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

[Mardoc]

To clarify, Mardoc is probably referring to Vesta Glory, a great engineer who has joined our righteous cause:

Definitely agree we should settle him (her?). The extra hammers will be a tremendous help.

Yep! :hat:

The +3 beakers is nothing to sneeze at, either, not this early in the game. And the bulb list goes astray from our plans depressingly early.

If you can plot a path to Kwythellar that doesn't involve a risk of him being skeletonized, that's probably the better place. Kwythellar will have God King and our first Academy boosting his production.

[Commodore]

That's great! I'd have looked myself but...I seem to have missed the password?

In any case, I'd agree with the GE going to the capital if possible, but speed > perfect utility here. Not to sound like a broken record, but we need to find Bob and Selrahc post-haste or we're so far beyond toast. With the hammer boost, I think the game is telling us to rush someone...

[HidingKneel]

That's great! I'd have looked myself but...I seem to have missed the password?

Password is "Cardith".

In any case, I'd agree with the GE going to the capital if possible, but speed > perfect utility here. Not to sound like a broken record, but we need to find Bob and Selrahc post-haste or we're so far beyond toast. With the hammer boost, I think the game is telling us to rush someone...

By my estimation, we can get that engineer settled 3 turns from now in Naggarond, or 4 turns from now in Kwythellar. I think we can afford to wait one more turn to get him/her to the capital.

[Mardoc]

In any case, I'd agree with the GE going to the capital if possible, but speed > perfect utility here. Not to sound like a broken record, but we need to find Bob and Selrahc post-haste or we're so far beyond toast. With the hammer boost, I think the game is telling us to rush someone...

I think I agree. Even if we miss rushing them both in time, we'll need a military for surviving the entrance of Hyborem.

Ah...speaking of which. I royally messed up my defense in PBEM VI - lurker thread was much more enlightening. Basically - remember that we're faster than Big H. He can either threaten us, or defend his own cities, not both. Take out his cities and we don't have to kill Hyborem, the unit. If he defends them - well, then we have time to build and grow and get strong. In either case, the worst thing to do is fight his initial stack directly.

[HidingKneel]

Another turn in. This one gave some interesting intel.

First, our southeastern scout finds a hut:



See that mountain? Tile bleed reveals that it borders a lake. Guess who else is on the lake?

If you guessed Bob, give yourself a cookie.

I popped the hut for 20gp, and visibility on Bob's borders. Forgot to take a screenshot of that .
There's also a spot I'm thinking about for our third city, which I'll submit for zoning approval next turn.

In other news, our northern scout stepped onto the mirror of heaven:



This revealed a lot of map, including the border of another dangerous foe:



So we've got Selrahc to the northeast, a little further off than Bob.

[Commodore]

Well this is kind of nice. Two targets we'd love to mess up, and a GE for boosting units out. Centaurs or warriors? It is probably worth it to beeline the dungeons around those two...we certainly wouldn't cry if azers or ogres did the job for us. Choking is good, although with Lanun there isn't much we can choke.

[Mardoc]

Centaurs or warriors?

I favor Centaurs. We don't need horses or stables, just the tech, so we can get them out pretty early. Centaurs, though, are a plausible existential threat, particularly if we promote them Flanking. Warriors won't kill anyone, not unless they ran so light on military that the barbs would probably kill them for us.

Well..hmm. That is, I favor Centaurs for any wars we expect to be killing the target in. When it comes to Selrahc, forcing him to spend his hammers on military instead of Warrens + Ragnarok may be good enough. Warriors are good enough to choke with.

In any case...it's really hard to say we want to war before Education, though. 2 extra promos is huge. Normal centaurs vs. fortified warriors in cities is Str 4 vs Str 4.5. CI/Shock centaurs, on the other hand, vs even fortified CII warriors (they can't get formation until the third promo), is 6.4 vs 5.7. Or, alternately, we can give some Centaurs Flanking I/II and have a 65% withdrawal chance.

[DaveV]

Anybody know what that does?

-3 to the AC. Or, absolutely nothing when it's already at zero.

[HidingKneel]

-3 to the AC. Or, absolutely nothing when it's already at zero.

Ah. So nothing in this case.

I favor Centaurs. We don't need horses or stables, just the tech, so we can get them out pretty early. Centaurs, though, are a plausible existential threat, particularly if we promote them Flanking. Warriors won't kill anyone, not unless they ran so light on military that the barbs would probably kill them for us.

I'm in favor of Centaurs too. If we sacrifice our economy in order to slow someone down, all we're doing is handing the advantage to someone else.
Centaurs have much better potential to "close the deal", shall we say.

Well..hmm. That is, I favor Centaurs for any wars we expect to be killing the target in. When it comes to Selrahc, forcing him to spend his hammers on military instead of Warrens + Ragnarok may be good enough. Warriors are good enough to choke with.

Selrahc worries me a lot less than Bob. Pumping out enough marked warriors to raise the AC into the stratosphere after we cut it in half once with the 7pines is going to be a real drag on his economy (on top of the fact that he's already playing the clan).

It is probably worth it to beeline the dungeons around those two...we certainly wouldn't cry if azers or ogres did the job for us. Choking is good, although with Lanun there isn't much we can choke.

Azers and ogres won't bother Selrahc. Bob's a different story. But he's also a lot closer to us than Selrahc, so that sort of play could backfire (or buy us another free great person).

Question: guessing that we're the only ones who bought units with our points, we presumably have the upper hand, intelligence-wise. How important do you think it is to keep it that way? Should we actively avoid making contact with Bob and Selrahc? On the one hand, if we're going for a kill-shot with centaurs, it would be best if our target didn't see it coming. On the other hand, I'd really like to plant a super-city near Bob's lake, and he's not likely to miss that.

[Mardoc]

Question: guessing that we're the only ones who bought units with our points, we presumably have the upper hand, intelligence-wise. How important do you think it is to keep it that way? Should we actively avoid making contact with Bob and Selrahc? On the one hand, if we're going for a kill-shot with centaurs, it would be best if our target didn't see it coming. On the other hand, I'd really like to plant a super-city near Bob's lake, and he's not likely to miss that.

Looking at the pictures, we already have contact with them. I don't think it would hurt any more to let them see our scouts.

Ah...which raises a question! What do the graphs look like?

Probably we also should check - on the AC counter, what's the denominator?