civfan1
Chieftain
I can see an incoming elven conflict avoid it-Sterotypical Me
Kill those elvies in the name of chaos and destruction!!!!!!!!!!!!!-Real Me
Kill those elvies in the name of chaos and destruction!!!!!!!!!!!!!-Real Me
[FFH II] Orc Armageddon; or How to cook and set the world on fire
- Thread starter Ravus_Sol
- Start date
Game Concept: Civilizations
Well here they all are... the fools in power. Can you spot the Orcs? Yep, there they are, right there in the bottom right corner. The United Tribes of Bestial Races. But we've allready been over the Orcs, I'll give a much more basic overview of the others and only go into more depth if we run into them in Erebus.
The Good, commonly known as "The Walking Dead"
Luchurip
Dwarven Golem Crafters
Leaders: Garrim Gyr, Beeri Bawl
Hero: Barnaxus
Race: Dwarven, Golem
Alignment: Good
Patron God: Nantosueltas
World Spell: Gifts of Nantosuelta
Unique Quality: Golem Crafters
Unique Buildings: Sculptor's Studio, Blasting Workshop, Adularia Chamber, Pallens Engine
Unique Units: Mud Golem, Wood Golem, Iron Golem, Gargoyle, Nullstone Golem, Bone Golem, Clockwork Golem
Cannot Build: Marksmen, Ranger, Beastmaster, Horse Archer
The Luchuirp are a unique people. As Golem builders they get the ability to build their units not through the metal-melee tech line, but through the Builder line. Meaning they have a strange synergy with being a builder and a warmonger combined. They also don't equip their Golems with metals, instead they just need Iron to build their Iron Golems.
Although they are meant to be good they have great capacity for destruction. They have special buildings to give Golems abilities when they are built... Such as one that gives all Golems the ability to cast fireballs. Which bombard cities and cause collateral damage... Imagine it... An army of soldiers all with the ability to summon a expendable catapult, EVERY TURN.
A little lesser known fact is that any magic user that knows Enchantment I who is a dwarf, can also cast "repair" Which heals siege and Golem units. So a few adapts to back up your army means it can heal to full strength every, single, turn.
The Hero of this Civilization is Barnaxus. A Self aware Golem. Normal Golems cannot gain experiance and thus cannot level up and take promotions. Barnaxus on the other hand can. Plus for every Combat Promotion he takes it is automatically added onto ALL the other Golems in the nation. Meaning keeping Barnaxus both safe and highly promoted is essential if the Luchuirp go to war. If Barnaxus his pieces become a item that can be picked up. If the Lucheirp collect them and return them to the capital he can be rebuilt. But if the enemy steal them away you would have to hunt them down like dogs to reclaim your hero.
Their worldspell creates a Hammer in every city... that can either be equipped to a unit for +1
or settled in a city for a free engineer. Obviously a strong strategy is to pop this spell of and then shuffle all the hammers into one super city... you can imagine the production potential of a city with 10+ free Engineer Specialists.
Kuriotates
Children of the Gold Dragon
Leaders: Cardith Lorda
Hero: Eurabatres the Gold Dragon
Race: Human, Centaur, Lamia, Ratmen
Allignment: Good
Patron God: Amathaon
World Spell: Legends
Unique Quality: Dwell in limited number of super-cities
Unique Buildings: Tailor, Jeweler
Unique Units: Swordsmen (Axemen), Airship (Queen of the Line), Centaur (Horseman), Centaur Archer (Horse Archer), Centaur Charger (Chariot), Centaur Lancer (Knight)
Cannot Build: Stable
The Kuriotates are ruled over by a boy-king who holds the soul and mind of a Golden Dragon. He has banded together vast minor species and forged them into a powerful confederation by limiting their growth. All expansion is done by the King all military is owned by the king... simple perhaps but it works.
To reflect this the Kuriotates have the unique ability to have super-cites with 3 popped border cities instead of the usual two. Combined with their unique buildings to gain special resources to trade they can grow insanely large cities. To combat the lack of expansion they also have settlements. Cities that produce nothing but can claim land. This allows the empire to seize resources and strategic locations. Not to mention hold on to captured territory from warfare.
They also have a extra addition to the cottage to town progression. The Enclave adds another +1
onto the town improvement and also a +1
Making it immensely powerful, the only flaw is how ridiculously long you have to wait for it to mature.
The Military is mainly Dominated by the Centaurs. These half man, half horse creatures can move quickly to get to the front lines quickly from the 1-3 only production cities. As you can guess production power is a problem as while the individual cities are more powerful on a larger map they can loose out to 10+ city empires. The End game Military is helped a lot by Airships. Kuriotates can only build a number of cities and if they don't build on a coast they could lose out on victory from lack of ships to sail... this is countered by their end unit the flying Airship! Go anywhere!
The Kuriotates have two heroes... Herne, a Centuar Knight gained near the end of the Horseman line and Eurabatres the Gold Dragon, a powerful, VERY powerful beast. The Boy-King given true form the Golden Dragon require Divine Essence a Tech that normally unlocks immortals.
The Worldspell is a simple culture boost spell. Useful to get the main cities able to work all their tiles or to help the far flung settlements fight of foreign culture clashes.
Malakim
Desert Nomads and Priests
Leaders: Varn Gosam, Decius
Hero: Teutorix
Race: Human
Allignment: Good
Patron God: Lugus
World Spell: Religious Fervor
Unique Quality: Trade Boost in Desert, Civilization of Nomads
Unique Buildings: Desert Shrine (Pagan Temple)
Unique Units: Swordsmen (Axemen), Camel Archer (Horse Archer), Lightbringer, Sand Lion
Cannot Build: Assassin
The Malakim are a group of desert nomads that were united by a Elvish prince... the backstory involved is convulted and even involves escaping from the land of the dead so we'll skip explaining that. All you need to know is that they are the people to watch that will bee-line the neutral and good religions.
They gain double movement in desert terrain giving them the home turf advantage in war. Along with a +1 bonus for all desert tiles for economic power. Also if any of their arcane mages are upon a desert tile they can summon a sand lion. While not super powered it should make any attacker think twice about invading them on their home turf in the beginning stages.
Teutorix is the Hero for the Malakim and he grants an extra vote in the councils, either the Overcouncil or Undercouncil. He's unlocked at the end of the tech path at Blasting Powder. Apart from his extra voting power he doesn't have anything else going for him apart from some extra usability in deserts.
Their world spell is useful both military wise and religious based. It grants one priest of the state religion per city with experience based on the total number of cities. As mentioned priests can spread the state religion AND create a temple in a city so you can use these units to quickly spread your religion around or to boost your war potential
Elohim
Defenders of Holy Places
Leaders: Einion Logos, Ethne the White
Hero: Corlindale
Race: Human
Allignment: Good
Patron God: Sirona
World Spell: Sanctuary
Unique Quality: Excellent Defenders Against Evil
Unique Buildings: Chancel of Guardians, Reliquary
Unique Units: Devout (Assassin), Monk,
Unique Ritual: Hallowing of the Elohim
Cannot Build: -
The Elohim have a... quaint little ability that lets them automatically know the position of all the unique features in the world. Kind of useful but also kind of not. At a pinch it can be used in conjuncture with your starter settler bonus to push towards a unique feature early on.
They are encouraged to go for the Religion Tech Line by the Monk special unit that is unlocked with Priesthood, It is a basic fighter unit with 6 & 2
, mild healing abilities and a bonus vs. Demons. It can't use metals like the units from the Melee line but it will still be very powerful early on and still useful at the end due to it's healing and ability to kick Demon Ass.
They are a normally defensive Civilization, With their special building the Chancel of Guardians boosting city defence and giving defensive to some units built there the Elohim can hold out for a long time. The Reliquary also gives units the Spirit Guide promotion meaning any unit that dies can pass on part of it's experience to another unit in the stack. Very good on the defence.
The Hero for the Elohim is Corlindale, A Archmage unlocked at Fanaticism , he can cast all the high level spells if you have the appropriate mana and can sacrifice himself to cast a powerful "Peace" spell which instantly puts you at peace with all civilizations, Halves the AC and kills Demon Units.
The Worldspell they have is called Sanctuary and builds a wall around the whole nation meaning no enemy units may enter the borders for 30 turns... The Elohim units may however still leave meaning they can perform perfect him and run tactics or hide behind this magical wall untill healed for a major assault.
They also have leaders that have the special Tolerant ability... This means that if they take a enemy city... that city, while under Elohim control, still functions as the enemy city-type. Meaning if Elohim capture Calabim cities they can build vampires... And if they capture Sheaim cities they can build prye zombies and if they take the Lurchurip cities they can build Golems... you can see how this ability can be abused which is why it is in the hands of peaceful leader and not a warmonger.
All in all the Elohim are a peaceful empire that tries to spread peace in the land. They will target demons and evil nations. They are clear enemies of anyone trying to destroy the world.
Bannor
Holy Crusaders
Leaders: Sabathiel, Capria, Decius
Hero: Donal Lugh
Race: Human
Allignment: Good
Patron God: Junil
World Spell: Rally
Unique Quality: Can use Crusade Civic
Unique Buildings: -
Unique Units: Demagog, Flagbearer
Cannot Build: -
The Bannor are the basic Crusaders. In fact they have their own unique civic called "crusade" That that cuts of the ability to communicate with enemies but give you numerous powers. Meaning a war with the Bannor is usually a war to the death.
They have a few special units. A Demagog which can only be built and also spawns from Towns during Crusade and from casting the world spell. The Unit is powerful, inbetween the usual axeman and champion level 5 1 but +25% against melee and is half the cost of a champion. Meaning you can beat a enemy by manpower and a huge expendable army. They also have a Flagbearer that can give a army a minor stat boost to help them win.
The Rally Ability creates a Demagog in every single town and city. Instantly giving you a huge expendable army.
The Hero unit is called Donal Lugh and is unlocked at Fanaticism , He has an item to improve his defence and can cast the recruit spell to instantly gain some units to boost the army strength.
As you can see the bannor are all about the warfare. Getting into a war and staying in a war. They work best under the Order Religion and that means their usual targets of choice are Demon worshippers and demons.
Mercurians
Angels Come to Battle the Infernal
Leaders: Basium
Hero: Basium
Race: Angel
Allignment: Good
Patron God: Sucellus
World Spell: Divine Retribution
Unique Quality: Warriors of Good are Reborn as Mercurian Angels
Unique Buildings:
Unique Units: Angel, Herald, Valkyrie, Seraph, Repentant Angel, Angel of Death, Ophanim
Cannot Build: Warrior, Scout, Crossbowman, Arquebus, Beastmaster, Berserker, Knight, Immortal, Marksmen, Phalanx
The Angels. Although good they can actually be pretty diabolic... their special Civilization trait means they gain extra angels every time a unit from a Good Civilization dies... if you have a Machiavellian bone in your body you can see the exploit here. The Angels actually gain more from warring with fellow good nations then with evil nations.
They come into this world through the Mercurian gate. The Hero/Leader Basium then casts "Convert City" To claim the city as his capital and enter a permanent Alliance with the person who's city they claimed. They WILL declare war on the Demons and the Demon Worshippers. As often as they can.
The Worldspell causes holy damage to all Demons and Undead within the world. When handled correctly the Angels become a War-Nation of terrifying capacity.
Well here they all are... the fools in power. Can you spot the Orcs? Yep, there they are, right there in the bottom right corner. The United Tribes of Bestial Races. But we've allready been over the Orcs, I'll give a much more basic overview of the others and only go into more depth if we run into them in Erebus.
The Good, commonly known as "The Walking Dead"
Luchurip
Dwarven Golem Crafters
Leaders: Garrim Gyr, Beeri Bawl
Hero: Barnaxus
Race: Dwarven, Golem
Alignment: Good
Patron God: Nantosueltas
World Spell: Gifts of Nantosuelta
Unique Quality: Golem Crafters
Unique Buildings: Sculptor's Studio, Blasting Workshop, Adularia Chamber, Pallens Engine
Unique Units: Mud Golem, Wood Golem, Iron Golem, Gargoyle, Nullstone Golem, Bone Golem, Clockwork Golem
Cannot Build: Marksmen, Ranger, Beastmaster, Horse Archer
The Luchuirp are a unique people. As Golem builders they get the ability to build their units not through the metal-melee tech line, but through the Builder line. Meaning they have a strange synergy with being a builder and a warmonger combined. They also don't equip their Golems with metals, instead they just need Iron to build their Iron Golems.
Although they are meant to be good they have great capacity for destruction. They have special buildings to give Golems abilities when they are built... Such as one that gives all Golems the ability to cast fireballs. Which bombard cities and cause collateral damage... Imagine it... An army of soldiers all with the ability to summon a expendable catapult, EVERY TURN.
A little lesser known fact is that any magic user that knows Enchantment I who is a dwarf, can also cast "repair" Which heals siege and Golem units. So a few adapts to back up your army means it can heal to full strength every, single, turn.
The Hero of this Civilization is Barnaxus. A Self aware Golem. Normal Golems cannot gain experiance and thus cannot level up and take promotions. Barnaxus on the other hand can. Plus for every Combat Promotion he takes it is automatically added onto ALL the other Golems in the nation. Meaning keeping Barnaxus both safe and highly promoted is essential if the Luchuirp go to war. If Barnaxus his pieces become a item that can be picked up. If the Lucheirp collect them and return them to the capital he can be rebuilt. But if the enemy steal them away you would have to hunt them down like dogs to reclaim your hero.
Their worldspell creates a Hammer in every city... that can either be equipped to a unit for +1
or settled in a city for a free engineer. Obviously a strong strategy is to pop this spell of and then shuffle all the hammers into one super city... you can imagine the production potential of a city with 10+ free Engineer Specialists.Kuriotates
Children of the Gold Dragon
Leaders: Cardith Lorda
Hero: Eurabatres the Gold Dragon
Race: Human, Centaur, Lamia, Ratmen
Allignment: Good
Patron God: Amathaon
World Spell: Legends
Unique Quality: Dwell in limited number of super-cities
Unique Buildings: Tailor, Jeweler
Unique Units: Swordsmen (Axemen), Airship (Queen of the Line), Centaur (Horseman), Centaur Archer (Horse Archer), Centaur Charger (Chariot), Centaur Lancer (Knight)
Cannot Build: Stable
The Kuriotates are ruled over by a boy-king who holds the soul and mind of a Golden Dragon. He has banded together vast minor species and forged them into a powerful confederation by limiting their growth. All expansion is done by the King all military is owned by the king... simple perhaps but it works.
To reflect this the Kuriotates have the unique ability to have super-cites with 3 popped border cities instead of the usual two. Combined with their unique buildings to gain special resources to trade they can grow insanely large cities. To combat the lack of expansion they also have settlements. Cities that produce nothing but can claim land. This allows the empire to seize resources and strategic locations. Not to mention hold on to captured territory from warfare.
They also have a extra addition to the cottage to town progression. The Enclave adds another +1
onto the town improvement and also a +1 Making it immensely powerful, the only flaw is how ridiculously long you have to wait for it to mature. The Military is mainly Dominated by the Centaurs. These half man, half horse creatures can move quickly to get to the front lines quickly from the 1-3 only production cities. As you can guess production power is a problem as while the individual cities are more powerful on a larger map they can loose out to 10+ city empires. The End game Military is helped a lot by Airships. Kuriotates can only build a number of cities and if they don't build on a coast they could lose out on victory from lack of ships to sail... this is countered by their end unit the flying Airship! Go anywhere!
The Kuriotates have two heroes... Herne, a Centuar Knight gained near the end of the Horseman line and Eurabatres the Gold Dragon, a powerful, VERY powerful beast. The Boy-King given true form the Golden Dragon require Divine Essence a Tech that normally unlocks immortals.
The Worldspell is a simple culture boost spell. Useful to get the main cities able to work all their tiles or to help the far flung settlements fight of foreign culture clashes.
Malakim
Desert Nomads and Priests
Leaders: Varn Gosam, Decius
Hero: Teutorix
Race: Human
Allignment: Good
Patron God: Lugus
World Spell: Religious Fervor
Unique Quality: Trade Boost in Desert, Civilization of Nomads
Unique Buildings: Desert Shrine (Pagan Temple)
Unique Units: Swordsmen (Axemen), Camel Archer (Horse Archer), Lightbringer, Sand Lion
Cannot Build: Assassin
The Malakim are a group of desert nomads that were united by a Elvish prince... the backstory involved is convulted and even involves escaping from the land of the dead so we'll skip explaining that. All you need to know is that they are the people to watch that will bee-line the neutral and good religions.
They gain double movement in desert terrain giving them the home turf advantage in war. Along with a +1
bonus for all desert tiles for economic power. Also if any of their arcane mages are upon a desert tile they can summon a sand lion. While not super powered it should make any attacker think twice about invading them on their home turf in the beginning stages.Teutorix is the Hero for the Malakim and he grants an extra vote in the councils, either the Overcouncil or Undercouncil. He's unlocked at the end of the tech path at Blasting Powder. Apart from his extra voting power he doesn't have anything else going for him apart from some extra usability in deserts.
Their world spell is useful both military wise and religious based. It grants one priest of the state religion per city with experience based on the total number of cities. As mentioned priests can spread the state religion AND create a temple in a city so you can use these units to quickly spread your religion around or to boost your war potential
Elohim
Defenders of Holy Places
Leaders: Einion Logos, Ethne the White
Hero: Corlindale
Race: Human
Allignment: Good
Patron God: Sirona
World Spell: Sanctuary
Unique Quality: Excellent Defenders Against Evil
Unique Buildings: Chancel of Guardians, Reliquary
Unique Units: Devout (Assassin), Monk,
Unique Ritual: Hallowing of the Elohim
Cannot Build: -
The Elohim have a... quaint little ability that lets them automatically know the position of all the unique features in the world. Kind of useful but also kind of not. At a pinch it can be used in conjuncture with your starter settler bonus to push towards a unique feature early on.
They are encouraged to go for the Religion Tech Line by the Monk special unit that is unlocked with Priesthood, It is a basic fighter unit with 6
& 2, mild healing abilities and a bonus vs. Demons. It can't use metals like the units from the Melee line but it will still be very powerful early on and still useful at the end due to it's healing and ability to kick Demon Ass.They are a normally defensive Civilization, With their special building the Chancel of Guardians boosting city defence and giving defensive to some units built there the Elohim can hold out for a long time. The Reliquary also gives units the Spirit Guide promotion meaning any unit that dies can pass on part of it's experience to another unit in the stack. Very good on the defence.
The Hero for the Elohim is Corlindale, A Archmage unlocked at Fanaticism , he can cast all the high level spells if you have the appropriate mana and can sacrifice himself to cast a powerful "Peace" spell which instantly puts you at peace with all civilizations, Halves the AC and kills Demon Units.
The Worldspell they have is called Sanctuary and builds a wall around the whole nation meaning no enemy units may enter the borders for 30 turns... The Elohim units may however still leave meaning they can perform perfect him and run tactics or hide behind this magical wall untill healed for a major assault.
They also have leaders that have the special Tolerant ability... This means that if they take a enemy city... that city, while under Elohim control, still functions as the enemy city-type. Meaning if Elohim capture Calabim cities they can build vampires... And if they capture Sheaim cities they can build prye zombies and if they take the Lurchurip cities they can build Golems... you can see how this ability can be abused which is why it is in the hands of peaceful leader and not a warmonger.
All in all the Elohim are a peaceful empire that tries to spread peace in the land. They will target demons and evil nations. They are clear enemies of anyone trying to destroy the world.
Bannor
Holy Crusaders
Leaders: Sabathiel, Capria, Decius
Hero: Donal Lugh
Race: Human
Allignment: Good
Patron God: Junil
World Spell: Rally
Unique Quality: Can use Crusade Civic
Unique Buildings: -
Unique Units: Demagog, Flagbearer
Cannot Build: -
The Bannor are the basic Crusaders. In fact they have their own unique civic called "crusade" That that cuts of the ability to communicate with enemies but give you numerous powers. Meaning a war with the Bannor is usually a war to the death.
They have a few special units. A Demagog which can only be built and also spawns from Towns during Crusade and from casting the world spell. The Unit is powerful, inbetween the usual axeman and champion level 5
1 but +25% against melee and is half the cost of a champion. Meaning you can beat a enemy by manpower and a huge expendable army. They also have a Flagbearer that can give a army a minor stat boost to help them win.The Rally Ability creates a Demagog in every single town and city. Instantly giving you a huge expendable army.
The Hero unit is called Donal Lugh and is unlocked at Fanaticism , He has an item to improve his defence and can cast the recruit spell to instantly gain some units to boost the army strength.
As you can see the bannor are all about the warfare. Getting into a war and staying in a war. They work best under the Order Religion and that means their usual targets of choice are Demon worshippers and demons.
Mercurians
Angels Come to Battle the Infernal
Leaders: Basium
Hero: Basium
Race: Angel
Allignment: Good
Patron God: Sucellus
World Spell: Divine Retribution
Unique Quality: Warriors of Good are Reborn as Mercurian Angels
Unique Buildings:
Unique Units: Angel, Herald, Valkyrie, Seraph, Repentant Angel, Angel of Death, Ophanim
Cannot Build: Warrior, Scout, Crossbowman, Arquebus, Beastmaster, Berserker, Knight, Immortal, Marksmen, Phalanx
The Angels. Although good they can actually be pretty diabolic... their special Civilization trait means they gain extra angels every time a unit from a Good Civilization dies... if you have a Machiavellian bone in your body you can see the exploit here. The Angels actually gain more from warring with fellow good nations then with evil nations.
They come into this world through the Mercurian gate. The Hero/Leader Basium then casts "Convert City" To claim the city as his capital and enter a permanent Alliance with the person who's city they claimed. They WILL declare war on the Demons and the Demon Worshippers. As often as they can.
The Worldspell causes holy damage to all Demons and Undead within the world. When handled correctly the Angels become a War-Nation of terrifying capacity.
The Nuetral, commonly known as "The Suckers"
Sidar
The Undying Ghosts of Erebus
Leaders: Sandalphon
Heroes: Rathus Denmora
Race: Human, Shade
Allignment: Neutral
Patron God: Arawn
World Spell: Into the Mist
Unique Quality: Cities Inhabited by Shades
Unique Buildings: -
Unique Units: Ghost (Assassin), Divided Soul (Hunter), Severed Soul, Shade
Cannot Build: -
The Sidar are a nation of Shades... Sort of immortal ghosts. Because of this immortality their Great People are more powerful and any unit of a certain level may "Wane" and become a Shade which can be settled as any Great Person in a city. A Powerful ability that means while the Sidar are a builder Civilization warfare can actually help them gain more great people for their cities.
Because they are more naturally ghost like their hunter units gain a ability split their soul to explore more quickly while their assassins are more powerful and can become invisible.
Their worldspell also gives invisibility to every one of the Sidars Units. Useful for a human player against AI's but not so much against fellow human players.
Their hero is a tricky one... Rathus Demora is a Shade Assassin who wields the Nether Blade, a weapon that works best against other Hero's making Rathus feared more by the strong then the weak. He gains the natural invisability of Sidar Assassins and if built while the Sidar's worship the Council of Esus religion he can gain the Mask Ability to give him "Hidden Nationaility". This powerful combination gives you true Master Assassin able to take out all the rival heros of the world without ever decalring war.
Grigori
Godless Heroes
Leaders: Cassiel
Hero: Adventurers
Race: Human
Allignment: Neutral
Patron God: Dagda
World Spell: Ardor
Unique Quality: Cannot adopt religions, Has access to Adventurers
Unique Buildings: Grigori Tavern (Tavern), Adventurer's Guild
Unique Units: Adventurer, Dragon Slayer (Champion), Luonnotar (Druid), Grigori Medic,
Cannot Build: Pagan Temple, Temple of Kilmorph, Temple of Leaves, Temple of the Empyrean, Temple of the Order, Temple of the Overlords, Temple of the Veil, Paladins
The Athiests of the world... and when you are in a world filled with angels and demons who will kill you as easily as look at you... well you can't really say if this is genius or idiocy.
The Grigori have no individual Hero, instead they have Adventurers, which are a special great person with the hero promotion that can be upgraded into any unit type. This has the benefit of multiple heroes that can be anything from assassins to archmages, but it also means if you want lots of them you will sacrifice all the other Great People you could have gained. You would also have to stave of any of the Wonders so as not to Contaminate your GP pool.
One of their special unit is the aptly named "Dragon Slayer" which isn't that good as there are only four Dragons in the game. Another is the Grigori Medic, this shores up the lack of priests which usually act as healers for other nations. They also have Luonnotar which are their only disciple units plus they get magic immunity which mages them very powerful during the end game when spell casters are everywhere.
The Worldspell Ardor resets the great person count. Allowing you to get even more Heroes and if you have all the powerful adventurer buildings, get them quickly.
Multiple Heroes make the Grigori one of the most adaptable nations to use. You can make them all melee units and eventually promote them to Immortals. Four Heroic Unkillable fighters are not just powerful they also really, really, REALLY annoy human players as they decimate their armies. Archmage Heroes gain special abilities making them even more powerful and a Heroic Dragon Slayer can One-Shot a Dragon which is good for a laugh, while a Heroic Beastmaster can One-Shot a Dragon while also Taming it and making it your own... the possibilities are endless.
Hippus
Horseback Mercenaries
Leaders: Rhoanna, Tasunke
Hero: Magnadine
Race: Human
Allignment: Neutral
Patron God: Tali
World Spell: Warcry
Unique Quality: Extremely Mobile Army
Unique Buildings: -
Unique Units: Mounted Mercenary (Mercenary)
Cannot Build: Alchemy Lab, Arquebus, Cannon
The Hippus Horsemen are even faster then other nations horsemen, Combined with one of the leaders raider trait allowing them to use enemy roads and you have a fast army that can cause uncatchable havoc against enemies. This horse army could move 10 tiles into a nation... burn a city to the ground... and then still be able to retreat back to the homeland in the same turn. That kind of manourverability is not just powerful it's insane.
Their unique unit is actually a Mercenary horsemen. Mercenaries are only available via a wonder called Guild of the Nine. For everyone else these mercenaries walk, but for the hippus they are on horseback making them wonderful fast units you can buy in any city. With this sole wonder and a good metal resource you can win via warfare as long as you have enough money. Making the Hippus a good nation to worship Kilmorph.
Their worldspell improves this further it gives every unit +1 & +1 it also gives a basic blitz ability meaning the units can attack multiple times, it has a 5% chance to wear of each turn for each unit so you have to get the most out of it quickly, but a nicely placed war cry can change a war of pillaging runs to a war of razed cities with the leader crying in a corner in fear.
Magnadine the Hero is one of the most powerful horsemen and can recruit Mercenaries behind him as he advances through the land, shoring up the captured cities with defenders for the next push.
Khazad
Dwarven Empire Ruled By Gold
Leaders: Arturus Thorne, Kandros Fir
Hero: Maros
Race: Dwarven
Allignment: Neutral
Patron God: Kilmorph
World Spell: Mother Lode
Unique Quality: Happiness and Production Affected by Treasury, Create Battering Ram
Unique Buildings: Dwarven Smithy, Dwarven Vault (Empty), Dwarven Vault (Low), Dwarven Vault, Dwarven Vault (Stocked), Dwarven Vault (Abundant), Dwarven Vault (Full), Dwarven Vault (Overflowing)
Unique Units: Trebuchet (Catapult), Dwarven Cannon (Cannon), Myconid (Beastmaster), Dwarven Druid (Druid), Dwarven Shadow (Shadow), Dwarven Slinger (Archer), Boar Rider (Horseman), Hornguard (Knight), Battering Ram
Cannot Build: Mage, Archmage, Longbowmen, Marksmen, Ranger, HorseArcher
Mother Lode is the worldspell of these dwarves. It gives the empire 25 gold per mine improvement. It also has a chance of turning any flatlands into a hill. This can be used to fill up your vaults. The Vaults are something special that effect the happiness and productivity of the city in exchange for hoarding money within them.
Maros the Hero is one of the ultimate defenders, with 6/12 and +50% City Defence he can be impossible to oust from a city.
The Khazad cannot produce any of the units down the arcane path meaning their battlefield control and collateral damage needs to be done via priests and siege units. To help combat this lack of cheap initial units the Khazad can chop down a forest into a battering ram a weak siege unit.
Ljosalfar
Elven Defenders of the Forest
Leaders: Amelanchier, Arendel Phaedra, Thessa
Heroes: Gilden Silveric
Race: Elven
Allignment: Neutral
Patron God: Cernunnos
World Spell: March of the Trees
Unique Quality: Thrive in Forests
Unique Buildings: -
Unique Units: Swordsmen (Axemen), Flurry (Crossbowman), Fyrdwell (Horse Archer)
Cannot Build: Alchemy Lab, Siege Workshop, Arquebus, Berserker, Chariot, Cannon, Catapult
The elves get their natural race promotion making them move faster and fight better within trees, their workers build improvements within the trees which takes longer, but means the tiles are all naturally more productive and if they go for the nature religion they become ancient forests that supply food as well.
The Summer elves are mainly defencive. They cannot produce siege units and their archery units gain an extra defence.
Gilden Silveric is the Summer Elf hero. He comes early in the tech tree so he's not brilliant but he makes the elves ever harder to overcome early and his power can give the elves a win in a offensive war early on.
The worldspell is powerful but destorys the elvish economy. It turns each forest in the elvish cultural borders into a Treant a powerful 10 Tree Creature that is immensely powerful in the early game. You can actually make a war assault entirly dependent on these creatures. Pop the spell and march the Treants over the border to take every city they find. If not then simply the threat of holding this spell will make a human opponent nervous about assaulting you.
Amurites
Masters of Sorcery
Leaders: Dain the Caswallan, Valledia the Even
Hero: Govannon
Race: Human
Alignment: Neutral
Patron God: Oghma
World Spell: Arcane Larcuna
Unique Quality: All Warriors Have Magical Potential
Unique Buildings: Cave of Ancestors
Unique Units: Swordsmen (Axemen), Chanter (Assassin), Firebow (Longbowman), Wizard (Mage),
Cannot Build: -
The Amurites have no in depth history. Instead it was this rag-tag nation that managed to fight back the Illians at the height of their power. They did this by being led by the Immortal Magical Master Kylorin. This has echoed down the ages and now the whole civilization is based around magic.
The Cave of Ancestors building gives extra experiance to arcane units based on the amount of different mana nodes you have. Added to this is the magical Assassin that can teleport back to the capital and the Longbowman that can fling fireballs. Oh and Wizards the second tier Arcane unit starts with a spell staff that offers a one time ability to cast two spells a turn instead of one.
Added to all that is the Hero Govannon that can teach all the melee units in the empire adept like powers. Only level one spells... but some level one spells can be useful. You can summon expendable skeletons with a level one spell.
The Worldspell is even more of a kick in the pants. It stops all other nations from being able to cast spells. Giving you full magical superiority during this 30 turn period.
Lanun
Pirates and Rulers of the Sea
Leaders: Falamar, Hannah the Irin
Heroes: Guybrush Threepwood, The Black Wind
Race: Human
Allignment: Neutral
Patron God: Danalin
World Spell: Raging Seas
Unique Quality: Excellent Seafarers
Unique Technology: Seafaring (reveals pearl resources)
Unique Buildings: Sea Haven
Unique Units: Swordsman (Axeman), Boarding Party (Champion), War Tortoise (Knight), Pirate (Privateer),
Cannot Build: -
The Lanun are the Kings of the Seas. They get more food from sea tiles and extra sea resources and improvements. This has the drawback of meaning that you should be settling and fighting entirely on the coast and sea.
The Special unit for the Lanun is the Boarding Party, This unit can attack other naval units and take them captive. They also have a pirate ship all the better to pillage other rival nations. They can also blockade another nation. This works well against AI's but humans will quickly cotton on to the Pirates being from the Lanun.
The two heroes are a Super Pirate and a Powerful Boarding Unit named Guybrush Threepwood... ignore his sing ability. Really... Ignore it, it does nothing.
Their worldspell causes tidal waves around the world destroying all improvements near the coast and hurting all units there too. Nicely it doesn't hurt the Lanun making it perfect for a takeover from the seas.
Sidar
The Undying Ghosts of Erebus
Leaders: Sandalphon
Heroes: Rathus Denmora
Race: Human, Shade
Allignment: Neutral
Patron God: Arawn
World Spell: Into the Mist
Unique Quality: Cities Inhabited by Shades
Unique Buildings: -
Unique Units: Ghost (Assassin), Divided Soul (Hunter), Severed Soul, Shade
Cannot Build: -
The Sidar are a nation of Shades... Sort of immortal ghosts. Because of this immortality their Great People are more powerful and any unit of a certain level may "Wane" and become a Shade which can be settled as any Great Person in a city. A Powerful ability that means while the Sidar are a builder Civilization warfare can actually help them gain more great people for their cities.
Because they are more naturally ghost like their hunter units gain a ability split their soul to explore more quickly while their assassins are more powerful and can become invisible.
Their worldspell also gives invisibility to every one of the Sidars Units. Useful for a human player against AI's but not so much against fellow human players.
Their hero is a tricky one... Rathus Demora is a Shade Assassin who wields the Nether Blade, a weapon that works best against other Hero's making Rathus feared more by the strong then the weak. He gains the natural invisability of Sidar Assassins and if built while the Sidar's worship the Council of Esus religion he can gain the Mask Ability to give him "Hidden Nationaility". This powerful combination gives you true Master Assassin able to take out all the rival heros of the world without ever decalring war.
Grigori
Godless Heroes
Leaders: Cassiel
Hero: Adventurers
Race: Human
Allignment: Neutral
Patron God: Dagda
World Spell: Ardor
Unique Quality: Cannot adopt religions, Has access to Adventurers
Unique Buildings: Grigori Tavern (Tavern), Adventurer's Guild
Unique Units: Adventurer, Dragon Slayer (Champion), Luonnotar (Druid), Grigori Medic,
Cannot Build: Pagan Temple, Temple of Kilmorph, Temple of Leaves, Temple of the Empyrean, Temple of the Order, Temple of the Overlords, Temple of the Veil, Paladins
The Athiests of the world... and when you are in a world filled with angels and demons who will kill you as easily as look at you... well you can't really say if this is genius or idiocy.
The Grigori have no individual Hero, instead they have Adventurers, which are a special great person with the hero promotion that can be upgraded into any unit type. This has the benefit of multiple heroes that can be anything from assassins to archmages, but it also means if you want lots of them you will sacrifice all the other Great People you could have gained. You would also have to stave of any of the Wonders so as not to Contaminate your GP pool.
One of their special unit is the aptly named "Dragon Slayer" which isn't that good as there are only four Dragons in the game. Another is the Grigori Medic, this shores up the lack of priests which usually act as healers for other nations. They also have Luonnotar which are their only disciple units plus they get magic immunity which mages them very powerful during the end game when spell casters are everywhere.
The Worldspell Ardor resets the great person count. Allowing you to get even more Heroes and if you have all the powerful adventurer buildings, get them quickly.
Multiple Heroes make the Grigori one of the most adaptable nations to use. You can make them all melee units and eventually promote them to Immortals. Four Heroic Unkillable fighters are not just powerful they also really, really, REALLY annoy human players as they decimate their armies. Archmage Heroes gain special abilities making them even more powerful and a Heroic Dragon Slayer can One-Shot a Dragon which is good for a laugh, while a Heroic Beastmaster can One-Shot a Dragon while also Taming it and making it your own... the possibilities are endless.
Hippus
Horseback Mercenaries
Leaders: Rhoanna, Tasunke
Hero: Magnadine
Race: Human
Allignment: Neutral
Patron God: Tali
World Spell: Warcry
Unique Quality: Extremely Mobile Army
Unique Buildings: -
Unique Units: Mounted Mercenary (Mercenary)
Cannot Build: Alchemy Lab, Arquebus, Cannon
The Hippus Horsemen are even faster then other nations horsemen, Combined with one of the leaders raider trait allowing them to use enemy roads and you have a fast army that can cause uncatchable havoc against enemies. This horse army could move 10 tiles into a nation... burn a city to the ground... and then still be able to retreat back to the homeland in the same turn. That kind of manourverability is not just powerful it's insane.
Their unique unit is actually a Mercenary horsemen. Mercenaries are only available via a wonder called Guild of the Nine. For everyone else these mercenaries walk, but for the hippus they are on horseback making them wonderful fast units you can buy in any city. With this sole wonder and a good metal resource you can win via warfare as long as you have enough money. Making the Hippus a good nation to worship Kilmorph.
Their worldspell improves this further it gives every unit +1
& +1 it also gives a basic blitz ability meaning the units can attack multiple times, it has a 5% chance to wear of each turn for each unit so you have to get the most out of it quickly, but a nicely placed war cry can change a war of pillaging runs to a war of razed cities with the leader crying in a corner in fear.Magnadine the Hero is one of the most powerful horsemen and can recruit Mercenaries behind him as he advances through the land, shoring up the captured cities with defenders for the next push.
Khazad
Dwarven Empire Ruled By Gold
Leaders: Arturus Thorne, Kandros Fir
Hero: Maros
Race: Dwarven
Allignment: Neutral
Patron God: Kilmorph
World Spell: Mother Lode
Unique Quality: Happiness and Production Affected by Treasury, Create Battering Ram
Unique Buildings: Dwarven Smithy, Dwarven Vault (Empty), Dwarven Vault (Low), Dwarven Vault, Dwarven Vault (Stocked), Dwarven Vault (Abundant), Dwarven Vault (Full), Dwarven Vault (Overflowing)
Unique Units: Trebuchet (Catapult), Dwarven Cannon (Cannon), Myconid (Beastmaster), Dwarven Druid (Druid), Dwarven Shadow (Shadow), Dwarven Slinger (Archer), Boar Rider (Horseman), Hornguard (Knight), Battering Ram
Cannot Build: Mage, Archmage, Longbowmen, Marksmen, Ranger, HorseArcher
Mother Lode is the worldspell of these dwarves. It gives the empire 25 gold per mine improvement. It also has a chance of turning any flatlands into a hill. This can be used to fill up your vaults. The Vaults are something special that effect the happiness and productivity of the city in exchange for hoarding money within them.
Maros the Hero is one of the ultimate defenders, with 6/12
and +50% City Defence he can be impossible to oust from a city.The Khazad cannot produce any of the units down the arcane path meaning their battlefield control and collateral damage needs to be done via priests and siege units. To help combat this lack of cheap initial units the Khazad can chop down a forest into a battering ram a weak siege unit.
Ljosalfar
Elven Defenders of the Forest
Leaders: Amelanchier, Arendel Phaedra, Thessa
Heroes: Gilden Silveric
Race: Elven
Allignment: Neutral
Patron God: Cernunnos
World Spell: March of the Trees
Unique Quality: Thrive in Forests
Unique Buildings: -
Unique Units: Swordsmen (Axemen), Flurry (Crossbowman), Fyrdwell (Horse Archer)
Cannot Build: Alchemy Lab, Siege Workshop, Arquebus, Berserker, Chariot, Cannon, Catapult
The elves get their natural race promotion making them move faster and fight better within trees, their workers build improvements within the trees which takes longer, but means the tiles are all naturally more productive and if they go for the nature religion they become ancient forests that supply food as well.
The Summer elves are mainly defencive. They cannot produce siege units and their archery units gain an extra defence.
Gilden Silveric is the Summer Elf hero. He comes early in the tech tree so he's not brilliant but he makes the elves ever harder to overcome early and his power can give the elves a win in a offensive war early on.
The worldspell is powerful but destorys the elvish economy. It turns each forest in the elvish cultural borders into a Treant a powerful 10
Tree Creature that is immensely powerful in the early game. You can actually make a war assault entirly dependent on these creatures. Pop the spell and march the Treants over the border to take every city they find. If not then simply the threat of holding this spell will make a human opponent nervous about assaulting you. Amurites
Masters of Sorcery
Leaders: Dain the Caswallan, Valledia the Even
Hero: Govannon
Race: Human
Alignment: Neutral
Patron God: Oghma
World Spell: Arcane Larcuna
Unique Quality: All Warriors Have Magical Potential
Unique Buildings: Cave of Ancestors
Unique Units: Swordsmen (Axemen), Chanter (Assassin), Firebow (Longbowman), Wizard (Mage),
Cannot Build: -
The Amurites have no in depth history. Instead it was this rag-tag nation that managed to fight back the Illians at the height of their power. They did this by being led by the Immortal Magical Master Kylorin. This has echoed down the ages and now the whole civilization is based around magic.
The Cave of Ancestors building gives extra experiance to arcane units based on the amount of different mana nodes you have. Added to this is the magical Assassin that can teleport back to the capital and the Longbowman that can fling fireballs. Oh and Wizards the second tier Arcane unit starts with a spell staff that offers a one time ability to cast two spells a turn instead of one.
Added to all that is the Hero Govannon that can teach all the melee units in the empire adept like powers. Only level one spells... but some level one spells can be useful. You can summon expendable skeletons with a level one spell.
The Worldspell is even more of a kick in the pants. It stops all other nations from being able to cast spells. Giving you full magical superiority during this 30 turn period.
Lanun
Pirates and Rulers of the Sea
Leaders: Falamar, Hannah the Irin
Heroes: Guybrush Threepwood, The Black Wind
Race: Human
Allignment: Neutral
Patron God: Danalin
World Spell: Raging Seas
Unique Quality: Excellent Seafarers
Unique Technology: Seafaring (reveals pearl resources)
Unique Buildings: Sea Haven
Unique Units: Swordsman (Axeman), Boarding Party (Champion), War Tortoise (Knight), Pirate (Privateer),
Cannot Build: -
The Lanun are the Kings of the Seas. They get more food from sea tiles and extra sea resources and improvements. This has the drawback of meaning that you should be settling and fighting entirely on the coast and sea.
The Special unit for the Lanun is the Boarding Party, This unit can attack other naval units and take them captive. They also have a pirate ship all the better to pillage other rival nations. They can also blockade another nation. This works well against AI's but humans will quickly cotton on to the Pirates being from the Lanun.
The two heroes are a Super Pirate and a Powerful Boarding Unit named Guybrush Threepwood... ignore his sing ability. Really... Ignore it, it does nothing.
Their worldspell causes tidal waves around the world destroying all improvements near the coast and hurting all units there too. Nicely it doesn't hurt the Lanun making it perfect for a takeover from the seas.
The Bad, commonly known as "The Rivals to Power
Illians
Legacy of the Fallen God of Winter
Leaders: Auric Ulvin
Heroes: The Three Priests of Winter, Wilboman the Frost Giant, Drifta the White Dragon, Auric Ascended
Race: Human
Allignment: Evil
Patron God: Mulcarn
World Spell: Stasis
Unique Quality: Ice and Snow Terrain acts as Grassland providing +2
Unique Buildings: Temple of the Hand
Unique Units: Javelin Thrower (Archer), Priest of Winter, High Priest of Winter
Cannot Build: -
Officially the Illians are Agnostic as their God of Ice is dead. Killed at the hands of Kylorin and the Godslayer. Auric Ulvin is seeking to ascend and become the new God of Winter and he will cause a new ice age unto the world when he does. To show their synergy with Ice they gain as much food from snow plains as most other nations do from grass plains.
They have a number of Rituals that can change the world for the gain or detriment of many. They can bring ice unto the world alone with hoards of frostlings. They can cause snowstorms and awaken an Ice Dragon and even Ascend Auric into the Strongest Unit in the world. A Walking Demigod.
They have so many special buildings and units it's hard to explain them all. The Temple of the Hand replaces the Pagan Temple but it also spreads Ice Terrain around the whole city.Wilboman is a huge Frost Giant Hero Powerful but he cannot walk into deserts. Drifta the White Dragon can only be summoned if Auric Destroys a rival nation. Auric Ascended is 60 let me say that again 60 this God can destroy nations when used right.
If you get to the Unique Feature Letum Frigus, The place of the final battle of the last God of Ice, then Auric Gains the Agressive Trait. When you pop the Worldspell you cause all production, research and economy in foriegn nations to stop. This is perfect to push for a technology lead or to stop a nation being able to build defence while you crush them.
Balseraphs
Twisted Carnival
Leaders: Keelyn, Perpentach
Heroes: Loki
Race: Human
Alignment: Evil
Patron God: Mammon
World Spell: Revelry
Unique Quality: Arcane Puppets and Potent Culture
Unique Buildings: Arena (Training Yard), Freak Show, Hall of Mirrors, Dwarf Cage, Elf Cage, Human Cage, Orc Cage
Unique Units: Freak, Swordsmen (Axemen), Mimic (Champion), Harlequin (Ranger), Taskmaster (Assassin), Courtesan (Shadow)
Cannot Build: -
This is a nation of illusions and lies. I'm even lying when i tell you it's a nation of lies. And this is the most logical sentence you'll hear all day in the Balseraph realm.
The Balseraph give a whole new meaning to the term "Culture War". Their freaks shows can hole sentient slaves just like a carnival holds animal cages. For each different slave race you capture you get culture. Elf Cage, Orc Cage, Human Cage etc.
To top this the Hero is a demonic crazy mime called Loki. He dances through closed borders... into rival cities... and then if those cities have no culture, well tough. They now belong to the Balseraph. Want to kill Loki? tough he can run away from nearly everything.
Oh and the Freaks... The Freaks... They can only be gotten from the Cities once Festivals is researched and they come out mutated... promote the ones with good mutation into better melee units, the bad ones you settle in cities as Freak Shows, or you can send into arenas to risk death for more experience... if they survive they can prove useful in a proper battlefield... if they die... well you can have a good laugh at them. Make sure to name them appropriately for extra fun. These units will end up being built en-mass.
The Worldspell imitates a golden age but lasts for double the length. Meaning you can allways outperform your rivals... on your terms. When you want to.
Svartalfar
Elves of the Dark Forest
Leaders: Faeryl Viconia
Hero: Alazkan the Assassin
Race: Elven
Alignment: Evil
Patron God: Esus
World Spell: Veil of Night
Unique Quality: Elven Workers of the Forest, Sinister
Unique Buildings: -
Unique Units: Swordsmen (Axemen), Illusionist (Mage), Nyxkin (Horse Archer)
Cannot Build: Alchemy Lab, Siege Workshop, Arquebus, Berserker, Chariot, Cannon, Catapult
The Winter Elves, Once they and the Summer Elves were one people ruled in concert. But since the age of Ice they have become their own people. More tempered for war then their Summer Cousins and loving sneaky shadow play these elves will stab you in the back and then stab you again for good measure when you turn around.
All their Recon Line units gain an extra attack strength, very useful for their assassin and encourages the dark elves to venture out an explore the dark forest for creatures early on. The Recon units can also cast the Kidnap spell allowing them to steal other peoples settled Great Specialists.
As elves they can once again build in forests promoting good Synergy with the Fellowship of the Leaves Religion. They are also good with the Council of Esus so either can be good.
The Hero Alazkan is a Assassin With a special dark mirror. Every turn he can create a shadow duplicate of himself that can attack without fear of losing the precious hero.
As you can see most of the abilities of the Dark Elves are tempered towards the AI. A human player would be able to figure out his people were being stolen and his people attacked by elves eventually.
Calabim
Vampiric Aristocracy
Leaders: Flauros, Alexis, Decius
Hero: Losha Valas
Race: Humans & Vampire
Alignment: Evil
Patron God: Aeron
World Spell: River of Blood
Unique Quality: VAMPIRES!
Unique Buildings: Governor's Manor (Courthouse), Breeding Pit
Unique Units: Bloodpet (Warriors), Moroi (Axemen), Vampire (Champion), Brujah (Berserker), Vampire Lord (Immortal)
Cannot Build: Alchemy Lab, Elder Council, Arquebus, Cannon
Vampires.
Oh... you need more then that. Okay. Vampires are unlocked at Feudalism. Head there quickly. Get large cities so that your Vampires can feast on them gaining hundreds of experience points per vampire. Spread the Vampiric blessing to all units. Make sure you have some Morai Cannon Fodder as they can be blessed earlier.
The True Vampires can cast spells, Body and Death, The Death Provides cannon Fodder units and Body speeds up the army and regeneration keeps their lunch on legs alive.
The Special Building is a courthouse that provides production per unhappiness in the city. Making them all a bit more productive and keeping them productive during the feasting.
The Hero Unit is Losha Valas. A Vampire. Nothing much else special.... just the fact that every time she kills something she gains immortality. Eventually you can promote all your high level True Vampires into Vampire Lords which are also immortal.
The Worldspell is called River of Blood. It reduces all rival cities by two population and raises your own by two. Good for a boost and set back early but if you hold onto it you can use all that extra population to feed a few Vampires into higher levels.
...
Vampires.
Sheaim
Seekers of Armageddon
Leaders: Tebryn Arbandi, Os-Gabella
Hero: Abashi the Black Dragon
Race: Human
Allignment: Evil
World Spell: Worldbreak
Unique Quality: All leaders have Summoner trait, All arcane units have Sundered
Unique Buildings: Planar Gate
Unique Units: Pyre Zombie (Axeman), Eater of Dreams (Archmage), Chaos Marauder, Manticore, Minotaur, Mobius Witch, Revelers, Succubus, Tar Demon
Unique Ritual: Elegy of the Sheaim
Cannot Build: Training Yard, Champion, Phalanx, Berserker, Immortal
They want to blow up the world. They will kill and torture anyone in their way. These are the Sheaim, the Worldbreakers.
They are the only Civilization to directly benefit from a high Armegeddon Counter. They have a special building called a planar gate. The higher the AC the more often Demonic beasts venture through to join the Sheaim Army. If this gets high enough then your cities can stop building normal troops altogether and still constantly build a stream of units.
The Worldspell is also based on the AC. It causes damage to all units and starts fired in forests and destroys city buildings. The longer you wait... the more damage you can cause with this spell.
There Hero comes so late that you should have destroyed the world by then. The Black Dragon will dominate the world and if you time a Apocalypse event or the Worldspell then Abashi the Black Dragon can burn a large portion of the remaining cities... and razing cities raises that AC counter even more.
One of the most powerful aspects of the Sheaim isn't anything to do with the AC. It is their Axemen equivalent, the Pyre Zombie. These Flaming Zombies explode on death damaging all surrounding tiles. This Kamikaze troop in large numbers can defeat anything.
Infernal
Demonic Harbingers of Hell
Leaders: Hyborem
Hero: Hyborem
Race: Demon
Allignment: Evil
World Spell: Hyborem's Whisper
Unique Quality: Demonic Citizens
Unique Buildings: Demonic Citizens
Unique Units: Imp (Adept), Hell hound (Hunter), Balor (Berserker), Death Knight (Knight), Manes
Cannot Build: Granary, Smokehouse
The Demons, Once they walk upon the earth Hell Terrain starts to spread. Brought upon the earth by the Infernal Pact Tech. Their Demonic Citizens means they don't use food to make their cities grow and are immune to health and happyness issues. Instead to gain city growth, whenever a Evil unit is killed a Mane has a chance to be born within the Infernal Empire.
The Leader and Hero is Hyborem who starts with a one time Immortal Promotion. This is a useful bonus in case you need to go to war to get expansion.
The Demon Worldspell allows the Infernal leader to choose from the best three None Infernal Ashen Veil Cities. This is very useful, both for the amusement of claiming it from your rival and also because the Demons can sometimes get a bad starting position and this can help mitigate it.
Doviello
Raiders and the Wolves of Winter
Leaders: Charadon, Mahala
Hero: Lucian & War Machine
Race: Human
Allignment: Evil
World Spell: Wild Hunt
Unique Quality:
Unique Buildings:
Unique Units: Beastman (Warrior), Javelin Thrower (Archer), Sons of Asena (Axemen), Battlemaster (Champion), Bison Rider (knight), Shaman (Adept), Circle of Urd (Berserker), Skuld (Immortal), Verdani (Phalanx)
Cannot Build: Alchemy Lab, Archery Range, Library, Mage Guild, Marksman, Cannon, Arquebus
The Tundra Barbarians, they don't have any building pre-requisites like other nations and they have powerful upgrade capabilities. They can promote even in foreign territory and even their workers can be upgraded.
Lucian is a special unit, Not a Hero, he doesn't get the promotion that gives 1xp per turn. Instead he is just a mildly powerful unit that can be unleashed on someone early on in the game.
The Research rate of the wolf-men is lacking because of not being able to build Libraries, made even worse if you use Charadon with his Barbarian trait with -10% tech rate. Instead the wolf-men have to out produce their rivals with cheap upgrades and lack of pre-requisite buildings this is possible.
Because of the lack of libraries it can be more cost effective to create lots of small cities rather then large cities.
The Worldspell gives you a wolf unit for every unit you allready control. Very useful to create cannon fodder or to shore up defences.
Clan of Embers
United Tribes of Bestial Races
Leaders: Jonas Endain, Sheelba
Hero: Rantine
Race: Orcish
Allignment: Evil
Patron God: Bhall
World Spell: For the Horde
Unique Quality: Can Build Warrens for double unit production
Unique Buildings: Warrens
Unique Units: Goblin (Scout), Wolf Rider (Horseman), Shaman (Adapt), Lizardman (Hunter), Lizardman Assassin (Assassin), Lizardman Beastmaster (Beastmaster), Lizardman Druid (Druid), Lizardman Ranger (Ranger), Ogre (Champion), Ogre Warchief (Immortal), Stoneskin Ogre (Phalanx)
Cannot Build: Alchemy Lab, Library, Mage Guild, Stable, Arquebus, Cannon, Horse Archer, Knight
With the -10% rate to tech and lack of libraries the clan need to start of strong and stay strong. If tech trading is enabled you can bully techs of other races after waring with them. But either way you should keep an eye on the Technologies known and try to cut of anyone close to you that is getting more powerful.
The Warren Special building doubles the amount of none-national troops produced. From Warriors to settler. This allows you to keep on a power equality with more advanced races... you just need to be wary of crashing your economy with too many units.
Their scout is replaced by a slower Goblin unit. The special thing is, if this goblin defeats a wolf in the wild it becomes their Horseman equivalent the Wolf Rider. Gaining you a strong unit quite quickly.
Rantine is a weak hero but he comes early. Allowing you to push and establish yourself and your territory, later on he can cast a spell to take control of any barbarian city which he is the strongest unit. While the city itself might not be useful, taking over a city causes all the barbarians inside to scatter causing chaos in the surrounding region.
The Clan Worldspell is called "For the Hoard", if popped early you can locate victims early and grab a lot of goody huts to gain a advantage. If popped later you can steal more powerful Orc units including the Bhall Archmages that support the Barbarian Dragon...
Illians
Legacy of the Fallen God of Winter
Leaders: Auric Ulvin
Heroes: The Three Priests of Winter, Wilboman the Frost Giant, Drifta the White Dragon, Auric Ascended
Race: Human
Allignment: Evil
Patron God: Mulcarn
World Spell: Stasis
Unique Quality: Ice and Snow Terrain acts as Grassland providing +2
Unique Buildings: Temple of the Hand
Unique Units: Javelin Thrower (Archer), Priest of Winter, High Priest of Winter
Cannot Build: -
Officially the Illians are Agnostic as their God of Ice is dead. Killed at the hands of Kylorin and the Godslayer. Auric Ulvin is seeking to ascend and become the new God of Winter and he will cause a new ice age unto the world when he does. To show their synergy with Ice they gain as much food from snow plains as most other nations do from grass plains.
They have a number of Rituals that can change the world for the gain or detriment of many. They can bring ice unto the world alone with hoards of frostlings. They can cause snowstorms and awaken an Ice Dragon and even Ascend Auric into the Strongest Unit in the world. A Walking Demigod.
They have so many special buildings and units it's hard to explain them all. The Temple of the Hand replaces the Pagan Temple but it also spreads Ice Terrain around the whole city.Wilboman is a huge Frost Giant Hero Powerful but he cannot walk into deserts. Drifta the White Dragon can only be summoned if Auric Destroys a rival nation. Auric Ascended is 60
let me say that again 60 this God can destroy nations when used right. If you get to the Unique Feature Letum Frigus, The place of the final battle of the last God of Ice, then Auric Gains the Agressive Trait. When you pop the Worldspell you cause all production, research and economy in foriegn nations to stop. This is perfect to push for a technology lead or to stop a nation being able to build defence while you crush them.
Balseraphs
Twisted Carnival
Leaders: Keelyn, Perpentach
Heroes: Loki
Race: Human
Alignment: Evil
Patron God: Mammon
World Spell: Revelry
Unique Quality: Arcane Puppets and Potent Culture
Unique Buildings: Arena (Training Yard), Freak Show, Hall of Mirrors, Dwarf Cage, Elf Cage, Human Cage, Orc Cage
Unique Units: Freak, Swordsmen (Axemen), Mimic (Champion), Harlequin (Ranger), Taskmaster (Assassin), Courtesan (Shadow)
Cannot Build: -
This is a nation of illusions and lies. I'm even lying when i tell you it's a nation of lies. And this is the most logical sentence you'll hear all day in the Balseraph realm.
The Balseraph give a whole new meaning to the term "Culture War". Their freaks shows can hole sentient slaves just like a carnival holds animal cages. For each different slave race you capture you get culture. Elf Cage, Orc Cage, Human Cage etc.
To top this the Hero is a demonic crazy mime called Loki. He dances through closed borders... into rival cities... and then if those cities have no culture, well tough. They now belong to the Balseraph. Want to kill Loki? tough he can run away from nearly everything.
Oh and the Freaks... The Freaks... They can only be gotten from the Cities once Festivals is researched and they come out mutated... promote the ones with good mutation into better melee units, the bad ones you settle in cities as Freak Shows, or you can send into arenas to risk death for more experience... if they survive they can prove useful in a proper battlefield... if they die... well you can have a good laugh at them. Make sure to name them appropriately for extra fun. These units will end up being built en-mass.
The Worldspell imitates a golden age but lasts for double the length. Meaning you can allways outperform your rivals... on your terms. When you want to.
Svartalfar
Elves of the Dark Forest
Leaders: Faeryl Viconia
Hero: Alazkan the Assassin
Race: Elven
Alignment: Evil
Patron God: Esus
World Spell: Veil of Night
Unique Quality: Elven Workers of the Forest, Sinister
Unique Buildings: -
Unique Units: Swordsmen (Axemen), Illusionist (Mage), Nyxkin (Horse Archer)
Cannot Build: Alchemy Lab, Siege Workshop, Arquebus, Berserker, Chariot, Cannon, Catapult
The Winter Elves, Once they and the Summer Elves were one people ruled in concert. But since the age of Ice they have become their own people. More tempered for war then their Summer Cousins and loving sneaky shadow play these elves will stab you in the back and then stab you again for good measure when you turn around.
All their Recon Line units gain an extra attack strength, very useful for their assassin and encourages the dark elves to venture out an explore the dark forest for creatures early on. The Recon units can also cast the Kidnap spell allowing them to steal other peoples settled Great Specialists.
As elves they can once again build in forests promoting good Synergy with the Fellowship of the Leaves Religion. They are also good with the Council of Esus so either can be good.
The Hero Alazkan is a Assassin With a special dark mirror. Every turn he can create a shadow duplicate of himself that can attack without fear of losing the precious hero.
As you can see most of the abilities of the Dark Elves are tempered towards the AI. A human player would be able to figure out his people were being stolen and his people attacked by elves eventually.
Calabim
Vampiric Aristocracy
Leaders: Flauros, Alexis, Decius
Hero: Losha Valas
Race: Humans & Vampire
Alignment: Evil
Patron God: Aeron
World Spell: River of Blood
Unique Quality: VAMPIRES!
Unique Buildings: Governor's Manor (Courthouse), Breeding Pit
Unique Units: Bloodpet (Warriors), Moroi (Axemen), Vampire (Champion), Brujah (Berserker), Vampire Lord (Immortal)
Cannot Build: Alchemy Lab, Elder Council, Arquebus, Cannon
Vampires.
Oh... you need more then that. Okay. Vampires are unlocked at Feudalism. Head there quickly. Get large cities so that your Vampires can feast on them gaining hundreds of experience points per vampire. Spread the Vampiric blessing to all units. Make sure you have some Morai Cannon Fodder as they can be blessed earlier.
The True Vampires can cast spells, Body and Death, The Death Provides cannon Fodder units and Body speeds up the army and regeneration keeps their lunch on legs alive.
The Special Building is a courthouse that provides production per unhappiness in the city. Making them all a bit more productive and keeping them productive during the feasting.
The Hero Unit is Losha Valas. A Vampire. Nothing much else special.... just the fact that every time she kills something she gains immortality. Eventually you can promote all your high level True Vampires into Vampire Lords which are also immortal.
The Worldspell is called River of Blood. It reduces all rival cities by two population and raises your own by two. Good for a boost and set back early but if you hold onto it you can use all that extra population to feed a few Vampires into higher levels.
...
Vampires.
Sheaim
Seekers of Armageddon
Leaders: Tebryn Arbandi, Os-Gabella
Hero: Abashi the Black Dragon
Race: Human
Allignment: Evil
World Spell: Worldbreak
Unique Quality: All leaders have Summoner trait, All arcane units have Sundered
Unique Buildings: Planar Gate
Unique Units: Pyre Zombie (Axeman), Eater of Dreams (Archmage), Chaos Marauder, Manticore, Minotaur, Mobius Witch, Revelers, Succubus, Tar Demon
Unique Ritual: Elegy of the Sheaim
Cannot Build: Training Yard, Champion, Phalanx, Berserker, Immortal
They want to blow up the world. They will kill and torture anyone in their way. These are the Sheaim, the Worldbreakers.
They are the only Civilization to directly benefit from a high Armegeddon Counter. They have a special building called a planar gate. The higher the AC the more often Demonic beasts venture through to join the Sheaim Army. If this gets high enough then your cities can stop building normal troops altogether and still constantly build a stream of units.
The Worldspell is also based on the AC. It causes damage to all units and starts fired in forests and destroys city buildings. The longer you wait... the more damage you can cause with this spell.
There Hero comes so late that you should have destroyed the world by then. The Black Dragon will dominate the world and if you time a Apocalypse event or the Worldspell then Abashi the Black Dragon can burn a large portion of the remaining cities... and razing cities raises that AC counter even more.
One of the most powerful aspects of the Sheaim isn't anything to do with the AC. It is their Axemen equivalent, the Pyre Zombie. These Flaming Zombies explode on death damaging all surrounding tiles. This Kamikaze troop in large numbers can defeat anything.
Infernal
Demonic Harbingers of Hell
Leaders: Hyborem
Hero: Hyborem
Race: Demon
Allignment: Evil
World Spell: Hyborem's Whisper
Unique Quality: Demonic Citizens
Unique Buildings: Demonic Citizens
Unique Units: Imp (Adept), Hell hound (Hunter), Balor (Berserker), Death Knight (Knight), Manes
Cannot Build: Granary, Smokehouse
The Demons, Once they walk upon the earth Hell Terrain starts to spread. Brought upon the earth by the Infernal Pact Tech. Their Demonic Citizens means they don't use food to make their cities grow and are immune to health and happyness issues. Instead to gain city growth, whenever a Evil unit is killed a Mane has a chance to be born within the Infernal Empire.
The Leader and Hero is Hyborem who starts with a one time Immortal Promotion. This is a useful bonus in case you need to go to war to get expansion.
The Demon Worldspell allows the Infernal leader to choose from the best three None Infernal Ashen Veil Cities. This is very useful, both for the amusement of claiming it from your rival and also because the Demons can sometimes get a bad starting position and this can help mitigate it.
Doviello
Raiders and the Wolves of Winter
Leaders: Charadon, Mahala
Hero: Lucian & War Machine
Race: Human
Allignment: Evil
World Spell: Wild Hunt
Unique Quality:
Unique Buildings:
Unique Units: Beastman (Warrior), Javelin Thrower (Archer), Sons of Asena (Axemen), Battlemaster (Champion), Bison Rider (knight), Shaman (Adept), Circle of Urd (Berserker), Skuld (Immortal), Verdani (Phalanx)
Cannot Build: Alchemy Lab, Archery Range, Library, Mage Guild, Marksman, Cannon, Arquebus
The Tundra Barbarians, they don't have any building pre-requisites like other nations and they have powerful upgrade capabilities. They can promote even in foreign territory and even their workers can be upgraded.
Lucian is a special unit, Not a Hero, he doesn't get the promotion that gives 1xp per turn. Instead he is just a mildly powerful unit that can be unleashed on someone early on in the game.
The Research rate of the wolf-men is lacking because of not being able to build Libraries, made even worse if you use Charadon with his Barbarian trait with -10% tech rate. Instead the wolf-men have to out produce their rivals with cheap upgrades and lack of pre-requisite buildings this is possible.
Because of the lack of libraries it can be more cost effective to create lots of small cities rather then large cities.
The Worldspell gives you a wolf unit for every unit you allready control. Very useful to create cannon fodder or to shore up defences.
Clan of Embers
United Tribes of Bestial Races
Leaders: Jonas Endain, Sheelba
Hero: Rantine
Race: Orcish
Allignment: Evil
Patron God: Bhall
World Spell: For the Horde
Unique Quality: Can Build Warrens for double unit production
Unique Buildings: Warrens
Unique Units: Goblin (Scout), Wolf Rider (Horseman), Shaman (Adapt), Lizardman (Hunter), Lizardman Assassin (Assassin), Lizardman Beastmaster (Beastmaster), Lizardman Druid (Druid), Lizardman Ranger (Ranger), Ogre (Champion), Ogre Warchief (Immortal), Stoneskin Ogre (Phalanx)
Cannot Build: Alchemy Lab, Library, Mage Guild, Stable, Arquebus, Cannon, Horse Archer, Knight
With the -10% rate to tech and lack of libraries the clan need to start of strong and stay strong. If tech trading is enabled you can bully techs of other races after waring with them. But either way you should keep an eye on the Technologies known and try to cut of anyone close to you that is getting more powerful.
The Warren Special building doubles the amount of none-national troops produced. From Warriors to settler. This allows you to keep on a power equality with more advanced races... you just need to be wary of crashing your economy with too many units.
Their scout is replaced by a slower Goblin unit. The special thing is, if this goblin defeats a wolf in the wild it becomes their Horseman equivalent the Wolf Rider. Gaining you a strong unit quite quickly.
Rantine is a weak hero but he comes early. Allowing you to push and establish yourself and your territory, later on he can cast a spell to take control of any barbarian city which he is the strongest unit. While the city itself might not be useful, taking over a city causes all the barbarians inside to scatter causing chaos in the surrounding region.
The Clan Worldspell is called "For the Hoard", if popped early you can locate victims early and grab a lot of goody huts to gain a advantage. If popped later you can steal more powerful Orc units including the Bhall Archmages that support the Barbarian Dragon...
Forest fires spread quite nicely, if you make a couple of them. Be careful though, because I once burned down the whole map in the Barbarian Assault scenario.
Anyways, interesting story and I'll be following it.
I've never used forest fires to that degree. But i'm planning to have only mines and farms and towns so i won't really care if i burn down all the world.
Indeed. I got impatient and a uploading the next set of turns but after that i will do a magical overview. I doubt i will be using Arcane magic too much in this game though, i'll be concentrating on the Religious units and there magic.
I can see an incoming elven conflict avoid it-Sterotypical Me
Kill those elvies in the name of chaos and destruction!!!!!!!!!!!!!-Real Me
They use wood. They are obviously asking for it.
Part Three: Playing With Fire, Or the danger of letting people learn to light fires with hand waving
Magic Exploration
Exploration to the South goes well. No sign of the morally pompous Summer Elves. Lots of space to expand into. Only a few Globlins got eaten by bears... no big loss.
One lucky exploration group stumbled upon a hut... a wonderful hut that popped something that could be game changing. The "Knowledge of the Ether" Technology!
With this our power would be immense! We would mark upon our enemies and dance upon their remains! We wou- what? What do you mean we only have 3 mana types and none of them are good early?
Fire Spell Level I = Blaze
Body Spell Level I = Haste
Nature Spell Level I = Treetop Defence
Allright so at this point i can light forests and jungles on fire, give an extra movement to units with haste and give full fortification bonus to all units in a forest... Not exactly game changing. I'm thinking i need some Death Mana...
The Burning City and it's Production
Barbduck the Burning shunted out a Settler and some Worker Goblins to connect the Tree Pass City and it's super Tree Ygdrasil up.
After that a Shaman is trained. These magical macguffins gain experience from just sitting on their ass so getting one early should be a boon later on. Once Death Mana is found these Shamans are better then Warriors for Early Defence. Afterwards Barduck will get another Settler To fill in the land to the north then Get more Defence Troops.
Meet the Neighbours, The Weasels
AGHHHH! Darn Peace Mongers. These sanctimonious idiots are the lovey dovey sort that will try to bring peace and harmony to the world. To top it of they have lots of tricks up their sleeves to shore up defence. Most of it is in their section in the Game Concepts. But Janus the big guy gets right to the point
"PACIFISTS DIE! PEACE MAGE DIE!"
If these guys get their hero out he needs to go down hard and fast before he can halve the AC counter.
Technology Filling and The Southern Expanse
With the Bonus from the Free Knowledge of Ether we backfill for awhile getting Agriculture for Farms and Exploration for Roads. Eventually we will go for Way of the Wicked but for now we get the happy go lucky techs.
As you can see we also managed to find those Mangy Summer Elves. The southern expanse has a pass that leads to their lands, we need to figure out whether it's worth it to try and beat them to these lands and-
"POINTY EARS STAY IN WOODS! Orc Bigjobs land!"
Okay so maybe we will try and block them of like we did the Winter Elves... Speaking of which...
Barbarians, Fire and Elves
The Winter Elves founded their forward base. There is only a slim pass next to our lands. The fun bit is the fact that the Orc border has envoloped the Goblin Fort... Meaning while our borders are closed the Winter Elves can't deal with the fort, but the Barbarian Goblins can constantly swarm against the Elves... Take that!
We just need to stop those Elves sneaking a city past them.
The Barbarians continue to do our work for us. Keeping the elves pinned in... but that's not enough. Eagle eyes scouts have spotted a Elvish Settler biding it's time and they could still advance through the forest... that... burnable forest
...oops, oh well, fire stops the elves from moving through the forest.
Final Comments
Orthus the Barbarian Hero appeared. This Axe wielding Psychopath can go on a major rampage if not stopped. Luckily we don't have to worry about him. No idea where he has spawned.
Oh and some how the skull smashing Orcs are up there with the most culture. No idea how that happened. I mean i know we are unique but still...
The Winter Elves cotton on to our border trickery... They politely ask for open Borders. Then seem annoyed when the Green Skins laugh at them.
Magic Exploration
Spoiler :
Exploration to the South goes well. No sign of the morally pompous Summer Elves. Lots of space to expand into. Only a few Globlins got eaten by bears... no big loss.
One lucky exploration group stumbled upon a hut... a wonderful hut that popped something that could be game changing. The "Knowledge of the Ether" Technology!
Spoiler :
With this our power would be immense! We would mark upon our enemies and dance upon their remains! We wou- what? What do you mean we only have 3 mana types and none of them are good early?
Fire Spell Level I = Blaze
Body Spell Level I = Haste
Nature Spell Level I = Treetop Defence
Allright so at this point i can light forests and jungles on fire, give an extra movement to units with haste and give full fortification bonus to all units in a forest... Not exactly game changing. I'm thinking i need some Death Mana...
The Burning City and it's Production
Barbduck the Burning shunted out a Settler and some Worker Goblins to connect the Tree Pass City and it's super Tree Ygdrasil up.
Spoiler :
After that a Shaman is trained. These magical macguffins gain experience from just sitting on their ass so getting one early should be a boon later on. Once Death Mana is found these Shamans are better then Warriors for Early Defence. Afterwards Barduck will get another Settler To fill in the land to the north then Get more Defence Troops.
Meet the Neighbours, The Weasels
Spoiler :
AGHHHH! Darn Peace Mongers. These sanctimonious idiots are the lovey dovey sort that will try to bring peace and harmony to the world. To top it of they have lots of tricks up their sleeves to shore up defence. Most of it is in their section in the Game Concepts. But Janus the big guy gets right to the point
"PACIFISTS DIE! PEACE MAGE DIE!"
If these guys get their hero out he needs to go down hard and fast before he can halve the AC counter.
Technology Filling and The Southern Expanse
Spoiler :
Spoiler :
With the Bonus from the Free Knowledge of Ether we backfill for awhile getting Agriculture for Farms and Exploration for Roads. Eventually we will go for Way of the Wicked but for now we get the happy go lucky techs.
As you can see we also managed to find those Mangy Summer Elves. The southern expanse has a pass that leads to their lands, we need to figure out whether it's worth it to try and beat them to these lands and-
"POINTY EARS STAY IN WOODS! Orc Bigjobs land!"
Okay so maybe we will try and block them of like we did the Winter Elves... Speaking of which...
Barbarians, Fire and Elves
Spoiler :
The Winter Elves founded their forward base. There is only a slim pass next to our lands. The fun bit is the fact that the Orc border has envoloped the Goblin Fort... Meaning while our borders are closed the Winter Elves can't deal with the fort, but the Barbarian Goblins can constantly swarm against the Elves... Take that!
We just need to stop those Elves sneaking a city past them.
Spoiler :
The Barbarians continue to do our work for us. Keeping the elves pinned in... but that's not enough. Eagle eyes scouts have spotted a Elvish Settler biding it's time and they could still advance through the forest... that... burnable forest
Spoiler :
...oops, oh well, fire stops the elves from moving through the forest.
Final Comments
Orthus the Barbarian Hero appeared. This Axe wielding Psychopath can go on a major rampage if not stopped. Luckily we don't have to worry about him. No idea where he has spawned.
Spoiler :
Oh and some how the skull smashing Orcs are up there with the most culture. No idea how that happened. I mean i know we are unique but still...
Spoiler :
The Winter Elves cotton on to our border trickery... They politely ask for open Borders. Then seem annoyed when the Green Skins laugh at them.
eduhum
Aahh the gold old days...
Hey, very good story (and tutorial)!
It has helped me to see how big is FfH mod.
Will you finish this?
Then promise!
It has helped me to see how big is FfH mod.
Will you finish this?
Then promise!
So I was playing a Clan of Embers game, and things were going well until Acheron showed up next to my capital and I think I over-expanded and ruined my economy, it was slowly getting better when Bannor invaded me with hordes of axe-men and I sort of got crushed. How do you kill Acheron? How fast should you expand? And how early should you build up your military?
Game Concepts: Magic
The Magic in FfH is split into the Arcane and Divine Paths. With few exceptions only these unit types can cast spells. Those exceptions are normally worth running away from as you could be facing Calabim Vampires and their Death Mana or deadly Amurite firebows with Fire mana.
The Arcane Casters have more flexibility but take longer to become useful. The Divine Casters will be discussed in the Religion Post. The Arcane 1st Tier unit, normally an Adept, is unlocked with "Knowledge from the Ether" and a Mage Guild. The 2nd Tier Unit, a Mage, must be upgraded from a 4th level Adept and having the "Sorcery" Technology. The 3rd Tier Unit is a national one, thus you can only have 4 Archmages unless you convert some to the Evil Undead Lich's with Death Mana. These units must be upgraded from level 6 and you must have the "Strength of Will" Technology. As all Arcane Magic Users gain Experience slowly over time you don't need to worry about sending them into battle to level them up. Just have them sitting around your empire and don't lose them to enemy Assassins.
Each Civilization starts of with 2-3 Mana sources situated within their Palace. These Mana sources normally reflect the basic pattern of the empire. For instance the Evil Sheaim will start with Death mana and the Woodland elves start with Nature Mana.
To get more you have to convert raw Mana Nodes. To do this you need to have trained a base adept, a 1st tier Arcane Magic user, and the necessary Technology of Divination, Alteration, Elementalism or Necromancy. Each of these have sub-mana node that become buildable once known. The Metamagic Mana node however is only opened at Sorcery. These will open up certain Nodes to be built. Their is a certain strategy to either getting as many different types of mana as possible or of focusing on one type.
Specialization
If you have two of one type of node then your spell casters start with the 1st level spell of that sphere enabled and pre-learned... if you have three of one type then you have the 2nd level spell of that sphere eneabled... four types gives the the 3rd level.
Also if you focus their are certain summons that get stronger per mana source... Spectres get +1 Strength per Death mana. Auralies get +2 Strength per Sun Mana.
Mana Nodes also give of a background power. Law Mana lowers the maintanince cost of your empire, Enchantment Mana acts as a happiness resource and Earth mana increases the odds of your mines finding a special resource etc. These can be culmative thus making it more powerful to specialise again.
Generalization
For those who like to generalise you will get to build special Towers if you gain all the mana of a certain sphere. For Example, Gaining all of the Elements will unlock being able to build a Elemnetal tower that increases elemental strength and summons a permanent held Elemental to guard the city that holds the tower.
If you get Metamagic then the level 3 summon gets +1 Strength for every DIFFERENT mana type you have. Making it a powerful Archmage spell for those who generalise.
Magic Spheres
Divination
Alteration
Elementalism
Necormancy
Sorcery
Metamagic
I = Floating Eye: A eyeball that can fly around and see things for Recon
II = Dispell Magic; removes all spell effects and returns upgraded mana nodes back to their base form.
III = Summon Djin; a strange monster that gains strength the more different mana types you have
The Magic in FfH is split into the Arcane and Divine Paths. With few exceptions only these unit types can cast spells. Those exceptions are normally worth running away from as you could be facing Calabim Vampires and their Death Mana or deadly Amurite firebows with Fire mana.
The Arcane Casters have more flexibility but take longer to become useful. The Divine Casters will be discussed in the Religion Post. The Arcane 1st Tier unit, normally an Adept, is unlocked with "Knowledge from the Ether" and a Mage Guild. The 2nd Tier Unit, a Mage, must be upgraded from a 4th level Adept and having the "Sorcery" Technology. The 3rd Tier Unit is a national one, thus you can only have 4 Archmages unless you convert some to the Evil Undead Lich's with Death Mana. These units must be upgraded from level 6 and you must have the "Strength of Will" Technology. As all Arcane Magic Users gain Experience slowly over time you don't need to worry about sending them into battle to level them up. Just have them sitting around your empire and don't lose them to enemy Assassins.
Each Civilization starts of with 2-3 Mana sources situated within their Palace. These Mana sources normally reflect the basic pattern of the empire. For instance the Evil Sheaim will start with Death mana and the Woodland elves start with Nature Mana.
To get more you have to convert raw Mana Nodes. To do this you need to have trained a base adept, a 1st tier Arcane Magic user, and the necessary Technology of Divination, Alteration, Elementalism or Necromancy. Each of these have sub-mana node that become buildable once known. The Metamagic Mana node however is only opened at Sorcery. These will open up certain Nodes to be built. Their is a certain strategy to either getting as many different types of mana as possible or of focusing on one type.
Specialization
If you have two of one type of node then your spell casters start with the 1st level spell of that sphere enabled and pre-learned... if you have three of one type then you have the 2nd level spell of that sphere eneabled... four types gives the the 3rd level.
Also if you focus their are certain summons that get stronger per mana source... Spectres get +1 Strength per Death mana. Auralies get +2 Strength per Sun Mana.
Mana Nodes also give of a background power. Law Mana lowers the maintanince cost of your empire, Enchantment Mana acts as a happiness resource and Earth mana increases the odds of your mines finding a special resource etc. These can be culmative thus making it more powerful to specialise again.
Generalization
For those who like to generalise you will get to build special Towers if you gain all the mana of a certain sphere. For Example, Gaining all of the Elements will unlock being able to build a Elemnetal tower that increases elemental strength and summons a permanent held Elemental to guard the city that holds the tower.
If you get Metamagic then the level 3 summon gets +1 Strength for every DIFFERENT mana type you have. Making it a powerful Archmage spell for those who generalise.
Magic Spheres
Divination
Spoiler :
Alteration
Spoiler :
Elementalism
Spoiler :
Necormancy
Spoiler :
Sorcery
Metamagic
I = Floating Eye: A eyeball that can fly around and see things for Recon
II = Dispell Magic; removes all spell effects and returns upgraded mana nodes back to their base form.
III = Summon Djin; a strange monster that gains strength the more different mana types you have
Thanks! Yes FfH is very big, but once you get used to it you can shock yourself more by loading one of the Mod-Mods that add even more extra's. Including constant terrain changes, even more civilizations, units etc.
Yes i promise
It's taking a bit longer then i thought with the explanation bits added in. Acheron isn't a problem for the Clan as long as you don't become too powerful, the barbarians are friendly towards the green-skin Orcs. You can actually make a viable tactic of making Acheron your border buffer between you and a enemy you dislike.
If you are at war with the Barbarians then Acheron is hard to budge. He gets turned of a lot by people especially on multi-player. If you have tier 3 units and some force multipliers like mages or catapults then you could kill him with an army. But lots of people make a strategy of training up some Recon units... promoting them to Beastmasters and trying to capture the beast. Either way you will need to have some spirit mana so you can cast courage on your units and overcome the Dragon's fear!
Expansion comes down to economy and military safety. Getting your economy up and running is harder in FfH, So it balancing your military. For Economy you can either get plantations early with calendar... run a quick cottage economy... Go for the Mysticism tech which opens Eldar councils, a building that gives +2 :tech: and allows you to run a scientist specialist... The tech Festivals, which opens up markets, a nice building that gives +3
and -1 :tech: The religion 'Runes of Kilmorph' gives +1 instead of culture for being in your cities. You can choose any of these options to get your economy up and running but you need one quickly to research more powerful technologies and pay for your army.You should be having at least 2-4 units per city in FfH. Not the paltry 1-2 per city like in Base Civ. But it's not just about the warriors. It's about the force multipliers... i'm not sure who used that phrase originally. But Force Multipliers are how you look at the battlefield. If a Warrior is worth a certain military amount... Then a well trained warrior is worth more... One with catapult backup multiplies this exponentially and in FFH terms, a mage with the right spells is the magical equivalent of a nuke.
In Civ all these force multipliers come sequentially. First Horse units for speed and battlefield control, Spies for reconnaissance, Catapults for Siege, Flight for Air Supremacy and Nukes for WMD.
In FfH you have similar units but due to the Horizontal Tech path options you can get any of them whenever you want. The best bet for building up military is to spam warriors initially then only use them for basic protectors. Then grab a Force Multiplier technology to support them.
Your options are numerous and depend upon your own playstyle. Horsemen have 3
and can cover your empire, Adepts can be support while also boosting a city or terraforming and if you keep them around long enough to upgrade then a high level Archmage is a nuke per turn, Hunting tech instantly gives you the option of a hawk which acts like the FfH version of a Airship, perfect recon capability and lets you know where to position your defenders. Catapults are even more powerful in this game and religious techs can unlock units as well as the religion. Most importantly is that Promotions are better. So the special Hero unit can become super powerful and kill armies by itself. Some Civilizations like the Orcs get their Hero early on. So getting him online and earning XP is a good choice.
Unfortunatly FfH is so situational i wouldn't be able to say what went wrong. Overexpantion is a problem with orcs. As is your army. Without fighting barbarians your units will be less promoted then an enemy that has elite hardened units. It encourages you to find a "sucker" and declare war upon them early. A Good religion is the Dwarven 'Runes of Kilmorph' for the money and extra early Hero who can repair catapults. You get your own Hero at Bronze working so getting that as well means you can have a unstopable army supported by two hero's, a few extra axemen, and catapults, if timed right.
Hmm...
Death Mana- no
Undead Legions-no
FIRE!!!-Yes
Good Update
Also a very good guide to the Civs for people who have only a tenuous grasp of FFH2. (like me)
DT
FIRE!!! :fire:
FFH2 is indeed a bit crazy to get started in. There are just so many options that you get a bit lost. Playing as the Bannor or Hippus can be good as they are closer to a base Civ kind of nation.
And yes... fire... but unfortunatly thats all you get. I'm typing up the next update now and while their are some zombie units there is no Death mana or legions. I'm making my army all about the Demon worshipers
it does mean i'm going for the fun priest that has a spell called RING OF FIRE!!!!Nice Magic Guide!
Ahh Well, you can't destroy the world without a few turns building up
The same thing goes for all FFH2 options really, you can't rain archmagey death without 100 odd turns of adepts sitting around casting inspiriation.
I think that starting FFH you should get thrown in at the deep end with a crazy civ like luichurp, but thats because i want to get my hands on all the new features asap.
DT
Raining Archmagey FIRE!!! :fire:
Ahh Well, you can't destroy the world without a few turns building up
The same thing goes for all FFH2 options really, you can't rain archmagey death without 100 odd turns of adepts sitting around casting inspiriation.
I think that starting FFH you should get thrown in at the deep end with a crazy civ like luichurp, but thats because i want to get my hands on all the new features asap.
DT
Raining Archmagey FIRE!!! :fire:
duckduckswan
Borelord
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2007
- Messages
- 174
I check this thread religiously hoping for a new update
Part Four: Wicked Dragons and God Tombs, or just more reminders that you aren't at the top of the food chain.
The Capital has Burning Envy
As the sun rises on the Orc capital it should be a lovely and beautiful day. It isn't. Some loony shaman in dress is yelling at the gods for mocking him with a big ball of fire rising everyday when all he wanted was a smaller version of his own fire-ball to throw at people! Where was the justice in the world?
Oh. Right. Yes. Evil demon choas worshippers do kind of put a crimp in the side of Justice.
Either way as you can see Jonas is getting his wish for a early Great Prophet. The Capital can't grow any bigger at the moment without getting all unhappy so booting out one of these religious nuts to "Bulb" The Green skins to greater demon worshiping glory seemed fair.
Hey i Wonder if i could burn Ygdrasil... would the elves hate us more for that?
The Third city was eventually founded. Getting closer to the "AGHHH WE'RE GONNA DIE! BUILD ON HILLS! BLOCKADE THE PASSES!" Military plan. Not warfare genius you understand. But better then nothing. Military continues to only consist of cheap Warriors or mildly expensive Shamans... The Orcs create Shamans and hope for some Death Mana... Or to later upgrade to fireball wielding phsycopaths.
But in foriegn affairs the Winter Elves continue to sulk and beg passage through our lands to expand and deal with the goblin threat. We laugh. Especially as the Fire finally starts to consume the forest.
In distant lands we hear rumours. of a Dragon wanting to claim a city.... GREAT! unlike those other 'civilized' people we can get all chummy with the Dragon. If the city survives for long enough it starts creating Orc Archmage Dragon Worshipers. Which are as powerful as you can imagine... and wait... we still have that spell that gives us control of a percentage of Orc Barbarian units in the world... hehehe thats right. Thrive little Dragon City. Your worshippers will be ours one day.
There is no good or evil... only wickedness... no wait...
The Orcs finally learn Philosophy and start on Way of the Wicked. Philosophy doesn't do much for us. Higher thinking and lines like "i think therefore i am?" Not exactly good Orc pass times. Orc Philosophy ended up as "I think therefore i hit that guy over the head and steal his stuff making my life easier". Evolutionary arms race baby! And Orcs had the biggest Arms of the lot.
This way of thinking didn't catch on in other lands.
Tomb Envy... is that envy of Life or Death?
The Third City was Named Renagade Hill. Because the hill was made from the bodies of Renagade Orcs. It was decided to make this city a military pump eventually as their wasn't much other use to it.
The Tomb of Sucellus was close to it... this Artifact had a long and propsirace history and... yeah Jonas didn't want the long version either. His history lesson became "Nature God Fight Ice God and die... reborn as Life God... Now Old Tomb Holy for Life Magic."
It too longer to explain what Life magic was used for.
Longer still to explain why anyone would want to sanctify an area and remove the taint of Armegedon from the land.
Jonas was much happier with the raw mana node next to the tomb that could be converted into anything we wanted. His actually words were that Death Mana should be put there against the Life Mana... i thought he was making a nice ironic philosophical statement, untill he started talking about how he couldn't wait for the Death Mana to kill the Life Mana.
I didn't have to heart to correct his distorted view of reality.
The Path to the Wicked Side
Finally! Ways to Wickedness! Slavery! Paths to demon knowledge! MWHAHAHA
Eventually we started building the Prophecy of Ragnarok. A special World Wonder to tatoo a evil corrupting mark on all our soilders? Perfect!
Finally the day was coming. We started our research into Demon Worship. It would allow us to put our own diesed corpses back to work manning the street. Recruit a great fallen hero to lead our armies and strangly enough the religious holy building increased our :tech: by 1 for every city the Ashen Veil was spread too...
And so the day arrived. Our hoarded Great Prophet took to the streets, preaching the new way and.... what? He only gets us part way through the research? What is this! We can't wait that long... Our enemies surround us... Monks to the West. Winter Elves to the East and Summer Elves to the South.
We need a new plan...
The Capital has Burning Envy
Spoiler :
As the sun rises on the Orc capital it should be a lovely and beautiful day. It isn't. Some loony shaman in dress is yelling at the gods for mocking him with a big ball of fire rising everyday when all he wanted was a smaller version of his own fire-ball to throw at people! Where was the justice in the world?
Oh. Right. Yes. Evil demon choas worshippers do kind of put a crimp in the side of Justice.
Either way as you can see Jonas is getting his wish for a early Great Prophet. The Capital can't grow any bigger at the moment without getting all unhappy so booting out one of these religious nuts to "Bulb" The Green skins to greater demon worshiping glory seemed fair.
Hey i Wonder if i could burn Ygdrasil... would the elves hate us more for that?
Spoiler :
The Third city was eventually founded. Getting closer to the "AGHHH WE'RE GONNA DIE! BUILD ON HILLS! BLOCKADE THE PASSES!" Military plan. Not warfare genius you understand. But better then nothing. Military continues to only consist of cheap Warriors or mildly expensive Shamans... The Orcs create Shamans and hope for some Death Mana... Or to later upgrade to fireball wielding phsycopaths.
But in foriegn affairs the Winter Elves continue to sulk and beg passage through our lands to expand and deal with the goblin threat. We laugh. Especially as the Fire finally starts to consume the forest.
In distant lands we hear rumours. of a Dragon wanting to claim a city.... GREAT! unlike those other 'civilized' people we can get all chummy with the Dragon. If the city survives for long enough it starts creating Orc Archmage Dragon Worshipers. Which are as powerful as you can imagine... and wait... we still have that spell that gives us control of a percentage of Orc Barbarian units in the world... hehehe thats right. Thrive little Dragon City. Your worshippers will be ours one day.
There is no good or evil... only wickedness... no wait...
Spoiler :
The Orcs finally learn Philosophy and start on Way of the Wicked. Philosophy doesn't do much for us. Higher thinking and lines like "i think therefore i am?" Not exactly good Orc pass times. Orc Philosophy ended up as "I think therefore i hit that guy over the head and steal his stuff making my life easier". Evolutionary arms race baby! And Orcs had the biggest Arms of the lot.
This way of thinking didn't catch on in other lands.
Tomb Envy... is that envy of Life or Death?
Spoiler :
The Third City was Named Renagade Hill. Because the hill was made from the bodies of Renagade Orcs. It was decided to make this city a military pump eventually as their wasn't much other use to it.
The Tomb of Sucellus was close to it... this Artifact had a long and propsirace history and... yeah Jonas didn't want the long version either. His history lesson became "Nature God Fight Ice God and die... reborn as Life God... Now Old Tomb Holy for Life Magic."
It too longer to explain what Life magic was used for.
Longer still to explain why anyone would want to sanctify an area and remove the taint of Armegedon from the land.
Jonas was much happier with the raw mana node next to the tomb that could be converted into anything we wanted. His actually words were that Death Mana should be put there against the Life Mana... i thought he was making a nice ironic philosophical statement, untill he started talking about how he couldn't wait for the Death Mana to kill the Life Mana.
I didn't have to heart to correct his distorted view of reality.
The Path to the Wicked Side
Spoiler :
Finally! Ways to Wickedness! Slavery! Paths to demon knowledge! MWHAHAHA
Eventually we started building the Prophecy of Ragnarok. A special World Wonder to tatoo a evil corrupting mark on all our soilders? Perfect!
Spoiler :
Finally the day was coming. We started our research into Demon Worship. It would allow us to put our own diesed corpses back to work manning the street. Recruit a great fallen hero to lead our armies and strangly enough the religious holy building increased our :tech: by 1 for every city the Ashen Veil was spread too...
Spoiler :
And so the day arrived. Our hoarded Great Prophet took to the streets, preaching the new way and.... what? He only gets us part way through the research? What is this! We can't wait that long... Our enemies surround us... Monks to the West. Winter Elves to the East and Summer Elves to the South.
We need a new plan...
Nice Magic Guide!
Ahh Well, you can't destroy the world without a few turns building up
The same thing goes for all FFH2 options really, you can't rain archmagey death without 100 odd turns of adepts sitting around casting inspiriation.
I think that starting FFH you should get thrown in at the deep end with a crazy civ like luichurp, but thats because i want to get my hands on all the new features asap.
DT
Raining Archmagey FIRE!!! :fire:
I've split the update in two. But you can see the shiny Raw Mana node begging to converted... to evil.
I think with the difficulty level this needs more then build up... needs a few mad dashes and maybe blungoning a few enemies over the head while they arn't looking. Can't wait around for death after all... in both cases.
I check this thread religiously hoping for a new update
There you go!
SanePerson
Warlord
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2010
- Messages
- 123
This had better not be dead.
I beleive that in the real world it is currently christmas/ new year. The lack of updates is simply more proof ravus exists in a non virtual-state. :mutter: the heathen :mutter:
DT
Waiting Semi-Patiently
I've actually had the next part sorted for the past day. Was trying to post it but the Internet died which was fun. Seems to be better now. But if a post doesn't appear after this one it means the Australian Internet server has once again imploded... either that or the Australian government firewall has secretly gone up over night and they've deemed me a Internet trouble maker...
Part Five: Fire Demon Worship Orcs and The Winterborn Stasis Sects; Or, can Opposites Attract?
The New Plan
<Image of the Empire with Culture>
See those Passes that have been highlighted? They need to be blocked ASAP. For those who don't know or who are silly Orcs, that means As-Soon-As-Possible.
The Capital and the Tree City will pump out a settler each that can be escorted there.
<After the Settlers were built the main cities started on Wonders. Bone Palace and Prophecy of Ragnarok>
Jonas is getting itchy... the Orcs are meant to be a rush Civilization and we are playing them completely differently. He wants a war... We have those Winter elves locked up and waiting to be exterminated but we don't have the troops. Once we get the Religion we can start making REAL soldiers instead of just Warriors or Shamans.
It's a risk, but pumping out puny warriors won't stop a Elohim Monk rush or a Winter Elf Assassin rush...
Allright Jonas, you big fat, green skinned monstrosity. We'll make war on the Winter Elves once we research the Religion and have a chance to build up. Until then Braduk the Burning and Tree Pass start building a Wonder Each. The Prophecy of Ragnarok is the typical evil wonder that brands a Armageddon mark onto any units built from the city. Helping boost the AC. The Other is the Bone Palace, this wonder grants an automatic Golden Age. That should hit a little after the religion is founded allowing us a perfect build up stage.
The Red Advance
<Picture of the Pass to Elvish lands that needs to be blocked>
The advance scout is sent out to keep an eye on any Elvish scouting party or settler pushes in this area... Although the Summer Elves are now pretty close this can still be used as a blocking city.
<Bear eats Settler party>
BEARS!!!! Aghhh. You don't know the horror of these creatures. 5 Strength Animal Creatures should not exist. They should be hunted down and killed the lot of them. We still have one back near the homeland and while it can't enter the borders it will eat anything i try to send to kill it.
Now this particular beast has eaten the warrior sent to guard the settler! I can't risk the settler in trying to get close enough to found so reinforcements need to be sent.
<Dark Elves are once again told to go away and they can't walk through our lands>
Aha... Winter Elves. No. Go away.
The Way of the Demon
<Ashen Veil is discovered>
Feel the POWER of the Darkside! With this we will finally have an army worthy of the Orc Clan.
<The Holy City is in Tree Pass>
Apt that the holy city for this religion is founded next to the religious icon of the elves... i wonder if we get Demon bonus points for setting fire to it?
<Orcs Covert Religion. You can see the Settler waiting to found in Snow Pass>
As a Spiritual leader Jonas allows us to shift into new worship instantly. We have the two settlers nearly at their posts and now we don't need the high tech rate. All cities start pumping out Units. Ones that we want to keep are made in the Capital with the mark. The cannon fodder units are made in other cities.
<Mining is chosen... Orcs have really gotten behind technologically>
We try to grab some useful worker and building technologies. Mining for a start. We'll try and get Bronze Working for the Orc Civilization Hero and then start a beeline to Priesthood so we can get Evil Ritualist's that can cast rings of FIRE.
<The next settler party in the south manages to get there. Bear is still eating people>
BEAR! From now on the cultural food of the Orcs is going to be bear paws. Every Orc has the right to Bear Arms. Let's hunt em to extinction boys!
<Tree Burner City. It's Finally built! >
Either way this time we brought enough defence for the settler to get there unhurt. The Bear will retreat from our cultural lands. Wall and a monument are needed here pronto. You have no idea the risk i'm taking settling next to these tree huggers. I'm gambling on them turtling up or annoying the Monks enough to not bother with me.
<North City Building a Temple>
Here is a good little building. A little boost to the tech rate and it is necessary to train Ritualists later
<Dark Elves make a Demand, for Ale, We go along with it to shut them up about opening borders>
And then the Winter Elves wanted beer... Yeah. Sure. Why not. Keeps them happy and not asking for open borders.
The Cold Foils
<Met the Illians. The Worshippers of the long dead Winter God... They wish to restore him to glory! Another Evil Empire. We will be the best of friends.>
Hey it's Auric! He's Evil too! His Cold lands are basically immune to the spread of Hell Terrain. He's seeking to become a God. In fact the only thing that can stand up to him if he ascended would be the huge skyscraper Demon I can summon when the AC counter gets high.
But overall i think we are going to get along swimmingly. A potential ally against the silly Monks.
<Evlish City Borders expand... we made the right choice settling further away.>
Looks like we made the right choice to move further to the east.
<After building a Monument it starts to build the basic buildings to make it self sustainable>
<Prophecy of Ragnarok Wonder is built. Now all units from this city will bear a mark of Armageddon>
It's time for the build up! With this the Armageddon counter will start to rise constantly!
Overview
<Statistic Screens>
<Score>
<GNP(Gold)>
<Mfg. Goods (Production)>
<Power>
The Planning for the future comes now.
I'd ask for input from bystanders at this point but honestly is anyone going to yell anything but "Burn the Winter Elves!"?
The New Plan
<Image of the Empire with Culture>
Spoiler :
See those Passes that have been highlighted? They need to be blocked ASAP. For those who don't know or who are silly Orcs, that means As-Soon-As-Possible.
The Capital and the Tree City will pump out a settler each that can be escorted there.
<After the Settlers were built the main cities started on Wonders. Bone Palace and Prophecy of Ragnarok>
Spoiler :
Jonas is getting itchy... the Orcs are meant to be a rush Civilization and we are playing them completely differently. He wants a war... We have those Winter elves locked up and waiting to be exterminated but we don't have the troops. Once we get the Religion we can start making REAL soldiers instead of just Warriors or Shamans.
It's a risk, but pumping out puny warriors won't stop a Elohim Monk rush or a Winter Elf Assassin rush...
Allright Jonas, you big fat, green skinned monstrosity. We'll make war on the Winter Elves once we research the Religion and have a chance to build up. Until then Braduk the Burning and Tree Pass start building a Wonder Each. The Prophecy of Ragnarok is the typical evil wonder that brands a Armageddon mark onto any units built from the city. Helping boost the AC. The Other is the Bone Palace, this wonder grants an automatic Golden Age. That should hit a little after the religion is founded allowing us a perfect build up stage.
The Red Advance
<Picture of the Pass to Elvish lands that needs to be blocked>
Spoiler :
The advance scout is sent out to keep an eye on any Elvish scouting party or settler pushes in this area... Although the Summer Elves are now pretty close this can still be used as a blocking city.
<Bear eats Settler party>
Spoiler :
BEARS!!!! Aghhh. You don't know the horror of these creatures. 5 Strength Animal Creatures should not exist. They should be hunted down and killed the lot of them. We still have one back near the homeland and while it can't enter the borders it will eat anything i try to send to kill it.
Now this particular beast has eaten the warrior sent to guard the settler! I can't risk the settler in trying to get close enough to found so reinforcements need to be sent.
<Dark Elves are once again told to go away and they can't walk through our lands>
Spoiler :
Aha... Winter Elves. No. Go away.
The Way of the Demon
True Power is allways costly
However, I think I can safly say that the rewards far outweigh any of the possible costs.
Who cares for sanity, when you can burn the people claiming you to be insane to cinders?
However, I think I can safly say that the rewards far outweigh any of the possible costs.
Who cares for sanity, when you can burn the people claiming you to be insane to cinders?
<Ashen Veil is discovered>
Spoiler :
Feel the POWER of the Darkside! With this we will finally have an army worthy of the Orc Clan.
<The Holy City is in Tree Pass>
Spoiler :
Apt that the holy city for this religion is founded next to the religious icon of the elves... i wonder if we get Demon bonus points for setting fire to it?
<Orcs Covert Religion. You can see the Settler waiting to found in Snow Pass>
Spoiler :
As a Spiritual leader Jonas allows us to shift into new worship instantly. We have the two settlers nearly at their posts and now we don't need the high tech rate. All cities start pumping out Units. Ones that we want to keep are made in the Capital with the mark. The cannon fodder units are made in other cities.
<Mining is chosen... Orcs have really gotten behind technologically>
Spoiler :
We try to grab some useful worker and building technologies. Mining for a start. We'll try and get Bronze Working for the Orc Civilization Hero and then start a beeline to Priesthood so we can get Evil Ritualist's that can cast rings of FIRE.
<The next settler party in the south manages to get there. Bear is still eating people>
Spoiler :
BEAR! From now on the cultural food of the Orcs is going to be bear paws. Every Orc has the right to Bear Arms. Let's hunt em to extinction boys!
<Tree Burner City. It's Finally built! >
Spoiler :
Either way this time we brought enough defence for the settler to get there unhurt. The Bear will retreat from our cultural lands. Wall and a monument are needed here pronto. You have no idea the risk i'm taking settling next to these tree huggers. I'm gambling on them turtling up or annoying the Monks enough to not bother with me.
<North City Building a Temple>
Spoiler :
Here is a good little building. A little boost to the tech rate and it is necessary to train Ritualists later
<Dark Elves make a Demand, for Ale, We go along with it to shut them up about opening borders>
Spoiler :
And then the Winter Elves wanted beer... Yeah. Sure. Why not. Keeps them happy and not asking for open borders.
The Cold Foils
<Met the Illians. The Worshippers of the long dead Winter God... They wish to restore him to glory! Another Evil Empire. We will be the best of friends.>
Spoiler :
Hey it's Auric! He's Evil too! His Cold lands are basically immune to the spread of Hell Terrain. He's seeking to become a God. In fact the only thing that can stand up to him if he ascended would be the huge skyscraper Demon I can summon when the AC counter gets high.
But overall i think we are going to get along swimmingly. A potential ally against the silly Monks.
<Evlish City Borders expand... we made the right choice settling further away.>
Spoiler :
Looks like we made the right choice to move further to the east.
<After building a Monument it starts to build the basic buildings to make it self sustainable>
Spoiler :
<Prophecy of Ragnarok Wonder is built. Now all units from this city will bear a mark of Armageddon>
Spoiler :
It's time for the build up! With this the Armageddon counter will start to rise constantly!
Overview
<Statistic Screens>
<Score>
Spoiler :
<GNP(Gold)>
Spoiler :
<Mfg. Goods (Production)>
Spoiler :
<Power>
Spoiler :
The Planning for the future comes now.
I'd ask for input from bystanders at this point but honestly is anyone going to yell anything but "Burn the Winter Elves!"?
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