The Orc Clan: Following the Princess Rule

[Ravus Sol]

What are you more scared of? The Balseraphs or the Ljosalfar?" Orsen asked his friend, Mikal. "Well," Mikal said, "The Balseraphs are, at least supposedly, on our side. But those rituals they do give me the creeps. And those strange, noisy weapons... I don't care what our battlemage says about 'chemicals' and 'powders' and dwarvish contraptions, I say they're dark magic. I understand the Elves. They want forests, we want cities, but there's only enough room for one. But I'll never understand the Balseraphs." Orsen agreed. "And mark my words," he added, "once the Elves are gone they'll turn on us."

The Kuriotate scouts had been sent into the thick forests to seek out any Ljosalfar encampents. The forests were thick and wild. Animals were waiting in ambush for the unwary, and after that Balseraph regiment had been wiped out by a treant, they and the Kuriotates were constantly bickering about who would be going first.

"Look at that... I think there's a clearing up..." Mikal suddenly stopped, and then, made two motions. "Be quiet" and "come here." Orsen followed carefully. There was indeed a clearing. And what was in it was... impossible.

"I thought they were myths..." Orsen whispered. "Might be a trap, though. Or it might be vicious... you can never tell in these woods..." Mikal shook his head. "Can't you feel it... that aura of truth and love? One of Sirona's creatures, surely... peace in living form. It's wonderful."

A unicorn. The friends stood in silent awe for several seconds afterwards. Then, cautiously, Mikal left the brush and approached it. The peaceful creature turned, unconcerned towards Mikal, but made no aggresive moves. Mikal slowly approached, his hands outstretched...

An explosion rang out. The unicorn's head flew clean off, and the Kuriotates heard a shrill cry of "Boom-shaka-laka! Dinnertime, boys!" They gaped in shock as a small pack of Balseraphs, grinning insanely and wielding their mysterious, horrifying weapons leapt out to examine the unicorn's corpse. "Start up a fire, ladies! I love me some horse meat. And whatever the hell is growing outta this thing's head, I'm sure it'll look really nice on my mantle! Shiny bits for the win!" The leader of the Balseraph soldiers cut off the unicorn's horn from the bit of head that it was stuck to and placed it in one of the few pockets on his coat not already overstuffed with baubles and trinkets.

Only then did he notice Mikal and Orsen. "Oi, Kuriotates! Was that your horse? If so, sorry 'bout that but you shouldn't let the thing loose and unsaddled. We were hungry, after all!" Mikal barely manage to shake his head. "No, it wasn't yours? Good to hear! Some treehugger is doubtless wondering what happened to his mount-slash-lover right now. He'll get over it... when we blow his brain to bits, that is!" The Balseraph cackled insanely at the image of some Ljoslfar's head being blasted to pieces. "There's enough horsemeat for all of us, by the way, and one of our new recruits cooks horse meat real good. Worked in the stables, 'disposing' of horses that lost too many races. Care for some?"

Still unable to believe what they had just witnessed, Mikal and Orsen again shook their heads and walked off. "Suit yourselves," the Balseraph yelled. "Yeesh," he added to his mates, "they looked miserable. Poor suckers. Ah well, not my problem." And with that, the small Balseraph squad sat down to enjoy the only unicorn on Erebus, cooked medium rare.

AH, YOU'RE THAT UNICORN. YOU SURVIVED TWO HOURS... A NEW RECORD. "What happened to me?" THE BALSERAPHS WERE HUNGRY. THEY SAW YOU AND DECIDED TO EAT YOU. "Who are you?" DEATH. "Then I'm... dead? Why would they kill me?" I ALREADY SAID, THEY WERE HUNGRY. THERE'S ALSO THE PRINCESS RULE. IT'S HARD TO EXPLAIN, BUT BASICALLY IT MEANS CUDDLY THINGS DIE QUICKLY HERE. ONLY EXCEPTION IS PENGUINS... THEY'RE PROTECTED BY AN OBSCURE LOOPHOLE IN THE COMPACT. JUST BE GLAD YOUR DEATH WAS QUICK AND PAINLESS. THE BALSERAPHS WERE TOO HUNGRY TO GET... CREATIVE. "Who would eat a unicorn?" THE BALSERAPHS. TRUST ME, THEY'VE DONE WORSE. "But I was sent to bring peace and hope!" WHERE FROM? "Far, far away..." SOMEWHERE WITH HAPPILY EVER AFTERS? "Yes..." WELCOME TO EREBUS. THERE AREN'T MANY OF THOSE HERE. "What is the Angel of Hope doing? He should be making sure people live happily ever after, that every Princess finds her Prince Charming..." HE IS PRESENTLY PLANNING THE SLAUGHTER AND DAMNATION OF EVERY MAN, WOMAN, AND CHILD IN THIS UNIVERSE, TO AVENGE A PETTY AND CHILDISH GRUDGE WITH THE ONE. "What sort of place is this, where madmen eat unicorns, happily ever afters don't happen, and even angels Fall from Heaven?" AN INTERESTING ONE.

-KillerClowns (Original Writer)

[Ravus Sol]

[SIZE="5"]Overview[/SIZE]

Fall From Heaven is a Fantasy mod for the Civilization IV game.

It changes the whole way of playing the game. The world is now filled with elves, dwarves, zombies and, of course, Orcs.

Lore wise an Age of Ice has just passed after the big Cold God got a smackdown. Personally I think turnabout is fair play don't you? so after the world got turned into an ice cube it's only right and proper that this Orcy Gentleman tries to set it on fire.

Thus I am Jonas Endain! Orc of the hour.

Why Orcs for the end of the world?

1) I’ve picked a Leader and Civilization that is friends with barbarians, This stops me from having to worry about defence too much early on (provided I don't start near a rushing Civ.) It also means Orthus is good old buddy and the Demons I'm inviting over for a BBQ will be chummy.

2) Adaptability. While setting everything on fire is fun. It's not all Orcs can do. They have a fun ability to Adapt early and mid game. Going for rushing, Tech, Religion grabbing or one of the sickest land grabs you will ever see. Orcs can do it all. It's only later on when the -10% teching power really starts to show that they get stuck. I will cover this more later.

3) Double units. The Warrens building is it. If there was a church of the Green skins this would be it. It DOUBLES the units built in the city (provided they are not hero's, siege, naval or world units) Yes this includes workers and settlers. Combined with Jonas's Spiritual trait this can also make spreading religion so easy it's a cakewalk.

4) Fun. Come on. Compared to most other nation nothing beats the simplicity of the Orcs. See something? Stomp it inna da ground! Kicks it inza teeth! If everyone gets uppity then bring on the WHAAAAAAAAAGH!

-

Amendment: I'll throw out the info on the clan, most of it i've written before but it should get lurkers up to speed. Then I need to look into the Rivals and Test out the map in a sandbox and iron out how quickly I can summon the Demons. I probably should have asked for a Ded-Lurker to bounce things off, that helps planning immensely but I guess I can make do with base lurkers. More people to go say hi to the Demons once they get here.

-

[COLOR="Orange"][SIZE="5"]Contents[/SIZE]:
[/COLOR]This section is pending completion. As the turns advance I can do larger summery posts

[COLOR="Orange"]Information Posts
[/COLOR]Rivals - Short Explanations and Full Summery Links
http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/showpost....ostcount=3
AC - Armageddon Counter explanation
http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/showpost....ostcount=5
Initial Start and Settling
http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/showpost....stcount=24
Religion - Whom will pray
-------

[COLOR="Orange"]Begining turns 0-25
[/COLOR]Summery
http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/showpost....tcount=151
C&D of Rivals
http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/showpost....tcount=124

Begining History 0-75
The Rivals
http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/showpost....tcount=232

Middle Era Turn 100
Summery
http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/showpost....tcount=252
Rival Diplomacy and Agreements
http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/showpost....tcount=257

[Ravus Sol]

[SIZE="5"]The Rivals[/SIZE]

For now i'll just do a quick overview of the nations/players before I do a larger single post on each later. Each Nation has enough quirks to need a whole post and I need to go look around for more information on the players themselves. I've read alternate threads of most of them so I know where to look.

The lineup is actually quite strong in this one. No complete Builders/techers or peaceniks. Everyone has a point with great military.



Mr. Yellow: Tasunke of the Hippus
Player = Last game died due to diplomacy. He spoke of wanting to make up for this yet has chosen the best rusher in the game so perhaps "make up" in this case means "get revenge"
Nation = The Most deadly Rush/Choker in the game. Early Horses with extra movement alone move too fast for anyone to catch up with as they hit and run. Combined with their Worldspell they can knock someone out before turn 75

Full Summery:
http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/showpost....stcount=13

Mist: Capria of the Bannor
Player = Mist is a well rounded player from what I remember. He rushed well in FFHPBEM II. Need more info.
Nation = Bannor are a late game nation. Which will put a bullseye on their back unless they get some defence or play well diplomatically. They also need to run a cottage economy to get the most out of their nation, which makes them a bigger target for leaders with the Raider Trait (Tasunke/Decius)

Full Summery:
http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/showpost....tcount=102

Amelia: Dain the Caswallan of the Amurites
Player = Seems to follow desires instead of plans. Plans get made but miss out due to lack of detail and micro planning? Unsure if this is accurate memory recollection. If so is it even useful information...
Nation = The Amurites are another mid-late bloomer. They do have a much more useful "Stop all magic" Worldspell. But they really shine late game. However a weak point is that, just like the luchuirp who rely on a unique to boost up golems, the amurites rely on a unique unit to pass on magic to EVERY SINGLE UNIT.
Yes you read that correct. Warriors can caste haste or summon skeleton in a amurite army. Lots more worrying info later.
Fun Fact: Because of the passing around of magic if Amurites turn evil then every single unit loss gives a mane to the infernals...

Full Summery:
http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/showpost....stcount=62

Mackoti: Decius of Calabim
Player = Mackoti hasn't played directly from what I remember he has allways been a team or ded-lurker. I will have to go trawling for his posts.
Nation = Oh my. Vampires Kill people. They kill them and suck dry the cities for more exp. They don't have magic adepts/mages. They have vampires. Whose spell power is all about death mana. With Raiders they can get to stupidly high speeds. Luckily unless beelined Vampires are late game and only mid if rushed.
Amusingly in my favour however is that because all Vampires are both evil and spell casters each Vampire Death helps the Infernals... (EDIT: Wait, Decius has the fun ability to choose his alignment if i remember correctly, either that or it's random in MP. So he could end up Good/Neutral/Evil. But with the vamps it's so tempting to get the veil for the extra food)

Full Summery:
http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/showpost....stcount=89

Sareln: Thessa of the Ljosalfar
Player = Sareln has not had much luck in these games. Played as Svartalfar and got rushed by priests. Played as Amurites got rushed by Orcs. This game he has gone with the Elves. Who too this date have NEVER been rushed. They are simply too hard to rush well so no-one bothers. Sarlen most likely intends to milk this for all it is worth. This could mean he is looking for a nice friendly loyal ally... Which could be me. Although i was tempted to run around early setting fire to everything I see just to see how much it spreads.
Nation = The Good Elves are the only builder in the game. They need time to set up the economy. While the player of this nation could want an ally. If it becomes known I want to bring about the end of the world then The elves won't be happy as this burns down their trees and economy.

Full Summery:
http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/showpost....stcount=18

[Ravus Sol]

[SIZE="5"]The Clan of FIRE![/SIZE]

I like the Orcs. I like raising the AC while playing the Orcs. It will be amusing to see if I can do this quickly enough not to fall to a dogpile once the others realise what is happening.

Once we became certain that we would have two people ready to play as either Angels or Demons my main picks became about getting these players into the game quickly

My choices were thus;
1) The Clan/Jonas Endain
2) Svartalfar/Viconia
3) Luchurip/Beeri Bawl

The Clan have the best Synargy with the Demons and can still get there quite quickly.

The Dark Elves can get a good economy going and when they summon the Angels they would get a ELF city which means ancient forests on top of initial improvements. If I remember correctly Allies can use workers and boosting spells in each others land. So I may have been able to give the angels a elf economy entirely. (Note to self, Light Elves could do the same)

The Luchurip, or Golem builders, have the best method to get angels QUICKLY. By waiting for awhile, popping the world spell, getting all the hammers into one city and popping a great engineer the Mercurian Gate can be rushed as soon as Fanaticism comes in.

It will be a shame that the other options will not get a chance to be seen.

[SIZE="4"]The Leader[/SIZE]


Meet Jonas Endain. Spiritual, Expansive, Barbarian.

This guy is our leader. And I do love him.

Expansive
Expansive isn't all that in FFH

+3 :health: to all cities. Double production of Granaries and Harbour.

EDIT: Double production speed of settlers

The +3 Health is nothing to sneer at and the quick Granaries can be useful especially as the Orcs will need struggle for happiness due to low tech rate initially. The Double production of settlers can help a fast land grab mid game especially when combined with the Warren Building for double units.

Spiritual
Spiritual is where Jonas shines over his alternative. Spi works much the same way as in base Civ IV, No anarchy for changing civics and double production speed of temples…

The Change is that in FFH the temples do a lot more then just give culture and happiness. They can also give money, production speed, science and everything else making it more useful to get them quickly.

Spiritual also gives all Divine units Mobility one. Divine units are a hell of a lot useful so being able to move them quickly helps more then you can imagine. Divine units are your main healers and can do all kinds of magic from minor stat boosting to calling up tidal waves.

This trait combined with natural Orcy goodness is how I plan to try to stay as adaptable as possible.

Barbarian
Barbarian is the biggy. The Barbarians/Demons view the Orc Civilization as being friendly and we start out on peaceful terms with them. (This can change if we get too powerful) While Animals are still a problem because they have hidden nationality they aren’t the early kick in the teeth that hundreds or orc barbarians are.

This Trait allows a sense of peace while others will have to panic about Orthus (I just remembered that he was a draw on votes. I hope he gets included.)

This trait also gives a -10% to tech rate making it harder to gain new technological breakthroughs. Dumb Orcs. Luckily you need surprisingly few techs to burn the world.

-

If you ever thought that Jonas was a weakling even after all that, here is a note that in the lore, Jonas carries a mace with the head of a young girl as the ball. When he raises it in combat, the lips peel back, showing sharp teeth, and she screams.

[SIZE="4"]The Civilization[/SIZE]


Buildings
Libraries = Unavailable
Warrens = Special Orc Building that doubles the units produced from a city!

Units
Goblin = Replaces a scout, Loses a movement point but If it defeats a wolf in the wild it becomes a Goblin Wolf Rider

Race
Orcish
+10% Jungle Attack
+10% Jungle Defence
+25% Fire Resistance

Hero: Rantine

4 :strength:
1 :move:
Cost = 180 s:
Stats = +25% against Melee Units
Ability = Can convert a barbarian city into a Clan city if Rantine is the strongest Unit within it

Worldspell
For the Hoard!
Ability = Converts 50% of the worlds Barbarian Orcs to your side.[/quote]

-

EDIT: Thank you Tredje for correcting me about the Expansive details. Remember people, don't trust the FFH2 wikie!

[Ravus Sol]

[SIZE="5"]The Armageddon Countdown[/SIZE]

This is referred to as the AC, it is visible in the lower right area of the main game screen.

It begins the game at 0 and raises all the way to 100, which is when the Apocalypse will occur!



Raising the Counter

• Cities being Razed
  
• Ashen Veil, The Apocalypse Religion being founded
  
• Ashen Veil, Spreading
  
• The Breaking of the Compact, Summoning Demons
  
• Piller of Chains Wonder, Enslaves a city
  
• Holy City for Octupos Overlords of Ashen Veil being built
  
• Prophecy of Ragnarok, Wonder that means all units built from the city have a Armegeddon mark that raises the counter while they live
  
• Evil Heroes being built
  
• Killing/Razing those things that lower the Counter
  

Lowering the Counter

• Peaceful Rituals
  
• Order, The Lawful Angel Religion being founded
  
• Order, Spreading
  
• Building the Mercucian Gate and Summoning the Angels to defeat the Demons
  
• Holy Cities for Order or Empyeran being built.
  
• Good Heroes being built
  
• Destroying those things that Raise the counter
  

[SIZE="3"]Armageddon Events[/SIZE]
AC 0
Hell Terrain will spread in Ashen Veil lands once the Infernals are summoned. Hell terrain turns pigs and sheep into Toads. Turns Cows and Horses into Nightmares. And turns Rice, Wheat or Corn into Razorweed. This destroys the health of the nation and forces them to take the civic "Sacrifice the weak" To be able to survive.

AC 10
First of the Apocalyptic Warnings

AC 25
Hell Terrain will spread to unowned land. This annoys people trying to expand a bit. Especially in deserts which become Burning sands. Forever on fire.

AC 30
Blight hits the Civilizations of the world. It adds unhealthiness equal to double the size of your city. This slowly dissapears over 10-20 turns but if you arn't prepared and don't have enough health your cities could starve all the way back down to size 1.

All living units also take some damage from the blight which can be horrible if you are at war and deep in enemy terrirtory.

AC 40
Stephanos, the first Horseman of the Apocalypse, will arive.

This is the Domination horseman, His crown of command combined with the natural Command promotions means he has a 80% chance of converting any unit he kills. Meaning he can turn armies against their leaders.

AC 50
Hell Terrain will spread if in an Evil civilization's cultural borders.

Buboes, the second Horseman of the Apocalypse, will arrive.

This is the Horseman of War. He enrages his foes spreading hate. His Sword item increase the Armageddon counter each time it kills someone. He is here to cause damage... even after he dies any bloodthirsty nation that picks up his sword and uses it for bloodshed will only be hastening the end of days

AC 60
Yersinia, the third Horseman of the Apocalypse will arrive.

Yersinia is the Horseman of Pestilence. His weapon leaves units in any stack he attacks plagued.

AC 70
Ars Moriendi, the final Horseman of the Apocalypse, will arrive.

Death. Destoryer of Worlds. This Horseman is the last and strongest. Able to summon Minions to help him bring about the end of the world.

AC 75
Hell Terrain will spread if in a Neutral civilization's cultural borders.

AC 80
Hellfire will spawn at random tiles of the map, spawning Infernal or Barbarian Champions. 2% chance per tile.

AC 90
The Avatar of Wrath will arrive and every living unit will have a 50% chance of "defecting" and going barbarian.

This is the Wrath of the Gods upon the puny mortals. Half your units turn against you while this huge Avatar walks the earth killing as it goes.

AC 100
Armageddon occurs!! Causing a 50% chance of killing any living unit on the map. If the AC was raised quickly between the Avatar emerging then this most of the Civilizations will be doomed to become nothing but dust.

[SIZE="5"]Armegeddon Units[/SIZE]

[Ravus Sol]

Too bad Acheron is turned off in this game though :neenernee

Damn that would have been really fun. Not just for the Sons of Inferno. But if you spread the Ashen Veil to the Acheron city the Infernals can use their worldspell to steal it and get a nigh unbeatable defender.

Shame

[Selrahc]

So... Prophecy of Ragnarok/Warrens empowered Armageddon rush?

If so: Pure or diluted?

[Ravus Sol]

So... Prophecy of Ragnarok/Warrens empowered Armageddon rush?

If so: Pure or diluted?

I don't want to fall into a trap of not being adaptable enough. Plus any player who knows the Orcs knows they can do this. If i rush too quickly I feel i'd become a dogpile target.

So i'm leaning towards mildly diluted. Get the Way of the Earthmover religion for economy and priesthood for quick spreading of the temples. A big red herring that I will be going for a land grab boosted kilmorph rush. While the Capital/Military City starts to build the Prophecy building. Only switch over to Veil/Armegeddon mode once all the pieces are in place.

1) Ashen Veil Priests for quick spread of evil religion.
2) Close enough to Fanaticism to try to slingshot to Malevolent designs (the only late game military tech i shall need)
3) Ready to Summon Infernals.
4) Able to build 1 Unit Per turn in the Ragnarok/Warrens city. (for a +2 AC per turn effect)

The main trick will be when to summon the Infernals. I need them early so that they can be strong. But not too early that the smarter players will cotton on to my game plan.

I'm honestly not sure if I will have the skill to time everything right or pull of the micromanagement necessary. But it will be a fun attempt.

[Ichabod]

I can ded lurk this thread, Ravus. I wasn't going to do it in this game, but luckily your thread was the first one I opened.

I liked your plan regarding this game and I liked to read your thread after the end of FFH PBEM IV, so it'll be a fun ride for sure.

[Tredje]

Reporting for duty!

I really like your plan for the game. Not only because it will be interesting to see if you manage to push the AC counter, but involving Hyborem and the Mercurians will add a lot of flavour to the game.

Some random thoughts:

Expansive
Expansive isn't all that in FFH

+3 :health: to all cities. Double production of Granaries and Harbour.

The +3 Health is nothing to sneer at and the quick Granaries can be useful. It should allow my cities to grow if I make a settler rush.

You probably know this and forgot to include it: Expansive also gives double production of Settlers, which can be very helpful when wanting to expand rapidly.

I agree on your assessement of your rivals.

Yellow was a bit hotheaded in his diplomacy in PBEM III and got demolished. Even if he says he wanted to learn from that, his choice of Tasunke ensures that he has something to back up a possible reversal to his old ways

Mist seems to know what he's doing. His rush against Sciz was well executed, even if he later lost the game.

Amelia doesn't seem to be as focused as some of the other players. To me her decision-making is sometimes erratic and she tends to waver. This doesn't mean she can be ruled out, but I would rank her below some of the others in terms of threat.

I am not sure how familiar mackoti is with FFH2, but I can inform you that he got crippled by a rush in PB4, he won PBEM9 (although I'm not sure about the level of competition here) and he won PBEM10 after taking over for Meatbalz ( in a strong position.) I'd expect him to follow a solid plan and his management skill should be up to par.

Sareln, poor Sareln. I can't say I know much about him, except that he is unlucky and gets rushed a lot. With the Ljosalfar I'd definitely say that he is looking to make it out of the early game this time.