r_rolo1
King of myself
Welcome to the 52nd 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 52nd game in BTS the chosen leader was Stalin of the Russian:
And with good Ol'Uncle Joe we finish the first rotation to the stock leaders of BtS. Stalin is Agg/Ind, a trait combo that some love ( I heard atleast a poster say that he loved using Stalin because it could do both axe rushes and wonderspamming with ease ) , some others would say that the synergy between the traits is virtually none. The UU is also a mid game one ( and one of the two UU that was nerfed twice since the release of the game ), while the UB is the latest of the game ( and that was also nerfed once, by putting it in a later tech in BtS ).
In isolation... well, my impression is that Agg in isolation is almost a half trait: the half priced buildings are not the more useful for building up a economy and your melle units will probably not see much more fight than against barbarians. Ind is another issue, since that some players love the peace and quietness of isolation because they want to build wonders undisturbed
. The UU OTOH comes right in time for the intercontinental invasions and it is a very interesting option to fend those all-mounted huge stacks that some AI ( like Justinian or Isabella ) love to build... the UB, well, too little , too late ( maybe not too little , 2 free specs is nothing to shun about, but, unless you start in one of the latest eras, the impact in game of the russian UB is minimal... maybe one more GS with some luck? + 100 
per turn in a time you are most likely making 4 digits bpt? )
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 ):
Well, well .... 6 FP + 6 plains hills + river + riverside grassland corn + gold.... this site has a huge prod potential, if you ask me ( and a early
resource in BFC is nothing to shun about ) . Anyway there is grassland to the east and a irrigated rice, so moving the cap SE may not seem so far fetched at all ( depending of the surroundings OFC ), given the heavy 
that those FP will bring...
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 52nd game in BTS the chosen leader was Stalin of the Russian:
Spoiler :
And with good Ol'Uncle Joe we finish the first rotation to the stock leaders of BtS. Stalin is Agg/Ind, a trait combo that some love ( I heard atleast a poster say that he loved using Stalin because it could do both axe rushes and wonderspamming with ease ) , some others would say that the synergy between the traits is virtually none. The UU is also a mid game one ( and one of the two UU that was nerfed twice since the release of the game ), while the UB is the latest of the game ( and that was also nerfed once, by putting it in a later tech in BtS ).
In isolation... well, my impression is that Agg in isolation is almost a half trait: the half priced buildings are not the more useful for building up a economy and your melle units will probably not see much more fight than against barbarians. Ind is another issue, since that some players love the peace and quietness of isolation because they want to build wonders undisturbed
. The UU OTOH comes right in time for the intercontinental invasions and it is a very interesting option to fend those all-mounted huge stacks that some AI ( like Justinian or Isabella ) love to build... the UB, well, too little , too late ( maybe not too little , 2 free specs is nothing to shun about, but, unless you start in one of the latest eras, the impact in game of the russian UB is minimal... maybe one more GS with some luck? + 100 per turn in a time you are most likely making 4 digits bpt? )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 buildEven 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 :
Well, well .... 6 FP + 6 plains hills + river + riverside grassland corn + gold.... this site has a huge prod potential, if you ask me ( and a early
resource in BFC is nothing to shun about ) . Anyway there is grassland to the east and a irrigated rice, so moving the cap SE may not seem so far fetched at all ( depending of the surroundings OFC ), given the heavy that those FP will bring...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
), Mysticism, the Wheel, Pottery, Writing, Aesthetics, Polytheism, Priesthood (missed the Oracle), Fishing, Literature, currently working on Sailing. (I might have missed one or two techs here). After Sailing it will be Calendar, Code of Laws, Currency, then I don't know, but will put Music soon someplace. I'm not really sure about where to settle the cities. I made a temporary dot-map, but it will certainly change - I'm missing too much grass with it. Already had a Great Prophet and a Great Spy, both settled in Moscow.
whoops). Also got GL fairly early and put NE in the capital as a proper GP city would take forever to build.
. However, it remains a legit VC so hell with it. With a high commerce start and IND, why not?
