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

[Mardoc]

Although we are full up on death...

I suppose it's about time to consider growing again. Also, not too many turns from giving all the health to the Kurios to let them stabilize.

Or did you just mean that we need more Living units? Can't argue with that! I'd suggest you get the last Paladin built, so that Kilmorph's can 1-turn Crusaders instead of Axemen.

I forgot about the angels when disbanding him. If I hadn't done that, surely Plako would have killed him with an earth elemental, gotten no xp, and Commodore would have gotten an extra 13xp angel (potential Ophanim upgrade!). Oh well.

FWIW, I think you made the right decision. 13 XP Angel isn't significant enough to depend on; I think we've enough or nearly enough for Ophanim anyway. But if we ever want to go offensive again, we'll need collateral, and Chalid's still our only potential source.

It was enough to get him a second promotion. I promoted him to Drill I, and I'll give him mobility I next turn. He's now in reach of Ilios's size 12 city, guarded by a single warrior. He can also reach that peak by Cauldron Lake, which will allow him to hit the city each turn without possibility of counterattack. The best possible scenario is for Bob/Ellimist to mount the "million warrior defense", and allow Eurabatres to accrue some decent xp.
It's probably a pipe dream, but if we had time to get him well-promoted, we could conceivably threaten Plako just by sending him in solo. Enough drill and combat promotions, and the earth elementals ought to just bounce right off.

Course, if we can do that, we might as well add in enough of a stack to the party that we can do a lot of damage . By the time we get Eurabatres well promoted, we ought to have a mobile force rebuilt, too.

I'd go pick on Bob, myself. I'm confident in Eurabatres, but I don't think I'm confident enough that I'd try him vs 22 Tigers. Not until after he picks up those Drill promos, anyway.

[HidingKneel]

FWIW, I think you made the right decision. 13 XP Angel isn't significant enough to depend on; I think we've enough or nearly enough for Ophanim anyway. But if we ever want to go offensive again, we'll need collateral, and Chalid's still our only potential source.

Yeah, but my idea didn't work. Can't rebuild him after disbanding him, only if he abanadons after a religious swap. So we'll need something else for collateral. Maybe we should think about rage next?

I'd go pick on Bob, myself. I'm confident in Eurabatres, but I don't think I'm confident enough that I'd try him vs 22 Tigers. Not until after he picks up those Drill promos, anyway.

Agreed. Though I didn't see any arcane units in Ilios's stack. He'd need one to hit us with tigers; otherwise they'll be too afraid to attack.

[DaveV]

So we'll need something else for collateral.

Like a dragon, maybe?

[Mardoc]

Agreed. Though I didn't see any arcane units in Ilios's stack. He'd need one to hit us with tigers; otherwise they'll be too afraid to attack.

I forgot that fear works both ways! Maybe it is worth doing, then, see if we can force out Sanctuary. It'd be a risk, but one with a lot more reward than just killing a demon/turn

Yeah, but my idea didn't work. Can't rebuild him after disbanding him, only if he abanadons after a religious swap. So we'll need something else for collateral. Maybe we should think about rage next?

Like a dragon, maybe?

Yeah, that might work just about as well as four Seraphs.

Plus, well - honestly, if we're not going to be able to Crown people, I think our next best option is Flanking promoted centaurs.

I suppose we do need something to tech next, and Rage would work as well as anything, I just wouldn't make it a huge priority. Definitely think we should finish Warhorses first, anyway.

[HidingKneel]

Yeah, that might work just about as well as four Seraphs.

I don't think so... dragon collateral is just a slightly enhanced fireball. Nowhere near the strength of crown of brilliance, or four fire elementals.

I suppose we do need something to tech next, and Rage would work as well as anything, I just wouldn't make it a huge priority. Definitely think we should finish Warhorses first, anyway.

Some other options: Guilds is the quickest way to unlock more angel upgrades. Not sure Angels of Death would be so useful, though, unless they're invisible to floating eyes.

We could go with the airship plan. We don't need to load an airship with heavy-hitters for it to be effective: seven rathas, or six rathas + Eurabatres, could be enough to disable a substantial fraction of Plako's archmages, giving the Mercurians enough time to reach with the heavy hitters.

Actually, we're pretty close to being able to do that already. With four Mercurian workers, Commodore would be able to hit Plako's archmage stack with repentant angels, where it is right now. Right now the top defender is an earth elemental, but underneath that are the units we want to kill. If Plako keeps it that way, he may give us an opportunity.

So I'm going to second Mardoc's suggestion that the Mercurians need workers, more than anything else. And keep them protected until it's time to use them... Plako has a ridiculous amount of mobility.

As for Ilios: I think the best thing I could have done was offer him a peace treaty last turn, after moving Eurabatres in range of his city. Considered it at the time, but wanted to keep the option of going after him open.

[Mardoc]

I don't think so... dragon collateral is just a slightly enhanced fireball. Nowhere near the strength of crown of brilliance, or four fire elementals.

I thought Seraphs only got access to Fireball, not Fire elementals; my comment was that four fireballs is only slightly better than one Meteor. Now that I look again (and see that they also get channelling III and Divine), I see you have a point. Four fire elementals ought to shred just about any stack. Once we get the XP on the units to promote them, of course. I'm a little confused why you think they'd get Crown of Brilliance, though, and not Unyielding Order?

Actually, we're pretty close to being able to do that already. With four Mercurian workers, Commodore would be able to hit Plako's archmage stack with repentant angels, where it is right now. Right now the top defender is an earth elemental, but underneath that are the units we want to kill. If Plako keeps it that way, he may give us an opportunity.

4000 beakers remaining for Warhorses, a tech that also benefits the Kurios dramatically. 9000 for Rage. That's the main reason I'd stick with the current plan.

Oh, and Ophanim, at Warhorses, are Flying units. For real, not the Dragonish 'oh, these wings? They're for decoration'. So we still could plan to take out Thoth if/when we can afford to be at war with the world again.

We don't need exclusively workers built, even if they are currently the bottleneck. Since workers don't have Commando, there's a limit to how much they can do. And especially if we're going for Warhorses and then Rage, it doesn't hurt anything to get more Living units built and fighting.

[Commodore]

Actually, next turn is when I'll start regrowing Killmorph's, given 6+7+8=21, which is the food box full. I'm OCD like that sometimes. Not sure what to grow on, siege workshop maybe?

[HidingKneel]

Actually, next turn is when I'll start regrowing Killmorph's, given 6+7+8=21, which is the food box full. I'm OCD like that sometimes. Not sure what to grow on, siege workshop maybe?

Does that calculation include gifting sheep and life mana to the Kurios on turn 121? Because we'll need to do that to stabilize the super-cities.

Siege workshop sounds right, though. Except I still think we need the workers more. Should get warhorses on turn 124 (I think). If we assemble in Amatheon's then, we could be ready to strike at Plako on Mercurian turn 125/Kurio turn 126. I'll bring rathas, you bring repentant angels and other backup. If you had 4 workers there by then, we'll be able to hit/blind targets 7 tiles away. If it works, we could clean up the next turn.

As for the Crown: what I meant is that Eurabatres is no substitute for Chalid. Seraphs throwing fire elementals needs angels w/ 26 xp, so definitely not a priority like warhorses.

[HidingKneel]

Well... looks like Plako didn't sit still. He razed Amatheon's this turn. Lost two 0 xp angels, Basium's immortality (there's an animal he can kill this turn to get it back), a hawk, a not-so-productive city. But most importantly, our best launching point for an attack on Plako's mage stack.

Question is: does Plako plan to press the attack? If so, we'll need some defensive buildings in Junil's. Palisade, walls, archery range. I think we can mount a pretty effective defense. Of course, defense won't win us the game. But I think it's our best option right now. Hunker down, rebuild our centaur army, recover from blight. Take solace in the fact that we're still got a tech lead and the best GNP, and hope that Plako and Ilios take aim at each other.

[HidingKneel]

Alright, another turn.

Feudalism is in:



Teched stirrups at EOT. Warhorses is 3 more turns at our present science rate. But next turn I start working food tiles again, so our tech rate will probably be a lot lower. Might take four turns.

Requested some health resources from Basium:



Now, what about Plako? He's actually summoning eight earth elementals per turn, due to twincasting puppet brokenness. (At least he's not playing Keelyn, or we'd be looking at 32 earth elementals per turn.) Plako might choose to come straight at us in Junil's. In that case, I think our top defenders will hold, but it's not clear. Need to bring all the Valkyries there, I think, plus Basium. And our toughest units should take march promotions, so they can stay in the fight if they survive a pummeling.

Now, if Plako's smart, he'll hang back and just pillage all our improvements north of Junil's. Particularly the roads. Once the roads are gone, we'll have no way to reach him.

Looks like we're down to one Mercurian worker? It was out in the open, where Plako could hit it with spectres. I don't think he'll want to do that, since he'll have to bring his mages in range for a counterattack. But just in case, I covered the worker with a crusader. Plako can still kill it, but only if he exposes a substantial part of his stack to us.

I noticed this turn that Eurabatres can take March promotions. Wish I'd realized that earlier... that might have been a better option than heading up the drill line. Anyway, I didn't take a second promotion yet. Stole an infernal worker:



He's out in the open, but I think only a handful of infernal axemen are in range. Next turn I'll swoop by his western city, and the turn after I'll start munching on Cauldron Lake.

Produced a ratha in each city at end of turn.