I had gone back to Civ BTS unmodded and played a few games. I found the lack of flavor particularly frustrating. Why was England allying with Korea to declare war on (me) the Romans? The end game, with rapid units, was nice, but the rest of it was quite frustrating. It was also nice to have the espionage advantage.
For my return to FFH, I decided to try the Calabim again. The first time I played the Calabim, I founded RoK and then Order and then build the Gate in the Order holy city and switched to the Mercurians because the Calabim economy is tough. The calabim have no House of Elders (I guess they're out eating people and being Vampire Lords, not thinking of stuff).
I chose custom continents with 3 continents and 9 civs including my own. I played at Noble.
For my leader, I chose Decius. What Decius gives up on research, he gives back on military power. There is no more powerful military combination for melee units like Raiders / Organized. Raiders gives you the commando promotion, and organized allows you to build command posts in every town. These command posts increase your production of military units and give them a critical 2 experience points, usually used to purchase March.
Right at the start, Cardith Lorda's civilization was destroyed, eliminating countless forgotten races.
I found that my neighbor was the Sheaim. When I'm playing an Order civ, there are four enemies I try to eliminate fast: Sheaim, Infernal, Balseraphs, and Illians. They would all appear in this epic and wonderful game.
I started out neutral alignment but when I founded Order, I became good. At that point, the Sheaim declared war on me. I have not fixed the not-exploding bug, so the Sheaim were spamming adepts and skeletons rather than pyre zombies.
I had bloodpets, a very few archers, and a few Moroi. I fought off an invasion, took one of their cities, lost it, and then waited until I had vampires and when I had them, swept through the place and destroyed the AV holy city that also had the Prophecy in it.
The Calabim economy took off very slowly. Since I did not have elder councils, I needed every revenue generating resource I could get. Fishing and plantations were very important, but my early research was slow. On the other hand, food and hammers were plentiful.
Everything changed for the economy when I obtained Code of Laws.
Code of Laws gives you the Governor's Manor (instead of courthouse) which helps you handle overpopulation by turning red faces into hammers. I did have a problem with pollution, and needed granaries and aqueducts in most cities.
Also, Aristocracy allows your farms to produce revenue. I usually move to Republic in late game, but in this game, even though I gave up Agrarianism, I never switched from Aristocracy.
I missed some of the early wonders that I usually rely on, most painfully the Titan and the Aquae Succellus, which would have helped me with the health problems and would have given my units some speed.
Of course, with code of laws, I could build vampires in every city that had a Governor's Manor, and then they could eat the population for experience. I wanted to promote my vampires to March and also give them Death II (spectres) and Body II (regeneration). Every vampire starts with Body I (haste) which is wonderful but does not work on catapults, and Death I (skeleton). Skeletons can gain experience, don't disappear, but start weak.
As I explored, I learned that my continent had only two civs (and I had already killed off the Sheaim), another continent had three civs (Elohim, Illians, and Balseraphs), and the final continent had many (it started with Lanun, Clan, Bannor, and Kuriotates but the Kurio were eliminated early -- Hyborm then arrived there and the Lanun, who had an early lead, spawned Minister Koun). Then Acheron arrived adjacent to the Infernal and Acheron seemed to occupy the Lanun for most of the game.
I found an empty spot on the Illians continent. They were changing the weather and I wanted to defeat them quickly even though while doing so, I would strengthen the Infernal. I built the Gate and the Mercurians made me declare war on the Balseraphs, who marched across a very long continent to my little city, instead of trying to invade over water. A seaborne invasion would have hurt because they could have landed anywhere. The land invasion was focused on one city, and so I bulked up there. They arrived with a stack of doom containing about 100 units, but it was moving slowly. By the time they arrived, I had a large number of Vampires and a stupendous stack of skeletons, but I was outnumbered. I also had my first few assassins.
I found that if I could lure the stack of doom off of a forested hill and on to an open, flat road, I could rush in, attack, and then retreat, leaving a pile of skeletons behind as cannon fodder. I eventually fought off the stack of doom and the Bals retreated. I then declared war on the Illians.
The battle came down to luring the Illians off of a forested hill again. At a key moment in the battle, the stack separated, with the remnant containing two of the three priests of winter and Wilboman and the remainder consisting of the majority of the stack of doom, champions and hunters. I killed off the priests and Wilboman but lost Valin Phanuel and my hill giant trio. I considered switching to Empy but did not own that holy city. The Mercurians eventually founded Esus and switched to it. I had to stay off the overcouncil because I needed death mana. I was surprised to find that the Illian city had the Theater and also the Titan in it. Both would be very helpful in coming wars.
At this point, I began to have some mana node options. I had build the Tower of Divination and was using Life, Mind, Spirit, Enchantment, and Law mana for buffs. I built two each of Death and Body mana but still had to promote my vampires to get Death II and Body II -- not sure why. I was using Fire II and Law II for offensive purposes.
The raiders trait was the key to fighting stacks of doom. As long as the stacks were on a road, I could rush in (with Haste), attack, and then retreat to my own city. Once I conquered the Illians, I landed on the other continent, where the Bannor were on the coast adjacent to the Infernal. They were vassals of Lanun but switched to me when my force grew to the strength I needed to take on the Infernal.
I've noticed in the past that the computer AI does not use Hyborem well, often sending him off on his own. He was combat V but had no first strike promotions, and (again, thanks to raiders and also thanks to hawks) I found him alone and killed him off. I also helped defend a Bannor city that was under siege, killing some units by defending the city and killing other, weakened units that had attacked by using summons.
With no Hyborem (I had thought he'd reappear, but perhaps the Bannor had killed him once already), the Infernal fell fast, and I transferred my forces back to Balseraphs continent. I had fought a brief war with the Bals while at war with the Infernal, losing the cities I gained to Loki after signing a peace with the Bals. So my first target was the last city I lost. I had read that first strikes are the key to killing Loki, but he died surprisingly fast, falling to the first unit I attacked him with, a horse archer who in turn was killed the next turn.
The Nexus was key to my ability to move troops around. Particularly on large maps or maps with water, the Nexus may be the most important wonder in the game.
I had failed to train fire mages and so used summon spam to assault cities, taking many casualties and losing a few low ranking vampires to attack each city. With the raiders trait, this final assault moved as quickly as a late game BTS with tanks. I used four hawks for recon, but lost a few to assasins. I also transferred a shipment of heroes and powerful vampires and paladins from the victory over the infernal to open a second front on the Balseraphs and sent my gunpowder-powered navy roving along their coasts -- at this point the Lanun/Koun were also at war with the Balseraphs and had reduced the defenses of many of their coastal cities but never landed an invasion force.
This was true lightning warfare -- until I finally found the stack of doom. It was filled with mimics and hunters but slowed by 16 catapults. The Balseraphs were led by Keelyn, so my stacks of skeletons were fighting puppets and were being killed by her favorite summons, which in this game was Pit Beasts. My spectres were now strength 5, but were often attacking cities defended by Longbowmen with flaming arrows, city defence upgrades, and even hill defense. Many vampires, some powerful, were lost.
A key addition was the Calabim Berzerker, the Brujah, with a cover promotion, who would do collateral damage. I also lost some unpromoted Beastmasters. Near the final turn of the game, I obtained my first archmagi, and summoned my first wraith and my first Djinn. The Djinn was strength 17 (I had a large number of nodes, even the Tomb of Succellus).
It was a very fun game -- and my computer opponents were in character. I was forced to make what Sid Meier calls "interesting choices." I like the game on Noble because I can make mistakes and recover from them and because I do not need to micro-manage. I spent more time than I would have liked running adepts around the map with the scorch spell, and would love to see some automated terraforming, but that's a small complaint.
I returned to FFH because my opponents in FFH have character.
I was able to complete the Blood of the Phoenix ritual, but the Lanun beat me to Genesis, which was a problem because of the massive terrain damage done by the Illians.
Next, I'd like to try to build a Hannah super city with the Heron Throne and the Slums. I've done it once before. I'd like to play a game where I have a massive tech lead. The Calabim gave me massive military production, population, and experience.
I got to use their world spell twice. In the early game, it gave me a growth boost. The second time, after Birthright Regained, it gave me extra population to eat in order to build Vampire Lords, who must be at least level 12 (over 100 xp).
For my return to FFH, I decided to try the Calabim again. The first time I played the Calabim, I founded RoK and then Order and then build the Gate in the Order holy city and switched to the Mercurians because the Calabim economy is tough. The calabim have no House of Elders (I guess they're out eating people and being Vampire Lords, not thinking of stuff).
I chose custom continents with 3 continents and 9 civs including my own. I played at Noble.
For my leader, I chose Decius. What Decius gives up on research, he gives back on military power. There is no more powerful military combination for melee units like Raiders / Organized. Raiders gives you the commando promotion, and organized allows you to build command posts in every town. These command posts increase your production of military units and give them a critical 2 experience points, usually used to purchase March.
Right at the start, Cardith Lorda's civilization was destroyed, eliminating countless forgotten races.
I found that my neighbor was the Sheaim. When I'm playing an Order civ, there are four enemies I try to eliminate fast: Sheaim, Infernal, Balseraphs, and Illians. They would all appear in this epic and wonderful game.
I started out neutral alignment but when I founded Order, I became good. At that point, the Sheaim declared war on me. I have not fixed the not-exploding bug, so the Sheaim were spamming adepts and skeletons rather than pyre zombies.
I had bloodpets, a very few archers, and a few Moroi. I fought off an invasion, took one of their cities, lost it, and then waited until I had vampires and when I had them, swept through the place and destroyed the AV holy city that also had the Prophecy in it.
The Calabim economy took off very slowly. Since I did not have elder councils, I needed every revenue generating resource I could get. Fishing and plantations were very important, but my early research was slow. On the other hand, food and hammers were plentiful.
Everything changed for the economy when I obtained Code of Laws.
Code of Laws gives you the Governor's Manor (instead of courthouse) which helps you handle overpopulation by turning red faces into hammers. I did have a problem with pollution, and needed granaries and aqueducts in most cities.
Also, Aristocracy allows your farms to produce revenue. I usually move to Republic in late game, but in this game, even though I gave up Agrarianism, I never switched from Aristocracy.
I missed some of the early wonders that I usually rely on, most painfully the Titan and the Aquae Succellus, which would have helped me with the health problems and would have given my units some speed.
Of course, with code of laws, I could build vampires in every city that had a Governor's Manor, and then they could eat the population for experience. I wanted to promote my vampires to March and also give them Death II (spectres) and Body II (regeneration). Every vampire starts with Body I (haste) which is wonderful but does not work on catapults, and Death I (skeleton). Skeletons can gain experience, don't disappear, but start weak.
As I explored, I learned that my continent had only two civs (and I had already killed off the Sheaim), another continent had three civs (Elohim, Illians, and Balseraphs), and the final continent had many (it started with Lanun, Clan, Bannor, and Kuriotates but the Kurio were eliminated early -- Hyborm then arrived there and the Lanun, who had an early lead, spawned Minister Koun). Then Acheron arrived adjacent to the Infernal and Acheron seemed to occupy the Lanun for most of the game.
I found an empty spot on the Illians continent. They were changing the weather and I wanted to defeat them quickly even though while doing so, I would strengthen the Infernal. I built the Gate and the Mercurians made me declare war on the Balseraphs, who marched across a very long continent to my little city, instead of trying to invade over water. A seaborne invasion would have hurt because they could have landed anywhere. The land invasion was focused on one city, and so I bulked up there. They arrived with a stack of doom containing about 100 units, but it was moving slowly. By the time they arrived, I had a large number of Vampires and a stupendous stack of skeletons, but I was outnumbered. I also had my first few assassins.
I found that if I could lure the stack of doom off of a forested hill and on to an open, flat road, I could rush in, attack, and then retreat, leaving a pile of skeletons behind as cannon fodder. I eventually fought off the stack of doom and the Bals retreated. I then declared war on the Illians.
The battle came down to luring the Illians off of a forested hill again. At a key moment in the battle, the stack separated, with the remnant containing two of the three priests of winter and Wilboman and the remainder consisting of the majority of the stack of doom, champions and hunters. I killed off the priests and Wilboman but lost Valin Phanuel and my hill giant trio. I considered switching to Empy but did not own that holy city. The Mercurians eventually founded Esus and switched to it. I had to stay off the overcouncil because I needed death mana. I was surprised to find that the Illian city had the Theater and also the Titan in it. Both would be very helpful in coming wars.
At this point, I began to have some mana node options. I had build the Tower of Divination and was using Life, Mind, Spirit, Enchantment, and Law mana for buffs. I built two each of Death and Body mana but still had to promote my vampires to get Death II and Body II -- not sure why. I was using Fire II and Law II for offensive purposes.
The raiders trait was the key to fighting stacks of doom. As long as the stacks were on a road, I could rush in (with Haste), attack, and then retreat to my own city. Once I conquered the Illians, I landed on the other continent, where the Bannor were on the coast adjacent to the Infernal. They were vassals of Lanun but switched to me when my force grew to the strength I needed to take on the Infernal.
I've noticed in the past that the computer AI does not use Hyborem well, often sending him off on his own. He was combat V but had no first strike promotions, and (again, thanks to raiders and also thanks to hawks) I found him alone and killed him off. I also helped defend a Bannor city that was under siege, killing some units by defending the city and killing other, weakened units that had attacked by using summons.
With no Hyborem (I had thought he'd reappear, but perhaps the Bannor had killed him once already), the Infernal fell fast, and I transferred my forces back to Balseraphs continent. I had fought a brief war with the Bals while at war with the Infernal, losing the cities I gained to Loki after signing a peace with the Bals. So my first target was the last city I lost. I had read that first strikes are the key to killing Loki, but he died surprisingly fast, falling to the first unit I attacked him with, a horse archer who in turn was killed the next turn.
The Nexus was key to my ability to move troops around. Particularly on large maps or maps with water, the Nexus may be the most important wonder in the game.
I had failed to train fire mages and so used summon spam to assault cities, taking many casualties and losing a few low ranking vampires to attack each city. With the raiders trait, this final assault moved as quickly as a late game BTS with tanks. I used four hawks for recon, but lost a few to assasins. I also transferred a shipment of heroes and powerful vampires and paladins from the victory over the infernal to open a second front on the Balseraphs and sent my gunpowder-powered navy roving along their coasts -- at this point the Lanun/Koun were also at war with the Balseraphs and had reduced the defenses of many of their coastal cities but never landed an invasion force.
This was true lightning warfare -- until I finally found the stack of doom. It was filled with mimics and hunters but slowed by 16 catapults. The Balseraphs were led by Keelyn, so my stacks of skeletons were fighting puppets and were being killed by her favorite summons, which in this game was Pit Beasts. My spectres were now strength 5, but were often attacking cities defended by Longbowmen with flaming arrows, city defence upgrades, and even hill defense. Many vampires, some powerful, were lost.
A key addition was the Calabim Berzerker, the Brujah, with a cover promotion, who would do collateral damage. I also lost some unpromoted Beastmasters. Near the final turn of the game, I obtained my first archmagi, and summoned my first wraith and my first Djinn. The Djinn was strength 17 (I had a large number of nodes, even the Tomb of Succellus).
It was a very fun game -- and my computer opponents were in character. I was forced to make what Sid Meier calls "interesting choices." I like the game on Noble because I can make mistakes and recover from them and because I do not need to micro-manage. I spent more time than I would have liked running adepts around the map with the scorch spell, and would love to see some automated terraforming, but that's a small complaint.
I returned to FFH because my opponents in FFH have character.
I was able to complete the Blood of the Phoenix ritual, but the Lanun beat me to Genesis, which was a problem because of the massive terrain damage done by the Illians.
Next, I'd like to try to build a Hannah super city with the Heron Throne and the Slums. I've done it once before. I'd like to play a game where I have a massive tech lead. The Calabim gave me massive military production, population, and experience.
I got to use their world spell twice. In the early game, it gave me a growth boost. The second time, after Birthright Regained, it gave me extra population to eat in order to build Vampire Lords, who must be at least level 12 (over 100 xp).
