r_rolo1
King of myself
Welcome to the 47th 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 47th game in BTS the chosen leader was Asoka of the Indians :
Well, the RL history of the fierce and bloodthirthy ruler that becomes a peacenik when converted to Budhism... very poetic, but Firaxis had some problems capturing that idea regarding his AI ( as he is now he is a whimpy peacenik that will become a war beast if by acident he gets enough power to enter in blood rage mode ( a thing that does not happen often.... ) ). Asoka is Org/Spi, two traits that already had more love in the ol'days
but that work well together. His UU, in spite of being the only non-military UU in the game ( not surprising , given that the worker is one of the few non military units in game ), it is the only UU that you can build since turn 1 to the end of the game and a more efficient worker is nothing to complain about. The UB is not stellar, but definitely is a good help for those later wars where the WW is a big issue.
His UU
His UB
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 ):
It looks that we got a quasi-legendary plains fur start :/ They are very nice and such, but they normally lack food in the surrounding lands ( being only created near the poles, they are normally surrounded by ice, tundra and plains ). The fact that we can see grassland in the north points that we are in the south and that our land goes to north, that is a good sign. Anyway, 3 seaffod and a lake is a good ammount of food to start, but having only a handfull grass tiles in the starting BFC is a little extreme.... Well, I had far worse in my Civ IV history
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 47th game in BTS the chosen leader was Asoka of the Indians :
Spoiler :
Well, the RL history of the fierce and bloodthirthy ruler that becomes a peacenik when converted to Budhism... very poetic, but Firaxis had some problems capturing that idea regarding his AI ( as he is now he is a whimpy peacenik that will become a war beast if by acident he gets enough power to enter in blood rage mode ( a thing that does not happen often.... ) ). Asoka is Org/Spi, two traits that already had more love in the ol'days
but that work well together. His UU, in spite of being the only non-military UU in the game ( not surprising , given that the worker is one of the few non military units in game ), it is the only UU that you can build since turn 1 to the end of the game and a more efficient worker is nothing to complain about. The UB is not stellar, but definitely is a good help for those later wars where the WW is a big issue.His UU
Spoiler :
His UB
Spoiler :
The mausoleum is a powered jail that gives 2... I never used much of this UB ( not a fan of jails... ), but extra hapiness is always welcomed. I suppose that it can be useful for a drafting + espionage combo ( 4 extra
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 :
It looks that we got a quasi-legendary plains fur start :/ They are very nice and such, but they normally lack food in the surrounding lands ( being only created near the poles, they are normally surrounded by ice, tundra and plains ). The fact that we can see grassland in the north points that we are in the south and that our land goes to north, that is a good sign. Anyway, 3 seaffod and a lake is a good ammount of food to start, but having only a handfull grass tiles in the starting BFC is a little extreme.... Well, I had far worse in my Civ IV history
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
