[SPOILERS] Lurkers Thread - Well someone has to do it

[DaveV]

As an aside, I love Mist's message to Serdoa referencing the AI's WHEOOHRN, hinting that he's about to declare war on someone. I don't think Serdoa gets it though.

It was also cool that Mist decoded Serdoa's secret message. Mist has definitely been the most fun player to follow so far.

[Xenoborg]

Wonder what they are doing there? His power is low though, so no worries.

Uh oh looks like the Golems are being fooled by the worker rush, we'll see what he says when he spots the workers themselves.

[WarriorKnight]

What does everyone else think about Mist's offer to Sciz?

I think Sciz is valuing the gold too much. He only has to pay 200 gold if they completely eliminate Ilios, which surely is at least worth considering. Ilios has copper so it's unlikely they'll be able to go much further then 1 or 2 cities, which is all that Sciz needs right now for expansion (plus that land is really good) and that'll only cost 100 gold.

Regarding Sciz's options, I don't see how option 2 or 3 would work out. Sure Sciz doesn't have to deal with Mist's stack but then Ilios will keep running away with the game after dealing with Mist and Sciz will have to deal with an angry Doviello on his border which won't end well for him. 5 could work but it's effectively a backstab as the gold is the only decent thing that Mist gets from the deal. 4 won't work as uberfish has sided with Mist, and Sciz can't take Mist on 1-1 without losing at least one city, but Sciz doesn't realise that uberfish is sided with Mist. Which leaves option 1, Mist's original proposition.

Granted, Sciz is in a tough, potentially game-changing spot and he doesn't have all the info, but I agree with Mist and I don't see how Sciz can't take the chance to weaken his strongest neighbor who he planned to attack anyway, especially since rejecting the deal means Sciz is effectively no longer a major contender.

[Mardoc]

If I were Sciz, honestly, I'd leap at the opportunity Mist is offering. 200 gold isn't *that* much compared to another 50 turns to grow in peace (heck, it's probably cheaper than the Wood Golems' hammers, even) . Build a few Wood Golems for security, but otherwise keep teching and growing onward. Mist is not likely to profit much from a war with Ilios, but Sciz would profit greatly from the chance to have Str 6, empowered defenders instead of Str 3.

Then, when Iron Golems and Blasting chambers come in, crush Mist ruthlessly unless he's being too useful against Ilios or the Vamps. Sciz will naturally gain the advantage as time goes by with his late-blooming civ, especially if he lets Mist do most of the fighting. Revenge can wait.

Which is why despite his call for lurker's comments, I'm keeping my mouth shut tight; I don't have any confidence I could keep my opinion to myself.

[NobleHelium]

I'm really surprised that Mist has such weak demands, actually. He kept talking about demanding golden hammers and there's none of that.

[Rowain]

Each of Mist & Sciz is convinced that his view of military strengh and possible city captures is correct. So the decision who is right has to fall on the Battlefield.

For the loser the game is surely over but even if Sciz wins he will be hard pressed to keep up with Ilios.

[NobleHelium]

Yeah, I really don't agree with Sciz's decision. 200g is less than ten turns of no research. But I guess he's unconvinced of the size of Mist's forces, and we're the only ones with complete information. Doviello aren't a rush civ for nothing though...

[Krill]

On the map balance:

No, no, no! The map has been carefully balanced, taking into account such important criteria as availability of mithril, number of peaks within a five-tile radius of starting position, and whether each player had an odd or even number of posts at the time of game start.

Seems about right.

[Tredje]

I am new to FFH2, and I would appreciate it if someone could answer a couple of questions regarding the mechanics of the game.

1. Is it so that weaker units do more damage in combat with superior units? I was surprised by the fact that Mist only had to sacrifice two Strength 2 Wolves in order to kill both a Warrior and Barnaxus on a hill. I experimented with this in a game where I had Death I Mages, and even if my Strength 3 Skeletons had between 1%-10% chances of winning, they very often took down 50%-75% health of the units they attacked. This happened in almost every fight, and there were many of them. Perhaps luck was involved, but it felt different from Civ4 where very low odds often result in no/little damage.

2. A more general question. I put it here since I didn't know where else to ask it. Is there any point in getting more than one Mana Node of a single type? Even if I have only 1 source of Death Mana, my Mages can still cast Death II spells. Are there any other incentives to have more sources of the same Mana type?

[Square Leg]

I am new to FFH2, and I would appreciate it if someone could answer a couple of questions regarding the mechanics of the game.

1. Is it so that weaker units do more damage in combat with superior units? I was surprised by the fact that Mist only had to sacrifice two Strength 2 Wolves in order to kill both a Warrior and Barnaxus on a hill. I experimented with this in a game where I had Death I Mages, and even if my Strength 3 Skeletons had between 1%-10% chances of winning, they very often took down 50%-75% health of the units they attacked. This happened in almost every fight, and there were many of them. Perhaps luck was involved, but it felt different from Civ4 where very low odds often result in no/little damage.

2. A more general question. I put it here since I didn't know where else to ask it. Is there any point in getting more than one Mana Node of a single type? Even if I have only 1 source of Death Mana, my Mages can still cast Death II spells. Are there any other incentives to have more sources of the same Mana type?

I think in the first case it was because Barnaxus was at half health in the first place and that it was a desert hill which only provide +5% defensive bonus. He did lose 4 wolves attacking.

There are some cases for having multiple nodes. If you are using summons that have an affinity for a particular mana type, then havina lot of that type increases their strength. You will see calabim players have multiple death nodes for example as spectres have an affinity for death mana increasing their strength by 1 for each source. The same is true for fire elementals and fire nodes and the list goes on.

Another advantage of having two nodes is that new adepts will automatically know the level 1 spell on creation. So if you have 2 death nodes, your new adepts will have "Raise Skeleton" without having to use a promotion on it. If you have 3 death nodes and you promote an adept to mage, they will automatically know "Raise Skeleton" and "Summon Spectre" (death 1 + 2 spells).

Hope that helps!

EDIT: Oh and some mana typs have minor bonuses like Earth mana increasing the chance to find metals in your mines. these bonuses can be stacked.