What Difficulty Do You Use For FFH?

[Sarisin]

I don't think this has been polled before...

I have been able to win at all levels the raging barb games, but I have hit a wall with regular Monarch level games. I simply get so far behind in Emperor games I give up.

I'd also be interested in hearing strategy from the pros who win at the higher levels.

 

[Endovior]

I'm up as far as Noble, with mixed results.

Currently working on honing my strategies as I attempt to advance further.

 

[Kael]

I play on noble, and lose on a regualr basis.

I know.. I suck.

 

[QES]

I play on prince, and I usually win handily
THen i turn on raging barbarians and aggressive AI and I win until someone RANDOMLY ATTACKS ME WITH A FLOTILLA OF DEADLY SEA UNITS THAT THEY SOME HOW BUILT UP AND SNUCK ACROSS AN OCEAN WITHOUT MY APPROVAL...
<pants emphatically>

Sorry. Its just that this has happened now to me...oh 5 times in a row. I do a fantastic job of conquering whatever continant I'm on (or grabing myself a continant sized space.) and setting up peaceable relations with any near by potential threats, but invariablly with agressive ai (I like it despite my frustration) the top two people always choose ME to pick on. And when they go to war with me, its never without having built an army up first, put them on fully loaded boats, and sent them to "just outside" my boarder, near my WEAKEST city. I tend to have a minimalized army, and sometimes have merely warriors until tier 3 units come around. Mostly this is for A) Effenciency, B) speed, and C) my damage is done with Giants, or some other "uberized" indivdual level of units.

And so, when the aunslaught begins, my former friend now virulent enemy decides, almost always, to raze my cities one by one. Despite my abilities to potentially repell and recapture any cities.....they raze them, one by one to the ground. Thus essentially crippeling me.
It is EXACTLY what they should do. Except that Good people have done it to me when I've been good. Neutrals will do it randomly, despite my alignment, and IRONICALLY, the evil people do is less often (perhaps because I expect them too, so I have a higher military which disuades them.)

I have discovered that im a "boomer" or a "rusher". Since I like technology, i tend twards booming. So far the "using sea" as a cushin and protective covering DOESNT WORK for booming. As its too bloody easy for the AI to peg out your weak cities (how do they know anyway? I have no idea as to their strength in military) and wait for the perfect moment.

Personally I hope that the naval redux in the .16 system will make it easier to defend my coast lines. I'd like a cheap and effective sea-deterant other than magic users. Maybe Sea Mines? Or some sort of sea-summon?

Still, Im rather impressed with the AI when its agressive. But it makes me feel OH so deeply inadequate.
-Qes

EDIT: My constant question throughout most of my games has always been- How do they ahve A) the most advanced units AND B) an advanced navy AND C) large numbers of units (enough to form an expedition force) AND D) know where I am , AND E) where i am WEAKEST AND F) know that I'm weak at all - militarily.
I might be able to peace together information on other civs about F, E, and D fairly simply if i put a lot of effort into it (scouts and variaous wanderers), but the combination of A through C is mindboggeling. Not to mention the answer seems to be "well they have a lot of nice cities" which also is confusing, as maintenance costs and other compeditors should derail that. I either have advanced units, OR large numbers of less advanced. usually larger numbers, so as to protect my expansive empires. And i have the tech to build better ones, but it is almost easier just to hold off until yet another rung is reached.

 

[xanaqui42]

I win games with most Civilizations at Monarch (I still haven't cracked the Kuriotates); I'm presently working on Emperor.

 

[Moon Hunter]

Settler

<.<
>.>



Usually either monarch or emperor... even thought the emperor games sometimes are a pain in the ass

 

[Sureshot]

in SP i always play Deity, i like a struggle just to survive, if i manage to survive through the first few rough spots i find victory is fairly easy to achieve. play with raging barbs and aggressive ai every time, and require complete kills.

 

[vorshlumpf]

QES, it sounds like your playing style is quite similar to my girlfriend's. I don't suppose you ever send out unprotected settlers, do you?

Whenever you've posted your tactics, I get the sense that you really like to expand at the expense of your economy and/or military might. I used to be like that, as well, but I learned with Raging Barbs and/or higher difficulty levels that you cannot neglect your military. The main reason (and this is more important with Aggressive AI) is that a computer player will be less likely to attack you the more powerful you are. Another reason is to combat exactly the problem you describe - losing cities at the beginning of a war because you didn't have enough defense set up.

As for my difficulty levels, I play Prince if I feel like beating up on the AI, I play Monarch if I want a challenging game that I'll likely win, and I play Emperor if I want a tough time getting a win at all. Depends on the mood I'm in - and certain maps and settings can effect the difficulty as well.

- Niilo

 

[Sureshot]

QES, just build your own fleets and control the seas. you can really doom the ais with that, since they'll load heroes on their boats and you can cheaply destroy all their good units.

about the ai and maintenance, they're running at noble + benefits whenever you run higher than noble. the ai does not improve its tactics past noble for them as i understand it, they just cheat on higher difficulties.

a fair game is Noble setting, though they might get some bonus, i think chand was sayin that.

personally im so used to deity that immortal is a walk in the park for me most times.

 

[eekhoorn]

I usually play on emperor, but I usually also manage to survive on immortal/deity. It's just a little harder to survive the start, but once you do, it's like sureshot says, you win

 

[Unser Giftzwerg]

I've been notching up my difficulty level since I started with FfH. Currently I play on Immortal. I might move up to Diety, then again I might stay at Imortal as my playtime has dropped considerably these past feeks.

Rush to Education and start putting up cottages as soon as you feel you can deal with the barbs.

It can help to put out units on hilltops to extend your sighting range. If you can see a tile, no raging barb will appear in it.

Rush to one of the first three religions once you have Education.

If you get one of the first religions, you should now be able to deal with the AI realms. Your cities can grow to a reasonable size now,so you shouldbe able to defend yourself should an unwelcome war erupt.

I started an entire thread on opening game tips. It's still here, probably on page 3 or so, but it's still in the forum somewhere.

 

[Unser Giftzwerg]

QES,

I'll second vorshlumpf. I was an expand-keep-up-the-pressure-expend type in earlier versions of Civ. But FfH is much more forgiving for the end-game surege. You can move from last to first quite quickly in FfH, so build up and choose your moment. It sounds like you are over-extending yourself in one direction. Promote up those warriors. All it costs is money. You might have to turn the slider down to 0% R&D for a turn or two, but that will raise a lot of funds. And one R&D project is delayed by one turn. Big deal. It's a lot less a deal than losing cities, yes?

On the tactical side, those navies have to depart a port. When you look at potential hostile neighbors, look at their ports. If there's a ton of shipping in one, park a Privateer outside that port. You'll see the invasion fleet many turns before it arrives. Then you can arrance a fireball welcoming party at the beach.

 

[BCalchet]

Just recently stepped up to Diety for regular games - it's pretty challenging, but that tiny happycap sure does hurt if I don't found or otherwise adopt an early religion.

 

[Sureshot]

if you beeline for rangers after getting festivals you can just hunt for animals to raise your happy cap more and boost up your culture big time too, plus you dont have to worry about resources and its not a gamble, carnivals get the process started nicely, plus marketplaces means you can start early expansion as well (and with hunters you dont have to worry much about running into giants or spiders with your settlers, or you can just do a hunter rush on your enemies for some city grabs).

but thats only if high pop counts is very important to you, i find hitting the size 4 happycap then focusing on production to push out the settlers and armies can get you a massive empire to assert dominance for quite some time, then you usually get a nice lead.

 

[Unser Giftzwerg]

if you beeline for rangers after getting festivals you can just hunt for animals to raise your happy cap more and boost up your culture big time too, plus you dont have to worry about resources and its not a gamble, carnivals get the process started nicely, plus marketplaces means you can start early expansion as well (and with hunters you dont have to worry much about running into giants or spiders with your settlers, or you can just do a hunter rush on your enemies for some city grabs).

but thats only if high pop counts is very important to you, i find hitting the size 4 happycap then focusing on production to push out the settlers and armies can get you a massive empire to assert dominance for quite some time, then you usually get a nice lead.

IMO, game are more fun if you do not rush the early religion and instead develop incrementally. But nothing is as efficient as grabbing an early religion. At least under 0.15. Many players are hoping 0.16 will weaken the rush-to-religion gambit. BTW, I have never, not once, not ever, failed to invent one of the first three religions with the rush-to-cottages-rush-to-religion opening. I have a personal success rate (success=founding a religion) of 100% with this opening. However, I have not used it with all civilization.

The animal cage route to happiness is more fun, because you grow more slowly and thus do not blow away the AI realms as easilly. But it is a gamble. There is no guarantee animal units will survive near your realm in anyting close to the quantity or variety you'd like. Or maybe that's just a side-effect from the map generator I use most often? (Fractal) The game stops spawning animals and starts spwning orcs. Closing cultural borders reduce all barbarian spawns.

Like I said, maybe it's just something about the way I play. Maybe there's a way to trick the game into spawning animal instead of orcs, like staying at 1-2 cities until you have captured a whole zoo, or something. I dunno, I'm usually to busy fighting off orcs to wonder why the animals stopped breeding.

 

[Sureshot]

usually theres no animals "around" because, atleast for me, if im fightin barbs then im seldom paying attention to things going on outside my borders, so "around" means within my borders, and animals stay away from borders.

but if you get rangers (or even hunters, which can deal with anything out there with ease) and go out exploring you'll often find many animals roaming around, religion only increases things by 3 happiness with the right civics, capturing animals requires no civics and can add something like 7+ happiness and tons of culture (and hunting opens up access to 2 animal happiness resources, and silk happiness from spiders).

 

[Xanikk999]

I play on noble, and lose on a regualr basis.

I know.. I suck.

Wow. And your the man behind the mod! Somehow i dont beileve you.

But if thats true just keep practicing!

BTW i play on prince.

 

[sgrealis]

Noble or Prince, depending. Raging barbs still give me fits even on Noble. So I usually don't turn that on. But I'm learning

 

[Unser Giftzwerg]

usually theres no animals "around" because, atleast for me, if im fightin barbs then im seldom paying attention to things going on outside my borders, so "around" means within my borders, and animals stay away from borders.

but if you get rangers (or even hunters, which can deal with anything out there with ease) and go out exploring you'll often find many animals roaming around, religion only increases things by 3 happiness with the right civics, capturing animals requires no civics and can add something like 7+ happiness and tons of culture (and hunting opens up access to 2 animal happiness resources, and silk happiness from spiders).

I probably should try a game heading straight for Hunters, just to try it.

 

[Sureshot]

its a solid strategy, especially if you can get a elephant or furs near you for the extra early happicap, then of course you have to grab agriculture then festivals, then AH and you can start bringin in the animals and its smooth sailing from there. having hunters early is the best way to survive past hordes of always war ais since even when they get axemen your hunters will be able to consistantly defend against them.