r_rolo1
King of myself
Welcome to the 45th 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 45th game in BTS the chosen leader was Ragnar of the pira.... er, Vikings :
The people that ocasionally read my posts know the opinion I have about both the inclusion of Ragnar and of the Viking civilization in the game ( like a CFC member has in the sig, it is the exact equivalent of putting Robin Hood leading the Yeomen civ in the game or Zorro of the Cowboy civ ). But as we aren't discussing Firaxis ( lack of ) taste , let us continue to the show....
Ragnar is probably one of the seemingly better leaders to play in isolation, at first glance. He is Agg/Fin, meaning that you may develop a good economy with some ease whinle getting good melee and gunpowder units ( including the UU ) and both the UU and the UB are trailed to naval achievements ( the UU via the amphibious promotion and the UB via the navigation I promo given to ships ). it is definitely a strong bet if you know you are going to face isolation, and , to say the truth, I don't know why I postponed a LHC with him for so long. Let's see how it goes.....
His UU
The berserk ( or berserker , as Firaxis cared to put in the civilopedia ) is a beefed maceman with a free Amphibious promotion ( and as it is a Agg leader , also a combat I promo ). In it self , the unit is not much better than a regular maceman in terms of pure power ( it is dificult to mount a full fleged berserk invasion, mainly because of the limited cargo that the navies of the time can carry ), but the fact that the special ability of the UU is a promo, it also carries along with the unit when upgraded, meaning that a berserker may become a Amphi grenadier, riflemen, Infantry or mechanized infantry. In a map where, if you want to invade someone, you need to go by sea, like this one, a good group of CR Amphi rifles or infantry is a huge asset to have.....
His UB
The trading post is a lighthouse that also gives the navigation I promotion to all the naval units built in the city where it is. This is probably one of the more powerful UB if you are playing in a water map and plan for some warfare... like Sisiutil said in the post mortem of his Ragnar ALC, this UB makes all the naval units of the vikings quasi-UU, with all the advantages that you can thing on having by marshaling a fleet that can consistently move faster than the rest of the ships....
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 ):
A pretty decent start.... wheat and cows, some grassland hills, irrigated grasslands, a lake, marble close enough if you feel wonder-rage and , by the looks of it, the wheat is coastal...... I would say this might be a pretty decent production site if you want.
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 45th game in BTS the chosen leader was Ragnar of the pira.... er, Vikings
:Spoiler :
The people that ocasionally read my posts know the opinion I have about both the inclusion of Ragnar and of the Viking civilization in the game ( like a CFC member has in the sig, it is the exact equivalent of putting Robin Hood leading the Yeomen civ in the game or Zorro of the Cowboy civ ). But as we aren't discussing Firaxis ( lack of ) taste , let us continue to the show....
Ragnar is probably one of the seemingly better leaders to play in isolation, at first glance. He is Agg/Fin, meaning that you may develop a good economy with some ease whinle getting good melee and gunpowder units ( including the UU ) and both the UU and the UB are trailed to naval achievements ( the UU via the amphibious promotion and the UB via the navigation I promo given to ships ). it is definitely a strong bet if you know you are going to face isolation, and , to say the truth, I don't know why I postponed a LHC with him for so long. Let's see how it goes.....
His UU
Spoiler :
The berserk ( or berserker , as Firaxis cared to put in the civilopedia ) is a beefed maceman with a free Amphibious promotion ( and as it is a Agg leader , also a combat I promo ). In it self , the unit is not much better than a regular maceman in terms of pure power ( it is dificult to mount a full fleged berserk invasion, mainly because of the limited cargo that the navies of the time can carry ), but the fact that the special ability of the UU is a promo, it also carries along with the unit when upgraded, meaning that a berserker may become a Amphi grenadier, riflemen, Infantry or mechanized infantry. In a map where, if you want to invade someone, you need to go by sea, like this one, a good group of CR Amphi rifles or infantry is a huge asset to have.....
His UB
Spoiler :
The trading post is a lighthouse that also gives the navigation I promotion to all the naval units built in the city where it is. This is probably one of the more powerful UB if you are playing in a water map and plan for some warfare... like Sisiutil said in the post mortem of his Ragnar ALC, this UB makes all the naval units of the vikings quasi-UU, with all the advantages that you can thing on having by marshaling a fleet that can consistently move faster than the rest of the ships....
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 :
A pretty decent start.... wheat and cows, some grassland hills, irrigated grasslands, a lake, marble close enough if you feel wonder-rage and , by the looks of it, the wheat is coastal...... I would say this might be a pretty decent production site if you want.
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 verified that 1NE of the starting location was the best nearby location for Nidaros.
per Confucian building; I usually ignore this building but with an isolated start I figured I needed all the science benefits I could get. Once Uppsala finished building what I considered essential, I always ran as many science specialists there as I could afford. I built the National Epic there and ran Pacifism once I got Philosophy, all to generate as many GS as possible.
