r_rolo1
King of myself
Welcome to the 51th 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 51th game in BTS the chosen leader was Victoria of the English:
Well, it is just me or Civ IV Victoria is a LOT like Civ III Catherine ?
Well, among the English leaders in Civ IV, Victoria is quite overshadowed by both Elizabeth, that has the two more popular traits in the game, and by Churchill that has arguably the best rifles in the game ( ok, depends of how you value the Cha trait + redcoat abilities + 2 free promos vs the 3 free promo monsters of Japan
). Not that Victoria has a bad combo of tratis: being Fin/Imp, Victoria can easily put settlers faster in the run and use that extra coin to help with the expansion. And she still has the only rifle UU of the game as well, and that 65% bank...
In isolation.... well, cheaper settlers + extra coin in tiles with 2 or more + rifle UU + 100% GG points generation inside borders... most of you can see what I'm suggesting here, right?
Her UU
Her 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 is definitely a good start for a civ that has fishing as a starting tech 3 seafood and even one hill ready to be mined. There is also FP to the west and look to be desert in the SW. Also 2 plains appear in the north ( other island? )..... I just wonder if it is worthwhile to move the cap to 1 S: more FP , more forests to chop, less water but also less seafood and the loss of the only plains hill in the area, not mentioning losing one turn.... Anyway, regardless of any of that, I think this start with a civ that has Fishing and Mining as starting techs screams for the great lighthouse
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 earlier ) and 3.17 ( and later ) 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 51th game in BTS the chosen leader was Victoria of the English:
Spoiler :
Well, it is just me or Civ IV Victoria is a LOT like Civ III Catherine ?
Well, among the English leaders in Civ IV, Victoria is quite overshadowed by both Elizabeth, that has the two more popular traits in the game, and by Churchill that has arguably the best rifles in the game ( ok, depends of how you value the Cha trait + redcoat abilities + 2 free promos vs the 3 free promo monsters of Japan
). Not that Victoria has a bad combo of tratis: being Fin/Imp, Victoria can easily put settlers faster in the run and use that extra coin to help with the expansion. And she still has the only rifle UU of the game as well, and that 65% bank...In isolation.... well, cheaper settlers + extra coin in tiles with 2 or more + rifle UU + 100% GG points generation inside borders... most of you can see what I'm suggesting here, right?
Her UU
Spoiler :
The redcoat is a rifleman that has a aditional bonus vs gunpowder units. It is certain that this UU already had better days in vanilla ( yeah, 18 str cossacks and vanilla redcoats are OP, but the Romans can still have "macemen" with IW). Unless you get Rifling when your foes have less than muskets or better than rifles, this UU will have a definite advantage compared wtih the regular riflemen and it comes right in time for a galleon based invasion, combined with drafting ( it is the best unit you can draft at the 1 pop/unit ratio ). Probably we'll see a lot of Dom based wins
Her UB
Spoiler :
The Stock exchange is a Bank that has a 65% revenue rate instead of the normal 50%. I'm not personally a great fan of banks ( they aren't definitely in my "must build in most cities" list: expensive, in the guilds branch and does not give happy or health like grocers or markets ), but they have definitely their uses and a stock exchange in a shrined city, a GM farm ( GM in here does not stand for genetically modified
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 is definitely a good start for a civ that has fishing as a starting tech
3 seafood and even one hill ready to be mined. There is also FP to the west and look to be desert in the SW. Also 2 plains appear in the north ( other island? )..... I just wonder if it is worthwhile to move the cap to 1 S: more FP , more forests to chop, less water but also less seafood and the loss of the only plains hill in the area, not mentioning losing one turn.... Anyway, regardless of any of that, I think this start with a civ that has Fishing and Mining as starting techs screams for the great lighthouse 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 earlier ) and 3.17 ( and later ) 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
If only I were clueful about how to handle raging barbs, but my less-than-Noble military skillz aren't up to it yet.
per turn (22 vs 20) but at the time it looked like York was best; I didn't think to calculate future productivity.
from Confucian buildings.
; at 100% gold I get 93 
