Re: Re: Advice for a Balanced Clan

From: Bryan Thexton <bethexton_at_...>
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 09:50:07 -0800 (PST)


I've been there, everything looks good, then it all starts to spiral out of control.

First of all, check your patrols. Try to increase your outer patrols, so that you'll catch more of the cattle raids. Also, make sure you have as many hunters as your wild lands can support, as I think they also help spot raids. Also make sure you have enough weaponthanes, when you go to the recruiting screen your ring will tell you if they think you need more or not.

Second, it sounds like you need more combat help. How good in combat is your war leader? If you just lost your best fighter sometimes that can be a problem, but do make sure that you have one of your best on the ring. After that, sacrifice to Humakt, pretty much any of his blessings (except oath) will help you in combat, and should even things up a bit once you build a shrine. After that, I strongly suggest trying to get Odayla's sureshot blessing supported by a shrine, as with that and thunderstone active you can choose kill as many as possible/skirmish most times that you are attacked and do quite well.

I've found the two best ways to get out of cow problems are lots of cattle raids (much safer than full raids, and give you as much of what you really care about), and the Ernalda heroquest. That is right, Ernalda, not Uralda. I find Ernalda's quest to make the cattle healthier seems to have great long term benefits, so you might want to see if you can do that in another year or so (especially since you've managed the quest succesfully once). In the short term, Barntar's plowsong ritual will help make your oxen able to plow more.

Who is your ancient enemy? If it is the powers of cold, try cattle raiding in dark season, you'll make it through the snow more often than not, and when you do your chance of getting caught seems lower (nobody expects cattle raids in dark season?) Further, if you make it through the snow your magic will increase (although if the winter turns you back your magic will take a hit).

To keep from going broke on goods, you need to set up trade agreements.  These are easier when your crafters are making interesting goods. So make sure you are exploring your tula, then going to the crafter screen and moving them from basic goods to iron, amulets, jewelry, and so on. Then (with silvertongue in place) set up another trade route or two. This will make your market more profitable, and will let you fully support more crafters. Besides that, also getting the market blessing locked in with a temple helps quite a bit, but first you need the 50 goods to make a temple.

Don't ignore treasures! Keep exploring and you will probably find one or two, and if they aren't too helpful consider trading them away. Also Blacktail the Bull won't live forever (sadly!), so you might consider trading or giving him away soon (he is a good way to end a feud, otherwise you can try selling him). Also, try and get the dragon newt statue from up in the dragonnewt wilds (explore to the north-north-west of the settled lands), it seems to subtly help in everything you do, I consider getting it one of the most important things you can do early on.

Speaking of trade, your crops should be really good for the next few years (there is a general three year benefit to the Ernalda quest that helps crops, plus you took that as the long term benefit), so you'll be able to trade food for some of whatever else you need. Note that besides improving the health of your cows, you can also use the Ernalda quest to get a treasure (That can be traded of course), or to make peace with the elves (and they'll give you some presents for your pains), so you can also use it to help your wealth in those ways.

Phew, OK, I think that is about all of my best early game tips.

Oh yes: wheat gives more than barley, gives more than rye. However they follow the inverse for how hardy they are--rye is the most reliable, wheat the most fickle. So in bad crop years plant mostly rye, in good crop years up the amount of wheat that you grow. Also your sacred times crop magic works most reliably if you plant some of each, and barley has the bonusses that it gets the most benefit out of the bless crops blessing from Ernalda, and it is also used to make beer (keeping your people happy) so it is best to grow some extra of it. In normal years I tend to grow 20-25% rye, 40-45% barley, and 30-35% wheat, but I know other people use different ratios.

--Bryan


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