The Hippus

[Tasunke]

Discuss your strategy with the hippus.

Here I will mention a general strategy with the Hippus that I tend to use.

Firstly, go for mysticism, then horsebackriding. After horseback riding, usually stop by calendar. Then go for either Military Strategy, or Code of Laws. If you only have one city, or plan on making your capital the main source of units, stick with Godking, and so only get education for cottages and then go for military strategy. However, as Rhoanna, its advised to go a more economical path, and get Code-of-Laws for Aristocracy asap after horsebackriding ... especially since expansive can make it easier to grab those extra cities peacefully (via settlers)

If you get a great commander, settle a command post in your capital, and if possible build a heroic epic there (especially important for Tasunke's more military approach, although almost just as important for Rhoanna, although with Rhoanna you can even go Writing for Libraries and the Great Library ... and not be so militaristic) ...

Well, after you get a basic economy, whether just cottages or Aristofarming, and possibly crafting-mining for any wines, gold, or gems ... go for Stirrups. I prefer going Military Strat before stirrups, but thats just semantics. You should of been building up forces at-least once you had a stables, and if your Tasunke then probably start off with a warrior stack. You by no means need to wait upon stirrups before creating your warriors.

The key is to initially make risky battles to try and make powerful horsemen with combat, and after combat is maxed go the drill line. When you start mass producing warriors however, go the Withdrawal line for minimal losses. If you can get Withdraw II out of the gate, it can become very powerful. Probably only possible in your Command Post city though, and usually only if you've built the Form of the Titan (or for some strange reason are using Military economy which uses food for military production)

You will get a few units with very high level ... and on higher difficulties it is these massively high level units which are key. However, any high-withdrawal fodder you are able to throw-in to support them will increase these heroes chance of survival.

A similar strategy might be possible with the Grigori (adventurer guilds also give +2 xp) although I have not as of yet tried a mounted-heavy strategy with the Grigori.

It goes without saying that, if you want to be really REALLY abusive, you can use a mobility 1 chalid with the stack in order to further increase the lifespan of your "superhorses" although its really not necessary on most difficulties.

 

[Senethro]

I like taking Rhoanna and beelining for Aristocracy as its powerful with all Financial leaders. I then spend some turns chasing economy upgrades and Bronze Working before heading over to Ashen Veil and Sacrifice the Weak. I try to use the Infernal Grimoire to pop Iron Working.

At this point you'll have Iron Working almost as fast as someone who went straight for it but still have a religion and other development. Hasted Axemen/Ritualist/Rust Adept stacks are good city takers even before you get Iron. Warcry spell ensures that anyone who attacks you early is going to regret it and leave you with a highly promoted army. Nightmare/Iron/Horselord Chariots are also pretty fun.

 

[Tasunke]

ah see ... I pretty much focus only upon HorseArchers, although yes occasionally Im inclined to go Ashen Veil. In those situations Ring of Fire works well. While I focus on mounted as the hippus, your Ironworking strat sounds good to get Warhorses quicker ... or to even use the Grimoire for Warhorses

 

[slowcar]

horsemen do not match axes in combat, but are on the same tier. without being able to take march, shock2 and city raider - and bronze weapons - they lack very important promotions.
while it is good to have a few around - and the tech providing mobility - they are just utility troops.

i play tasunke as my favorite leader for some years now, and with a very aggressive playstyle on top. seeing the advise above - "stick with godking" "expansive=peaceful" etc - is diametral to my playstyle:
while killing neighbours is harder on the latest patches it is still far easier than being able to pay for all it.
you start with farms, perfect for a worker start. depending on the resources nearby target crafting (wine) - mining or calendar. farms + mines make a very good production base, and if there is a gold nearby the commerce is also covered.
depending on your neighbours (again), the most important tech may be education. having warriors with combat1+shock means a huge difference, and they are able to win most fights outside of cities. nowadays a stack of ~10 warriors is needed for the most basic invasions - don't take high risks, try to promote some elite troops but don't be afraid to sacrifice some fresh troops for the overall target.
even just stealing a worker and killing some marauding warriors is a good source of experience points, hinders the enemy and proves a very small risk.

technology wise there are these key techs now:
festivals - markets bring income in all cities, and, if needed, can put up a trader
cartography - city states is the only way to keep early expansion under control, cost-wise
eventually rok - some extra gold helps a lot. you don't have to get the holy city (conquer it if you want...) or convert even, its just for the monies.

you can neglect the mounted line completely until chariots, or, if you want to go empyrian (the best religion for tasunke/hippus, but gets a bit boring after a while), rathas.
your elite axemen, around this time they most likely have march, shock2 and maybe some city raider, can be promoted to chariots. i tend to have some city raider 3 axemen around to primote them to chariots - they can eliminate fully fortified cities later on due to their unbalanced promotion.

depending on the difficulty level you should have a good economy and a competent axemen force when targetting either chariots or mages. mages are very important to fight the insanely huge stacks deity AIs field these days. these is absolutely no way to fight of an invasion of axemen with horses, base strength of 4 vs 6, free promotions on AI side, it just won't work.
a human player cannot pay for stacks of 60 units early in the game, this makes shock2 still the best promotion in the early game - and the AI still too stupid to use it.

having a stack of ~10+ chariots, 5 axe/champions, 3 air2 mages, 2 mind2 mages, 1 body1 adept, 1 body2 mage, 1 shadow2 mage and maybe 3-4 priests makes a very deadly attack stack that can basically walk over every AI in a couple of turns. for additional power you can usually just add more chariots, keep in mind that you need disciples to pacify captured cities and somebody to defend them (mercenaries are quite handy here, or crusaders).
basic movement is 9 fields (engineering + haste + raider), chariots can reach out and fight wherever they want.
if you happen to play empyrian your raider+horselord rathas can reach through huge empires, blinding all major enemy stacks to await their slaughter.

don't be afraid to spend warcry for an early, but difficult fight. once you have reached mages+rathas there is not much of an obstacle anyway.

this should outline my basic hippus strategy for common games up to and including deity. yes, i still rush on deity, it locks the neighbour into spamming warriors (= free xp) while you can build enconomy and reach axes just in time to walk all over him.

 

[avalonnn]

After reading this thread, decided to play Hippus as Tasunke. Played at Normal on a large map and spent the early game fighting barbarians and leveling up units (got some high level horses).

Founded both Empy and Order from units obtained through dungeons.

Started as Empy but switched to order to get the leaders and the fast religion spread.

Things really took off with Magnadine -- I conquered the Orcs, who had taken the Black Mirror from the Svart, who the Orcs destroyed.

So I had Magnadine, raider, with the Black Mirror. By the end of the game she was level 18. She really took off when I got her the Blitz promotion. She eventually had a move of 7. So the shadow Magna could attack 7 units in a city, and then the real Magna could do it. She had + 100 percent strength and 3-7 first strikes. Later, she added 2 gold per victory.

It really rocked.

 

[Lone Wolf]

So I had Magnadine, raider, with the Black Mirror. By the end of the game she was level 18. She really took off when I got her the Blitz promotion. She eventually had a move of 7. So the shadow Magna could attack 7 units in a city, and then the real Magna could do it. She had + 100 percent strength and 3-7 first strikes. Later, she added 2 gold per victory.

So, can we add Magnadine, along with Mahala and Kithra Kyriel (and Valin with Tebryn sometimes) to the FfH Gender Confusion club?

And Tasunke's horses are just beautiful.