FFH - A Shadow Introduction

[Ozbenno]

You're right, meteors and fireballs are summoned units. We can create all sorts of havoc with them

In other news, I'm probably going to oop for a day or two, as my wife is about to have baby #3 (we thought we were headed for delivery this morning but things have subsided probably because the outlaws arrived ). I've asked Conroe to look after things in my absence.

 

[Morganknight]

Unfortunately, Fireball and Meteor Swarm are Sorcery spells and not Summoning Spells. Yes, they "summon" fireballs, but they are not technically summons...

 

[Conroe]

I've asked Conroe to look after things in my absence.

Will do, boss!

Roster:
Ozbenno - waiting on a bambino
uberfish
stuge
darrelljs - Got It
Morganknight - Just Played
Conroe - On Deck​

Unfortunately, the city is down to size one from whipping for the Obelisk. Both a Mage Guild and a Library are prohibitive to whip in a timely fashion. There are units en route. Hopefully they can assist in the garrisoning attempt.

Well then, that idea is out. Just how bad were the finances before you revolted to city states? Because my only other thought would be to sacrifice research for the short term to revolt back to god king for the hammer boost. Get our capital to turn out as many Warriors (are they the cheapest?) as quickly as possible to send down there for garrison duty. That, of course, would mean foregoing the Great Library in our capital. But we could build it and the Catacombs in some other high hammer town.

Or maybe a second option would be to let Dain have the city. We should then be able to afford giving up city states and can quickly build the Catacombs and Great Library in our capital. And hopefully without much impact to our research. This option would, of course, be dependent on us being able to overrun Dain at a later date using only Warriors backed up by Fireballs. (Or some other mid-tier arcane unit.) I'm assuming we won't need the reagents before then. Is this a viable option?

 

[stuge]

We wouldn't have to rely on warriors. A bunch of diseased corpses with bronze weapons herded by Rosier the Fallen is more like it.

Of course, that'll take some time.

 

[darrelljs]

Okay, played until we founded the Ashen Veil, in Tongurstad:

Marble city would have been better from a cultural perspective. Anyway, I find that our cities are suffering from benign neglect. We only have four Workers, not nearly enough to support as many cities as we have. Also, for the next tech I selected Masonry since the Marble is not usable without it(although I still queued up the GL). After Bronze Working I would go for Calendar->Sanitation since we have both Silk and Sugar in our borders, but need to be able to chop Jungle to get the latter. Actually, MorganKnight is probably right, Festivals for Markets are more important than the Sugar so Sanitation can be delayed.


Other than that, I mostly built a Worker and Warriors while watching the Breweries very slowly complete. Those are darn expensive buildings, but a wise investment given our happiness issues. I did revolt to Ashen Veil, the missionary is unmoved although the capital is the obvious destination. Speaking of the capital, I'm thinking some of those farmed floodplans can be swapped to cottages. Once we have some Workers.

Sorry for the brief report, but I had a small window to play .

Darrell

 

[Conroe]

Looking good, Darrell

Technically I am up. But I'm going to offer Ozbenno the swap. Just in case he can get a few turns played between contractions.

After Bronze Working I would go for Calendar->Sanitation since we have both Silk and Sugar in our borders, but need to be able to chop Jungle to get the latter.

Not sure, but I was thinking we were going to use our Adepts to burn down the jungle ...

 

[Morganknight]

Yes, please use the Adepts to burn down the jungle...

 

[uberfish]

Our research rate of +91 isn't bad, we can backfill early techs very quickly with it. Veil temples will give us extra research too. But I think we should be training military (Diseased Corpses - need to spread Veil around to enable them), getting our hero out and preparing to fight the Amurites and generally doing some evil rather than getting stuck in builder mode now.

 

[darrelljs]

Yes, please use the Adepts to burn down the jungle...

Ah nuts...there was one right on the tile and I didn't think to use him in that manner . Sorry fellas.

Darrell

 

[darrelljs]

as my wife is about to have baby #3

Congratulations, and good luck...you'll need it . We were going to get three but stopped after two, kinds are a ton of work .

Darrell

 

[Ozbenno]

Well all the rush yesterday was a false alarm, so I might just sneak in the turns today, thanks Conroe!

 

[Ozbenno]

Well I move plenty of warriors around our borders, including towards the barb city.

Spread the veil in the capital.



Masonry comes in and Bronze Working selected.

Start a fire.



I don't notice four cities (including capital) were set on avoid growth until a few turns in

This elephant isn't moving at all, don't think we can take the city.



Bronze Working replaced by Calendar.

I recall some warriors for upgrades.

Festivals is selected to replace Calendar but can be replaced as no beakers invested.



Newly upgraded warriors can work wonders. Barrow gone.



I've sent an upgraded expedition back to the barb city as I saw an elephant wandering about (not sure if its the same one).

Faeryl has researched Trade. None of the techs she has on offer seems that worthwhile but Hunting wouldn't be that bad.



We have a couple of currently unhappy cities that will complete Brewereies soon and we can now get the silk and sugar plantationed to increase happiness. A couple more workers are needed and I think we can afford another city or two.

Thanks for the swap Conroe, you are now UP!

 

[darrelljs]

I don't notice four cities (including capital) were set on avoid growth until a few turns in

Hmm...that's better than not noticing it at all. I kept wondering why the assignments were changing every time I emphasized food. I'm a micromanager at heart and don't have much familiarity with those buttons, next time I see that behavior I'll know why!

Darrell

 

[Conroe]

Roster:
Ozbenno - Just Played
uberfish - On Deck
stuge
darrelljs
Morganknight
Conroe - UP


Let's see ... hook up the happy's, get a couple more Workers, maybe a Settler or two ... Did I miss anything? Do we still want Festivals, next? I'd be in favor of it and Drama for the free artist.

Look for a report some time tomorrow ...

 

[stuge]

I'm with uberfish here. Let's not get too stuck in builder mode. The Amurites can be a real PITA in the late game, so let's stomp them now. Dain has lots of nice land and after we seize it, we'll be big, mean and free to prioritize increasing the AC.

 

[cabert]

So 1 target hit, you have ashen veil.
Next target would be to bring armaggedon to the world (remember to have a huge pile of workers to get your happy/health resources back on track).
The easy way for this is to raze cities.
loads of.

edit : I almost forgot to congratulate ozbenno for an almost 3rd birth;
Do you really think you'll have the time (and nerves) to finish this game? I have 3 daughters, and I clearly remember each birth cut my playing time quite drastically (not to mention my brain cells that got fried from the sleepless nights).

 

[stuge]

How about hitting Worldbreak at 70+ and then conquering everyone for our late-game strategy?

 

[Conroe]

I'm with uberfish here. Let's not get too stuck in builder mode.

But I think we should be training military (Diseased Corpses - need to spread Veil around to enable them), getting our hero out and preparing to fight the Amurites and generally doing some evil rather than getting stuck in builder mode now.

Yeah, there is something to be said for that. But at 135 hammers, the Diseased Corpses are a mite pricey. And Rosier the Fallen is twice the price. The main reason that we need to declare on Dain is to bring the reagents back into our borders. But the marble city of Graelingvig is no longer in danger of flipping.

Of course the reagents are still within Dain's borders, because of his earlier culture bomb. But because his city is far enough away from ours, we could easily pull them back into our borders if we were able to get some culture going in our city. The 20% culture penalty from city states is killing us in that regard. Yet because of our expansion, we cannot afford to leave city states. Ironically, if we could revolt back to god-king, we would most likely have the hammers to start training the troops.

Honestly, I think our best chances of returning the reagents to our borders is to merge the free Great Bard from Drama into the city of Graelingvig.

As for the problem of building troops ... let's face reality, our cities just don't have the production. With the exception of our capital, our cities have been built upon flat land. Workshops will help us out (somewhat) in that regard, especially after we learn Construction. But having only 3 Workers for 6 cities is a major limiting factor ATM. Thus, I'd probably agree with what some of the others have said about prioritizing some Workers.




On a side note, I notice that Diseased Corpses have a "+2 Death Combat". And quite a few other units also have some sort of combat modifier like this. Try as I may, I've never been able to get these modifiers to come into play. Hopefully one of you FFH gurus can explain the concept for me and fill in the blanks that I'm missing?

 

[darrelljs]

Well, I only have experience with the vamps now, but I tend to run Agriculture and Sacrifice the Weak, which solves most production problems. I have yet to leave City States, I just can't find a downside to that civic beyond the culture, which matters naught when you are Feasting and fighting.

Darrell

 

[Morganknight]

On a side note, I notice that Diseased Corpses have a "+2 Death Combat". And quite a few other units also have some sort of combat modifier like this. Try as I may, I've never been able to get these modifiers to come into play. Hopefully one of you FFH gurus can explain the concept for me and fill in the blanks that I'm missing?

One of the cool things about he game is introducing various types of damage. I am at work, so my list is not exhaustive, but damage types include Death, Holy, Unholy, Fire, Cold, etc. Some units such as our Diseased Corpses attribute part of their total strength to one or more of these damage types. Our Corpses will be 4 (normal/physical damage) + 2 (death damage) +1 (Bronze weapons) = 7STR total.

Other units will be resistant to specific damage types. So if our Corpses come across a unit with 100% resistance to Death, they will only be STR5 against them...

Capice?