Related Sections: Game Diaries
Fall from Heaven II: "Why don't I own this?"
While I'm sinking back into my usual Pax Balseraphim, I get a request from the subjugated Bannor to keep for themselves the mana they've been tributing to me. As my vassal, I get first dibbs on that stuff. It's important. I need different varieties of mana so my magic users can cast different kinds of spells. The Bannor are my only source of body mana. So I'm all, like, "No way". And they're all, like, "Then we declare war". And I'm all, like, "What, with your last three puny cities?" And they're all, like, not even replying when I try to talk to them because they've declared war.
So it's off to subjugate the Bannor with extreme prejudice, but then things get out of hand.
After the jump, it's like Sauron got irked one day and decided to just conquer the whole world.
Swallowing up the rest of Bannor territory is trivially easy at this point. I have an army of experienced units with varied powers. Frankly, I don't even need to bother with magic. I'm at the stage in a normal game of Civilization where your tanks are killing their phalanxes.
So I just go ahead and declare war on the Svartalfar and the Elohim. I'll get around to the Sheaim in due time. But this is all just mopping up. In fact, when the Elohim build a Wonder of the World called the Mercurian Gate, thereby summoning a whole new civilization of brutish brawling angels to help them fight, I honestly couldn't care less. My score is double the score of the guy in second place. A few muscle-bound angelic beings aren't going to stop me. No matter how snippy they are with me:
I only have myself to blame. I'm playing one notch below my usual difficulty level because I figured there would be an adjustment period as I re-learned the ins and outs of Fall from Heaven. There was, but it was during my ridiculously effective economic boom, which was helped by my ridiculously lucky starting position. That's actually a facet of Civilization as a game design: when the random map generator aligns just right, the game is yours before it even begins. But remember, I restarted several times, which I consider a form of cheating.
I also have to wonder about the way my leader's special trait affects the Balseraph magic users, who can summon puppets with the ability to cast any of the magic user's known spells. Since my leader Keelyn's summoning trait means summoned creatures last three turns instead of one, I can spit out ungodly amounts of powerful magic every turn, including an exponential increase in summoned creatures by using my puppets, each of whom can summon their own creatures every turn. Surely this is going to get nerfed soon. Anyone who plays Fall from Heaven much probably knows that Keelyn's puppets are too ridiculously effective to last.
So suffice to say the next hundred turns are just mopping up. It's not going to be terribly exciting if I describe it to you in detail (spoiler: I achieve complete domination by turn 600 without setting off any untoward effects from the Armageddon counter). Instead, for the rest of the week, I'm just going to tell you about a few cool things I saw along the way.
Up next: Gandalf wants beer.
(Click here for the previous Fall from Heaven II game diary.)
By ut_markle at 2:40 PM ON 01/07/09
Damn you. Tom Chick. First you talked me into getting Lord of the Rings Online. Now I'm trying to figure out how to get Civ IV to work on my new Vista system just so I can try Fall From Heaven. Please quit with the game diaries. I have a life I need to lead and it gets harder and harder to do it when I keep playing the games you suggest.
Love the columns, by the way.
By jinnes at 3:12 PM ON 01/07/09
Just a quick note agreeing about the difficulty levels. I normally play Civ4 on Prince level too, and can win maybe 50/50. With FfH, I (like you) was ridiculously ahead at Noble, and even Prince is a guaranteed win. My theory is that the AI can't play optimally, given all the changes. It certainly doesn't expand anywhere near as quickly as it does in vanilla Civ. In any case, I think anyone experienced in Civ would do well to start FfH at his/her normal difficulty level for the "learning" game, and then expect to play at one level higher.
Thanks again for this great set of game diaries!
By jinnes at 3:20 PM ON 01/07/09
Oh, and I forgot to mention that none of my games were as the Balseraphs. I played as the Ljosalfar at Noble, and the Amurites and Lanun at Price. None of those had any obviously nerf-worthy advantages. So while you may be right that the puppet/summoner combo is overpowered, your observation about difficulty levels is true in general.
By Fenhorn at 4:07 PM ON 01/07/09
The team themselves usually say one or two difficulty levels higher than you normally play is probably good. The AI on lower levels have problem with the start of the game (it is unusually hard, AI cant handle that as well as a human can).
By roBurky at 4:10 PM ON 01/07/09
You should have tried out Fall from Heaven's new adaptive difficulty option that changes the difficulty setting as you're playing.
By Tom Chick at 5:17 PM ON 01/07/09
Thanks for the kind words, guys, throughout all the entries. I realize there are probably only about 12 of you still reading these things, but you 12 are my kind of gamers. :)
And, yeah, I definitely should have used the adaptive difficulty, and I think that's going to be how I do it from now on. And no more of this penny-ante "noble" difficulty level!
By Jvstin at 5:56 PM ON 01/07/09
13 ;)
I downloaded the thing and am slowly making my way with the Grigori. The "wild" is definitely stronger than I expected, when a Griffin swooped on my poor widdle scout...
By BenzeneChile at 6:51 PM ON 01/07/09
Yeah, make it 14. The game diary format for games off the beaten path or mods on an epic scale like this are so, so much better than reading a typical review. I think you can really communicate how much fun a game is when you take it piece by piece like this. I haven't messed with Civilization since III first came out, and I'm ready to jump into this!
By machalla at 7:42 PM ON 01/07/09
Theres more than 15 of us now thats for sure. I have several friends who like myself are not the biggest fans of Civ who are chomping at the bit to have a go at FFH2 after reading the game diaries for it. Thanks for the adaptive difficulty idea. My Khazad have ben stomping the rest of the AI players a bit too easily. I am finding the "Against the Wall" scenario a bit more of a challenge though. Its worth a look if the main game is proving too easy.
By Supergork at 8:27 PM ON 01/07/09
These diaries were so good. I played Fall From Heaven a bit about 6 months ago. I'm going to have to play again soon.
By Hunty at 4:55 AM ON 01/08/09
Not sure what 13+number we're on now, but count me in as a reader! I love the idea of grand strategy games, but am generally terrible at them. These sorts of AARs mean I get to have some of the fun I feel I must be missing out on anyway. They might even inspire me to actually muster the ability to play myself one day!
By GreyFox at 12:57 PM ON 01/08/09
I think there are plenty more than just 15+ that read these diaries. Especially since Kael (Derek Paxton, the creator of this mod) posted the link to this diary in the mod forum at Civfanatics. Even us FfH "veterans", who have been playing this mod for up to 3 years now, like to read these diaries.
By markgreyam at 10:43 PM ON 01/08/09
Tom, don't presume that just because the rampage of idiots crying about their precious MGS4 or GoW2 not being mentioned in your game of the year list (as if they would have cared if you had) have gone and the comments have died down to a low mumble, that there are only a dozen of us left here. That has to be at least two dozen ;)
By Vandescott at 6:27 PM ON 01/09/09
Tom, your game journals convinced me to finally install FfH for the first time, and I'm so glad I did. It's a great mod that I know I'll be playing for a while, and it is definitely scratching my Master of Magic itch. Keep up the good work!
Vandescott:
Tom, your game journals convinced me to finally install FfH for the first time, and I'm so glad I did. It's a great...More »