[EitB PBEM LVII spoilers] coldrain rekindles the flame

[shallow_thought]

RL has thrown major curveballs and I am fried, so I suggest taking better advice. Nonetheless:

• While the snowball is important it's not actually everything; I'd try to get a feel for how much food and hammers this is going to cost down the line (starting not long after Calendar comes in, so not that far off?) compared to having a plantation and that extra hammer.
  
• Barbs on, Monarch right? I'd want my cap on a hill. YMMV - particularly as I don't remember what, if anything, was said about lairs ...
  

[coldrain]

Hopefully you're doing ok with RL, don't stress too much about giving detailed answers or analysis for this game. I do enjoy discussion, but of course take a break if needed!

Game will be emperor difficulty with lairs on, so yes, barbarians could pose some issues. Especially when RefSteel explicitly warned about lizardmen in the setup thread (they spawn from ruins). In that sense settling on a hill is a good idea.

[shallow_thought]

I'll be following along - the distraction is nice. All I've done is just fire up an EitB SP game as Flauros and see what feels good / different. One I would say is that Kilmorph feels economically strong with the FIN/CRE combination (plus the option for iron), but I'm not sure you'll be able to spare the beakers and hammers in an MP game, even if it's not contested.

[coldrain]

I also noticed in my single player practice game that Runes of Kilmorph has some added synergy for this start location + Flauros. With creative trait, it doesn't hurt that Kilmorph produces gold instead of culture. Half price market and Kilmorph spread means +4 gpt per city which rounds up to +5 gpt with EitB financial trait, even with 100% research slider. To sweeten the deal even more, temple of Kilmorph gains extra happy from gems. I think it could be worth it to build a pagan temple, hire a priest specialist, and bulb Kilmorph with a prophet. Researching code of laws as soon as possible is very important, detouring to Kilmorph might not be worth it, unless maybe when bulbed with great person...

One of the things I want to improve from previous game is to have a more cohesive plan for great persons. Since Flauros is unable to build elder councils, the easiest options early game are great prophet (pagan temple), great bard (half price carnival) and merchant (half price market). Out of these, merchant is the most difficult to use effectively as its bulb path is awkward. Potential trade missions are hard to complete with larger map and barbarian activity. I guess prophet for Kilmorph bulb or bard for drama bulb into sanitation bulb are the simplest paths for early great person usage, if golden age is not a tempting option. Not locked in on any of these ideas yet, just throwing ideas around. But I'll definetely want to produce a great person much earlier compared to the previous game.

[coldrain]

Vampirism in FFH2/EitB

While we wait for the leaders/civ picks to be finalized, I’m going to talk a bit more in detail about the civ I chose. Some changes in EitB to Calabim were already mentioned, and some of those were done for a good reason. In vanilla FFH2 Calabim is one of the strongest civs available, with powerful vampire units and special abilities. Any unit with the vampire-promotion has access to the following abilities:

• Feast -> Eat one population from a city and gives experience per population left after feasting (a city size 15 would shrink to size 14 and give 14 xp to feasting vampire)
  
• Feed -> Sacrifice a bloodpet to heal the vampire and allow it to attack again
  
• Gift vampirism -> Gives living units of level 6 the vampire promotion. Moroi can be gifted at level 4.
  

In addition to these abilities, proper vampire unit (replaces champion, available at feudalism) receives channeling 2, body 1 and death 1 promotions for free. This makes vampires a melee unit and arcane caster hybrid with access to level 2 spells to the mentioned mana spheres. The usual strategy with Calabim is to get to feudalism ASAP, build vampires, feast them for massive amount of promotions and start conquering. A stack of vampires can haste themselves, summon a bunch of spectres or cast regenerate every turn. However, vampires don’t have access to other useful spells, so adepts + mages and priests can supplement the army nicely (collateral damage spells, buffs, etc.). One key thing to remember is that combat promotions improve summoned units too, so highly promoted vampires are not only killing machines by themselves, but can also summon empowered spectres as well.

The downside of vampires is that they are unlocked at feudalism, which is a fair bit expensive and provides little else of value. And in EitB vampires require both governor’s manor and training yard to build, increasing the initial cost. Another investment that is usually needed is necromancy tech to build more death mana nodes, as each extra source provides +1 strength to spectres. Tower of necromancy is an excellent national wonder to build for a further boost, but quite unlikely with only two mana nodes promised in starting area. I’m going to get feudalism in this game for the vampires, but first some basic economy techs are needed. Hopefully no-one throws a (magical? enchanted?) wrench in my plans before then…

[shallow_thought]

Oh, and I said I'd post the choices once everyone's are locked in, so in alphabetical order:

- Aurorarcher picked Volanna (Aggressive/Creative) of the Svartalfar over Shekinah of the Sidar and Jonas of the Clan
- BING_XI_LAO picked Ethne the White (Creative/Organized) of the Elohim over Cardith of the Kuriorates and Amelanchier of the Ljosalfar
- coldrain picked Flauros (Creative/Financial) of the Calabim over Arturus of the Khazad and Tebryn of the Sheaim
- Ginger* picked Furia the Mad (Charismatic/Barbarian/Raiders) of the Balseraphs over Auric of the Ilians and Cassiel of the Grigori
- mackoti picked Varn Gosam (Spiritual/Creative/Adaptive) of the Malakim over Beeri of the Luchuirp and Charadon of the Doviello
- xist10 picked Dain the Caswallawn (Philosophical/Arcane) of the Amurites over Tasunke of the Hippus and Falamar of the Lanun.

Well, CRE won't be much of a comparative advantage, but probably good you didn't pick Sheaim. Auro's pick feels scary (can you still get Poison Blade promo from a caged scorpion in EitB? - IIRC it was impactful a few games ago). I have no idea what Ginger is planning, but it should be fun. I guess Mackoti is looking for an early religion and someone to hurt with it? But Varn is about the most flexible leader in the game IMO, so hard to judge. If the game goes long then Amurites are always a problem, so keep half-an-eye on needing to fight some key turns without magic.

[coldrain]

Yeah, lots of creative leaders in this game. Subdued scorpions indeed grant the poisoned blade promotion to recon units, Aurorarcher used this to his advantage in EitB PBEM LV if I remember correctly. Interestingly, I'm once again the only player who could choose hunting as a starting technology. Since the map will be larger, there will be more animals to capture, so early hunters should provide useful. I'll probably build at least two settlers before starting on a hunting lodge, but let's see what early exploration with scout/warriors reveals.

Quick thoughts about the picks other players chose: No Illians, so I don't have to plan around the annoying stasis world spell or winter rituals. Strong picks overall, as EitB boosts some of the weaker civs compared to base FFH2 (Elohim comes to mind). I suspect Ginger picked Furia the Mad more for locking in Belseraphs than for the leader traits. Although I'm curious if barbarian trait can help him expand more greedily in the early game. I was sort of hoping to play as the clowns in this game, but vampires should be fun too. Aurorarcher has the scariest civ to be neighbouring with, strength 5/4 aggressive hunters or fawns are no joke. He will likely go for Fellowship of Leaves at some point. Varn Gosam is indeed a very flexible choice, and with right religion, the world spell can be excellent. Mackoti might go for early Kilmorph founding and later switch to a more combat priest religion? In previous games he seemed to be a huge fan of Kithra and the Leaves religion too. Finally, Amurites with philosophical leader = even faster mages than in the last game? This time I have the option to go for chariots while teching to vampires, maybe they are enough to deal with super early mages if necessary.

I'll probably write a more comprehensive leader + civ analysis when I have the time.

[coldrain]

Finally, the game has started! Played first turn. Moved starting scout and warrior to look around before founding the capital on the spot:

Settling on banana would have given a turn faster settler later, but leaving the hill didn’t seem worth for the long term potential. Obvious next move for the warrior is to walk on the hill with watch tower. I actually did further tests, and when capital borders expand, the worker will immediately start wheat farm and finish banana farm afterwards. This won’t slow growth to size 2, and will net more total food after a couple of turns. I have to remember to cancel worker action next turn. Research set to mining as planned. Total amount of land tiles is 1507, so about 250 per player, if I read the land point information correctly.

Looking forward to see what other shenanigans like the murex tile RefSteel has hidden in the map!

[coldrain]

Turn 2

Ginger is having technical issues, so there was a small delay. Unit movement revealed some dry land to both west and east:

Worker cancelled action after investing another turn into farm on banana. Next turn it will start wheat farm and only after that finish the banana farm. Both guaranteed mana nodes are close by, so that’s a plus. Hopefully there’s some more food rich land in the fog, vampires really benefit from large cities a bit later, when governor’s manors are up and running.

[coldrain]

Turn 5
Exploration by scout on turns 3 to 5:

Hunting starting tech is looking an even better choice now after seeing those furs and ivory. A lot of unirrigated plains tiles, food could be an issue for some time in this area, at least until sanitation (+1 food on farms). I’m bringing the starting warrior back to capital for defence, in case of barbarian lizardmen. Haven’t seen any ruins yet but better to be safe.

Plan is to produce second worker at size 4, grow to size 6 and start settler. It will finish on T27. Research will be mining -> mysticism -> revolt to God-king T27 after the settler is completed. Need more exploration information to decide the first city spot. Hopefully copper will be in a convenient spot. Demos after ending turn: