A beginner's guide?

[A Moon]

Hi. I'm new to RiFE. As in "started playing half an hour ago" new.

My first impression? "I have no idea what I'm doing."

Which is exactly what I wanted. Something new and interesting to spend some time on.

But that doesn't change the fact that I have no idea what I'm doing.

So could anyone give me some advice on starting out? Which civs are easy for a beginner, which techs are important for what, just general solutions for the "" feeling I'm getting.

 

[inuyashasama]

First, start a "play now" game to clear your options (trust me here)
Then make a custom game, and turn "timid animals" on, as well as any other options you like.

Your first play through should be as the Dural, Grigori or Hippus, since they play mostly like normal Civ4.

Then just go through the victory conditions, and play like you would normal civ4. Two tips for your first game though: don't expand too quickly (a minimum of like 50% research), and always have at least two guards with each city/settler.

 

[arcticnightwolf]

it's good to go for archery

 

[immanuel]

My vote: no beginner's guide! I like the mystery and mayhem!

Remember when you first downloaded FFH and you were like "holy smokes everything is new and amazing!" and you had one of the most memorable games ever because you were literally exploring a new world, with new rules? RiFE has brought me back to that. I'm finding out new things every day, like Fort Commanders, Great Commanders, the Great Engineer wonders, and all kinds of frikkin new mechanics I can't begin to understand. Like... what generates Grigori Adventure points? What creates a Great Commander? There are some mysteries best left alone.

Oh yeah, and what's up with those Frozen? I have no idea what they're up to up there in the tundra, except building some friggin HUGE cities, but whatever it is it can't be good.

 

[Valkrionn]

All sorts of things affect the Adventurer counter (well, just buildings. And a specialist, in 1.3. ), should really document it better. Safe bet: Build all the Grigori UB's, they all affect it.

The Frozen are currently really imbalanced; Far better in the next version.

 

[Kinjiru]

Use the civilopedia, there is lots of good info in there.

Direct your early research towards enabling the God King civic (+50% production and gold in your capital) - so, get to Mysticism early. You'll likely want to switch to something else soonish, but it's a good starter civic.

Once you get/trade your basic economy related techs (those that let you exploit your resources), pick one or two lines of research to follow rather than trying to get everything. What I mean by that is decide early what kind of military you want - mobile cav, groundpounders or magicians - then focus on their tech paths.

Religion can be pretty important. If you are not the one to found a faith, it can be worth it to look at whomever seems to be in charge and adopting their faith. Of course that presumes someone has spread that religion to you.

Use the Play Now menu set to pick what leader and civ you want to use (the UI here is better for this purpose than Custom Game), but when you are ready to actually play, go back to the initial menu and use the Custom Game option. Choose the Erebus Continent map script and set the Jungle (unless you are playing as one of the Lizard races) and Desert options to Low (starting in a heavy jungle or desert spot will stifle your early growth). Set the Timid Animals options on. Also pick the last option (you must scroll on the left side the page) and disable the Jotnar and Frozen civs as they don't quite work yet.

Most importantly, experiment! To that end, choose small (or even tiny) worlds and try to play through 10-15 games in a short span of time.

 

[A Moon]

Thanks for the help everyone, although I'll admit I'm going to need to wait 'till my next game to to really start learning, because I wasn't able to resist the temptation to play as the Scions. (Is Ophelia Rosenthal meant to be able to have both The Risen Emperor and Korinna?)

I'll be posting questions I can't work out the answer to once I've finished/been brutally murdered in this game.

 

[scutarii]

Thanks for the help everyone, although I'll admit I'm going to need to wait 'till my next game to to really start learning, because I wasn't able to resist the temptation to play as the Scions. (Is Ophelia Rosenthal meant to be able to have both The Risen Emperor and Korinna?)

I'll be posting questions I can't work out the answer to once I've finished/been brutally murdered in this game.

cough....scions...are difficult...to play...ya know, the souls from Bottomless Tomb...are NOT for...normal civ.

You've been warned.

 

[IlikeTanks]

A) Yes, the Scions are STUPID broken cake walk to smash AI even on Emperor

B) but back to strategy, 1) Be wary of pyre zombies. 2) Alt. Play as Sheamin and pyre zombie
to victory. The key to remember is that even if a pyre zombie "loses'" in combat, he still wins!

 

[A Moon]

cough....scions...are difficult...to play...ya know, the souls from Bottomless Tomb...are NOT for...normal civ.

You've been warned.

Periodic free settlers is fun =D

A) Yes, the Scions are STUPID broken cake walk to smash AI even on Emperor

B) but back to strategy, 1) Be wary of pyre zombies. 2) Alt. Play as Sheamin and pyre zombie
to victory. The key to remember is that even if a pyre zombie "loses'" in combat, he still wins!

In regular FFH, I usually just kept about 5 mages with Life II on standby...

Misc: You know the barbarian Orangutan monster thing? I killed him with a Subdue Beast promoted Duin Halfmorn.

I now have two giant Orangutans, one of whom is a werewolf.

 

[legowarrior]

I love the Orangutan. The information on it being found in a library is obvious an homage to the Librarian on Discworld.
Maybe in the future, we don't allow Duin Halfmorn to have Subdue beast.

 

[Valkrionn]

A) Yes, the Scions are STUPID broken cake walk to smash AI even on Emperor

B) but back to strategy, 1) Be wary of pyre zombies. 2) Alt. Play as Sheamin and pyre zombie
to victory. The key to remember is that even if a pyre zombie "loses'" in combat, he still wins!

I disagree on them being broken; If you know how to play them, you can use them well, but if you don't you fail. That's pretty much as it should be.

Also... Pyre Zombies only explode on the unit they actually fought. Otherwise, it's just collateral damage and only affects 5 units.

 

[inuyashasama]

I disagree on them being broken; If you know how to play them, you can use them well, but if you don't you fail. That's pretty much as it should be.

I thought the same as this at first until I realized he meant the AI + Scions = Broken, as in, the AI cannot play as the Scions for , even on Emperor difficulty.

 

[Valkrionn]

Oh. That one would probably be true. AI will be better after 1.4, due to an unspecified project of Snarko's.

 

[IlikeTanks]

Lol, broken to me is that i cant lose with them, but boy oh boy if im amurite beside the hippus, im done for And exactly, if the Pyre zombies die, they hurt 5 units. Its awesome. NEVER give them first strike

 

[Azhral]

Some sort of guide will be nice. Like my last game where I had nothing better than Centeni, Prelates and a few Adepts and I lost my capital to 4 of these floating demon things that summoned a bunch of earth elementals to crush me in a single turn. Korinna didn't even kill anything!

 

[OpheliaImmortal]

Of course the Scions are broken. The second time you play them you will steamroller the best played version of any other civilization in the game! Human vs Human, no one could possibly stop the scions.

Not until the mid game, when things like life magic come into play.. which the scions reached first by 50 turns.. then just razed every city in a 25 tile radius of their borders.

 

[Azhral]

And now I have to deal with a 25 strength Combat 3 Fear causing Sabretooth with 6 to 12 free strikes, and its only turn 100! I can't even hurt the damn thing, and its running around inside my borders even though Timid Animals is on!

Is this angry yelling or busted hearing aid yelling? Well, neither actually, but still...

 

[Valkrionn]

Timid animals does not stop them from moving in your borders. It stops them from entering with the "bExploreRivalTerritory" tag, so they don't enter on their own. They can still enter if your borders expand over them, or if they enter from a bordering territory.

The issue with the sabretooth is the way animals upgrade after combat; They don't do that anymore in 1.3.

 

[seizer]

So I'm playing my first RiFE game ever, and a citadel just randomly spawned next to my capital. Is there any reason why I shouldn't raze it?