Winter Wonderland: Selrahc's FFH 2 thread

[Selrahc]

Did a little reading of some of my past stuff. Geez... I really can't see the writing on the wall sometimes huh?
"I'm mildly in the lead, that should last forever, especially after the priests."
"I might not be in the lead right now, but that'll change soon. When I get the next round of cities out.. when the conquests come out of resistance and the priests come back to my land I'll clearly be in the strongest position."
"Alright, PB has taken first, but I'm a strong second!"
"Alright, Bob has taken second in the demographics, but I just need to grow my cities out a bit. And I'll take over PB in the long run."
"Alright, so I'm clearly third, but with some good play I'll be right back in this!"
I get the feeling I'll eventually be wildly justifying how my role as a vassal is still far superior to Cull's....

Ugh. Wild self delusion apart, diplomacy continues.I'm dancing in between two great powers, trying to stay neutral but relevant. Mages creation rates continue to be disappointing, and I am getting more and more respect for the arcane trait. In this situation in a SP game I would be free to sit around waiting for enough mages to mature. Here... I really can't do that.

Anyway, I'm being mildly dishonest with both teams. PB gets a lot more of the real picture, but not the real motives. I want this current conflict to run and run, and I'm not sure how well I'm going about that. I'm telling PB "Don't worry, push comes to shove I'm on your side.". Broadly true. I'm telling Bob "Don't worry, I don't want to get involved in the fight. Stalling benefits us both." which is also broadly true.



So.. with that in mind let me discuss the topic I'm currently thinking about.

[SIZE="3"]Werewolves
[/SIZE]

Obviously to get back in this game I'm going to need a magic bullet. A unit that will let me contribute disproportionately effectively to combat. I think the single best class of units in that regard.. are mages. And that has been the unit class I've been focussing on. A mage with good spells is a godsend, and even one or two can single handedly turn the tide of a battle.

But when it comes to your real single unit war winners I think FFH has one that can't be beat. Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for the illustrious Baron Duin Halfmoon

Wolfman extraordinaire

Chances are, most of you guys haven't experimented around much with the werewolves. They're an odd little branch, of a not too glamorous part of the tech tree. Let me say this then... in the right circumstances, they are a godsend.

Baron Duin is the method by which they enter the world. Whenever he kills a unit, they have a chance of coming back as a werewolf. Other werewolves have a lower chance. The werewolves created by this method are weakling Ravenous Werewolves(S5, Berserk), but when they win a single battle they turn into solidly decent Blooded Werewolves(S8 movement 2).

As long as there are weak units to attack, this gives you a constant influx of powerful troops entirely independent of the ability of the host civilization to produce it. At its peak.. I've taken down Deity civilizations with just Duin.

The main danger is that either you'll be up against units too strong for ravenous werewolves to face. Or that Duin will be killed before getting strong enough to give you a seed fund of werewolves.

For both those problems, I think I have an almost ideal setup.

Charismatic is the only military trait that helps werewolves. As beast units they don't gain benefit from raiders, aggressive, defender or anything else. I've also got a great commander, which gives him more xp, and Orthus's axe which will let me rip people to shreds multiple times/turn.

As far as presenting foes capable of being mobbed by Ravenous wolves... well Bob has two weakling vassals with lower tier military units. And I have maelstrom mages waiting in the wings. That should let me convert ravenous wolves to blooded.

Could this be the magic bullet I need to put me right back in the game? Well on the evidence I think I'm self deluded enough to give it a damn good try.

Feral Bond is due in 6t at max science. Probably be able to get it in 9.
The Baron costs a truly scary amount of hammers. Not sure when I'll be able to get him in play. I'm tentatively hoping to have him ready by T210.

[Darkmantle]

This is why I love fall from heaven. There always seems to be a totally new angle you can play to gain advantage. I also approve of more bloody war :D

[NobleHelium]

What about the ToM plan then?

[Selrahc]

The Tower is the plan for victory. This little diversion shouldn't even noticeably slow it down.

Don't get me wrong. I think werewolves are powerful. But they will never replace my military. I'm just hoping they could form a powerful adjunct.

[Selrahc]

Oh yeah, the other other thing is that as part of my long drawn out plan to eventually summon Auric, Feral Bond is one of the techs I need. If I leave things until someone else builds the Baron then this tech will just be an expensive stepping stone. By researching it now, I can get some use out of it.

[Ilios]

Are you planning on using Assassins, Selrahc? If I recall correctly, they had a nifty "invisibility" ability when stationed on an ice tile.

[Selrahc]

Probably not. It depends on how my technology goes... If I can spare the beakers I'll pick them up. They certainly have a role, but until my opponents start to use mages it isn't a priority.

[Selrahc]

Blight is rubbish. I'm probably the least hit person(at least if the demographics are to be believed), and its still hitting me pretty hard. What really stings is that my adoption of conquest, which was supposed to nicely speed up military production, now looks incredibly stupid as the sickness takes away all spare food.

I've also got reason to believe that PB may be plotting to build the Crown of Akharien before me, seeing as he has researched to arcane lore. We'll see who wins, but I've a suspicion it might be him. I've got 21 turns to go, but the city that is building it is starving to death, and to reassign it such that it doesn't would make its production nosedive. Ugh. Getting that wonder was something I really did want, to speed me on the way to later techs.

[Tatan]

...[SIZE="3"]Werewolves
[/SIZE]...

It's a good thing you're the neutral arbiter in the game going on in the general forum, or else this plan of yours might get some people wondering!

[Selrahc]

Alright. So the war has turned hot. PB is on the defensive. My aid could possibly turn things back in his favour. This is the kind of situation we made the pact to cover, so despite my early wavering I'll be going to PB's aid in this conflict. I was only ever wavering because I didn't want to be involved in an attack... now that it looks like PB might have bitten off more than he can chew, I'm right back on board.

I'm currently gathering forces and upgrading units. The adepts are getting XP a lot quicker nowadays. The adept I built in my capital just 7 turns ago has already reached 6xp! Crazy.

I've finally got a nice united core army. When they're gathered my stack will be made up of:
3 Priests of Winter
6 Mages (or more if the adepts level up particularly quickly.)
5 Adepts
5 Rangers

Most of these units are two movers as well. Sadly I don't have haste.. but I'm actually fairly happy with that as a stack. It's small beans compared to the 40 unit centaur and vampire stacks that have been running around, but I think it is respectable enough to maybe even swing the tide.

I'm not planning on joining the attack until T191. PB currently has my Ice Mana, and without that any attack I make will be a little crippled.

I haven't got a grand unified attack plan together. But hopefully Bob will be out of position, and I can do some useful work. Going to have to get together with PB and strategize at some point.

It's a good thing you're the neutral arbiter in the game going on in the general forum, or else this plan of yours might get some people wondering!

To be honest the werewolf plan in here was the reason why I started thinking that the game might be a good idea. Seems to be going well...