I just can't wait to be [King of Dragon Pass] (or Queen, maybe)

[Rehab]

Please pretend my dumb finger hit W instead of Q when typing the question, thank you

[blah the Prussian]

I would recommend killing the women. Blut und eisen and all.

[ENS]

Those women kidnapped our men and raped them. It's time to bring death!

[Rehab]

We decide that

a) Victim-blaming is for chumps,

and more importantly,

b) Nobody messes with the husbands of Clan Strongest's women and gets away with it.

This time Orlgard's party manages to find the outlaws, and despite his having suggested restraint earlier, his party manages to kill a few, which then sends the rest packing.

Don't mess with my streak.

Unfortunately, though, through a combination of finger-slips, false feedback and rushing, I failed to actually cap the screens for the whole ordeal x[ Rrrgh. Won't happen again. Better not.

This brings us, finally, to Earth, and our grain-counters rejoice.

If we're ever running out of food, we'll hopefully only need to make it until the end of Fire to catch our breath/food. As long as we get a good harvest... which we look to be getting this year.

Next, we invest a bit more in our defense, as we didn't put much magic into trading rituals this year.

The second-cheapest fortification to build, the ditch, again delays and flusters any enemies on horseback. Funny how we haven't actually been raided yet, though I'm sure our defenses will pay for themselves handily.

Right after that, word comes around on what happened with that elves business earlier.

Occasionally, another clan may snatch opportunities that pop up with events if we don't get involved. In this case, we might have improved our relations with both the elves and Orlevings, and rose in general esteem, if we had been the ones to broker that deal. I'm sure we'll be presented with plenty of opportunities in due time, though.

To take up what I assume is the last of Earth before Dark begins, we send an exploration party into the middle of our own territory.

Exploration can turn up treasures and many special events, but sending a team out can be a very finicky business. The more men and especially weaponthanes we send with our explorer, the more likely that they'll return home okay, but also of course the more we'll lose if they simply never return. And sending clan members on our ring tends to help our odds in some way, especially if they have high Bargaining and Combat and worship either Issaries, Odayla, or the yet-unmet Vinga the Adventuress, but of course we'll be even further up a creek if one of our best traders or fighters is lost, and if it's far enough away we could be short a ring member for 3 turns or more! This can lead to their being absent for Sacred Time, which is really shit if you wanted to do some trading that year and your Issaries worshiper is missing, for example. Not fun. The faster of the three speeds up there we pick, the more dangerous the trip will be, but the slower, the longer we'll be short a ring member (or non-ring noble) and their escort. Unless we replace them while on the trip. It's complicated, basically.

Exploring inside our own tula removes a ton of that complication, though. Those trips should return immediately, so we should be much more free to send a full party and the best of our ring on the trip. Searching our own tula can also land us exotic material like gems and ivory and so on that our crafters can make more goods from, and on top of that patrolling the backyard makes it less likely that an enemy raid will catch us by surprise or that we'll get some kind of negative event related to our living space, like banditry. It's almost a no-brainer of a good idea. ("almost," because technically our fellas can still get lost...)

Anyway. Onward!

And boy, does our first trip sure find something.

An exploration party returns with a legendary treasure of the First Age, Humakt's Raven Banner. When carried into a fight, this battle standard guarantees victory in battle. However, it does so at great cost: the standard bearer is always killed.

Our options:

1. Give it to an enemy clan or hostile group as a peace offering.

2. Give it to another clan.

3. Keep it.

4. Return it to where it was hidden.

5. Trade it to another clan.

Ring advice:

Minara: This banner could bring peace with our enemies, the Orladnasti, Uroxi, or Humakti. recommends 1. [note: she's listing hypotheticals with regard to the Uroxi and Humakti, we haven't met those guys yet]

Frithorf: Any smart trader would try to dicker us down no matter what our starting price, so we might as well start high. recommends 5, of course.

Terasarin: One of the ten survivors of the Dragonkill War said that the man ordered to carry the Raven Banner into that battle dropped it early in the battle, thus ensuring victory for the dragons. no recommendation.

Yaransor: Although it is always good to get more cows, our herds are currently large and healthy. recommends 3.

Saronil: If we must give this treasure away, make sure we don't send it to our enemies. no recommendation, but I don't think he and Minara agree.

Orlgard: If we keep this banner, we will have to use it sparingly. No warrior wants to go into battle if he is certain to die. recommends 1, 2 or 3.

Ingard: This is a tough one. indeed.

Rehab: So, "guarantees victory" ain't no lie- the Raven Banner is one of the most effective (and drastic) treasures out there. However, it's not foolproof- our weaponthanes may refuse to use it if asked, I assume especially so if their morale is low, and can instead suggest that a ring member be the one to carry it. If we refuse that, (which I personally would always do unless one of our ring is old enough they could die at any time,) morale takes a further hit. (I don't think I'd blame them.)

Furthermore, the banner makes no guarantee against Pyrrhic victories with heavy losses on top of the standard-bearer (though it also doesn't ensure them). Probably not the sort of battle treasure we'd want to use to tip a close fight if we can help it, but if the odds are so grim that we think we'll lose some people no matter what, well...

It's something any martial clan would love to have. Maybe to an unhealthy extent...

What do we do?

Edited April 21, 2015 by Rehab

[Jedi]

I say we keep the banner for an emergency situation. It's a powerful but very dangerous artifact.

[Parrhesia]

This is insanely fully sick. It is also ours forever.

[Rehab]

Who's this poll kidding, we were born to own this banner.

And then, well.

Uh.

A trio of strange beings has eluded your patrols. These lizard-men are probably the dragonewts you've heard legends about. For twelve hours they have been enacting a mysterious ritual on your lands.

Our options:

1. Clear the area until they leave.

2. Conduct a ritual to counter their magic.

3. Try to communicate with them.

4. Try to kill them.

5. Watch them until they leave.

Ring advice:

Minara: Let's see how well they fight. recommends 1 or 4. not very dragon-positive, are we Minara?

Frithorf: Perhaps we can communicate with them. recommends 3.

Terasarin: Dragonewts are very strange indeed. No one really understands why they do certain things. recommends 5.

Yaransor: These aren't the toughest dragonewts. These are the weakest ones. recommends 5.

Saronil: "When in the fields, a man should never move an inch from his weapons." no recommendation.

Orlgard: Let's see how well they fight. recommends 1 or 4. whatever happened to restraint, Orlgard?

Ingard: Music is the universal language. I will go sing to them, and learn why they are here. recommends 3, apparently volunteers.

Rehab: ... some non-human sentients in Dragon Pass are easy enough to relate with, or to at least vaguely understand. Dragonewts are... less so. About as much as we Orlanthi know is that they experience some kinda cycle of rebirth which ends with them becoming full-on dragons, or something, and they accounted for some portion of the emissaries sent to our ancestors by the dragons all those centuries ago.

I guess this area was kinda their backyard until we arrived, huh? Might've been a long time since we've encountered each other, after our, uh, exit from Dragon Pass.

What do we do?

Edited April 21, 2015 by Rehab

[Jedi]

I say we chat it up, see what they have to say.

[Excellen Browning]

Considering dragons ate all humans in the pass and all, I'm tempted to go with killing them till they're properly dead, but considering our clan's historical disposition towards dragons and veneration of our ancestors I'll accept we should talk to them first.

Knowing we can kill dragons, even very young ones, would also be useful information if we ever find ourselves in a situation with dragons again

Edited April 21, 2015 by Excellen Browning

[ENS]

I suggest to chat.

[Parrhesia]

#IngardKnows2015

[Integrity]

ingard is my favorite adviser of anything

let him go sing to them

[Rehab]

Ingard is given leave to approach the dragonewts with song and dance.

Ingard is rebuffed, sadly, and we are left not really knowing what all that was about. Doh. At least our ancestors should be placated enough by our effort.

We bring in the last of our harvest, which should be enough to comfortably last us a whole year, and the season again changes to Dark.

This leaves us with a couple of turns to kill, since winter in Dragon Pass restricts us from doing much outside. Let's use the time to check out our temple situation.

Neat! It looks like selecting Normal difficulty may have let us start with an extra shrine, in this case giving us a blessing from Barntar. I believe his Vigor blessing reduces the amount of farmers needed to sow the fields and bring in the harvest, and the blessing we've started with from Ernalda, Bless Crops, basically gives a straightforward boost to the amount of food we get from crops during Earth.

A proper clan is expected to keep up more than 3 blessings, though. Help pick who we ask for a blessing next!

In addition to the deities listed in the first post, we can also build shrines to:

-Barntar, the Plowman. Son of Ernalda and Orlanth and patron of farmers, his second blessing lets us clear farmland more quickly. Though he doesn't get much flavor for himself ingame, I've heard that he has the most brute strength of all the Orlanthi gods, likely due to his unending embrace of hard labor- he apparently plows the soil manually, without any oxen. His cultists are also known as "your farmers."

The only ingame picture I could find of him has him as almost a mere detail, and is really a better portrait for:

-Maran Gor, the Earthshaker.

A sister of Ernalda, Maran Gor also represents the earth element, but is by far the bigger hardass between her and Ernalda, and moreso represents earthquakes and mountains rather than nature's bounty. More feared than loved by most, we can build a shrine to her to gain the rather morbid Earthblood blessing, which fertilizes our fields... when people die fighting on them. We can also sacrifice to her to unleash a curse known as Blast Earth on another clan, which curses their fields if successful. Whereas Ernalda is the mother of cows (mystery to everybody), Maran Gor is the mother of dinosaurs (also a mystery to everybody) (oh, did I forget to mention dinosaurs are in this game? well there are dinosaurs in this game.), and is probably one of the scariest of the many reasons why you do not fuck with Ernalda and expect to get away with it.

Again, she's definitely feared more than loved by most Orlanthi, but most truly great Ernalda temples also tend to have at least a small shrine to her somewhere on the premises. Her cultists are... not much less scary than she is.

-Humakt, God of War and Death. Though a blood brother of Orlanth, Humakt severed his familial ties forever in order to impartially rule over Death, and can be politely described as One Bad Motherfucker. His blessings can seal alliances between clans, boost weaponthane morale, get us a slightly higher probability of a fight ending in our favor, and double the combat strength of our weaponthanes (!!). His cultists are the strong, silent and blunt types, and many travel the land rooting out the undead, Humakt's sworn foe, as the Urox cultists do with Chaos (albeit with less noise made).

(pictured: just about the only guy known to elicit anything like "fear" from Orlanth)

and

-Vinga, the Adventuress. Orlanth's daughter and patron of both adventurers and warrior women (or any women taking on what Orlanthi usually assume to be "male roles"). Vinga's blessings make our explorers more likely to return home safely, and allow women to fight as footmen when our tula is attacked, increasing our number of fighters on defense albeit at the cost of slightly lower fertility/population growth. Her cultists cut their hair short and dye it red in emulation of her, are considered just about the best explorers of harsh unknown territory (followed by those of Odayla and Issaries), and are often prominent mercenaries. Her explorer's blessing, like Odayla's, is widely considered borderline necessary for any real extra-tula exploration.

(my tribe for a higher-res, non-cropped version of this picture)

Who do we propitiate?

Edited April 28, 2015 by Rehab

[Jedi]

Having a shrine to Chalana Arroy is always good in my book, the benefits help the clan as a whole and can help other clans in dire need. Healing benefits.

[Parrhesia]

blood fertiliser

[Rehab]

We decide our next two shrines will be built to Chalana Arroy, as we are a kinder, gentler War clan that likes to be prepared for the worst, and Maran Gor, to remind people that Ernalda Clan =/= to be fucked with.

We consult the ancestors on which we should build first.
"If you can hear us, one means Chalana, two means Maran."


Maran it is!

To be able to gain a permanent blessing, we first have to appease a god with a sacrifice of goods or cows, just to learn how to conduct the blessing ritual. If we succeed, we'll then be able to gain that blessing for about a year with an additional sacrifice at any point in the future, or of course build a shrine to gain it in perpetuity (as long as we can continue to sacrifice a few cows and goods every year to keep it going).


When there's still more than one mystery (blessing, curse or heroquest) to be learned from a god, though, it's random which one we'll learn first, so we have a 50/50 chance of getting the one that'll let us build a shrine the first time, assuming we're successful. I chose to sacrifice cows here, since relative to our population we're swimming in them, and given our goods production is slow atm + we'll need those to build the shrines anyway. 11 cattle-worth is in between the recommended bare minimum of 7 and the recommended "(almost) sure bet" of 15ish.
(We also have the option to sacrifice thralls, and each of those is worth ten cattle for sacrificial purposes, but human sacrifice is a major faux pas to the Orlanthi. And possibly also a Chaos agitator? I forget. Bad juju, anyway.)

And we indeed get it first try!


Luckiest Blessed-est Clan.

We're interrupted before we can begin construction, however.




Kulbrast, a warrior of the Vanstali clan, comes bearing "something you may have been looking for." He refers to Arkilla, the young daughter of one of your weaponthanes. "She came to our clan claiming to be an orphan, insisting that we adopt her, so that she could grow up to be a mighty warrior. We recognized your clan insignia, and reckoned that her story could stand to be checked. That's when she started the tantrum she's been throwing the whole way over here."

Our options:

1. Ask Kulbrast if his clan wants to adopt her.
2. Tell Kulbrast that you owe his clan a favor.*
3. Convince Arkilla that your clan produces great warriors, too.
4. Scold Arkilla for embarrassing the clan.
5. "This is not a matter for the ring."

Ring advice:

Minara: We must show our gratitude to Kulbrast. recommends 2.

Frithorf: Better to cook with honey than with ashes. recommends 3.

Terasarin: This child's unknowing words have brought great shame upon our warriors. recommends 4.

Yaransor and Orlgard: Her words, though foolish and without foundation, have brought shame upon our warriors. both recommend 3.

Saronil: We are a War Clan, just like the Vanstali. The child dishonors her clan and family by comparing us unfavorably to them. recommends 4.

Ingard: She does not embarrass us. We embarrass ourselves, by fretting over such a minor matter. recommends 2.

*Favors are an aspect of diplomacy I forgot to talk about earlier. They're a system of customs where in exchange for any kind of help (and in lieu of immediate payment), a clan can later repay another with about 20 cows or goods, 30 food, 3 magic points or the details of a heroquest, whichever they ask for. Like feuds, trading partnerships and alliances, every Orlanthi clan has brought to Dragon Pass histories of favors owed and due to them by others.

Rehab: Nice collar, Kulbrast. We can gain favor with the Vanstali (currently our raiding-focused allies some previously-unmet neighbors known for reforming bandits and outlaws) and showcase our magnanimity by saying we owe them a favor, but they're probably more bemused than anything, so our relations won't likely be hurt too much if we make a different choice. The issue comes down to that, weaponthane morale, and whether Arkilla listens to us.


What do we do?

Edited April 28, 2015 by Rehab

[Jedi]

I say try 3, teach her the ways of our warriors and show they too can be great.

[Excellen Browning]

See to it the kid gets beaten senseless for running away, then leave everything as it is.

Option 5 for me. Maybe option 2 for good relations.

Edited April 28, 2015 by Excellen Browning

[Parrhesia]

Convince the dude we're actually awesome and cool.

[Rehab]

The poor child probably just forgot that our name is Clan Strongest. On being reminded, Arkilla retracts all complaints and cheerfully declares that our clan has many strong warriors as well, who she wants to be like when she grows up. We and Kulbrast then share a hearty laugh, and all is well.

(It probably helped to convince her that we're set up as a War clan.)

With that out of the way, we get back to the blood fertilizing.

One of the many reasons why having a lot of trade routes (and a lot of cattle) is a good idea is that every level-one shrine requires, as shown, 4 goods and 2 cows be sacrificed to continue operating each year, and getting more than one perpetual blessing from a single god requires even more. With the addition of our Maran Gor shrine making 4 total, we'll be sacrificing 16 goods and 8 cows a year. In order to afford more blessings, we'll probably want to establish some new trade routes fairly soon.

But, since we didn't put any magic into diplomacy or trade this year, let's just get the most out of those points we put into our clan's favorite profession. (Our favorite profession is War, of course.)

With the end of the wintry Dark season comes Storm, which is our last chance to raid before the year is out. We can do pretty much anything we want in Storm, but for future reference I would advise against any action that would send a ring member away for long enough that they'll miss the coming year's Sacred Time, lest they be unable to help us prepare their rituals (so, preferably no sending our Issaries rep to form a trade route on the last turn).

Fortunately for us, raiding is instant!

We choose a neighbor that we have as close to completely-neutral relations with as possible for our next victim, for variety. Raiding a single victim too much may cause them to move away, and while we would gain their land, I don't think we'd be able to perform a cattle raid on them after that (and if we go a couple years without raiding, our War magic will lose its edge). It can be useful to keep around a neighbor to raid, so we'll thus let our punching bag "friends" the Orladnast recuperate a little.

And this time, I finally get to explain the combat! (We didn't quite slip past them, but as far as their weaponthanes are concerned, we almost might as well have. Every weaponthane is worth roughly 5 footmen in a fight, so we have a major advantage going in even though our numbers are matched.)

The context of the battle determines the available Objectives (we can't try to Plunder during a defensive battle), but all of the 4 Tactics are always available. There's roughly a rock-paper-scissors relationship there, where Skirmish is good against Charge which is good against Maneuver which is good against everything else (and I believe Evade is best when hugely outnumbered?), but there are other variables that are just as important, and upsets can always happen. We can spend extra magic points on a single fight to give one-time boosts, but points spent on War during Sacred Time are much more effective than those spent right before battle. One can also sacrifice goods/cows? (I forget) to Orlanth or Humakt before a fight begins for another boost, but this can leave one vulnerable if the enemy decides to Charge. One can also use combat Treasures to tip the balance of a fight, but I'm guessing the Raven Banner won't be necessary here. And there are plenty of combat blessings that can help out in a bunch of different ways, plus Treasures with more passive effects. Oh, and Maneuver gets a bonus if fighting on one's home turf.

Pretty simple, I'm sure you'll agree!

We actually pick Charge here, not Maneuver, given our huge on-paper advantage.

Payday!

Weaponthanes killed: 2 Kardarvi, 1 ours

Weaponthanes wounded: 0 Kardarvi, 1 ours

Footmen (farmers) killed: 8 Kardarvi, 0 ours

Footmen wounded: 11 Kardarvi, 1 ours

We sure came outta that on top. Not sure who "Bolik" is, though. I'll check our ring candidates later, see if he's there.

This brings our cattle total over 910, which for our population of ~790 is damn fine, possibly getting towards "as much as we can handle at the moment." I therefore skip raiding on the final turn, and instead end the year by bringing our weaponthane count up to snuff.

Hiring from outside the clan means we might not get the full number we ask for, but increases our population and doesn't take any farmers away from their jobs. Not that we're hurting for farmers at the moment.

Good question, Ingard! Here's your answer: every weaponthane requires payment of one cow per year for their services, an additional 3 cows upon hiring IIRC, and requires a horse for their duties. Our current population is just under 800, which would cost... a lot, of cows, and require about 20 times as many horses as we have (~40, which is actually not enough for all of the nobles we already have). Also, weaponthanes don't help with farming. Also, some 300 of our clan are children. So, yeah! Not happening, I'm afraid.

We get some news just as the year closes.

Didn't get a chance to look up the Taraling before the year went out. This might mean we're more likely to see some bandit events, but let's just say I think we'll be okay.

And so does 1330 draw to a close. (*33 babies born, 17 initiated as adults up there.) Pretty good first year, I think! If a violent one.

Oh yeah, I haven't gotten a chance to talk about Reputation yet! Having a good Reputation is necessary to get people to form a tribe with us, and if it gets too low our clan will dissolve out of shame (so, game over). We can increase it by completing heroquests and getting certain event outcomes, but worrying about that will probably wait a bit, until we're more established.

My personal evaluation of how we're doing on some notable fronts:

-Combat-readiness: Pretty good for only the start of year 2! We could always use more combat blessings, though, particularly Humakt's weaponthane booster.

-Farming and crops: The food situation is looking set to run on autopilot for at least another year, and our cattle herd is getting so big relative to our population that we might not be able to handle much more until we grow. We could stand to pick up some horses, though.

-Trading: We're wanting a bit for more trading partners, and an Issaries temple, or our goods production will stay relatively low. Pretty soon we'll need more goods to sustain additional temples.

-Magic: While we can eventually handle many more blessings than we have, it may be wise to get more goods first.

-How ready we are to begin tribe formation: Nooooot even close.

Which brings us to Sacred Time for the coming year.

Sounds like a good year to spend on either conquest or trading. More cattle, though, guys? Seriously?

Ring advice comments:

Minara: We have not yet honored our clan deity by performing the heroquest of "Ernalda Feeds the Tribe."

Frithorf: We have performed no heroquests.

Terasarin: Spend all we can on mysteries. Then we can sacrifice for understanding of the important blessings.

Yaransor and Orlgard: Allocate 3 to war magic, and be sure to leave a few points in reserve in case we're raided.

Saronil: It's easier keeping people healthy than trying to cure them later. I think we should allocate 2 to health magic, and conserve a few points in case we need to call on Chalana Arroy during the year.

Ingard: Devote 3 to diplomacy. Then we should do rituals for war, trade, and mysteries. Leave something so we can deal with any crises that come up.

Rehab: As you can see, ring members often tend to advise we spend magic in the area of their patron god's specialty (here, Lhankor Mhy on Mysteries, Odayla and Humakt on War, and Chalana Arroy on Health).

The way I see it, we have about 4 ways we could spend most of next year.

-We could establish new trade routes, which will become necessary eventually to support more temples, and more goods is always good.

-We could spend a lot of time sacrificing to learn blessings, and build shrines until we hit our population limit.

-We could attempt Ernalda's heroquest, if we're feeling particularly lucky blessed strong.

-Or we could do even more raiding, of course.

I'm a bit biased towards one of these choices, you may be able to tell, but this clan is yours at least as much as mine, so don't let that stop you from voting your conscience. What do we do?

Edited May 2, 2015 by Rehab

[Jedi]

New trade routes!