Why I like Orbis

[localhosed]

I'm relatively new to orbis and FFH2. I finished a 26 hour game with clan of embers on warlord that was very fun. The AI was easier than usual, probably due to circumstances? I won with a 'Gone to Hell' victory.

I started a new game with the Illians (that I haven't played before) and some unexpected stuff happened so I saved the game to post. I was sweating. Its on Noble difficulty and the barbarians and AI seem more capable.

The erebus/orbis continent world has high sea levels, lots of deserts and medium cohesion. My first 3 cities have pretty low production as a result of being very coastal and shoved by my neighbor Balseraph's fast growing cultural borders. I barely conquered a small island owned by skeletons. There was always something weird about it. Evil! I was attacked by lots of increasingly hard barbarians. Some of my workers even converted to barbarians. Evil!

Meanwhile I'm trying to sail past balseraphs expanding huge cultural borders with coastal galleys, to colonize behind him in barbarian infested lands. My first attempt was destroyed by Orthus and a hill giant. Barbarian galleys stopped my small fleet of colonists , so I made more and drove them away.

Finally the balseraphs made an Infernal Pact and Hyborem popped up in my island city with an armageddon count of 12! I'm going to cast Stasis and hope for the best. I know I could ally with balseraphs but don't want to unless I have to. Anyone have any thoughts?

Thank you Orbis/FFH2/FF and many mod creators.

 

[Kalina]

Welcome to Orbis forum
Have you founded White Hand religion ? It gives you nice priests and protects you lands from hell terrain. With Hyborem summoned AC counter often goes up very fast, so try to prepare for plague. And try to hit him fast - both you and Balseraphs are evil, so he get stronger when your units are dying.

 

[localhosed]

Yes, I thought the white hand looked like a good match for Illians, so I founded that early on. I didn't know it would stop the spread of hellish lands, but was hoping it would. I built the wonder that spreads blizzards and also Samhain.
I ended up slaying Mokka with my own axeman with Orthus's axe. Only a little dissapointing, but at least he wasn't trapped on an island or something. I wonder why Mokka was hostile to me, but maybe it wasn't intended to be friendly.

I went straight up the seafaring type tech to block Hyborems pesky triremes. Now I plan to try the way of the wise to try to get the angels to appear. Never tried it. Maybe it will help distract and eliminate those other evil civilizations.

I have a fleet going out now with a general on a galeass, an escort galeass, 3 colonists, 6 military, 2 disciples and 3 workers.

I slayed Hyborem on my other Warlord game but it was just my luck that hyborem appeared in a city of mine between two of my other cities. I just blocked him from sailing by making a huge line of ships away from his city. I needed lots of assasins, ogres, catapults, ships, heroes (who died) and beasts of agares.

Now its different, he's on an island that would need to be circled to prevent his ships from leaving.
It will be harder to defeat him, I really have no immediate plans but to grow while expanding since I can't make a worthwhile attack now.

A Fleet

 

[Kalina]

I ended up slaying Mokka with my own axeman with Orthus's axe. Only a little dissapointing, but at least he wasn't trapped on an island or something. I wonder why Mokka was hostile to me, but maybe it wasn't intended to be friendly.

I feel the same way every time I cast Samhain. Frostlings are attacking me, but leave Doviello and Clan alone (as they are at peace with barbarians). Maybe they should be new barbarian faction at peace with Illians (and anyone following White Hand) ?

I went straight up the seafaring type tech to block Hyborems pesky triremes. Now I plan to try the way of the wise to try to get the angels to appear. Never tried it. Maybe it will help distract and eliminate those other evil civilizations.

Actually, when Basium is fighting evil civs, it's Hyborem who get stronger. He gets stronger with every killed evil unit (that is, an unit with evil religion or spellcaster with death/entropy), so he grows strong much faster then normal civs. Best way to deal with him is either to kill him quickly if possible or spreading good religion and converting everyone to it.
But of course summoning angels (Mercurian Gate is at Fanaticism, as your hero so it might be worthwhile to research it anyway) is also a good idea - at least you're getting yourself an ally

Good luck with this game !

 

[localhosed]

Thank you, I didn't know that dying units with evil religion made hyborem stronger. The balseraphs declared war on me so I'm having trouble keeping them both away, but I like it, its a better challenge for now.

I'll go for Mercurian gate, but I suddenly had a huge gold shortage when balseraphs declared war. I guess I was getting lots of money from trade. And/Or, open borders was allowing trade between my outer cities. I could barely make new units so I had to research and use more techs to help that and prune units I didn't need.