Lonely Hearths Club, BTS Edition, Chapter II : Willem van Oranje

[KMadCandy]

for InvisibleStalke:

Spoiler :

i hope you didn't open this expecting advice

Invading a continent with three AIs all at war with you at the same time is proving a challenge.

Charlemagne has captured one of his cities back which is annoying. He has around 30 units in it so it will be fairly tough to crack.

But I am hoping I can vote against nukes - they would mess up my day seriously

understatements of the century pal! you are so very brave, good luck

 

[InvisibleStalke]

KMadCandy:

Spoiler :

Its going well now - took that city of Charlemagnes and destroyed the army there which was enough for him to Vassalize. I parked some infantry on a forest next too it and he wasted around 10 units on them. Lost my CR3 great general though. Then tanks were enough to take it the next turn.

And the UN voted against nukes. Justinian is close to capitulation - he lacks an attacking army and has retired to his cities. I am struggling to suppress ZQ's oil, but I haven't seen any large stacks from him yet - lots of wandering SAM infantry, but no more than five in a group.

 

[cheffster]

so I finally finished a space race victory on emporer. Landed in 1948, nothing too impressive. I had managed to build 5 academies so I teched very fast, but since I was so ahead of the AI, there wasn't really much tech to trade, so I had to research everything all myself, I find that on harder difficulties you end up reaching techs much earlier due to that fact the AI is more competitive and u can trade techs.

Anyways heres a couple SS's, and I would suggest perhaps having an option for Epic speed on the next Lonely hearts

Spoiler :

yep I had an academy in I think in each of the top 5 cities here

my score

 

[r_rolo1]

Epic, um? :scratch head: ... My favourite speed as well. But in warlords a lot of people complained that passing almost 300 turns without warring or outer world contact is just boring.... I would not object playing next instalement in Epic speed, but I would like some confirming voices...

BTW, I'll launch a Warlords instalement tomorrow with Brennus. I'm thinking on trying to make a scheduled launch every saturday, alternating Warlords and BtS ( atleast for a while, because a lot of people is still playing Warlords ), that will give time for everyone finish the games.

About leaders for next BtS instalement: InvisibleStalke sugested Justinian ( Imp/Spi ) , Lincoln ( Cha/Phi ) ( really nice combo IMHO ) and Suryavarman II ( Exp/ Cre ), Ankh suggested Ragnar ( Agg/Fin ), cheffster gave a hint that he would like to play HC ( Ind/Fin )( would be a rerun, but maybe could be interesting for comparison proposes ), and I sugested Brennus ( Cha/Spi ) , Zara Yacob ( Cre/Org ) and Boudica ( Agg/Cha ). More sugestions and discussion would be welcome

cheffster, congrats on your win. Nice numbers

P.S InvisibleStalke , Kmad has a point.... Your checkpoint 4 will be fun to see, most surely

 

[KMadCandy]

I find that on harder difficulties you end up reaching techs much earlier due to that fact the AI is more competitive and u can trade techs.

absolutely. in a mostly peaceful world beelining is far easier on deity than on chieftain, i've done both *giggle*. note that i didn't say winning the game is easier, just the beelining part, therefore my permanoob status is still intact! anyway, depending on how folks are getting along, i've had games where i've had "here, it's free metal-casting give-away day, now one of you go along and learn machinery and trade it to me pretty please" so that i can get the pre-reqs to astro out of the way, or similar stuff.

in this game i knew it was spooky having no idea what they were up to and if they were behind or ahead, but that was something i hadn't consciously thought of, and is way isolation made picking my tech path harder. man you guys are so much better at this than i am (boy what a surprise).

love that domestic advisor screenshot. not a single city with negative health! +4 you took good care of the health of your citizens yeah maybe you whipped 'em away but i don't need to know that

 

[Gocho]

I love epic speed games but I dunno about doing it for an isolated start, would be a lot of nothing for a long time.

 

[illram]

I'm not a big epic fan myself. Can we have two different saves for each speed? I don't know how that would be possible.

As for leaders, my vote is either Zara or Suryavarman. Keep the BtS leaders going! HC would be fun, but isolated seems to waste the powerful quecha.

 

[pigswill]

Monarch. Space Victory 1934 (34k).
Vassalised Hats and Han for added security then pulled away to a straightforward space win.

 

[InvisibleStalke]

Spoiler 4 - CONQUEST win on Monarch in 1923 with 53k points

Spoiler :

Things didn't quite go to plan. I put Pericles in charge of my conquests on the mainland. Justinian wouldn't capitulate at all - he fought to the bitter end. Eventually he was destroyed and Zara capitulated after just two of his cities fell. It progressed fairly rapidly. Jet fighters killed enemy fighters. Bombers erased city defenses. Tanks and Paratroops took cities quickly. Marines and destroyers/battleships take coastal cities. Infantry followup to hold cities.

But I didn't have enough land for domination. Giving up all the mainland to vassals meant they only contributed 50%. So it was time to attack Mansa. I'd love to post a screenshot of the invasion navy - my games computer isn't connected to the Internet and I'm having problems with the DVD writer. Maybe I'll get some later today.

The initial attack was:
3 battleships
9 destroyers
2 carriers - 4 jets and 2 fighters
transports carrying 12 tanks
2 gunships
2 artillery
10 marines
1 infantry

followed by a second wave of around 25 infantry and SAM, and a third fleet from the other direction with gunships, carrier, battleships, and a couple of marines who did the final assaults.

Had fairly equal tech except I had advanced flight and was three turns from modern armour. Mansa had tanks and bombers. Took three of his main continent cities fairly quickly and a couple of islands, then upgraded to modern armour and proceeded to start razing. Had two battlefleets carrying troops which amphibiously attacked and razed coastal cities and an army of modern armour razing interior cities. He capitulated after another six cities were razed - by then he only had three left.

So the Dutch rule supreme. My first ever isolated start conquest win and my only ever late game conquest win.

 

[r_rolo1]

Congrats InvisibleStalke... a late conquest win should give a lot of work, but tastes nice, isn't it?

P.S Eagerly waiting for pictures

 

[InvisibleStalke]

love that domestic advisor screenshot. not a single city with negative health! +4 you took good care of the health of your citizens yeah maybe you whipped 'em away but i don't need to know that

You would hate my final save then.

-6 Your lands are a fetid, stinking sewer. Your people cough in the streets and die. The cockroaches are outnumbered only by the rats.

Health get seriously hit in my late game as I lost track of my seafood to pillaging. Lots of poisoned wells - usually in conquered cities that I didn't care about. I kinda just let things go and concentrated on shifting troop around - which took a lot of time at this stage.

 

[Ankh]

Nice job Invisible stalker, great to see a dominion win as well.

 

[ungy]

@ungy
It is cheesy , but if you gift a missionary to Theocratic civ, they will spread the religion for you ( I done it twice in my game : with ZY and Justinian )

Thanks--didn't think of that. Of course, much harder to get to 80% if they can choose the city but that's good IMHO.

 

[KMadCandy]

You would hate my final save then.

-6 Your lands are a fetid, stinking sewer. Your people cough in the streets and die. The cockroaches are outnumbered only by the rats.

Health get seriously hit in my late game as I lost track of my seafood to pillaging. Lots of poisoned wells - usually in conquered cities that I didn't care about. I kinda just let things go and concentrated on shifting troop around - which took a lot of time at this stage.

shame on you! nah, not really. i know i'm kind of unhealthily obsessed with health. or whatever, that sounds weird but i know what i mean.

from your spoiler:

Spoiler :

"I put Pericles in charge of my conquests on the mainland." does that mean you made a colony, and he was put in charge of it? i've never done that yet, but i will soonish in my current game. chances are, i will learn stuff (and make mistakes).

"My first ever isolated start conquest win and my only ever late game conquest win." awesome!!!!!! sounds like parts of that were fun for you, but you did experience the "shifting troops around - which took a lot of time at this stage" *giggle*. personally i don't care about the Firaxis score except as a source of giggles (like when i lose but don't score as Dan Q), but in my scoring system in my head, "first ever"s like that get big points. grats, i'm impressed!

i really would like to see the screenshots of your navy if you get the logistics worked out .

 

[InvisibleStalke]

"I put Pericles in charge of my conquests on the mainland." does that mean you made a colony, and he was put in charge of it? i've never done that yet, but i will soonish in my current game. chances are, i will learn stuff (and make mistakes).

Exactly - its almost mandatory for an intercontinental invasion now - colony expenses can grow enormous.

i really would like to see the screenshots of your navy if you get the logistics worked out .

I'm going to have to network the two machines so it may be a while. The CD writer doesn't work on one and the floppy drive doesn't work on the other.

 

[Kennigit]

Spoiler :

My game is coming along decently (immortal). From last spoiler I went for music for artist, but one wasn't born so I guess that was silly of me .

I'm not quite at checkpoint 2, but Mansa made first contact with me c. 1000 AD, and he's the only AI I've met. Traded him paper and civil service (thats pretty sad for immortal....) and got some techs/his world map, so I can see hannibal's land. Don't have a screenshot, but I think I'm around 1250 AD.

I didn't tech as well as I should have. I haven't used religion in a long time, so I didn't really notice how hereditary rule + pacifism doesn't really gel together. Maitenence hurt me and lowered my slider (mainly those units...), but scientists have helped me to pop education for liberalism and printing press, boosting my GNP.

C. 1150 I got liberalism and took nationalism with it. I suspect I could have gotten it later, but I didn't know the AI's and didn't want to take any risk. Free speech and free religion are really helping my economy now, and I think I'm good on tech. Mansa has basically the same GNP as me (we're 1rst and second), but since he was also isolated he didn't get to trade around (he does have economics- I saw him research that with espionage) and I doubt other Ai's are ahead of me.