Arise, Riders of Rohanna! Ride for Molach! [SPOILERS!]

[Molach]

DEATH!

or glory.

[Molach]

So, despite the mangled RotK quote as header for my thread, it appears that we have no Orcs to ride over and destroy this game. We shall have to look elsewhere.

First off, my PBEM experience is 0. When Civ IV was pretty new I would engage in some MP online games with random opponents, so at least I know that some of my SP habits are bad. But which? Been so long...

As a new guy on the field of glory I decided that I must set myself in respect, and how to do that, if not with 1000 kg of horse, knight and metal plating bearing upon my foes. Hippus' trait, +1 move and 10% retreat chance on mounted should probably indicate which direction I should be focusing my research. Eventually. And my worldspell is a nice asset, could be used to repel invasion, or to gain an extra edge in case I'll get to invade anyone.

First off, anyone willing to give general advice on tech path will be greatly appreciated. General, no need to consider 'what if' I end up next to X or Y.

I've tried some games now, and I really think I need to get commerce from somewhere before getting my horsemen going.
I've tried calender (immediate revolt to agrar for extra food) -> AC -> Education (lay cottages on plains) -> Code of Laws (revolt to apprentice&aristocracy). Then if there are too many forests around, crafting/mining to clear more farmland to get calender resources online (wooded as always) before finally getting AH and HBR.

How will this fare in MP? Any other openings standard? Mysticism, festivals?

Well I'll do some more testing. And then read up on my opponents.

[Qgqqqqq]

That seems like a good order in general.
Is that 1000kg per knight????

[Molach]

That seems like a good order in general.

Good to hear. I guess if I get in dire straits I can fire off the worldspell and have a chance to defend. Problem with FFH in general, just want so many things. Perhaps fit in festivals before HBR too. Endgame plan is either use horse archers or get all the way to warhorses. And catapults for collateral.

Is that 1000kg per knight????

I Think the heaviest horses + fat knight + iron plating on both might approach that weight. Almost. Sources vary.

"The Hippus' main offensive military weapon was the mounted knight. As a large force, the charge of this heavy cavalry was a serious threat in any confrontation. The shock tactics that were used was dependent on the heavily armed knight with lance and sword on horse-back bearing down on an opponent at full speed. such a charge could inflict heavy damage on an enemy, however it requires great control over ones army to keep them under control in the face of mounted archers who would ride in and out of distance leaving arrows and dead horses in their wake. The Hippus' military tactics have been said to come from both common sense and a knowledge of Goblin and Orcish military tactics. Wherever their ideas came from, "it is clear, that to the Hippus, an indispensable preliminary to any engagement was to subdivide the army into a number of smaller units and to marshal them in the field in a prearranged order"(Snail, 124). This tactic of starting in a regimented order was necessary as a battle began, to help facilitate the control that a commander would have over the army for as long as possible after the battle had begun. Orcish tactics of using archery against the Hippus before the actual battle began, in order to unsettle the army, was difficult for Hippus commanders to overcome. But with the development of heavier horses in full metal plating, there was nothing of this world that could resist a Hippus charge. (Barley, 39-41)"

Charge of the Rhoannim

Let's see if I can live to field regiments of massed cavalry and use them where and when called for.

[Molach]

I wonder if I'm _the_ early-game rush civ* in this pack. Os-gabella could do PZ rush, which would be properly devastating if I'm stuck with warriors. However not sure what they would gain by beelining PZ and building up a massive army to attack someone like me. Kill his tech rate and hand the game to anyone _not_ me and him, I suppose. Sidar and Ljoralfar I see as mid-late game powershourses. And Balseraphs are clowns-of-all-trades, decent at everything. Of course victory shall go to the player with the best Civ and a proper battle plan to take advantage of his ahead-ness. So at least pressure is off my shoulders.

I think the only raider leader in the game is Perpentach if he should have a proper fit of insanity. Wonder if there's any way to check this as the game goes on? Mouse over anywhere? After reading Pocketbeetle's thread I at least have a healthy respect for that trait.

*Not that I'm gonna rush early, though. Which is why I picked Rohanna over Tasunke, wanna try to have a shot at building up too.

[Qgqqqqq]

FTR, its Tebryn Arbendai, not Os-Gabella.
1000kg feels like too much...
Remember that traits like arcane, aggresive and raiders apply on units birth, NOT each turn - which means PB could still use his raider army after switching back.
But yeah, I think you can hover ober his name.

[Merovech]

I like Rhoanna of the Hippus very much. She has two very good builder traits and Horselord, the Hippus are powerful in the early game but flexible and not exactly weak as the game moves towards it's later eras, and the Hippus start with Agriculture (seriously, this is huge), and you have a good worldspell to boot.

[Molach]

Thats good to hear Merovech. I actually tried some of my opponents' civs and noticed the lack of agri. Agri-Cal means solid growth almost wherever I may spawn.

So to recap;
Calendar + immediate switch to agranism (extra food for growth and workers, for building settlers I use hammer due to exp train) - also possible I might have a free calender resource for plantation, but haven't had one in my last 3 starting-tests.
AC - EDU - COL. Unless I have forrested start, in which case I must go crafting mining, hopefully either clearing some calendar resources or mining resources or even wine for crafting. Or could I pop out festivals if I'm forrested? Guess it depends, need to run more test runs. And exploration gonna be needed before long, logistics and trade routes and connecting resources.

Build order worker, 3-4-5 warriors (grow fast) then settlers, perhaps second worker before settler based on how much first one had to do. Then just warriors from new cities, settlers and workers from my max size villes.

For collateral, catapults should not be too far away on my tech path, as I'd probably want it to spread farms everywhere - but mabye I can rip through the magic tree to sorcery. Got Air mana from palace. Build a bunch of adepts at 5 xp and it's not _that_ far to air II, even without potency....but still they won't keep up with my horses. Perhaps go fire, and take spell extention. Hmmm. At least gonna need collateral for defense.

----
@ Q
Okay, Tebryn, the all-in magic guy. Even less chance of bronze working rush, I might hope. At least horsemen should be okay for dealing with them - no need to move stack next to them, can hit them while horse stack is 2 steps or more away. Should mean no deaths since they can't kill anymore.

[Merovech]

Yeah, I think Tebryn looks a lot better at first glance than he actually is.

[spellman]

Yeah, I think Tebryn looks a lot better at first glance than he actually is.

PZs are annoying 'cause they blow up when they die. So, basically free throwaway collateral on attacks, AND free throwaway collateral when defending. All in one tasty package that only requires a few techs.

Problem is having enough to cover the collateral phase and attacking/taking phase of the plan. So definitely a nasty rush once it reaches critical mass, but not the end of all worlds. Just perhaps end of the player who got rushed. that being said, I seem to recall a vanilla FFH2 PBEM where the PZ player got out-rushed. sooooo