Game diary: Deity, rolling with the Clan of Embers (FfH2 with Tholal's mod)

Horatius · Jul 9, 2011

(I just realized now that my previous game diary was placed in the mod's section *hard face palm*.

I'll post this one in this section, as it seems more proper)

Ok, what are we up to? - We will play with the Clan of Embers and bang stuff.

Simple enough, but we have the following rule:

- no catapults, no summons or area damage spells are allowed. Orcs shall bang their heads on the walls. Win by numbers, no matter what

.

Here is our deadly leader:

Spoiler :

The map is a standard temperate Pangaea. Conquest victory only enabled. There is no Acheron but the Mercurians and Infernals can be summoned.

Here is the start (second roll; first roll had too many forests and no food):

Spoiler :

We decide to settle there for fast settlers with food:

Spoiler :

Orcs will farm and we'll see what happens.
Sheelba would like to try a very early rush for fun, but that depends on getting wolf riders with goblins.
Right now Sheelba is just thinking of maybe building 3 or 4 fast enough cities with hardly any defenses if there is no direct border contact with other AIs.
Sheelba will see what happens.

A Moon · Jul 10, 2011

Can I take this opportunity to dare you to do an Illian Deity game for your next diary?

UncleJJ · Jul 10, 2011

I'm looking forward to this.

Horatius · Jul 10, 2011

A Moon said:
Can I take this opportunity to dare you to do an Illian Deity game for your next diary?

Absolutely, the Ilians are one of my favorite civs. I'll try to role-play them on a large map and try to get all the rituals, Drifa, ascend Auric, everything.

Horatius · Jul 10, 2011

UncleJJ said:
I'm looking forward to this.

Thanks, I'll post something today

.

Aline · Jul 10, 2011

A Moon said:
Can I take this opportunity to dare you to do an Illian Deity game for your next diary?

I would love to see how you do with the Balseraphs, why dont you make a poll for your next game.

Btw, love reading those.

Horatius · Jul 10, 2011

Sheelba sends her first companions in a exploring trip.
The warrior will search a little but eventually retreat to the safety of culture influence (we all know that, in this game, if our warrior gets too curious he will eventually be nailed by an invisible spider or an out-of-anywhere-sudden-griffon).

Sheelba commands her first goblin with the important task of finding huts and wolfs. - Go!

The Goblin grunts but obeys and immediately achieves early success:

Spoiler :

Sheelba smiles beautifully as this will compensate for the fact that the rude Clan has started without an initial technology.
The other orcs do not quite understand the rejoicing, but as they are commanded to research Calendar they quickly get to work.

The goblin continues his exploration, finds a gold resource close by in the west and stretches his little eyes to discern another hut.
What does he find among the next villagers?

Spoiler :

(Oh, yeah!, lucky bastard)

Sheelba's eyes glitter as she starts to amuse herself with thoughts regarding a possible and very early Wolf Rider rush.

Indeed, while she dreams on the plan, a wolf suddenly appears (is this an omen?):

Spoiler :

Sheelba's thoughts come alive and, with a wicked grin, arises the first and mighty wolf rider hero:

Spoiler :

Sheelba also makes contact with the elves' ambassador. Agreeing with a temporary peace. For now.

Sheelba aggressively pushes the first orc worker into his labor and commands that another goblin be trained. It is realized that a lot of tundra is down there.

The second goblin gets on the move and discovers another hut and another most sacred wolf:

Spoiler :

Sheelba had immediately stopped the training of a warrior on the previous turn to train another goblin and that decision is rewarded as our second wolf rider cries incoherent sounds to alert the city that another blessed creature has been found:

Spoiler :

Sheelba makes further contact with other civilizations but there is not much to say. Sheelba has one thought and one thought only: the civilized must perish; the pure wild will live on.

Calendar is researched and the Clan adopts nationhood and agriarianism (at the same time as Thessa).
Sheelba now gives preference to commerce instead of food and makes her worker provide incense to the city.
A third goblin will search for the third wolf:

Spoiler :

Very well, thinks Sheelba, it's time for a decision.
What path to follow? Should she settle some cities up there to grab land and block the other civilizations, eventually settling more cities on the west (less pressure there because of some patches of desert) while beelining code of laws and preparing for a middle game war?
Should she go godking with cottages, two or three small cities more, and go Wolf Riders with good enough economic foundations entering the middle game trying to thrash someone else?

At this point, a head screw pops loose from Sheelba's faithful advisor.
He recommends going straight towards mining, mansory and horseback riding, neglecting cottages or aristocratic farms :crazyeye:

.
- "Just work the incense and the future gold

confused

. We had great luck with the benedictions of the villagers (that thankfully also hate the "civilized") and we have two mighty wolf rider heros. I have confidence that our new goblin will surely elevate himself as also another.
Do not repress your Orcish instincts. You were educated among the Bannor, but do not deny the aggressive soul that is within you.
The orcs will not be satisfied with less than full war. You are their new queen and must search to satisfy them. Will you deny them? Will you deny your proud birth?"

Sheelba doesn't need any advice. She already had seen it in her mind.

Warrens and Wolf Riders fast rush is on!

----

(okay, what is going on here? I was thinking that since we got lucky with the huts, instead of feeling that we are cheating, we should use that good luck to do something more dangerous.
I was thinking that it would be more fun and more interesting for a game diary to fully commit to an early rush (well, I think it is) - Orc Style.

So, a new rule is now added to this game besides the previous one:

- no cottages or aristocratic farms before destroying one deity civilization :crazyeye:

.

New players reading this should not take this as an example of a "good strategy for the long run" on diety (although it's doable on lower difficult levels). This is just a challenge thing for this game diary and because I think I can make it work in this game.
It's usually better to plant the beginning of an economy first, then attack. This is because that not only you risk crashing economically, but also because you are committed to the success of the very first push. If the very first push fails hard, you may be screwed on diety

- (you should do it with a goblin fort close by: get cottages early or aristocratic farms, set the slider to zero, pillage, consistently buy 5 strength aggressive wolf riders, get mobbing and BAM!).

Is this doable on this difficulty level even with Tholal's mod? - Yes, if you start pushing by around turn 100, 110 (before axemen and archers start coming heavily into play with most civs on pangaea) and make a successful harassment with your early wolf riders.
Very early harassment is key. This means that after we get our third wolf rider (I personally think that you usually need three on deity, although just one on monarch can already cripple someone else) we will pick a target and immediately declare war while setting up the push.

Will Sheelba succeeded? We will find out on the next segment (glup)

.)

Horatius · Jul 10, 2011

Aline said:
I would love to see how you do with the Balseraphs, why dont you make a poll for your next game.

Btw, love reading those.

Thanks. I guess that I could make a poll if there is enough interest.
I confess that the Balseraphs is my least played civ and I may need some pointers for diety, though :blush:

.

Aline · Jul 10, 2011

I play them often and could give you some hints even though im usualy playing on noble and have no idea how they work out in higher diffeculty.

UncleJJ · Jul 11, 2011

Amazing luck on the hut pops there. What is the good of giving the Clan a 10% research malus and then letting them get two free techs?

You do look to be in a good position to do a wold rider rush at the moment, but you do need to find where the target civ cities are. The riders move so fast over the flat that you could pick one quite far away.

Warrens plus wolfriders should enable a potent rush if you get them early enough, before defences build up. They can beat archers (with their +40%) but hill cities are tough. Since they are only strength 4, warriors with bronze can be a problem too at the rate the AI spams them. Be sure to pillage any copper if the war looks like it might be an attritional one

I await with interest.

Horatius · Jul 11, 2011

UncleJJ said:
Amazing luck on the hut pops there. What is the good of giving the Clan a 10% research malus and then letting them get two free techs?

You do look to be in a good position to do a wold rider rush at the moment, but you do need to find where the target civ cities are. The riders move so fast over the flat that you could pick one quite far away.

I feel that we should pick a close one. How could we make an effective harassment if we had no place close by to heal fast? The goal is to end up taking their cities, so we want someone close

.

UncleJJ said:
Warrens plus wolfriders should enable a potent rush if you get them early enough, before defences build up. They can beat archers (with their +40%) but hill cities are tough. Since they are only strength 4, warriors with bronze can be a problem too at the rate the AI spams them. Be sure to pillage any copper if the war looks like it might be an attritional one

I await with interest.

Attrition war it is. The idea is simple: go in right now (like right now now!), don't let your target get more than three cities easily, pillage every improvement and important road, level up your wolf riders by killing warriors on the field. They should never get archers or bronze in time because of this.
I'll only try to take their cities when I'm ready. Basically, we'll try to make them not ready when we are ready.
It can be a fun strategy

.

Horatius · Jul 11, 2011

Moving on:

Sheelba decides to rush and will go straight towards mining.
Also, the third goblin is pushed into the field in search of one more wolf and:

Spoiler :

(now, do you see that hut over there? Well, believe it or not we actually got festivals from it. I thought that was a little bit too much luck (no kidding?..) and decided to reload a quick save to try for a different result. Unfortunately we got our third wolf rider a little bit later, but, anyways, this is the hut result that we play on with:

Spoiler :

Experience is definitely good when we're about to rush. Although, just standard money would've also been good to keep the slider at 100 percent for as long as possible, actually.)

Our Wolf Rider improves the arts of war with the villagers, which Sheelba much appreciates. Still, time is passing and we must consider making a move.

Sheelba knows that Decius is up there in the North. An agreement to open borders had been completed and our wolf riders, avoiding a nasty griffon, direct themselves there to further investigate.
Sheelba considers Decius an appropriate first target, as word is said that many weak lightbringers roam the Malakim lands.
Our wolves howl with joy at this news, but we must further augment our knowledge of the land.

As our units approach to scout, Sheelba meets Decius' neighbor (to the left, Decius is closer to the ocean) who is no other than Perpentach, the one Erebus call insane.
The Balseraphs' ambassador meets Sheelba, a man with a strange appearance, a strange way of talking and crazy eyes :groucho:

.
Sheelba rejects the insistent invite for the so called "shows" and, with disgust, throws away the little man out of her palace. Sheelba also understands that this nation is generating creatures with hideous mutations, terrible freaks of nature. The orcs themselves shiver with the thought that the "civilized" are able to create such abominations.

Rumors are also saying that eventually this nation will be able to produce, with the help of these freaks, what can be called "the super-freak-swordman" :hide:

, a swordman boosted by mutations, even stronger than normal. They even have a process to be able to speed up the production of such units - they call it "Revelry" [party]

. Furthermore, there is a so-called "Loki" :eek:

...

Sheelba weights several thoughts:

- Decius is the weakest right now. But one should not necessarily punish the weak, but work to weaken others that are stronger and may become even stronger quickly.
- On the one hand, if we harass Decius, Perpentach may actually take the opportunity to conquer his cities easily before we are ready to take them. On the other hand, even if we eventually take Decius' cities, Loki will simply come along and disrupt them.
- If we harass Perpentach we can actually use Decius' cities for some quick healing, and this is a strong consideration.
- As we understand the map, if we weaken Decius, only Perpentach will probably consider joining in, but if we weaken Perpentach, Decius and whoever is to the left of Perpentach, may join in.
- The pillaging of all of Perpentach's improvements will mean that "revelry" will be almost useless for research.
- Harassing Perpentach may mean that we'll never have to see the "supa-freak-swordmen".
- Also:

Spoiler :

Well, hello there. What do we have here? Is that a new city that has just been settled close to Decius' culture? If it isn't a new city, then why isn't the closest mountain covered with the freak's culture? Take a good look at it, because of where Decius' culture is, that has to be a new city (Decius is not going to beat the freaks in culture...) which means that we may actually have a crack at it while it still only has just a couple of warriors barely fortified without culture defensive bonus - or even catch it unprotected if it truly has just been settled.

The case is clear. We declare next turn.

Action begins. War is on! :rockon:

Horatius · Jul 11, 2011

All Orcs cry War! and the wolf riders move in:

Spoiler :

and we catch the clown
with his pants down...

There is no hesitation - Pillage, Burn!:

Spoiler :

Our Wolf riders high-five the barbarian goblin :high5:

and move away for now.

But in the next turn, they have no mercy and take revenge for their fallen goblin brother:

Spoiler :

Our troops retreat to heal and to lure the bears away from our settler that will try to build our second city.
We settle near the gold and start building more workers. Some chopping will need to get done.

Spoiler :

Sheelba commands the wolf riders to move in again and notices that a barbarian city has spawned near the previous razed city.

- Strive on Orc Brothers! Generate warriors for the Horde!

Spoiler :

Sheelba wants to fully commit to the harassment now. Our Wolf riders are quick to satisfy her and since they are no shy units, they immediately crack some freaks and dare the little stack in the enemy city to attack into the forest and cross the river:

Spoiler :

The voices that paint Perpentach as an insane fellow reveal themselves true as he commands his worker to build a farm right in the face of our troops:

Spoiler :

Harassment is like a never-ending storm - Crack freaks, Pillage stuff!:

Spoiler :

All the improvements will soon be plundered, some roads will get cut so that the enemy troops are slow and we don't have to fear a quick mobbing retaliation after an attack.

Meanwhile at home, workers bang the gold, more workers are being built and mansory being researched.

Sheelba will be a busy woman in the next turns while continuously giving orders to the wolf raiders, pushing her workers around and directing a very dangerous bear hunting expedition (we shall see why).

and yes, the wolf riders keep leveling themselves up while only taking a few pauses to heal in Decius' closest city.

The cycle is never ending -

Back and forth
crack, pillage, heal
Back and forth
crack, pillage, heal
Back and forth
crack, pillage, heal:

Spoiler :

UncleJJ · Jul 12, 2011

Nice work with the Wolfriders :goodjob:

They are fierce; and having 3 of them is a nice number. Now they are promoted they will be hard to stop. Once you have bronze they will be good candidates for upgrading to chariots.

Those Hoooowwwlllls ... :scared:

would be enough to drive Perpentach mad, if he wasn't already. :lol:

I see you are now researching Masonary. How long before we get the first warrens? I would appreciate a sight of what you're doing in your capital and how much production you have there. Posting a savegame every now and then would be appreciated so I could take a look and not ask quite so many questions :blush:

What are you planning to research after Masonary and then I guess Horseback Riding :ar15:

Obviously you can then spam wolfriders and maybe some warriors for backup and garrisons for any cities you capture. You need to wipe that first civ out quickly so your cottages can be worked.

So what is the medium term research plan?

How do you intend to increase your happiness? You have gold and I guess cotton will be connected soon so the capital can soon grow to size 7.

What are your longer term plans for religions? You know RoK is one of my favourites for the warrens + SoK trick, for at least part of the game

What other religions would you consider?

------------

Then you have Rantine's special ability to consider... and your worldspell to fire off at some stage. You have so many options and so many things to do. :lol:

Horatius · Jul 12, 2011

UncleJJ said:
Nice work with the Wolfriders They are fierce; and having 3 of them is a nice number. Now they are promoted they will be hard to stop. Once you have bronze they will be good candidates for upgrading to chariots.

Those Hoooowwwlllls ... would be enough to drive Perpentach mad, if he wasn't already.

I see you are now researching Masonary. How long before we get the first warrens? I would appreciate a sight of what you're doing in your capital and how much production you have there. Posting a savegame every now and then would be appreciated so I could take a look and not ask quite so many questions

I don't mind questions. Ask away!
I guess that I could post savegames. I wasn't thinking about that at all and I'm surprised that somebody asks. I'll attach a savegame in this post that will put you on the moment of my last screenshot.

UncleJJ said:
What are you planning to research after Masonary and then I guess Horseback Riding Obviously you can then spam wolfriders and maybe some warriors for backup and garrisons for any cities you capture. You need to wipe that first civ out quickly so your cottages can be worked.

I'm researching mansory to start chopping the warrens in my capital as soon as possible. After that I will research exploration to connect the cities, resources and trade with Decius. Then horseback riding and cartography.

By the way, now that I've played more I think that I should have went towards exploration before mansory. The thing is, I wanted to build the warrens as fast as possible to build some fast warriors to help deal with any counterattack. At that point I still wasn't sure of how much damage I could do.
Better is to increase your happy cap as soon as possible and start building the brewing house for ale and a little bit of commerce multiplication with the wheat.
Of course, after playing it is easier to be wiser

.

Like I said, I'm not using any cottages before conquest as a little bit of a challenge; after conquest I'm beelining code of laws (with the help of calendar resources, gold, wine, city states and pillage money) and spamming the aristocratic farms.

UncleJJ said:
So what is the medium term research plan?

mansory>exploration>horseback riding>cartography>ancient chants>education>code of laws>bronze working>sanitation...

UncleJJ said:
How do you intend to increase your happiness? You have gold and I guess cotton will be connected soon so the capital can soon grow to size 7.

Plus Ale and dancing bears. The goal is to achieve a 20 hammer production in each city so that we are able to produce 4 wolf riders every three turns by turn 100.

UncleJJ said:
What are your longer term plans for religions? You know RoK is one of my favourites for the warrens + SoK trick, for at least part of the game What other religions would you consider?

Rok it is, also because I already know by now the religions that the AIs picked.
Iron ogres boosted by Bambur and shield of faith? yes, please.

On the other hand, we may have plans to not play economically at all and just do an orcish steamroll (he,he,he - evil laugh)...

UncleJJ said:
------------

Then you have Rantine's special ability to consider... and your worldspell to fire off at some stage. You have so many options and so many things to do.

I had a very entertaining early game. Who says that you are only hitting enter in the first 100 turns?
I'll post what happened eventually.

Horatius · Jul 13, 2011

and we continue:

as soon as mansory is researched (we gained a couple of turns with some pillage money), exploration follows and our capital starts to build a warrens. Also, on that very turn some workers complete a couple of mines immediately delivering lumber to the city, a second warrior is trained, and our second city tries to generate some bear hunters:

Spoiler :

Most of the hammers for the warrens will be chopped, meanwhile our city will actually work the, ahem, comerce tiles

.

The harassment continues, although in a particular moment the orcs feel disgusted when they find that the enemy city has generated an archer-like freak :cringe:

Spoiler :

Units searching for bears find copper near an eventually to be stolen barbarian city:

Spoiler :

Resources end up being connected, cities grow, production increases and horseback riding is being researched.

Meanwhile, Sheelba has the option of giving up her pig for a Hill giant. But no siege is allowed and our second city much needs the pig for food and health.
Still, our capital's garrison gains a playmate with whom to play rock paper scissors for quite a while:

Spoiler :

Wolf riders keep choking the clown (Perpentach's score has kind of been stuck for quite a while):

Spoiler :

("Freaks have been destroyed" message capture fail by one fraction of a second)

The game goes on and we learn that Decius, being the first to cartography, has completed a pact with the hill giants. But in general, he seems to be weak and stuck in the northeast part of the map. Sheelba doesn't have much to fear from him for now.
Some of his troops also crosses our borders in search of animals and captures what is probably the last sacred wolf in the land (poor animal extinction...):

Spoiler :

With no pressure at all from anybody Sheelba decides to build the brewing house (which probably should have been built already).

Decius beelines Runes of Kilmorph before calendar, education or bronze working

and the religion is founded on Malakim lands.
Also Loki, coming from the Lanun territory (to left of the freaks), decides to play a little with our Wolf riders:

Spoiler :

Sheelba continues to try to make her plans work well and finally, finally our hunting expedition achieves success!:

Spoiler :

Now our second city can achieve a border pop without having to wait for ancient chants and work two more extra mines!

Falamar declares war on the freaks for our benefit and Loki makes his final prank:

Spoiler :

(there should be bonus points for that)

Horseback riding is researched, Wolf Rider production has begun and now our goblin hunter makes another bear dance!
Go goblin go!:

Spoiler :

Now Sheelba's capital will also be able to hit a 20 hammers production cycle for 2 Wolf riders every three turns :cool:

Some beakers are put on cartography while our slider goes down fast with the new units.

Wolf riders are rallied in, close by barbarian cities increase their numbers for the horde!:

Spoiler :

Our sturdy goblin puts another bear on a ball! :lol:

:

Spoiler :

Unfortunately, our goblin would eventually die in his next try. But our goblins, all of them, did well. Very well indeed.

Sheelba's eyes spark as her troops get ready to finally take on a city:

Spoiler :

Do we have enough?
ATTACK! :ar15:

Spoiler :

.
.
.
.
Ooohh. We end up one unit short...

What now?...

Now?

Now, Sheelba cries FOR THE HOOOORRRDEEEEE!:

Spoiler :

One of the closest barbarian brothers joins our cause and finishes up the pain. Warriors, archers, a bunch of them come from closest barbarian cities - They rally!

Wolf Rider reinforcements quickly arrive as well, fast and fierce, while one of our warriors tries to lure units outside the second enemy city
- and it works! The enemy makes a big mistake as he steps outside with three units, and even if those units are in a forest hill they are no match for our early Wolf Rider heroes:

Spoiler :

All of our troops rage on with the immediate opportunity and:

Spoiler :

it is known who is stronger
as faces do frown,
the freaks are no longer,
the circus is out of town...

The Orcs puff their chests :smug:

. Decius is next.

Horatius · Jul 13, 2011

In the case that someone is wondering, you can check out my city production during the rush here:

Spoiler :

Our capital has 19 hammers as base production (plus one overflow hammer in the picture) while the second city has 20 (plus 2 overflow hammers).
Overflow started from the previous buildings and some chopping got done (I think I used 1 or 2 chops). If needed, the pig with one hammer can always be interchanged between the cities, but micromanagement was not needed as they continuously produced together 4 Wolf riders (60 hammers) every three turns (except next round; I had enough).

xendelaar · Jul 14, 2011

Awesome story! I can't wait to hear about Sheelba's next move.

Horatius · Jul 14, 2011

xendelaar said:
Awesome story! I can't wait to hear about Sheelba's next move.

Thanks

Horatius · Jul 14, 2011

- and more early war tales:

Workers connect the cities and get ready to improve the new land. Our bear also slowly moves in to entertain the new cities, more troops are gathered and we switch to city states:

Spoiler :

Sheelba aggressive instincts don't stop tickling her and there is not much delay - We declare on Decius and, with new units, go first towards his weakest city:

Spoiler :

The veteran stacks advance towards Timberling. This city is much tougher as it's being protected by Hill Giants:

Spoiler :

But does Sheelba care?
Does she?

No!

Mob it. Mob it HARD! :trouble:

:

Spoiler :

After some healing, Sheelba commands her units towards another Malakim city and Decius finds out that not even soldiers of Kilmorph can't protect him against our high level wolf riders:

Spoiler :

There really isn't much to tell. Sheelba is too fast and fierce. The last city is also crushed and Decius goes to exile once again:

Spoiler :

(It's a hard life, Decius)

The orcs' future is very bright. Very bright indeed.

The orcs rejoice and an enormous celebration commences in all their land:
:beer:

Being a rude race, you can imagine that there was lots of hard drinks, many loud noises, many joyful brawls.

What you might not know is that when they get really drunk they also dance.

What sort of dances?
That, you have to try to imagine.
In your heart, feel the beat:

(orcs dance, orcs dance)
:eekdance:

(orcs dance, orcs dance)
:eekdance:

Game diary: Deity, rolling with the Clan of Embers (FfH2 with Tholal's mod)

Prince

The "A" is silent

Deity

Prince

Prince

Cat

Prince

Prince

Cat

Deity

Prince

Prince

Prince

Deity

Prince

Prince

Prince

Chieftain

Prince

Prince

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