Your Top Ten Tips for Your Favorite Civ

sometimes, sure. that's not enough to claim that one leader is the best. unless you can prove that if you play Deity you can either play Alexis or lose in the first 50 turns

so, is every leader that doesn't have early game as his/her strongest asset weaker than a leader that shines in the late-game, just because of that? I don't think so... then again it might be, but you should specify the conditions.

Senethro said:

This is false. Picking up Calendar and Agrarian boosts growth and production, as long as forested plains or hills tiles are available. One extra food per grassland farm means you can work more low food/high production tiles. Mines are not essential for the early game, especially when the most expensive productions are Workers and Settlers.

Going mines before farms won't give some great production advantage, so I don't think there is any great production boost to be had in the first 50 turns while happycaps remain low. Tech beelining to Code of Laws is not especially vulnerable as you pick up Apprenticeship on the way.

Moving your settler close to someone elses capital is going to waste turns or is asking for their Scout to just walk into your undefended city.

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I never said mines before farms. Read my strategy again, this time without your preconceived biases about how you think the calabim should be played. Also, the idea of my rush, what makes it different from the hippus or doviello is that it is all about maximizing output in your city. Your aim is to have three or four times the units your opponent has. This is done through very early mines.

If you're getting Mining before Calendar, you're going mines before farms which is backwards. Agrarian will get you to your happycap faster and then let you work more productive tiles.

Also, the idea of researching Writing after capturing cities without a cost reducing government civic sounds a little unlikely at typical difficulty levels.

You obviously haven't read my strategy at all. The entire point is getting to your happy cap, 5 population, asap. You do not need agrarianism for this. The only reason I occassionally get Calendar at that point is if there is incense or another useful resource in my BFC, for the commerce yield as well as the bonus to happiness, but I don't adopt agrarianism until I have CoL. You get to your happy cap by settling near a farm resource (they're everywhere) or flood plain, and using your worlde spell. I hardly think one extra city is going to make a significant difference, you may have to lower your research to 80 or 90 %, but the difference is more then made up through cottages and libraries, and then an Academy from your first great sage after a few turns will boost it hugely. Besides, you're then teching to Code of Laws immediately after so you will have it in just a few turns.

Using your World Spell more then makes up for the turns so-called ''wasted'' by moving your starting settler to a more ideal location.

And Gekko I did not claim that Alexis was stronger, what I said was that she is at least on par with Flauros. You cannot compare the two for an overall ''best'' as the strategies that they employ are vastly different and both are very capable in their own prefered circumstances.

but you should specify the conditions.

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If by this you mean my game conditions they are, Monarch, Aggressive AI, No World Features. Usually play on crowded small maps or on standard size.

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I think you should really try following my strategy through, you will be pleasantly suprised I assure you. I have only ever failed a rush once, when the Illians cast Samhain and Mokka spawned right next to my stack. Still, by that point I had already rushed Tasunke and had been on my way to take out someone else. I later won the game through conquest using Moroi hordes, the natural follow-up stragegy.

So let me get this straight.

First you need to find another civ.
This civ needs to be not one of the following - Elohim, Kandros Fir, Hippus, Illians, Doviello, Sheelba.
If they're very close and few turns are wasted, then maybe world population density is high and you're at risk of getting rushed by a better rusher.
If they're far, you're wasting turns and your scout/warrior escort can't keep up, and you may get scout rushed by your "victim".
Then you stay with a low number of cities to keep your research rate up.
Then you run specialists without Agrarian farms in a low happycap city. How much room to gather hammers does that give you?

You should try one of the AI improvement mods as you're obviously having too easy a time of it.

An alternative approach to the calibam (that actually worked out quite well when I tried it) that is much better done by alexis than Flauros.

What you need:
Octopus Overlords
A coastal Enemy OR mages with maelstrom
Warriors - lots of them

This is a midgame strategy, not an early game like the alexis warrior rush. The idea is, you want to get warriors to level 6. Why? At this point, you can vampirize them. And guess what warriors can upgrade to - Stygan Guards. All you have to do is drown them, then upgrade.

Strategy:
1. Follow Alexis - philisophical is nice for pumping out the great sages or great prophets, but what you really need is aggressive.

2. Whatever you do, don't build both archery ranges - EVER, except possibly in one city. Why? At bronze working, you can upgrade warriors to morai with a barracks. A barracks you can skip if you want to. At feudalism however, you can upgrade warriors to vampires with a governors manor - you can't skip a governors manor. At archery, you can upgrade warriors to archers with an archery range. However, you can only stop building warriors if you can build the two higher teir units - archers and morai.

3. Tech path. The entire game you are going to be warrior spamming. This means that you're going to want bronze working asap. However, another strong point of the calibam are the governors manors. This means that you're going to want code of laws asap. As such, I recommend beelining those two techs depending upon how close an enemy is (close enemy, bronze working, far enemies, code of laws). After that, you're going to want to get calender for agrarianism, festivals (gold and happy), sanitation (+3 happy cap from baths), mysticism and fishing for Octopus Overlords, and then, once you have all that, beeline Fanaticism.

3. Fanaticism. Fanaticism is important for two reasons. Reason 1, it unlocks stygan guards, the most powerful teir 3 melee unit. Reason 2, it unlocks your hero. Your hero is nice for 2 reasons. First, she's your hero, which is always nice. Second though, she is a vampire, that you don't have to research feudalism to get. You will see why this is important in just a sec.

4. Magic. You are going to need magic to make this work, and the four most important spells are Maelstrom, Fireball (or shadowwalk), blur and Rust. As your army is eventually going to be an army of demons, haste isn't too important for you. The reason why these are so important is because you're going to have ALOT of cannon fodder, and it is important that your cannon fodder can actually do something. As such, you want to reduce the strength of your opponents in any way that you can. Maelstrom or Tsunami is great for this (ashen veil priests are better, but its not worth the time to get them), because they can reduce your opponents strength by 30% and 60% respectively. Rust is great because it knocks off all metal weapons your opponents have, which can drop their base strength by 1-2 points and 10%. And lastly fireball is great for collateral, but more importantly, it can bombard city defenses, which is why it or shadowwalk are truly important. Blur however is one of the most important. Blur makes your units immune to first strikes - and first strikes are the bane of your army.

4. Early game. Early game runs much like the warrior rushing alexis's early game - try to kill people. You're aggressive, which means that with apprenticeship you can snatch shock or cover right out of the gate. This greatly increases their effectiveness against your opponents, which is important because your whole goal is to get warriors to level 6. Whenever you get a warrior to level 6, try to get him to safety and use him to guard your cities. It is important that you keep these guys around.

5. Early - Midgame. Early - Midgame is tough for this strategy. Everyone else will be using archers, axemen, etc, but you're still going to want to be using warriors. It might be a good idea to snatch construction here to get catapults to assist you with this part of the game so your warriors can still be competitive. On the bright side, you WILL have the largest army...

6. Midgame. For you, midgame will be lategame, and what you win with. This starts once you get fanaticism, and becomes a steamroll once you get sorcery (note fanaticism is FAR more important than sorcery). The very first thing that you want to do when you get fanaticism is to build your hero, losha. She has one primary duty - turn all those level 6 warriors of yours into vampires. Now, you have vampiric warriors, which doesn't seem to good. However, you can drown these warriors for a mere 60 gold and turn them into drowns. Then you can upgrade those drowns into Stygan guards. Now you have a bunch of vampiric demons - hope you were prepping for Armageddon.

7. Steamroll. Your army is going to consist of stacks of warriors, catapults (if you needed them earlier), mages with air 2, entropy 1, shadow 1, and fire 2 or shadow 2, and vampiric Stygan Guards. The guards protect the stack and are there to crack any really tough defenses. The mages maelstrom, rust, blur, shadowwalk, and fireball to weaken your opponents, and the bulk of your army, the warriors act as cannon fodder with the whole goal of getting to level 6. Whenever you get level 6 warriors, take them back to a city with a temple of the overlords, drown them, and then add more stygan guards to your stack of doom.

8. Heros. Saveros is worthless, unless you really need his help in the early-midgame. The reason is that he starts out as a demon, and can never be made into a vampire. As such, once midgame arrives, common stygan guards are going to be more powerful than him, because they can just feast their way to xp while he actually has to work for it - and you would much rather your warriors getting the xp instead of him. Losha is what your whole strategy hinges upon. Why? It means that you don't have to tech Feudalism to get vampires. Lastly, Hemah. Hemah, is going to be a god. A vampiric caster, feasting whenever he wants a new level - ABSOLUTELY. A level 3 caster that you can get whenever you want - great. First priority for hemah however should be getting entropy 3, because it does 10% damage (capped at 40%) to all units within 1 square, but most importantly, it applies withered to all opponents within 1 square. Withered gives -10% or 20% to opponents healing rate, but that isn't why its important. Withered also gives -60% strength. Now, it can be healed away by any unit with medic 2, but by casting it right before you attack, suddenly, all your opponents are at -60% strength, not counting any hitpoint loss, making them MUCH easier targets for your stack of warriors.

9. Economy. You are going to be doing alot of upgrading, and you're going to be supporting a large army. That means lots of gold. This is why Festivals is very important - those markets are going to help, alot. You may also want to consider grabbing way of the earthmother and spreading runes of kilmorph for the extra 2 gold the temples provide. However, The best techs to go for once you get fanaticism are the ones that lead to money changers, tax office, etc. All this comes after the all important fanaticism however.

10. Have fun, experiment, and remember, you aren't required to stay explicitly to this path/idea. Oh, and don't be afraid of armageddon, with a nice, large army of vampiric stygan guards, whats there to worry about?

-Colin

Senethro said:

So let me get this straight.

First you need to find another civ.
This civ needs to be not one of the following - Elohim, Kandros Fir, Hippus, Illians, Doviello, Sheelba.
If they're very close and few turns are wasted, then maybe world population density is high and you're at risk of getting rushed by a better rusher.

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Hmmm, I'm not a huge fan of Ekolite's strategy (I think it sacrifices long-term growth just a little too much for an early kill), but if I understand it correctly, there pretty much IS no better rusher than a close Alexis who is willing to use her worldspell early. Crank aggressive warriors and pop the worldspell early, and you're size 5 while everyone else is size 2 (or even size 1 if you time it right). I think even the Aggressive opponents would fail to defend against a production advantage like that.

If they're far, you're wasting turns and your scout/warrior escort can't keep up, and you may get scout rushed by your "victim".

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I've never seen the AI scout-rush, nor declare war within the first 10 turns.

Then you stay with a low number of cities to keep your research rate up.
Then you run specialists without Agrarian farms in a low happycap city. How much room to gather hammers does that give you?

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Yeah, you have to play a little economic catch-up after making your kill, but you're not TOO far behind. I think you're mis-characterizing "go for Agrarianism two techs later" as "avoid Agrarianism completely".

You should try one of the AI improvement mods as you're obviously having too easy a time of it.

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That's a little harsh.

Like I said, I don't enjoy playing this sort of rushing style, but I can certainly see the benefits of this strategy.

Senethro said:

So let me get this straight.

First you need to find another civ.

I play crouded maps, this isn't hard.

This civ needs to be not one of the following - Elohim, Kandros Fir, Hippus, Illians, Doviello, Sheelba.

Have you read a single thing I've been writing? No other civ can field a comparable force to you at this stage. You time your world spell right and you wipe out their production, you will have 8 warriors to their 2. The only person who could possibly be immune to this is the Doviello (and this is untested so maybe not even them), and only because they start with an axeman (Lucian). All strategies have counters and weaknesses.

Also, as far as I know the Elohim won't fire their world spell unless they are being attacked by two civs, they are not a problem.

If they're very close and few turns are wasted, then maybe world population density is high and you're at risk of getting rushed by a better rusher.

No you're not. You can build warriors at 2 turns per piece. No one else can compare at this stage as they have had the major setback of loosing two population, while yo-u have gained two population and are now at your happy cap

If they're far, you're wasting turns and your scout/warrior escort can't keep up, and you may get scout rushed by your "victim".

They are not far as you specifically settle nearby. You can produce warriors quickly so your capital will soon be strongly defended once more. The attack only takes a matter of turns (3 to get there with roads, one to take the city) and I'm sure the victim is preoccupied with faili0ng to defend his city. No one else has the production required to rush me until my attack is over and both my cities are defended too strongly for them to take.

Then you stay with a low number of cities to keep your research rate up.

Then you boost the bonus of the cottages you have been building with cheap libraries and a very quick academy in your capital. You found a third city. Most opponents will be enroute to settling their second city at this point, and will have wasted valuable growth buildiong that settler before they are at their happy cap.

Then you run specialists without Agrarian farms in a low happycap city. How much room to gather hammers does that give you?

You only need one sage, and you only need him for a handful of turns until you pop a GSage. With a bit of luck you have boosted your happy cap with Calendar luxuries, Wine at Crafting, Ale from the NatWonder, or Carnivals from festivals. If not it's no great deal as you will be well on your way to Sanitation by now.

You should try one of the AI improvement mods as you're obviously having too easy a time of it.

I'm not going to dignify this with a response.

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Read my previous posts and bother to try the strategy out before you reply to this, or don't reply at all.

@Readercolin: Great to see another untraditional Calabim strategy. At first I thought that there was no way you'd be able to get enough warriors up to level 6. From experience, most warriors don't last too long, and their strength lies more in their numbers then anything else. But then I thought once you start teching, and you have losha and mages to help you take cities defended by tier 2's you should start raking in the xp.

My prefered religion with Alexis is RoK for the early hero and his Enchant Weapons spell, not to mention the way their temples help your economy to recover and overtake your opponents. However I do think that OO could wwork well, and I think you get sages from their temples which would help pop more GSages which could be used to bulb your way along the arcane line, saving you some time.

Think I'm going to try it.

Ekolite said:

Read my previous posts and bother to try the strategy out before you reply to this, or don't reply at all.

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Elohim: Shouldn't lose to a rush. Ever.
Kandros: An extra +20% city defense on top of Aggressive, fortify bonus, innate warrior bonus and 10% culture.
Hippus: Warcry makes every warrior an axeman.
Illians: Have 20 turns headstart on you because they should fire Stasis on turn 1.
Doviello: Well done on working this one out yourself. Wild Hunt also helps.
Sheelba: This is the flimsiest one as it relies entirely on getting free units from the Worldspell. But, if one of those is a Goblin Archer...

They are not far as you specifically settle nearby.

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You've misunderstood. I meant far as in your Settler has to travel far, leaving behind your escort units so that an enemy scout can just walk into your undefended capital. Not that the AI seems likely to do this soon, but its just such an incredibly huge weakness of any tactic involving moving your starting Settler that it needs pointing out.

All you've written is based entirely on the assumption that your opponent is an idiot which doesn't understand how to play the game or lets you get away with bad play in the name of fun (because this is the case). Flauros (and his GovMans) is the last remaining sore thumb in terms of game balance and to lay out a bunch of low hurdles for Alexis and then clear them is hardly impressive. It'll be interesting to see if your opinion is unchanged after Patch G.

In a rare attack of good conscience, I actually went out and tested warrior rushing, (Small/lakes/10players/Turinturambar-Monarch) but couldn't get it working satisfactorily. What turn are you attacking and how many workers are you building before you attack? Do you River of Blood at population 3? The earlier the attack, the more successful it was but a captured size 3 city 5 tiles from my capital gave me upkeep costs of -4 per turn which was a bit of a killer at turn 40.

A nice strategy Collin, but I still don't really see why Alexis is better in that situation... The jump from Priesthood to Fanaticism will be the hardest for you, and Great Prophets can't bulb Fanaticism(Well they can, but you need Religious Law first). Flauros' Financial will help you get there much sooner...

As for Aggressive, once again, why? It does not give your units an extra level. You still need 6 levels of experience, and while Aggressive helps the survivability of your warriors, once you get Cultists your warriors should be able to farm EXP off of anything on the cost.

Senethro said:

In a rare attack of good conscience, I actually went out and tested warrior rushing, (Small/lakes/10players/Turinturambar-Monarch) but couldn't get it working satisfactorily. What turn are you attacking and how many workers are you building before you attack? Do you River of Blood at population 3? The earlier the attack, the more successful it was but a captured size 3 city 5 tiles from my capital gave me upkeep costs of -4 per turn which was a bit of a killer at turn 40.

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I use River of Blood either as soon as I found Prespur, to increase the speed with which I get Agricultue and my first worker, or at 3 population. I don't know which is better, but I lean towards the former as it means you can get to the popcap faster.

I tend to build one worker, and then bloodpets until I have around 8 to 10. This tends to be at around turn 60-80 altho-ugh I don't know exactly.

Tech cartography and get City States for the maintanance cost. It's cheaper and earlier then Aristocracy and doesn't decrease your farm output. If you have the production for it then getting the three stooges onboard can help you conquer another civ without you needing to tech for siege weapons or magic.

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Also, how I see it the list of civs you posted would have the same affect against most rushers, so it is not a disadvantage specific to Alexis, but to rushing in general. Also, unfortunately the AI is an idiot, even on high difficulty settings. Many strategies inadvertantly take advantage of this and wouldn't be as effective against other human players. However, I don't believe that the Alexis rush would suffer any more then any other rush strategy in multiplayer.

Aggressive is better because it means that you automatically start with combat 1, and with only 2 xp (you definitely aren't going to be running theocracy, you probably aren't going to be running conquest as it would mean dropping agrarianism, and I don't like to base a strategy around getting the form of the titan). This means that while flauros is sitting there with combat 1, alexis is sitting there with either combat 2, shock 1, or cover 1. Usually using those other 2 options are significantly better, as it gives a 40% bonus instead of a 20%. The promotions after that are usually going to be further up the combat line.

As for the financial vs philosophical, financial will (probably) get you there faster (both are probably going to be running aristograrian). This is assuming though that both have empires the same size. Generally though, people don't conquer early with Flauros, while they do with Alexis which means that Alexis will probably have a larger empire. Philosophical doesn't only affect sages and priests though - it also affects great merchants, and these are what is going to power your empire (you need LOTS of money). Plus that 1 extra food is always nice...

Flauros will also have a harder time getting warriors to level 6 because that free combat 1 makes a HUGE difference. And as for cultists - they're nice, but you have to be able to attack even non-coastal cities. As I usually play either pangea or hemipheres with 2 massive continents why trying to do a rush like this, being able to attack only on the coast is a hindrance.

Lastly, for running RoK. Getting RoK is awesome, especially for those 2 gold temples easily gotten by sacrificing a priest. Enchanted weapon is also awesome at buffing up the power of your warriors. But, stygan guards are without a doubt the strongest teir 3 unit with just base strength, and a vampiric one is even better. On top of that, its a demon, and as such, immune to death, resistant to unholy, and won't vanish when Armageddon hits. Now, nothing says that you have to start with OO, after all, you don't really need it unless you're smacking the coast or until you get fanatacism. And going through, grabbing bambur and the mines of gal-dur would be a great boost to your guards (you would have iron without iron working - awsome ). But RoK is definately a strong early religion, and not so much a late religion. Plus, its just 1 more tech after sorcery to get hemah, who is without a doubt the best hero to accompany your stack (again, entropy 3 applies wither, -60% strength, and they wont heal that till the next turn, and he can get as many spells as you have population to feed him). Ok, vampiric Chalid is also nice, but he doesn't give you stygan guards.

-Colin

Tips for Khazad (some recycled from a thread a few years ago)

1) The absolute number one tip for the Khazad is to always be earning gold.

2) Early on, you want your Vaults to not punish the civ, but later on, you want Overflowing for happiness, production, and more. Overflowing Vaults require at least 500 gold per city.

3) Don't expand too fast, in order to avoid Vault Punishment and Gloom.

4) Check how much gold you have before going to war. If you know how many cities your opponent has, great!

5) Key technologies are mining, ROK, and the melee line. With the right heroes, you can conquer all.

6) Don't ignore catapults. They're slow, but if you hit a bottleneck, such as a stack of units, or a city on a hill with archer defenders, you'll be glad to have them.

7) Get the mana type civs, such as divination, but don't make magic a priority, since your mages cannot ever rise above adepts. If you're used to using adepts as catapults, note that you'll have to rely on catapults or, if your map has a lot of ocean, on seapower to reduce cities.

8) The single most important resource on the map is gems. Gems are the resource that allow you to build RoK priests and that give happiness at RoK temples. If there is absolutely no gems available, consider founding both RoK and another religion, perhaps order.

9) Later in the game, especially on a map with oceans, gunpowder is your friend. With Arete and Gunpowder and the Vaults, you can almost produce as fast as the orcs.

10) With a tremendous amount of gold in the bank, you can build almost any wonder instantly. Use this power with great care, however, as gold spent may take 10s of turns to get back. Of course, this also means that a tower victory or altar victory could be easy -- but because you have no adepts, you cannot change any mana nodes. Given a strong economy, you may be able to out-culture everyone and go for a cultural victory.

Just a note to add to #10. If you do want to win a Khazad ToM victory you can use Hemah (OO) or Gibbon (CoE) to enable you to change out mana nodes. You can also promote Priests with Command promotions and attempt to take control of enemy Mages and Archmages.

[to_xp]Gekko;8480066 said:

sometimes, sure. that's not enough to claim that one leader is the best. unless you can prove that if you play Deity you can either play Alexis or lose in the first 50 turns

so, is every leader that doesn't have early game as his/her strongest asset weaker than a leader that shines in the late-game, just because of that? I don't think so... then again it might be, but you should specify the conditions.

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Well, I just proved that I can play Diety as Flauros and not lose in the first 50 turns. On a whim I started a new game as such, and I did quite well early on. I captured 7 different cities, but around turn 160 the AI's massive tech lead started overpowering my tactics, and I was forced to reload several times to re-deploy my troops in different positions. Eventually I was forced back to my original cities, but I still have several very experienced warriors and cultists from my wars. I never entered Worldbuilder until turn 320, when Beeri Bawl beat me to the Mercruian Gate by 2 turns. Without it, I was barely able to stop the AI from overrunning me. If Basium joined on Beeri's side, I was royally screwed, so I let myself finish the gate 3 turns earlier. Once Basium started helping me out, I began reconquering the lost territories... and that is were the game is at right now.

Not bad for my first Diety game...

readercolin said:

Aggressive is better because it means that you automatically start with combat 1, and with only 2 xp (you definitely aren't going to be running theocracy, you probably aren't going to be running conquest as it would mean dropping agrarianism, and I don't like to base a strategy around getting the form of the titan). This means that while flauros is sitting there with combat 1, alexis is sitting there with either combat 2, shock 1, or cover 1. Usually using those other 2 options are significantly better, as it gives a 40% bonus instead of a 20%. The promotions after that are usually going to be further up the combat line.

As for the financial vs philosophical, financial will (probably) get you there faster (both are probably going to be running aristograrian). This is assuming though that both have empires the same size. Generally though, people don't conquer early with Flauros, while they do with Alexis which means that Alexis will probably have a larger empire. Philosophical doesn't only affect sages and priests though - it also affects great merchants, and these are what is going to power your empire (you need LOTS of money). Plus that 1 extra food is always nice...

Flauros will also have a harder time getting warriors to level 6 because that free combat 1 makes a HUGE difference. And as for cultists - they're nice, but you have to be able to attack even non-coastal cities. As I usually play either pangea or hemipheres with 2 massive continents why trying to do a rush like this, being able to attack only on the coast is a hindrance.

Lastly, for running RoK. Getting RoK is awesome, especially for those 2 gold temples easily gotten by sacrificing a priest. Enchanted weapon is also awesome at buffing up the power of your warriors. But, stygan guards are without a doubt the strongest teir 3 unit with just base strength, and a vampiric one is even better. On top of that, its a demon, and as such, immune to death, resistant to unholy, and won't vanish when Armageddon hits. Now, nothing says that you have to start with OO, after all, you don't really need it unless you're smacking the coast or until you get fanatacism. And going through, grabbing bambur and the mines of gal-dur would be a great boost to your guards (you would have iron without iron working - awsome ). But RoK is definately a strong early religion, and not so much a late religion. Plus, its just 1 more tech after sorcery to get hemah, who is without a doubt the best hero to accompany your stack (again, entropy 3 applies wither, -60% strength, and they wont heal that till the next turn, and he can get as many spells as you have population to feed him). Ok, vampiric Chalid is also nice, but he doesn't give you stygan guards.

-Colin

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So, I tried that strategy just now on my Flauros game. The main obstacle in that game wasn't a lack of experienced units(I had 11 lv6 Warriors by the time I got Fanaticism) but the inability to keep up with the Ai's tech. It may have valued more units on a lower difficulty - I don't know. I ended up being able to give my Stygian Guards both Vampirism and Cannibalism, so they healed FAST. Unfortunately, I lost 8 of my 11(Damn Camel Archers), leaving me with 3 *very* experienced ones, but still...

The main problem with this strategy that I found is it is nearly impossible to replace your losses. You can stock up on a lot of experienced warriors early on, but eventually some of your Stygian Guards will die. When you're past Fanaticism, your opponent's will be far enough that you will find it very, very hard to get more lv6 Warriors. I think that while powerful, Vampiric Stygians are more of a novelty strategy you try once for fun than one you would use consistently. At least, that is how it is for me.

The Svarts

1. Recon Recon Recon- since all of our recon units get an extra attack point, the recon line is heads and shoulders above what most others can build in the early game. in many of my deity games hunters and fawns take the place of swords and archers since they have such crazy movement and strength.

2. Take the fight outta town- since we have more mobility than most, there is no reason why we should be holed-up in our cities. I regularly give my troops woodsmen promo and my fawns woodsmen 2. Attack them with hit and run moves before they get to the cities. with a few lucky battles you'll have a few troops that are really leveled and can take on the toughies while the fresh troops sort out the rest.

3. Tier 2 is where we take the lead- while defending our forested homeland with forest-fighters is great, taking out defended installations is gonna cost you heavily. Warrior spam may get you a city or two in the Early game, but a full scale attack should wait for tier 2. That's where the mages and assassins come in. which brings me to my biggest and most awesome point, which is.....

4. ASSASSINS- this is where the svarts got it right. strength 8 with poison and move 4 are just nasty for the "come outta nowhere, now you're dead" attack! I spam assassins like they're going outta style(which for us, they never do). a stack of doom for me consists of 10-12 assassins 5-6 mages and 3-4 of those leveled up fawns/melee from earlier, to protect from those rare counter attacks. Since our mages have set their magic to "stun" instead of "kill", assassins get to clean up for free exp all the time. assassins are really the only units that can stay alive long enough without too much babysitting that can get to blitz and nation-kill by themselves.

5.Alazkan- He's definitely (I'd say) the best national hero in the game. If only for his black mirror. that thing is just awesome...in someone elses hands! give it to someone who doesn't have the marksmen trait. basically the way i fight is weaken from the top and shave off the bottom with assassins. ALSO, if you have open borders with anyone, either break them or declare nationality with alazkan or its gonna be a free for all to see which of your friendly neighbors can kill of that darned super assassin of yours.

6. Your racing for both FoL and CoE- you're not gonna beat the ljos to FoL on anything above monarch, but at the very least, you gotta get yvain, he is just nasty. hopped up on nature mana and given a certain black mirror makes him uber-fun. as far as CoE goes... remember earlier when i said that your domain needs to be a recon inhabited forest land of doom, that no one should make it to your cities? well, with Nox Noctis, the sheer amount of death should cause death nodes to spawn up outta nowhere(just a figure of speech). I think NN boosts the svarts more so than any other civ. I have been on my last leg in deity games, got NN and immediately turned it all around. just keep the archer/longbows in the cities and everyone else on "sneak attack" duty.

7. The General Way of things- basically here's how it goes for me. in the early game, warrior spam. hunters and fawns are gonna keep you alive against those annoying catapults and promo'd axemen, just make sure you attack them before they attack you. stave off dying until you can research poisons and things will get a whole hell of alot easier. with assassins.. no more catapult fear and you ensure that the units you weaken will not get to heal. I usually give everyone movement first before combat and woodsmen and then later drill to blitz. during tier 2 is when you're gonna turn the tides and take out a neighbor or 2. while they are struggling to find iron and pay costly upgrades to champions, you're (literally!)running from city to city with strength 8 assassins and commando promo'd mages. Alazkan can gorge himself on neighbors you're not at war with yet and shadows are just around the corner. Throw in NN and you can call it a day.

great strategy, but T2 is axemen, hunters, archers and adepts. assassins, rangers, mages and champions are T3

Great strategies for Khazad and Svarts.

I tried Colin's Calabim strategy and found that I couldn't really get the warriors up to the level in sufficient amounts, and that the temptation to progress to tier 2 was too strong once my cities were high in production. However, I do now think that OO is a great religion for the Calabim. Saverous provides a great support reasonably early to help with the mid-game conquest, and the Tower of Complacency is ideal for the Calabim. All you really need is one Vampire feasting city, as one the population there is high enough they will only really need to feed once, and the population will recover between feasts. If you can get an inland riverside city and surround it with farms, then build the Tower and idealy the City of Slums you have an absolutely godly city. It also works well with Alexis because you will soon run out of land to work, so you can set specialists with your extra population while it isn't being eaten, Flauros would suffer though in comparrison as this city is not producing any commerce unless you are running aristocracy (which you can do for a very nice city, but idealy you want food here IMO). In my latest game my city was at size 32 when I won, but it had shown no signs of really slowing down. The production there was incredible too.