Metropol*ytheism - A Kuriotate Story

Shatner

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Metropol*ytheism - A Kuriotate Story

So previously I played as the Bannor and had a good time being a backwards, bellicose bastard. This time I am going to try something a little more relaxed. More refined. More prone to bathing. I haven't meaningfully played a game as the Kuriotates since "Fire" so I am going to see how well several super cities can hold up against the world. I may be a Kuriotate novice but my understanding is that with enough Happy you can turn your four cities into juggernauts of culture, specialists and production. So, I am going to try and go polytheistic, including as many religions as I can in my cities and making judicious use of the Religion civic. As such, I sat around in the burnt down wreckage of my families homestead and waited for the disembodied spirit of Eurabrates to drop by offer to mind-meld.


The Map: Fractal, Large, Aggressive AI, Living World, No Tech Trading
The Difficulty: Emperor
The Speed: Normal
The Rivals: 9 civs, all random


We sat in our tent, looking over the map the scouts had drawn up, having an internal dialogue. Yes, dialogue. {What about this spot?} [Too many treesss. They jussst get in the way. Plusss they'll play merry hell on our sssinusssesss.] {Look, it's the dawn of a new age, our people are tired of walking/trotting. They're running low on food and I'm running low on patience. Make up your mind before I do it for you.} [Fine... There.] {Let's see... arable soil, a fresh water lake, ocean access and a good food supply. Okay.} [Plus thossse fieldsss of yellow cob thingsss and those treesss full of curvy fruit look very...] {Golden?} [Yesssss] Sigh.


You would think being part of a mind/body-gestalt with the Gold Dragon would be great. Youth eternal. Heightened mental clarity. Innate leadership skills. But what they don't tell you about are all the other changes your body undergoes. Scales start growing in new places, all the draconic pheromones you exude can wreck your complexion if you don't bath more often, your voice changes when you are under stress {such sibilance}... And then there's the tail. It requires special tailoring of the pants and robes; that's why the Kuriotates knew how to design clothes before they knew how to tend sheep or grow cotton. The tail is not that big but it contains a hind-brain that has notoriously poor impulse control. Let's just say, if a woman walks into a room wearing a silk dress, our tail goes off and we can't sit properly for an hour. A boy-king can get in a lot of trouble if he lets his tail do the thinking for him.


Kwythellar was founded and everyone set about the busy-work of carving pockets of civilization into an unruly and hostile land. Astrologers came and said they had discovered signs indicating that a child of prophecy would be born soon and, with a little funding, they could find him. We gave our blessings but told them to keep their receipts. A few years later we were informed that the lad (named Bonham), driven by visions of a force that transcended the gods themselves, had constructed an altar and sublimated away in a pool of light. Cool trick. This altar was simply a large, rectangular slab that hummed, ever so softly. The sound was contagious; you'd leave and find yourself humming as well. Hmm, hmm, Hmmmm, hmmm, hmm, hmmm, hmm, hmmm, hm-hmm-hmmmmmmmm. It seemed to fill our people with reverence and drew ascetics to it like knights to a wyrm. Interesting. [Faith can bring many fine thingsss to usss. In the old daysss Acheron acquired quite a horde by demanding worssship.] {I'll take that under consideration. Just stop making me dream of gemstones.} [Our bed isn't even forteen caretsss. You are lucky I sssleep at all.] Oye. When those same astrologers showed up a few years later we agreed to the divine finders-fee. Young Jones (the 2nd star-produced prophet) would later place another, smaller slab on top of the "Altar of the Lunnator", as he had taken to calling it before also wafting away as a small corana.


Our neighbors were Arendal "not-Arwen-daughter-of-Elrond" and Arturus "not-Thorin-son-of-Thrain". After the mountain near Naggarond erupted as a volcano we were worried that a ring would need destroying for the sake of Middle Earth. Arendal seemed pleasant enough; we would go on to enjoy a game of Somnium with her... many times. Arturus was a little intimidating; he seemed to appraise me at a glance and, judging from his demeanor, we hadn't gone for much. Then again we had done much the same thing to him {stupid tail}; his rings, ceremonial ax and fillings were easily worth Minister Gilerass' (a centaur) weight in gold. <sarcasm>It came as a tremendous surprise when Arendal founded The Fellowship of Leaves and Arturus founded The Runes of Kilmorph.</rollingEyes> Meanwhile, we were having our own religious revival when another prophet, this one homegrown instead of being a star-child, added yet another, smaller slab atop the altar. For several blocks around the faint strains of music could be heard. It was unearthly; both soothing but utterly beyond placing. [hmm hmm glittersss hmm gold...] {What?} [That tune made me think of gold.] {Well that is scarcely unusual.}


We woke up one morning to the sound of the washer women singing. Arendal was arriving to discuss opening our lands to the Disciples of Leaves, and no doubt to play the cards. She entered the hall wearing a gown of such colors. [Dyesss. To turn cloth into gemssstonesss.] She started to blush. {Huh? Oh crap! Why does that shaw have to be open in the front? Now she thinks we were oogling her... ugh!}. We readily agreed to the missionaries but couldn't stop staring at her outfit. As though to avert our gaze, she pulled out her deck of Somnium cards. We played and we won handily; drawing two fools during the last play. That evening Gilerass stated that news had reached him indicating the Illians, a distant civilization, were preparing a ritual called "stasis", though further reports wouldn't arrive until tomorrow. The following morning we awoke to the washer women singing. Arendal arrived (wait, what?), discussed opening the Kuriotate borders and we played a game of Somnium with me winning. "It seems you have been enjoying a winning streak lately." "Have I? The last time we played was more than six seasons ago and you won, as you recall." Arendal seemed slightly confused. "Yes, you are correct. Forgive my lapse." Gilerass trotted in that evening and mentioned the Illian ritual of "stasis" before we went to sleep between our distressingly plain-colored sheets. Washerwomen. Arendal in the same dress. Two fools. Stasis.

...Several "days" later...

"You always draw four times here: 7 of Suns, Fool, 3 of Demons, Fool. You-You don't have to. You can just... not draw." said Arendal, her voice shaking. We felt our hand reaching for the deck. No! Struggling we placed our hands in our pockets. We started to laugh, a strange, manic laugh which Arendal quickly matched. When she finished we looked down to see four cards arrayed in front of us, our hand turning over the second fool. {You didn't!?!} [It had to be done. Besssidesss, thisss draw winsss usss the game. Victory...] I always get a cold shiver when it says that last word. Dragons have a competitive streak twice as wide as their wing span but Eurabatres takes it two furlongs and a psychosis further. Shiver. We wake, roll out of bed running and shout out the window "SHUT UP!" This time there is no one there. Ah yes, the laundry was done yesterday. At that moment Gilerass entered and said that the "stasis" ritual must have failed because nothing seems to have happened. "Yes... I suppose so."


We stink. In a way, we stink therefore we are. However, we stink in a very useful way. Courtesy of Eurabatres, we exude a potent pheromone that, in the sufficient concentration, engenders loyalty and contentment in others. Wafted on the wind, swimming in the water; this dragon musk is potent stuff and has come to coat everything for miles around. You may not be aware of it but it's there. It also turns everything we wear a gold color (the robe we are wearing in our portrait was originally plaid) and we can loan these clothes to the governors of our other cities allowing them to enjoy the same benefits. "Raiments of the King", they're called. However, we produce this stuff at a fixed rate and it doesn't last indefinitely. As such we can not reliably maintain more than four super-cities. Non-Kuriotates have always wondered why humans, centaur, nagas and who-knows-what-else are all perfectly happy to work shoulder-to-flipper-to-hindquarter under the direction of a pre-pubescent ruler. That's why, but those cities not led by a gold-clad politico don't get it either. To maintain order abroad, the settlements are allowed to manage their food, production and commerce themselves. We provide military protection and they agree to harvest and ship us select resources. Nothing more, nothing lesssss.


We were laying on a big flat rock in the solarium; we tend to be a bit sluggish in the morning if we don't. [We mussst expand. We only have room for three citiesss. Rule of acquisssition number ninety-five: Expand or DIE!] {Take it easy. You just can't stop thinking about those dyes.} [mmmmm...] {Still, if we don't expand then those Hippus who have been rampaging through Arendal's lands will take the whole elven empire, leaving us in a position too weak to defend ourselves.} Several turns earlier the Hippus had ridden into Ljos lands and were gobbling up cities at a disconcerting rate. Now the Ljos were having a fire sell on their empire and all of their neighbors were scrambling to get in line. Arturus, Sheelba... even us. The Call to Arms was, well, called and our warriors set out to conquer. All forces were being cycled through garrison duty in Kythellar because everyone who stayed near the Altar would walk away with a holy aura that would, once only, improve their combat prowess. The war went back and forth, everyone ran the heck away when Arendal called an Entmoot but four turns later the roads were no longer patrolled by homicidal trees. We took two cities before Arendal was dispatched. What a pity; we'll name a city block after her.


A fishing boat that was exploring our southern coastline encountered a most peculiar wreck. The "ship" was covered in chrome and seemed to have landed on the rocks from a great height rather than simply running ashore of them. A sole survivor was found, a man of terrible conviction and body odor. He claimed that his people, in a similar but separate world, had expended considerable magic and faith to send him here, to spread the word of Junil. He spoke with a utterly foreign dialect and it seemed something about this world did not agree with his constitution. He was taken ashore and led to our nearest city. Before his failing health claimed him he created a grand mural where an angel with an intense expression looked and pointed directly at the viewer. Below it is an inscription (in pictographs) we have yet to decipher. Whenever we see it we get the most peculiar sensation that we have seen it many, many times before...


Rhonna of the Hippus sent me a curt little note: "Your money AND your life." Alright then, we guess this war is not going to end so quickly. Fortunately the Priests of Leaves trained in the capital were starting with 8xp (+6 from altar and +2 from apprenticeship). Tigers make great blitz troops, especially when they equip Orthus' Ax... somehow. 90% of the fighting took place IN the settlement of Yonna. Hippus horsemen are notoriously hard to finish off in the field and hippus axmen tend to be promoted with City Raider I and II. This makes defending from a city a bad place to be. So we would abandon Yonna, the hippus would invade, we would counter-attack and destroy the entire stack. The next hippus super-stack would arrive, we would abandon Yonna...


Mutton, pork, two kinds of sushi, mixed veggies, all bathed in an array of spices. Soon our lunch would include beef [yesss, beef!] once we got some roads laid eastward. It was during our lunch that the ambassador from Khazak marched in with a swagger indicating he had big news... or too much ale. "CEO Arturus demands you immediately abandon the false faith of the elves and adopt the truth of Kilmorph or ELSE!" munch, munch. "Okay." "I will not hear your excuses boy-king, I... wait? You will?!?" "Yeah. I will convey word to my minister after lunch and make the proclamation before nightfall." pause. "Just like that, huh? You sure you don't want to, you know, argue? I even wore extra padding in case you tried to defenestrate me." "Yes, it's very subtly done; my compliments to your tailor." "But... but, you have a Temple of Leaves just down the block!?!" "And soon I will have a Temple of Kilmorph as well." The ambassador was clearly floundering. He (she?) pulled some cards out of his (her?) jacket and began reading in a slightly embarrassed tone. "Because of your stubborn refusal to accept the faith of our goddess" Ahem. "right... uh, scratch the stubborn part... I, I must w-warn you that we will begin a hostile take over of your assets immediately. Our accountants" (dwarven axmen) "will begin the audit" (the dwarven term for war) "tomorrow. Pray your f-false god will... will... mumblemumble" (S)He put the cards away. "You sure you won't reject the word of Kilmorph? It'd make my meeting before the board go so much smoother." "Sorry but you've converted me. Have your stonewardens call my stonewardens and we'll talk peace later." Munch munch munch. [I told you.] {Yes, you did. If this war goes well enough then we'll have gemstones and proper twenty-four caret gold flowing into Kwythellar. Have faith.} [Faith isss one thing we have in sssurplusss.]


Molting. We hate molting. Every month or so the scales radiating out from the tail slough off. During the interim it's itchy as hell. Lotion helps. Ultimately the scales are saved and woven into the "Raiments of the King" but it is still a time we dread. We were in our bathing room, furiously scratching at the scales that were peeling away from our inner thigh when Gilerass entered. "My lord I..." Bathroom. Lotion. Rapid, thigh-height hand motion. Awkwardly his and our eyes met before he mumbled something apologetic and galloped way. Ugh! {Any suggestions?} [Uh... you could eat him.] {You always suggest that and the answer is always no.} [Well it worked like a champ back in the old daysss. If sssomeone caught you holding a maiden "captive" you ate them. On the ssspot. If sssomeone laughed becaussse you had a lance ssstuck between your teeth then you jussst unhinged your jawsss and...] No help at all.


Civs were dropping left and right. Something destroyed the Elohim and the Clan followed suit three turns later. Then Faeryl arrived like a Minx of the Apocalypse, offering her sincerest hope that our two kingdoms could co-exist peacefully. <moreSarcasm>Riiiight.</dontThinkSo> We think she was surprised that someone was staring at her dress instead of her cleavage. [Sssilk. SSSILK! Made FROM wormsss FOR wyrmsss, it bathesss you in a sssoftnessssss that is beyond dessscription. Touch it! Hug her or sssomething! Whatever you mammalsss do, I NEED that sssilk!] We forced ourself to look at her chest to calm ourself down. That seemed to put Faeryl back in familiar territory and the rest of the meeting went smooth as... sssilk. So long and thanks for all the mammaries, Faeryl.


Our fighting was briefly at a close with Rhoanna and Arturus. We were all one big, profitable Runes of Kilmorph family; or as Arturus preferred to call it, conglomerate. Because of the peace we were finally able to establish trade with the Svartalfar; we had been so... distracted since our meeting with Faeryl. The pale, elven merchant seemed to manifest in our trade room (how do they do that?) and laid out samples of the wares of the Unseelie Court. We went back and forth over tariffs and quotas but our heart wasn't really in it. At last, we shifted to the desired topic. "Order sixteen bolts of silk to line my nest." Stares "ROOM! Hahahaha. For my roooom. For decorating, not li...ning. WHO-said-anything-about-nests? What a... nests. Yeah..." silence "Soooo sixteen bolts. Got it? Good... I'm gonna... gotta go... RULE and stuff." [There is still some barbecue sauce leftover. You could always-]{OH, shut up!} A week later the first caravan arrived and we slept the sleep of an egg... an egg lying under polychromatic silk sheets within a gem-studded, four poster bed with gold-weave pillows, springs made of silver, leather trim on the mattress and a woolen comforter while wearing a fur-and-cotton nightgown. We finally had it all. In a big pile. Beneath us. [{Aaaaah Yessssss}].


Our people had discovered both the Cult of the Octopus Overlords, the Council of the Empyrean and the Academy of the Ashen Veil. Our sages were very well funded by a landscape filled with Enclaves and they claimed that the faith of the Order was not far off. Furthermore, the Altar was up to 5 layers; the sound of it could be heard throughout all four supercities and each faith seemed to have something to contribute to it. The savants of the Ashen Veil even claimed that if you performed the music backwards you could hear words from Agares, Angel of Entropy. The music seemed to make our allies nervous since numerous skirmishes were fought over and over. Still, we were all brothers and sisters of Kilmorph so a peaceful equilibrium would soon reassert itself. That and they'd have to carve their way through a WHOLE LOT of settlements before hitting a city that actually mattered. [{Sssnicker}]


Auric of the Illians was discovered on a distant and frosty continent. The place was tip to tip covered in ice and snow and our reception was equally chilly. He wanted nothing to do with us, though he kept saying "for now" in an entirely disconcerting way. It was when the sixth step was added to the Altar by a FoL's priest named Plant that Auric went ballistic. The music of the altar was audible almost everywhere on Erebus, the lyrics almost distinct. Kwythellar would have as many as eleven priestly factions toiling away at the altar's mysteries (giving an otherwise hammer poor city a major industrial boost). However, it seems Auric wasn't a fan. Our ships heard a terrible chanting just as a thick fog rolled in and they were boarded:

"We come from the land of the ice and snow
from the midnight frost where the cold winds blow.
Temple of the Hand.
We'll drive our ships to new lands,
to fight the Lorda, freezing and killing:
Mulcarn I am coooooomiiiing!
On we sweep with thrashing oar,
our only goal will be the Eastern Shore!
AaaaaAaaaaaaaaaaaAAAH!
"


A fierce naval campaign ensued. Our ships were backed by the drowned and cultists of the Octopus Overlords (that we had trained during a brief stint of full on OO worship), which gave us a considerable advantage. Auric completed a ritual called "The Draw" and suddenly that song of his was everywhere. Only the cities of the Kuriotates were safe; the music of the altar and the warchant of Auric's seemed to be clashing in some sort of epic rock and/or roll off. After a single sleepless night the Khazak, Hippus and Svartalfar unanimously declared war on the Illians. Welcome to the party, I hope you brought a heavy coat.


Neither side gained ground against the other. [We mussst complete the sssong. Even my full form isss not ssso mighty asss it.] The final prophet, a former scribe named Page, was waiting to unlock the secrets of Omnisciences. With that he could grasp the song in its entirety and complete the altar. Meanwhile, the weather grew harsher, colder, more hostile. Lands would freeze and crops would wither under the torment of roaming blizzards. Auric was freezing the world and his entire continent was dedicated to accelerating it's headlong plunge into the ice. The Illians had established a beachhead in the Khazak lands to the east, lead by the terrible giant Wilbowman and his fearful acolytes Larry, Curly and Moe. Svartalfar assassins were being frozen solid by Driffa the Ice Dragon [ssshow off]. The days were growing shorter and it was just when the sun seemed unable to rise above the horizon that Page had his epiphany. The final step of the Stairway to Heaven was built. A pulse spread through all the lands of the Kuriotates in which members of every race resided and every creed (except Council of Esus) was practiced; all were lifted away from the troubles below in a great flare of light. Across all of Erebus a grand chorus echoed out as the sun rose and the ice melted:

"Your head is humming and it won't go
In case you don't know,
The pipers calling you to join him,
Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow,
And did you know
Your stairway lies on the whispering wind.

And as we wind on down the road
Our shadow's taller than our soul.
There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show
How everything still turns to gold.
[GOLD]{Shhh!}
And if you listen very hard
The tune will come to you at last.
When all are one and one is all
To be a rock and not to roll.

And she's buying a stairway to heaven.
"




It's been a pleasure performing here; you've been a lovely audience (except for the guy who keeps shouting "Freebird". No. Just... no). Thank you all and good night.

All lyrics were pulled from http://www.lyricsfreak.com/ and mangled by me when appropriate.


A few observations:
1) Religion is a middling civic. It's great early on when squeezing an extra two happiness from your religion is a big deal. However, I took it to the extreme and it was netting me an extra 7 happiness, something I could have easily gotten from Social Order with much less trouble. It is a civic that has no place in the late game... unless you're crazy like me.

2) Having multiple religions is great! I was getting an additional +6 happy (4 from incense, 1 from gems, 1 from regents), +1 health, +10% research, +10% military production, +2 gold, +3 culture, +2 science and +120% culture (in addition to the benefits from Religion and pagan temples). That's a grand total of +15 happy (+7 from resources, +6 from temples and +2 from state religion... +18 if you count the Altar).

3) Heron Throne + Golden Age = Awesome. Being Aquaman nets you many more hammers and much more wealth than you would expect. Toil my fishy minions!

4) It is really hard for the Kuriotates to rank highly. I was constantly being aggressed upon (Aggressive AI and all) because I was at or near the bottom of the score board the entire game, despite my relative success. I spent the majority of my time thwarting my neighbors' ambitions.

5) Enclaves rock out loud! I can not imagine how I would have survived without them. Alright, I can but still it would have been really hard. These little, golden improvements keep your super-city healthy, energetic and make his coat (of arms) shine. Apply liberally for best results.

6) It's hard to beat warriors in hammer-to-strength efficiency. Warrior + bronze + bless + holy shield = str 5.5 for 25 hammers. I only switched to building other units when my cities were producing 60 or more hammers a turn (warrior, warrior, swordsman from overflow, repeat). Those numbers could be better but I decided not to go crazy with Mutate.

7) Orthus' Ax makes a big difference with mob combat. You have a stack of 7 warriors, two tigers, a swordsman with massive promotions and a priest of leaves. You give the ax to the swordsman, right? Wrong...ish. First you hand the ax to the tigers who DIE (or if they miraculously survive, you send them in again courtesy of the axe's blitz effect). Then you have the lowest of your warriors repeat this until your mid-range troops have at least a 75% chance of success. Now you hand the ax to your swordsman and start actually killing the defenders. Normally you can only move the ax once per turn however you can pick it up any number of times and it is dropped if the wielder dies. Basically, this tactic gives you more mileage for your sacrificial mooks.

8) The Altar is Mighty. I had never gone for an altar win before; despite reading the threads saying just this, I was surprised at just how effective that Tower-of-Hanoi-esque wonder is. +3 happy, +2 hammers per priest (that one is BIG), +12xp to disciple units. Despite possessing 5 holy cities (all save RoK and Esus), I never spent a prophet on a shrine (though Arendal had done that for me in the case of FoL). This win would have been a lot more difficult if Faeryl hadn't been turned neutral by RoK.

9) FoL puts the tiger in your tank! Actually, I think this is more a bug observation. When FoL was the state religion I was confined to one tiger per Priest of Leaves. After I switched to RoK my one surviving Priest of Leaves was able to summon one tiger per turn, seemingly without limit. Dang helpful but it smacked as a bug. The only other thing I could think of was that the upper limit was also based on how many Temples of Leaves you had. Anyone know? I have been informed that the number of tigers summonable is limited by the number of priest units you have, not the number of priests of leaves. As such, I was able to summon more because I had been spamming stonewardens and the like...

10) Popping acolytes of yet-undiscovered faiths is bad. I thought I would be sporting by using my boat-borne acolyte to pop the borders of my city. I saved and loaded just to see if I could have founded the Order by turn 181 and I could. This is another outstanding bug. I have also been told that popping disciple units of a religions that have yet to be founded is an intentional design decision by the Dev team. As such, I rescind my BUG label; I will not shun these liberated holy men in the future.


I have screen shots this time; what's a good site to upload pics to for referencing in these posts? In this regard I am a total noob and I turn to you fine people for advice.
 
Popping Disciple-level units of unfounded religions and using them to found the religion is intentional. The limit on Tiger summons is, I believe, based on the total number of Priest-level units you have, not the total number of Priests of Leaves. So your Priests of other religions also counted, allowing you many more Tigers than you had Priests of Leaves.
 
There's still some barbecue sauce left over...
I thank you, for giving me an excellent excuse to procrastinate even longer! :lol:
EDIT: [Notices bit about tiger limit.]
Wow...
 
6) It's hard to beat warriors in hammer-to-strength efficiency. Warrior + bronze + bless + holy shield = str 5.5 for 25 hammers. I only switched to building other units when my cities were producing 60 or more hammers a turn (warrior, warrior, swordsman from overflow, repeat). Those numbers could be better but I decided not to go crazy with Mutate.

7) Orthus' Ax makes a big difference with mob combat. You have a stack of 7 warriors, two tigers, a swordsman with massive promotions and a priest of leaves. You give the ax to the swordsman, right? Wrong...ish. First you hand the ax to the tigers who DIE (or if they miraculously survive, you send them in again courtesy of the axe's blitz effect). Then you have the lowest of your warriors repeat this until your mid-range troops have at least a 75% chance of success. Now you hand the ax to your swordsman and start actually killing the defenders. Normally you can only move the ax once per turn however you can pick it up any number of times and it is dropped if the wielder dies. Basically, this tactic gives you more mileage for your sacrificial mooks.

These are both pretty big issues in my opinion. Warriors last way too long and are the mob unit of choice when they shouldn't be and items shouldn't be able to be passed between units in a stack like that.
 
This is another outstanding bug.

Its a feature, they already said so themselves.

Oh and...
"We come from the land of the ice and snow
from the midnight frost where the cold winds blow.
Temple of the Hand.
We'll drive our ships to new lands,
to fight the Lorda, freezing and killing:
Mulcarn I am coooooomiiiing!
On we sweep with thrashing oar,
our only goal will be the Eastern Shore!
AaaaaAaaaaaaaaaaaAAAH!"

Epic.
 
Another great read. Thanks again Shatner.
 
Going multi-religion and altar is like reverse entropy (not really but it sounds cool). Temples let you assing more priests, which generates more great prophets to upgrade altar, which makes your priests even better. Just think of Hyborem getting that altar with theocracy ... He'd go all priest (and the occasional mithril mine).
 
Going multi-religion and altar is like reverse entropy (not really but it sounds cool). Temples let you assing more priests, which generates more great prophets to upgrade altar, which makes your priests even better. Just think of Hyborem getting that altar with theocracy ... He'd go all priest (and the occasional mithril mine).

i should really try that one out someday, convert to order as hyborem and go all-out priest. A bit anti-thematical, but who cares?
 
Nice read! Just last night I finished a cultural win as Kuriotates. I founded OO, Order, Empyrean, and CoE, and I had FoL and RoK spread to my cities as well. I could have founded Ashen Veil too, but by that point the win was pretty much certain. I chose to use my Great Prophets to found the shrines to fund research, but an Altar would have been fun, too.

I will say that an Industrious leader with marble and a supercity is pretty awesome :) I was pulling in >200 hammers for wonder production midgame.
 
i should really try that one out someday, convert to order as hyborem and go all-out priest. A bit anti-thematical, but who cares?

I don't see that as anti-thematical. Hyborem needs fanatical preachers of the faith just as much as, if not more than, everyone else.
 
Popping Disciple-level units of unfounded religions and using them to found the religion is intentional. The limit on Tiger summons is, I believe, based on the total number of Priest-level units you have, not the total number of Priests of Leaves. So your Priests of other religions also counted, allowing you many more Tigers than you had Priests of Leaves.

[Goes back and re-reads patch B in the Bug Thread] Ah, I misread the patch log and thought getting disciple units before the religion was founded was explicitly a bug. As it is a design decision, I will stop shunning it and see how it affects gameplay. Oh, and thanks for explaining the Tiger Summoning mechanic, Verily; you're full of good information.

So how did Eurabatres get over the disappointment of not going on a rampage?

Both Eurabatres and I were disappointed but building The Dragon didn't really make sense with a race-to-the-end-of-a-different-branch-of-the-tech-tree victory waiting in the wings. The thing is, Eurabrates is the bulk of what makes the Kuriotates the civ that they are. Cardith is just a person, albeit a wunderkind orphan (like Bean from Ender's Game), so at best he would have led the proto-Kuriotates for two or three generations and died. Eurabatres chose to take up residence in Cardith's head as a means to the ends of getting her body back. That entire "civilization" thing, where the lives of millions are directed for thousands of years is just the scaffolding necessary to support the Great Works Project of bringing the paragon dragon back into Erebus.

That's the lens I looked through when writing this story. The Kuriotates have enormous cities and they have numerous buildings which give them synergy for hoarding each and every kind of resource they can get their hands on. So I framed that in the context of a dragon-in-human-skin trying to build a big, comfy hoard but having to secure trade agreements, develop infrastructure and maintain good relations with neighbors because she isn't 25 tons of draconic fury who can just demand all your shinies else she eats you. It's very rational egoist, with a very selfish motive behind otherwise benevolent actions.

Once Eurabatres is given her body back, Cardith would no longer be a dragon-charged super leader (I assume) and instead would become an unusually bright 10 year old who would age, hit puberty, grow up, grow old and eventually die. Having THE central authority and the sole "immortal" ruler of a nation die off would cause said nation to crumble like it ain't no thing! Once the wyrm has hatched the egg is discarded; in this case the egg happens to be an ancient and grand civilization, making the ultimate fate of the Kuriotates all the more tragic. But, with an Altar victory everyone gets beamed up to Heaven instead of having their society come crashing around their ears while the Gold Dragon speeds off into the distance. So... as happy an ending as you are going to get, I guess.

Going multi-religion and altar is like reverse entropy (not really but it sounds cool). Temples let you assing more priests, which generates more great prophets to upgrade altar, which makes your priests even better. Just think of Hyborem getting that altar with theocracy ... He'd go all priest (and the occasional mithril mine).

Reverse Entropy... I believe the word for that (in gaming terms) is synergy. Yes, polytheism and The Altar go together like Chalid Atrakein and Sun mana. With the altar your M.O. is mo' priests. Hyborem is unable to adopt the Order because it is automatically removed from his cities every turn (just as Ashen Veil is automatically spread to them). However, could Hyborem go for the altar if he adopted RoK or Empyrean first? What a weird thought. "Agares, we just found out that your arch-angel has begun summoning the Lunnator." "Blast and damnation; I knew demons were untrustworthy but I certainly didn't think they would betray me to The Alpha and Omega of Goodness?!? Maybe I hugged him too much as a child."
 
So how did Eurabatres get over the disappointment of not going on a rampage?

Pleassse, jusst one more turn...


Personally, I rarely can resist that conquest victory after a builder success. And with a golden dragon...

I'm also a dragon kleptomaniac. Acheron, Eurabatres, Abashi, and some game soon, Drifa, all have to be mine. I one held off conquering 6-7 sheaim cities and gave Os-Gabella a ton of techs just to snag he dragon. That game was already in the bag...
 
Going multi-religion and altar is like reverse entropy (not really but it sounds cool). Temples let you assing more priests, which generates more great prophets to upgrade altar, which makes your priests even better. Just think of Hyborem getting that altar with theocracy ... He'd go all priest (and the occasional mithril mine).

Hmmm, isn't the altar restricted to nonevil? Hyborem will have a hard time getting there if I'm not totally mistaken...
So, yes, its so antithematic that even the game won't allow it...

Great read. :goodjob:
 
Hmmm, isn't the altar restricted to nonevil? Hyborem will have a hard time getting there if I'm not totally mistaken...
So, yes, its so antithematic that even the game won't allow it...

Great read. :goodjob:

Ah, but if Hyborem switched to RoK or OO, he's no longer evil and can build the Altar.
 
[..]9) FoL puts the tiger in your tank! Actually, I think this is more a bug observation. When FoL was the state religion I was confined to one tiger per Priest of Leaves. After I switched to RoK my one surviving Priest of Leaves was able to summon one tiger per turn, seemingly without limit. Dang helpful but it smacked as a bug. The only other thing I could think of was that the upper limit was also based on how many Temples of Leaves you had. Anyone know?[..]

I got Fellowship Medic (Grigori Medic with FoL religion) and I was able to create as many Tigers as I want and I had no temple (and no religion of course because Grigori is agnostic (note for dumbass'))
 
i should really try that one out someday, convert to order as hyborem and go all-out priest. A bit anti-thematical, but who cares?

Unfortunately Hyborum can't adopt any religion besides AV, or at least he could not in the past. Not sure if that's an Infernal thing or a Hyborem thing; e.g. whether it would work with unrestricted leaders.
 
Unfortunately Hyborum can't adopt any religion besides AV, or at least he could not in the past. Not sure if that's an Infernal thing or a Hyborem thing; e.g. whether it would work with unrestricted leaders.

The infernals are unplayable with anyone but Hyborem, even with unrestricted leaders.

But editing his weighting towards the other religions in the leaderheadheadinfos xml file may allow him to adopt other religions...
 
Yea, maybe removing the non-evil restriction of the Altar might be just as effective. :D
But i didn't talk about modding FFH2 since far from everyone does so...

@ Valkrionn: What Niveras & rusty217 said.
 
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