I usually only play KoDP during my lunch break at work, with maybe a season or two before or after work if I have time. As you can imagine this makes for an excruciatingly slow game. I'm slowly, cautiously, working my way through my first long game (on the medium setting), but now that the end is maybe in sight (maybe this week? if not then surely next week) I'm starting to think about my next tribe.
For kicks, I took the CD home on the weekend to play while our toddler is having his nap. I started a tribe on the hard level, and played rather aggresively, just to see what would happen. After I succeeded in the Chalana Arroy heroquest in the second year, thereby ending all 3 of my feuds at once, I was thinking maybe I'd have to save that tribe. Them I upset the beast people.....
Now, in other games I've always been very nice to the ducks. As an old Runequest player, I know crossing the ducks just never pays in the long run. But I'd selected the beast people as my ancient enemy, and my ancestors spoke clearly. Of course, a delegation of the beast people came and told us to leave their feathered friends alone, but I wasn't scared--I figured I'd survive some raids (I'd been building up my defenses quite aggresively in preparation), drive the ducks away, then try and make peace.
Instead, the game simply announced that the beast people had raided in overwhelming force, wiping out most of the tribe, destroying all our fortifications, and driving off most of our cattle. I was left with two people on the ring, 300 odd clansfolk, and about half that many cattle. Fortunately the game gave me the option of officially losing rather than soldiering on or simply quitting. Since my son was going to be awake soon, I accepted my fate and learned my lesson: choose your enemies wisely! Which brings me to....
I will eventually try out all the enemies, no doubt, but given my limited playing time, I'm hoping someone can give me a bit of a spoiler about the choices. From what I can see, there are a lot of benefits to taking the son of Valind--better ability to operate during the Dark, plus most of the time you can beat the ice demons off and gain in clan magic, with the times you loose being comparable to the effects of a highly effective raid.
The trolls seem fairly neutral as an enemy. I'm not aware of any benefits from having them as your enemy, but their raids seem much like any other raiding force, and if you have solid defences and focus on killing them, they are quite manageable, albeit the frequency of their raids can be annoying. You don't get as much of a magic point boost from defeating their normal raids, but summons of evil then trouncing them still seems good for a small boost.
The beastfolk are a problem, in that the ducks are right there, but you will be crushed if you go after them too aggresively. There may be a way to get rid of them and survive to tell the tail, but obviously it isn't easy. On the other hand, if you ignore them, you risk ticking off your ancestors. It seems to me this is a VERY difficult enemy to handle.
What about the others? Praxians you obviously can't avoid coming into contact with, and are a dangerous foe, but you should be able to avoid meeting them during those most vulnerable first years simply by exploring elsewhere. How manageable are their eventual raids?
What about the others? (What form does the enemity of the lord of the Salty Sea take anyway?) Does any of the others have benefits like the son of Valind has?
Finally, yes, I know, I'm requesting a spoiler. There is a good reason for that. I like to play a story I'm interested in, so I like to structure a tribe that both has a back story in my mind, and that has an interesting conflicts in the game, but at a level that I'm ready to deal with. (i.e. someday I'll come back to the beast people....but not until I'm wiser in the orlanthi way of thinking.)
Thanks in advance;
--Bryan
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