Looking for some Calabim's tips

[Calaboy]

Hi ,

I'm quite new to FFH2, playing around 20/30 games (Trying each Civ or most of them). I usually play on Prince/Monarch with beyond the sword so I've kept this settings for FFH AI.

I found myself to be a vampiric-lover . So from now on I've settled Calabim as my favorite and I prefer Flauros over Alexis (financial trait makes a big difference for me)

So here is some questions I've :

- Starting Tech : I usually go for
If map is full of calendar tiles :

1/ Agriculture -> Calendar -> Festival -> and then I'm a bit lost should I go for mining ? AH ? Magic ?

If map is floodplains like I'd go for :
2/ Ancient Chants -> Education -> Code of Laws and then again I don't now what to plan next

(It's pretty rare I start on hills or mountains don't know why)

Should I plan for Vampires before Magics, should I run into Vampires ASAP ?
I've read some threads about calabim and I still don't see where I can put Crafting -> Mining -> Bronze Working for the moroi's

- Civics

I'd like to run Aristocracy with Agriculture (farms with golds isn't that bad especially if there's no floodplains tiles) but maybe I should run City States instead of Aristocracy for keeping the food bonus on farms


Ps : Don't be offense by english mystakes I've made

 

[Copper Golem]

Hi ,

I'm quite new to FFH2, playing around 20/30 games (Trying each Civ or most of them). I usually play on Prince/Monarch with beyond the sword so I've kept this settings for FFH AI.

I found myself to be a vampiric-lover . So from now on I've settled Calabim as my favorite and I prefer Flauros over Alexis (financial trait makes a big difference for me)

So here is some questions I've :

- Starting Tech : I usually go for
If map is full of calendar tiles :

1/ Agriculture -> Calendar -> Festival -> and then I'm a bit lost should I go for mining ? AH ? Magic ?

If map is floodplains like I'd go for :
2/ Ancient Chants -> Education -> Code of Laws and then again I don't now what to plan next

(It's pretty rare I start on hills or mountains don't know why)

Should I plan for Vampires before Magics, should I run into Vampires ASAP ?
I've read some threads about calabim and I still don't see where I can put Crafting -> Mining -> Bronze Working for the moroi's

- Civics

I'd like to run Aristocracy with Agriculture (farms with golds isn't that bad especially if there's no floodplains tiles) but maybe I should run City States instead of Aristocracy for keeping the food bonus on farms


Ps : Don't be offense by english mystakes I've made

You could easily search the forum.
For example:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=232130

As I wrote there, simplest: rush to vampires, and you are invincible (at list at emperor difficulty).

Well, no offence as well. English isn’t my native language too, so I am using WORD to control what I am typing, amusing and also don’t make English speaking guys mad wile reading my posts.

 

[daladinn]

the calabim ...

if your the builder type then flauros is by far your best choice. if your looking for a semi early rush then i would say go for alexis. for now i am going to talk about flauros though since its your preference.

your first consideration is if you are starting near the coast and how many resources you have in the water. if you have a good coastal city rush sailing and build the great lighthouse.

next as was said above you should head for getting vampires. there are many reasons for this....
1st - push toward education and code of laws.(if you have a decent number of cows or pigs locally you should pick up the tech between getting education and code of laws.) this allows you to build a solid cottage based economy. city states is going to be needed as you expand.
2nd - the calabim is one of the few that i do really think the big cross is valued. however you want to get a good balance early between building bloodpets and settlers. you can rarely have too many bloodpets. city states early will allow for early expansion.
3rd - your going to be teching for trade. trade has the benefit go another +2 trade routes for you.
4th - you pick up feudalism for your vampires.

because your going to have a strong trade based economy open borders is STRONGLY recommended.

at this point your going to be looking for a religion. you are only a few techs away from the order , OO , empyrean, and esus. I strongly recommend going the order. the calabim benefit greatly for the reduced costs and the synergy of all the bloodpets providing happiness is nice.

once all the basics are covered i would go for warfare ( to pick up the city attack promotions)

then your looking at wether your in a peaceful time or not? or it might be personal preferences. but your biggest choice now is to continue developing your economy or to develop the religious path.

the economy - currency , taxation , and mercantilism can greatly increase the cash flow of your civ and thus increase your research to epic levels.

the religion - gives you losha and brujahs for offensive might. your already mostly down this tree for the happiness of social order. as the order it also gives you their 2 heroes , so the combat might of this path is insane.

**************************************************

now to deviate a bit...

if you decide to run a bit with alexis (can be done with flauros , but alexis is easier with the combat 1 promo). start by building lots and lots of bloodpets. rush for mining (hopefully you have copper or at least can see it). if you have copper get bronzeworking. if you see the need to take copper start heading for education until you get the copper and then bronzeworking. after bronseworking pick up warfare for city attack. and then code of laws for city states so as to hold the cities you take.

[ this is basically a standard rush ]

where the calabim differ. your moroi (axemen) have the ability to cast burning blood. this allows them to attack multiple times a turn , increases their movement, makes them immune to fear , and just outright stronger. it also has a chance to turn them into a barbarian every turn. this is extremely handy if your economy is on the verge and you are close to enemy lands. adding strong raging barbs to his territory can be a nuisance.

************************************

useful notes on the calabim
-- when a bloodpet is eaten it heals the vampire as well as giving an extra point of movement and allowing the vampire to attack another time. very handy in a seige or when taking a city (always have a stack of bloodpets around)
-- every vampire can build skeletons and skeletons make great shock troops.
-- vampires can upgrade to paladins , eidolons , brujah and vampire lords (watch the mellee and disciple line of promos)


hope that helps a little bit.....

 

[Calaboy]

@ Copper Golem : Do not worry, I am not offended and after a second reading of my post, I really should have used Word to correct me. Again, sorry for that.

@ Daladinn : I'm the builder type and in the beginning I had big issues with the barbs ( one bloodpet isn't enough should be a tips on the loading screen), I'll try to apply your councils and still thank you for replying.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

-- when a bloodpet is eaten it heals the vampire as well as giving an extra point of movement and allowing the vampire to attack another time. very handy in a seige or when taking a city (always have a stack of bloodpets around)

That isn't true anymore. Currently all "feed" does is kill a unit to heal a vampire, and it currently only works on Bloodpets. It has been this way since targeted spells were removed. (Note that I tried going back to the old way in my modmod. I couldn't get the targeting to work of course, but I made it auto-target the weakest slave, worker,or bloodpet, and returned the old bonus for feding off of a bloodpet.)

 

[Demus]

funny how you mention a cottage+trade economy, i always figured calabim were the perfect candidates for aristocracy farms (they need the food for feasting, and the unhappiness from too much food isn't that much of a problem thanks to the manor).

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Aristocracy lowers the amount of food they get from farms, so it doesn't fit that well mechanically (since there strength relies on high population cities to feed upon); however, it is extremely appropriately thematically.

Thats why I decided to give them a Royal Guard UU; the "Bloodguard" with law1, shadow1, and mind1 instead of spirit2, vampire instead of guardsman, channeling1&2, slightly stronger offensive strength but weaker defense, can upgrade to vampire lord in addition to the normal knights and war chariots.

 

[daladinn]

damn , i stand corrected on the whole blood pet thing.

tested it today after you said that and yes , all it does is heal the vampire , sad nerf there . you cant even eat anything other then bloodpets now.

 

[Demus]

Aristocracy lowers the amount of food they get from farms, so it doesn't fit that well mechanically; however, it is extremely appropriately thematically.

you'd still be working food+2/3 tiles (running agriculture aswell, making sanitation a priority), allowing you to gain 1 pop a turn for the first 5-10 population, while bringing in cash. Generally, a farm-only grassland/floodplain town will overflow on food for quite a while before it drops off it's 1 pop/turn cap, wasting food in the process, which can be used for additional commerce. A cottage economy will have slightly more gold, but a lot less food per tile. It can work (and generally will), but you need a lot more towns to become effective (playing calabim i usually run atleast 3 food-only towns for feasting, and CE's need additional commerce towns just to keep up par teching, ones you can't take a single bite from). Under aristocracy, your food towns are bringing in 3-4 gold per farm in aswell (depending on flauros or alexis).

Still, as said before: i've got a lot less experience in FFH than some of the other players on this forum, so it's possible i got it all wrong