[SPOILERS] The Subjuggulator's Mirthful Messiahs (Kuro, Gamzee of Balsegraphs!)

[Kuro]

Oooooh, I totally missed the Blasting Workshop. That's killer.

Also since I figured everyone would wanna know: Our Adept is Mind I/Metamagic I/Fire I.

[Caustic Soda]

Amelia seems to have covered the Dwarves, and you have the Svarts down pat, so I'll talk about the Malakim. As you can see from the PBEMs so far, (and if you ahven't read them yet, finding time to do so will be illustrative) their strength lies in flexibility.

Adaptive you've already covered, and the anarchy-removing effects of Spiritual are the same as in vanilla BTS. Spiritual also boosts priests significantly. Directly through Mobility and Potency, and indirectly due to facilitating switches between religion. Priests of Leaves and Ritualists (the AV priest) can provide potent collateral as soon as they're built, unlike adepts who need time to grow into mages. Cultists (OO priests) can provide powerful collateral, if the terrain has the coast to enable it.

Each religion also has at least one 'religious warrior' unit associated with it. the most notable being Stygians (OO) who are demons and thus resist death (from spectres or skeletons), Diseased Coprses (AV) who are undead and so also resist death, but die in droves to Life II. Finally, Empyrean has Rathas, chariots who can blind enemy units, immobilizing them. Note that a unit cannot be blinded two turns in a row. Both priests and religious warriors (but not heroes) stay with you once you change religion. but can only be built when you run the appropriate state religion. Here Spiritual is of use again, making it easy to switch religions as needed.

Finally, note that some of the missionaries for the religions can upgrade to non-priest units. Leaves missionaries can upgrade up the ranger line, and Savants (AV) can upgrade to mages.

The Malakim can build a powerful core army of priests and disciples, supplemented by whatever other units they might need. Lightbringers can be upgraded to any type of missionary or their upgrades, so the Malakim can pre-build them and upgrade to priests as needed. Finally, their worldspell grants them a priest of the State Religion in every city they have when used, for sudden defense or offense. I'd rate the Malakim among the strongest of civs. They can tech with the best by going Financial, gain significant power projection ability by going Raiders, and switch from peace to war civics or religions at the drop of a hat. Of course, it remains to be seen how well The Reverend Doctor can leverage these advantages. They aren't quite as straightforward to use as Vampires or Golems.

edit: Regarding the adept be aware that the chance for smoke to become fire or fire to spread isn't all that large, so burning out the jungle should probably not supersede getting BW to cut it down. At least not the jungle on our territory.

[Kuro]

Hmm...I did not think about using Spiritual to bust out a bunch of different priests. That's pretty powerful.

As for the burning, don't forget we get the Adept T1, BW will have to come after some economy. I can try and burn some stuff down before I get BW and maybe clear out some stuff. Advance our Adept(With a protective Warrior or two?) to a spot with a Jungle on some resource and try to torch it while waiting for BW?

Also, it seems I lost my small written up part of the Balsegraphs last night. There goes that dialogue...guess I gotta write it up again.

[Amelia]

I went to sleep yesterday knowing i had missed out something very important, and i got it.

Golems can't take Mobility 1, so they're stuck at movespeed 1.

[Kuro]

Welcome to the Dark Carnival, Brother:

From the crowns of the most royal jesters
To the lowest clown who festers
Not one shall I think of any less
By the Mirthful Messiah are they blessed

For overall flavour, the Balsegraphs and Perpentach are probably my favorites. But what can they DO?

I'm sure I'll miss some stuff, but let me try!

First off, their Palace gives Mind, Chaos and Air Mana. This means I get +3% research and a small chance for any unit to start Mutated(I would of never guessed Chaos Mana did that!). That's all that is special there. Perpentach, on the other hand, is the most unique leader in the game, with FOUR traits. We'll be getting Arcane for a free Potency upgrade on our Arcane dudes, Creative for nice quick border pops AND double speed carnivals and Charismatic's happiness and lower EXP costs!

But more importantly, for uniqueness AND fun, is Perpentach's fourth trait which only he has: Insane. Every once in a while, my traits are simply thrown up in the air and three random ones of any trait come down. The joyous occassion of a lucky roll or the sulk and sull of a Defender...well, that's quite droll. I dunno how often it changes, but it'll be fun!

Let's begin on their Unique stuff. The first is one of the best: The Freak. The Freak costs 40 hammers and will start with Mutated. This will give it random promotions, although I'm not sure WHAT it can give. This, of course, can be good and bad: Withered? SUCKS. But get something cool like Commando or something? Awesome. But, of course, Freaks are only STR 3 and at carnivals that's a bit hard to rush(it seems to me)...

But fortunately, Freaks can upgrade! Down both the Melee, Recon and Archery lines. The Melee is especially nice: Good Freaks upgraded to Mimics could be deadly. Or even just to Swords.

But what do you do with bad Freaks? Well, that's where things get fun. While in a city, a Freak can sacrifice itself to place a Freak Show in a city. A Freak Show will give you +1 happiness, +2 culture and even +1 Great Bard points. Both the happiness and culture are significant: Build a 40 hammer unit out of a big hammer producer and you basically can skip culture buildings in new cities or raise any cities' happy cap by 1.

The second unit I'll talk about is the Mimic. It's a replacement for the Champion, but loses it's 25% melee bonus and is only STR 5. The upside? Whenever it defeats a unit by combat, it steals one of said unit's promos. I dunno if it's guarenteed, but this can presumably get very silly very fast. Especially since they can use all manner of weapons and be upgraded from Freaks: Iron equipped, Freak enhanced Mimics anyone? I do wonder, however, if Mimics can steal the Hero promo. If so, that would be awesome: And a reason to target the Grigori.

I am considering trying to go for a Mimic powered game here, since I dunno what's good, but I dunno...is it worth it? Or even possible? It would certainly show off a different side of the Balsegraphs from Keelyn's Summoner-Puppet shenanigans. Mimics can upgrade their awesome promos to Eidolons or, if Perpentach somehow becomes Good(PFFFFFFFFF is that even possible), Paladins. Highly promo'd Eidolons or Phalanxs/Immortals(Another upgrade option with worst techs) would be something to fear indeed.

Another unique unit they have is the is the Courtesan, which replaces the Shadow. While somewhat unlikely to be built, largely due to the Council of Esus req(I presume I need to be in state Esus), it's bascially a Shadow which can create Slaves @ 25% odds from combat, which is pretty awesome. I doubt we will see them this game in any significant role.

Another UU? That'd be the Harlequin. Basically, it's a Ranger which has 25% Withdraw and the Taunt ability, which forces enemy units to attack the caster's stack. While it sounds cool in theory, I dunno how this'd really be used: Taunt can be resisted too much to reliably clear cities I'd think, Rangers are quite off path and it's not like there'd be a huge amount of animals to tame at this point. Shrug.

Their final UU is the Taskmaster, which is essentially an Assassin without immunity to First Strikes, but with a 25% chance to make Slaves. While I like all this Slave making, the Taskmaster is again off the beaten path: Poisons, which comes after Hunting. Just like the Courtesan, I actually quite like this unit, but it seems...off path.

I see two paths for units here: Going up the Hunting path to Courtesans and Taskmasters or down the IW path for Mimics. I prefer the latter, mayhaps due to some own designs I might have =)

They also have a UB, the Arena, which replaces the Training Yard. As far as I can tell, it does nothing.

Their national hero is Loki. He's avalibile from the start of the game, but isn't too great in MP. He can flip cities without enough culture or steal gold from them of your opponent's...but they'll just war dec you. You can't even use NAPs, because it's certainly an aggressive action. I would of loved if they let him gain EXP/Channeling spells so you could fudge around with early Mutate. As is, his biggest thing is being super annoying to kill: He just loves running to unoccupied tiles. ...But this is arguably a downside too, because Loki dying early would mean the Shrine of the Champion. Which would be awesome, especially for Fuh-reaks and Mimics.

And the World Spell is Revelry. It's not a game changer, but it IS awesome: An instant Golden Age! Considering Golden Ages boost research, a big issue with going down the IW path and such. Combine it with a Great Person(Bard @ Drama?) and you can trip a double Golden Age for a massive boost. Maybe even Bone Palace. Overall, cool World Spell, even if it makes us a target.

Anyway, earlier, I mentioned my "own designs". Let me give you an idea for what I might try to do:

Tech to Freaks, then Swordsman and Mimics, eliminate somebody. I doubt I can get 2 with just that. Probably need to pop the World somewhere around here to stay competitive.
Go down the line to Engineering and go for City of a Thousand Slums and possibly Guild of Hammers(Dunno if I'd have the time!). With my Kuriotate style cities at Slums, I'll have an awesome empire if I absorbed someone.
Figure out where to go from there! I'm thinking possibly Mithril of all things, because Mimics uberpromoted and then upgraded to Phalanx would rock. Or maybe...Arquebusses? Nah.

...But this is all long term stuff that is perhaps too high in the sky.

For early game, I'm thinking Ancient Chants -> Mysticism. Inspiration means after Sage at Elders and I like that. It also gives us an outside shot at religion: I would LOVE to found Runes of Kilmorph!

After that, Calender if Calender resources, otherwise probably Crafting -> Mining.

Also, starting techs for the game:
Luchuirps: Crafting
Svartalfar: Agriculture
Grigori: Crafting
Malakim: Ancient Chants
Balsegraphs: Agriculture

...Stupid Dwarves getting Runes probably...

oops I forgot to mention Puppets. OH WELL.

[Caustic Soda]

If I were you, I would want to build the initial army based on freaks upgraded to whatever you need. The tech system of FFH punishes going out of your way for techs that might be "cool to have" since the costs of techs scale FAST as you go up a branch. Most of your UUs except freaks are mostly flavor, so there's little point in aiming for them specifically.

Mimics I am more than a little leery of. Their lower strength is a liability, and Champions are already a doubtful unit to go for since they lack the mobility of mounted units or the collateral abilities of Priests/Mages. As PBEMs 1 and 2 have shown, being able to get the first strike is vital to warring past the early game, and move 2 units (with Mobility, available at Horseback Riding) don't help with that, unless they can use magic. According to the FFH wiki, Mimics get one random promotion off of any unit they defeat, and can't get racial promotions. If your mimics already have Mobility and/or Combat on the same level as your enemies, you aren't particularly likely to be able to get anything good.

One thing you haven't mentioned yet are what religion(s) you plan to go for. remember that you are guaranteed to get a religion even if it has already been founded, and religious units can be quite powerful. If you haven't already, I suggest you reflect carefully on what to aim for religion-wise, possibly by posts here so Amelia and I (or others) can provide feedback.

***

I hope my advice so far hasn't come off as too abrasive. I find it difficult to get my criticism to sound as friendly as I would like it to be, since I can't use body language or intonation via the boards.

[Kuro]

Don't worry about sounding abrasive. =) Like I said, I'm a TOTAL FFH noob, as in I played like 1 or 2 games period before I signed up and have been blitzing sessions since I did. I fully expect my ideas to suck and have absolutely no pride to damage. In fact, I have anti-pride.

It sounds like Mimics are not nearly as good as I had hoped with Promo stealing. IDEA SCRATCH.

As for religions...well, I have not messed around with Ashen Veil or Order yet. So I don't know anything really about them aside from looking up their units and what I hear from game topics I read(Relatedly, how does Hyborem work?). I also have barely messed around with the Council of Esus.

Generally speaking, I find Kilmorph, Octopus Overlords or Empyrean to suit my needs. Unless I can get a lot of sun mana though, Empyrean looks like it's out because Chalid will be weaker I think(But then again...PILLAR OF FIRE!).

I usually like Kilmorph because the Gold helps fund expansion and their Priests don't seem too bad. I'm kind of leaning towards Octopus Overlords between the three, though. Hemah doesn't seem bad, although Chalid is basically strictly superior I would think. Perhaps the bigger issue though is the fact that it seems like Octopus stuff is watery, which is bad because rainforest, and I need to detor to Fishing to get it. Saverous looks like something I'd want, though. Kilmorph's Gold is solid, but they don't have a standout Hero and I doubt Duin is viable.

Fellowship of Leaves seems like a weak choice for Balsegraphs.

[Kuro]

Oh hey we have a map thread now.

[Amelia]

Grigori:

The Grigori focuses on Adventurers, adventurers, and more adventurers. This comes with a drawback: they are not allowed to get religious. No units at all from the priest line.

To compensate, all their adventurers are heroes, they get adventurers from their gps, and their world spell resets their GP counter. Expect 8-10 heroes in a battle with them.

And erm... to be honest i'm not that familiar with the Grigori myself, since it's one of those civ i've hardly touched... Just expect adventurers as their main fighting force, and they can go any line they wish to apart from priests. I fully expect mages/archmages as their main army from the adventurers, with supporting units from behind.

[Caustic Soda]

@Hyborem: Hyborem and co are spawned on a random land tile when Infernal Pact is researched. this can only be done by someone in AV at the time. The summoning civ has the option of switching to the Infernal (unless you disallowed that in this game). Infernal Pact allows buldiing the Grimoire, which grants a free tech, and running Sacrifice the Weak, which makes pops eat only one unit of food, allowing for very fast and high pop growth.

Hyborem arrives with a settler, two champions, two Longbowmen and an Imp (Adept replacement). Each infernal city spawns with an AV temple, a forge, an Elder Council and an Obsidian Gate (Airport). Their pops do not need food and cannot be unhappy, but they cannot grow the ordinary way. Instead they can get Manes which can be turned into pops. Manes are spawned when cities with AV religion are razed, when units with AV, Esus or OO religion are killed, or when any unit with Death or Enthropy spells are killed. Their Palace provides Iron (usable w/o Iron Working), Fire and Entropy mana, and -100% war weariness. It also counts as a huge source of Power in the graphs (see the last page(s) of Uberfish thread for PBEM II).

Since they start with Iron and some tier 3 units, the Infernals are at their best when summoned early so they can leverage their strengths. If they arrive late, they're likely to get curbstomped by their neighbors, as happened in PBEM III.

When the Infenrals have been summoned, Hell terrain will start to spread. This terrain is generally worse than ordinary terrain, and rpelaces all luxuries, health and strategic resources with only a few. This is generally bad, although Nightmares provide +1Str to mounted units and Sheut Stone +1 Death Str to other units. Hell terrain spreads automatically to Infernal territory. can spread from there into neighbors with AV from the start, and can spread elsewhere based on the Armageddon counter. Good alignment civs are effectively immune to hell spread until the counter gets very high. Hell terrain can only spread to adjacent tiles, but tundra and ice tiles are unchanged, so it can be hard to tell whether they count and can spread hell terrain. If the Infernals are wiped out and the hell terrain cleared with Sanctify (Life I) then there will be no more hell terrain. I think that covers most everything there is to say about the Infernals. they also have a number of UUs, but we can cover that if it becomes relevant.

@Religion: I am unsure what religion would suit Balseraphs best as a long-term religion, but OO and Esus do provide an early archmage each, which synergizes nicely with Puppets.An archamge also provides flexibility in the form of Vitalizing for peacetime, which Chalid can't get. I doubt FoL is worth having for a long time, but if you ever get Spiritual then it might be worth switching to build some Priests. Extra summons are always welcome. On that note, be aware that permanent summons such as tigers or skeletons will provide war weariness if killed.

Ritualists from AV provide a ready-made source of collateral, but be aware of Blight, which will provide murderous amounts of unhealth. I can't remember whether it strikes at 20 or 30% of the Armageddon Counter, but I'm sure Amelia knows. Empyrean may be a good religion to run for a while for Rathas and the + 10% research (IIRC) from Temples.

In the end it comes down to what you want from your religion. Runes might be good to fund early expansion, but their priests and Paramanders are rather lackluster.

If you want an early archmage, consider that OO also provides Stygian Guards, but is likely out of the way tech-wise. Esus is close to trade, which you'd want anyways eventually, but doesn't provide much other than Gibbon. The Esus shrine, Nox Noctis, makes all of your units hidden outside cities, which is very, very powerful. IIRC, nothing can break through Nox Noctis invisibility, not the Empyrean spell, not Perfect Sight golems, nothing. Together with the AV shrine,which grants Entropy mana, Nox Noctis is the only shrine which grants anything truly significant beyond the standard +gold. Note that the V shrine can be built with a great scientist, and NOx Noctis with a Great Merchant.

If you want collateral, you can get it from AV or FoL priests, although you needn't stay in either religion. Empy, OO and AV can provide decent shock troops or powerful Ratha (who can blind).