r_rolo1
King of myself
Welcome to the 40th 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 40th game in BTS the chosen leader was Hammurabi of the Babylonians:
I'll give a internet dime for the person that can tell me who had Hammurabi trait combo in Vanilla
Seriously, Hammurabi is probably one of the least liked leaders of the BtS pack: no "brainy" traits and both UU and UB are not very liked ( UU is a archer, a thing that humans dislike to build and the UB gives extra health , a thing that most humans simply don't care ). I personally like the trait combo, that is clearly a warmonger combo ( cheaper courthouses and civics +free C1 melee and gunpowder =
), but in here, warmongering will take a while to happen. The UU, in spite of not being shiny, already saved me from some troubled situations ( and in MP, humans think twice in attacking a city with them ) and the UB, in spite of not being top of the pop ( unless you get the Sports league quest... 2 
+ 2 health is not that bad at all ), can be pretty useful in those situations where health is the limiting factor ( like FP starts with no remaining woods )
Well, definitely not the shiniest civ and leader of them all, but solid in my opinion... let's see how it goes in here.
His UU
The Bowman is a improved archer that has a bonus vs melee units. There has been some discussion about the usefulness of this particular UU : some say that it is worthless and some say that it is quite useful. My opinion is that it is a useful asset: after all it is a cheap and resourceless anti melee unit, pretty much in the style of the quechua. The big diference is that the AI is programmed to defend it's cities with archers and not melee... on the other hand, the AI doesn't use melee in the same way that humans do: countering a massive melee army is the speciality of the bowmen ,but very rarely a AI will pull a stunt like that ( unfortunately ). This leaves the bowman relegated to pure garrison and anti barb tasks ( they are quite good in fogbusting: not much below HA can scratch a bowman fortified in a forested hill ). In MP, the story is completely diferent, of course......
In here, with no early contacts , the bowmen will most likely only serve as anti barb unit.....
His UB
The garden is a colloseum that also gives 2 health in the city where it is built. Like I said, health is normally not the biggest concern of the human player in the stage of the game where the gardens appear, so they do not seem that much of improvement regarding the colloseum. But the garden shines more in the late game , with all of the unhealthiness produced by factories and power, combined with the lack of trees. In late game a garden most of the times is worth a extra citizen in a city, so it is not that worthless....
In isolation..... well, sometimes the isolated maps are quite bad in terms of health resources and you can't trade for them until maybe half of the game. i think that makes the garden a little more useful than in other situations.
The start (Thanks to DanF for the solution of the unit change of place
.... The warrior/scout should appear always in the same place from now on, really ):
So, what do we have here? 3 riverside plain hills, 3 forests, 1 stone plain hill right in the first ring, FPs, some grassland.... well, this is posssibly one of the best starting spots in a LHC for quite a while ( I' already making some plans about that stone and FPs )
Regarding the saves ( if you're using DanF change to the WB files load, skip this ): 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 And as WB saves are no more than text files and Vanilla and Warlords WB are almost equal, you can play this if you exchange the non-Vanilla ( or non-warlords ) stuff ( in here it will be only leaders and civs eventually )
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 40th game in BTS the chosen leader was Hammurabi of the Babylonians:
Spoiler :
I'll give a internet dime for the person that can tell me who had Hammurabi trait combo in Vanilla
Seriously, Hammurabi is probably one of the least liked leaders of the BtS pack: no "brainy" traits and both UU and UB are not very liked ( UU is a archer, a thing that humans dislike to build and the UB gives extra health , a thing that most humans simply don't care ). I personally like the trait combo, that is clearly a warmonger combo ( cheaper courthouses and civics +free C1 melee and gunpowder =
), but in here, warmongering will take a while to happen. The UU, in spite of not being shiny, already saved me from some troubled situations ( and in MP, humans think twice in attacking a city with them ) and the UB, in spite of not being top of the pop ( unless you get the Sports league quest... 2 + 2 health is not that bad at all ), can be pretty useful in those situations where health is the limiting factor ( like FP starts with no remaining woods )Well, definitely not the shiniest civ and leader of them all, but solid in my opinion... let's see how it goes in here.
His UU
Spoiler :
The Bowman is a improved archer that has a bonus vs melee units. There has been some discussion about the usefulness of this particular UU : some say that it is worthless and some say that it is quite useful. My opinion is that it is a useful asset: after all it is a cheap and resourceless anti melee unit, pretty much in the style of the quechua. The big diference is that the AI is programmed to defend it's cities with archers and not melee... on the other hand, the AI doesn't use melee in the same way that humans do: countering a massive melee army is the speciality of the bowmen ,but very rarely a AI will pull a stunt like that ( unfortunately ). This leaves the bowman relegated to pure garrison and anti barb tasks ( they are quite good in fogbusting: not much below HA can scratch a bowman fortified in a forested hill ). In MP, the story is completely diferent, of course......
In here, with no early contacts , the bowmen will most likely only serve as anti barb unit.....
His UB
Spoiler :
The garden is a colloseum that also gives 2 health in the city where it is built. Like I said, health is normally not the biggest concern of the human player in the stage of the game where the gardens appear, so they do not seem that much of improvement regarding the colloseum. But the garden shines more in the late game , with all of the unhealthiness produced by factories and power, combined with the lack of trees. In late game a garden most of the times is worth a extra citizen in a city, so it is not that worthless....
In isolation..... well, sometimes the isolated maps are quite bad in terms of health resources and you can't trade for them until maybe half of the game. i think that makes the garden a little more useful than in other situations.
The start (Thanks to DanF for the solution of the unit change of place
.... The warrior/scout should appear always in the same place from now on, really ):Spoiler :
So, what do we have here? 3 riverside plain hills, 3 forests, 1 stone plain hill right in the first ring, FPs, some grassland.... well, this is posssibly one of the best starting spots in a LHC for quite a while ( I' already making some plans about that stone and FPs
)Regarding the saves ( if you're using DanF change to the WB files load, skip this ): 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
And as WB saves are no more than text files and Vanilla and Warlords WB are almost equal, you can play this if you exchange the non-Vanilla ( or non-warlords ) stuff ( in here it will be only leaders and civs eventually )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
. Well, that means I need a plan B. Gandhi was going culture, and I'm not running away in tech (though competitive). I decide to forgo tech, and suit up for some war. I actually skipped factories in this since my empire was so cottage heavy. I just used the gold multipliers + my cottages. Not efficient w/o kremlin, but very fast to set up with towns everywhere already and hardly terrible.
damm lions.
, my worker completes his 3rd farm and moves to Quarry the stone as Masonry is now in.
seems about on time. Didn't really think I had a shot, but had to try, but never got started. Granary and forge were 1st, then its Pyramids and Great Lighthouse goes in front once I have sailing, along with a lighthouse 1st.
moment, the GLH is BIADL I should know by now I need to beeline it more. I better not lose the Pyramids as well. 6 turns left of sailing, I change to Mathematics for the Hanging gardens, then currency or iron working, depends on financial situation, I need calender as well, maybe MoM isn't out of Question.
, and merge into Capital city, still 100% positive, making 2 settlers for hanging gardens boost, chop and whip them, calender due in 6 turns.
), plantations, 1 village and 1 hamlet.
