The Black Sword's Tale: For the Kurious

[The Black Sword]

Think I've got it figured out. Drama is 2 eras ahead for some reason, so Yell0w couldn't have gotten both it and the Bone Palace, his score increase isn't high enough. On the other hand that does, partially, explain jalapeno's massive 54 increase. In addition, he could have reached Drama last turn if he got a lot of overflow from Festivals, which he told me he had. There's still enough room for another tech in the score increase. Since he didn't go with a golden age, its quite likely he bulbed Sanitation instead, which would mean he didn't get a tech from the graveyard. I should be able to tell from his food graph next turn. It's also possible he's waiting for more growth like me, but his happy cap isn't so high.

Anyhow, I think I can send out congratulatory emails. Good to see the Dwarves haven't got any of these bonuses at least. All 3 of them still feel pretty close I think. I'm out ahead but I'm not sure how much of that is just the Kurio early game or my play. I wonder if the others are worried about my demos or confident that they can catch me back up eventually.

Two action pics I forgot in that report:



Should be some good xp for Leonardo.



Er whoops. Michelangelo is a turn behind, as he took longer healing. I really should have waited, too impatient. Still, I have +95% vs animals so he stands a reasonable chance. I hope they're too scared to attack.

(Ignore the BW research).

[The Black Sword]

Combat turned out fine in the end:



Flawless victory for Leonardo, 3.4 health for Donatello, 1xp for each. I guess the second tiger didn't like the follow up odds. Yell0w's revolution may also explain these GNP demos:



Though Yell0w's first golden age turn was still quite a bit behind me, jalapeno and HK, I'm not sure how much of an effect aristo will have. I think the most likely explanation is someone researching something with extra pre-reqs, either Sanitation or Archery. Food graphs:


Well, no jump for jalapeno at all there, so a Sanitation bulb seems unlikely. Still I'm sure he got the Drama bard, I also need to ask him if there's a gap through his and Yell0w's borders to get to Elvish land.

That graveyard has made me realise that there could still be some other goodies out there, my hunters are going to defog as much as possible over the next few turns.

*WARNING: Long wall of text ahead.*

So, I need to figure out some new tech goals soon and most of my old plans regarding the Bone Palace golden age are thrown out of the window. I had a look at the tech tree, and there are loads of techs I want;

Festivals, Horseback Riding, Sailing, Trade, Archery and Stirrups, BW+Smelting, Sanitation, Maths, Currency, Code of Laws, Knowledge of the Ether, 2 religions + priesthood for the golden age.

Yeah, a bit too many. So, I need to put a time limit on this and prioritise. First I want to start my golden age ASAP, I'm thinking maybe another 12 turns of growth for cities should get them to around max happiness. Second, I need some sort of improved military by the time jalapeno gets Feudalism for vampires. That's around 1500b after Trade and I don't really see what he'd detour for. So let's cut out all of the really expensive econ techs until after that period:

BW and the techs afterwards; Smelting+Sanitation, Currency and Maths.

The military then has to come from Stirrups and Religion. The idea of getting two religions for the golden age was to swap into one during the golden age, build its special units, then switch again to the other before it ends. 2 religion techs, at least 1 of them Order, Empy or Veil +Priesthood is around 2.5k beakers, that's too expensive. Besides, those beakers could probably be better spent on econ techs first. So, lets just get 1 religion for the golden age and we can push Priesthood back until after it as well.

If I'm only going for one religion, I might as well rule out OO. Tower of Complacency will take too long to pay off, maybe later, cultists require priesthood and can be outmaneuvered. Drowns are too expensive. Spreading the temples to settlements is the main benefit but the other religions offer more I think. Esus, FoL and RoK are still out of the running. Of the other 3, I think I like Order.

1. Kurios are the good guys! 2. Free crusaders and acolytes are great, very good hammer return on the tech. Instead of spending 80h for a temple to spread a religion in a settlement for roughly 5commerce, 1 culture per turn, I can get my 1 culture per turn and get a 53h crusader for free. It will take a looong time for the temple to catch up. 3.When I eventually get Priesthood, Bless is a great spell. 4. 10% prod temples are awesome. 5. I'll be in it for a while, so might as well have fun with Valin and Royal Guards at Stirrups. 6. Can switch to Social order as well in the golden age to deal with the happy issue until Smelting jumps it up again.

In comparison, Veil is an extra 500b. The temples don't compare to the free Crusaders and order temples. Ritualist give no immediate bonus until Priesthood. Corpses are ok, but I'd prefer to be building Centaurs in general. They will be immune to extra spectre death damage, but then spectre's are immune to 2S for them also. Hopefully it won't be all out war when Vamps come on the scene, I just need a respectable military to make him back off and I can get Maelstrom Mages for collateral instead. Rosier and Valin clearly wash. The Grimoire is too far down the road and pretty much locks you into Malevolent Designs. That's not a bad choice, but I don't want to make it yet. Plus Kurios are the good guys!

Empy's priests do nothing for me, until I want Druids, in which case I can pick them up later. Temples are good for the cities, but no crusader ability for the settlements. So, the benefits are Rathas/Radiant Guard. But stopping the vamps for a turn does not seem so effective when I don't have any collateral yet. Rathas also require Construction, which is another 500b I would prefer to delay. Overcouncil would be handy, but not enough to push me away from Order I think.

So, by the end of the golden age, aka, over roughly the next 20t, I want to get:

Festivals, Horseback Riding, Sailing, Trade, Archery and Stirrups, Code of Laws, Knowledge of the Ether, Orders from Heaven.

That list seems more realistic. I'm not sure on the order, nothing there is too urgent.

CoL->KoE->Sailing->Horseback Riding->Trade->Archery->Orders->Stirrups maybe.

Festivals slotted in whenever I need and have time for Carnivals. CoL for Couthouse as the next build in Naggarond, then start incubating mages in Kwythellar. Sailing for the lighthouse then I might as well hit Trade for the extra route. I might move archery sooner if I have some spare worker turns for lumber mills, but I doubt it. Order temples before military builds then seems like a good idea.

Crusaders use Bronze weapons, so a trade with the Khazad might be in order. I do want Smelting quite soon afterwards though.

[The Black Sword]

Game pace has slowed again.

Anyway, I eventually got a new turn:


Another captured tiger and peace between the Elohim and Calabim. I was left with an interesting situation in the south:


I needed to send Michelangelo back to deal with that goblin if he goes for my pigs. Venus, my 5th Hunter, is a bit too far north. That means Donatello needs to capture the Scorpion on his own, which should be fine if the scorpion has no backup. Both will be fully healed next turn at least and I think Donny will get to lvl 4 with a victory over the scorp.

I had some correspondence with the vampires indicating there was no way through his and Yell0w's combined borders, so Raphael is coming home and I'm going to try send Hunters around the Khazad and Grigori instead. Leonardo ran into a bear:


Here's Naggarond atm:

Apart from generating the GS, the aim is for max growth. I'm going to get those last two grasslands farmed then probably put down some cottages. I will cottage one of the grass hill mines in the SW for my new settlement to grow for me. I'm still hoping for some Ancient Forest growths here before the golden age. I can't start the courthouse until T70, so I'll put some hammers into the smokehouse after the Tailor. I don't think I'll finish it straight away though.

Graphs show that the Calabim's food has now jumped up, maybe they couldn't bulb the full way and need a turn to finish it. Also that Yell0w's aristocracy GA is the massive GNP figure. I'm not far behind though, 2nd in GNP, still first in food and production and he only has 4 cities compared to the 5 of jalapeno and HK so I'm not too worried. Plus at EoT, this happened:



Jalapeno correspondence:

Hi jalapeno,

Congrats on the Drama bard, I'm glad Yell0w didn't get that as well as the Bone Palace.

My search for the elves tailed off for a few turns of general exploring but I hope to find them now. Raphael is still by Yell0w's western border and I'm not sure if there is a path East without going through either your border or his. Is such a path available south of his borders? It looks like you two come quite close there. In the north his borders lock out everything up to a body of water, past which I haven't explored, but its coming up to your borders again.

Any directions would be appreciated.

TBS.

Hey,

Yeah, his GNP is quite high now. I'm glad I got it when I did. You wouldn't happen to have had a mana for non-compete deal with HK as well? I noticed that someone's GNP jumped ~5% when I ended turn and nabbed the bard... I'll honor our deal regardless.

As for directions, our borders overlap more than a little down south. Going north around that saltwater lake is possible, but the timing is tight. It's 6 tiles tall (straight line), and you would need to reach the tile 1N of the lake by turn 70, because I'll be settling a city that'll block you. north of Yell0w's city you can two-move the whole way so you might be able to make it. I can give you better directions if you can describe your position; I've had pretty good scouting down (up?) there.

Best,
Jalepeno

Hi,

It did look to me like the Dwarves grabbed festivals there a few turns back, but you were already too far ahead. I didn't want to scare them off a run, so I didn't talk to them about it, I hope they threw a few beakers at it .

Thanks for the directions, unfortunately Raphael wouldn't be able to make it to the choke point in time, you can see him coming home in game. I think I'll just try to make my way around to the elves from the other side.

TBS.

I was pretty sure the Dwarves knew I didn't have Festivals from the pre-req bonus, so of course I didn't try any extortion with them. I don't see why Jalapeno would lie to me here about the path east, since it's easily verified. I was already pretty sure about the south, I see most of the way north already and will be able to see if he founds a city T70. Finding the elves isn't really worth a phoney war with anybody IMO, when there's still a possible path to the west. By the time I find them I'm not sure they'll be able to give me pre-reqs on anything, now that I've decided against researching FoL. Anyway, I think I'll dial up the Grigori and Khazad and see if they have any directions.

[The Black Sword]

Well, my fault for holding it up this time. I guess with 6 people, there's a good chance of something coming up for someone, and not a lot of leeway.

In game, we convinced Kononnd Cruelthousand to join the Kuriotate cause:


Here's the goblin situation:

Michelangelo had to go cover Kononnd, since he swapped places with Donatello following the attack. The Hunter you can see is Venus, with Lord Dunsted Traver attached. I had forgotten about that ability of great generals, +1s, +1xp from combat, it could be very handy while I'm waiting for the golden age. I'll probably attach it to Donatello, go hunting and hope I can get enough xp for the FotT before WK gets there. I'm hoping the goblin moves toward Naggarond on the hills like last time. Venus can defend from the hills, so no chance of dying and still +2xp from the GC.

You can see in the first picture, there's another goblin incoming from the East. I'm not sure how to deal with him yet, I don't think the barbs have been pillaging improvements, in which case I should probably let him walk to the city and try get a Hunter back in time for the xp. Meanwhile, Leonardo ran into some trouble:



There's also a lion on the flood plains and an elephant 2S, animal paradise . Unfortunately I couldn't see the tiger from the Ancient Tower, I have to hope for cowardly animals again. Also another dungeon for me to explore . Karai has started on Kononnd's dungeon again, now that he's no longer a threat.

The Dwarves settled a new city on the lake:


So, Heron Throne time needs to be kicked into overdrive:


Deruptus comes in next turn for the necessary happiness and I'll go max hammers here. I'll be about 6h shy of 4 turning it I think, I haven't decided whether to chop a forest, do some inefficient stuff, or just eat the turn. Kwythellar meanwhile can 1t the Smokehouse next turn and be just off max food. I decided to put KoE first to give it something useful to do while I wait for T70, should still be able to fit CoL in time. The first mage, with 0xp can take spring for 1f, 2h in Kwythellar and Avelorn, then I can build a few more after the T70 Command Post. It's tempting to try use Lord Trevor to get the adepts xp...

Kwythellar had a number of other build options. It was tempting to research Festivals instead and spend the down time on a carnival, but I won't need the happiness for a few turns. I'm still not sure about TGL, it's just not that great in FFH without marble. My plan is to to build it, the National Epic and Command Post in the same city, probably Kwythellar for 14 great person points per turn, but that is about 400h for the 2 wonders. I won't be too choked up if it gets stolen.

[The Black Sword]

And the first turtle falls .


You can see that WK has revolted into more useful civics, at this stage I'm surrounded by aristocrats, but hey, I completed my first cottage this turn!

In more disturbing international news, both HK and jalapeno settled a new city. Raphael also spied this road on the way back:



Hard to see why else you'd build that but for another city, and the Calabim are going to settle another in the south soon. In comparison, Yell0w and WK are both on 4 cities, including their capitals. Despite Yell0w's Bone Palace, and I assume WK's imminent FotT, it seems clear that they're falling behind. I really need the others to pick up their fair share of land. With even land, my cities should be able to compete, but it will be a lot more difficult if someone gets more than their fair share. I'm actually prepared to go to war against any aggressor if necessary but I'm not sure I can afford to start one myself without an ally.

I did settle my own first settlement this turn:

3 turns to bring the cotton on line. You can also see the goblin advancing on Naggarond. I hope he suicides on Venus and Lord Trevor. I finally got some Ancient Forest growths here, you can see the one the goblin is standing on and the deer's forest also upgraded . I'm hoping the other goblin follows the same pattern and won't do any pillaging:



The main thing is that I can't afford to lose the dyes for a turn. But I figure if he is the pillaging type then he'll slow down for a turn pillaging the mine, if not then the dyes are safe. Either way, Michelangelo should be able to use his newly poisoned weapons on him. Donatello also got some new weapons and I'll send him south to this new dungeon after healing.

I'm posting a picture of Kwythellar, mostly to remind myself:


REMEMBER TO TURN OFF AVOID GROWTH!

I don't want to make that mistake again . Also, I decided to go for TGL next instead of the adepts. I figured if it's just a choice of which one I want to build first then the library wins. So, tech switched to CoL.

[DaveV]

I'm hoping the other goblin follows the same pattern and won't do any pillaging

Goblins are recon type and can't pillage.

[The Black Sword]

Thanks, that makes everything a bit easier.

The goblin by Naggarond didn't suicide on Venus, but he sat on flat waiting to get hit at 98% odds. I then detached the commander, moved him and picked him up with Michelangelo:


Who headed toward Avelorn and should be able to hit that goblin next turn. I decided to just delay the Heron Throne by a turn btw, I still don't really believe I have any competition for it. It's northern forest, which I was considering chopping, is worth 1 health, which could quite possibly be worth 1 fpt later. Of course if the forest doesn't upgrade I will be very tempted to cut it down anyway. In addition I would have to have stopped the goblin from reaching that hill earlier, meaning the xp would go to a useless warrior.

Donatello healing, Karai's exploration finishes next turn, another Ancient forest growth in Naggarond and I'm still deciding if I want a naming scheme for my settlements.

My demos are becoming more Kuriotate-like:

Back to being a GNP monster, though to be fair I have a lot of known tech bonus on CoL. However jalapeno has almost caught up in food and hammers. Fortunately it appears his GNP has dropped off a bit as well, presumably due to maintenance costs. The Khazad's GNP is a bit higher with less food hammers. I'm also still waiting on Motherlode from then. I thought they would have used it already, including third ring borders in the capital and holy city, and thane's to border pop another ~3 cities, you can cover an awful lot of land and get a lot of gold.

[The Black Sword]

Turn 70 is also coming up, which means Adaptive time!
Of course if you're following my reports, you probably have noticed that I've been planning on Organised for quite some time, but I figured I might as well do an analysis of my options.

Financial:
I currently lose 8gpt at 70% research. With Financial I'd make an extra 8gpt almost exactly there to breakeven. This would go up over the course of the game, but I’m not sure by how much. With courthouses my costs are going to drop by at least a quarter. In the end game I expect to need to go 100% gold to buy recruits at some stage, where Fin will be great, but I hope it doesn’t happen in these 75 turns. In addition, I plan to build Money Changers over the next 75 turns, so let’s say 200h there and if I had financial, I would build markets also, for another 50h saved.

Industrious:
This is an interesting one, which I was vaguely considering because I hope to be first to quite a few wonder unlocking techs. I probably (hopefully) don't need it to ensure I get those wonders first though and most will be built in my capital with it's production modifiers anyway. Buildings: Forges(200), Heron Throne(80), TGL(45), National Epic(40), Heroic Epic(70), Bazaar of Mammon(80), Guild of the Nine(80), Pillar of Chains(80), Tower of Divination(130). Roughly 800 hammers saved maybe. There's also a couple of other outside possibilities: Grimoire, Ride of the Nine Kings, Crown of Akharien, the 3 culture wonders, Tower of Complacency. I think that does actually beat Financial tbh.

Philosophical:
I've already got the hammer bonuses and I don't plan on many more GP for a while. I hope to get another GS during my golden age, then maybe 2 more great people over the course of the next 75 turns for a second golden age. After that I think I need to decide what victory I'm going for and if I need priests or artists. So I don't really want to speed up great people production until then. So, let’s just give me a discount on the next 3 great people. I think I have the formula wrong here but let’s say 267+367+467=1100gpp. Assuming these come from my NE city anyway, that’s roughly 200 base gpp saved or 400 total. That’s probably not worth as much as Industrious’ hammers. Also, it’s not really adapting .

Arcane:
I only really need 1 mage guild and then it's a case of how much I value all the extra xp on these adepts. I think if I did choose Arcane though, I'd have to radically alter my plans and go for Archmages in the end game. Not that that is really a bad thing. Hard to put a measure on this but the Kurio speciality is Centuars, I should be able to get the few mages I need as backup hopefully. It is another interesting one to consider though. I guess I don’t really have a good feel for how quick my adepts will gain xp with/without Arcane in a MP game, so I feel it’s a risky choice. However, all of its power is in this 75 turns, which is something.

Spiritual:
The big contender! The temple bonus is actually quite handy, since I will be building a lot if I go for a culture victory. Potentially 4 temples at least by 3 cities = about 400h. It should be said though that a lot of these hammers will probably come rather late into the 75 turns. This is also my current no.1 option for the second switch, so some of that hammer bonus could come in there. Civic swapping is obviously very powerful as well, assuming I’m just switching between Military State <->Apprenticeship, Conquest <->FT, that is essentially trading 4xp for some gold. I think my normal swaps can be organised around the golden ages. Then there is the ability to switch religions, which I am not sold on, at least for these turns. The good religions are very expensive, I can’t just be wasting 1k beakers each time, often for something that is replicated well elsewhere. And ultimately, I again think a good centaur army, with appropriate backup, wins over a well promoted priest one. Crusaders starting with mobility are interesting though.

Organised:
Command Posts. Almost enough said. 80h for what everybody else is a great person? These things replicate the main xp bonus of spiritual, and the 20% production bonus should more than pay for themselves. Additionally, I get to keep them when I switch again, probably to Spiritual, for the end game. Then I can use spiritual to put out much more useful 6xp units than 4xp ones. In addition we get 120h on courthouses and lighthouses that are among my next builds, and what currently is 8gpt saved on civic upkeep. And I expect that to increase quicker than the Fin bonus.

Aggressive, Raiders:
War does not seem imminent right now, no need to scare people.

Charismatic:
See above, also the happiness is an early game thing, and doesn’t help the Kurios so much. Tbh, the only way I can think about Charismatic, is to go arcane now, take as few promotions as possible and change to Charismatic T145. Again though, that’d be changing my strategy completely.

Creative:
Too late and too weak for Kurios.

So, after going through that, I don't think I've changed my mind. I was surprised the Industrious hammers got so high though. But Kurios love multipliers and the command post is a great one to fit in, and then the secondary economic benefits can almost match any other trait anyway. Both spiritual and Arcane are also good options, but I want to put my faith in Centaur Archers as the base of my army.

[The Black Sword]

Meh, guess I had everything in preview and forgot to press post. Short version of the turn:

Karai got diseased from the dungeon, -60% strength. No units around though, so she'll just take another shot at it next turn. Michelangelo cleaned up the last goblin for 3xp, 1 more for lvl4 and he can explore the dungeon in my borders. Cotton and wheat came online, shooting my bpt from 175->196. I'm saving gold this turn, Sailing next turn.

Sian's score increased above WKs, maybe he isn't doing as bad as I thought. On the other hand, it could just be land area from creative. Judging by the Khazad's food increase, they just got aristocracy. They also sent me an interesting offer:

TBS,

Truly, it has been too long since we heard from our Kuriotate friends. Rumor has it that you've been teaching the unwashed hordes a lesson. Good for you!

But I must confess that I've got an ulterior motive in contacting you. We've got a big problem out here in our Duckburg audiences. The chairman's daughter just got married, and we're trying to find a place for his son-in-law in our organization. There's been talk of making him a vice president... but, suffice to say, it's a terrible idea. Between you and me, the lad is dumb as a stump.

But we've got to give him something to do. And I hear he's always going on about Kwythellar, how it's the biggest and most glorious city on Erebus, cultural center of the universe, and so on and so forth. So my question is: how would you feel about us sending him your way? Officially, we'd be talking about establishing a "Trade Mission" in your city. But off the books: well, we're just getting him out of our hair for a few months.

Now, this won't cost you anything. But needless to say, you'd be doing me a big personal favor, and I'd be happy to talk about ways that we might compensate you for it. We talked about copper earlier: we could send some your way, if it's still of interest. If not... well, we can talk other resources (do you have a source of Ivory?). Or perhaps you'd be interested in a mana loan, or a Kilmorph missionary?

Let me know what you think.

Flintheart Glomgold, Founder and CFO of the Royal Khazad Mining Corporation

Very nice move by them. They somehow still have the most cities, I guess they're just eating the vault unhappiness and waiting for this GM. The answer is almost certainly yes from me, I might as well get something out of it. Does anybody know the GM formula so I can figure out how much my capital is worth to them? It will probably be twice the size of rival capitals soon.

[Molach]

I'm globally lurking this one, just want to pop in and say that I enjoy reading this thread.
Nice run-through about the adaptive choices - ORG seems like a very good thing, yes. Old FIN would have been a contender but hardly now.