[SPOILERS] Ethne and the Elohim play nice?

[Dantski]

Hmm got myself another thread to update regularly and post lots of screenshots for :neenernee

Not sure quit how much rubbish I need to post here to deal with mouseover thread text so lets see.

I'll just comment on FFHPBEM4 a bit

Some people questioned my choice of Svartalfar > Ljosjalfar (forgive the spelling), my main reason was so I'd have 5 strength hunters to hopefully deal with a PoW rush as well as possible. I'm also ded lurking uberfish who's playing the good elves in PBEM2 so I didn't want to just replicate that game. Anyone who's played LoL with me knows I hate ot do the same thing twice!

PBEM4 ended up being all about the 2 world spells used together and how they took 2 players out of the game (if you considered my 'vassalage' being taken out of the game). I'm not sure that was really possible to counter with any civ/leader pick, add in all the barbarian archers + cities and the "For the Horde" spell was flat out inbalanced on its own. Poison archers are great for stopping Rantine taking over cities for the Clan but letting the Clan convert a whole bunch of them isn't good. 6 str defenders are simply impossible to clear out of your lands until a player reaches the second tier of military units so having them at turn 50 is....not fun to play against.

That's enough text right? Right?

I'll explain my picks etc later

[Maksim]

This is your starting position. Can't really say much more, so I'll just wish you the best of luck!

[Dantski]

Damn Maksim what did I ever do to you?

Start is pretty horrible, I'm guessing this may be a common theme among player starts to discourage the use of agrarianism. Will no doubt move the warrior (assuming I was given one) onto the plains hill 1E and then decide on where to settle. The plains hill hammer bonus would be nice but we'll have to see. No idea what tech I start with (its Ancient Chants) but Agriculture is clearly first priority with all plains + tundra tiles giving me crap all for food.

Ok save hasn't gotten round to me yet so guess I'll explain my pick(s)

1. Ethne of ElohimHyborem is the ultimate good guy of FFH and despite the existence of the Mercurians, Ethne is pretty much the definition of a FFH good guy (if she was a guy). So this game I will endeavor to play the friendly helpful civ thats totally trustworthy. I'm also loosely going to favour people by alignment.

But if that was your intention why pick Ethne > Einion Logos?

Both have the Defender + Tolerant traits, of which I expect to get virtually zero use out of this game. Their difference is that Ethne is Creative to Einion's Philosophical. Philo is almost certainly the stronger trait, but powergaming really isn't my thing and I felt like doing something different.

Since I'm playing the nice guy (girl), what victories am I looking at?

Cultural! - I have played to win by culture once in all my playing of Civ 4 so its time to try it again! Also I don't recall anyone trying to focus on culture in the FFH PBEM's so far and again I like doing things a bit differentely. Hall of Kings at Feudalism looks like a key wonder and getting as many animals as possible also looks good so I may get hunting sooner rather than later. Syilven's Perfect Lyre will also be very important to grab. Theatre of Dreams is another one I'd love to get. Getting spirit 2 for casting hope in my cities will be helpful.

After Cultural I have a custom win condition

Alignment - Yes I'll consider it a minor victory if I ever manage to get everyone onto good alignment. This is my version of a diplomatic win. This will require getting people to switch to Order at some point and not frequent Ashen Veil or Octopus Overlords, but hey I only need them to switch for 5 turns right?

After that I guess I'd look at Tower of Mastery/Altar, but I don't expect to beat other players ot those. In fact I go into this game with zero expectation of winning.

My other picks were

Capria/Bannor - Main goal here was to eliminate evil civs

Rhoanna/Hippus - No real intention with this pick. Has some economic bonus + some ability to fight

[Dantski]

Also!!!

Thisg ame has the potential to drag on a seriously long time, the only civ I see who might want to fight early is the Khazad, that kinda sucks as some other civs will just tech considerably faster than me

[Maksim]

Damn Maksim what did I ever do to you?

You know, that is a very good question. I have considered it at length, went through all your posts in the last few months, consulted my personal therapist to see if I harbor any deep-seated resentment towards the letter "D" followed by the letter "a" - nothing!

Which means that the only possible reason is that this was that this was my one remaining pre-requisite for promotion to the thirty-third rank of the Venerable Order of the Worshipful Company of Cartographers (I've already aced the "cackling maniacally" test), which would qualify me for a white cat of my own, and a time-share of a moon base.

In short, nothing personal, just all in a day's work.

---

On the other hand, I'm quite interested in your personal goals - getting everyone to Good alignment should be interesting, as you'd need Khazad, Hippus, Amurites and Lanun to accept Order for some time (don't think any other religion will force an alignment change to Good), and also for Kuriotates not to drop into neutrality.

As to cultural victory - have you tried winning that way in any single player FFH games, by any chance? Are there any hidden gotchas to be shared with the lurkerdom?

[Dantski]

On the other hand, I'm quite interested in your personal goals - getting everyone to Good alignment should be interesting, as you'd need Khazad, Hippus, Amurites and Lanun to accept Order for some time (don't think any other religion will force an alignment change to Good), and also for Kuriotates not to drop into neutrality.

As to cultural victory - have you tried winning that way in any single player FFH games, by any chance? Are there any hidden gotchas to be shared with the lurkerdom?

Yup getting everyone to good alignment is going to be virtually impossible considering how useful the OO heroes + AV priests are, its just a side quest I guess.

Never tried cultural in FFH so had to look up which wonders help in that regard. I'm not 100% sure on how it works but I may be able to move Syliven's Perfect Lyre around like the Crown of Akharein in order to maximise cultural output. Grabbing religion founding techs even after they've been founded would be beneficial if people don't choose to spread them. Ultimately going for cultural will leave me very weak militarily but hopefully my relations are good enough that other people will feel bad about attacking me.


I have played the first turn, I ended up settling in place after seeing nothing of value to the east. My scout is going to follow the river north, while my warrior heads east initially. After some umming and ahhing, I decided I'm going to get Mysticism + Godking straight away and then grab Agriculture, probably a mistake but oh well.

Anyway I have to go poke the last player for sending me the wrong save

[Dantski]

zzz

Super barren land north on the river, all plains + desert. East is looking similar minus the desert but then I haven't scouted as far in that direction.

No screenshots, really not much to see

[Dantski]

T6, Jkaen is first to size 2 because of turn order and he didn't change civics.

EOT and I finish my first warrior, at least 2 more will be built

[Maksim]

Can we get a screenshot of the capital and what you've scouted so far? It'd make quite a nice introduction to your position for the lurkers.

Thanks!

[Serdoa]

OMG you asked Dantski for a screenshot - that means he probably disappears for the next 3 months