> > 8) We've managed to get our heads around many things - but we haven't
> > gotten to taking thralls yet. Also, at one point, Corinne got sick of
> > pounding on the Whipping-Boy Clan, and insisted we make peace. Those were,
> > however, our ancestral enemies... and after a pointed visit from our
> > ancestors, we concluded maybe we'd better go thump the Ancient Enemy some
> > more. 8)
>
> Eh? Did I miss something here? How can you have an ancestral enemy
> that
>you can find? Unless...oy. You're not beating up the ducks, are
>you? Because
>that can have really bad consequences down the road, from what I've heard -
>their cousins may decide to lay waste to your tula, and if so, they're nearly
>unstoppable.
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.
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!
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.
> > We've now seen the bootstrap this can provide - pretty impressive.
> >
> > Thank you for the other notes!!
>
> You're welcome. This is an interesting game in that it can spawn
> its own
>mythology - since there are so many correlated factors, people will begin
>to 'see' correlations that aren't there - I'm probably guilty of that
>myself.
>Then you see two people arguing over whether it's better to hero-quest in the
>fall or the winter, raid in the summer or the storm season - that's actually
>quite realistic. But a little frustrating!
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.
> > > Oh, I see. You don't need to send an Orlanthi; just someone
> > >with high combat and leadership. And actually, leadership isn't too
> > >important; if you wait for Ernalda to bring the regalia (this is
> > >recommended anyways, as I've never seen it fail and it's what the
> > >legend suggests) all you really need to do is lead the battle.
> >
> > Actually, we didn't have *anybody* with a chance at the time. However,
> > Orlanth's Rattle and the Lankor My HQ seemed to pay off in spades - we got
> > a really talented batch of youngsters a bit later.
>
> Orlanth's Rattle is one of the very few "Pay anything for this"
> treasures
>in the game for me. (Another is the Shifting Statue, and the Scarf of the
>Seven Somethings, and Ernalda's Oven) It's just so useful - and honestly,
>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(
> > So far, we've tended to spend the first year getting affairs in order -
> > mostly building defences and shrines, sending out explorations of the Tula,
> > and setting up trade links. Then we try to make peace with everybody but
> > the Ancient Enemy. By beating up on the Ancient Enemy a lot, eventually
> > they are easy to beat - which means we can slack off on the raids, but
> > still be likely to win raids we want or have to make.
>
> I take it you're talking about the ducks? I usually pick the
> Praxians as
>my ancient enemy - I need to keep my defences up, but they've never been a
>credible threat otherwise. In comparison to the damage the killing
>winters or
>floods can do, I see this as a bargain. I'm also a little too tender-hearted
>to want to go hunting elves or ducks.
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.)
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)
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(
> > > As far as I'm aware, you lose a single warrior (carl or
> > >cottar), not a weaponthane or noble. I don't mind the Raven Banner as
> > >much as the ones that can disappear after use, such as the Burning
> > >Standard.
> >
> > OK. We'll have to be less cowardly next time. 8)
>
> Note the 'as far as I'm aware' part - but the few times I have used the
>standard, I haven't lost anybody named. I found that it was only really
>worth
>it when I thought I'd lose the battle - such as the (rare) times when someone
>gets past my patrols and ends up with 150 mounted warriors against my 20
>thanes
>and 70 warriors. At that point, sacrificing one (brave) man is a worthy
>cause
>to save the lives of dozens.
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) ]
Powered by hypermail