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

[Mardoc]

Ah, didn't realize that pearls required sailing. And forgot about lighthouses; we'll definitely need to rebuild the one in the Lanun capital, or it'll starve when we take over. Anyway, we can tech that one turn before whenever we'll be needing it.

Yeah, no point in having Sailing before we have water.

Well, no need to choose one or the other. Can stream axemen with a few acolytes in the mix. Do we get free units if confessors build Order temples in cities without order? If so, that might a good idea. It'll let a new city build military instantly, give us some free units. And it should be fairly efficient to build acolytes and upgrade them to confessors, given the ingenuity trait.

I think so. I think it's 'on spread', not tied to any particular unit.

I had forgotten that Basium is Ingenious, too. Yeah, I'd say 1 gold/hammer is a pretty good trade At this rate, it's going to be a long time yet before the angels start funding Kurio research, given the uses for gold we're coming up with.

Agreed with one caveat: if we're going to put that 1-move paladin on the front lines of our conquest of Thoth, he should probably start heading south immediately.

Well, I have this horrible feeling that Ilios' hammer is about to fall. But assuming your first flight disproves that, we're good to go.

[HidingKneel]

Well, I have this horrible feeling that Ilios' hammer is about to fall. But assuming your first flight disproves that, we're good to go.

Prescient!

[Mardoc]

Prescient!

Yeah, and yet, I still didn't expect Ilios to pick such a good time and place. Thought we'd be trying to keep Amatheon's alive.

And for the lurkers, here's what HK was referring to:

I count 15 Priests of Leaves, 17 Tigers (and hence perhaps there are some more Priests here off the top of the screen?), 7 Horsemen and a hunter (probably with Hawk).

Looks like Lugus' Light is doomed. Doomed I tell you! And the angel in Lugus' is dead, but if we attack this turn he can at least take a horseman with him.

But we'll likely be able to make a stand in Avelorn and Kilmorph's Kith. Eight Paladins, Basium, and Valin ought to be able to handle quite a number of Tigers. Especially if we back them up with full-scale 100% Angelic Axemen pumping. The good(ish) news is that it appears Tigers can't be Blessed, so they're unlikely to be stack defenders. Which means that if we get a force that can stand up to Ilios' stack, we can counterattack and wear him down.

Anyway, my thinking is to let Valin heal, but rush Basium and the Paladins to Kilmorph's. Meanwhile Kurio Paladins ought to head, with Centaur backup, to Avelorn.

Also, I definitely think we need to upgrade the Confessors to Paladins immediately. And aside from the last Confessor to become a Paladin, all the angelic cities (all three of them) should focus on Axe production. Including a good deal of cash invested in Amatheon's. And probably we should turn science off entirely for the time being, spam out Centaurs and upgrade to Chargers. Including delaying the Tower build, we need troops here ASAP instead. Chargers won't defend cities very well, but they'll be pretty decent at killing off this stack once we accumulate enough of them. Which should definitely be our goal.

It's 319K worth of power. Which from eyeballing the Power graph, is about half of Ilios' total power, which of course includes population and buildings and techs as well. So the silver lining is, this is the bulk of what we'll face. Kill this stack, and we can rest easy. Fail to, and he'll probably kill us, but we won't fail.

Anyway, I'll hold off on playing the turn until you have a chance to weigh in, HK.

[HidingKneel]

Only point I disagree on is what to do with that angel. I think it'll be better to pull him back to Kilmorph's. He can't make it this turn, but I think Ilios only has two horsemen who can reach him, and they won't have good odds on the attack. So we might as well save him for a fight he has a chance of winning.

Another silver lining in this: looks like Ilios has invested almost all of his promotions in mobility (I thought disciple units couldn't take mobility II?). So he's got very mobile forces, and a lot of them, but individually they won't hit very hard. (Well, they're blessed... but they won't hit as hard as they otherwise might).

I've got two adepts who know Wall of Stone, so that'll buy us some extra defense in Kilmorph's and Avelorn. Only I'm worried that he might not target those. Looks like that stack can move three tiles a turn, if he deletes his tigers and summons new ones. So if he sees resistance, he might just decide to go around and head for other cities instead. He's got enough mobility to fork us.

Big question is: what are the top defenders in that stack? Horsemen? I assume that the tigers will defend the priests, though. Which means we'll have to punch through 17 tigers, in a single turn, before we can even get started on the priests. Well, I guess that's what spamming units is for. And another silver lining is that Ilios is in Order now, so those PoL will be difficult to replace.

So, I'll definitely switch to conquest this turn. Centaurs in Avelorn. Hunters in Naggarond?

I don't like our odds here, but let's give him a fight.

[HidingKneel]

The good(ish) news is that it appears Tigers can't be Blessed, so they're unlikely to be stack defenders. Which means that if we get a force that can stand up to Ilios' stack, we can counterattack and wear him down.

Oh, missed this. If you're right, we've got a shot.

[HidingKneel]

Another point: he can hit Naggarond in two turns.
I think only one of our paladins can get there in time.

[HidingKneel]

I guess what I'm thinking is: Basium to Avelorn, rather than Kilmorph's. He'll heal faster there due to the herbalist, and he's one of the few strong units who can get there before Ilios.

[Mardoc]

Only point I disagree on is what to do with that angel. I think it'll be better to pull him back to Kilmorph's. He can't make it this turn, but I think Ilios only has two horsemen who can reach him, and they won't have good odds on the attack. So we might as well save him for a fight he has a chance of winning.

Ok, fair enough.

Another silver lining in this: looks like Ilios has invested almost all of his promotions in mobility (I thought disciple units couldn't take mobility II?). So he's got very mobile forces, and a lot of them, but individually they won't hit very hard. (Well, they're blessed... but they won't hit as hard as they otherwise might).

Disciple units can't. But if you squint, you can see that they pretty much all have Life I. Which means they used to be Devouts, who are Recon and are allowed.

I've got two adepts who know Wall of Stone, so that'll buy us some extra defense in Kilmorph's and Avelorn. Only I'm worried that he might not target those. Looks like that stack can move three tiles a turn, if he deletes his tigers and summons new ones. So if he sees resistance, he might just decide to go around and head for other cities instead. He's got enough mobility to fork us.

Yes...given a little bit of time. Only, we can gain 5 units/turn if he gives us that time. I'm more afraid of a straight-up defeat than anything fancy.

Big question is: what are the top defenders in that stack? Horsemen? I assume that the tigers will defend the priests, though. Which means we'll have to punch through 17 tigers, in a single turn, before we can even get started on the priests. Well, I guess that's what spamming units is for. And another silver lining is that Ilios is in Order now, so those PoL will be difficult to replace.

Horsemen at the moment, while they're Blessed. Tigers usually defend before Priests, but I'm not sure how Blessed interacts with that. It might boost their strength enough to make them defend instead. In any event, Tigers can't attack the turn they're summoned, so any dead Tiger on our turn is one that can't attack on his. It is worth hitting him just for that reason, so long as we don't sustain casualties.

So, I'll definitely switch to conquest this turn. Centaurs in Avelorn. Hunters in Naggarond?

I'd say centaurs all around for the time being. We need that speed. Swap to Hunters if we lose Avelorn and Kilmorph's and the fight gets closer to Naggarond.

Incidentally, I'd send the Hawk eastward from Amatheon's. We need to know if we can afford to strip that garrison.

I don't like our odds here, but let's give him a fight.

Eh? I think we've actually got pretty decent odds, except for keeping Lugus' Light. Mostly because - well, the Priests have mobility promotions. Which means the Tigers are fighting at bare Str 4. A paladin with only CI/Commando and terrain defense of 20% (like, say, a new paladin defending Kilmorph's Kith with no fortification or anything) has about 50-50 odds vs 11 tigers. So against 17 Tigers, 2 paladins and a few extra bodies should hold with no problem. Surviving the priests is a bit trickier, granted, if Ilios is willing to accept losing the first few of them. But in any event, we have the mobility advantage, the strength advantage, and we're not far from having a numbers advantage. It's just that he caught us out of position, so we'll pay a price for that.

Another point: he can hit Naggarond in two turns.
I think only one of our paladins can get there in time.

Well, granted, this is bad. (I assume you mean Avelorn, not Naggarond?) Should I send Basium to Avelorn instead of Kilmorph's Kith? He's got March, so should be healed by the time they arrive. Str. 13 and all his promotions means that he can handle quite a few of them, and Immortal means we don't have to worry about putting him where it's hottest. Angel means he's immune to Holy damage, too, like, oh, Bless .

[Mardoc]

I guess what I'm thinking is: Basium to Avelorn, rather than Kilmorph's. He'll heal faster there due to the herbalist, and he's one of the few strong units who can get there before Ilios.

Ah, I see you already addressed this.

I could get the new Paladin from Kilmorph's to Avelorn in 2 turns, as well. If the Kurio Paladins head to Kilmorph's, that would be lovely.

Edit: That is, I can get him there if I don't stop to give him Iron after his upgrade. Is it worth it? I see at least one Kurio Paladin that can make it to Avelorn. And presumably most of the Centaurs can. Them plus Basium might be enough without an angelic paladin, at least to handle the PoL without Tigers. And they can't get there in time unless they do the disband/resummon trick. Which would give us another turn.

[DaveV]

I thought disciple units couldn't take mobility II?

They can't; only Mounted, Recon, or Animals can. However, Devouts can upgrade to Priests of Leaves. I imagine he's done Disciple->Devout->Priest, which seems like a lot of work. It looks like the Priests have Life I, but it's hard to tell for sure. That would be pretty conclusive proof that they've passed through the Devout path.