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

[Mardoc]

Education is in. Next stop: Horseback riding and world domination.

[HidingKneel]

Played turn 45. Not much to report. Connected two horses for a nice boost in Naggarond and Avelorn. Kwythellar produced a pagan temple. I think I'll run a priest there next turn. That'll pop our first GP who will likely be a sage, but with a slight chance of prophet. I'd prefer the sage, but we want to get a prophet reasonably soon to bulb priesthood. (If we get one next turn, we could also bulb WotE and swap religions before our golden age ends. Not sure this is worth it, though.) With the remainder of the golden-age boosted production, Kwythellar will produce an herbalist and a settler.

I think I'll build a settlement here, 1N of the dyes:



It won't get the 7 pines in the first ring; we'll need a thane for that. But it looks like a fantastic site for a new third supercity, once we turn one one of the others over to Basium. Also, it's got sheep in the first ring, which is a health source we don't have in our culture right now.

Breakeven science rate: 70%.

[Mardoc]

Played turn 45. Not much to report. Connected two horses for a nice boost in Naggarond and Avelorn. Kwythellar produced a pagan temple. I think I'll run a priest there next turn. That'll pop our first GP who will likely be a sage, but with a slight chance of prophet. I'd prefer the sage, but we want to get a prophet reasonably soon to bulb priesthood. (If we get one next turn, we could also bulb WotE and swap religions before our golden age ends. Not sure this is worth it, though.) With the remainder of the golden-age boosted production, Kwythellar will produce an herbalist and a settler.

Sounds good. And we're almost to the point of Centaurs! I'll feel much better once that's in.

As for the GPro possible - although we'd get slightly more beakers bulbing Priesthood, WotE is in our path too. And we'll get benefits from having it right away - gold income, bonus happiness from temples/gems, access to Medic I. I suspect that means we should use a bulb right away, no matter which way it goes.

I think I'll build a settlement here, 1N of the dyes:

It won't get the 7 pines in the first ring; we'll need a thane for that. But it looks like a fantastic site for a new third supercity, once we turn one one of the others over to Basium. Also, it's got sheep in the first ring, which is a health source we don't have in our culture right now.

Breakeven science rate: 70%.

I would personally delay founding this a bit. There's a chance we need 7 pines early, and we don't really have the free workers to go hook up the sheep just yet anyway - too many resources unimproved, cottages unbuilt. If we end up wanting to go 1S for emergency Armageddon reduction, we want to have the option of moving. No objection to having the settler and escort built and ready, just don't hit 'found city' until we're ready to take advantage.

Plus, we ought to be able to do some more scouting once we have Centaurs in and Orcs suppressed; there's a chance we'd rather a different spot altogether.

[Mist]

It won't get the 7 pines in the first ring; we'll need a thane for that. But it looks like a fantastic site for a new third supercity, once we turn one one of the others over to Basium. Also, it's got sheep in the first ring, which is a health source we don't have in our culture right now.

You don't have to turn over any of your existing cities. The way T-Hawk solved the Basium/Hybo summon issues for PBEMs means you get control over him from t0, are not forced to take over the gate ( that's actually a spell and AI always casts it first thing ) and can use the starting settler ( Basium does start with one ) to plant a new capital whereever.

[HidingKneel]

You don't have to turn over any of your existing cities. The way T-Hawk solved the Basium/Hybo summon issues for PBEMs means you get control over him from t0, are not forced to take over the gate ( that's actually a spell and AI always casts it first thing ) and can use the starting settler ( Basium does start with one ) to plant a new capital whereever.

Ooh... this is important to know. Naggarond's not in the best spot (and that other site looks awesome), but it's surely not worth the effort to develop the land around a new supercity. And since we're likely to be at war with everyone soon, having the Mercurian gate in a Kuriotate city sounds like a good idea, war-weariness wise. Anyway, that new site could make an awesome capital for Basium, instead.

Played turn 46. The big news is in the event log:



Looks like we're too late to stop Bob from adopting the Veil. However, it'll still take him plenty of time to get Hyborem out: infernal pact is what, 1500 beakers? So we're talking maybe turn 65 or so. That should be plenty of time to take care of Selrahc before he can give Bob any manes. Also, when we're done with that we can swing by and raze the AV holy city, which should slow down Bob's tech rate.

Workers are still doing their thing, but didn't connect anything new this turn.
All three cities grew at EOT, though. And look what we got in Kwythellar:



I'll use that sage to build an academy in Naggarond on turn 48 (another possibility is to build the academy in Avelorn to get the third ring quicker. I think that's probably not worth it, though, since Avelorn isn't yet bringing in much commerce). We'll finish the tailor that turn, too, so we can ease off of our golden-age boosted commerce high.

Breakeven science rate: 70%. We're a hair away from HBR. I'll finish it next turn running 0% or 10% science, and start stockpiling gold. Just in case we get that prophet event again .

[HidingKneel]

Another point of note: with the founding of AV, the armageddon counter jumped from 0 to 9. We'd better kill Selrahc fast, and have that settler handy.

[Mardoc]

I'll use that sage to build an academy in Naggarond on turn 48 (another possibility is to build the academy in Avelorn to get the third ring quicker. I think that's probably not worth it, though, since Avelorn isn't yet bringing in much commerce). We'll finish the tailor that turn, too, so we can ease off of our golden-age boosted commerce high.

Agreed, Naggarond currently has more income and will probably always have more income. We need tech more than we need culture.

[HidingKneel]

Turn 47 is in. The event log tells the story:



The question is, has he also got a warrens built? If so, this is gonna be tight. Our first centaur should be up in his business around turn 55 or so (can centaurs sprint while fatigued, or do they need to wait for it to wear off?), and we should have enough to start attacking his city by turn 57. We should also be in a position to trigger the 7pines around turn 52, which should be in time to stop blight (by which I mean, delay blight for about five turns).

Armageddon counter: 9%.

[Mardoc]

Turn 47 is in. The event log tells the story:



The question is, has he also got a warrens built? If so, this is gonna be tight. Our first centaur should be up in his business around turn 55 or so (can centaurs sprint while fatigued, or do they need to wait for it to wear off?), and we should have enough to start attacking his city by turn 57. We should also be in a position to trigger the 7pines around turn 52, which should be in time to stop blight (by which I mean, delay blight for about five turns).

Armageddon counter: 9%.

Yikes. I thought we had a little more time than that. Yes, it looks like Blight on T53 if nothing is done - well, one silver lining is that Selrahc only has 6 hammers/turn at the moment after his whip, which isn't enough for a goblin/turn...unless he had overflow from the PoR.

Centaurs can only Sprint when not fatigued. 50% wear off/turn means that they'll be Sprinting a large portion of the time, but not universally.

I'd forgotten that the AV holy city is also worth a big chunk of AC; if we can raze that simultaneously with keeping a lid on Selrahc, it's worth doing. Bob won't be boosting AC nearly as much as Selrahc will be, though.

[HidingKneel]

New turn is in, bring us centaurs!



Unfortunately, Selrahc also produced two goblins this turn, bringing the AC up to 16. His manufacturing is now at 9, so he'll be able to do that just about every turn. Our settler will be able to reach the 7pines just in time to delay blight, which will buy us four turns. There's no way we'll be able to stop him by then: it's just around when our first centaurs will reach his land. So blight's looking inevitable at this point. Basium timetable: shot to hell. Let's focus on living through this, instead .

Some questions: Do we want to trigger before blight, or let blight hit and trigger a bit later for more AC reduction? I'm thinking before blight. Blight is going to hit us hard, and we need to build as much military as we can before that happens.

Might it be worth staying in agrarianism? We're running huge food surpluses right now in all three cities (well, huge in Naggarond and Avelorn, moderate in Kwythellar), so we might be able to ride it out better. I'm also thinking no; we need to hit Selrahc very hard, very quickly. Which means shock-promoted centaurs and lots of them.

Anyways, finished a tailor in Naggarond this turn, and a settler in Kwythellar. Avelorn started work on a centaur, so that it can get one out immediately after the civic swaps. And our golden age is now over. It was fun while it lasted!



Armageddon counter: 13% and rising.