Centipede

The **Centipede** is the super unit of the Cymanti tribe.

## Segment

The **Segment** is formed when the Centipede attacks and kills an enemy unit - the centipede killing an enemy unit via retaliation damage does not spawn a segment. When a Centipede has any Segments, its movement is restricted to 1 even despite of roads, boosts from the Shaman, or its 2 natural movement. This is similar to Polaris's units with the skate ability when not on ice.

A segment can be exploded to poison nearby units and deal 2 damage worth of attack, like many of Cymanti's unique units. After exploding, all segments behind the exploded segment will also explode, and spores will be created on land and ice tiles with no other structures built on it. A segment can explode only if the head did not attack an enemy unit. However, other actions done by the head, such as healing does not impair a segment's ability to explode.

After the head of a centipede is destroyed, the first segment becomes the head of a new Centipede. If a segment is destroyed, then the segment right behind it will become the head of another Centipede.

Segments cannot independently take actions like breaking ice or recovering health. Segments do not immediately recover health by having the head choose the recover action, but will do it normally at the end of the turn.

A Segment can siege a city, blocking its star and unit production, but it can't capture the city.

## Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths:

* The Centipede can heavily disturb the movement of enemies with its Segments.
* Like all other super units (except Dragon Egg), it is a great idea to invade a city with the Centipede due to it having the best defensive stats out of the units of the Cymanti tribe. In particular, segments behind the head will make the enemy think twice from simply killing the centipede in the city.
* A centipede with many segments is very hard to kill, as the enemy is forced to kill the segments from the back first unless they want to create more centipedes. In fact, the segments of a centipede can be abused by suiciding a head with low hp against an enemy unit but then getting another one with full health.
* Segments can be exploded to deal collateral damage like all of Cymanti's units with the explode ability. It can also be used to gain spores to level up a city or poison enemy units who stand there.
* The Centipede is the only super unit with Dash except Dragons.

Weaknesses:

* A Centipede without any segments is much weaker than all other super units (except Dragon Egg), and even by swarms of non-super units. Additionally, no segments are produced if a unit dies by the Centipede's retaliation attack.
* A Mind Bender or Shaman can convert the entire centipede by converting any segment. It is important to explode segments next to enemy mind benders BEFORE making an attack with the head, as otherwise the segment cannot explode.
* A lot of segments can also hinder your own movement and limit where you can place your other units, such as Doomuxes. If there is a long strain of segments inside a city, you cannot train any units in that city because segments will keep walking into the city. Additionally, segments limit the movement of the Centipede to 1, meaning it is sometimes worth it to explode a lot of segments just so a centipede can quickly get to another part of the map to assist combat there.
* A Knight can kill all of the segments by starting at the back, since a Segment has defensive stats equal to that of a Warrior. To prevent this, make sure to get Archery, Climbing, or Aquatism since a knight cannot kill a full health segment who has a defense bonus.

## Gallery

A CentipedeA SegmentThe sprite that connects Centipedes and Segments together