Final Exploration, Invasion, and Hell on Earth
400 - 450
401: I am the third most powerful civ in the game... and the Clan is THE most powerful civ in the game... nasty!!
Also, in this turn, the Ratcatchers Guild is founded.
Guilds in FFH use the same format as a corporation in Civ IV. And that is where the similarity ends.
No guild increases maintainance, consumes resources, nor do they give resources. Very few guilds have 'executive' units that spread the corporations.
The Ratcatchers guild is founded when a city with a high crime rate, and large population, exists. If there is another city with a higher crime rate and larger population, the Ratcatchers guild headquarters moves there. The Ratcatchers guild increases the crime rate, but also allows more 'interesting' solutions to those problems.
The only problem: I have NEVER had an event that spawned due to crime rate. Even with cities with +40/+50% crime rate, they never made a nuicance to me. Maybe this game... but all in all, its a guild that isn't worth noting much.
402: Move 1 tile east from what I have seen before... and meet the Sheiam. (They were SO CLOSE!!).
The Sheiam are strong spellcasters. Thier traits (Arcane/Summoner) just scream out "Use magic fool!!". Since Arcane/Summoner aren't regular BTS trairs, here is what they do:
Temporary Summoned units last two turns longer (they last 3 turns, instead of 1).
All Arcane units gain the Arcane promotion (Which reduces the targets spell resistance by 10%, Increases the rate at which they get XP, and allows thier world spell: Arcane Lacuna)
Double production speed of Mage Guilds
The Shielm's worldspell is World break (less overpowered than it sounds). It does damage equal to half the AC, to all non-Shielm units in cities, and starts fires all over the world.
Finally, thier replacement for the Axeman (Pyre Zombie) is a devastating unit... 3 strength, +1 fire strength, causes collateral damage. And can use all types of weapons, as per a usual Axeman. Unfortunatly, they have been cut off from the rest of the world, thanks to the Dragon...
The Shielm are the civ who built the Pact of the Nilhorn, meaning they have 3 hill giants wandering around thier city.
404: Find Acheron, the Red Dragon (Remember him? The 21 strength, 4 first strike, super unit which can't move?) He is cutting the Shielm off from the rest of the continent. As a result, the Shielm only have 3 cities (but are doing a fine job at keeping tech parity!!)
406: Avoid the meteors of the Dragon, and meet the next neighbour...
Alexis of the Calabam
The Calabam are a race led by/are all (I don't know which one ) Vampires. Vampire is a promotion (a racial one at that), which gives the following abilities:
+10% strength
+5% heal rate everywhere
Enables Feast (Reduces population of a city to empower it (I assume it means give Empower promotions, which is a +10% strength bonus))
Enables Feed (Sacrifice a bloodpet (the replacement for a warrior) to replenish the unit (I assume it means heal))
Enables Gift Vampirism (Makes a lvl 6 unit or above a vampire)
Alexis is Phi/Agg.
+100% GP birth rate
Free Combat I promotion to all melee and mounted units.
Double production speed of Library, Shipyard and Stable
BOTH civs don't have a state religion, implying that they are isolated too. With only a few turns before Astronomy, I can have 2 continents worshiping the Viel!! Yay!!
However, Alexis is VERY friendly... Trading Horseback Riding and Code of Laws for Bronze working, Calander, and Fishing on her first turn!
408: Trade Trade (Which enables tech trading) for Knowledge of the Ether.
410: Council of Esus is founded. The Shielm convert immediatly.
Council of Esus is another religion that rarely gets powerful enough to do anything. Its most powerful effect, however, is its SHRINE. The shrine makes all units in the civ who are NOT in a city, and within its cultural borders INVISIBLE. This isn't the standard "Giant Spider" invisiblity, however. There is no way to detect these guys. Invading Shielm lands just got a whole lot harder!
The Council of Esus is also wierd... it has no priests, High priests, or Diciples. Instead, all units that aree built in a city with the Council of Esus religion can spread that religion, by paying gold. As a result, instead of getting a Disciple of some sort when you research deception, you get a Nightwatch which worships the council of Esus... 3 strength, +2 Poison strength, 1 First strike, Starts with hidden nationality
412: The Order shrine is built.
Again, just like a regular shrine, but also provides 1 Law Mana.
That turn, meet Ljosalfar.
He has the shrine to the Fellowship of the Leaves...
The Ljosalfar are Elves, which gives the racial promotion "Elvish" to all its units (and its slaves). This gives double movement in Forests and Ancient Forests, and +10% strength in Forests and Ancient Forests (But -25% resistance to cold damage)
They are strong archers, thier UU replace Crossbowmen and Horse Archers, and their UB is a building that gives +1 attack strength to all archery units!
Alemancher is Raider/Defender.
Free Commando promotion AND Homeland promotion to all melee, archery, recon, mounted and disciple units.
The Homeland Promotion gives +10% strength while inside cultural borders, and +10% withdrawl chance.
+1 XP from combat
Double gold from pillaging.
Double production speed from palisade, walls, and Ljoslfar Archery Range.
Thier World Spell is March of the trees... a VERY dangerous spell. It turns all Ancient Forests (Note: NOT regular forests) into Treants (10 strength units... we covered them in the first post )), which can smash an invading stack to little tiny pieces.
Finally, they have one massively powerful ability. They can build improvements WITHOUT cutting down the woods that it was on. This means that a farmland/Ancient Forest with agriculture and sanitation yeilds an insane 6 food!! But ancient forest plains cottages are MUCH more useful. They cannot build lumbermills however... (apparently)
Trade Hunting and Carteography for Masonry and Knowledge of the Ether.
414: Make a welcome discovery:
The FoL (Fellowship of the Leaves) Shrine and holy city is coastal. This means (rather nicely in fact) my amphibious axes can take it easily...
415: Emperion is founded in a distant land. Again, a rather weak religion, but it enables Overcouncil (The opposite of Undercouncil)
There are two 'UNs' in FFH. The Overcouncil is for Good and Neutral civs ONLY. They function very much like the UN in BtS, except you cannot win via a vote.
The Undercouncil is very much different... they vote on things that increase crime, and all thier votes cost gold! The Undercouncil is restricted to Evil and Neutral civs. Neutral civs can only belong to one council.
Both councils have a '1 vote per civ' rule... IE a weak little civ has the same amount of influence than a strong civ. There are exceptions: Controlling certain units will allow you to increase your number of votes to 2.
In this turn, my Axeman manages to withstand TWO lizardman attacks... and walk away with 0.8 strength left!!
417:
Meet Capria of the Bannor. (They follow the Order!! Thats the first I have seen an order state religion. They are also the Order holy city owners)
The Bannor are a noble people (and, as a result, VERY fun to corrupt with the Veil ).
They have no UU's, and thier UB gives the Guardsman promotion to units (making the Bannor immune to such units as the Assassin). As a result, they can use Mages and Adepts with almost impunity, as nothing will ever touch them, unless the entire stack is destroyed!
Capria is spi/ind. This gives her:
No anarchy
Free mobility I to all Diciple units
+50% wonder production
Double production speed of Temples and Forges.
420: Circumnavigate the globe.
422: Find another continent, with the only remaining civ on it... and they aready have Ancient Forests (IE: FoL religion...)
423: Alexis converts to the Veil! I have a friend.
424: Meet Valledia the Even of the Amurites.
Thier world spell is Arcane Lacuna. It does two things: Makes all mana nodes raw mana, and grants XP to all spellcaster units equal to the number of upgraded mana nodes in the world. Its a rather weak (ish) spell, but REALLY annoying.
They are Org/Arcane. This gives them:
-50% civic upkeep
Free Arcane promotion to all Arcane units
Double production speed on Mage Guild, Lighthouse, and Courthouse.
Thier wizards (replace mages) start with a Spell-staff. This is a one-use weapon, which can allow a mage to cast a SECOND time in a turn. It comes handy if there are some serious problems occuring in a war... it can easily turn the tide of war!
Thier fire-bow is a wierd weapon. It is a longbow unit, but starts with Fire I and Channalling II. I ASSUME it means that you can use 1 promotion to grab Fire II (Which enables fire-balls).
Yet again, these guys are FoL followers... But are still willing to trade a world map for Animal Husbandry!
Then... I start a revolution. I change to City States / *Religion* / Slavery / *Foriegn Trade* / Fend for themselves.
This gives +1 happy in almost every city, even when Nationhoods bonus is taken into account, due to the extra +1 happy for religion, and +1 happy with the Temple of the Veil. Foriegn Trade makes my farms produce 1 less food, but makes my overseas trade with some civs VERY profitable (By giving 1 extra trade route, 1 extra trade route for all coastal civs, and -10% gold, +20% culture in all cities (offsetting City States cultural penalty)
427: Meet Varn Gosam of the Malakim.
The Malakim are nomads... starting with the nomad promotion, giving them +20% desert strength. Unfortunatly, desert is the only terrain type with a NEGATIVE defencive bonus, meaning that the net result is a 5% reduction. As a result, a Hippus mounted unit is a better option to cross a desert than a Malakim melee unit (the former getting no defencive bonus, the latter getting a -5% bonus)
However... Varn Gosam has THREE traits: Cre/Fin/Adaptive. This gives him:
+2 culture per city
+1 commerce on all tiles with 2 commerce already
Double production of Carnival, Obelisk, Money Changer, and Market
Periodically changes his second trait (in this case, Financial) to any trait he wishes.
His traits are pure gold. Financial is over powered anyway. And Creative is powerful when the only other source of base culture is religions, or Obelisks! And if Financial isn't good for him, he can always change it!!
He has no state religion as of yet. I trade Wine, Wheat, and 4 GPT, for copper. (Copper doesn't scare me. Rust will destroy that bonus anyway!!)
427: Load the troop into the transport. Just awaiting a few more promotions for the axes. My cleverness knows no bounds... I am chunking an adept with Fair Winds INSIDE a ship, meaning that it will ALWAYS get that bonus!! Oh yeah!
428: Meet Chardon of the Doviello. These guys are little more than barbarians. In fact, their traits reflect that!!
The Doviello decend from someone who observed wolves, and realised that they were onto something, with thier killing of the weak, and nomadic life.
The Dovello have many strong early units, thier warriors have +20% city attack, making a 'quecha-rush' of sorts plausable. Chardon is Agg/Barbarian. This means that he:
Gets a free Combat I promotion for all Melee and Mounted units
Starts at peace with the barbarians
As soon as his score exceeds 50% more than the second place persons score, the barbarians will declare war on them.
Gets -10% science (which remains even after the barbarians declare war)
Double production speed of Shipyards and stables
Thier world spell is rather nice. It makes a wolf for every military unit. This wolf is linked in strength to the unit that it came from. It also gives all animals a +1 strength bonus, globally.
429: Get Dovello to convert to the Ashen Veil.
433: Declare war on the Elves. Firstly, my adept casts Rust, where all but one warrior's weapons fall apart. Then my shock/Amphibious/Combat V axes come rushing in, obliterating all it thier path. Within seconds the city is captured, the caravels move in for protection against the nearby trireme (3 strength vs. 5).
The capture made a slave... but unfortunatly, there was no room on the tile for him. Instead, he appeared 3 years sailing away to the south. The next turn, a hunter recaptures him (and, interestingly enough, he remains a slave
)
The city is netting me 21 GPT (after reductions due to civics are taken out), due to the FoL shrine I captured. Finally, it is JUST out of cultural range of the elvish capital. Thankfully.
434: Charadon declares war on me, adopts FoL. Casts Wild Hunt. Grabs tons and tons and tons of wolves. And does almost nothing, as he is MILES away, on the wrong continent, without astronomy...
436: Naval war is much more deep in FFH. In 435, I attacked a Trireme (28% odds, 36% withdrawl). I forgot to keep it to have enough movement to withdrawl if I need to, so I was stuck on the coast. I attacked, and withdrew. I was left with 4HP, and the trireme was left with 5. The next turn (436) the trireme attacked my privateer, and the privateer FLED from combat (into my city). I healed (my Savant gave a bonus for healing), and attacked the next turn, with 98% odds. All in all, that privateer fought that Trireme no less than 3 times before one of them sunk!
439: Gilden Silveric (The Ljoslafar Unique Hero) is born.
This unit is a 6 strength unit (5/6 base, with Dexterious, which gives an additional +1/+0 strength) with a first strike, +25% city defence, +25% hills defence, and can use all sorts of weapons (making him a 7 strength unit with bronze weapons). He fortifies in the Ljoslafar capital... making it VERY hard to capture.
He also gets Hero, and the Elven bonuses
440: An orphanage burned down in Shielm lands
Everyone is sad.
The FoL shrine is open for buisness... pulling in 21 GPT. Unfortunatly, the maintainance costs for this city are HUGE, even with City States. They are 5 GPT maintanance (I don't know what for!!)
They are also angry (-7 unhappyness), so I whip them, to grab an obelisk.
441: Council of Esus moves to my lands.
444: My sages say that I am about to sign an Infernal Pact, meaning that Hyborem, the leader of Hell itself, will enter Erebus... I give the world, and my spirit enters the infernal...
445: "I pledge my body, to gain your strength. I pledge my mind, to gain your insight. I pledge my soul to gain your obediance"
I allow the Infernal to enter the world:
The starting location:
Oh great. Just PERFECT. Again, surrounded by a GOOD civ. Even worse, the entire world is GRASSLAND, which, for the Infernals at least, is the worst type of terrain possible. (Thier fallow trait means that they don't need food)
Thier capital.
Now about Hyborem.
Hyborem is the only leader of the Infernals. He has 4 traits: Fallow/Barbarian/Exp/Summoner. This gives a plethora of abilities.
* Food has no effect on cities (Cities do not grow and shrink due to food)
* Summoned creatures last 2 turns longer
* +3 health in all cities
* Compassion civics require no upkeep
* Double production speed of Granary and Harbour
* -10% science
* Starts at peace with the barbs
* Barbs will declare war when the civ gets 50% more points than the second place civ.
He also starts with the Hyborem Hero
7 strength (+2 unholy strength), 2 movement.
+5 to the AC
Can use all types of weapons.
Starts with Iron weapons (+2 strength)
Starts with Gela (a peice of equipment, giving +2 unholy strength, to 13 strength overall)
+10% Hell strength
Immune to Death, Poison, and Unholy damage, and immune to fear
+20% resistance to Fire damage
-25% resistance to Holy damage
Is a Hero (+1 XP each turn until 100 XP)
If he dies, he respawns at the capital, but only once.
Is required to unleash the Hyborem world spell.
This makes him a VERY strong unit!!
In addition, Hyborem starts with two longbows, an Imp (replaces an adept),a worker, 3 Manes, and 2 champions (6 strength melee units, which can use all sorts of weapons, and have +25% vs. melee).
All the units except the manes, the workers, and Hyborem start with mobility 1.
All the military units, except the manes, start with Iron weapons. In addition, the Infernal Palace starts with a source of Iron, meaning Iron weapons, even without the tech!!
Manes are a unique unit, in more ways than one. If Hyborem doesn't grow or shrink its city sizes due to food, how DO they grow? The answer is simple: Manes can sacrifice themselves to grow the size of the city. Manes cannot be built, but spawn whenever a unit which is worshiping the Ashen Viel religion, or Octopus Overlords religion, dies. Note: It isn't enough that the civ has the Viel / Overlords state religion. The only requirement is that the unit was built in a city with the Overlords religion.
They are also created when an evil city is razed. All in all, they come VERY rarely, and must be protected at all costs. As a result, whipping is a VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY bad idea. Manes can be used as a military unit (2 strength, +1 unholy. Yeah right), upgraded to any military unit, or used to hurry production on a city.
The Infernal World spell can convert 3 cities worshiping the Veil to the Infernal cause, as long as they aren't capitals (I choose the Ashen Veil Holy city ). Unfortunatly, that will take a while... I need Maleviolent Designs first.
Oh, and all units built by the Infernals are demons, giving them
+10% Hell strength
Immune to Death, Poison, and Unholy damage, and immune to fear
+20% resistance to Fire damage
-25% resistance to Holy damage
What is this Hell I keep on mentioning? Simple, Hell terrain is a replacement for regular terrain. Different terrain types (and some resources) change when Hell reaches them. The Infernal capital is the source of all Hell Terrain, and Hell terrain spreads, depending on the AC. After the AC hits 25 (Which it nearly has, for a second time ), it can spread to un-owned territory. After the AC hits 50, it spreads to evil territory, and at 75 it spreads to neutral territory. It never spreads to good territory.
Most Hell terrain is like regular terrain. However, resources change drastically. Also, hell can 'creep under' tundra, ice, and over oceans, giving no observable difference, but still allowing Hell terrain to spread to other islands. Otherwise, hell just creeps, 1 tile at a time, until the world is covered in it. We will see some Hell-ified resources very soon. But Hell terrain also kills all woods, and floodplains (meaning I was stupid in researching Sanitation... its not like the Infernals are ever going to have jungle in thier BFC )
Finally, the last comment on the Infernals. Every city they capture, and every city they build, starts off with several buildings (Note: These are default for ALL cities).
Demonic citizens: +1 unhappy, no unhappyness in this city. No unhealthiness due to population in this city.
Elder council: +2 science. Can turn one citizen into a scientist
Forge: +1 unhealthy. +25% production. Can turn one citizen into an Engineer.
Mage Guild: Can build Imps (replace Adepts)
Obsidion Gate: Can airlift one unit per turn.
Training Yard: Can build Axemen, Champions. +1 happy with Nationilism.
Finally, all cities also start with the Ashen Veil. Although it is POSSIBLE to have a good Hyborem worshiping the Order, its also possible (to use a FFH II quote ) to ride a donkey and use a teapot for a helmet Its not easy... put it that way. Much easier to rely on the Veil, which comes for free.
Adopt God King, Religion, Slavery (for the free semi-workers), Foriegn Trade (pays off later), and Basic care (so the elves don't kill me RIGHT away... I will adopt Sacrifice the Weak soon...)
446: My old civ casts "Warcry". Its a spell I rarely use... I just can't find the right time! Nonetheless, it does alot of good, really quickly...
448: Meet a familiar face
digitCruncher of the Hippus!! Long time no see!!
I open borders with him... and get a fair bit of extra commerce!!
Now... with that all done, I can discuss about the game.
If digitCruncher wins, then I consider it a victory for me. After all, since I am better than the AI, and the AI still won from that condition I left them in, I must have been able to win if I stayed as the Hippus. If I (Hyborem) win, then obviously that is ALSO a victory for me.
As is, the Hippus are in a VERY good shape. They are recently decimated the Elves (they have captured another city, I know this because I can see them
), and control two shrines, one increasing gold, and the other increasing science. The Great Library is also nearing completion. Finally, they own an entire ISLAND, so its gonna be hard for them to lose...
I, on the other hand, am bottled up. I will have to attack two elvish cities to expand, and meet the rest of the civs (again). Eventually, I should become buddies enough with digitCruncher so that I can trade maps with him, speeding up my advancement of finding all the other civs. But I am not attacking until the elves unleash "march of the trees", as that spell could possibly kill Hyborem (once). Better just to wait and see.
I am grabbing Smelting so that I can spam workshops. Food is no problem for me. Hyborem, with his no unhappyness, and his no requirements to... well... eat, means that there is one thing that needs to be done. Build units, capture cities, adopt city states, repeat, until the world is yours. Or you build the Tower of Mastery.
I feel sort of bad decending the entire world into a fiery hell... is that normal?? I am going for a conquest victory here... which will take a while with 11 civs (10 after I killed the Illian
)