A few questions...

[Gooblah]

Okay~ I've played a few times before, but I've yet to get the full hang of the game. If anyone could answer these questions, I am in their debt. A few of these are probably situational, so if you could cite examples, it would be cool.

1) What is a good "beginner" Civ/Leader?
2) Should I build a Worker, Warrior, or Scout first?
3) Should I focus on magic or weapons to wage war, or both?
4) What are 'targets' in the game (i.e, techs, buildings, units, points in the game)
5) What are your favorite map-types? I've tried Highlands, Pangaea, Hemispheres, etc, but they all get kinda repetitive...

Thanks a lot!

 

[Demus]

1. Civs like the bannor or the khazad are pretty straightforward, much like vanilla civ, and should allow you to get a feel of the game while still keeping to your original playing style (just remember the khazad need a decent amount of gold to keep the "vault" in a decent state and you'll be fine).
2. You should target your first worker to finish training the moment you get the worker techs to use. The tech rate in FFH is a lot slower than vanilla civ/bts, and you don't want your worker standing by idle! I generally target my worker to be able to improve 3 tiles the moment he's finished training, but that's up for debate. Before that, i'd prefer warriors over scouts, unless you have a civ that starts with nothing but warriors (1 scout first then, to pop some goodie huts).
3. If you're still learning, i'd suggest starting with the weapon techs, since they're a lot easier to learn. Might and Magic are about equally powerfull, but magic is a lot more diverse. Don't forget: some civs lend themselves more to weapons (khazad for example), others to magic (amurites!), while races like the elves feel right at home in the recon path. The UU's and UBs will generally give you a pretty good idea where to tech first.
4. First target is education. City states (greatly reducing maintenance), apprenticeship (additional exp for trained units) and cottages (a must for your economy) in 1 tech is basically vital to your early game empire. Afterwards, the main focusses would be trade, religion, civ/religion specific heroes, next tire of units (warrior-axemen-champion for example) and metals (copper-iron-mythril) etc. etc. etc. An important point in the game is getting your first 3 cities up and running in decent spots with a good number of improvements around them.
5. Try the creation map type (found in the maps and mods section). Basically all you can ask for

Note: i'm far from a FFH expert, so i'm sure other players will have better worked out advise, but this is what got me started from noble to monarch. Have fun!

 

[Gooblah]

Thanks, Demus.

I went with your advice and started a game on the Creation map as the Bannor. I got the Hero promotion event for a scout, which got Subdue Animal before dying. Its last breath was the sword of a Skeleton through its chest after Subduing a Giant Spider. the Spider is currently at Combat V, Guerilla I, Woodsman I. I had it invade the Calabim (Alexis) and its killed a Worker and 2 Warriors. If only I had a Warrior nearby....

I teched Agriculture-Ancient Chants-Education-Animal Husbandry-Crafting-Cartography-Mining. I sealed off my pass with a city that grabbed 2 Wine, so I'm doing pretty well.

 

[Nikis-Knight]

Sounds like you're doing fine, but I'll throw in two cents.

1) What is a good "beginner" Civ/Leader?
2) Should I build a Worker, Warrior, or Scout first?
3) Should I focus on magic or weapons to wage war, or both?
4) What are 'targets' in the game (i.e, techs, buildings, units, points in the game)
5) What are your favorite map-types? I've tried Highlands, Pangaea, Hemispheres, etc, but they all get kinda repetitive...

1) There have been threads about this before, if you want more opinions. I think most any are okay, though I'd avoid Perpentach or the Sheaim, as they get random traits and few melee units respectively. Glance through the manual before playing (included with the download) and you should be fine with anyone else.

2) I'd say scout, as it's really useful to get to know your area and maybe grab a couple huts, and the scouts movement really helps for that. Workers can wait unless you start with agriculture and see farm bonuses or fresh water nearby, in which case it might be worth getting one when you have 2 or 3 population. Otherwise wait until you are about to enable some worker actions you can use. (Most of these are just like vanilla.)

3) I usually go for some quick commerce (maybe calendar or education or mysticism or sailing, writing is great but risky if the map is more crowded) then early defense (hunters or bronze working) then sometimes more civil stuff (like commerce or a religion) or else focus on magic or stronger units. Maybe getting trade quick would be good, but I usually neglect it.

4) The great scientist on writing is pretty easy to get, right after education. Religious shrines are all great. Other good techs are commerce, sanitation, engineering, trade, sorcery, and priesthood. Also, if you get mining you can see copper, so you know if you should prioritize bronze working (to use the copper weapons on every melee) or go for other troop types if none is nearby. And find the techs that grant your civs/religions heroes (fanatacism is a common one), those are almost always really helpful.

5) I'm not a fan of the chore of loading an army onto a boat, so I usually play pangea, natural shoreline (gives some choke points sometimes) and one or two more civs than default. I used to play fractal sometimes, but I can't stand starting on an island alone. And there are some custome FfH 3 mapscripts which are popular, though I haven't used them myself.

 

[Nonobots]

What difficulty are you playing?

Take all this with a grain of salt: I'm no expert.

1) What is a good "beginner" Civ/Leader?

1) depends on how steep a learning curve you want. The strangest civs are the Sheams, Balseraphs, Lurchuip and the Sidar. The rest should be ok. Be sure to have a look at the manual to get an idea of their strength and weaknesses. Hippus, Grigori, Khazad are amongst the easiest to learn with.

2) Should I build a Worker, Warrior, or Scout first?

2) compared to vanilla, starting units are way more useful. They are not obsolete so fast but lots of units die to animals, skeletons, spiders, barbs etc... You want either a huge number of scout with a couple of warriors or a huge number of warriors with a couple of scouts. Your goal is to have a couple survive and gain a bunch of XP to eventually upgrade them.

If you intend to take a trip down the recon path the scouts are a must. In the early game an upgraded hunter who can capture bears and elephants can help a lot.

Warriors or scouts should be stacked to explore and venture on Erebus. I almost always go around with stacks of three. It helps with survival and the harvest of XP.

3) Should I focus on magic or weapons to wage war, or both?

3) whichever suits your fancy. Don't try and reach for all goals though. Recon/druids, Religion, Magic or Might. Pick two (or one or three depending on difficulty) suited for your civ, add economics and worker techs. Win the game. Playing on prince you can pick three easily.

4) What are 'targets' in the game (i.e, techs, buildings, units, points in the game)

4) worthy tech goals I aim for in the early game are:

Mysticism for God King (a real boost to your capital and empire)
drama for the great bard
writing for the great scientist (a must if you're going the magic path)
a religion (usually RoK for me)
my first (and second) worthy units (Hunter, Axeman, Horseman, Archer, Adept)
A hero! If your civ is not blessed with an early hero (Grigori or Ljolsafar are) you have to get one from a religion or other tech.

The rest of the goals are too much dependent on your current civ and situation. Of some notes:

- Guild of the nine can be very efficient: you have to be the first to reach currency for that.

- Make sure you get some Reagent if you want any mages. Make sure you get some Incense if you want any priests. The availability of those can help you decide on which tech path your going. Or with whom you'll be going to war.

5) What are your favorite map-types? I've tried Highlands, Pangaea, Hemispheres, etc, but they all get kinda repetitive...

5) I love creation maps, but these days I'm playing fractals and donuts... You have to be a lot more careful with your map selection in FFH than in vanilla cause you can give yourself a big advantage or disadvantage depending on your civ. Lanuns are more advantaged by an archipelago or water-based map, Hippus by the great plain or pangea, elves in boreal, Khazad with hills etc.

 

[Gooblah]

Thanks, all!

Now, one more question...

1) Looking at the tech path, I see 3 'ways' to military strength: Melee, Animal/Recon/Mounted (Feral Bond, Domesticate Elephants), and Magic. Is this analysis correct, and if so, should I go through all three or one specifically?

 

[Demus]

the main ones are:
1. Melee (metal techs)
2. Magic
3. Recon (rangers/assassins -> beastmasters / shadows) and druids if neutral
4. Religious (priests, paladins/eidolons)
5. Mounted

Generally, you pick 1 main path, but divert from it to get other bonusses from the other paths (secondary paths if you will). Adepts can be usefull for any empire without spending to much research in them. Same goes for the metal techs (bronze is needed anyway to chop forests, iron is usefull and needed for some of the later units). The mounted line up to trade speaks for itself, same goes for founding a religion. Recon isn't always necessary, but the baron is often to powerful to pass up if easily reachable.

 

[Nonobots]

1) Looking at the tech path, I see 3 'ways' to military strength: Melee, Animal/Recon/Mounted (Feral Bond, Domesticate Elephants), and Magic. Is this analysis correct, and if so, should I go through all three or one specifically?

These days I play Amurites... and here is the way I do it.

Magic can make your main combat units with summons (elemental path and some others) it can be used to buff your other units (body, enchantment, etc) or it can be about something else...

For myself I only go the metal path for basic units (Axemen, champions, immortals) with a complement of summons and buffs (wizards and archmages) I often hae a couple of elephants, spiders and bears but just leftovers from an early phase. Animals belong in cages.

Of course all this is only good for civs that can make it happen. Elohim, Sheams, Amurites, Grigori, etc. Forget that for Khazad or the Clan or the Doviellos.