Noob ffh game.

[Mardoc]

So random gave me Illians, My first win in ffh2 was through them. Let’s see if I can think critically and not randomly about them. Ice tiles give +2 food. I am not sure how good this is since it doesn’t affect tundra and so on. I think the normal terrain is still better for the Illians. So I am going to guess that the only advantage to this is the fact that you get a combat bonus and cities with ice aren’t as bad as for other civs. Which means that maybe the deepening will harm everyone more than us? Well I hope I am right.

Generally true. The advantage is that you can have the normal terrain, and then also grab the yucky stuff like Tundras and Deserts and build Temples of the Hand to make it decent. But ignore that at the start. You can't do it until something like turn 50.

Well I see plains and grasslands I am unsure what the difference is really between the two.

The difference is, grassland starts out producing 2 food, plus whatever you get from the improvements on it. Plains starts out producing 1 food and 1 hammer, plus the improvement. Since each citizen requires 2 food, that means working a grassland tile feeds itself, while if you work plains, you've got to find extra food from your other tiles.

Also, Agrarianism, which is normally very powerful, removes 1 hammer from each farm tile - but can't go down from 0. So grasslands don't lose anything from it, while plains do.

Ideally, you want some of each in each city. You want some grass, to be able to grow the city and work a lot of tiles, and some plains and/or hills to get some hammer production. If you have to pick - you can get something (commerce and workers/settlers) from an all grass city, and hardly anything from an all plains city. Still, best is a balance.

Or, as Illians, with Ice cities - you can get something from those cities too. Those are essentially all-grass cities for you, just white instead of green.

So technology wise, I guess I need to wait to see the land first before I can decide about tech but by reading the traits. It feels like I should go into the arcane line and maybe get a ton of mages that have ice elementals, but I went and decided to see every mana the Illians get through their palace to help me in thinking. Law feels like a buff tree to be honest. I am not sure about loyalty but law 2 and law 3 seem nice. A second source of summons and another strong buff which again I am unsure off.
As a resource it gives me -5% to maintenance costs which I despise so I guess this is a huge bonus in a way :P. I really like enhancement. Level 1 and 3 seem pretty powerful especially level 3 if I continue in the arcane and magic line. Casting a spell a second time has a huge benefit I believe. Especially that I can maybe cast snowfall two times per arch mage or maybe summon double the amount of Ice elementals. So as I keep going the arcane tree feels more and more juicy but I have a really weak knowledge about how to win wars with mages or how to properly tech to that.

Yep, precisely. But it's not for a while, so cross that bridge when you get to it.

The other really strong option Illians have are the Priests of Winter. But they're not for a while yet either. For the moment you want to focus on getting a good first city, and some workers, and to start growing.

Not sure what I wanted to say about the options except that I have never played on Monarch and probably going to die a very horrible death.

You'll be fine. If you can survive all the lurkers shouting in your ear.

Fresh water which again I am not sure what it does?

Except for resources like corn and rice, you can only build farms where you have fresh water. Even on those resources, fresh water adds +1 food to the tile with a farm. At Construction, you get the ability to spread fresh water, but don't worry about that now.

[quote[I am still wondering how I should move the scout correctly and not have him die in 6 turns like I usually do :P[/quote]
Um....if you find out, tell me. Scouting is hard in FFH.

I guess the main thing is, stay in defensive terrain, Forests or Hills, hope to get lucky, and make sure to send your scout in directions you really want to know about.

I also hope I don’t embarrass myself and the English isn’t too bad. I have hard time delivering information by writing.

You're fine so far. I'm not much of a writer myself, but I find the only thing that helps is practice.

Edit: Oh, dear. Clock shenanigans again. This was posted right after Merovech's 'over excited' post.

[flugauto]

I would settle 2S. That spot gets 2 sugars, cows, gold and dyes(jungle?) later, has farmable.

About Statis, I'm not sure, but it starts Golden Age too? If so, it is better to delay it to switch civics.

[Qgqqqqq]

Option 2 definitely.
One of the advantages of the Gillian is they don't need to sorry about jungle because the temple of the hand (which turns all tiles within 2to ice) also turns jungle to forest.
U would research agrI -> calender-> crafting -> mining
This gives the worked (first build BTW) a chance to start farming the area/ hooking up the calender resources.
An early mining is necessary due to the forests and with option 2 lets you hook up the gold for early commerce.

[Ryan]

Why option 2 thou? also what is the difference between a lake and a river?

[flugauto]

Option2 has 2 farmable non-river tiles and onlt 3 river tiles in general. River tiles give +1 commerce.

2S has alot of river tiles! And more resources.

[Ryan]

what does 2s mean?

[flugauto]

2S is 2 south, sorry

[DaveV]

So random gave me Illians, My first win in ffh2 was through them. Let’s see if I can think critically and not randomly about them. Ice tiles give +2 food. I am not sure how good this is since it doesn’t affect tundra and so on. I think the normal terrain is still better for the Illians. So I am going to guess that the only advantage to this is the fact that you get a combat bonus and cities with ice aren’t as bad as for other civs. Which means that maybe the deepening will harm everyone more than us? Well I hope I am right.

The Deepening does, indeed, hurt everyone else more than you, but it's terribly expensive. Note that ice tiles on rivers do *not* give bonus riverside commerce, so you may be screwing yourself out of a bunch of commerce by casting the Deepening. I think of this as a tool for the AI to annoy me, rather than a good strategic choice.

A better way to take advantage of the Illians' love of ice is to build Temples of the Hand in cities that are surrounded by tundra or desert (not flood plains!). The Temple of the Hand will convert these worthless tiles into the equivalent of grassland for you, even more worthless tiles for everyone else.

So technology wise, I guess I need to wait to see the land first before I can decide about tech but by reading the traits. It feels like I should go into the arcane line and maybe get a ton of mages that have ice elementals, but I went and decided to see every mana the Illians get through their palace to help me in thinking. Law feels like a buff tree to be honest. I am not sure about loyalty but law 2 and law 3 seem nice. A second source of summons and another strong buff which again I am unsure off.
As a resource it gives me -5% to maintenance costs which I despise so I guess this is a huge bonus in a way :P. I really like enhancement. Level 1 and 3 seem pretty powerful especially level 3 if I continue in the arcane and magic line. Casting a spell a second time has a huge benefit I believe. Especially that I can maybe cast snowfall two times per arch mage or maybe summon double the amount of Ice elementals. So as I keep going the arcane tree feels more and more juicy but I have a really weak knowledge about how to win wars with mages or how to properly tech to that.

Once you have the basic worker techs researched, you can't go wrong with a beeline to Philosophy and the White Hand ritual. The Priests of Winter are great units; their summoned Ice Elementals will probably be the strongest units on the board for a while.

As far as settling: settling *on* the sugar would give you three food in your city center tile (normally only two), and free sugar happiness once you research Calendar. But, if you're going to move, I think you should move 4 tiles southeast (just north of the Rice). Remnants of Patria in your capital is guaranteed to make your game a lot easier. Normally, it's not a good idea to lose so much time and production by moving so far, but you'll make it up in a hurry (especially if you cast Stasis right after settling).

[flugauto]

North of the rice is no-fresh-water, no river tiles, alot of plains. I think that is a very bad place.

[Qgqqqqq]

Plains hill is the seller.