>Warning: some spoilers ahead.
(warning repeated)
Thanks for the advice!
> Making sure that you have a lot of clan magic might help - not
>sure, but probably having 0 or negative is bad. <g>
Is simply having a lot of clan magic a "good thing" in general, even if unspent? We can't prove it, but when we've had 10+, and especially on those rare occasions of 20+ or 30+, held in reserve, things generally seem to go well. Then again, the fact that we have that much in reserve attests to the fact that matters were already going well, so it's hard to say.
> Sending a worshipper of the god is a good thing, although I
>usually send the ablest person when there's a big difference in
>ability.
> Having a temple to the god in question helps, apparently. So
>does sacrificing to them in the same year. And apparently performing
>the ritual at the right time of year helps. To be honest, I've
>ignored all of these three points - I do all my hero-questing in
>winter, when there's little else to do.
OK. 8)
> >But it took us the better part of 30 years to find and groom that leader
> >(we won the short game in 1384.) Is this simply a random effect we ought
> >to expect? How do you groom leaders in non-combat skills? *How* are
> >people able to the Ernalda Feeds the Clan inside the first few years of the
> >game - the dice grant an awesome leader right at the outset?
>
> I don't normally TRY to hero-quest for the first ten years of
>the game. It's much more important to me to explore, make friends,
>increase my population and wealth and gain treasures. After THAT, I
>begin hero-questing. If you need Ernalda Feeds The Tribe that early,
>you might be doing something wrong, like trying to grow too quickly.
>What's the rush?
From comments others made on the list (in the archive), we'd come under the impression that it was expected. Our expectations have been revised, and we feel less incompetent. 8)
> Incidentally, to groom leaders for hero-questing, I prefer to
>send them on Lhankor Mhy Finds The Truth. That's because success in
>it raises your magic by one rank, your leadership by one rank, and may
>also increase some of your other (non-combat) stats - this is all
>assuming you pick 'increase the quester's abilities'. This is a
>bonanza for heroquesting in the future, and of course it's also rather
>good for any future leaders. It's also one of the easiest heroquests
>to succeed at, although your quester will be wounded for a few months
>afterwards. It's especially easy if you happen to have a very good
>(renowned/heroic) fighter (uroxi even better!) and ANY issaries
>god-talker; his bargaining ability doesn't actually appear to matter.
>With these two, you just let the fighter kill the chaos-creature and
>follow the rest of the legend and you succeed - in comparison, the
>Ernalda or Uralda quests are much harder, longer, and riskier. If you
>have an older but skilled fighter, you can send even a total novice on
>this quest, which means that after two or three quests they'll be at
>exceptional levels of magic, capable of doing quite well at other
>heroquests.
Ah-ha! One of the things we have -no- feel for yet is how hard or easy the various quests are.
> Other advice - there are various treasures that can help your
>ability to heroquest. It's easier to heroquest when you're part of a
>tribe, and also when you call on an ally (or a favour, but allies
>don't get used up) to help out with the ritual. Having a god-talker
>of that god on your ring helps.
OK.
> > In any event, we thought that the shift from Humakt to Orlanth, after
> >failing to maintain his Humakti vows, was pretty cool - especially if it
> >weakened his ability to resist Chaos. Good cause-and-effect! 8)
>
> This is one of the cooler parts of the game. It's also why I
>rarely send young humakt-worshippers on that quest, though. <g>
8)
> >step, it seems to us, is to start making a Tribe (short game, easy). But
> >there's nobody in the tribe with a snowball's chance of making it.
>
> Making a tribe doesn't require you to have a good leader ...
We caught on to the "don't have to be king right away" bit; the "snowball's chance" referred to the Storm Tribe heroquest.
> You really don't need to send a good fighter/bargainer - just
>a bargainer will do. Just send 30 warriors with him, and try not to
>do it in the spring or fall - nobody has ever touched me when I sent 1
>weaponthane and 30 warriors. It also doesn't get the weaponthanes off
>patrols. I could probably send a lot fewer and still not get
>attacked, but I've never tested it.
We hadn't tried that tactic... after all, "Fire" season is "Raid" season, so we've always raided out pet whipping-clan. Time to give it a shot!
> For that matter, I often send bargainers to other clans
>without any intent to actually buy the treasures - what they're doing
>is 'scouting them' to see which clans own which treasures; when I find
>one worth keeping - there's a limit to how many you can own before all
>the clans start selling only spirit fetches - I make a bid, starting
>low around 50; then I send people back raising the price by about
>25-50 each time until I get it. But to me, buying things like, say,
>the Burning Standard isn't worth it
A related question: we had the Raven Banner once, and eventually traded it away. Call us cowards (and any good Humakti will 8) but we wanted to know in advance whose life we were going to throw away. It's the rare battle that's worth the life of your finest warleader; but I think we might have been willing to sacrifice a generic weaponthane every now and then. (How callous.... 8)
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