Your Favorite Stratagem

[BlakeTheDrake]

One of the things I really like about FfH is how the addition of mages, World Spells, Unique Terrain, special rules, Hero Abilities and the Armageddon Counter - among many other things - allows for a much deeper approach to warfare and victory. Sure, the old method of building up a huge army and screaming 'WAAAAARGH!' at the top of your lungs still works just fine, but there's a certain satisfaction in pulling off a clever series of interlocking tricks and plans to take full advantage of your own strengths - and the enemy's weaknesses - in a way that would have made Sun Tzu give an acknowledging nod at least.

What sort of Machiavellian plots of diplomacy, deception and deceit have you pulled off?


What prompted me to start this topic was, of course, the clever trick I just pulled off in an 'Epic' scale game I was playing. I'm playing as the Illians, and aiming for Auric Ascendant (who DOESN'T?) It suits me well since I have an uncontrolleable love for overpowered and unique units, which probably also explains why I went to such extraordinary lengths to push one of my units to Level 15 so I could rescue Brigit...

The 'catch' of Auric Ascendant is, of course, The Draw. Halfing population in all cities and damaging all units, while simultaneously declaring war on all other civs and disabling diplomacy. Nothing to sneeze at... especially since your newly-reduced population will slow down the construction of the Ascension. However, I had a plan... one that had been brewing since the earliest turns of the game, when my scouts located the Nine Pines.

It was a classic turning-point - as the final turns ticked away on the construction of The Draw, I was in a tight spot - embroiled in a war on two continents, with mounting expenses from overseas properties and a large standing army, combined with having been recently forced to switch away from Aristocracy due to a surprising early-onset Blight. (Probably brought on by numerous razings - the AI's tendency to build cities close together and my own dislike of 'shared' spaces means lots of rubble whenever I invade.) My treasury was dwindling, my research was slowing, and while my army was kicking ass, it was clear I wouldn't be able to keep paying for it for much longer... and worse, one of the battles I was caught in was against my close neighbors and former-best-friends, the Svartalf, whose borders were hitting mine in enough places to make a coherrent defence nearly impossible - and who had so far functioned as a convenient buffer against the military-obsessed Khazad Dwarved. (Who, despite being the smallest empire out of the survivors, had the second-biggest standing army, due to their frequent skirmishes with the Svartalf.) So basically, even if I DID win through the Svartalf territorries, I'd just be facing a dwarven army which was already annoyed with my obvious evilness, and getting annoyder with every tick of the Apocalypse Counter.

Then, The Draw was finished. Heavy damage all through, and several sudden declarations of war. My overseas properties were so heavily mixed with the Balseraph's huge territories that I was instantly surrounded almost per-default. And those same properties were the main source of several strategic resources, including horses, mithril and gunpowder - the main reason I'd set up shop over there in the first place, and stubbornly clung to them despite the cost.

And, in the same turn, I activated Nine Pines, enforcing Peace by divine decree. I rapidly followed up with several games of Somnium, and sent a few gifts of technology to the more annoyed civ-leaders, quickly restoring harmonious relationships. Then I activated Stasis, and started building the Ascension in my best-producing city (throwing in the ritual for summoning the White Dragon too, just for good measure. I then slotted in Phoenix Blood in a lower-producing city, timing it to finish one turn after the Ascension. Oh, and since I had a few cities left over, I started work on 'Birthright regained' too, just for kicks - and finished it just a couple of turns after the previous Stasis wore off.

And just to add an entirely unexpected cherry on top, another city had been working on the Forge of Souls (or whatever it's called), and finished it a little while later. It turned out to be the 'favorite Wonder' of the Svartalf, and combined with the whooping I'd given them earlier, and the fact that they were now cut down to half size and sandwitched between me and the vengeful Khazar, caused them to offer themselves up as a Vassal State.

So basically, my remaining forces, with Wilboman, Brigit and the White Dragon in the lead, are now camped in various Svartalf cities, ready to attack the dwarven lands the moment their God joins them - and meanwhile, all the other civs are hamstrung by spending 'bout 20 turns late in the game (where both production and research is usually quite fast) producing absolutely NOTHING, even as I busily rebuild my economy (surprisingly easily, since the cut-down populations actually reduced the upkeep of my expensive overseas colonies) in preperation for the final war... my biggest worry being whether I can pull off a Conquest Victory before I wind up with a Domination Victory. All thanks to one well-timed 'Peace' spell...

 

[Andostre]

Very nice! My best strategy also involved the Illians, but I have to admit that I let my strategy guide which map I chose, and it gave me a very unfair advantage.

I enjoy builder civ games, so what I did was choose the Oasis map where the center of the map is almost all desert and the North and South regions of the map have more resources and a wider variety of them. Like all civilizations, my Illians started in the North or South, and I staked out my little area of green land, and then started deliberately expanding out into the desert and making my way East and West. As soon as was reasonable I got Mysticism so that I could start building Temples of the Hand in all of my desert cities. Practically all of that desert land inside my borders was "upgraded" to snow, and since I had very little competition in the desert areas, I was able to expand my empire very rapidly.

So, I had an empire that was much larger than almost all of my competitors, but I was quite literally surrounded, and I had the "our close borders cause tension" issue with every other civ except for one piddly little island civ that never built any ships. The game lead to lots of wars on simultaneous fronts, but aside from a few problems here and there, I was able to spread my army out and effectively defend thanks to tactical attacks from my three Priests of Winter and their ice elementals. They were my civilizations heroes far more than Wilboman or Drifa ever were.

 

[Azhral]

I love building massive Kuriotates Metropolis's(metropolii?). Large map means you get 4 or 5 cities, and Order gets you Priors and Sphener. Get enough food resources and you're looking at a couple of size 50 cities. Really suits my playstyle as well.

That and the Malakim. Turtle up, Aristograrianism to tech greatness, and blind and burn anybody who comes close. Both pretty standard tactics, but I always have fun playing them.

 

[BlakeTheDrake]

I enjoy builder civ games, so what I did was choose the Oasis map where the center of the map is almost all desert and the North and South regions of the map have more resources and a wider variety of them. Like all civilizations, my Illians started in the North or South, and I staked out my little area of green land, and then started deliberately expanding out into the desert and making my way East and West. As soon as was reasonable I got Mysticism so that I could start building Temples of the Hand in all of my desert cities. Practically all of that desert land inside my borders was "upgraded" to snow, and since I had very little competition in the desert areas, I was able to expand my empire very rapidly.

Clever... reminds me of back when I played Alpha Centauri with the expansion-pack... as the Nautilus. I basically took over the entire ocean-area of the planet, while the other civs fought for scraps of lands. By the time I was ready to go to war, I had three times the territory and population of all the other factions combined. Good times... I actually played as the Lauan Civ during my first game of FfH, in honor of those days. (Sadly, even the Lauans can't build cities on the seas. But IMHO, they should at least have the option of sending Work-Boats into Ocean Squares. Ah well.)

 

[Folket]

In the last two games I have played against the Illian, I have prepered for war when Illian cast thier worldspell and then I declare war at once against an other civ and have no trouble defeating them when thier resources are frozen. A good time to pillage as well.

 

[ProkhorZakharov]

I recently played a game as the Svartalfar. Fairly early on I captured a Giant Spider. That spider went into Bannor territory, killed a worker, and made a baby spider. A few hundred turns later, that spider and over a dozen of his descendants killed pretty much every worker the Bannor, Grigori, Balseraphs and Kuriotates had (I didn't keep a count, but I'd guess at over 100 workers).

Clever... reminds me of back when I played Alpha Centauri with the expansion-pack... as the Nautilus. I basically took over the entire ocean-area of the planet, while the other civs fought for scraps of lands.

I did that too, except that I built as many thermal boreholes as I could fit onto the land tiles I controlled. That brought global warming up so bad I drowned out all the other civs. By the end of the game, the entire planet was sea save for one tiny island (I nuked that one into the sea to achieve a conquest victory).

 

[BlakeTheDrake]

I recently played a game as the Svartalfar. Fairly early on I captured a Giant Spider. That spider went into Bannor territory, killed a worker, and made a baby spider. A few hundred turns later, that spider and over a dozen of his descendants killed pretty much every worker the Bannor, Grigori, Balseraphs and Kuriotates had (I didn't keep a count, but I'd guess at over 100 workers).

Considering your Civ, that seems scarily appropriate. All praise to Lolth, the Spider-Queen!

I did that too, except that I built as many thermal boreholes as I could fit onto the land tiles I controlled. That brought global warming up so bad I drowned out all the other civs. By the end of the game, the entire planet was sea save for one tiny island (I nuked that one into the sea to achieve a conquest victory).

While I'm impressed with that ingenious strategy, I don't think you realize the sheer terror of what you have wrought... I mean, you basically created Waterworld! The horror... THE BADLY-DIRECTED HORROR!

 

[tylor]

Alpha Centauri had impressive world-altering possibilities. FfH is actually close, except that sadly, it's not possible to raise or sink lands.

 

[tylor]

As for cheesy strategies... I just realized, that each nation have three resources for free in FfH (namely mana). So, you can found a couple of cities on a distant island, give them independence and demand those mana for free.

Sheahim (that holy guys) world spell that gives 30 turns of enemies not being able to come into your territory is also very sweet, when you build a tower of mastery. Or you wage an aggressive war. Or both at the same time I was surprised AI managed to give some resistance even then, by blinding and AoE-ing my forces.

 

[Jarrema]

Sheahim (that holy guys) world spell that gives 30 turns of enemies not being able to come into your territory is also very sweet

You mean Elohim...
Sheaim are NOT 'holy guys'

 

[Tarquelne]

For Scions (from the modmods):

Use Creepers to stealthily (no DoW) destroy a strong ally's health resources.
Then have Pelemoc enter newly-unhealthy city and use "Succor." One population point is "saved" by removing it from the city and giving the Scions a Reborn unit.

Plant HL tiles near where other civs are fighting - the neutral tiles resulting from a city being taken are a favorite. Then watch damaged units turn undead and occasionally insane (Barbarian) from HL exposure.

Plant a Haunted Land tile in neutral territory near another civ. Camp a series of Ghostwalkers there. Each turns into a Haunt until it turns-barbarian and (likely) goes after the other civ. This is really only fun in MP games. It doesn't do a lot of damage but it can frustrate human opponents.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

You mean Elohim...
Sheaim are NOT 'holy guys'

That depends on how one defined "holy." In most languages, the word for holy or sacred literally means "set apart," which could be for good or bad reasons. The Sheaim do have the Sundered trait, which in many languages would be synonymous with holy.

On the other hand, the etymology of the English word holy is less clear, and may literally mean that which must remain whole or intact. The Sheaim may then be quite Sacred, but not Holy.

 

[Jarrema]

Hmm maybe I confused 'holy' as something close to "saint" or "blessed"

 

[MagisterCultuum]

In Modern English its meaning is quite close, and totally inapplicable to to the Sheaim. Now that I've gone back and read the post you were quoting and seen a reference to the Sanctuary world spell I concur that he meant to say Elohim.

 

[tylor]

It was Elohim, actually. I'm just not used to race names, yet.

 

[Goodwill]

For cheesy, if you have a bunch of warriors saved up and don't want to spend gold to upgrade them.... if you have open borders with a civ you want to go to war with, gift them just inside, one tile from your army, gift them and then slaughter them like sheep for a free exp kickoff for your troops. I've only used that in multiplayer though, when I want to piss someone off.