Post your favorite civ-specific strategies here

[Love]

a fine idea with the , i think its evryone is building a life node, whatever you do, build a life node and in late when you have arcmages you can do the spell that awaken a hero and destroy the node, then you can just build another one with a good hero!

 

[SchpailsMan]

Tested yesterday night : the FfH2 Sirian Doctrine

1/ get OO a start building Drowns
2/ get Bronze and secure copper
3/ tech to Sailing
4/ build something like 2-4 Triremes


The strategy bascically consists in loading triremes with Drowns (the +1 cargo -1 str crew settings help) to invade coastal cities from the seas. The triremes can bombard in relative security from the seas, and Drowns can attack amphibiously cities that have 0% defense. After the attack, the Drowns can get back into the ships and heal while the ships transport them to the next city. This is quite safer (less city defense) and faster (healing while moving, ships move faster than Drowns even in ennemy cultural borders) than classical land-based invasions. It can also be played fast if you're lucky enough to have copper in you land (I hadn't in my current game, I had to invade the Armurites first which delayed the thing a bit), mainly because sailing is on the same path as OO so after founding/getting OO and Bronze you really are one tech away from triremes, and because Drowns and Triremes don't require any building to be built first in cities so they can be mass-produced right away (Drowns may require OO to have spread in the city though, I'm not sure).


It gets better when :
- playing Lanun (+1 move for all ships)
- adding a disciple unit in one of the ships for faster healing rate
- protecting the triremes with +1str crew'd & combat promoted ships in case of water-based retailation
- teching to warfare for the city raider promotion line

 

[Love]

Heres one for grigori:
Make much adventurers but make sure youll save at least one!
When doing it go directly on adept, mage and archmage stage (elven first if not having mana aviable!(And elementalism))

Go for adept, builld mage guild and upgrade an adventurer to hero adept when aviable build nature node and upgrade him whith nature one.
Upgrade him whith a lot til lvl 5 and go to a citie and upgrade to mage if aivaible, go for nature 2 and other til lvl 8, then build archmaged when aivable.

Upgrade him whith nature three and go vitalize the land so theres grassland evryvere.

That shall improve much in economy when having ice turned to grassland!

All from gandhi rules, signing off XD

 

[Gamestation]

Can't you just build a druid?

 

[Love]

Whatever, here i came whith a long posting i beenn working´on for ages and gamestation cames and say "why dont you build a druid"

But still, smart idea
But still you not only can make vitilize with a lvl 10 archmage...

 

[Gamestation]

Yeah you could also have him buff your other adventurers as if they were a party in an RPG, that's true, or throw six meteors a turn.

 

[DarthCycle]

Any thought on how the play with clan of embers effectively?

I tried it last weekend and got beaten badly, twice. The ability to be at peace with barbarian was really useful but the tech penalty was killing me. I think that the basic idea is trying to go on the offensive as soon as possible but doing so with warrior is almost impossible. A city on a hill with a fortified warrior is very hard to conquer with warriors.

In terms of tech choice in order to play offensively
1) go for agriculture, animal husbandry then horseback riding: you can build worg rider (60 shield). Advantage: don't need to build a building or control a horse ressource. Disadvantage: not such a great unit.
2) go for crafting, mining, bronze working: you can build orc axeman (60 shield) and rantine (orc hero). Need bronze and training yard and it is an expensive tech path
3) go for ancient chants then education (agriculture required) in order to get the +2XP apprenticeship civic. however, this path doesn't open up new units, it improves the current type you can build (probably warrior).

Lastly, doing anything of the above will definitely slow you down you terms of empire expansion (new cities and harvesting ressources) and you cannot conquer new cities.

thoughts anyone?

 

[Silverkiss]

Warriors, Warriors, Warriors and more Warriors... If you are fast enough its not so hard to go to war with warriors, and Clan of Embers have reduced unit costs... But you need to be fast or you will fall behind.

 

[daladinn]

clan of embers .....

1 - settler rush , you dont really have to defend much since barbs wont attack you.
2 - rush for knowledge of ether
3 - build witchdoctors like there is nothing else
4 - research necromancy
5 - build barrows in each and every spare tile you can.
6 - get summoning for conjurors and nightmares
7 - follow with soul debt and such to get real summoners
8 - at each and every step that you can trade away your summoning techs
9 - watch your points close ... if you get over 50% higher then top player your screwed.
10 - research ashen veil as soon as you feel comfortable
11 - get theology for T4 upgrade to ritualists (this gives hellfire)
12 - sit back and defend .... and watch armegeddon happen to your enemies

mu ha haha ha

 

[vorshlumpf]

The one time I played Clan of Embers I couldn't help but concentrate on pumping out goblin scouts to search out those wolves. Eventually, I had about 5 worg riders running around while everyone was still stuck with warriors. With these uber troops I took out a couple of civs that looked at me funny (or had something I wanted, like dwarven workers). Between me and the raging barbs, 7 of the 18 civs were knocked out in the first 200 turns (marathon) and I had an awful lot of empty space around me for expansion.

What I really like about being aggressive this early in the game, especially with movement 3+ troops, is that I can steal all the workers I need. I typically take a long time to build my first worker due to other priorities or the raging barbs.

- Niilo

 

[CuteKills]

Amurites (Velledia) (sp?) + Overlords.

Get those archmages fast, and Flesh Glolem them. Lets you build any number of Sorcery III units. The Cave of Ancestors is the critical point to getting the levels up fast!

(You can obviously do the same trick with any spell unit, but the slow level-ups tend to be quite restrictive)

Additionally, I find the early military boost from the Drown etc helps make up for the Amurites being fairly weak early on.

 

[steel.stiletto]

Sorry to ask this, but since I haven't really been able to play the game for all the magics, could you explain more in detail your strategy? I think I remember Flesh Golem being a spell, but I don't know what it does. Nor have I ever played as Amurites, so the Cave of Ancestors is greek to me.

 

[Dark Russell]

As far as Embers go, the afor mentioned strategy of finding wolves is good, but I always try to mop up all the huts I can with them. It can give you a great early tech lead. I try to find a starting local with a 3 hammer hill and build about 4-6 goblins and 3-4 warriors. The goblins go hutting while the warriors take on early animals to gain experience (don't delare on the barbs though). I also only play on ultra-huge maps so this may not work as well on smaller maps.

 

[CuteKills]

Sorry to ask this, but since I haven't really been able to play the game for all the magics, could you explain more in detail your strategy? I think I remember Flesh Golem being a spell, but I don't know what it does. Nor have I ever played as Amurites, so the Cave of Ancestors is greek to me.

Should have been clearer!


Cave of Ancestors is an Amurite thing that gets your Adepts some immediate xps based on the mana you have : it's not uncommon to be able to get an adept up to the next level as soon as he's built.

A Flesh golem is made by a spell (Overlords or Runes Divine III); it merges two units into one, averages the strength, but keeps the promotions of both. So if you use a spell caster as one of the sources, the golem can cast spells.

Use an archmage, the Golem keeps the archmage spells, and you can build another archmage!

Not totally Civ specific, but the Cave makes it work especially well for the Amurites as their "time to build" for an archmage can be a lot lower.

 

[nealhunt]

The Khazad are a slow growing civ, you want to make certain that your gold reserves are able to take another city without your vaults being empty.

I actually think this is backwards. Khazad need to go for an early and rapid expansion. You start with lousy levels in the vaults anyway, so expanding early doesn't lose anything. If you wait to build up gold, each of those first few cities really slash your per-city ratio in the vault. You immediately lose a large portion of the advantage you spent so long building. Land builds economy, both in terms of raw commerce production and the necessary resources for happy/healthy. It's imperative to grab it early.

Happiness is an issue with empty vaults, so you'll quickly hit pop caps and switch to creating Settlers and Workers (stopping pop growth is no penalty). With a Market/Merchant specialist economy it's possible to get to 3-5 cities with decent cash flow. At that point you should have a good supply of resources, cottageable land, and workers to set it all up. Great Merchants will be on the way for more income (and food in your GP farm). Then you can settle in and fill the vaults.

 

[loocas]

I'd like to see short histories of the civ in the DoM text. I think the rest should just explain the civ's unique units and abilities. I find that any suggestions about strategy (such as the Ljos former text) is limiting.

 

[Fezek]

I agree with the Clan of Embers goblins to worg riders strategy, unfortunately, they don't seem to do that in .25 anymore. Hopefully it will come back in Shadows...

 

[sylvanllewelyn]

If your vaults are stopping you from expanding, build Pact of the Nilhorn. It's not too bad once you have mining. Use those giants to attack some unfortunate neighbour's capital. Make sure it's a capital though, because those giants are kamikaze troops, softening up defenders so your warriors can move in for the kill. Think of it as an early bonus like the stonehenge, building it rather than worker --> settler. And yeah, shoot for that great merchant asap.

I tried Clan of Embers, but the unfortunatey thing is that it's too successful. So successful, in fact, that I soon keep a lot of very good cities, a couple dead neighbours, and then I became too advanced before my cottages even mature or I have code of laws. Then my economy plummets while the barbarians start attacking me.

The Amurite flesh golems trick... it's tricky to manage and slow, but pretty powerful. True to their flavour perhaps - they're more builderish than warmongering despite their magical might, unlike the Bannor.

I do have a question playing as Ljosalfar - does anyone have a good build order that can ensure I can get mages casting fireballs as quickly as possible? I could adopt the order and use ring of fire, or use OO and drowns combined with economic advantage of being able to build forested cottages, but it really doesn't make up for the fireball's ability to remove cultural defenses. And the Guardian of nature civic just seems to provide way too much hapiness and health to easily pass up...

 

[Caradoc]

For Amurites get Bronze Working early to build a Forge. This will usually get you a Great Engineer. Start building the Tower of Divination, using the GE, but put it on hold as you work toward Arcane Lore. Then complete the Tower to get Strength of Will and you are building Archmages about a hundred years before the competition.

EDIT: Drat! I just realized that Forge has been pushed back to Smelting in 0.25.

 

[DeaExMachina]

I love the Amurites nearly as much as the Lanun however I've always had issues with them, I finally perfected my strategy with the Amurites and I thought I'd post it here. This strategy stunts your civ and your tech early for a huge leap in the end. Dain is the preferable leader for his Philosophical trait to help get more Great Sages.

Beeline towards Writing for the Great Scientist. *gasp* Actually use him as a Specialist in what you plan to be your big science city. Get working on cranking out the Great Library in that same city and using the ability to pump Great Sages in other cities to feed your science city Great Sages.

After you've done this turn around and now head up the magic route, make sure and grab the Catacomb Libralus in your best production city, which is most likely your capital with God King. Don't waste production on Mage Guilds in other cities, focus on building up some warriors to deter the AI from attacking while your prepare yourself. These warriors will be invaluable as Fire Bows latter. Also don't neglect your Elder Council! Those +2 Beakers are precious to you, especially when calculated with the Libraries you already have.

Once the Catacomb Libralus is built take a time to build up your mage force. While it may be tempting to start dumping points into Fireballs and other nasty attack spells these are your golden ticket mages. Pump Spirit, Mind and Earth and make sure to get them to Sorcerer as quickly as possible for Spirit and Mind II. With these guys you have an extra 25% defense, +1 Happiness, +4 Culture and best of all +4 beakers. Once you've done this you can set about putting out some Adepts and working them towards blaster casters or summoning whores, but your first and foremost goal is to get the city helpers. DO NOT under any circumstance delve into Summon Skeleton, Haste or Dance of Blades, you'll regret it as your Hero who will be coming soon will pass out all the love to everyone, yes everyone! And in fact I recommend taking your horde of Workers and making sure they all have them. A Haste on a worker could save him from enemy horse and a Skeleton popping up will certainly give attackers pause.

Your next goal will of course be to get to Arcane Lore and put the Crown of Akharien in your science city, by now you should have no less then 5 Great Sages and there special academy and if your lucky you could have even more!

Govannon comes with the same tech as the Crown of Akharien so make sure and pump him out from your production city at the same time your science city is working on the Crown. Even though its a science city the number of Great Sages you have there should be perfectly sufficient in pushing the Crown out rather quickly.

Here you are, with this set up you will lag behind in various tech areas but if you've been trading your advancements away you should be pretty even with just about everyone else. However with Inspiration at every city and the Crown and all those Great Sages together (don't neglect Religious Scholar Civic!) you'll have a massive amount of beakers allowing you to get ahead in the tech race and run on 40% or less. Add in the Ashen Veil if you aren't surrounded by Good civs and this will help your beakers tremendously, but remember you want to avoid war until Govannon is in place, once you have Govannon you can raise an army of Skeletons sufficient to knock over most Civs, so using something else like Runes or Leaves to sway your neighbors is always preferable to the beakers granted by the Ashen Veil.