SantoriniPowerTerpsichore

Introduction

A sensible Santorini player must know that most movers are fine. A sensible Santorini player also knows that double builders are great. So now, if we have both, is it necessarily stronger? Well, for the dancers, yes, but be careful as there is also a catch…

God Power

On your turn, all your workers must move, and then all must build.

Category

Player move, player build

Explanation

She ‘must’ move and build with both workers, not ‘may’. So if one of her workers cannot move or build when it is required to do so, she immediately loses.

Early Game

Terpsichore, in terms of building, can basically do what every other double builder can: she can build twice in different squares, she can build twice in the same square (including a level 3 and dome in the same turn) and she can even “build before moving”. Let me explain the last, since she cannot do that in practice. If Terpsichore has the workers neighboring each other and if the female worker wants to “build before moving”, the female worker moves out of the way, the male worker goes to where the female worker was, and the male worker builds in the desired square. And the fact that you can move with both workers, makes her look even stronger.

So why isn’t this power just better than any double builder? The answer is that the word “can” does not exist for Terpsichore, only the word “must”, i.e., she must move with each worker and must build with each worker. The fact that she must move with each worker means that if one worker is trapped, then she loses in her next turn.

Terpsichore has two main strategies: play on opposite sides of the board (the opponent will have a hard time defending distant threats at the same time) or play with both workers in the same area helping each other. In general, the latter works better as there are more possibilities of what Terpsichore can do. Moreover, since Terpsichore must move, if one worker has to move down, the other can replace its position.

Middle Game

The build twice in the same square strategy is very good to create barriers. That together with being able to move both workers can make it very difficult for the opponent to get close to Terpsichore’s area. For example, if it is Terpsichore to play in this position,

instead of moving up and building twice, she can play instead a2-b1,c4-b3, build B2(2) and the corner attack will probably be too hard to handle.

Late Game

Terpsichore must be very careful not to enter into zugzwang since she must move with both workers! For example,

In a normal situation, if you replace Terpsichore with a Mortal, the Mortal would win, but don’t forget that Terpsichore MUST move all workers. This means that the A2 worker will give the win to the B2 worker. Terpsichore gets weaker as the number of available squares decreases, but the most likely scenario is that Terpsichore will decide the game early on.

Specific Matchup

Apollo

It is possible to defeat Apollo, but it surely won’t be an easy task.

Asteria

Placing a dome anywhere in the board can be very powerful, especially against Terpsichore. Although Terpsichore is still stronger in this matchup, there are fighting chances for Asteria.

Athena

Restricting both of Terpsichore’s workers from moving up is very strong, especially because she must move them both. There are a lot of situations where she has to move down, which is in general not good against Athena.

Charybdis

Terpscichore is a very good pick to defeat this sea monster. Moving twice makes it easier to stand close to the whirlpools. Moreover, if the first Terpsichore’s worker moving enters the whirlpool, the whirlpool won’t work for the second one, which can be good if she does not want to be deflected. In another point of view, if Charybdis is able to place a whirlpool in a totally surrounded square, the next whirlpool can be placed so that Terpsichore is drawn to the corner and becomes trapped. Both sides have to play carefully, but the great amount of different strategies is what makes this matchup so interesting.

Domers (Atlas and Selene)

It seems appealing to pick a domer so that you can trap Terpsichore. But the domes are slow and a player with Terpsichore who knows what they're doing will most likely win. Still, there is room for mistakes and especially Atlas can hope for a trap.

Double builders

Most double builders are playable against Terpsichore. For example, Demeter, Hestia and Prometheus. Hephaestus and Castor & Pollux are much harder to play and they will probably not be able to achieve the win.

Hades

It is in exactly these kind of matchups where Hades seems strong, but he isn’t. Terpsichore will have no problem winning this matchup.

Hippolyta

Well, this is a matchup you need to know so that you are not caught off guard! If Terpsichore places her workers first and does not place them in the same diagonal, she is already lost. For example, if Terpsichore starts with her workers in a very natural looking position such as C3 and C4, then she is already lost! Hippolyta places her workers in B3 and D3, and she will trap Terpsichore’s C4 worker in two moves. So is this unplayable for Terpsichore? Not quite, but if she wants to stand a chance, she must start with both of her workers in the same diagonal (which is very counterintuitive against Hippolyta). Still, she will have a lot of trouble making progress.

Minotaur

Although it might look that Terpsichore will dominate this game, this is actually quite balanced and Minotaur pushing Terpsichore to the corners can restrain a lot of moves.

Morpheus

Terpsichore is very fast, but Morpheus is very tricky. So who should you pick in this one? I think this matchup is playable with both powers. Although it might seem scarier to be on Morpheus’ side, it is not that easy to make progress with Terpsichore if Morpheus is always destroying her plans with domes. Moreover, if Morpheus saves enough blocks, he might be able to trap one of Terpsichore’s workers which, as we know, is enough to win.

Odysseus

If Odysseus builds two levels 2 neighboring a corner, then forcing Terpsichore to the corner might easily trap her and result in a win.

Polyphemus

Terpsichore cannot afford to get any of her workers trapped, so she needs to be extra careful in this one.

Poseidon

Poseidon will absolutely destroy Terpsichore. If building and creating winning threats wasn’t already enough, Poseidon can still hope for strategies to trap one of Terpsichore’s workers.

Triton

Triton is a very strong power, but I’m afraid he is not able to put up with the dancer.

Conclusion

Moving twice and building twice is in most cases not a problem. The “must” instead of “can” is the only problem for Terpsichore, and that is usually the only thing you can rely on if you want to beat her. She is definitely one of the strongest powers of the game, and I would choose her in most matchups.

Tier ranking: S