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

[Mist]

In other news, we've got a 7 pines not far from our territory, which should allow us to really slow Selrahc down. Do you think there's more than one of those on the map? If so, can one active multiple 7 pines in the same game?

No. Events tied to a world improvement ( pines, letuum ) fire only once. But nevertheless I did recheck that just to be absolutely sure...

And they don't work at all in EiB right now

[Mardoc]

Looks like popping a lair takes 3 turns in EitB.

Popping an *unguarded* lair takes 3 turns. Barrows, Ruins, and Forts still only take 1 turn.

As you can see, Mist was quite generous with the Remnants of Patria on this map. We should be able to grab two of them with our third city, if we like. (Anybody know if this will give twice the happiness bonus?)

Given that it's tied into the National Parks mechanic - I bet it does give twice the happiness. Plus of course it's a strong tile.

Speaking of happiness, here's something funny:

Didn't know penguins could fly!

Another piece of good news - inside our territory, we have every Tailor/Jeweler resource except Pearls. So those will be excellent buildings, once we catch up to them.

In other news, we've got a 7 pines not far from our territory, which should allow us to really slow Selrahc down. Do you think there's more than one of those on the map? If so, can one active multiple 7 pines in the same game?

Probably are more than one, but it's far enough out that it might be halfway to someone else. Seven Pines must be in your culture (and maybe in a BFC?) to activate.

From the looks of the scoreboard, we're the only ones that didn't found a third city on the first turn. Makes sense: everyone else will be packing their cities close together, so the maintenance shouldn't be as crippling. Which means we'll start a little slower than the others. In retrospect, we'd have been better off trading one of those settlers for a worker and a scout, but nothing to do about that now.

Here's the save as of EOT, which you can poke around with if you like.
Password is set to "Cardith".

Um...maybe. I don't actually think so, though. They're ahead by 16 points each (counting Selrahc's should-be deficit from starting Techless). That doesn't add up nicely with just one more city - which would be only one pop point more, at 4 points.

So, well - Bob started with a bonus tech, Seafaring. That's 8 points right there. Either he bought two more pop points, or he bought Fishing. I think if I were Lanun, aiming for a rush, I'd buy Fishing. Getting coves started ASAP will cut a major portion off his time.

The other players? Hard to tell. Either they each bought two techs, which I think is more than they had to spend after two cities, or they bought 1 tech and 2 pop points, or four pop points. I'm not really sure why you'd buy population when you don't have improved tiles, but I could be missing something. Still...someone has 17 crop yield, which should be essentially impossible without having bought pop. And in fact, someone has 12000 population, too, which is two size 3 cities.



We have max soldiers, with our three scouts and two population; I wonder if anyone else bought any units at all?

[HidingKneel]

Popping an *unguarded* lair takes 3 turns. Barrows, Ruins, and Forts still only take 1 turn.

Ah... well, I think I'll park our scout there for a while. I'd rather gamble on Bradeline's well. At this point, spawning -anything- next to Kwythellar would be a game over. If I'm going to take chance like that, I'd rather there be a big potential payoff.

Given that it's tied into the National Parks mechanic - I bet it does give twice the happiness. Plus of course it's a strong tile.

Yeah... seeing more of the environs, the map isn't looking too hammer-poor. I think Naggarond just happened to be poorly placed in that regard. We can make up for that with our third city.

Probably are more than one, but it's far enough out that it might be halfway to someone else. Seven Pines must be in your culture (and maybe in a BFC?) to activate.

Shouldn't be a problem; we can always get a settlement up over there.
Question is, when should we aim to trigger it? (Assuming someone doesn't trigger first?) One idea would be to delay blight as long as possible, since we're going to suffer the most from it. But I'm not so sure that's a good idea: the earlier blight hits, the less of a pain it will be. So maybe we should save it until armageddon's starting to look really dangerous.

Um...maybe. I don't actually think so, though. They're ahead by 16 points each (counting Selrahc's should-be deficit from starting Techless). That doesn't add up nicely with just one more city - which would be only one pop point more, at 4 points.

Heh... shows what I know about reading those things. Your Bob analysis sounds solid. Balseraphs start with agriculture, but Elohim and the Clan don't. It would seem crazy not to buy some workers, and it would seem crazy to buy workers without anything for them to do. So I'd bet that Elohim and the Clan bought agriculture, and maybe the Balseraphs are sitting on two size-three cities?

[Commodore]

Looks like happy won't be an issue at all, but health will be hell. Blight is going to be hitting very very soon if the Clan bought techs to speed itself to the PoR, and Bob is probably founding AV turn...40-45? At the worst for him? Something worth doing, assuming semi-mirrored starts, would be to play a test start as Jonas/Clan trying for the earliest possible armagedon, and the earliest possible Hyborem assuming lots of lake...look at the pop/land area there, someone has two cities each with more than 50% water.

[Mardoc]

No. Events tied to a world improvement ( pines, letuum ) fire only once. But nevertheless I did recheck that just to be absolutely sure...

And they don't work at all in EiB right now

Shouldn't be a problem; we can always get a settlement up over there. Question is, when should we aim to trigger it? (Assuming someone doesn't trigger first?

If Mist is right, it doesn't matter what we aim for here.

Yeah... seeing more of the environs, the map isn't looking too hammer-poor. I think Naggarond just happened to be poorly placed in that regard. We can make up for that with our third city.

And, do remember - we need a whole bunch of commerce, too. So it's not like Naggarond is a bad city, it's just not the homeland of our army.

[Commodore]

Ah, gentlemen, not to be That Guy but the more I look at the advanced start, the more and more I see just one message:



Um...so how about a Philo bulb?

[Mist]

If Mist is right, it doesn't matter what we aim for here.

I'm not, I forgot Peace has "inside own culture" requirement.

[Mardoc]

Ah, gentlemen, not to be That Guy but the more I look at the advanced start, the more and more I see just one message:

Um...so how about a Philo bulb?

Seems to give that impression, yes. There is one infallible solution to the AC, though, which is Centaurs. Granted, we also want to apply that solution to the devil worshippers, and everyone else on the map while we're at it.

Philo bulb is doable, if it's done before both Mining and Hunting are researched. Only...why? Leaving Mining on the table hurts. We can get Priesthood afterward. We don't really want to try to steal the prophecy, we'll need our cities for building units no matter what, and don't want to raise the AC for Selrahc.

Or are you thinking that Selrahc will bulb Philo? That seems quite plausible, actually.

I'm not, I forgot Peace has "inside own culture" requirement.

Oh, that's reassuring then. We should be able to halve the AC once, as a result. Back to thinking about when.

[HidingKneel]

While the trouble looming fifty turns from now is a matter of concern, we have more immediate worries. Turn 2 came in, and here's a screenshot from after EOT:



That barrow spawned another skeleton. Which ought to start heading for one of our cities next turn? Kwythellar can get a warrior out in time to defend, but if it heads for Naggarond we're in a much worse position. Can't finish a warrior in time. I didn't move our northern scout far, so it can return to the city to mount some kind of defense if necessary, but it won't have good odds against an attacking skeleton.

(Mechanics question: what do our turns of "universal peace" buy us? Is it possible we're safe from barbarians right now?)

In other news, we finished a farm around Kwythellar and started working it (I think the mantra for right now should be grow, grow, grow; we can still finish a warrior in 2 turns if we switch back to working the RoP). Our other scout went further south. It will pick up a hut and start popping Bradeline's well next turn.

Bob sent me the save directly, rather than through the tracker. Here's the unplayed turn: [ATTACH]2468[/ATTACH]

[Mardoc]

That barrow spawned another skeleton. Which ought to start heading for one of our cities next turn?

(Mechanics question: what do our turns of "universal peace" buy us? Is it possible we're safe from barbarians right now?)

Well, damn.

Barbs are extremely inconsistent. I don't think universal peace makes us safe from them, though. But frankly, I'd not care to bet any way on what the skeleton will do next turn. I could envision eight moves, plus standing still, as options.

A painful thought - if the skellie beelines Naggarond, is it worth sending a worker sacrifice in, to buy us a couple turns?

In other news, we finished a farm around Kwythellar and started working it (I think the mantra for right now should be grow, grow, grow; we can still finish a warrior in 2 turns if we switch back to working the RoP).

Definitely agreed. In fact, I'm already starting to debate when to start nagging you for more workers . Probably should wait until the skeleton doesn't kill us.

Edit:
Commodore, you were prophetic!