This mod is destroying me. How am I even supposed to play it?

[FrogTheToad]

I've been trying to play this mod for last couple days and I keep being decimated by the AI even on the lowest difficulty. It always start with the barbarians forcing me to focus on them then the AI builds like five cities before I can build one, then I get fudged by disease and unhappiness which causes me to fall even further behind.
This last time I had teched and built every building Incould to down my disease and up my happiness but it still wasn't enough.

What am I doing wrong? Should I just give up and accept that I'm just fudging horsehockey at this mod?

 

[Gareth44]

Hey, first of all, which mod or modmod are you currently playing? Some of the builds in the wild are a bit bugged or unbalanced. Secondly, which civ have you chosen to play? Describe your first turns in some detail, if you can.

 

[FrogTheToad]

I was playing base FFH 2, as Lunan, specifically the Financial Lunan leader. I realized what I was doing I wasn't stopping my city growth and I was playing on quick. Playing AOE now, and was doing alot better until my game started crashing.

 

[Gareth44]

Some simple hints (my opinion, I know):
Make sure you have the latest SVN for AoE, lots of crash fixes;
Lanun can be rolling in cash when played right (coastal cities, max pirate bays, etc.);
Don't go overboard on cities until you are at City States civic;
At least three warriors per city to cover them from the Barbs here. Sometimes more. Be prepared for early-mid game events where two Barb heroes with their retinues can, and usually WILL, come calling;
Quick isn't the way usually for FFH + mods, slower is better here;
Don't expect to have positive health/happiness for too long. It is possible, but don't set it as a goal. Better to look from a city size/growth perspective, where health/happiness are contributing stats.

P.S. Warriors here are more powerful than you may think. Especially for defense. Especially with Copper.

 

[Qgqqqqq]

Quick isn't the way usually for FFH + mods, slower is better here;

Strong disagree. FFH2 is a slow game, especially early on. Quick makes it more bearable.

OP, buildings are quite weak on FFH2 (I might be wrong for AOE, haven't played it much). Mostly ignore them. You can crash your economy, but foodhammers are pretty easy to come by - and once you get a few techs (cottages + citystates or aristofarms) REXing is pretty free. Warriors are excellent, as mentioned. Calender resources will help early on, as much easier accessed then others (except wine).

 

[Gareth44]

Strong disagree. FFH2 is a slow game, especially early on. Quick makes it more bearable.

OP, buildings are quite weak on FFH2 (I might be wrong for AOE, haven't played it much). Mostly ignore them. You can crash your economy, but foodhammers are pretty easy to come by - and once you get a few techs (cottages + citystates or aristofarms) REXing is pretty free. Warriors are excellent, as mentioned. Calender resources will help early on, as much easier accessed then others (except wine).

We can agree to disagree, lol.

There's two different styles, mine is single player / Explorer, Qgqqqqq's is multiplayer / power-maxing. This can be a choice for anyone, depending on your personal preference. If you want to find out what the game hides, play like me. If you're focused on victory and dominance, play like Qgqqqqq. If you're new, I'd say explore first and max later, though)))

 

[Qgqqqqq]

We can definitely agree to disagree!

Worth saying that while I play MP, I've probably played more single player by a factor of a hundred to one.

 

[RamblinWreck]

Lanun isn't a great civ to start with, as they play pretty differently from any vanilla civ. Their focus is the water, the more the better. There's no such seafaring civ in the base game.

The Hippus with Tasunke are an easy one to start with: they're powerful and war-oriented. Every FFH civ has its own flavor that takes some getting used to, but "horse-based army looting and conquering" is a very simple one to start out with. You're not forced into one religion, and the civic choices are pretty clear.

Sabathiel is a good one to play next, to introduce you to the difference that, unlike in vanilla, all religions are NOT created equal. Sabathiel is very focused on The Order, and is also a good war-oriented leader with a particularly religious style. Great introduction to how certain religions give certain benefits that synergize well with certain leaders.