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

[HidingKneel]

By the way: does the spirit guide promotion still fire if a dying unit goes to the Mercurians? If so, confessors will be even better. They can accrue passive spiritual xp even while we're not fighting, and if we lose them we get an experienced angel PLUS some experience on a random additional unit.

[Mardoc]

I am but a lowly dedlurker, you can overrule me of course. But if you spend the next three turns building Jewelers instead of Order temples and heroes, I reserve the right to say I told you so :neenernee

By the way: does the spirit guide promotion still fire if a dying unit goes to the Mercurians? If so, confessors will be even better. They can accrue passive spiritual xp even while we're not fighting, and if we lose them we get an experienced angel PLUS some experience on a random additional unit.

I'd be shocked if it didn't. I know that it's possible for a unit to become a Mane, a Werewolf, and a Slave all at once, which suggests there's no logic for forcing things to only have one effect on dying. The only one that I'd think we can't count on is Soldiers of Kilmorph to become Angels after rushing something.

In any case, I'm certainly on board with Order, soon. I just think it can wait one more tech .

Speaking of the tower of Divination: another route we might go with that is Rage, which I think we also have the prereqs for right now. Seraphs look pretty awesome on paper (though I've never actually seen them in any FFH game I've played).

Oh, there's a lot of cool angelic units, yes. I'm just not quite as enthusiastic about Seraphs as I am about druids and dragon/immortals, is all. But I certainly want us to continue improving our research rate by leaps and bounds so we can consider more than one flavor of Angel.

[HidingKneel]

Poked around the new Mercurian save a little bit.

A few thoughts:

1) I like the spot marked "C?". Even more now that it'll get an iron mine.

2) Didn't realize earlier that Basium and his angels don't start with iron. I now think we should get the angels off the front lines. Move them to Killswitch where they'll at least get the bronze upgrade, and use them to defend the new Mercurian holdings (I'll get some centaurs over there ASAP, too). Possibly Basium too... he'll be a lot safer once he's got metal weapons and a few promotions.

3) Plako fired off a golden age. He's been industrious for a long time and has philosophy, so I'd expect him to double it by building the Bone Palace (surprised it hasn't happened yet).

4) Forgot to mention last turn that Bob built Mardero. AC is up to 21% now. Hopefully we can bring it back down by killing a couple of beasts.

5) Bob's got his beasts on a hill. Not sure if I want to risk attacking with paladins; I'll have to look at the odds when it's my turn.

6) Thoth's got two more cities. You can't turn your back on that guy for a second!

7) Might as well trade Basium's life mana to the Kuriotates; the Mercurians won't have health problems for a while yet.

[HidingKneel]

Turn 84 played.

Tested a few things in game this turn:

a) We can buff our teammates. Basium and his angels (at least those that are in Kwythellar) now have a shield of faith.

b) We can build improvements in teammate's lands. Sent two-thirds of our vastly diminished workforce in the Mercurian direction, along with a couple of centaurs for extra security. Other worker went south before I ran the test, but I'll send him towards Killswitch (or better yet, the second Mercurian city) next turn.

Bob's moved his beasts to defensive terrain. However, the terrain isn't really defensive enough:



Killed a beast with the C3 paladin (undamaged!), bringing the AC down a little. Our second paladin is only C1, and had something like 76% odds. Not quite good enough to risk, I think. Moved my centaurs out of Bob's reach and everything else into Kwythellar. Even with +25% vs paladins, I think his two remaining beasts will only have something like a 1% chance against our top defender in Kwythellar.

Send one of our Avelorn centaurs on a scouting mission, to see if Plako is hovering outside our borders:



No sign of him, but that's hardly conclusive.

All our cities are unhealthy, so I figured we could use Commodore's life mana (benefits from those stack, right?) Offered cotton and fine clothes in exchange.

You know you're playing an Armageddon game when:



the angels are chopping down the Seven Pines to help build themselves a training yard .

Started building jewelers in all three supercities (due at end of turn 86). Tech set to Orders from Heaven. Due at end of turn 89 at our present rate, but maybe the extra commerce from jewelers will let us get it in a turn earlier.

[Commodore]

Yeah, I was dismayed by the lack of iron. I moved the angels into Kilswitch and they got bronze, though, so at least we're a little more secure there. Small issue to with the proposed second city spot:



Got the first event! Apparently vengeful angelic hosts still have time for the little things:



Awesome. Working on the event fund now, put my 1 beaker into Orders From Heaven, I totally approve.

[NobleHelium]

Buff spells generally work on every unit that is a valid target on the tile.

[HidingKneel]

The other iron plot is by Avelorn:

That tile already has a village on it. I'm thinking it's not worth changing.
3 commerce is already competitive with 3 hammers, and has more long-term potential.

Hmm... wait a sec. A grasslands iron mine is a 2-food, 4-production tile. Maybe that is worth changing. We've got plenty of cottages maturing, but not so many ways to boost our production.

Oh, there's a lot of cool angelic units, yes. I'm just not quite as enthusiastic about Seraphs as I am about druids and dragon/immortals, is all.

Druids will be a very strong (and versatile) option. And I guess whatever style points we lose for switching alignments we'll more than make up for by actually building Eurabatres. Never actually built him in game. The pedia says he's magic immune... so I imagine that makes him a pretty good candidate for finishing Thoth off (since cultists + worldspell ought to make that island city pretty much unassailable).

Looks like promotion to immortals and Valkyries requires level 6 units. Shouldn't be a problem for Commodore, who'll probably be getting all kinds of experienced angels soon. But it probably won't be as easy for us to get a lot of experience onto a melee unit. Unless... well, we've got four warriors now, and they're not much use as garrison units. Can I promote those to axemen using Commodore's training yard? Give them iron weapons, shield of faith, and bless, and suddenly they're looking downright fearsome. A little bit of barbarian hunting, and maybe we could get ourselves some good candidates for immortality.

[Mardoc]

Generally looking good . Even if I couldn't persuade you on the tech . I assume Currency's next on the list, though?

Given that Bob seems under control for the time being (and I do agree that his odds against Paladins behind Kwythellar's defenses should be pretty bad)...time to start planning to take him out, right? A couple more Angelic cities, Nightmares and Gulagarm seems like a pretty good prize. Plus of course a Gela.

Looking at the graphs - this is Bob's last hurrah. He's got decent production, but no GNP worth mentioning. So his menu of units is pretty much fixed, as long as we keep the pressure on: the AV heroes, Hyborem, Diseased Corpses, and Beasts. Get promotions on the paladins such that they can be solid stack defenders, and we can march up and perform the coup de grace. Then we can move on to punishing the bystanders to Armageddon .

We've got plenty of cottages maturing, but not so many ways to boost our production.

Well...in the near term we've got Forges. In the mid-term - Republic now gives every Town/Enclave +1 hammer. That'll add up to a bunch. It's still not quite yet worth going for Taxation, but Foreign Trade will bring us there pretty quickly.

In the long term, I'd much rather have a 3/2/6 tile than a 2/4/0 one...the main question is whether we have enough production to make it to the long term.

[HidingKneel]

Generally looking good . Even if I couldn't persuade you on the tech . I assume Currency's next on the list, though?

Currency next, then probably cartography (unless Commodore wants to stay in God King for a while longer).

Looking at the graphs - this is Bob's last hurrah. He's got decent production, but no GNP worth mentioning. So his menu of units is pretty much fixed, as long as we keep the pressure on: the AV heroes, Hyborem, Diseased Corpses, and Beasts.

I dunno. Education's not too expensive, and would immediately make him a lot more dangerous. Which I guess is an argument in favor of finishing him quickly.

But I'm not sure we can muster the force for that in the immediate future. I think Cauldron Lake will be a tough nut to crack right now even with the Mercurian worldspell. Maybe once we've got Mercurian paladins and some confessors.

But I think there's no rush; I'm happy to play defense for a while. Plako and Ilios look scary now in their golden ages, but I think if we survive the short term we'll be able to out-build them. Time is on our side, with the dual economy and the ability to grab two late-era techs with ToD.

[Commodore]

Played, still not much going on though. Interesting to note, the angels in my city are copper-equipped, but the angels in Kurioville still lack iron. Bummer.



Orders from Heaven; can it be micro'd to within ~15 beakers for me to finish it? It's a tall order to figure out, but maybe worthwhile. We need to consider it, at least, because if so I ought to hold off on founding a second city to allow the Holy City and Code my God King capital.