HINNOM EATS EVERYTHING

[Ming]

thejeff,

I understand your point, but fighting against indies only last 5 turns or so (at least in the maps that I play in). Investing in troops that only do well in those five/six turns is in my opinion false economy.

I have found that 4 chariots only work against the weaker indies (and scouting reports are not 100% accurate). For others you'll need more and even then you will occasionaly take losses. With Hinnom's sacred troops you can start a new exploration group every turn too if you take production 3 [but that is a P3 vs S1 issue and not chariots vs sacreds. Anyway that'll only give you an extra 2-3 provinces on balance before coming up against other nations in the maps I play - so you could say my comments are based on very different map set-ups - as I find crowded maps to be more challenging in SP. So from my experience the faster expansion is not necessary sufficient to compensate for the extra 160 design points difference between P3 and S1]. So the saving from using chariots is not great. On the other hand you can only recruit a limited amount of sacred troops every turn and they are extremely cost effective in the long run. So it pays to start early.

[thejeff]

You are playing very crowded maps then. Since you're only going to have a difference of a few provinces anyway, expansion against indies can be largely ignored, which might make a difference.

Dawn Guard mixed with Chariots seems to slaughter AI nations as well as sacred troops, and can be raised in closer forts and in greater numbers as you expand.

And claiming a 160 pt difference (P3 -> S1) for using chariots ignores the points used to get that bless. Hardly a fair comparison.

Once you've expanded a bit, it's hard to get replacements from the capital to the front and you risk disaster if you do manage to lose a lot of your built up sacreds. Might not happen in SP, but is pretty much guaranteed in MP.

Which brings me back to my earlier suggestion of gearing any bless towards SCs rather than the troops.

I haven't played too much with the sacreds. How much have you noticed them eating population or other troops?

[Ming]

thejeff,

It seems our biggest difference could be due to the maps we play in.



As to your other points, please note that recruiting sacred troops from your capital does not exclude you from recruiting dawn guards (or even chariots ) from your other castles. So it does not affect your ability to fight far from your capital or when you take losses on your sacred troops (although you should try to minimise the latter as much as possible). I am often forced to fight with armies without sacred troops at some provinces, but the sacred troop armies does give you a significant if not decisive edge.

Also, the points used to get a bless is effective throughout the game but the points used to get P3 is only meaningful in the early turns. So the 160 point difference vs better early game expansion is not that unfair. Furthermore, the F4E4N4(6) bless is not bad for the SCs even though it might not be the best (as I was looking for a bless that work with both an not just optimised for SCs).

Finally, with growth 3 scale, the pop eating is not noticeable until late in middle game - but even then the pop is still growing virtually everywhere. I did not notice any troop eating although it might have happened occasionally. The picture might be different if you use P3 instead of S1 as you would be recruiting on average an extra sacred troop or even two per turn.

[AlgaeNymph]

Quick question: what kind of forts can Hinnom build in other provinces besides forest ones?

[Baalz]

Mostly an amazingly expensive 1400 gold Tel City, though somebody mentioned that hills sometimes yield hillforts.

[chrispedersen]

That was me = )

[SlipperyJim]

Thanks for the guide, Baalz!

I've been trying to figure out how to play Hinnom, and your guide has been most instructive. You also caused me to giggle so much that my co-workers began to look at me funny. Truly, HINNOM EATS EVERYTHING!

My current problem (as Baalz mentioned) is an excess number of options. There are just too many things I can do, so I want to do them all! Focus is important. Since I'm playing SP, I'm not worried about losing the game, so now it's time to have some fun. I really want to get all of the Lords of Civilization into play....

I followed this guide almost to the letter with only one exception: my Blood Fountain was sleeping, not imprisoned. Honestly, I had enough points for everything I needed anyway, so why not get my pretender into play two years earlier? But that's a minor change at best. Even with an imprisoned pretender, I'm sure that HINNOM would still EAT EVERYTHING.