FFH -- We don't betray or kill all of our allies

[UnforcedError]

The Queen of Winter gazed upon the burgeoning trees still dripping water and the melting patches of snow slowly giving way to the awakening flowers and grass. With Mulcarn’s demise Spring has finally arrived.

The exhausted group of her loyal followers, last survivors of the once glorious Unseelie court needed a new home, now that Evermore was lost to them. Returning the crown to the hated Summer Queen Arendel was out of question, even if the weak Ljosalfar had somehow managed to survive during the long years of Winter. Faeryl had sworn to destroy the Ljosalfar people after the years of Ice had passed, and to capture and display the species so dear to them: the animals of the wild. Vivid dreams of ruling the world of Erebus kept her inner flame burning during the frozen days. The Queen of Winter smiled. Achieving power must be easy with her deception skills and the help of her poisoned blades. The smell of victory hung in the air, she just needed suitable advisors for her people…

Seasoned wanderers and newcomers to Erebus: you’re cordially invited to join the Svartalfar court in their quest for power.

Our leader is Faeryl Viconia

Spoiler :

Alignment: Evil
Traits: Arcane, Raiders
Arcane provides an extra promotion and a free Potency promotion for our arcane units, and will allow us to produce Mage Guilds at double speed.
Raiders grants +100% gold from pillaging and a free Commando promotion for all our Recon, Melee, Archery, Mounted and Disciple units.

Our Civilization: Svartalfar

Spoiler :

Civilization trait: Sinister
Sinister will empower our recon units with the Sinister promotion, meaning they gain +1 / +0 strength.
Racial ability (Elven): we can build improvements on forested tiles but our workers are 20% slower than normal.
Civilization unique spell: Kidnap
Kidnap will allow our Recon units to steal settled Great Persons from rival cities.
World Spell: Veil of Night
Veil of Night will grant the Hidden Nationality to all our units.
Starting technology: Agriculture
Civilization Hero: Alazkan the Assasin
Unique Building:
Svartalfar palace, granting access to Mind, Nature and Shadow mana, -10% to crime rate and -10% war weariness, along with the usual commerce, happiness and culture bonuses.
Unique units:
Swordsman, replacing axemen
Illusionist, replacing mages
Nyxkin, replacing horse archers
Blocked Buildings:
Alchemy Lab and Siege Workshop
Blocked Units:
Arquebus, Berserker, Chariot, Cannon and Catapult

Special game conditions:

• Victory condition: conquest or domination reflecting Faeryl’s desire to rule the world
• We must create (or conquer) the Grand Menagerie wonder, so that the animals can be displayed properly
• The Ljosalfar civilization must be destroyed. (They will be on the map --> Arendel + Amelanchier teamed up)
• Evermore has to be retaken. If Evermore is razed before we can conquer it, the city must be resettled on the exact same spot if possible. On the rare event Evermore never gets founded we must punish the barbarians for their insolence and wipe out every barbarian unit in the world before overall victory is achieved.
• Acquire Aeron's chosen during the course of the game

Difficulty level: Immortal
Map type: tropical Fractal
Map size: Standard
Speed: Normal
Special Features: Living World, Wildlands, No Lairs
Modmods: Tholal's More Naval AI

List of advisors:
Folket -- in charge
UnforcedError -- up next
Lord Civius skip for now

Technical details:
Mod and patch 'o'
Unofficial but useful patch 'p'
Tholal's More Naval AI
Manual
Forum reference thread

 

[UnforcedError]

The Story of the Svartalfar

T000 – T020 (Folket) In which we settle Thariss and begin researching Ancient Chants and Education. We lose our starting warrior to hostile villagers and learn that the Calabim are on the map as River of Blood was cast.

T020 – T044 (UnforcedError) In which we explore further and meet Falamar of the Lanun. We also lose our scout to a vile spider, finish our first worker and Education.

T044-T054 (Lord Civius) In which we begin with our massive cottaging project and research Exploration.

T054-T070 (Folket) In which we learn how to utilize the Calendar and realize that our arch enemies have already founded the Fellowship of the Leaves religion.

T070-T083 (UnforcedError) In which Orthus pays us a visit, yet we manage to defend our realm thanks to our brave warriors. We also begin to research Hunting and adopt Apprenticeship and Agrarianism.

T083-T096 (Lord Civius) In which we found Gereth Minar, rebuild the structures destroyed by Orthus and finish Hunting.

T096-T107 (Folket) In which we research Mysticism and meet the Luchuirp dwarves, who are not utterly happy about seeing us. We also build another scout and a Hunting Lodge to create our first glorious hunter.

T107-T117 (UnforcedError) In which we enter Stasis immediately after revolting to God King and witness the demise of Falamar.

T117-T127 (Folket) In which Samhain is built and we face frostling hordes still in Statis.

T127-T137 (UnforcedError) In which we clear our realm of the frostlings.

T137-T147 (Folket) In which we meet the Ilians and discover that their borders are unccomfortably close. We become followers of the Fellowship of the Leaves and research Animal Husbandry now.

T147-T157 (UnforcedError) In which we learn to subdue animals and make use of this ability immediately. We also discover Auric's stack nearing our borders.

T157-T167 (Folket) In which Auric's stack appears at our borders... and razes a barb city to our East.

T167-T177 (UnforcedError) In which we adopt Guardian of Nature and get declared on by Garrim, who has a very fierce looking galley near our borders.

T177-T187 (Folket) In which Garrim's fleet hits the waves and Auric finally launches an unsuccessful attack against Gereth Minar.

T187-T197 (UnforcedError) In which Auric's remaining stack dies, while Garrim's warrior army is eliminated near Nameless Tower. We sign peace with Garrim.

T197-T207 (Folket) In which we start upgrading our captured elephants to war elephants and kill some of Auric's units.

T207-T217 (UnforcedError) In which we kill some more units and raze one of Auric's production sites.

T217-T227 (Folket) In which we raze another city and capture a coastal site of Auric's. Auric completes the GLH.

T227-T237 (UnforcedError) In which we conquer Auric's capital and Dunwich, learn that the Ljosies built Baron Werewolf; and we are on the receiving end of another Garrim declaration, the proud owner of the Mines of Gal-Dur.

T237-T247 (Folket) In which we wave goodbye to the Calabim who we haven't even met. We capture Lakis, start researching Poisons, and fend off Garrim's chariots.

T247-T257 (UnforcedError) In which we finally meet the extremely advanced Ljosalfar team and take two more of Auric's cities.

T257-T267 (Folket)In which the Ljosalfar declare on Garrim and we continue to conquer Auric’s cities.

T267-T277 ( UnforcedError )In which Auric is down to one city but doesn’t give us his techs. No way to milk the AI in this mod Our Hero Alaskan is born.

T277-T287 ( Folket )In which the Ljosies complete the Guild of Hammers and the Celestial Compass. We receive our Aeron’s chosen. And guess what: the Ljosies declare on us They also land a stack but we manage to beat them back.

T287-T297 ( UnforcedError )In which we fire a Golden Age, the Ljosies complete the Pillar of Chains and the Mercurian Gate. Basium starts off with casting Divine Retribution. We make peace with everybody due to an event lol: ) and complete TGL. Arendel creates Yvain and the Genesis.

T297-T307 ( Folket )In which City of a Thousand Slums gets built and the Ljosies declare on us again. Garrim creates Arthendain. The Ljosies complete the Crown of Akharien and take Garduk, one of our better coastal cities.

T307-T317 ( UnforcedError )In which we retake Garduk, Arendel completes the Ride of the Nine, Basium builds Valin and Sphener and we found Council of Esus. We also get our second GP and fire our next Golden Age.

T317-T327 ( Folket )In which we capture an ex-Dwarven city on Garrim’s island.

T327-T344 ( UnforcedError )In which we decide to win this via ToM and start building the towers. We continue taking Ljosie cities on Garrim’s island, beat back a stack of Amelancher before they can land and complete the ToA and the ToD for Strength of Will.

T345-T363 ( Folket )In which we finish the other two smaller towers and muster our forces to capture Evermore.

T363-T389 ( UnforcedError )In which we capture and hold Evermore and finish the Tower of Mastery to win the game.

 

[dot]

I'll be lurking this one.

cypher123 knows why.

 

[UnforcedError]

I'll be lurking this one.

cypher123 knows why.

Isn't it Cypher132?

 

[Horatius]

Why not with Tholal's patch?

 

[UnforcedError]

Why not with Tholal's patch?

I'm OK with Tholal's patch if the rest of us are too.

 

[dot]

Isn't it Cypher132?

How could I possibly have gotten taht wrong?

 

[Lord Civius]

Has been a while since I played a FFH2 game so count me in. I just installed the most recent FFH2 mod as I didn't have it on my new computer. Is there any further patch/mod that I need to fire up the save?

 

[UnforcedError]

Has been a while since I played a FFH2 game so count me in. I just installed the most recent FFH2 mod as I didn't have it on my new computer. Is there any further patch/mod that I need to fire up the save?

The last one is patch 'o' as far as I know. And Tholal created a patch 'p' to solve the bug of Sons of Asena exploding like pyre zombies. (Both links at the end of the first post.)

Any ideas for map type? What difficulty level would you like to play on?

 

[Lord Civius]

I always liked the Erebus (pretty sure thats what it was called) map. Always lots of goblin forts for early xp, ruins to explore and towers for extra sight, etc...etc... I think they are a lot of fun and add extra flavor to the game. Normal game speed sounds good, team games take too long for marathon. As far as difficulty level I must admit I am no pro on FFH2, I think I have played up to Monarchy, but as I said it has been a while since I have played.

 

[UnforcedError]

I gave up using the Erebus mapscript when it completely shielded me off from the outside world on one occasion. It just creates too many mountains for my taste. Do you think the frequency of towers / lairs / ruins etc is lower on the other mapscripts? I didn't notice any difference.

Monarch is also fine by me.

 

[Lord Civius]

Yeah I remember the Mountains being a pain and yeah I thought the Erebus map was prone to having a lot more of the ruins, barbs etc... If this is not the case then I am fine with the standard fractal/tropical map.

 

[Folket]

Svartalfar are my favourite civilization. I'm in.

 

[Folket]

I think we should play on immortal. And force us to only adopt council of Esus.

 

[UnforcedError]

Yeah I remember the Mountains being a pain and yeah I thought the Erebus map was prone to having a lot more of the ruins, barbs etc... If this is not the case then I am fine with the standard fractal/tropical map.

I will run some tests this evening and see if there are differences in the frequencies of barb features.

 

[UnforcedError]

I think we should play on immortal. And force us to only adopt council of Esus.

Welcome Folket I didn't want to enforce too many things at once. The Grand Menagerie will be difficult in itself, I guess. And not having FoL first will surely mean a disadvantage especially if some of us play at a higher level than normal.
So as far as the difficulty level is concerned we have one vote for IMM, one for EMP and one for Monarch.

 

[Folket]

Yes, I just want the AI to be a challenge. I find that play in general is better when playing a succession game as options are discussed.

The grand menagerie is a challenge. It also require a map with varied terrain and access to that terrain before all is settled. Perhaps just not the challenge I'm looking for.

 

[UnforcedError]

We can discuss the difficulty level too before we start. If Lord Civius is OK with IMM, I'm fine with it. But he says he hasn't played FfH for a long time so IMM might be too much of a challenge then.
Yes, the Grand Menagerie requires varied terrain, although all options are open for us to discuss. Do we want the Doviello on the map? In that case chosing rain forest or any tropical setting might work out fine, as the gorilla cage will be the only bottleneck. (Provided we can have FoL and summoned tigers.) If we don't want any fixed opponent except for the Ljosalfar, we somehow have to make sure that there are wolves, lions and also gorillas on the map, which is not easy. If we enforce CoE we'll also have to worry about the tigers.

Also: Dot and Horatius, do you want to join the game players as well?

 

[Folket]

I would not worry about the tigers. We are planing to fight the ljosalfar right? Just give an assassin the capture animals promotion.

 

[Folket]

Perhaps we can put two Ljosalfar in a team. Arendal and Amelchair. That would make sure they will be powerful.