Lonely Hearts Club, BTS Edition, Chapter VII: Darius

[Diamondeye]

Suggestions for leaders?
I can throw out a couple, dunno if you've tried em yet;
Hannibal, Suryavarman, Asoka, Charlemagne, Joao...

 

[Kennigit]

I'd rather see the challenge aspect, traits that don't help much in isolation, such as imperialistic. IIRC, their have been quite a few financial leaders, being

William
Joao
Darius

being atleast 3/7 of these LHC's so far.

 

[r_rolo1]

It looks that people want a chalenge.... I understand: the last two LHC were with some of the most powerful leaders in game ( and the number of downloaded saves shows a lot more of people wanting to play Pericles or Darius in isolation than Sitting Bull ( I wonder why ) ) and people want to see how long they can strech the rope....

P.S I'll post here soon the links for all the previous LHC ( not only the ones I hosted ), for people to know what leaders have been already played. Just wait a hour or so.....

 

[pawelo]

P.S I'll post here soon the links for all the previous LHC ( not only the ones I hosted ), for people to know what leaders have been already played. Just wait a hour or so.....

You should play your SG instead of posting

Great idea to gather all the links - maybe you should open a LHC planning and discussion thread where you will post all links, making sure I won't be waiting for a new LHC while it's already running (like last saturday... ).

 

[r_rolo1]

^^Mr pawelo, I'm in work sneankely posting in my lunch hour in my boss computer... as you can presume, I'm not civ capable ATM

Good idea about the possible LHC planning and discussion thread Will implement it ASAP

 

[ungy]

Shyuhe: Of course I didn't know I was going to pop gems and gold when I decided to go for the pyramids. I do agree that it was not the correct move.
While it brought in the Glib, the early hammers invested could have grown exponentially had I build settlers and workers instead. And maybe most significantly I could have missed it and that might have led to a loss.

Played a little more but it's a runaway so I'm not going to finish.

 

[Dirk1302]

@Dirk1302
Good to see you again in here... I hope you enjoy the new manager

Thx, I'm fine with the new manager, i've seen that you've been very busy compiling lonely challenges .

Spoiler :

4000 BC - 1 AD

Focused totally on combining early cottages with settler,worker spam to get the island settled as early as possible spurning all wonders. I believe it's very important to get as much land settled as early as possible when isolated, early research is not as important anymore also because the Ai's research very slow in BTS.

1AD - 1000 AD

In warlords i'd have beelined for Astronomy (even on emperor) because going for lib with caste system and specialists would be quite a gamble (caste system tends to slow you down, no slavery, no cottages worked in capital). So i was no mood to do caste system now but i did beeline lib self researching everything.

1000 - 1500 AD

Since no one founded Taoism i thought it save to go for machinery optics, then liberalism getting astro as free tech 1180 AD. Nothing special happened in this period, i went for all the economic techs like economics and democracy switching civis accordingly, now i think i should have included Drama somewhere so i could have started Global theater earlier.

1500-1775 AD

I churned out 900 beakers/turn at 80% with a small money profit. I had a big lead of some 10 techs on Hammurabi (the only real opponent).Idea was to get to Rifling asap while building globe. Next i'd decide on switching to nationhood for attack or continue with max research. I never really got to make that decision, though when Globe theater was done i almost had Assembly line finished. So i beelined to Industrialism keeping the attack option in mind.

1775 - 1840

1775 was the year i decided i'd definitely had to attack Hammurabi... At this moment i had Replaceable parts,Rifling, Steam power, Assembly line , Industrialisation, Steel, Railroad, Combustion,Biology, Medicine and fission on him while he had Communism and Radio on me. Seems impressive but by now i'd seen that he was researching techs like Democracy in 2 turns , i had good research myself with some 1400 beakers/turn but there was little room to improve on that so i reckoned he might be catching up fast helped by tech buddy Lizzy (@ungy all this is the reason i think you might play your game a bit further seeing if you can force a peaceful space race decision, i wasn't sure).

So in 1816 21 tanks, 4 infantry and some spies land near Anasazi. As i'd expected i'm only 6 techs up now so it seems i was right to take the opportunity. I'm also in a hurry because Ham can research Artillery by now,
facing Anti-tanks wouldn't make my Armors happy. I'd thought it'd be a breeze but i quickly find out that trying to incite revolts with spies is a losing affair by this time, very expensive and all my missions got thwarted (all in all i tried some 10 times also against the english later, all failure). I was planning to take him out in one go but with the spy failure this option was out.Instead i just hurt him by razing 5 big cities (including Babylon) suing for peace after, immediately filling the open space with settlers of my own, these cities were useless and culture pressed for the moment but they were useful as a later base and more important i did't want Ham to rebuild on the open spots..

1840 - 1956

Ham isn't teching fast anymore so i research flight and radio, Ham still hasn't got Industrialism so i take him out quickly with Bombers/tanks, i never got around to vassalize him. Next is Lizzy, i use mech infantry and mobile artillery
against her, after her main lands have gone she agrees to be a vassal. It's Stealth Bombers and Modern Armor against Ghandi and Shaka leading to a domination victory in 1956. Basically very easy only Domination wins are sooooo tedious to play out.

Conclusion:

I'haven't played too much BTS yet, the game has become much easier i feel, The AI's seem to have no research power at all till +/- 1500 AD, then they pick up (some) speed. Warlords emperor was way faster than immortal BTS.

I don't understand the general research route the Ai takes now,i felt that former AI beelines to Economics, Rifling,Artillery and Industrialisation made sense to have some defence against human opportunism. Now they prefer Democracy and radio at least Demo helps them with research and production but a beeline to radio then switching back to techs like Rifling is utterly pointless.I feel Blake has some work cut out for him.

@ungy
While i feel you're in a good position i don't think it's a runaway yet, look at the spoiler which is about my own game which is somewhat simliar to yours for why i don't think so.

The saves are 1000 Ad, 1500 Ad, 1775 Ad and 1956 Ad respectively.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/101761/Lonely_Darius_AD-1000.CivBeyondSwordSave
http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/101761/Lonely_Darius_AD-1500.CivBeyondSwordSave
http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/101761/Lonely_Darius_AD-1775.CivBeyondSwordSave
http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/101761/Lonely_Darius_AD-1956.CivBeyondSwordSave

 

[InvisibleStalke]

Well I went ahead with option 1 - partial success only so far...

Spoiler :

Attacked Suri and took two of his cities. But then Peter declared on me and launched a ton of knights. I'm pulling through but war weariness is huge and I have lost a lot of units. I think I wasn't prepared to fight two AIs at the same time. The plan was to storm through Suri and then attack Peter - but that didn't work.

So far I have captured four cities and razed one. Capturing his capital first was great. Amongst other wonders I scored the Pyramids. So I am now running State Property and Police State. Plus Slavery and Theocracy. You would NOT want to live in my civilization.

Teching to rifling now and I am just going to have to keep marching on through the hordes. I'm glad I got cannon going - they have helped a lot.

 

[CellKu]

CellKu - my thought with path 2 is that Astronomy is a better tech than Nationalism from Liberalism - it is worth more beakers. Going Liberalism->Nationalism gets me Nationalism only a couple of turns earlier than I would have had it otherwise but delays Astronomy which is bigger for me.

I do agree with your argument about the beaker value. I only thought it might be hazardous to postpone lib for too long. When did you get lib eventually? I assume you were the first.

Good idea about the possible LHC planning and discussion thread.

That is a great idea! If we have a schedule when you start which game (leader), it will facilitate timely beginnings and if you skip one you know what to expect next... How much time will you give for each game? - right now it seems to be a week or so...

Spoiler :

You do know that you keep me from focusing on my work due to the time pressure... (well, it is my fault since I would like to keep up with it)

Thanks for all your efforts!
CellKu

 

[r_rolo1]

CellKu, I've been keeping my LHC in a strict 2 week interval, starting in a saturday... And the thread is already up ( follow the link in my sig ).

 

[CellKu]

CellKu, I've been keeping my LHC in a strict 2 week interval, starting in a saturday... And the thread is already up ( follow the link in my sig ).

Thanks, I will take a look asap.
And I apologize for my erroneous statement regarding the time of intervals. I have propably focused too much on reading and rereading your threads that time seemed to fly by...

 

[InvisibleStalke]

I do agree with your argument about the beaker value. I only thought it might be hazardous to postpone lib for too long. When did you get lib eventually? I assume you were the first.

I went Engineering first and then took Astronomy from Liberalism. I was fairly safe as Education hadn't gone, but it went shortly afterwards so I don't think I could have stretched it out to Chemistry or Steel.

 

[Diamondeye]

I'd rather see the challenge aspect, traits that don't help much in isolation, such as imperialistic. IIRC, their have been quite a few financial leaders, being

William
Joao
Darius

ONE: Imp is nice enoug in isolation

TWO: Joao is Imp/Exp. Not Fin.

 

[Kennigit]

Oh my bad

W/ imperialistic I was thinking about how you couldn't block off AI's as quick, but i guess it would just help get your empire up and running faster.

 

[InvisibleStalke]

I'd like to see spiritual - have we even played a Spiritual leader? Spiritual Agressive would be fun - Monte is always fun to play. But I don't mind too much - anything other than financial and philosophical would be good with me.

A couple of other suggestions:

- Maybe some variation in the maps - different sea levels or terrain types would be good.
- Maybe tie maps more into the leader - eg an Arid map for Saladin or jungle for Suri or Monte.
- I'm OK with more of a constructed scenario - eg the person supplying the map decides what leaders would map it a fun combination. I'm thinking of playing the next map on a lower level but adding some roleplay constraints of my own.
- Maybe a spoiler could add some hints about the map and likely opposition - one of the problems I have is deciding which level to play at. If its a tough map then I'd probably prefer to pull the Monarch map. If its a really strong island I might prefer Immortal. Maybe just a rough indication of "this map is probably a difficulty level higher than normal".

At BTW thanks very much RRolo for all your work in preparing maps and organizing the club. Its much appreciated.

 

[InvisibleStalke]

Spoiler 3

Spoiler :

Very happy with my decision to go the chemistry / steel route. I took down Suri's final two cities which relieved a lot of WW. Took peace with Peter and my empire is truly rocking now. Switched to democracy, rushed the universities for oxford. Teched to railroad, rushed in machine gunners and just got combustion. Time for war again with Peter - but this time his nasty frigates will face off against my destroyers. And his grenadiers will have to throw themselves against machine guns and I'll have rifles and cannon for the counter attack. I'm hoping to vassalize him since I have enough land now to regain the tech lead and win. I'm right up there in the power stakes though, so Ghandi or Elizabeth might have to watch out.

I'm teching towards infantry, hoping to build the pentagon and be first to fascism and tanks. After which I will launch my next war - hopefully war with Peter will be quick. Domination is very much on the cards - I LOVE big late game cottage economies when they go to war. I think the goal will be to isolate Babylon - I can probably win domination taking out the other AIs.

 

[illram]

What about isolated big and small maps? These tend to have a lot of islands that you can colonize around you... occasionally even with galleys. Puts an added bonus to being the first to astro and allows for a non-warfare based mid game expansion phase.

 

[StuntedAzrael]

Hi guys. This is my first take on LHC. I finished this game with a space victory in 1926AD on Emperor. I was a smooth ride. Darius is one of the strongest leaders out there. Every trait is powerful and he's perfect for cottage addicts.

Details below:

Spoiler :

Early game

I have used Snaaty excellent guide for this game. Key for fast expansion were fast Code of Law (via Oracle) for religion and courthouses and Monarchy for happiness.

Warrior was my main defense forse with few immortals for handling of barbs.

I got my first Great scientist in the city with the Oracle. I wanted GS instead of prophet.

Built Great library in my third city. Now, this is a funny story: After Great library it's National Epic ofc. NE came online 1 turn before my city was about to spawn its first great person. And it was Great Artist! Consider the odds of that happening! I was a bit upset but he was later stored for an Golden age. I recruited 2 more scientists and 1 spy to speed up. Curiously next great person was a Great spy with a 15% ods. Damn.

Mid game

My initial tought was to race thorwards Lib but I saw that Taoism is undiscovered so I turned thorwards Optics and Astronomy. Then Liberalism (taking Nationalism) and then starts Persian GOLDEN AGE which is powered by:
3 great persons (2 artists and 1 great spy)
1 Taj Mahal
1 Mausoleum

36 turns of prosperity.

During that time I raced for Chemistry and pirates. Bulit bunch of them and molested most of the coastal cities. Income was tremendous. I had 90% science and positive income.

Late game

Rather boring turns. After I got Rocketry I have converted several cities for production centers with workshops replacing towns. Civic changes were in order too:

Women Suffrage, Free speech, Caste system, State property and Organized religion.

My saved game:
View attachment 164169

Thx for the game, looking forward the next one.

 

[r_rolo1]

@StuntedAzrael

Good game.... and BTW welcome You're free to comeback

@InvisibleStalke

Good to see that your game is running smoothly. Earlier punch pwns late big punch most of the times.....

@illram

B&S looks good to me as well. But I like Fractal: it creates very interesting maps sometimes ( like this one .... ). Will see what pops ( it can be a very time consuming process creating a isolated start: for the Zara map I had to regen for 4 h..... )

@all

For those that still didn't noticed, I created a LHC bullpen with all the already played LHCs and the choosed leaders for the next two ones. Feel free to put suggestions, requests for leaders, strat suggestions,etc there.

 

[CivSetä]

Tried immortal, but gave up after lost the Internet. It was no more realistic to win, AIs had some 10 techs more that I had.

Spoiler :

Sury killed russians. Hammurabi vassallized both Gandhi and Shaka. Probably Gandhi just teched and Hammurabi did some continuous warring. When I quit he had just gotten first city on Surys island. Probably would had steamrolled me next. English were Hammurabis best friend, so there was a nice tech-fest on the other continent.

I was stupid enough not to get optics before it was too late. After winning Liberalism race (got nationalism, TM was already built!) around 1300AD I waited some centuries until bored waiting and had to self-researh optics. Of course backfill using edu+lib+nat was not possible any more, and I knew I was in trouble. I beelined to internet while building my economy, but Gandhi built it before I was even able to start it.

Well, bad playing this time.