Two Painful 0.25 Games

[Sarisin]

Another enjoyable write-up. Thanks.

Units with FEAR can be very troublesome as even your strongest heroes might withdraw from battle with them. I built Abashi the Black Dragon once and noticed units withdrawing from his Meteors.

It would be wise to try and get Spirit Mana and Courage to deal with the Dragon on your continent. Build up a werewolf army with the Baron, give them Courage and that Dragon is toast.

 

[Blackclove]

I'm finding it harder to build a werewolf army with the Baron than in Version 23... I think that -- at least for the patch I'm running -- his convert rate is set fairly low. I remember in the old version I easily got a massive army of wolves that promoted after most battles into 11-attack juggernauts...

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Yeah, the convert rate was lowered significantly, then raised somewhat to a value still much less than in Vanilla FfH. However, the werewolves now start fully healed (and able to attach that turn, iirc), and the Baron can spread lycantropy even when an HN unit (I think, but am not sure, that these werewolves are also HN units, although they, like HN summons, do not have the HN promotion or the ability to declare nationality)

Also remember that werewolves start enraged, which now means that they may go crazy and defect to the barbarians.

 

[Sarisin]

Yeah, the convert rate was lowered significantly, then raised somewhat to a value still much less than in Vanilla FfH. However, the werewolves now start fully healed (and able to attach that turn, iirc), and the Baron can spread lycantropy even when an HN unit (I think, but am not sure, that these werewolves are also HN units, although they, like HN summons, do not have the HN promotion or the ability to declare nationality)

Also remember that werewolves start enraged, which now means that they may go crazy and defect to the barbarians.

Not all the Ravenous Werewolves start enraged - some don't have that promotion. Also, I've found after a few turns that promotions seems to vanish. I haven't had any defect as barbs yet, but I only have a few right now.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I think that they all do, but there is a chance for it to wear off which, like the chance for it to turn the unit barbarian, may be applied before the unit actually appears (like how chaos marauders sometimes start out as barb units)

 

[blueparrot1966]

Here's another example, dunno if this is good or bad for FFH. Could be that it's just more of a challenge, better AI, a gap in my playing skills or whatever. That'd be good. On the other hand, could be there's a play balance issue, or that this version is just too bloody hard lol.

In a two continent setup, Alexis launched a surprise sea attack on my capitol which was totally unsuccessful. I figured it was time to do the usual late game mop up of pesky warlike AI civs, built an army accordingly.

I planned on taking out 3 or 4 cities to start, an area that included desperately needed gunpowder as well as nice-to-have gems. I showed up with an army of around 60 units, plunked 'em down on a couple of hill tiles next to the first city I had marked out. It consisted of several national units, archmages, knights, war chariots and such, the two dwarven heroes, and the rest rounded out by regulars- a good mix of maces, pikes, crossbows, and catapults. I never figured to knock out a whole advanced civ that way, but I DID at least think this'd be a good start.

Had a stiff counterattack on the first AI turn, including a nasty surprise from a High Priest of Leaves. It had never really sunk in for me that "entangle" hits a whole stack, and the entire army was on two tiles.

But the REAL surprise was on turn two. Alexis coughed up enough units to ANNIHILATE the entire army in one turn. Every last unit. I could believe my eyes. The rate of battles lost was quite high, even though my army included defensive units and was sited on hill tiles. There's no mention of it in the civlopedia that I could find, but I have to figure entangle lowers defense rate too, or something.

Obviously, investing in some sort of magic resistance would've been a good move before I built my army. And I could go back to the drawing board, move them in with 18 ships and 120 units, twice what I tried the first time. But with a civ powerful enough to wipe out 60 units in a turn, I seriously wonder if I can BUILD enough of an army to gain a foothold before the end of the game.

What am I missing? Did I just wait to long to get on with the conquest part of things?

 

[vorshlumpf]

Wow, that's awesome that the AI was able to hold you off (plus the casting of Entangle is great to hear).
I haven't faced any such resistance myself, but when it comes to conquest I tend to take things very slowly. Find the best (most defencive) toe-hold, take it, hold it, then move in from there (this is for naval conquest primarily). I also sometimes land a preliminary attack force just to see what sort of reaction an invasion will get.

 

[Sarisin]

I've noticed the AI using spells. The problem is that I'll be damned if I can figure out which ones.

There is generally a weird noise followed by lights emanating from a city or somewhere. I know something, probably a spell, has happened, but just don't have a clue what...unless I am told my units received Fire damage, for example.

It would be great if you knew what spell had been cast - the Entangle spell in Blue Parrot's case.

 

[Demus]

well, FFH does have more SoD-counters than vanilla civ. As far as i know, crush for example hits your entire stack, which could explain a fair bit. if the AI knows how to use feast accordingly, you're already way to late, since he'd have a few dozens of 500 exp units walking around (brujas, vampire lords, and a bunch of normal vampires, all with added movement, blitz, and i recon woodsman 2 for the extra movement (he was using leaves priests right?)).

 

[mervvyn]

I think that they all do, but there is a chance for it to wear off which, like the chance for it to turn the unit barbarian, may be applied before the unit actually appears (like how chaos marauders sometimes start out as barb units)

I just looked in the editor file and it appears that there's no chance for enraged to wear off. Is there any spell or promotion that can remove enraged?

 

[xienwolf]

I think pool of tears might be able to do it

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I don't think it does. I'm pretty sure the enraged promotion is supposed to wear off, but doesn't. I went ahead and fixed this in my version (Its not a hard change to make in the xml file)

 

[Sarisin]

I don't think it does. I'm pretty sure the enraged promotion is supposed to wear off, but doesn't. I went ahead and fixed this in my version (Its not a hard change to make in the xml file)

In prior versions some, but not all, of the Ravenous Werewolves had the enraged promotion. However, after a few turns, it always wore off.

In .25, though, it seems like once a unit has the enraged promotion it sticks around for a long time, if not forever.