{Spoilers}Brian will write something interesting for Dave and lurkers to read

[Brian Shanahan]

Ok this is my thread for EitB 35.

I won't talk about the game in the first thread, and instead do my usual and post a song. This one is about the greatest culinary invention ever:



My picks and what few initial thoughts go next.

[Brian Shanahan]

My picks were:


1) Varn Gosam
2) Cassiel
and 3) Rhoanna,


First of all Varn, SPI, CHA, ADA is a strong combo, especially given the Malakim's priestly bent. The SPI trait buffs my priests and allows me, if I want, to develop one religion and then pop a second quickly transfer alleigance to that religion pop my world spell and transfer back to my first choice. So I could go found Empy, go back for AV build my civ up as far as priesthood, get a few free priests of the veil and then go back to Empy for Rathas and Chalid. CHA is a bit of a waste but ADA handles that allowing me to pop into any other trait I want after 75 turns (IIRC) on quick. Teutorix is a musket hero, so we probably won't see him. Lightbringers are a kind of early disciple scout, so I can build them up and mass upgrade to some priests when the time is right. Desert Shrines are a monument which give two extra XP on disciple units, which is a handy start for SPI buffed disciples, and the Citadel of Light is a half-wall (5% extra defence) which spits fireballs if enemies are in range which comes at sourcery (I probably won't build any). Religious Fervour gives a free state religion priest in every city with 1xp for every city with your state religion.

Secondly Cassiel, PHI, ORG, ADA. Two mid to strong traits coupled with ADA again. PHI gets out the GPs early (or most probably gets out two adventurers before you have the opportunity to get specialists going, use your world spell to reset the GP counter and get GPS). The civ is agnostic, so no religions for Cassiel. The civ has no specific hero, instead getting GP points for adventurers from the palace, which are upgradeable heroes allowing you to customise them to fit what path you travel. The unique building is the Grigori tavern which increases the GP for adventurers in any city it is built. The only unique unit the Grigs have is the Luonnotar, which replaces the druid to allow (late) access to healing and disciple units. It is upgradable only. The world spell Ardor, as discussed above, resets the GP counter, very handy if you've pushed either adventurers or GPs early and want to switch tacks, or if you just want some more GP goodness. The civ also has IMO the best civilopedia lore write-up (I'm a sucker for sob stories).

Finally is Rhoanna. EXP and FIN. Both are economic traits, EXP allowing you to get out quicker settlers to start the snowball faster, and FIN to push up the cash when you are running less than 100% science or culture. She is IMO better than Tasunke who is essentially an out and out warrior. The Hippus are the Rohirrim essentially, bending their whole worldview around their horses, where they get a bonus movement to their mounted units, making horses especially deadly in their hands. Go in early with c. 15 horsemen and see how many cities you can fork. Their unique unit is the mounted mercenary which does exactly what it says on the tin, you buy a merc and he comes with a free horse. The mercs get fortify bonuses and are allowed to take metals and nightmares making them especially useful in the mid-game. Therefore the Guild of the Nine is essential to any prospective Hippus player. Their hero is Magnadine, available at Warhorses (probably a bit late), a strength 11 (attack and defence) knight who can hire units (possibly helpful if you want to garrison a city you've just captured. I've never used it). Their world spell is warcry which gives extra strength, movement and blitz to each and every soldier you own, perfect for blitzing through an enemy. It has a 5% chance of wearing off though so needs to be used quick.

Ye'll all noticed I haven't talked about mana available from the palaces or techs, I'll leave them to tomorrow.

[DaveV]

Checking in. I guess the pressure's on now that I'm in your thread title...

[Brian Shanahan]

Checking in. I guess the pressure's on now that I'm in your thread title...

All you have to do is ensure that the worst of my weed is stomped on, hard.


So, yeah, you're under pressure.

[Brian Shanahan]

MALAKIM
So the Malakim get Sun mana, which gives the sun spells, scorch, hold and I think sun elemental. Sun mana also powers up the Empy's hero whose name I forget, which is thematic. They also get mind mana which gives 5% bonus per node to research (which helps mostly late on when you've your economy working) and the mind spells, which I haven't used since my first installation of FfH2 yonks ago. Final node is Life which gives cities a +1 bonus to their sewage systems, which is good, and also Life 2 is destroy undead (nice if we're facing PZs and such) Oh and we've two nodes towards the Tower of Divination here, leaving us with three to build.
For tech they get Ancient Chants, which give access to [strike]monuments[/strike] desert monuments, which I talked about above. AC also gives you a leg up towards the early religion of your choice, as you've to go through AC and the tech which gives Elder Councils (I'm very forgetful) to get any religion.

GRIGORI
They get Spirit mana, good for spirit magic (I think you get the Hosts of Einrojhahajr out of Spirit 2, Edit: You don't you get Hope, too much effort for a Mage) and (I never knew this to today) a pretty useless 5% bonus to GPPs (yeah only get a bonus after you hit 20GPPpt, not very useful unless I get a high food GP farm). Second up is Enchantment mana which is +1 bonus to all entertainment facilites, yay more people early on! It also gives Ench 1 spell which buffs every melee unit by Edit: 20% {not 10% as I said at first} (a nice little buff), and Ench 2 which buffs archery units by giving them +1 fire strenght (not so useful unless you're a civ going the archery line). Finally it gives you water, which allows you to make deserts plains and quell fires after the PZ's suicide on your lands (or if a mountain blows up in your face).
The tech the Grigs get is Crafting, nice if you start near wines, like brewing beer early or you want Kilimorph religion.

HIPPUS

The horse lords only get two mana sources, replacing the third with My Little Ponies, because they need something to ride around on (Hippus without horsies is worse than Mongols without them in the base game). First is Nature mana, of which the only use I've seen is getting the Ent hero (Leaves religion) and promoting him up to Nature tree to upgrade every piece of land going (and he gets Nature mana inherent inside him), and Air mana, Air 1 is a waste of time, unless you like waking boat moving adepts every time (Edit: Like the Hippus world spell it has a 5% chance of wasting every turn, so it's not quite so micro intensive, but then again, you'll invariably miss the turn it runs out) to move one square further (situationally useful in an unusual situation), but Air two gives as direct damage spell which is pretty nifty allowing you to hit for extra damage on all units.

And to finish up the Hippus get the most useful starting tech, agriculture. Start with a worker>farm everything in range
> tech up to calender and go agrarianism>Pump settlers>settle land>Build up army>Win. Style of thing

So that's the analysis of my picks. I'll try to do something similar for the other three players when I see their civs.

[DaveV]

A few corrections:

Enchanted Blade (Enchantment 1) is +20%, not +10%, for melee units (which include skeletons and spectres).
Hosts of Einherjar come from Law 2; Spirit 2 is Hope, which is potentially useful but in general seems like a waste of a mage.
Fair Winds (Air 1) only has a 5% chance to wear off, so your adepts can cast it in port and expect it to last for a while.

I think you're on the right track with strategies for each of your picks: Malakim: build priests (and do the savant-to-mage upgrade); Grigori: pick your hero specialization; Hippus: horses horses horses.

[Bobchillingworth]

The only unique unit the Grigs have is the Luonnotar

My word, good sir, have you forgotten the noble Grigori Medic? Best healing in the game! Of course you have to research an otherwise mostly useless tech to get them, but painful, crippling sacrifices are what the Grigori are all about!

[Brian Shanahan]

The only unique unit the Grigs have is the Luonnotar

My word, good sir, have you forgotten the noble Grigori Medic? Best healing in the game! Of course you have to research an otherwise mostly useless tech to get them, but painful, crippling sacrifices are what the Grigori are all about!

I knew they were there, but could see no mention of them in the civilopedia, so thought they were a delusion brought on by being hit once too often in the head by the elbow of my GAA club's county player.

P.S. does this mean you're here to help me too, Bob or just to enjoy any pungent weed I smoke? Either way I hope you have fun.

[Bobchillingworth]

I'd love to, but I'm unfortunately spoiled- I reviewed the map for Qg before he even proposed using it for this game.

[Brian Shanahan]

A few corrections:

Enchanted Blade (Enchantment 1) is +20%, not +10%, for melee units (which include skeletons and spectres).
Hosts of Einherjar come from Law 2; Spirit 2 is Hope, which is potentially useful but in general seems like a waste of a mage.
Fair Winds (Air 1) only has a 5% chance to wear off, so your adepts can cast it in port and expect it to last for a while.

I think you're on the right track with strategies for each of your picks: Malakim: build priests (and do the savant-to-mage upgrade); Grigori: pick your hero specialization; Hippus: horses horses horses.

I'll edit them into my post thanks for catching my errors.

Regarding the pick orders, in SP I've won* nothing with the Malakim, once with the Grigs and metric tonnes with the Hippus so that's why I went with that order. I know the Hippus are probably the strongest of the three.

*My definition of win is to get the game to a state where nobody can actually beat me, and that I can choose my vic condition. I rarely play games out.