Newbie Learning - Asking for Tips

Gift Vampirism is nice, I'm working on getting that spread, but I still feel somewhat "limited". As for Hemah, atm I'm working on supering him up. He's at Body 3 already for Stoneskin and Water 3 for Tsunami. I haven't picked up Brujahs yet though.
 
Remember, you don't Need to eat population just cause you granted vampirism to a Moroi for example. He will still get the strength increase and regeneration increase from the promotion. So when you are in a war, notice when your moroi gets to lvl 4 and give them vampirism immediately to empower them a bit.
 
Well so far, I think I've learnt a bit of general stuff from this game. Diplomacy is a big issue, everyone but me was RoK and as a result, no one wanted to trade with me and each war that gave me "You declared war on my friend" effects. I'm a bit behind in techs because of it, since no one wants to trade those with me. So, heading into my next game, I'll know to work on my diplomatic relations early (and try to found a religion early enough to spread it to my neighbours).

As far as Calabim are concerned, I&#8217;m finding myself disliking them. I like Vampires, they&#8217;re very powerful, but they&#8217;re hard to replace. You feed them a city, turn them into superheroes, wage war, but once they die, it takes a chunk of a city to try and make a new one. It&#8217;s kind of frustrating and disappointing when you see a Vampire die (and yeah, I was kind of slow getting to Vampire Lords >.<). I&#8217;m kind of finding it not to my taste, when I go to war, I quite like to have my main units be expendable and replaceable, heh. Vampires + Slaves from OO are quite handy though: Kill > Slave > Eat > Kill. Shame it&#8217;s only 25&#37;, but I suppose it&#8217;d be monstrous if there was anything higher.

I don&#8217;t think I made enough Blood pets early on either, but one thing I&#8217;ve noticed about them is they slow me down. They don&#8217;t have Commando and some don&#8217;t have mobility, which is kind of annoying when going to war. I like Losha though, with Orthus Axe she&#8217;s proven to be a dominating figure in my army (and her voice is awesome).

Over all, I don&#8217;t think I quite have a taste for Calabim. I think I had more fun the last time I played them (maybe because everything went so smoothly or maybe because I could play around with the toys some more). It was a decent learning experience though, especially in regards to diplomacy and getting myself early allies.

Anyway, going to run this game out. I&#8217;m certain I will lose. 3rd place in points and an enemy has nearly completed the Altar. I certainly won&#8217;t be able to shoot for a domination or conquest either, their empires are too big and mature to take down (much like my own). Oh well, win some lose some :)

Either way, in my next game, I don't think I'll run as the Calabim. Maybe as the Elves, although the impression I've gotten is that people consider them imbalanced? Maybe as the Balseraphs, if only because I find Keelyn too adorable a character to pass-up (and Summoning could be fun).
 
Micky Onimusha said:
Ah, Luchirp are the Golem Dwarves right? I thought the Sheaim would be a bit more tentative about their units (except for Zombie and Summons) though?
Click to expand...

Well thats the point, Sheaim are great summoners. Just like Amurites are great mages. And sheaim get free units from their planar gates at times.

Khazad can produce great armies with their production bonuses, and both their leaders have traits which makes them able to afford them easier. Especially if you run a Great merchant strategy with them. Settling the merchants in capital, and running god king, with a Bazaar of Mammon, equals insane income even at 100% research. Especially with the 6 merchant specialists you can use with the bazaar + the buildings you should have by then.

Combine that with RoK religion, build Trebuchets, and Assassins, and protect them with Bambur, you got an army of units that have a low chance of dying; Trebuchets have an 80% chance of survival every turn when attacking, and Assassins always target the easiest kill in the stack. +Dwarven assassins use explosives, and has a small collateral effect targeting damaging 2 other units with collateral damage. And Bambur can repair the Trebs when they are damaged.
 
Hmm, you're making Khazad sound quite interesting to me now. But don't they have a bit of a rough time at the start because of the Dwarven Vault thing? But you've made them sound quite intriguing. I've only given them a go once before but I remembered they were amusing on Highlands, I quit early though because I started to figure out how the vault worked (a bit too late).
 
Micky Onimusha said:
Hmm, you're making Khazad sound quite interesting to me now. But don't they have a bit of a rough time at the start because of the Dwarven Vault thing? But you've made them sound quite intriguing. I've only given them a go once before but I remembered they were amusing on Highlands, I quit early though because I started to figure out how the vault worked (a bit too late).
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The things to remember about Khazad is;
  • They dont get Longbows, Marksmen or Flurries
  • They dont get any arcane units beyond Adepts
  • Instead they only get Slingers and Crossbows and Heavy Crossbows
  • Settling on rivers is a good idea, cause Breweries give all dwarven units +2 experience (not siege units though).
  • Their Assassins and Shadows get collateral damage
  • Their Trebuchets are 5/3 str with 80&#37; Withdrawal, making them excellent at surviving, and damaging stacks when attacking.
  • You want Runes of Kilmorph, preferably the holy city, and preferably in your capital.
  • Your Vaults are great, but the disadvantage is; The cost increases per city.
  • Both leaders have the Ingenuity trait, making all their upgrades half price! Make sure to abuse that fact.
  • Even without the Philosophy trait they get a nice amount of GPP from the Vaults and if you are RoK, Arate.
I love the Khazad cause their style of combat and builder flavor suits me. They are slow expanders, relying on few great cities instead of many. They get great production bonuses and both their leaders have good trait combinations.

You want an Academy in your capital, but other than that, you'd want all Great Merchants, or Great Commanders. (With maybe some Great Engineers)

Here is a nice table if you have a problem with the amount of gold you need for the Vaults.


My strategy so far, has been to use one city till I found RoK, which I go for pretty early. I get a Great Sage from Writing, or I get my first Great Sage from a specialist. Then I get a market, and try to get a Great Merchant as soon as possible. When I get it, I settle it in the capital. And in combination with a merchant specialist, the market, and RoK bonus, you will get a nice gold per turn even at 100% research. And you will now soon be able to afford 2, or even 3 cities at overflowing amounts. With more merchants, and great merchants it should be easy to afford a bigger nation.

Since the map is probably getting crowded while you stayed with one city, you will probably not be able to settle more than just 1 other city or maybe 2.

This is when you build up for war. Be picky about what cities to keep, where to resettle a city and what cities to raze.

Once you get the Bazaar of Mammon you will be able to afford a new city every 3-5 turns with 500 gold saved up for each city for overflowing. Minus any spending you are doing on infrastructure.

But this is only if you care about having your cities at overflowing level. You could always settle more cities, or conquer more cities and care about the vault level later.
 
I thought the Sheaim would be a bit more tentative about their units (except for Zombie and Summons) though?
Click to expand...
The Sheaim have really two groups of units that they really need to protect, their connjurers/summoners and their priests (ritualists, really). Both of these types of units will likely never initiate combat, and thus all their attacking will be with disposible units--either summons or gated creatures, which can both be freely replaced.
 
Thanks for that post Khazad, you have me quite intrigued to try them next now. I'm tempted to give Raging Barbs a go as well, so their one city style would probably benefit from that as well.

As for the Sheaim, I've always had my eyes on them but they usually turn out buggy for me (I crash a lot when they're on the map, my guess is it's a bug relating to Planar Gates). Still, Summoning Hordes of disposable demons interests me a lot.

But I think I'll try my next game as Khazad then, Ingenuity is cool (I hate the cost of upgrading). They seem fun and you (Grey Fox) have laid out early goals rather nicely.
 
ya, Grey has managed to dominate with Khazad even in our multiplayer Survival games, where usually its all about just surviving the longest, since the AI eventually wins (tons of Deity AIs on a team with Always War), but using those catas and assassins its amazing lol
 
Hmm, intriguing. Well, I hopped up a Highlands game with them, popped my second city but when I got RoK it went to my 2nd city. For future reference, any tips on getting the Holy City in my capital (aside from simply not making any other cities until it's researched)?
 
The tip is simply not making any cities before getting RoK.

That's what I do, and as I explained above. This can be harsh for your expansion, so to expand, you might need to switch to warfare.

But it also makes you able to concentrate on getting your city up in size, if you get a Great Merchant early, or just a market and a Merchant, you can get those 500 gold needed for overflowing quite early. If you want to speed it up, lower research a bit for a while.

But getting RoK in the capital can be key, unless you intend to move the capital to your second city.


You could also rapidly expand, get as many cities as you can and worry about the vaults later. But as my playing style fits with a more well thought out, slow expansion, I try to stay at overflowing before I build a new city or capture one.

And building an army to take over your neighbor isn't very hard with one city. Especially not as Khazad with +40&#37; from Overflowing vault, +50% from God King, +10% from Nationhood (-10% from apprenticeship however). Especially not as Kandros Fir with his aggressive trait. And with their cheap upgrades, you can mass a giant army easily. Just lower research so you got enough cash to upgrade for instance a warrior to a soldier everytime they are produced. It might take as many turns to finish it, cause upgrading takes a turn, but if you make 1 every turn instead of every 2 turns, after 20 turns you'd have 20 soldiers instead of 10.


In my current game I'm playing as Arturus Thorne however, and with his organized trait I plan to conquer a large nation. Being able to build command posts is just a sweet bonus that really helps, and since I'm focusing on Assassins and Trebs, I don't miss the Aggressive bonus from Kandros. (However in my first war, I could have needed it)
 
Interesting. I have noticed that war wasn't too hard on my current game (although I quit, dissatisfied with Highlands map). Getting some nicely promoted troops isn't hard with the Brewery providing some extra XP, a quick wander with a Medic and March and I'd picked myself up to City Raider 3 with four guys quite quickly, made taking Jubilee pretty easy early on. I quite like Kandros Fir for that Aggressive Trait, if expansions means war it's kinda helpful, but I forgot that Organised brings Command Posts (and the units you mentioned won't benefit from Agg).

But I think I'll start over as you advised and make sure my Capital is the RoK Holy City. I'm starting to get a feel for these guys at least.
 
Yeah Kandros Fir sure is a nice leader. And the one I've played the most (atleast in Multi-Player), but I really like Arturus Thorne as well. Although, the only use I've gotten from his Industrious trait is building the Mines of Gal-Dur so far. Kinda hard to beat the AI to the wonder techs on Immortal. :P

Cheap Forges are a nice bonus tho. But I wish industrious had another bonus, maybe faster workers. But I guess it's a stronger trait on the easier difficulties.

At least Firaxis seemed to make sure to never mix Philosophical with Industrious which would a powerful combo.
 
When you're playing the Khazad, don't be afraid to lower or even stopping your research for a few turns to upgrade your vaults. Consider it researching a Khazad-only tech. The first time you might consider doing this is with God King, and a market (and merchant) or RoK (hoy city helps). If your first city isn't great or you don't like delaying expansion, once you get four cities you can move your palace (build it in the desired city). Finally, even if you're going down the recon line, you'll still probably want construction and smelting for trebuchets and the Dwarven Smithy, which gives +10% production +10% per metal for a total of +40% with bronze, iron, and mithril.
 
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