Re: Dig #96 / Best Quest

From: David Short <David.short_at_...>
Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2000 10:55:53 -0400

Lots to respond to,

>Message: 7
> Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2000 10:56:08 -0400
> From: "KYER, JEFFREY" <jeff.kyer_at_...>
>Subject: Spoiler Re: Standard Tactics
>Things to do in Dragon Pass Before You're Dead...
>
>This is my rule of thumb... Or at least, thumbs.
>
>Sea:
>
>Send out a diplomatic mission to make sure folks like you. Use food if
>you can spare it, goods otherwise. 20 goods (40 food) is a good
>minimum. More is better. trying to get rid of a feud is a Good Idea.
>The sooner, the better. A blood feud can deplete your resources like
>nothing else.

If you feast and invite neighbors you seem to get the same effect as giving gifts only to multiple clans. (That seems is important)

snip

>
>Message: 9
> Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2000 08:33:02 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Bryan Thexton <bethexton_at_...>
>Subject: Re: Standard Tactics
>
>Well, for what it is worth, here is what I try and
>do.....
>
>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.

I'll combine with this advice to say, Don't FIDDLE. Don't waste an action by altering your crops 5% and not also optimizing your field usage. The same goes in many other cases. It's OK to ignore the popup about having too many hunters. You'll get to it when you get to it.

>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.

Just my thoughts on exploration....
I agree that slow parties are best. I find that each generation has a couple of nobles that....well... aren't very usefull. I send these nobles as explorers with a very light escort. If they die then I've recycled a slot on my ring. If they are hit by bandits I wait till they heal and sent them out again. If they survive, I learn more about the pass and if they improve enough from the success, I might end up with a decent leader. Had one of my "cragspider specials" end up becoming a tribal queen.

>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.

Cattle Raids certainly have a higher pay-off. I don't see the risk. I suppose the risk is that you could succeed at several in a row and never get in combat and lose your war magic.

>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.

Hadn't thought of that. Pretty sneaky. Cool tip.

>Message: 16
> Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2000 09:54:02 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Bryan Thexton <bethexton_at_...>
>Subject: The waiting game.....
>
>*sigh* While I generally love this game, I must admit
>that the stretch between becoming tribal king and the
>endgame starting is probably the least enthralling
>part of it. At the start of the game you are trying
>desperately to survive, then to build a tribe. Once
>you build the tribe you are building your strength to
>become tribal king, and completing the required
>heroquests. Then...........you wait, and try not to
>screw up.

I've had games where this period was very short and then games where it went on, and on. Not sure what the difference is.

>
>Message: 22
> Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2000 13:52:49 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Bryan Thexton <bethexton_at_...>
>Subject: Re: Grooming Leaders (was Re: Kallyr)
>

snip
>Of course, the other fast track method is to send them
>on a heroquest.....a "make the quester wiser/stronger"
>objective seems to boost a "very good" towards the top
>end of "excellent."

You can really pump up your leaders via Heroquests.

>Message: 23
> Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2000 13:59:53 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Bryan Thexton <bethexton_at_...>
>Subject: Re: Grooming Leaders (was Re: Kallyr)
>
>One more thing I do, is try to have a "slack" spot on
>the ring. It often happens after ten or twenty game
>years that two or three of your older leaders are
>amongst your best people in a number of different
>skills, so that with six ring members you have a good
>mix of skills and cults. Then I'll bring a promising
>young noble onto the ring to replace one who is
>approaching 60, on the theory that their skills will
>improved faster on the ring than off of it. I often
>then use the just replaced leader to head high risk
>expeditions, as they often have the skills to succeed,
>but are no longer a major loss if they don't.

hmmmm. I tend to just punt that generation and replace them wholesale. Leave one or two of the old folks on the ring and replace all the rest of em with young folks. This way all the "make ring stronger" benifits go to a wider base of young folk.

>Message: 24
> Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2000 18:06:40 -0400
> From: "Niki Karras" <NKarras_at_...>
>Subject: RE: Spoiler Re: Standard Tactics
>
>I probably already know this, but how does Elmal help defend?
One of his blessings.

Finally Potential spoiler information......

My belief is the Healer godess' quest that stops all your feuds and the Knowing god's quest that strengthens the members of the ring are the two most powerfull tools in the game.

I'm sure opinions about this vary, what's yours?

dfs

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