[EitB LVII] Es war einmal - Xist Fairy Tales

[RefSteel]

Yes, your right. +3f on wheat with farms.
This is better than in BtS - and I played to much Civ5 starts in the last time. Civ5 has boni for ressources on buildings, not on the farm.
What was I thinking ?

It's actually the same as in BtS: Farms grant +2f on a wheat resource - but this is cumulative with the +1f for irrigation, so river wheat gets +3f total while river sugar just gets the +1f for being irrigated. It's also cumulative with any farm bonus for tech and/or civics, and these are boosted here, with the Agrarianism civic at Calendar giving all farms +1f/-1h and all farms getting +1f at a much-earlier tech (Sanitation instead of Biology). (Then there's the Aristocracy civic at ... I think Code of Laws? - which I believe gives -1f/+2c on farms among other effects for when food is plentiful and commerce tight. It was considered overpowered in combination with Agrarianism in base FfH, and EitB handled this by nerfing other aspects of Aristocracy.)

[DaveV]

I'm back from vacation. It seems like moving to farm the wheat is the best move, writing off the time farming the sugar as a sunk cost. Next, I'd probably put a winery on the grapes, since that will be a 3F3C tile. I concentrate on commerce and food in the early game, so a gems mine is a good goal.

[xist10]

Welcome back.
Interesting point, you could argue, that I was far enough, that it would be better, the end the farm on the sugar and after that farm the wheat - would ignore the wine.

I agree gem mine is a good goal, but I have the elder council ready, I want to run a sage . so a 4f1c sugar is tempting. - I even think, an Agrarianism farm on the sugar is better than a plantage. 2f instead of 1f1c.

And I behind here.
Let's post all remaining turns.

T3




The scount did a detour to the east and finds nothing really interesting.
The wild is new.



I did changed to farm the wheat.
Like I said, inf I only look at the wheat/sugar famr, this could be worse. - +2f 2 turns earlier instead of +1food for turns earlier. both are +4f, but there is an argument to make, that the earlier food is a bit better.
If I don't farm the sugar, this was the better decision.



Landarea seesm wrong.
But Bing has 1 turn more, because he plays before me, but Ginger ? The others are CRE.
And even Ginger is okay, he wasted no turn to revolt, I think.



Culture expasion after I ended the turn founded the second mana source and a gold mine an a hill.
Question: If I get a worker with flying through mutation, can I rebuilt the mine ?

T4



I have a first event.
I think, this is the first (and only?) point where aligment has an influence ?
I think, Neutral gets no special events, or ?



The scout finds a watchtower.

Elefants are nice to. Not that important like in BtS, still to have the option...



The first 3 players did grow. I think, this are the not wasted turns on a nearly mirroded start.

T5



The watchtower shows nothing interesting. More visibility is alway good, but.
Not really show is the sign for a new natural wunder. I will move the scout there next.



The wheat farm is fineshed already ?
Grapes seems fine next. After that, I think the gems are valide too - I still need to research Mining for that, I fear.
So maybe the sugar still next ? This is a bit more food than the grapes.



I think Bing made a mistake too ?
Bing is the only one besides me, who didn't grow already.

[xist10]

And I had a big post (4 big post) about magic in FFH2.

FFH2 has 18 mana types, which are unlocked via 5 techs.
Mana has 2 effects.

First of all, mana gives a bonus like most other ressources.
Unlike the other ressources, the bonus from mana stacks. So 2 Lifemana gives 2 health.

The other effect is acccess to the spells of the first level. Which will grant acces to the spells of the second/third level(with Channel2/3).
An advantange of the vampires. They have Death1 and Channel2, so they can select Death2 wothout access to death mana.

If you have more one typed mana, your adepts are granted the associated spell of the 1st level.
3+ Mana grants the 2nd level spell to mages, 4+ the 3rd level to archmages.
I don't know what happens, if I promote a adept without Fire1 and acces to 3 fire mana. Does the adept gets both spells ?

And a small word over the general implication of the tech requirements for access.
There are now requirements. You can use typed mana from the start and you can exploit typed mana with forts.
You need the tech to convert the untyped, useless mana to a typed, useful form.
So I don't need elementalism to cast fireball. I have firemana from the palace.


When do I get access to magic units ?
The first unit - adepts- are unlocked with Knowledge of the Aether. A expensive tech in the thrid row.
For me, with Ancient Chants and mysticism as starting techs (mysticism only in the PBEM) - Knowledge of the Aether is only 1 bulb away.
But the first level spells are not really impactful.
I need mages for Channel2 and second level spells. Mages are unlocked 2 techs later with sorcery.
Archmages are unlocked again 2 techs later. But strength of will is one of the most expensive technologies in the game and pure endgame. Add the unitlimit for archmages and I will priorisies other techs.

[xist10]

Towards the spells themselve.
I will start with Elemtalism.

First of all is Air. No effect.
Air1 gives "Fair Winds" to all (won) ships on the same tile.
Fair Winds gives +1 movements, +25% retreat chance and has a chance of 5%, to wear off each turn.

Air2 gives access to the first (and only) damage spell.
~15% lightning damage to ALL units in a 2 tile radius. maximum damage of 30%.
Air2 can start a war. - to test: who does air2 interact with forced peace ?

Air3 summons a air elemtal.
5 strenght +2 lightning strength. 3 flying movement. Affinity1 for air mana (ligntning damage). Immun against lightning damage and creates lightning elemental after a victory (3 lightining damage, 2 movement (flying), immun to lightning).

The main reason for Air is Air2. Access to Channel3 (Air3) is very limited (and late in the game). Ships should be very important.

Eart is the only elemental mana with an effect.
More chances to find ressources in mines.

Earth1 is city enchantment. It creates a building, which give +25% citydefense and -25% city defense damage against non gunpowder units.
The building remains, when the caster remains in the city.

Earth2 gives "Stoneskin" to the caster.
2 defensive strength, 3 first strikes and 50% protection against all non physical damage.

Earth3 summons an earthelemental.
Strength 11, 1 movement, affinity1 for earth (physical)

Earth is primary support and remains only useful in a few situations.
It's relative rare, that you have to defend a city with with full defense boni.
Stoneskin is useful as potential counter to assassins - the mage counter.


Fire also has no effect.

Fire1 is difficult. Creates "Smoke" on the terrain field - a modernisation that gives -10% terrain defence.
Unfortunately, this is only possible if you are in the forest/jungle and no modernisation is available.
What makes the whole thing interesting is the fact that "Smoke" can turn into fire. A feature - replaces forest - which is not accessible to most units.

Fire2 summons a fireball. 4 fire strenght, 2 movement (flying). Effectively a catapult. Can bombard city walls and causes collateral damage. Special feature: Disappears after combat or bombardment, takes no prisoners.

Fire3 a fire elemental like the rest.
6 + 3 (fire) strength , 2 movement . Collateral damage, fire affinity1 (fire), immune to fire.

Fire primarily has the fireball. I think one of the best spells in the game ?


Like almost all elements, Water has no effect.

Water1 is a terraform spell. Desert->Plains and flames on neighbouring fields are extinguished.

Water2 gives Waterwalking to the caster. Movement on coast/ocean and amphibious.

Water3 a water elemental as expected.
8 strength , 1 movement, Waterwalking, Water Affinity1 (Physical ?)

Water is almost useless in my eyes. Water walking is unfortunately only for the spellcaster. Water1 is also of dubious use.
I see a bit of desert on the map, but I don't expect much.

Ice also belongs here.
Ice is special because there are only 2 sources in the entire game. The Illian Palace and a natural wonder. You cannot create icemana yourself.

Ice1 gives "Slow" to all enemy units within 1 hex radius. Can be resisted and if successful, "Hasty" is removed and "Slow" is added. -1 movement, 30% chance to stop every turn.

Ice2 is already the elemental.
2 strenght + 2 cold damage. Ice affinity1. 1 movement. Immune to cold damage
Unique for elementals even more bonuses. Combat bonus on snow/tundra, no movement on desert, vulnerable to fire.

Ice3 is a damage spell.
40% cold damage, 70% as a limit, 1 field radius. Like Air2, all areas are affected. In the short term, the affected fields are also turned into snow.

Ice1 is already good, Ice3 is definitely one of the best 3rd level spells in my eyes.
But Ice will probably not appear.

[xist10]

Next necromancy.


Chaos gives a small chance for new units to mutate.

Chaos1 gives "Dance of Blades" for all (own) units in the stack. +1 first strike and only once.

Chaos2 mutates all units on the field. Mutated units receive a random number of promotions from a selection. This selection cannot really be achieved in any other way.
Positive in the overall package, but individual units can still only be usable as city guards - test case only gave "Vulnerable to fire - +50% fire damage".

Chaso3 generates 3-5 random effects. These are primarily other spells, but also semi-useless effects - "You summod a pack of very confused penguins" or presumably deadly "Your unit turned itself into a baboon".
Still usable.

To be honest, I don't really know why you should use Chaos. I don't like the unpredictability at all. Conversely, that's the big strength and Chaos2 in particular can create some nice stuff.


Death has no effect here. Otherwise a Diplomalus. Not cumulative as one of the few mana resources. Death needs Necromancy.

Death1 creates a permanent skeleton. Melee unit with 2 strenght +1 Death , 1 movement. One skeleton per Death1 mage, this also allows new skeletons to be summoned to the frontline once new adepts have been trained.

Death2 is again a summon. This time Spectre, 3 strenght , 2 movement. Speciality ? Death affinity1 (death damage). This is the only unit that can be summoned en masse and has an affinity. As a classic summon, the Spectre disappears after 1 turn.
Contrary to the description in the Civilopedia, Spectre do not start with fear.

Death3 is the 3rd summon.
Wraiths are better Spectre.
6 strenght + 3 Death, 2 movement, DeathAffinity1. Plus Fear and Vile Touch. Fear prevents Wraiths from being attacked, Vile Touch gives "Withered" to enemys after the fight. -20% healing, -10% additional -1 on defence. - And 50% less experience.

Death only has summons. Death2 without death mana is not much stronger than skeletons - especially since skeletons can collect promotions. Still, the affinity is theoretically very strong at 2nd level.
Death3 is unattractive.


Entropy also brings a diplomacy malus. In addition, the healing of enemy units in your own territory is reduced by 5%. - With 10 Entropymana, enemy units should no longer be able to heal at all?
Fortunately, a negative healing rate should not cause any damage.

Entropy1 gives "Rust" to enemy units on neighbouring tiles and removes bronze/iron/mithril weapons.
Rust is -10% strenght, in addition to the -1/2/4 strenghtfrom removing the weapons. Rust can be resisted with a 20% bonus.

Entropy2 summons a Pit Beast - 4 strenght + 1 Unholy, 1 movement Demon. Relatively generic.

Entropy3 is a damage spell (10%, max. 40%) and gives the affected units "Withered". Speciality ? This time targeted at living enemy units with 1 hex range.

Entropy1 is worth quite a bit if the opponent is focussing on units. Can be resisted, but it's relatively easy to gather a few wizards with Entropy1 and one will break through. Can certainly halve the danger of the stack. Entropy3 is also interesting, but not to be expected.


Shadow is actually effectless, not just defacto.

Shadow1 gives "Blur" to all friendly units in the stack. Immunity to first strikes (and defensive strikes) and 50% chance to wear off every turn.

Shadow2 gives "Shadowwalk" to all friendly units in the stack. Again immunity to defensive strikes and this time buildings are ignored during city attacks. 25% chance to wear off every turn.

Shadow3 summons Mistforms. 6 strenght, 2 movement. Shadow affinity1 (Death ?).
Mistforms are interesting because they start with marksmen(attacks the weakest unit) and hidden nationality.

I'm glad that the Mistforms are with Shadow3.
Shadow1 and Shadow2 are pure support spells, you should have 1 Shadow1 mage in your stack if possible.
But not that strong that you need a Shadowadept.

[xist10]

Body offers +5% healing per mana resource. I think this applies globally, so it's definitely useful.

Body1 gives all (own, living) units in the stack "Haste". +1 (morale tricks from BtS possible) and 100% chance to wear off every turn. - Furthermore, "Slow" is removed.

Body2 gives "Regeneration" - again to all own living units in the stack. +10% healing and healing after movement. Regeneration is removed when the unit is fully healed.

Body3 allows you to summon a Fleshgolem permanently - with one golem per unit with Body3.
Fleshgolems are interesting. 6 strenght , 1 movemnt is relatively weak, but you can sacrifice units to add the units promotions to the golem. This allows for some powerful combinations.
Fortunately, spells are not valid.
Enormous synergy with Chaos2.

Every army should have at least 2 body mages. One haste and one regeneration. But then again, more are unnecessary.


Enchantment brings +1 happy.

Enchantment1 removes "Rusted" from your own units and gives +20% combat strength for melee fighters.

Enchantment2 gives "Flamig Arrows" for archers. +1 (Fire) damage

Enchantment3 gives "Spellstaff" for the caster. Allows athe caster to cast 2nd spell once.

The 1st and 2nd spells are permanent, so you only need one mage in the whole realm. More are better, but...
Enchantment3 damn useful, but worth 3 promotions. Allows mages to "save" a round. Unfortunately, this only applies to the Enchanter and need archmages.

Life is the opposite of Enchantment with +1 health.

Life1 is halfway useless.
Removes "Hellterrain" - possibly later - on this and neighbouring tiles. Furthermore, ruins are removed on this tile and the Armageddon counter is reduced.

Life2 is the only damage spell without a limit. 30% damage against all undead - primarily the 3 summons of Death. 4 spells should be enough to destroy entire armies without combat.
Unfortunately, vampires are not undead here.

Life3 allows you to resurrect the hero of civilisation. Takes whole 7 turns.
Otherwise, when casted in a graveyard (modernisation created during card creation) the graveyard is destroyed and a champion is created.

Life is only useful in a few situations.


Nature is without effects.

Nature1 sets the entrenchment bonus of all own units on the field to the maximum value. If you are in the forest.

Nature2 gives a promotion with +1 poison for scouts.

Nature3 allows massive terraforming.
Desert->plain->grassland or snow->tundra->plain->grassland

Nature1 is very situational. Nature2 is similar to Enchantment.
Nature3 is worth quite a bit and is actually the only 3rd level spell that can be reached early. Druids - Theology Path - are available (well) before Archmage Technology and start with Nature1 + Channel3. (And nature affinity1)

[xist10]

At last divination.

Law is relatively useful with -5% upkeep cost.
Law1 provides "Loyalty" for all friendly units in the stack.
Immune to capture or conversion. Furthermore an explicit bonus against Mind2 and "Burning Blood" is removed - especially the latter is interesting for the Calabim.

Law2 summons "Host of Einherja". 3 strenght+ 2 Holy damage, 1 movement melee angel.
Special feature ? Summon duration is increased by 1 turn when Host of Einherja kills a unit.
Extremely useful for clearing a defeated stack.

Law3 gives Valour to all friendly units in the stack.
+1 XP per battle and +10% chance to resist spells.

Law2 is already worth a lot. Not as versatile as Fire2, but possibly the strongest summon at 2nd level. - ANgels are immun to death damage.
Law1 and Law3 are also worth taking, but Law3 in particular is a bit disappointing in my opinion.


Mind gives +3% research.

Mind1 is a city enchantment just like Earth1. +2 research, +1 great person point (Great Sage(Scientist)).

Mind2 gives "Charmed" to all enemy living units in 1 hex radius.
Cannot attack, 20% chance to wear off each turn. Mind2 can be resisted relatively easily, +20% (in addition to possible +10% from Law1)

Mind3 attempts to take control of a (random ?) unit in 1 hex radius.
+10% chance to resist the spell and failure removes the possibility for Mind3 to cast the spell. - I think the implementation simply removes the promotion ?

Mind1 is already worthwhile if the adepts collect XP. Or generally when there is no war.
Mind2 is also very nice for the amount of attempts to neutralise armies. Here it is always important when exactly the spell ends.


Spirit provides +5% GPP.

Spirit1 provides Courage to all friendly living units in the stack, +10% healing and immunity to fear

Spirit2 is a city enchantment. +4 culture, +1 happy, free "Courage" for new units.

Spirit3 is also a city enchantment. +50% GPP. In addition, angry units are calmed - currently irrelevant.

Spirit2 has a certain synergy with Mind1 and Earth1, otherwise you want one or two adepts with Spirit1.


Sun is the last mana for Divination and has no effect.

Sun1 is terraforming: Plain->Desert or Snow->Tundra

Sun2 can be resisted very easily (+30%). Otherwise, living units in a 1 hex radius are immobilised for 2 hexes. Unfortunately, it is not possible to cast spells again. 1 movement every 2 (3 ?) turns cannot be prevented.

Sun3 summons an Aurealis. 6 strenght, 1 movement. Sun affinity2 (fire damage). Only unit with an affinity2.

Sund2 (and Sun3) are nice.


And the last mana typ in this post too.

Metamagic has no effect and needs Sorcery.

Metamagic1 summons a "Floating Eye". An air unit that can use the recon mission in a 4 hex radius. Sees also invisible units.

Metamagic2 removes negative effects from friendly units and positive effects from enemy units - Range2. In addition, typed mana on the spellcaster's field is converted to untyped mana.

Metamagic3 summons a djinni. 5 strenght, 2 movement and Affinity1 for each mana.

Furthermore, each level of Metamagic increases spell damage by 5 and also reduces resistance by 5%.

All very useful. Overview of the entire border region without open borders ? Counter against nasty things like Mind2 or Sun2 ?
Dschinns are useful in every situation and in the running for one of the strongest summons ?

[Jabah]

a few answers/comments from memory
- if you promote an adept to mage while having 3 fire mana, it gains both fire1 & fire2 (regardless of current promotion, no need fire1)
- water1 turns desert-oasis (sure) & desert-flood plain (pretty sure) into plain-oasis and plain-flood plain, gaining 1f+1h (if I remember right) which could be quite good. [from your picture, you have at least 1 oasis around]
- death 3 can turn a archmage into lich which will let you basically have 8 mages instead of 4 (but far too late I guess)
- flesh golem also gains power if feeded with (living) creature with higher power [personnel preferences in SP games were feeding them with kraken from cultist high-priest, definitively late game and overkill ]

[RefSteel]

- water1 turns desert-oasis (sure) & desert-flood plain (pretty sure) into plain-oasis and plain-flood plain, gaining 1f+1h (if I remember right) which could be quite good. [from your picture, you have at least 1 oasis around]

Correct about oases (which therefore become 4/1/2 tiles with Spring) but Floodplains are not affected to the best of my knowledge.

Also, it looks like you discovered...

The steep, twisting paths climbing into the mountains from the ruins and surroundings of the long-lost trade city below lead up over wide-spanned stone bridges and narrow stairs to the high mines of Zarakh-Din, shaped by the hand and will of ancient dwarves. Even those who never learned the secrets of mining nuggets from such veins as may be found within these dwarf-cut caves can profit handsomely from their existence, selling supplies to the endless stream of gold-hunters who seek out the caves in exchange for their labor and coins, but the spectacular wealth that may be found there is no mere fantasy: For those who know the mountains' ways, enough gold may be wrested from Zarakh-Din every year to satisfy a national luxury industry. The mines' approach over steep cliffs, narrow bridges, and winding stairs render them completely impregnable to armies marching from below, but by exactly the same token, those who cannot imitate their dwarven builders by living in the mines themselves are deeply vulnerable to all of those rare enemies who are able to get above them by climbing the high peaks or by approaching from the air: A single hostile griffon on the wrong mountain peak could isolate the mines, so that no more profit could be had there, though skilled miners trapped within might still find a way to sneak out just enough ore to supply those of their people who demand the greatest luxuries while smuggling in enough to keep themselves alive. Should anyone with the ability and will go so far as to start a rock-slide from above though, to bury the cave entrances and block access to the bridges and the narrow stairs, it would take centuries of labor to restore what is thereby lost, and unless dwarves of the underhome return through the mountains' roots, the mines would be closed forever, persisting only as the rumor of golden riches just out of reach in the mountains there.

I've never actually seen a Worker with Flight, so I don't know if one could rebuild the mine in case it somehow got pillaged ... but on the other hand, I've never seen a Worker with Flight, and can't think of a way to get one off-hand in an actual game, so....