What Difficulty Do You Use For FFH?

[thealien_83]

I play Prince or Monarch, but I voted Monarch as it is pretty much the "roof" of what I will play (or play and not die, anyway). Though in truth I probably play Prince more often, though I'm slowly shifting towards Monarch.

So.. That's that.

 

[Hypnotoad]

I've been playing on immortal. I won a couple of games handily on this setting, but somehow my last few starts have been... rough. It's nice to be challenged, but...

I agree with the others: the early game is what's hard. After that, it gets substantially easier. I think this is because there are a number of ways to substantially increase your happy cap (with religion, civics, etc.) and because specialization does pay off (although the AI doesn't always see this).

I generally go for trade pretty quickly, use that to even out my starting techs and then go for some sort of specialization.

 

[Chandrasekhar]

Three warriors, one settler; three warriors, one settler; three warriors, one settler. Say it with me now. Three warriors, one settler...

I play Monarch because that's where it's "fun" for me. I can keep just ahead of the AI technologically, and actually manage to out-expand them. I could probably survive until the late game and wipe them out one by one if I played higher difficulties, but it's not as fun that way.

 

[Nikis-Knight]

I'm in between Monarch and Emperor. I prefer crowded maps, too, so raging barbs don't make too much diference.
Usually on Emperor I fall behind, though I recently won on Emperor with Doviello in about 525 turns (normal).

 

[Kael]

I'm in between Monarch and Emperor. I prefer crowded maps, too, so raging barbs don't make too much diference.
Usually on Emperor I fall behind, though I recently won on Emperor with Doviello in about 525 turns (normal).

By cheating with Bambur boosted with Iron Weapons.

 

[Nikis-Knight]

Like he's gonna say no when they shove them in his hands every time he stops by a city!

 

[Chandrasekhar]

Hm... metallic weapons promotions might increase the versatility of some heroes if they are indeed applied to them. Is this actually intended to be in the public .016 release, or is it just something you're testing?

 

[Nikis-Knight]

All Doviello melee use this new system, in addition to mercs. I was Doviello, and Bambur is melee, so he got to use my weapons, gaining +2 base strength for hanging around the forge.
Of course, I really enjoyed my Iron corpses on the Berserkers!

 

[Chandrasekhar]

Ah, that explains it.

 

[Unser Giftzwerg]

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.

That's a very good point. If the starting area has Furs or Ellyphants or Wine or Gold or ... or ... well, there are a few resources that will add +1 at low tech levels, and which are not under forests and jungle. These are the maps to NOT rush a religion. You can get a or two from luxuries. So those are the best startup maps to go for the non-religion opening. Which, in my limited experience, has certain often-neglected charms of its own.

It's getting past that city size 3 happycap (size 4 at the capitol) that is the pain threshold. That's why religions are so good early on, even before Priests come into play. But Wine and Gold will do the same thing for you once 0.16 comes out.

 

[Unser Giftzwerg]

Three warriors, one settler; three warriors, one settler; three warriors, one settler. Say it with me now. Three warriors, one settler...

I play Monarch because that's where it's "fun" for me. I can keep just ahead of the AI technologically, and actually manage to out-expand them. I could probably survive until the late game and wipe them out one by one if I played higher difficulties, but it's not as fun that way.

Yeah, I have not noticed much different with the AI at higher levels. Raging Barbs come at you with a few improved units, sooner, but they're still all movement 1 units until Lizardmen Hunters appear. By then you are ready to deal with Lizardman Hunters.

The major effect is suppression of your own city sizes. But FfH has many ways to raise a happycap, so you eventually come out from under this ceiling. The AI will have more units and willbe ahead of you on the tech screen. But then you start catching up. When it comes to time to score-settlin' time, the AI generally has access to a few units superior to yours. That leads to some bloody wars.

You are correct. Raising the skill level mostly results in pushing back that 'breakthrough moment' when your civ races to the head of the pack. So the best way to pick a skill level is to pick the level where that breakthrough occurs in your pwersonal 'sweet spot'.

 

[Yorgos]

I usually play Civilization 4 (and FFH2) at Monarch. But I tend to find it too easy, since I'm among the 3 top civs (in 15 civilisations games), if not first. Is it because I understand and take advantage of the FFH2 rules much better than the AI? Or have I get used to civ4 new strategies (I played at Emperor in civ3)? I don't know, though my brother claims that FFH is more difficult than vanilla.

 

[Silverkiss]

Hum I think that is the other way around, when I started playing FfH i player Civ IV on noble difficulty, but on FfH I set it to prince right away to stay competitive... Noble would be too easy.

 

[Sureshot]

FFH takes longer to learn everything, but once you have its easier than vanilla i think. vanilla is simpler, and so simpler for the ais and less for the humans to take advantage on

 

[eerr]

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

I know.. I suck.

your just too busy adding to your mod
we know you'll totally pown the ai after your virtually done with it(even with chalids ai boosts)

unless you start work on ffh3...

 

[InfinityV]

immortal when soloing
deity on multi survival or team vs. ai
noble in multi ffa