(FFH) Orcs 2. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.

[UnforcedError]

So, I'd say this is the PPP:

Research:
1. Military Strategy (no one has it yet). If we're first to it, burn GC on a GA immediately.
2. Astronomy (this is a key tech for whatever we plan on doing in the non too distant future).
To elaborate on this a little bit further: as we cannot build libraries / alchemy labs our research will be fairly limited. We really shouldn't tech anything that does not get us closer to Altar levels unless we can't do without them in this game. I think Military Strategy, Astronomy and maybe Engineering is something we might want but otherwise we should concentrate our beakers on Altar techs. We also have to consider getting Arcane Lore first to make up for our wasted Academy. Also, we might have to build the Crown. (Note: SoK can actually build the Crown even though it's a unit.) Our bottlenecks are research and GPp not health or happiness.

Units:
Declare on the Bannor as soon as our stack is in position (2 turns). Kill stack in Vallus. After that, split our stack. Larger one to take Trinity and then go on to kill Charadon, smaller stack to take the rest of the Bannor cities. As soon as the majority of Bannor and Doviello units are dead our vitalizing SoI can go home and take care of the ice and all. Also, Rantine can go and claim Sludgehome if we want (with Vitalize it's not absolutely terrible and it's one less settler to worry about).
EDIT: caravel to get the movement bonus before exploring anybody.

City builds:
prepare for a long teching game (health, happy and research buildings). Build command posts wherever warrens are present. Build HE in Sog (our best hammer city ATM).

EDIT: Trades: Definitely sell Phil to Hannah as Pigswill suggested.

Will wait for some more comments and play tonight (in about 8 hours).

 

[Lone Wolf]

EDIT5: why did we build an ACADEMY in Braduk which will run ton of PRIESTS until the end of the game???

It had the highest science generation in our empire and sped Priesthood up by one turn. I thought that making the highest science generating city to be the first academy is relatively non-controversial?

 

[UnforcedError]

It had the highest science generation in our empire and sped Priesthood up by one turn. I thought that making the highest science generating city to be the first academy is relatively non-controversial?

The problem is we will not have an unlimited number of academies. In fact we seriously hope that we won't get any more GS in this game (maybe except for the free one from Arcane Lore.) We will move the cap from Braduk. We will stop working the dragon bones and the gold eventually. That city will be totally focused on generating priests. (The GS was originally in Emberton, why didn't you just build the Academy there?)
EDIT: Palace + dragon bones + gold = 24 base commerce.

 

[Lone Wolf]

I thought that "better a small benefit now, then a bigger benefit later" is a basic Civ principle? Regardless, I shall always defer to my teammates when dealing with Great People.

 

[UnforcedError]

I thought that "better a small benefit now, then a bigger benefit later" is a basic Civ principle? Regardless, I shall always defer to my teammates when dealing with Great People.

Normally you'd be absolutely right. This case however, is an exception because:

• we have to go all the way to Omniscience (guess this should be our ToD tech)
• we have a -10% to research and cannot build the normal research multiplier buildings
• we have to focus on GPp and therefore cannot rely on multiple GS to get us academies / bulbs

Braduk is expected to be at <20 base beakers per turn once we start starving it down for more priests. We already have some better cities than that and one of them can have the Palace. Still, we can get the GS from Arcane Lore and build the next Academy in our palace city. Also, Braduk can work the bones + gold for a while if it gets some health buildings fast.

 

[Folket]

good point, was long ago I played Vanilla FFH2.

 

[UnforcedError]

Well I sat like 4 hours on this turnset because it had some unexpected twists:

T231
We tech Military Strategy, move units into the city to get iron weapons. I also want to upgrade our better warriors to chariots so we delay a bit. This gives our vitalizer time to work a bit on Braduk and Cqg. We trade Phil to Hannah for 290 g.

T232 Hear me mortals... (Counter at 10)

T233 Our next prophet is born and creates Altar level 2. We're first to MS so we win the GC which becomes a golden age. We start teching Astronomy.

T236 We declare on the Bannor.

T237 We capture Vallus. Some units moving towards Trinity to continue with Charadon.

T238 An unwanted visitor on our island:

Spoiler :

The city of Dis:

Spoiler :

T239 I decide to deal with Hyborem quickly. He's a lot more annoying neighbor than Charadon. So I delay the attack on the Doviello.

T242 It takes three turns to get him because I don't want to waste too many units on him. Bye-bye, Hyb...

Spoiler :

T244 The Bannor follow shortly after...

Spoiler :

Our caravel made the trip around the world, so we have the movement bonus. Now it's making itself useful by scouting Charadon:
He has tons of cannon fodder in there:

Spoiler :

(The other two cities are almost empty.)

This will be tricky because they will double up with their wolves as soon as we declare. I guess the best way to deal with this is send in summons, attack the ones that come out and then haste our stack out of reach. Already created some skeletons but we need a lot more. Because of all that desert we cannot attack the city in one go.

Got rid of the hell terrain, SoI bides his time vitalizing ex-Bannor cities.

T249 Astro is in, we have lots of juicy trade routes

Some remarks:
Built the Bone Palace so we're in another GA.

Traded for Divination with the Kurios, so I selected Sorcery as a placeholder now.

Braduk will have another (hopefully) prophet next turn. However, we cannot stop Emberton from getting a GP (which can also be a GE or a GS). Guess if it's a GS it should become an academy in the former Hippus cap. If it's a GE it might have to wait for another non-prophet GP to become another GA.

I'm getting very tired so I'll leave the rest for tomorrow, I guess.

 

[Qgqqqqq]

Do we intend to go the StW/Theo strat for the GP, or just old fashioned generation?
I believe I am up, but would like a skip so that I don't waste any time on FFH this week.
Apologies.

 

[UnforcedError]

Do we intend to go the StW/Theo strat for the GP, or just old fashioned generation?

I guess we can we just have synchronize it with our teching.

 

[pigswill]

I'm guessing Unforced Error has completed his/her turnset, with Q skipping that puts me up.

Got it.

 

[pigswill]

Played up to 260.

Bad news: Rantine died defending his fellow orcs against a massive Doviello attack.

Good news:


Other news: Braduk has built herbalist, hunting lodge, Shrine of Champions and Celestial Compass. Finishes granary this turn, we've just created a spirit node so Braduk can start on Shrine of Siriona.

We've got a few Soks around. The Great Lighthouse is still available and worth considering.

We've researched Sorcery and started on Arcane Lore (13t), no-one else has sorcery yet.
I traded astronomy to Einon for Religious Law.
I traded astronomy to Cardith for taxation and elementalism.

We got a Prophet who improved the Altar. Next GP in 10, likely to be another prophet. We need to be mindful that AI may allocate other specialists as Braduk grows.

We still need 3 more Prophets. We also need fanaticism, righteousness (way of wise), arcane lore, pass through the ether and commune with nature (assuming we use Tower of Divination for Omnisicience).

We've got the island to ourselves. Now we need to work on research (and GP production of course).

 

[UnforcedError]

Well done Looking great at first glance Quite amazing that you could kill all those units that fast

We might want to borrow the mine from Gaq for Braduk and build a LH in Gaq so that we don't have to work that citizen.
Also: Rantine's death isn't that big an issue as it gave us the Shrine of the Champion We should either consider getting some more religions for some more temples in Braduk, or we might want to go with Q's suggestion and adopt Theocracy. However, Arcane Lore is good to have first as we will definitely need Scholarship if we want to drop Aristocracy.

SoI with Vitalize should start working Mainly on the desert and tundra / ice tiles first and on the plains farms that are needed for irrigation chains or food in a city. (To my experience it's good to have the other plains around for production.) We could also start settling the remaining areas and turn them green

EDIT: not of an immense priority yet but I think our coastal cities should build the odd frigate / arcane barge for defense. Just in case. Also: please let's send a ship to scout out Tebryn. We want his TRs.

EDIT2: So do we want to consider switching to Theo + Scholarship + Caste + (maybe Foreign Trade?)
Minus side: cities have to be microed carefully so that they don't breed a GS before the cap gets the prophets; minor production hit as we switch out of Arete.
Plus side: unlimited priests in cap, which will easily surpass the +20% GP loss from Arete. Fast research with assigned sages. With Foreign Trade we will have enough commerce for gold as well and since we can vitalize, food in the cities shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Lone Wolf]

Where should we build the Shrine of the Champion?

 

[pigswill]

Already built in Braduk (3 gpp).

 

[Lone Wolf]

Mainly on the desert and tundra / ice tiles first

You can't vitalize Ice Anyway, got it.

 

[Lone Wolf]

Clan sailors were surprised to learn that the Sheaim realm was not the only realm on the Veil Continent.

Spoiler :

As we see from the city names, the Malakim were unlucky to start right next to the Sheaim and were indeed eliminated by the latter. Note, however, that the Calabim had recently captured a Sheaim city (which would explain the drop in score Tebryn received in UnforcedError's turnset).

Spoiler :

We SoK'ed the Great Lighthouse and are starting on the Shrine of Sirona. More Great Prophet points are always good, is it not?

BTW, Mobility is a good promotion for SoK's, it allows them to reach their destinations faster.

Spoiler :

The Sons reveal their gentler side, vitalizing the cold South. Note that the other Son isn't promoted on the Nature line, he sits on the Oasis in NW, waiting.

Spoiler :

Another Altar stage.

Spoiler :

Hannah had wasted shields on the most weird FFH project in the game, Nature's Revolt. Behold super-animals everywhere where regular barbs used to be.

That project really needs to cost less and be much earlier on the tech tree to be at least somewhat interesting.

Spoiler :

This trade, to make the Great Scientist from Arcane Lore bulb Pass though the Ether, if we want it (it was researched on the last turn of my save).

Spoiler :

I also think that we should SoK-build the Tower of Divination somewhere. We need to research tech up to Omniscience, right, and the Tower grants one free tech. We need Law, Mind and Sun mana for the Tower.

Building a Law node:

Spoiler :

A Mind node:

Spoiler :

And this guy can build the Sun node.

Spoiler :

Our army is in Gcq the Glowing, the city north of our capital. I've moved it closer to our core just to be safe.

Meanwhile, we're building the Shrine of Sirona the following turn, and we have a GS we can bulb at Pass though the Ether. With the Shrine, we, according to my checking, at least, will receive the next Great Person in our capital.

Spoiler :

We have also signed multiple resource deals to make our dirty, stinky, revolting cities slightly less dirty, stinky and revolting. Yeah, doing that is not really the Orc way, but we have to adapt somewhat to the "civilized" conditions...

Spoiler :

 

[UnforcedError]

You can't vitalize Ice

? ?

Can't check the game from work. Did we switch civics or not?

We can wait on the ToD a bit, we will take Omniscience anyway. That will be our last tech, there's still way to go until then.

 

[Lone Wolf]

? ?

Strange, since it it should be vitalize-able according to the manual. Probably I misinterpreted something.

Nope, I didn't switch the civics, but on further consideration, I think that we can stomach the production hit, so this was a mistake of mine.

We can wait on the ToD a bit, we will take Omniscience anyway. That will be our last tech, there's still way to go until then.

Yeah, but better to make the preparations right now. Though it's not like we can lose at this point anyway.

 

[pigswill]

Civix wise I'd be thinking about revolting to theocracy and scholarship, stay in arete (20% gppt), and agrarianism (more food= more priests in Braduk).

Good point re mobile Sox.

No problem running sages, except Emberton no city is likely to compete with Braduk for GP production.

Maybe a bit more of a navy, maybe some stronger disciple units.

At some point we'll need animal handling and feral bond but they can probably wait until we finish religious techs.

Unforced Error is UP.

Q is skipping to a different tune this week.

 

[Lone Wolf]

I understand it now! You can vitalize Ice, but I got the wrong impression because you can't Vitalize outside of your borders.