Any good resources for learning ffh2?

[Dp101]

I downloaded ffh2 today and played around a bit, but I have no idea what I am doing. Even the adventurers civ which I thought would be simple was still very different, with the only thing I worked out how to do being constructing an aristrofarms economy. So, anyone have some good learning resources they could share?

[Qgqqqqq]

Good guides include: the FFFH manual (which I have never read but have heard good things about), this thread which has some good questions/answers byplay, gtangel's overview is actually really good, possibly the best organized repository of information.

Several other MP threads have been good over the years, in particularly the early ones where FFH was still very new. Of particular note is Pocketbeetle's PBEM1 thread (possibly the best thread on this forum), Illios PBEM2 thread, any of Mardoc, Thoth, Bobchillingworth and Ellimist's threads and Gaspar/NobleHelium/Mardoc/MbtM and Kyan/Krill/DaveV's threads from PBEM7.

[Bobchillingworth]

In addition to everything Qg mentioned, you might want to check out the FFH forums at Civfanatics here. The Civfanatics FFH community has dwindled over the last several years to only a shadow of its former self, but many well-written and still relevant articles remain in the Strategy & Tips section.


I would also recommend trying out the "official" scenarios included with the base mod- the Decius campaign in particular is excellent at easing players into the game. They won't work with mod-mods though (like EitB) unless you do some obnoxious fiddling with the game files. A lot of the scenarios are really fun & well-written too (I have particularly fond memories of The Momus).


Stay away from the FFH Wikia though- it's terribly out of date, having been abandoned for years, and last I heard some of the pages contained scripts to instal some really nasty malware.

[Lord Parkin]

Trying out EITB for the first time myself just now and enjoying a game as Kuriotates with RoK. I've played most of the civs in FFH once through in the past - I'm sure I'd suck in multiplayer, but I feel I have a decent grip on getting a strong empire running in single player.

Where I really lack knowledge though is in spells... I pretty much still try stuff at random. Can anyone link to a good guide for which kinds of magic to go for in different situations, and/or the relative power of different branches?

EDIT: Just noticed Qgqqqqq's second link seems to cover it a bit... will have a read.

[Qgqqqqq]

Actually the scenarios work in Erebus in the Balance for me. I think it might have been an earlier version that had problems?

[Yell0w]

I also can recommend theblackswords threads, if you already read some, they go deeper into strategy at times.

I just threw myself into a greens PBEM and have been improving with every one I've played. The manual definitely helps a great deal.
Generally speaking you should focus one path, one strategy, since you can spend a good 100 building and teching nice stuff that doesn't really matter at the end.

Concerning spells: the ingame wiki and the manual cover almost everything you need to know about them, generally collateral damage spells and summons are most useful in almost any situation.

[DaveV]

I like the Top Ten Tips for Your Favorite Civ thread on CivFanatics for giving some good ideas on strategies to use for the various civs.

[Dp101]

Thank you all, I was not expecting such a comprehensive response! The only mentioned resource that I have tried was the ffh wiki, of which I share the opinion of the people here. I will definitely look at the other links.

EDIT: One last question, when running an aristrofarms economy, should I ever switch out of the farm food boosting civic?

[Ellimist]

Very good adept spells:
Haste (body; speed is extremely important)
Floating Eye (metamagic; great for excellent recon for both offense and defense)
Raise Skeleton(death; disposable and permanent summons are almost always useful)
Slow(ice; freezes many units in place and slows down the faster ones)

Situationally powerful adept spells
Enchanted Blade (enchantment; it's great if you have a lot of melee units)
Courage (spirit; this is mandatory if you're trying to beat units with fear, such as AC units)
Fair Winds (air; if navies are important)
Rust (entropy; great if you're fighting units with metal weapons)
Sanctify (life; it's the only way to remove/control hell terrain)
Spring/Scorch (water/sun; you can modify terrain to a limited degree)

Most mage spells are decent, but here are some of the better ones:
Blinding Light (sun; immobilizes most of the units within range for a turn. Immobilizing also prevents spellcasting)
Destroy Undead (life; destroys undead units if you cast it a few times. This is the most viable way to handle pyre zombies.)
Dispel Magic (metamagic; it's the only way to repurpose mana nodes)
Fireball (fire; they're basically sunmoned cruise missiles)
Maelstrom (air; it's a decent AoE. You'll tend to use this if Ritualists seen't available)
Mutation (chaos; it randomly gives promotions to your units. Some of them are pretty good and unavailable otherwise)
Regeneration (body; it's great to avoid attrition)
Summon Host or Pit Beast (law or entropy; summons units that are great for killing large quantities of weaker units or "wall of bone" summons. Hosts are also disciple units and get +1 movement for SPI leaders.)
Summon Spectre (death; 2-move summons with fear that get stronger if you have lots of death mana)

Priest spells:
Fellowship of Leaves: Bloom plants forests. You'll use this if you want more lumbermills or are playing an elven civ.
Runes of Kilmorph: Shield of Faith gives a modest combat promotion to your units. You'll use this if you're already using RoK for other reasons.
Order: Bless gives your units +1 holy strength temporarily, but you can reapply it after each combat if you want to.
Empyrean: Revelation destroys illusion summons and reveals hidden units. Use this if you're fighting Illusions or hidden units. (Empyrean units also get easy access to the Blinding Light spell)
Octopus Overlords: The water walking priests can cast Tsunami, which is a powerful AoE available near water tiles.
Ashen Veil: Ring of Fire is a decent AoE and one of the best priest spells.
The Council of Esus doesn't have priests, but EitB has given them some spells I'm not familiar with.

Most Archmage (and High Priest) spells are pretty good, but will rarely be available. Pick those based on what your goals are at the time. High Priests in particular are almost never built, but upgrading a priest to Druid gives you access to them.

[Dp101]

Very good adept spells:
Haste (body, speed is extremely important)
Floating Eye (metamagic, great for excellent recon for both offense and defense)
Raise Skeleton(death, disposable and permanent summons are almost always useful)
Slow(ice, freezes many units in place and slows down the faster ones)

Situationally powerful adept spells
Enchanted Blade (enchantment, it's great if you have a lot of melee units)
Courage (spirit, this is mandatory if you're trying to beat units with fear, such as AC units)
Fair Winds (air, if navies are important)
Rust (entropy, great if you're fighting units with metal weapons)
Sanctify (life, it's the only way to alter hell terrain)
Spring/Scorch (water/sun, you can modify terrain to a limited degree)

The current spells I have on my mages are one with level 2 fire and level 2 enchantment and one with level 2 water and level 1 fire, who I am considering using on my elven neighbour who is the score leader behind me. The enchantment 2 one was basically just for my adventurers. Are these good selections?