Trying to get into this mod but so far my experience has been negative

Hello, I've been trying to get into this mod multiple times and have tried to play several games but most of them have subjected me to negative experience right off the bad. The first time I've played I've chose the Erebus map script and it resulted in me being completely cut off from other cilivizations on land by mountains as Doviello. (which I presume is horrible) The second time I tried another map and my civilization was destroyed in 5 turns by 3 rampaging skeletons. (Literally nothing I could do!) And now that I've tried it again I got the random even of constellation of Camullos which gave my civilization, and only mine a malus of 2 in relations with all the other civilizations which does not seem to go away. None of this is fun to me. How do I have fun in this mod!

Hello! Welcome to the randomness of Civ 4 + randomness of FFH2!

I would advise to play on Pangea, that's where I have the most fun. Erebus is kinda weird, it's not for everyone with all the mountains and isolated areas.

Make sure not to explore lairs until you have a good army. And build that army quickly.

Once you are actually into the game, not in the first turns which seem to be unlucky for you, you will be fine . You gotta find your favourite races and paths, since they are all so very different. And Doviello is... well it's not that flavorful unless you play modmods. I can recommend Master of Mana (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=542512) for expanded flavor of the races which miss that from original FFH2. It's also much more complex in terms of game mechanics, that's why I advise to get used to "vanilla" FFH2 first.

the Erebus mapscript is very weird and not for everyone, avoid it if you don't like mazey maps.

Master of Mana is a completely different mod and it's been abandoned by the creator so I would skip that

instead, I'd highly recommend playing Extramodmod ( http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=486227 ) , because it's still FFH2, although with much better AI, UI, balance and polish

I agree with Gekko.
I'd start with Extramodmod, and either pangea or erebus-continent.
further, chose the civs for your firsts games in order to learn slowly the basics of FFH.
IIRC, once upon a time ( ) one proposed to start with:
-Bannor (as they are mostly the least different from vanilla civ)
-Hippus / Malakim (second less different)

then Amurite, Calabim, or Lanun depending on wanting to focus on magic or on land-units or commerce.

Ljos/Svart or Illians, or those shadow elves i forgot the name are fair game


after that, some that are "very" different and you should try them last:
Kuriotates (3 real cities only)
Luirchips (no promotions on most units: golems)
Sheaim (tier 3-4 units depend on random summoning)
Doviello (weakest civ / harshest to play, especially with Charadon)
Khazad (the treasury management takes some times to get used to).

very ancient (and much older now ~ no longer a stupid "kid" any more) player dabbling again in a bit of FFH2 (at least I was until school started ~ too busy now to play until the symester is over):

I'd recommand the 'team_battle_ground' map, as it has some really good choices:

(I personally like using the smallest map size, just using 1-3 cities when against AIs)

top-vs-bottom: you play in a square map, with a horizontal desert bar across the middle, separating the upper half from the lower half. Great for 1v1 or teams vs teams, human or AI.

4 corners: you have 4 blocks in each of the corners, separated from each other by water, except the middle where they all connect. Great for a strategic game, either an FFA or team game, and again, human or AI

round: just like pangea, but better, in my opinion. Great for testing a civ, epseically using the smallest map setting, it has exact spacing for 7 cities (if memory serves me) and one of those cities (if planned in your city placement) have room for the 3rd ring from the wonder. Really a great map, it's pangea, but better!

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This is a bit outdated and very sloppy, but it still gives a pretty good over-view of FFH2:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=308987

to help you out with what civ to play and etc features in FFH2

I suggest playing more defensively at the start than you would with regular Civ 4. FFH2 is a much more dangerous world...

Using More Naval AI modded over the top of FFH2 is the exact same game but with more bug fixes and better AI etc. I haven't tried extramodmod so I can't comment on that.

Download the manual (it was almost completed) - it is a good reference for the game and gives you ideas on how to play each civ etc.

Play my scenario when I've got the polish on it done...