r_rolo1
King of myself
Welcome to the 17th 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 
): starting in isolation....
For the 17th game in BTS the choosed leader was Caius Octavius ( aka Ceasar Augustus ) of the Romans:
Yup, the Romans.... Everyone has already played with them ( I remember a poll in vanilla days where roughly 80% of the people said that they played the first game as Romans ( JC at the time ) so I bet that it will be rare the player that never tried the Romans ) but I bet most of people never tried to use them without considering their UU. Augustus in BtS is Imp/Ind ( I never played this version of Augustus ), a somewhat crazy combo that does not link as good: or you try to leverage Imp or you try to leverage Ind ( they don't have a good synergy IMHO ). Their UB is a nice booster to the GPP generation, asking for a somewhat more specialist based economy.... that links well with the Ind trait ( Obsolete style capital with a extra 25% in GPP ... drool: ).
His UU.
Oh, well, why do I bother to introduce this UU? Like if there was one player of civ IV that does not know the preatorian ( awful name choice... ) and his well deserved fame as one of top UU in terms of military prowesses...
Well, pro formae wins... The preatorian is a boosted ( and more expensive ) swordsman that has a 33% bonus in the base strength ( 6 to 8 ... I wonder what would happen if any other UU had that diferential from their base strenght: Redcoats with 18/19 str, Cossacks with 20 ( ok, they already had 18
), navy seals with 32 or Panzers with 35 
... Rains of " OMG the ( insert name of UU ) is OP!" threads, I assume ). We all know the famous ( and quite effective ) " Preat rush" and even if you don't use them offensively they are more like a cheaper maceman than a boosted sword in terms of military effectiveness ( a CR3 preat can dislodge a unpromoted gren... I already done it a couple of times ). The problem with this guys in isolation is that they will not rush anyone ( as it happens with all early UU ) and most likely they will be outdated before the first contact 
His UB.
The forum is a market that has a 25% GPP generation bonus. it is good for both of the mainstream economies and you can fit them easily in most of the strategies you can think on ( well, it is a cash and GPP multiplier, that gives
and merchant slots .... hard to get to a situation where you don't have a use for that )
The start (for reasons that I'll explain below, the warrior may not be exactly in that spot in your game ):
Well, marble in a Ind starting BFC... I wonder what it means? ....besides that it has a lake ( remember: a lake with a lighthouse is better than a pre-Bio riverside farm ) and a corn resource. It also has shoreline in both east and west ( look closely... ). Not a stellar start , but I've seen far worse.
Again I made a functional scenario ( In that regard I must say a thing: free techs for both AI and humans are not kicking in, and that makes that AI in higher levels starts with warrior/scouts instead of archers ( with the correct numbers. Settlers/workers are working well ) . That is not a issue of my scenarios , but of the way the game is coded... the game atributes the free techs before choosing the leaders.... if the leaders are already chosen it simply moves on . And as the handicap file does not specify archers as free units , but simply "defensive units" ( if you give Rifling and Robotics to a AI, it will start with Mechs
) if the AI does not have archery they will get warriors/scouts ( depends on hunting ) instead. In isolation that is a minor issue ( you can't rush ), so I took the decison of letting things to stay this way, because the correction would need to change the game code, a thing that is not exactly my objective with this games ) ).... All the speeds are working well ( no more games ending in 1900 ) The save is zipped... you only have to unzip this to the worldbuilder saves or for the PublicMaps folder ( either one will do ) and load it from the scenarios.
Any problem PM me...
Again a small request ( not mandatory ) :
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 ) 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
. And let the games begin!
P.S We don't have any kind of problem with defeats and reruns. Just play and enjoy
): starting in isolation....For the 17th game in BTS the choosed leader was Caius Octavius ( aka Ceasar Augustus ) of the Romans:
Spoiler :
Yup, the Romans.... Everyone has already played with them ( I remember a poll in vanilla days where roughly 80% of the people said that they played the first game as Romans ( JC at the time ) so I bet that it will be rare the player that never tried the Romans ) but I bet most of people never tried to use them without considering their UU. Augustus in BtS is Imp/Ind ( I never played this version of Augustus ), a somewhat crazy combo that does not link as good: or you try to leverage Imp or you try to leverage Ind ( they don't have a good synergy IMHO ). Their UB is a nice booster to the GPP generation, asking for a somewhat more specialist based economy.... that links well with the Ind trait ( Obsolete style capital with a extra 25% in GPP ... drool: ).
His UU.
Spoiler :
Oh, well, why do I bother to introduce this UU? Like if there was one player of civ IV that does not know the preatorian ( awful name choice... ) and his well deserved fame as one of top UU in terms of military prowesses...
Well, pro formae wins... The preatorian is a boosted ( and more expensive ) swordsman that has a 33% bonus in the base strength ( 6 to 8 ... I wonder what would happen if any other UU had that diferential from their base strenght: Redcoats with 18/19 str, Cossacks with 20 ( ok, they already had 18
), navy seals with 32 or Panzers with 35 ... Rains of " OMG the ( insert name of UU ) is OP!" threads, I assume ). We all know the famous ( and quite effective ) " Preat rush" and even if you don't use them offensively they are more like a cheaper maceman than a boosted sword in terms of military effectiveness ( a CR3 preat can dislodge a unpromoted gren... I already done it a couple of times ). The problem with this guys in isolation is that they will not rush anyone ( as it happens with all early UU ) and most likely they will be outdated before the first contact His UB.
Spoiler :
The forum is a market that has a 25% GPP generation bonus. it is good for both of the mainstream economies and you can fit them easily in most of the strategies you can think on ( well, it is a cash and GPP multiplier, that gives
and merchant slots .... hard to get to a situation where you don't have a use for that )The start (for reasons that I'll explain below, the warrior may not be exactly in that spot in your game ):
Spoiler :
Well, marble in a Ind starting BFC... I wonder what it means?
....besides that it has a lake ( remember: a lake with a lighthouse is better than a pre-Bio riverside farm ) and a corn resource. It also has shoreline in both east and west ( look closely... ). Not a stellar start , but I've seen far worse.Again I made a functional scenario ( In that regard I must say a thing: free techs for both AI and humans are not kicking in, and that makes that AI in higher levels starts with warrior/scouts instead of archers ( with the correct numbers. Settlers/workers are working well ) . That is not a issue of my scenarios , but of the way the game is coded... the game atributes the free techs before choosing the leaders.... if the leaders are already chosen it simply moves on . And as the handicap file does not specify archers as free units , but simply "defensive units" ( if you give Rifling and Robotics to a AI, it will start with Mechs
) if the AI does not have archery they will get warriors/scouts ( depends on hunting ) instead. In isolation that is a minor issue ( you can't rush ), so I took the decison of letting things to stay this way, because the correction would need to change the game code, a thing that is not exactly my objective with this games ) ).... All the speeds are working well ( no more games ending in 1900 ) The save is zipped... you only have to unzip this to the worldbuilder saves or for the PublicMaps folder ( either one will do ) and load it from the scenarios.Any problem PM me...
Again a small request ( not mandatory
) :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
) 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
. And let the games begin!P.S We don't have any kind of problem with defeats and reruns. Just play and enjoy
NO SEA FOOD 
