Played a game as Bannor and Calabim next.....

[Madhatter4]

Ok Ive played two games of FFH2 so far. The first game I was Bannor, second game I went with Calabim next I was thinking of trying out Sheaim. Any thoughts or suggestions about this civ? Basically im looking for a whole new game play expierence and I believe The Sheaim will fulfill this role.....

 

[xienwolf]

Be a Builder for what you choose in your cities, but be a warmonger for what you do on the map Spam cities EVERYWHERE is pretty effective (don't worry about overlapping your BFCs, you just want a lot of cities so you get a lot of free units).

I've got a bit more in my manual on them, but mostly just allow the gates to make your army, drive the AC and your number of cities up as much as you can to get a larger army, and smash the world.

 

[Madhatter4]

When a Sheaim city is founded do they automatically get a gate? Also any worries about there economy with so many cities?

 

[xienwolf]

No, you have to build the gate, as well as another building to set yourself up for units to actually come in (get the Catacomb Libralus so that you automatically have Mage Guilds and can get Mobius Witches is nice).

Economy tends not to do too bad. Remember that you don't have to build your own units, so you can devote time to buildings. Thus you can have a Market, Elder Council, Library and all the other trimmings in each town. Overall you get cities which are at the least capable of supporting themselves. Distance to Cap. Costs are fairly low since you are jammed in really tight. And eventually you just quit making cities and start running out and destroying the world to jack up the AC.

 

[Calbrenar]

I typically don't build many cities. Sheim with AV are resaerch monsters and can run enormous specialist economies if they have enough food. Then you just grab priests early on and get 4 Profanes + 4 arch mages and kill everything.

 

[hbar]

I found a great strategy to be rushing Knowledge of the Ether to get adepts, give only death I and combat promos, and make an early skeleton rush. Then go necromancy -> sorcery and build death nodes on every mana you can get your hands on. Death II and III are summons with death affinity, so with luck you can summon a ~9 insta-army of wraiths in the field while your planar army builds up at home.

Also, Wraiths (death II) have fear, which is great for stack-busting and for defense (unless the enemy has courage, which the AI won't), and can pillage. This, of course, works best with the Summoning trait leader. Also, it doesn't require Reagents like AV priests. If you do have reagents though, Eaters of Dreams ftw!

 

[xienwolf]

Shouldn't work against the Svartalfar or Balseraph though. Puppet & Illusion are both immune to Death Damage, so would be a complete block to your attacks.

Assuming of course that all the mechanics are working as intended

 

[Blackmantle]

hbar: Your not the only one this one has dawned on.

In 0.31 c you could even do this (Spectres, Whraiths are Tier 3 Summons of Death) with Adepts + 3 Death nodes at Necromancy. That has been enough to easiely kick Deity AIs ass without big trouble (and those spectres do get really fearsome if you amass death nodes str 11 Spectres even finish of fortiefied arcebuses if massed.). But it should still be way nice only available at Sorcery. Sheiam are not an only late game civ anymore. Which might not be such a bad thing. Even if its quite obvious that the head-on beeline to sorcery is really the most way powerful for them. (basically they get everything going down that raod. Including even the gates and Guilds for Witches as well as part of the requirements for veil.)

But Spectres unit class may be removed if our balancing-feedback is followed on (we might be wrong and thats it ok from the teams point of view naturally). Promotions and pilliging for them really seems over the top (especially since wraiths cant do both which might be an indication for nonintentional design.)

@ Xienwolf: I believe the base Strength of 3 of spectres is non-death. And Skelletons also only feature Death 1. Also Sheaim start with fire and Chaos or Mind (if i remember rightly) so they have other weapons at hand against the Svarts and Bals. Also Players can addapt and illusions aren't anything.