r_rolo1
King of myself
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 
): starting in isolation....
For the 11th game in BTS the choosed leader was Ramesses II of the Egyptians:
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.
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....
). 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.
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:
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 ) :
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
Big and late P.S: I posted a group of WB saves to replace the missing files. Will probably replace gradually all the old LHCs for WB files if I still have original saves to transform
): starting in isolation....For the 11th game in BTS the choosed leader was Ramesses II of the Egyptians:
Spoiler :
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.
Spoiler :
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....
). 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.
Spoiler :
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:
Spoiler :
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
) :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
Big and late P.S: I posted a group of WB saves to replace the missing files. Will probably replace gradually all the old LHCs for WB files if I still have original saves to transform
, 
, 
, 50% wonder production, and being able to hire 2 preists off the getgo with stonehenge owns, not to mention free civic changes.
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. 
( I know a certain poster that would 
if he saw this... Hint: no cottages 
But I have used priests and still use religious stuff...
After the borders expanded, I noticed a little island and built a workboat to explore it... WHAM, I nearly crashed into Sury's boat 
Hmm
DOH!!!!!! fell short....Phew......
you'll have to peek to see 
