r_rolo1
King of myself
Welcome to the 57th 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 57th game in BTS the chosen leader was again Charles de Gaulle of the French:
Well, I like Ind/Cha, the traits that de Gaulle has
In fact it is one of trait combos I like more when playing a OCC .... barring that, Charismatic is a very, very good trait, even if you don't fight a war in the whole game, due to the added 
. Ind is probably more straightforward: more speed in wonder building is pretty much self explanatory and probably far more useful than half-price forges ( not that half priced forges are bad .... ). About the UU/UB of France ..... well , a UB that gives a free spec is always a good thing to have, especially if you run Representation ( being Ind, our leader normally has a fair chance of building the Piramids ) .... OTOH the value of 2 move muskets is probably discussible, especially in a confined enviroment like a isolated start where the major fights are made with barbs and/or after rifles in 90% of the times .
His UU
I could had pretty much made copy-paste of the Oromo entry in here with minor detail changes
Musketeers are a musket with 2 moves ( like mounted units ). Like I said about the Oromo, a lot of internet ink already was spilled about the merits of musket-based UU and muskets themselfes ( my point in there is that if you think that muskets have a short life is because you are getting gunpowder too late and/or rifling too early ... and obviously I already made very sucessfull musket based wars, especially with our dear friend Tokugawa ). If you are interested in those discussions you can see the threads that are running in both this forum and on the general discussions My point is that in a isolated start, where muskets come too late to fight barbs , and normally too early for being/figthing a intercontinental invasion, any musket based UU that does not retain it's abilities via upgrade pales a lot....
His UB
The Salon is a Observatory that also gives a free artist. The nature of this bonus is probably as controversial as the French UU
: some will love it for culture wins, some will argue that a UB that gives a free specialist is always good, especially under Rep, some will curse the GA contamination in their GS directed cities To say the truth , I'm in the middle: I'm not a fan of culture wins, but I'm not picky about my GP as well, atleast not as much as a lot of GS purists that fill this forum , so for me a extra specialist is a extra specialist....
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, people can't complain about the lack of green tiles on this start Riverside pig, non-riverside corn , forested silk ( oh, Calendar :/ ) ... 3 grass hills on sight, not much of forests, more grass to the NW and desert + FP to the west ( probably a good place for the 2nd city ) . No signs of stone or marble nearby though .... Like I said, lack of food will probably not be a issue in this area ( lack of early prod will probably be more a issue )
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 57th game in BTS the chosen leader was again Charles de Gaulle of the French:
Spoiler :
Well, I like Ind/Cha, the traits that de Gaulle has
In fact it is one of trait combos I like more when playing a OCC .... barring that, Charismatic is a very, very good trait, even if you don't fight a war in the whole game, due to the added . Ind is probably more straightforward: more speed in wonder building is pretty much self explanatory and probably far more useful than half-price forges ( not that half priced forges are bad .... ). About the UU/UB of France ..... well , a UB that gives a free spec is always a good thing to have, especially if you run Representation ( being Ind, our leader normally has a fair chance of building the Piramids ) .... OTOH the value of 2 move muskets is probably discussible, especially in a confined enviroment like a isolated start where the major fights are made with barbs and/or after rifles in 90% of the times .His UU
Spoiler :
I could had pretty much made copy-paste of the Oromo entry in here with minor detail changes
Musketeers are a musket with 2 moves ( like mounted units ). Like I said about the Oromo, a lot of internet ink already was spilled about the merits of musket-based UU and muskets themselfes ( my point in there is that if you think that muskets have a short life is because you are getting gunpowder too late and/or rifling too early ... and obviously I already made very sucessfull musket based wars, especially with our dear friend Tokugawa ). If you are interested in those discussions you can see the threads that are running in both this forum and on the general discussions
My point is that in a isolated start, where muskets come too late to fight barbs , and normally too early for being/figthing a intercontinental invasion, any musket based UU that does not retain it's abilities via upgrade pales a lot....His UB
Spoiler :
The Salon is a Observatory that also gives a free artist. The nature of this bonus is probably as controversial as the French UU
: some will love it for culture wins, some will argue that a UB that gives a free specialist is always good, especially under Rep, some will curse the GA contamination in their GS directed cities To say the truth , I'm in the middle: I'm not a fan of culture wins, but I'm not picky about my GP as well, atleast not as much as a lot of GS purists that fill this forum , so for me a extra specialist is a extra specialist....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, people can't complain about the lack of green tiles on this start
Riverside pig, non-riverside corn , forested silk ( oh, Calendar :/ ) ... 3 grass hills on sight, not much of forests, more grass to the NW and desert + FP to the west ( probably a good place for the 2nd city ) . No signs of stone or marble nearby though .... Like I said, lack of food will probably not be a issue in this area ( lack of early prod will probably be more a issue )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
This let me expand and tech OK. I spotted a landmass south of ours reachable by galleys. So I prioritized trying to settle that way.
. Is there any #$%^ing pretense of logic in this game? There shouldn't be.
