Lonely Hearts Club, BtS Edition, Chapter XXVII : Justinian

[ArjenC]

Been lurking for a couple months here, first post! I always enjoy reading these games, and I learned a lot from them. Lately, I also started playing them, and decided to post my effort here. Managed to pull off a cultural victory in 1942. (Monarch/normal)

Spoiler :

When I loaded up the game I realized it was on normal speed, which I never played before, mostly marathon with an occasional epic Oh well decided I'd give it a spin. 9 turns to research paper sounds awesome to a marathon player, but is it good for normal?

After settling in place and exploring a bit I decided to go for The Great Lighthouse quickly. First settler was out later than usual (darn normal speed), and settled on the southern tip of the island, on what later turned out to be iron. Argh, I could have used that production. Thanks to the Imperialistic trait I managed to cram about 8 cities in the lower part of the island by about 200 AD, 7 of em coastal. Science rate was pretty unimpressive, BPT in the 30's. I've built a bunch of early wonders in Constantinople. For some reason I saw no barbarian galleys at all (patched to 3.17) until 500 AD or so.

Luckily watery maps slow down the AI as well, and I won liberalism around 1400 and took astronomy. By this time I met all the AI's with my caravels and circumnavigated by buying Cyrus's map. (Met several of Lizzy's caravels so I wanted to hurry.) Lizzy and Roosevelt are hindu buddies. Isabella founded buddhism but was very small and voluntarily vassalized to JC who was huge (and his power rating about 5 times mine). Cyrus was also pretty big and pushed Brennus into a small corner, but his land sucks. All of them are buddhist, except for Brennus who managed to adopt judaism without being declared on constantly. Tech-wise I'm slightly in the lead together with Lizzy and Roosevelt.

I decide I don't want to fight an endless intercontinental war agaisnt JC and go cultural. At this point I had only Confucianism (missed Toaism by 2 turns, grr), so I settle some more crappy cities in the northern part of the island and hope for buddhism to spread to me, both for diplo and to build more cathedrals. Unfortunately I only get hinduism. I try to adopt it, to take advantage of the Sistine Chapel, which results in:

Okay, okay, geez. Free religion it is JC invades with cuirassiers, I am still a couple turns away from rifles, but any stacks he lands immediately get hit by suicide catapults and neutralized with pikes and cataphracts. Cyrus attacks with grenadiers and cuirassiers, and by the time I have rifles he has cavalry. My techrate is still slow because Lizzy and Roosevelt are the only ones that consistenly want open borders with me, but Roosevelt keeps begging Lizzy into mercantilism, so my traderoutes are useless After repelling some stacks I quickly sue for peace. Everyone has met each other by now, and everyone keeps bugging me to stop trading with X, declare war on Y, and what not. Without religious modifiers and being unable to get civic bonuses I try to offend everyone equally resulting in this diplo screen:

At least I'm no longer public enemy number one. Poor Brennus has no friends at all. Lots of war take place, but cities change ownership, despite the fact that JC and Cyrus have triple the power rating of everyone else.

With my science slider at 0% I'm still slowly teching along to get steel for cannons and then railroad for machineguns, while avoiding corporation. Thanks to a bucketload of artists and merchants I'm running (+ representation) I have both when I get declared on with about 20 turns to go.

Isabella (who kept breaking free and vassalizing to JC) suddenly appeared with a bunch of destroyers, sinking my frigates and pillaging my seafood ,and a stack of 10 galleons. Oh no! But wait, she only had 2 infantry and 2 cavalry in there. And because she attacked amphibiously, and before taking down my (high) cultural defenses, they get mowed down by my machineguns. The AI does suck at war. Interesting to see that Isabella managed to tech so well with only 5 cities. Must've been the 4 holy shrines she had in there

5 turns later, a huge stack of light blue ships appears on my other coast. Damn backstabbing Cyrus, bet he's going to bribe Brennus into war with me as well. But alas, not enough ships left to sink his stack in a pre-emptive strike. Indeed the next turn the horns sound. Cyrus lands a stack of about 20 infantry, cavalry and cannons. I suicide about 10 cannons into them, then clean em up with rifles and some pikes I still had hanging around. The last cavalry I finished off with my inital warrior, now a proud woodsman II clubswinger. Ha, take that! I then bribe Brennus into war with Cyrus before Cyrus sets him on me. Cyrus proceeds to take over Celtian lands, but it's irrelevant.

In the last turns, some small groups of 3-4 units are landed here and there, but nothing that poses a serious threat to my cities. All of my cities are unhealthy, with all my seafood pillaged, and my legendary culture cities are starving. I'm far behind in tech by now. It ain't pretty, but eventually:

Crappy score, and I'm not really happy about how I played. I think normal speed really screwed me over. However, turtling up for culture and desperately defending against technologically superiour troops with only a handfull of turns to go was thrilling as well.

 

[r_rolo1]

@ArjenC

1- welcome to the posting side of CFC

2- Congrats on the win

3- You could had changed speed in the starting screen , where you choose dificulty level .... That would had eased your game, I assume ....

 

[TheMeInTeam]

You can even do things like disable EVENTS/barbs and lock modified assets if you play "custom scenario". Try not to cheat and look at the leaders though. I usually just cover that portion of the screen with a nearby sheet of paper or not look.

Sometimes I play with barbs on even in LHC, but I never play with events on anymore - rubbed me the wrong way one too many times with game-changing nonsense like vedic aryans the second I hit archery or 4 slave revolts or diplo hits ruining the game. No thanks.

 

[semirami]

You can even do things like disable EVENTS/barbs and lock modified assets if you play "custom scenario". Try not to cheat and look at the leaders though. I usually just cover that portion of the screen with a nearby sheet of paper or not look.

Sometimes I play with barbs on even in LHC, but I never play with events on anymore - rubbed me the wrong way one too many times with game-changing nonsense like vedic aryans the second I hit archery or 4 slave revolts or diplo hits ruining the game. No thanks.

In this LHC, I got 10 events all negative and zero positive. Ah yes, got ellite swords, which I lost the very next turn. I rebuilt the cow pasture in the capital 5 times at least. Events are fun, but sometimes they can be really annoying. A negative event usually hits the same improvement/building/city more than once, sometimes every 10 turns, which is ridicolous.

 

[LiberiGlacialis]

I just roll with 'em. For every good one, I get three bad ones, but I don't mind it that much.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I would do that but I have more fun with them off (having tried both extensively), so I keep them off. Barbs just depend on my mood.

 

[vicawoo]

I don't think any amount of random events would bother me on settler. At sufficiently low difficulty level, you should be able to overcome it.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

It's not a question of overcoming it. I'm very anti-micro and so these annoyances really bother me.

I've only lost to them a handful of times in over 100 games. Most of those losses were to uprisings, before the patch made them still unbalanced, but far less so. Specifically, the archer uprising. I lost to slave revolts once and bad diplo events twice (it's amazing how fast the DoW comes when they drop to pleased with a big military - Maybe it was one of those dagger AIs?)

What REALLY annoys me though, are things like eruptions, forge fires, theater events (both good and bad), and basically anything else that gives me popups and drags me across the world to deal with them. Screw that. If I want to click more I'll play archipelago.

 

[vicawoo]

I recommend progressquest

 

[ungy]

immortal, normal up to 1340

Spoiler :

I settle in place and went ag-ah. I'm just a big fan of getting those tiles working ASAP. I build SH and GLH. SH I almost never try for but it seemed like I was a bit stuck at the open with no great second city site and lots of hammers having gotten the cow up.

I fail to pop a GS in 4 GP and I'm pretty backwards when I meet the world.
At this point I've got astro monopoly and some $ from trade mission so I'm rocking techwise but I don't have a clear plan for victory.

 

[dalamb]

Spoiler Checkpoint 1 :

I decided to go with pottery early to get a granary as soon as possible, even before making a worker -- fishing, one of the prereqs, could supply food to replace the corn and cows. So tech path so far was polytheism (got hinduism) > fishing > pottery > mining > bronze > agriculture > animal husbandry. Build order was approximately warrior > stonehenge (while waiting) > granary > worker > stonehenge > barracks. I'm soon to finish hunting to go pop a few huts, hoping for better results than I'd get with a warrior (and following someone's advice in the Cyrus game that saving huts for a while might be reasonable, hoping to pop a more expensive tech). I may need archery for barbarians unless I figure I can connect bronze soon enough for axemen.

I now have to decide on city placement and the next set of goals.

• I really need to use Yellow for a super-science city, I think -- cottage all those floodplains, and use the copper, plains hill, and cow when production is necessary. I'm not sure if 1S of there is better.
• I don't see a good production city in the south until after iron working, in which case black, blue, and purple become reasonable -- but they really need CS to farm enough grassland to work the hills.
• The horse and stone cities (brown and red) are 'way north, so I think I need CoL sooner rather than later.

So maybe the next few techs should be writing (for SSC library) > priesthood > CoL hoping for the CS slingshot.

After than I'll have some more decisions to make, such as how soon to go for Optics and caravels to meet the opposition.

Comments on city placement and tech strategy very welcome; I've rarely finished a Noble-level game and really need the advice.

 

[semirami]

Checkpoint 2 Emperor/Mar up to 1180 AD

Spoiler :

I decided to try Pyramids anyay. The capital has a decent production potential. GL+ mids could be done with +25% boost from organized religion, so I decided to research Monotheism, after Fishing/Masonry/Sailing. 1 turn before competion I saw that I'll found Judaism. Well why not. Sure it increases the chance, that I'll find a happy religious familiy later, but hey cheap temples for extra happiness dont hurt. So:

followed by:

and:

480 BC something unexpected happens:

Yeah that's some incredible luck, at 5% odds. Of course techpath changed from CoL to Aesthetics.

1AD:

Yes I still dont have Pottery yet.

845AD Optics is done and Astronomy is bulbed on the same turn. I immediatelly met Isabella, thanks to the increased visibility. Look at her eyes!!! She really loves me

Of course she wont open borders with me and I must wait few turns until my caravels meets another AI. Few turns later meet Cyrus. I open borders with him and guess what, beakers skyrocket from 124 to 256.

1180 AD. 1 turn to Liberalism. I can delay it, because noone has Education yet. I still dont know what to take from it. I think for Nationalism, because I have another great engineer sleeping in the capital, but few AIs have this tech and Taj isn't that atractive for spiritual civ. There is a good mix this time warmongers, zealots, tech/wonder whores. I am preaty safe for now, because only Roosvelt has Optics, but I dont know what victory condition to pursue.

- Domination. Production is where I really suck. The true bottom leader without any competition. On the other hand I am Imperialistic. Would be a waste, if I dont use the trait.

- Culture. This is prbably easy and deffinetely an option. If I decide to go for culture I will research Liberalism now and build the Taj

- Diplomatic. Not impossible. AP is buddhist and this religion luckily spread to a fresh captured barb city. JC can be my friend. I run his favourite civic, altough he still doesnt have access but he will have soon.

- Space. Not impossible, but not the best option here.

This is what the world looks like:

Tech situation:

Relations:

 

[LiberiGlacialis]

@ dalamb

Spoiler :

You're going to think I'm nuts, but move the Yellow City to 1NW of the cows and cottage everything that isn't a resource You have enough food pre-biology to support a 20 pop city there, I kid you not. You'll need a Lighthouse to pull that stunt off, however.

 

[dalamb]

@ LiberiGlacialis:

Spoiler :

Plenty of food, but surely problems with health (with all the floodplains) and needing lots of sources of happiness, or Shakespeare? I admit my location would similarly have health problems but I wasn't thinking of a size 20 city - more like 9, for centre, cows, bronze, and 6 floodplains. OTOH as long as the Colossos lasted, if I got it, your version would produce a humongous amount of commerce!

That leaves the issue of how to get access to the bronze. One idea is the brown city in the following; I'd have to farm the one flood plain not in Yellow's radius, plus work the cows, to be able to work both copper and stone. Still a pretty poor spot, though.

A couple of other nearby locations are possible such as 1NE (or 1NW if I give up the stone to a more northeasterly crab-based city); I haven't thought through which might be best.

 

[LiberiGlacialis]

@dalamb

Spoiler :

I didn't see a good way to get the bronze, however....there is something near your capital (Just [Just!] outside the BFC) that'll help you out a bit. But you are right: I'm having trouble with Happy all over my nation, and Health in that one city.

 

[dalamb]

@KaytieKat:

Spoiler query re your southern map :

Your map (repeated below) shows what looks like gold 1SE 1E of your capital; was that a lucky event when you mined that plains hill?

 

[KaytieKat]

Hi

@dalamb

Spoiler :

yeah I pretty sure it was an event. that one reason if I had choice of early happiness stuff I would rather have squirrels and ivory. I noticed usually on split landmasses those wont be on same land mass as happy metals. but if you start with fur and ivory then happy metals have a chance of popping by working mines but no chance of getting squirrels or ivory like that.

The only bad thing bout it is it drops the amount of hammers the mine gets

Kaytie

 

[rave69]

Emperor/Epic
Full game 4000BC-1960AD (Cultural Victory):

Spoiler :

So i got this "great" idea to try culture victory on isolated island...

Start:
My warrior was located to north from my settler so i saw extra fish near starting position and decided to move my settler 1W because of it. Buildorder: worker -> warrior -> workboat and research path was Agri -> (mining from hut) -> bronze -> fishing. Now because I wanted AIs to get early religions I decided to go for oracle -> CoL, before oracle i had built stonehenge also so in no time i got great prophet and i could bulb theology also.

After getting religions i wanted to get use of those nice gem/dye spots in jungle so i researched IW and calendar. IW was also handy because I started to have troubles with barbarians and my warriors could keep them away just barely. After i conquered the jungle, it was time to beeline for music. I was first to research it so i got the extra artist of it. Strange tho, like 5 turns later other civ build sistine chappel so no extra culture for me . I could keep my research rate high for long because i got lots of money from failed wonders, hanging gardens and partheneon were both close ones.

After music it was time to race for liberalism, i bulbed education and researched rest... I won the race around 1200AD and picked gunpowder. Around same time I met first Civs and I could back fill my tech tree... mostly i wanted techs what leads to banking so that i could change to mercantilism for extra specialist. After getting it.. I dropped my research rate and changed it to culture. My civics were following, HR, free speech, caste system, merc and pacifism.

I picked my first 3 cities for boosting, but i think the one with floodplains would have been much better. Capital was running with 8 artists and other two had 3-4 each. I saved all GAs what i got, Im not sure if AIs sees when im close to win with culture but i didnt want to risk it anyway. Around 1800AD I had 10 GAs stacked when my bad luck started and i kept getting great prophets with 10%ish odds. So it took ages to get last culture points. UN also voted global emancipation and all my artist specialists dissapeared . I finally got enough culture around 1960AD and won the game.

I think I was abit lucky with diplomacy and that i didnt get DoW at anytime. Tho when i got gunpowder i started spamming musketeers out from my other, non culture, cities so I had around 3-4 units in every coastal city. AIs also kept warring against each others all the time and they were each others worst enemies so i guess that helped also.

Victory pictures:

My second win without building ships \o/
Now I have only space victory left before i have to start building them

 

[LiberiGlacialis]

Checkpoint 4, Victory! (Space)

Spoiler :

I can do better then this! ....if I didn't play so casually. It got hairy for a bit when both Rome and England were out-teching me for a while there. I founded Mining, which help out in building the space parts. Also got the Internet, which spat out Divine Right, Refrigeration, and something else. And the Space Elevator. And the Comet Event. Was fun, can't wait for the next Lonely Heart.

Maybe I should of tried Intercontinental Warfare....

 

[PaulusIII]

Lest I forget... Time has been scarce lately, keeping me out of the IU as well.

Emperor/Epic, 4000 BC-1395 AD (1&2)

Spoiler :

After heading for a really early IW (2175 BC!) I was able to get the economy up and running quickly with the help of those two wonderful gem tiles. I built a GP farm out of Constantinople, netting me early Philosophy and Taoism as well. I won the liberalism race as well.

I'm not very advanced compared to Liz and FDR, but Brennus looks takable.