First time FfH2 player -> Need help...

I whould suggest you go up in difficulty right up to monarch (skip prince allright the difference would be minimal). Then those issues will fade a bit and there is nothing which will sensibly prevent this on noble or prince. Also you'll get a bit more challenging game. (still should be quite winnable.)

Yes the AI is quite incompetent when it comes to FFH2 (the Team is working on that issue among a few others right now... Do expect it to improve, but don't worry, it'll improve far slower than you do...).

If you grasped the basics which you quite seem to have done, monarch should be comparable to noble in vanilla (while noble might be comparable to chieftain/warlord difficulty in vanilla.).

If that's still to easy for you after one or two games don't hesitate to go up to Emperor alright. It will still be comparable to prince (or monarch with settings put in your favor at worst) quite likely.

Beyond that point (immortal and especially deity) it gets a bit messy since the AI bonus gets so huge that even when making massive mistakes (which it does) this is smoothed over by the handicap. Emperor-Immortal is the range that most experienced players end up. (with deity not undoable but usually quite tendious.)
I'm quite sure you'll find your sweet spot somewhere up there... (when you move on to a new civ best allways start it at monarch or if you really feel competent emperor. Don't bother with anything below it, or you'll repeat the experience you just had...)



Regarding the questions:

1 - Yes they do, i believe. Makes religious victory possibly quite difficult. But given the game you outlined it may still be the way to go. (possibly Hyborem may help you here (or you may be helping him... :p all a matter of perspective. A peak into the lore might be worthwhile here).
He is at peace with the barbarians so he might spread it to the barbs like mad (the AI at times is quite rabid when it comes to spreading its faith.). Don't know for sure if barbarian leaders do such a thing. If he does it should just be a matter of waiting and seeing the percentage go up.)

2 - Just research infernal contract (the tech which is Veil-exclusive and comes after the tech founding the Veil.). Then Hyborem will come into creation using a loophole in the contract. (You evil armagedonite you... :lol: Making contracts with the lord of balors. :nono:)


Your capital must beaker-central (provided you build the veil-shrine. Which you definitely should if you haven't yet.) so much is for sure...
 
Next I founded Ashen Veil. No other religions had been founded until that point. Curious, since I would've expected Einion Logos to go for Fellowship of Leaves. :confused:

I think something with the AI has been changed recently, because in my game last night (Normal speed, Emperor, Erebus Continent mapscript), no one went for the first three religions (FoL, RoK, and OO). I founded OO around turn 170, and then the other two about 50 turns later for kicks (and mana). In the next ten turns, Empyrian AV and Esus were all founded :crazyeye: The real crazy thing was both the Svartalfar and the Luchirip were in the game and close to me in score.
 
about the religions: normally the elves (ljos and svalt) go for FoL, and the dwarves (khazad and Lju) go for RoK. The other civs are much less inclined to found religions, or at least beeline them. Sheiam will often found AV (as you have done), bannor go order. Einion is more likely to go for order or empyrean than FoL.
 
The Elhoim should go for a religion more aggressively then (Both leaders). Given that they got one of the best synergies from the religious line among most civs.
As well any! spiritual leader should... For obvious reasons.

Malakim under Varn at least in late shadow where also quite aggressive when it comes to founding religions (haven't seen him in a while so don't know if he still does.).
I had a strange game once when Varn fetched 5 of the 7 Religions (with the elves and the dwarfs present he grabbed FoL and Runes! Runes starting on Turn 46. Probably thanks to huts and an abundance of Floodplains...
That was still with the old cottages. I did found the other 2 with Esus and Overlords.
And that was far from the only game for me when Varn got religion-crazy.)


The Lann sometimes go for Overlords early and generally seem to be the only civ prioritizing that religion at least a bit.

Esus seems to be more popular among AI these days with it mostly getting founded much more early in comparison to late shadow-phase.
 
Thanks for all the comments! :)
I may move up one or two levels once I have this game won.

So u have to remove the non-AV from all the cities u can.

Keelyn founded a religion (can't remember which one) 3 turns ago. No other religion has been founded, so I doubt that's the problem...

Regarding the questions:

1 - Yes they do, i believe. Makes religious victory possibly quite difficult. But given the game you outlined it may still be the way to go. (possibly Hyborem may help you here (or you may be helping him... :p all a matter of perspective. A peak into the lore might be worthwhile here).
He is at peace with the barbarians so he might spread it to the barbs like mad (the AI at times is quite rabid when it comes to spreading its faith.). Don't know for sure if barbarian leaders do such a thing. If he does it should just be a matter of waiting and seeing the percentage go up.)

So, theoretically, if I start razing barbarian cities, the AV percentage should rise. And capturing them, as long as my economy can stand the increased maintenance.

2 - Just research infernal contract (the tech which is Veil-exclusive and comes after the tech founding the Veil.). Then Hyborem will come into creation using a loophole in the contract. (You evil armagedonite you... :lol: Making contracts with the lord of balors. :nono:)


Your capital must beaker-central (provided you build the veil-shrine. Which you definitely should if you haven't yet.) so much is for sure...

The Sheaim seemed like the ideal civ to "play with the devil" so to speak. So, of course I went for Armageddon. My capital is fairly good for the beakers, but my third city is the holy city, so that one's got the shrine (and a fair few cottages). So that makes for a very nice amount of beakers.

I rather like the Erebus mapscript actually. The only things I miss are an East-West world wrap, and different landmasses.
What kind of options do I have here? Mountaincoast and Erebus continents perhaps?

And what does "flavourmod" do exactly? Put Elves in a forest start and dwarves in the hills, etc. ?

And can this be combined with Erebus/Mountaincoast mapscripts ?

I'd really like something with large landmasses (but still possibly multiple landmasses), E-W world wrap and large, dominant mountain ranges, possibly with flavour-correct starts. What kind of mapscript would be good for that?
 
Yep, the percentage should go up then.
And since a high armageddon-counter is beneficial to the Sheaim under AV for many reasons (more things coming out of the gates being one of them), razing might be the better option for you... (just mind that you need to handle the results of the Armageddon-Events just as everyone else...)

And you really might want to jump 2 Levels not just one. No remote need for caution here given what you outlined on how your game went. At worst you'll have a tad bit more challenge. I doubt you'll come anywhere near losing.

On the holy city: missed that one shortly. Sure very likely not the capital if you have at least one other city...


On mapscripts: That's simple. Just use Erebus. With a twist. :p
If you directly go into the Erebus.py (should be in the mapscript folder of the FFH2 directory i believe) file to modify it (by notepad++, programmers notepad or other free software)
you'll find a host! of options (including, wrap (which does work out but looks a bit weird), number of peaks, water-level, size of valleys, many climate-functions and much more) for you to customize that mapscript in detail. I believe the number of landmasses can only be increased by putting up the sea level. But im not finally sure on that. Best you take a peak and make yourselves fimilar with it. It's definitely worth it (i also like the script a lot and found the customizations very helpful...)
I know that if you put the drop-down option of seal-level to high the map created will be bigger so the loss in land is compensated (somewhat).
Cephalo was very keen to make the script as customizable as possible. He was / is just very reluctant to use dropdowns for the in-game setup for various reasons (so the ability to customize is even more acessible and supported than the dropdowns.).
No need to go for other scripts if you like the feel of erebus.

You could even go as far as help cephalo make his mapscript better by adding a new option for his climate dropdown if you find really nice settings other players like as well. (The climate dropdown (as far as i know) at least partially was designed as an option to put good settings found by players in. I'm sure Cephalo wouldn't mind all to much...)
If cephalo doesn't like that particular settings (he is averse to reducing the number of peaks for example. Or supporting wrapping fully.) you could still share them with the rest of the community by simply sharing the Erebus.py file.

Mountain coast and Erebus continent might still be worth a peek i believe. Beyond time their shouldn't be something preventing you from testing all of those. :p
 
i'm not sure exactly what difficulty u are playing at, but it probably explains why few civs have founded religions. the difficulty is too low and they are probably behind in tech so that's why they don't have/founded religions (probably). the game speed u play at too, can make a difference/effect this as well.

i'm not sure now with 0.40 version and patch T, but kael did put in code for "dog-piling" a while back (but maybe it's been removed or toned down or even raised up. no idea where it stands now).

ai civs will "dog-pile" u if u are the weakest (fewest-weakest military units or weakest-fewest military force). u can have a tech lead and score lead, but if your military force is lacking...the ai civs will take advantage of it and declare war on u.

of course there's much code in civ relations and behavior (diplomacy). auric-illians are probably indeed eager to war with everyone and maybe they don't like u since hell terran and ice terran are "polar opposites". also could be because hyborem and auric-mulcarn are two opposing and rival forces for control of erebus world.

about the AC, be very careful when raising the AC with the sheim, u NEED the military force to handle it (once u get to the horsemen of apocalapse, anyways) !!!!!!!
 
Well, I got a fairly easy religious win for almost 52000 points.
Just conquering the barbarian cities and spreading AV to them clinched it.

One really odd thing though: About 30 turns before I won the score display just started acting strange. There were 5 other AI civs still in the game, but only Tebryn Arbandi (me) was shown on the score display... A minor bug perhaps?

civ4screenshot0020zq5.jpg


So, now I've played a neutral and an evil civ. Time for a good civ, right? And I think I'll go those two levels up that you guys suggested... :)
 
Well, I got a fairly easy religious win for almost 52000 points.
Just conquering the barbarian cities and spreading AV to them clinched it.

One really odd thing though: About 30 turns before I won the score display just started acting strange. There were 5 other AI civs still in the game, but only Tebryn Arbandi (me) was shown on the score display... A minor bug perhaps?

You may have clicked on Tebryn's name, which collapses the leader list. Try clicking on the name again and the list should reappear.
 
as sporkbomb said, u can toggle the score "menu"-list on and off, like with many of the other interface "menu's".
 
Yep, click on the mana icon next to the mana list as well, it helps remove that additional clutter around :lol:

Well... for a good civ, perhaps you might be interested to try the Ljos (good elves), they have both neutral and good aligned leaders, and the elven economy would be a remarkably different experience (since you could build in forests) from the ones you've tried.
Or maybe the Malakim, to be able to swap your leader's traits periodically to suit your current playstyle--Financial for a builder phase, Aggressive/Raiders when building up for war. :lol:

And... if you wanna play MP with other humans for a more interesting experience do drop by the erebus channel :D (its stickied up there in a thread)
Or if you had any ingame qns you needed a quick answer to, I'm sure someone around shld be able to provide you with it =P
 
as sporkbomb said, u can toggle the score "menu"-list on and off, like with many of the other interface "menu's".


I know, but then all names (inlcuding your own) disappear. That was not the case here...
 
okay than, that could be/is some kinda error/bug whatever :(

or, maybe that is just what it does when u achieve victory...???

oops... u said this happened 30 turns boefore victory...err, nvm than...stick with it being an error or bug than !!!!
 
i've had that happen before, there are different effects when you toggle score on and off, and when you click your name, try it.
 
i usually turn off all victory conditions except conquest. otherwise i find the game too easy to win. i rarely finish a game with only conquest on though.
 
OK, you guys were right. The score display thing was just a matter of clicking my own name. Stupid, sorry... :(

So, I had a lot of time available this weekend, so I decided to try a huge map marathon speed game on prince level (only 1 level up, but still a bit more of a challenge)...

Very nice game so far (I played 555 turns). I am Einion Logos. Founded Fellowship of leaves, and assigned a priest to a temple to get a great prophet ASAP. Now I have the shrine, so my income is brilliant. Working towards level 3 nature mages now, because 3 of my 10 cities are in the tundra.

I really like the feel of the game on marathon speed. Every build and discovery really feels like an achievement. Very nice. What's not so nice is that I have Flauros to my north and Sheelba and Perpentach to my south, so I think it's a fair assumtion that I'll be going to war somewhere along the line. Fortunately Thessa decided she wanted some cities between me and Sheelba and Perpentach, so I probably can focus on the north first. :)
 
Problem with marathon though is that it basically brutally hampers the AI (quick and simple rule: the faster the gamespeed the better the AI will cope with the game.)

But if you have time to spare and are still in the process of getting to grips with the mod it might be quite good of course since each turn matters much less and you have more time to spot errors and learn from them.

The mod ist mostly designed for normal gamespeeds (and more drawn out than the vanilla game anyways by about 1 gamespeed slower.). With epic still playable, but easier and quick demanded in many multiplayer games (for obvious reasons.)
 
=P playing Einion, if you're lazy to go deep into the Arcane line for terraforming, you could always go straight down the Spiritual line for Corlindale--no need to build up an Archmage from scratch.

Besides, if you're going for the Altar, the spiritual line might be more useful too--and its part of the way to Yvain :D
 
I'm having loads of fun with this one.

I'm at turn 900 or so now.

I have about 20-22 cities, about half of them conquered from the Calabim (my neighbour to the north). He wanted to invade me. I beat him back with a dozen champions, some priests of leaves and 4 archmages summoning elementals every turn. Then I went on the offensive, pretty easily taking his cities in about 30 turns. Those elementals are great for softening up the defenses, and then I used the champions to clean up.

Can I just say that I love the "Mobility" promotion? Two things have remained true for all versions of Civilization: "Speed Kills" and "Population is Power". Glad to see that works in FfH2 too, since that is familiar ground to me.

I've now also gotten Corlindale, Kyrian and Yvain (good point btw Heisenberg. I should've gone for Corlindale before getting those archmages). I'm now contemplating killing Thessa (my southern neighbour). And after that perhaps Fearyl (though I have to admit that the neckline of her outfit is distracting me fairly effectively from that objective... ;) ).

Fellowship of leaves is at 66% (even without actively spreading it beyond my borders. I sent disciples to my own cities, but not to foreign ones), so again religion seems the easiest way to victory. Maybe this is the easiest victory condition alltogether ?
 
I rather like the Erebus mapscript actually. The only things I miss are an East-West world wrap, and different landmasses.
What kind of options do I have here? Mountaincoast and Erebus continents perhaps?
Wrapping is tricky with Erebus, you can get it to work easily but it won't be pretty :) Last I checked Mountain Coasts didn't support wrapping but you should confirm that. Even so, it's a very cool map script to play on so I'd recommend trying it out. My script (Erebus Continent) is a modified version of Cephalo's script for Colonization, it supports all the wrapping options (x, y, x+y) and can have multiple continents but it doesn't force them. It's nice if you want to have water all around the map but don't want to force naval conflict which doesn't always work so well in FfH. Some of the standard Civ4/BtS scripts available will be able to do that for you, Tectonics is quite popular and makes some very good maps.

And what does "flavourmod" do exactly? Put Elves in a forest start and dwarves in the hills, etc. ?

And can this be combined with Erebus/Mountaincoast mapscripts ?
FlavourMod comes with modified version of mapscripts so that it does work flawlessly with them. It essentially does things like putting the elves in forests and the dwarves in hills but it's a little more complicated. Basically FlavourMod doesn't create the starting positions, it just shuffles the civs around onto whichever of the available starting positions is most appropriate for them. Erebus places them based on flavor settings (and the unique featues) so unless you prefer Jean's method of placing lairs and unique features you can use Erebus without FlavourMod for the same basic results. I would say that with just about any other mapscript FlavourMod is essential if you like things like elves in the forests and dwarves in the hills.

I'd really like something with large landmasses (but still possibly multiple landmasses), E-W world wrap and large, dominant mountain ranges, possibly with flavour-correct starts. What kind of mapscript would be good for that?
My script does that almost exactly, preferably a single large landmass, sometimes two or three of them. E-W (x) wrap is available and I have a 'light' version of flavor starts coded in based purely on mechanics. So the Lanun will take a coastal start, the Illians will be in the colder region, Malakim will be on the edge of a desert most of the time, elves in forested areas and dwarves in hilly areas. I also balance the starting locations differently than they are in Erebus so the poor dwarves aren't stuck with nothing but plains hills and the Malakim aren't in the middle of a huge desert. Mountain ranges, tundra amount, desert amount and jungle amount are all in-game map options so you can tweak it to your hearts content (like adding massive deserts when playing as the Malakim :)). Anyway, I like it, but them I'm somewhat biased.
 
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