The Black Tower

[Breunor]

Yes you do get Svart cities if you beat the Splintered Court but only if you won with them.

I built a Bannor city just so I could get Donnal Lugh, they really don't have much other use/

Clearly Donal is awesome; with a Temple of order, and so many demons, I think he recruited dozens of units for me and he is a killer on his own!

However, I built decent number of other Bannor units to have the guardsman promotion automatically, it really helps to make all of those assassins practically useless! Of course, you don't need that many, maybe two for each major stack.

Best wishes,

Breunor

 

[Trajan7]

I can't get the scenario to start, the game crashes EVERY time that I try.

 

[RobertMoon]

I can't get the scenario to start, the game crashes EVERY time that I try.

Same here, and I don't know if it has anything to do with the game-freeze ending to "The Radiant Guard."

 

[Dragoon1]

The Scenario launcher is unreliable.

Start the secenarios directly from
.../Beyond the Sword\Mods\Fall from Heaven 2\Assets\XML\Scenarios
folder.

 

[Breunor]

Same here, and I don't know if it has anything to do with the game-freeze ending to "The Radiant Guard."

It doesn't; I just tried to load the scenario and I got a crash. The error message said it was a memory error.

Best wishes,

Breunor

 

[lymond]

quick question - if you build the other civ's palace in another city does that change the actual lanun capital? in other words, can you still only have one palace?

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I believe it used to be that you could get 2 palaces a palace of another civ does nto get removed when you built yours elsewhere, but the last time I played it I saw it had been changed so that the palace would not be replaced by that of the civ whose nationality your capital city had.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

I also cannot get this scenario to load. Every time I try it boots me out with an unexpected error. Anyone else have this problem and is there a fix? I'll try directly from the scenario folder, but if that doesn't work?

EDIT: Ok got it to work directly through the worldbuilder save, but here's the next question... If I go back and do the Momus again and preserve the Lurchip will it modify The Black Tower (even though I slaughtered the Lurchip last time?) Also how do I get the elves???

 

[Chip56]

play the splintered court scenario.

 

[lymond]

I played this one through quite far before accidentally installing the BTS update. (I was trying to fix some issues I was having). Anyway, I had to start over. However, in the interim, I beat the Infernal and Barbarian scenarios. I was surprised to find that the Clan of Embers and Infernal factions were non-existent in the replay. I found it really impacts the challenge and enjoyment of this scenario, which is one of the better ones and really plays to the strengths of the Lanum civ.

Anyone know how to get the Infernal and CoE civs back in the scenario?

 

[Onionsoilder]

I tried this one, I really tried, but... The "no-heal" thing was far too annoying for me to enjoy. It would be one thing if they healed slowly, or maybe didn't heal at all unless there was a unit with Medic in the stack, but no healing period? No, just no.

I ended up giving myself 30 Iron Golems, despite not getting the Lurichuip event. They took care of Abashi nicely.

 

[GhostQ]

uh oh never mind. had a problem with launching the scenario but found out that i should run it under the scenario folder.

 

[samthedagger]

I'm about to undertake this beast. It looks like OO and fast rushing is really the best option because of the lack of healing. I will only have the Bannor and Hippus available to me so we will see how it goes.

 

[Elyssaen]

I loved starting on a little island with room for three cities, and then getting to decide where I wanted to go from there. Early game skirmishing with barbarians and the other factions is good for preparing your experienced pseudo-heroes (i.e. upgraded warriors and axemen who serve you right through the game), but it's tedious and in The Black Tower it won't really work anyway – you can't heal, so those pseudo-heroes will die early on ¹.

With no healing, early game skirmishing would have been nothing but tedium and I wouldn't have enjoyed it. Instead I found I was free to set my three cities up and charge through the first few turns without anything in my way. It was a nice feeling. This is also the one Lanun scenario that really shows you the Lanun's power, because while the island has room for three cities it doesn't sport the best land to support them.

It does, however, let you build three coastal cities which each have two pirate coves. The coves are really amazing thematically and mechanically and I've fallen in love with the Lanun because of this scenario. I especially like the little island to the southwest with one workable tile. You can fit a city on it with three pirate coves and far from being useless, as I'd expect from a city that can only work the sea, it's quite a good commerce centre ².

Going on the offensive was a little tricky. If you run Octopus Overlords I expect you can make an early push and then keep going until you've won, because the Stygian Guard can cross the sea, heal inbetween and stick around 'til the end. With The Order it was a bit more tricky. I founded three more cities in the southeast peninsula and discovered that Guild of the Nine is unsurpassed at defending new colonies.

Conquering the northeast Sheaim would wait until I had mages with Destroy Undead. Much of their army was undead, and more than once I emptied one of their cities without having anyone actually attack. After beating them and taking their cities I changed my mind about continuing on anymore though – it was all I could do not to lose the cities I had.

I wonder if I'm missing a trick for healing. I waited until I had Sphener and arranged to have Priors a bit after. With Sphener and an army of Crusaders (which, when available, I prefer to Boarding Parties even when Medic I won't help) backed up with mages and siege engines I was able to deal with the rest, although it took a long time and Guild of the Nine saved more cities than I can count.

I didn't bother much with being able to assign a city to a different faction. I didn't have the Luchuirp, and they're the only ones that would've made a real difference. The Bannor should have one city so you can add a few Guardsmen and a flagbearer to your armies and one Hippus city is worth it for the free Magnadine later on, but otherwise I let everything be Lanun. I probably would've been better off with Champions instead of Boarding Parties, however.

I found this very enjoyable, and it's especially interesting how the game can be very different depending on what you've done in other scenarios. I didn't see the Clan, but I also couldn't get the Luchuirp and had to kill Hyborem.


¹ Under no circumstances would I run Ashen Veil or Octopus Overlords for Falamar's Lanun (the latter in Hannah's, absolutely). I'd ideally run Fellowship of Leaves or Runes of Kilmorph as Falamar, but in this case The Order seemed appropriate. I think whenever a nation goes to war with demons, The Order will prosper amongst its people.
² It also led me to discover that a Lanun city at sea can have a large population, and that Pillar of Chains will then turn it into a competent production city. It's only a one-off and you might not manage to produce the Pillar of Chains in it, but it makes for an interesting city.

 

[Dreylin]

Wow, just wow. That was ... Epic!

Great fun, but I gotta say: HOW many Crossbowmen!?!?!? I mean really!? The last time I could be bothered to count, Tebryn was wandering around with >30 of them at the same time!

Then again, Valin with >1000xp and run out of promos was kind-of walking all over them.

 

[prince_medion]

I could use some help, the last sheim city (on the north-west part of the continent) seems to be hidden. I can see its borders, and can actually see it using WE, but cannot see it in normal mode, I really don't know what to do and I'm stuck.

Does anyone know the answer for that please?

Thank you in advance!

 

[Cordelayne]

This scenario is destroying me! The first time through, playing as just the Lanun and the Hippus, I realized after a couple hundred turns that it was hopeless.

So I went back to The Momus, kept Beeri alive, and ganged up with him to defeat the puppetmaster. So for my second try at The Black Tower, I made all Luchuirp cities, except for one Lanun.

It's now turn 452. I have wiped out everybody except Tebryn (including Hyborem). So now it's just me against the evil purple guys.

I'm WAY ahead in population, with lots of size 28 and 27 cities. I'm way ahead in gold and manufacturing. Because this is so hard, I'm even playing on the warlord level, whereas I usually play at monarch. I've only got about five more techs to research. I have total control of the seas.

And still, right at the moment, it looks hopeless!

I just tried to attack my first purple city, a crummy little size 5 coastal city. My fleet of 15 ships showed up and reduced the city's defenses to zero in one strike. I landed an army next to the city with: 3 Dwarf Hornguards, 1 War Tortoise, 4 Crossbowman, 1 Clockwork Golem, 12 Iron/Fireball Golems, and 4 mages. (These are reinforcements I plan to merge with my major stack.) These guys bombarded the heck out of the city.

Next turn, they bombarded the city again. And I went to attack. The city's defenses were zero. There were only four defenders: 2 infernal crossbowmen and 2 others. The crossbowmen were down to about 8 or 9 strength. But for even my best units--the hornguards or clockwork golem with attack 15, the game showed chance of success on each attack at less than 1 percent! The crossbowmen had such high bonuses, and the city is on a hill, that it looks hopeless!

Right now the games says I have about "4 million" in my army while the enemy has about "15 million." And with every unit I lose, they get more. To win, I have to wipe out about 20 cities of theirs--and they're still expanding. Is this possible? My level 12 Archmages can take out four defenders a turn--but that's it. Am I really going to have to assemble a stack of something like 300 Iron Golems???

EXTRA QUESTION: I've only been playing FFH2 for about a month, but like a fanatic during that time. I keep learning new things about this fabulous game. One thing I can't figure out: frequently at the start of a turn, an enemy undead or infernal city will send out flames in all directions, greatly toasting any units one tile away. It's not Pyre Zombies blowing up, but something else. I can't find it in the spells list. What is it?

 

[Dreylin]

Last question first: Ring of Flames. It's the level2 Divine spell for Ashen Veil - Ritualists will be casting it.

Taking them out is important - Assassins may be your best bet.

Which heroes do you have, and how powerful are they? The best way to crack cities is to take off the top defenders with your highly-promoted Hero units. I ran Order and had Valin Phanuel at >1000xp by the end of the scenario (and he'd run out of available promos); when fully healed, he had >99% on anything he could meet, and even when nearly dead, he could kill most things out in the field. I'd recommend sending them down the Drill line first to enable Blitz (multiple attacks mean faster XP gain) and then going down Combat. If you've got as far as Warhorses, you'll need a Hippus city to spawn Magnadine - should also probably have a Bannor for Donal.

If you've killed Hyborem, you must have Gela available. Have the equipment on your strongest Hero, and then after they've attacked move it to the next unit before they attack.

Rust - level1 Entropy spell - will strip off the enemy's weapon promotions - which is 4 in the case of Mithril - and if they get the Rusted promo that's a bonus. This brings Crossbowmen back down to size.

As you say, every Living unit that dies gives them additional forces. That means you either have to use Golem, Catapults, summons and other non-living units or your forces have to not die, which means healing them or pulling them back. With just two strong defenders though, you may just need to sacrifice 2-3 Iron Golems to weaken them enough for another unit to take them out.

EDIT: Also Destroy Undead (lvl2 Life) is your friend against Pyre Zombies. When the spell kills them they don't explode, so don't cause the damage to your troops.

 

[Cordelayne]

for immediate and informative answer! I have some hope again.

Gosh this game is complex, with 18 types of magic, etc. I'm marching through the scenarios from top to bottom. I bet I'll still be playing this a year from now.

I'm playing Runes of Kilmorph, and I just realized a few turns ago that I should have been building pirate coves everywhere (and I'm doing that now). I'm rich!

But as for heroes, all I have are Bambur, Arthendain, and Barnaxus. None have been in combat, so they're to the end of their natural promotion tree. And I probably didn't do it very smart. Valin with blitz certainly sounds good! But I do have Gela, and I should soon have healing, so time to bring my hero dwarfs into the fray.

To get Rune Wardens (dwarf high priests) so that I have healing spells, I need gems. There are only 4 gem squares on the whole map in my game, bunched together in Tebryn territory in the middle near the coast. My plan is to build a city there defended with everything I've got and hope to cause some attrition of the purple guys.

Thanks for tips on assassins to take out ritualists and Destroy Undead against Pyre Zombies. I've been going to great pains to kill PZs from a distance! If I could build more than 4 archmages, the game would already be over.

One more question: Does it make sense to take everything I've got and to try to take out the Black Tower itself first, before attriting all the smaller evil cities? Do they lose the ability to get evil resurrections if you take out the Black Tower?

 

[Dreylin]

You don't even have Guybrush? Definitely get a Lanun, Bannor & Hippus city down - though I don't know if you can get the civilisations' heroes retroactively (when I played they were gifted by discovering the tech which enabled them).

When I played this scenario, I spent a long time defending a couple of key city locations on the mainland. Tebryn would send his stacks against them, I would Maelstrom (lvl2 Air), Rust, Cat & Fireball them down until my heroes & other units could take them out. This way I built up a lot of experience on my key units. (Mainly, I was waiting for my healing to come online - Sphener & then Priors - and using only the Shrine of Sirona and promotions to keep my army healthy. A lot of injured units retreated to safe cities to wait for Sphener to make it all better!)

I'm not sure that taking out Tebryn's capital would make much difference (apart from lots of troops getting slaughered by Abashi), I'm guessing you need to wipe him out completely to achieve victory - I took the cap last after wiping out all his other cities.

I would also recommend Xienwolf's manual http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=265888 I keep it open and ALT-Tab to it for info & some strategy, and it's generally faster than using the Civlopedia.