What would you recommend to a player fairly new to FFH to experience the most from what it has to offer?
So far I tried
1/ one Huge/Marathon game with every civ on an Erebus styled map - about six or seven civs died early on and it became slow and crashed every few turns past turn 500, I abandoned it.
2/ one Normal (I think)/Epic game with seven civs on another Erebus map. At turn 640 turn/loading times are tolerable, I haven't had a single CTD and Armageddon seems to be approaching (about to get to future tech, counter at 60, Infernals/Mercurians expanding)...
but this time it was way too easy. All the other civs except Sandalphon (powerful in my first game too) stagnated at around turn 250 and nothing much has happened. No wars and more than 70% of the map is unsettled (though now 50% of it is a burning wasteland).
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Civs:
Ljosfar (good elves) on a six civ island in the south, very cultured, huge cities but technologically backward until I help them out, the one good civ, score 1400
Mercurians took over the Ljosfar capital city in the middle of that island (so they have no access to water, are surrounded so they can't expand), have done nothing, score stuck at 400
Sandalphon at the lower western coast, the most developed civ apart from me, stayed neutral but friendly toward me and the elves, around ~score 1500, they have about 12 cities all inland of that region
Calabim - almost got destroyed by barbarians, they were at one city until about turn 350 then slowly expanded without opposition and discovered the Infernals - they're still pretty weak, score ~1100 but the largest civ, they have about 10 cities spread out over the red/brown land which I haven't encountered yet
Doviello - were my biggest worry but they never went through with their threats, they were quite powerful taking over all of that eastern continent south of their start location but for some reason stagnated about 200 turns ago, I think they are at war with the Elves but nothing's happened. Stayed evil but never formed an evil alliance and have taken neutral religions, score stagnates around 1200, I know they have more cities on the eastern edge which I haevn't uncovered
Clan Ember - also got off to a difficult start but I think from lack of resources (semi-desertic), they had 3 cities a while ago, must have lost one which was just to the east of their capital, never done anything at all though they had scouts all over the north of the central continent (mine), score around 700
Lanun - myself, after beating back the barbarians I took control of all the two+ square islands throughout the central sea and the southern lump of the central continent (everything above is pretty uninteresting and the only reason I'd have to settle it is to stop other civs taking it). My most recent city was to the north of the Calabim which I worried about but apart from barbarians and recently an Infernal attack I've had no threats. The one city in the NW was a barbarian city I took over after the infernals attacked me (I went looking for them) surrounded by fire. I have double the score of the nearest rival. I've got a ridiculous crop yield/manufacturing advantage over every other civ (more than double anybody else for shield production) and I can churn out a unit a turn in my capital and secondary capital (50+ shields, 100+ for boats with modifiers).
Infernals - map doesn't show it but World Editor does are in the SW (west of Succellus' Tomb) with two cities and a steadily increasing about score 600
Barbarians - dozens of cities in the western part waiting to get conquered by the Calabim
So it's a pretty boring game, I built myself up but I don't see much of a challenge apart from the micro-management and building an army to annihilate all the evil guys. It's a nice map but I think there are just not enough civs or that they are not aggressive enough
I figure Normal/Epic is good though I could lower the speed and increase the map size to allow more civs but keep the game file size/bugs down..
What else? Is there a better map script? Maybe the civs were too isolated.
And what civs would make for the most interesting gameplay? What balance of good/neutral/evil? I read the Lore and it seems the Amurites and the (followers of Mulcarn) are the two central civs but they weren't picked by the random generator. I'd like to see some of those big good vs evil wars people talk about. Earlier conflict would also be a good thing.
I love this game but I don't want to start another game to discover it turns out the same, that it takes so long to get things to start happening , that one side is overpowered or that conflict becomes impossible because of how the map is.
So far I tried
1/ one Huge/Marathon game with every civ on an Erebus styled map - about six or seven civs died early on and it became slow and crashed every few turns past turn 500, I abandoned it.
2/ one Normal (I think)/Epic game with seven civs on another Erebus map. At turn 640 turn/loading times are tolerable, I haven't had a single CTD and Armageddon seems to be approaching (about to get to future tech, counter at 60, Infernals/Mercurians expanding)...
but this time it was way too easy. All the other civs except Sandalphon (powerful in my first game too) stagnated at around turn 250 and nothing much has happened. No wars and more than 70% of the map is unsettled (though now 50% of it is a burning wasteland).
Civs:
Ljosfar (good elves) on a six civ island in the south, very cultured, huge cities but technologically backward until I help them out, the one good civ, score 1400
Mercurians took over the Ljosfar capital city in the middle of that island (so they have no access to water, are surrounded so they can't expand), have done nothing, score stuck at 400
Sandalphon at the lower western coast, the most developed civ apart from me, stayed neutral but friendly toward me and the elves, around ~score 1500, they have about 12 cities all inland of that region
Calabim - almost got destroyed by barbarians, they were at one city until about turn 350 then slowly expanded without opposition and discovered the Infernals - they're still pretty weak, score ~1100 but the largest civ, they have about 10 cities spread out over the red/brown land which I haven't encountered yet
Doviello - were my biggest worry but they never went through with their threats, they were quite powerful taking over all of that eastern continent south of their start location but for some reason stagnated about 200 turns ago, I think they are at war with the Elves but nothing's happened. Stayed evil but never formed an evil alliance and have taken neutral religions, score stagnates around 1200, I know they have more cities on the eastern edge which I haevn't uncovered
Clan Ember - also got off to a difficult start but I think from lack of resources (semi-desertic), they had 3 cities a while ago, must have lost one which was just to the east of their capital, never done anything at all though they had scouts all over the north of the central continent (mine), score around 700
Lanun - myself, after beating back the barbarians I took control of all the two+ square islands throughout the central sea and the southern lump of the central continent (everything above is pretty uninteresting and the only reason I'd have to settle it is to stop other civs taking it). My most recent city was to the north of the Calabim which I worried about but apart from barbarians and recently an Infernal attack I've had no threats. The one city in the NW was a barbarian city I took over after the infernals attacked me (I went looking for them) surrounded by fire. I have double the score of the nearest rival. I've got a ridiculous crop yield/manufacturing advantage over every other civ (more than double anybody else for shield production) and I can churn out a unit a turn in my capital and secondary capital (50+ shields, 100+ for boats with modifiers).
Infernals - map doesn't show it but World Editor does are in the SW (west of Succellus' Tomb) with two cities and a steadily increasing about score 600
Barbarians - dozens of cities in the western part waiting to get conquered by the Calabim
So it's a pretty boring game, I built myself up but I don't see much of a challenge apart from the micro-management and building an army to annihilate all the evil guys. It's a nice map but I think there are just not enough civs or that they are not aggressive enough
I figure Normal/Epic is good though I could lower the speed and increase the map size to allow more civs but keep the game file size/bugs down..
What else? Is there a better map script? Maybe the civs were too isolated.
And what civs would make for the most interesting gameplay? What balance of good/neutral/evil? I read the Lore and it seems the Amurites and the (followers of Mulcarn) are the two central civs but they weren't picked by the random generator. I'd like to see some of those big good vs evil wars people talk about. Earlier conflict would also be a good thing.
I love this game but I don't want to start another game to discover it turns out the same, that it takes so long to get things to start happening , that one side is overpowered or that conflict becomes impossible because of how the map is.
![[to_xp]Gekko](https://civfanatics-data.community.forum/avatars/m/74/74677.jpg?1475248346){kind=avatar}
oh, and if you feel lonely and think that the default number of civs is not enough ( it's lower than in default civ, more wilderness to explore ) , you should try raising it some, maybe even doubling. if you get nasty and try slotting in all the civs, i.e. more than doubling the default numbers, you're probably gonna start near a couple of barbarian cities due to barbarian world not having lots of space to place barb cities. if you don't like that, turn off barbarian world on any such setting.
from what you've said, I recommend doubling the amount of civs and checking last days. makes for a far more exciting experience 
