Lanun Strategies

[Nantucket]

Morning everyone.

Well, I'm a long time lurker around here, though I'd finally register an account. I've been playing Ffh2 since 0.21 I think, just downloaded 0.23c again (I don't have BTS, my laptop doesn't have the spec), and I was wondering if anyone plays the Lanun often?

They seem to be a pretty intriguing Civ, and the synergy with water maps is obvious, but I was wondering, what do you guys normally do with them? I've played a couple of games, and I tend to semi-beeline to Message from the Deep, from an RP perspective, and what with the very Lovecraftian city names it seems to make sense.

So yeah, to cut a long ramble short, any good strategies for the Lanun?

Thanks.

 

[CypherKnight]

My brother plays Lanun as well and from his games I've gleaned some insight.

First of all because of the food that the Lanun get from water, slavery and conquest seem to fit them like a glove. The last game that my brother played he had a small island (one tile) off his coast with access to two fish. That small one tile island became a power house growing to nine since he didn't have any hammers he'd just force production with his pop and let it regrow. Additionally because of the small island was out to sea and culture pushed it, his borders in those waters became pretty large. It could be possible to even connect two close land masses seperated by ocean like this.

Occasionally he also drills to give land locked cities sea access all you have to do is create a pirate cove, have a unit (drown do well) destroy it then repeat. Pirate coves can also be used to give your costal cities a fresh water lake under certain conditions for the life of me I can't remember how.

If you push and get Pirates early enough you can siphon a lot of money off the other players without breaking a sweat retreating to ocean for those civs that don't invest in Optics. Additonally you push the AI doing that to make ships which slows his game down to your advantage if you manage your fleets right. If you see a holy city founded near water, beeline for it with your Pirates. I've seen 10 gold per turn plundered by my brother at sweet spots between two cities (one of them being a holy one).

Sail round the world ASAP. Don't forget your adepts to give them that +1 movement from fair winds and occasionally send one out with your (the official ones at least) fleets in order to soften up other boats so you can crush them more easily with Maelstrom.

Great Lighthouse is a great wonder for them and since you're probably the first getting sailing you should seriously consider getting it every game. Even if you've switched out of God King for one reason or another at the early game consider switching back to it to build it quickly at your capital.

The Lanun don't really have a specific late game strategy so push your mid/early game.

Hope this helps!

 

[daladinn]

whats said above is solid.

as for mid and late game you really need to be looking at the OO religion. most civs have to go OO in order to compete with you in the water. them going OO just makes it easier for you to get a religious victory. not to mention the water walking undead and the kraken.

mage ships or whatever they are called are a VERY solid unit for you to be using in the late game.

sadly they can never seem to find a balance on pirate coves and keep preventing them from being spam'd ( explaining why it should be allowed is never listened to ).

 

[Nantucket]

These seem like some pretty solid strategies, thanks.

Yeah, these pirate cove things seem pretty amazing, they can really turn an unproductive city into some resemblance of a good investment. Running slavery from OO has been pretty tasty too, and that Conquest civic is, frankly, awesome. Okay, so it stunts your city growth, but the extra military production is amazing.

I'm gonna be getting back to my current Lanun game today. Naturally being more of a builder my first passion in this mod was the Kuriotates, so I had a brief Sacrifice the Weak - Massive City thing going on with them, but I have a feeling I'll be pirating again today.

Right, so, pirates, arcane barges, OO, lighthouse, slavery, shank the rest of creation. Got it.

 

[smusebaer]

Another Idea is the Runes of Kilmorph religion. With conquest you can massproduce Soldier of kilmorph, in order to push production in citys (in order to build the first Things like the lighthouse.)

The other point is currency. With a aditional trade route an The guild of nine its awsome for the lanun.

Last point, don´t forget to build some production citys with many hills.

 

[A_Hamster]

Zenophobe posted this mercenary strategy which involves beelining Currency to found Guild of the Nine and then simply throwing money at the problem instead of building troops. If you're Hannah, you can easily leverage her Financial trait to do this.

 

[cyther]

The pirate coves/cannal can be used offensively if you have the time or workers and are using OO. It really helps the cultists get some water for tsunami but doesn't work to far inland when it becomes to much of a hassle.

 

[Sureshot]

starting a game in Classical Era is fun with lanun, since it allows you to start with lighthouses, great lighthouse, military state and conquest to really get a lot more out of water tiles/cities, plus other important techs can be researched immediately (notably, trade for foreign trade civic, currency, runes). you can get so many trade routes its insane heh

runes and AV are both fun religions for lanun too, sea cities wont get hurt by armageddon and sacrifice the weak is great with all that food and slavery, and arete and all the gold really help lanuns production

 

[MalkutX]

Falamar makes diplomacy fun. Cast Trust, convert any lady leaders to your religion, and try to sign an alliance with at least one on every continent. Having a girl in every port is far more fun when they all have armies (as long as you are very, very nice to them all).

Hannah really doesn't do diplomacy. Hannah smash. Turn all that money into research, get blasting powder and fire archmages, and shoot everyone. That's right, everyone in the entire world. Pillage, too.

My only problem is keeping my pirates alive. They have a disturbing tendency to die to triremes. I don't know what I'm missing, here.

 

[Sureshot]

another religion im finding has good synergy with lanun is Council of Esus, since techwise the prereqs for Deception are good for lanun (wicked for slavery and trade for foreign trade), and the smugglers port gives +1 trade route and another +1 trade route for coastal cities (atleast according to the resolution, i didnt see a reference to this on the actual building), plus the resolution to make gambling houses cheaper. plus nox noctis is nice in general (not sure if it affects ships, but if it does thats cool too)

 

[Chrispy]

Falamar makes diplomacy fun. Cast Trust, convert any lady leaders to your religion, and try to sign an alliance with at least one on every continent. Having a girl in every port is far more fun when they all have armies (as long as you are very, very nice to them all).

Hannah really doesn't do diplomacy. Hannah smash. Turn all that money into research, get blasting powder and fire archmages, and shoot everyone. That's right, everyone in the entire world. Pillage, too.

My only problem is keeping my pirates alive. They have a disturbing tendency to die to triremes. I don't know what I'm missing, here.

I had not thought about the diplomacy angle with Falamar; I'm usually too busy leveraging Charasmatic to smash. Lanun are very flexible as you see above (Esus, Runes, and Message all make sense strategically, and Esus and Message both work in terms of storyline.)

Regarding pirates, I also have the trireme issue although it doesn't surprise me too much given that they are a match in strengh. The AI is pretty good about taking out pirates; they seem to know to soften him up with a dragonship or caravel and then take out the pirate. The best strategy is usually to pair pirates up, or if you have an opponent with a lot of naval strength, send in the Black Wind and send the pirates elsewhere.

My biggest challenge with Lanun is which way to go to start in terms of research. Fishing is expensive, but with coastal resources you will get a quick return both in food and gold. Do you go to Mysticism and specialists along with that, or Education? When do you add in Mining to get some production and find copper? I find the decisions tougher with Lanun than many other civs in FFH.

 

[MalkutX]

I had not thought about the diplomacy angle with Falamar; I'm usually too busy leveraging Charasmatic to smash.

That's the great thing about it: an empire you sign an alliance with or vassalize peacefully is one that you don't have to smash. For the purpose of conquering the world, they are essentially eliminated at no cost to you, and their strength is added to your own. Wars are costly, and the greatest victories are those without cost.

My biggest challenge with Lanun is which way to go to start in terms of research. Fishing is expensive, but with coastal resources you will get a quick return both in food and gold. Do you go to Mysticism and specialists along with that, or Education? When do you add in Mining to get some production and find copper? I find the decisions tougher with Lanun than many other civs in FFH.

I start with crafting and mining for the production to get everything set up, but that's probably wrong. The reason I don't play as the Lanun very often is simply that I don't like starting with them.

 

[Zechnophobe]

My general start with Lanuun is to get fishing straight off. Your first pirate cove is going to increase your trade by about 50%, so start work on a worker, and research fishing. Balance the tiles your capital is working, so they both finish about the same time. Use the worker to build a pirate cove, inland, if possible. (AKA, next to an inland lake, or on a square next to an ocean that has only one ocean tile adjacent to it).

After that, it's a bit more tricky. If I've got room to build cottages, especially if I have a river, than agriculture to education.

Otherwise, Mysticism for the Great Sage potential (Academy is going to be another big early econ structure, and god king is nice if you have no room for cottages).

Aggressively build workers once you have the production to get them out in 10 or less turns, and turn them into pirate coves, or build up your cities.

That's my general early game advice.


Mid game I go down the econ tech tree, to taxation, and pick up the guild of the nine for military support along the way. Taxation pre turn 200 (Normal speed) is a good goal, and make sure to get gambling houses in your big cities. Drop your econ to build happiness and get the money to hire a merc army. Once you have that rolling, use your military advantage to conquer, and get Weapon upgrades for them mercs.

Religion decision is more to taste. RoK or FoL are great because they don't require you going to far out of your way for them. (No need for philosophy, riding, etc) and give you perks that go well with the strategy.