FFH-01: Fall From Heaven Fantasy SG

[Sina]

OK I'm a complete Mod n00b, so someone will have to help me...

I have to install and load the mod to open the save game? I take it it's not enough for the savegame to have been created with the mod, it needs to draw on local resources as well? If someone could walk me through the process I'd be appreciative

It's quite easy to get it running. It must be if even I managed it.

Download the mod, install it into your MOD folder and start the game. Then go to Advanced, Load a mod and click on Fall from Heaven. The game will tell you that it needs to restart. Let it do that and then you can load the save.

 

[hamtastic]

Hey there. Well, I only played 25 turns, as I didn't want to influence direction too much off the bat. I suggest everyone else play 25 turns as well for the first round. As far as my suggestions on loading savegames, after installing the mod and making sure it works, I would just double click the save so as to avoid the time waiting for CIV to load and then have to reload. But then, my computer's probably a bit slower than some. In any case:

First, some villagers give me gold - how'd they get gold anyway? My wimpy cities can't make that much gold, how do their huts do that?

I found "Renegade Hill" on the spot (game's name), and I start a scout. I go for scout here because worker takes 20 turns and I don't want to have the city not grow for that long. Anyway.

I start researching agriculture, so we can build farms and cottages.

More gold from the villagers.

I meet several other leaders: Nieludh, Marina, and Vulgon. Vulgon says that he looks forward to cracking many of my people's skulls. Thanks a bunch, Vulgon. Good to know you'll be there for me if I need you.



Our scout got killed by a freaking tiger. Lame.

Turn 17: I discover agriculture. I switch to the Agriculture civic (+1 health in all cities) since we already have health problems in Renegade Hill. I start mining to get to Bronze working around the time we'll have a settler so we'll know where to go.

Scout finsihes, I start a worker. Renegade Hill is size 3. Yippee!

Several turns later, the new scout wanders into a tiger, who kills him. I am forced to wonder if itis the same tiger. Beware! There be tigers here! Then, our warrior kills a tiger. Well, that's something.

In any case, you'll see here that we've really differentiated ourselves from our opponents. Yep, lots of differences. Actually, I'm looking at the picture now and noticing there's some sort of strange cropping going on. Not sure I understand that one. In any case, we're first in GNP, and once we get the worker done and some cottages going, we should do quite well. You can also see that all the AIs chose the strategy of not growing their cities at first. So anyway.



Finally, the map of all the resources (although it doesn't show the other civs, which are sort of around to the north there.)



We may want to build a bit more of a military soon - we only have one warrior, who's running around exploring. As a point of something interesting to note, there are barbarian scouts that show up later with 2 movement who can attack. So if you leave a city with no guard, it can get jacked up by a scout in no time. Not good.

Enjoy!

 

[Sina]

I'm not sure it's my turn, but now would be a good time to play for me. So I grabbed it.

Having two scouts eaten by animals is really, really tough luck. Looks like no entertainment for our cities then.

 

[Sina]

This is a really crappy start.

26: Attacked a lion with the warrior to get the xp count up. We won 4 XP and I promoted to Movement1 and Shock in anticipation of the barbs.

30: Worker and Mining finished -> Warrior and BW

37: Our first Warrior is finished and I feel much safer.

Arghh...Graphics gone haywire...now we play "wait for the reboot".

42: Warrior #2 finished. One more and then on to a settler.

48: BW -> AH
Niehlud has Copper, we won't unless we take it from his cold, (un)dead hands.

The Settler will be finished in 12 turns (should go down when the farm is finished). His warrior is in the forrest just north of our border healing from animal attack. The city should go 2N to the warrior. It'll give us Ivory and Corn and will have two FP. Niehlud is right to the N of us and if we don't settle there now, we won't have a chance later.
The Ivory and the Furs need Hunting, which needs Tracking, so we should go there next I guess. Though that will considerable reduce our chances to found a religion.

View attachment 124883

 

[hamtastic]

Yeah, the start's not great, but I figured we could make it work. At least we're not surrounded by jungle like some of the AIs...

In any case, I think we might want to forget about hooking up the resources right now - we don't need the happiness for much of anything yet. I would recommend beelining for Octopus Overlords for two reasons. First, they let you build the drown, which is same strength as axeman but doesn't require copper. Second, it's one of the closer religions. FYI, founding philosophy gives you a free tech, so if we can, we should maybe use that to speed up our tech?

 

[Xtream_Rockstar]

yah i agree i found out that the octapus overlords are a good religon in the begining. and if we do we want to get some monstaries up real fast so that way we can rush them with religon and finnaly we want to get all other religons and keep them "Exiled" so we can keep them contained

 

[omni_paul]

Guys I'm unfortunately going to have to bow out of this one. My machine is borderline schizophrenic when running CIV IV as is, and when I load the mod I just get an instant CTD. I should be getting a new machine from work in about 2-3 weeks, so if you're happy to put me on autoskip until my hardware is better that'd be great, otherwise I think I'm just a victim of insufficient hardware.

My sincere apologies.

 

[Sina]

Guys I'm unfortunately going to have to bow out of this one. My machine is borderline schizophrenic when running CIV IV as is, and when I load the mod I just get an instant CTD. I should be getting a new machine from work in about 2-3 weeks, so if you're happy to put me on autoskip until my hardware is better that'd be great, otherwise I think I'm just a victim of insufficient hardware.

My sincere apologies.

Can't do anything with that.

Well, I don't know what to do. Playing on with only 3 seems to be too few.

On the subject of religion...I agree with trying for OO. I doubt we'll get the free tech for Philosophy though. We need Ancient Chants, Mysticism, Fishing, Sailing, Philosophy and then Message from the Deep. We should research in that order to get the most expensive tech for free, but we might very well not get it at all.

 

[hamtastic]

Hey all,

Well, it's a shame we have to lose someone. I think we could press forward with only a few, although it could be awkwardly slow. I'm on a really crappy internet connection right now, so if one of the other two of you could post an advert in the main thread advertising SGs, that would be great. Still, I'm willing to continue. Onward to some form of religion! (I think with the large tech times that even getting a tech that's not REALLY expensive is worthwhile through philosophy. So I would say if by the time we can research it, no one else has, it's worth a shot.

 

[Lobsterboy]

I would hate to see this SG languish for lack of participation, so sign me up!

I've only been playing the mod for ~ 1 week, so I'm still very much unfamiliar with it. I've started numerous games, mostly on Noble, but more recently Prince, but haven't managed to stick them out into the latter eras when the more advanced military units become available (causes for restarts: civ ransacked by that damnable Barbarian Chieftan; frustrated by lack of Copper and/or religion; tactical/strategic mistake - e.g. changed religions without realizing that the religion-related heros/special units would be lost).

My current Prince level game is the deepest I've gone into the Tech tree- just researched Rage - so I'll be starting to get some of the more interesting units soon. I was randomly dealt an Org/Creative civ, managed to found Runes, had some copper nearby, and "recruited" the Baron and his werewolf spawn, so it's been easy, relatively, to be the local bully and stay ahead of most of the AIs. Two of the other AI's, however, have larger empires, and I'll be interested to see if they are able to fight more efficiently than some of the AIs whom I easily dominated technologically.

 

[Sina]

Good to have you on board Lobsterboy.

 

[hamtastic]

Yeah, good to hear there.

So, here's the Roster as of now:

1) hamtastic
2) Sina (just played)
3) Xtream_Rockstar (up now)
4) Lobsterboy (gettin' ready)

 

[Xtream_Rockstar]

okay ill get started on it

 

[Xtream_Rockstar]

Okay heres how it went down my turn

Yr 51> our warrior PWNED a tiger
St. Augestine wrote the weathiest nations

55> Warrior pwned a bear
57> Warrior PWNED a Wolf
59> We reserched Animal hubandry

66> we meet the Dark elvs and they are not friendly and they made me cry

67> Founded city

68> Reserched Ancient Chants started Polyism

And thats all that happend on to you lobster

 

[Lobsterboy]

And thats all that happend on to you lobster

Um... You forgot the save big guy!

 

[Sina]

Hamtastic suggested that we go for OO religion. If we still want to do that, we need to switch tech path as Polytheism is not needed for it. See a few post up for what is needed. I mentioned it somewhere, I'm sure.
I really see no reason why we should not do it.

 

[Lobsterboy]

The most important thing, I think, is to get Philosophy before the AI. If we can do that, we might have a chance at OO. Otherwise, will probably be too far behind one of the sefaring civs (e.g. Marina) to get to OO first. (Depending on which civ get Philosophy, we still might have a chance at Runes.) In my limited experience with the mod, if the AI gets Philosophy first, the chances of founding *ANY* religion are slim.

 

[Xtream_Rockstar]

sry heres the save View attachment 125137

 

[Lobsterboy]

Played to Turn (year?) 100. Hold on to your hats...

Inherited Turn 75
Looking through the Turn log, I discover that Philosophy was discovered by Marina (Merfolk) on Turn 71. There is no way that we are going to get OO now. We may still have a shot at Runes, so I'll head that way, but even that is in doubt. Since Polytheism will be finished in 3 turns, decide that we might as well finish it off, before heading back to Mysticism.

You're right about the lousy start location. An early war with Neiludh (Undeads) before he hooks up his copper may be the only way we're going to survive this crappy start.

Lets begin...


Turn 78
Research finished: Polytheism
Barbarian Warrior shows up in the South.

Turn 79
Research begun: Mysticism


Turn 80
Shazack finishes: Training Yard -> Warrior
Our next Settler in Renegade Hill will need an escort.

Turn 81
Warrior defeats Tiger (1.4/2)

Turn 85
Renegade Hill finishes: Settler -> Scout
Moving settler to Shazak. Need to expand up North before Undeads seal us off. Intend to settle near copper.
Marina's Scout appears to have defeated the Barbarian Warrior in the South.


Turn 87
Renegade Hill finishes: Scout -> Worker

Turn 88
Shazak finishes: Warrior -> Warrior
Warrior promoted: Shock I

Merd! Undeads have sealed us off in the North! Well, there's only one thing to do now...

Pitface declares WAR on Nieludh!

Yes, that's right. WAR! Really, it's only so our Settler can traverse Nieludh's borders and settle next to the Copper. We may be able to cut it short without a major confrontation. This maybe a reckless, cowboy move, but we'll see.

Turn 89
Scout defeats Barbarian Lion (0.9/1)
Scout promoted: Combat I
Research finished: Mysticism -> Warfare
Since were at war, thought it best to get City Raider promotions.

Turn 94
Dragon Breath founded
City founded on coastal hill juse NW of Copper. Economy takes a nose-dive, but whaddayagonnado?
Shazak finishes: Warrior -> Warrior
Warrior promoted: Shock I
Renegade Hill finishes: Worker -> Training Yard

Turn 96
Renegade Hill finishes: Training Yard -> Warrior
Undead Warrior defeats Warrior
+50% defense bonus and we lose. The RNG is not smiling on us. Maybe this war wasn't such a good idea...

Turn 97
Renegade Hill finishes: Warrior -> Warrior

Turn 98
Shazak finishes: Warrior -> Warrior

Turn 100
Renegade Hill finishes: Warrior -> Warrior
Barbarian King born somewhere SE of Meandor's land. Hopefully he'll beat up on the Dark Elves before moving on to Dragon Breath.

Well, there you have it. Sorry for the mess, but if we didn't get a City up North, we were doomed.

A couple of recommendations for the next player:

I started an Obelisk in Shazak, to delay the last turn required to finish a Warrior. When Warfare comes in (in 2), recommend that we switch civics to Conquest, then allow Warrior to finish. This will allow us to promote him with City Raider I and II. (+3 exp. from T-yard; +2 exp. from Conquest civic).
Renegade Hill has a Warrior queued up to finish in 2 turns. Recommend that we do the same to delay finishing until after switch to Conquest.

There are also an unpromoted Warrior in both Shazak and Renegade Hill. Recommend giving both of them City Raider I, these 4-5 Warriors + 1 more from Shazak to raze Ragalame before it's borders expand. If we're lucky, we may be able to take out both Raglame and Bastradam (see the screen shots below) before suing for peace. I think that Neiludh would accept a Peace Treaty now, but thought we should wait to see if we can take him down a notch before doing so. If a significant force shows up on Dragon Breath's doorstep, sign a Peace Treaty ASAP.

We should also try to get a Worker and a Shock I promoter Warrior up to Dragon Breath to develop the Copper there. Also, watch out for the Barbarian King showing up on the outskirts of Dragon Breath. If we can get 3-4 Warriors up there before he shows up, I think we'll be OK.

We have a Shock I promoted Warrior to the east of Bastradam. I was sending him NW to try to pillage Niedulh's copper, assuming that he has it mined.

Have fun cleaning up my mess!

Below, are the screenshots.

First, Raglame and Shazak:



Note that we have a Scout just NW of Raglame (just off the screen). Feel free to move him.

And Dragon Breath and Bastradam:

 

[Xtream_Rockstar]

We also need to remember about a religon!!!!
by this time its too late to go for fellowship of the leaves or the Dwaf religon (cant remeber name) so we are stuck with OO, AV, or The Order