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

[Commodore]

You sure you want Spiritual next, and not Aggressive? Or Raiders? :neenernee

Given the effects of this, I'd bet on Defender being the safest.

[HidingKneel]

You worry too much!



[STRIKE]Basium:[/STRIKE] "Hey, guys, wait a second, we'd better think this through."

I think these declarations will have very few consequences. We've got the advantage of numbers, mobility, and experienced troops on everyone else. Selrahc and Thoth have essentially no military right now. Ilios is also running light; if we inspire him to invest in an army, that means he's not building.
Plako's a bit more of a worry, but I suspect he's furthest away from us. For the immediate future I'm only worried about Bob. My guess is that one war declaration would make him think "The Kuriotates are now fighting a war on multiple fronts", while three war declarations will make him think it doesn't mean anything in particular.

By the time anyone but Bob has an army at our doorsteps, we should have Basium on board and paladins in our build queues.

And if I'm wrong... well, at least I spiced up the game a little .

[HidingKneel]

Played turn 68. Things are heating up.

First off, you may recall that we had two centaurs in danger last turn. One was in Ilios's territory. Ilios killed it, but it cost him another warrior.
1 centaur vs. 2 warriors and 2 workers is a trade I'm pretty happy with.
Our other centaur had just popped a ruin and was surrounded by barbs. As Bob indicated in the trash-talking thread, that centaur died as well. But his death was not in vain! I remembered now what our lair exploration gave: a spirit guide promotion. So the experience wasn't lost, it just ended up on this guy here:



I promoted him (and all our other wounded centaurs that had available promotions) to flanking I, as per Mardoc's suggestion. With the exception of Alan Wake, they'll all be fully healed next turn and ready to head back to the front lines.

Thoth responded to my war declaration by proposing a peace treaty. Here was my response:



The logs had some bad news:



Looks like Ilios scraped together enough xp on some unit to build the Titan. Well, that's unfortunate; I was hoping we might have a shot at that.

The other big news, of course, is the AC. Selrahc built another two marked units this turn, bringing the AC up to 40. But I had miscalculated: that's 29%, which wasn't enough for blight. I guess I could have left him alone for a turn to stick all the other guys with blight, but it seemed like a bit of an exploit. So I attacked his city with all of the available units that had decent odds. Killed four warriors and three goblins, leaving his city defended by four more goblins. I predict that we'll finally eliminate him on turn 71.

Finally, I dispatched a new mobility centaur to keep an eye on Bob. He ended turn here:



It occurred to me afterwards that that might be a dangeous spot: if Bob saw my centaur getting offed by the barbarians, he was probably using the mirror of Heaven. If he's got a unit there now, I'll probably take another loss.

[Commodore]

Looking very good. Don't mistake my dutiful dedlurker doomsaying for disapproval, this is awesome to behold.

Are you planning on having my worldspell break Bob?

[HidingKneel]

Another turn played!

So, first off, we have more diplomacy with Thoth:



A stylish response. I wanted to respond by offering to trade my cities for his, but apparently you can't do that if a peace treaty is involved.

Anyways, the event log indicates that Selrahc was getting tired of the siege:



Four marked goblins down, no Kuriotate casualties. He produced another two warriors at EOT, but I had two fresh centaurs arriving from the south. So I ended the war:



Hats off to you, Selrahc. You built the prophecy earlier than we thought possible. If it weren't for our ridiculous luck with lair pops, you would have been able to jack the AC up pretty high. And you stuck it out to the bitter end, dragging the siege out longer than I would have thought possible too!
A valiant effort all around.

I razed the city, even though it meant a little bit of AC boost (it's now at 10) and that Bob got a mane. Didn't want to have to worry about defending it, and I figure Basium won't have much use for a size 2 city he can't build units in.

Any suggestions for a name for our centaur that struck the killing blow?

Are you planning on having my worldspell break Bob?

If Bob gives me the chance. He might charge in with Hyborem again. But for the moment, he's still turtling:



Which frees me up to focus on Thoth. Our experienced crew is mostly healed, so I sprinted them into Thoth's territory, accompanied by some road-building workers:



Next turn we'll see what kind of defenses we're up against. We've got several fresh centaurs a few tiles behind them, Alan Wake is healing up in Avelorn. And of course, ten more experienced, wounded centaurs coming south from the war with Selrahc.

I used the thane to pop the borders of Killswitch, and pastured the sheep. Kwythellar's now healthy again, and Naggarond only has a single point of unhealth.

At end of turn, I finished a courthouse in Avelorn, and two more centaurs in the other cities. Was thinking about starting the Bone Palace in Kwythellar, but I think I'll hold off until turn 71. The next batch of centaurs will bring us to twenty-five, which ought to be enough to hold off the rest of the world until we get Basium out.

Speaking of which, Killswitch is starting to look pretty nice:



Screenshot from EOT. Priesthood is in, Fanaticism next. The pillage gold from Selrahc should let us shave a turn or two off of that. Not yet sure how long it will take; we can start making plans after we see what the economy looks like after the civic swaps on turn 71.

[HidingKneel]

One other thing I just noticed in that screenshot of Hyborem: the fate of Selrahc's centaur captive. Apparently he sent it out west and Bob captured it? Also, apparently centaur slaves can still sprint .

[Mardoc]

:2dance:::2dance:

EXCELLENT.

I like our odds a lot better now that we're in a four front war instead of a five front one .

Plus, of course, Blight is back off the menu. And we've good odds of being able to raze the AV holy city, as well, to further limit armageddon. And I also approve of going to bother Thoth now, with his world's smallest army and 2nd highest GNP. I'd expect us to be able to very quickly push him onto his island. Then we can pick a third target

Any suggestions for a name for our centaur that struck the killing blow?

How about Orcrist?

Orcrist (Sindarin: Goblin-cleaver[38]) A sword in The Hobbit.[1][49] Orcrist was nicknamed "Biter" by the Goblins of the Misty Mountains. Thorin Oakenshield carried the sword throughout much of The Hobbit, and it was laid on his tomb after he died in the Battle of Five Armies.

[DaveV]

Any suggestions for a name for our centaur that struck the killing blow?

Prophecy Breaker?

[Commodore]

Oliver Cromwell. Also, job well done! You're going to kill them all before I come in.

[HidingKneel]

Turn 70 opens with the splash screen for Priesthood:



Once again, Bob hasn't moved:



The only real news concerns our invasion of Thoth. I got vision on the AV holy city:



Between the promotions, fortification, and the defense bonus of the city, that warrior's getting a +200% bonus against us. None of our experienced centaurs have good odds. Underneath it is an unpromoted diseased corpse, and an unpromoted warrior. We might have been able to take the city this turn, but I'd prefer to wait until we can soften him up with some disposable centaurs. So I proceeded further into Thoth's territory with a stack of experienced centaurs, ending here:



Not pictured in these screenshots: two barbarian warriors outside of Thoth's city. Hopefully they'll inflict a little bit of damage between turns.

He can hit my stack from MaimMast if he wants to, and possibly also from Bedplank. I'm not too worried about that: his odds are a lot worse than they'll be with us attacking into the city. I'm positioned to hit the MaimMast with ten centaurs next turn (plus a mostly-healed Alan Wake, if need be). Five of those are highly promoted, and five are so far unpromoted. Should be enough break the city, even if he manages to scrape together another defender this turn.

What do you think is the best promotions for the newbies to soften him up? Flanking to maximize their chances of survival? Drill to minimize the risk of not scratching the top defender? C1/S1 to inflict maximal damage?

Produced another three centaurs at EOT, bringing us to twenty-five. That'll be all for the time being. Next turn we go back to building an economy.