r_rolo1
King of myself
Welcome to the 34th 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 34th game in BTS the choosed leader was Frederick of the Germans:
Well, we're back to the Iron cross civ, this time with the Phi leader ( Frederick was probably one of the vanilla leaders that deserved being Cha, but anyway..... )
Fred is Phi/Org, a combo that properly used can be huge ( that accounted for Fred being one of the most loved Phi leaders until Pericles came around ). Having a late UU/UB combo does not help in a game where small early game advantages can become huge late game diferences ( if the game gets there 
), but the germans are the kings of tank warfare and one of the best late-game hammer productors. Given that LHC normally don't end before factories, being a Phi german leader certainly is interesting as a chalenge.
His UU
His UB
The start (for reasons that I'll explain below, the warrior may not be exactly in that spot in your game ):
Hum... Fred on a lake, with coast, oasis, 2 seafood, a unforested deer and a pig 1 tile away. All of that packaged in what seems to be a all-forest start ( I don't expect more than 1 other food resource here ). It surely can be used to chop Mids and run a GP farm.... and starting with hunting means that there is something for a worker to do ASAP. Too bad that Fred doesn't start with fishing......
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...
And about the fact that the starting unit not being always on the same spot: the WB saves that I give only state startings spots for the settlers ( it is the only way of getting the number of AI units to scale correctly with the dificulty level ... otherwise the game will only put the units stated in the WB save , not putting the extra units given by dificulty ). After that the mechanisms are the same than in a normal game: the game will read the XML, decide how many defensive units and extra settlers the player ( Human or AI ) will receive by their handicap and if it is a human the game randomly picks a spot in the starting BFC to place the defensive units ( in case of the human , warrior or scout, depending of having hunting or not ).
This ( as the free techs because of the dificulty level issue ) unfortunately can only be solved with modding and that goes against the philosophy that I've been trying to maintain here, that is "a map for everyone and you choose the dificulty you want"
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 34th game in BTS the choosed leader was Frederick of the Germans:
Spoiler :
Well, we're back to the Iron cross civ, this time with the Phi leader ( Frederick was probably one of the vanilla leaders that deserved being Cha, but anyway..... )
Fred is Phi/Org, a combo that properly used can be huge ( that accounted for Fred being one of the most loved Phi leaders until Pericles came around
). Having a late UU/UB combo does not help in a game where small early game advantages can become huge late game diferences ( if the game gets there ), but the germans are the kings of tank warfare and one of the best late-game hammer productors. Given that LHC normally don't end before factories, being a Phi german leader certainly is interesting as a chalenge.His UU
Spoiler :
There is nothing in this game like seeing a huge modern age battle with both sides fielding loads of tanks, planes, gunships . And that is clearly the scenario for the German UU ( too bad that we rarely get the oportunity of making a battle like that with a AI
The Panzer is a beefed Tank that has a 50% bonus vs armored units. My opinion is that it got a little beefed with BtS, because gunships got pushed to a later tech.... Anyway it is a very strong unit by it self and it even has nice odds vs Modern Armor ( in fact the only units that put Panzer at bad odds are mechs and gunships ( and a odd Anti tank, but they can't outmove a Panzer ) and you can get Panzers earlier than this two. In spite of this unit not being better than a normal tank except vs other tanks, the fact that LHC normally push decisions to later makes conditions for the profitable use of this machines that shine in post-Industrialism wars
His UB
Spoiler :
The start (for reasons that I'll explain below, the warrior may not be exactly in that spot in your game ):
Spoiler :
Hum... Fred on a lake, with coast, oasis, 2 seafood, a unforested deer and a pig 1 tile away. All of that packaged in what seems to be a all-forest start ( I don't expect more than 1 other food resource here ). It surely can be used to chop Mids and run a GP farm.... and starting with hunting means that there is something for a worker to do ASAP. Too bad that Fred doesn't start with fishing......
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...
And about the fact that the starting unit not being always on the same spot: the WB saves that I give only state startings spots for the settlers ( it is the only way of getting the number of AI units to scale correctly with the dificulty level ... otherwise the game will only put the units stated in the WB save , not putting the extra units given by dificulty ). After that the mechanisms are the same than in a normal game: the game will read the XML, decide how many defensive units and extra settlers the player ( Human or AI ) will receive by their handicap and if it is a human the game randomly picks a spot in the starting BFC to place the defensive units ( in case of the human , warrior or scout, depending of having hunting or not ).
This ( as the free techs because of the dificulty level issue ) unfortunately can only be solved with modding and that goes against the philosophy that I've been trying to maintain here, that is "a map for everyone and you choose the dificulty you want"
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
