First Monarch BTS win!!

[madscientist]

Well Monarch was difficult for me in Warlords but finally got a monarch space win in BTS, hug big/little map marathon speed using solvers patch. Had some early wars with Justinian which were probelmatic but sinc ehe was on another continent he was manageable. The game ended with myself as Roosevelt pulling ahead in tech and launching into space while Cyrus and Justinian were at war with each other, with every other AI vassaled to one or the other. I had to also play the game with no uranium, no coal until almost the end (finally popped it from a mine), and finally got aluminum after building half the spaceship parts.

But other than the above desription here are some observations about BTS in general with this game, some apply to other threads.

1) Cyrus is a war monger now but waits until later in the game. This is second monarch BTS game where he has done this.

2) Corps helped me win, bigtime. I founded Sids, and jewelers, Jewelers helped with income, alot. Sids allowed me to run an enormous amount of specialists, plus the culture solidified my lone oil reserve, flipped a city to me from Cultural Gilgamesh, and got me the much needed aluminum near the end of the game. I have attached screeshots of my first 5 cities after radio and before Apollo (don't recall where exactly).

3) The Cristo Redentor is a great wonder, but Broadway and Rock N Roll were fantastic with corps. Most AIs were trading me 2 seasfood or 2 silver/gold per happiness item.

4) The AI is alot smarter and plays to win, not to tech faster. Cyrus and Justinian were definitely going for dominations wins but I believe also a diplomatic UN victory by trying to vassal as many AIs as they could. Mansa Musa was trying for a cultural victory and came fairly close until Cyrus took his third city (I think Cyrus saw his threat). Gilgamesh was trying for space too until baskstabbed by Cyrus.

5) The AI teched slow to start, caught up real fast, but I finally pulled ahead mostly because od the wars. The AI tech rate seams defeinitely fixed with solvers patch.

6) The game may be tedious at the end but not boring and there is alot to consider.

7) Espioange was never an issue, but that was probably game dependent, nothing to do with BTS.

One final note or request for advice. Based on my screenshots, am I considered running a CE or SE economy (I was running representation and Beuaracracy).

 

[Underdawg]

Congrats on the win. You are running a Hybrid economy.

One thing to note, are those lumbermill-ed forests around Washington not railroaded?

 

[50_dollar_bag]

One thing to note, are those lumbermill-ed forests around Washington not railroaded?

Yes they are. Grassland lumbermill is 2 food 2 hammers, with railroad it becomes 2 fodd 3 hammers

Congratulations on the win.

Christo Redentor = awesome wonder. I can see this getting nerfed a bit in a patch, although I hope not.

 

[madscientist]

Thankyou for the feedback and comments. Yes, Washington's forrests were lumbermilled and railroad, if a little late because of the coal issue.

I got the redentor but never utilized it until I hit the end of the tech tree. With so many specialists I did not want to switch out of representation, and I used buearacracy since Washington built most of the bigger spaceship parts and the happiness wonders (musa did get Hollywood and the eifel tower though). I needed free market for the corps and did not need environmentalism since I did not get coal until very late. Democracy and Free religion I had as soon as they were available.

So it was considered a hydro economy, heh. Well then I consider myself a definite hydrider as this is how I run most of my games. Guess I can jump in on either side or the SE/CE arguments!

As far as nerfing Cristo, I think once you make changes on the civic menu you should not be allowed to change it again until the next turn. Otherwise it is fine, situationally powerful or useless (as in my case).

 

[50_dollar_bag]

Thankyou for the feedback and comments. Yes, Washington's forrests were lumbermilled and railroad, if a little late because of the coal issue.

I got the redentor but never utilized it until I hit the end of the tech tree. With so many specialists I did not want to switch out of representation, and I used buearacracy since Washington built most of the bigger spaceship parts and the happiness wonders (musa did get Hollywood and the eifel tower though). I needed free market for the corps and did not need environmentalism since I did not get coal until very late. Democracy and Free religion I had as soon as they were available.

So it was considered a hydro economy, heh. Well then I consider myself a definite hydrider as this is how I run most of my games. Guess I can jump in on either side or the SE/CE arguments!

As far as nerfing Cristo, I think once you make changes on the civic menu you should not be allowed to change it again until the next turn. Otherwise it is fine, situationally powerful or useless (as in my case).

My last game with de Gaulle(Ind/Cha ) was awesome, I went wonder heavy then beat up the Khmer, then finished of the rest of the wonders, Then had a whole lot more wars. I had 4 Golden Ages in a row 1 with the free artist at music, 1 with Taj, then with another 2 I'd saved, then another with the free merchant free scientist and with another artist generated via extra GP points from the golden ages, all these powered with the Mausoleum of Maussollos . That's 48 turns in a row. (i got a 5th one later with awesome luck on Great People)
Anyway I digress, my point I was getting to was once I got the Christo Redentor I realized I still didn't have a National Park city, which wasn't really a big deal but I found a patch of Forest/Jungle plonked a city down, put a turn into the National Park, switched to Uni Suff. bought it then switched back to Rep in the same turn, kept doing that until I had all the infra I needed.
Also I spent pretty much the whole game in Caste/State property for the Workshop and watermill bonuses but I wanted to found and spread a couple of Corps to the AI for a bit of dosh, so I switched to Uni Suff/ Free market bought an executive (if you change back to State Property in the same turn the Exec doesn't get built though) requested Pacal switch to Free Market for Free and he did . Then switched back the next turn.
It's also awesome when you have to cave in for Civics switches, although it's hardly caving in when it doesn't cost you anything .
Is it really game breaking though . It is pretty late in the game but I'm sure there's better players than me out there that can come up with other exploits.

 

[Warspite2]

Sounded like an awesome game. I noticed that corporations are difficult to found but once they are, you can make alot of money not to mention all the other benefits.

 

[madscientist]

I noticed that corporations are difficult to found but once they are, you can make alot of money not to mention all the other benefits.

Yes and no. Alot of AIs will switch to state property blocking the function of your corp. The income comes from other AIs running your founded corps in their cities, so that is 15 gold in the corp headquarters (assuming Wall street is there). The corps in your own cities will generally break even (Assuming courthouses and wall street), make a slight profit (running free Market) of be at a slight loss ( if you run environemtalism). That said, if one of the food corps let's you run alot of extra merchants, then the corp is making you alot of $$$.

It was an awesome game. I was on my toes the entire time, never was bored during the game even at the end. One of the few times in a Civ IV game I was unsure of the victory while building the spaceship way ahead of the AI. I did not relax until I launched, then waited the 44 turns for the ship to arrive.