[SPOILERS] Tres Equis: Mardoc plays the Most Interesting Civ in the World

[Mardoc]

So very glad that the board was upgraded and I can now edit my thread title. No particular idea what we're gonna get, especially if things turn out like 29 and lots of people think alike.

[Mardoc]

So, here's what I submitted as my picks. I thought that it was fairly clear in theme, but Qgqqqqq didn't agree. At least it wasn't obvious to him. Let's explain what I'm thinking, shall we?

My picks:
1) Auric Ulvin
2) Valledia the Even
3) Mahala
4) Rivanna
5) Furia the Mad

I want to play an Arcane game again. I really really do! Except preferably not get strangled in the cradle like my last one...

I chose each leader/civ for something useful they contribute to that goal. Different styles of mage generation, but they're all pretty good at it.

Auric: Arc/Cha is probably literally the absolute best traits for mage-making. Ice mana is one of the best mana, too. Priests of Winter make a nice early-game 'don't smash me' tool. On top, it'd be fun to try out the Illian special civ mechanics - Temples of the Hand ought to be a dramatic economic boost, making large cities feasible anywhere. Cha + Enchantment mana helps with the large city thing. If I have enough time, I can also play around with the various rituals.

Valledia: Not the best traits for training adepts, but the best traits and civ for producing insta-mages. Very good mana, Cave of Ancestors, etc. Lacking in early game protection; the firebow works, but it's not really early game. But if I do survive, best mage-maker.

Mahala: very different approach to mage making. Expansive means we'll be able to build a ton of cities, and Shamans mean that each and every city can produce magic-users. This approach is to overwhelm the RNG with sheer number of rolls, feeling bound to be lucky eventually. On top, the melee line upgrades and the worldspell should make it relatively easy to hold off early aggression.

Rivanna: now we're getting a bit less special. Organized is good for making mages, summoner is a bit weak. But she's an elf! So all our cities can be good...eventually.

Furia: the only legal Puppet option. Also still has the various fun Balseraph tricks, that I didn't get to exploit as much as I wanted in EitB25.

Big fall off from the top 3. I'd be happy with any of them, although I would prefer to end the world in ice, I think. But if they're all taken, I can make one of the others work out.

But regardless, Mages are the one area of the game I still haven't explored in any detail. So that's what I intend to focus on.

[Selrahc]

Rivanna: now we're getting a bit less special. Organized is good for making mages, summoner is a bit weak. But she's an elf! So all our cities can be good...eventually.

She is also an illusionist. Very situational, although potentially pretty useful. Your summons won't be hogging the XP, and living units fully heal illusions when they attack. They work pretty well when paired up with assassins.

[Mardoc]

Rivanna: now we're getting a bit less special. Organized is good for making mages, summoner is a bit weak. But she's an elf! So all our cities can be good...eventually.

She is also an illusionist. Very situational, although potentially pretty useful. Your summons won't be hogging the XP, and living units fully heal illusions when they attack. They work pretty well when paired up with assassins.

Yeah, I had my nose rubbed in that pretty thoroughly in the Pitboss - a tier three summon with sufficient mana to pump up its base strength can become nearly invincible, if illusionary. Empyrean could give that strategy headaches - but then assassins are pretty good at picking off Priests, too.

Don't want to get too deep into analysis until we actually know what we're getting, though.

[Qgqqqqq]

Yeah I was totally thinking arcane until Mahala/Rivanna (I really hate illusionists, I think having Empyrean as a big hard counter to a entire strategy is stupid).
After Mahala and Furia I started thinking melee, then Mahala/Auric/Valledia made me think rushing and so on
Like I said, it just shows how much variety is in FFH

[Mardoc]

(I really hate illusionists, I think having Empyrean as a big hard counter to a entire strategy is stupid).

Well, it's not the only counter like that. The Amurite worldspell is even more dramatic. Some spells can have the same effect, like Slow. And frankly - a Str 18 Illusionary Djinn had better have some counter short of winning a 0.1% victory

Empy makes defending with Illusions not work, but attacking with them is still good.

After Mahala and Furia I started thinking melee, then Mahala/Auric/Valledia made me think rushing and so on
Like I said, it just shows how much variety is in FFH

Well, and depending on circumstances, I may need to lean on one of the alternate approaches .

[Selrahc]

a Str 18 Illusionary Djinn had better have some counter short of winning a 0.1% victory

Well, remember. It's only living units who heal illusions. Undead, Angels, Demons, Elementals, etc. will all do normal damage.

So Illusions are pretty easy to counter with, for example, fireballs.

[Mardoc]

Alright! Got the first choice

So, what do the Illians have special? Looking through the manual, they're a civ with a lot. Some small, some that warp the whole game.

Biggest difference between them and a normal civ: they get 2 food from Ice tiles, just like Grassland, and they can build a Temple of the Hand at Mysticism for 100 Normal/67 Quick hammers to turn all tiles in a city's BFC to Ice. Permanently - or at least until someone brings in Scorch and likely also Vitalize. So the territory is lush for us, and downright worthless for most other civs. On top, every unit of ours gets Winterborn, which is +10% Str in Tundra and Ice, and some minor Cold resistance. So we can make the land lush and get a combat advantage at the same time.

Why not do it all the time? Well, workers are slower on Ice. The transformation destroys Floodplains, and of course it costs 67 hammers too. I think Ice tiles don't get riverside bonus commerce, either. If the terrain is good enough, it's not worth the investment, not unless we're looking to give sour grapes to a conqueror. Still - this means that any terrain can be nice and lush for us, after just a bit of investment.

Second biggest difference (or, maybe biggest instead of ice): Religions are banned; instead we have the ritual that allows us to get the three Priests of Winter at Philosophy, and eventually the option to upgrade them. Str 7, channelling II, able to cast Ice spells, and also medics. Very nice units, available early - but irreplaceable and the only medic option. We've a number of other rituals unlocked at the priestly techs, as wel.

We've a few other rituals, most of which aren't likely to come into play.

• Samhain creates a bunch of Barbarian Frostlings - who aren't really strong enough to threaten anyone, and we have to fight too. Might be worth building mid game when we need some easy XP for adepts, but likely I'll just ignore this one. Could be more effective if combined with Stasis, probably, but of course that's banned.
  
• The Draw + Ascension give us Auric Ascended, who in most circumstances is the literally best unit in the game - but cost a combined 2100 Normal hammers, half your population, wound all your units, declare war on the world, and require you to have teched to Strength of Will and Omniscience. I can't see having the ability to build this without having already won.
  
• Stir from Slumber gives Drifa the White Dragon, our secondary hero. She's a very good unit, only 900 Normal hammers, Divine Essence, and have to have eliminated someone. Still unlikely, but now we're into the range of the possible
  
  
  
• The Deepening - now we're into the range where I'm not sure. Temporary turns most of the world to Snow, and causes Blizzards to spawn to make more snow. 600 Normal/400 Quick hammers means that it's affordable, and it's available at Priesthood. It's basically a Blight for everyone not us. Depends on the situation, I think. It hurts everyone a great deal, gives us a temporary military advantage...but of course it also makes everyone mad at us simultaneously, and 400 hammers can alternately be a good chunk of military. Depends on the situation.
  
• The White Hand - gives us those three Priests, 400 Normal/268 Quick hammers. Gives us the Priests of Winter, at 90 hammers each. Expensive, but worth it. Early, the PoW are a huge advantage, almost unstoppable. Mid game, they're still quite effective. Later, they're our only healing, and can be upgraded to High Priests at Theology to give them more healing and also access to Snowfall.
  

Still more uniques...

• We get Javelin Throwers instead of Archers. Str 4 instead of 3/5, don't require any buildings. Most likely irrelevant, but I could maybe see researching Archery instead of Bronze Working. Although I still don't think they're going to outdo Bronze warriors on a hammer basis
  
• Our assassins get the Whiteout spell, which, on a Snow tile, makes them Hidden.
  
• We've an Iron Working hero, Wilboman, fairly strong at Str 7 plus weapons plus Hero
  
• We're the only civ with Ice mana. The others, enchantment and Law, aren't awesome, but they aren't horrible either.
  
• If we are first to explore Letum Frigus, we gain the Aggressive trait.
  

Whew! I think that's all.

How does that affect the gameplan? Well, unfortunately, the uniques are spread out all over the tech tree. There's really no way we can get them all in play in an MP game. I'm thinking the logical approach, therefore, is to first aim for worker techs, then Mysticism and Philosophy, and grab at least the Priests of Winter plus the option of Temples of the Hand. After that, I'm planning to go straight Arcane. Maybe a detour for Bronze or Archery if the Priests aren't keeping us safe or we want them as worker techs - but we're Arcane Charismatic with Ice mana. It's predictable, but when it's strong enough, that's ok As for warring - well, that depends on the map. It should be an option through most of the game, whenever it makes economic sense - PoW will give a big advantage with the first available summon and their high strength, and mages shouldn't take long to unlock either. I won't be rushing, though, not unless I'm on top of someone. No point in destroying someone unless there's profit in it. Except, possibly, Suttree, just to make him burn the worldspell.

Main disadvantage, especially given the field: we don't have much in the way of economic traits; most of our civ abilities are also warlike. Cha will give us slightly larger cities, but unless we micro this amazingly, we'll be behind, most likely. On top, Amurites' world spell can really mess with an magic-dependent game like I plan.

Opponent analysis later. On gut, though: Suttree has the best anti-me pick, HK is the best general pick, no one can be completely counted out.

Molach is Flauros (Cre, Fin, Manors) of the Calabim
HidingKneel is Thessalonica (Ind, Spi) of the Elohim
Suttree is Dain (Arc, Phi) of the Amurites
Yell0w is Rohanna (Exp, Fin) of the Hippus

[Qgqqqqq]

BTW, there isn't generally much ice terrain spawned in Torusland maps.

[Mardoc]

BTW, there isn't generally much ice terrain spawned in Torusland maps.

Yeah, and not generally that much worthless land either. I'll deal.