Willem's latest LHC has wound down now so... Welcome to the 69th 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....
Our next leader is Montezuma of the Aztecs, whom we last played in 61 and before that in 8. The Aztecs start with Mysticism and Hunting, normally I would think they would be considered below par and really they probably still are in isolation. The scout from hunting is less useful with (what is usually) less land to explore but on the plus side mysticism means easier/faster religions which can be common grabs in isolated games for the happiness, if you don't want to go for a religion or 3 then these are not the best starting techs for sure.
Spiritual and Aggressive are not exactly made for isolation but their properties can be useful in pretty much any game, for the late game anyway. In the early game you would be looking at whipping and war (especially with Monty, he has a name to uphold) which is not an option in isolated games.
The UB, the sacrificial altar:
I must confess to having barely used this, we'll see how this goes. It looks like a very powerful UB, cheap courthouse with special whipping powers nice.
The UU, the Jaguar:
As UUs go its not great. The negative side to this UU is diminished by the fact that all early military UUs are ruined by isolation. The jaguar should make a very effective spawnbuster (if you go for IW) with the off the bat Woodsman 1.
The start (from the Noble, huts save):
Pigs, hills, grassland, river, freshwater lake, not too bad. I don't see much reason to not SIP as there is probably more resources in the fog but maybe I'm wrong.
Map is Standard/Fractal, I toyed with trying Archipelago but decided not, any opinions? I don't know whether other maps have been used in LHCs? I saw one of Mad Scientist's previous RPCs has been revived in which he had an isolated start on an archipelago map with high sea levels and, consequently, little land. Would you like to try other things such as this?
Not a hut fan? just choose a no huts save. Not an events fan? Open it as a custom scenario.
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).
Finally, an apology for the minor delay (only 1 day this time
), a thankyou to r_rolo1 and all those that came before him in this series' initial run, to TheMeInTeam for the map creation guides and to stevoh for co-hosting this series. Enjoy!
P.S We don't have any kind of problem with defeats and reruns.
Our next leader is Montezuma of the Aztecs, whom we last played in 61 and before that in 8. The Aztecs start with Mysticism and Hunting, normally I would think they would be considered below par and really they probably still are in isolation. The scout from hunting is less useful with (what is usually) less land to explore but on the plus side mysticism means easier/faster religions which can be common grabs in isolated games for the happiness, if you don't want to go for a religion or 3 then these are not the best starting techs for sure.
Spoiler :
Spiritual and Aggressive are not exactly made for isolation but their properties can be useful in pretty much any game, for the late game anyway. In the early game you would be looking at whipping and war (especially with Monty, he has a name to uphold) which is not an option in isolated games.
The UB, the sacrificial altar:
Spoiler :
I must confess to having barely used this, we'll see how this goes. It looks like a very powerful UB, cheap courthouse with special whipping powers nice.
The UU, the Jaguar:
Spoiler :
As UUs go its not great. The negative side to this UU is diminished by the fact that all early military UUs are ruined by isolation. The jaguar should make a very effective spawnbuster (if you go for IW) with the off the bat Woodsman 1.
The start (from the Noble, huts save):
Spoiler :
Pigs, hills, grassland, river, freshwater lake, not too bad. I don't see much reason to not SIP as there is probably more resources in the fog but maybe I'm wrong.
Map is Standard/Fractal, I toyed with trying Archipelago but decided not, any opinions? I don't know whether other maps have been used in LHCs? I saw one of Mad Scientist's previous RPCs has been revived in which he had an isolated start on an archipelago map with high sea levels and, consequently, little land. Would you like to try other things such as this?
Not a hut fan? just choose a no huts save. Not an events fan? Open it as a custom scenario.
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).
Finally, an apology for the minor delay (only 1 day this time
), a thankyou to r_rolo1 and all those that came before him in this series' initial run, to TheMeInTeam for the map creation guides and to stevoh for co-hosting this series. Enjoy!P.S We don't have any kind of problem with defeats and reruns.
) and then Wang Kon. Nobody likes him anyway ;P ). After that, I don't know. 
Still, Monarchy is about to come in so I can finally get cities past size 7/8 - we are so lacking in happy resources, just fur and silver. Next up in teching is Philo for another religion if possible, then calendar just for MoM, then to Lib, then either democracy or optics.
