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

[HidingKneel]

Turn 60 played. We are soooo not out of the woods yet .

The turn opened with a lousy event:



Fortunately, it didn't have any effect on tiles we are presently working. But check out what happened to Killswitch:



Now, down to business. First, let's have a look at what Bob is up to. I sent one of my mobility centaurs up towards the Mirror of Heaven. Here's what he saw:



Looks like Bob is giving Hyborem drill promotions. Drill promoted Hyborem = very, very bad. Our centaurs will bounce right off of him. Still, Mr. Scratch can't do much on his own. He could march to our territory and kill a centaur per turn. Until he gets unlucky, Bob loses his traits and we get the gela.
But drill-promoted Hyborem as a stack defender? Terrifying. But it ought to be a while yet before he can scrape together a stack worth defending.

The other thing you'll note is that there are barbarians everywhere. I don't want to fight them, since that'll slow down the campaign against Selrahc. So I'll just have to try to avoid them for the time being. I moved the mobility centaur north a bit, which I hope will be safe between turns. I'll try to keep it around the Mirror to keep tabs on Bob and help my other centaurs navigate a path through the barbs.

What about Selrahc? Well, the AC went up 6 points this turn. Which means two more marked units, and something else (probably an AV spread). Time for some daring heroics! I killed two of his marked warriors this turn (one of those battles didn't even injure my centaur ), and moved some more into striking position.

I don't have a good feel for what our army looks like anymore.

I can help with that! Right now we're supporting 26 units in total.
Ten of those are workers, the nine we produced together with this guy:



That's right, the Kuriotates are equal-opportunity employers. We do not discriminate based on race, sex, or plane of origin.

We've also got 4 warriors: one in each city, and one guarding the settlement.

The remaining twelve units are centaurs. Half of those are up north terrorizing Selrahc, in varying states of health (thought I had a screenshot of those, but looks like I forgot).

Then we have these two, who will join them next turn:



One of those is mobility-promoted, so I'll probably use it for pillaging rather than attack.

A bit further out, we have two more centaurs, including our demon-slayer:



They should be in a position to hit him on turn 63, with some good luck on the sprinting.

What about the other two? Well, one is up by the Mirror of Heaven. And the last one was hurt pretty bad fighting Bob, and is now recovering in Kwythellar.

Anyway, we definitely need more centaurs. But we need an economy too, so I played builder for a turn again. Kwythellar and Avelorn finished libraries, and Naggarond grew a size. Here's Kwythellar at end of turn:



Our economy really appreciated the love. Breakeven science rate went from 80 to 100 bpt. Also, we landed our great person. Unfortunately, it was a sage... so much for the plan of bulbing priesthood. Turn 80 Basium isn't in the cards, but we can probably get him by turn 90, assuming the other players don't kill us.

Oh, and trade came in at end of turn. Which means we get to spy on our neighbors! Check it out:



I was most interested in knowing if anyone else was on a Basium beeline. Looks like a no (or at least, if they are, they're far enough behind that we don't have to worry about it). But Plako has philosophy and KotE... hopefully he isn't about to discover corruption of spirit. The last thing we need right now is another AV spread.

We really need more centaurs. I'm thinking I'll start building them again in Avelorn next turn, and Kwythellar once it has a temple of Kilmorph. Naggarond needs a bunch of buildings, so I'll let it grow for a while (unless Bob starts marching).

[Mardoc]

Looks like Bob is giving Hyborem drill promotions. Drill promoted Hyborem = very, very bad. Our centaurs will bounce right off of him. Still, Mr. Scratch can't do much on his own. He could march to our territory and kill a centaur per turn. Until he gets unlucky, Bob loses his traits and we get the gela.
But drill-promoted Hyborem as a stack defender? Terrifying. But it ought to be a while yet before he can scrape together a stack worth defending.

It's not documented, but I believe Centaurs ignore first strikes. Still, I've no objection to continuing a quick tech path up to something with a bit more punch.

I'm very glad to see the effect of the libraries! And that we managed to get them built while we're still Philosophical.

The sage is a smidgen disappointing, but still should be useful for something. I believe our options are to bulb Knowledge of the Ether, a tech we don't need urgently and doesn't cost a whole lot, or to settle in an Academy/Library town for 10.5 bpt, or to make our third Academy; if I'm reading Naggarond right, that'd be worth ~10.5 bpt whenever we're running 100% science - and of course will go up as soon as we're able to grow onto cottages. So I think Academy is a no brainer.

Your build suggestions make sense to me, we are a bit less on the edge of a knife with respect to military, but we want to stay that way.

Finally, one idea for consideration in the mid-term. We're paying an awful lot in maintenance. Courthouses in Avelorn and Naggarond would save us 11 gpt. Which would become more beakers, since our beakers/gold ratio is above 1 once we get the libraries and last Academy built. Code of Laws is only a 320 beaker tech, which is 267 base beakers. Assuming it increased our beaker production by 15 bpt, that would pay off in 18 turns.

Now, granted, I'm not really sure when we could slip Courthouses into our build queues, given our current needs. Heck, I'm not even sure when we can slip in Kilmorph spreads and temple builds. So this isn't an urgent idea, but it ought to pay off pretty quickly when we can afford it.

Another thought: we could consider going Organized at T71 instead of Spiritual, and delay Courthouses til then. Command Posts are really good buildings in v8: +20% hammers toward military, +3 XP. Plus half-price Courthouses, plus currently 6 gpt in civic costs (which will presumably go up once we join the Overcouncil).

Next time the save comes around, I'll see if we can't count up the others' exact techs. It would be handy to try to figure out what their plans are, in addition to what they're not .

[HidingKneel]

It's not documented, but I believe Centaurs ignore first strikes.

Hmm... I ran a test using worldbuilder. Around fifteen centaurs were enough to bring down Meshabber of Dis. After promoting Meshabber to drill IV, more than thirty centaurs weren't able to injure him.

Finally, one idea for consideration in the mid-term. We're paying an awful lot in maintenance. Courthouses in Avelorn and Naggarond would save us 11 gpt. Which would become more beakers, since our beakers/gold ratio is above 1 once we get the libraries and last Academy built. Code of Laws is only a 320 beaker tech, which is 267 base beakers. Assuming it increased our beaker production by 15 bpt, that would pay off in 18 turns.

Code of laws is in our tech path anyway, since it's a prereq for fanaticism. No reason not to put it next; if we're not facing an imminent threat, Avelorn can build a courthouse when it comes in.

Another thought: we could consider going Organized at T71 instead of Spiritual, and delay Courthouses til then. Command Posts are really good buildings in v8: +20% hammers toward military, +3 XP. Plus half-price Courthouses, plus currently 6 gpt in civic costs (which will presumably go up once we join the Overcouncil).

That could keep our military competitive, even when we're not running conquest. Except that it'll take a lot of tech to get to command posts. We'll be teching the Basium path until turn 85 or so. At that point we'll probably want orders from heaven, more mounted techs, smelting, ... I'm not sure it's worth the diversion. Especially since it just occurred to me that Plako's probably teching toward military strategy right now (last I checked, organized was one of his traits) and will pick up the free commander before us.

[Mardoc]

Hmm... I ran a test using worldbuilder. Around fifteen centaurs were enough to bring down Meshabber of Dis. After promoting Meshabber to drill IV, more than thirty centaurs weren't able to injure him.

So much for that theory. It's good to know, even if it means we've got an extremely scary looking Mr. Scratch.

Ah - it also means I underestimated what it'll take to kill a Longbow. In retrospect, killing Bob's stack was definitely the way to go.

Code of laws is in our tech path anyway, since it's a prereq for fanaticism. No reason not to put it next; if we're not facing an imminent threat, Avelorn can build a courthouse when it comes in.

. Forgot it was a prereq, but yes, that'll do us more good than Philo for the time being.

That could keep our military competitive, even when we're not running conquest. Except that it'll take a lot of tech to get to command posts. We'll be teching the Basium path until turn 85 or so. At that point we'll probably want orders from heaven, more mounted techs, smelting, ... I'm not sure it's worth the diversion. Especially since it just occurred to me that Plako's probably teching toward military strategy right now (last I checked, organized was one of his traits) and will pick up the free commander before us.

Basium's really that far away? I figured we'd be speeding up considerably now that we can grow again, and as our cottages grow.

I suppose you're right, Organized does Kurios much less good than it does everyone else. And Spiritual will let us swap into and out of Conquest almost at will.

[Commodore]

And meanwhile, Plako is messing around with Loki? I guess you're watching to DoW if he pesters Killswitch? I hope it gets wet again before The Summoning. What is Thoth up to? Roiser ETA?

[DaveV]

It's not documented, but I believe Centaurs ignore first strikes.

That's Centaur Archers (the replacement for Horse Archers). Plain old Centaurs have an innate bonus against Archers, but that's not going to help against a melee demon hero.

[HidingKneel]

And meanwhile, Plako is messing around with Loki? I guess you're watching to DoW if he pesters Killswitch? I hope it gets wet again before The Summoning. What is Thoth up to? Roiser ETA?

Yeah, two things I forgot to mention. Ilios declared on Plako last turn, presumably to fend off Loki (a real war would be too much to ask for, I guess). And Selrahc got a border pop, giving his garrison an extra 10%. Unfortunate, but we still haven't taken any casualties assaulting the city (been pretty lucky on that front).

No idea what Thoth is up to, but I expect to see Rosier any turn now. It occurs to me (maybe I'm paranoid) that he's in a pretty good position to do a Basium run himself. He's got a decent tech rate, so he could easily clear priesthood and code of laws in the near future. And surely he's building the Grimoire in his capital. If he uses that for fanaticism, he could swap out of Veil and start building the gate around turn 65 or so, some full twenty turns before us. If he does, we'll have to make pillaging him a priority. If we keep his production low enough (fortunately he can't build it in his Heron-throne capital), we can still beat him to it using SoKs.

[Mardoc]

120 hammers for Rosy means he'll be pretty soon, yes. I'm less worried about Basium competition - among other things, he'd have to switch religions on us. Which means researching another religion, to start with! And if he builds Rosy, then he's unlikely to want to swap.

[HidingKneel]

Turn 61 played. No sign of Rosier yet, at least.

For the time being, Bob seems content to chill out in Cauldron Lake:



So the real action is up north. Selrahc produced another pair of marked warriors this turn. I'm not sure how he's doing that with a MFG of 9 (that couldn't be Bob with the 9, could it?) Anyway, I responded by killing another two. I'm starting to feel a little silly for being so passive in my invasion. So I also pillaged a road and two farms, and moved my centaur stack onto his dragon bones:



He made me nervous killing one of my centaurs on the dragon bones a bit earlier. But I doubt he can make a dent in this stack. I'm getting 90% odds on his warriors when they're defending the city; in the open, it'll be even more favorable for me.

Here's what we're up against:



I'm pretty sure everything he has is visible in that screenshot: 6 warriors and 4 goblins. Shouldn't take me long to chew through those. Especially since I've got reinforcement on the way, including the C4/S1 Alan Wake. I'll also send my mobility centaur pillaging next turn, and see if I can't drop the rate at which he's producing those warriors.

Domestically, I've continued building. Used the thane to spread Kilmorph to Kwythellar and started a temple there. Naggarond's still working on a smokehouse, and Avelorn started producing centaurs again.

[Mardoc]

I'm not sure how he's doing that with a MFG of 9 (that couldn't be Bob with the 9, could it?)

His population recently dropped from 5 to 4; presumably that was a whip. Overflow hammers from a whip could last quite a while when he only needs a couple extra hpt to finish off the warriors. Makes me very glad that you pillaged his food and are getting more reinforcements. Pillaging the windmill and camping on the Dragon Bones both ought to help, too.

And I see you earned another promo this turn

Domestically, I've continued building. Used the thane to spread Kilmorph to Kwythellar and started a temple there. Naggarond's still working on a smokehouse, and Avelorn started producing centaurs again.

Cool. Kilmorph will be worth a tidy little sum.