[Spoiler] Sian actually updates a game *Gasp*

[Sian]

Here's for hoping that it goes better this time around

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turn -1 have been done with Drafting Mardoc for support role

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Leader Ranking

Flaulus of Calabim
Rhoanna of Hippus
Hannah of Lanun

other picks that was interesting but in the end neutered was Beeri of Lurichup and Varn of Malakim

[Mardoc]

Dedlurker checking in. Nothing much to say at this point, though.

Also...Ellimist, why are you always the last to submit picks? You had weeks to think about this!

I want to start spamming with descriptions of your foes, likely strategies, your own nifty toolkit, and so on and so forth, and I can't without some idea of what was picked!

[Qgqqqqq]

Why Flaurus?

[Sian]

my FFH 'skills' is as such that i would rather have something easy but solid, than something that is tricky but if worked correctly great ... 'cause even with Mardoc riding shotgun, i'd except myself to screw it up ... certainly what happened in eitb28 in my end, blowing the opening followed by severe commence issues which made me a nonentry even not accounting for the early win (was only just about getting back on my feet there when it ended)

[Sian]

Sian has Flauros of Calabim
BobCW has Faeryl of Svartalfar
Dantski has Rhoanna of Hippus
GreyWolf has Varn of Malakim
Ellimist has Perpentach of Balseraphs

[Mardoc]

Sian has Flauros of Calabim

So, what's to expect from our civ? The Calabim are a very strong civ, and Flauros is their best leader. Here's why:

- Flauros has two very good traits, and synergy with his civ on top. Financial is the clear strongest trait - also easiest to use. Org is strong, but doubly so when it speeds the best feature of the Calabim.

Financial simply gives +1 commerce to all tiles with 2+ originally.
Organized halves civic maintenance, doubles build speed of courthouses (Governor's Manors), and allows the building of Command Posts. So your GNP is boosted even further, and you have the Command Post option.

That best feature is, of course, Governor's Manors. Yeah, I know the theme of vampires wwould make you think they're the reason for the civ, but vamps are probably only the third-best feature of the civ. What does a Governor's Manor do that's so awesome?

• +1 hammer/turn for every unhappy in the city. At base, that's usually just 1 hammer/pop, but if you add in other unhappy sources you can get a lot of hammers. It means unhappy population is still worth having, if you have the food - never never Avoid Growth.
  
• +1 unhappiness. Somewhat painful occasionally early - but any city that's not maxed gets an extra hpt from this.
  
• -20% maintenance. Smaller than a normal Courthouse, but still worth having.
  

All in all, a Governor's Manor will be anywhere from doubling your city's hammer output to being its primary hammer source.
On top, Flauros gets them for half-price. As soon as they're unlocked, they should be the first build in every city barring extraordinary circumstances.

Second best: Probably Moroi. These axeman replacements have the Burning Blood special ability. That gives +1 move, +20% strength, and blitz. Also gives a 20% chance per turn to turn the unit to a barbarian, but also a 10% chance to wear off with no ill effect. That's not a package that seems awesome, but in practice it is. +1 move early, and it stacks with both the Mobility promo and Haste. A minimum of 2 moves and easy access to four means they are excellent for forking and reacting. You can do some neat tricks, too - move them off a boat, then Burning Blood to attack, for example. They're a possible offensive unit - I've died to Moroi once - and also very good at defense. The potential to go to barb control is annoying, but usually that means you delay hitting the button until you're ready to use the unit; after it fights you generally don't care if it goes barb.

On average, the best use for Moroi is to deter someone else's aggression, or to hit a farmer's gambit. I wouldn't use them against a prepared foe, especially when you're not Decius, but I would build a bunch of them regardless and keep aware of opportunities. They also make a nice supplement to a vampire stack - among other things, they'll defend first, and they're a lot cheaper. But that extra move makes them hard to defend against.

Third best: Vampires. Champion replacement, slightly weaker base strength, but three dramatic offsetting abilities:

• They start with Channelling and Death I/Body I. This means they can summon skeletons and cast Haste immediately, and with 2 promotions can move on to summoning Spectres and casting Regeneration. All four of these are useful spells. Basically they mean that a Vampire stack can move rapidly, attack every turn with disposable summons, and if you fight with the vamps themselves, heal on the move. No need for a pause to regroup! Channelling means on average they won't defend the stack, so you lose Spectres or Moroi instead of your expensive vamps.
  
• They have the Feast ability. Subtract 1 pop from a city, gain Pop-3 XP for the vampire. It's fairly easy to start with Commando vampires, or to have them all able to summon spectres, or lots of other possibilities.
  
• Vampirism promotion, which is +10% strength and more importantly healing rate. Can be spread to other units if the reciever is level 6 (level 4 for Moroi) which doesn't happen often, but it's nice when it does.
  
• Minor feature: Consume Bloodpet. Kills a bloodpet, heals the vampire. But in practice, you won't use this. If your vamps are all wounded and can't wait for Regeneration, then you'd probably rather have the Bloodpet defend.
  

Fourth best bonus: Breeding Pits. +1 unhealthiness, +20% food retention, +2 food/turn. On par with Granary and Smokehouse, adds up to +60% food saved with the two of those. Which you build first depends on your health situation.

Other features:
- Bloodpet instead of Warrior. Basically just a name change and enabling a vampire special ability that you'll never use.
- Elder Councils banned. Makes it hard to get an early Academy, but you won't likely miss the beakers very much, not as Flauros. Still, a slight nerf.

How does a typical Calabim game look? Start by grabbing the minimum necessary worker techs, while expanding. As soon as you can, go to Code of Laws, swap to Aristocracy/Agrarianism. Build farms absolutely everywhere, and Governor's Manors. This should put you basically first place in the demos, or at least competitive. Research up to Bronze Working, Sanitation, and grow your cities big, putting in Granaries, Smokehouses, and Breeding Pits, along with whatever happiness buildings you need. Revolt into Military State. Build or draft enough Moroi to keep yourself safe or take advantage of opportunities, while researching to Feudalism. Draft a bunch of vampires, Feast them up, and go kill everyone.

Supplemental possibilities:

• Ashen Veil synergizes beautifully with the vamps. Ring of Flames gives you solid collateral, and the AV-only civic Sacrifice the Weak makes your population consume only 1 food. It's quite possible to have all your cities large, and growing every single turn - to be turned into either another drafted Vamp or some Feast XP on your existing population of vamps. AV has other nice features, too, but those are the biggest.
  
  
• Researching Iron Working and possibly Mithril Working both give a nice strength boost to Moroi and Vampires.
  
  
• Researching Knowledge of the Ether and Necromancy lets you build death nodes to pump up your Spectres. Spammable Str 3/Fear units are nice and can be quite effective, but spammable Str 8+ units get to be ridiculously awesome. Build the Tower of Necromancy to add Strong to your spectres for another nice bonus.
  
  
• Other spells can be quite handy, if you want to build some adepts and research other mana techs.
  
  
• Anything that adds happiness is worth considering - you want your cities big for lots of reasons. Possibly early religion like Kilmorph or OO.
  
  
• It may be worth going to sea, depending on the map. Organized boosts lighthouses, Gov Manors let island cities have decent hammers. These cities will never be as nice as inland grass/floodplains heavy cities, but they're still worth having, usually.
  
  
• There are a number of nice wonders worth grabbing if you can. Especially nice: the Tower of Chains and the Guild of Hammers.
  

These all depend on the map and the neighbors. Each is a detour that will delay the vamps, and the vamps are the piece that wins games. But they're useful bonuses, especially if it turns out to be a big map and you don't want to fight until late anyway.

I hope that's enough information to let you start dreaming, and planning! Let me know if you have any questions, or if you noticed something in the manual that I didn't mention. I'll start working on similar summaries for your foes.

[Sian]

Few questions off the top of my head

Agrarianism/Aristocracy together (saving a turn from anarchy) or Agraianism asap and then Aristocracy at some point afterwards (given that Calender is a reasonbly good worker tech in it self)

Would FireII Vampires be viable(or even possible) for sieging?

River of Blood ... t0 cast or in some 15 to actually damage the opponents?

[Mardoc]

Agrarianism/Aristocracy together (saving a turn from anarchy) or Agraianism asap and then Aristocracy at some point afterwards (given that Calender is a reasonbly good worker tech in it self)

Agrarianism is usually worth picking up ASAP. Exception would be if we're given odd terrain for our capital, but I'd revolt after Calendar 9 times out of 10.

Would FireII Vampires be viable(or even possible) for sieging?

Not possible. They start with Channelling II, but not Channelling I, which means they can only upgrade spells, not learn new ones.

Usually though a turn or two of Spectres piling in is all you need. Or bypass the strongpoint and go murder the opponent's backlines. Or use Ashen Veil Priests to start them off at 60% health, then Spectres.

River of Blood ... t0 cast or in some 15 to actually damage the opponents?

Ah, forgot to mention this entirely!

Depends on the capital tiles, but I usually lean toward T0. Once that first food source is improved, regrowing pop is usually fairly easy. I think we get more of an advantage by getting the first worker out early, than by shoving people backward.

It's not an obvious choice, though. Especially if the capital tiles aren't good to work unimproved. I could see a case for a size 3 pop instead.

Just don't save it to midgame or later, and I won't complain.

[DaveV]

Nice writeup, Mardoc. A couple corrections: Burning Blood has a 20% chance per turn to turn the unit to a barbarian, but also a 10% chance to wear off with no ill effect. Breeding Pit is +2 food. Spectres start at strength 3, since the palace doesn't give any Death mana.

[Mardoc]

Nice writeup, Mardoc. A couple corrections: Burning Blood has a 20% chance per turn to turn the unit to a barbarian, but also a 10% chance to wear off with no ill effect. Breeding Pit is +2 food. Spectres start at strength 3, since the palace doesn't give any Death mana.

Thanks for the correction - was just working from memory. Updated my post with the correct values.