Commodore David the Fifth of the horsie dudes.

[Ilios]

Unfortunately, Enchant Blade only works on Melee units.

[DaveV]

I see what's been said about FFH2, there are so many possible paths, but you can't afford to divert down too many.

You have to be extremely focused, or you'll be like the guy who "flung himself upon his horse and rode madly off in all directions."

[HidingKneel]

Shield of faith and the extra gold from RoK are nice perks. But I wouldn't count on being the first to Bambur: there's a good chance the Khazad will beeline RoK to help fill their vaults.

[Commodore]

Unfortunately, Enchant Blade only works on Melee units.

Y'see, this is why I need lurkers. I thought so, but I wasn't sure.

In general the importance of early religion seems to be somewhat lessened by our lack of Spiritual and strong conventional units. In terms of victory paths, then, what makes sense? I've never tried cultural, religious, or Altar paths on my SP games, and for MP Tower and Domination just seem to be the better paths (okay, maybe Altar if Philo). The capture the flag setup means that simple rushing isn't going to cut it, but military control of the majority of the hills-on to military control of our rival's homes, seems to be a straightforward enough plan. I suspect that's what Gaspar is also going for, and possibly Jkaen and Ravus. Amelia and maybe Ravus will probably be more prone to try and hold hills and stop there, working on their peaceful victory option of choice.

So, in quintessential newbie fashion; how do I win at game?

[HidingKneel]

Religious victory is more or less impossible unless all of our opponents are asleep at the wheel. The altar requires going through half of the tech tree and generating lots of great prophets throughout the game (probably suboptimal unless you plan to focus on building religious units). I don't think we have any special advantages as far as culture and tower are concerned.

I say we beat on them until they cry uncle.

[DaveV]

I thought the concept of this game was that the victor would be decided by the king of the hill points. Is there somewhere where the rules of the game are explicitly laid out?

Oops on enchanted blade; I'm glad HidingKneel pointed that out before we went too far in that direction. With respect to RoK: that's the one religion whose presence in a city doesn't generate culture (if it's your state religion or you're running No Religion). Just something to consider, since culture *is* kind of tough to come by in FfH.

[Commodore]

Yeah, just for reference:

Victory in this game will be awarded at the point where one civilization completes any normal victory condition. However, the winner will be the civ who has held the quest item in a city which they own for the longest period of time during the game, irrespective of who actually completes the victory condition.

Basically, we're trying to win as normal, except with the additional "win condition" of having the highest hill points at that time. Imagine as if the normal game required you to finish a victory condition and have the highest score. So basically, if we can swoop in a monopolize the hills early and accumulate points, we can stop anyone else from winning until they dislodge us and then hold the hills themselves for a while.

As always, though, military might will be paramount. So right now I'm thinking the general path to be basic worker techs -> Aristogarianism -> HBR, stirrups -> Festivals -> Empyrean or Ashen Veil.

[DaveV]

OK, I get it. Then it would be best to have a victory condition that we can control, so it doesn't trigger at a time when we're not ahead. I'd say that rules out domination, but conquest is still a possibility. Or time victory if we can't afford the negative points generated by wiping out the competition. The easiest road to victory is reaching a point where we can sit on the three objectives and let the points pile up, and no one else can do anything about it.

I have to say that a one point penalty for razing a city is nothing. It would behoove us to elimnate the vampires and magicians if we're given half a chance.

[HidingKneel]

Yeah, just for reference:
As always, though, military might will be paramount. So right now I'm thinking the general path to be basic worker techs -> Aristogarianism -> HBR, stirrups -> Festivals -> Empyrean or Ashen Veil.

Depending on what the barbarian situation looks like, we might want to squeeze out HBR a bit earlier. It'd be good to get some horsemen early and start getting some promotions on them.

[Commodore]

It would behoove us to elimnate the vampires and magicians if we're given half a chance.

More horse puns needed. And also, yes, we'll eat either one in a heartbeat if given the chance.

Depending on what the barbarian situation looks like, we might want to squeeze out HBR a bit earlier. It'd be good to get some horsemen early and start getting some promotions on them.

Good point, and it might even be doable to get early HBR and capture a hill or two, if possible. Need to see how gnarly the barbarians are.