r_rolo1
King of myself
Welcome to the 55th 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 55th game in BTS the chosen leader was again Willem van Orange of the Dutch:
Oh, the Dutch... probably the most hyped civ of Civ IV
I guess people really love Fin/Cre leaders and hammer giving UB 
....
Talking seriously, the Dutch in BtS have a leader with a 2 popular traits : financial and Creative. Financial is one of those down to earth traits: you work a tile with 2 C and get one C free of charge... simple and effective ( by some reason the Firaxians thought that half priced banks was OP and took it out of the trait when Warlords came ... but, by some other obscure reason, a 8 str swordsman UU is perfectly fine
). Creative is a little less down to earth , and in fact the more useful part of the trait is probably not the 2 
but the half priced buildings, especially the libraries. Anyway Fin/Cre is a fine trait combo. The UU is somewhat underacheiving for a game that, for all it matters, is a land control game, in spite of not being a bad unit in it self.... but the UB is another issue
His UU
The Flying Dutchman.... er, East Indiaman is a boosted Galleon, that has a significant increase in strenght ( +50% ) at the cost of 10 extra hammers, a thing that allows it to eat galleons for breakfast and to fight privateers in equal ground ( it can also fight frigates cost effectivelly with some airship support, a nice thing to have when you don't have metals ... too bad it can't bombard city defenses as well ) . It can also enter enemy waters without OB, a thing that allows many neat tricks in assaulting coastal cities. Obviously will have a place in here, where it comes just in time for the intercontinental invasions.
His UB
The Dike is a levee that can be built in tiles with access to coast and/or river and that gives 1 hammer to all water and riverside tiles in the BFC of the city. This is actually quite a hammer boost in a lot of places and, given that this game can easily be won by having more production, this UB has a soft spot in the hearts of a lot of players ( in fact, IIRC, it is the only UB that gives hammers ). The biggest complaint you can ear about this UB is that it comes in a time where the game is normally decided ( I strongly disagree with that kind of argument line, but this is not the place for that kind of discussion ) or that the cities that could win more from it are the ones that will take ages to build it ( same as Moai statues ). Anyway a Dutch city with a Dike and Moai and with collossus in the empire during a GA is a pretty sight
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, not so watery as RL Netherlands, but will do Plains hill sheep ( bah ) and clam are the only food resources visible and there isn't any sign of more. 3 hills ( one with the sheep and the others are grassland, some woods to chop in the north, a small river ( not much hammers from the dike here, I guess ), probably a metal hidden somewhere.... Not shiny, but will do.
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 55th game in BTS the chosen leader was again Willem van Orange of the Dutch:
Spoiler :
Oh, the Dutch... probably the most hyped civ of Civ IV
I guess people really love Fin/Cre leaders and hammer giving UB .... Talking seriously, the Dutch in BtS have a leader with a 2 popular traits : financial and Creative. Financial is one of those down to earth traits: you work a tile with 2 C and get one C free of charge... simple and effective ( by some reason the Firaxians thought that half priced banks was OP and took it out of the trait when Warlords came ... but, by some other obscure reason, a 8 str swordsman UU is perfectly fine
). Creative is a little less down to earth , and in fact the more useful part of the trait is probably not the 2 but the half priced buildings, especially the libraries. Anyway Fin/Cre is a fine trait combo. The UU is somewhat underacheiving for a game that, for all it matters, is a land control game, in spite of not being a bad unit in it self.... but the UB is another issue His UU
Spoiler :
The Flying Dutchman.... er, East Indiaman is a boosted Galleon, that has a significant increase in strenght ( +50% ) at the cost of 10 extra hammers, a thing that allows it to eat galleons for breakfast and to fight privateers in equal ground ( it can also fight frigates cost effectivelly with some airship support, a nice thing to have when you don't have metals ... too bad it can't bombard city defenses as well ) . It can also enter enemy waters without OB, a thing that allows many neat tricks in assaulting coastal cities
. Obviously will have a place in here, where it comes just in time for the intercontinental invasions.His UB
Spoiler :
The Dike is a levee that can be built in tiles with access to coast and/or river and that gives 1 hammer to all water and riverside tiles in the BFC of the city. This is actually quite a hammer boost in a lot of places and, given that this game can easily be won by having more production, this UB has a soft spot in the hearts of a lot of players ( in fact, IIRC, it is the only UB that gives hammers ). The biggest complaint you can ear about this UB is that it comes in a time where the game is normally decided ( I strongly disagree with that kind of argument line, but this is not the place for that kind of discussion ) or that the cities that could win more from it are the ones that will take ages to build it ( same as Moai statues ). Anyway a Dutch city with a Dike and Moai and with collossus in the empire during a GA is a pretty sight
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, not so watery as RL Netherlands, but will do
Plains hill sheep ( bah ) and clam are the only food resources visible and there isn't any sign of more. 3 hills ( one with the sheep and the others are grassland, some woods to chop in the north, a small river ( not much hammers from the dike here, I guess ), probably a metal hidden somewhere.... Not shiny, but will do. 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
