On turn 102, I bring in Loki, the Balseraph unique hero. Being a Clown Prince (that's his official title), he's in quite the get-up. He's wearing mismatched colors, a short cape (if there's one thing dorkier than a long cape, it's a short cape), and a mask that makes him look like someone who would fight Japanese robots in a badly dubbed series. He's carrying what looks like a replacement mask on a stick. Good thinking. There isn't enough system redundancy among clowns. Loki is practically indestructible, since he withdraws from any combat he's losing. The only way to kill him is to surround him. However, since Loki can't attack, he's not here to fight. He's here to party.

Read about the Loki party after the jump.

Loki can use his "entertain" power in a city, adding happiness. If he does this in an enemy city, he steals a little gold from them. He can do this once a turn, indefinitely, which means there ain't no party like a Loki party, 'cause a Loki party don't stop. Alternatively, he can cause unhappiness in an enemy city with his "disrupt" ability. He can move freely in territory and peer into any city, making him the perfect scout. But since I haven't encountered anyone yet, Loki is going to be doing homeland duty.

Loki periodically entertains the citizens of Jubilee, my capital city. It's getting so big that it needs Loki parties in addition to its carnival, freak show, wine, and ale from the Deruptus Brewing House, a National Wonder I build on turn 179 (so far, there are precious few luxury resources on this map). Between shows in Jubilee, Loki summons puppets. These puppets have the ability to "inspire", which adds to a town's research for as long as the summoned puppet is present. "Inspire" is a spell associated with some magic users who arrive later in the game, farther up the tech tree. However, with Loki, I can use it for an early research boost.

Normally, the puppets would be of limited use, since summoned creatures last only a single turn. And inspiration lasts only as long as the casting creature is present. So Loki would summon a puppet, the puppet would cast Inspire, and the inspiration would go away the next turn when the summoned puppet disappeared. Loki might as well just use his own "Inspire" spell (puppets get the same spells as the units who summon them). But my Balseraphs are led by Keelyn, who extends to them the trait of summoner. This means summoned creatures stick around for three turns instead of one turn. So Loki can crank out a puppet every turn that will last three turns. From Jubilee, he sends out puppets to all my cities.

The puppet wrangling is a fair bit of micromanagement (this is true of a lot of things about Fall from Heaven, which isn't the mod for you if you're scared of micromanagement). But it makes a difference early in the game. Like the Elder Councils that help early tech research, puppet inspiration isn't based on percentages. In vanilla Civilization IV, the earliest research building, a library, will simply add 25% to your tech research. This makes it useless in cities that don't have commerce to funnel into research. But inspiration adds two points of research, straight up, no matter what the city is producing. Later in the game, with expensive techs that cost several thousand points, this will be a drop in the bucket. But at this point, with techs that cost a couple hundred points, it makes a difference to have puppets inspiring each of my cities.

By way of example, when Loki shows up on turn 102, I have three cities with only a single Elder Council among them. I'm earning 21 points of research per turn, and that's based entirely on the wine from Coombe Winery and the income from the Balseraph palace in Jubilee. But with three puppets, and another on the way in a fourth city I'm about to build, that'll go up to 29 points of research per turn.

Plus, I love the idea of puppet-augmented research. In fact, I've written a little fan fiction on the subject:

"Gentlemen, we convene this meeting of our elder council to puzzle out the issue of this crazy thing called horseback riding. What is it and how does it work? We need 60 more beakers until we know for sure, so let us discuss it further. But first, let us enjoy a production of the puppet show that's all the rage in Jubilee. "

(Up next: the freaks get out of hand)
(Click here for the previous Fall from Heaven game diary.)