r_rolo1
King of myself
Welcome to the 56th 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 56th game in BTS the chosen leader was again Zara Yaqob ( not Yacob, as I wrote in the first time ) of the Ethiopian:
I wrote in the first time we played Zara in the LHC that he was probably the one of the leaders that people liked more to play and at the same time one of the leaders that people hated more to see in the hands of the AI
That opinion of mine had not changed much: indeed Zara has as trait combo Cre/Org, that are traits that give both discounts to important buildings ( like libraries and courthouses, things that you will build in most cities ), but also traits that give direct bonuses that are pretty straightforward to use ( Cre culture and Org reduction of fees ). That , in a hand of a AI that is not too much fanatical of anything in particular, can give easily some monster empires ( a similar thing happens with Gilgamesh IMHO ), and to say the truth, it is the same in the hands of a human that knows what he/she is doing....
Anyway, Zara trait combo is pretty decent and the Ethiopian UU is arguably the best musket UU of the game. The UB, well .... it is definitely a case of a UB that gives too little, too soon and that obsoletes with a particularly inconvenient tech, atleast for some of the strategies needed for a cultural win ( read using Corporations )
P.S It would be kind of Firaxis not call a leader King in a paragraph and Emperor in the next
Well, if we can survive to Ballista Elephants being a powerful melee unit, I guess this is bearable as well
His UU
Or the extra 2 first strikes of Samurai? ), and unlike any other UU, the oromo get 2 of them, so they have a significant boost.... And like I said before, that means that the pretty good ( to say the least ) Drill IV promo is 5 XP ( 4, if you use a Cha leader ) away.
In here? Well, I definitely not expect to see much of Oromo powered invasions, but given the oromo free promos, it might be a good idea to make/draft a good number of them for later upgrade
His UB
No, it is not because of the "I have a Creative leader, so I don't need monument culture to pop borders" line of reasoning ( I don't agree with that line of reasoning, but that would make a thread of it's own ), but because it is a culture multiplier that obsoletes with Astronomy. Astronomy is one of the optional prereqs for Sci Met ( thus it is the way for Biology and Medicine ( read Sushi ) ) and it is necessary for Physics... without Physics, you don't have access to Electricity, Radio, Mass Media , thus no acess the Eifell, Broadcast towers and the Hits wonders. Also no acesss to the other 3 culture corps. This means that this UB is useless for a culture win that it isn't in the old way of go to Music, make cathedrals, make sistine, run 100% culture and mass artists and pray that no one attack you, and this suposing you can live without Astronomy ( read pangea, most of the times ). This suposing OFC you want to go to culture ... if you want to go any other path, most of the times the Observatories of Astro alone make it worth obsoleting the Stele 
In here is even worse, given that Astro is a pretty vital tech for the economy and defense of empire that starts in a isolated island....
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 ):
Marble in the BFC ... not that common Well, besides that, nothing extraordinary. Non-riverside corn, some forest, 3 grass hills, riverside plains mostly ... well, i expect some other food resource in the shadows ( given that this isn't that forested ), but it isn't more that decent to poor start IMHO. Anyway, I think that moving the scout to a hill in the east ( either north or south ) is pretty much needed before deciding settling on the spot or somewhere else ( maybe 1 W 
? )
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 56th game in BTS the chosen leader was again Zara Yaqob ( not Yacob, as I wrote in the first time
) of the Ethiopian:Spoiler :
I wrote in the first time we played Zara in the LHC that he was probably the one of the leaders that people liked more to play and at the same time one of the leaders that people hated more to see in the hands of the AI
That opinion of mine had not changed much: indeed Zara has as trait combo Cre/Org, that are traits that give both discounts to important buildings ( like libraries and courthouses, things that you will build in most cities ), but also traits that give direct bonuses that are pretty straightforward to use ( Cre culture and Org reduction of fees ). That , in a hand of a AI that is not too much fanatical of anything in particular, can give easily some monster empires ( a similar thing happens with Gilgamesh IMHO ), and to say the truth, it is the same in the hands of a human that knows what he/she is doing....Anyway, Zara trait combo is pretty decent and the Ethiopian UU is arguably the best musket UU of the game. The UB, well .... it is definitely a case of a UB that gives too little, too soon and that obsoletes with a particularly inconvenient tech, atleast for some of the strategies needed for a cultural win ( read using Corporations )
P.S It would be kind of Firaxis not call a leader King in a paragraph and Emperor in the next
Well, if we can survive to Ballista Elephants being a powerful melee unit, I guess this is bearable as well His UU
Spoiler :
Well, since then there was a lot of internet ink running about the Oromo ... a musket UU immune to first strikes ( thus negating a lot of the defensive potential of longbows ) and that comes with 2 free promos, Drill I and II . Free promotions are always a big thing in a UU, because they will keep them when upgrades, unlike the other features of the UU ( would you not love that the Keshik ability could be kept by it's upgrades?A real monster in non isolated starts, due to the possiblity of having drill IV musket units with 5 XP ( even barbs fights will do). I believe that even wtih a isolated start this unit will have a nice place in the show, giving us the possiblility of fending a renaiscence outside attack with some easy, and maybe even some action overseas
Or the extra 2 first strikes of Samurai? ), and unlike any other UU, the oromo get 2 of them, so they have a significant boost.... And like I said before, that means that the pretty good ( to say the least ) Drill IV promo is 5 XP ( 4, if you use a Cha leader ) away.In here? Well, I definitely not expect to see much of Oromo powered invasions, but given the oromo free promos, it might be a good idea to make/draft a good number of them for later upgrade
His UB
Spoiler :
Well, I still dislike the SteleA building made for the culture lovers. A cheap, early culture multiplier... too bad it obsoletes with Astro. That poses a problem to to the player that wants a culture victory in this kind of starts: playing without astro in isolation is a high-risk move, but +25% is not neglectable..... Let's see if someone tries it
No, it is not because of the "I have a Creative leader, so I don't need monument culture to pop borders" line of reasoning ( I don't agree with that line of reasoning, but that would make a thread of it's own ), but because it is a culture multiplier that obsoletes with Astronomy. Astronomy is one of the optional prereqs for Sci Met ( thus it is the way for Biology and Medicine ( read Sushi ) ) and it is necessary for Physics... without Physics, you don't have access to Electricity, Radio, Mass Media , thus no acess the Eifell, Broadcast towers and the Hits wonders. Also no acesss to the other 3 culture corps. This means that this UB is useless for a culture win that it isn't in the old way of go to Music, make cathedrals, make sistine, run 100% culture and mass artists and pray that no one attack you, and this suposing you can live without Astronomy ( read pangea, most of the times ). This suposing OFC you want to go to culture ... if you want to go any other path, most of the times the Observatories of Astro alone make it worth obsoleting the Stele In here is even worse, given that Astro is a pretty vital tech for the economy and defense of empire that starts in a isolated island....
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 :
Marble in the BFC ... not that common
Well, besides that, nothing extraordinary. Non-riverside corn, some forest, 3 grass hills, riverside plains mostly ... well, i expect some other food resource in the shadows ( given that this isn't that forested ), but it isn't more that decent to poor start IMHO. Anyway, I think that moving the scout to a hill in the east ( either north or south ) is pretty much needed before deciding settling on the spot or somewhere else ( maybe 1 W ? )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
cap a bit with monarchy and whip infra instead. My tech rate wasn't very pretty but some AI oracle'd philosophy in 1400 BC or so (before someone founded judaism!) and there was quite a bit of religious distribution in this game ultimately.
