Cardith Lorda Role Playing Challenge

I have learned from my past RPC that no one is interested if nothing is happening. Thus, my new RPC will be punctuated by myself giving my own report every 2-3 days.

The Kuriorates are a multicultural race. They are led by a child, and include humans, centaurs, and more. This RPC is made to capture the unity of the Kuriorates. This, unlike Faeryl's challenge, is not a contest. It is merely a game to find lore and strategical synergies. In order to reinforce the lore, certain rules/achievments are to be follwed for the purpose of the challenge.

You can download a save and report your activities throughout the game. Screenshots are appreciated. I will be playing Prince (I know I suck).

Rules and Achievments

Rules are guidelines that should be followed throughout the entire challenge, or as soon as they become possible.
Achievments are less regimented and not required, but they are a nice plus. I would still strive to achieve them.

Rules

• Do not go to war with any good empire, and if at war with one, only fight defensivley.
• 50% of your army consist of Centaur units
• Have a maximum amout of cities, and no overlap in their BFC
• Destroy or Vassalize all evil civs, if vassalized, you need to convert them to neutral or evil
• Have the Liberty, God King, and Caste civics run ASAP
  No trading, open borders, etc. with evil civs.

Achievments

• Found a non- evil religion (Not CoE, AV, or OO)
• Find and Control the Centaur Citadel
• Find and Control the Lamia Village
• Win a Domination or Religous Victory
• Enter a Permenant Alliance with a Good Civlization
• Found the Cult of the Dragon
• Create Eubrates

Note on the Centaur Citadel/Lamia Village

these to areas are points on the map I created. To control these they must be in your cultural influence.

The Start


The Settings


Saves for Noble - Immortal below
If you want Diety please request it.

This is reserved for links to different players AARs.

Two questions: Which is higher difficulty, Noble or Prince? And why is the Noble save larger than the others?

Eldric IV said:

Two questions: Which is higher difficulty, Noble or Prince? And why is the Noble save larger than the others?

Click to expand...

1) Noble is the lower difficulty level.

2) I am unsure as to why it is larger. They are all the same map.

I think there is something seriously wrong with this map.

By turn 15, three civs were wiped out by the barbarians. I was wiped out on turn 17 by an 11/9 centaur charger. Not a prayer of winning that battle.

Eldric IV said:

I think there is something seriously wrong with this map.

By turn 15, three civs were wiped out by the barbarians. I was wiped out on turn 17 by an 11/9 centaur charger. Not a prayer of winning that battle.

Click to expand...

WARNING: Off topic (but responding to post)

I recently tried my hand at crafting a scenario. I had a friend playtest it. For a "surprise" I thought it would be neat if the barbarians had wearwolves. I placed 6 barbarian ravenous wearwolves at different points around the map. I thought some would be killed off and others would mature.

When he playtested, all of the wearwolves survived rather easily. Three civs (out of 8) died by turn 20 when a barbarian Greater Wearwolf with Combat IV rolled up on his cities defended by a handful of warriors and a scout. Needless to say, the wearwolves were scaled back after the first walkthrough.

Now On Topic

I'll give this one a shot in a few days after I finish my research paper for school.

You could grant the Chargers the Weak Promotion to make them a little bit easier to survive, and also Light works.

I love the Kuriotates, so I gave this a try on Emperor. Three civilizations were made short work of by (I assume) the Chargers. They then set their eyes on me, and that was that. Perhaps only limit them to one? Two attacked me at once, which I think was the main problem. Or you could make them normal centaur, but increase their numbers. They are strong enough early game to pose a threat.

I do enjoy these challenges, so keep them coming.

I won on turn 53 on Noble... by being the only survivor.

It seems that those chargers are a little too strong ^^

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/73027/Cardith_Lorda_0054_ap._J.C_challenge_noble.CivBeyondSwordSave

I think your right.

I'm going to upload new saves. I'll post again when the replacments are here.

I've uploaded the new files, centaur chargers fixed.

My report will come by the latest tommorow night.

Hey Rex

Thanks for keeping going with this. I think its a good idea and will try your 2nd effort tonight and attempt an AAR in the weeks that follow. Good thinking for speeding up the pace and shrinking the map, it will help to bring more people in (I think).

One question,
Rule - Have a maximum amout of cities, and no overlap in their BFC

I know the Kuriotates have a max but do you mean only have the 3 (or whatever standard maps allow) or did you mean something else?

Kudos for your efforts, these type of scenarios and reading others' AARs are just another great thing about the worlds best mod.

Now I understand.

I played 50 turns or so last night and have already broken that rule. I never play with Cardith so I messed up my overlap. The BFC is bigger than I remembered and I didn't get the settlement mechanic. Nevermind I will start again and try to follow the rules this time.

By the way, raging barbs is brutal

Cheers

I'm going to give this one a shot. This should be interesting since I haven't played as Cardith Lorda before.

Hopefully this time my computer won't die and take my screenshots with it like it did for your Faeryl Viconia RPC.

Just finished the RPC and it was a great experience. It was my first RPC and also my first game with Kuriotates and the Shadow version of the mod. Here's my list of achievements with screenshots. I played the Noble difficulty.

• Do not go to war with any good empire, and if at war with one, only fight defensively.

Done. Not a great problem. The Luichurp were great friends from the beginning.

• 50% of your army consist of Centaur units

I've tried to maintain this percentage throughout the game, although it was quite difficult when I started hiring mercenaries from the Guild of the Nine. Still, I think I managed to end the game with about 50-50 ratio.

The military advisor, with centaurs highlighted:

• Have a maximum amount of cities, and no overlap in their BFC

Why wouldn't someone have a maximum number of cities with Kuriotates on standard map? No BFC overlapping was a little difficult, but I think I had just enough space.

Behold the magnificent Tripolis of the Kuriotate civilization:

• Destroy or Vassalize all evil civs, if vassalized, you need to convert them to neutral or evil

Declared a war on Sheaim together with Luichurp while they were evil, but they converted to neutral with Fellowship of the Leaves during the war. I still took all their cities and they survived only with two ships. They declared war on me much later in the game when I attacked the Calabim, which naturally ended their existence. Luichurp weren't much help in the war against Sheaim, but I managed to recover the Pieces of Barnarux and rebuild the golem hero for them.

Once the wild lands of the savage Sheaim, now the sparsely populated Southlands of the Kuriotate Empire:


Calabim converted to neutral before I declared war on them. They adopted the Fellowship as well, and vassalized the Ljosfalar. I was trying to achieve the religious victory and couldn't get the Calabim to give me open borders, so I decided to attack them. I managed to avoid all conflict with Ljosfalar except for a couple of naval skirmishes. After Calabim lost a couple of cities the Ljosfalar broke free and became vassals of Luichurp/Mercurians. I tried to spread Empyrean religion to conquered cities and get rid of them ASAP to preserve the Empyrean population. This lead me to give Nubia to Ljosfalar and ??? to Mercurians, but the Ljosfalar geave Nubia back to the vampires. I vassalized the Calabim and liberated the rest of the cities after spreading Empyrean religion in them. Ended up rescuing and rebuilding the Barnarux for Luichurp once again.

Remains of the Calabim Empire after their defeat, including Acaia, once a rich Calabim city, now converted to Kuriotate outpost:


Cities that Calabim lost in the war for good:

• Have the Liberty, God King, and Caste civics run ASAP
• No trading, open borders, etc. with evil civs.

Done, although it wasn't the most pleasant choice of civics

Civics screen:

• Found a non- evil religion (Not CoE, AV, or OO)

Founded the Empyrean religion. Decided to found it in favor of the Order because I think the more tolerant Empyrean is more in character for Kuriorates.

Kwythellar, the capital of Kuriotate Empire and Holy City of Empyrean religion, with the adequate Law Node and Pool of Tears nearby:

• Find and Control the Centaur Citadel
• Find and Control the Lamia Village

Done. My scouting centaur found the Citadel quite early, but the Shaeim and Luichurp spread their borders to cut me away. I sent an expedition with a ship and created a settlement just south of it. The unfortunate settlement remained cut off until I conquered the Shaeim.
Lamia Village was not far away like the Citadel, but Shaeim took it before I could, and the stupid AI built a city atop the village. Still, it was the first Sheaim city I conquered in the war through a naval attack with early ships.

Lamia Village, liberated from the Shaeim. Their name for the village, Tongurstad, seems to have survived their demise:


The Centaur Citadels and surrounding plains, the remotest outpost peacefully founded by the Kuriotates even before the war with Shaeim. You can see Basium in the northwest, coming to visit the most magical part of the continent:

• Win a Domination or Religous Victory

This is almost impossible with Kuriorates. Domination requires territory and population. Territory is not a problem, but population is impossible to achieve with only 3 cities and settlements that don't grow. Religious victory is also impossible with civic limitations that prevent the Kuriorates from creating Inquisitors. I tried the Purge of the Unfaithful, although it is quite out of character, but it didn't help. I boosted the percentage of Empyrean to 49% only, and I had to rebuilt all my nodes do to the bug. Still, I spread Empyrean to all cities on the map and converted all civs to Empyrean. Had to keep bribing the Ljosfalar and Khazad since they kept reverting to Fellowship and Runes respectively. In the end, I won the Altar of L victory. Better than nothing.

Victory Screen, showing the futility of any plan to win a Domination or Religious Victory with Kuriotates:


Hall of Fame, showing my final score:

• Enter a Permenant Alliance with a Good Civlization

Couldn't do this. Luichurp wouldn't agreed because I was "too powerful for them", and giving one of my 3 cities to the Mercurians was out of question. In the end, Luichurp summoned the Mercurians.

• Found the Cult of the Dragon

This religion has been removed in 0.30 I think.

• Create Eubrates

Done. He is absolutely awesome.

Eurabrates, enjoying his retirement with Chalid Astrakein and other veterans of the Calabim War in the outpost Acaia, and making sure that the vampires don't get funny ideas:


I also think it's worth mentioning that I destroyed the Red Dragon (forgot his name). Gave his city, Evermore, to the Luichurp, but moved the treasure to my capital. They lost it to Calabim as soon as the war began, but I liberated it for them.


What of the others? Khazad were the weakest of civilizations although they suffered no devastating wars. They were extremely isolationist in the beginning and I was afraid that a war was inevitable if I wanted to spread Empyrean religion to their cities. Fortunately, they asked me for protection as soon as it was possible. The Ljosfalar suffered a series of devastating wars against the Calabim without a single victory. I was too busy with Sheaim to help, and so were the Luichurp. Although they spread their religion, the Fellowship, to Calabim cities and managed to convert them to neutral, they were vassalized by the vampires and remained their vassals until I freed them in war. They immediately found a new protector in the Luichurp/Mercurian alliance.

Looks very nice . I resisted reading all of it, because I just started my game.

Since this is my first game as the Kuriotates, a few questions come to mind:

1. What exactly can you use settlements for? Are they mainly for graining resources (so they're in your cultural borders) and a place to heal for troops? Is there a way to make a city a settlement and vice versa after they have been built or captured?

2. When using settlements, do their cultural borders expand at all?

Thanks for your help.

Sorry for the long delay. School and Choir have been hectic . I've finally played about 73 turns of the game. To save space, screenshots are in spoilers. And I've got my first section of the long report. The narrator is Galedr, a Centaur prince.

Part I

Kythwellar

'The sea is so tranquil,' contmeplated Glaedr, 'If only the land dwellers were so blessed.' The last weeks had been hard. Glaedr's own brother had betrayed them, along with half of the great herd. Glanwing's last words to his brother were, 'I will leave you to your Human Filth, and I will lead the centaurs to rule and prosper, which you and your child will never do.' Glanwing had truly fallen. He had allied with the orcs and sent raids on the humans. "My people!" cried the boyking who stood near to Glaedr, adressing the humans and centaurs in the glade, "Here is where the Kuriorates settle, here is where we make an empire so grand, and no person will not be free. Here we create Kythwellar, city of Fellowship!" The cheers arupted from the crowd. The boy cetainly had a way with words.

Two weeks later Glaedr enter the Boy king's hall. The industrious human and strong centaurs had laboured together to create sturdy halls. "Welcome to my home" Cardith said. He was surrounded by countless advisors, among them an odd creature. She was beautiful in her face, with long red hair. However, instead of human legs or centaur hooves, the woman had a snake's body. She talked to Cardith as I listened in. "Well of coursse we'd be happy to join sssuch noble people. But not all the Lamia agree. I represent a sssmall portionof our tribe. We live to the sssouth, in a tropical paradissse. If you can show the Lamia you are culturally adapt, as well as magically, we will aid you." Cardith and her continued to converse.

I made myself busy reading scout reports of the west. They found a lake, dubbed Nagggarond, after a tribe which gave them a map of the northern areas. The area seemed to be rich, and ripe for settling.

The West

Another week later Cardith called for my prescense in his palace. "An important event has occured. Another tribe of civilzaed people have been found. We must welcome them to our halls. They will be here in a few minutes."

The pale woman entered. She was tall and proud. Following her were men dressed in long flowing robes whispering a flowing and ritual like language. The woman motioned for them to cease, and raised her voice so the whole court could hear, "I am Os- Gabella, immortal daughter of the gods. Ah what have we here, another feeble civilization awaiting the apocalypse?" Her tone was proud and powerful, and seemed to cast a spell over the inhabitants. Only Cardith kept his head. "I have heard of you. You are the Sheaim. The evil heralds of the apocalypse. You are not welcome in our halls, though we wish no wars." Cardith's words were harsh, and had a reptillian undertone to them. The converstions went on, with cold words, and hidden meaning. Eventually, the woman and her entourage left the hall. "Well, lord, I see we mustn'y expect anything from them. The Sheaim will need to be destroyed eventually. I do not want to do it, but for us to thrive, their evil ways cannot allowed." Cardith nodded hastily, his mind elsewhere.

The scouts which had brought tales of the west sent another report. This news was good as well. The Lamia tribe had been found. It was fairly close to Kythwellar, but it's land was overgorwn and thick. It was an undesirable area.

Os- Gabella and the Lamia Village

Over the coming months Kythwellar was attacked many times by Orcs. The barbarians were striking at Kythwellar periodically. Our ranks swelled as well, refugees from a vampire ruled nation came to Kythwellar, and a carnival of wild clowns came and set up shop. In addition, a dwarf from a recently discovered nation, the Khazak joined our city as a skilled blacksmith. Soon Kythwellar became to large for all these people. Cardith charged me to lead the Kuriorates to a second settlement, on the shores of Naggarond. I accepted gladly, but delayed myself to accompany Cardith Lorda to the halls of the newest neighbor, the Luchurip.

Garrim's hall was much larger than Cardith's, but was filled to capacity with dwarves and odd creaures. "Ahh, my brothers are here. I am Garrim Gyr of the Luchurip. We area great dwarven nation and creators of the golems." The things I had seen were Golems! I had heard of these non- living things that could mimic a human in any way. "Cardith was very pleased with these machines. Garrim, like us, was against the Sheaim. He believed in good, and was a promising ally.

Once again, my departure to Naggarond was halted by the discovery of Glanwing's keep. I swore I would lead a foce against it, and destroy him.

Garrim Gyr and Glanwing's Keep

'Finally the expedition began. An eigth of the Kuriorates were coming with me to found Naggarond. I had hoped to meet only a few orcs along the way, but the attacks were devestating. An entire cohort of humans were destroyed.' The caravan moved onward as I looked down on them from the hill. I could barley see the glimmer of the lake. It was not as vast as the sea, but it was fresh water, and just as beautiful.

We arrived at the lake by noon. The people were in love with the lake. It was so large, and sucullunt. We were giving thanks too the gods as the war horns blew. Orcs and goblins in huge numbers were approaching from all directions. Naggaring was trapped. And the fate of the city was in my hands.

Naggarond and the Orc Invasion

Sorry for the wretched writing. I'm no good at it, but I find straight reports boring. At least now you can mock my grammatical and spelling errors.

Mitchifer said:

1. What exactly can you use settlements for? Are they mainly for graining resources (so they're in your cultural borders) and a place to heal for troops? Is there a way to make a city a settlement and vice versa after they have been built or captured?

Click to expand...

Your assessment of the main role of settlements is correct. I've never seen an option to convert a settlement into a city. I don't know if a conquered city can be kept a city if you don't have a maximum number because I've never done it. One thing you might want to be aware of is that when you conquer a city and it turns into a settlement, it will drop to population 1 over time (because it is producing no food). If you are going after a religious victory I suggest that you give conquered cities to your allies or vassals as soon as you spread your religion into them (otherwise the population worshiping your religion will all die).

Mitchifer said:

2. When using settlements, do their cultural borders expand at all?

Click to expand...

They do, but not as easily as with cities because they can't build anything on their own. You can still do all other things with settlements, which means you can use basic Disciples and Great Artists to create culture as well as the advanced Disciples to build temples. Settlements also benefit from wonders that affect all your cities, and I think it should be possible to move a portable wonder (like the Perfect Lyre) into a settlement.