This will be a long-running series. Playing each of the races on Medium/Impossible/5 races until there’s a victory – there’s a chance that Large is harder than Medium under Kyrub’s patch, but I definitely won’t be finishing that many Large games, since this is at least 10 games and more likely to be 15-20 (although it's possible the reporting will make me play more carefully & your advice is always welcome). No variants, other than the usual exploit list.

First one? Klackons. I think the Klackons are way better than the Psilons, because early game expansion is so important and the Psilons can’t keep up with that.
This will be Klackons -> Psilons -> Meklar, and then we’ll see where it goes from there. Darloks and Mrrshans will definitely be the hardest (mostly because of Diplomatic issues). Silicoids are powerful, but they’re so different that I don’t know when I’ll want to tackle them. Sakkra are also pretty good because of their potent early game. Humans are so good, although the exploit rules limit some of their abuses. Alkari and Bulrathi bonuses are pretty weak, but at least they don’t quite have the atrocious diplomatic issues of the Darloks and Mrrshans.

EDIT: Status:
Klackons: Victory (Tries required: 1). Method: Extermination in 2492.
Psilons: Victory (Tries required: 1). Method: Diplomatic Victory in 2525 (32/52 votes from myself)
Meklar: One defeat.
Humans:
Silicoids:
Sakkra:
Alkari:
Bulrathi:
Darlok:
Mrrshan:

 
Impossible Klackon 01 (I really hope I don’t have to do double digits for any of the races; Mrrshans may be a real challenge).

Starting map:


There’s 3 worlds within range (Purple, red @ 2 parsecs, and red @ 3 parsecs). This looks really good. This NE corner of the map should pretty trivially be ours. That’s 12 stars we could potentially colonize, depending on habitability/existence.
The blue world to the SW is 6 parsecs from Kholdan01 looks like a really important choke point. I’m going to behave as though there is an AI in the yellow stars that are due south – if neither of those two are occupied, then this game just got much easier. Meklar and Silicoids are unfortunate opponents – Meklar because they can be tech powerhouses with only a few worlds, and Silicoids for obvious reasons.
 
So opening turn:
1) Definitely sending the colony ship with a scout escort because The Guardian has a 2% chance of just ending the game if I don’t.
2) Going with the THREE parsec red star – that way I’ll know where to send the Colony Ship if it turns out to be uninhabitable.
3) I really want to be the first person to get to that blue star to the SW. So that’s the second scout’s destination. It’s a 7t mission because of the nebula, and it’s definitely inside the nebula, so holding it is going to be difficult.
4) see three additional high-priority scouting missions: Purple and 2nd red star, and the green one to the south.
5) The Red, White, and Green stars all to the west are each at 7 parsecs from Kholdan. So they won’t be getting scouts for a while.
6) If I’m going to hold at 6 scouts before getting my 3rd colony, I need to start sending the 6th scout out now so I’m making informed decisions. So that means building 4 scouts on turn 1. Klackons can handle this.

2302:
Uxmai is a size-55 poor world.

But we guessed correctly: Anraq is a size 95 Terran


Send Anraq’s scout to the red world to the south, and Uxmai’s to the green world to the east, who will then head to the white world after that. I send 7M to Anraq – I’m going to keep Kholdan at size 40 until there’s enough pop at Anraq for it to end up at 1/3. About the time I do that, I will go above 6 scouts and make a bunch more in anticipation of forward deployment when we get Range 4 or 5. Getting a scout screen deployed as far and fast as possible is the most important early-game action you can do to secure space against MOO AIs – I’ve found that trying to build fleets to contest worlds I can’t just send a colony ship to rarely works (either the AI sends no guns or absolutely way too many of them most of the time). And that trying to pinch pennies by holding out on full scout deployment tends to lead to pound-foolish decisions and/or lost worlds that could have easily been ours.

Scouting reports start coming in (here’s the map at 2306):



2306: Darloks are spotted. Pretty sure that’s only possible if they’re in the yellow star that’s circled. That’s a little unfortunate, I was hoping to have a little more flexibility, but they’re not the Silicoids and they’ve got an Inferno and a Dead world in the way, so I’m not under any direct pressure from them.

 


2308:

Dilemma on starting tech. I went with Range 5 but think this was a mistake I should have known better about at the time – while I knew Cygni was 5 parsecs away (Size 65 to the north), I forgot to check whether Hyades (Size 45 to the NE) was 4 or 5 parsecs away from Cygni, and it was 4. So I could’ve started with Range 4 and still gotten every currently known world (and unlocked the most important worlds to the west to scout). Anraq is spending 2 turns on seeding the tech, and then it will start trickle research. I’ve shut off transports at this point.

2309:
Order up a round of 9 scouts so they can make sure I’m pre-deploying scouts for when Range 5 comes in, and can ensure there’s no surprises from a Darlok scout getting somewhere they shouldn’t early. This is also because I’m going to be building colony ships very soon, and it’s not possible to switch from those to Scouts if the need arises.

2310: SUCCESS! Paladia is an Artifacts world, and I’ll happily take IIT9 for free, that’s going to jumpstart production nicely.




Here’s the worldview with the first round of scouting complete:


2312: I start a Colony ship for Uxmai (6t build). I’m trickling in a few factories while finishing it in 6 turns. I want to have 3 colony ships ready to go when Range 5 comes in, but we’ll see how that holds up. I'll probably get to 120-140 factories (especially with the discounts!) and start a Huge Prebuild while research is ongoing. Poor worlds are so much better for the Klackons since we'll be skipping factories here through at a minimum the discovery of Range 5. I do tend to build factories in Poor worlds, but they're not a top priority here.
I’m going to stop here for the moment. That’s enough for one post.

You can download the mod here: Close to Home 1.2

Note that all the changes here are additions to what you already find in BtS unless otherwise stated as NEW

Changelog version 1.2

Tile Yields and Improvements

• Lumbermills: Available at Machinery, +1 commerce, +1 commerce with Electricity, Lumber mills now +1 commerce on the corner of rivers
  
• Forest preserves: +1 commerce, now +1 commerce on the corner of rivers like above
  

• Drafting: Rifles now cost 2 pop to draft. A city must now end a draft at size 6 instead of size 5 (So size 8 to draft a rifle, size 7 to draft a musket).
  
• AP Resolutions: Declare War (on a non-member), Force Peace (between two members), Religious victory, and Assign City are no longer eligible resolution actions.
  
• Fail-gold: You never get fail-gold if you also completed the wonder somewhere else (so no National Wonder fail-gold, or doubling up on a wonder to guarantee yourself a paycheck. The game still informs you that you received "0 gold" from your hammers).
  
• Toroidal Maintenance: Now return city maintenance as if the map were Cylindrical.
  
• Inflation: Inflation still occurs with increasing turn numbers, but in addition if (All techs you discovered / All available techs) * Maximum turn numbers is higher then the current turn, inflation takes the calculated turn from techs as a base for the calculation.
  
• War Weariness: War weariness declines faster after the war ended
  
• Religion spread: Spreading religions via missionaries to your own cities never fails
  
• Global warming: Removed
  
• Espionage: Active missions removed
  
• Espionage: 'No espionage' option fixed, see bugfix section for more details
  

• Agriculture: Cost 40 instead of 60
  
• Mysticism: Cost 60 instead of 50
  
• Fishing: Cost 50 instead of 40
  
• Metal Casting: Cost 300 instead of  450
  
• Alphabet: Cost 250 instead of 300
  
• Mysticism: Now adds +1 commerce to Palace
  
• Astronomy: Add Paper as another prerequisite
  
• Refrigeration: lose +1 sea movement
  

• Castle: Obsoletes at Corporation instead of Economics
  
• Customs House: Cost 120 instead of 180, also applies to all UBs based on Customs House (Feitoria)
  

• Red Cross: Cost 200 instead of 600
  
• West Point: Cost 550 instead of 800, +5 XP instead of 4, Requires a level 5 unit instead of 6
  

• Resource modifiers: All wonders that had +100% production with a specific resource now only have +50% production with that resource.
  
• Great Lighthouse: +1 trade route in coastal cities instead of +2
  
• Statue of Zeus: Obsolete at Gunpowder
  

• Flanking: Flanking strength (used to calculate damage from flanking strikes) of all units reduced by 50%.
  
• Circumnavigation: +1 trade route in all coastal cities instead of +1 movement and can be achieved by everybody
  
• Coastal blockade: only blocks trade routes, blockaded cities can still work blocked tiles.
  

• Scout: +200% vs animals instead of +100%, no tech required, that way everybody starts with a scout, movement 1 (+1 gained with Hunting)
  
• Swordsman: +20% city attack instead of +10%, also applies to UUs Jaguar Warrior and Gallic Swordsman
  
• War elephant: Strength 7 instead of 8
  
• Airship: Cannot see submarines
  
• ICBM: Cost 1500 instead of 500
  
• Tactical Nuke: Cost 750 instead of 250
  
• Nukes: Nukes never create fallout on tiles containing strategic resources.
  

• Work Boat: no longer require any tech (still require Fishing to work water tiles).
  
• Privateer: Required techs are Gunpowder and Astronomy instead of Chemistry and Astronomy
  
• Submarine and Attack Submarine: Flanking vs Transports
  

• Tech: Discovering the corresponding tech for a corporation earns you an executive of that corporation. To settle the HQ you still need a great person.
  
• Sid's Sushi Co.: Food bonus per resource 0.25 instead of 0.5 and culture bonus per resource 1 instead of 2, maintenance costs halfed
  
• Mining Inc.: Hammer bonus per resource 0.75 instead of 1, maintenance costs 3/4 of original
  

• Serfdom: +1 hammer on Farms and Watermills, +1 commerce on Windmills
  
• Emancipation: lose unhappiness bonus, gain +10% Hammer in all cities
  
• State Property: Lose +10% Hammer in all cities
  
• Environmentalism: Available at Biology instead of Medicine, remove Corporation costs
  
• Vassalage: Medium cost instead of High
  

• Financial: +1 commerce on land tiles that have 3+ commerce, +1 commerce on water tiles that have 2+ commerce, +100% production of bank
  
• Expansive: Remove Worker bonus, add +100% production of Aqueduct
  
• Creative: Reduce Library bonus from 100% to 50%, Remove production bonus for Colosseum
  
• Charismatic: +100% production of Monument, +100% production of Colosseum
  
• Imperialistic: +100% production of Stable
  
• Aggressive: +1 happiness on Barracks and +100% production of Jails
  
• Philosophical: +150% GPP instead of +100%
  
• Protective: +75% trade route yield (like Harbors do)
  

• UBs no longer obsolete at any time. Affected civs are Celts, Egypt, Ethiopia, Native America, Spain
  
• America UB: NEW Immigration Station - Harbor replacement, +3 Great People Points, +1 happy from Hit Musical, Singles and Movies
  
• America UU: NEW Minuteman - Musket replacement, Starts with Guerrilla 1 and Woodsman 1.
  
• Arabia UU: Camel Archer starts with March
  
• Babylon UB: only +1 health, Makes city act as a source of fresh water
  
• Byzantium UB: add +2 artist slots
  
• Byzantium UU: Strength 11 instead of 12, first strike immune like normal knight
  
• Celts UB: +1 culture
  
• France UB: +1 free specialist instead of +1 artist
  
• Germany UB: Assembly Plant available at Steam Power instead of Assembly line, +2 hammer
  
• Germany UU: NEW Riesengarde - replace Grenadier, available at Chemistry, starts with Pinch
  
• Inca UB: +1 culture instead of +2, Cost 70 instead of 60
  
• India UU: movement 2 instead of 3, start with Mobility promotion, Cost 70 instead of 60
  
• Japan UB: NEW Tatara, Forge replacement - +2 XP to Melee, +10% hammer bonus with coals
  
• Khmer UU: Stays at 8 strength instead of base units now 7 strength, requires Ivory or Iron
  
• Maya UU: Starts with Woodsman 1
  
• Native America Tech: Hunting/Agriculture instead of Fishing/Agriculture
  
• Native America UB: Available at Archery instead of Mysticism, additional +1 XP for gunpowder units, never obsoletes
  
• Rome UU: Strength 7 instead of 8, only +10% city attack compared to base unit, cost 40 just like base unit
  
• Russia UB: Replace University instead of Laboratory, only +1 free scientist
  
• Spain UB: Never obsoletes, +2 XP for naval units
  
• Zulu UU: Remove Mobility promotion
  

• Also included are three new leaders for the missing trait combos ORG/PRO, CHM/CRE and IND/PHI
  

Not sure if this makes sense but let's start it.

I have Window 7 and I'm trying to use different launchers for different MP games, in order to avoid typing the IP address each time.
I tried to add the "ini=myinifile" in the destiny of the Desktop Icon for starting the game, and create one ini file for every game.  The command for launch looks something like:  "c:\intallation path....\Civ4BeyondSword.exe" mod=mymod ini=myinifile
But it doesn't work. It does not recognize myinifile

Should I made a bat file for launching instead of using the Desktop Icon? Or are there any other option than creating different ini files?
Any hints?

I can win on advanced consistently and some of the time on expert with all the other schools of magic, but I get nowhere with death magic. 

I just can't even seem to create undead enough to make it worthwhile trying. Ghouls don't damage much in nodes and just get destroyed easily (sprites are so much better for this).
They aren't very good at attacking other wizards as they get picked off by ranged before you can cast darkness and use them.

Drain life seems to do almost no damage at all for me, maybe one or 2 HP and then I have to kill units in other ways, so they don't get raised as undead.

I tried a build with two life books for heavenly light and guardian to allow ghouls to pick off any enemies that attack my cities, but nothing attacked me for most of that game. 

There aren't many unit or city enchantments to help in other ways.

How do people play death at a higher level?

Being that im not in enough pitboss's.. Would there be any interest in another either Base BTS, Close To Home, or RTR game?

Players-
Superdeath
pindicator
naufragar ( if starts around august )
Mr.Cairo
Mjmd
Charriu ( if CtH )
Jowy
Giraflorens
AutomatedTeller


Dedlurkers-
El Grillo
Amicalola
Chumchu

Epic Games wants  you to abandon Steam....


https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/pr...on-vi/home

Clarification. Free forever if you get it this week.

https://sciencefiction.com/2017/06/13/ba...lly-didnt/

If you have a plan and do not play this game, welcome to support me developing/finding mine

Often when I play a game, I've already consolidated power before beating the Guardian is possible.

What is the earliest in a game you have managed to beat him? What was your strategy?

I've never done it without a Zyro shield at minimum. Automated repair is helpful but ships still get trashed without the missile def.

I think it would make the game more interesting if winning was contingent on taking Orion, and not something to do for an overpowered victory lap.

I started a new game where Orion was right next door to my home planet. I've basically conquered the large map, but am still amassing a fleet to see if I can beat the Guardian by the skin of my teeth.

I like huge ships, high energy focus, and all the frickin laser beams.

Saw this over at Civfanatics and thought I would share:

Epic Games is giving away Civ 6 starting May 21st (for 1 week) as its free game of the week:
https://metro.co.uk/2020/05/15/epic-game...-12709722/