DMI IX - The Vampire Lord and the Tower of Mastery (FfH2)

Hi guys (and ladies),

welcome to the 9th installment of the DMI series. In the footsteps of Ozbenno's grand FfH Shadow Introduction SG I was inevitably drawn into the world of Fall from Heaven 2, by far the best mod for Civ 4. Or, to be more precise, not a mod, but a game of it's own almost. This SG aims at players somewhat familiar with FfH, but you need not be an expert as the settings are not ultra hard.

The DM SG etiquette applies for this SG as follows:

Spoiler DM SG Etiquette :

Alpha: The quality of your report outweighs the quality of your play. We’re here to have fun, and, of course, winning is fun, but losing in style is preferable to a boring win. Remember, your report should be a new reply to alert other players.

Bravo: Reports should be detailed, with plenty of screen shots and player commentary, explanations, musings, etc; an auto-log dump will not suffice. Shots of the F9 screens and overview shots of the empire are nice too, once in a while.

Charlie: Punctuality rocks! “24/48” means post a "got it" within 24 hours of when the last save was posted, and play within 48 hours of that ‘got it.’ Waiting 47 hours to ask for a skip is lame. Punk out two times in a row, and you’ll be dropped from the roster. Skips and swaps are fine, but try to let us know sooner, rather than later.

Delta: Major game decisions (war/peace declarations, religion swaps, city placement, etc) should be arrived at via group consensus.
1. If the team disagrees with you, either argue your case better, or do it their way. Do NOT just blow them off and do it your way because it's your turn.
2. However, if there’s no consensus and you’re up, do it your way and explain why. Conversely, if someone else is up, don't whine when they do it their way.
3. Similarly, overruling techs or city builds is rude and should be done via consensus, barring an emergency.
4. In extraordinary situations, sometimes an opportunity presents itself that the group didn't foresee. If the consequences of it are great, players should stop, and refer the question to the group.

Echo: Being a better player does not give you the right to belittle anyone else or their play. Other people are going to disagree with you on major decisions; get used to the idea, and play nice. If not, take your ball and go home.

Foxtrot: Thread spam is good. Trash talking, poking fun, gentle ribbing, virtual noogies, and generally horsing around are all encouraged, but don’t be rude.

Golf: Automate sparingly.
1. Workers should almost never be automated, except perhaps late-game or building a trade network. However, if you have to, set your game options to “disallow automated worker forest chopping” and “keep previous improvements.”
2. Use of the “Emphasis” buttons is fine, but let the group know and explain your reasoning (specialization is a major game decision). If you prevent growth in a city, let the group know and remind them to take it off. Do NOT let the governor select build orders.
3. Sending units on go-to routes that last beyond your set is acceptable only if they’re heading for a rally point or if you otherwise inform your teammates. NEVER fortify Great People.

Hotel: There is no Hotel.

India: Sign spamming is rude. Signs can be helpful reminders, but too many signs makes them easily ignored. Once a sign is no longer valid, delete it.

Game Settings:

Mod: Fall from Heaven 2
Version: 0.30, patch k
Difficulty: Monarch
Map: Fractal
Map Size: Standard
Victory Conditions: All available, but only Tower of Mastery counts

Yes, you read aright - we'll try for a Tower of Mastery win.

The leader:



The start:



The Roster:

1. Imhotep
2. Ozbenno
3. reverend_oats
4. Ralph Jackson
5. Immaculate
6. Monkeyfinger

Players can apply for a roster spot now, preference is given to any DM fellow or players I've played with, otherwise it's first come, first serve.

Imhotep

 

@Oz:

You're in of course, I knew I could lure you with this one . I managed a Tower of Mastery with the Sheaim on Prince, I'll write a short report over @ DM about it soon... I've a SP game currently as Alexis too, I conquered most of the Bannor's lands, their last two cities were then conquered by the Illians. However Dain of the Amurites is a headache at my western border, he has summoned Basium and is waging war quite effectively - he came with a huge stack of Arquebus and captured one of my major cities. And he actually casted a spell with his hero before capturing it. So much for the AI not knowing to use Magic...

Edit: On the Vampire Promotion: I gifted the promotion to Rosier and Mardero

Imhotep

 

I'd love to join another DM SG.

 

@Ozbenno:

Naturally Vassals are great because you can get all of their palace mana. So an early Feudalism is a good plan, all the more with the Calabim (enables Vampires). In the end however I was obliged to build the Rites of Oghma Ritual which gave me the missing 2 Mana Sources as the remaining AI were too strong to break militarily. However Military is a huge part of a Tower of Mastery win because you simply need those Mana Sources...

 

Imhotep,

Would love to join though must confess I am in a steep solo learning curve on FFH.....so as long as you experts will guide me, count me in

Ralph

 

Roster updated . Welcome guys !

 

I'll join if you'll have me. I am really loving FFH. I even have a game in stories and tales (blatant advertisement- sorry).

My only win for FFH was a tower of mastery (amurites). I've also lost one game (elves) and left one game uncompleted (dark elves). My current, fourth game (balseraph), is in progress. So, i have some practice, but not too much. This difficulty would be right up my alley.

Anyway, yeah, add me to the roster if you are willing.

EDIT: I realize it would mean rerolling a new start but you might want to consider checking the following options: Living world, Blessings of Amarathon (or whomever), Wildlands, aggressive AI and most importantly, "AI builds don't require buildings". The first four aren't super important and its more just a flavour thing but the last one is very important if you want the AI to have a chance at the mid and late games. Without it you might end up facing stacks of warriors even at turn 300-350.

 

Double post:

In the FFH forums, people always suggest using aristrocracy as a civic with the vampire civs. Why is that?

 

I'd like to try, although I don't have no experience with FFH. I don't even know where to get that particular scenario! If that doesn't matter - count me in (and tell me where can I download it...)

 

Because they are lore geeks who can't get over how well Aristocracy fits with the Calabim backstory.

The gameplay synergy isn't really there.

Anyway, I'd be willing to play. These settings and conditions wouldn't be hard for me in an offline game, but this would be my first SG ever, so that would be the source of challenge for me.

 

lol wut? I don't use this option and my late game wars tend to be against champions, rangers, mid/high-tier religious units, heroes, etc. They don't manage to field the 3 of a kind uber national units, but that's the fault of their tech pace, not their building AI (a problem which, by the way, will only be compounded if we use Aggressive AI). They don't field arcane spellcasters unless they're the Sheaim, but again, no building requirements won't solve this problem.

 

@Winth

Check the Download area... it is right in top.

Warning: extra big mod ( all together does not fit in a CD )

Will lurk with interest this one ( my FFH skils are far from refined.... )

 

oooh, oooh, I'd like to join please.

 

That's way too much of a burden for my transfer. Sorry, Imhotep - I'm not likely to play this SG. Don't count my signup, let the other, better player handle this.

 

The Roster is finalized. That was fast ! I will get the first 30 on the way tonight. Any ideas/suggestions on the opening welcomed by then. Oh, and welcome Immaculate and Monkeyfinger, looking forward to playing with you.

Imhotep

 

Look for cotton or wine and research towards calendar or crafting or look for gold and gems and research towards mining or look for floodplains and unimproved grassland and research towards education.
Conceivably, you could move one tile east and go for crafting. That would give us a bit of research in the short term but it doesn't look so promsing food wise (and we'd need to get bronze working to really start improving the land which would slow us down).

i.

 

I guess that's a stratey especially fitting for Flauros. Organized may let you switch away from City States and use Aristocracy instead, which gives +2 commerce on farms. Flauros is financial, so those farms (combined with Agriculture) would give 4f 3c on grassland, 1 food less on plains, +1 f +1c on rivers. May be worth trying...

 

Just as illustration the AI comes with more than Warriors (that's from my currently ongoing Calabim SP game, turn 453):



I've killed off 3 or 4 similar stacks and several smaller ones with Varn Gosam's Champions and Crusaders and Basium's Angels. Dain managed to capture the city you see there with an utterly huge stack of Arquebus and Cannons and used Magic with Govannon. I recaptured it using Rosier, Mardero and Eidolons, not to mention Losha - but the turn of the tide was me getting Strength of Will and Reagents, allowing me Maelstrom casting Archmages .

Speaking of my heroes, here's what you can do with 'em if you gift 'em Vampirism:

Mardero:



Losha Valas:



Rosier the Fallen:



Let's see if we manage something like this in our game...

Imhotep

P.S.: I might actually see the Meshabber of Dis for the first time there - I'm 58 turns away from him with 237 yet to play...