[SPOILERS] FFH II PBEM I Lurker Discussion Thread- No Players Allowed!

[darrelljs]

Okay as promised here is the map post. As a reminder, the request was for something "natural" with a few items forbidden since they are overpowering in the extreme. I tried the "Erebus Continents" map script which is FFH specific, but it would put capitals 3 tiles from each other . I then went Fractal but due to the large map size and the low number of opponents it kept stranding a civ on a solo continent. I settled for Pangaea, here is the overview screenshot:



Top row of 4 civs somewhat crowded in and a bottom row of 2 civs with a layer of jungle in between. The bottom row civs (Calabim/Vampires, Hippus/Horselords) got the better end of this deal. The Svartalfar/Dark Elves got the worst end of the deal, being squeezed in from two sides with one opponent sure to expand in their direction.

Hippus/Horselords
After the Corn/Pig capital not a lot of food, which balances out the room to expand into nicely IMO. Note that the "Silver" resource is actually Mithril. That's a late game strategic resource that gives +4 strength to any units equipped with Mithril weapons. FFH did a really smart thing IMO, you don't need strategic resources to build units. Axes can be built as soon as you have Bronze Working and a Training Yard built. However, if you secure a source of Copper, they are equipped with Bronze Weapons and get +1 strength. Iron gives +2 strength. Mithril is the uber metal, but it comes so late in the tech tree I doubt it will factor into this game (especially not for the Hippus, who don't tech down the metal path very often).



Illians/Winterborn
The Illians are an interesting civ in that they like tundra (acts as plains) and snow (acts as grassland). They even have the ability to convert terrain to these types mid game. This gives Auric a lot more room to expand into. Also note Letum Frigus to the north and equidistant with the Elves. That gives the Illians the AGG traint permanently if they can get a unit on it. I hope the Elves find it first and try to deny access . It also grants Ice mana if you can control it. The Illians Palace gives Ice Mana as well, but there are advantages to having multiple mana resources I'll go into later. If the Svartalfar/Dark Elves can claim the resource (doubtful) they will gain access to a line of spells normally unavailable, Ice being the only mana you can't convert a raw mana node into.



Kuriotates/Uber cities
The Kuriotates are limited to 4 cities on this map, but each city can work any tile in the first two border expansions (40 tiles if memory serves). They also have a cottage promotion past town that gives +1F/+1C, although that likely won't come into play due to the insanely long maturation time. If you can expand the population caps high enough (and they get ways to do so), you can have some really powerful cities. In addition to their four uber cities, they can found colonies to claim resources. It is worth mentioning that the "City of a Thousand Slums" world wonder also gives access to the second border pop tiles, one of my favorite wonders but you need to plan ahead for it.



Dwarves/Hoarders
The Khazad are my second favorite civ to play. Production is crazy once you get your feet under you. The AGG/FIN trait is awesome. As an aside, FIN is the best trait in the game probably. There is a civic available early that gives -1F/+2C to farms in addition to -40% distance maintenance. Given there is a civic and a tech that gives +1F, if you have the FIN trait you can get 4/0/3 Farms up and running as a FIN leader. Really powerful stuff. This start is better than it might look as well since Dwarves are infantry bee liners, and they'll be the first to chop down jungle. Of course, if someone goes down the Arcane path there is a first level spell that can burn down Jungle. Impossible to control though, it can spread into forest tiles.



Svartalfar/Dark Elves
When the evles build an improvement on a forest tile, the forest doesn't get chopped! There is a religion that slowly converts forests to ancient forests (extra +1F), and finally there is a civic that gives +1H for each forest in the BFC. Translation is that the elves have large cities with no happy/health problems and great production. They are the best long term builder civ in the game. Elvish Workers are slow however, you need more of them to get the job done. This start has pleny of forests in the area, I expect a beeline for Fellowship of the Leaves and Eduction (cottages).



Calabim/Vampires
My favorite civ to play, but you really want to be Flauros and not Decius . Bob said he wanted a challenge, he's going to get one. At least he has the best start in the game. Tons of room, floodplains, Gold...he should be able to get to Vampires fairly quickly, and then its time.



Darrell

[Sullla]

Umm, far be it from me to criticize others on their map work, but shouldn't you have spaced out those teams just a little bit more evenly? The red team looks like they have a massive advantage - no neighbors on any sides, and tons of space to expand into. That seems like it could be an issue in this game.

[darrelljs]

Okay I plan on giving an overview of the mod in a series of posts on various facets of the game. I'll start with one of the bigger game mechanics...magic! Magic has evolved quite a bit from the earliest days of FFH. This highlights one of the more fascinating aspects of the game (calling it a MOD is a disservice), namely the role the user community has played in the development. I'm not talking about the programmers and artists recruited from the CFC forums, but the release of even minor patches to the community for testing and feedback. The bug thread alone has nearly half a million views . IMHO, this participation from the very beginning played a crucial role in the final excellence of FFH. Anyway, as I said I won't go over all the changes to the magic system but will present the current (and final) system. There are two major branches of magic...Arcane and Divine. Let's focus on Arcane magic for now (we'll discuss Divine when we go over religions), starting with the tech tree:



In FFH, you tend to pick one horizontal line of techs to run down and unlock the goodies you wish to exploit, and Arcane magic is no different. Knowledge of the Ether is available fairly early in the tech tree, and unlocks the Mage Guild building. This building allows construction of the basic arcane unit, called an Adept. The Adept starts with the Arcane promotion and Channeling I. It is a fairly useless unit with low strength and no special abilities...initially. In order to access spells, you need mana. Different types of mana grants access to different types of spells. Each civ starts with 3 mana types from their palace. To gain access to additional mana types you must find raw mana, connect it as you would any other resource, and have an Adept construct a mana node (much as a Worker would construct a camp for Fur). Adept's can only build a mana node for which you've researched the unlocking technology:

Elementalism
Air
Earth
Fire
Water

Necromancy
Chaos
Death
Entropy
Shadow

Alteration
Body
Enchantment
Life
Nature

Divination
Law
Mind
Spirit
Sun

In addition, Ice is a special mana type from the Illian's Palace (thus available to the Illians themselves, or the Elohim) or to a civ that controls Letum Frigus, a unique terrain feature. Metamagic is available when you've discovered the Sorcery tech. Owning mana of a certain type allows your Arcane units to take promotions from that sphere. In addition, most mana types grant a unique bonus. For example Earth mana increases your chance to "pop" a new metal resource. Owning multiple types of the same mana also had benefits, for example free promotions in that sphere, or in the case of Earth mana an even higher chance of popping a new resource. Some units have "affinity" to a mana type meaning they gain strength for each mana resource of that type you hold. This can and should be abused .

As mentioned above, Adepts are weak. However, they study . This means that there is a random chance an Adept will gain an experience point every turn. Once an Adept reaches level 4 (and you know the Sorcery tech), they can be promoted to a Mage. Mages gain Channeling 2 and a free promotion. They also gain XPs at a faster rate. When a Mage reaches level 6 (and you know the Strength of Will tech), they can be promoted to Archmages. Archmages gain Channeling 3 and a free promotion. Channeling 1 allows a unit to take the first level promotion from a given sphere, e.g. Death 1. Having the first level promotion means you can cast the first level spell from that sphere, e.g. Summon Skeleton for Death 1 which creates a permanent unit with similar attributes to a Warrior. Channeling 2 grants access to second level promotions and spells (e.g. Death 2 and Summon Wraith), while Channeling 3 grants access to the third and final promotion and spell level (e.g. Death 3 and Summon Wraith or Lichdom).

Level 3 spells are dramatically stronger than level 1 spells. Finding tricks to get your weak Adepts experience points and get to Mages/Archmages quickly are a key aspect of FFH. Some leaders have the Arcane trait, which grants the Potency promotion to all Arcane units. Potency increases the chance of gaining an experience point by 20%. This is significant. Another powerful trait for an Arcane focus is the Summoning trait. Typically summoned units die at the beginning of you next turn. If you have the Summoning trait your summoned units hang around for 2 extra turns. There are fun ways to abuse this. Certain civilizations (notably the Amurites and the Grigori) can quickly get to Archmages. Others (notably the Balseraphs and the Svartalfar) have unique aspects that play well with Arcane magic.

The last thing to mention is the special "Arcane" victory condition. If you gain control of all mana types for a given category you can build a tower for that category, e.g. if you own Fire, Air, Water and Earth mana you can build the Tower of Elementalism which grants bonuses. Build all four towers and learning the Strength of Will tech will allow construction of the Tower of Mastery. Be warned, this wonder is expensive and causes all non-aligned civs to declare war on you ! Of course, there are ways around this ...

Anyway, I hope this brief introduction will help lurkers follow the game, don't hesitate to ask any questions .

Darrell

[darrelljs]

Umm, far be it from me to criticize others on their map work, but shouldn't you have spaced out those teams just a little bit more evenly? The red team looks like they have a massive advantage - no neighbors on any sides, and tons of space to expand into. That seems like it could be an issue in this game.

Yeah, it will likely be an issue. However, I was recruited to lightly edit a "natural" map, not create a custom map. I wasted about an hour on the Erebus Continents and Fractal scripts before settling on Pangaea. I generated 10 and picked the "best" of the lot. You could argue I should have generated more, but I'd counter that I was running late for surgery .

Darrell

[Shoot the Moon]

Should pocketbeetle be informed of the warrior screw-up in map making? I can't decide what would be considered a spoiler or not. I would think telling him no one popped a scout would be a spoiler, but that the units were messed up at the start would not. But would telling him what everyone got be a spoiler (on the one hand, it could be, but on the other in a normal game he should know it)?

[T-hawk]

I think the best answer would be to post in the public thread that not everyone's starting units were accurately set by the mapmaker. Whatever pocketbeetle works out from there is up to him.

[darrelljs]

The next game mechanic I'd like to overviw over is religion . In CIV, the religions are all pretty much the same. Not so in FFH, where every religion is uniquely flavored and can have a radical impact on the the game. For example, religion can alter a leader's alignment. All leaders start the game as either Good, Neutral, or Evil. Alignment can result in a sizeable diplomatic bonus (or penalty) with other leaders, so adopting an alignment changing religion can dramatically alter your relations. Most religions grant access to special civics, which can be quite powerful. Most also have one or more heros, some of which are quite powerful. These heroes will abandon your civilization if you adopt a different religion, so care must be taken. Every religion but the Council of Esus has a unique disciple (similar to a Missionary but with some combat strength and the Medic promotion), priest and high priest (the latter two have access to unique spells). If you are a Spiritual leader, these Divine units gain access to the Mobility and Potency promotions. And of course religions also come with a shrine and temples, which vary quite a bit in their effects. Now for a brief overview of each of the seven religions:



The Fellowship of the Leaves is your basic nature relgion, and as such has no impact on alignment. It is available early in the game and has incredible synergy with the Elves, because Forests in your border have a random chance each turn to become Ancient Forests, which give an additional food! Recall that elven Workers can build an improvement on a tile without removing the forest . The Fellowship also has a unique civic, Guardian of Nature, which gives +5 in all cities and +1 for each forest. The Fellowship priest can cast the Bloom spell, which grows a forest on any tile that doesn't have one. So let's recap. Each elven city can have an Ancient forest on every tile. These forests give an +1 , +1 , +1 , and +0.5 . Elven cities are BIG and productive, and the elves tech better than anyone late game.

In addition to Bloom, a Priest of Leaves can summon a permanent Tiger. Once they hit level 6 (and the Theology tech is known), they can be promoted to a High Priest of Leaves which can summon a permanent Treant. The shrine is called the Song of Autumn and can be built by a Great Prophet or Great Bard (a.k.a. a Great Artist) which is nice because an early tech gives a free Great Bard. It gives +1 per city as a standard shrine does and also provides a source of Nature mana. There are two unique units associated with the FoL, the Fawn and Satyr. These are expensive but fairly strong for the time when they become available. There are also two heros, Kithra Kyriel is a reasonably strong, very fast mounted unit. Yvain is the bomb:



He has a base strength of 9, but for each source of nature mana you secure he gets +2 strength. This can add up quickly . He can also cast Vitalize, which upgrades the terrain he is standing on, ice becomes tundra, tundra/desert becomes plains, and plains become grasslands. Grassland floodplains are fun .



The Runes of Kilmorph is all about gold . Its a great religion for everyone, but particularly powerful for the Khazad. It is also available early in the game. Kilmorph is an earth goddess emphasizing personal responsibilty, and adopting RoK turns evil leaders neutral. The best part of this religion is the shrine and temple. The Tablets of Bambur provides an Earth mana resrouce and +1 /turn for each RoK city. The Temple of Kilmorph gives +2 /turn. So each RoK spread will give 4 /turn out the gate assuming you have the Bazaar of Mammon (Wall Street equivalent) in your holy city. This requires you to spread the relgion with the RoK priest called a Stonewarden, which insta builds the shrine at the cost of the unit (an ability common to all priests). The Stonewarden can also cast the Shield of Faith spell to all units in a stack (which gives a strength boost in your next combat). The Runekeeper is the high priest and can cast Earthquake, which unfortifies units in adjacent tiles and also destroys buildings and tile improvements.

The two unique units are expensive infantry units, rarely worth building. RoK also has a unique wonder, the Mines of Gal'Dur, which provides three Iron resource. You can gain access to Iron before most other civs this way. The unique civic Arete grants +20% in RoK cities, +1 from each mine, and allows you to spend cash to hurry production (other civics provide this). There are three heroes, Bambur is a melee unit that can cast Enchanted Blade (20% strength boost) and Repair (heals golems and siege). Arthendain is a higher tier melee unit that has healing powers. Then there is the Mithril Golem .



The Mithril Golem is an avatar that can only be built if the Armageddon Counter (see Ashen Veil below) hits 70. It has a base strength of 25 and +60% city attack, but cannot promote. It can only be built in the RoK holy city and costs a cool 5000 .



The third "early" religion is the Octopus Overlords. This one spawns from a power that lurks in the depths of the Aegean ocean. If you are familiar with D&D think mind flayers from the sea. OO is a strong religion which for some reason I never follow. Something unappealing about working for aliens bent on dominating humanity for unknown reasons. Speaking of which, it turns Good leaders Neutral. The shrine is the Necronomicon and gives the standard 1 per city with OO and provides Water mana. The temple grants +3 for some reason, don't really understand that. There is no unique civic, however the unique wonder the Tower of Complaceny has the same affect as the Globe Theater. The Asylum is a unique building that boosts research but also causes 10% of units to be crazed (you randomly lose control of the unit until it kills something, which it will try to do as soon as it can). The Drown is a unique unit you can convert a Warrior into. It gains +1 unholy strength and can walk on coastal tiles (but not ocean). This can be really powerful as the Cultist (OO priest) also has water walking and can cast the Tsunami spell which damages all units on the coast. You can easily pick off coastal cities with this combination. The Speaker (OO high priest) can also summon a permanent Kraken (powerful water unit). Saverous is the first OO hero, a mediocre melee unit. Hemah is the other one:



Hemah is an archmage buildable at Arcane Lore. Between early availability and the Hero promotion, you'll have access to 3ish L3 spells before anyone else has access to one. Very, very powerful hero...the second best IMO.



Assassins are the quintessential follower of Esus. It is a religion of shadows (and as such will turn any Good leader Neutral), and unique in the fact that it has no priests or temples. Any follower of Esus (i.e. any unit built in a city that has CoE) can spread the religion into a city by paying 30 . One of the most powerful abilities of this religion is that you are not ejected from your opponent's borders when declaring war . In addition, if you have the shrine Nox Noctis all of your units are invisible inside your borders! The shrine also gives the standard 1 per city with CoE and provides Shadow mana. The Shadow unique unit is a master assassin capable of targeting the weakest unit in an enemy's stack (great for taking out archmages). All units which follow Esus can cast Mask, which grants hidden nationality (equivalent to making them Privateers). The one hero is Gibbon Goetia:



She is a powerful Illusionist with the Impersonate Leader ability. This allows you to take over another civilization for a period of time. Unfortunately the AI takes over your own civ so any damage you do is matched by AI mismanagement damage .



The Empyrean is a religion that prizes wisdom above all else, and believes strongly in redemption. Evil leaders will become Neutral if they adopt the Empyrean. The shrine Dies Diei reveals all invisible units inside your border, gives 1 per city, and provides Sun mana. The temple gives a 10% boost. There is a melee and chariot UU that are nothing to write home about. The Vicar (priest) can cast revelation which destroys all illusions. This is highly situational. The Luridus (high priest) can also cast Crown of Brilliance, which damages units about 30%. Finally, there is Chalid Astrakein :



Taking availability into account, Chalid is the best hero in the game. In addition to the Crown of Brilliance, he can cast the awesome Pillar of Fire spell which does about 50% damage to every unit in the enemy's largest adjacent stack. He also has +2 affinity for sun mana.

<continued in next post due to image limit>

[darrelljs]

Ah, the Ashen Veil. No religion has quite the impact on an FFH game as the Veil does. The Veil was founded by Mages who went too far in their pursuit of knowledge and learned secret magics from a dark and sinister power. Any leader adopting Ashen Veil becomes Evil. Spreading the Ashen Veil and building Ashen Veil units are the most common way to increase the Armageddon Counter. The AC starts at 0 and as it grows, bad things happen. Blight causes a loss of health in all cities. Powerful barbarian units known as the four horseman spawn and wreak havoc. If the AC every hits 100, Armageddon hits killing tons of units and causing massive damage world wide . In addition if you research Infernal Pact you summon the infernals from beyond the veil, a poweful demonic civilzation that literally brings hell to earth. Normal terrain converts to a hellish equivalent. This effect is centered around Dis (the Infernal capital) and spreads faster as the AC goes up. I love the Ashen Veil, its my favorite religion .

The AV unique units are Diseased Corpses which are fairly strong melee units that disease the living (slow healing rate). Later, you can build the powerful Beast of Agares, a strenght 16 unit so evil that any city that builds it goes into revolt for four turns. The AV shrine is called Stigmata on the Unborn. Instead of , it grants 1 per city with AV as well as Entropy mana. It also gives the Stigmata promotion for any unit built in that city, which grants a % bonus equal to half the armageddon counter. The Temple of the Veil also grants 2 . The Ritualist (AV priest) can cast the Ring of Flames spell, which damages all units in adjacent tiles to about 20%, while the Profane (AV high priest) can also summon a Balor from the depths of Hell.

The AV civic Sacrifice the Weak adds +4 , while granting +10% and +10% . Oh, and it also causes each population point to consume 1 instead of the standard 2 ! If that wasn't enough, the AV comes with three heroes. Rosier the Fallen is a powerful, fast mounted unit available very early in the game. Mardero is a powerful, fast half man/half demon highly promoted spellcaster also available early in the game. Finally, we have Meshabber of Dis :



Like the Mithril Golem, Meshabber of Dis is an Avater that can only be built in the AV holy city and costs 5000 . For that, you get a strength 31 unit that has an aura of flames which damages any units foolish enough to approach this unholy monster.



The Order is the Law, at least according to its adherents. There is no moral ambiguity, all situations have a right and a wrong. The one overriding goal is to destroy the Infernals and anyone associated with the Infernals. Any leader adopting The Order becomes Good. The Code of Junil is the shrine and provides 1 per city with The Order in addition to Law mana. The Temple of the Order gives a 10% boost to military production. The order also has the Basilica, a unique building which reduces maintenance by 40%. If you build a Courthouse, Basilica and obtain 4 Law resources you have ZERO city maintenance . The Order's unique civic Social Order is essentially Hereditary Rule.

The Confessor (priest) can cast the Bless spell which grants a strength boost, while the Prior (high priest) can cast Unyielding Order which immediately pulls a city out of revolt and adds some buffs. The Prior is also the only Priest which can take Command IV. The Command promotion line grants an increased chance of converting a defeated foe to your cause. Command IV and a particular magic item gets you to 100% . The order has two heroes, Valin Phanuel is a powerful mounted unit. Sphener is a powerful paladin:



His strength is 16 and he has access to minor healing magic.

The Mercurian Gate wonder is buildable if the Infernals have been summoned and you have The Order's founding technology. The city the wonder is built in will be taken over by the Mercurians lead by the Angel Basium. You will become permanent allies and locked into combat with any Ashen Veil civilization. But the war of heaven on earth is a topic for another article...I hope you lurkers with no FFH experience are able to follow some of the spoiler thread discussions on religion a bit better . As always, feel free to ask any questions.

Darrell

[Profane]

... wow. I have never tried this mod, but after reading this i'm very interested now. Looks like a whole lot of work went into this thing!

Using that super-city civ to found Ashen Veil (which I assure you, has nothing to do with my handle whatsoever ) is something i'll like to try out sometime.
But first, I desperately need to stop procrastinating and finish Adv45 ASAP.

Looking forward to the next overview!

[Ilios]

Darrell, do I take it spreading Runes of Kilmorph in a city doesn't give any culture? (seemed to me in my game)