First of all, I always try and remember to save the game at the sacred time, and take a bit of time to think about what I'm going to do in the next game year. Its amazing what a little planning will do!
If your sacred time predictions include especially good or bad crops, Sea season is when you need to change your mix of grains to deal with it, so there isn't a lot of point in changing your crop mix at any other time. A good habit is to go look at the agriculture screen every Sea season and see if there is anything that needs attention....look at what your crops are, and see what your ring has to say. Also, don't forget to look at how many horses you have--a large horse herd is a a very valuable resource that is easy to overlook. This won't normally take an action.
Sea season is also a good time to send out explorers, especially to more distant points. Personally I almost always choose to send them out travelling slowly, so it is doubly important to send them out early. You want to explore pretty much every year, so unless you have a good reason not to, you should send a party out every sea season.
Finally, since you are apt to be raided in Fire season, the second action of sea season is a good time to build fortifications, recruit weaponthanes, or sacrifice for war blessings.
In Fire season you will almost always want to either raid or cattle raid at least once. If you don't need to raid (you raided last year, you aren't looking for revenge, you don't need to steal territory, etc.) then cattle raids tend to have a higher risk/pay-off ratio I think, but that is just my opinion.
In your other action in Fire season, if you aren't desperately dealing with the consequences of war, is a decent time to send off trading parties if you can spare the thanes. This way they should be home before Dark season safely. If you are tight on thanes, emissaries can be back almost instantly....if they don't meet bandits.
Earth season is definately the time for giving of gifts. You should almost always give gifts at least once per year, so barring other complications you should almost always send an emmisary in earth season. Especially if your food situation is good--a pile of food with a couple of cows and a horse makes a good gift I find. Short distance trading missions are good too.
In Dark season it is often worthwhile to explore your own tula. You can generally send a large party (a third of your thanes and one or two dozen carls) pretty safely if you explore slowly. This is also the time for general clan maintenance. Do you have too many or too few crafters or hunters? Do you need to recruit farmers? Click on reoganize and see if you have any new leaders. Look at the mood, should you be giving gifts or throwing a feast? This is also a good time to sacrifice to the gods or build temples.
Storm Season I treat as the catch all. If I haven't used one of the screens so far this year, I try and use it during storm season. If I haven't done as much of something as I want (I still need more cows, need to send out more emmisaries, want to launch another raid, still have more blessings to sacrifice for.....). Also, check back on your sacred time predictiions--was there something you were supposed to do this year that you haven't gotten around to yet? In addition, this is a good time for heroquesting.
You'll normally have all your leaders at home, and if you've planned on questing since the sacred time you've had a year to take appropriate actions,possibly build up your magic, and so on.
Well, that's about how I do it. Others may differ.
A few last tips:
- You sometimes can raid during sea or earth season,
if your stockpile of food is large and your farmers
are in a good enough mood. It will play havoc with
both your harvest and the mood of your farmers, but
there are rare instances where it is
worthwhile...never forget the option.
- Exploring, heroquesting, creating new trade routes
and creating alliances/making a tribe are
fundamentally the ways that can create wealth for your
clan. War is fickle, you will have to give more in
gifts than you recieve, crops will go up and
down....building temples is good, but is limited by
your goods and eventually by population +
tribemates+alliances. Exploring and questing are both
risky, but with potentially high pay-offs, especially
heroquesting. Creating trade routes often takes some
work, as you may need to give a number of gifts to
sweeten their mood and have them owing you a faovr
before they agree, but is essentially low risk. Ditto
for alliances.
- Some of your resources are obscure. Pigs can become
food can become trade goods or cows. Your ancient
enemies can have their uses, so summons of evil is not
a useless blessing to learn. With Maran Gor's
blessing even your own deaths from defending your tula
can help you. When the year is predicted to be bad
for something, it *might* be easier to complete an
appropriate heroquest (we don't know this, but some of
us believe it).
I hope this was of some help, and that you enjoy!
--Bryan
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