March of the Frost Giants?

vapd

Chieftain
Joined
Mar 7, 2013
Messages
16
New to the scenario. Quite new to Civ4 but a veteran of Civ2 and Alpha C.

Anyway, took all the other human cites as Chanadon was killed off by Taranis not long after I made peace with him. Trying to expand and explore and suddenly from the West comes a stream of 5 frost giants. But they don't seem interested in attacking my cities, at least at the moment. Another strange thing was that I softened one up with barrage from a few archers and then attacked with a summoned skeleton to soften up more before I finished him off with my ogre. However the skeleton won even though it only had attack 4 against 7.1 of the giant. Thats odd.

Anybody seen this stream of giants before? Anyone think that some battle results seem weird? That example above is not the only odd result I've seen.
 
I can't speak to the stream of giants, but its not totally unusual that a 4 would beat a 7. Playing Civ2 you should be very familiar with this scenario:

:spear:
 
Not so sure, I mean Civ2 introduced hit points concept for first time so a warrior had 10 and an armour unit 30. IIRC. I seem to remember some modern units like fighters could be taken down by out of date stuff but tanks were quite tough.

Anyway, I've had one play through of a standard Civ4 campaign and now I'm trying out this scenario. Got to say that the regularity of odd combat results seems surprisingly high. I mean I've been cheating and saving before combats and then reloading and there are a lot of really odd results. And consistently odd. I know the odds calculator you get when you hold down right mouse button and hover over the target does not take into account all the combat mods but when I work them out myself it seems there is another factor I am missing.
 
Pay attention to the promotions, they are a lot more powerful than BTS. Also, the strength difference is a lot closer as well, so it's easier to kill higher level units.
 
Actually it IS unusual, that just doesn't stop it happening ;)
(And no there's nothing wrong with the RNG - there's dozens of threads in Civ general explaining it)

Also, there is nothing wrong with the number shown when you hover (at least not in bts/age of ice) - there was a issue in vanilla, but that was solved in warlords I think.

Keich is right about strength modifiers being very large in FFH2, though IIRC that isn't so in age of ice.

Where'd you get an ogre from?

Yeah I remember a wave of frost giants when I last played that scenario - ages ago though.
You should definitely try the full FFH though.
 
Thanks for the info folks.

I was not implying that things were wrong. I seem to be missing something. I can see that the combat bonus' are twice that of vanilla Civ4 but I still seem to be missing some factors. Factors that are not included in the odds calc. I'll see if I can be bothered to record the info. Trouble is that I usually play after I get home from the pub and whilst drinking a few glasses of wine. So recalling exactly what happened can be tough.
 
Where'd you get an ogre from?

Yeah I remember a wave of frost giants when I last played that scenario - ages ago though.
You should definitely try the full FFH though.

The ogre came from an event. I was asked if an ogre got a needle in its paw, would I help it or kill it off. I decided to help it and voilà. I also refused the priest and therefore have no religion. I have no idea if that was the best decision. But I love my ogre. I call her Harold.
 
That's awesome!

I love some of the FFH events :heart:

A lot of combat promos are altered, - were you one of you on a hill? Was there any first strikes involved? Screenshots from a save?
 
IIRC, it is a priest of winter and have to refuse him, because otherwise you immediately loose the game :).

Oh! I have read somewhere that you only have to refuse him if you only have one city. After that you can accept him. This may of course be wrong! But you know on your city screen, where in vanilla Civ4 you have the symbols of the religions that are available? Well, as you know there will be a row of 7 greyed out ones to start with and then they get lit up as religion is invented/spread. Well in this game I have one greyed out symbol called the White Hand! Also I read something in the civilopedia about requires 'White Hand'. Not that any of this is conclusive proof that you can accept the priest and that you then get religion. I am just assuming.
 
That's awesome!

I love some of the FFH events :heart:

A lot of combat promos are altered, - were you one of you on a hill? Was there any first strikes involved? Screenshots from a save?

I'll have to go through the saves to find it but I know that the skeleton had no promotions. It does not seem to get them. It gains xp but never levels. I was attacking the giant which was on flat ice, no hills or forest. No river. I was however on a hill. Does that make a difference when attacking?

I discovered that the Frost giants were headed for a new settlement I had founded on the coast, North of the starting point. I have been hoping to get a settlement on the jungle island and was hoping to get a trade network by using said new settlement. Must have dealt with 10 or so now. Luckily I picked off a few on their way there and I had sort of guessed where they were going. Forewarned is forearmed! They didn't attack me until they got to the new settlement. They ignored the troops of the Mulcarn and were ignored by them as well! They are still spawning somewhere to the West and also to the North West but in smaller numbers. Or so it seems.
 
Yes, thats why I refused the priest. Who knows whats happens if you take him in.
 
If you accept the Priest of Winter, he will destroy the city he approached. That is also the reason why you can't accept him while only having one city, because then it would be immediate game over. You can't get a religion, especially not the religion that worships the god you are trying to kill! (I also tried it because the Temple of the Hand seemed so cool. In FfH2 you can actually play as the Illians and build it. But the Age of Ice scenario is worth replaying even after having played FfH2 extensively.)
 
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