spot NE of Capital and two workers. the first heads with another to stone, the second starts prechopping. Memphis' settler founds Pig/Fish/Stone. Adopt no state (was jewish for happy cap in capital but who cares.) to help border expansion. The turn my two workers complete the road to stone, the borders expand. Alexandria grows to size two (A Big City) before CoL comes in. Every city has at least one religion present (except Alexandria of course) and except the Cap, all are size 1 (Alex is 2), so hopes are up Confucianism is founded in Alex. But no, it's founded in Heliopolis (not THAT bad).
I found a couple of cities (9 total to build 3 cathedrals/religion) and I build a couple of Wonders: Heliopolis: ToA (I didn't want that, I mixed it up with The Parthenon. :lol: I had NO hope to build this, this usually is built much earlier), Sistine Chapel, The Parthenon. Thebes: Stonehenge, Oracle, Pyramids, Great Library, Ankor Wat. That ** ToA was responsible for TWO Great Merchants I got during the game :mad: :eek: .
After the Library in Thebes has been built (rather late I think) I constantly run two Scientists. But the first GP still was a GP and the second didn't arrive in time to bulbfound Tao :mad: oh well, until here everything went according to plan, so I'm not complaining. I have four religions, Holy city is Thebes for Jewism and Hinduism and Heliopolis for Christianity and Confucianism.
From there on, it was veeeery boring. The Three big cities built eighter wonders (Thebes/Heliopolis) or Temples/Monasteries/Cathedrals while the other cities build Settlers/Workers/Temples.
In about 1000 AD, I meet QSH, that bastard. I never liked him.
I reach Liberalism late due to researching Drama, Music (got GA of course) and due to only two bulbs (Philo and part-Edu). Academy was built in Thebes.
I took Nationalism from Lib and missed the Taj. QSH built it, no doubt per GE:mad: .
First GP (Great Prophet I mean :D) was settled in Thebes. The next four built the Shrines. Apart from another GS (Academy in Alexandria), two GMs, another GP there were only GAs. the three GPs were all settled somewhere. Alexandria had three settled GAs in the end and two Culture Bombs. All GPs were produced in Thebes/Heliopolis/Alexandria.
In some shiny year, I finish SoL in Heliopolis.

Checkpoint 1: Find out I'm isolated. Find okay Happy ressources but few Health ressources and rivers don't follow my dotmap. I don't think I'll adjust my dotmap, thought. Simply can't. I need three good cities :eek:.

Checkpoint 2: Finally met ALL neighbours. Mansa, Khmerdude, Louis, Ragnar, Frederik appeared in this order. I never built ONE caravel. Should they fight themselves in peace, I don't need to feel involved. I had once a phony war with MM (+ diplo with Khmer and China). I managed a Defensive Pact with QSH. However there were several pacts and someone decided to break the scilence. MM had two guys to fight as well as Frederik. I only lost my Pact so QSH was dragged into war by one of his pacts. Stupid he. I only built a couple of Muskets, for fun (33 to be exact).

Checkpoint 4: Culture Win in 1832 AD. Two years before my othe Cultural victory. So this was only second culture game :eek: hope this stays as it is. Normalized score: 30k

Screenshot:
http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/4827/culturelhcow6.th.jpg (http://img250.imageshack.us/my.php?image=culturelhcow6.jpg)


http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/125166/smitr_-_cultural_-_Lonely_Ramesses_AD-1832.CivBeyondSwordSave (Save)

Edit:

I just remembered: This game was a FIRST:D:
the first game I ever got more than one quest. I love those quests. But each and every one of those three quests was stupidest: How do you want to find the holy mountain in five turns? 'cause that was about the rate I kept swapping. Or build seven stables. What for? I never even discovered HBR, I think. And what for would I build seven triremes?? the only "navy" I had was my army of workboats...
If YOU did this, r_rolo1, please tell me how:D... In my "normal" games I nearly cry when I get soooo lucky and get a quest. They're just coool

After a (quite long) period of silence, back on the track and reporting a pretty good going game.


One aborted start (killed by the barbs uprising $hit), I knew that there was a huge potential for wonders in this game. I decided to optimize it and it went quite good.

Thebes was founded 1E of the starting tile, for even better production. For the first time I went for a non-CE capital - I farmed every grass/fp around, and mined every worked hill. Had a huge strike of luck somewhere around 500AD when gold popped next to Thebes.
So, I started to go wonder happy with Stonehenge.

I planted Memphis next to Marble just in time for Oracle. After the CoL traditional sling, I went for the stone spot and Pyramids. I didn't chase Great Wall - Great Spy is worthless on isolated, except for later wars.

I missed the most important wonder for me, the Angkor Wat :mad: I have 5 settled Priests and am running 2-3 more in Thebes - it would be great boost to have it. Missed also SoZ, The Great Light (went too early, I was on it), Colossus and the Sistine (went too early too).

When I met the neighbours, I figured there are one very happy hindu family... Will be a hard match, still I managed to get to Lib first (Mansa was chasing Eco while I slinged Nationalism). They are a few techs ahead - I managed to shorten the gap trading away Lib, and will try to do the same with PP once I get to it.

The situation on the Lib-year:

http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/3557/lhcxit190mapwm2.png (http://imageshack.us)

And the capital:

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/8620/lhcxit190thebesup4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Stay tuned for more, as soon as I get back to play :D

Monarch checkpoint 4
Well, this was not by best LHC , but surely was one of the most entertaining. And one of the longest too....
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x257/r_rolo1/LHC%20BTS%20XI/Civ4ScreenShot0078.jpg
But lets go to begining first.....

Settled on place and mounted a SSE/Religious economy.. no brainer with marble and stone in good spots for cities #2 and 3. Founded Hindu,Judaism ( this one by acident... wanted to get OR and acess to Theo for the AP... should had waited a little longer ) and Chirstianity. And a bucket load of wonders ( a small sample ):
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x257/r_rolo1/LHC%20BTS%20XI/Civ4ScreenShot0025.jpg

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x257/r_rolo1/LHC%20BTS%20XI/Civ4ScreenShot0031.jpg

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x257/r_rolo1/LHC%20BTS%20XI/Civ4ScreenShot0032.jpg

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x257/r_rolo1/LHC%20BTS%20XI/Civ4ScreenShot0033.jpg

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x257/r_rolo1/LHC%20BTS%20XI/Civ4ScreenShot0036.jpg

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x257/r_rolo1/LHC%20BTS%20XI/Civ4ScreenShot0047.jpg
Managed to lost sistine because I forgot to research Music :wallbash: .

After the Jewish misguided founding I avoided to found any more religions, to try to patch the potential game loss condition of a one big Budha family hating the Hindu guy.... but it was too late to meaningful: Mansa became Confu ( and paid heavyly for that... ), but the rest of the Ai were in a big happy budha fest ( it was completely wacko: the civs that disliked the most had a +13 in diplo ), with a heavy hate for the infidels. I tried to give some strenght to Mansa and he was a valuable trade parter ( to say the truth the only..... ) until Raganr and Sury smashed him, forcing him to vassalize to Sury.... Him and Louis were the top dogs, with Fred and Ragnar coming in and out of vassalization... QSH "the rat" was more or less free, but being a Budha guy I couldn't trust him ( pity diplo when QSH is the best friend you can get.... )

With Mansa out of the game, I faced 2 dangers: a coordinated attack of the Budha powers ( thank god I had the AP... ) in a budha crusade and a UN win of Sury or Louis.

About the first one ,i couldn't do much, besides strenghtening myself and hope for the best. About the second, I had a very narrow path to follow: not build the UN and be #3 in pop ( both to force that the candidates would be Louis, Sury ( or QSH, if he managed to get the UN, a thing that wasn't likely ) ) and abstain in every election... but even then the thing would depend much of the small powers... If they all leaned for one of the big Budha guys, I would be toast.

I managed to get a good tech lead in military terms and started to buildup a decent rifle army. The game was tense until IT started :
Small summulae of my diplo status from 1850 to the end of game

Turn 238/500 (1640 AD) [26-Jan-2008 19:26:35]
IBT:
Louis XIV(France) declares war on Lonely Ramesses(Egypt)
Ragnar(Vikings) declares war on Lonely Ramesses(Egypt)

Turn 249/500 (1695 AD) [26-Jan-2008 19:44:03]
Lonely Ramesses(Egypt) and Louis XIV(France) have signed a peace treaty
Ragnar(Vikings) and Lonely Ramesses(Egypt) have signed a peace treaty

Turn 277/500 (1814 AD) [26-Jan-2008 23:19:53]
IBT:
Louis XIV(France) declares war on Lonely Ramesses(Egypt)

Turn 283/500 (1826 AD) [26-Jan-2008 23:39:57]
IBT:
Suryavarman II(Khmer) declares war on Lonely Ramesses(Egypt)
Frederick(Germany) declares war on Lonely Ramesses(Egypt)

Turn 285/500 (1830 AD) [26-Jan-2008 23:46:28]
Lonely Ramesses(Egypt) and Louis XIV(France) have signed a peace treaty

Turn 289/500 (1838 AD) [26-Jan-2008 23:59:48]
Lonely Ramesses(Egypt) and Frederick(Germany) have signed a peace treaty

Turn 291/500 (1842 AD) [27-Jan-2008 00:04:52]
IBT:
Ragnar(Vikings) declares war on Lonely Ramesses(Egypt)

Turn 292/500 (1844 AD) [27-Jan-2008 00:08:42]
Lonely Ramesses(Egypt) and Suryavarman II(Khmer) have signed a peace treaty

Turn 296/500 (1852 AD) [27-Jan-2008 00:24:28]
Lonely Ramesses(Egypt) and Ragnar(Vikings) have signed a peace treaty

Turn 325/500 (1905 AD) [27-Jan-2008 01:22:24]
IBT:
Suryavarman II(Khmer) declares war on Lonely Ramesses(Egypt)
Mansa Musa(Mali) declares war on Lonely Ramesses(Egypt)
Frederick(Germany) declares war on Lonely Ramesses(Egypt)

Turn 333/500 (1913 AD) [27-Jan-2008 23:02:45]
Lonely Ramesses(Egypt) and Frederick(Germany) have signed a peace treaty

Turn 334/500 (1914 AD) [27-Jan-2008 23:07:12]
Lonely Ramesses(Egypt) and Suryavarman II(Khmer) have signed a peace treaty
Mansa Musa(Mali) and Lonely Ramesses(Egypt) have signed a peace treaty

Turn 336/500 (1916 AD) [27-Jan-2008 23:10:23]
IBT:
Qin Shi Huang(China) declares war on Lonely Ramesses(Egypt)
Louis XIV(France) declares war on Lonely Ramesses(Egypt)

Turn 340/500 (1920 AD) [27-Jan-2008 23:37:57]
Lonely Ramesses(Egypt) and Louis XIV(France) have signed a peace treaty

Turn 346/500 (1926 AD) [27-Jan-2008 23:57:24]
Lonely Ramesses(Egypt) and Qin Shi Huang(China) have signed a peace treaty

Turn 376/500 (1956 AD) [28-Jan-2008 00:56:27]
IBT:
Ragnar(Vikings) declares war on Lonely Ramesses(Egypt)

Turn 381/500 (1961 AD) [28-Jan-2008 01:08:45]
Lonely Ramesses(Egypt) and Ragnar(Vikings) have signed a peace treaty

Turn 388/500 (1968 AD) [28-Jan-2008 01:56:28]
IBT:
Louis XIV(France) declares war on Lonely Ramesses(Egypt)

Turn 389/500 (1969 AD) [28-Jan-2008 01:58:14]
IBT:
Suryavarman II(Khmer) declares war on Lonely Ramesses(Egypt)
Mansa Musa(Mali) declares war on Lonely Ramesses(Egypt)

Turn 391/500 (1971 AD) [28-Jan-2008 02:23:59]
Lonely Ramesses(Egypt) and Louis XIV(France) have signed a peace treaty

Turn 396/500 (1976 AD) [28-Jan-2008 03:01:00]
Qin Shi Huang(China) declares war on Suryavarman II(Khmer)--- my doing
Qin Shi Huang(China) declares war on Mansa Musa(Mali)

u]Turn 399/500 (1979 AD) [28-Jan-2008 03:17:02][/u]
IBT:
Ragnar(Vikings) declares war on Mansa Musa(Mali)
Ragnar(Vikings) declares war on Suryavarman II(Khmer)--Long waited result of a series of briberies and from the exaution of Khmer power ( lots of missiles were launched by Khmer and I managed to destroy almost all of their navy and air force )

Turn 401/500 (1981 AD) [28-Jan-2008 03:29:05]
Lonely Ramesses(Egypt) and Suryavarman II(Khmer) have signed a peace treaty
Mansa Musa(Mali) and Lonely Ramesses(Egypt) have signed a peace treaty

Turn 416/500 (1996 AD) [28-Jan-2008 04:00:56]
IBT:
Qin Shi Huang(China) declares war on Ragnar(Vikings)
Mansa Musa becomes a Vassal State of Qin Shi Huang

Turn 417/500 (1997 AD) [28-Jan-2008 04:02:33]
Suryavarman II(Khmer) and Ragnar(Vikings) have signed a peace treaty -- bribery... didn't wanted that Ragnar was steamrolled... not that I cared.

Short version: I was DoWed atleast once by every civ in the game.... Thank god that , besides the last war vs Louis + Sury & company ( that war was completely devastating.. French and Khmer coordinated well the attacks and in the first 2 turns of war I lost half of my navy, the southern coast of my island was completely blockaded and lost a lot of farms ( my cottage areas were inland and sury didn't reached them )... I really thinked that it could be the end ), there were no coordinated attacks, just " beat the underdog" syndrom.

In the middle of this I managed to get 3 GA and to get a few key wonders:
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x257/r_rolo1/LHC%20BTS%20XI/Civ4ScreenShot0058.jpg

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x257/r_rolo1/LHC%20BTS%20XI/Civ4ScreenShot0061.jpg
Internet would mean the end of the Religious eco, but it was time... all the labs were done and Apollo as well

But then it came the big scare....
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x257/r_rolo1/LHC%20BTS%20XI/Civ4ScreenShot0065.jpg

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x257/r_rolo1/LHC%20BTS%20XI/Civ4ScreenShot0066.jpg

But nothing could stop me at this point , not even the feeble last hour sury attempt on cultural....
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x257/r_rolo1/LHC%20BTS%20XI/Civ4ScreenShot0071.jpg

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x257/r_rolo1/LHC%20BTS%20XI/Civ4ScreenShot0075.jpg

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x257/r_rolo1/LHC%20BTS%20XI/Civ4ScreenShot0076.jpg

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x257/r_rolo1/LHC%20BTS%20XI/Civ4ScreenShot0077.jpg

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x257/r_rolo1/LHC%20BTS%20XI/Civ4ScreenShot0079.jpg
I wanted to say I enjoyed the game a lot ,in spite on not being the best one I've played here. All this siege game, with no friends around , made a interesting diference of the " musht keep quiet and launch my SS without anyone noticing" I normally do

But I wanted to comment some stuff of this game , because I made some bad mistakes, corrected by some ( possibly) good moves, and hopefully thay will help someone to play better.

First of all, the big blunder of this game: founding hindu, judaism and christianity, especially the first two. This kind of religious greed should be avoided at all cost in isolation, unless you want to go cultural ( that I didn't... I like to push the economies to the fursthest limit ( space ) in the LHC to see how robust they are in isolation ... done it with CE in the Darius one, with a scientist SE in Pericles one ( nice game btw ) and now tried a religious eco ( not really ... the lack of Music was a stupidity. Oh well .. live and learn ) ) because it restricts the avaliable religions in the outer world, making people less hairy with each other... and because I wanted to run a relifgious eco, that would mean that I would be universally hated, beyond any other hate

The measures that i took to avoid this blunder were only partially effective: letting Confu tao and Islam to be founded before ending the research of the tech, and buiding the AP ( I wanted it for the hammers, but it had the nice side effect of not being avaliable to coordinate a crusade against me ). trying to beef mansa was not effective as well ( Sury in my game already had captured the best mali cities.... mansa simply hadn't enough good land to be useful as a puppet for fire practice of the Buddha people. After the Mansa capitulation, the attacks were unavoidable....

One of the good things I done was the UN handling: I proposedely avoided founding more cities, just to be #3 in pop and not made the UN , just to fracture the budha bloc in the elections... Even there i got a big scare ( 3 lousy votes..pfhew ). Regarding the other diplo, I think that i played my few cards well, bribing Ragnar to cut deals with Sury ( that ultimately led to the Ragnar Dow to Khmer + Mali in the end ) and seezing the only time in the game where "the rat" was avaliable for a bribe....

Techwise I went well until I started the SS stuff, while the Ai went military... and I paid high that : having to fight with half dead battleships ( missile battering ) vs missile ships and having a heavy bombing of my territory with Guided missiles almost led to a disaster... had to fight hard to erase the marine threats ( I obtained air superiority, by forcing the Khmer planes to protect the ships... and after that by destroying the 2 only oil sources of the khmer..... ). Another misguided feat : I expected more wars... why start SS teching then?

As a aside ( and because it is the first time that I had to fight a modern war with a slight tech disavantadge ), I think that if properly used and in the right maps, cruise missiles can be OP..... They are cheap., don't have a direct counter ( like airships ) and they can destroy tile improvements... Against a CE it can really wreck havoc ( khmer, in the first turn of war launched 20 of them ( they had a lot more in reserve )... all the towns and mines ( and some farms ) in range went to blazes... if I was cottage spamming it would take a lot of time to recover from that blow... with a SE it is more easily recoverable...

And just ot finish, Khmer tried to use Sushi and CreateCon to get a late cultural win... It was too late , but It is always important to check the F8 screen

To end here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/91629/Lonely_Ramesses_AD-1997.CivBeyondSwordSave) is the save ( 1 turn before victory ). If you have a taste for soap operas, check the replay... the vassaling in/out is just hilarious

As a aside , next leader will be Hannibal of Carthage. Stay tuned :goodjob:

r_rolo1 what mod do you use. the greate people points, growth warning people have mutch monney etc.. could you ad a ling to the mod maybe?

It's BUG-Mod, BtS Unaltered Gameplay, link (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=235633)

I like missing some checkpoints ;)


When I get back to the game, I was slightly behind in techs, still I got the Lib.

I traded it around asap, followed by some more trades once I got Military Tradition and Steam Power. I even traded Rifling :crazyeye:

I wasn't really fearing AI aggression. In fact, on this whole merry-brotherly continent, there was a black sheep - named Louis. So I stayed in Free Religion (no hindu missionary dropped by...), trading with everyone except Louis. I think they got too much on their own to care about a lonely guy on his island :lol:

Once I hit Rifling, my capital pumped Rifles for coastal cities. I managed to get a decent defense in two front lines toward Mali and Khmer, when Mansa decided to do the stupid thing and attacked me.
He sent two Galleons of cavalry/cannon escorted by a Frigate. Too bad I was lacking navy (only one frigate, with one more due in a turn) - anyway, my Airships has shown me the move two turns before he did it. He met ~10 rifles inside inside my city :D Then, three turns later, my ONLY war was over. (;) rolo).

Once the war was gone, I was trying to stick to the AI in eco terms. I wasn't actually best to the GNP, and I needed it badly to tech into space (had no chance against any AI in the diplo vote, well, maybe except the French). I get myself a coastal destroyer defense, several scouting Airships and was following the race while looking on my opponents.
And they were pesky. Sury was heading for cultural, at a pretty decent pace. I figured he'll hit it around 1960 - four religions, Broadway, R&R, Hollywood & Eiffel. Mansa was teching madly into space.

Three major turning points in this game:
1/ Mining Inc settled in Thebes - though minor with few ressources on hand, the denial value of this corp is huge while space racing an AI
2/ The 3 Georges Dam - same as above, and the clean power benefit for my cities was very nice as the health was crippling me like hell
I was still several techs behind when I hit the third stepstone : The Internet.
I was never a great fan of this wonder, but in this game it was the winner. I instantly got 7 techs (including Robotics), and furthermore I got Superconductors and Genetics free of charge. With this on hand, and my very nice MfG capacity, I won the space race :

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/4309/lhcxi1928adstatusle6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

It was close, and would have never been possible without the wonder rushing of Internet.
Here is Egypt one turn before victory:

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/1709/lhcxi1939adprevictoryxp8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

All in all, a great fun and a tricky game to win with all the tundra on hand and a big patch of desert.
Worders helped a lot, as well as some 'stuff never to do' like trading Military Tradition or Rifling once you got first to it :lol:
The info screen to contrast rolo:

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/8558/lhcxi1940indotq8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)



Will surely be looking forward for the next one.
Thanks rolo!

This one ended in a loss for me. After I failed to get the taj mahal (Louis must have rushed it with a great engineer, he had nationalism for ~2 turns before he built it), I continued teching and won the physics race. I missed the Communism race by ~3 turns (would have started a Golden age), and was able to eventually trade for democracy. I continued teching and used ragnar/Louis as a gold farm, trading them older techs for money, and got in acouple useful trades with some techs, like biology, to the others. Unfortunately, Mansa was still ahead of me in tech, and right when I was 2 turns away from Industrianalism in 1720, Qin declared war on me. His rifles killed my weak units and took Memphis- at that point I just gave up. The whole other continent was at war, and I thought that I could sneak by with virtually no military, but in the end I lost. Still and fun and exciting game, and I was surprised at how quickly the AI's were teching compared to other BtS games.