> 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.
Yes, I only recently figured out you need to manually replace patrols after raiding...
> 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.
We lost our primo-Excellent warleader Vingan to the Storm Tribe HQ.
Now we have an Orlanth-worshippier, VG Combat, VG Leadership.
He's getting on in years, though...
I'll look into Sureshot. It would complement Thunderstone nicely!
> 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.
I've got plowsong going. I think I need more farmers as well... Ugh... I'll look into some Dark cattle raids. The ice ancient enemy is who we chose.
> 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.
We've got I think 4 trading partners. We explored the tula 3 or 4 times, and now have access to greenware, and amulets. We had another trading partner after a successful mission, but then we lost them due to our 'Trading magic not being strong enough'. How do you strengthen your trade magic?
> 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.
We sold Blacktail, but he then died and the farmer came to demand we give him back his price. We told him to take a hike, as our Animal expert said the bull was healthy when he left. Ah, clan tension...
I'll give a look in the NW. We did lose our primo Bargainer to an exploration, sadly... We'll miss Garneneva and her cool hat.
> 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.
Ooooh, groovy. We'll give it a go!
> 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.
Ah, great! Thanks for explaining this! I've printed out your post. Armed with this knowledge from foreign clans, we will forge ahead. Consider us to owe you a favor.
Darren, Silvereel Clan.
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