The Kuriotates: A Tale of Centaurs, Hubris, and Unbridled Enthusiasm

[HidingKneel]

Well, that could be worse. At least he's stuck defending the barrows, right? Or will he be free next time it spawns a skelle?

My understanding of the AI (unless it's been changed in EitB) is the assassin will stay put, and the skeletons will go forth and wreak havoc. Maybe because the AI prefers a defender who already has a fortification bonus?

If I'm wrong... well, hopefully we can get the problem taken care of before any more skeletons show up.

[DaveV]

Does that assassin have the Command I promotion? You may end up fighting your own warriors!

[Mardoc]

Does that assassin have the Command I promotion? You may end up fighting your own warriors!

Sure looks like it.

Ignoring that little detail, and assuming it's fully healed and fortified by the time we arrive, 6 unpromoted warriors gives 97% odds to take it out. 5 is 91%. So this should, all in all, be a distraction and a delay, but not a hazard.

Edit: Hmm, looks like we've got a CII and a CI warrior as well, once they heal. That lets us have odds of 91.5% with four warriors (or 92.3 if we mix up the order). Not sure if they can heal before we have our six warriors anyway, though. Still, there's a chance we can speed this up a smidgen.

[HidingKneel]

Does that assassin have the Command I promotion? You may end up fighting your own warriors!

There is that danger, but since they'll be redlined, we'll have to get pretty unlucky for it to end up mattering.

Edit: Hmm, looks like we've got a CII and a CI warrior as well, once they heal. That lets us have odds of 91.5% with four warriors (or 92.3 if we mix up the order). Not sure if they can heal before we have our six warriors anyway, though. Still, there's a chance we can speed this up a smidgen.

Well, already the turn 28 timetable doesn't give our C2 warrior a chance to fully heal. We could get there on turn 27 with 5 warriors, the best-promoted of which is somewhat wounded. I think it's better to wait a turn.

Played another turn, and not much to report. Naggarond grew a size, allowing us to work another calendar resource. Kwythellar spat out a warrior and grew a size. Avelorn is busy producing its granary. I'm thinking it was a mistake to found it so soon: should have waited until we had chants for a monument, and a workforce to improve its land. As it is, it's mostly just sitting there strangling our economy. I think I'll have our worker team farm some corn so it can start growing. But it'll be slightly inefficient (2 turns where our workers are sitting around waiting for mining to come in). I think I now see some of the appeal of exploration: it lets our workers always be doing something useful.

Screenshot:

[Mardoc]

Well, already the turn 28 timetable doesn't give our C2 warrior a chance to fully heal. We could get there on turn 27 with 5 warriors, the best-promoted of which is somewhat wounded. I think it's better to wait a turn.

Ah. I hadn't realized it was already so close to T28. Yes, my calculations assumed full health, as well, and that makes such a huge difference that we probably wouldn't have good odds after all.

[HidingKneel]

Another two turns played. Not too much to report. A goblin was menacing the outskirts of Avelorn. I attacked out at 73% odds, and earned a warrior two promotions:



Avelorn also finished its granary. For lack of anything better to build, I started it on a tailor.

Three worker are improving the land around Naggarond. There are another two by Kwythellar who are just sitting around, waiting for mining to come in (when I can start mining some gems).

Warriors from Kwythellar and Naggarond are on the march. Here's a screenshot from EOT:



Breakeven science rate now is 30%. I ran 40% for the last two turns, and I'll run 40% during turn 27. I'm anticipating enough casualties on turn 28 to let me keep the slider there, so that we can start mining our gems on turn 29.

[HidingKneel]

Turn 27 played. The Kuriotates are now at war!



Also, wasn't Selrahc already in pacifism? How else could he have generated a great prophet so quickly?

Anyways, nothing else to report, really. Next turn's the big one.

Breakeven science rate: just under 30%.

[HidingKneel]

Turn 28 has come and gone.

The good news is that we're not paying any more unit upkeep .

The bad news is that I bounced five warriors off of that assassin and barely scratched it. Our highly promoted warrior had about 30% odds, but I decided not to take it:



Also, it seems that we will indeed be fighting our own warriors. One of them, at least. I hope I'm right about the assassin staying put. At this point, it can promote to C3 and have a decent shot of sacking cities.

In other news, we finished a winery near Naggarond, and a corn farm for Avelorn. Also, mining came in at EOT, revealing four sources of copper.
Two of them are just out of reach. Kwythellar can work one of them, and Naggarond is built on the fouth.



On the bright side, we're now making money at 40% on the science slider.
Should be even better once we've mined some gems. Next stop: ancient chants.

[Mardoc]

The bad news is that I bounced five warriors off of that assassin and barely scratched it. Our highly promoted warrior had about 30% odds, but I decided not to take it:

I hate to say this, but I'm starting to think we ought to wait until a better military tech is in to clear him off. Either Bronze or Centaurs.

Gems, gold, and the forested silk ought to help us get there quickly.

Maybe we can still consider it once we have some experienced warriors to do the fighting, but if he's Combat III, that starts to get very expensive.

[HidingKneel]

I hate to say this, but I'm starting to think we ought to wait until a better military tech is in to clear him off. Either Bronze or Centaurs.

I would have agreed with you, but it seems the question is now moot. I was wrong about the AI, and the assassin has marched on Kwythellar:



It could be a close fight. Our C2 warrior should defend with +170% odds, for a strength of 8.1. The assassin will be only slightly weaker even if it doesn't stop to heal. If it does, it can overpower our defenders. But Kwythellar can turn out 1-turn warriors with overflow, so there's not much risk of losing the city.

We're also under assault by barbarians down by Naggarond:



No real threat, but unfortunately that lizardman's two moves are forcing our workers to cower behind the city walls. I probably should have parked those warriors just south of the gems (and out of lizard reach) instead of behind the city walls . Anyways, we'll have a little delay getting those connected.

No delay connecting Kwythellar's gems, though. Did that last turn, netting us a nice shot in the arm in the commerce department.

Breakeven science rate: 40%.