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

[Mardoc]

Was saving promos on the SoKs in case Bob throws something at us early, in which case it might be handy to do something else with them. Only the ones produced on turn 79 will need mobility promotions to get to Naggarond on time. Though I suppose the quicker they reach Naggarond, the quicker we can get rid of them and save on upkeep, so that's worth something.

I figured as much - but each one is worth Basium at least a turn sooner. And they're only Str 4 without Bronze. I'd be shocked if they can make enough of a military difference to be worth one or several turns' delay on Basium.

That said, you're right that there's no point in giving Mobility promos to any who are already built, since they'll arrive before Naggarond even starts building the Gate. And it's a minor question either way - they won't make much difference either in the field or in maintenance costs.

[Commodore]

Re: FoL, that's the True Neutral religion, right? So he won't feed either us or Bob?

I reckon I'm ready...I think the slot between Bob and you works pretty okay. One thought that occurs, how much is there to pillage in ex-Lanun or Bob lands? Raiders pillage gold is worth some pallys right there. I know how to use Paladins...

[Mardoc]

Re: FoL, that's the True Neutral religion, right? So he won't feed either us or Bob?

Yes, mostly. It doesn't change his civ from being Good, so we could still get angels from razing Elohim cities.

I don't see a lot to pillage over in Lanunia, but there's at least one visible Plantation where Bedplank is/was; those are worth a good chunk of change. Assuming the barbs didn't get it first, of course. As for pillaging Bob himself - I'm not sure he even has a worker . I know we killed his starting worker, and he didn't have a lot of worker techs to begin with, anyway. Still, that could easily change. Is a reason for Angelic horsemen, for sure!

I agree with killing the barb stack soon, just make sure you don't leave any Centaurs vulnerable to Bob.

[Mardoc]

Ilios got a big chunk of score this turn. The tech screen shows he has hunting. Seems like an odd choice to me. Maybe he's thinking of going FoL?
Doesn't have mysticism yet, though.

Or, um...maybe he's thinking of going up to Animal Mastery for Beastmasters and the Subdue Beast promo. More than one way to handle a Beast of Agares, after all .

[HidingKneel]

Re: FoL, that's the True Neutral religion, right? So he won't feed either us or Bob?

Or, um...maybe he's thinking of going up to Animal Mastery for Beastmasters and the Subdue Beast promo. More than one way to handle a Beast of Agares, after all .

Both good points! I'm guessing Ilios is heading for FoL, since he just teched mysticism last turn. Animal mastery doesn't seem so unreasonable. Right now, if I were him, I'd expect Bob to take the lead by ripping into the Kuriotates with his BoAs. But Ilios has time on his side: the Kuriotates will slow Bob down, and they've got sanctuary for when he finally does get around to them.

Anyways, played turn 77. It opened with an oddity:



Er... no I didn't. Well, it seems like it gave me a SoK, even if it thinks it gave me an adept. Anyways, our technology is in:



Set tech to bronzeworking and science slider to 0% (at which we're pulling in an impressive 16 beakers per turn ). Anyways, it's a 20 turn tech at this rate, or a 2-turn tech whenever we turn science on again.

Had another peek at Bob:



He's still only got three beasts; I expect the fourth will be along next turn. At that point he'll probably get moving (if he was waiting for Mardero, why not build Mardero first?), but we'll see.

But before Bob arrives, we'll have to deal with that barbarian riff-raff. Some of our centaurs have had time to heal up, and are on the job:



Forgot to mention our dungeon exploration result last turn: found some gold (around 30 gp I think). We get another one next turn. Fingers crossed for something awesome.

Mercurian gate: 124/402.

[HidingKneel]

Hey, just noticed that Bob's beasts don't have C1 promotions. What's up with that? Anyway, that'll tip things even further in our favor, when it comes time to rumble.

[NobleHelium]

Aggressive does not grant Combat I to Beast units.

[Mardoc]

Anyways, played turn 77. It opened with an oddity:

Er... no I didn't. Well, it seems like it gave me a SoK, even if it thinks it gave me an adept. Anyways, our technology is in:

Ah, that bug again. Somebody trained an adept, and saved the game immediately after opening it rather than clearing all their notifications first. I blame plako; I know he's got Sorcery. Can't be Bob, that woulda been an Imp. Might be Thoth, maybe, except I expect his turns don't take very long to play nowadays

He's still only got three beasts; I expect the fourth will be along next turn. At that point he'll probably get moving (if he was waiting for Mardero, why not build Mardero first?), but we'll see.

You *certain* that he's got three? That sure looks like two to me, and I don't see a good place for a third to be hiding off screen. I didn't notice exactly when the AC went up that you attributed the first one to - maybe that was the barb city flipping? Or AV spreading to a third civ?

Hey, just noticed that Bob's beasts don't have C1 promotions. What's up with that? Anyway, that'll tip things even further in our favor, when it comes time to rumble.

Aggressive is a free Combat 1 promotion for Arcane, Archer, Disciple, Recon, Mounted & Melee Units. Which feels like free CI for all, until someone's got a reason to build a Beast class unit instead .

[HidingKneel]

You *certain* that he's got three? That sure looks like two to me, and I don't see a good place for a third to be hiding off screen. I didn't notice exactly when the AC went up that you attributed the first one to - maybe that was the barb city flipping? Or AV spreading to a third civ?

Not certain, but my money's on three. I think he had the barb city when we brought the AC down to zero, so it's not that. The AV holy city is gone, so I think there's no way for it to spread except by design, and neither Plako or Ilios has corruption of spirit. The "# of hammers" math works out to three, also. I can think of a couple of places he might have that third beast: garrisoning his second city, and standing on the Mirror of Heaven.

[HidingKneel]

Turn 78 played. First, we got a bad lair result (just barely visible in this screenshot):



A named Azer. I put it down with one of our top guys, who now needs to heal up in Kwythellar. Hopefully it was alone, but there's a chance it came with a crew of mistforms. If so, expect some havoc between turns .

Also visible in that screenshot: the barbarian crew apparently thought better of taking on Alan Wake and company, and has started heading west instead. Fine by me.

The event log reveals that Octopus Overlords was founded last turn. Plako and Ilios don't have fishing, so that's got to be Thoth. The AC's now up to 14 (10%), which I'm assuming is 2 x (4 x 1/beast + 3 x 1/crazy octopus religion).

Our mobility centaur was winded, so couldn't do another flyby of Cauldron Lake. But he did scope out the infernal territory just south of that, and it doesn't look like Bob's moving. Based on his post in the banter thread, I assume he'll start coming next turn. Once I've seen which way he's coming at us, we can start to talk tactics.

Mercurian Gate: 235/402.