Onionsoilder
Reaver
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2007
- Messages
- 3,173
I know that there are quite a few strategies that have been developed to work with FFH. Some like the Aristogarian are well-known; other such as the FoL economy are... less well-known. This is an effort to list all of them, even ones for specific civilizations or even leaders. I'll start out with the ones I know. If you have any others, or want to make corrections, just post below and I'll see about adding it.
Aristogarian
Perhaps the most well-known economy, Aristogarian requires minimal inventment and gives good payouts, though players must decide to aim for it early in the game. The required technologies for this are Calendar and Code of Laws; Construction is also very useful for spreading farms around, and Sanitation increases your food output. Both Financial and Philosophical leaders benefit from this economy, as Financial gains a raw commerce boost and Philosphical benefits from the large amount of specialists you will undoubtedly be running.
Trader Economy
Less well known and more specialized, the Trader involves a lot of cities with a lot of trade routes. This works particularly well on maps with lots of ocean, even if you are not the Lanun. You will want to aim for Cartography, Trade and Currency to gain the optimum benefit from this economy. Wonders such as The Great Lighthouse are also helpful. This economy works well for Organized and Expansive leaders. Organized leaders pay less on civic upkeep, which will increase with your amount of cities. Expansive leaders can quickly build settlers to get more cities out there.
This economy is NOT good for warmongering leaders, despite them having a lot of cities; you will need a lot of Open Borders for this to work. For this reason, the Eyes and Ears network might be a good wonder to aim for; you will have a lot of Open Borders anyway, and Inns which are requires for EaEN boost trade routes anyway.
Raider Economy
The exact opposite of the trader economy, this is for warmonering leaders. It involves - what else - pillaging and capturing cities. The extra gold can both fund your continued war efforts and let you run your science at 100%, all while hurting your oppoents. This economy works very well with leaders who have the Raiders trait, for obvious reasons. I have found that this economy works very well. One important thing to note about this is that as soon as the conquest grinds to a halt, so does your economy.
Fellowship Economy
A lot of people relegate the Fellowship of Leaves religion to an elf-only thing. Not so. While FoL certainly is the best religion for the elves, and while the elves obviously profit the most from it, other civilizations can too. Extra food, production and health is never a bad thing. For non-elven civilizations, you will need Archery, Way of the Forest and Priesthood. Hidden Paths is useful if you want to make the most of your bonus food.
Because non-elves can't build most improvements in forests, they will need Archery to build Lumbermills. Lumbermills can't be built in ancient forests however, so you need to get them built before the transformation takes place. So what happens if the forest upgrades before you have a lumbermill built? Simple - you cut the forest down *gasp* and have a Priest of Leaves grow a new one. You will need a lot of workers to get the mills build before the upgrade
Ancient Forest Lumbermills grant +1 food and +2 hammers. Compared to +1 food +2 commerce with Aristogarian(tack on an extra food with Sanitation), it's not that bad. The advantage of this is that with Guardian of Nature, you also get HUGE health and happiness bonuses, so your cities can grow quite large. The downside is that this is economy is incredibly vunerable to pillaging(if you lose a lumbermill, you might as well lose the whole forest).
Specialist Economy
The main idea of this economy is that a significant amount of your beakers and gold and comes from assigning specialists in your cities rather than from xommerce filtered through the science and gold sliders. You will also generate massive amounts of GPP, granting you dozens of great people throughout the course of the game to settle in your cities, discover new techs, start golden ages or what have you. Early buildings that enable specialists are Elder Councils, Markets, Pagan Temples and Carnivals. Note that the first two produce a little beakers and gold themselves and can help support your early economy, but you need to pursue techs that enable more specialist buildings and/or a civic that grants unlimited specialists to make this economy work.
This economy type is very much dependent on your civics. Republic is very helpful for the extra GPP. Agrarianism will help you produce more to feed the specialists. Caste System or Guilds are strong economic civics depending on whether you want to boost the strength of your existing specialists or run more, and Arete is viable if you are RoK. You have many choices for cultural values: Pacifism for more GPP, liberty for free specialists and unlimited bards, or scholarship for better and unlimited sages. Philosophical, Charismatic and occasionally Expansive leaders work well with this strategy. BEcause their non-priest specialists are stronger than other civilizations, the Sidar work very well with this economy.
Pirate Economy
Only the Lanun can really take advantage of this economy. With +1 food on ocean tiles, they don't look so bad. Pirate Coves make them look even better. Coves are essentially ocean-based Cottages, but with additional bonuses; instead of just granting commerce, they also grant food and production. Fishing and Sailing are useful technologies, obviously. Privateers can also help by pillaging gold(similar to the raider economy) or by protecting your investements.
Since you're working coastal tiles, a Financial leader is best. The Lanun only have one financial leader; Hannah. This isn't to say Falamar is bad; you will be getting alot of food from the ocean, and the extra happiness and health from his traits is very beneficial.
Cottage Economy
The Cottage Economy is a great economy for spread out civs, warmongerers, or people who don't want to pay much attention to what their cities are doing. The usual civic to run this with is city states, with the major exception being the Kurotaes who will run godking or republic (+1 food from enclaves seals this deal). The bannor are another civ that will run this, due to demagog's coming from towns when running crusade.
The hybrid Economy
The hybrid economy of course combines 1 or more of the above economies. Usual hybrids are running aristograrian and a specialist economy together, running trade and specialist, or trade and cottage. Basically, you take and designate specific cities for different things. With the arisograrian, you can support specialists with all that extra food, and each farm gives extra gold as well. With trade and specialist, you are going to want larger cities to support more specialists, and larger cities inevitably get more from trade routes. Trade and cottage can give you alot of money due to you likely having a large, spread out empire, and when each city can start with 4 trade routes, and even interior cities being able to get up to 7, with coastal cities getting up to 11 (FFH may have this capped at 8 though, some of the modmods change this).
Aristogarian
Perhaps the most well-known economy, Aristogarian requires minimal inventment and gives good payouts, though players must decide to aim for it early in the game. The required technologies for this are Calendar and Code of Laws; Construction is also very useful for spreading farms around, and Sanitation increases your food output. Both Financial and Philosophical leaders benefit from this economy, as Financial gains a raw commerce boost and Philosphical benefits from the large amount of specialists you will undoubtedly be running.
Trader Economy
Less well known and more specialized, the Trader involves a lot of cities with a lot of trade routes. This works particularly well on maps with lots of ocean, even if you are not the Lanun. You will want to aim for Cartography, Trade and Currency to gain the optimum benefit from this economy. Wonders such as The Great Lighthouse are also helpful. This economy works well for Organized and Expansive leaders. Organized leaders pay less on civic upkeep, which will increase with your amount of cities. Expansive leaders can quickly build settlers to get more cities out there.
This economy is NOT good for warmongering leaders, despite them having a lot of cities; you will need a lot of Open Borders for this to work. For this reason, the Eyes and Ears network might be a good wonder to aim for; you will have a lot of Open Borders anyway, and Inns which are requires for EaEN boost trade routes anyway.
Raider Economy
The exact opposite of the trader economy, this is for warmonering leaders. It involves - what else - pillaging and capturing cities. The extra gold can both fund your continued war efforts and let you run your science at 100%, all while hurting your oppoents. This economy works very well with leaders who have the Raiders trait, for obvious reasons. I have found that this economy works very well. One important thing to note about this is that as soon as the conquest grinds to a halt, so does your economy.
Fellowship Economy
A lot of people relegate the Fellowship of Leaves religion to an elf-only thing. Not so. While FoL certainly is the best religion for the elves, and while the elves obviously profit the most from it, other civilizations can too. Extra food, production and health is never a bad thing. For non-elven civilizations, you will need Archery, Way of the Forest and Priesthood. Hidden Paths is useful if you want to make the most of your bonus food.
Because non-elves can't build most improvements in forests, they will need Archery to build Lumbermills. Lumbermills can't be built in ancient forests however, so you need to get them built before the transformation takes place. So what happens if the forest upgrades before you have a lumbermill built? Simple - you cut the forest down *gasp* and have a Priest of Leaves grow a new one. You will need a lot of workers to get the mills build before the upgrade
Ancient Forest Lumbermills grant +1 food and +2 hammers. Compared to +1 food +2 commerce with Aristogarian(tack on an extra food with Sanitation), it's not that bad. The advantage of this is that with Guardian of Nature, you also get HUGE health and happiness bonuses, so your cities can grow quite large. The downside is that this is economy is incredibly vunerable to pillaging(if you lose a lumbermill, you might as well lose the whole forest).
Specialist Economy
The main idea of this economy is that a significant amount of your beakers and gold and comes from assigning specialists in your cities rather than from xommerce filtered through the science and gold sliders. You will also generate massive amounts of GPP, granting you dozens of great people throughout the course of the game to settle in your cities, discover new techs, start golden ages or what have you. Early buildings that enable specialists are Elder Councils, Markets, Pagan Temples and Carnivals. Note that the first two produce a little beakers and gold themselves and can help support your early economy, but you need to pursue techs that enable more specialist buildings and/or a civic that grants unlimited specialists to make this economy work.
This economy type is very much dependent on your civics. Republic is very helpful for the extra GPP. Agrarianism will help you produce more to feed the specialists. Caste System or Guilds are strong economic civics depending on whether you want to boost the strength of your existing specialists or run more, and Arete is viable if you are RoK. You have many choices for cultural values: Pacifism for more GPP, liberty for free specialists and unlimited bards, or scholarship for better and unlimited sages. Philosophical, Charismatic and occasionally Expansive leaders work well with this strategy. BEcause their non-priest specialists are stronger than other civilizations, the Sidar work very well with this economy.
Pirate Economy
Only the Lanun can really take advantage of this economy. With +1 food on ocean tiles, they don't look so bad. Pirate Coves make them look even better. Coves are essentially ocean-based Cottages, but with additional bonuses; instead of just granting commerce, they also grant food and production. Fishing and Sailing are useful technologies, obviously. Privateers can also help by pillaging gold(similar to the raider economy) or by protecting your investements.
Since you're working coastal tiles, a Financial leader is best. The Lanun only have one financial leader; Hannah. This isn't to say Falamar is bad; you will be getting alot of food from the ocean, and the extra happiness and health from his traits is very beneficial.
Cottage Economy
The Cottage Economy is a great economy for spread out civs, warmongerers, or people who don't want to pay much attention to what their cities are doing. The usual civic to run this with is city states, with the major exception being the Kurotaes who will run godking or republic (+1 food from enclaves seals this deal). The bannor are another civ that will run this, due to demagog's coming from towns when running crusade.
The hybrid Economy
The hybrid economy of course combines 1 or more of the above economies. Usual hybrids are running aristograrian and a specialist economy together, running trade and specialist, or trade and cottage. Basically, you take and designate specific cities for different things. With the arisograrian, you can support specialists with all that extra food, and each farm gives extra gold as well. With trade and specialist, you are going to want larger cities to support more specialists, and larger cities inevitably get more from trade routes. Trade and cottage can give you alot of money due to you likely having a large, spread out empire, and when each city can start with 4 trade routes, and even interior cities being able to get up to 7, with coastal cities getting up to 11 (FFH may have this capped at 8 though, some of the modmods change this).
and 
comes from assigning specialists in your cities rather than from tile and trade route 
filtered through the 
, granting you dozens of great people throughout the course of the game to settle in your cities, discover new techs, start golden ages or what have you.
to feed the specialists. Caste System or Guilds are strong economic civics depending on whether you want to boost the strength of your existing specialists or run more, and Arete is viable if you are RoK. You have many choices for cultural values: Pacifism for more 
