Any good resources for learning ffh2?

[Lord Parkin]

Huh, looks like I got a map with no natural ice whatsoever then (except icebergs). Might have been influenced by using "Smart Climate" set to "Override Selection" with 20 civs in the game (link). Will generate a few test maps before the next game to make sure I don't miss Ring Of Carcer again.

[Lord Parkin]

Spirit 3 gives +50% GPP to a city (IIRC)

In the EITB changelog it says "Spirit III spell gives +50% GPP and cures Enraged". But when I tried it, it gave +4 relations with the other leaders. Does it identify single player games and use the original effect, or has it not been changed?

[DaveV]

A quick check of the code seems to indicate that Spirit III should enable two spells: Trust, which you cast, and Illumination, which has the documented effects in a city, as long as the Spirit III archmage stays there. Was your archmage standing in a city?

[Lord Parkin]

Ah yep, when I'm in a city I get the option for Illumination. The changelog didn't mention anything about there being 2 separate Spirit III spells. Thanks.

[Lord Parkin]

Another question - The Illians completed The Deepening (causing the game itself to freeze for almost 10 minutes), and the manual is clearly wrong about its effects.

Causes unimproved tiles without any Features (like a Forest) around the world to temporarily freeze. Makes Blizzards spawn around the world periodically.

In fact almost every one of my fully improved BFC tiles has been converted to tundra or snow. As a result, all five of my cities are now losing up to 30 food per turn apiece. (I guess Kuriotates are pretty much the worst civ to be playing here.)

Is the manual correct about this being a "temporary" freeze, or are the effects permanent? Is there any way to combat the snow and tundra? I guess Sun I and Nature III would help, but it's slow - if this lasts for 20 turns or so most cities will have lost close to 20 pop each.

[DaveV]

Is the manual correct about this being a "temporary" freeze, or are the effects permanent? Is there any way to combat the snow and tundra? I guess Sun I and Nature III would help, but it's slow - if this lasts for 20 turns or so most cities will have lost close to 20 pop each.

Minimum of 10 turns, maximum of 50 turns + (gamespeed * 20 turns), equal chances of any number in that range, so semi-permanent.

Auric sucks. I warrior rushed him in one of my early games, just to avoid having to deal with this kind of nonsense.

[Yell0w]

Illians Ult was changed in EitB

[Lord Parkin]

Is the manual correct about this being a "temporary" freeze, or are the effects permanent? Is there any way to combat the snow and tundra? I guess Sun I and Nature III would help, but it's slow - if this lasts for 20 turns or so most cities will have lost close to 20 pop each.

Minimum of 10 turns, maximum of 50 turns + (gamespeed * 20 turns), equal chances of any number in that range, so semi-permanent.

Auric sucks. I warrior rushed him in one of my early games, just to avoid having to deal with this kind of nonsense.

Thanks, that's what I was looking to know before I continued any further. So that's well over 20 turns of starvation practically guaranteed... not fun to play with in the post-endgame. I didn't spend all game waiting for those cities to grow to size 40+ to have them halve in population, dangit! If it was something like 10 turns of starvation I probably would have played it out, but not with 40+ turns.

So I reloaded to the end of the previous turn - right before the 10 minute game freeze I thought was a crash - and declared war on Auric. Rebased airships filled with 14 XP Charismatic Centaur Chargers + Haste made short work of his capital, where it turns out he was indeed building the ritual (no terrain conversion on the interturn, hooray!). He only had 3 Longbowmen in defence - only Javelin Throwers elsewhere - so pretty much deserved to die anyway. Averax put up a much tougher fight when he declared 20 turns back, with a stack of 100+ units including Rosier, Eidolons and a huge number of Pyre Zombies.

(For the record, I'm playing a variant where I'm not permitted to attack anyone unless they declare war on me, to give the AI a fighting chance and to play with the endgame content. I made one exception to the "no declaration" rule for the Infernals due to their worldspell - since I founded Ashen Veil - and now another for the Illians with their game-crippling ritual. Hopefully that's the last of the exceptions I need to make. )

By the way, what value corresponds to "gamespeed"... I'm presuming 2 for Normal speed?

Illians Ult was changed in EitB

Sorry, not following what you mean by "Ult".

[Dp101]

Probably worldspell.

[Yell0w]

Illians Ult was changed in EitB

Sorry, not following what you mean by "Ult".

Ups, got my game lingo mixed I meant WS. Ult would be Ultimate from DotA