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

[HidingKneel]

Oy. Nothing every goes according to plan, does it?

I say we go for it. We can't keep playing defense. Ilios is probably coming for us with that stack anyways, but at least this way we're only kinda fighting him and Bob at the same time. It may be that he wipes the stack, and we lose. But then at least we will have killed Hyborem!

One refinement: have Sphener save the sanctify spell. But if the Mercurians can manage to take the city on their turn, it might be best if he goes into the city, casts unyielding order, and then moves back. Then offer the city to the Kuriotates. Those nightmares are hooked; it'll let our centaurs pass through the city for an upgrade (if nightmares do work like metals). It also means that Ilios won't be able to use roads within one tile of the city. Which means he'll only be able to hit us with 40 of those 62 units. That, combined with the nightmare boost, might be more important than the heal spell. Depends how damaged the stack is (and, of course, on whether or not you can actually take the city).

I also see Plako has four archmages in position now. What do you think about abandoning Amatheon's? Six earth elementals (who will be quite strong now; looks like he's converted his nodes to earth nodes for the affinity) can probably kill some of our defenders, and we've got nothing in place to counterattack with. If we fall back to Junil's, it'll give us a few turns to see if our main stack survives. Plus there'll be some roads we can use for the counterattack, until Plako pillages them.

[HidingKneel]

Further suggestions: if we take the city, have Valin grab the Gela. Every little bit will help.

Also, try to conserve the strength on our best units (paladins, heros), even if it means sacrificing a few more of the little guys.

If we are falling back to Junil's, I think it should build a palisade.

[Mardoc]

I say we go for it

Woohoo!

Have to think about that Unyielding order suggestion. It might very well cause Ilios to raze the city. I guess one size 13 city is a fair trade for Ilios' stack, if it comes to that - not a fair trade for, say, a single Tiger, though. On the other hand, if we Nightmare our horses now, that helps now. Maybe what I really need to see is how badly our stack is wounded, compared to how many units could be boosted.

I also see Plako has four archmages in position now. What do you think about abandoning Amatheon's? Six earth elementals (who will be quite strong now; looks like he's converted his nodes to earth nodes for the affinity) can probably kill some of our defenders, and we've got nothing in place to counterattack with. If we fall back to Junil's, it'll give us a few turns to see if our main stack survives. Plus there'll be some roads we can use for the counterattack, until Plako pillages them.

I don't really see how that buys us anything more than a turn, and it's got a big cost. We abandon it, and he razes the city and resumes the standoff three tiles south at Junil's right away. Not 'in a few turns'. Which we really can't sacrifice or hold, if our eastern force can't hold. We've got our walls here, which we wouldn't in Junil's. And a fortification bonus. And of course the city is worth something - 70 kurio hammers and some time . Plus, if we force him to come through Basium we might get a couple more XP on him.

I think each paladin can absorb one elemental, and Basium two, before dying. So holding here would delay plako a lot more than holding further south, and the Ratha might do something useful, too.

[Mardoc]

Quick summary: lost 2 Axemen, killed Bob's whole stack, took Gela, nightmared Valin, Ordered the city. Three of the paladins didn't actually fight, and Sphener took no damage! Got XP onto the Valk candidates and heroes, including Valin killing Rosier.

Now for the details

The important step:


Its effects:


A couple shots from during the battle:





Our stack afterward:



The combat log

Over to you, HK, for the cleanup. You could possibly take C. L. Lodge, too, if you're willing to split off a couple centaurs to an almost certain death.

[HidingKneel]

I don't really see how that buys us anything more than a turn, and it's got a big cost. We abandon it, and he razes the city and resumes the standoff three tiles south at Junil's right away.

But in a city we can more easily reinforce, with a road network not under Plako's cultural control. Play this right, we could have 4 Valkyries next turn. Those can also absorb earth elemental attacks.

Edit: Ah, the die is cast. Let's see what I can do...

[HidingKneel]

Only two casualties! Excellent work Mardoc .

Played the Kuriotate turn.

I didn't want to divide our forces to try to hold Cauldron Lake. Ilios just has too much firepower. So I left it there, guarded by the one Mercurian axe it produced at end of turn. A shame to lose a potentially productive new city, but it would be an even greater shame to lose half our army.

As for our stack, it looks pretty safe to me. He'd have to punch through 3 unwounded paladins, unwounded Sphener, and an unwounded Valkyrie to even start to hurt us, and he can't use any disposable units for that.

I conquered the city of C.L. Lodge. Didn't need to sacrifice any centaurs. Just needed two of them to sprint in order to make it back to the main stack.

Changed one thing at the end of Basium's turn: switched the iron-working tech to feudalism. I see that this adventure has enough experienced units for all our Valkyrie upgrades, plus four repentant angels, plus a few Ophanim.
So let's unlock those ASAP. With the conquest of C.L. Lodge, I've got enough gold stashed to make the run at 100% science without Mercurian help, and I think I can get the tech at the end of turn 123.

Looks like Plako's converted that node again: it's now a fire node. Which means he's probably waiting on some fireball mages to make his move, giving us more time. It also means his earth elementals won't hit as hard.

Ilios's 5-move horsemen will be able to get at our Mercurian workers. So we'll likely lose those between turns. Which hurts... but we've still got five Kuriotate workers, who are hiding in Junil's.

Builds: Eurabatres in Kwythellar (1 more turn), centaur charger in Naggarond,
Heroic epic in Avelorn (2 more turns).

[HidingKneel]

Another question: what should we do with the Gela? I say, give it to our best Valkyrie, since it seems like you don't drop it on a non-final death.

Speaking of equipment: while our centaurs were passing through Cauldron Lake, one of them grabbed the Grimoire. Can we make any use of that? What does it do, cast wonder?

[HidingKneel]

Ugh... think I made a big mistake.

Unyielding order won't prevent Ilios from hitting us with tigers next turn. He just has to retake Cauldron Lake first. With the ability to soften us up with 22 tigers, I'm not so confident about our position. If I were him, I'd probably think "my chances are better now than they're ever going to be" and roll the dice. Then send in the tigers, and see if they did enough damage to make the attack worthwhile.

On the other hand, if he does that, he can't raze Cauldron Lake. I doubt he'll want to hold it, either... if he leaves us mostly intact, or ends up bloodying himself, he probably won't want to risk a crown of Brilliance counterattack when he's not getting any defensive bonuses. Especially since Mardoc's eariler calculation indicates that C2-promoted, blessed PoL will defend their tiger summons.

Anyway, looks like this will be an interesting turn .

[Mardoc]

Another question: what should we do with the Gela? I say, give it to our best Valkyrie, since it seems like you don't drop it on a non-final death.

Speaking of equipment: while our centaurs were passing through Cauldron Lake, one of them grabbed the Grimoire. Can we make any use of that? What does it do, cast wonder?

The Grimoire is mostly useless, after built. You can 'read the grimoire' as a spell with the unit carrying it. You gain a handful of beakers, and a chance to lose the unit or something else bad happen.

Ugh... think I made a big mistake.

Unyielding order won't prevent Ilios from hitting us with tigers next turn. He just has to retake Cauldron Lake first. With the ability to soften us up with 22 tigers, I'm not so confident about our position. If I were him, I'd probably think "my chances are better now than they're ever going to be" and roll the dice. Then send in the tigers, and see if they did enough damage to make the attack worthwhile.

On the other hand, if he does that, he can't raze Cauldron Lake. I doubt he'll want to hold it, either... if he leaves us mostly intact, or ends up bloodying himself, he probably won't want to risk a crown of Brilliance counterattack when he's not getting any defensive bonuses. Especially since Mardoc's eariler calculation indicates that C2-promoted, blessed PoL will defend their tiger summons.

Anyway, looks like this will be an interesting turn .

Interesting is right . I can think of all sorts of possible things to do in his shoes. I'm confused why you think he can't raze CL - does he lose the road if he does that?

Anyway, it looks like we've got to trust the RNG. It worked out for us on our half of the turn...

[HidingKneel]

Interesting is right . I can think of all sorts of possible things to do in his shoes. I'm confused why you think he can't raze CL - does he lose the road if he does that?

Well, there's no road on that tile: just a city. If the city gets razed, he'll need a full movement point to cross the tile, so tigers won't be able to reach. Or do roads get created on the ruins in this situation? (I guess that would make sense.)

I kind of hope he does slam everything in to us. One of us (or maybe both of us) will be crippled, and if that's not us it'll buy us some time to give Plako our full attention.