Lonely Hearts Club, BtS Edition, Chapter LXXXI: Pericles

[ecuwins]

Welcome to the 81st 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 Pericles of the Greek Empire.

Spoiler :

Traits: Philosophical & Creative
Double GPPs & half price libraries. Gotta like that synergy.

Techs: Fishing & Hunting
Fishing isn't that bad when there is a lot of seafood around. I doubt there will be much use for hunting.

Unique Building
The Odeon
A Colosseum replacement with a laundry list of meh buffs. +3 culture, +2 happy faces(as opposed to just +1), can turn 2 citizens into artist, and +1 happy from Hit Singles.

Mr Pericles does get this building at half price, maybe it's good if one were inclined to go for a culture win.

Unique Unit
Phalanx
An Axeman who negates the 100% Chariot attack bonus.

If you are running into Chariots on this map, then something is wrong.

The Start

Spoiler :

For those who are new to total isolation, you may want to take a peek at r_rolo1's guide, You, Yourself and your shadow : Some lessons on isolated starts. Also, the LHC Bullpen.

You will find the zipped saves below. Choose your level then choose your level (more precisely) then choose your speed and get underway. For Monarch+, don't forget to add Archery to the barbs. No huts & no events are selected.

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 thank you 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 everyone else who co-hosted this series. Enjoy!

 

[Zx Zero Zx]

Hmm start looks very good for LHC. SiP is pretty obvious. Build a worker, and tech Agri.

 

[The Oz-Man]

Started playing, encountered chariots immediately.

SIP is great here. Good leader for a LHC, I think.

 

[cseanny]

Immortal....... 325 BC

No major spoilers (I name a luxury I settle by but don't give up the location) and no screen shots for now.

Spoiler :

So SIP and immediately notice very low commerce, like from the second you settle your city. This led me to open with WB > WB > worker > warriors to happy cap > followed by a settler > worker > worker > Library > Lh (forget if before or after last settler) > Settler > worker.

My initial tech path went Agr > Min > Bw > Ah > Wrt > Sailing > Masonry > Wheel > Math > Pot. 2 Chops went into grassland hills for a quick Library and one chop went into a LH. When my Library came online I worked my commerce tiles to get 16 (+1trade too) so 20:beakers: with my Library which really helped speed along the other needed techs.

So I founded my second city by stone and used 2 workers to quickly hook up stone, build a road, and then chop a LH, build a ph mine, and continue chopping TGL out (Math chops). My Capital had 2 workers pre chopping The Mids.

So that's pretty much it so far. Work the commerce early, hard, and non stop, grab TGL and the Mids, and now in the expansion phase. I've already settled my 1st GS and am currently sitting at 6 cities. Will update with screenies in a day or two. I'm in a pretty strong position though.

 

[Smilingrogue]

I am stuck and could really use some advice on how to proceed.

Edit: I am playing Emperor, Normal, No Huts, No Events.

Start to 150 BC:

Spoiler :

I settled in place, opened WB as there's no rush to grab land in isolation. Used all the food around to whip overflow liberally into GLH and landed it in 1680 BC

Spoiler :

Got lucky and nabbed the Pyramids a bit late in 525 BC

Spoiler :

A very early Great General in a far away land was encouraging as it means there's at least some conflict in the world

Spoiler :

Landed Confu late in 150 BC

Spoiler :

To 1160 AD. Music and meeting and greeting the friendly neighbours:

Spoiler :

Landed the Great Artist from Music in 700 AD

Spoiler :

Got to Optic and sent out Caravels. The first two gentlemen I met weren't encouraging.

Spoiler :

They were at war when I stumbled upon them, isolated from the rest of the world without a religion and ridiculously backwards.

The next two chaps were the tech leaders, in the same religion and apparently in control of some serious swathes of land.

Spoiler :

They have obviously been trading and weren't quite as far behind as Rags and Bully.

And the last two AIs are everyone's favourite zealots:

Spoiler :

Izzy was isolated till I stumbled upon her and despite sharing a religion, Monty and Saladin weren't friends.

To 1500 AD. (Astro, ill advised war and Liberalism)

Spoiler :

I blew the Astro bulb as I thought one scientist would be enough, this delayed Astro till 1090 AD

Spoiler :

But better late than never and the GLH really took off once Astro came in.

Since Monty and Salad didn't see eye to eye and because that continent was really picking up steam with Pacal and Salad teching away, I decided to bet the house on Monty.

Spoiler :

I followed up a good move with a terrible one by declaring war on Ragnar.

Spoiler :

Him and Bully were backwards, but the only strategic resource we have is Iron. Crossbows, Pikes and Trebuchets apparently can't carry a war when they need to be re-supplied over ocean. (That, or I suck at warring )

I managed to capture one city and the war effort ground to a halt.

Spoiler :

I had already whipped my cities to get the boats and armies and I didn't want to continue whipping away while Pacal techs in peace. So I accepted peace and immediately turned Ragnar on Sitting Bull again.

Spoiler :

I delayed going for Lib as long as possible and finally picked up Physics in 1500 AD.

Spoiler :

I have found an island that Izzy has been slow to settle.

Spoiler :

I intend to rush and grab that land. But I am not sure what victory I should pursue. I think I should cancel all the automated workers and replace all the noob cottages I spammed, for lack of something else to do, with farms and go for a Diplo victory. I am not likely to be friends with everyone, but I should hopefully be able to get everyone to hate everyone else.

Demographics:

Spoiler :

Tech screen:

Spoiler :

Suggestions welcome and appreciated. Thank you for reading.

 

[The Oz-Man]

I tried this as an OCC. I don't advise it.

Spoiler :

If I hadn't randomly gotten aluminum from a mined hill, I probably would've lost. But I was able to point everyone else away from me and toward Sitting Bull, Monty, and Pacal, so it wasn't too bad. Ragnar DOW'd me on the last turn of the game. He did not in fact manage to take my city.

Thanks for the map!

 

[UnforcedError]

@Smilingrogue

Spoiler :

Why do you want to go for diplo in this game? Even if they hate others more than you it still takes a +8 (with hidden modifiers) from an AI to vote for you. What exactly was the reason for the war going badly against Ragnar?

 

[Smilingrogue]

@Smilingrogue

Spoiler :

Why do you want to go for diplo in this game? Even if they hate others more than you it still takes a +8 (with hidden modifiers) from an AI to vote for you. What exactly was the reason for the war going badly against Ragnar?

Spoiler :

The war with Ragnar hit a brick wall as we fought each other to a stalemate. He was warring SB when I jumped him, but he called peace with Bully and will not stop spamming units. I couldn't kill them fast enough. And since I have to ferry fresh units across water and they take three turns just to be able to move on the new landmass, I wasn't making any progress.

As for choosing Diplo victory, I really have no clue what to do next. I think I should go Universal Suffrage, Free Speech and get some mileage out of all the cottages I literally spammed everywhere and see if I can beat down Bully and Izzy's continents.

 

[UnforcedError]

Spoiler :

The war with Ragnar hit a brick wall as we fought each other to a stalemate. He was warring SB when I jumped him, but he called peace with Bully and will not stop spamming units. I couldn't kill them fast enough. And since I have to ferry fresh units across water and they take three turns just to be able to move on the new landmass, I wasn't making any progress.

As for choosing Diplo victory, I really have no clue what to do next. I think I should go Universal Suffrage, Free Speech and get some mileage out of all the cottages I literally spammed everywhere and see if I can beat down Bully and Izzy's continents.

Spoiler :

I think Izzy's land looks jucy and she's not that advanced either, so getting her land should be doable. Also, I'd probably go SP here and replace some of the underdeveloped cottages with workshops, but that's really personal preference. After you have Izzy and possibly SB you'll have the production and research potential to conquer / chain vassal the others as well.

 

[FlyinJohnnyL]

I tried this as an OCC. I don't advise it.

Spoiler :

If I hadn't randomly gotten aluminum from a mined hill, I probably would've lost. But I was able to point everyone else away from me and toward Sitting Bull, Monty, and Pacal, so it wasn't too bad. Ragnar DOW'd me on the last turn of the game. He did not in fact manage to take my city.

Thanks for the map!

Did you select OCC in the menu? If not, a self-imposed OCC is much tougher, you can't build some of the key NWs like Oxford and Globe Theatre. Not sure I'd like an isolated OCC, no warring and very little diplo. Those are two of the more fun aspects of the setting.

Churn out units at 1 every turn, raze 3 or 4 capitals of your enemies. Keep a couple great friends, keep everyone fighting, razing important cities, and then launch a ship.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Won 1910 IMM/Normal

Spoiler :

Sloppy opening, built mostly garrison + cottages but used seafood + libraries to get 5 GS pretty early and bulbed up to astro. Still won lib + circumnavigation but Sal/Pacal were pretty big and sal capped monty.

So I just drafted up rifles, killed izzy with basic naval logistics and 6 galleons (she killed my 7th, fortunately nothing loaded on it), settled tightly packed cities with bio, and used my pop + civic manipulation to win UN (Pacal built it, so I bribed him free religion then went Sal/monty's religion with theo + police state).

I only needed those two civ's votes to win, and I got them no problems.

 

[The Oz-Man]

Did you select OCC in the menu?

Yup--sent it over to the scenarios menu and just ran it as a Custom Scenario. Isolated OCC has its drawbacks--there's no way to trade for backfill techs (like the MC line) that I need to get Bio with Lib, and it's slow going to the Monarchy/Feudalism/Guilds line as well (which I usually head for after Bio). On the other hand, there's significantly less risk of, say, getting daggered by Shaka, so you take the good with the bad.

I don't suggest it on this map, though...

Spoiler :

Too many useless coastal tiles, no aluminum.

I typically play OCC to chill out, which means space. That's what I did here, but it came super-late.

 

[FlyinJohnnyL]

Yeah, I probably play one OCC for every five regular games just to have less going on. Ill still tell anyone hat when I was a noob I learned more about the game playing one city than I did a standard game.

 

[krikav]

I'm continuing to work myself backwards with this series.
Noticed that the deity save was missing in this one, so I fixed that.
I'm up at T62 right now myself, and this looks like a rather nice map.

 

[Fippy]

Makes sense, the deity save was missing cos Iso deity was considered almost unwinnable back then..
we have come a long way
This start looks almost easy (now) tbh, with such a great leader and so much food.

 

[krikav]

Yes, I hope to get revenge for the Boudica map.

 

[krikav]

Deity, NHNE

Spoiler 1AD :

SIP, worker first and Agri->Mining->BW, worker had to double as a fogbuster because BW didn't get done in time. Did work the unimproved clams to boost teching abit.

Stone, and the abundant fish and cre+phi made me think that rep would be insanly powerful here.
So I continued with TW->Masonry.
Built the pyramids and did get decent ammount of failgold from TGW as well.
Libraries in almost all cities. Northern crab spot gets moai (Later heroic).

Optics contacts and the rest:

Spoiler :

Ok, I have to teach THEM alfabet. This is new!

A million turns later, I'm still in a solid tech lead.
Did in total 4 golden ages, rather close to each other. One with a rushbuying of Taj.
Only Pacal has astro, so I had chance to settle a couple of overseas cities too.
Ragnar+SB is in a state of constant war and was easy pickings later on.

Did build oxford in capital, phi and stone tempted me too much, but it was a mistake since I was almost never in burocracy. Globe in Thebes was better.
Drafting anger is so much easier to handle when you only have to spread out two drafts over the rest of the cities.

Rolled over Ragnar and then SB with cannons, rifles and cavallery (and also zeppelins due to a nice physics trade with isabella), built military academy in their capitals which had 5 and 4 settled great generals.
Even though I was friendly at times with both Saladin and Isabella, trading was kind of bad in this game. I was first in a lead and then they where ahead of me. I suspect I was too preoccupied with the war with SB+Ragnar to notice alot of good trades.

Was falling behind in tech by this time, but monty was still ages behind, he capitulated rather quickly.

After monty, I went to Isabella, which killed a whooole lot of my units, but when you have so many cities producing units all the time it's ok.


Pacal attacked Saladin before I had shipped over my army, but some leftovers from the monty war backstabbed him and took at least one city before he capitulated to Pacal.
My techrate was horrid now, and I had difficulty setting up some nice trades to get to industrialism with my vassals. (Think I got it at this turn 282, or a few turns earlier).
However, when pacal set his stack for me to snipe, I just rolled in without tanks.

My tanks was good help with taking all of Saladins southern cities, but they never got up to see any action at pacals place. Apparantly infantry and artilery is quite sufficient.

Post game analysis:

Spoiler :

This was a very easy map, with good food paired with a splendid leader.
Ragnar+SB in a state of constant war was very good.
I do suspect that Pacal can kind of run away if he has more luck against Saladin though.

I think I attacked Ragnar way to late. Or rather, I could have done an attack on someone (perhaps Isabella?) waaay earlier.
I overbuilt massively. Maybee theatres and odeons almost everyewhere was a good idea to combat unhappines, but universities was not good.

I also had forges and later factores at too many places I think.
Also was dumb as a brick, and built about 6 coal power plants beforee realizing that I didn't have any coal. >_<
What on earth do you do, when you lack coal? AL does lose abit of it's luster.

 

[JSS]

Sick game @krikav.

Spoiler :

I played this map on Immortal a long time ago and remember it was a very nice, smooth one given the leader, resources and the way the world happened to be like overseas. You crushed it even harder on Deity though.