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

[Mist]

While your FtH speculation is fun to read, I'd like to remind you what I announced in advance - even with lairs on, there will be no goblin forts on the map.

[Mardoc]

While your FtH speculation is fun to read, I'd like to remind you what I announced in advance - even with lairs on, there will be no goblin forts on the map.

Err, yes

For reminder purposes:

30x30 with toroidal wrap, unless you want more relaxed or more cutthroat game.

Very little to no water, and no islands. If Launun get picked they'll get one small saltwater pond with one island to play in.

Standard.

Toroidal wrap.
Abundant food / production / commerce,
Scarce trees ( elves will get some more if present ).
Everyone will start next to a mana crystal, but there will be no other mana crystals on the map.
If you decide to play with lairs, I will not place any graveyards or goblin forts.
I want to place some windmills around the map for aesthetic purposes, no other preplaced improvements will be present.
No Acheron.

Actually a pretty good set for some Kurio centaur riding goodness .

[Mist]

You provisional starting screenshot. I consider it done, but stuff might change pending third party lurker feedback, if noone raises any objections, we'll go live in 24 hours.

[Mardoc]

You provisional starting screenshot. I consider it done, but stuff might change pending third party lurker feedback, if noone raises any objections, we'll go live in 24 hours.

No rivers? Huh.

Going to have to think about this. Only real conclusion is that I can definitely agree to Calendar first! And that we'll want to follow up with either Crafting -> Mining or straight to Education.

[Commodore]

Forget no rivers, what about no hammers? Looks like Patria is going to be pretty essential. Good thing Kurio favor the cottage economy. But, um...yeah, lack of slavery on the path means Conquest is a biggie. WotF anyone?

[Mardoc]

Forget no rivers, what about no hammers? Looks like Patria is going to be pretty essential. Good thing Kurio favor the cottage economy. But, um...yeah, lack of slavery on the path means Conquest is a biggie. WotF anyone?

We want Patria anyway, for the +3 happy. First thought on that city is 1E of the Reagents. That'd be something like a 11 or 12 happy cap from T0.

Not sure what that really leaves for the second city. Maybe that easternmost plains tile?

Low hammers is really going to hurt when it comes to getting all our infra in place. And we want more infra than most. I'm not really a fan of WotF, though, because it takes such a long time. Even in a regular game, Hunting to WotF is expensive, let alone one where we're trying to rush.

[HidingKneel]

Thanks Mist!

Hmm... Remnants and Dragon bones in our immediate vicinity? Either Mist really likes us, or everybody's getting some of those.

How close to Patria (and standing stones) do we need to be to pick up the happiness bonus? Third ring is enough? If so, putting the capital E of the reagents sounds good. Not sure about the second site yet. My first instinct was to put it on that forested hill, but with production so scarce we probably want to save our hills for mining purposes. S of there is probably better, especially since food is super-important to us.

From the Kuriotate angle, it looks really good, though! Plenty of space to grow our super-cities. Two cities, settler, 2 workers, 3 scouts is looking good. Which way do you think our Yggdrasil is ? My money's on SE.

Calendar first, and I'm thinking we want to swap out of pacifism immediately, too.

[Commodore]

If the special features give Kurios happiness in 3rd ring, then yeah, capital 1E of reagents just makes sense. Second city perhaps on the far-east plains?

[HidingKneel]

Alright, after a bit of contemplation, here are some thoughts/battle plan for turn 0:

1) I tested in game, and Kuriotates get happiness from Remnants and Standing Stones if they're in the third ring. (Test was in FFH2, but presumably it's the same in EitB). Based on this, capital 1E of reagents and second city on the easternmost plains tile look like the right way to go.

2) Unless new resources are revealed when we plant city #2, there will be no farms it can build in the first ring. So I'll start both workers at the capital, where they have two farms to build right away.

3) We'll have three scouts. I'll start two of them in the second city. One will go north to get a hilltop look at our surroundings. The other will go southeast. Scout in the capital will go SW, maybe grab the goodie hut.

4) For initial tech path, I'm thinking Calendar->chants->education->crafting->mining->mysticism. We'll need to work grasslands in order to grow, so we want to be putting cottages up as soon as possible. The multipliers from God-King should probably wait until we have something to multiply.

5) It'll be a slow slog to calendar, especially since we'll be paying upkeep for 3 cities almost immediately. I don't think we want to be in pacifism that long. So, I'll revolt into religion as soon as I get the option.

6) Aside from the dragon bones, the earliest good commerce tile we can work is that incense. We'll want to plantation that as soon as calendar comes in. Which means popping the barrows. I think we should wait to do that until we have at least a warrior in each city. But we probably want to park a unit on the barrows so it can't spawn any skeletons in the meanwhile. Once we're set on a location for our third city, I'll send one of the scouts back to do that
(hopefully we'll be in time).

7) Looks like health will be a huge concern on this map. Health resources will be almost as important as happy resources. Expansive should help us with that early on, but it'll become an issue quickly as we grow. Lack of fresh water is going to hurt. Blight is going to hit like a ton of bricks.

Thoughts?

[Mardoc]

If the special features give Kurios happiness in 3rd ring

Ooh, good point, that's worth a test to be sure.

I think I agree on swapping to Nationalism, yes. We'll be having another swap at Edu, almost certainly, to Apprenticeship/Conquest; that can be when we grab Religion to boost the Pagan Temples we'll be building for GPP. And in any case, Pacifism will hurt too much without the hammers to spare.

About an earlier debate, bulbing vs Academies - my opinion is we should run max on both sages and priests, and use whatever we get. Bulbs are worth a good chunk, particularly in a race, but what's even more important is if we can squeeze out an extra Great Person by mixing our pool, or get the great people earlier.

Edit: Cross post, I'll read HK's analysis and post my thoughts on it next.