FFH: Erebus Map

[Auric]

This large map of Erebus of mine contains these 15 playable civilizations:

Good
Ljosalfarf - Arendel Phaendra
Bannor - Sabathiel
Malakim - Varn Gosam
Elohim - Einion Logos
Kuriotates - Cardith

Evil
Svartalfar - Faeryl Viconia
Calabim - Alexis
Clan of Embers - Jonas Endain
Doviello - Charadon
Illians - Auric Ulvin
Sheaim - Tebryn
Balseraphs - Perpentach

Neutral
Khazad - Arturus Thorne
Amurites - Valledia the Even
Lanun - Falamar

The game begins in an medieval era.
I tried to set the environment, the neighbours and the unique features so that it fits the nature of each civ.
I have playtested most of the civs but not all. I think though now it's fairly playable.

Feel free to comment, suggest and complain.
Thanks and have fun!

To install:
1. Download the file into \Beyond the Sword\PublicMaps
2. Load Fall from Heaven 2 Mod
3. Select "Start Scenario"
4. Choose "Erebus-ClassiclaEra"

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

thanks! what about some screenshots?

 

[Auric]

Ok, I added a screenshot of the map. I hope it's going to be useful. Some minor changes to the terrain have also been made.

 

[akatosh]

Hey Auric,

Nice map. I started a game as Khazad/Emperor/Terkhen modmod. Played to turn 160 or so, leading in score with Illians, Doviello and Sheaim as vassals. Have +22 friendly relations with Malakim and good relations with Elohim. Score leaders near me are Elohim and Bannor/Mercurian alliance.

Some overall thoughts

1) Overall I like the map and the complex geography. However, some civs have much better starting land than others:

- Khazad can actually get 4 warriors down to the city before Orthus attacks--I was able to kill him and get the axe losing 3 of the four warriors. Khazad also have double gold in the capital, and many tiles with floodplains on plains. This means Khazad can build a very powerful core with the 2 lower starting cities and the barb city in the northeastern part of the valley. I sent my settler south outside the valley, settling on the plains hill near the oasis. That spot is also great, picking up multiple floodplains, oasis, hills, and incense. Khazad can also go on the offensive very early, since you start with construction and can quickly pump out trebs. First tech is Arete, early stack is Bambur+trebs+few bronze warriors+1-2 stonewardens.

2) Land of other civs based on a quick look at the map:
- Elohim also have excellent land, starting with patria+room to expand south and west.
- Kurio's advantage is that they can tech in peace being isolated, and go for a cultural victory if they choose. Unfortunately their land isn't that good, lot of crappy marsh and jungle. Dragon bones held by barb city.
- Svarts don't have that great starting land, but they have a lot of empty space to the northeast that they can backfill. If they can survive attacks from Ljos and Bannor, they can probably become strong.
- Malakim, again great land, floodplains plus gold. They can grab the barb city for another 2 gold mines.
- Calabim land sucks, balanced perhaps by the fact they are the best civ.
- Lanun are fine, they have coast and 2 islands to expand to.
- Balseraph land is terrible.
- Clan land is bad as well, but at least they start with a bunch of techs meaning the initial tech penalty doesn't matter as much. They can get Rantine out fast, warrens, improve the land quick and crush Bals to the east with axe stacks and then work on other enemies, eg Malakim.
- Illian land blows, no freshwater. Hard to see them being a factor, AI or human on medium/high difficulty.
- Doviello land sucks, plus they have Charadon--they have room to expand, but quickly come into conflict with Khazad and Amurites. Tundra is pretty bad, they need extra workers or more wilderness to expand into, or more deer/furs.
- Bannor/Ljos/Amurites have OK start positions.

3) Game was peaceful for many turns between AIs, except 5-6 were "dogpiling" me from far away. Meaning, they were getting bribed to attack or tried to attack, but they were far away (Sheaim, Svarts, Bals, Clan) and had neutral/friendly overcouncil civs buffering. You may want to think about moving some of the civs around, as I was able to adopt Overcouncil and get Elohim protecting my southern/western flank, Malakim buffering my south, and a neutral Bannor to the east buffering me from Svart stacks. That freed me to focus on Doviello and Illians in the north despite a 5-6 way dogpile from Undercouncil civs.

3) I actually started the game in Undercouncil, which gave me contact with like 12 of the 15 civs or something. Was able to trade for a couple free techs early and get some useful resolutions passed, including Secret Codes and Slave trade. Joining undercouncil early in Terkhen modmod gave me some quick slaves from barb fights in the first 10 turns, greatly speeding development (cities were building mostly warriors to hold off barbs and discourage AI attacks.)

4) If you want to keep the layout as is, you may want to have preset difficulties for different civs like they have in the 1000 AD scenario. Crappy land civs like Bals or Illians could have Warlord difficulty, Ljos/Bannor/Amurites on noble, Lanun on prince, Elohim/Khazad on Emperor/Immortal, etc.

5) Why do Elohim have holy city of Empyrean, and why do Malakim have RoK as state religion?

 

[Auric]

1) Well, I think it’s ok if they all don’t start with the same starting conditions. I just didn’t want to give everyone the Promised Land. There should be maybe bigger differences between fertile lands and those rich on natural resources. Now when I look at it I think I made most of the civs too self-sufficient. Perhaps I should be less generous with key resources. I still need to worked on this but some civs are inevitably going to be harder to play for than others.

Khazad are definitely one of the stronger. I wonder how big can Khazad cities get, IA has never got them over 11 in my games. Their land is mainly hilly/mountainous so I think the rivers are needed but the Floodplains are gonna go. I’ll also cleanse that area around the Oisis. I’d expect Sheim would settle that area first, but for some reason they don’t expand in that direction at all. Thanks for the notice about Orthus. I thought I had it calculated but I forgot the Dwarves can move with double speed over hills so they can bring reinforcements quicky. Ok, I simply remove the third Khazad city.

2)
- Blaseraphs, Elohim, Calabim, Malakim: see 3)
- Svarts are ok I’d say. I played multiple games for them and they can get pretty strong. Originally they started on the Ljosalfar position but I switched them because I want Ljos to neighbour the Orcs.
- Clans: their starting spot is not the best, but I’d leave the Clans in the jungle. They begin with 3 cities and can benefit from ‚For the Horde‘ early in the game as there are many barbarians in this map. I might give them one more worker though.
- Doviello: Imho they ought to be in Tundra; they are sort of Goth/Viking pagan tribes. With fellowship of leaves they can grow ancient forests and get their cities easily up to 20. I also think they’re militarily stronger under Charadon.
- Illians: Actually I played for Illians on Emperor and I did pretty well. Sure, they can’t get much farms, but they still get 2 foods from every ice plot and each city has fishes or deers in its surrounding.
- Bannor: less mountains?
- Kuriorates: 2-3 island kingdoms are desirable in my view. I was thinking of striping them of some resources(iron and copper) to force them to expand on the continent or other islands. Same with Lanun.

3) I was already considering switching Balseraphs for Elohim and Calabim for Malakim. This would include major changes on the terrain and Elohim probably even getting their own island.

4) I’m going to try this. In my games I‘ve noticed the Good are generally much stronger than the Evil. E.g. Ljosalfar are always by far the strongest, Amurites and Sheaim usually end up last.

5) I agree Malakim should worship Empyrean rather than Kilmorph. I’m not that proficient in Erebus facts and history; where should the holy city of Empyrean be? Also I‘m not quite sure what are the most suitable religions for Lanun, Kuriotates, Doviello and the Orcs.

Thanks for your comments and suggestions Akatosh. I make some adjustments based on them.

 

[akatosh]

Auric,

Please understand that I enjoyed playing the map as is. I think it's well-made and I would recommend it to others that enjoy custom maps.

I only point out that some civs appear to have really bad start locations compared to others. They certainly don't need to be identical, but Balseraph starting choked by jungle while Khazad have 4F 1H 1C unimproved tiles is a bit much.

On the Khazad point, yeah, the food did eventually become limiting with Aristocracy up. I wasn't able to grow the capital beyond size 13 or 14 easily. But that didn't matter, since I had 3 core cities with excellent production that could build big stacks of trebs with axeman/RoK UU support. I was never the tech leader but I easily became highest in score by military power and total land.

On Illians, I didn't play them... My impression is just looking at their land in worldbuilder. In my experience not being able to use aristofarms is a serious handicap in most cases.

Holy city of Empyrean should be the Malakim capital, Golden Leane. Lanun should have holy city of OO I believe, especially if the leader is Hannah--according to the lore she is a prophet of OO. I think in your map this is already the case (?)

Kurios, Doviello, and Orcs I'm not sure. Maybe ask Magister Cultuum. I can say mechanically, given Doviello's starting terrain FoL would be good for them. Actually one thing you could do to improve the Doviello start is have a few ancient forests sprinkled in at the beginning of the game. Ancient forest fur is a pretty good tile.

IMO don't switch Calabim for Malakim... Calabim overall are a much stronger civ. Especially because in this scenario, everyone already starts with Code of Laws? Means Calabim can start building governor's manors right away...

For Kurios, actually given the isolated start I would probably just try for a cultural or altar victory. Everyone else will be busy fighting each other and you can just tech and build in peace. Given that strategy a loss of copper would not really bother me, and even if I did want to fight, I'd just use mages/priests. Copper is most important in the early game, and nobody can afford to attack Kurios in the early game on this map.

 

[Auric]

I've added a new version of the map.

These are some of the modifications I've made:
- The civs now have pre-set difficulties
- 3 cities at the start
- some terrain and resources have been modified
- changes on religion-assignements

 

[LonelyLurker]

I just tried to play this map, I immediately get "You have been defeated".

 

[akatosh]

What version of the game? In the latest Terkhen modmod both the original scenario and the revised scenario are working for me.

 

[LonelyLurker]

The current one as far as I know, although the file in the OP reads "medievalera" when the instructions say "classicalera".

Unmodded FFH.

 

[akatosh]

Hmm, I don't know what to tell you. Both work for me... maybe install Terkhen modmod? It's good by the way--much better than unmodded FFH, since it includes both Tholal's AI improvements, Sareln's balance changes, and extra flavor options on top of those like Barbs plus, a couple new civics, etc.