Centaurs
Roleplay Info
Half man, half horse - there is said to be no greater archers than the Centaurs. They move fast and possess physical strength few other races have. Their archers are said to be able to shoot arrows heavy enough and fast enough to literally crumple even the sturdiest of buildings. Centaurs prefer to spend their time in forests, and they possess a natural aptitude for hunting. Centaurs distrust magic, generally, and are most often found in the roguish pursuits, making good rangers. Their large size and hardened hooves make it difficult to do anything that requires silent movement and careful hiding. Their horse body also prevents them from being able to wear the bottom half of their armor, so they are often left very vulnerable to wounds.
Strengths
Centaurs hire good Fighters and Rangers and the best Archers. They produce above average War Machines..
Weaknesses
Centaurs hire terrible Thieves and Assassins. They have poor covert potential. Centaurs eat 1.2 food per population and troop.
Special Ability
Bombard - Centaurs have a very strong bombardment and can do far more damage this way than any other race.
Ranger Farming - Centaurs can find a maximum of 125 food per land when Ranger Farming. Check the Search article for more details on RF.
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The Numbers
Troop Percentages
| Troop | Quality |
|---|---|
| Archers | 600% |
| Assassins | 60% |
| Clerics | 100% |
| Fighters | 300% |
| Mages | 80% |
| Rangers | 300% |
| Thieves | 40% |
Food Modifiers
| Type | Modifier | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Food Consumed | 1.2 | For every 1 unit of population or military, 1.2 food is consumed. |
| Food Produced | 1 | For every 5 farm parts, 1000 food is produced |
| Population | 0.15 | Population will grow by 15% per turn if housing is available. |
| Cannibalism | 0 | More information on Cannibalism |
Equipment/Construction
| Type | Modifier | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Build Rate | 1.3 | Laborers are 130% as effective as normal laborers when constructing Buildings. |
| Build Equipment Rate | 1.2 | Laborers are 120% as effective as normal laborers when constructing Weapons, Armor, and War Machines. |
| Armor Usage | 0.35 | Armor usage is 35% of normal. |
| Weapon Usage | 1 | Weapon usage is normal. |
| Armor Study | 1.1 | Armor study is above normal. |
| Weapon Study | 1.3 | Weapon study is above normal. |
| War Machines Production Quality | 2 | War Machines are produced at 200% of the studied quality. (i.e. 100% study means 200% war machines.) |
| Laborers per War Machine | 0.6 | Number of Laborers required to handle a War Machine is 60% of normal. |
Misc.
| Type | Modifier | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Assassinate | 0.4 | Assassins are 40% as effective as normal assassins when trying to assassinate others. |
| Loot | 0.4 | Thieves are 40% as effective as normal thieves when trying to steal from others. |
| Mana | 0.8 | Population will produce mana at the same rate as a normal population 80% of its size. |
| Morale | 1 | Morale changes at the normal rate. |
| Mutiny | 1.6 | Read more about Mutiny. |
| Search | 3 | Rangers are 300% as effective as normal rangers when exploring for land or food. |
| Spy | 0.1 | Spies are 10% as effective as normal spies. |
| General Study | 0.9 | Study of non-magic areas and general magic skill proceeds at 90% of the normal study rate. |
| Spell Study | 0.9 | Study in realms of magic proceeds at 90% of the normal spell study rate. |
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Tips for beginning players
Getting gold and land
Centaurs have very good search modifiers and make them very easy to play as a race that doesn't necessarily go out and take land, but rather searches for it. After you have taken your first 100 turns or so and gotten your kingdom up and running (that is, done the general start-up tasks of building a market place, building enough vilages and farms to support the kingdom, etc.) you're going to want to sell archers on the Open Market. Your 600% archers will sell for good money, and this will give you plenty to get started with. Selling archers on the Open Market is a great way for centaurs to make money, usually more than you'll know what to do with. Also, as a centaur, you could never attack anyone to get land (except of course, in retaliation to get your land back) you can find plenty by searching for it. Dismissing/selling troops, and filling up your barracks with rangers, and then searching for land, or searching the unknown (if you're the kind who likes to take risks :) ), is a great way to advance you're kingdom. Just remember, sell archers on open market, hire rangers, search for land. And of course, don't forget to build up that land.
Defenses
Centaurs are often more than not "land fat" that is, having lots of land for your score. This makes you one of the most easiest targets for the militaristic races for a land grabbing fest. To combat this, you must try and build up a good defense. Usually, this can be accomplished by having equal amounts of clerics and archers. You can of course, hire your own archers, and then with the excess funds from selling them buy clerics of the OM. 500 - 600% clerics are good. Also, you're not gonna want to keep all those rangers you used to get land. Get rid of half of them or so, so that you have around how many your guard towers can use to patrol. While we're on the subject of GTs, you'll want even amounts of GTs and OPs (guard towers and outposts, and whole buildings of course) close to the amount of barracks you have. You'll want you're barracks around 3/4 to 5/6 full. (so if you can hold 30k troops 25k is a good amount to have) You can always check the "build/destroy" screen to see how much GT/OP fortification you have for your troops. You want almost all of them to have it. Cents (centaurs) can't use armor very well at all, so you never really want armor. Sometimes weapons aren't a bad idea though. But in the beginning, you don't really need to worry about that. And remember, sometimes the best defense is offense. If someone hits you, and there not too big for you to retaliate, buy a ton of archers (and keep up your clerics too) and bomb the crap out of them (that is bombard them.) make sure you don't take too many bombard tals though, or you won't have any left to take military attack retals. But, don't always feel the need to retaliate, sometimes it's just not worth giving them those tals (retals). Just remember, Enoug OPs/GTs to fortify your troops, equal numbers of clerics/archers, rangers to patrol GTs, barracks about 3/4 to 5/6 full, and don't hold on to too many laborers (if any). And you should be fine in the below 100k score range.
Alliances
Get in an alliance! It's the best way to get better and learn from others. Also, it gives you the backing up of an alliance to help you take retals and to get trades from. The alliance will love your 600% archers and bombing skill, and you'll be able to take advantage of their skills.
Deities
If you're lucky enough to be in a uni where deities are, try and find a good one to follow (they're not always abundant now-a-days). Ask your deity for help. He will be able to answer questions (or should be able to anyway). And, you can always ask for spells to be cast to help you out. Remember, build cathedrals and keep your mana production up to help him get more mana.
Guide for Centaurs
This is a Centaur Guide. Large parts were originally written by Qetesh, the whole was edited and far extended by Sco.
Overview:
Centaurs are often considered to be a good race to start playing Shadowmere with, because they are quite simple to play. Well what is true is that they are quite simple to play in the low or middle ranks and in the early set. But the later the game gets, the more crucial your weaknesses become, and without some strategic thoughts you won't be able to stay high. This guide trys to show some base strategies of the game, some more base strategies about Centaurs, and some advanced strategies for Centaurs. It isn't the ultimate guide, and I'm sure there's much more to consider, but I hope whoever is reading this might gain the impression that it is useful.
Strenghts and Weaknesses of Centaurs:
Strenghts of Cents are the ability to create loads of gold on the open market (OM), the good search mod combined with a good build mod (quick start), the base troops (esp. The 600% archers), and the ability to bomb anyone back into stoneage. Weaknesses are covert ops (spying, assasinating and looting), low mana generation and, worst, the food problems caused by the high consumption (1.2).
-Chapter 1: The Start
Create a Kingdom. Then wait 25 hours until you have 200 turns. Many people are so excited about being in a new game that they take their first 150 turns asap. Be patient, young fellow, haste leads to the dark side of the force. Centaurs are awesome starters. After 200 turns you can be top10, after 400 you just have to be^^. As with the most other races too, at first get your economy going. Build enough Market Places (=MPs) for your people, then build enough Collisseums (=Cols). If you run out out of money, search for land or build villages. If you run out of land, destroy armories, vaults, Outposts (=OPs), Guard Towers (=GTs). Or search again. After all your people have accsess to MPs/Cols, it's time to get more people, build villages, then again MPs/Cols and so on. Don't forget to hire more laborers, so that u can build more villages in 1 turn. Never stop! I use to study at about 100-130 turns to get economy and construction skill to about 200% (~ 6k scholars are enough), then I sell the scholars and continue with econ building. In the end of your study you can build some cathedral parts and hire some clerics, they will be at about 300% in the end of your 200 turns. From time to time you might also hire some rangers to increase the ammount of land you get from searching. And ensure that you have some gold left in the end of the run. When u hit 185-190 turns, its time to get you a defense, described in next chapter 2. You can sell some archers, that'll provide u with some extra gold for run #2 (see Chapter 3) After this run save another 200 turns, and the next 200 turns u do exactly the same, along with training some more clerics, making more gold, and , most important, the big study run at about turn 300.
Qetesh says:
„first thing a centaur should study (besides dispel and scry which most races should go for first) is life to 1000%. this gives 3 spells which are key for a centaur during the game. these spells are healing, fasting, and choir of cherubim.
when a centaur bombs he often loses as many troops as his opponant. so bombing without a way of regenning isnt a good idea at all. so healing as early as possible is a must.
centaurs have shocking food problems. as bad as anyone in the game. but there is only one spell which can help this. its fasting. you need very little mana to cast fasting.. about half the mana of your population size spread over 20 turns is enough. it will save you so much food. centaurs are so bad with land and food centaur land gives less score then the other races... but u will still often be fighting people around you with less troops then them. fasting helps out as you can push that little bit further. the other food spells r pretty much useless with centaur mana.
The final spell Choir of Cherubim (aka coc) is also a low mana spell. u only need 1k mana per turn so 20k over 20 turns is perfect. centaurs often need to hire huge batches of archres at a time. for a few reasons... u r going to attack, you want to put a bunch of archers on the OM. anyway normally you would only hire a small amount at time and take a turn so your pop can come back, but with coc you can not only snigger at the awful acronym, but you can get to hire out huge chunks of your pop and have them return in once hit. say i have 100k pop. i hire 40k archers... cos i lost so much of my pop im going to starve but it doesnt actually matter. as a cent you have an amazing search mod and can find more food then all the other races except werewolves. hunt for food for one turn, all your pop comes back and you can repeat.“
I agree, with 20-30k scholars and some schools studying this isn't a problem, along with econ/CS to 300%, Magic Skill to 400-500%, enchantment magic to 200% (dispel), and illusion magic to 300% (scrying)
After 400 turns I usually have studied what stated above, and sit at about 90-120k score.
-Chapter 2: Defence
In the end of your run (= a session of taking turns) u want a good defence, for people will probably hit you. U can identify an experienced player by the way his defence setup looks like. There are various things to consider, I try to break it down to 3 points, in fact it's much more complicated.
1) Buildings: When in def mode, you should have the following buildings:
-enough vaults to protect most of your gold, also considering the gold you will get from your OM sales -if you have weapons or WMS you need to protect them with armouries -about 2 times as much barracks than needed for you troops, to avoid being unhoused by land clearing spells. (troops without housing don't fight) -enough Ops/GTs to cover all (and some more, for the same reason u need more barracks) of your combat troops (=fighters, rangers, clerics, archers, assasins; note: NOT mages). Outposted troops gain a 1.6 modifier for battle force. (your troops do 60% more damage and absorption) To get that buildings you usually have to destroy some other buildings. In the early set (first 400 turns) destroy some farms, all granaries, plus training fields. Later (when u can rebuild in only 1 turn) you can destroy almost everything for your defense. In the early btw. mid set u can also destroy more farms to have unbuilt land, what makes u less attractive to attack for other people.
Qetesh says:
„early on in the set like in the first 400 turns your defense is gonna be aweful. fact is if people hit you they will break u. you can make yourself less tempting tho. what i do is when i stop moving i ranger farm for 2 turns to build up my food then i bulldoze a huge chunk of my farms. enough for maybe 3 breaks of empty land. the only people who will hit you are the big boys as your 2 high in score for the rest, and from my experience if they find only empty land they move on to the next target. thing is when they get unbuilts they have to spend a lot of turns building their new land... they dont want that. the other advantage to doing this is you dont lose all the hard built buildings. if u get broken twice u might lose 10 turns worth of market places and colleseums. thats 20 turns down the drain when u factor in the fact u need to rebuild what u lost. when its time to move again you have lots of food (and om food is dirt cheap if u need some) and your build rate is so god damn awesome u can get those farms back up in a turn or 2.“
2) Troop mix.
Different troops defend against different things. The most important thing to defend against is of course a military attack, where 2 whole armies are battling, that means, every fighting soldier is taking part in it. 2 things must happen that an attacker wins the battle: a) The attackers damage must be higher than the defenders Absorption; b) Damage*Absorption of the attacker must be higher than Damage*Absorpion of the defender. The first factor is quite easy to understand. Have a high absorption, and you're harder to break. The second factor is a bit tricky. Note that it's not damage+absorption, but damage*absorption. Let's say you have 10 soldiers with 100% each.If u have 7 clerics and 3 archers, that means damage*absorption is 7*3=21, if u have 5/5 it is 5*5=25. As you see, the optimal value is gained when u have about the same absorption as damage. That means, that u should keep as many archers and assasins (they both give 3 damage) as clerics (they give 3 absorption). Or more accurate: Optimum: (Archers*Archers%)+(Assasins*Ass.%)=(Clerics*clerics%) Fighters give equal damage and abs. But mils are not the only things to defend against. There are raids, bombardments, assasinations, and a various number of spells, so it's quite complicated to find your optimal defense. Some things you should consider: -always have some scholars. Poison Water is not only a Human special, it's also a cheap and easy-to-get spell where 15% of your troops could just die away. Scholars defend against it, and u don't even need large numbers, just 5k in the beginning, and then more and more the higher u get. -always have enough assassins, for they defend against assassinations (=sins). For food issues Centaurs are forced to use high-%-troops. There is nothing more nasty then being assassinated with max. effect. You can't even sell your army anymore^^ -Mages: many new players don't understand the concept of mages. Mages are adding up to your troops. To ANY troops you currently need. You are bombarded? Mages support clerics and archers. You are attacked? Mages support the whole army. 1 100% archer + 1 100% mage is in fact a 200% archer. And now the thing: As mages are easier to train than other troops, they are cheaper on OM. Often you can get a 1200% mage for the same money than a 600% archer or cleric. That means, instead of buying another 700% cleric just buy a 1000% mage. Better effect, less gold spent. You can also keep some mage towers around (they actually even house mages, at a slightly lower rate than barracks) to train your mages up. And in addition mages defend against many spells, and against some specials (e.g. the Sprite Special „Shatter“) too. I always keep at least as many mages as I have archers, clerics and sins. So mages are the main part of my army. -Fighters: Fighters are important for defence against raids, and you can train them yourself, if u want too, for sometimes they are REALLY cheap on OM. They are allround soldiers, important, but not as important as clerics/archers/sins/Mages -Rangers: I only keep as much rangers as needed for a max. RangerFarming (=RF), and I tend to build some GTs for them. GTd Rangers defend a little against sins and loots, and, more important, also against raids. If you want to search for land next run, u can keep more, but I'd consider selling them anyway. In the beginning of a set rangers can be a good gold mine too, and if you sell enough archers u'll be rich enough to hire new ones for the next run anyway.
3) Barriers:
You can't cast barriers effectively yourself, at first u don't have the mana to do so, second you won't study any realms with barriers. But Deitys can cast bars on u (in Hadro and Dan), other allys can (in other Unis then Hadro/Dan), or u can get scrolls.
But always keep in mind: bars won't keep good players away, they only waste some turns of them they need to dispel or aphro.
-Chapter 3: Gold.
The biggest Strength of a Cent, but many new players don't recognize it. It's very simply. Hire an 600% archer for 250 gold, sell him for 600-1000 gold. There'll be more gold flowing in then u could spend. Much more. Centaurs are money-making machines, as soon as the archer-market is strong enough, you won't need MPs no more. Spend your gold on whatever you need. In the late set you can also sell food from RFs, food tends to be quite expensive then. The only thing to take care of is not flooding the market.
Qetest says:
„one thing to be careful of is flooding the market. its very easy to get 2 greedy and pump out many hundreds of thousands of archers over a short period, but the prices will drop quickly. you will then suffer. it gets harder when there r more active centaurs in the universe playing the OM, but that cant really be helped. i personally tho if i know there is a competing centaur out there go out of my way to make his life hell. the worse he does the more power and control i have over the OM.“
-Chapter 4: Food.
Food is the greatest difficulty of Cents. A consumption of 1.2 is awful. You need a lot of farms, that means a lot of land, to feed you people and troops. There is one spell that can help a little bit: fasting (as stated above, see chapter 1). But fasting alone won't keep food issues away. One other thing to overcome your food problems is Ranger Farming. Centaurs can find max. 125 food per owned land, unlike most other races who can only find 100. Then u need enough rangers to get the max. food. The formula is: rangers required = max.food/(search mod/100)/(ranger exp%/100) Search mod for cents = 300% In the late set u will heavily rely on RF, I sometime had to RF every second or third turn, there's no other way to feed.. Note: the higher exped your rangers are, the less rangers you have to feed. It's important to keep your rangers ammount as low as possible (exception: search for new land) for max. food. Another thing is keeping and bying only high percentage troops for more efficiency.
Chapter 5: Ying and Yang or: Peace and War.
I usually don't attack the first 600-800 turns. Your search mod makes it possible to gain enough land through exploration. Attacking is expensive, and u give out tals. Only do it if necessary. Exception: taking tals is sometimes useful. But if you decide to attack, there's one way to go: bombing. Your Double Damage special has to be used, and combined with your 600% archers it is mighty enough. Don't forget clerics and mages tho. 5 Centaur Bombs against a low-bomb-defended Kingdom may cause the loss of a great part of the targets score, so I'd say it's mighty if u have tals or want to prep once or twice, but if u bomb too often you will get problems with mutiny.
Chapter 6: High ranks, late set.
If you manage to stay on top the whole set, you'll need some extra strategies. -With 7k land (some say even earlier, some say later, I say 7k^^), you can build castles. To do so first build many, many, many smithies and then 1k or more castles. DO NOT only build 500, that's no good for castles fast lose their effect when partly destroyed. Back up the castles with barracks and outposts, and it's much harder to break you. And they give you some extra gold (higher morale) and mana too, help with training, studying and shiny protection. -Food: explained above. RF/fasting/highexpTroops are the key -WMS: War machines are important to save food. But only high % WMS help, for remember: you have good archers aswell. Don't build WMS, weapons or Armor yourself. There'll be much better stuff than u could ever build around in the hands of allies or on the OM. -Weapons: If u have to build armories for WMS protection anyway, why not get yourself some decent weapons too? Weapons work similar than mages, but only on damage output, while armour gives your troops higher absorption. Note: Your armour use rate is lower than normal (which is quite intuitive cuz an armour for a Horse body still has to be discovered), so imho it's not necessary to use Armor. -mana support: you need allies with more mana. Without them, u can't stay top -studying is hard, but still valuable: mid set you have 2 possibilities: chaos magic to 3000% (frenzy), or light magic to 3k%. As you wont get enough mana for max rezzing, I'd do chaos magic. Your magic skill has to be acceptable (1.5k%+ in the late set), econ/CS at 1k%+ is also worth it. But you won't have enough gold to rebuy all the high%troops, so you can forget naked studying (=studying with no troops). That makes it hard to feed your army while studying (RF is a option, tho it's a waste of turns), but that's life.
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