Fires of Bhall. Some orcs just want to watch the world burn. [SPOILERS]

[Ellimist]

[SIZE="5"]Clan tips ala Ravus[/SIZE]
Hope this helps with your #2 pick

Yes, very much I think. The Clan was originally my #1 pick but I thought Kurios would be able to get to the Warhorses angel upgrades better.

Unfortunately I'm not at all experienced with the Clan, but I've always been interested in them. I did enjoy playing as a barbarian leader in FFH-9.

Tech
For the clan it's always situational. With no starting techs and being a nation that is all about claiming land (and religion play with Jonas) there's no point worrying too much about this until you see where you start. As it's all about land it does mean that techs for improvements get focused on.

Yeah that makes sense. Play according to the terrain and choose techs accordingly.

There is the strange matter on food. You mentioned in your email that Agri>Calender is the normal tech path for most. Open up extra food, some resources and give the worker something to do. For the Clan it isn't as necessary. Oh it still helps and is normally the right play as long as theirs grassland around. But as your expansion comes through production you can sometimes be quicker expanding going in another direction. Only hammers get the +100% bonus and the Warren needs production to make. Meaning Masonry first can be a valid play.

I had considered something like this, but would that require resources like wines/gold to pull off? What would I do for early commerce?

God-King helps in the Production as well, also opening up options for the first GP. BW is more situational for the Orcs. The -10% tech power starts to really kill around the point when you contemplate going for it and you have to weigh up whether you are actually going to get any use out of it.

I had assumed BW would be critical for Rantine at the least. Early-ish BW/Warfare for Rantine, Military State, and Form of the Titan. Am I underestimating the science penalty?

[Ravus Sol]

I had considered something like this, but would that require resources like wines/gold to pull off? What would I do for early commerce?

Yes as in all things it relies on land, but you have the option of using the Merchant to fund early commerce while doing this if you wanted. I'm not saying it's a good option but it is a choice.

I had assumed BW would be critical for Rantine at the least. Early-ish BW/Warfare for Rantine, Military State, and Form of the Titan. Am I underestimating the science penalty?

Rantine isn't as useful as you would think. He can convert barbarians and act as a breaker in a attack but thats it. Situational again. And the science penalty kicks you in the teeth during the growth phase of expansion. When your tiny cities are size 1 and every commerce point counts. Which is when you would research an early BW. Don't get me wrong, expanding towards someone then marching a BW army at them works. But if you set it up right you can probably settle 2-3 cities for every one you conquer from the enemy.

If the Enemy has something worth taking then it can be worth it. Personally I wouldn't consider it unless I had found Bronze. Rantine without Bronze is kind of pathetic. On the other Hand Military State is a god send mid-game. It's all about timing.

[Ellimist]

If the Enemy has something worth taking then it can be worth it. Personally I wouldn't consider it unless I had found Bronze.

Something worth taking like a settled great specialist? Everybody is going to start with 1-2 military units(warrior/scout), 1 worker, 1 shade, and 2 settlers. Would a very early worldspell give us a decent shot at a T10-ish rush?

[Ravus Sol]

Something worth taking like a settled great specialist? Everybody is going to start with 1-2 military units(warrior/scout), 1 worker, 1 shade, and 2 settlers. Would a very early worldspell give us a decent shot at a T10-ish rush?

Doh!

All that talk and I forget EVERYONE has a Settled Great Specialist!

If you get a Goblin Archer you have Good shot at a rush. But it will be all about luck and whether the map maker remembers to place some.

[Ellimist]

Doh!

All that talk and I forget EVERYONE has a Settled Great Specialist!

If you get a Goblin Archer you have Good shot at a rush. But it will be all about luck and whether the map maker remembers to place some.

Well there's also the fact that Mardoc's FFH-9 map allowed my super-early Doviello rush to kill two civs.

Some people complained a bit about that, so it's possible he'll try to avoid enabling a super-early Clan rush.

I do hope there are goblin forts though. Instantly hiring piles of units from them could be good.

[Ravus Sol]

Well there's also the fact that Mardoc's FFH-9 map allowed my super-early Doviello rush to kill two civs.

Some people complained a bit about that, so it's possible he'll try to avoid enabling a super-early Clan rush.

I do hope there are goblin forts though. Instantly hiring piles of units from them could be good.

With the clan it's not always about how close they are to you but how close they are to the Goblin forts. Which is random in generated maps. But completely up to the map maker now :/

[Mardoc]

completely up to the map maker now :/

[SIZE="5"]Muwahahahaha![/SIZE]

[Lewwyn]

[SIZE="5"]Muwahahahaha![/SIZE]

Just don't be an evil bastard I don't know how much more of that i could take.

[Ellimist]

Religion
The Religion with the Orcs is very fun I assume you will be going straight to Runes and using that to get the Angels out? Awesome plan! You don't need any tips on that stuff I'm sure.

The Altar idea you brought up isn't really worthwhile with the Orcs, You are about Quantity not Quality. The Priest units in particular are just going to be pumped out to settle most of the time making the exp a waste. Plus the Altar costs a Great Prophet and if it's used on the Altar that means it isn't being used on anything else!

I was mostly thinking Altar for getting the experience on Angels. I could spam out disciples of Kilmorph with the bonus exp and then just get them killed off. It does stop me from using those Great Prophets for anything else, but the GPP requirements for Lewwyn's great people will be semi-independent of mine. My testing with Basium indicates that we should be able to get several "bonus" great people as a result of summoning him. Altar levels could be built later, if we built them at all.

Orcs have to really try to leverage their first GP into something worthwhile. Get back their edge. Bulbing works a lot of the time and their are 3 different techs at different times you could aim for;
Way of the Earthmover (to get the religion quick/first)
Priesthood (to get out the Priests to expand/fight)
Fanaticism (To push out the Angels quicker)

Each of those things above is much more useful then an Altar for the Orcs

Unfortunately, Fanaticism can't be bulbed for our purposes. It is on the Prophet bulb list, but too far down to be doable. The other two are very doable though. Priesthood is #2 on the list after Corruption of Spirit, so I can simply skip KotE. (I'm hoping to pick up Way of the Wicked for possible Prophecy shenanigans.)

Shade
Engineer will help get Faster Expansion (Faster Warren + Settlers)
Merchant will help support Expansion for longer (Sustained Expansion)

Faster Expansion will allow you to grab the best Sites, but a larger empire when you get to building the gates means more cities producing Soldiers of Kilmorph.

Yeah it's the snowball debate. I keep going back and forth on these. A merchant would also probably be best if we do an early worldspell, but an engineer would probably accelerate everything else better. I guess we'll have to see the terrain.

Civics
Aristocracy is the basic go to civic in FFH so it works fine as long as their is grassland and actually works best with the Orcs due to their need to grow and sustain economy quickly with their fast expansion.

Trying to expand QUICKLY without Aristocracy hurts. By the time a cottage has become a hamlet you might already have another two cities out. Orcs are that fast. In the end, once your empire is the size you want it City States might be best, but while expanding through grassland nothing beats Aristocracy.

Sounds good. We'll need Code of Laws relatively early anyway as a prereq to Fanaticism, so this way Cartography can be skipped. I really hope Mardoc doesn't give us a toroidal map though.

World Spell
Nearly forgot about this one. Barbarians don't start to spawn naturally until around turn 50, so before then all that's on the map is the Goblin Archers and Goblins, Provided the Map maker put some down.

After turn 50 Barbarian cities start to form but they only produce warriors anyway. Like with most things about the Orcs this comes down to personal choice and situational. Take a risk early on to get some Goblin Archers? Those things are unkillable early on. Wait untill turn 50 and get potential better scouting and a better number of units. But of course you still need the money to support them financially.

Yeah this is another one I keep going back and forth on. An early worldspell could potentially gain me several huts that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise, plus maybe wolf riders if I get early goblins from it. Plus there's the potential for a choke/kill. But even if I do decide to do it early, I should probably wait a little while to let a few more spawn.

If I settle a merchant and wait, on the other hand, by turn 50ish I could have a nice pile of gold. Many of my WS units will likely come from goblin forts, so I could immediately hire an army on another player's doorstep.

[DaveV]

Barbarians don't start to spawn naturally until around turn 50

Actually, the trigger for barbarian spawn is for the number of cities to be greater than or equal to 1.5 * number of civs. That should happen *really* early in this game...