[Spoilers] Perpentach of the ... where did I have my pants?

[Serdoa]

I have thought about using Loki offensively. I am not sure what the log would show in cases were I raze newly founded cities of others but I guess they would know anyway. So it would only be helpful in an already war-like situation.

And his other skills are not that impressive imo. He does have one of the buff-spells (giving +1 Sage GPP and 2 beakers I think in one city but needs to be channeled) and he is pretty hard to kill, probably a very good scouting unit.

As for the freaks, yes, I intend to go there pretty quickly. But I wanted to get to Elder Councils and God King first. Not sure if this is the right call, I surely have not played enough FFH2 to know that.

For the overview I have unfortunately not taken the right screenshots for this last turn. But anyway, it seems that to the north is first desert, then ice (!!). In the west I think there is only room for 1 more city before I hit the cap of the Malakim. In the east there is place for 2 cities probably (but also a big sea) before hitting the cap of Mahala. And in the south there is place for 1 city and then... yeah, exactly, I hit the cap of the Calabim. I was not joking when I said that we are really close together.

[Krill]

Phi, abuse by getting Elder counci asap and get the GS
Fin, just work that Oasis
Exp, throw out 1 settler asap.

Also, I killed the Skeleton on the barrow. I thought taking the 50/50 was the right choice as Perp...set build to a warrior because need to both block FoW and cover a possible new city, so Loki should take a back seat IMO. And it would let you explore the barrow sooner rather than later. The warrior was due in 2 with growth in 3, and the second warrior will take 2 more turns to build, so the path would be something like this:

eot t24 - warrior built
t26 - warrior built
t31 - settler

[Ravus Sol]

Ouch... you really are right in the middle! I suppose it's a case of "pick your noisy neighbour" and the only worthwhile resources are the mana nodes. So the crazy clowns can choose Nomads, wolfmen or vampires. Bears, Griffons or Lizardmen. Joyful. Coin toss?

I honestly can't think what would come up a multiplayer game for if you stole a city with Loki... any lurkers know? Either way they would know it was you. It's a shame you can't pretend you have no control over him. He is a good scout as he can explore Rival Territory, not sure what people would react to that in multiplayer though. Again, shame you can't say he's crazy.

Mysticism Start seems like it has worked. It is especially good if you want to grab a early religion.

PS - Hope that adventurer survives the bear!

[Krill]

Couldn't you/we claim that he is enraged and the AI is controlling him?

OK, as a FYI, I'm an FFH noob. I've never played past t50 before and I've played like 2 games to that point. I know pretty much nothing about the game, so I have a couple of questions.

1) Loki. Is he an invisible unit?

2) how do freaks work?

[DaveV]

1) Loki. Is he an invisible unit?

No, but he has a 100% chance to retreat from combat if he's not in a city. He can subtract 1 culture/turn from a city; if culture goes negative, the city flips to you. He can also siphon (city population)/2 gold from a city from their coffers to yours. While these tricks work great against the AI, all a human player has to do is declare war to block them. Loki has a combat strength of 2, and never gains any experience. As someone said earlier, he, and any puppet he summons, can cast Dance of Blades and Enlightenment. He can move freely through anyone's territory, without open borders.

2) how do freaks work?

They start out with Mutated, which gives them random promotions. Some are bad, some are useless, some are good, some are really really good. They can sacrifice themselves in a city to build a Freak Show, which gives +2 culture and +1 happy. They can promote to archers, swordsmen, or hunters for a few gold (5? I dont remember).

[Ravus Sol]

I think the other guys will be able to tell he isn't crazy/enraged if they check Loki's promotions... i don't know if you COULD actually make him those. Normally units built in cities with Asylums start out enraged, would that work for Loki? Also happens if you explore some dungeons but again i've barely used the crazy clowns so i don't know if Loki can go exploring.

Freaks do only cost something like 5 gold to upgrade to any of the tier 2 units. Really good for specialising those mutations. The ones that are useless you make into freak shows or throw into the arena and see if they survive long enough to become useful.

[Krill]

Explored the lair.

It gave me the option to explore a deeper lair.

And it granted the tech of Ancient Chants! Serdoa, you're now only 11 turns from Myst

[Serdoa]

Great job Krill :D

[Krill]

Yeah, well, lost teh scout to a barb wolf and the warrior near the girly vampires got eaten by a giant spider. Found Dragon bones to the SW though. Sent a warrior up towards the explorer, which is only 5 turns from entering the Balseraph culture now to help cover it for a few more turns. Myst is 9 turns away, and can get a settler in 5, yet only have a C2 warrior and one new warrior to cover the settler, leaving a single lone warrior to cover the capital. What do you want? More riskiness or a few more safer warriors that are just likely to get eaten?

[Serdoa]

Get the settler first (I think Expansive helps with that). The worker probably doesn't have anything else then building roads to do so the connection between the cities can probably be pre-build partly. Then it should not be an issue to get warriors there fast. The cap itself should be able to build in one or two turns a warrior, so it should be pretty safe regardless.

I'm wondering if it does make sense to get 2 warriors and then another settler, even that we do not have the workers for those cities right now. Expansive should help and settlers are pretty expensive otherwise.

Btw: Could you spot a place for the second city?