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

[HidingKneel]

And I think I let my paranoia carry me away. Junil's Justice should probably grow two more sizes before starting to crank units (so it can work all improvements + the engineer). So I guess don't rush a building yet, but time the cash-rush to coincide with the relevant population growth.

[Commodore]

Indeed, JJ will grow a touch more before it's all units all the time, but it'll be pumping axemen soon enough. One fun thing, in two more turns I can one-turn a paladin in KK thanks to the power of overflow. That, plus three crusader->paladin upgrades in the next two turns, ought to help a lot.

Pity we need to swap the paladins so quickly. Ideally the crusader-pallys would be fighting Bob with the free demon-playing they come with.

[HidingKneel]

How are you set for cash? The crusader->paladin upgrade is what, around 60gp? Let me know if you need some more.

I'm thinking I'll stick with Honor for the next tech. We won't really be able to make use of the archery->stirrups route without shutting down (or at least significantly slowing) tech for a while, so I want to make sure we've got all the big ticket items we need first.

[Mardoc]

Indeed, JJ will grow a touch more before it's all units all the time, but it'll be pumping axemen soon enough. One fun thing, in two more turns I can one-turn a paladin in KK thanks to the power of overflow. That, plus three crusader->paladin upgrades in the next two turns, ought to help a lot.

Pity we need to swap the paladins so quickly. Ideally the crusader-pallys would be fighting Bob with the free demon-playing they come with.

All paladins get Demon Slaying for free. And Courage, Medic I, and Immune to Disease.

What upgrading them would have gotten us in addition is the ability to cast Bless, Medic II, Spirit Guide, and perhaps some passive XP. But all of those are things we can get the benefits of from building a Confessor later and having him travel around with the Paladins. Well, except Spirit Guide and the XP, but just have the paladins do a lot of fighting and not much dying and we won't miss it.

How are you set for cash? The crusader->paladin upgrade is what, around 60gp? Let me know if you need some more.

I'm thinking I'll stick with Honor for the next tech. We won't really be able to make use of the archery->stirrups route without shutting down (or at least significantly slowing) tech for a while, so I want to make sure we've got all the big ticket items we need first.

A couple Rathas would really help; I'm confident we have enough forces, they're just in the wrong spot at any given time. Blind them and we have time to react. Engineering would also help, but that's rather more expensive.

And, hmm. Y'know - a couple Rathas, Blinding Bob's main stack in Cauldron Lake, would give us a chance to just walk up and bash his brains in calmly. The main reason not to was the worry of him getting the first strike on us, but Rathas would prevent that. That would be straightforward, actually: stage Basium + 4 Paladins 4 tiles from Cauldron Lake (or perhaps we can push it to 5+ tiles with care with the roads). Dash in, Blind his stack with 2-3 Rathas, walk up to within 2 tiles. Next turn, hit the WS, walk in and start murdering the demons.

[HidingKneel]

Alright, quick update this time. Animal handing is in:



And the event logs are distressing:



Plako's got Hemah now. IIRC correctly he's running apprenticeship/conquest, so that's 5xp right off the bat. He'll probably want to give Hemah a mobility promotion, but I'm guessing that we've only got a short time before the domination puppets start arriving. Question: does dominate work on non-living targets? If not, we want to get our border with Plako staffed by angels ASAP.

Either way, we need loyalty on our troops. Fortunately we've got law mana and two adepts. They finished a mind node this turn. One of them has 2xp. So I'll promote him to spirit I and law I and send him up to buff our troops
(he also gets earth I for free, so he can boost our city defenses).

Also of note: Ilios is in another golden age (). And he used that to convert to Order . Well, I guess that's a lot of free units for him. And potentially a lot of free units for us (and extra gold from the Code of Junil). He put his work crew in striking range of our city, so I killed two of his tigers with our centaurs. It's easy xp, and decreases the amount of force he could hit us with next turn if he wanted. What would be really nice is to kill some of his priests, since they're now irreplaceable. But I didn't have good odds on those.

Bob is menacing us with beasts of Agares. They seem to be heading in to Mercurian territory. I'd have killed on this turn, but that would have left a paladin vulnerable to counter. Anyway, I've put two paladins in Junil's Justice and moved the workers out of the way; we'll see what he does next turn.

Tech set to Honor, due at the end of next turn if I keep science at 100%.
Rathas are a good idea. That means masonry -> construction next. After which I guess mathematics, and then engineering and taxation in some order.

Kwythellar built an acolyte. I've converted to Order and will start a confessor there next turn. Naggarond's still working on a hunting lodge, due at the end of next turn. Avelorn started the tower of Divination, due at the end of turn 111.

[DaveV]

Question: does dominate work on non-living targets?

No.

[Mardoc]

Either way, we need loyalty on our troops. Fortunately we've got law mana and two adepts. They finished a mind node this turn. One of them has 2xp. So I'll promote him to spirit I and law I and send him up to buff our troops (he also gets earth I for free, so he can boost our city defenses).

Might I recommend Law I and Mobility, instead? He can pick up courage later, but it's somewhat less urgent. Courage boosts healing on any unit stacked with a Courage unit, so we can use the Paladins if nothing else, but Loyalty needs to be in place yesterday. And on everyone.

Also of note: Ilios is in another golden age (). And he used that to convert to Order . Well, I guess that's a lot of free units for him. And potentially a lot of free units for us (and extra gold from the Code of Junil). He put his work crew in striking range of our city, so I killed two of his tigers with our centaurs. It's easy xp, and decreases the amount of force he could hit us with next turn if he wanted. What would be really nice is to kill some of his priests, since they're now irreplaceable. But I didn't have good odds on those.

Just when I thought we were about to catch up to his hammer production.

Well...maybe we should consider working some specialists to get our own GA #2? And putting that free gold from his cities to use in cash rushing things.

Bob is menacing us with beasts of Agares. They seem to be heading in to Mercurian territory. I'd have killed on this turn, but that would have left a paladin vulnerable to counter. Anyway, I've put two paladins in Junil's Justice and moved the workers out of the way; we'll see what he does next turn.

Yes, but very oddly. I can't figure out what he's actually going to accomplish here. Maybe he just wants to rebuild them and would rather the 1% chance of a dead paladin to hitting the 'delete' button.

Tech set to Honor, due at the end of next turn if I keep science at 100%.
Rathas are a good idea. That means masonry -> construction next. After which I guess mathematics, and then engineering and taxation in some order.

That works. IIRC, when I counted last night, we're at 23 towns/villages within a handful of turns of being towns. So Taxation will pay much better than the last time I counted - and Republic is now worth adopting as well. And our main limit on army at this point is hammers and build queues, not tech.

I think I'd go Taxation before Engineering, because we won't have a build queue free for the Guild until after the Towers are done. Plus Republic might shorten the ETA on the first Tower anyway. But we've still got a fair bit of time before we've got to decide.

Kwythellar built an acolyte. I've converted to Order and will start a confessor there next turn. Naggarond's still working on a hunting lodge, due at the end of next turn. Avelorn started the tower of Divination, due at the end of turn 111.

So in three turns we'll start to have Hawks. That's very good, makes me feel much more on top of things. And, actually, I've a better idea for things to do with overflow hammers than build workers to be killed by puppets - we could use a couple-few hunters. To capture that spider, clean out the remaining wild animals, and to go be stack defenders against Ilios.

[HidingKneel]

Might I recommend Law I and Mobility, instead? He can pick up courage later, but it's somewhat less urgent. Courage boosts healing on any unit stacked with a Courage unit, so we can use the Paladins if nothing else, but Loyalty needs to be in place yesterday. And on everyone.

Well, I might have been able to take out a mage if I'd had courage-promoted centaurs a turn ago. But it is less urgent, since paladins get it for free.

You know, I probably should have taken those mobility promotions immediately. Could have gotten started on the tower one turn sooner . Although maybe not; I finished that inn with a lot of overflow.

Yes, but very oddly. I can't figure out what he's actually going to accomplish here. Maybe he just wants to rebuild them and would rather the 1% chance of a dead paladin to hitting the 'delete' button.

It's also possible that he's probing for weak points. We can't defend everything with paladins, after all. And the way those beasts are situated... they could also go for Plako. They'd be a lot more dangerous after killing a few of his units for xp.

[Mardoc]

Well, I might have been able to take out a mage if I'd had courage-promoted centaurs a turn ago. But it is less urgent, since paladins get it for free.

Oh, I had thought that was the Charm that was the problem, not the fear of the spectre.

In any event, both promos will be handy, I just think that Law's more urgent. Ideally these guys will hit the books hard, and have the passive XP they need for Courage by the time they arrive at the front.

Ah, a minor note for Commodore. I notice that the Junil's Justice governor hired a priest again. Please fire him so as not to further contaminate the GPP pool. .

[HidingKneel]

Had a look at the Basium save.

Wow, we're in a spot. Lost over a quarter of our centaurs, one of the Mercurian cities, and those beasts look like they can do some serious damage.