Recent content by xAlephx

What patch number did the SoI show up in? I thought I was up to date and they aren't in my game. Balseraphs with Gibbon can happen fairly early, who can Puppets -> Domination (and, eventually, Twincast Puppets -> Twincast Domination). No chance of losing your promotion on the spellcaster...

You know, I kind of like that they don't gain experience. 1. It streamlines your civic options - you're not tempted away from the economic powerhouse civics into the + exp civics. As a financial leader, you've really got no business being anything but Aristagracy, and you want either gold...

I've never played as either, and am looking forward to trying Lanun/Infernals soon - other thread lists Kurios as likely top rushing civ for powering out the Infernals asap, but Lanun seem a little more balanced if you want to grab a bit of extra research to make Hyborem's entrance easier - Bill...

Gah! No wonder they whip out ahead of me in points! March of the Trees: Recent game revealed an excellent usage of this spell - as negotiating tool. I'm usually lagging in several areas at once in Immortal, and invariably one of my neighbors sees weakness and comes-a-callin. March of the...

A. How are people doing these quick tests? B. Does anyone know how first strikes enter into the calculations for Marksman? What number of combat promotions carries the tipping point between Stoneskin on a Mage and a Wood Golem with Empower 5?

On the Luchuirp - I'd say there's really no comparison between the benefits of a single heavy production city and spreading them out. Great Engineers really help you bulb your way into your impressive mid-game, and a single mega-production city + Industrious means you can grab a number of...

LUCHUIRP I'm relatively recently back and have really benefitted from this thread. Some of the suggestions on here have left gaps that were likely assumed to already be known, but that as a newer player I had to discover for myself. Here's what I've learned from the synthesis of reading this...

So, to get it out of the way, I've read all the special pedia entries on the Scions, so I have some basic understanding of their mechanics. What I'm missing is any sense of how to play them. Extreme early game, awesome - I'm out teching and producing everyone by leaps and bounds, I grab...

*blink* So it does. Still, the fact that the unlimited available sages are significantly more effective under scholarship / caste than StW / Guilds stands, possibly effective enough to make up for the lower numbers of them available. The happiness/health points of hell are also well taken...

One other thing to add to the above analysis: StW has a fixed opportunity cost of not using Scholarship. For the majority of the game, I find that research is my inflexible priority, and in a specialist economy this means sages. StW has to run Guilds to get unlimited sages, which means a. they...

This. Thanks. Works well, simply subbing Adepts with Inspiration for early research boosts. I'm remembering some mix of basic civ 4, SMAC, and FfH where there used to be a lot of free techs for the first people to the writing techs, and I reflexively prioritize them. Apparently not...

Why the preferences by leader? Aristograrian works fantastic with financial and sac the weak... do you lumbermill the heck out of your ancient forests to make FoL do the heavy lifting? Shouldn't StW allow for much quicker replenishment of modest size cities (20ish)?

I'd like to push up to Necromancy for puppets. It's more that I'd like to eliminate some links in the tech chain already established... some of that has to be extraneous. I know I'd be massively outteched in combat options against a tougher AI.

I used to play quite a bit, upon coming back have discovered that FfH is not like riding a bike. Current game had ridiculous builder beginning with Keelyn (2nd city had double gold mines) and pretty isolated, but I lost tech focus somewhere along the way and wanted to check in with better...

You might do a bunch of things, if you're willing to open up your options: 1. Re-evaluate your stand on AV. Sacrifice the Weak in conjunction with Agrarian and Slavery gives you stupidly large cities with a number of options for outstanding hammer production (Governor's Manor, whip away excess...