Mod Test IV: Fall From Heaven II

sureshot posted a "challenge" game on a hippus all-mounted approach not to long ago, cleared of an entire "great plains" small-normal map by turn 92 (quick speed). It may not seem like much, but the additional movement and withdrawal from the hippus stable, along with warcry and the amazing traits from tasunke create an almost unstoppable rush civ.

I thought that equipment gave affinity for Death Mana??

Oh well... its a mystery for another day.


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!)

Your test is an interesting read and sure shows one big problem left:

The civelopedia is messed up: Big time! Don't trust it whatsoever (although its better than noting as a basic orientation but thats a close call. ).
But anything you read there should come with a question mark. FFH2 has changed radically without the pedia beeing updated significantly for a long time (because of the constant radical changes thats perhaps not such a good idea until the game is more or less finished anyways. Lest the team making a lot of redundant work.)

I spare pointing everything out thats not right as qouted from the pedia because it whould cover to much and some references are hard to find which adds further problems (OO offers some other things as well and dosn't feature slavery anymore at all). Im sure you'll find out while you try (always the best when trying something new here. Interesting things around every corner)
And because it still covers the mod in an interesting way with roughly the right direction.

One comment Alric and the Illians: He's agnostic as of now. So he won't found the Ashen Veil rather surely.

We'll get that under control as things get finalized. For instance this week I'm replacing all the outdated strategy text (no, soldiers of kilmorph don't start with giant slaying) and some of the typos.

Also, Elder Councils are one of the strongest and most important buildings (at least in the early game, when you get them). Definitely not weak at all. Build them everywhere, and you'll see the difference.

I am a total idiot!!

Of COURSE he can't found the Ashen Veil... he can't even research the tech -.-

Invasion time (Why didn't I think of that... I have mentioned TWICE about his Agnostic trait...)

Also, 2 beakers is like 2 commerce. In the early game that is... sizable, but even if I DID build them everywhere, it would increase my tech rate from 32 beakers per turn, to 40 beakers a turn!! Thats not work the loss of expansion...

And I have noted some problems with the civilopedia. I just needed confirming whether the Overlords religion was a possible method to get Slavery, which it obviously isn't.

The messed up civilopedia is making my job harder... but I will attempt to try and keep the civilopedia stuff to a bare minimum, and always cross-check it with the Manual (although both have been wrong before ) whenever there is no alternative.

I'd love feedback on where/when the manual is wrong Unless I update the manual with information as the patches change it, I generally won't ever catch it (the thing is HUGE).

Verily said:

Also, Elder Councils are one of the strongest and most important buildings (at least in the early game, when you get them). Definitely not weak at all. Build them everywhere, and you'll see the difference.

Click to expand...

digitCruncher said:

Also, 2 beakers is like 2 commerce. In the early game that is... sizable, but even if I DID build them everywhere, it would increase my tech rate from 32 beakers per turn, to 40 beakers a turn!! Thats not work the loss of expansion...

Click to expand...

You are totally missing the strength of this building.
And I'll even take your example. +8 beakers from 32 beakers is a 25% Boost. Now 25% isn't a small increase. But this is not the power of the Elder Council, the power of the elder council is the sage it enables. And especially the ability to get an early great sage.

I'm guessing you have about 20 research in your capital, probably more? Well plant an acadamy there and you increase your total research by 10 (and more later), if you keep the sagegoing thats 7 beakers from just the elder council.

And consider using a sage in every city, thats +5 Beakers from every elder council, meaning you increase your beakers from 32 to 52 with just 4 cities! (not counting any academies) Thats an increase of +62.5%!

Once you add libraries to this it becomes even more.

Also, elder councils take care of the -1 research from markets.

Every mistake I make will be a mistake in the Civilopedia... and I won't be able to make a mistake without getting flamed for it So don't you worry about that Just take a note of all my mistakes...

don't worry, we all were new to this mod once (besides some people who've been lingering around here for years), so we know what it's like . The manual should be a lot more up to date than the civilopedia, and concerning anything not mentioned in the manual: don't be afraid to ask!

digitCruncher said:

Year 199: The Illians get a meteor. For neutral civs, this means nothing. For evil civs, it gives something big... and for those worshipping the Ashen Veil it gives a peice of equipment that gives +1 affinity for Fire Mana!!

Click to expand...

If this is the event I'm thinking of then, there are three options:
1. the Meteor for gold (everyone)
2. Make a staff out of it (requires enchantment mana not the Veil)
3. Start golden age (the Clan only)

But otherwise a good read.

well, you probably discovered it yourself by now, but I'm posting it anyway cuz one never knows. the issue about units going back to their regular civ4 graphics a couple seconds after you have de-selected them is caused by the "freeze animations" graphic option. untick it, and everything will be fine again

edit: yeah, Kael already told you. oh well, at least I TRIED to help

@ Nikis-Knight: Thats all to understandable (digitCruncher's Mod-Test just highlights that as a serious issue for players new to the mod) and makes very much sense.
I just wanted to get that massage across to him to rather mistrust it so he doesn't walks into that trap again and again.

And the PDF-Manual already takes very good care of that usually in the meantime (perhaps pointing to said download or even include it into the modextractable and pointing to it might help alot for new players until the Pedia is finished?)
Has helped my quite some times now and i consider myself knowing FFH2 rather well. Some things are just to hard to figure out on your own and have small catches that leave me puzzled. (Did i take a long time back then for me to find out when a cove is buildable and when not when i first used them (had another unit there for example and even water walking ones block it) ...
And hyborems wisper needs 3 non-capital! cities with veil besides malvolent designs to use is another small requirement hard to find out.)
Kudos to Xienwolf and the other contributors for that solid piece of reference.

@Merciary: Yip... it is that event.

(I am playing a parallel game, just for the fun of it, and got that event... but I was too tired, and had too many assignments to go back and correct it...)

I'll probably go back and edit it...

This is a great read, keep it up.

[Edit]Thanks for that -.- (To the next guy with the info about the Illian Palace ) That would have prepared me somewhat )


Year 252: Declare war on the Illians. Hopefully they won't have too many defenders... but it is wierd that they haven't expanded at all...

Year 253: One axemen splits from the group, to ambush a scout (with 99.9% odds). This leaves two strong axes to invade the city.
Also, a road seems to be destroyed. This means that I won't be able to exploit my free commando in this war. Dang...


Year 254: See the city for the first time... and it is a tough nut to crack! (Ish). One person holds the Scourched Staff, and one defender has combat 5 (and woodsmen I!?), while the other has Combat 4. Also, the Combat 5 guy has +1 Affinity for Fire mana... but thankfully the road is cut off, so they don't have any strength bonuses... a 4 strength warrior, with +130% would put my 5 strength axe with only +80% to shame... (9 vs. 9.2).


Year 256: The Illians are having a SMALL problem... tons and tons of barbarians, and no copper to fend them off with. No wonder they are so technilogically (and land-wise too!) behind. Both of these warriors suicide into the capital, doing approximately 50% damage to both defenders.

Year 259: I killed the warrior holding the scorched staff previously, so now the other warrior picks it up. It is the only defender, as the other two defenders have moved south (!?) for no particular reason.

Capture the city, and pick up the staff.

Whats the difference between fire STRENGTH and AFFINITY for fire? Well... fire strength acts as regular strength, but is slightly weaker (generally) as some units have resistance to fire strength, reducing that units base strength! For example, Pyre Zombies (3 strength +1 fire) vs. a fictional unit with 3 strength and +100% resistance to fire (I think) makes a 3.5 vs. 3 odds combat (not 4 vs. 3 as what would happen without the resistance). However, some units (eg. Treants) have negative resistance to fire, making fire damage very useful!
Affinity to fire means that for each fire mana you control, that unit gains +1 strength (I think it is regular strength, not fire strength). This means that my axemen with the +1 fire affinity has 5 strength now, and 6 strength when the Illian borders pop, and the road is built (which would enable some fire mana for me!)
Also, each civilisations leader has a unique 'last words' which they say. The Illian one seems to say that even though I have killed him... he will still kill me O.o

Now... about this city... is it a bad city? Is it draining my economy? Imagine my surprise when, when this city came out of revolt, it INCREASED my GPT by 3...

Thats right... it has -1.14 GPT in maintanance, and +5 GPT in a nice settled Great Prophet!! Netting me +3.86 GPT over-all. Unfortunatly, when it grows, its gonna become a bigger drain, as the maintanance rises.
However, why is my maintanance so low? The answer is simple: City States. An extremely powerful civic, this civic allows me to settle where I want, when I want, due to amazing reductions in the base rate of the maintanance! Without city states, this city could potentially be costing me around 10 GPT... So this war netted me a staff I wouldn't normally get, a settled Great prophet, and two slaves (more on slaves later)

Year 266: Adopt Slavery.
On my first turn of slavery, kill a barbarian warrior, and get an orcish slave!
Slaves are a new unit in FFH, making the slavery civic even more powerful than BTS. Now, not only can you whip population, you can capture enemy units, and make slaves of them. The Balseraphs can build Freak Shows with thier slaves, but the rest of us have to make do with just using them as slow workers, and/or production enhancers.
Slaves have a 25% chance of appearing on the tile the winning unit was on before the battle, while the winning unit's civ is running the Slavery civic. Slaves have 2 movement, and gain racial bonuses, depending on the race the original unit was (Orcs gain a +10% jungle defence (!?), Elves double movement in Woods, and Dwarves, double movement in Hills), and can be used to hurry production, like a Great Engineer. The only catch is slaves can only hurry BUILDINGS, not wonders or units, and they only provide 15 hammers at epic speed.

Year 267: Finally get some troops onto the Pyre (the Axe with Combat III, Shock I (yes, you CAN get shock II, if you want, for another 40% bonus vs. melee), march, the Scourched Staff, and another promotion pending in case of an emergency. No barbs are gonna raze THIS improvement (I believe that they have before in another game... as the barbs got a golden age. That said, they can also grab Great Commanders... another way the barbs are even stronger now!)

Year 276: Penguins settle on a tile in the tundra. I stupidly build a road to it... wanting to 'harvest' the penguins. (What... I'm not evil!? Not yet, anyway )


The second picture has a better image of the penguins... I never closed up on them...

Anyway, some resources only provide a happyness bonus to cities NEAR the resource. In this case, only a city with the tile in the BFC will gain the happy from seeing the penguins do thier dance. And the only city planned that will be... City IX (later City X)... the city surrounded by tundra, who's only life goal is to get some mana for the civilisation!!

Year 277: Use one of the captured Illian/Barbarian slaves (The slave is an orc, thus it must be a barbarian slave), to hurry production of an obelisk. It increases the time from 16 turns to something like 11 turns.

Year 280: The Bone palace is built in a far away land (not the clan). The Bone palace gives a golden age, as well as 50% resistance to magic for all units in the city (I don't think it gives it for all units BUILT in that city however... I am not 100% sure however...)

Year 284: I have (using my Orcish slave) started construction on a inter-city roading project across the entire continent (!). However, the barbarians are tough... in this year the only guard got knocked down so hard, it will take 8 turns to fully recover... with MARCH!! (1.0 / 5 strength!)

Year 286: And just to mock him, a Lizardman appears (Barbarian. 4 strength, 2 movement. He is already slightly injured, but also has Combat II!! I move the slave out of harms way, but the axeman has to retreat to the hills / forest, where he is hunted down by the lizardmen the next turn. This is a major set-back for the roading project. The barbarians are harsh... I would hate to see RAGING barbarians!!


Year 287: Just for lulz... graphics bug FTW!! (Its a known one, BTW And a minor one). This 'town' is actually a cottage. It seems as if cottages on luxury resources seem to grow 'instantly' to towns, without giving the bonuses for them (It still only gives +1 commerce)

Year 292: Get the meteor event. Again. I would HATE to see a civ with enchantment mana... they could have 2 or 3 staffs by the time I see them. And if they get 2 fire mana sources...
*Shudders*
Actually... since this is a promotion, they can't have 2 of the same weapon on the same unit, right? But they can have unlimited weapons of a different type, that is known!!

Year 293: Send a scout which I built to spy out invisible units, and to allow my city to grow, to a suicide mission with ~23% odds. It wins. Grabs 11 XP for its trouble, getting promoted to Combat II, and Subdue animal (Can capture animals, and +25% vs. Animals)


Year 293: More lulz. The first round had the two adult bears getting killed... but I recognised the Combat animations, and knew how this would end...
*Warrior 1*: I am so lucky, I just get the baby... here little... ARRGGGGHHHHKKHK!
*Warrior 2*: What... the... f*** John? Come on... its a little baby compared to what I had to... FRRAAGGHHHHLL!
*Warrior 3*: I will not underestimate the power of that bear cub. In fact I will not engage it in any way... in fact I will run away, over this river... Ahh!! *Slips on the rocks, and hits his head, drowning*

Meanwhile the scout just slaps his face with his palm and sighs.

Year 298: Pact of the Nilhorn (Wonder) is made. This wonder produces 3 Hill Giants
Hill Giants are 7 strength units which start with Hidden Nationality (which is a promotion in FFH II... it makes the unit have hidden Nationality, and enables the "Declare Nationality" spell, that removes that promotion). These are devestating... in a world where the next strongest unit is a 5 strength Bronze Axe!! Add on thier hidden nationality, and thier ability to bombard defences at a rate of -20% per turn... and you have a serious problem! (For your allies, of course!)


Year 299: Capture my first bear (I couldn't capture the last one, as the scout had attacked the goblin, and thus couldn't move, and the bear suicided into my mega-axe). I can do two things with this bear. I can use him to defend my workers, or I can add him to a Dancing Bear exhibition, allowing me to get +1 happy.
There is a wonder. A weak wonder. This wonder is called "Grand Menagerie"
What does it do, I hear you ask? I am glad you asked...
* Makes a Carnival (+1 happy, +20% culture, Allows an Bard (IE. Artist)) in each city you own
* +2 happy in each city
* +8 culture
* +20% culture
* And a free Great Bard (IE. Great artist).

Sounds good! Except for the requirements:
Festivals (A low tier tech...)
Wolf Pen (requires a wolf... you need to capture this)
Dancing Bear (Really? I thought it didn't... but you still need to capture this. However, with the absurd number of bear dens that survive, this is relatively easy)
Tiger Cage (Requires a tiger. You need to capture this, or you can use a Fellowship of the Leaves Priest to summon one)
Gorilla Cage (Requires a Gorilla. Small problem: In all my games, I have seen *1* Gorilla. Thats... 3 games. And I have only ever seen one. And the AI killed it!!)
Lion Cage (Requires a Lion. Again, although they are very common in the early game, they get hunted to extinction. Very early. And very reliably)

So although there is some insane bonuses... capturing the 4 or 5 different animals to be put in 1 single city is a feat in and of itself. And if you can get a supply of all these animals, then you don't need the extra happyness!)

I am third in tech (behind the Clan of Embers... not bad for -10% science rate!?), and coming close to the Ashen Viel (with the economy holding, that will only take 23 turns...)

Goals: Build some Mages (I will say more about them later) ASAP... so they can get as many XP as humanly possible. Research Sailing, meet new friends, and research Iron Working, followed by going RIGHT down the entire Mounted Unit line of techs (Unless I decide to stop at the last one (which is very expensive), and summon Hyborem early...). Once I can't research any more, research the Advanced Ashen Veil Tech (which enables Sacrifice the Weak, but summons Hyborem).

After that... I have a decision. I could change my civ to the Infernal in order to get another view on this mod... or something else... It will be fun to drive the Hippus into the ground with my Infernal Army

we should have reminded you... the illian palace has a placeholder, granting any unit built in the capital to recieve 2 free promotions in addition to any exp gained.

I just got a chance to read this so my comment is from one of the earlier posts. In regards to the affluent Duke, I always choose to get the free monument. Why? Because you can get an event that adds to the bonuses of that building, and since I use the living world setting (doubling events) that event comes up a LOT. You can feed your city from nothing but all the free food provided by it, or gain heps of gold, etc. Try it sometime. It truly is the gift that keeps on giving.

That brings me to one other thing I'd mention. You may want to discuss some of the new game settings you can pick from with this mod as well since they are very unique. Living world, end of winter, etc are mainstays of my FFH II experience.

All in all though it's a good read and though I've been away from FFH for a while now I might just have to start a game again.

FYI - AI does a fine job exploring on higher difficulty levels. They usually have a scout with 10-12 promotions because of the crazy bonuses vs animals they get.

Auric Ulvin is the human reincarnation of Mulcarn, the God of Winter. So him saying that he will destroy you is not as strange as it might be coming from one of the mortal leaders.