Whosit Clowns Around in EitB PBEM XXVI [SPOILERS!]

[Brian Shanahan]

Regarding tech, you'll want all the worker techs and any early economic ones, e.g. festivals, education and CoL.

After that your specialisation depends on how you want to go. If your going AV/Adept route to world domination I'd say Corruption of the Spirit, and Infernal Pact for Sacrifice of the Weak, using the Grimoire to sling Malevolent Designs for Mardero and the Beasts, KotE and at least two mana techs (your preference) and Sorcery. I'd also look at going as far as Bronze Working for swords to cover your stack. Priests and magic users aren't really strong enough to defend against attacks. If you want meleeing go as far as construction, Iron Working and HBR (for Mob 1). I would also suggest Arete for the Mines before switching out of Kilimorph (if possible) in this situation, and body adepts will be useful as well.

If you go tower or religious route, straightish beeline would be preferrable, tower would be straighter as you can mage spam to defend. And the religious victory means you can't stay AV, making going for it worthless in this scenario (better would be Order).

[Whosit]

Oh my, that's a lot to consider! I suppose I will want to get CoL early if I'm gonna do the agristocracy stuff. But that's the thing about EitB so far: Techs are slow, so Worker first usually isn't the best bet (unless I have places to farm). I still need, what was it, Bronze Working to cut trees down? Bronze something. And Archery, for whatever reason, boosts chop results. Is that to make the tech more appealing? I figure most people don't actually build Archers if they can help it.

I suppose my army composition will depend somewhat on what traits I get, but I do like some iron stabby-stabby, though I'm guessing Mage-heavy armies are more powerful? And I'll need a lot of mana nodes to power the various magijcks I'll need. Hmhmhm. I dunno about the tower strategy. How do you even get all that mana? Do you switch around what nodes you got? Otherwise, you'd need 16 individual nodes or something, and I'm not sure the entire map would have that.

[Mardoc]

Oh my, that's a lot to consider! I suppose I will want to get CoL early if I'm gonna do the agristocracy stuff. But that's the thing about EitB so far: Techs are slow, so Worker first usually isn't the best bet (unless I have places to farm). I still need, what was it, Bronze Working to cut trees down? Bronze something. And Archery, for whatever reason, boosts chop results. Is that to make the tech more appealing? I figure most people don't actually build Archers if they can help it.

Mining for treecutting, Archery also unlocks Lumbermills. And clearcutting isn't worth nearly as much in FFH as in BtS - 8 hammers base, 13 with Archery.

Most people don't build archers most of the time, but there are niche uses. They're good city and hill defenders, particularly for the price. It's just that it's not common for you to want to defend in cities, you'd rather try to control the countryside.

And of course you need the tech for later archery units, and Horse Archers.

I suppose my army composition will depend somewhat on what traits I get, but I do like some iron stabby-stabby, though I'm guessing Mage-heavy armies are more powerful? And I'll need a lot of mana nodes to power the various magijcks I'll need. Hmhmhm.

Mage heavy is more powerful...if you get to critical mass. You have to have enough mages that you can kill the enemy before they reach your stack, or at least enough that your summons can get kills every turn instead of just feeding XP. That's a hard task. If you haven't enough mages to manage that, then the enemy can just walk in and kill you dead.

Even without making Mages the backbone of your army, getting a bunch of buff spells onto your normal army can make it a lot stronger.

I dunno about the tower strategy. How do you even get all that mana? Do you switch around what nodes you got? Otherwise, you'd need 16 individual nodes or something, and I'm not sure the entire map would have that.

Yes, Metamagic 2, Dispel Magic, turns a node back to unimproved. Build one tower at a time, and you can get by with 4 nodes; fewer if you're careful/lucky with trades and palace mana and such.

[Whosit]

Oh, yeah, I kinda forgot/stopped paying attention at how forests provide fewer hammers with chops. I would assume that I would at least want to chop all forests adjacent to cities (except maybe core cities?) or anywhere else I wanted a "killing field?" Or, if I'm doing agristocracy, I'd want to chop down forests to make farms, yes?

Re: Archers, yeah, in MP it's more favorable to not defend, though I suppose there could be corner cases where you have a chokepoint or something, but I imagine that's unlikely to pop up in our map design. Anyway, yeah, probably not making archers.

As for mages.... Well, I'll start with Arcane, but I probably won't keep it long enough to make use of it! I'll definitely consider investing in Mages early, though, unless I get traits that strongly encourage me to go in another direction. I think my goal for this game is to not suck. Yes, high standards! I'd like to follow my traits and crazy instincts as much as possible (roleplay in diplomacy, and in play!) but of course, of course, can't plan too far ahead with someone like Perpentach!

Sigh, if only being unpredictable in Civ was a valid strategy instead of just being "bad."

[Qgqqqqq]

Lumbermills can be quite strong for hammers - esoecially if going aristograrianism (choice between 3f/2c and 1f/3h).
But yeah forests are a big negative in FFH.

[Whosit]

Ancient forests, at least, provide an extra food, but is it just a random chance for a forest to turn into an ancient forest, or does a certain amount of time have to pass?

[Qgqqqqq]

Random chance IF your in FoL.

[Mardoc]

Random chance IF your in FoL.

Yep. I believe it's on the order of 3%/turn, which is fast enough that it'll probably happen and slow enough that you can't count on it.

But only to people worshipping the Fellowship of Leaves. Although forests won't downgrade if you swap out, at least.

[Whosit]

Ahh, I see. And I got those because I was in FoL in my SP game because I didn't understand EitB religions (and still only have a shaky understanding!). So, I probably won't have any of those, so forests probably won't be too valuable unless I decide to throw down some lumbermills. Got it, thanks!

If I knew I'd be creative forever, I'd definitely go with the Runes. The Octopus religion might be good, though, if I think I'll need the extra culture.... I might start a new game and play around with the Runes. Oh, question: Do you get a "missionary" for a religion when you get the tech, even if you don't found the religion? Because in my SP game, I didn't found FoL, but I'm pretty sure I got one its missionaries for free when I teched it anyway.

[Qgqqqqq]

Yes.
Teir1 runes priests (thanes IIRC) can also pop borders FYI.