Lonely Hearts Club, BtS Edition, Chapter LXXLXX : Zara Yaqob

[i_imperator]

Welcome to the 70th 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 Zara of the Ethiopian Empire, whom we last played in 56 and before that in 3.

Spoiler :

I wrote in the first time we played Zara in the LHC that he was probably the one of the leaders that people liked more to play and at the same time one of the leaders that people hated more to see in the hands of the AI That opinion of mine had not changed much: indeed Zara has as trait combo Cre/Org, that are traits that give both discounts to important buildings ( like libraries and courthouses, things that you will build in most cities ), but also traits that give direct bonuses that are pretty straightforward to use ( Cre culture and Org reduction of fees ). That , in a hand of a AI that is not too much fanatical of anything in particular, can give easily some monster empires ( a similar thing happens with Gilgamesh IMHO ), and to say the truth, it is the same in the hands of a human that knows what he/she is doing....

Zara start's with Mining and Hunting, mining can be helpful in a situation where you want early production, normally for rushing but this is isolation so you will be building. Hunting is normally not great, but can be usefull if you need archery for barbs/fogbusting and extra happiness from deer and ivory.

His UU:

Spoiler :

A real monster in non isolated starts, due to the possiblity of having drill IV musket units with 5 XP ( even barbs fights will do ). I believe that even wtih a isolated start this unit will have a nice place in the show, giving us the possiblility of fending a renaiscence outside attack with some easy, and maybe even some action overseas

The above is a qoute from LHC 56, and it speaks for itself. The Oromo is probally the best UU replacement for the musket and can be used to great potential if you can get to gunpowder before the AI's. Im not a huge fan of musket replacements, as they obslete too quickly, but it is a good UU nevertheless.

His UB:

Spoiler :

A building made for the culture lovers. A cheap, early culture multiplier... too bad it obsoletes with Astro. That poses a problem to to the player that wants a culture victory in this kind of starts: playing without astro in isolation is a high-risk move, but +25% is not neglectable..... Let's see if someone tries it

I share R_rolo1's viewpoint on this UB, its nice that you can get some extra culture from it, but is'nt zara creative already??? And of course its a culture modifier that obsletes with Astronomy.

The Start:

Spoiler :

Man thats a nice start, despite the tundra of course! I thought i'd be nice to ye and give ye a good food and a bit of gold to make up for LHC Churchill, wich was that last map i played. SIP looks like a no-brainer here!.
Also i apologise for the 2 month absence from hosting this series, exams got in the way and i've been busy with other stuff (including the earth challenge!).

I've added a Deity play to expand the series learning potential and to allow the pros to show us how to play this in isolation. The map is'nt a fractal, but a hemispher's with islands and high sea level. Hopefully its balanced enough, and now for a standerd cut and past.

You will find the zipped saves below. Choose your level then choose your level (more precisely) then choose your speed and get underway. Suggestions for updates are:

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, a thankyou to r_rolo1 and all those that came before him in this series' initial run and to TheMeInTeam for the map creation guides, and to Hrun for co-hosting this series. Enjoy!

 

[i_imperator]

Reserved

 

[iDagon]

I will actually try this one out.. Not such a huge fan of isolation starts, but hey, why not..
I might try to go for the culture/no astronomy path.. As a note, I am a monarch level player.

One inquiery.. You said SIP is a no-brainer and I tend to agree.. However! Is it worth moving NE to settle in the forest? You sacrifice the health from the river, but you do get one more floodplain for cottage and you get the wine. Also, with the gold in the first 8 squares, you cen get Fishing & agriculture faster if you work the hill directly while going worker first.

 

[Mylene]

If you edit the maps, you should make sure to only use tiles that exist in a real game
Gold on a gras hill doesn't unless i really missed out on it during all the years

 

[i_imperator]

If you edit the maps, you should make sure to only use tiles that exist in a real game
Gold on a gras hill doesn't unless i really missed out on it during all the years

Heh, heh, good call!! I had to make up for churchill though!!

 

[Ventus]

Checkpoint 1

Noble/Prince 1880BC

Spoiler :

So, island explored pretty much. Quite big amount of desert if you ask me, but those floodplains just scream to be settled pretty fast and cottaged
I need your help with city placing. To be honest, I suck at that. I've been reading articles, posts, watched movies about it but in-game I just can't make good progress on that.

Here are my dotmaps.

So... how bad/good is my planning?

The Corn-Fish-Sheep tile seems good for me. It's an excellent GP farm (a lot of food). But I'm also considering to settle on Sheep to get access to the marble (to build Oracle and other wonders). This is my first site. Settler is already there (came in this turn), waiting for orders. I'm quite sure about this site, but for the rest, it's not that obvious for me :/

It's great to see stone and marble on the inland, yet stone is far away. I'm not sure if it's worth to settle it ASAP and build GW or even Stonehenge.

My strategy would be to hit cultural win. I am not good at culture, but I want to check it. Also creative leader makes a lot easier. In that in mind I think I should maximize food in at least 3 cities, and build a lot of farms. Just tell is it worth it to farm floodplain (to hit culture) or just cottage them?

 

[Optical]

Um. LXXLXX?!?

Subbed, and may play this one, to see how I do

 

[Habitus]

L = 50, X = 10, lower before higher means its subtracted so thats 50+(50-20)+20 which is 100, or C as most people type it so yeah i think that might be wrong

 

[hankinsohl]

Emperor normal, no huts - late 1900's:

Spoiler :

I won an ugly Space victory in the late 1900's due to some poor strategic planning.

Settled in place.

I scouted the start island finding marble nearby and stone far to the north. I built my second city on the marble, and built The Great Lighthouse in my capital and The Oracle in the marble city, taking Metal Casting as the free tech. I then built two more cities, one fairly close, and one on the stone, building The Colosus in my capital. I then built The Pyramids in my capital and The Great Library in the marble city (this was a mistake since the marble city had little food - I should have built The Pyramids in the marble city and The Great Libary in my capital).

At this point I should have expanded aggressively (leveraging the water wonders). Instead, I switched to Representation, built libraries, and ran specialists. Expansion was slow as a result. I teched CoL and switched into Caste System, and then teched the pre-reqs for Astronomy while avoiding Civil Service, running a ton of scientists in my capital. I then double-bulbed Astronomy. Meanwhile, my caravals circumnavigated and met the other civs.

In retrospect, I probably should not have built The Colosus as I was planning to double-bulb Astronomy. Instead, I should have taken CoL from The Oracle and, instead of building The Colosus, should have built settlers/workers.

I won Liberalism and took Nationalism as the free tech. I tried to build Taj Mahal but was beaten by Wang.

Eventually I declared on Gilga since he was far behind in tech. I would have prefered to attack Justin since he had capped Pericles and was the point leader. Unfortunately, Justin was about to research Replaceable Parts just as I finished Military Tradition.

My war started very late (1600's as I recall) but it was a success. My cavalry was up against non-gun powder units for most of the war and I made short work of Gilga, wiping him from the map in 20 turns or so.

Unfortunately, when the war ended I was behind in tech, as I expected. I converted all of Gilga's land to workshops and ran a production economy, beelining Computers in order to build The Internet. I succeeded in getting The Internet and caught up in tech.

I decided to pursue a space victory and attempted to build The Space Elevator. Unfortunately, my SE eligible cities had mediocre production and I was unsuccessful.

Eventually I won a Space Victory in the late 1900's. Justin was maybe 15 to 20 turns behind me in his space project.

In all, a sloppy victory which, in hindsight, could have gone a lot better.

 

[i_imperator]

Um. LXXLXX?!?

Dammit Im embarresed now!, i accidently doubled it! My bad!!

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

@Ventus

Spoiler :

I need your help with city placing. To be honest, I suck at that. I've been reading articles, posts, watched movies about it but in-game I just can't make good progress on that.

So... how bad/good is my planning?

Pretty reasonable - the one placement that I think you can improve is your corn/gold/wines city to the north by moving it to a coast. One south gives you ocean access and keeps all three resources. Another possibility is to abandon the wines here and move it two tiles north of the corn, at which point you can ignore the filler city.

Another possibility is to consider that Pig/Horse/$$$ isn't going to be using all those awesome tiles for a while, so maybe they should be shared. If you bring that city two tiles west to the coast, you now have Pig/Horse/2xWines. From that position, you can now share the flood plains between two cities: the red Wine? dot comes south, getting four flood plains instead of two, and Sheep/Incense is abandoned for the desert hill north of the oasis (where it keeps the sheep and the oasis, but picks up two of the flood plains).

BUT - I think a culture win is probably going to be easier with Pig/Horse/$$$ placed as it is.

 

[Optical]

Dammit Im embarresed now!, i accidently doubled it! My bad!!

Everyone makes mistakes typos. It's fine, just thought I'd point it out

 

[ecuwins]

Monarch/Normal/No huts

SIP - Gold, yeah baby

Check Point 1: 1680BC

Spoiler :

Lots of room and maybe even a little island action. Plans are to build the Great Lighthouse as soon as the second settler comes out. The settler is bound for the gold site up north.

Techs went - Fishing, Agriculture, Bronze, Wheel, Pottery, Sailing, Animal Husbandry, Mysticism, Masonry.

Plans are to get Civil Service & Optics ASAP, with the end goal of Libing Astronomy ASAP. Then abuse the crap out of the GLighthouse.

Check Point 1.25: 1000BC

Spoiler :

New techs - Writing, Meditation, Priesthood *I figure if I'm going to have to self tech Monarchy, then I might as well build the Oracle too.*

GLighthouse is almost done. Firing up the Oracle and teching Metal Casting. The plan is to get Machinery from the Oracle.

Check Point 2: 1060AD

Spoiler :

All but one AI met, I have a good idea of where he/she is though.

Waiting on one University to finish for Oxford. I'm about to found the Stone city just for this occasion. All other cities are building various infrastructure, nothing too exciting.

Lib & Astro in last turn.

Now the plan is Nationalism for the Taj. Then to Economics and Constitution. I plan to use the Taj GA to switch to Representation, Free Market, and Free Religion.

Check Point 3

Spoiler :

I was certain at CP 2 that I was going space win. To keep the GLighthouse alive as long as possible, I went for Rifling, Steam Power, Electricity, Biology, and Combustion before breaking down and teching Corporation for Assembly Line. Then I put Factories in all(three) of my river cities(as well as Hydro Plants). I also put Factories in three of my other high production cities, but no power plants there.

Check Point 4

Spoiler :

1 Turn left to space win.

 

[WelshGandalf]

1AD, Monarch :

Spoiler :

I wonder if it's possible to get CS from Oracle on Monarch with gold in starting BFC?

Turns out the answer is yes I went agri (to give worker stuff to do), BW, then myst -> Meditation -> Priesthood -> Writing -> CoL -> Maths -> Oracled CS & revolted into bureaucracy turn 77.

Second city was close to the other gold, to keep my early tech pace at a high level.

Discovered Philosophy at 1AD 85 sustainable beakers, but only 4 cities Next up, tech to GLib, then to an early Oxford.

 

[i_imperator]

Just a for the thread,
Come on folks, 51 views and only 4 game posts? I dont upload these for nothing ya know!

 

[WelshGandalf]

I'm still playing my game - should be done this week. I'm going to win but would like to see how people rate my efforts.

Brief spoiler on my game.

Spoiler :

Around 1830AD, going for space, should do it in around 90 turns. Vassalised Sitting Bull after taking 3 cities as he was incredibly backwards - it felt wrong not to attack him.

 

[CuddlesKill]

I started it up, but after about 100 turns I was honestly disgusted by my play and so completely not into this one that I abandoned it. But I did attempt it!

 

[Fragamemnon]

Brand new to the series. Having a real good time with this on Immortal w/ no huts.

Spoiler :

With the double seafood start and two other seafood available on good sites, going for the Great Lighthouse would have been wise even if I didn't know I was isolated. Knowing the isolated start, Great Lighthouse abuse seemed like a no-brainer.

The chokepoint just E of the capital site made defending against barbs VERY easy with just one archer on the gold mine and one on the forest hill a few more tiles E.

Seeing the Marble, I decided early to go chop out the Oracle into Metal Casting after the Lighthouse was done, while having my second city on settler duties. Knowing that I was going to go Colossus meant that I could seriously cheat on my worker count, so I instead rex'd out up to eight cities as fast as I could, paying for it with the GLH trade routes . There was a barb city which I took with some swords and eventually I squeezed out a total of 10 citiies on that island, with nine of them abusing the Great Lighthouse and Colossus to keep my econ strong.

Now it's 1200AD , I won Lib and have about a two tech lead on the AI and went for Free Religion to keep me out of trouble. I won circumnavigation, met all the AIs and am set for a peaceful space race or Diplomatic game. My goal is not make myself a target by having sufficient military ( I plan on drafting out with w/ a Globe City to keep ratios decent, using the Barracks happiness to help compensate for lack of happy resources, though I have seen isolated starts with faarrr worse happycap problems) and getting some people to friendly and the rest leaving me alone. As long as none of the Civs start running away with things via conquest I should be safe.

 

[i_imperator]

I started it up, but after about 100 turns I was honestly disgusted by my play and so completely not into this one that I abandoned it. But I did attempt it!

Fair enough, but you should still post it, and ask for help. People would have given you good advice and you'd be able to learn from your mistakes. Thats the best way to learn and to try new things in your gameplay. Thanks for attempting it though.

 

[Danelius90]

I'll start this as soon as I can Just recently resuming civplay and not had m(any) isolated starts I can recall... Will probably need some guidance on this