Learning Capria FFH SG

[kjn]

So if I have not gotten confused again due to the previous swap, I am up again? I can hopefully look over the save and put together a general plan tomorrow, and then maybe play Wednesday evening. That will hopefully give Brian time to report on his turns as well.

Correct!

[kjn]

Looking around now.

Nice with lots of captured workers!

We need to get decent culture in Hyll ASAP. Get a tiger from the priest of leaves to settle next turn, use the zealot to culture bomb, and force a bard. Coimbra should maybe slot in a quick T1 disciple to culture bomb Evermore. Use the confessors to spread Order and build the temples.

• Praha and Heidelberg should get Tax Offices.
  
• Santo Domingo should work the mine and finish off its Crusader, and set to quick growth afterwards.
  
• Krakow should use its growth for merchants, I think.
  
• Basel needs a hunting lodge and a ToL for health.
  
• Cyan should take the cow from Trinity, so it has some food to grow.
  

I think we should try to get as much XP on our top axe (in København right now) as we can. I think Drill promotions are best right now for him, and try to get the great commander attached to him as many turns as possible. And he should be upgraded to a champion, once we get IW.

The Sanctify adept (in Hyll right now) should go to the former barb city 1S of Red to remove the ruins and lower the AC.

Try to get an adept with Spirit I and one with Enchantment I into St Andrews, together with a Stonewarden. Confessors and flag bearers should follow with the stacks.

The unit management in Civ truly sucks.

[Brian Shanahan]

Captured workers, yeah, we probably could kill off half of them, we've probably too many.

On the Santo Domingo Confessor he's for spreading Order to Taartu, as it needs Order for the basilica it seems.

On the spirit Adept, I have one somewhere, either with the units in Hyll or going back towards St. Andrews in one of the groups that don't have orders. And KJN has seen it in Hyll so that doesn't matter.

Top axe should get drill, also give it to Donal and Valin, if they get Blitz they'll be monsters. All the other units will just be for cheering them on.

[haphazard1]

Sorry for the delay. I am getting slammed at work this week, incredibly busy and not likely to let up until the weekend. I am going to have to request a skip or swap again.

[kjn]

Sorry for the delay. I am getting slammed at work this week, incredibly busy and not likely to let up until the weekend. I am going to have to request a skip or swap again.

Ok. Hang in there, and hope things gets less busy soon.

Playing the turn right now. on the Civ unit management. I know I'm playing quite sloppily, but I've taken three Clan cities. Jonas has been pushing culture hard, so I've had troubles with starvation and movement.

Anyway, we haven't talked much about promotion strategies, but here are my thougths on them:

For one-movers, the most valuable promotion is Mobility 1. We've been pretty good about using that.

For melee units, I see two possible short-term targets: CR3 or March (requires C3). Perhaps add in a single anti-unit promotion, if needed. But I'd much rather have C3 than eg C1+Cover+Shock.

For strong fast units, Blitz (requires D4) is a fantastic promotion, but it takes quite a while to reach. I'm currently having that as the target for our top Champion (was top axe) and the heroes, and a bunch of horse archers.

Disciple units (like our Crusaders) can't get the more advanced situational promos (except Woodsman 2 and Guerilla 2), so the combat and drill lines are good to take. Take March early.

Since we're not Arcane, we should be careful with promos to our Adepts. Right now, they get Body I and Law I for free, but I also think we should leave some promos free if we can do so. I captured a Chaos node from the Clan, but I only had a single Adept that could pick up Dance of Blades since the rest of them had C1 or Spell extension promos - neither of which do much to help a stack.

[Brian Shanahan]

For one-movers, the most valuable promotion is Mobility 1. We've been pretty good about using that.

Actually unless I'm up against a wall and hitting hard defences (where an extra 10% on odds will likely be the difference on winning the city or not) all I've been giving is Mobility one on 1 move non-arcane units. With Arcanes I do as I normally do, a combination of mobility/spell extension/combat/whatever sphere I'm going for level two on that we don't have multiple nodes for.

Aside from that in general going up the combat line is good on melee units, until you hit the max. Flanking/Withdraw is good early on for horse units. Those that live can then receive the combat/shock treatment. Archers are there for primarly holding gains, so after Mob 1 CG and Drill are essential.

And heros and high level units should be blitzed.

[haphazard1]

Ok. Hang in there, and hope things gets less busy soon.

Thanks! We are at a busy point in our product lifecycle, plus I was recently "volunteered" to serve on a couple special projects in addition to my usual responsibilities. So work is busy busy right now. But I should have enough time over the weekend to play a turnset.

Anyway, we haven't talked much about promotion strategies, but here are my thougths on them:

For one-movers, the most valuable promotion is Mobility 1. We've been pretty good about using that.

For purely defensive units such as archers intended as garrisons, I would not take Mobility. Otherwise it is pretty much the first thing. A unit that you can't get to where you need it is not useful.

For melee units, I see two possible short-term targets: CR3 or March (requires C3). Perhaps add in a single anti-unit promotion, if needed. But I'd much rather have C3 than eg C1+Cover+Shock.

For melee I have usually stuck with Combat promotions, until these have been maxed out. March has some value, but with priests available to boost healing I usually am willing to take the time for regular healing and use promotions for more combat power. If we ever get to Sorcery, some Body II willl take care of healing on the move.

For City Raider, maybe a few units can be promoted this way to take on the top defenders at each city. But I generally prefer the more flexible combat promotions first. I guess I haven't checked carefully -- does CR3 get additional bonuses in FFH2?

Anti-unit promotions I mostly avoid except in special situations, or unless an opponent has very large numbers of units of one type. We had some Cover promoted axes which were useful against Auric's hordes of javelin throwers, for example. But I did not add any more Cover promotions.

For strong fast units, Blitz (requires D4) is a fantastic promotion, but it takes quite a while to reach. I'm currently having that as the target for our top Champion (was top axe) and the heroes, and a bunch of horse archers.

I am rather ambivalent about Drill promotions, but that may be my BtS experience talking since some common units have/can get immunity to first strikes. I hate seeing multiple-promotion units die with all their promotions being useless. Maybe this is different in FFH2?

Since we're not Arcane, we should be careful with promos to our Adepts. Right now, they get Body I and Law I for free, but I also think we should leave some promos free if we can do so. I captured a Chaos node from the Clan, but I only had a single Adept that could pick up Dance of Blades since the rest of them had C1 or Spell extension promos - neither of which do much to help a stack.

I tend to keep my arcane unit promos for spells (after Mobility of course). If a particular unit is going to be a summoner then combat promotions gain value. I haven't tended to use Spell Extension, but maybe I am missing something on what these do?

Aside from that in general going up the combat line is good on melee units, until you hit the max. Flanking/Withdraw is good early on for horse units. Those that live can then receive the combat/shock treatment. Archers are there for primarly holding gains, so after Mob 1 CG and Drill are essential.

And heros and high level units should be blitzed.

I have used Flanking a fair bit for horse units other than heroes.

[kjn]

Having some Flanking horsemen or horse archers is quite nice, perhaps go with one third going C-line first, one third Flanking, and one third Drill (they are very handy to pick off wounded units). Drill is also handy in FfH since they get defensive strikes while not being the top defender, but I view Drill more as an offensive than a defensive tool.

March is very nice since it both allows faster healing before you get Medic 2 in play, and allows healing while moving. Ie, you get a much higher operational tempo, and it allows your heavy hitters to keep fighting every turn, earning even more XP.

CR3 gives +20% vs melee, but the main reason is that cities are the most common, the most valuable, and the most heavily defended ground to attack, so it makes sense to have a few specialists for that. I think I split promoted demagogs to one half Combat and one half CR (but our Crusaders have been almost all Combat, except that I've given one or two of them Guerilla 2).

It's not really a criticism here - we never really talked about promos, and ended up with a bit of a hodge-podge early game.

I also wondered about the Combat and Spell extension promotions on the adepts. I can understand the value for summoning mages, but for adepts that are mainly going to support a stack?

(Or it's simply a misclick while handling the adept - easy enough to do given Civ 4's unit management.)

[haphazard1]

Having some Flanking horsemen or horse archers is quite nice, perhaps go with one third going C-line first, one third Flanking, and one third Drill (they are very handy to pick off wounded units). Drill is also handy in FfH since they get defensive strikes while not being the top defender, but I view Drill more as an offensive than a defensive tool.

I have read the pedia entries but still do not really understand how defensive strikes work. Is it a chance for the top defender, a chance per defender with defensive strikes, something else?

March is very nice since it both allows faster healing before you get Medic 2 in play, and allows healing while moving. Ie, you get a much higher operational tempo, and it allows your heavy hitters to keep fighting every turn, earning even more XP.

March is a trade off of combat power for operational tempo. I have tended to go for combat power, figuring better odds of surviving (and healing while stationary) is better than a greater chance of dying (and the heal rate no longer mattering). This is also affected by my arcane emphasis in my limited personal games to date -- I have generally had mages with Body II available to have everyone healing on the move without March promotions.

CR3 gives +20% vs melee, but the main reason is that cities are the most common, the most valuable, and the most heavily defended ground to attack, so it makes sense to have a few specialists for that. I think I split promoted demagogs to one half Combat and one half CR (but our Crusaders have been almost all Combat, except that I've given one or two of them Guerilla 2).

Ah, interesting to know that about CR3. I will have to review all the pedia entries on promotions, as there are probably more things like this that I am not aware of. I need to remember not to assume things work like BtS. A split sounds good, as while cities are the most contested tiles it is good to have more flexible units available as well.

It's not really a criticism here - we never really talked about promos, and ended up with a bit of a hodge-podge early game.

I also wondered about the Combat and Spell extension promotions on the adepts. I can understand the value for summoning mages, but for adepts that are mainly going to support a stack?

(Or it's simply a misclick while handling the adept - easy enough to do given Civ 4's unit management.)

I did not promote any adepts with Combat or Spell Extension (at least not intentionally). So I think Brian will need to answer this one.

We don't really have anything for summoning, although if we researched Necromancy we do have that death mana from what I presume was the Broken Sepulcher. Otherwise we need at least Sorcery to get anything summonable.

[Brian Shanahan]

I did not promote any adepts with Combat or Spell Extension (at least not intentionally). So I think Brian will need to answer this one

As I said my general spellcaster promotion line include SE early. I generally end up with a lot of summoner mages. One game where I left go into the 400s I had about 50 fireball mages flying around the place, and I had skelly adepts and my Archmages and Liches with multiple summoning. It took a while to play a turn, but slamming a city with 50 fireballs, fun.