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

[Commodore]

Also, Commodore, did you actually turn on tech and land a holy city ?

[HidingKneel]

Excellent.

Hum, need to stop bothering with a training yard in JJ now that I think about it. Order Temple -> Confessors for Paladins probably will be first order of business.

Actually, I think the first order of business should be to build Valin (after revolting to order). Unless you want to wait until we control some nightmares? That might take a while, though... not sure it's worth it.

Send the acolyte down to Kwythellar, and I'll turn it into a confessor-factory.

So, turn 89. Let's see...

First, we got a dungeon pop. Yielding nothing. At least there were no mistforms this time! And the exploring centuar earned another promotion.

We built the Code of Junil for Commodore:

Ok, I guess there's one thing we need to fix: those Angels have no Jewelry! How can people properly fear angels without bling? But that's HK's fault, not yours.

They'll get their bling when I get my law mana!



(Not too important, but might as well have us hold it, since we've got higher maintenance costs for the time being. Also we'll be building adepts soon, and the tower of divination later.)

Didn't notice this at the time, but we somehow forgot to trade the sheep back to the Kuriotates. We need those sheep! (Don't tell Thoth .) All the supercities have smokehouses and unhealth, so they're worth 2 food per turn.

Speaking of Thoth, we got a look at his capital this turn:



Also, he's got a C2/formation bronze warrior in that city now, so I'm thinking it's definitely not worth attacking. I pillaged the copper mine, pillaged both roads so he can't counterattack, and moved my centaurs out of reach.

Didn't he kill our worker in the south? I actually assumed he deleted that skellie after that, not ran away.

Yes, I think you're right now that I think of it. He must have a bunch of those suckers wandering around. Spotted one to the south this turn:



Got to keep an eye out for those; they're two-movers and therefore capable of doing some damage (as I learned earlier). I sent a centaur in that direction to kill it next turn, and hopefully earn a few xp in the process.

Settler left Avelorn with a two-centaur escort, to build Commodore a new city:



I think on the cotton, definitely. Having an extra corn farm to grow will make a big difference. And it's a little closer to the rest of our land, which will make setting things up a bit easier.

Got another settler out this turn. Need to figure out where it should go. There's tons of nice-looking places, but we don't want to spread ourselves too thin at this point. I'll feel a lot safer in two turns, once Kilmorph's Kith is pumping out axemen.

Oh, and a barbarian warrior is about to attack our centaur on the Bradeline's well. That centaur only has a C1 promotion, so it's possible for a barbarian warrior to do some damage. Would have reinforced him, but he's too far out. Keep your fingers crossed!

[Mardoc]

Definitely don't wait for Nightmares; one extra promo is worth considerably more than 1 extra strength. Fortunately, I see KK is already up to a significant hammer production

Send the acolyte down to Kwythellar, and I'll turn it into a confessor-factory.

I'm pretty sure every time we spread Order, we'll get a free acolyte + crusader. So I'd be inclined to do the magical mystery tour, and spread to all our cities rather than beelining Kwythellar. Might be just as fast, if the free ones are born with movement.

[HidingKneel]

I'm pretty sure every time we spread Order, we'll get a free acolyte + crusader. So I'd be inclined to do the magical mystery tour, and spread to all our cities rather than beelining Kwythellar. Might be just as fast, if the free ones are born with movement.

Oh, is this an EitB change? In base FFH I think you stop getting the free acolytes after you research fanaticism (get free crusaders instead). Well, if that's changed, I guess send that acolyte down to Naggarond (maybe passing through Kilmorph's Kith?)

[Mardoc]

Oh, is this an EitB change? In base FFH I think you stop getting the free acolytes after you research fanaticism (get free crusaders instead). Well, if that's changed, I guess send that acolyte down to Naggarond (maybe passing through Kilmorph's Kith?)

I think we now get both, yes, a change. But even if we don't, Crusaders can now spread the religion themselves, with slightly better odds than Acolytes, even, so it's essentially the same. And yes, I'd pass through KK, it's going to have a lot of hammers very shortly. There's only so many Axemen we can use when there's an option for Paladins too.

[HidingKneel]

Alright, turn 90 played.

First let me put this at the top, so that we don't forget again: we need to trade sheep from the Mercurians to the Kuriotates. I forgot again this turn, so make sure to offer on your turn, Commodore.

Let's see how things are going. First, we got two dungeon results:



Nothing good, but nothing terrible either.

The event logs reveal that the Bone Palace was built:



That would be the Balseraphs. So they'll be in a golden age for some time yet.

Got a settler in place to build Commodore another city:



Looks even better than before, now that exploration revealed another horse.
I'll found there next turn unless you tell me otherwise, Commodore (can found 1E of that spot next turn, too).

Our other settler was ready to get moving, but we haven't chosen a spot for it yet. There's a nice spot to our south with some improvements already built (forgot screenshot). It won't be ideal for Commodore until he's running city states. But that could be pretty soon, so I sent our settler in that direction anyway. But out here might be better:



If we go for that instead, it'll take a little while to get the settler out there. But that's okay, because our workforce is so thin. I think Mardoc's advice of getting workers out before the settlers was definitely right. Losing all those workers to mistforms was a terribly costly mistake, and completely avoidable . Anyway, I'm building workers now in Avelorn and Naggarond.

As you will recall, Plako was down here:



Killed the skeleton and earned our centaur another promotion.

Finally, there's the matter of Bob. He finished four beasts last turn, so I expected him to get moving this turn. But it appears he's still turtling:



Also visible in the screenshot: Bob is building mines. I'd like to pillage those mines, so I thought I'd move our mobile centaur into a good position for it.
That involved passing over the mirror of heaven, which gave an even better picture:



The centaur ended turn three tiles away from Cauldron Lake. Which means Bob can hit him, but only with Rosier. I positioned some other centaurs to hit back, in case he does that. If Bob wants to trade a religious hero for a couple of centaurs, that's fine by me.

Currency will be in at the end of next turn. I'm thinking it's going to be a while yet before the Mercurians are covering our expenses, so a revolt into consumption would be a good idea for the Kuriotates. We can improve the economy even more by switching to military state at the same time, so I'm now thinking of teching warfare between currency and KotE.

Next turn: Bradeline's Well.

[HidingKneel]

Hmm... in retrospect, I'm thinking that baiting Rosier was a bad move. Rosier's been promoted to C5/formation, so is effectively strength 19.2 against our centaurs. I don't think I've got enough in place to guarantee a kill if I strike back.

But then, Bob doesn't know that, so maybe I'll be safe.

[Commodore]

Looks like you were okay. Also, Mardoc was right. Crusaders upgrade to Pallys?



City making Valin, due in five turns:



City making a...Great Engineer? Huh, Code makes GE points?



Weird. Still need more workers.

[HidingKneel]

Great engineer points... sounds perfect. I was wondering how we were ever going to get our second Tower of Divination built in a timely fashion, but it sounds like that's our answer. (And an excellent reason to leave the founding of Order to the Mercurians, which we didn't think of at the time.)

So... turn 91. First off, we finished exploring Bradeline's Well:



Underwhelming. Still, we can work with that. What do you think about planting your next city on the cotton there? That could work a copper mine, an iron mine, and a RoP (in addition to two wheat farms and a corn farm for quick growth). Only downside is it's a little distant. But we ought to conquer Domir any turn now:



As you can see, it's grown to size 2 and is ripe for conquest. I didn't do anything this turn, mainly because I'm thinking we need to build a workforce first.

So, as Commodore indicated, Bob didn't take the bait last turn. So our mobile centaur went to take another look in the mirror:



Ah, looks like Bob's decided to start expanding. It doesn't seem like that'll do him much good. It could potentially do us a lot of harm, though, if he manages to get the AC high enough for blight.

I pillaged Bob's copper mine and moved our mobile centaur to the corner of Bob's hell terrain, again dangling it in front of Rosier. This time with more backup: we can hit that tile with 8-10 other centaurs next turn, plus our promoted paladins.

Here's a new city for you, Commodore:



Got two centaurs guarding it now, and a worker building a road to it.
Produced two more workers at EOT, along with a forge in Kwythellar. Currency came in at EOT. I'm thinking Warfare next, for reasons I indicated earlier.

With the new trade routes from currency (and the new Mercurian cities), inns are starting to look like a pretty decent build. Looks like they'll be worth 5 commerce each. After putting that through our multipliers, an inn in each supercity could be worth an extra 40 beakers per turn. Think I'll start in Kwythellar next turn. Should be time to build an inn and a stonewarden there by the time our Order missionaries arrive.

[Mardoc]

As you can see, it's grown to size 2 and is ripe for conquest. I didn't do anything this turn, mainly because I'm thinking we need to build a workforce first.

It's got one improved tile, anyway, and worst case it builds an angelic worker right away. I'd say take it quickly.

But....perhaps it should be Angels who take it. For the XP.

Ah, looks like Bob's decided to start expanding. It doesn't seem like that'll do him much good. It could potentially do us a lot of harm, though, if he manages to get the AC high enough for blight.

I pillaged Bob's copper mine and moved our mobile centaur to the corner of Bob's hell terrain, again dangling it in front of Rosier. This time with more backup: we can hit that tile with 8-10 other centaurs next turn, plus our promoted paladins.

Infernal settlers are actually a pretty good deal. City starts at size 3, with a whole bunch of infrastructure (including the ability to work specialists). And it's the only way for them to grow, that's under their own control.

That said, I approve of putting pressure on, we still want to kill Bob soonish.

With the new trade routes from currency (and the new Mercurian cities), inns are starting to look like a pretty decent build. Looks like they'll be worth 5 commerce each. After putting that through our multipliers, an inn in each supercity could be worth an extra 40 beakers per turn. Think I'll start in Kwythellar next turn. Should be time to build an inn and a stonewarden there by the time our Order missionaries arrive.

Although I agree Inns will be profitable and should be built eventually - I would sneak in workers instead. We're on the verge of having what, five Mercurian cities? And a sixth as soon as the barbs figure out how to grow it? Plus Kurio cities that will be growing again once we do build the Inns?

Seems like workers are the bottleneck at the moment.