r_rolo1
King of myself
Welcome to the 39th 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....
For the 39th game in BTS the chosen leader was Saladin of the Arabs:
Well, I can definitely hear some people groaning about using Saladin, given that neither him or his civ are universally loved in here. Saladin is Spi/Pro and has a library that can hire priests and a resourcessless knight, none of them being in the top of the preferences in any of the poll threads ( well, maybe except Spi, but his popularity dropped a lot since the launch of BtS ( I really can't explain why, since the trait is virtually untouched by it self ) ). The starting techs are maybe not of the agreement of everyone ( Wheel is probably OK by most ppl, but there are some Mysticism haters... the lack of a food tech doesn't help )
Well, the fact is that the Arabian civ was designed to go religious. Not sure if going that way in isolation is a good idea, but if you want to go that way, you start with myst and you'll probably will not have problems in getting prophets
The UU.... well, they will probably not enter in action :/
His UU
The camel archer ( that is not a archery unit BtW ) is a knight that doesn't need horses to be built ( Firaxis should assume that camels are easy to find everywhere ) and that has a inherent withdrawn ability. They can be very versatile in medieval warfare due to the later , but well, medieval warfare is not the usual feature of a LHC .... maybe some flanking II camel archers can go with more modern units, but besides that, they'll probably have a very quiet game in here
His UB
The madrassa is a library that gives 4
instead of 2 and that has 2 priest slots adding to the regular 2 scientist ones. Well, regardless of loving or not priests specialists, the fact is that the buildings that give 4 specialist slots are very rare in Civ IV, so this is a interesting asset to have ( the problem of feeding 4 specs in the early game may hinder the full use of this of course )
The start (Thanks to DanF for the solution of the unit change of place .... The warrior/scout should appear always in the same place from now on, really ):
The best word I can come with this start is "uninspiring". Ok, it has riverside tiles, cows and phants and FPs... but it is not a great start. The good part is that there is some hills to the south and extra FP to the north ( and a pig SW ).
Regarding the saves ( if you're using DanF change to the WB files load, skip this ): given some complaints about the efects of the AI starting without archery in high levels ( giving a unfair advantage to AI that have early UU and/or have early warmongering tendencies ), I decided to make 3 WB saves ( all in the same zip file ). The WB saves are equal except for the fact that one of them ( labeled Monarch ) has all of the AI with archery as starting tech ( corresponding to a game started in Monarch ), one ( labeled Immortal ) has all of the AI with archery,hunting and agriculture as starting tech ( corresponding to a game started in Immortal ) while the last is the corresponding to a game starting in Noble ( labeled Noble ). All WB saves are playable in all levels, but ( for a example ) if you use the Monarch one the AI will start with archery ( and archers ) in any level. This has only a slight effect in the human directly ( mainly via the garrisons of barb cities ), but has a huge effect on the AI gaming in the outer lands ( avoiding scenarios like Pacal, Shaka or Sitting Bull to take all the barb cities and becoming moguls ). I strongly recommend the usage of the Monarch save if you want to play in Monarch+ and the Immortal at Immortal/Deity.... All the speeds are working well ( no more games ending in 1900 ) The saves are zipped... you only have to unzip this to the worldbuilder saves or for the PublicMaps folder ( either one will do ) and load it from the scenarios.
Any problem PM me...
P.S WB saves are crosscompatible between 3.13 and 3.17 if they don't have No Espionage ticked. No problem with the patches here And as WB saves are no more than text files and Vanilla and Warlords WB are almost equal, you can play this if you exchange the non-Vanilla ( or non-warlords ) stuff ( in here it will be only leaders and civs eventually )
Again a small request ( not mandatory ) :
We ask the participants to do, if possible, a write-up with the victory save and a description of your game ( strategies, techs researched, wars,...). All the info should be in spoiler tags ( to not disturb other people's games ). If you want ( we would like to ) post reports at this moments of the game:
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).
The last words are to wish good luck to all
. And let the games begin!
P.S We don't have any kind of problem with defeats and reruns. Just play and enjoy
): starting in isolation....For the 39th game in BTS the chosen leader was Saladin of the Arabs:
Spoiler :
Well, I can definitely hear some people groaning about using Saladin, given that neither him or his civ are universally loved in here. Saladin is Spi/Pro and has a library that can hire priests and a resourcessless knight, none of them being in the top of the preferences in any of the poll threads ( well, maybe except Spi, but his popularity dropped a lot since the launch of BtS ( I really can't explain why, since the trait is virtually untouched by it self ) ). The starting techs are maybe not of the agreement of everyone ( Wheel is probably OK by most ppl, but there are some Mysticism haters... the lack of a food tech doesn't help )
Well, the fact is that the Arabian civ was designed to go religious. Not sure if going that way in isolation is a good idea, but if you want to go that way, you start with myst and you'll probably will not have problems in getting prophets
The UU.... well, they will probably not enter in action :/ His UU
Spoiler :
The camel archer ( that is not a archery unit BtW
) is a knight that doesn't need horses to be built ( Firaxis should assume that camels are easy to find everywhere ) and that has a inherent withdrawn ability. They can be very versatile in medieval warfare due to the later , but well, medieval warfare is not the usual feature of a LHC .... maybe some flanking II camel archers can go with more modern units, but besides that, they'll probably have a very quiet game in hereHis UB
Spoiler :
The madrassa is a library that gives 4
instead of 2 and that has 2 priest slots adding to the regular 2 scientist ones. Well, regardless of loving or not priests specialists, the fact is that the buildings that give 4 specialist slots are very rare in Civ IV, so this is a interesting asset to have ( the problem of feeding 4 specs in the early game may hinder the full use of this of course ) The start (Thanks to DanF for the solution of the unit change of place
.... The warrior/scout should appear always in the same place from now on, really ):Spoiler :
The best word I can come with this start is "uninspiring". Ok, it has riverside tiles, cows and phants and FPs... but it is not a great start. The good part is that there is some hills to the south and extra FP to the north ( and a pig SW ).
Regarding the saves ( if you're using DanF change to the WB files load, skip this ): given some complaints about the efects of the AI starting without archery in high levels ( giving a unfair advantage to AI that have early UU and/or have early warmongering tendencies ), I decided to make 3 WB saves ( all in the same zip file ). The WB saves are equal except for the fact that one of them ( labeled Monarch ) has all of the AI with archery as starting tech ( corresponding to a game started in Monarch ), one ( labeled Immortal ) has all of the AI with archery,hunting and agriculture as starting tech ( corresponding to a game started in Immortal ) while the last is the corresponding to a game starting in Noble ( labeled Noble ). All WB saves are playable in all levels, but ( for a example ) if you use the Monarch one the AI will start with archery ( and archers ) in any level. This has only a slight effect in the human directly ( mainly via the garrisons of barb cities ), but has a huge effect on the AI gaming in the outer lands ( avoiding scenarios like Pacal, Shaka or Sitting Bull to take all the barb cities and becoming moguls ). I strongly recommend the usage of the Monarch save if you want to play in Monarch+ and the Immortal at Immortal/Deity.... All the speeds are working well ( no more games ending in 1900 ) The saves are zipped... you only have to unzip this to the worldbuilder saves or for the PublicMaps folder ( either one will do ) and load it from the scenarios.
Any problem PM me...
P.S WB saves are crosscompatible between 3.13 and 3.17 if they don't have No Espionage ticked. No problem with the patches here
And as WB saves are no more than text files and Vanilla and Warlords WB are almost equal, you can play this if you exchange the non-Vanilla ( or non-warlords ) stuff ( in here it will be only leaders and civs eventually )Again a small request ( not mandatory
) :We ask the participants to do, if possible, a write-up with the victory save and a description of your game ( strategies, techs researched, wars,...). All the info should be in spoiler tags ( to not disturb other people's games ). If you want ( we would like to
) post reports at this moments of the game: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).
The last words are to wish good luck to all
. And let the games begin!P.S We don't have any kind of problem with defeats and reruns. Just play and enjoy
.
) not Choosed. If I've told you once I've now told you twice.
