r_rolo1
King of myself
Welcome to the 44nd 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 44nd game in BTS the chosen leader was Mehmed II of the Ottomans ( why they couldn't simply call them Turks ? ):
By some reason , I delayed playing with Mehmed in here... probably because Mehmed was the leader that originated the LHC games ( the ALC 15 game, where Sisiutil saw himself isolated and ended fighting Russian tanks ( from Cathy, with love
) with grenadiers, was the main reasons for willpax starting a series of games played in isolation ). But Mehemd is surely a good leader for isolation ( I still blame Sisiutil defeat to deficient fogbusting in the earlier ages and some shadow games proved that simply settling city #2 on a metal made the game entirely diferent ) : it has a very balanced trait combination ( Exp/Org ) that gives a handful of half-priced buildings and cheaper workers. The UB, giving happiness, is also a very interesting asset to have ( in spite of being very expensive when it first appears ) and the UU.... well, i'm not expecting to see a lot of action in pre-gunpowder ages in here, but who knows....
His UU
The Jannisary is a beefed musketman that has a 25% bonus vs archery, melee and mounted units. This means that it can round up pretty much all the pre-gunpowder units down ( given it's inhererent bigger strength , except for knights, but even then it's a pretty even fight, a thing that doesn't happen with other musket units ), and in fact, it is a very sound strategy to get them fast and stomp everything in reach before they start getting their own muskets, or even worse cuiraseers. Probably the more loved musket UU in Warlords ( for some reason people don't adjust well to the French UU ), today saw it's place occupied by the Ethiopian Oromo ( most likely because the promos of the Oromo are permanent, unlike the janissary bonuses )
In here.... well, I surely would be surprised if someone mounted a sucessful janissary invasion to the overseas ( but i would be more than happy to be proven wrong ) and I would be surprised if you found any use for them in barb taking. So, they will probably have a calm live .....
His UB
The Hamman is a boosted aqueduct that also gives 2
in top of the regular health bonuses. I'm pretty sure that most of the people reading this know my opinion about the importance of happiness in this game, but I'm not so fond of this UB, mainly because it is extremely expensive when it appears ( ok, they don't obsolete 
). 100 hammers in normal speed is 1/5 of the price of the pyramids and it is quite close of some wonders... that is a heavy toll to pay for 2 when most of your cities are not making much more that 10 hammers per turn ( given the fact that Mathematics is needed for a lot of stuff, you will probably want to get it earlier than later ). Well, it is surely useful, but also surely expensive
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, a irrigated corn, pigs on a hill, flat plains and green hill ( oh, and a pretty much useless ( for now ) calendar resource ).... I would surely prefer to see the brown in the hills and the green in the flats, but it is not a bad site. Surely not a cottage or farm heaven, though....
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 44nd game in BTS the chosen leader was Mehmed II of the Ottomans ( why they couldn't simply call them Turks ? ):
Spoiler :
By some reason , I delayed playing with Mehmed in here... probably because Mehmed was the leader that originated the LHC games ( the ALC 15 game, where Sisiutil saw himself isolated and ended fighting Russian tanks ( from Cathy, with love
) with grenadiers, was the main reasons for willpax starting a series of games played in isolation ). But Mehemd is surely a good leader for isolation ( I still blame Sisiutil defeat to deficient fogbusting in the earlier ages and some shadow games proved that simply settling city #2 on a metal made the game entirely diferent ) : it has a very balanced trait combination ( Exp/Org ) that gives a handful of half-priced buildings and cheaper workers. The UB, giving happiness, is also a very interesting asset to have ( in spite of being very expensive when it first appears ) and the UU.... well, i'm not expecting to see a lot of action in pre-gunpowder ages in here, but who knows....His UU
Spoiler :
The Jannisary is a beefed musketman that has a 25% bonus vs archery, melee and mounted units. This means that it can round up pretty much all the pre-gunpowder units down ( given it's inhererent bigger strength , except for knights, but even then it's a pretty even fight, a thing that doesn't happen with other musket units ), and in fact, it is a very sound strategy to get them fast and stomp everything in reach before they start getting their own muskets, or even worse cuiraseers. Probably the more loved musket UU in Warlords ( for some reason people don't adjust well to the French UU ), today saw it's place occupied by the Ethiopian Oromo ( most likely because the promos of the Oromo are permanent, unlike the janissary bonuses )
In here.... well, I surely would be surprised if someone mounted a sucessful janissary invasion to the overseas ( but i would be more than happy to be proven wrong
) and I would be surprised if you found any use for them in barb taking. So, they will probably have a calm live .....His UB
Spoiler :
The Hamman is a boosted aqueduct that also gives 2
in top of the regular health bonuses. I'm pretty sure that most of the people reading this know my opinion about the importance of happiness in this game, but I'm not so fond of this UB, mainly because it is extremely expensive when it appears ( ok, they don't obsolete ). 100 hammers in normal speed is 1/5 of the price of the pyramids and it is quite close of some wonders... that is a heavy toll to pay for 2 when most of your cities are not making much more that 10 hammers per turn ( given the fact that Mathematics is needed for a lot of stuff, you will probably want to get it earlier than later ). Well, it is surely useful, but also surely expensive 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, a irrigated corn, pigs on a hill, flat plains and green hill ( oh, and a pretty much useless ( for now ) calendar resource ).... I would surely prefer to see the brown in the hills and the green in the flats, but it is not a bad site. Surely not a cottage or farm heaven, though....
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
I don't recall making a unrestricted leaders LHC 
