Favorite game lore

[Plains-Cow]

Veteran Doviello player. Charadon rush specialist.

Oddly, they hit anti-civilization sympathies I didn't at the time even know I had.

Sympathies like what?

 

[Voidwalkin]

Sympathies like what?

So basically, the Doviello as I understood them, are really violent hunter gatherers that are looking to extend the ice age. If they do not succeed, their land is overtaken by farmers and civilized states, a matter of time. This is a real pattern from history, hunter gatherer people coerced into civilization, displaced or outright slaughtered. Viewed this way, the group is really engaging in an assertive attempt to disrupt this process via violence, with a credible chance of success(provided I play as Charadon, that is)

Anti-deity sympathies, too. Meddling gods or godlike figures like Basium should be opposed. Crush both the angels and devils. This dethronement of the gods and their lieutenants is best done with the anti-glamorous Charadon, allowing for dual disruption of both civilized hierarchy and angelic hierarchy.

 

[Voidwalkin]

So I retrospectively checked to make sure I had the FFH names correct(been some years) on the wiki. I did, even after some time.

Curiously, the Doviello strategy recommendation on said wiki still links to this post from a still active user

The Doviello are the secret civilization that few people ever get. Don't play Charadon. Hes a cut price Sheelba that has a better early rush and... little else really.

Mahala is the real Doviello. Her traits are Raiders/Ingenious. Except Doviello units already upgrade for cheaper, so its more like Rai/Ing/Ing. Ing trait also starts with 50 gold which goes some way to replacing beginning with no starting tech.

You may have seen some threads recently about warriors being too good and breaking game balance. The Doviello have a better warrior (+20% to city attack), Mahala's warriors have an extra first strike so they have a good chance to cause big damage in suicide attacks, and they upgrade to Axemen for 20 gold. Normal upgrade price is closer to 75 I think. You're not an Aggressive leader though so don't rely on them for more than one early rush and use your worldspell alongside.

So, the Doviello don't need Training yards to make Axemen (100 hammers saved) and can upgrade warriors cheaply (loads of hammers saved). This pushes you towards a commerce emphasis than a hammer one which is unusual in a warmonger. Go hard Agristocracy with first priority being Tech: Calendar, next Code of Laws and finally Bronze Working --> Sanitation. Don't build many cottages, instead spam farms and try to raise your happy caps. There are lots of easy ways to do so. Public Baths, Civic: Religion, Civic: Consumption with Markets which are another good build to support Doviello upgrading, finally Gambling houses making an appearance late game.

Thats your economy. Your military can take several forms. Melee line with Adepts, Melee line with Ashen Veil, OO melee line, Mounted line transitioning into Melee.

Mahala's Adepts don't need a Mage Guild to build and begin with 3 good spells. Melee + Adepts will never be a wrong choice unless you have no metals.

If you believe that you can be first to Ashen Veil or can steal it from a neighbour then its a good choice. Ritualists move at the same speed as Melee units and replace the need for Siege, Sacrifice the Weak is a good economic civic although it is short on happiness in its column, the Infernal Grimoire is a good way to get Iron Working. The source of Entropy mana is more important than you might think. Rush spell is incredibly useful.

OO Doviello is all about abusing the Ingenius trait. Warriors --> Drowns usually costs 60 but the Doviello do it for 30. They're also a 90 hammer unit so the upgrade to Stygian Guard is also cheaper. Heres the upgrade path: Worker/Slave +10 --> Warriors +30 --> Drown +25 --> Stygian Guard. Stygs are available with Fanaticism which is cheaper than Iron Working even after you've picked up OO and Priesthood on the way, which give you a hero and a good priest unit. Stygs are also better than the Doviello Champion replacement which doesn't get +25% vs. melee.

Finally, the mounted Doviello is a surprise I just discovered recently. Doing some experimental games I formed the opinion that what made warriors good was their cheapness in hammers. Therefore, any civ which could somehow produce units with commerce instead of hammers might have a chance against them. Picking the second strongest unit line (mounted) and the Doviello cheap upgrades (because the Khazad don't have a mounted line I think) gave me a nice little game. I won on a Standard Emperor Pangaea vs. 7 opponents by turn 254. You have to win by being a bully and running a pillage economy. I opened by upgrading about 7 scouts to Horsemen soon after building my first Stables and sending them off to attack the weakest opponent on the map. 3 movement and Raiders trait makes this easily possible. Theres usually one weak opponent who has no metal and mostly warriors. As quickly as possible you should pillage all their improvements, steal their workers and burn their outlying cities. Casualties are not acceptable, but you should try to get as much XP from safe kills as you can. You're attacking to make a profit from pillaging and razing cities, not to win, so make peace as soon as theres no more profit to be made. You then move onto the next weakest civ and repeat until you've made it to Stirrups and have enough gold to upgrade all your Horsemen to Horse Archers. This is when you can start thinking about conquest instead of pillage. Declare war, capture their workers, upgrade them to warriors and start raiding with them, get their army to chase the raiding warriors and attack those weak stacks that leave themselves open with your whole invasion force, retreat to heal, repeat.

I'd happily use Mahala in a game against anybody that wasn't Flauros or Kandros Fir. Don't expect miracles though. With a Financial trait all you have to do is turn up to the game. To win with the Doviello you have to work for it.

This is Charadon slander. The real case for Charadon over Mahala is that on higher difficulties, his aggressive trait allows Lucian to develop promotions more safely, which you can leverage into expansion pretty reliably, particularly with the combo of marathon speed+FFHs long tech times.

Had some good wins with Charadon even on deity. Fast. At that difficulty, it's dicey, initially, taking Lucian in even with the aggressive trait(still winnable if he loses, but if he wins you're gonna be stomping). Barbarian actually helped there, greater force projection, with the occasional goblin fort(synergizing with worldspell to make tons of goblin wolfriders) REALLY strengthening the rush.

FfH community never really gave Charadon a reappraisal. Civ meta recognized the strength of early rushes in later installations of the franchise. Back in 4, versatility was thought stronger. Never really got the praise he deserved. Early rush was thought to be high-risk high-reward, with more reliable strategies preferred, but it was possible to mitigate many of the risks, retaining the rewards. The guy commonly thought a one trick pony actually had the strongest of tricks.

I bet if most civ players give FFH a crack with the updated theory of today, Charadon is actually amongst the better leaders, by having the earliest bonuses.

 

[Senethro]

No, my younger self has the right of it here. Charadon was boring, nor is he faster except in killing capitals. I don't think I make that point clearly enough there. Raiders let you ignore the capitals and just walk around them. Without improvements they are mostly neutralised but have greatly enriched you.

 

[Voidwalkin]

No, my younger self has the right of it here. Charadon was boring, nor is he faster except in killing capitals. I don't think I make that point clearly enough there. Raiders let you ignore the capitals and just walk around them. Without improvements they are mostly neutralised but have greatly enriched you.

I get the strategy. It was where I went first before I gave Charadon a chance. Played 30 Mahala games before Charadon.

It undervalues speed. A Charadon rush is aysmmetrical and committed to to the logical maximum, and when this is correct, killing capitals happens fast, leading to another fast wipe, snowballing. You're using about 30 goblin wolfriders, tons of beastmen and warriors, promoted excessively, as fast as humanly possible. Your economy is tanked. Doesn't matter, because you've defeated your closest 5 neighbors within 40, 50 turns. Game is easy past that point unless you wildly screw up: being at 5x scale is an overwhelming advantage.

Whatever economic crush you incur from this is pretty easily recovered from. It's FFH. Tech is so slow that even otherwise crippling deficits aren't setting you back permanently, particularly true after razing and resettling seriously vast swaths of territory.

 

[Farm Boy]

I don’t even play online to read the messages and see the clues. Although I think that’s not “correct” gameplay.

Ah! That's why you didn't get "dog" jokes.

If you can resist spoilering it, the in-game notes, just being able to see where they're written, makes it massively easier to not miss some stuff. Plus, the phrasing of the world messages is eccentric enough to be fun on its own, once you get it. But yeah, it's half-spoilery. Maybe 3/4ths.

I've been thinking on the message system more(I think it qualifies sort of as metalore in Souls's universe-sharding), and about how much it does spoiler the game. I think that's what's helped me not double-dog spoiler it with online lore(never visiting Reddit, maybe, too). It's like you're already getting spoilers, but within an erratically malicious system where many of the actors are attempting to mislead you just for kicks. Then, eventually, you find the glee in the "meta malice" or whatever. Still no desire to PvP with any of these frame-cancelling weirdos, but the message system I like(and I'm trilled they can still grief each other with the PvP system).

I've finally decided. Going arcane for the next/last run when I do it. Seems sorta OP, but I haven't done it before, and I'm pretty sure almost all the items I haven't seen yet are mob drops, so maybe high arcane will shake loose a few more tidbits.

 

[bene_legionary]

I like that Faster Than Light’s background is almost completely up in the air. You just know that you’re the last chance for your Federation and you’re up against the whole galaxy to try and save it.

I once tried to do a playthrough where I wrote a captain’s log for every jump, but unfortunately I don’t have that much patience :/ the first few jumps claimed a few pages of notebook each. I would have run out pretty quickly.

 

[REDY]

I generaly like Arkane Studios lore from Arx Fatalis through Dishonored to Prey.

 

[Ajidica]

I usually went with Bannor in FFH - going on a Jihad for Justice that isn't over until it is Just Us.

Sheaim / Amurites were always fun when I wanted to mess around with magic.

 

[Akka]

I tried to play something else than the elves in FFH.
But I just loves too much the "nature" aspect with forests everywhere. So, well.

 

[Voidwalkin]

Is it really nature if you're actively planting the forests?

 

[Canadian Bluebeer]

Does Redneck Rampage have lore?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redneck_Rampage

Iffn you don't git off ma lawn, y'all ain't gonna have no lore.

(loved the old guy with the casull)

I like that Faster Than Light’s background is almost completely up in the air. You just know that you’re the last chance for your Federation and you’re up against the whole galaxy to try and save it.

I once tried to do a playthrough where I wrote a captain’s log for every jump, but unfortunately I don’t have that much patience :/ the first few jumps claimed a few pages of notebook each. I would have run out pretty quickly.

Lotsa lore for FTL. It's you vs RNG, and RNG hates you most of the time.
(but, every now and again, it loves you long time!)

I liked the Wing Commander series lore.
(and how many games had Luke Skywalker fall for a porn star. heh)

 

[Akka]

Is it really nature if you're actively planting the forests?

They're elves. That's like nature itself planting trees, so nature squared.

 

[Kyriakos]

Old games didn't typically have that much lore, but it was part of their charm.
Here you are, in control of hundreds of long-nosed bipeds with green hair, now direct them to the exit.

Jet Set Willy is a good example of chaotic anti-lore, in that you weren't allowed to go to bed after a huge party; you were ordered to first clean up in your mansion, but this was the first time you'd get to visit most of the rooms. It's easily an allegory, though I can't say if that was intended.

 

[Voidwalkin]

I usually went with Bannor in FFH - going on a Jihad for Justice that isn't over until it is Just Us.

Sheaim / Amurites were always fun when I wanted to mess around with magic.

Tried it, but couldn't really get into it because of my map settings(huge, max civs). At a certain point, you're razing to avoid costs. Mass genocide doesn't lend itself well to their theme.

They're elves. That's like nature itself planting trees, so nature squared.

Fair answer. Personally hated elves. Very good defensively early.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Nature is made better by no mean
But Nature makes that mean

Said some guy once.

 

[bene_legionary]

Oh yeah, forgot to mention Bungie and the Marathon games’ lore. That stuff is pretty expansive and there’s been a community analysing it for the past 20 years.