Beginner Questions

[Boozie]

I downloaded the FfH II pdf manual and read over some of it. I apologize in advance if some of these questions seem fairly obvious, I did try to search for some answers first. A few things I was wondering are:

-Do I need to download the erebus map separately to play it? If so, do I just pick it from a custom scenario when I want to play on it?

-The manual had mentioned 2 scenarios for beginners of Grand Menagerie and Gift of Klyorin. It had mentioned clicking a button by the advisers. Do I select these scenarios after the game has already started then? Did they come w/ the FfH II download or do I get them separately?

-Is there a list somewhere of who starts with what techs or do I just see that in game when hovering over a race?

-If I plan to just screw around and mostly warmonger on a Pangaea map for my first game can you suggest a specific race/leader to me? Should I try out one of the Bannor leaders?
- Also do you think I should go for education first or towards bronze working if I do this?

 

[Senethro]

1. The Erebus mapscript comes with the game. Though interesting, its not a favorite of mine however.

2. Recent versions of FFH do have the "FFH Scenarios" in the Scenario menu. Previously there was a little button among the other advisor buttons that had to be selected. This was due to python not able to be called from main menu or something.

3. Should be in the civilopedia.

4. Try the Clan of Embers or Doviello civs with Ashen Veil religion.

5. Always get Mining early so you can see where copper is. Then decide to get Bronze working depending on if someone is threatening you. Don't delay Education for too long, and Code of Laws with Aristocracy farms is a good follow up.

 

[Demus]

as stated, erebus comes with the game. There are 2 other, very nice custom map scripts out there though, called "erebus continent" and "mountain coast". You can find 'em in the mods, scenario's and maps section of the FFH forum.

warmongering: try the grigori. You don't have to worry about the different religions yet, while learning the value of the higher experience values in FFH. This civ gets a special type of great person, the adventurer, which can be upgraded to a normal unit, while gaining 1 exp per turn for the first 100 turns. Turn your first one into a warrior, wait 15 turns, and start taking down your closest neighbor.

About the civics: aristocracy + argiculture (civic) + loads of grassland farms is powerful, but quite specific. I'd recommend going city states (the civic, available at cartography) first, so you can stick with whatever economy type you're most comfortable with without getting killed by maintenance.
Both education and bronze working are pretty high priority techs, although this depends on your specialisation choice. FFH is a LOT more about focus than the normal game, and you'll often go through games without even touching a single unit type. Still, for your first game(or games), i'd recommend sticking to the unit types you're most familiar with, which should be melee, mounted and archery units. Leave spell-casting untill you have a more decent grip of the basics of FFH.

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

another great mapscript is of course perfectworld. tectonics is nice as well.

 

[Boozie]

So should I be toggling w/ any specific settings in the custom game, or should I just set up my game normally in the single player selection?

 

[Demus]

turn on "compact enforced" and "hallowed ground" for your first game, this eliminates 2 brand new features that may be a bit to much to take in at once.

 

[Boozie]

#1 Wow sorry for putting this in the wrong forum, I didn't see that there were threads in the FfH directory itself so I just posted here.

#2 Very amazing job to everyone who has put time into this. Not that any of them will read this but this is very impressive.

#3 Thanks for the advice everyone. Demus in particular, you've popped up in other threads I've read with beginner questions. Thanks!

A few more questions:
Can Grigori do the Luonnotar victory? I wasn't sure if they can research everything they needed to. Seems like a viable tactic w/ their fast GP generation as long as I can make sure they are prophets. I normally just warmonger like crazy but I find myself boxed in by sea/mountains on the map I'm playing so I was curious.

Also are there any must read beginner threads out there? I see what's stickied, is there anything in particular that I should be reading?

 

[Demus]

the altar can be done, but is a bit tricky. you'll need the "theology" civic to do so though, since they can't get any of the religious temples.
Another option is the good old cultural victory, their world spell allows them a huge impuls of bards if they're ready for it.

For a victory which delves a bit more in some of FFH's unique features:

Spoiler :

Then of course there's the tower of mastery victory, you'll need to check for at least 4 mana nodes in your territory before beginning with this one though. Research down the arcane path (knowledge of the ether ->sphere's->sorcery etc.), make sure you keep 1 node available for metamagic. Train some adepts, wait for them to hit lvl 4, then upgrade them to wizards (alternatively, you can use one of your adventurers for this, make sure you don't spend all of his promo's before hitting archmage though, you'll want the lvl 3 spells). Have a few of those wizards learn the metamagic 2 spell, dispell. This will allow you to turn back upgraded mana back to normal mana nodes at will, extremely usefull for this victory.
Once you've got one or a few metamagic 2 mages, start building the towers, 1 at a time. Use the tower of divination to pop one of the more expensive techs (preferably the one opening up the tower of mastery itself). Once you've build a tower, use your metamagic mage(s) to reset the mana nodes, build the nodes needed for the next tower, and keep doing this until you have all 4 "minor" towers. You may want to save a few Great Engineers for the tower of mastery, it's quite a bit of hammers.

 

[JonathanStrange]

Also are there any must read beginner threads out there? I see what's stickied, is there anything in particular that I should be reading?

I think the Quick Start FFH2 overview is particularly helpful. It covers all the civs in brief. You can easily scan some important points from its summaries. I forget which forum it's posted in though.

There are more extensive Civ specific strategy threads. They're scattered among the forum. Some are even current.

The AARs also have useful stuff, depending on your fav civ.

Regarding your original post, the Education vs. Mining question: imo, it depends on your civ, your starting position and your immediate goals.

The path to Education(420 ) needs Agriculture (210) and Ancient Chants (210), two very basic techs almost always useful immediately: providing farms and monuments (for early city border growth) and Education itself gives cottages.

The path to Mining (336 )needs Crafting (210) which gives mines and wineries as well as the location of copper for weapons and leads to the Bronze Working (672) tech - which is most valuable if one is going for early strong melee troops. That can be an expensive route.

If I had a relatively peaceful and secure start, I'd probably go with Education. If my starting techs were Agriculture or Ancient Chants, I'd use that jumpstart to get Education first again. If I had a tech path that I wanted to follow early - for example, the Forest Elves like the Fellowship of the Leaves religion and the research path to FoL needs Agriculture, A.C., Education anyway, I'd go that way.

If I started with Crafting as my free tech, I'd go for Mining. If I wanted strong melee troops early (or at least earlier), I'd go with Mining again - remembering that the opportunity cost is steep for going along the metal path. If I had wine resources near my cities, I'd up the probability of an early Crafting and Mining journey.

I usually play the Elves - Ljosalfar and Svartalfar - and their melee troops are none too impressive. So I don't prioritize much early research past Mining; the Iron Working tech can be very expensive and the Forest Elves have their archers, while the Dark Elves have their recon troops. Neither archers nor recon troops benefit enough to justify delaying other research by researching metals first.

 

[Demus]

also, it depends on your current resources and food available. In a flood plains start, you don't need food that much, so mining will be more of a priority than agriculture. On a plains start with a few irrigated grassland tiles, the preferred tech path leans much more heavily on agriculture

 

[orangelex44]

As the Grigori, go for Education. You want a better economy to get the cash for adventurer upgrades - of course, pillaging is profitable too, but getting cottages is more flexible than trying to run an economy solely through conquest.

If you have the Manual (and I presume you do), read the Beginner's Guide in it (written by someone with my name - oh,wait... ). It's not all-inclusive, and not always very coherent (I was in a wierd mood when I wrote it), but it answers a lot of typical questions a new guy has. Start with that, and if you still have questions people on the forums are always willing to help out, and no one minds if you have your own little thread you ask them in.

You might want to poke around the lore forum a bit; it won't help you with any gameplay, but I find it interesting background.

 

[JonathanStrange]

That's a great guide. I used it and got the basics pretty thoroughly and not just for one civ, but included plenty of good general advice. Extremely worthwhile.

 

[JFSebastian]

I've found that its a good idea to try and always keep about 100 availabe at all times, so that you can take advantage of some nice events if and when they trigger.

 

[Boozie]

2. Recent versions of FFH do have the "FFH Scenarios" in the Scenario menu. Previously there was a little button among the other advisor buttons that had to be selected. This was due to python not able to be called from main menu or something.

I downloaded the newest version that I am aware of but have nothing that says 'FFH Scenarios' but I can click on the scenario icon when I'm in a game. Does this mean I don't have the newest version? And are these scenarios worth playing to build my knowledge of the game (moreso than any given single player game)

edit:

Also can someone give me a quick rundown on world improvements. Do I just want to get them inside my cultural borders or something?

Also curious about Rod of Winds, I couldn't do anything with it...

 

[Demus]

rod of winds: any unit carrying it gains +1 "affinity" for air mana. Affinity means: the more mana you have of that kind, the more strenght that unit gets. So, a str. 4 unit with +1 air mana affinity, controlled by a civ with 2 air mana, is actually at str. 6 (or str. 4 + 2 lightning damage, for magic immunity calculations).
About the world improvements: there's a list in xien's manual if i recall correctly. Bradalines well, the pyre of the seraphic and the broken sepulcher are actually "epic lairs", like normal lairs and dungeons but with better (or worse) results. Seven pines allows you to stop all wars raging against you, letum frigus gives 2 civs a special action (illians gain aggressive, amurites a golden age (i think)). Odio's prison works like a citadel (upgraded fort): gives a % bonus to all units defending in a radius around it (not sure on the exact numbers). Most world improvements also give a happiness bonus, quite a few give mana, some basically have a high working yield.

 

[Boozie]

So I just want something like odio's prison near my city to get a bonus? Can a warrior pick up the rod of winds somehow, I couldn't see anyway to use it, does it have to be a caster or something?

 

[Demus]

picking up or dropping an item is considered a spell cast, so is exploring a dungeon or lair. Thus, you can't explore a lair and pick up an item on the same turn. As far as i know, all units can pick up items.

Odio's prison i usually don't bother with, but it can be useful. More useful are improvements like the Tree of Yddrasil (sp), the mirror from heaven, the remnants of patria and the dragon's bones, since they give immediate benefits (tile yield) in addition to extra happiness.

 

[JonathanStrange]

So I just want something like odio's prison near my city to get a bonus? Can a warrior pick up the rod of winds somehow, I couldn't see anyway to use it, does it have to be a caster or something?

You can and should pick it up, take it home, leave it for another unit if you've one better.

 

[Luckmann]

I've got a beginner's question that is probably very easy to answer by a more experienced player - What does Bradeline's Well do? The manual is beyond vague.

 

[psychodation]

its an epic lair (like aisle of somethingor the other, this stupid island). by some bad luck i never got anything good out of it. only a stack of griffons and other not-so-easy-to-kill stuff. anybody ever got anything good out of it?