How did I get this unit>

[hognolia]

Here is my first noob question,I've been glued to FfH since I got it(a few weeks).Playing as Tebryn Arbandi,I received a Succubus,pretty sexy too,so how did I get her?Is this a good thing or will she bump the armageddon meter up?

 

[Love]

You build the planar gate which spawns creatures with a building, depending on the Armageddon counter

 

[smjjames]

You build the planar gate which spawns creatures with a building, depending on the Armageddon counter

You can also get it from an event (the one where a lord of hell wants to give you his daughter for whatever reason), but I've only seen it with the Shealm and a few times with Hyborem.

 

[MrUnderhill]

Is this a good thing or will she bump the armageddon meter up?

Aren't those the same thing if you're playing Sheaim?

Yeah, the Sheaim don't typically get regular units past tier 2 (Axemen, Archers, Hunters, etc.), but in exchange they get units from their planar gates automatically. The higher the AC, the more units you can get.

 

[xienwolf]

Yes, as the Sheaim, Armageddon up = GOOD. As anyone else, that is typically the opposite though.

PS - download the manual There is a lot more you can get from the Planar Gates

 

[MagisterCultuum]

The Succubus is the planar gate unit spawned in cities with both planar gates and Public Baths (which double as brothels, hence the happiness, unhealthiness, and Succubi)

 

[Nikis-Knight]

I think brothels imply more privacy than public baths, though

 

[hognolia]

I back the game to the very turn the Succubus appears,the gate isnt quite open and aborting the Mercurian gate or Planar gate is it,dumping all that work is a bummer,I still get to keep her and no Basiums take over one of my best cities!Then the other scenario I let it ride and the gate opens,the Basuims do take my city,have like four angels and a settler and Basuim his self, do I try to kill him?How do I or would even think about beating him,he is Satan right?I give him things and he is cool about being neighbors,a trick I copy from the AI's.I am loving it right into the wee hours of morn.Thank you for the replies.So good to meet everyone,heros.
Hog.

 

[Mewtarthio]

Er, Basium isn't exactly Satan. He's an angel who's abandoned heaven so that he can wage war with the Veil on Erebus. Note that Basium is summoned once the Mercurian Gate is built, and he automatically takes control of the city that holds the Gate. If you worship the Veil, he will declare war on you, and he'll drag his ally (whoever builds the Gate enters a Permanent Alliance with the Mercurians) into the war as well.

Note that there really isn't much of anything you can do about it. Anyone who doesn't follow the Veil can summon Basium, so the best you can do is spread the Veil around to let fewer people summon him (and, hopefully, to distract the Mercurians when they do show up). However, you're not causing it yourself, unless you've been actively hampering the spread of the Veil for some reason, or if you've mistaken the Mercurian Gate wonder for the Planar Gate building, thereby summoning Basium yourself.

Actually, rereading your post, it looks like you may have done just that. On the bright side, at least your ally will get lots of units when you decide to purge the forces of Good and unravel the fabric of Erebus.

 

[xienwolf]

Basium is a "good guy" angel. He opposes Hyborem, who is the "Bad Guy" Demon. And Basium is made to be your teammate when you summon him, so you don't have to give him gifts to keep on his good side, because you and he are basically the same Civ now. Though giving him things does make him more effective as an ally.

 

[Vehem]

Basically as Sheaim (who Tebryn Arbandi is a leader for) it's normal to summon Hyborem (by researching "Infernal Pact"). He's the evil, "devil-like" demon that appears on the icon.

Basium is a "good guy" who comes to wage war against Hyborem. He enters when the Mercurian Gate is built. He'll also fight anyone who worships the Ashen Veil quite cheerfully.

Planar Gates are entirely different again. They're not part of the Angel/Demon Basium/Hyborem mechanic. They just allow the Sheaim to gain extra units as the Armageddon counter grows. Some of these happen to be demons, but they're not part of the Infernal race.

==

If you want to play "in character", the best thing to do is research Infernal Pact (though summoning Hyborem can be a curse as well as a boon, even for the Sheaim), build as many diseased corpses, pyre zombies and planar gates as possible, then try to kill everything and raise the Armageddon counter until all the nasty stuff turns up. You'll probably get mauled too, but Tebryn is quite keen for everyone to go to hell, so he won't mind.

 

[hognolia]

It turns out I opened both gates in the same turn.I had never seen either open before so it set off a few events.I replayed it again(and again and again),this one time opening just the Planar gate,it gave me a different unit instead of the Succubus,the Minotaur. I had just opened the Mercurian gate before out of curiousity,I was so wth !!??,that is a good trick and people playing as " good "are in danger when this happens?So another thing I did in another test is open the Mercurian gate,Basium is like "give me anything?" I give him one city first down in the cancerous regions where I keep having to put those fires out,Basium is like " you are smart human" and he gives me iron! So I do it again,give him another problem city by the fires and red lands(I am still trying to heal that land with life mana nodes and sanctify spell but have not got a full understanding of this,HELP!)and he again gives me iron,this makes me give him more, I give him money,ect ect and he keeps right on giving me iron ,I have like ten irons now and am trading it to the needy.Is this a common thing for him to do?I am loving it,new units,new tricks,I doubt I will go back to Vanilla Civ.So ya hey.

 

[Mewtarthio]

Remember, Basium is in a permanent alliance with you. That means he will tend to be extremely generous with you.

Note also that the Sheiam are generally considered a tough civ for beginners, thanks to their unusual playstyle. Production is relatively unimportant, since your army automatically spawns for you, so you want lots of low-quality cities. These guys give you extra research when you spread the Ashen Veil to them (which you will want to do--be sure to found the Veil and build the Stigmata on the Unborn shrine, since it gives you research instead of money), and I believe they also affect the number of units you can get from Planar Gates (especially if you nab the Catacomb Libralus).

Ultimately, you want to get to either the end of the arcane line (if you're Tebryn) or the end of the religious line (if you're Os-Gabella). Os-Gabella should get Profanes to burn the world to the ground, while Tebryn should use Eaters of Dreams and capture any cities with at least 4 population. The Eater of Dreams is extremely powerful, since you can basically convert population into decently powerful temporary troops. Pit Beasts (requires Chaos III promotion) are popular here.

 

[TheJopa]

It turns out I opened both gates in the same turn.I had never seen either open before so it set off a few events.I replayed it again(and again and again),this one time opening just the Planar gate,it gave me a different unit instead of the Succubus,the Minotaur. I had just opened the Mercurian gate before out of curiousity,I was so wth !!??,that is a good trick and people playing as " good "are in danger when this happens?So another thing I did in another test is open the Mercurian gate,Basium is like "give me anything?" I give him one city first down in the cancerous regions where I keep having to put those fires out,Basium is like " you are smart human" and he gives me iron! So I do it again,give him another problem city by the fires and red lands(I am still trying to heal that land with life mana nodes and sanctify spell but have not got a full understanding of this,HELP!)and he again gives me iron,this makes me give him more, I give him money,ect ect and he keeps right on giving me iron ,I have like ten irons now and am trading it to the needy.Is this a common thing for him to do?I am loving it,new units,new tricks,I doubt I will go back to Vanilla Civ.So ya hey.

Planar gates will give you lots of units - the higher the Armageddon Counter is, and the more cities with Planar Gates you have, the more troops you will get. You can get succubus, minotaur, tar demon, chaos marauder, reveler and others this way. To get more units- raise the Armageddon. To raise the Armageddon, raze cities, destroy good, spread Ashen Veil religion (Satanist Pentagram). But since you have Basium, who is anti-evil, by your side, I don't think it would be wise to turn Ashen Veil.
And welcome!

 

[Mewtarthio]

You can also build something called the "Elegy of the Sheaim," which gradually raises the Armageddon Counter.

 

[hognolia]

I am getting the hang of it thanks to the input from everybody,nice.I even figured out the spells,but I still cannot get rid of the red landscape that keeps lighting up again like an old birthday candle trick,am I supposed to let it burn,am I really supposed to let the whole world burn,thats not nice.So if you play as evil there are a whole new set of rules huh?I have skimmed through most of the different civilizations and so far I feel like "Os Gabella(Sheaim)" or" Charadon (Doviello)"are the best.Am I close?The list of Civs I have from this site is 35 in number,but as I scroll down the list in the custom game menu I see less,are there a few hidden ones,besides the ones you can switch to after building the Mercurian gate,is there another way to "become" another civ?

 

[hognolia]

I have never played online and need to see if I can even operate that online menu.I have a cable hook up,but my computer runs way slow when I have all the civs running,it even crashes at times so I've been playing no more than four AI at a time and this does ok,this sound right? I guess it would have to be one on one or duel match with a person who is not too cruel since I'm a bit Noobi Nooberson still.Or even 4 people.DO you all play each other online?

 

[Mewtarthio]

I am getting the hang of it thanks to the input from everybody,nice.I even figured out the spells,but I still cannot get rid of the red landscape that keeps lighting up again like an old birthday candle trick,am I supposed to let it burn,am I really supposed to let the whole world burn,thats not nice.So if you play as evil there are a whole new set of rules huh?

That'd be Hell. Once somebody researches the Infernal Pact, Hyborem appears and brings Hell to earth. Every tile of the Infernal territory is converted to its hellish counterpart--Demons are more powerful on Hell terrain, there are fewer types of resources (a good deal amount of happiness resources get transformed into Toads, for instance), and the hellish analogue to desert, the Burning Sands, randomly bursts into flames. Hell terrain is usually a bad thing, though the Sheiam don't mind so much thanks to their Planar Gates.

The Hell terrain gradually spreads outwards to adjacent tiles depending on the current value of the Apocalypse Counter: Civilizations that worship the Ashen Veil are always vulnerable to it, while higher AC values let it spread first to other Evil players, then to unowned tiles, and lastly to Neutral players (Good civs are always immune). If a tile with Hell terrain suddenly becomes immune to Hell (say, if the tile's owner changes religions, or if the AC gets lowered), the terrain still takes some time to revert to normal. Anyone with the Life I promotion (generally Adepts) can cast a spell called "Sanctify" which instantly purges Hell terrain.

I have skimmed through most of the different civilizations and so far I feel like "Os Gabella(Sheaim)" or" Charadon (Doviello)"are the best.Am I close?

The Sheaim can become quite powerful, but they are a late game civ. If an early game civ (like the Clan of Embers) wants them dead, they will generally die. Once Os-Gabella gets Profanes or Tebryn gets Eaters of Dreams, though, they will crush many enemies. However, I'm not sure they can compete with the other main late game civ, the Calabim. Vampires can become obsenely powerful. On the plus side, the Sheiam can always summon more beasties in response to a string of bad luck. I'm not sure who's better, ultimately...

The Doviello are widely considered underpowered. They're a lot like the Clan of Embers, except without the building that doubles all their units. They're great for killing people before anyone builds a single Settler, but after the opening game, they tend to die.

The list of Civs I have from this site is 35 in number,but as I scroll down the list in the custom game menu I see less,are there a few hidden ones,besides the ones you can switch to after building the Mercurian gate,is there another way to "become" another civ?

There are three civs/leaders that cannot be chosen at game creation: Basium of the Mercurians (who is summoned via the Mercurian Gate), Hyborem of the Infernals (who is summoned via the Infernal Pact), and Auric Ulvin of the Illians (who is still not fully implemented at this time--you can play him via custom game if you really want to, but he'll be extremely generic; the Illians will be implemented by the "Ice" phase, but I can't estimate how long that will be).

 

[xienwolf]

It isn't that there are 35 Civs, it is that you are allowed to have 35 players on a single map. There are 21 Civilizations, and a total of 35 Leaders however (reasonably certain on the numbers there. And if I am right that means that you cannot have all leaders on a map since Barbarians take up one of the 35 slots)

 

[Farmer Bobathan]

Your numbers are right but I think Kael made barbarians take up the 36th slot because I've played with all 35 leaders before.