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

[Mardoc]

Sphener doesn't get Pillar of Fire.

Not even in EitB? I know he's Order, Divine, and Channelling III - I thought that added up to the same spells as Order High Priests.

Unless he suffers from the same problem as druids? And gets Unyielding Order instead?

[HidingKneel]

Huh? I thought we were planning to keep Bob's cities.

Not for santifying the ruins: for removing the hell terrain immediately before we strike, so that his units don't get their 10% bonus.

Chalid would be useful, but rushing him probably means not rushing Eurabatres (or at least delaying that rush a bit). If I built him in Naggarond he could probably be in position in time. He'll be a three-mover (assuming he gets his first promotion beforehand), so won't be able to hit the city himself, but he could come up next to the city and fire Crown of Brilliance, and then I could sprint a bunch of centaurs into the city. I think this is a higher priority than Thoth, especially if it means we can manage to avoid blight. So I say that whatever units I can get there on time (should have a few healed up next turn) I sprint back, and whatever still needs healing I leave with Thoth.

If we actually manage to take Bob by surprise, we might kill off a few of those units before they have a chance to use those promotions they've been saving.

[Mardoc]

Not for santifying the ruins: for removing the hell terrain immediately before we strike, so that his units don't get their 10% bonus.

Oh . Yeah, especially if he doesn't get Pillar of Flame as WK points out, moving every fight by 10% is worthwhile.

At some point I really should build some Mercurian adepts. Probably can wait until after this campaign, though.

Chalid would be useful, but rushing him probably means not rushing Eurabatres (or at least delaying that rush a bit).

Given those choices, I'd definitely push for Eurabatres first. The sooner he starts nibbling on Lanun units, the sooner he gets those promotions he needs. Where Chalid pretty much just needs to exist to be worthwhile.

Chalid will just have to help with the cleanup. But realistically, 50% Holy damage plus the initiative ought to be enough, even without a Crown.

If we actually manage to take Bob by surprise, we might kill off a few of those units before they have a chance to use those promotions they've been saving.

Ah - the time we should be getting techs is right at the start of next Kurio turn, and then again right at the start of the Basium turn after, right? Any word back from Sareln?

[WarriorKnight]

Not even in EitB? I know he's Order, Divine, and Channelling III - I thought that added up to the same spells as Order High Priests.

Unless he suffers from the same problem as druids? And gets Unyielding Order instead?

Pretty much. Pillar of Fire isn't a Order High Priest spell, it's a spell only Prior's can cast. Since Priors are the Order High Priest though, it's easy to confuse the two.

I do wish Sphener could cast Pillar of Fire though, that would be awesome even if it's a little imbalancing.

[HidingKneel]

Ah - the time we should be getting techs is right at the start of next Kurio turn, and then again right at the start of the Basium turn after, right? Any word back from Sareln?

Heard from Sareln; he said he could help. I'd prefer to only bother him once, so I'll ask if the other players mind having us get our second tech early, on the condition that we don't use it yet. I assume there'll be no objection, since it actually benefits them a little (an extra turn to prepare).

[HidingKneel]

Pretty much. Pillar of Fire isn't a Order High Priest spell, it's a spell only Prior's can cast. Since Priors are the Order High Priest though, it's easy to confuse the two.

I do wish Sphener could cast Pillar of Fire though, that would be awesome even if it's a little imbalancing.

I don't think it's unbalanced: you have to research a ten-thousand (or thereabouts) beaker tech, which essentially unlocks just Sphener. I'd say he's definitely not worth the price under normal circumstances. (Our circumstances are a little abnormal, since the tech gives us Chalid too, and we're using it mostly as a prereq for Divine Essence. But even so, I think grabbing Righteousness is a suboptimal play.)

[HidingKneel]

Still not at my civ computer, so I can't look at the save. Do we want peace with Thoth? Giving up Strongman is no big deal, it just means we can't send our dragon at him for ten turns. On the other hand, a peace deal means our units will get booted out of his territory... do we know the mechanics of that? If we get booted to our own territory, it might make the difference between getting killed by Plako's puppets, or not.

Also, Plako plays after us. If we abandon the city, he might raze it, driving the AC up. If we give it to Thoth, he can't do so without declaring on Thoth first.

[Mardoc]

Still not at my civ computer, so I can't look at the save. Do we want peace with Thoth? Giving up Strongman is no big deal, it just means we can't send our dragon at him for ten turns. On the other hand, a peace deal means our units will get booted out of his territory... do we know the mechanics of that? If we get booted to our own territory, it might make the difference between getting killed by Plako's puppets, or not.

Also, Plako plays after us. If we abandon the city, he might raze it, driving the AC up. If we give it to Thoth, he can't do so without declaring on Thoth first.

I don't think we can afford to be at war with the world anymore. Not even for Eurabatres' XP, and apparently we won't be able to get Lanun cities out of the deal regardless. So, yeah, I'd take the deal.

We can reconsider after we put some hurt onto Bob and/or plako, and rebuilt our army. I don't see that happening in less than 10 turns regardless.

[HidingKneel]

Yeah, I think you're right. Thoth was supposed to be the soft target . (Well, things wouldn't have gone so badly if it weren't for Hemah, I'm betting.) He's the only player who isn't an imminent threat to us, so let's take it. There will probably be plenty of chances for Eurabatres to get experience (and who knows, we might need him on the front lines ASAP).

[Mardoc]

Yeah, I think you're right. Thoth was supposed to be the soft target . (Well, things wouldn't have gone so badly if it weren't for Hemah, I'm betting.) He's the only player who isn't an imminent threat to us, so let's take it. There will probably be plenty of chances for Eurabatres to get experience (and who knows, we might need him on the front lines ASAP).

Now, the real question is, how do we get another opponent, one who *is* an imminent threat, off our 'currently at war' list? Kill Bob? Set a trap for Hemah, and propose peace after he's dead? Other? I don't think we can thematically justify peace with the Infernals, but a tactical peace with anyone else seems kosher to me. Barring the slight issue of convincing someone to want it.

At the moment, the only idea I have is to continue with the Engineering/Raiders plan to bash in Bob's head. Although I almost want to see what Eurabatres can do to plako, I don't really want to gamble Str 23 Dragon vs. Str 13 + 50% Earth Elemental quite yet. If only Plako had gone with a mostly elemental strength summon, we could lean on Magic Immune .