FFH - A Shadow Introduction

This is one I will be lurking!

I'm playing too much civ already and can't commit myself for another game, but FfH is my favourite part of civ 4 :).
(+If I was playing, it would become a trash from heaven game)
 
Unfortunately Gameflood is the only download for the mod
I can't say that I'm too enamored with Gameflood. :gripe: But I now have the mod downloaded. But what's the scoop with the patch? I still can't find the "g" patch, but I have downloaded the "f" patch.

Armageddon Counter is a counter for all "evil" things. It goes up as barbarian cities form, evil religion (Ashen Veil) is founded and spreads and as cities are razed, among others. As it increases various effects are enforced (40 - most tile improvemtns removed, 90 - Most units will turn barbarian). You can also lower the AC by negating the things that raise it (the wiki had a really good listing for this).

Altar of Luonnatar victory is where you use a series of Great Prophets to build a series of altars (I think you need 7)
I'm probably missing something here ... But wouldn't the Armageddon Counter make the "evil" variant unwinnable? If we've got to get the counter up to 100, and at 100 we lose our tile improvements and units ... :confused: Are evil civs immune to the effects, possibly? Because without any resource, or an economy, or any units ... :huh:

And wouldn't 7 Great Prophets be pretty easy to acquire? Especially for a Philosophical civ? On the surface, the altar seems to be a pretty cheesy victory condition. :dunno: Sorry if these are pretty stupid questions. Its just that the available documentation doesn't seem to mention the victory conditions in any detail ...
 
For the alter you also need to research a hugely expensive tech and the 7th alter must be built by hand, and it is very expensive.
 
Yes, you can still rush it. That is by far the fastest way to build it, execpt for slave-rushing with undercoucil which is exploitive.
 
OK, that's everyone. Although if a couple more people interested, we can start a second game.

The latest released patch is f, so that's what we'll play in.

As for the counter-intuitive evil victory condition, the Sheaim are themed as "Bringers of Armageddon", their unique spell and ritual are designed to increase the AC counter.

Looks like we have 3 in favour of the Sheaim, so lets go with that. I'll post a start and some info tonight.
 
Let's start.



We are Os-Gabella of the Sheaim (spi/sum).







Spiritual is similar to Civ IV, no anarchy when changing civics (and there are alot of civic options in FFH) and double speed temples. You also get a free Mobility promotion (extra movement point) for disciple units (religious units).

Summoner is a new trait. Usually summoned units only last to the end of the turn in which they are summoned. The Summoner trait allows them to last for 2 extra turns.

And our starting location.



Seems decent enough. We should settle in place I think. Maybe move north to get the wine but then we lose the floodplains.

You'll notice that we start with a warrior and scout, this is common to all civs in FFH.

As for initial builds and research. One of things that you'll find with FFH is that it is a lot more combat oriented than Civ IV. Therefore I usually build 2-3 warriors continually from the get go (maybe a scout if my starting scout dies early). The XP limit for barbarians is 100XP, so starting units can be very powerful by the end game.

As for research, our only resouce is Cows so Agriculture --> Animal Handling seems the thing to do. I like getting Animal Handling early as it allows the Capture promotion for scouts (allows them to capture animals they defeat in battle), so that seems the thing to do. Another thing you'll find is that while military builds can be quite cheap, research and settlers/workers take a lot longer.

Another thing you'll find is that the basics of gameplay are still valid. Food/research/production/gpp make the world go around. You can just take it different places.

I'll see if anyone has any comments and will play tomorrow. I'll put uberfish after me in the roster. stuge, have you played before? If so, I'll stick you after uberfish.

As for the variants.

1. All victory options are available.
2. Armageddon Counter must be at least 100 before we can win.
3. We must found the Ashen Veil religion.
 
I've played up to monarch, so I'm fine with going after uber. It's not like there's that much to do in the beginning anyway.

On that subject, how many turns should we play per set? Epic means a heckuvalot of turns so either we try to have a quick player rotation (something I'm not much good at) or then we can play longer sets. Perhaps 20-30 instead of the traditional 10-15?

Also, should we settle 1S? Because if I'm not completely mistaken, there's gold in that plains hill to the south.
 
lurker's comment: The variant isn't ambitious enough, IMHO. Then again, you have quite a few FfH newbies.
No mention of hyborem?
No mention of civics?

I would force the sacrifice the weak civic as soon as available. You're not evil if you don't use this one:p
 
On reflection I've got too much other stuff going on to do this game justice (especially as I haven't played the mod before) so I think I'll limp off the field before kick-off. Just as well there are reserves.
 
Ozbenno,

That download link you provided has a "g" patch on it. The patch is hosted by civfanatics, so there doesn't seem to be any need to go to GameFlood. It is an .exe (FfH2003g.exe), I assueme it is as simple as running it. One other question, I tend to have Bhuric's patch installed, do I have to disable it while playing my turns?

As to strategic advice, I'd normally move 1S with this start to get on a river, but somehow I doubt we will have access to levee's. There is some rock candy to the east that looks tasty, maybe we should go for that :p. Seriously, I'm reading through the links you provided now, but until I finish I'll refrain from offering any suggestions.

Edit: I guess I need to download the media files as well. You have to get those from GameFlood, but they don't require an install of the Download Manager.

Darrell
 
If I remember correctly there are no levees, however Breweries (happiness from grain resources) can only be built on rivers. Although at this stage we have no grain, I would be inclined to build 1S to bring the incense into the city radius anyway. If we want to share some of the floodplains with another city later this is no problem in FFH due to agriculture civic giving FP farms 5/0/1 output.
 
G is indeed the thing. Just save it to your comp (about 15 M) and run it.
 
Wow, Sprawling seems like a neat trait for a Cultural victory. The guy who has it also starts with Philosophical, Expansive, and Adaptive which seems to give you any one trait of your choice :eek:.

Darrell
 
@Ozbenno - you are actually QM #14 now :D:D but since they've expanded QM to include all of the BtS stuff, you only qualify for Vanilla and Warlords (just like me). Guess I will have to go and play some cheesy games with the new maps and leaders.
 
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