Founding CoE?

[Justicar333]

I could use a little help with my stragety for this. I play huge maps, marathon speed, prince difficulty. I've tried a lot of stragetys, but the computer beats me to the religion every time. Though for sure had it as the Sidar, but someone just nabbed it about 80 turns ahead of me.

Been giving it some thought, and suspect what happening is this. The evil players are using the Black candle even to grab Way of the Wicked far earlier than I can. Then playing evil my research is abysmal due to difficulty handicap... arg. Any tips/tactics would be greatly appreciated.

 

[DrPepper836]

Are you going for education as the very first tech? That would help. Also, why do you need to found it? All it gives you is the shrine, and you can just take that later.

 

[Demus]

the shrine basically is the only reason to adopt CoE (that and gibbon i guess). I agree with DrPepper though, if you can't beat the AI to the religion, i'd suggest you rework your early game to get your commerce going sooner. Cottages and sages are your best bet for increasing your tech rate. When playing on a normal to crowded map, go trade before philosophy to allow tech trading. This enables you to ignore some other worker techs untill you trade for them later, aswell as a possibly cheap philosophy/way of the wicked.

 

[Justicar333]

I've been going carnivals first for marketplace, then education for the cottages. Will try flipping that around and see if matters improve. Why you ask, do I want Nox Noctious? The answer is very simple. It's shiny, and therefore, I must posses it.

Seriously, I've just been playing FfH for around a month now. CoE is the only religion that not been able to found, and want to try it out. Not that a early game Gibbon using dual fire elementals doesn't have her uses.

Thanks for the advice you two, will give the new tactic a try and see what happens.

 

[TheGreatSteve]

Anyone know what rate hammers turn into gold if you're beaten to a Wonder? If it's fairly even, you might try building GLib and Bone Palace, even if you know you won't win. Sidar are Industrous I believe, so with that, marble, or GK, you can transfer hammers to gold at an excellent rate, use it for some nice deficit spending. And if you aren't beaten

Of course, there's always the other way to the Nox Noctis. While the AI is doing all that fancy book lernin', you get your sharp pointy things ready.

 

[Pyr0mancer]

Education is quite essential to rush for, you need your economy going as fast as you can. Unless you've got one of those annoying forest-heavy starts, or have lots of Plantation resources nearby, go for Education ASAP.

Also, as Sidar, you're probably better off training units with all that extra and sending them off to kill stuff for XP rather than building wonders. 26 XP is the magic mark you're looking for; a single settled Shade early goes a long way to fix any economy or production issues you might have.

 

[Justicar333]

Kinda the ideal I was working towards. Hence Sidar, figured shades would be perfect solution to getting CoE. The shuffle put me on a large island (okay about the size of Austrailia xD) severaly stiffling my xp harvesting. Game is going well, top 3 in score most the game, which is unheard of using my tactics at prince till late game.

It will however make taking Nox Noctious a ridiculous endevor. Thinking of shelving this one, and start up new perhaps Pangea. The shrine lays on Blasphraphs island, even larger than my own. And my only solid ally, don't want to have try to manage a naval invasion of them. =)

 

[Verily]

Definitely don't bother with rushing Marketplaces. They're worth building when you do get to them, but they're definitely not worth rushing; I generally just trade for Festivals later on. If you want to found CoE, rush Education, then research Mysticism for Elder Councils (and God King if your empire is small), then tech to Trade so you can trade with the AIs for worker techs and maybe for Philosophy if it's available, then go Philosophy-Way of the Wicked-Deception.

 

[Demus]

of course, that's when you rush for it. A detour to a religion like RoK can be helpful (if there aren't any dwarves around, or if you're playing them yourself) to gain the additional money to fund expansion. This works expecially well when you've got minable commerce nearby (gems, gold, or wines with crafting), so the additional 2-3 techs actually add something to your tech rate. Once you've founded CoE, you can go arete for the mines of galdur and bambur to shade him if you're playing sidar, and making the switch to CoE as state religion once you've gained these 2 additional advantages. Remember, CoE works best when you've got a lot of gold in your pocket, something which RoK can provide for.

When playing the Svalts, a detour to FoL can work aswell, to gain those wonderful ancient forests to boost your tile yields before switching.

I'd use Verily's tech path for the first attempt, and once you've found you can take some extra techs on the way, try grabbing a 2nd religion.