[Spoilers] Biggus Decius and the Sucking Vampires (Bobchillingworth / Calabim)

[DaveV]

Yeah, nice writeup, Bob!

I wish my mistake hadn't led to Iskender burning his worldspell - he'd be much more dangerous to PB/Selrahc if he still had that up his sleeve. On the other hand, he'd also be more dangerous to you. And he may be harboring a grudge, so beware of a backstab from him.

The Foreign Advisor screen is really disappointing - only two trade from foreign routes! It must be that PB is sucking up all Iskender's trade route income. It would be worth your while to try to talk Iskender into closing borders with him, and transfer the trade route commerce to you. You'll at least be picking up a bunch of internal routes when Trade finishes, which should help speed Feudalism along a bit. Maybe open borders with Cull, too? Converting a few +1 trade routes to +2 or +3 would be a significant boost.

On the Demographics screen, be aware that it doesn't include Governor's Mansion hammers, so you're probably comfortably in first place for production. It's not a bad thing to have other people believe otherwise, though.

For the southeast city, I had it pegged for one tile to the southwest. Any irrigated land tile is better than water, plus a coastal location makes you vulnerable to OO priests, if PB decides to build some. You'll also avoid the defense liability from building on desert.

Sounds like you're doing a great job. Calabim's strategy is to stay alive until Vampires, and you're almost there!

[Bobchillingworth]

A long and detailed report, thanks Bob on behalf of the lurkers.

Thanks I don't seem to attract many comments in this thread (besides obviously those from Dave) but I've occasionally clicked on the names of users in the forum after I've updated and people are reading my posts, so I suppose there really isn't much to say at this point. When I started this thread (and the game) I think FFH was really new to RB in general, but to my delight I now find people making reference to it all over the forums. Still, if anyone has any game-related questions, either about the mod or my game in particular, please feel free to post them here.


Also I'm not actually sure what F1 does (maximum zoom-out I guess?), but I'll try to get a full empire shot in later.

[Sciz]

I read this (and all the other) topic but i dont have anything worthwhile to say lol

[Jabah]

I read this (and all the other) topic but i dont have anything worthwhile to say lol

Same

[Ravus Sol]

Can't you tell? All the lurkers are waiting for Vampires upon which they will laugh manically and beg you to burn the poor nation of their choice to the ground

[Mardoc]

Can't you tell? All the lurkers are waiting for Vampires upon which they will laugh manically and beg you to burn the poor nation of their choice to the ground

Yep, Ravus has it about right. From a lurker's perspective, Selrahc's rush was the best thing that could have happened (of course, Stasis was the worst, so it evens out). And all this peaceful building - well, there's not a lot to say about it. Once you start burning Erebus down, we'll have more to say.

Plus, Dave already scolded me once for getting too close to the spoiler line over in FFH2, so I try to keep quiet or restrain myself to very generic comments.

Glad to keep hearing your thoughts and plans, though!

[DaveV]

Your Nox Noctis plan would be brilliant if you could pull it off. If Selrahc dared to attack you, you could tear him a new one with your invisible catapults. And it would be pretty easy to promote Gibbon to Mind 3, since you should still have mind mana on loan from Sareln. You'd still have to worry about fast attackers from PB (potentially movement 5 with sprint and mobility). Best defense against that is just to stack a bunch of units in any city he could concievably reach. Spectres would be cool for this job, since they don't cost any maintenance.

[Bobchillingworth]

Specters don't cost maintenance? Hah, the Calabim really are the most micro-intensive civ ever. It's probably for the best that no one is talking about blitz sessions any more for this game, turns are soon going to be a mess between managing city recovery from feeding, summoning new garrisons in border towns every turn, and casting Haste for every vampire in-transit.


I'm worried with the Noctis that PB might take it first. He has had trade for quite a while now I believe. Hopefully he doesn't understand how much it's worth. Selrahc can't found Esus and the others are too far behind, so PB is the only competition.


Dominate can be an awesome spell, but I suspect that Selrahc will give Loyalty to all his units. Sure would be a coup if I could capture a Priest of Winter from him, though! If I do build Gibbeon, then getting that Death node up becomes an even greater priority, since Wraiths are awesome summons. Alternately I could go for Shadow III and bother someone with Mistforms... except they'd probably know it was me. Still, a possibility.

[Maksim]

F1 should give you a listing of your cities together with their happiness and health, research, hammer and GPP output - it's a very useful tool for lurkers to look at.

As to lurkers not posting very much - between you and DaveV, you have a pretty good banter going, and with the need to keep each other in the loop, you give very nice and detailed reports. For the other players, who don't have a teammate, it's more important for lurkers to give them feedback so they don't stop updating.

Be assured, though, we do read your thread quite intensely. After all, you are quite the contender in this game...

[uberfish]

As far as I know hawks can still spot all the invisible units even with Nox Noctis, they certainly reveal those troublesome mistforms. Still useful and quite thematic for the Calabim but I wouldn't rely on it as a core defence except in single player.