So, in my never ending quest to play FFH2 until my eyeballs actually explode, I've started fooling around with the Amurites - excellent, well rounded culture, and the only one I really like that has much chance of founding Runes. I'm looking for and offering tips for the Amurites - marvel at my genius or show me my inferiority! Unfortunately, every tip I really have for them involves a use/exploit of Govannon, but what the heck - he's easily the most influential hero in the game besides Barnaxus.
Basic Leader Choice
It's a simple thing, but Valledia's Command Posts + Bowyers gives starting firebows 2 promotions, enough to grab Fireball and one other promotion. If you use Govannon to give them Body/Death/Chaos I, the second promotion can be used to grab Body/Death/Chaos II - Body I and II are particularly nice for a city defender/traffic director (having a unit with haste in every city can really speed unit movement through your empire).
Dain, OTOH, has a real edge in building the altar. See Priest Spam post for more details.
Use Lots of Warrior Disciple Units
Obviously, works best with the Altar, but you don't need it quite as much as other cultures (which is the whole point of the trick). This trick makes great use of Valledia's Arcane trait and is of use in the mid-game.
Disciple or Arcane units with Channeling have a chance to gain experience every round. Paramanders, Crusaders, Stygian Guard, Eidolons, and Paladins are all Disciple units which lack Channeling. Govannon grants Channeling I when he teaches any of his spells. So your warrior disciples will now gain experience for sitting around and doing nothing, and the only thing they have to gain is combat prowess. Haste and Dance of Blades are a nice combination of spells for a stack of warriors to have access to - diversify their combat specialities, and have whichever one isn't appropriate for your current combat use dance of blades to help the others. RoK is particularly nice for this, since you can toss Spiritual Hammer on your self-teaching Paramanders.
Stupid Druid Tricks
Druids got left out of that last one. That's okay, they have their own. Govannon can open up access to the Chaos, Death, and Body line to Druids. Chaos is particularly nice, with a spell for every branch of magic (top tier - Rage, Reversal of Fortune, and Pit Beast). This one is pretty well known, but hey! - not to me until recently. Mutation is a great pickup here as well, since running Order or RoK will allow you to cure 2 out of 3 of the negative Mutations.
Contagion Rules
It's a little thing, but when I started reading these boards and the wiki I saw a lot more people talking about Fireball than I ever did about Contagion. Against troops beyond 1st tier, in large stacks, Fireball is mostly wasted. True, it can destroy city defenses, but as a means of damaging troops it's not particularly impressive. You need, what, four or five fireballs to blow through even a moderate city defense, before you do any damage to the enemies there? 5 Contagions or so, on the other hand, will kill the vast majority of city defenders, and unless they are disease immune, have a caster with cure disease, or the healing wonder they won't be healing that damage quickly. If you're trying to take a big city, this is a good time to use your spellstaff for another contagion.
When you're able, be sure to bring along some priests with Cure Disease to make it safer for your troops to move in and finish any stragglers. Until then, have a few skeletons travel with your mage/firebow stack, and use a combination of skellies and fireballs from your firebows to finish any remaining resistance.
Obviously, you may need to change your reliance on Contagion if you're fighting an opponent with a lot of undead or demons. Don't discount it entirely, however - mass Contagion is still the safest way to obliterate an oncoming stack of Ritualists who are eager to annihilate you with their Ring of Fire, and Contagion, unlike RoF, benefits from Spell Extension. You can then use your loyal, mutant, etc. Paramanders to clean up the demon problem.
Basic Leader Choice
It's a simple thing, but Valledia's Command Posts + Bowyers gives starting firebows 2 promotions, enough to grab Fireball and one other promotion. If you use Govannon to give them Body/Death/Chaos I, the second promotion can be used to grab Body/Death/Chaos II - Body I and II are particularly nice for a city defender/traffic director (having a unit with haste in every city can really speed unit movement through your empire).
Dain, OTOH, has a real edge in building the altar. See Priest Spam post for more details.
Use Lots of Warrior Disciple Units
Obviously, works best with the Altar, but you don't need it quite as much as other cultures (which is the whole point of the trick). This trick makes great use of Valledia's Arcane trait and is of use in the mid-game.
Disciple or Arcane units with Channeling have a chance to gain experience every round. Paramanders, Crusaders, Stygian Guard, Eidolons, and Paladins are all Disciple units which lack Channeling. Govannon grants Channeling I when he teaches any of his spells. So your warrior disciples will now gain experience for sitting around and doing nothing, and the only thing they have to gain is combat prowess. Haste and Dance of Blades are a nice combination of spells for a stack of warriors to have access to - diversify their combat specialities, and have whichever one isn't appropriate for your current combat use dance of blades to help the others. RoK is particularly nice for this, since you can toss Spiritual Hammer on your self-teaching Paramanders.
Stupid Druid Tricks
Druids got left out of that last one. That's okay, they have their own. Govannon can open up access to the Chaos, Death, and Body line to Druids. Chaos is particularly nice, with a spell for every branch of magic (top tier - Rage, Reversal of Fortune, and Pit Beast). This one is pretty well known, but hey! - not to me until recently. Mutation is a great pickup here as well, since running Order or RoK will allow you to cure 2 out of 3 of the negative Mutations.
Contagion Rules
It's a little thing, but when I started reading these boards and the wiki I saw a lot more people talking about Fireball than I ever did about Contagion. Against troops beyond 1st tier, in large stacks, Fireball is mostly wasted. True, it can destroy city defenses, but as a means of damaging troops it's not particularly impressive. You need, what, four or five fireballs to blow through even a moderate city defense, before you do any damage to the enemies there? 5 Contagions or so, on the other hand, will kill the vast majority of city defenders, and unless they are disease immune, have a caster with cure disease, or the healing wonder they won't be healing that damage quickly. If you're trying to take a big city, this is a good time to use your spellstaff for another contagion.
When you're able, be sure to bring along some priests with Cure Disease to make it safer for your troops to move in and finish any stragglers. Until then, have a few skeletons travel with your mage/firebow stack, and use a combination of skellies and fireballs from your firebows to finish any remaining resistance.
Obviously, you may need to change your reliance on Contagion if you're fighting an opponent with a lot of undead or demons. Don't discount it entirely, however - mass Contagion is still the safest way to obliterate an oncoming stack of Ritualists who are eager to annihilate you with their Ring of Fire, and Contagion, unlike RoF, benefits from Spell Extension. You can then use your loyal, mutant, etc. Paramanders to clean up the demon problem.
)
But my time will come when govannon will come...
- all you need is Cave of Ancestry, 6 mana total (starting 3, 2 connected and Religion building), and Conquest + Apprenticeship. They can start with Fireballs at 4 range with Combat I, or Charm as backup (so funny watching the enemy not being able to retaliate while you bombard him with fireballs).
