[Spoilers] Bobchillingworth asks: "Who are the Warriors?"

[Bobchillingworth]

Ahhh, fuck it, I'm okay with Kredom joining. Having a new FFH player is more important than my obsession with a rigid turn-a-day pace. We haven't had a new guy join one of these games for a while, and we've been gradually shedding players (come back, Mist ).

[Ichabod]

I miss Mist too, he was the only guy that managed to make a team with me work. I sent him an email some time ago, he's doing fine.

I need to fire up a EitB SP game, just to remember how things work in the mod. Probably using my favourite mapscript: Erebus Continents. Praised be the all-tiles-are-plains-hills Khazad Capitals! Praised be the all-tundra, no-ice Illians!

[Bobchillingworth]

Did he say why he left? That guy made some really wild maps. Also MIA: Irgy, Iskender, Reverend Doctor, Ravus, Amelia, Xenin, Mr. Yellow


Oh well, that's enough of memory lane. Good news: We got Auric! Which means I don't have to rewrite any of the strategy stuff!



Going to be a rough & tumble field this game:


Yell0w: Furia the Mad of the Balseraphs (CHA / RAI / BAR)

I figured Yell0w would go for a Barbarian leader after his skepticism regarding the Raging Barbs setting. Furia probably wasn't the strongest choice out there, but she isn't bad or anything. Good fightan traits, potential to pull some really mean tricks with Puppets & Harlequins. Yell0w himself is pretty good and definitely aggressive.


GreyWolf: Beeri Bawl of the Luchiurp (FIN / IND)

One of the only two builder leaders in this mess. I wonder if GreyWolf is considering a Mercurian Rush strategy- you can't get any quicker than Beeri. Actually, his traits are a bit deceptive- he might not have any inherent unit boosts, but the Luchiurp are certainly capable of pulling off a nasty Catapults & Wood Golems rush. Plus Mud Golems are widely held to be brokenly good in the current version of EitB. Oh, and his Golems are immune to Slow. Potentially very dangerous. I'm not too sure about GreyWolf as a player, he got crippled in his last game by the barbs, and before that was a sub in a hopeless situation.


Ellimist: Sheelba of the Clan (AGG / ORG / BAR)

The thousand-pound gorilla in the game. Sheelba is going to be nasty, nasty, nasty to deal with. Aggressive Wolf Riders, Aggressive Warrens Axes, Aggressive Barbs From WS, yuck On the plus side, with no lairs Ellimist won't be able to grab any goblin Archers for free or hire reinforcements. Easily Threat #1. Ellimist is extremely aggressive and cunning. It will be interesting to see how he handles one of the most economically desperate leaders in the game- I'm guessing the answer is "with a rush & pillage economy". I also know that he wants to replicate his naval raid on Mardoc from that game where he was Decius, because he keeps bringing it up in chat, so that's something else to look out for- especially since the Lizardman line is amphibious.


Kredom: Flauros of the Calabim (FIN / CRE)

Probably the least-threatening pick, although still potentially very dangerous. I wonder is Kredom is aware that Flauros took a hefty nerf in EitB. Very strong economically from a teching standpoint, but lacking ORG Manors is going to hurt. He also has significantly weaker units than either alternative Calabim leader. In a game of godawful neighbors, he's the best of a bad lot- I would much rather deal with Creative borders than Tasunkian Horsemen. So watch as he destroys me with a Moroi rush :P I know nothing about Kredom as a player, sounds like he has a bit of experience with FFH in both SP and MP, but none with EitB. In case anyone was wondering, I IP-checked him, and he's no smurf I ever heard of From South America.


DaveV: Tasunke of the Hippus (AGG / RAI)



Good lord, this is going to be rough. Tasunke has never won a game, but Serdoa amply demonstrated in the No Settlers game just how much a well-executed Horseman rush can hurt. No real path to victory but violence- he has little going for him economically, but he doesn't need many techs to begin with. I can not even begin to emphasise enough the Extreme Danger if he manages to grab the Guild of the Nine & get a pillage econ running. Starting between him and Ellimist is likely Game Over. The only real solace is that Dave has shown a history of playing passively, even with Aggressive, rush-prone leaders, and Tasunke tends to flame out pretty quickly if he can't manage a successful rush.



In Sum:





It's going to be a violent ride! Of course, this is FFH- when isn't it?

[Ichabod]

Woohoo! South America Power! Ichabod, retep and now Kredom.

In a few months, forums will be full of huehuehuehue!

[Bobchillingworth]

Woohoo! South America Power!

[Bobchillingworth]

Man, I really want this conversation / debate / inquisition in the tech thread about camera tricks and goto stuff to be over


Ellimist is constantly complaining about it to me, like literally right at this very moment, and I sympathize with him, because I dislike this slippery slope where we dissect the game to figure out what is or is not excessively exploitive. And I do intend to use Settler scouting to the fullest extent (especially since Dave is apparently okay with it?). I don't really understand why the flying camera is so much more different from Settler scouting or pasture-checking or whatever weird voodoo magics people use to figure out their opponent's builds and invested production. It's all the same cheesy stuff which shows up constantly in RB MP, whatever the mod, because we're a community of often hyper-competitive nerds.


At the same time, I can see Dave's point as well. Ideally people win games on the basis of their play- meaning foresight, micromanagement, grand strategy, tactics- not using special graphical settings and arcane movement exploits to scout across oceans. In an ideal world, nobody would bother with anything that relies on meta-knowledge of the game or taking advantage of programmer oversights of how the game displays certain, normally hidden information under the right conditions. But that's absolutely never going to happen, in this game or any other with an active MP community. So I really hope this blows over quickly and we just patiently wait for Mardoc to finish the map, before people get upset and threaten to quit.

[Bobchillingworth]

Bobchillingworth: Argument Shouter-Downer!



Uh, so I guess it's going to be like another week before the game launches. Ichabod (or anyone else), anything you want me to discuss? Units, Tactics, Strategy, Recipes, Why My Taste In Music Is The Best And Everyone Else Blows, More Random Uncontextualized Comic Panels, Additional Embedded Movies?


Oh also, would you want to play as Basium, were I to summon him? I wasn't planning on bothering with Fanaticism, but there isn't anything keeping Auric from doing so.

[Ichabod]

I really like the Random Uncontextualized Comic Panels. The one from hellboy and the monkey with the gun from another thread was just too good.

I'm not that interested in playing Basium, but I can probably cover if you summon him.

Regarding strategy, it's better to wait for the map, I guess. Ah, one wuestion, jungle gets transformed into forest through temple of the hand terraforming?

[Bobchillingworth]

Ah, one wuestion, jungle gets transformed into forest through temple of the hand terraforming?

Yeah. It's useful for sure, especially since Archery (for lumber mills) is better than usual thanks to the solid Javelin Thrower UU, but forested ice tiles take a really long time to improve. It's also going to be challenging to build a Temple of the Hand in land which is covered in jungle within reasonable timeframes.



Pictures!:

[Lord Parkin]

Your start: