Explore tula
Desirable Blessings:
Truesword (Humakt) - Weaponthanes are double strength (yay!). It's problematic that he has 4 Blessings and a HQ to randomly pick, so only 20% chance of getting this one, but I think it's worth the pursuit.
Pathfinder (Vinga) - better explorers
Fyrdwomen (Vinga) - I've come to like this one (usually I have this one on perma, and sacrifice for a temp. Pathfinder a little less often than once per year)
Calf Blessing (Uralda) - cows reproduce more/are healthier. Very high priority
Market (Issaries) - more profit from Clan's Market, which is constantly useful
Trading (Issaries) and Silvertongue (Issaries) - also desirable but a bit less so than Market, since early game I don't send Traders and Emis much.
Tracking (Odalaya) - also helps explorers, but less than Pathfinder, so lower priority
Curing & Healing (Chalana Arroy) - two useful effects, very nice to have but not urgent.
Protection from Spirits (Ancestors) - nice to have, but not urgent
Sense Chaos (Urox) - also not urgent, but useful
Shield (Elmal) - reduce battle casualties
In the end, all Blessings are useful for some things, but the above are the ones I think matter most for early game, perhaps especially Truesword regardless of whether Clan Type is Peace, Balanced or War. Having twice the warrior-strength is always good. Later in the game I'd like to have a maxed Issaries temple (the Spare Grain blessing doesn't strike me as useful, but the other 3 are nice) and if possible also a maxed Lankor Mhy temple (all his 3 blessings are useful, but in terms of priority I'd choose Issaries first, no contest), but having 2 Great Temples seems to only be possible with a larger-than-usual population or if one is in a Tribe.
2nd year
Send Emisarry to ask for Magic (+3 if successful) Send Trader to trade to get more Cows (trade away Food, or if Horses captures from Horse-Spawn then trade away Horses, or if low on Food then trade Cows for Goods, needing the Goods to unlock more Blessings)
2. season
Sacrifice for desirable Mystery-Blessing
Raid someone. Might as well get it over with (send big plunder-raid group to pink/red Clan, preferably a nearby one - long-term they'll be my punching bag)
3. season
Recruit more farmers (based on having 1 step more land than needed - with a larger population it's possible to have more temples and thus more perma-blessings, although it seems as if once I go Tribe I can have as many temples as I desire)
If possible, send Emissary to Gift a lot of Food (I tend to give for 101 units) to a clan, preferably not one that too near the red (as they're likely to decline, thus the action is wasted)
4. season
Sacrifice for desirable Mystery-Blessing
Sacrifice for desirable Mystery-Blessing (yeah, always a lot of those!)
5. season
Explore tula
If extra Farmers have arrived, adjust Farmland/Pasture. Otherwise explore tula.
3rd year
1.
Send explorers to Kero Fin (in my experience, this usually causes something nice to happen) Send Emisarry to ask for Magic (usually you get +3 units)
2.
Send Trader to sell off something, usually Horses for Cows or Goods (usually a Large caravan means you sell off about 16 horses)
Sacrifice for desirable Mystery-Blessing
3.
Sacrifice for desirable Mystery-Blessing
Explore tula (expert explorer ought to be back from Kero Fin by now)
4.
Look into Clan/Population/Farming, probably adjust number of Hunters down. Or if Farmers from last year only recently arrived, adjust Farmland/Pasture now.
Explore tula
5.
Explore tula
Explore tula (by this stage at least 3 of the 5 crafter-buffing resources have hopefully been found, ideally 4 or even all 5, so that I'll get more Goods)
4th year it's probably useful to try to sacrifice to learn a HQ Mystery. I've had lots of success with Orlanth (the Storm Tribe thing), and a bit with Chalana Arrory, but failed miserably the two times I tried Uralda. With an Orlanth tribe the Storm Tribe HQ is fairly apt so done in 5th year (I opt to boost my leader, and in addition it also seems to give about +12 Magic, which is very sweet). Also must remember to do one more raid, to keep Clan Magic good (in 2nd season, Fire Season). Otherwise, just explore, maybe do Kero Fin once more, and keep trying to unlock Blessings and build shrines and temples.
How does the above look, as a vague plan?
I know I'm not making good use of the 3 "travel-friendly" seasons; that I probably ought to do more Trader and Emisarry tasks, but early game I just don't have much to offer the other Clans. If I manage to slay a bunch of Horse-Spawn then yes I'll have 3 Large Caravans to trade Horses for Cows or Goods, but if not I have little to give away save a modest amount of food some of the time. I don't want to give away Cows at all, and I need my Goods so that I can sacrifice to the various gods and unlock Blessings so I can built temples and get them permanently.
Also, what's a good benchmark for how many Horses I must have? I figure my Ring is under 20 people, I usually have 15-25 weaponthanes, and a bunch of Noble who are none of the above, but I'd like to have a better sense for how free I am to trade away Horses for Cows or Goods (or Food in an emergency), but I don't want to cripple my ability to recruit more weaponthanes. All I know is that if I manage to butcher a Horse-Spawn I'll get 45-55 Horses and that's the equivalent of 3 Large Caravan-fulls, plus they probably have some opportunity to breed before that since I don't send off 3 caravans in parallel, but spread it over most of a year.
Secondly, which gods likes Cows as sacrifices? I know it's better to sacrifice Goods, but in the early game I have a metric buttload of Blessings I'd like to unlock and very few Goods to spare, so taking 42 or 63 mooing ones from the herd to unlock 2 or 3 Blessings might be worthwhile. The sooner I unlock my favourite Blessings, the better.
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Peter Knutsen
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