Re: and the poor get poorer

From: Bryan Thexton <bethexton_at_...>
Date: Fri, 12 May 2000 07:35:04 -0700 (PDT)

I seem to consistently get the "sacrifice to Vinga before going exploring" sacred time message in the first few years. I know it is to some degree random, but like I said, it keeps coming up, and I've learned from experience NOT to ignore it. For this clan it came up in the first year, which was extra annoying. Perhaps I should have just skipped exploring that year, with everything else there is to do *shrug*
>
> Yes, Silver Tongue is very important to getting
> yourself established.
> Especially in those 'how many feuds? augh!'
> moments.> Likewise, I've
> found that "skirmish/kill" is the best all-round
> defensive

I find the problem with going for one specific blessing from gods that offer a variety is that it often takes a number of actions and quite a lot of goods to get what you want. i.e. if you want silvertongue, the odds are good you will get spare grain, market, and the secrets of Issaries quest first :-/ Of course, you can play the "save and restore" game until you get the blessing you want, but I prefer not to do that.
>
> I will increase the numbert of food blessings over
> the course of the
> game, but only have one at start. The extra food
> comes in handy.
>

Again, circustances sometimes force your hand. We started off without a leader who could tell the difference between barley and broccoli this game, and I did notice that our harvests were more marginal than usual. We wanted thunderstone in place, and couldn't affort and Orlanth temple, so we were going to have to drop rain, which meant we desperately needed something else in place....I've had other clans that could bring grain forth from bare rock, allowing me to severely neglect crops blessings for quite a while.

> > strategy (although the Horse Spawn still kick your
> ass for quite a while).
>
> Skirmish/Drive Away works well against the Spawn. I
> think Skirmish is
> the best option against them. And stakes are
> incredibly effective, as
> is getting Elmal's help.

I don't find the horse spawn particularly awful to fight, they achieve importance only because we see them pretty much every year and they always come with a good sized force. I agree skirmish works well, especially since that sometimes avoids a battle altogether, but I find manouevre and charge can both work well when your combat magic is strong. In particular, I think they give a better chance of capturing horses, which is a useful thing.
>
> > Likewise, I've found that it's worth the
> diminishing returns to have "too
> > many" crafters.
>
> Hmmm. I uusally let the number drift upwards but
> don't make any
> especial efforts to "over-clock" the crafters.
> Usually I have a problem
> with population at the start, especially with the
> large number of
> hunters required by the Skirmish/Kill

hmmm, another factor here in the skirmish/kill option is that if you elect to start with a smaller tula, you can't support so many hunters. By and large I find the second largest starting tula to be the easiest choice, but I often choose otherwise based on the backstory of the clan that I have in my head.
>
> > If I've got a sacrifice to do, I will look to
> Issaries before Lhankor
> > Mhy, before Orlanth, before Humakt, before Urox,
> before Chalana Arroy,
> > before Vinga.
> >

Hmmm, usually I put Odayla high on my priority list, both to improve my skirmishers and to provide a stable food source to help balance out crop swings. I'm often forced to build a chalana arroy or barntar shrine early on just to keep the fields plowed. Otherwise, my choice tends to depend on
circumstance--sacred time predictions, what myths we are trying to learn, where we seem to have problems. (frex, we traded away blackbull while performing the Issaries quest early in this game, so built an Uralda shrine earlier than normal to help our calving as our herds were already small).

Normally I have lhankor my quite low on my priority list--what blessing do you find so important that you put him second on your list?

--Bryan



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