r_rolo1
King of myself
Welcome to the 60th 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 60th game in BTS the chosen leader was again Darius of the Persians:
Darius, alongside with Willem , is one of the most hyped new leaders that BtS brought. It is not without some reason, though: the trait combo it has, Fin/Org, is easy to leverage and it gives a quite powerful benefit if well used and this combined with probably one of the strongest UU in the game ( atleast in SP ) that eats archer garrisons as breakfast. As a AI ... well, the least I can say is that Darius XML defined personality is clearly underacheiving and rarely makes the advantages it has to work on his favor ( not mentioning it tends to make some weedy tech choices: I can't forget a game where he was #1 in everything in the end of the middle ages and then shoots to radio without getting nothing more solid in terms of military than muskets ... it did not ended well for him
) ... too bad. But, clearly, in the hands of a human that knows what it is doing, this leader can give some solid yields.
In isolation: well, Fin/Org is as good in isolation as outside of it The UU... well, besides barb action, will be probably decorative.
His UU
The Immortal, is a beefed chariot that can fortify and that also has a strong direct bonus vs archery units ( in spite of his base strenght making this bonus only realistically worthwhile vs archers ). As you can imagine, this unit is the terror of any player that opts/ is forced to rely on archers to defend his cities in early game and a lot of players put it in the top 5 of the strongest UU in game because of that.
In isolation... well, like I pointed out, immortals are only a realistical advantage to a army in the early ages, so you will be surely in a bad situation if you need to use this in war vs other civ in here Besides that, the usual anti barb and garrison ( given that they can fortify they are far better at this than chariots ) duties
His UB
The apothecary is a grocer replacement that gives 2 extra health in top of the regular grocer bonuses. The bonus is not displicend in later eras, when there are green faces everywhere, but it is not probably a big factor when you have them avaliable by the first time ( and this is if you are a player that cares for the health of the cities in your empire ), so in the end this UB normally is not a big bonus.
In isolation ... well, barring the use of HR
garrisons ( for some reason my games with Persia end with tons of "happy immortals" in the cities 
) , in isolation normally you hit the happines cap far before the health cap, even more than in regular games. So this bonus only gets more useful by the end of the game....
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 ):
Riverside rice and plains marble are the only resources in view. Besides that we have a naked riverside plains hill and lots of forest, mostly grassland one. as this is a Fractal map, there is another food resource too somewhere in the fog ( a internet cookie for the person who says where just from looking at the posted screenie ). But in the end this is one of those "tech BW and chop... otherwise you can't do a thing in your BFC before preserves and lumbermills" starts As a side note, you can see water in the south of the known map...
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 60th game in BTS the chosen leader was again Darius of the Persians:
Spoiler :
Darius, alongside with Willem , is one of the most hyped new leaders that BtS brought. It is not without some reason, though: the trait combo it has, Fin/Org, is easy to leverage and it gives a quite powerful benefit if well used and this combined with probably one of the strongest UU in the game ( atleast in SP ) that eats archer garrisons as breakfast. As a AI ... well, the least I can say is that Darius XML defined personality is clearly underacheiving and rarely makes the advantages it has to work on his favor ( not mentioning it tends to make some weedy tech choices: I can't forget a game where he was #1 in everything in the end of the middle ages and then shoots to radio without getting nothing more solid in terms of military than muskets ... it did not ended well for him
) ... too bad. But, clearly, in the hands of a human that knows what it is doing, this leader can give some solid yields.In isolation: well, Fin/Org is as good in isolation as outside of it
The UU... well, besides barb action, will be probably decorative.His UU
Spoiler :
The Immortal, is a beefed chariot that can fortify and that also has a strong direct bonus vs archery units ( in spite of his base strenght making this bonus only realistically worthwhile vs archers ). As you can imagine, this unit is the terror of any player that opts/ is forced to rely on archers to defend his cities in early game and a lot of players put it in the top 5 of the strongest UU in game because of that.
In isolation... well, like I pointed out, immortals are only a realistical advantage to a army in the early ages, so you will be surely in a bad situation if you need to use this in war vs other civ in here
Besides that, the usual anti barb and garrison ( given that they can fortify they are far better at this than chariots ) dutiesHis UB
Spoiler :
The apothecary is a grocer replacement that gives 2 extra health in top of the regular grocer bonuses. The bonus is not displicend in later eras, when there are green faces everywhere, but it is not probably a big factor when you have them avaliable by the first time ( and this is if you are a player that cares for the health of the cities in your empire
), so in the end this UB normally is not a big bonus.In isolation ... well, barring the use of HR
garrisons ( for some reason my games with Persia end with tons of "happy immortals" in the cities ) , in isolation normally you hit the happines cap far before the health cap, even more than in regular games. So this bonus only gets more useful by the end of the game.... 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 :
Riverside rice and plains marble are the only resources in view. Besides that we have a naked riverside plains hill and lots of forest, mostly grassland one. as this is a Fractal map, there is another food resource too somewhere in the fog ( a internet cookie for the person who says where just from looking at the posted screenie ). But in the end this is one of those "tech BW and chop... otherwise you can't do a thing in your BFC before preserves and lumbermills" starts
As a side note, you can see water in the south of the known map...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
.
. On the bright side, a quick glance at the tech screen shows that SB/Izzy are behind the norm in tech, while hammy is ahead of the other AIs in tech and going culture (will build UN).
