r_rolo1
King of myself
Welcome to the 27th 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 27th game in BTS the choosed leader was Justinian of the Bizantines:
Somebody asked for a religious nuts, here we have
.Seriously, Justinian is one of the BtS leaders I never played, in spite of already had faced his love for mounted units His traits are better shaped for war than for peace, with Imp allowing more GG and Spi those very known civic switchs to get extra promos on the units . That combined with a UB that gives 
from horses and a mounted UU that it is arguabily one of the strongest in game, Justinian is a killing machine in the hands of a human and a dangerous religious nutcase in the hands of the AI ( if he gets horses, that is ).
In here..... well, this is possibly one one the only case that we'll see a medieval UU in action in a LHC, given that it is a knight as strong as grenadier, allowing to shun cuiraseers for a while. His traits do not play well with isolation, but his UB certainly does ( if we have horses, that is ). I think this will be interesting
His UU
Like I said above, the cataphract is a knight UU with 12 str. Just that says that it is stronger than anything until grens or Rifles enter in action. This makes him a interesting bet in terms of chosen unit if you want a post astro war, before the grens and rifles enter in action and they are surely a strong bet as a reserve force .
His UB
The Hippodrome is a boosted theatre that gives from horses. Any happiness in a isolated game is sorely needed, and getting it from the resource that enables the UU is a nice asset. Besides that Hippodromes are cheap, allowing a easy build. i bet they will be very valuable
The start (for reasons that I'll explain below, the warrior may not be exactly in that spot in your game ):
Nothing like a bucketload of food and not only a single tech to improve it since the beggining Well, it is far better than the last LHC... in fact i wonder in it isn't too much food for a capital city... to the north there is jungle, sugar and dyes, not good for second city sites, but surely a nice asset after CS, Calendar and IW
Regarding the saves: given some complaints about the efects of the AI starting without archery in high levels ( giving a unfair advantage to AI that have early UU and/or have early warmongering tendencies ), I decided to make 3 WB saves ( all in the same zip file ). The WB saves are equal except for the fact that one of them ( labeled Monarch ) has all of the AI with archery as starting tech ( corresponding to a game started in Monarch ), one ( labeled Immortal ) has all of the AI with archery,hunting and agriculture as starting tech ( corresponding to a game started in Immortal ) while the last is the corresponding to a game starting in Noble ( labeled Noble ). All WB saves are playable in all levels, but ( for a example ) if you use the Monarch one the AI will start with archery ( and archers ) in any level. This has only a slight effect in the human directly ( mainly via the garrisons of barb cities ), but has a huge effect on the AI gaming in the outer lands ( avoiding scenarios like Pacal, Shaka or Sitting Bull to take all the barb cities and becoming moguls ). I strongly recommend the usage of the Monarch save if you want to play in Monarch+ and the Immortal at Immortal/Deity.... All the speeds are working well ( no more games ending in 1900 ) The saves are 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...
P.S WB saves are crosscompatible between 3.13 and 3.17 if they don't have No Espionage ticked. No problem with the patches here
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 27th game in BTS the choosed leader was Justinian of the Bizantines:
Spoiler :
Somebody asked for a religious nuts, here we have
.Seriously, Justinian is one of the BtS leaders I never played, in spite of already had faced his love for mounted units His traits are better shaped for war than for peace, with Imp allowing more GG and Spi those very known civic switchs to get extra promos on the units . That combined with a UB that gives from horses and a mounted UU that it is arguabily one of the strongest in game, Justinian is a killing machine in the hands of a human and a dangerous religious nutcase in the hands of the AI ( if he gets horses, that is ).In here..... well, this is possibly one one the only case that we'll see a medieval UU in action in a LHC, given that it is a knight as strong as grenadier, allowing to shun cuiraseers for a while. His traits do not play well with isolation, but his UB certainly does ( if we have horses, that is
). I think this will be interesting His UU
Spoiler :
Like I said above, the cataphract is a knight UU with 12 str. Just that says that it is stronger than anything until grens or Rifles enter in action. This makes him a interesting bet in terms of chosen unit if you want a post astro war, before the grens and rifles enter in action and they are surely a strong bet as a reserve force .
His UB
Spoiler :
The Hippodrome is a boosted theatre that gives
from horses. Any happiness in a isolated game is sorely needed, and getting it from the resource that enables the UU is a nice asset. Besides that Hippodromes are cheap, allowing a easy build. i bet they will be very valuableThe start (for reasons that I'll explain below, the warrior may not be exactly in that spot in your game ):
Spoiler :
Nothing like a bucketload of food and not only a single tech to improve it since the beggining
Well, it is far better than the last LHC... in fact i wonder in it isn't too much food for a capital city... to the north there is jungle, sugar and dyes, not good for second city sites, but surely a nice asset after CS, Calendar and IWRegarding the saves: given some complaints about the efects of the AI starting without archery in high levels ( giving a unfair advantage to AI that have early UU and/or have early warmongering tendencies ), I decided to make 3 WB saves ( all in the same zip file ). The WB saves are equal except for the fact that one of them ( labeled Monarch ) has all of the AI with archery as starting tech ( corresponding to a game started in Monarch ), one ( labeled Immortal ) has all of the AI with archery,hunting and agriculture as starting tech ( corresponding to a game started in Immortal ) while the last is the corresponding to a game starting in Noble ( labeled Noble ). All WB saves are playable in all levels, but ( for a example ) if you use the Monarch one the AI will start with archery ( and archers ) in any level. This has only a slight effect in the human directly ( mainly via the garrisons of barb cities ), but has a huge effect on the AI gaming in the outer lands ( avoiding scenarios like Pacal, Shaka or Sitting Bull to take all the barb cities and becoming moguls ). I strongly recommend the usage of the Monarch save if you want to play in Monarch+ and the Immortal at Immortal/Deity.... All the speeds are working well ( no more games ending in 1900 ) The saves are 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...
P.S WB saves are crosscompatible between 3.13 and 3.17 if they don't have No Espionage ticked. No problem with the patches here
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
) netted me 3 more huts all giving me gold which will help settle my first couple of cities at least.
(may as well make it neutral. Now I want an early religion, but also make use of the seafood. I start to build worker, and decide on a gamble by teching fishing. The idea was that seafood tiles when worked give 2
(translating to 
), and by the time the workboat is done my city will be size2 giving +4
), IW (there was a lot of jungle around, iron just outside bfc), pottery.
