Elohim 0.31 Guide

[EverNoob]

[SIZE=+1]

Elohim Guide 0.33​

[/SIZE]

THIS IS AN OLD VERSION OF THE GUIDE. For the new one go here.

This is an update of the 0.31 version of the guide.

The Tolerant Trait

Okay, so the Elohim now have the Tolerant trait. When you acquire another civ's city (either by conquest or culture flip), it retains the ability to build units and buildings of the original owner. While it doesn't make the Elohim warmongers per se, it makes the spoils of war extremely rewarding.

This is the only way for the Elohim to get Assassins.

The downside is that acquired cities can't build Elohim units or buildings. Which can be a disadvantage in some cases.

You can't build another civ's heroes.​

Unique features on the map

At the start of the game, the Elohim know the location of all the unique features on the map. Though the usefulness of this ability is unreliable, it makes a huge difference when you're lucky enough to have certain unique features nearby.

The most useful ones at the beginning of the game is the Remnants of Patria, Yggdrasil, and the Dragon Bones.

It also helps to avoid the dangerous ones like the Broken Sepulcher and the Guardian of Pristin Pass.
​

Spoiler Basic Info :

Starting Tech: Ancient Chants

Unique Buildings

Elohim Palace:

Produces Spirit, Nature and Water mana.
Also gives +20% war in all your cities. This is what makes it difficult for the Elohim to be warmongers.​

Reliquary:

Available at Way of the Wise
100
+2 , +1 , +1 priest
Bestows Spirit Guide to units.​

Chancel of Guardians:

Available at Priesthood
120
+25% city defense
20% chance of bestowing Defensive to units.​

Hero

Corlindale:

Available at Fanaticism
0 , 2 , arcane unit, 300
Starts with Hero, Channelling I-II-III, Earth I, Mind I, Spirit I

As an archmage with 0 , he can't attack and is always the first to get assinated in a stack. However he starts with alot of free promotions and can specialize in as many as 4 magic spheres.

Focusing on Mind and Spirit sphere he can quickly gain Domination and Trust. Trust helps you stay at peace to continue your builder strat. Domination is great spell for wartime. That leaves room for 1 more magic sphere at your discretion. The Earth sphere for Corlindale sucks, unless you turn him into a Lich.

Also, he has a special one-time ability to force a peace treaty with every civ who is currently at war with you. However you have to sacrifice Corlindale. Thematically it's a cool ability, but I've never been in a situation where sacrificing him was worth it.​

World Spell

Sanctuary:

Forces every non-Elohim unit outside your borders, and prevents them from entering your territory for 30 turns.

The ultimate defense for 30 turns. However don't be fooled, it's also a good offensive world spell. With Sanctuary active, you don't need to defend your cities, which leaves all your units available for offense. Using fast units like Monks or Rathas/Chariots you can quickly conquer a rival civ. Just leave your newly captured cities empty and keep going. Like alot of World Spells, this one is best used mid-late in the game because more stuff can happen in 30 turns the later you are in the game.​

Unique Unit

Monk:

Available at Priesthood
6 , 2 , disciple unit, 120
Starts with Demon Slaying and Medic I

The Elohim jack-of-all-trades unit, with no building requirements to boot. Is useful for attack and defense. In the early game he's good for spearheading attacks, and later he remains useful as a mobile grunt/medic unit or against Demon units. The only thing he can't do is pillage.​

Devout:

Available at Poisons
Replaces Assassin
5 , 2 , recon unit, 120
-50% city strength
Starts with Life I, Channelling I
Can see hidden animals
Can explore rival territory
Upgrades to Shadow, Priest of Leaves, Confessor, Stonewarden

The Devout is a non-assassin unit. A generally useless unit in itself, except that he can upgrade to a priest unit, retaining Life I. This grants priest units access to the Life spells, Destroy Undead being the most useful one. Especially when fighting against AV and OO units.

Note that the Devout can only be upgraded to Priest of Leaves, Stonewarden, or Confessor. As such it favours FoL, RoK, and Order.​

Leaders

Ethne The White:

Creative, Defender

Creative makes early land grabbing alot easier, usually resulting in a larger empire. It allows newly captured cities to get up and running faster, as well as making them easier to defend. All of which makes Ethne more suited to early REXing and/or conquest. The cultural victory is the natural choice for Ethne.​

Einion Logos:

Philosophical, Defender

The double production of Elder Councils and Library are all in line with being a good builder. The best GP strat with Einion is usually Great Prophets, used for bulbing, settling, holy shrines, or the Altar of Luonnotar. Einion Logos is the leader most suited to the Altar victory, though the cultural victory works well too.​

Starting Strategies

Note that as of 0.33, City States civic is available at Cartography and Agrarianism is available at Calendar.

The Elohim start with Ancient Chants, which gives them easy access Mysticism or Education.

Mysticism vs Agriculture:

First tech to research is either Mysticism or Agriculture.

Mysticism works best in a forested area. Starting economy is driven by God King (GK) and Elder Council.

Agriculture works best on flatland next to fresh water. Starting economy is driven by tile improvement via Agriculture derivative techs: Calendar, Animal Husbandry, Education.

In general, Agriculture first works better with Ethne because her Creative trait helps grab resources faster. Mysticism first usually works better with Einion Logos because of his Philosophical trait. The big deciding factor is terrain.​

Here's a few specific strategies for the Elohim. There's some other ones that I haven't had the time to write.

Rush to Empyrean

Agriculture ------- Animal Husbandry -- Horseback Riding -- Trade -- [COLOR="Red"]Honor[/COLOR]
                \                                        /        /
                 \                                      /        /
                  - Education --- Writing --------------        /
                 /                                             |
                /                                              |
Ancient Chants -                                               |
                \                                              |
                 \                                             |
                  - Mysticism -- Philosophy -- Way of the Wise -

This beeline to Honor includes enough economic/military/worker techs to make it self sufficient (except Exploration for roads), though you may want to divert to Calendar/Mining/Cartography. Early military is Horsemen, which synergize well with the +10% withdrawal from Defender.

Then start spreading Empyrean to Evil neighbours. And more importantly you should gift Honor to your neighbours so they join the Overcouncil for the +6 diplomatic relations bonus.

Note that this only works if Horses are available.

After that you can start on the religious techs.

                - Religious Law
               /
              /
Priesthood + /
Code of Laws \  
              \
               \
                - Fanaticism -- Righteousness

I'd suggest going for Religious Law first, to pick up Chalid Astrakein, then Fanaticism for Corlindale. Chalid is a really powerful hero, combine him with Corlindale and you're set. With the Overcoucil and Trust (from Corlindale), you're on your way to win the game peacefully. Monks usually take a back seat in this strat. At this point you can start on the Altar of Luonnotar. Or you can pass the Liberty global civic at the Overcouncil for a cultural victory.

Early Monks

After much experimentation with early Monks, this is what I've been able to come up with. If anybody has found a better way to get early Monks, please lemme know

The main obstacle is the relative high cost of Monks early in the game.

OO+Slavery

After more testing, this approach doesn't work as well as others I've tried. The problem is that Slavery excludes Apprenticeship, and so yields low level Monks. Constant whipping is also hard on the economy. I'm leaving it here anyway, since it works okay on maps with alot of coast because of Cultists.

Spoiler OO+Slavery strat :

Agriculture ----
                \
                 \
                  - Education ----------------- 
                 /                             \
                /                               \
Ancient Chants -                 - Philosophy ---- [COLOR="Red"]Priesthood[/COLOR]
                \               /             \
                 \             /               \
                  - Mysticism -                 - [COLOR="red"]Way of the Wicked[/COLOR]
                               \
                                \                         
                                 - Message from the Deep
                                /
                               /
Exploration -- Fishing --------

OO changes your alignment, opening up Slavery. Then you can whip Monks out fast and in large quantities. As such your early economy will be mostly SE, using Sages from Elder Council and Temple of the OO. With cottages in non-whipping cities.

Message from the Deep and Priesthood need to be bulbed with Great Prophets, the 1st prophet from Pagan Temple, and the 2nd from Pagan Temple + Temple of the OO. To bulb MftD you need to have researched Philosophy but NOT Education. Once you have MftD you can build/upgrade a few Drown to tide you over until Monks. If you're playing Ethne, you need to switch to Pacifism temporarily to generate the 2nd Great Prophet for Priesthood.

Note: What I described has been play tested more often with Einion Logos. With Ethne it might be abit different. Namely, with Ethne going for Education before Mysticism for an early cottage spam can generate enough commerce to research Priesthood and only have to bulb MftD. Also, using AV instead of OO for the Ritualist's Ring of Flame is something I'm looking into at the moment.

After Priesthood, you can bulb Mind Stapling with another Great Prophet, but this is usually only feasible with Einion Logos. Plus Mind Stapling isn't worth it if you plan to switch religion later on.

The usefulness of OO drops once you reach Fanaticism for Stygian Guard, and Corlindale. You can stay OO for Druids and Hemah, but this requires a trek down the recon line AND the arcane line. Which actually might be fine if you're going for the Altar victory since you need to research down those lines anyway.

The easiest option is to switch religion. Any religion that switch you to Good/Evil will do. At this point it's usually too late to found another religion, but since you're deeper in the religious techs than most civs, going Order/AV for Sphener/Mardero is often possible. Then you can make full use of Paladins/Eidolons.

Altar+Warfare

This strat only works for Einion Logos, since it needs Philosophical.

Crafting --- Mining --- Bronze working ----
                                           \
                                            \
                                             \
Agriculture ----                              - [COLOR="Red"]Warfare[/COLOR]
                \                            /
                 \                          /
                  --------Education -------- 
                 /                          \
                /                            \
Ancient Chants -                              - [COLOR="red"]Priesthood[/COLOR]
                \                            /
                 \                          /
                  - Mysticism - Philosophy -

There is no religion. The Altar provides as well as xp for Monks. Research mysticism first and assign a priest asap. Successive Prophets are used to build Altar I-IV at the capital. Monk production is driven by GK+Nationhood+Military State+Conquest.

[Crafting -- Mining -- BW -- Warfare] is usually done after Priesthood, except if there's Wine or Gold around.

If you have decent gold reserves, stay under Pacifism as long as you can without compromising defence.

The capital is devoted to churning out lvl 4 Blessed Monks.

Or if you need to hurry, use the 3rd Prophet to bulb Priesthood. In that case you churn out lvl 3 regular Monks (Altar II + Apprenticeship/Conquest). You can level up the Monks on barbarians. Make sure to give them March fairly early, so they can keep fighting to level up faster.

For the purposes of xp bonuses, Altar V is sufficient. Once you get around to acquiring a religion, other disciple units are built at the Altar too.
​

Pact of Nilhorn

This is all about rushing the Pact of Nilhorn and conquering with Curly, Larry and Moe.

Mysticism first (while building 2 Warriors), then God King, Pagan Temple, assign Priest, Elder Council, Settler, finally Worker. While researching to Cartography.

When the Prophet comes, settle him in your capital and unassign your priest.

While you're building the Pact of Nilhorn, your 2nd city should be building warriors to prepare for barbarians.
​

 

[Sofista]

I love this guide almost as much as your stories! Will give them a go (I usually fit them in as good guys in my custom games, personally I like neutral leaders for myself).

Two suggestions:
a) seeing unique features from the start should probably be considered an exploration advantage on multi-continental maps, like the Clan spell without even requiring you to cast it. You may want to add this in.

b) I realize it's uncommon for guides, which are almost exclusively aimed at what a human should do with a civ, but - what about inverting the trend, and adding a section on dealing with the Elohim?

Anyway, loved it.

 

[Opuhara]

very interesting view
hope to read more on other civ as well
I second Sofista's wish about "dealing with"

 

[wig]

Great post. Lot's of great information in there, both explicit and implicit. I've love to see guide posts like this.

 

[slowcar]

the big downside of monks is that they can reach only one level of shock, cover and city raider, making them quite useless compared to axemen on higher xp-levels.

 

[EverNoob]

the big downside of monks is that they can reach only one level of shock, cover and city raider, making them quite useless compared to axemen on higher xp-levels.

You bring up an important point, though "quite useless" is an extreme assessment IMO. I think "unable to specialize" is a better description. The Monk is a flexible unit, but cant' specialize.

A fairer comparison would be to compare Monk vs Axeman in different roles. Melee units are the best units for capturing cities since they can take CR III, so at higher levels the Axeman is better on that point. But if you look at combat in the field or city defense, Monks are better than Axemen.

To make up for this, a horde of Monks has to keep defenders bottled up in their cities while the catapults come in and bombard city defenses.

Still, the Monk rush strat is sort of a work in progress and still needs some tweaking. For now I use stacks of Monks with a Cultist and a few cats. Next I'll try Spirit Guide on all the Monks or adding Saverous, and see where that goes.

I find it refreshing that ppl are asking for info on how to play against the Elohim, because alot of players tend to complain about how they suck

 

[PotatoOverdose]

I'm surprised no body mentioned flesh golems. I mean honestly, all you need is a very small detour in the tech tree and *poof* corlindale is no longer strength 0.....

Only drawback is you loose his peace ability, for whatever that's worth...

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Flesh Golems aren't supposed to be able to cast any spells. The fact that the arcane spells no longer require channeling, sorcery, or summoning promotions makes these golems an unintended exploit. Using them in such a way is considered cheating

You could also have Corindale cast Lichdom if you want to play fair.


I still think that Peace is too strong an ability to sacrifice in exchange for a little str. In my modmod, I'll probably change Peace to a Spirit III/Life III cross sphere spell, instead of a unit specific spell. Corindale will instead probably start with all the life and spirit sphere promotions.

 

[PotatoOverdose]

Using them in such a way is considered cheating

You could also have Corindale cast Lichdom if you want to play fair.

Really? from my understanding of it (mainly derived from the link to flesh golems in the strategy thread sticky) they've been used for exactly this purpose since their original implementation. Not to mention the fact that other golems can cast spells AND it makes logical sense if the golems take the promotions from the sacrificed units in question.

But honestly, I don't think it matters that much because if anything, going death III is more profitable then going body III (IMO). They're certainly equal options in terms of availability. To each his own I guess.

Actually, I might use Corlindale as a lich from now on, as he would retain his ability to gain further promotions....

 

[Sarisin]

EverNoob you managed to post guides to my two favorite civs to play - Elohim and Grigori.

Both are superb and I enjoyed reading them.

I have found that OO is a good religion to play with the Elohim. The combination of Corlindale and Hemah is a very powerful one. Also, it will change your alignment to Neutral so you can get those Druids.

I really miss that Spiritual trait for the Elohim, but I am still able to get Altar victories with Einion Logos at any difficulty. That is the only leader I am able to use and guarantee me a win at the toughest difficulties. Building that Final Altar remains a difficult challenge and the disappearance of Soldiers of Kilmorph through obsolescence makes Runes less appealing to me. It used to be great to use them to hurry the production of the Final Altar.

Thanks again for another great guide.

Which civ is next?

 

[Ekolite]

Yeah, you've actually given me the inspiration to want to play the Elohim . I'd agree that OO is the best religion for them, especially as Ethne going for a Culture Victory. You also get Hemah to use with Corlindale, and Saverous to use with your monk rush idea and as an early hero. Looking forward to the next update of your story btw.

 

[Ecofarm]

1 thing. I think if you do not get Corlindale a strength point (bless, item, etc) then he will die before hawks and workers to an assassin.

 

[EverNoob]

1 thing. I think if you do not get Corlindale a strength point (bless, item, etc) then he will die before hawks and workers to an assassin.

That's what I initially suspected too, but I've never had the opportunity to test that out. Can someone confirm this?

Which civ is next?

Did neutral, good, next up is an evil civ

 

[MagisterCultuum]

His base strength puts in the the same order to die as a Hawk or worker, and then his Channeling 1-3 and Hero promotions make it even more likely.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

I have found that OO is a good religion to play with the Elohim. The combination of Corlindale and Hemah is a very powerful one. Also, it will change your alignment to Neutral so you can get those Druids.

I loved that in .30, but in .31 with the archmage nerfs, it doesn't work that well anymore.

 

[Willgar]

Yeah, you've actually given me the inspiration to want to play the Elohim . I'd agree that OO is the best religion for them, especially as Ethne going for a Culture Victory. You also get Hemah to use with Corlindale, and Saverous to use with your monk rush idea and as an early hero. Looking forward to the next update of your story btw.

Kol.7 already said what i was thinking, going to end my current rather dull Svaltar game and fire up a fresh Elohim one instead - Thank you Evernoob

 

[nealhunt]

Evernoob: I can't get that to work.

I've been playing some Elohim and trying out stuff. I've been on Emperor/NoAIBuildingReqs/Standard Size/Shuffle Maps. So far I've been able to win in all but really bad start positions (e.g. Doviello and Clan neighbors so every barb on the freaking continent assaults in unending waves...). In general, my game play involves a fairly aggressive expansion and a reasonably early war.

On an island/archipeligo start, you can beeline econ and spread rapidly, eventually outbuilding everyone. It's tough to balance, though. The best path I've found is the ag line through festivals. With Mysticism and Festivals, Elder Councils and Markets can keep you going for quite a while.

On any other map, you must have a strong military, no matter what. That means you have to:
1) Switch off of Pacifism as soon as possible.
2) Get a military tech reasonably quick. Unfortunately, Bronze Working is far more reliable and multi-purpose than Horseback Riding.

No deep beeline has ever been successful for me. Because there's no firm early-game synergy, Elohim need a broad base of techs. That, in turn, means that it can be dicey to shoot for Honor or Order. You end up burning too many beakers on "off path" techs. If you're going for Bronze Working as your military tech, it's usually pretty easy to pick up RoK.

So... the only early Elohim strategy that I've found consistently successful is the pretty basic one that works with everyone - split early tech between the ag and metal lines (as dictated by available resources). Get RoK early to secure a religion and fund expansion.

If you start out with livestock so that you want to get Animal Husbandry early and you find horses nearby, the Honor beeline works. Otherwise, you have to use a non-specific strategy.

===

Am I missing something here?

 

[EverNoob]

Evernoob: I can't get that to work.

I've been playing some Elohim and trying out stuff. I've been on Emperor/NoAIBuildingReqs/Standard Size/Shuffle Maps. So far I've been able to win in all but really bad start positions (e.g. Doviello and Clan neighbors so every barb on the freaking continent assaults in unending waves...). In general, my game play involves a fairly aggressive expansion and a reasonably early war.

On an island/archipeligo start, you can beeline econ and spread rapidly, eventually outbuilding everyone. It's tough to balance, though. The best path I've found is the ag line through festivals. With Mysticism and Festivals, Elder Councils and Markets can keep you going for quite a while.

On any other map, you must have a strong military, no matter what. That means you have to:
1) Switch off of Pacifism as soon as possible.
2) Get a military tech reasonably quick. Unfortunately, Bronze Working is far more reliable and multi-purpose than Horseback Riding.

No deep beeline has ever been successful for me. Because there's no firm early-game synergy, Elohim need a broad base of techs. That, in turn, means that it can be dicey to shoot for Honor or Order. You end up burning too many beakers on "off path" techs. If you're going for Bronze Working as your military tech, it's usually pretty easy to pick up RoK.

So... the only early Elohim strategy that I've found consistently successful is the pretty basic one that works with everyone - split early tech between the ag and metal lines (as dictated by available resources). Get RoK early to secure a religion and fund expansion.

If you start out with livestock so that you want to get Animal Husbandry early and you find horses nearby, the Honor beeline works. Otherwise, you have to use a non-specific strategy.

===

Am I missing something here?

Any game strategy has to be adjusted to the current situation, so if you don't have horses nearby, going for Empyrean is much less attractive. Especially since Rathas are one of the better Empyrean units and you need Horsemen to survive the early stages of the game if you're going to beeline Empyrean. So if you end up with copper instead of horses, by all means go for RoK instead of Empyrean. Or if you have alot of fur/ivory around go FoL instead and use Fawn/Hunter/Archer as military.

RoK+Monks works too, since Mines+Arete gives you enough production to churn out a decent amount of Monks.

However I find the metal route has the least synergy with the Elohim. BW isn't as essential as in vanilla and there's alot of ways around BW. Again it's all resource dependent.

You definitely don't wanna stay Paficism for very long in most games, cuz even barbs are hard to fend off while on Pacifism. Pacifism is useful for short periods of time if you need a GP for a specific purpose. I usually switch off Pacifism on turn 0. Sometimes I switch back temporarily if I need to.

If you end up with neighbours like the Doviello or Clan, you have to adjust your strategy. You're going to have go to war with them sooner or later if you stay Good. Having a strong military is always important in the early game, even when playing a builder game.

Beelining can be strict or loose, depending on the situation. The paths I outlined are general guidelines. They're not meant to be strict beelines. I'm trying to understand why you believe a broad base of techs is needed early on. With any civ, I usually go deep in one worker tech branch, then back trade for the other worker techs later.

How you play depends alot on which leader you pick though. There's a pretty good early game synergy with Einion Logos: great priest+God King. Ethne works well with early Education+fast expansion+Festivals.

 

[nealhunt]

I understand modifying strats. My point was that this one seems to be highly specialized, depending heavily on a specific set of resource conditions - both a generally high number of animal resources to make it worth going for AH early and horses that pop nearby.

Because of the early demands for beakers, it's often not worth it to divert to get Animal Husbandry unless there is a high number of animal resources. Ag will provide some food resources and always allows farms. Calendar provides some food resources and luxuries. Both of those also open up the econ benefits of Festivals. Crafting can provide a bit of both if you luck out with wine and is on the way to BW. Basically, AH is duplication of other things you will already have the ability to accomplish. It might be a bit better, but it's only worth the duplication if there are lots of resources so its improvement can be leveraged.

So, I guess my question is... can you get this strategy to work in other conditions? If so, how? What makes it work in more general circumstances?

===

To answer your questions...

I think Elohim need a broad base of techs early on because they have many goals to accomplish and can't excel in any one of them. Military is required for defense. Food/luxuries are required for growth. Econ is required for expansion. Everyone needs those, but if you're really good at one, you can let the others lapse a bit, i.e. Hippus can rush Horsemen then divert to all Econ and be okay by the time they are ready to rush. Elohim aren't good at any particular facet of the early game, so they need techs in all areas.

Cottages grow slowly and Education isn't all that quick, so that's not very good econ for rapid expansion. Besides, you'll still need Ag and Calendar for food and luxury resources. Those are both on the Festivals/Market economy path, while they require diverting from Education. There are also various considerations of what you can do when under attack (specialists can be shuffled, farms can be rebuilt faster than cottages grow, etc.). If you are under early threat, which is almost always the case on higher difficulty levels, Ag to Festivals works better to keep your economy running.


Tech trading(?): I've never found tech trading to be reliable in FFH. It takes a fairly advanced tech compared to Vanilla, there are lots more diplo barriers, and the AIs that will trade often require ridiculously imbalanced terms. Can you get it to work consistently?

In my experience, if you have multiple trade partners, you can go for the imbalanced terms and trade a single advanced tech for "fill-in" techs from several different civs and come out ahead overall, but that requires multiple civs willing and able to trade. Later in the game you can often build diplo and 1-2 or even 3 consistent trade partners and use that to out-tech the rest of the AIs, but to do that you have to survive the early game when trading isn't an option at all.


Metal/melee is just a great early game path. I think it's one of the most utilitarian sections of the tech tree. Not even counting the benefits of the pre-reqs, BW provides economic, production, and military benefits:

1) No resources are needed for Axemen. They are arguably as good as Horsemen even without copper (same strength, city attack and defensive terrain bonuses versus movement). With +25% strength from copper, they are better. Hunters are guaranteed but are not good for an offensive fight, can't pillage, and can't get a quick boost to strength from a resource.

2) Clearing woods is necessary to build anything. Unless you have a lot of clear terrain on resources, fresh water, and possibly hills (for mining), BW is very valuable. And it always seems like the places I most want cities are right in the middle of swaths of forest or jungle.

3) Chopping is, of course, very valuable for rushing or defending on short notice, or for building the FFH buildings that provide direct economic support and specialist slots - councils and markets.

You can definitely work around it, but it's not always easy. It can be skipped if you have open terrain in just the right spots - resources, fresh water, and maybe hills for mining. Even then, though, certain conditions (like Wine, Gold or Gems nearby) will make the pre-reqs extremely desirable and getting BW relatively more efficient in that respect.

 

[EverNoob]

I understand modifying strats. My point was that this one seems to be highly specialized, depending heavily on a specific set of resource conditions - both a generally high number of animal resources to make it worth going for AH early and horses that pop nearby.

Because of the early demands for beakers, it's often not worth it to divert to get Animal Husbandry unless there is a high number of animal resources. Ag will provide some food resources and always allows farms. Calendar provides some food resources and luxuries. Both of those also open up the econ benefits of Festivals. Crafting can provide a bit of both if you luck out with wine and is on the way to BW. Basically, AH is duplication of other things you will already have the ability to accomplish. It might be a bit better, but it's only worth the duplication if there are lots of resources so its improvement can be leveraged.

So, I guess my question is... can you get this strategy to work in other conditions? If so, how? What makes it work in more general circumstances?

I never denied going for Calendar or Mining would be a good idea. I suggested it even. Festivals is probably a good idea with Ethne, since she gets discounts on Carnivals for extra happiness.

You bring up a good point. Rushing to Empyrean is pretty much contingent on having horses, since most of the benefits from those techs require horses. The extra health from the animal resources help out too, at Immortal you need the extra health. Or else you're restricted to building next to a fresh water source. IMO just 1-2 animal resources, in addition to horses, make it useful to have AH.

I'm not sure there is any particular strategy that is optimal in a broad range of circumstances. Therefore yes, rushing to Empyrean requires horses.

I think Elohim need a broad base of techs early on because they have many goals to accomplish and can't excel in any one of them. Military is required for defense. Food/luxuries are required for growth. Econ is required for expansion. Everyone needs those, but if you're really good at one, you can let the others lapse a bit, i.e. Hippus can rush Horsemen then divert to all Econ and be okay by the time they are ready to rush. Elohim aren't good at any particular facet of the early game, so they need techs in all areas.

They start with Ancient Chants, which gives them quick access to Mysticism and Education. Two extremely useful techs to get early for strong early economy. That is their strength. If you get an early religion like RoK or OO, you don't need luxuries for awhile. Under the Religion civic you can get as much as +3 happiness.

Cottages grow slowly and Education isn't all that quick, so that's not very good econ for rapid expansion. Besides, you'll still need Ag and Calendar for food and luxury resources. Those are both on the Festivals/Market economy path, while they require diverting from Education. There are also various considerations of what you can do when under attack (specialists can be shuffled, farms can be rebuilt faster than cottages grow, etc.). If you are under early threat, which is almost always the case on higher difficulty levels, Ag to Festivals works better to keep your economy running.

Education also offers City States, which is a huge help for fast expansion. Markets requires production to build. Production that could be used to build settlers/workers/warriors. A Markets only provides a net +2 gold (considering that gold and beakers are interchangeable). Cottages in FfH grow faster in vanilla, surpassing the benefits of Markets. Markets are most useful later, when you've done your expansion and have alot of cities already, and have maxed out workable tiles.

If I have a river with alot of free grassland tiles, I immediately go for Ag --> Education.

If I have alot of forests, I go for Mysticism first. Using God King for the extra gold and production. Elder councils for research. Then I often follow with Ag --> Education.

Tech trading(?): I've never found tech trading to be reliable in FFH. It takes a fairly advanced tech compared to Vanilla, there are lots more diplo barriers, and the AIs that will trade often require ridiculously imbalanced terms. Can you get it to work consistently?

In my experience, if you have multiple trade partners, you can go for the imbalanced terms and trade a single advanced tech for "fill-in" techs from several different civs and come out ahead overall, but that requires multiple civs willing and able to trade. Later in the game you can often build diplo and 1-2 or even 3 consistent trade partners and use that to out-tech the rest of the AIs, but to do that you have to survive the early game when trading isn't an option at all.

Tech trading works for me in most games, using almost any civ. Out teching the AI on the whole is fairly unrealisitic. But you can concentrate your research in one tech path and go deep in the techs that matters. I manage to survive long enough to trade for techs like Calendar and BW. The goal is to win the game, not out tech the AI.

1) No resources are needed for Axemen. They are arguably as good as Horsemen even without copper (same strength, city attack and defensive terrain bonuses versus movement). With +25% strength from copper, they are better. Hunters are guaranteed but are not good for an offensive fight, can't pillage, and can't get a quick boost to strength from a resource.

IMO without copper Horsemen are way better than Axemen. The extra mobility is extremely useful. They can defend larger areas, and are so much faster on the attack. Newly trained horsemen also reach the front lines alot faster. Plus the Elohim have +10% withdrawal which works well with mounted units. Axemen are better for extended campaigns of conquest. With the Elohim you want a fast war to beat the enemy into submission so he signs a peace treaty. It could just be me...but I get impatient with Axemen, they're so slooooowwwwwwww. And historically speaking, superior mobility has often trumped superior force. I think it applies to FfH too.

Yeah resorting to Hunter/Archers wouldn't be my first choice, but FoL has its uses.

2) Clearing woods is necessary to build anything. Unless you have a lot of clear terrain on resources, fresh water, and possibly hills (for mining), BW is very valuable. And it always seems like the places I most want cities are right in the middle of swaths of forest or jungle.

One doesn't need that many free tiles, and I find forests provide adequate production in the early game. If anything when I see alot of forest, I start thinking about rushing to FoL.

3) Chopping is, of course, very valuable for rushing or defending on short notice, or for building the FFH buildings that provide direct economic support and specialist slots - councils and markets.

Unfortunately I find chopping forests for production in FfH isn't really worth it. It provides less production than in vanilla and doesn't compensate for the loss of health. I use it when I have the opportunity but chopping for production is never a consideration for me when I want BW.

You can definitely work around it, but it's not always easy. It can be skipped if you have open terrain in just the right spots - resources, fresh water, and maybe hills for mining. Even then, though, certain conditions (like Wine, Gold or Gems nearby) will make the pre-reqs extremely desirable and getting BW relatively more efficient in that respect.

I've rarely encountered problems with forests impeding my early expansion. Arboria or Boreal maps aside. As I mentioned, I just go with the flow and head for FoL. Plus you can move your settler around to avoid too much forest if that bothers you. I consider Axemen (and BW) to be a 2nd choice if there are no horses available. Horseback Riding opens up Trade, which is an important economic tech. You eventually need BW, but not as early as I think you're pointing out.