I think there might have been one brief thread on
it....I'll look later to see if I still have anything
saved from it.
>
> How do people tend to open the game to get into a
> strong position?
I generally play on hard, I haven't started all that many clans (I mostly play during my lunch hour at work, so go through only a few years per week), and generally choose a different clan configuration each time, so I don't have a hard and fast plan, but....
I think the strongest openning is the skirmisher plan. Choose to start with plenty of land. Have your earliest event be the 100 day hunt, so you know the tracking blessing, worship Orlanth or build a shrine to him (or both) so you start with one of his blessings.
Then, assuming you have a competent fighter on the ring so there is no screaming need to re-arrange it (and with this event you probably do have a decent fighter), your first couple of moves are to increase your hunters to what your wildlands will support, and recruit some more weaponthanes. From here on, pretty much any time you fight choose skirmish.
Oh, also as "free" adjustments, increase your patrols and balance your crops a bit (bring rye to at least 20%)
Then go out and learn sure-shot (max of two sacrifices), and build a shrine to lock it in. Then work on getting thunder-stone. Your skirmishing forces become pretty lethal at this point (sure shot will also improve your hunting yields, helping the food situation mildly).
Other first year things to do: build a watch-tower, go on a cattle raid, explore in the quivin mountains or dragon newt wilds, explore your own tula (I normally do this one in Dark season).
This basic starting strategy seems to reliably get me tribe formation faster than anything else I've tried.
Some alternate starts that I found worked fairly well: -worship Elmal, have the ernalda (magic) event, stuck with Elmal after the dawn. You start with an Elmal temple (with Sun and Steadfast, both very useful blessings), and a decent chance of Elmal worshipper with good combat and magic, hence a good shot at performing the Elmal quest early on. Getting Elmal's help when you are raided, and having the steadfast blessing, is better than all the fortifications you could ever build (although for kicks, once your fortifications are pretty solid, repeat the quest to strengthen your fortifications. It is nice knowing you can raid with almost no fear of retaliation). The Sun blessing should keep your food adequate until you get more agricultural blessings working. -having the salty lord of the sea as our ancient enemy, and learning summons of evil (max two sacrifices, don't need a chapel). Sure that first flood pummels you, but if you cut it right you can give away some food, cattle, and goods, REALLY impress your neighbours, and end your two closest feuds. You spend the next couple of years recovering, but it balances out with not getting raided so much.
Some general starting off bits:
-Always check if you have a Challana Arroy worshipper
with excellent or better magic. If so, pump
everything you can into learning the challana arroy
quest, and perform to improve relations with your
neighbours. On this list, this quest/benefit
combination has been called the "peace bomb" for good
reason.
-Generally getting a challana arroy chapel, and
knowing both curing and healing, is a good way to
avoid calamities.
-Vinga's pathfinder blessing and Maran Gor's
earthblood are both blessings that are best viewed as
investments. The earlier you get them in place, the
longer their benefit can compound. (earthblood
combined with the skirmisher start, choosing kill as
many as possible when you are attacked works quite
nicely).
-I put a really high priority on getting the dragon
newt statue.
-A couple of years with two points of magic put into
diplomacy in sacred time seems to work wonders for the
moods of most of the clans around you.
I hope that this helps a bit.
--Bryan
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