r_rolo1
King of myself
Welcome to the 41th 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 41th game in BTS the chosen leader was Peter of the Russians:
This already happened more than once: I was passing by the leaders list of the already played leaders on the LHC Bullpen and I noticed that I've been negleting the russian leaders ( atleast the male ones
). So I decided to pick one of the more popular leaders in vanilla, not so much in BtS ( probably has much to do with the changes that the Russian UU had )
Anyway, Peter is Phi/Exp ..... well, Philosophical is a trait that I never saw in the list of worst traits, but Expansive definitely was in more than one
I guess that expansive links well with philosophical , more because of the granary half-price and the 2 health ( 2 health = 1 extra citizen in health restricted enviroments ) than anything realted with the worker build speed. The half priced universities of the Phi trait are nothing to shun as well. The UU already had better days ( yup, a a cavalry unit with 18 str is OP, but a 8 str sword isn't.... 
even more, in BtS we need rifling to make cavs..... 
), but it is still a interesting asset against the hordes of mounted units that the AI loves to build and the UB.... well, the UB is extremely late and in best odds maybe cut a handful of turns of a space win in ancient start game. Well, a package solid enough to use.....
His UU
*whips a tear, remembering sadly the times of Vanilla cossacks*
The cossack is a beefed Cavalry unit that has a bonus vs other mounted units. In other days this UU was the king of it's era, when it had 18 str and only needed Mil Trad, Gunpowder and horses to build
Even in it's double nerfed state ( only case in Civ IV that a UU was nerfed twice, unless you count with the hammer prices of Preatorians ), Cossacks are still a very useful asset if the enemy pushes a lot of mounted units, like the AI uses to do ( especially leaders like Justinian or the Khans ). And they come right in time for isolation 1st war time frame
His UB
The Research institute is a laboratory that also gives 2 free scientists. Normally I love UB that give free specialists, but given the time that this UU arrives, it is dificult that the bonus given by those 2 specialists will be game-breaking or even significative ( this OFC in a ancient start game, like this one... ), so this will probably not make any significant diference in most games, even in the ones that will go to space
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, we started in sheepland Well, the lay of the land is not that inspiring : lake, river 1 tile away, sheep and corn, a collection of plains hills, some plains.... I wonder if settling 1 S is not a better idea .....
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 41th game in BTS the chosen leader was Peter of the Russians:
Spoiler :
This already happened more than once: I was passing by the leaders list of the already played leaders on the LHC Bullpen and I noticed that I've been negleting the russian leaders ( atleast the male ones
). So I decided to pick one of the more popular leaders in vanilla, not so much in BtS ( probably has much to do with the changes that the Russian UU had )Anyway, Peter is Phi/Exp ..... well, Philosophical is a trait that I never saw in the list of worst traits, but Expansive definitely was in more than one
I guess that expansive links well with philosophical , more because of the granary half-price and the 2 health ( 2 health = 1 extra citizen in health restricted enviroments ) than anything realted with the worker build speed. The half priced universities of the Phi trait are nothing to shun as well. The UU already had better days ( yup, a a cavalry unit with 18 str is OP, but a 8 str sword isn't.... even more, in BtS we need rifling to make cavs..... ), but it is still a interesting asset against the hordes of mounted units that the AI loves to build and the UB.... well, the UB is extremely late and in best odds maybe cut a handful of turns of a space win in ancient start game. Well, a package solid enough to use.....His UU
Spoiler :
*whips a tear, remembering sadly the times of Vanilla cossacks*
The cossack is a beefed Cavalry unit that has a bonus vs other mounted units. In other days this UU was the king of it's era, when it had 18 str and only needed Mil Trad, Gunpowder and horses to build
Even in it's double nerfed state ( only case in Civ IV that a UU was nerfed twice, unless you count with the hammer prices of Preatorians ), Cossacks are still a very useful asset if the enemy pushes a lot of mounted units, like the AI uses to do ( especially leaders like Justinian or the Khans ). And they come right in time for isolation 1st war time frame His UB
Spoiler :
The Research institute is a laboratory that also gives 2 free scientists. Normally I love UB that give free specialists, but given the time that this UU arrives, it is dificult that the bonus given by those 2 specialists will be game-breaking or even significative ( this OFC in a ancient start game, like this one... ), so this will probably not make any significant diference in most games, even in the ones that will go to space
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, we started in sheepland
Well, the lay of the land is not that inspiring : lake, river 1 tile away, sheep and corn, a collection of plains hills, some plains.... I wonder if settling 1 S is not a better idea .....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
As there is a lot of people ( or atleast a group of very vocal ones.... right TMIT ? 
! I'm not vocal 
. That streak is a bit fluky anyway. So, emperor it is.
pop 1 no downside 
F'n bear. I hit enter, and 
and I gained 2 points from 1 battle....
, more deficit research now, going for Archery (Barb defence) then Pottery/writing.
