Best way to reach Arcane Lore or Fanaticism

[salaminizer]

I'm not the kind of player that goes killing everyone or focus on one objective. I grow my empire, let the others grow them and finally when they declare war that I "join" the game. until then, I research & stuff.

Arcane Lore gives access to 2 heroes that I have never played with: Govannon & Hemah. Then I ask: what do you recommend to reach it? going straight to Sorcery & Summoning would slowdown a lot my growth and defenses (unless I get some adepts with good spells), so I wonder what should be my first researching steps?

I ask the same about Fanaticism. this one is easier, but is almost the opposite way of good defenders. If there's a way to get some good units in the way to Fanaticism, let me know.

I'd appreciate your help

Thanks!

 

[mindlar]

I typically start by building the basic set of technology infrastructure before starting down the road of any specialization. For me the basic set is all of the standard terraforming techs, all of the tier 2 units (with the possible exception of hunters and archers), and trade (if tech trading is enabled).

Due to the way that tech pricing works in FFH2, techs tend to be about twice as expensive for each level deep they are. This makes it a little easier to take a broad approach without sacrificing too much.

With this in mind, once you have the basic set of techs, you can pretty safely make a beeline towards either fanaticism or arcane lore. For me both come somewhere in the middle game depending on where my priorities lie.

Almost without fail, my first steps are working towards education to build cottages. Then picking up either writing (free sage) or mysticism (god king). This early set of techs for me sets the groundwork for everything else. At this point I'll start teching towards the religion that I want to pursue. Then fill out the other filler techs for terraforming and whatnot.

 

[onedreamer]

You can grab Fanaticism from the AI, which usually likes to research it.

 

[daladinn]

as far as arcane lore is concerned , try this
go down the summoning path ass your research , you have the ability to burn sages on alteration and sorcery , you can even if you get a 3rd pick up arcane lore. its sad but it always paths on the top of the tree