Spoliers
Well, actually, there aren't too many spoilers here, because I don't think there is much hidden here. But just in case .....
I liked the scenario; it was really good for me. One of the reasons I like the scenarios as a whole is that you get a different experience from a normal Civ IV or FfH game -- the strategy, timing, etc are different and you are forced to adapt. This one was fast and fairly simple.
The reason it was probably harder for me than the 'average' FfH player is that I'm not a 'natural' Hippus player. I love to build up, get everything perfect, and launch the big attack that overwhelms the opponent. The Bannor were made for my style; the Hippus aren't! So, I'm forced to learn or hone some new tricks.
The whole scenario is about getting money and buying troops. I was playing badly in the beginning -- I was sending horsemen out, usually in 2's, and getting ravaged by griffons. I was waiting to heal. My son told me to stop playing like the Bannor! You can't control this board, you have to sweep through fast.
I recommend getting horsemen for 50 gold and scouting. You can get a LOT of money through conquest. Here, waiting a bit may help, as pillaging towns can yield as much as 100 if completely destroyed through hamlet.
Spoilers
Production and research – Strategic questions
It takes a little while to get used to the fact that you can’t build anything, you can get troops only by buying.
My view is that your research/money decision comes from a decision on the following strategic decisions that you must make:
1. Do you want to effectively make a full cavalry army, or do you want to include combined arms? Or, is three an in-between, with a ‘flying’ column of cavalry and a slow army perhaps of strong troops?
2. Assuming that you are building mostly cavalry, is it worth getting horse archers? I view this as the critical question here: cavalry costs only 50, while horse archers cost 100. So, of course the horse archers are stronger, but is a horse archer worth 2 cavalry, especially since it costs over 1000 beakers to get stirrups; if some of the gold going to beakers is spent on more horsemen?
I decided to get Stirrups to use horse archers, we are the Hippus after all! But I don’t think I should maximize research – I kept it at about 50%. If the answer to question 2 is ‘no’, I’d rather spam horse archers for 50, then you may just want to skip ANY research and put the research slider at 0. This allows you to generate a lot of troops. Note that it is unlikely that you will get better slow troops than your axemen and catapults, so again you don’t need research.
If you choose to get horse archers, again there may not be a lot worth researching after stirrups, you may want to consider not doing research. Other ideas are drama (for the free great bard, a golden age may be nice), currency can give you some money, sanitation can help production/food.
As far as building, remember that all troops come from money. Your first build should be a market. You want to get great merchants; with many of your squares unworked using a merchant specialist is a good idea. After the merchant, the next question is do you care about research/the techs listed above? If yes, try for an elder counsel, a library, and even the great library (which also gives you a +4 diplo benefit with the Sidar, helping you set up a sneak attack). The other buildings you want are the happiness buildings as the population expands, which means the carnival and the Dereptus Brewing House. If you stay with Nationalism then a training yard helps. One interesting fact is that getting stables has little value, since upgrading a horseman to a horse archer costs more than a whole new horse archer.
As was said above, the absolute best build if you do use a ‘slow’ army is the Pact of the Nilhorn. It is the only building that can directly aid your army, and you can win this scenario only militarily. The three giants are great for a slow army. In my game I went market, Elder counsel, Pact of the Nilhorn, carnival. I got a Palisades and Walls but I didn’t really need them.
Spoilers
Scouting took quite a while for me. I agree with the other posters that exploring dungeons is a good idea. For instance, I got the lizardmen-dwarf war event. I helped the lizardmen. I now had two lizardmen. Even though they aren’t as fast as horsemen, they eat up griffons and I was able to walk the board easier. There are a lot of dungeons. Of course you will get some bad events but if you get units in that 3rd or fourth level I would take the gamble. I also got a Timor Mask.
Barbarians are your friend. Not only are they experience factories, you also get 2 gold per unit killed.
During the game, you will get units injured. You have to calculate if it is better to move back home to heal there or heal in the field. I often had a ‘shuttle of units moving back and forth.
Once you some bead on the locations, you can hit the Calabim. In my game, they were nice enough to declare war on me. They had 2 cities and settled a third during the war. One city had Rosier – I didn’t take that city, I didn’t try, but I did take the other 2 cities. More important, I got a lot of pillage money. I used my giants form the Pact of the Nilhorn to take down the defenses.
Try to steal a worker or two or three as soon as you can. It is grating to have unworked land. Obviously getting cottages is good here as it increases money.
The Sidar could have been the next target, but I got open borders with trusting but foolish Luchiurp, so I bee-lined to winning. I took my three giants, catapult, and found the closest spot. I went with horse archers, quality over quantity
It took me three turns to get the slow army to the city holding Barnaxus. I tried to kill off reinforcements. I didn’t get a lot of direct attacks, was that because of the Timor Mask?
Well, I took the pieces of Barnaxus, but at this point Beeri (or was it Garim, sorry, I don’t remember) had about 6 cities. I had about 10 – 15 horsemen or horse archers surviving the attack. Then came the worst part, the Luchiurp counter-attack. I lost about 7 guys and had about 5 that actually outran the Luchiurp and back to the Ilian capital. My slow troops left behind were slaughtered.
Conclusion
This was fun. Even though it is easy in some way, there are some key decisions to make. My son’s advice probably saved my bacon. I’m also not sure if I won because of the Timor Mask; I may have to play better next time/
I’m definitely going to try this again with the no research/spam horsemen strategy. Of course, it will be easier since I now know where the other players start. It was nice to have this scenario after the long Blood of Angels.
Thanks again to the design team for this scenario!
Best wishes,
Breunor
I am bad bad boy.
It's just wrong to be so bad 
Are you sure with that?
