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

[Mist]

It's also not possible . We can put a road on the tile, but it won't give us anything until we research Hunting.

This is not true. It's the same case as with Pyre - you don't need Elementalism for it to give you fire mana. As soon as you connect Bones to your road network you will get Ivory, Hunting or no Hunting present.

[Mardoc]

This is not true. It's the same case as with Pyre - you don't need Elementalism for it to give you fire mana. As soon as you connect Bones to your road network you will get Ivory, Hunting or no Hunting present.

When did that change? We put a road on our Dragon Bones in PBEM 5, and it didn't do anything until we researched Hunting.

[HidingKneel]

Turn 50 played. Mardoc is right: I connected the dragon bones, but didn't get happiness from the ivory. In other news, connected wheat, built our first cottage, and produced two centaurs at EOT. Here's a screenshot of, well, the most bit of our territory right now:



In other news, with those two centaurs, we're up from #3 to #2 in power:



We're in pretty good shape, especially considering Plako's in a golden age right now.

As always, the end is nigh. Armageddon counter: 24/122 = 19%.

[HidingKneel]

Played turn 51. Bob's got a scout poking around Avelorn:



Prevented me from finishing a cottage I was working on there. Oh well. If it's still around in two turns, I might skewer it with a centaur.

Our first two centaurs are sprinting towards Selrahc, and we produced another two at end of turn. In other news: the AC didn't go up this turn. Looks like Selrahc ran out of overflow, so we get an extra turn of breathing room. Might well make the difference between Stephanos and no-Stephanos.

Our settler is now in position to grab the 7pines. I can settle next turn if I like.
But question: is it possible for RoK to land in a settlement? If so, maybe I should hold off (in this case, I misplayed, because I ran 0% science this turn and might not be able to finish WotE next turn).

Armageddon counter: 24/122 = 19%.

[Mardoc]

Prevented me from finishing a cottage I was working on there. Oh well. If it's still around in two turns, I might skewer it with a centaur.

Worth a couple XP, anyway .

In other news: the AC didn't go up this turn. Looks like Selrahc ran out of overflow, so we get an extra turn of breathing room. Might well make the difference between Stephanos and no-Stephanos.

:dancing5::2dance::

But question: is it possible for RoK to land in a settlement? If so, maybe I should hold off (in this case, I misplayed, because I ran 0% science this turn and might not be able to finish WotE next turn).

Dang, I wish I knew. Can't think of a foolproof way to test, either.

I did run a quick Worldbuilder test, in which I put a holy city in each of three real cities, nothing in a settlement, then researched Runes, and it showed up in one of the real cities - the settlement remained religion-free. Which I think is at least highly suggestive, since holy cities normally avoid each other.

[HidingKneel]

Another turn played!

First, Bob has clearly signaled his intentions:



He's trying to steal my dungeon! I'm not sure I like that... first, I'd love a shot at another GP or a golden age. Second, if he spawns something nasty, it'll probably head for Avelorn rather than Bob. So I'm thinking I'll take that scout out. It means one centaur will be late (or missing) from the party up north, but I think that'll be okay.

Two bits of bad luck: first, you might have noticed last turn that there was a barbarian warrior prowling around Naggarond. Well, I sent Naggarond's garrison warrior out to fight it (didn't want any wounded centaurs for the time being) and lost at 96% odds (our warrior was C2S1). A shame, but hardly a big deal at this point when we're 1-turning centaurs with two promotions. I redlined the barbarian and mopped up with a centaur, no injuries.

The other bit of news: I did some creative accounting, and landed us WotE at end of turn. Unfortunately, the holy city is Naggarond:



Too bad, the extra culture would have been nice in Avelorn. But again, not a big deal.

The next question is: what to do with our free thane?

1) Use him for culture in Avelorn. This'll get us the third ring 6 turns earlier. That's six turns we could be working some Remnants of Patria, rather than a plains cottage, say.

2) Use him to spread Kilmorph. I have no idea how long it'll take Kilmorph to spread naturally (does anyone know the mechanics on this? Does it matter if it's the state religion?)

3) Send him to the front lines as a field medic. Unfortunately, it'll take him 9 turns to get there. I expect the war to be over by then.

4) Use him to pop the borders of our new settlement. That's going to be here:



That'll get us access to sheep, and we can spare the worker turns to connect it. (Also: do settlements get trade route income?)

I'm thinking I'll build that settlement and fire the 7pines next turn. It's painful to found a city on top of the dyes, but what can I do?

Not actually sure how the mechanics work: when exactly does blight trigger? If the AC goes over 30%, and I bring it down during my turn, what will happen? If it matters: my turn happens before Selrahc (I act right after the barbarians).

Produced another three centaurs at end of turn. We're easily first in power right now. But Ilios pulled ahead of us in food this turn. I'm thinking as soon as Selrahc is taken care of, I'd better force him to use his worldspell.

Finally, here's a screenshot of our cavalry riding to save the world. Cue the Wagner.



Armageddon counter: 28/122 = 22%.

[Mardoc]

The next question is: what to do with our free thane?

1) Use him for culture in Avelorn. This'll get us the third ring 6 turns earlier. That's six turns we could be working some Remnants of Patria, rather than a plains cottage, say.

2) Use him to spread Kilmorph. I have no idea how long it'll take Kilmorph to spread naturally (does anyone know the mechanics on this? Does it matter if it's the state religion?)

4) Use him to pop the borders of our new settlement. That's going to be here:

That'll get us access to sheep, and we can spare the worker turns to connect it. (Also: do settlements get trade route income?)

Easy part first: no, settlements don't get trade income. All they can get, cashwise, is the value from Temples.

Natural spread is a low, random chance per turn to spread to each city with a trade connection. Higher chance the closer the city is to the Holy City. Doesn't matter if it's state religion, I believe, but founding the shrine increases the odds.

..and, Murphy's law dictates that it'll only spread if you don't need it :neenernee


In any case, I suppose the thing to do is quantify, if we can:

1. Spreading the religion is worth 1 gpt/turn, +1 happy, and the ability to build a Temple and Kilmorph units. Also it increases the number of units we build with the Kilmorph religion. It only counts from now until we could otherwise spread. We want Kilmorph and a temple in every city eventually, so a spread now saves us a spread later.
   
   
2. Surely it would only speed up Avelorn's border pop by 5 turns? Popping Avelorn's borders changes us from a 1/1/1 tile to a 2/5/0 tile. 5 turns early is +5/+20/-5, therefore; less than the cost of the thane, but it gets us hammers sooner. Still, I think we're doing ok enough on hammers that we don't need to eke out every one.
   
   
3. I agree that there's not much point in using him for a Medic. We'll eventually want medics, granted, but we want them to be Priests, and in possession of Mobility, or else helping us fight a defensive war.
   
   
4. Enabling Sheep is +2 health in every city, since I believe we have smokehouses everywhere. This is worth 1 fpt right now, but potentially 6 fpt as soon as we either grow or hit Blight. It only counts from now until we could otherwise pop the border.
   

I think my opinion depends on how likely we are to hit Blight before we have the chance to stop building Centaurs. If you think we're definitely going to hit blight, then sheep all the way. It might save us a couple population in every city, plus speed up the regrowth. If you think we can delay it, spread Kilmorph to the capital, so we can get the temple and more thanes pushed out the fastest.

Not actually sure how the mechanics work: when exactly does blight trigger? If the AC goes over 30%, and I bring it down during my turn, what will happen? If it matters: my turn happens before Selrahc (I act right after the barbarians).

I'm only mostly sure about this, but I believe it checks at the end of every player's turn, and if it was above 30% during their turn, Blight happens to them on the next turn. In PBEM18, I brought the AC above 30 at the end of my turn, then Bob played, and reduced the AC during his turn. Right after that, I was in Blight, and he wasn't.

I'm of the opinion that's a bug, but it's at least a well-known bug.

[HidingKneel]

Another turn played. This one was fairly eventful.

The first thing I did was kill Bob's scout. Probably not optimal play, but I promoted one of our new centaurs to mobility II to do it this turn:



I figured afterwards I could use it as a very fast scout, to figure out where Ilios and Plako are. But I took more damage than I expected; I might send him home to heal for a bit.

Second, I noted that the armageddon counter was at 32/122 = 26%, and figured it was time to act. Could probably have waited another turn, and maybe even two more turns if you're right about that bug. But I founded a settlement and hit the switch:



Hum. The AC is now down to 6/122 = 4%. Wasn't it supposed to be a 50% reduction? Is that a bug? Anyway, it looks like we're safe from blight. Because Selrahc's days are numbered:



Declared on him this turn, and have two centaurs in his borders. Many more on the way. Produced three more centaurs at end of turn, bringing us ten in total.

As for our thane, I haven't reached a decision. But I moved him east, which is consistent with three of my four proposals . I'm now leaning toward the Kilmorph spread though, in which case he would probably be better sent toward Kwythellar.

[Mardoc]

That's odd, I thought 7 pines was supposed to be half, too. Assuming it sticks, I lean toward further spread of Kilmorph, too; raze the Prophecy and the AV holy city and Blight is much less likely, particularly soon.

Then we just have to figure out what to do about Hyborem and that little detail of actually winning this somehow

I do note that Hyborem is a melee unit, equivalent strength 11 to start. So Combat I/Shock centaurs probably don't actually need to be that numerous before they can kill him. Or, well, if Selrahc obliges in providing XP, we could train some Combat II/Cover units, for a net +120% against archery. I think that would give a centaur odds against even an Iron Longbow, in the field, and close against a Longbow in a city. Close enough that throwing in some Flanking or sacrificial Centaurs first should give odds, anyway.

It's hard to object to having some 6 move units! Be good for more than just scouting - that's very handy for worker and wounded unit sniping, and forking, and so on and so forth. And he's apparently close to gaining another promo anyway, just needs to practice on a barb somewhere. Or a second Lanunish scout .

Anyway, yes, I approve of varying promotions. And of crushing the evildoers beneath our hooves!

[HidingKneel]

Ah... I just ran some tests in game. The Seven Pines cuts the AC in half, but like all changes to the AC, it's doubled if Last Days is enabled. So in my Last Days test, it brought the AC to zero. No idea why it would bring the AC down to 6, though.