> Potential spoilers...
> Not the ducks - we've always taken 50 food from them, and then wind up
> releasing even that when they ask for help vs the Undead.
I usually make peace with them - the 50 food is nice, but the beastfolk are scary, and I can use all the goodwill I can get. Plus, they have some interesting treasures - like the moldy old book about dragon pass that helps you when you explore.
> Playing on Easy, at any rate, we always have a feud with one of our
> immediate neighbors (always the one to the west of our tula). Since
> there's always a feud with them, we've taken to referring to them as the
> Ancient Enemy - *especially* after our ancestors got mad at us when we made
> peace with them!
On easy level, this happened? Interesting. You start with two feuds, but I've usually seen it as a good thing to get rid of the feuds ASAP - of course, having an enemy far enough away that he won't be a part of any possible tribe is a good thing, but kicking him too much is bad.
> We've been able to make peace with them after driving them completely out
> of their tula, but then you lose the whipping-boy benefits of an easy
> target to keep your war magic sharp.
That would do it. Have you considered cattle raids against neighbours?
> It's one of the things we really like about it. In some ways, KoDP is an
> overgrown Choose Your Own Adventure. However, there appear to be so many
> factors taken into account that even a repeated event is never really the
> same twice - you might have different leaders, different clan internal
> situation, different strategic situation, different key gods, different
> immediate or longterm goals. It makes for good emergent gameplay (gameplay
> situations that the designers didn't entirely program, but that fall out of
> a complex interaction between stuff that's programmed and stuff the players
> have the freedom to do.) This is a Good Thing.
I agree; the way the game is set up, there is no perfect clan - you can't keep great leaders forever, you have a limited number of actions you can take every year, and your treasures are likewise limited in number and can get stolen, destroyed, or lost. There are also many ways to reach power.
> >I'd
> >rather have another half-dozen nobles than another hundred farmers.
>
> Is the Band of One Hundred that you get after Kallyr dies as useful as
> having Kallyr alive and kicking her heels? We let her go off to fight the
> Eastern Foozle, but we suspect that forcing her to hang around until she
> was Heroic in a lot of disciplines might have been a better idea. 8(
Kallyr doesn't necessarily die. She can win - happened in one of the games I was in. She's died in I think four or five...I haven't actually gotten her very often. You have to support her and raise her stats as high as possible, and then get lucky, but...<shrugs>. I keep buying Vinga's Comb when I find it just in case it helps her. ;-)
As to the band of one hundred - like the silver dragonnewt statue, I haven't the faintest what it actually does, but suspect that both of them give you miniscule bonuses in just about everything.
> Not the ducks. While waiting for KoDP to appear in the post, we read on
> this list about the Incredibly Bad Things that happen from the
> Beastmen. We've stuck to having the Ice Giants or the Trolls as the, um,
> Traditional Enemy? (Just dawned on me why "Ancient Enemy" is a bad term
> for our whipping-boy clan. My apologies for the confusion.)
That's okay, I was just a bit confused. Why not the Praxians? They're easy to beat. I have to admit that given how badly the horse-spawn can beat me up when they attack at the right (wrong) time, I don't really NEED any more enemies. <g> I've considered the trolls, but I feel so SORRY for them.
> We rather like the ducks, all things considered. They're pretty reasonable
> neighbors. Sadly, they won't trade treasures: "Duck treasures are for
> ducks, human treasures are for humans." Oh well. The Webbed Foot of Fast
> Swimming might help the salmon swimmer guy. 8)
I like them too - they're brave undead-fighters and valuable allies. They don't like cows or horses, though, and they only trade a limited amount with you no matter how much they have.
I remember one game I was playing as a much-less-noble tribe than usual, taking thralls and demanding tribute. I was exacting 50 food/year from the ducks. Then one of their humakti champions showed up at my doorstep demanding to challenge us to a duel; after trying to talk him out of it, I let one of my champions fight him, and told them to fight to first blood. The duck won in a single stroke, slaying my best champion. He had a gift from Humakt. After that, I've been leery of doing anything to make them angry!
> Almost got the ducks into our tribe once, but when we told them they needed
> to give every other clan 15 goods in bribes, they got mad. 8(
That's happened to me twice. One time they didn't like the amount they had to give up, the next they gave to the tribe, but even with my guidance and support they were laughed out of the tribe. They ended up telling us we were honorable friends, but our tribe was not.
I really wish you could save during an event - well, no, I don't, because that would make it WAY too easy to cheat, but an event like THAT only comes around every few hundred years, and I'd really love to know if you can actually get the ducks into your tribe. I hope so - they'd make great allies IMO.
> Good point. [And, thus, our cowardice risked Divine Retribution in the
> form of visiting death and sorrow on the entire clan. We're, um,
> mortified! 8) ]
Heh - bad pun. Still, it is quite a sacrifice to ask someone else to make. "Yes, howard - we'd like you to make the ultimate sacrifice for your clan." "Me? What about YOU?" "I'm a noble leader, and you're...well...you don't bathe." "What?" "Nobody wants you in the clan any more...it's better off this way." "Hey! Just for that, I'm gonna drop the standard!"
Dave
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