First off, I'm late to the party, but I'm loving it. This is a great MOD & has really reinvigorated my enjoyment of Civ, so thanks to all involved. Now, I'm on my 3rd game. First one, Amurites, no idea what I was doing, played Prince (I can play Immortal on CivIV BtS), won Domination. Second, Calabim, I read up on the forums, moved to Emporer, won eventually with Conquest after Feasting Feasting Feasting. Now I'm playing the Kuriotates, on Immortal, because I figured a good turtle civ would be good to try that difficulty.
So, I have a few questions, & thanks in advance to anyone who can help me with them.
1) I understand the whole settlement concept, well, in general, but obviously not completely. I thought I'd be able to border-pop them with religion spread, but that's not working (wasn't working before question #4, either). Is casting Legends the only way to border-pop my settlements? I settled them to grab some resources, but if Legends is the only way to pop, then you basically need to settle every Settlement you might ever want, then cast Legends, right?
2) I understand that Adaptive should let me change one of my traits every 100 turns, specifically the Expansive trait (or is it my Phil trait - I can't seem to tell, I'm hoping it's my Exp trait - Cardith Lorda's description lists him as Phil-Exp-Adapt). I'm on turn 128 & haven't been able to change traits - is it because I'm playing on Epic, or do I have to proactively do something to change traits?
3) If the answer to #2 is that I can pro-actively change my trait & I've missed how to do it, what should I change to given I'm trapped in Stasis (see #4)? Or does it not matter & I should just wait it out?
4) The #%*(@$^& Illians cast Stasis. Hey, I think the idea of World Spells is pretty cool. I saw in the Custom Game options there's a way to disable them all - that seems like a terrible solution. But, I'm seriously sitting here for 30 turns where I can't do anything?!? Initially I thought "hey, at least my cottages get 30 turns of growth!", but no, not even that. Is there a way, maybe in the asset files, to lower the turns on certain World Spells?
When I played the Calabim, the Amurites cast Arcane Lacuna & that... sucked. Disabled Feasting. Disabled gifting Vampirism. Again, for 30 turns, because Epic. I don't want to turn off World Spells. They're too neat. But can I cut down on the base # of turns of these 30-turn game killers? I seriously want to either RageQuit or else reload & BarbCrush them the turn before this happens. Can someone show me where to modify the effects of certain World Spells? I'm playing single player & these are nerfing my fun.
5) I've pretty much gotten all my information from reading the forums & I have never seen a topic on playing the Somnium card game. I didn't even know it existed until I was literally hitting every button shortly after turn 100 trying to figure out how to change my trait. Does anyone use that? Are there strategies for it?
6) Other than an occasional city guardian unit you want to have a little buffed up strength, is there any reason to take Combat promotions in FfH2? Drill leads to Blitz & Drill is generally superior to Combat even in basic CivIV (other than Combat leading to Blitz). Other than getting a few Commando units, what's the point in taking Combat in FfH2?
7) I think I have a pretty good handle on mana nodes, but, rather than starting a separate topic, I may as well ask this here: If you, theoretically, had 4 nodes of each mana type, your Archmages would promote having every spell in the game, right?
8) Finally, a this-game-specific question. With the Kuriotates, after having Dominated & Conquested, I figured I'd try a Cultural victory. Other than building Temples & the occasional Wonder I can snag, is there a sure fire way to boost my Culture? I've just managed to get Fellowship of Leaves spread to my 3rd potential Culture city (a few turns before Stasis hit, so I haven't been able to build hardly any Temples), & was hoping to combine Cottages + Ancient-Forest-Lumber-Mills to feed the big cities & run some Bards, plus probably continued Agrarianism, at least early on, until way on down the line when I can get Foreign Trade, Liberty, Republic. Is there an early-mid strategy I should be pursuing to advance my Culture?
Other than Temples, most buildings seem to add a very small amount of Culture. I'm used to playing with Cathedrals, Synagogues, Mandirs, etc. to *multiply* Culture, even if I only have 1-2 religions. Any suggestions on how to adapt?
Thanks for any replies, & I know this is a mix of "how does this work?" & "what's the best stategy?", so if this should go the Strategy & Tips subforum, feel free to move it, of course.
EDIT: I remembered one more as soon as I flipped back over to the game:
9) My promotion icons obscure my unit information. Now, I'm running Blue Marble in my base game of Civ, so maybe that's it, but, particularly with my Mages who have a lot of Lvl 1 spell promotion icons, the icons to show their promotions cover up the numeric descriptions that say what their strength, movement, & X/X experience is. Is there a way to disable the promotion icons in FfH2, even temporarily, so I can see the unit information behind it?
So, I have a few questions, & thanks in advance to anyone who can help me with them.
1) I understand the whole settlement concept, well, in general, but obviously not completely. I thought I'd be able to border-pop them with religion spread, but that's not working (wasn't working before question #4, either). Is casting Legends the only way to border-pop my settlements? I settled them to grab some resources, but if Legends is the only way to pop, then you basically need to settle every Settlement you might ever want, then cast Legends, right?
2) I understand that Adaptive should let me change one of my traits every 100 turns, specifically the Expansive trait (or is it my Phil trait - I can't seem to tell, I'm hoping it's my Exp trait - Cardith Lorda's description lists him as Phil-Exp-Adapt). I'm on turn 128 & haven't been able to change traits - is it because I'm playing on Epic, or do I have to proactively do something to change traits?
3) If the answer to #2 is that I can pro-actively change my trait & I've missed how to do it, what should I change to given I'm trapped in Stasis (see #4)? Or does it not matter & I should just wait it out?
4) The #%*(@$^& Illians cast Stasis. Hey, I think the idea of World Spells is pretty cool. I saw in the Custom Game options there's a way to disable them all - that seems like a terrible solution. But, I'm seriously sitting here for 30 turns where I can't do anything?!? Initially I thought "hey, at least my cottages get 30 turns of growth!", but no, not even that. Is there a way, maybe in the asset files, to lower the turns on certain World Spells?
When I played the Calabim, the Amurites cast Arcane Lacuna & that... sucked. Disabled Feasting. Disabled gifting Vampirism. Again, for 30 turns, because Epic. I don't want to turn off World Spells. They're too neat. But can I cut down on the base # of turns of these 30-turn game killers? I seriously want to either RageQuit or else reload & BarbCrush them the turn before this happens. Can someone show me where to modify the effects of certain World Spells? I'm playing single player & these are nerfing my fun.
5) I've pretty much gotten all my information from reading the forums & I have never seen a topic on playing the Somnium card game. I didn't even know it existed until I was literally hitting every button shortly after turn 100 trying to figure out how to change my trait. Does anyone use that? Are there strategies for it?
6) Other than an occasional city guardian unit you want to have a little buffed up strength, is there any reason to take Combat promotions in FfH2? Drill leads to Blitz & Drill is generally superior to Combat even in basic CivIV (other than Combat leading to Blitz). Other than getting a few Commando units, what's the point in taking Combat in FfH2?
7) I think I have a pretty good handle on mana nodes, but, rather than starting a separate topic, I may as well ask this here: If you, theoretically, had 4 nodes of each mana type, your Archmages would promote having every spell in the game, right?
8) Finally, a this-game-specific question. With the Kuriotates, after having Dominated & Conquested, I figured I'd try a Cultural victory. Other than building Temples & the occasional Wonder I can snag, is there a sure fire way to boost my Culture? I've just managed to get Fellowship of Leaves spread to my 3rd potential Culture city (a few turns before Stasis hit, so I haven't been able to build hardly any Temples), & was hoping to combine Cottages + Ancient-Forest-Lumber-Mills to feed the big cities & run some Bards, plus probably continued Agrarianism, at least early on, until way on down the line when I can get Foreign Trade, Liberty, Republic. Is there an early-mid strategy I should be pursuing to advance my Culture?
Other than Temples, most buildings seem to add a very small amount of Culture. I'm used to playing with Cathedrals, Synagogues, Mandirs, etc. to *multiply* Culture, even if I only have 1-2 religions. Any suggestions on how to adapt?
Thanks for any replies, & I know this is a mix of "how does this work?" & "what's the best stategy?", so if this should go the Strategy & Tips subforum, feel free to move it, of course.
EDIT: I remembered one more as soon as I flipped back over to the game:
9) My promotion icons obscure my unit information. Now, I'm running Blue Marble in my base game of Civ, so maybe that's it, but, particularly with my Mages who have a lot of Lvl 1 spell promotion icons, the icons to show their promotions cover up the numeric descriptions that say what their strength, movement, & X/X experience is. Is there a way to disable the promotion icons in FfH2, even temporarily, so I can see the unit information behind it?