[SPOILERS] The Reverend Varn of the Malakim

[The Reverend Doctor]

"And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise. And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!"

Revelations 8; 12-13

Welcome to the spoiler thread wherein The Reverend Doctor will lead the blessed peoples of the Malakim to glory on Erebus!



The above bible verses rendered much more fun when accompanied by awesome Lego illustrations at The Brick Testament

[The Reverend Doctor]

So at this point you don't need me to explain anything about Fall From Heaven (assuming I could) right? Good.

So let's get right to it. First, the parameters of this game.

Leader/Civ restrictions: All allowed (I think) but restricted leaders.

Quirk: We all get an adept with 3 level one spells to start the game.

Map: Rainforest. Lightly edited for fairness.

Diplomacy: CTON (Can't Talk or Negotiate) No Tech Trading

What does all this mean to me?

I'm definitely glad we agreed on CTON... Lewwyn can tell you I'm terrible at what limited diplomacy I've attempted in the past. I would've been down for Tech Trading in a CTON atmosphere, no 'we'll pay you these techs later...' or 'lets share all our techs cause we're behind' kind of negotiating, but alas. I suppose any palace mana trades will have to happen simultaneously... no one can communicate that they'll pay them back one later.

Rainforest map script I'm still wrapping my head around. Some starts have a TON of food but limited happiness. Others have good calendar resources but are surrounded by jungle (duh...). One test start even landed me in a spot with every tile of the BFC as a floodplain, something that might be cool in theory with the Malakim's desert affinity but I was unable to grow at all due to all the unhealthiness.

And then there's that whole starting with a spellcaster on turn 1 to consider. There's about 10 level 1 spells I could see people benefitting from at the start. Some economic, some militarily focused. Of special importance for this game: don't lose this unit to a giant spider on turn 3!

[The Reverend Doctor]

The dossier on our civ...



Leader: Varn Gosam

Civilization: Malakim

Alignment: Good

Traits: Spiritual/Creative (Adaptive)

Palace Mana: Life, Mind, Sun

World Spell: Religious Fervor

Special Ability: +1 commerce from desert (including flood plains), Units start with nomad promotion. +1 movement on desert tiles (but not flood plains)

Hero: Teutorix

UU: Camel Archer, Lightbringer

UB: Desert Shrine, Citadel of Light

Starting Tech: Ancient Chants


The Malakim are a civilization of desert nomads led by a (apparently) former elf blessed by the gods. They thrive in desert terrain and the extra commerce from flood plains is a huge boon if you can find some. You can get the Spain on Lake two commerce from the start but still work your best food tile!

Varn starts the game as Spiritual and Creative but can switch away from Creative as part his adaptive trait. Creative is a great first trait as you can avoid building monuments in the first couple cities you found and after the switch the Malakim are probably generating culture with religion.


[SIZE="2"]Teutorix. Who apparently suffers from the same divine glaucoma as Chalid.
[/SIZE]
Our hero is Teutorix. A late (and I mean laaate) game archery hero. He might be good. You'll probably never see him, the tech that unlocks him (blasting powder) is just not in the usual Malakim game plan.

The UU camel archer is basically what it is in BTS except at Horse Archer instead of knight. It's the same but resourceless.

The Lightbringer doesn't really replace any unit. You start with one instead of a scout and it has the sentry and mobility promotions and is strength 2. They have no bonus against animals like scouts and are very likely to die quickly. They seem like kind of a waste for their cost in the beginning of the game... but they start to shine later when you can combine their spiritual disciple unit buffs with their flexibility in being upgraded.

The UB Desert Shrine replaces the Pagan Temple (+10% culture, priest slot, +1 happy with incense) but adds +2 experience to disciple units produced in the city.

The UB Citadel of Light needs to be explored more. The fall from heaven wiki says it does fire damage to all units next to a city but I don't think that matches what actually happens in game. I'll have to check.

The world spell creates a priest of the state religion in every city (and experience based on the number of cities with the religion). Hopefully can be saved to create 10+ priests quickly, but can also be cashed in for emergency defense.

[The Reverend Doctor]

Subject to change as soon as turn 1 of course.

So how do I plan to go about winning this thing? That's a tough question for the Malakim.

Pros of our civ: Very adaptable.
Cons of our civ: Very adaptable.

What I mean by that is... for all the options available to Varn, sometimes this leads to lack of focus and no clear path to victory. It's easier for other leaders: Calabim get some vampires and try to kill everyone with them and their spectres. The Sheaim get a ton of pyre zombies and watch the world burn, etc. Varn is a different beast.

There is a lot of incentive to gather a bunch of religions and goodies all around the tech tree (not to mention our stupid hero trying to tempt you to research blasting powder, I think I can avoid this one).

So I've decided I should start with a plan (even if I have to abandon it), what's mine?


Figured we needed a picture and this is the first google image result for 'luonnotar'. Don't ask me.

Varn being Spiritual is a key to my gameplan. If everything goes right I plan to switch to Philosophical with my first trait change and stay there. Pumping prophets for the occasional shrine and building up the Altar of Luonnotar toward victory. Along with being a way to victory, the Altar provides experience to disciple units (that I plan to use extensively), extra hammers for priest specialists, and the later stages provide civ wide happiness bonuses. Of course I will have to get a legitimate military in place as people notice me building the altar stages, but if this map provides the room rainforest usually does I may not need an offensive war for more territory.

The early game on this map will probably mostly mean surviving the barbs. Rainforest script seems to throw out some pretty large maps, and the dearth of unjungled tiles means that sentry nets are all but impossible because line of sight is pretty much reduced to 1 in every direction.

It's not all terrible news though. We do start with an adept remember, and I suppose it's time to unveil what spells mine will be packing (drumroll please...)

Metamagic I - Floating Eye
Fire I - Blaze
Death I - Summon Skeleton
(I didn't write these down, I hope that's what I sent Ichabod)

The eyes that are floating around were apparently stolen from krakens for flying purposes. Good to know.
Floating eye has amazing range and my first ring or two of expansion plans can be seen from the safety of my capital. Hopefully my adept survives and gets to the next level by the time sorcery comes in and I can promote him to mage/metamagic II without having to connect a metamagic source all game.

Edited to add: I don't think I understand FFH invisibility rules, even though I've seen it explained. Kind of annoying that floating eyes apparently do not see giant spiders. Extra important to send a guard or two if the adept leaves our borders.

Blaze was chosen because Varn can ignore bronze working for a long time, but there will be LOTS of jungle. Casting it on jungle causes smoke, which causes a fire, which leads to a new forest, which leads to a regular forest. Can be a long process but I can start it early. Has the advantage of not just eliminating the jungle but turning it into something potentially useful.

Skeleton was chosen because I'd like to keep the adept close to home and the skeleton can wander around in his stead, and I'll need an exploring unit because the Lightbringer will almost assuredly die quickly. Basically a summonable warrior. Nice if I'm under duress I can disband the wandering skeleton and summon one again close to home.

So early game is about surviving the barbs (and any other players who get some unsavory ideas) and doing some terraforming/improvement building to set up the economy. The mid game will involve some religion switching (against the backdrop of building the altar). I think religion for the Malakim gets its own post.

[The Reverend Doctor]

Religions deserve serious consideration in every Fall From Heaven game, and even more so with a leader and civ that can switch between them at will and derive unique benefits from priest/disciple units.

It's not unusual for a Malakim empire to gather about 4 or 5 religions and use them all at some point. Let's go through all of them (evil to good) and talk about how they can be useful for my game.



I certainly have no plans to summon Hyborem, but Ashen Veil could be useful in a city or two of mine. If I want a quick source of collateral damage I could spread AV to one city, pop my worldspell for a ritualist per city to cause some pain with ring of flames.

Lightbringers with a load of starting experience can also pull off a neat trick with AV. They can upgrade through savant straight to mages. They don't get arcane promos along the way but with a few of the same mana source can start with useful spells.

Can't stay in it too long as the altar can't be built by evil civs, but I'll probably make a pit stop for AV in a city.

Don't want to spread it too much. Both to keep the AC down and because it conflicts with other plans...



No unique units that I lust after, I think I'll let the others fight over Gibbon.

If it's ignored for long enough it'd be useful if I could found CoE and build Nox Noctis. Otherwise I'll probably pass.



Cultists can dominate on certain maps, and I have a big shiny button that could create a lot of them out of the ether, but I don't see this map having enough bodies of water to make them particularly devastating. I do think Fanaticism will be in my tech path so might be a detour for some stygian guards is the situation is right for them.

Hemah is great but I'll probably be concentrating elsewhere by the time I could research arcane lore.



Kind of a standard religion to pursue early when you're not on the water or the elves, but it's always kind of underwhelmed me. Heroes are forgettable, won't help pop borders (as I plan to switch away from creative at t75), and the priests aren't anything to write home about. I'll probably go with markets to keep the economy afloat instead of the gold from Kilmorph.

Maybe if I just want the benefits of any religion and it's looking like it'll take a really long time to get to the later ones.



I probably won't found it, as there are elves in the game. Even so, I'll probably adopt it for a while. If I burn some jungle and get some forests in their place, lumbermills may be necessary to garner some production on the almost too green and flat rainforest script. Making those tiles ancient forests would, of course, be a boon.

FoL may also be the religion of choice for popping my worldspell. Priests of Leaves to bloom and also summon tigers to soften stacks or add a happiness to cities with carnivals. Wouldn't mind having about 6 of these guys.



Empyrean seems to fit with the Malakim thematically very well and it would be nice to get some radiant guard or rathas (especially as I didn't choose haste or slow on my adept to swing the mobility in wars in my favor).

Usually would be chosen with the hopes of landing Chalid, but I don't think I'll be headed for him.



The ultimate good religion which I sort of rarely use in most of my games.

I think that's about to change though.

I foresee myself adopting Order after popping my worldspell and staying in it for good.

Priests add +1 holy combat to units with their Bless spell. Order is super easy to spread over an empire as every time it appears in a city you have a 75% chance to spawn an acolyte who can spread it again, rinse, repeat.

The shrine, Code of Junil provides law mana which dovetails nicely with my plans. Law from the shrine plus my palace mana puts me only one mana type away from being able to build the tower of divination (a national wonder oracle). The plan would be to divine the righteousness tech as its expensive, required for a more advanced level of the altar and it unlocks Sphener (an awesome angel hero) and paladins. Sphener, in addition to being a good unit, looks bad ass enough to more than make up for the dopey looking Valin Phanuel.

Fanaticism, which is required for righteousness, also unlocks the mercurian gate. We haven't seen the mercurians yet in these pbems but if I have an outlying city with some good production I'll probably try and build it for a permanent angel ally.

And there you have it. The religions and what I might do with them.

[The Reverend Doctor]

Kuro: Perpentach of Balseraphs



The Player: Pretty new, haven't seen him play any games. Either is pretty new to FFH or was downplaying his skills in the sign up thread significantly.

The Choice: Can't say much about the traits as they're subject to change at all times. Balseraphs can create good culture even when not creative at the time.

Puppet mechanic (and the possibility of summoner trait) probably means heading for whatever mages/archmages he can get his hands on. Look out for a close to turn 100 Gibbon.

A few luckily mutated freaks can upgrade and create powerful units for their time.

I'd guess death, body, metamagic for starting adept spells.


Bobchillingworth: Beeri Bawl of the Luchuirp



The Player: A FFH game staple around these parts. Often thinks of plans (realized or not) that I probably wouldn't have considered.

The Choice: As much as Bob does come up with a unique game plan, I think the Luchuirp will play pretty standard: rush to either Iron Golems or Gargoyles (they're not as strong but I usually choose gargoyles, seems like the techs on the way help in more than just military matters.) Add blasting workshops and voilà; a nearly unstoppable army. Fireball wielding golems can either pick a fight or just play defense if they have enough mana nodes for a tower victory.

At least I don't think any of us start with fire mana, so Bob will have to convert a node before he can get blasting workshops rolling.

I'd guess enchantment (buff for warriors and can repair golems), mind, and metamagic for starting adept.


Selrahc: Faeryl Viconia of the Svartalfar



The Player: Like Bob, in or at least commenting on all the FFH games.

The Choice: Probably the only non-standard choice. Good on Selrahc for that.

Elves, so of course they're likely to run Fellowship of Leaves. Also come with a buff for recon units and quickly gaining experience adepts. Summons are illusions which can't kill; fortunately for him he'll likely have assassins along to pick off the weakened units. The scariest of which is the Alaskan Assassin hero.

Will probably have a very different tech path than the rest of us. Be afraid of a stack of mages, assassins, maybe even werewolves later on from Selrahc.

At least the worldspell is (or at least seems) useless for MP... no one is going to be fooled by hidden nationality elven units.

I'd bet money his starting adept has fire, burning jungle and turning it to forests is golden for elves. Maybe add slow and air. (, ok he didn't choose air but I couldn't think of another one well suited for the dark elves.)


Thoth: Cassiel of the Grigori



The Player: Not as prolific as Bob or Selrahc but a proven FFH entity based on the games he's playing in/ded lurking. Ugh, another good player.

The Choice: I'm not a very good player of the Grigori so I don't really know what to expect from them. Adventurers can be saved for late game uber mages or for a couple monstrous axes early. Two hero axes and orthus' axe would probably be unstoppable on turn 60.

I'll eat my hat if he didn't choose mind mana. Which is scary... what does that mean a great person on turn like 10 that has a 33% chance of being a sage for an academy. Wow.

Since the adept has to sit at home I'd peg the other two spells as death (exploring/defense) and enchantment (can buff warriors before they are sent away).

I guess that's all the pre game analysis I'm good for. Questions or comments are encouraged!

[Ichabod]

Your start:

[The Reverend Doctor]

Thanks Ichabod.

Especially for those wines!

[The Reverend Doctor]

Check out the map info provided on the very first turn thanks to Metamagic 1 and its magical floating kraken's eye:

The good: A couple commerce resources (and one happy in wines) right at the capital! I'm pretty confident those wines were added, so thanks to the mapmaker.

The bad: Varn's desert affinity doesn't look like it'll be realized soon. Can't complain too much because the starting capital has good commerce and unusually high production for rainforest.

Thought about moving 1s to settle for 1 extra food on the pigs while still picking up a different pigs.... but my test games proved growth was definitely the least of my worries, so I settled in place.

Plan right now is to build a warrior, but a turn or two into another, and then push out a worker at size 3.

First 3 techs will probably be crafting>agriculture>calendar.

Here's the starting adept. Mostly just because I like the name Ichabod gave him.... and to show you that I gave him Combat I (as required).

[The Reverend Doctor]

Third times the charm I believe.

The settings for our game (with the correct difficulty).

Full disclosure: I don't remember exactly what tile I sent my magic eye to the first time, but I know I sent it in the same direction... and the map looks about the same.