Connecting Resources Over Water or Mountains?

[Buckwild]

Hi,
I'm new to FfH2 and a noob at Civ4 (I'm only playing on noble right now!). I just want to say that this mod is ridiculously awesome. Ok, on to the questions.

Is it possible to connect resources over oceans and/or mountains? Here's the scenario:

I am playing on the Erebus map. I have the largest continent to myself now (since the other 2 guys were steam rolled by my Grigori heroes). Somehow, I don't have any iron within the borders of my mountain range. I see iron outside of my reach, but I will need to build a boat to reach the other section of the same continent to start a town. Will I be able to share the resources from the mainland with these towns or will the be starting from scratch?

Also, if I connect iron to this town (I have iron working), will my troops need to go into this town to upgrade their weapons/armor, or can I go to a mainland town that is not connected to the iron to gain the promotion?

Finally, is there a guide on the forums that explains how to use nodes and what they do?

Thanks in advance!

P.S. Any suggestions for a fun evil race to play?

 

[Emptiness]

Is it possible to connect resources over oceans and/or mountains?

Oceans, yes. Mountains, no, although you can go around them with roads or via a water route.

I see iron outside of my reach, but I will need to build a boat to reach the other section of the same continent to start a town. Will I be able to share the resources from the mainland with these towns or will the be starting from scratch?

Resources can be shared, as long as you have a coastal city in each area, with roads connecting those resources to the coastal city in their area, and those two coastal cities can trace a path through water tiles to one another. You will need to research Sailing in order to connect resources over Coast tiles; for Ocean tiles, you will need Astronomy.

Also, if I connect iron to this town (I have iron working), will my troops need to go into this town to upgrade their weapons/armor, or can I go to a mainland town that is not connected to the iron to gain the promotion?

As long as the town you want to upgrade in is connected to your trade network, it will share in the access to Iron that you have created with your coastal cities, and the unit will be promoted to Iron weapons in that city. If you have a town that is not connected to your trade network, you will not be able to upgrade to Iron weapons in that city. Usually, making that connection will be a simple matter of road construction, which has probably already been done, so this should not usually be a problem.

Finally, is there a guide on the forums that explains how to use nodes and what they do?

I suggest that you refer to the Civilopedia. It contains a great deal of information about the mod, although in a format that is often not very user-friendly. However, once you overcome the learning curve you will able to find most information quickly in the 'pedia on your own.

P.S. Any suggestions for a fun evil race to play?

The Calabim are fun to play and fairly easy to learn.

 

[Buckwild]

Thanks so much!!!!! Mind if I ask one more?

Do people really spread their cities over whole maps for domination victory? I have 8 cities with a centrally located palace and the city costs are like 43. Is this not as high as I think it is?

When would one consider building a summer palace?

 

[Doug Piranha]

Finally, is there a guide on the forums that explains how to use nodes and what they do?

If you haven't alread, download the manual from this thread. It has lots of information, well organized. Check out the Promotions/Spell Spheres for a nice summary of what's provided by each node.

Also, this thread has some good discussion of the relative power of different spell spheres.

Do people really spread their cities over whole maps for domination victory? I have 8 cities with a centrally located palace and the city costs are like 43. Is this not as high as I think it is?

When would one consider building a summer palace?

Expenses can run pretty high, but there are lots of ways to counter them: markets and Runes of Kilmorph temples give coins for every city; certain techs, civics, and wonders will give extra trade routes, worth at least one commerce per city; building lots of cottages or running Aristocracy (strongly recommended for Calabim) will give extra commerce. Don't ignore great people; they can provide lots of commerce too.

The usefulness of summer palace depends a lot on map size. I play on small maps because my computer can't handle anything bigger, and I expect the game to be over before I have a city that has good production and is far enough from my capital to be a good summer/winter palace candidate.

 

[Emptiness]

Do people really spread their cities over whole maps for domination victory? I have 8 cities with a centrally located palace and the city costs are like 43. Is this not as high as I think it is?

I rarely go after Domination victories. For me, it is easier to force all the other civs to capitulate and win by Conquest. If you are going to win a Domination victory then you may want to space out your cities more, and carefully place your Summer and Winter Palaces. Once your economy is strong and you have a powerful army, the support costs of additional cities will be fairly unimportant. You can mitigate those costs with the City States civic, which greatly reduces city support costs. If your costs are still just too high, remember that you can burn cities instead of keeping them (keep an eye on the armageddon counter, though), especially if it is the %population that is keeping you from victory.

When would one consider building a summer palace?

I generally build the Summer and Winter Palaces as soon as they are available, trying to spread them out to increase their benefit. Sometimes it is better to delay building them until you build or capture a city in a particular spot, because in the long term that will have a greater impact on the economy of your empire (based on future expansion/conquest plans).

 

[DaveGold]

Another palace strategy is to build the summer/winter palace in your homelands and relocate the palace out to your remote conquests when necessary, since you can relocate the palace as frequently as you like.

On a big erebus map it's very tough to colonize enough land (60% ?) for a victory. The other victory methods are much easier, typically conquest.

Most of the evil nations have some fun tricks but can be harder to play. Sheiam games can turn into utter chaos once you set the ball rolling.

 

[Camper Joe]

P.S. Any suggestions for a fun evil race to play?

Ah, the simple pleasures of an evil civilization. Really, it is so very fulfilling to work towards the world's demise entirely. But- On to the question at hand! As you are new to FFH, I would strongly suggest beginning your world domination/destruction with the Illians. You're basically attempting to bring the Age of Ice back, I find it a very fun civilization to play as. As the Illians, you also are agnostic (Since you have your own unimplemented religion- The White Hand) and don't have to deal with magic all that much. If you like the idea of the magic system, the Sheaim might be for you. They are very enjoyable, as they are entirely based upon dangerous mages and the Apocalypse.

Best of luck to you in your journeys! Cheers!

-Joe

 

[Buckwild]

More noob questions!

What is a node used for? Does it make your spells stronger? Does it allow you to access higher levels spells?

 

[Onionsoilder]

More noob questions!

What is a node used for? Does it make your spells stronger? Does it allow you to access higher levels spells?

Raw Mana nodes can be converted into a Magic Node, which provides additional mana. Mana has the following effects:

1) Owning 1 mana resource allows your units to take spell promotions of that type. A single Enchantment Mana will allow you to get Enchantment I, II, and III, but you need to spend promotions on them.

2) Owning additional mana resources gives free spell promotions. Owning three Enchantment Manas will give all your applicable units Enchantment I & II for free when they are built or upgraded, without needing to spend promotions on them.

3) Some units have "Affinities", which increase their strength proportional to your mana. Spectres, for example, have 3 Strength and 1 Death Affinity. For each Death Mana you own, they gain 1 Death strength. With no Death Mana, they have 3 strength. With 1 Death Mana, they have 4 strength(3 Normal + 1 Death). With 10 Death Mana, they have 13 strength(3 normal +10 death).

4) Some mana has additional effects. Mind mana for example, increases your research rate by a small amount. These effects are cumulative, so if you want you can get several of them to gain a larger bonus.

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

great thing: once you have the first level spell of a kind of mana on a unit, you no longer need to have that mana to get the higher level spells. so for example once you get a certain spellsphere on enough units, you can use metamagic2 to dispel the mana node, changing it back to raw and then to whatever you need. your units will still be able to get more powerfu spells of that sphere, plus you will be able to get a new sphere altogether

 

[Buckwild]

Thanks guys! Just a clarification question:

3) Some units have "Affinities", which increase their strength proportional to your mana. Spectres, for example, have 3 Strength and 1 Death Affinity. For each Death Mana you own, they gain 1 Death strength. With no Death Mana, they have 3 strength. With 1 Death Mana, they have 4 strength(3 Normal + 1 Death). With 10 Death Mana, they have 13 strength(3 normal +10 death).

So when I see a skeleton barb on my map with 2 (+1 Death), does that mean that he is a 3 str character? If the barbs had a death node, would he become 2 (+2 Death)?

 

[Emptiness]

So when I see a skeleton barb on my map with 2 (+1 Death), does that mean that he is a 3 str character?

Yes, although if he were fighting a unit that was resistant to or immune to death damage, then his strength would be reduced accordingly for the combat calculations.

If the barbs had a death node, would he become 2 (+2 Death)?

No. Skeletons do not have Death affinity; they are always 2 + 1 Death. A Spectre, however, is 3 + 1 Death affinity - which means that they start out as strength 3, and that is increased by +1 Death for each Death mana their controller has. So, with 2 Death mana a Specre would be 3 + 2 Death.

 

[xalien]

I think that for affinity to work mana must be connected to the capital which barbs don't have.