I thought that equipment gave affinity for Death Mana??
Oh well... its a mystery for another day.
Reclaiming the Barbarians
Year 138- Year 251
So sorry... I meant to only play for the next 50 years. From now on, I will. Remember, for the first 150 years, the wilderness has been too tough to survive for long in... this is all about to change.
Early game exploration in FFH II is VERY hard... spiders are tough and very dangerous. In addition, due to the AI's poor methods of exploring, they easily get eaten by even small animals like wolved. Also, Animals can get experiance, and be promoted. I currently have a Combat II bear roaming my territory which I can't be bothered to attack... even with 4.6 strength, he is still an adversery to be wary of.
Also, naval barbs are very different... ALL ships can be spawned (I think), meaning having a strong navy, if only for the defence, is still important. Finally, Griffons often find themselves on the deep seas (Griffons are 4 strength units, with 1 movement, and flying, allowing them to travel over any terrain, as well as giving an additional movement point!)
Year 138: Found Conrad Mor, a powerful production city. Start construction on the Obelisk (45 turns)
Year 140: Promote my last surviving warrior of the expeditions to Shock (+40% vs. Melee units), and prepare for an onslaught of a barbarian Orc. Here is a picture of that orc army:
Year 147: The warrior survives, and camps on a hill for a very long time. Then, along comes a bear, and I calculate I have 70% odds of killing this bear. Since everything is in my favor, and this is about as high odds as I will get, I decide to take the risk. Unfortunatly, the bears overwhelm the warriors, and the first expedition dies... for good.
Year 162: Research Bronze Working... my 5th tech. I am running an average of just over a tech every 32 turns!
Anyway, this has MASSIVE implications. I have managed to secure some bronze, and this building allows construction of Training Grounds. With Nationilism (a civic that I am in), these give +1 happy, and more importantly, allow me to build Axemen.
Axemen are NOT anti-melee like BTS, these are anti-city. They have 4 strength, +10% vs. cities, and don't require any resources (but require a Training yard.) They can use Copper, Iron, and Mithril Weapons (more on that later)
That year, Lucian, the first of all the heroes to be born, is killed.
Lucian is a 4 strength, 1 movement unit, with +10% city attack, +10% tundra/ice strength, +20% resistance to Cold damage, and -10% resistance to fire damage. Unlike most Heroes (at least according to the Civilopedia), he DOESN'T start with Hero, so he doesn't ever get a small trickly of XP)
Year 176: Acheron, the Red Dragon is born.
Acheron is spawned in a barbarian city, which instantly completes the Dragons Spoils Wonder. Acheron is a 19 strength unit, with no movement points, and the following abilities.
1 First Strike
Causes fear, scattering units when it attacks, and preventing some units from attacking it.
Immune to fear.
Immune to all special forms of combat (Fire, Death, Cold etc.), Immune to all spells.
In its first battle, it also gets +2 defence (making it a 19/21 unit), +3 First Strikes, and doesn't take damage the first three times it would normally take damage.
Allows Breate Fire (Summons a meteor, basically, a strong fireball)
Allows Roar (Converts all units following Cult of the Dragon (which is a guild that is very very bad for almost every civilisation), to the controllers side.
Yes... its a strong unit. Thankfully, it can't move. Also, after killing it, I get the Dragons Spoils, which allow me to enchant the blades of all weapons that my troops make, in one city, giving them +20% strength.
Year 184: The borders of Conrad Mor expand, allowing me to mine the copper.
Year 188: The Fellowship of the Leaves is founded.
All religions are not made equal (thus why I am aiming for the Ashen Viel religion). The Fellowship of the Leaves is one of the stronger religions, as it allows a nice 'builder' method of building. There are many aspects of it.
Firstly, forests will occasionally (are surprisingly quickly) upgrade to Ancient Forests, as long as you follow this religion. Ancient Forests give +1 food, and +1 hammer to the tile (instead of just +1 hammer like regular forests). In addition, if an enemy unit enters the tile, there is a small chance that a Treant is spawned.
Treants are 10 strength, 1 movement units with the following abilities:
Immune to Death and Poison damage
Immune to Fear
-50% resisitance to Fire damage
+60% forest, jungle, and Ancient forest (From now on, forest, jungle, and Ancient forests are now collectively called "Woods", to save space) strength
Double movement in Woods.
Thankfully, they die the next turn (unless you have the summoner trait, in which case, they die after 3 (!) turns)
Ancient forests are the main point of the Fellowship of the Leaves religion, but another important aspect is that they Enable the
Guardian of Nature (Economy / High upkeep) civic. This allows +5 Health in all cities, -10% military production, +1 happy from Woods, and +2 happy from a building called a Grove.
Finally, they do NOT change the alignment of the civilisation. Evil civs remain evil, for example.[/COLOR]
Year 194: I hook up copper to one city, and some units get the Copper Weapons promotion.
Weapons can be made out of metals in FFH, and is one of the most important features of warfare. Although very few units require resources, almost every living unit (and even some which are not!) can use weapons. Warriors can only use bronze weapons, but most can use all weapons.
Weapons are automatically given to a unit in a city, with the resource. Only the best weapons are given to that unit. Weapons are free.
Bronze weapons are the weakest weapons, giving -25% resistance to lightning attack, and +1 strength (Making warriors with 4 strength, instead of 3).
Iron weapons are the next step up, giving -25% resistance to lightning attack, +2 strength, and +10% vs. Bronze Weapons.
Mithril weapons are the final step, but are a rare resource... often only 3 source of mithril exist on a Standard sized map... on this map I expect only 5 sources! Firstly, a fully upgraded mithril mine can yield upwards of 13 hammers! Next, Mithril weapons give +4 strength, +10% vs. Iron weapons (but no bonus vs. bronze), and don't have the lightning penalty either.
Year 199: The Illians get a meteor. For most civs, this means a small amount of gold. With the Clan of Embers, it means a golden age... and for those with enchantment mana it gives a peice of equipment that gives +1 affinity for Fire Mana!!
Year 205: Finish the road to the capital, get the "You have Copper!" message, and then go to my new city (which I forgot to say existed , its called Radonner, and it is a city by the coast, besides some cows for production. Its a commerce city, and I am building a pasture on the cows.
Year 206: This is a wierd event. Some events in FFH don't actually say what they do (although, technically, they should!!). This event gives two options: +1 happy for 10 turns, or... something. It doesn't actually say. As a result, if I don't need the happyness, I choose it, but it doesn't seem to do anything...
Year 209: Build the Training Yard, and start spamming Axemen. These guys have 5 strength, with Bronze Weapons!! They will be perfect for cutting up little pieces of bear!
Year 210: An affulent Duke passes away. I have 3 options: Build a obelisk, give +1 happy for 20 turns, or get a small amount of gold. As this city is my capital, and thus will NEVER build an obelisk, and since it is building a settler, and thus will never hit the happy cap for well over 20 turns, I opt for the small amount of gold.
Year 213: The Clan people demand the destruction of the Pyre. Thats NOT a good thing, thankfully, the Clan is on another continent!
Year 217: Pop copper from a mine! A second source does nothing special, so I will keep it for myself.
Year 224: Research Mysticism, and unlock, arguably, the worst building in the game. The Eldar Council. This building provides 2 raw beakers, and allows one citizen to turn into a scientist. I build this building in one city: My capital, and use it to pop a great scientist, which is then used to build the shrine for the Ashen Veil. Other than that, I never touch it.
Year 229: I have an army of 3 axemen, who the go out to explore, grind, and eventually, invade the Illians. I should have packed a back-up axemen, incase the others die, but I didn't.
Meet the second expedition!
Year 233: The Illians adopt
Slavary (Can whip, destroyed enemy units have a 25% chance of becoming slaves (IE. Weak workers, who can hurry production), and +1 from Quarry. Its unavailable to Good leaders). More importantly, it tells me that they have ALREADY researched Way of the Wicked...
Which I am 37 turns behind in, in terms of technology >.< Its gonna be tight to the Ashen Veil...
Year 234: The expedition takes its first kill, a bear on a desert tile (-25% defensive bonus')
Also, The clan of Embers founds Octopus Overlords (A religion)
Octopus Overlords makes good civs neutral, and neutral civs stay neutral, and evil civs stay evil.
Octopus Overlords never appeared much in any of my games. Its always been Fellowship of Leaves vs. Ashen Veil (and I have fought on both sides!)
However, according to the Civilopedia, Slavery (civic) requires Octopus Overlords (I think its an optional requirement, IE. Octopus Overlords OR Way of the Wicked). However that requires a state religion, which the Illians cannot get.
They also allow the building of an Asylum, a building that increases unhappyness, and science, while reducing War Weariness. It is required for the production of Lunatics, units that start off with Enraged / Crazed.
Lunatics are 6/4 units, which periodically become Enraged. When they are Enraged, they get +1 movement, +20% strength, and have a 3% chance of becoming a barbarian each turn. Thankfully, that promotion is removed after they fight a battle. But they must continue to fight, or else they can turn against you, which is never fun!
The other major ability of the Overlords is that they can turn Warriors into Drown. At a price of some gold, these turn warriors into units that can walk on water (but not ocean). They also gain a +1 Death combat, and can use all types of weapons, making them as strong as axemen!
The drowns abilities are:
Can walk on all water tiles
Cannot walk on ocean
Immune to Death and Poison damage
-50% resistance to Holy damage
+50% resistance to Unholy damage
Immune to Fear
All in all, its a mediocre religion. They have a nice wonder, which reduces all unhappyness, halves the maintainance, and reduces production in one city, but that is all I can see in it...
Year 235: Due to defending against another bear, 2 of my axemen already have combat III... just 1 promotion away from march, a INSANELY important promotion, especially when Medic is unavailable for promotions!
Year 239: The expedition is surrounded... by 3 bears, on a forest. The bears run away for now...
Year 241: But return two years later. The next turn I defend against 3 bears, giving two of my axemen march! Finally!
Year 243: My people want to destroy the Pyre? Sure thing. And while I am at it, why don't I just jump into a volcano in order for me to save the Fire Elementals some work!? (I will raze it later... when I can kill the Fire Elementals quickly...)
Year 244: The entire expedition is promoted to March. Now with 8 strength (base strength), they should be easily able to rout the Illians. But I don't declare JUST yet...
Year 245: I haven't seen this before... 5 units in 1 unit! Combat is also impressive... the central axe swings, and kills the Goblin in the middle front. One of the rear goblins runs to the front, and then all three axemen swing, and kill all three goblins at once! The last goblin runs up, and gets cut down. All in all, its a massicre.
Goblins are the weakest barbarian unit. They are recon units, 2 strength, 1 movement. If they kill a wolf in combat, they instantly become wolf riders, 4 strength, 2 movement units. They have +50% vs. animals. The 5 goblins in the screeny is just looks... they don't have extra health or anything.
Year 251: Scouting confirms that, although the Illians have more cultural defence than me (which I have 35% for some reason...), they have no other cities.
But War might not be a good idea. With so many civs, its unlikely that I will get the Ashen Veil religion. The Illians are likely to get it, however, and if I wait until they get it, then I can capture thier holy city later on!!
I am torn between invading now, or waiting for the Ashen Veil to be founded first. I certainly CAN kill them... thier warriors are no match to my axemen, especially without any weapons! But is it in my best interest to kill them so quickly, when I need to be running at 100% science for this part of the game to be likely to even GET the Ashen Veil?
Espionage is turned off, so I can't tell you how long they will take to research it...
Basically, if I kill them now, and some other civ has a simaler level of tech, the upkeep costs of this city will mean that I will miss out. If they don't, I get a very nice city, early on, and wipe out an annoying civ in this game.
If I don't kill them now, I can wait until they get the Ashen Veil. But they could also settle a new city, making invading so much harder!
I am on the side of 'leave them alive... for now...'
And I think I might rush some civs, but also take unconventional approaches to show the few people who look in my sig, all sides of FFH!! (Alternatively, I may summon the Hyborem, and take over thier civlisation, using it to overthrow the Hippus! Or I could become good, and try and take out Hyborem!)