Highlights of Erebus

[Viatos]

Since there is plenty of input on the seemingly interminable barbarian problem (first the sabertooths, then the griffons, then still the griffons, then the minotaurs, now the hillgiant/cyklops "you'll never work a tile again" combo and elementals...could a fiendish mind be at work here, under the guise of a series of unforeseen bugs and balance issues?) I thought I'd make a separate thread for them.

Playing the Mekaran Order - things are going great, I'm waaay behind in cities but I've got Poisons and at least four excellent sites, one of which happens to be the Calabim capital. They're second-closest, so as my capital queues up some settler-spam and my second city turtles up, I sent my lone lair-popped Gladiator (with Bounty Hunter; not sure how this works with its culture-victory promo, it looks like it's randomly doing one or the other) up to feed off Moroi, with Corgayle a couple turns away from completion.

War goes as expected, unfortunate hill/forest/river placement neuters the AI's ability to launch a stack at my Gladiator, Corgayle heads to defend second city from the incoming Moroi stack with no anticipated problems. It is turn 132, and I am about to lose the game.

Hit Enter, answer a phone call, look back and four Strength-7 Air Elementals have crushed my second city. They kill Corgayle AND the Moroi, hilariously, with Lightning Elemental spam, then take my capital. I WB'd, dropped some Adjuncts and a city on a random plot of land, so I can watch the fireworks - the elementals steamroll the Calabim and proceed south to crush the Kuriotates. The Bannor are a long way west, so I alt-F4. Good times. I did smile a bit when I imagined how the opposing armies must have felt about getting railed by a third party of living tornadoes, so I guess I had fun.

Any other highlights?

 

[Valkrionn]

The odd barb spawns like that are from the Fall Under module, not completely sure why yet.

 

[Oranos]

I still remember the time a Lich spawned on turn 5, and proceeded to destroy the entire world.

 

[Jabie]

I got a Lich from exploring a barrow in my first game of RifE 1.3. My faithful Grigori were toast on turn 20.

 

[Sjru]

So air elementals did all those disaster?
Think about 5 Vyrkuls (12Str) that spawn all the elementals in mid game.
Everyone was dead in 100 turns.

 

[hbar]

I popped a lich on turn 20 with my starting scout. The scout was never heard from again, but in the next 50 turns, 4 (of 5) AIs fell. The lich never found me, but my fledgling empire was crushed from a combination of hubris and hill giants. (Spending hammers on freaks that early is a bad idea. Warrior spam is the only safe choice).

 

[Viatos]

Almost unbelievably perfect: a Cyklops-spawning lair north and south of the capital, with Hill Giant steadings east and west...all four within a tile of my cultural borders. If the RNG is favorable, I will have some awesome and well-fed warriors. If not...well, you can't argue against "beat to death by four giants simultaneously" for a Manliest Death Ever candidate.

 

[Oranos]

 

[darkedone02]

i turned barbarians off because on most games with it on, alot of AI dies VERY fast, in one game, 4 civs died of savages... only cheaters can live.

 

[Koravis]

I got a Lich from exploring a barrow in my first game of RifE 1.3. My faithful Grigori were toast on turn 20.

I got a lich too in my 1.3 Cualli game, found him after a campaign against the Khazad so I had quite strong military and good level swordsmen by then, so I placed some groups around him on forested hills, and let his skeletons train my army to levels of 12+ Felt a bit gamey but I couldn't kill the actual lich and if I didn't, the clan of embers or the kuriotates would(They did before I got there heh, but in their cities)

 

[Sjru]

i turned barbarians off because on most games with it on, alot of AI dies VERY fast, in one game, 4 civs died of savages... only cheaters can live.

Good point, I remember that sometimes, to prevent the AI for dying, I put them an held uber unit in their capital. Sadly most of the time didn't worked at all, as the AI still had problems expanding and settling, because barbs were still there. And if I wanted to kill that civ... well...

 

[Jarwy]

Damn. What version of Rife are you playing at? Barbs have only gotten like one civilization in my last 3 games.

Also got a Lich from a dungeon one time, but I had already recruited assassin who got rid of power-mad undead in a hurry.

Highlights? Does it count that I had the city with best of miners, discovering tons of new resources during the course of game with the city totally 11 different resources at its peak? They even had penquins on a near by tundra. Best.. city placement.. ever. Or maybe I just a little crazy with refined mana...

 

[Gerk]

The one time I got a Lich spawn from a barrow or whatever, it was a boon, as it preferred to stand back and spam skeletons/spectres, feeding all my Warriors well into a few free promotions.

(keep in mind these warriors had 4 defending strength by default.)

 

[Nero-Angelo]

Maybe for now, 'Advanced Start' is the best way to counter these scenarios.
Or simply force the AI to build palisades, walls, etc. ASAP/at all.

But even walls won't help much, when the elementals come to say hi

 

[Valkrionn]

Yes, but those elementals are not part of RifE. They are a bug associated with a module, not Rise from Erebus itself.

 

[lemonjelly]

And a bug that can apparently be gotten rid of by turning barbs off when starting a game.

I play with barbs and lairs off at the moment, double animals and barb cities on, and I don't get any crazy spawns, the AI plays better, and exploration is still dangerous enough

 

[Meldon]

I like the risks of dungeon hunting, so I play with lairs on and cross my fingers for a Fall Under fix

 

[lemonjelly]

Play with the Ancient Ruins function on the maps?

I like Lairs, but the spawns are terrible for the AI

 

[Meldon]

That's a good idea, I'll try that my next game. By the way, does turning lairs off also turn off goblin forts? I liked training a strong unit or two up as fort-takers and stealing a bunch from them.

 

[Valkrionn]

And a bug that can apparently be gotten rid of by turning barbs off when starting a game.

I play with barbs and lairs off at the moment, double animals and barb cities on, and I don't get any crazy spawns, the AI plays better, and exploration is still dangerous enough

Shouldn't have to be turned off, is my point.

Play with the Ancient Ruins function on the maps?

I like Lairs, but the spawns are terrible for the AI

And they won't be for long.

That's a good idea, I'll try that my next game. By the way, does turning lairs off also turn off goblin forts? I liked training a strong unit or two up as fort-takers and stealing a bunch from them.

Yes, it will.