FFH II PBEM VIII Lurker's Lurking Thread (For Lurkers) [SPOILERS]

[Bobchillingworth]

Players keep out, or Federal Agent Jack Bauer will beat you like a tangentially plot-related mountain lion:

[SIZE="5"]~* Jack Bauer *~[/SIZE]

[SIZE="3"]

2001-2010

[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]"He did not know where the bombs were." [/SIZE]

[Bobchillingworth]

Apologies btw if someone else was supposed to create this thread or something. I simply saw a hole & filled it (that's what... she said?)


If a mod could please sticky this, that would be just great!

[Brian Shanahan]

I was busy trying to think up of a funny (sarcastic) name.

As regards the game, it's too early to say too much, but I don't know about Amelia's plan to forego the Firebows.

[Mardoc]

Eh, I don't know that Firebows are all that, assuming Govannon. Any priest can be just about as good, plus getting free XP as time passes. The real cost to Firebows seems to be the research diversion, but really I think if she gets enough magic in the civ, why would she need another source of fireballs?

The one thing I'm wondering about is what you think of Mist's decision to move toward the commerce specials and away from food. Is it a good choice? Is it such a good choice that I messed up in giving him that option? Or is he going to have the best commerce, and be in an OCC situation as a result?

[Bobchillingworth]

It probably would have been good if a couple of those dye were under jungles. But giving up food is going to slow his development down a lot until at least mining (especially if he wants to grow towns instead of working a lot of farms), so I don't think that it's really too unbalancing.



Amelia is so impulsive and scatterbrained that it's almost painful to read. She's on a very legitimate path- stoneskin, combat spell-casting priests- but she's focusing on the wrong things in the wrong roles (adepts as the main attackers?!). Also, for all the games for her to drop her Chalid obsession, this was the worst. Hemah gets little exclusive benefit from being with the Amurities (maybe a few free spells, and possibly some exp from the worldspell). Chalid on the other hand utterly kicks ass. And she's totally forgetting about other pseudo-archmages she can deploy as well, such as druids. Royal Guard are worth considering too, although Feudalism is admittedly a luxury.


I'm not sure why other players are ruling out Sareln as an early rusher- have they not lurked FFH PBEM III, where Nyk pulled off a very effective early attack with basic Leaves & Ljo units?

[Selrahc]

Firebows and Arcane Lore are divergent paths. Either go for a route with good early security and solid midgame power with firebows supported by adepts, or go for a more risky but higher reward arcane lore push, with priests and mages.

[Mardoc]

It probably would have been good if a couple of those dye were under jungles. But giving up food is going to slow his development down a lot until at least mining (especially if he wants to grow towns instead of working a lot of farms), so I don't think that it's really too unbalancing.

Ok, good. At least I'll keep telling myself that for a while.

Amelia is so impulsive and scatterbrained that it's almost painful to read. She's on a very legitimate path- stoneskin, combat spell-casting priests- but she's focusing on the wrong things in the wrong roles (adepts as the main attackers?!). Also, for all the games for her to drop her Chalid obsession, this was the worst. Hemah gets little exclusive benefit from being with the Amurities (maybe a few free spells, and possibly some exp from the worldspell). Chalid on the other hand utterly kicks ass. And she's totally forgetting about other pseudo-archmages she can deploy as well, such as druids. Royal Guard are worth considering too, although Feudalism is admittedly a luxury.

Yes, the idea of adepts charging Bronze Warriors in a city just hurts. Or even defending a city from Bronze Warriors. If anything, Amelia can afford to be less reliant on dedicated mages than most people. And that's exemplified by the Hemah thought: for most people, Hemah/Gibbon is the first archmage on the tree. For Amurites, there are lots of options. Although...maybe she'll notice a few of them between now and when she's out of the general expansion phase.

I also found her dismissal of Death mana off hand...odd. Why give up on Lichdom? She's one of the few civs likely to have 8 mages with enough XP to really benefit.

Whether she can stick with one long enough to get to it, though, that's a whole 'nother question.

I'm not sure why other players are ruling out Sareln as an early rusher- have they not lurked FFH PBEM III, where Nyk pulled off a very effective early attack with basic Leaves & Ljo units?

Personally, I think they're ruling out Sareln, not the Ljosalfar in general. It's possible that this is the game where he decides to go for a rush, but I honestly don't think so either.

[DaveV]

The one thing I'm wondering about is what you think of Mist's decision to move toward the commerce specials and away from food. Is it a good choice? Is it such a good choice that I messed up in giving him that option? Or is he going to have the best commerce, and be in an OCC situation as a result?

One of the best FfH games I ever had was one where I started by 4-5 riverside dyes (which were cleared of jungle by the map script). His spot is low in food (although that's pretty easy to come by with a Calendar beeline; he can even farm one of the dyes if he really wants to accelerate his growth), and hammers, but I think it's the best capital. Commerce is king.

[Bobchillingworth]

Posted by Amelia in her thread:

Frankly, i'm not that worried about rust, why weaken them when i can just eliminate their stack completely?

Ouch my head. Because you have to do the former before you can successfully manage the latter? Rust is a crazily good spell. Against the ubiquitous Bronze Warrior it gives a -35% strength debuff, sufficient so that even the rust adepts themselves should get slight odds against them in the field. And even if an enemy unit can race back to a town to replace its weapons, the persistent -10% rust malus is unnecessarily difficult to get rid of. It's powerful enough that I've suggested to Sareln that he switch it and Wither around for the entropy I & III spells in the Paring Mod. It'd rank it only after Haste and Raise Skeleton in the useful T1 spells category (although others like spring can be situationaly better, of course).

[uberfish]

Rust is good, but bronze warriors are overrated as an offensive force (see also: PBEM2)