r_rolo1
King of myself
Welcome to the 42nd 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 42nd game in BTS the chosen leader was Boudica of the Celts:
Ok, "another Agg or Pro civ" Boudica was one of the BtS LH that raised some eyebrows when a pic of it got out, for a LOT of historical nonsense that the LH has ( and I'm not refering only to the medieval castle in the backround ). It also brought some talk the fact that Boudica has one of the previous forbidden trait combos, Agg/Cha and it's arguable relation with both UU and UB ( that aren't exactly in the top of popularity )
As I said before , I like a lot of the Cha trait:not only because of the XP bonus, but also because of the easily acessible 2 early on. The biggest constraints to the growth of a civ are the happiness and the maintenance and cha helps a lot with the happiness part. Agg is purely a war trait, but it is one that lasts all game and gives a promo that boosts the strenght of the units The UU and the UB are probably the most discussed in CFC and I bet that most of the persons reading this already saw one of those dozen pages threads discussing it's usefulness, so I'll just say that, as most UU and UB, it can be very potent if well used and in the right enviroment and that the Celtic UU and UB, as it happens with some other UU and UB, requires a diferent play than a lot of people doesn't like to employ ( the spanish UB comes to mind in that regard: it is one of the most powerful UB in terms of warfare in BtS, because of the way it boosts a unit class that can't win more than 1 XP per fight, but some people find hard to avoid going Economics to outlast it's usefulness window )
A final note: Boudi shares with with Brennus the fact that they are Cha leaders that start with Mysticism. Stonehenge looks a very tempting proposition........
Her UU
Her UB
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 ):
2 Wines ( RL Celts would probably prefer beer, but who cares ) , pig and 2 seafood in a woody enviroment with no signs of hidden resources.... not bad, but somewhat unadapted to a civ that starts with Myst/Hunting.
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 3.17 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
For the 42nd game in BTS the chosen leader was Boudica of the Celts:
Spoiler :
Ok, "another Agg or Pro civ" Boudica was one of the BtS LH that raised some eyebrows when a pic of it got out, for a LOT of historical nonsense that the LH has ( and I'm not refering only to the medieval castle in the backround ). It also brought some talk the fact that Boudica has one of the previous forbidden trait combos, Agg/Cha and it's arguable relation with both UU and UB ( that aren't exactly in the top of popularity )
As I said before , I like a lot of the Cha trait:not only because of the XP bonus, but also because of the easily acessible 2 early on. The biggest constraints to the growth of a civ are the happiness and the maintenance and cha helps a lot with the happiness part. Agg is purely a war trait, but it is one that lasts all game and gives a promo that boosts the strenght of the units The UU and the UB are probably the most discussed in CFC and I bet that most of the persons reading this already saw one of those dozen pages threads discussing it's usefulness, so I'll just say that, as most UU and UB, it can be very potent if well used and in the right enviroment and that the Celtic UU and UB, as it happens with some other UU and UB, requires a diferent play than a lot of people doesn't like to employ ( the spanish UB comes to mind in that regard: it is one of the most powerful UB in terms of warfare in BtS, because of the way it boosts a unit class that can't win more than 1 XP per fight, but some people find hard to avoid going Economics to outlast it's usefulness window )
A final note: Boudi shares with with Brennus the fact that they are Cha leaders that start with Mysticism. Stonehenge looks a very tempting proposition........
Her UU
Spoiler :
Oh, the very controversial Gallic warrior..... a swordsman that starts with guerrilla I and that can be built with cooper or iron. As a personal opinion, i was not too keen on them until I played a recent always war game with Boudica, and they are a very solid unit, regardsless of going to the guerrilla line or not ( another promo line that some people shun for no particular reason besides not being CR ). as you can do them with cooper, you can get them earlier than normal swords most of the times and the free promo means that they can handle themselfs if you stay in the hills ( and the enemy can chop forests, but they can't flatten hills ).
But in here, unfortunately, the bigger action they will see ( hopefully ) will be taking barb cities ......
Her UB
Spoiler :
After a while, I can see one way of taking advantage of the UB in isolation: Guerrilla line promoted grenadiersOh, the even more controversial Dun Dun is a wall that gives a free guerrilla I promo to the eligible units for it built in the cities with it. This means that only units that can have guerrilla I by default will have it from Dun, and that means archery and gunpowder units ( no, no melee This obviously excludes the Gallic warrior too ). A thing that is not told by the civilopedia is that the Dun counts more for the power rating than normal walls ( as most UU and UB, by the way )... not that counts much ( 3000 soldiers vs 2000 soldiers from a normal wall ).
In here... well, it will last longer than the UU ( until Rifling ), but I really can't see a good way of taking advantage of it
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 :
2 Wines ( RL Celts would probably prefer beer, but who cares ) , pig and 2 seafood in a woody enviroment with no signs of hidden resources.... not bad, but somewhat unadapted to a civ that starts with Myst/Hunting.
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 3.17 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