Lonely Hearths Club, BTS Edition, Chapter I : D. João II

[bazola]

I love the dutch. To be honest I don't love their naval UU that much; I've only played a handful of games as them but coastal cities, dikes, financial and colossus is really powerful, powerful enough that I could see delaying astronomy a long long time.


Oh and awesome win InvisibleStalke, hell I haven't even built missle subs in any of my BTS games yet but you put them to good use it sounds like.

 

[InvisibleStalke]

Thanks. They pretty much eliminate the possibility of an AI invasion - one nuke makes a mess of an invasion fleet. The AI stood up to being nuked fairly well though - must have built a lot of bomb shelters. I would have loved to follow the nukes in with marines and razed some coastal cities but I just didn't have the production for both a good navy and a good army.

 

[IPEX-731BA5DD06]

Well no real check point, I've stuffed this game up completely...it just goes too quick for me....or I rush through it too much....I find it hard to keep a stratergy straight...

After I stuffed up the liberialism free tech, I really lost interest, then I was jumped by Gilgamesh, rushed troops in slavery and didn't come out of it.

I managed to vassalise the romans to the south, tried to do the same to the vikings who attacked me, but got declared on by Gilgamesh again, and gave up at that point....I built the forbidden palace where I planed for oxford Uni, and had no spare national wonder sites, made a 1/2 hearted effort at the national parks city, and forgot about a corporation I'd been saving a scientist for.....

All in all, I rushed too quick, got to frustrated, both with Optical mouse I had to replace with a another, and can't get used to is feel, and then coming down with a dose of Flu, hasn't helped my concentration levels, or patience..

In hindsite, I should have tried to vassalise Saladin, as next lowest, and waited untill marines before attacking the main continent...oh well.....I tried it, did now where as well as others, but not used to speed.

I'll try somemore, as a change form my usual Marathon speads, I tend to try run a specialist economy all the way through as well, built the statue of liberty, pentagon, but Gilgamesh was just begining to run away technologically.... he was the power, with combustion WAY before me...but I had infantry before him, but then he techs to it so quickly??

Gave it up as a lost cause, I tried to invade Ragnar via capital, but Gilgamesh has came down to help out, and I can't beat them both...Vassals were useless......can't even hold own lands let alone help me.

I need more practise/games at this...1st time try, should and will do better....

 

[r_rolo1]

Finally, after some CTDs and delays, my monarch checkpoint 4

Spoiler :

Monarch Space Victory in 1998

The game in it self was somewhat linear after last post and could be resumed to 4 words: Feitoria , Sushi , Internet and Aluminuim Co.

-Feitoria: the Portuguese UU is a absolute money maker machine, a mini collosus with a somewhat ToA effect that will last until the end of the game. When I got Astro my income skyrocketed....

-Sushi: I believe that a lot of people in the forums still didn't realized the power of this corp to a space race. First it gives a help to the much needed big cites you need to make a decent space race. Second, can be used as a shrine like money collector outside your civ. Third, it can be used to stall enemy research ( maitenance bomb... of course that some civs will switch to SP or Merc ASAP like Mansa and AC did in my game at the first sign of foreign corp). I used it liberally in ZY ( that was becoming a monster ) and in gilgamesh ( that wisely used it to try a cultural win ). Sushi corp alone probably funded atleast 20/30 % of my research
-Internet: It still compensates to beeline Internet when you're making a come from behind space race....
-Aluminium co : I noticed when I got Industrialism ( ZY already had Apollo, but had his research almost stalled because of the Sushi ( and of the other 2 corps that he had founded ), of the heavy espionage game ( I couldn't even see his demo even with spy bombs ) and because of the military buildup ( I only understood how close I was from disaster when I finished the game and saw his power graph: more than the double of the 2nd civ (myself ) in the end of the game. Probably the cave in I had about his requests saved my @ss from a more early naval invasion )) that the big continent didn't had Al . Like I wasn't going to sell it the only way they had to get it was the Aluminium corp, and I worked my GP pools and my research to found it ( only to keep it from the hands of ZY )

All of this was working well until 2 turns before victory ( my fears of Gilgamesh grabbing a sushui powered cultural win were halted by a canceled deal regarding fish that reduced a lot the cultural growth of the 3rd Gilgamesh city ) when I noticed a ZY naval invasion fleet ( Some battleships, 6 transports ( probably full ), 1 carrier with fighters ) coming my way. I decided to take no chances and Dowed him. Some tactical nukes erased the naval threat and the last turns were basically a nuke fest ( my capitol got nuked, but ZY payed a heavy price for that : by my accounts he got at least 6 ICBMs and 5 tactical nukes ( 2 ICBMs were intercepted ) ).
Anyway SS reached Alpha centauri in 1998... save is in here ( turn before )to anyone that is interested

This was a very interesting game and I must admit I was suprised by some victories ( like the AP diplo victories ). I surely learned a thing or two....

I will launch the second chapter of the BTS edition of the Lonely Hearths club in Saturday, with Willem as leader ( unless I'm convinced otherwise ). Stay tuned!

 

[Ankh]

I will launch the second chapter of the BTS edition of the Lonely Hearths club in Saturday, with Willem as leader ( unless I'm convinced otherwise ). Stay tuned!

Yey . Willem should be fun, I have some things I really whould like to try with him isolated.

 

[InvisibleStalke]

Great win RRolo - I'm looking forward to Willem too.

 

[Kennigit]

I'm a little late to finish but my game finished like a lot of the others.

Ended up as a 1963 Emperor Space Race.

As I said in my last spoiler, I went for starting a golden age with Economics, Communism, and Physics. I got all those, started the golden age, and about a turn in ragnar declared war and took Lagos by an amphibious attack. I was in a golden age, so I switched to nationalism and drafted some muskets (didn't have rifling), then w/ about 2 turns left in the golden age I got rifles, drafted some & upgraded some, and held fine. I think Lagos flip-flopped 4 times- Ragnar took it, I took it back, he took it, and I took it back all within 6 turns or so. Rangar was stupid with his amphibious assault- he didn't land his huge stacks of junk but kinda sailed around my coast, until he finally unloaded in 3 different spots versus rifles- he died.

Augustus declared war on me too (dogpiling effect), but didn't really do anything. I made peace with both of them, teched to industrialism, pay rushed marines and attacked Augustus. The war lasted around 10 turns and he capitulated, with me taking 5 pretty good cities.

From there I just went for a space race. Ragnar declared war on me for a 2nd time attacking with an impressive stack of 3 calvary from a galleon vs some infantry in Lagos again. Made peace soon after (he gave me 500 gold or so, not bad for not breaking a sweat ).

War broke out in the late game (I was probably 30-40 turns from victory) when I bribed Zara yaqob into war with Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh and Ragnar had a defensive pact, and Mansa was Zara Yaqob's vassal, so everyone went to war. Turn after I did that ragnar declared war on me for a 3rd time (I started other war because I suspected so- he had "we have enough on our hands right now), but he didn't do anything except sent some boats around my coast periodically.

As for space race, I think I went for robotics for space elevator, then Superconducters? (one with the thrusters) to get to work on those, to genetics, to fusion, to composites, and to ecology. I finished the SS life support 1 or 2 turns before my last casings came in, but overall I think this was the right tech path to go for balancing building the expensive parts and cheaper parts.

Here's the final screenshot- I had some of my casings cities starve to finish up faster with their casing. Setia and Lisbon were the two heavy builders, w/ Lisbon having ironworks and Setia having a nice 55 base production.