FFH - A Shadow Introduction

[Ozbenno]

Got it.

I think we need to prepare to take out either Auric or Jonas as soon as possible to get the AC going. I think Jonas would be better as Auric's land will be more affected by the blight.

Researching Iron Working might be a good idea.

I'll wait on thoughts before playing...

 

[darrelljs]

Sorry fellas, I guess Engineering was a bad detour . Well, I would propose we do a beeline for Eater of Dreams. Those units seem really good for a rolling conquest, and I'd like to play with them.

Conroe,

I think the hell terrain replacement is as follows:

Grassland -> Broken Lands
Plains -> Fields of Perdition
Desert -> Burning Sands

I'm not 100% sure what happens to Tundra/Ice, but I would guess they convert to Burning Sands as well. Anyway, so far as I understand the transformation to hell terrain should follow the above, we shouldn't see any Grassland turn into Burning Sands. Someone with more experience might want to chime in .

Darrell

 

[uberfish]

Most of the world is evil so the hell terrain will spread pretty fast, but Sacrifice the Weak mitigates the food loss to a large extent. I think Auric is planning to attack us anyway, I would gather forces to attack him and maybe take out Hyborem as well.

 

[Conroe]

I think the hell terrain replacement is as follows:

Grassland -> Broken Lands
Plains -> Fields of Perdition
Desert -> Burning Sands

but Sacrifice the Weak mitigates the food loss to a large extent.

Thanks, Darrell! I did rather figure most of that out. The problem comes in with the fact that flood plains are a terrain feature of desert. When the desert tile is replaced with a burning sands tile, the floodplains terrain feature is removed and it goes from a 3f tile to no food. Our capital has no other food resources, and was relying on the flood plains to provide the city's growth. I was able to juggle things around (fired any specialists, worked fewer mines, etc.) to stop the starvation, thanks to the sacrifice the weak civic. But with the loss of the flood plains, our capital is definitely not the uber-city that it once was. That was the point that I was trying to make in my report.

We've also got a couple of other cities relying on floodplains south of our capital. As the fires spread, we are probably going to have the same issues in those cities, as well. The other problem we are having is the fires are blocking of many of our roads heading towards Auric's lands. I've built quite a few new roads, but I'm sure there are still a few more that need to be put down.

 

[stuge]

Will the hellish terrain disappear if we take Hyborem out? Losing the productivity of our capital really sucks. Why didn't that sucker spawn somewhere near Capria?

Of Auric and Jonas, we should attack the one, whose cities we can raze fastest.

 

[Ozbenno]

If we capture/build a law (maybe life can't remember) node, we can cast sanctify on the hell terrain to return it to normal but unless Hyborem is destroyed it'll just come back. We have to get rid of him somehow...

I'm going to play tonight (12 hours or so), will check where the majority forces are set up for invasion and take it from there.

 

[reverend oats]

FYI, it's a life node, but building one as the demon-summoning, human-sacrificing Sheaim is just... wrong.

 

[Ozbenno]

Os-Gabella was growing impatient as Armageddon was coming too slowly for her liking.

OK, I played about 4 turns, declared on Auric early. I stopped as I had an idea of what I want to do but need some feedback first.

Basically I want to cast Worldbreak and decalre on Jonas as well. I have decent armies down south with more troops available and being built. I feel it is in keeping with our nature but its obviously a big step and there will be lots of war.

Speaking of which, how cool does the Azar look (pity about the sign in the background).



I've only dabbled round the edges of magic before and never encountered this summoned unit.

 

[darrelljs]

Go for it!

@Conroe - shoot I didn't think about floodplains, they is a big problem .

Darrell

 

[Ozbenno]

Yeah I will but will hold of Worldbreak for the moment, as we up the counter and enter the last days it will be better spent I think.

Jonas though is toast.

I'm going to enjoy these turns!

 

[Ozbenno]

Os-Gabella was growing impatient as Armageddon was coming too slowly for her liking. The patience she had gathered to herself over countless ages was wearing down. The closer the end came the more she welcomed it. The infernal were doing their part in the destruction of the world but one man in particular had done little to bring all life to an end. It was time to prompt some action.



This early success brought with it a feeling Os-Gabella hadn't experienced since a distant age, HUNGER.

Hunger for destruction and a hunger for the end.

"More. I must have more."



However, things didn't quite go according to her wishes...

Spoiler :

AC starts at 44 so I want to bump it up some.

A quick check shows we need 9 techs for Divine Essence, Engineering and Iron Working are both on the way, so we may as well complete Engineering before we get too much beaker decay. I then complete Iron Working.

As some of Auric's cities are AV cities, we need to keep them, as otherwise it will actually lower the AC.



I make a quick trade with Jonas before I declare.



He, at least has a friend.



Only ever saw one scout and was able to get peace for cash by then end.

Hyborem has a few techs we can use. I get Code of Laws as well (one of our required techs to Divine Essence and our dragon).



Rantine shows up early.



And checks out as well.



I don't have to worry about razing Jonas' cities.



Another death node planted.



So why aren't things going great then?

We lost some troops (mainly summoned) and the WW is high 6-9 in most cities. This means our finances stink as virtually all cities are unhappy. I switched from Religion to Nationhood (?). Our armies are still fine and both Jonas and Auric are putting up only token efforts now.

Both Auric and Jonas will take peace for tech. We need to with at least one of them. Maybe use the 10 turns to whip out more troops and upgrade existing ones to Iron weapons.

We are struggling financially (negative at 0% but have plenty of cash reserves), so maybe whipping some courthouses might help in peacetime.

AC ended up at 62 and is bubbling along nicely.

Roster:
Ozbenno
uberfish - UP
stuge - On Deck
darrelljs
MorganKnight
Conroe

 

[Ozbenno]

One thing I forgot to mention. What to research?

I left research on Divine Right to continue the path to dragons but trying to get to Sorcery might also be worthwhile (may be able to pick up Alteration from Jonas in a peace talk).

 

[uberfish]

I'm not sure why we are at war with 2 civs here, but the important question isn't what to do about the wars or our economy, but rather: what would be the most evil thing to do?

(ie, got it)

 

[Ozbenno]

I'm not sure why we are at war with 2 civs here...what would be the most evil thing to do?

Good to see you answering your own question

 

[Rex rgis of Ter]

Lurkers Comment
Glad to see the Armaggedon coming. Hope you can pick up the pace.

Erebus----Sheaim

 

[uberfish]

Apologies for the slowness, but the hellfire graphics in this version of FFH seem to be giving my computer fits - the game lags a lot whenever there's hellfire on the screen and I had a crash trying to play my turn last night. Turning particle effects and animations off didn't help. Anyone know a way to fix this lag for a less-than-top-end system?

 

[Ozbenno]

Not sure. You've already tried what I would have done.

 

[Morganknight]

Try asking in the FFH forum. I'm sure someone there could help...maybe...

 

[Madtown]

Heyo.

Long time lurker here and thought I'd finally register and make a comment.

RE: flood plains turning into burning sands.

The only fix for this that I've found is to first cast santify then use spring (channeling I water spell). You end up with a plains tile, but thats better than the aweful 0 food burning sands. Santify must be cast first in order to use spring.

One last thing, beware the coming of the four horsemen! Just a few more ticks of the AC and the first one will pop up. Be prepared.

Enjoying the game immensely. Keep it up!

 

[Ozbenno]

Thanks for the comments Madtown! The coming of the four horsemen should be interesting.

Problem with sanctify/spring is that the hell terrain tends to spread quicker than you can repair it. The only new source of mana we could get access to is the city Auric has in our north in any case.