Your Top Ten Tips for Your Favorite Civ

Doug Piranha said:

No, feasting 4 turns in a row will cause a second unhappy. Here is a very good explanation of feasting unhappiness.

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Oh, I see. I play on Marathon, which apparently reduces the visibility of that aspect of feasting. I did a quick test and had to feast 9 times in a city (in a single turn) before the second unhappy face appeared; I'm fairly confident I've never done that in an actual game.

Sorry for the misinformation there, and thanks for the correction.

Doug Piranha said:

No, feasting 4 turns in a row will cause a second unhappy. Here is a very good explanation of feasting unhappiness.

Click to expand...

Yes, it one point i was pushing 7 Angry faces (either on normal or fast). Of course, you could totally remove Angry faces from the city by using tower of complacancy, which will allow you to feast feast feast without unhappiness getting in the way. But that would cause what production you got from governors mansion to go down the toilet

Edit: Also, thanks, doug Piranha and emptiness for your helpful links.

Wow...no love at all for my favorite Civ in the game, Hippus.

There are some caveats to my post: I only recently started playing on the higher difficulty levels, and I've also played a lot of ModMods, which may skew my perceptions on things, and finally, I'm not a terribly strategic or competitive player, I'm mostly in it for the fun.

1. I haven't done too much playing with Rhoanna, so I cant comment too much on her. But I will say Tasunke rocks: combining his Raiding ability with the innate Hippus Horselord trait (you can use enemy roads and get +1 movement on cavalry) makes Hippus cavalry forces perfect for raiding and/or sacking smaller cities.

2. If you are playing as Tasunke, raid, raid and raid. You're faster, you can use enemy roads, and you get double gold from pillaging. You can easily enter your rival's lands, pillage every single improvement, capture every single unprotected worker within a couple turns if you have a big enough force. You can pretty much base your economy on burning and pillaging (to an extent).

3. Pick your battles. As the Hippus, your cavalry is much faster, giving you the luxury of choosing which cities to hit and which improvements to pillage. Seize and keep the initiative.

4. Beeline Horseback Riding. This is easy cuz its an early tech. Get it and you can Horseman rush your neighbors and can knock them out of the game early. At the very least you could wipe out their improvements, maybe some of their smaller cities and kidnap their entire workforce (I once played an entire game as the Hippus having only built one or two workers: I stole or enslaved the rest).

5. Beeline Stirrups. Getting this tech will make your already formiddable Horsemen even more powerful.

6. Beeline Currency. You absolutely NEED the Guild of the Nine. It gives you access to Mounted Mercenaries, which can be an awesome way to replenish your forces after you take an enemy city.

7. As far as Civics go...I tend to use Aristocracy (as it gives access to the Royal Guard, which are mounted and thus fit with the Hippus flavor and give you a more versatile mounted force). Aristocracy is especially useful in those modmods that have that civic grant mounted units extra XP. Undercouncil is nice (especially in the modmod that gives you an even greater chance to get slaves from combat).

8. Religions: I like to use Council of Esus, as it fits in with the whole Mercenary flavor of the Hippus. It also lets you declare war from within enemy borders, which can be a huge boost, as it lets you get in amongst the enemy and run amuck before they can get their military on full war footing. Runes was also nice because of the Gold bonus, which can help offset a weak economy during a period when you arent raiding.

9. As far as the Warcry Worldspell. I generally use it when I am going up against my primary, most powerful rival. After I've wrapped up his countryside and weaker cities, I'll often use Warcry to take out his more heavily fortified capital or bigger cities.

10. As far as magic goes, I've actually rarely used Adepts, as they could never keep up with my horsemen. UNLESS you are using the Hippus FlavourMod, which I believe gives you mounted mages, which are glorious. Especially when combined with Body Mana (which grants haste if I'm not mistaken).



So, in summation: Raid, Get Stirrups, Get Currency.

Elohim tips, anyone? They are my race of choice but I struggle badly in the early game, mainly because of the lack of whip...

Edit: I like to play as Ethne. Don't know about other leaders. I play on Emperor level.

I play at a much lower difficulty level.

1) Tolerant means you should choose your enemies carefully. I once conquered the Illians and had trouble farming all that snow, but built the ritual that gives you the three priests. The orcs are the best civ to conquer. If you beat the Sheaim early, you can build Pyre Zombies. The Planar Gates won't be too useful because you'll be keeping the AC down.

2) A straightforward good strategy will work, on the melee line and RoK, at my difficulty level.

3) At higher difficulty levels, you may need the monks and the experience bonuses from the Altar plus reliquaries. Note that if you have the time and space, Elohim can generate a large quantity of Priest GPPs, for various holy cities or for the altar.

4) If you beeline priesthood, you may also be the first to Fanaticism, and you should get the Mercurians if you wish. Pick out a port city early that you want to give to them.

5) With both RoK and Order holy cities, you get law and earth mana. Law boosts your economy and earth gradually (slowly) improves your metals.

6) Elohim + monks + Sphener shine at taking down Ashen Veil civs. Sphener brings heal. The key weapon of AV civs at my difficulty level is fire attacks. Heal at the start of a turn and then attack.

Elohim have a bundle of weak abilities that come together to form a (sometimes) strong package. They often seem weak as their natural unit lines (fanatacism/priests) pack less punch than some more popular unit lines (arcane/melee/assassins). Their defensive bonuses aren't much good when attack is the best form of defence. They're much better at fighting evil opponents than neutrals so try to sideline nasty opponents such as Tasunke rather than fight them head on.

The Elohim get the monks from priesthood and Corlindale from fanatacism so that's where you should direct your research. This ties in very well with a few religious strategies, such as the Octopus Overlords or Order. This will also lead you to the Mercurian Gate, which should be a key asset but is let down by Basium's AI. Since an Elohim strategy relies on religion there isn't a single best Elohim economy. You can tailor your economy and civics to your religion.

Ethne and Einon Logos can play quite differently. EL can work with the Altar of Luonnatar, producing monks and priests with high experience. Ethne can push borders out with culture and try to claim enemy cities. Don't play like a hippy; put the hammer down if you get the chance and don't let the financial nations get ahead. Have a big standing army with catapults at the ready.

Sanctuary is great for buying time when war starts but you need to turn the tables on your opponents during this period. Use the time to build up your military, counter attack, pick off weak cities, pillage, or even collect money to buy off your enemies, but do something. If you have strong culture you get the best options with sanctuary since you can attack across your borders without response. A strong navy can help too for attacking safely along the coast. If Ethne uses sanctuary in an early war she can capture cities and see their borders spread quickly, grabbing a lot of land. Sanctuary is a dull spell with inventive uses.

Take control of the armageddon counter and use it to punish your evil enemies. Build the Prophecy of Ragnarok. Build granaries to stave off the blight. Devouts give you sanctify and can destroy undead when promoted to priests. Monks and other disciple units will kill the demons and can't be rusted. If things get out of hand you can use the harrowing ritual to bring things back to normal. You're good a fighting demons, bad at fighting raiders and pirates, so get some demons into the world.

Tolerant lets you build units in captured cities. This means you need some captured cities, so don't overlook the chance to get some through cultural revolts with Ethne. You can also do upgrades, such as hunters to assassins, in captured cities so make sure you have the required buildings in these cities even if you don't produce there. A strong economy running a healthy cash surplus will help as well.

Corlindale is a major asset as a tier 3 caster and you don't need arcane techs to get him. He is a handy person to be resurrected, possibly with Sphener. Devouts are peculiar units so don't assume you need them just because they're nation specific. Devouts are handy at scouting past closed borders and have that excellent promotion to priests but offer little else. The reliquaries and defensive buildings become good value if you can concentrate your unit production in a few cities.

I find Devouts most useful in that they form a promotion path from Scounts and Hunters to Priests. This can allow you to produce Priests with Recon-unit promotions, such as Mobility II or even Marksman. Also, when a Devout is upgraded to a Priest they retain the ability to cast Sanctify and have the option to purchase Life II with a promotion, giving them access to Destroy Undead. The ability to produce several Priests with the ability to Destroy Undead can be very useful if you are faced with an opponent whose army has a significant undead component.

Emptiness said:

I find Devouts most useful in that they form a promotion path from Scounts and Hunters to Priests. This can allow you to produce Priests with Recon-unit promotions, such as Mobility II or even Marksman. Also, when a Devout is upgraded to a Priest they retain the ability to cast Sanctify and have the option to purchase Life II with a promotion, giving them access to Destroy Undead. The ability to produce several Priests with the ability to Destroy Undead can be very useful if you are faced with an opponent whose army has a significant undead component.

Click to expand...

Another example that Elohim really shines against evil opponents

Svartalfar:

Well, to an extent, the svartalfar are a different, and significantöy more offensive, variant of Elfs.

Your good sides:
-Especially on Marathon, be carefull with your first scout. Svart Scouts have an attack value of 3, meaning that they can often afford to attack an animal and move back to their original spot. This means much faster experience gathering, after your scout gets those important 3-4 first promotions, he becomes much more usefull.
-Faeryl has raider, meaning that a rookie Svart Warrior has a chance of 54% to beat a rookie Orc warrior. If he manages to win, he will usually receive enough promotions to level up twice. Basically, attack in order to maximise exp gain.
-Religion wise, FOL wins over Esus imho, the megacities are too good to pass up.
-Svartalfar can reliably attack stronger (Immortal Tsanuke with twice your score) opponents after Poisons. With poisons, you will get Alazkan the awesome and Assasins. Upgrade one of your top hunters, and he should get Aerons choosen quite quickly, giving you 2 qausi heroes. Another important thing is to get the most out of the Black mirror. Imagine you are next to a stack/city with your stack. You stack has some assasins with a very low life but nearly enough exp to gain a level up. Let the illusion of Alazkan or your Aerons choosen attack, and finish up the weakened target with you hurt assasin. This may give him a very usefull levelup.
-Svarts also gain a major boost from sorcery, since it gives them a) Bombard/Siege capacity and gives their recon units another +1 Strength. Even pre Sorcery, having some adepts to cast either tree top defense (nice to keep your stack safe) or blur (makes attacking much easier) is nice.
-I never got much use out of the capture great people thing. Its seems to be very situational.
-Faeryl is evil, if someone spreads Kilmorph to you before you have FoL, consider a mini conversion to become neutral. Druids are quite worth it.

Thanks guys, especially DaveGold, for the stimulating suggestions.
I am still struggling on Emperor (I suspect the AI gets way more bonuses than in BTS, but no matter...).

The main problem I have playing the Elohim is the lack of whip. It means buildings take forever to build in hammer poor cities. The only counters I found were

1. Rely on workshops, researching Smelting and Guilds ASAP. Once I have guilds (and sanitation), all the tiles can be turned into either farms or workshops (plus, my adepts can make ice and desert tiles worth "workshopping"). However, guilds is a remote tech for the early game...

2. Research a civic allowing rush-buying ASAP, like Military state.
In my current game, since switching to Military state, I have been playing for about 50 turns with 100% taxes. This allowed me to rush-buy everything my cities needed. In the process, I may have fallen back in research, but I moved up on the scoreboard from second half to 3rd position (with 9 opponents). And after buying every research improvements, I can tech very quickly... I am confident I will catch up with the AI.

1: (ab)use Freaks: The good mutations can make soldiers that are far superior to those of other nations. The promotions to be most aware of are Heroic Attack I, Heroic Defense I, Strong, Heavy, Light, Mobility I, Immune to Disease. The weak freaks can be used to create entertainment in your cities (Freak Shows)
2: Loki is situational: Loki is a special "hero"; He's available right off the bat, but he's not a combat hero, and he's not capable of levelling. This means he basically has two uses; in peace, he can convert enemy cities with no culture (this is a good way of barring in civs - especially those who tend not to be strong enough to punish you. Remember the diplomatic penalty from using this ability), or he can serve as an early caster of Chaos I (1 FS chance). Always consider if you can spend the better on other things.
3: Make the most of your traits (obviously): This is nation-specific because, well, as Balseraph you will sometimes be playing as Perpentach, the only leader whose traits are changing. Especially using the "half cost of..."-attributes of the different traits is smart when you have a lot of improvements from your cities to chose from.
4: The Balseraph lean towards early war: Mostly due to the Freak mutations, but also because they (unlike a number of other civs) do not have a 'favourite' path you can venture down, tech-wise; No need to rush for a religion or for arcane techs. Instead, you can kill off those who would try this and become a problem further down the line.
5: The Arena's special ability is mostly useless: Your armies will not benefit from this kind of training. The mortality rate is far too high for Arena fights.
6: If possible, get your hands on a unit with Medic II early (priests): This will allow them to remove diseases and witherings, making a far wider percentage of mutated units viable soldiers.
7: Mimics are fun, but they need support: You need to compensate for the initial weakness of Mimics by helping them win those first fights and collect their abilities; whether you have iron weapons against enemy copper weapons, have a few fireball-mages along, or use siege weapons and ordinary soldiers, your mimics are the most fun when they live to see a second battle. Upgrading elite units to mimics is also a good way to increase their odds
8: Mimics need special promotion patterns: Odds are that your mimics will, at some point, run into an enemy who has only Combat promotions. In fact, most of the enemy army is likely consisting of this. This means that giving the Mimic these combat promotions is often wasting a promotion (apart from giving him better survival odds, of course). A good tactic is to give Mimics Drill promotions; early on it may be outshined by Combat, but once you have a Drill IV Combat III mimic at 17 XP, it'll pay off. Ultimately, this also means that your mimics will see more combat (as drill will minimize the damage they take when they've grown powerful), which means they'll grow stronger, which means they will see more combat, etc...
9: Nothing is prohibited: You're insane, remember? If you want to found Order and turn good; be welcome. Do you want to have an Elven Cage in every city you own? Give it a try! Want to create a legion of captured bears? Feel free! One of the things I love most about the Balseraph is that doing odds things or following crazy whims feels more "allowed".
10: Have fun! ... Point 9 sorts of leads to this. One of the selling points for the Balseraph, in my opinion, is the opportunities of fun. Of all the civilizations in FFH II, the Balseraph are those that provide me with the most opportunities for funny games.

In addition to the excellent tips above, here's my list of top ten tips for the Elohim:

1) Either leader is fine. If you end up with Einion Logos (Defender/Philosophical/Tolerant) push for engineers, scientists, or priests (great people) for obvious/previously stated reasons. If you get Ethene (Defender/Creative/Tolerant) you’ll get a cultural push that will help later on in the game.

2) Believe it or not the Elohim are best played as a warmonger. Unless you're next to the Sheaim, expand early and often using axmen and cats. By the midgame you’ll want to have as many of your neighbor’s cities as possible. Take out your most dangerous neighbors first (Hippus, Calabim, Lanun, Khazad). The earlier you hit those civs the better. Plus, planning for early expansion keeps you strong enough to survive an unexpected attack from your neighbors.

3) With most civs its typically better to finish off an opponent then move on to the next. With the Elohim taking a variety of cities is better than taking one civ out. The exception to this rule is with the civs listed above. They need to be crippled if left standing.

4) During the early war phase I typically separate my units into keepers and cannon fodder. The keepers get promoted up the drill line until they get blitz. Then they get mobility & combat promotions. The cannon fodder get promoted in the opposite way (combat/march/mobility, then drill if they last that long). A tier 4 unit without blitz is a wasted opportunity.

5) Make peace with your neighbors (or don’t – your call) and start to specialize your cities. This is where the Tolerant trait pays off. Set cities that were formerly Ljosalfar to build archers & those archers will have all of the benefits that true Ljos archers have (dexterous promotion & elvish race). Likewise the Svartalfar build assassins, Hippus/Kurios cavalry units, Doviello/Clan melee units, Khazad melee/cannons, Grigori melee/medics, Calabim vamps, Amurite adepts, etc. Each of these units retains its innate strengths. Tailor your new army to your neighbor’s strengths.

6) You’ll also need to mix in appropriate economic & especially cultural buildings during this phase. I typically religion hop during the midgame to get as many priests/temples in my outer ring of cities as possible. If I can't switch during a golden age I just deal with the anarchy. The goal is to push my culture to (or past) as many of my neighbors cities as possible.

7) Use the Elohim’s unique upgrade paths as necessary. You can upgrade Elohim archers into Elvish flurries or Calabim vampires into Hippus knights. Flurries are one unit where you get blitz immediately, so you can go up the combat/march promotion line with them. You can also upgrade hunters to disciple units (at least when following the Fellowship of the Leaves).

8) You can also upgrade Devouts (Elohim assassin) into priests of whatever religion you follow. You can have high priests of any religion within a turn or two of switching (as long as you have enough highly promoted devouts).

9) Once you have a mobile force, it’s time to use it & the Elohim’s world spell – Sanctuary. Sanctuary is a defensive spell that prevents enemies (and friends) from entering your borders. It can also be used offensively, as your enemies cannot attack cities you conquer during Sanctuary’s 30 turns. This makes a blitzkrieg while Sanctuary is in effect devastating. This blitzkrieg is another reason for religion hopping – you end up with lots of mobile disciple units & they have the best area/damage spells (with minor exceptions). Think of them as mobile siege units. I like druids with crown of brilliance or dwarvish druids with crush. Then I finish everyone off with my blitz promoted units.

10) Once Sanctuary is over keep pushing or capitulate your targets if you can. Or sue for peace if you’re overextended. If the terms aren’t good & you’re in dire straits use Corlindale to force peace. Then cast resurrect & bring Corlindale back. Rinse & repeat as necessary.

PS - I'd deviate from the early attack scenario if you're next to the Sheaim. In that case, I'd beeline poisons (for devouts) and priesthood (for priests) & upgrade those devouts to priests for destroy undead. If you get those in time, you should be able to withstand the inevitable pyre zombie assault.

Thanks, rvarnell. Stimulating suggestions... Makes me eager to start a new game.
But I realize most tips are war-oriented. Isn't there any way to win this mod as a peaceful builder? Because that's my playstyle...

War is where its at sonny!

But peaceful victories, lets see.

Amurites with 4 mana sources can get Tower of Mastery fairly easy, and firebows and Wizards are a formidable defense.

Kuriotates going Cultural is fairly easy. 3 super cities and a heap of settlements running Liberty for the free bards everywhere doesn't take too long.

Going for the altar is probably the easiest, but takes the longest. Any race with Spiritual going strait for a Religion works fairly well. I find the Malakim running Empy can pull this off fairly easily. You'll need alot of research as well, Aristocracy Malakim are good at this too.

The Burning Order - A Sheaim Guide

Tipps for the standard Erebus map script.


I prefer playing Erebus maps on Emperor difficulty, sadly you often end up with one or two islands or pockets with 1-4 civilizations, completetely surrounded by water and peaks. Since many of us hate ships and no one wants to play OO everytime, I thought of different ways to reach and conquer my enemies. Druids, water mages and flying Flesh Golems are fine, but there is an even better method.

1.) Start the game as Os-Gabella, Industrious helps a little - the arcane magic traits are useless for this playstile.

2.) Begin as you prefer. Mysticism for God King, a few starter techs for resources, then switching to Aristograrian after 4-6 cities seems like a decent approach.

3.) Research Bronze working and start conquering with Pyre Zombies.

4.) Do NOT:
.) conquer the city with the Catacomb Libralus or The Nexus. Raze it.
.) conquer cities with multiple of the following buildings: Carnival, Public Baths, Gambling House, Mage Guild, Temple of the Veil, Obsidian Gate. Raze them.

Do NOT conquer the last enemy/barbarian city on your island/pocket. The city you want to leave untouched is well defended, preferably on a hill behind a river. Acheron is perfect!

Never build: Carnival, Public Baths, Gambling House, Mage Guild, Temple of the Veil, Obsidian Gate, Catacomb Libralus, The Nexus

5.) Research Way of the Wicked and Way of the Wise. Build the Prophecy of Ragnarok in your main military production city (otherwise you have to push the AC with Elegy of the Sheaim). Spam warriors in this city, you can use them to pillage a little or upgrade them to archers for defense against the 4 Horseman which will enter your lands soon.

6.) Research and adopt Order, build lots of Confessors. (you shoud have cleared your island/pocket with your Pyre Zombies on most maps by now)

7.) Research Feral Bond and Knowledge of the Ether, build Groves and Planar Gates in all cities.

8.) Use the flying Manticores to conquer a weak and small city on the biggest island/pocket you have trouble reaching otherwise. Research Fanatism. Save lots of gold.

9.) Summon Basium in the city you just conquered, you might need to hurry to do this. Suicide your Confessors (don't give them combat promotions, don't use Bless, choose impossible fights) on the 4 Horsemen or the city you left untouched on your own island/pocket.

10.) Basium now has an army. Your Manticores conquer cities for him, your Confessors die for promotions and Angel defenders. Keep on attacking and win the game.

If someone else happened to beat you to the Mercurian Gate then you could just build Obsidian Gates in your cities and then transport your army via gates to the first city you conquer on the new continent. In fact, since Basium is notoriously unagressive it might be simpler to just skip Order and the Mercurian Gate and just plan to build the Nexus instead and win without Basium.

Getting the Mercurian Gate on Immortal or Deity might be tough, correct. Though Basiums Angels aren't really needed for attacking - they are the fastest defenders you can get by sacrificing confessors. Building the Nexus would give you other units from Planar Gates and reduce your number of Manticores.

edit: another advantage for going Order with the Sheaim: you become good and don't suffer the disadvantages of Hell Terrain.

Morchuflex-I'm a builder too. I stumbled onto the warmonger strategy by accident & have used it since because there is no way to win the game at higher levels without fighting. At easier levels a religious victory is possible, but I've never been able to get one at higher levels.

All that said the best peaceful strategy that I can think of with the Elohim would be to turtle. This strat calls for:

1) A rexing (rapid expansion) start. You need to either have a good sized starting empire or, unfortunately, to take out one of your neighbors to achieve this. You’ll need these cities for production and for sufficient territory for mana nodes.

2) If you have sufficient mana nodes go up the arcane research path and then pursue a tower of mastery victory.

3) If you don’t have sufficient mana nodes pursue an Altar of Luonotar (sp?) victory.

4) Make sure, regardless of the victory pursued that you are working towards getting a unit that can cast resurrection. This can be Splener, the FOL tree hero (can’t remember its name), a devout -> priest -> druid upgrade or an archmage.

5) Even if you don’t plan on fighting you need to build lots of units. True builders have trouble specializing cities for military unit production. Because of that, I’d suggest alternating units with buildings (a 1:1 ratio). Because you have more cities than some of the other civs, you will keep up with them in strength following the 1:1 rule. That strength rating will keep you out of most wars.

6) Eventually, someone will declare war on you (particularly at higher levels). Then your options are either to fight, use Corlindale to force peace, or to cast Sanctuary & hide out. But don’t use Corlindale unless you either have or are close to getting a unit that can cast resurrect. Because then he can be reused over and over to force peace. In a way he’s a get out of jail free card. The caveat here is that he casts “Peace” and dies, and then on the next turn your unit can start to cast resurrect. That spell takes 7 full turns to cast, during which the caster cannot move and, therefore, is vulnerable to assassins & other attacks if someone DOW’s you after Corlindale casts peace but before he is reborn. So cast resurrect in a safe place.

7) Plan on having Corlindale or Sanctuary ready to cast once you start building the Tower or the Altar, because every civ left in the game that isn't already at war to declare war on you at that point. They actually will DOW you if you add the tower or the altar into your build queue, so don’t do that until you’re ready.

That’s it. Good luck and happy building.

Wuff said:

Building the Nexus would give you other units from Planar Gates and reduce your number of Manticores.

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It might reduce the rate at which you accumulate Manticores (because no more than on unit can come through a gate in any one city in any one turn), but it won't decrease your maximum number of Manticores. If you've already conquered your continent, and so your units are not dying, eventually you'll have the maximum number of Minotaurs, and then only Manticores will come through the Planar Gates. At this point your lost Manticores will be replaced just as quickly as if you didn't have Obsidian Gates, but you will also get to have Minotaurs and the ability to teleport instantly from city to city. The Minotaurs can garrison your "safe" cities, freeing all your other units to teleport to the new continent to participate in the war.

You are correct again Emptiness - but as you said, if you have Obsidian Gates you might get Minotaurs instead of your dead Manticores (and that is the strategy of my playstile advice) - Minotaurs are pretty useless if you want to cross peaks, oceans to conquer the last secluded cities. Researching and building the Nexus takes a lot of time - as does getting the max. number of Minotaurs.
Tbh, once you have the Nexus and the max. number of Minotaurs it wouldn't matter - but most of us hate the boring endgame when we know we have already won and just want to see the final score (hint for Kael and FFH3^^).
Yeah, as soon as you have groves and secured your area it's gg.

To finish an already won game I simply prefer Basium if I'm able to build the Mercurian Gate. It IS faster (and much less microing is required!) to let the AI secure occupied areas.