Need for Speed: Ichabod & Ravus chasing the Dream

[Ravus Sol]

[SIZE="4"]The Teamup;[/SIZE]

[SIZE="6"]Cardith Lorda of the Kuriotates[/SIZE]
[SIZE="6"]& [/SIZE]
[SIZE="6"]Tasunke of the Hippus[/SIZE]

It was so very hard not to pick the better economic leader for the Hippus but Tasunke is better for the all war game.

With that choice the Hippus become the agressor and the Kuriotates the defender and the economic power.

In fact, as the teams can use their Great people to help each other it becomes an option for the Hippus great person, like a Great Sage to create an acedemy in the Kuriotate city instead of their own.

Ichabod here is how i see the basic plan going;

• Grab whatever worker techs are needed. But remember that due to the combined teching power you can grab multiple techs before the first worker is completed.
  
• Then to get Horse riding sorted so that we have better units to defend the empire as we REX.
  
• Kuriotates to get the best sites and the Hippus to try to expand around them as a buffer.
  
• Grab the economy techs, I still think that Aristofarms are the best bet to keep the Hippus afloat even without the FIN leader. Also Royal Guards are powerful defenders.
  
• Grab Mobile Archers, build/upgrade an assault force to pillage neighbours. (Perhaps a time of 100% gold for mass upgrades?)
  
• Get buffer techs, Divination/Sorcery, Get religion/s, Guild of the Nine tech, Military state for Drafting and anything else.
  
• Use Tower of Divination to grab Knights
  
• Curbstomp everyone (ponder on whether the Kuriotates should try to get the Broken Airship units)
  

[Ravus Sol]

BRIAN

My personal thoughts (seeing as I decided to ded-lurk):

Nice to have you onboard Brian! A shame we couldn't try the Double Dragon team up you liked but I'm sure the next FFH team up game someone will jump on it!

Flauros/Varn

Strong choices both, as can be seen from previous PBEMs. If going after them though I'd rather you cripple/kill the vamps before focusing on the religious fanatics. Vampires are nigh on unstoppable given the right conditions (i.e. death nodes for the spectres), but, while strong, the Malakim can be taken down with patience and a proper strategy.

I haven't seen much of Jkaen in the games (I believe he's playing in six, well I'm sure he's in six but how much playing is he doing?). Mardoc I'm seeing more of, and he's pretty strong but sometimes indecisive and lacking in strategic thinking.

Strong civ combination and should be two at the very minimum decent players. Threat rating is medium high to high (if you can distract them good).

Indeed. Early Calabim will be the weakness and if we start close choking them will help. Unfortunatly both leaders are going to run Aristofarms so Raiding won't be as much as a threat.

A part of me WANTS us to start close to these two. We can get Horse Riding as a tech very quickly and a 4-team squad of just horsemen could cause long term damage to them.

I havn't looked into the players yet for this game. For Jkaen in FFHPBEMVI Ichabod is playing and i'm ded-lurking him so we have no idea how he is playing :neenernee For Mardoc the indecision thing is good, but there is not much to be indecisive about with Vampires.

Sheelba & Dain

Yes it's a strange one, on the one had you've an early civ which peters out while on the other hand you've a late civ which can be taken early (and quite easily too). Team Apocalypse scenario is a bit iffy IMO, unless one of them is going to jump ship and join Hyborem. Most games I've seen him as computer he's either fish bait or sits around scratching his rear with his axe.

Players: Thoth is strong, Yellow is weak. If Thoth is doing the most of the running strategically you could be looking at a very strong opponent, if it's Mr. Yellow they'll be all over the place.

Threat rating is low to medium high. If they get their act together and have a comprehensive plan it could work. If not they're too disjointed to come together. Yeah it's pretty wide but it could really swing here.

Team Apocalypse is a long shot. I just feel that they must have SOME secret plan and it unerves me that I can't spot it. They certainly seem to want the "friends with barbarians" trait.

Maybe they do just plan on having a massive Orc army that can spam Skeletons. In human hands it does get a bit stupid the amount of units in play.

Arendel & Kandros

Two strong tech and defensive civs, watch out for a tower or Altar victory here. They'll be hard to crack but will find it very hard if someone starts snowballing with regards to conquest.

Threat rating is low medium to medium. They're two defensive civs who bloom later in the game. Kandros could go with an Iron Golem attack later but probably too late. Arendel could go with a Gilden attack early but it's not the hardest to defend against (especially without siege). If you hurt them early they will be out of the game, and easy pickings later.

Hopefully us having Raiders will help get into their defences and pillage/choke. I actually assumed that with the UBER productive dwarves they would go for a Tower of Mastery Victory. An alter victory for them is an option though.

Thankfully, for all their teching power they need very different techs individually to be productive.

So a Mobile Archer Pillage run are we thinking? Enough defence that they should be hard to dislodge while pillaging everything in sight. That should do enough damage to keep them from snowballing while we deal with either the Strong desert vamps or the weak magic Orcs.

Hippus leader

I'm actually favouring Tasunke here. OK he'll never be contributing a whole lot to the economic/tech side to the game. But if there's a large sized map (not sure of the settings), PB back in PBEM 1 has shown that economically Cardith is at least a match for any civ, and better than most in that department. His weakness will be production.

Having Raiders out the gate will allow you to pick and choose your targets a bit more, and cripple the most dangerous enemies earlier (e.g. if ye start next to Thoth/Yellow, then an earlyish cripple of Thoth will be enough to finish those two from the running IMO).

Ichabod agreed with you! :neenernee

And i've come around so we now have Tasunke leading the Horse Army. I'm hoping that giving Cardith the Hippus Great People for Academies will help boost the Kuriotates enough to make up for any deficiencies in the Hippus economy.

General thoughts
"You're better off hanging together than being hanged seperately".
I believe this game will be down to who cooperates the best, and who divides the team responsibilities the most sensibly. Ye need to be able to figure out who should do what, and be able to trust the other partner in his job. Discussion is also imperative and ye need to be open about everything. Plan early and effectively, but still be open to changes and swings in the plan.


Hopefully I've said something useful there, and if not at least something entertaining.

I think with that thought in mind myself and Ichabod need to think about who wants the leadership of which nation. Personally I could play either. The hippus will be less influencial at the start while the Kuriotates may be less influencial at the end (unless they switch to raiders as well).

Thoughts?

[Ravus Sol]

[SIZE="6"]Religious Pondering: The Good[/SIZE]

A series of posts pondering the Religions for both Nations

[SIZE="4"]The Order[/SIZE]

Junil, the elder of the Gods, had promised to stay apart from the conflict in Creation. No one knows why he decided to change that, some say it was to combat the influence of the Ashen Veil, others that it was jealousy. Regardless of his reasons, he promised salvation to the least of men and asked only one thing in return: unquestioning obedience.

The Ultimate Military/Good Religion, It has the fastest natural spread rating and it's Temple increases Military production. Their Priest spell gives +1 strength. Their first hero is a horseman and the second an angel. Their Highpriests can get 80% Command and they have their own civic.

All in all it could be a solid choice for the Hippus if they need to go full military end game. The Horse Hero would be a welcome addition to a strike force and the +1 Strength from priests a good bonus. It's also a good option for getting the happiness of the nation up, each spread provides an acolyte for yet another spread.

The Kuriotates get a lot less from it. They don't need more military production due to probably having enough to 1-turn build anything military anyway. The Happiness is useful, the civic gives +1 Happiness per military unit in the city. This is fine for building but if they have to leave for war the city looses a LOT of Happiness quickly.

Overview

Alignment Effect: Change to Good
Heroes: Valin Phanuel & Sphener
Enables:Acolyte, Temple of the Order
Enables As State Religion: Basilica, Confessor (Priest), Prior (High Priest), Social Order (Civic), Crusader
Special: 75% Chance to spawn an Acolyte when The Order spreads to new city, or a Crusader if Fanaticism has been researched

End Thoughts
Could be a good choice for either of the nations, Kuriotates for building, Hippus for military spam. It's also the religion that turns a nation Good which could be useful if the Infernals are summoned.

My personal thought is that it's a good religion to dip into for both. The Hippus get the fast spread and a cheap hero which is useful as a throwaway threat, but it's not powerful enough to try keeping. The only one that should perhaps stay is the Kuriotates if they are trying to grow for a better economy. Due to the fast movement of Centaur Archers they could fortify in the cities and move to the threatened cities when attacked. It would however further force the Kuriotates to go defencive.


[SIZE="4"]The Empyrean[/SIZE]

Where the Order values law, the Empyrean values wisdom. Adjudication started from the teachings of Lugus and punishment is not based on adherence to a labyrinthian codex of laws, but from direct consol on the merits of each case. Social equality and impartiality are the model between a government and its citizens as well as between empires. As such the Empyrean gives equal voice to small empires as it does those that dominate Erebus.

The Empyrean is a very useful religion with one of the most powerful heroes in the game. The Temples give a boost to research and the military units all have Sun II spells to stop enemy movement. The Priest spells are not that useful but if upgraded to High Priests or Druids become very powerful.

Ratha are VERY powerful for the Hippus. They get the natural horselord and raider bonuses making then wonderful stopping enemies from organising to stop a attack. They are also easy to obtain, Radient guard can be drafted for 1 population point and then upgraded for a small sum of money. Meaning that the Hippus can obtain a large Ratha army via drafting very quickly.

The powerful Hero Chalid starts with 2 movement and if given mobility can become a collateral unit that can keep up with the fast Hippus Army during Raiding.

For the Kuriotates the main bonus is just in the temples. This is not a religion to stay in. Chalid and the Ratha are best built by the Hippus.

Overview

Alignment Effect: Change Evil to Neutral
Heroes: Chalid Astrakein
Enables: Ecclesiastic, Temple of the Empyrean
Enables As State Religion: Vicar (Priest), Luridus (High Priest), Radiant Guard (Swordsman with Sun II), Ratha (Chariot with Sun II)
Shrine: Dies Diei (Reveals all Invisable units within borders)

End Thoughts
Empyrean temples are worth getting in the Kuriotate cities. But anything else should be gotten by the Hippus. It is in fact a very good religion for the Hippus to get when they are ready to draft an Army. Chalid solves the problem of collateral damage in raids while waiting for the Raiding Maelstrom Adepts to mature into mages.

However if Chalid dies there is nothing keeping the Hippus in this religion once they have drafted. Ratha stay in a nation no matter the religion. It is only when built that the nation needs to worship Empyrean.

[Brian Shanahan]

I think with that thought in mind myself and Ichabod need to think about who wants the leadership of which nation. Personally I could play either. The hippus will be less influencial at the start while the Kuriotates may be less influencial at the end (unless they switch to raiders as well).

Thoughts?

Basically my opinion on who gets what is who has the better experience of warring in MP. You really want to wring as much potential out of the Hippus units as possible so they should be taken by the stronger warrer. I'm not sure who that is.

[Ichabod]

I'm back from a very difficult week and I can start giving more input and adding more to this game.

[SIZE="3"]About our picks:[/SIZE]

The Kuriotates + Hippus idea was basicly the first that crossed my mind when speaking about a team game, so I'm glad Ravus thought the same thing. It's powerful and fun! I think that pb's FFH thread displayed just how strong Horse Archers can be and they fill a niche with few units on the FFH tech tree, the one between second and third tier units (axemen -> champions, adepts -> mages, hunters -> rangers). They have high strenght and a very nice withdrawal bonus, coupled with a lot of movement.

Getting two civilizations that benefit the most from going the horse line was crucial to make the plan work, though, since one of the key points about FFH play is not to sidetrack your research too much. Most of the civs don't have any benefits by going the horse line, so we kind of hit the jackpot with Kurios + Hippus. The heroes sinergy + the mercenary sinergy is icing in the cake.

The Hippus leader choice was very, very difficult. I had a post made about why I picked Rhoanna, but I second thought it. You see, this game is always war. We will need strong troops and combat + raiders make our troops the best in the whole game. We have power and mobility. Even early game noone will want to mess with us (poor Malakim + Vamps, though :neenernee).

Agressive gives us combat 1 for free on horse archers and practically every unit. Combat 1 gives +20% strenght in FFH, which is better then BTS, for instance. Plus, if we go with the apprenticeship civ early, which is likely, we will get 2 experience for units upon creation. Combat 1 + 2 exp gives us the choice of getting one of the "counter promotions" early, like cover, shock and stuff like that, which give a 40% bonus, a monster one. That's very strong units, prepared to bring doom to almost any kind of defense.

Plus, agressive gives fast stables. We'll want stables in a lot of cities to go mass production of units with the Hippus (conquest civic, for example), while Kurios make the economic base of the Empire. With we start warring soon, there's a chance that we can win this game fast.

Raiders is a very powerful trait, giving more mobility to already very mobile units. A Raider hippus leader will make everybody fear us and build their empires according to this fear. We can expect lack of mobility in our opponents defenses, because the roads benefit us the same as them. And poor elves and civs that rely on cottages. We will pillage you to death and we'll get rich that way.

We could get raiders with Cardith, but it wouldn't be optimal. Why? Because the first trait change is too soon for it and the second is too far. Coupled with the fact that the Kuriotates have limited production power and it wouldn't be that useful.

A very combat oriented leader will also help against the very likely Orc choke. Dislodging those damn goblin archers is though, so having horsemen (+40% against archer units, natural from the unit) with comabt 1 and probably cover will make us safe, while most of our opponents get pillaged to hell in the process.

Of course, fin and exp has a lot of benefits too. Is very, very, very good and almost impossible to let go. But the hippus + kurios pick was made to get a combo that didn't rely on too much teching to be effective. So, getting two powerful techers would be counter productive, in a way. I'm sorry Rhoanna, but this game is for the big guys... Well, we picked Cardith, so... :neenernee


[SIZE="3"]Tech Plans:[/SIZE]

Ichabod here is how i see the basic plan going;

• Grab whatever worker techs are needed. But remember that due to the combined teching power you can grab multiple techs before the first worker is completed.
  
• Then to get Horse riding sorted so that we have better units to defend the empire as we REX.
  
• Kuriotates to get the best sites and the Hippus to try to expand around them as a buffer.
  
• Grab the economy techs, I still think that Aristofarms are the best bet to keep the Hippus afloat even without the FIN leader. Also Royal Guards are powerful defenders.
  
• Grab Mobile Archers, build/upgrade an assault force to pillage neighbours. (Perhaps a time of 100% gold for mass upgrades?)
  
• Get buffer techs, Divination/Sorcery, Get religion/s, Guild of the Nine tech, Military state for Drafting and anything else.
  
• Use Tower of Divination to grab Knights
  
• Curbstomp everyone (ponder on whether the Kuriotates should try to get the Broken Airship units)
  

Mostly agree here. We'll need horsemen sooner then normal to protect against orc choke, so we have to take this into account. Don't forget that horsemen can own other civs in the beggining of the game. If we move our units right we can pillage everything without giving chance to retaliation, since our units are so mobile.

A farm based economy is good for the hippus. We can go agri + arist when teching and go conquest + city states when gearing for war. This civic combinations go very well with farms, so I think it's the way to go. The kurios can go cottages. So, we have to think about getting Code of Laws, Bronze Working and Warfare. Sanitation would be good too (maybe try to bulb it with the Drama artist -> drama is very helpful for fast border pops).

Horse Archers will be our main goal in the game. After that, we are set and we can start thinking about getting goodies.

Empyrean is a very nice religion, since it is in the same tech path for Chariots, which are nice too, especially so that we can get Rathas instead. Blinding light is very powerful. Getting Chalid will be tricky, but can be very rewarding since he's such a strong hero. He'll be strenght 9 from the get go, since kurios have sun mana from the palace. Mirror of Heavens or the Empy shrine will make him str 11 + powerful spells. Definetely something to think about. I don't think we should think about optimal combinations between religion and civs. I think we should focus on benefit/beaker rate. An Empyrean is probably the best one.

Mercenaries will be good too, especially the Hipus mounted ones. So, currency is another important goal for us. I'll have to test the mechanics of summon mercenaries + teams to see if both of us will be able to hire them. If only one can, is better for the Hippus to build it. Currency will be ablessing then, so we can gift gold from one civ to the other.

Finally Smelting -> Iron Working -ToD-> Warhorses is our final goal. After that, we might as well stop research and go full military with mercenaries/HA's/Knights/Heroes/Rathas/Chalid. We'll need two mana nodes to get the tower, since Kurios start with 2 of the needed ones. Not that hard to accomplish.

I'll try to make this plan more detailed and post it here.


[SIZE="3"]Opponents:[/SIZE]


Haven't given much thought about it yet. Here's what I think.

Orcs will go for early chokes -> let's hope they can slow doen the vamps + malakim. These guys have a huge target on their backs and I can see they being killed early.

The elves + dwarves will go for druids, most likely, to get the powerful dwarven druids. They'll rely on elvish defense with rangers and FoL priests, I guess until then, because dwarves can't get rangers. Rangers are good against HAs, but they are expensive and can only be built by one of the guys. We can destroy the elvish cottage economy too.

They probably think they can make a good dwarven economy with the elvish workers building improvements. Let's see how they go against the elven worker bad workrate... It's not going to be easy... And since I'm playing the dwarves on FFH PBEM VI, I have to say it. Dwarven Vaults suck! They won't be able to make them useful, mark my words. You have to destroy your tech rate for it and slow down your expansion.


Anyway, one thing is for sure. We'll have a lot of fun playing. Going for military early will give us a lot of choices, especially with such a mobile army. If we manage to pull a win out of this, even better.

[SIZE="4"]Chasing the Dream!!![/SIZE]

:neenernee

[Ravus Sol]

I'm back from a very difficult week and I can start giving more input and adding more to this game.

[SIZE="3"]About our picks:[/SIZE]

The Kuriotates + Hippus idea was basicly the first that crossed my mind when speaking about a team game, so I'm glad Ravus thought the same thing. It's powerful and fun! I think that pb's FFH thread displayed just how strong Horse Archers can be and they fill a niche with few units on the FFH tech tree, the one between second and third tier units (axemen -> champions, adepts -> mages, hunters -> rangers). They have high strenght and a very nice withdrawal bonus, coupled with a lot of movement.

Getting two civilizations that benefit the most from going the horse line was crucial to make the plan work, though, since one of the key points about FFH play is not to sidetrack your research too much. Most of the civs don't have any benefits by going the horse line, so we kind of hit the jackpot with Kurios + Hippus. The heroes sinergy + the mercenary sinergy is icing in the cake.

The Hippus leader choice was very, very difficult. I had a post made about why I picked Rhoanna, but I second thought it. You see, this game is always war. We will need strong troops and combat + raiders make our troops the best in the whole game. We have power and mobility. Even early game noone will want to mess with us (poor Malakim + Vamps, though :neenernee).

Agressive gives us combat 1 for free on horse archers and practically every unit. Combat 1 gives +20% strenght in FFH, which is better then BTS, for instance. Plus, if we go with the apprenticeship civ early, which is likely, we will get 2 experience for units upon creation. Combat 1 + 2 exp gives us the choice of getting one of the "counter promotions" early, like cover, shock and stuff like that, which give a 40% bonus, a monster one. That's very strong units, prepared to bring doom to almost any kind of defense.

Plus, agressive gives fast stables. We'll want stables in a lot of cities to go mass production of units with the Hippus (conquest civic, for example), while Kurios make the economic base of the Empire. With we start warring soon, there's a chance that we can win this game fast.

Raiders is a very powerful trait, giving more mobility to already very mobile units. A Raider hippus leader will make everybody fear us and build their empires according to this fear. We can expect lack of mobility in our opponents defenses, because the roads benefit us the same as them. And poor elves and civs that rely on cottages. We will pillage you to death and we'll get rich that way.

We could get raiders with Cardith, but it wouldn't be optimal. Why? Because the first trait change is too soon for it and the second is too far. Coupled with the fact that the Kuriotates have limited production power and it wouldn't be that useful.

A very combat oriented leader will also help against the very likely Orc choke. Dislodging those damn goblin archers is though, so having horsemen (+40% against archer units, natural from the unit) with comabt 1 and probably cover will make us safe, while most of our opponents get pillaged to hell in the process.

Of course, fin and exp has a lot of benefits too. Is very, very, very good and almost impossible to let go. But the hippus + kurios pick was made to get a combo that didn't rely on too much teching to be effective. So, getting two powerful techers would be counter productive, in a way. I'm sorry Rhoanna, but this game is for the big guys... Well, we picked Cardith, so... :neenernee

I did remember you saying you liked the Hippus somewhere! :neenernee

Going early apprenticeship with Tasunke is REALLY useful if you need to rush early archers, Orc or otherwise, getting combat I, natural +40% against archery units and getting cover promotion for another +40%, gives a total of +100% up to Str 8 on horsemen.

Again I forgot something important! I completely forgot that agressive gives quick stables. That makes Tasunke the best choice by far, good job on remembering Ichabod!

Luckily no-one else has raiders, so we can build roads to our hearts content. Once the Kuriotate cities have all their improvements built their workers can spread out to build roads everywhere, help the hippus building or to be used in fast roading to wards targets.

[Ravus Sol]

[SIZE="3"]Tech Plans:[/SIZE]

Ichabod here is how i see the basic plan going;

• Grab whatever worker techs are needed. But remember that due to the combined teching power you can grab multiple techs before the first worker is completed.
  
• Then to get Horse riding sorted so that we have better units to defend the empire as we REX.
  
• Kuriotates to get the best sites and the Hippus to try to expand around them as a buffer.
  
• Grab the economy techs, I still think that Aristofarms are the best bet to keep the Hippus afloat even without the FIN leader. Also Royal Guards are powerful defenders.
  
• Grab Mobile Archers, build/upgrade an assault force to pillage neighbours. (Perhaps a time of 100% gold for mass upgrades?)
  
• Get buffer techs, Divination/Sorcery, Get religion/s, Guild of the Nine tech, Military state for Drafting and anything else.
  
• Use Tower of Divination to grab Knights
  
• Curbstomp everyone (ponder on whether the Kuriotates should try to get the Broken Airship units)
  

Mostly agree here. We'll need horsemen sooner then normal to protect against orc choke, so we have to take this into account. Don't forget that horsemen can own other civs in the beggining of the game. If we move our units right we can pillage everything without giving chance to retaliation, since our units are so mobile.

A farm based economy is good for the hippus. We can go agri + arist when teching and go conquest + city states when gearing for war. This civic combinations go very well with farms, so I think it's the way to go. The kurios can go cottages. So, we have to think about getting Code of Laws, Bronze Working and Warfare. Sanitation would be good too (maybe try to bulb it with the Drama artist -> drama is very helpful for fast border pops).

Horse Archers will be our main goal in the game. After that, we are set and we can start thinking about getting goodies.

Empyrean is a very nice religion, since it is in the same tech path for Chariots, which are nice too, especially so that we can get Rathas instead. Blinding light is very powerful. Getting Chalid will be tricky, but can be very rewarding since he's such a strong hero. He'll be strenght 9 from the get go, since kurios have sun mana from the palace. Mirror of Heavens or the Empy shrine will make him str 11 + powerful spells. Definetely something to think about. I don't think we should think about optimal combinations between religion and civs. I think we should focus on benefit/beaker rate. An Empyrean is probably the best one.

Mercenaries will be good too, especially the Hipus mounted ones. So, currency is another important goal for us. I'll have to test the mechanics of summon mercenaries + teams to see if both of us will be able to hire them. If only one can, is better for the Hippus to build it. Currency will be ablessing then, so we can gift gold from one civ to the other.

Finally Smelting -> Iron Working -ToD-> Warhorses is our final goal. After that, we might as well stop research and go full military with mercenaries/HA's/Knights/Heroes/Rathas/Chalid. We'll need two mana nodes to get the tower, since Kurios start with 2 of the needed ones. Not that hard to accomplish.

I'll try to make this plan more detailed and post it here.

It looks like the Orc team might be re-picking to solve the AW option causing the Orcs to loose their "peace with barbarians" aspect. So an Orc choke will no longer be happening. But I still desire early Horseriding because for the hippus getting a single promotion starts to turn barbarians from an annoyance into a exp grind. By the time our empire is secure the Hippus should have at least 4 well promoted horsemen to rum rampent on everyone...

Early Horsemen of the apocalypse? Name them Death, War, Famine, Pestilance?

Would be even more fun if they survived to end game and we stole the real horsemens equipment and gave it to them

I was thinking a Drafting Army initially, do you believe Conquest beats out drafting in production of an army? If so It may be best to try and get Ashen Veil for the Hippus just to get Sacrifice the Weak...

I like the religions... it's a flaw of mine to enjoy the diversity they bring, The Empyrean temple is definitely the best but you can build temples without being in the religion. Plus having multiple religions help raise the happiness cap for the Kuriotates. For the Hippus I do think Empy is the best thing to run and then to spread it to the Kuriotates for the temples. But if Chalid is sniped I loose all will to stay in it end game. Especially when Ashen Veil boosts military with sacrfice the weak, nightmares for +1 Str to horsemen and a cheap horseman hero. Or for the council of Esus because end-game they give you an additional 4 Knight units in the ShadowRiders.

I will test out the Guild of the Nine mechanic in a team envioroment later. I know that some wonders do work for both team members, like if the Guild of Hammers if built by the kuriotates it spreads forges to all cities including the hippus. But I'm not sure about the Guild... and i really do want those mounted mercenary units, because if I remember right unlike all other horsemen units they can fortify as well as using metals.

We can argue over the last few techs to get before going full money production later, I myself think grabbing a few religions to boost the happy cap of the kuriotates and provide a few extra heros could be useful. Plus Sorcery could be a boon for additional collateral. Plus the kuriotate airships are ever so tempting... especially if the raiding horsemen can board the kuriotate airships... You can move the airship and disembark and pillage on the same turn. If you use Centaur Archers you can also then re-embark and move away to a moutain or some other impassable terrain to repeat as neccessary. The ultimate choke unit to hold of others while we kill the threats.

[Ravus Sol]

[SIZE="3"]Opponents:[/SIZE]


Haven't given much thought about it yet. Here's what I think.

Orcs will go for early chokes -> let's hope they can slow doen the vamps + malakim. These guys have a huge target on their backs and I can see they being killed early.

The elves + dwarves will go for druids, most likely, to get the powerful dwarven druids. They'll rely on elvish defense with rangers and FoL priests, I guess until then, because dwarves can't get rangers. Rangers are good against HAs, but they are expensive and can only be built by one of the guys. We can destroy the elvish cottage economy too.

They probably think they can make a good dwarven economy with the elvish workers building improvements. Let's see how they go against the elven worker bad workrate... It's not going to be easy... And since I'm playing the dwarves on FFH PBEM VI, I have to say it. Dwarven Vaults suck! They won't be able to make them useful, mark my words. You have to destroy your tech rate for it and slow down your expansion.


Anyway, one thing is for sure. We'll have a lot of fun playing. Going for military early will give us a lot of choices, especially with such a mobile army. If we manage to pull a win out of this, even better.

Orcs seem like they will be getting replaced. So it looks like thoughts into their plans are now void. I do wonder what else they will pick. There is still a lot of options even if 6 nations are gone...

Svartalfar (Dark Elves) & Sidar
Both get a Assassin hero unit and the combined assassins could be deadly. Especially if they are invisible Sidar ones.

Elohim & Bannor
Crusade needs to be unlocked down the same path that unlocks Monks. So this could be viable... as both good nations perhaps they could also summon the angels.

Amurite & Bhalseraph
This alliance would be insane. If ALL Clown units can summon puppets once they are upgraded to spell casters that is an insane army. Insane management as well but it's still deadly.

Sheaim & Lurchurip
The Dwarven golums do not suffer from blight or worldbreak damage. Making them a good partner for the infernal worshipping Sheaim. Both their armies are initially slow. But wood golums supported by pyre zombies would be a good stack of doom. Later Fireball spewing Gargoyles backed by Ritualists and summoning mages could be timed well with a worldbreak rush.


Those are the main team ups that sprung to mind glancing over the remaining nations.

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On the Elf Dwarf teamup, I tried out a Elf/Kuriotate game and while elvish workers SAY that they can build a town without destroying a forest. Once the work is done the forest just dissapears anyway... Will check now whether the elvish priests can bloom in rival lands. If not then thats one less super economy to worry about.

But yes Dwarven and Elvish Druids seems like a logical end game unit for them.

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On our rivals we allways have the least to say about the desert vampires. There is no overthinking needed there. They WILL rush for Vamps. They WILL try to take over the world.

They must be stopped.

[Ravus Sol]

[SIZE="4"]Chasing the Dream!!![/SIZE]

:neenernee

HAD I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with the golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams beneath your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams

[Ravus Sol]

NEW ELF TEST:

Test confirms that the elfish economy CANNOT be spread to an ally. Workers say they can but they can't and the bloom spell can still only be used as normal by the partner nation.