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

[Mardoc]

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

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

Decided to just replicate your moves and check for myself. Some things of interest:

Selrahc has only one city! Selrahc has, as best I can tell, *no* military. As in, our scout would be a passable threat to him at the moment.

Bob has two cities, and the ridiculously high GNP, and, I think, one warrior, one scout. That's mostly a guess, though.

And the AC is out of 122 this game, until Hyborem spawns, when it'll become 134ish. So Selrahc needs about 50 marked units to hit AC 100, barring events and AV spreads and such.

[HidingKneel]

Interesting...

Maybe Selrahc bought masonry and is going warrens-first? That sounds kind of nuts, though.

He's still a good way off, but no harm in sending the scout in that direction on the off chance that he can't build a warrior in time.

[Mardoc]

Interesting...

Maybe Selrahc bought masonry and is going warrens-first? That sounds kind of nuts, though.

It does . But I don't have a better explanation for his demos. It would be consistent with an all-in AC rush, at least - the Warrens is a big hammer item that's a potential cause for delay.

Or, maybe he went worker-first and is going for a warrior next.

And...if he's relying on Barbarian plus either distance or the 10 turns of universal peace, I could see that too. Anyway, we should learn more as we keep watching the graphs (and/or the inside of his city, with our scout). Makes me wish we'd gone Hippus, he's making himself an excellent Warcry target right now.

[HidingKneel]

Okay, new turn is in. Reports are coming in from our scouts all across the world.

To the southwest, we have this:



Another dragon bones. Ho hum. Actually met a lion out there, and moved away from it. Anyways, that scout's en route to a hut.

Our northern scout is headed towards Selrahc:



and not so far away at all. Looks like we'll arrive just as universal peace expires.

Most interestingly, we have the southeast:



I'm thinking of putting a city in that spot marked "City". It picks up two corns of its own, one that it shares with Naggarond (which it shouldn't mind sharing too much; Naggarond picks up 5 corn resources), two RoPs (one of which is in the first ring), gold, silk, a windmill in the first ring (pretty nice tile at this stage of the game), and who knows what else in the fog.

What do you think? Choose one:

a) Nah, we can do better.
b) Looks good.
c) Why is our settler not already on the way?

If you chose c), here's my excuse:



That barrows is a real headache. Need to keep a warrior in Naggarond right now, and I don't want to risk sending our settler out without an escort.

Anyways, here are the graphs I should have posted last turn:









I'd post culture too, but it's a blowout: nobody even registers compared to us, thanks to the worldspell.

Anyways, Selrahc's power hasn't gone up yet. We just might be able to punish him for the gamble.

[Mardoc]

I think I do choose C . Mostly because Commodore's right, we're on a tight deadline here. Best to get launched ASAP.

It's quite likely that there's a better site somewhere, but not that said site is enough better to be worth more delay.

One caveat - maintenance will be twice as bad as Naggarond's . But Calendar ought to be able to pay for it. Or, for that matter, sacking Selrahc's city .

Also, on reflection - when do more workers go into the queue? We could use a few more already - I can just imagine how many we could use profitably when we have more worker techs and a third city.

[HidingKneel]

Also, on reflection - when do more workers go into the queue? We could use a few more already - I can just imagine how many we could use profitably when we have more worker techs and a third city.

I hear you. I'm thinking size 7 in Kwythellar, then start spitting out workers: that'll let us work the three corns, the wheat, the reagents, the incense, and the RoP. I don't remember offhand, but I think it's also when we hit the health cap.
Should be able to turn out workers in 3 turns at that point.

[Notintheface]

Hi HK, do you mind making the pictures a little larger please? It's a bit hard to follow what's going on with the tiny pics. Thanks much!

[HidingKneel]

Hi HK, do you mind making the pictures a little larger please? It's a bit hard to follow what's going on with the tiny pics. Thanks much!

I think we can give this a try.

So, another turn. Let's check in with our three scouts.

To the southwest, we ran away from a lion to encounter this fellow:



Reminds me of the pilot episode of Lost. Sadly, we'll probably lose him before he can make it to the hut.

Our southeastern scout gathered a little more recon on our potential third city site:



It's got wheat in the first ring, and some hills to the east.

To the north, we're continuing the march on Selrahc:



His power graph is still flat.

I'm going to kick myself if we get there one turn too late (could have been there a turn earlier, if I'd thought of it as soon as we got vision on him).

Finally, a view of our territory itself (screenshot from EOT):



Vesta gets settled next turn. Skeleton is marching on Kwythellar, so I decided to get the settler and warrior in Naggarond started toward site #3.
Unfortunately, it looks like we're going to lose a couple of worker turns: can't safely get at the wheat right now, or east towards Naggarond. But we'll have a third warrior in 2 turns, thanks to Vesta. At that point I'll start attacking out of the city (and the new skeleton will hopefully break itself on our walls in the meantime).

[Mardoc]

His power graph is still flat.

I'm going to kick myself if we get there one turn too late (could have been there a turn earlier, if I'd thought of it as soon as we got vision on him).

Actually, as best I can tell, we're going to arrive at the perfect moment. We can be on that sheep tile the turn universal peace wears off, if the power graph supports us - and I think from there we can hit his capital the turn after, assuming flatland en route. He probably saw us this turn, with that hill, but that gives him only 2 turns to react, at most; not enough unless he already had a plan for getting a garrison in place.

Really that's what this will come down to - did Selrahc plan on building a warrior just in time, or not?

As for everything else, your progress seems to be good. And I know extra workers won't do us much good if we can't muster the clubs needed to clear the incense and reagents, and let them work in peace. I just want it all, yesterday .

[HidingKneel]

Actually, as best I can tell, we're going to arrive at the perfect moment.

Well, if I'd been smart about it, we could be 1 south of that sheep tile right now, and march into his capital on the next turn (assuming terrain doesn't slow us down).

But if you're right that he can see us now, it should be moot. It looks like he's got [STRIKE]8 or 9[/STRIKE] 7 hammers, but he may be able to boost that to get a warrior out in two turns.