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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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This not-being-literate thing is actually really annoying, and, you know what, we can change that pretty easily.

Because tutors might charge a premium for this sort of thing, but you know who doesn't? Some army man who just got his ABC learning payed for by the Elector Count of Stirland for the express purpose of turning around and making sure that all his buddies can read too. (A simplification. You understand my intent, though.)

And then those soldiers come back home after their terms and guess who they spread the knowledge to? Their kids, because learning is a valuable skill and they can pass it on for free. And we've seen what happens when everybody gets a valuable skill; it doesn't make the skill less valuable, it makes everybody more prosperous (it makes teaching the skill less valuable, yes, but not any of what you can do with the skill).

Our enemy isn't the feasibility of the teaching itself, it's all the political opponents of the concept.
 
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Alliterate said:
We should just set up Dame Weber's School for Literacy Among Stirlands Veterans.
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An easy two-term vocational school for the budding spy! Get your certification today and enter the service of Elector Count Van Hal for the glory of Stirland.

Term 1
Basic Literacy - Reading, Writing, and Filling Out Forms ([x] Study Learning)
Undead Lore I - Wights, Wraiths, and How They Kill You ([x] Study Undead Lore)
Basic Intrigue - How To Make Friends and Gather Information ([x] Study Intrigue)
Basic Arithmetic - How To Notice If Someone Is Stealing From Stirland via Paperwork ([x] Study Stewardship)

Term 2
Ciphers And Messaging - How To Encrypt Your Reports Using Dame Weber's Recommended Romance Novel Series ([x] Study Intrigue)
Undead Lore II - Vampires and Their Agents ([x] Study Undead Lore)
Fundamentals of Stealth - Being Where They're Not Looking and Acting Like You Belong ([x] Study Intrigue)
Interrogation Essentials - Torture Really Does Work, But Usually You Don't Need It ([x] Study Intrigue)
 
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Seventeen said:
We're having so much trouble constantly with regards to literacy that it might actually be a worthwhile use of our personal funds.
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Minor problem, our boss didn't want us making more 'paper pushers'.

BoneyM said:
"Stirland can always use more people," Van Hal notes. "Altdorf is bursting at the seams with paper-pushers. Nuln, too. I'd rather import them than spend time and money making more. Anything else?"
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BoneyM said:
I'll point out that that was in the context of a school specifically for clerks and administrators.
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How much would setting up a Veterans Literacy School cost, @BoneyM ?
DarkLight140 said:
An easy two-term vocational school for the budding spy! Get your certification today and enter the service of Elector Count Van Hal for the glory of Stirland.

Term 1
Basic Literacy - Reading, Writing, and Filling Out Forms ([x] Study Learning)
Undead Lore I - Wights, Wraiths, and How They Kill You ([x] Study Undead Lore)
Basic Intrigue - How To Make Friends and Gather Information ([x] Study Intrigue)
Basic Arithmetic - How To Notice If Someone Is Stealing From Stirland via Paperwork ([x] Study Stewardship)

Term 2
Ciphers And Messaging - How To Encrypt Your Reports Using Dame Weber's Recommended Romance Novel Series ([x] Study Intrigue)
Undead Lore II - Vampires and Their Agents ([x] Study Undead Lore)
Fundamentals of Stealth - Being Where They're Not Looking and Acting Like You Belong ([x] Study Intrigue)
Interrogation Essentials - Torture Really Does Work, But Usually You Don't Need It ([x] Study Intrigue)
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Slightly more seriously, you could offer Basic Literacy/Numeracy to any and all veterans. The problem here is we can't (yet) teach many hundreds of retiring veterans, and thousands of already-retired ones, but still, go with me.
As part of that, administer some tests to identify any with an aptitude for skullduggery or intelligence gathering or [future need here], to whom you offer a more advanced curriculum and a specific posting. Others can get directed to the Watch.
 
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Angelform said:
I take it we intend to tag along on the military campaign being scheduled? If so some more sword training would not be amiss.
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Plan Constant Vigilance! and Plan We're Never Going To Get To Do Magic have both chosen that option, if you're looking for something to vote for.
Adhoc vote count started by Seventeen on Feb 12, 2018 at 3:53 PM, finished with 55 posts and 4 votes.
  • [X] Plan Constant Vigilance!
    -[X] Consolidation: You currently have a patchwork of useful contacts. Backfill so that you can rightfully claim to cover entire towns.
    -[X] Seek out a new leader for the Watch.
    -[X] Investigate the possibility of adding a River Warden branch of the Watch. (Additional)
    -[X] Expand the Watch into the Barony of Purgg.
    -[X] Expand the Watch into the rest of the County of Wurtbad.
    -[X] Formalize and organize the payments people make for the Gong Farmers to perform their service, as well as having the Watch start enforcing existing laws against dumping human waste in the street or the Stir. (Additional)
    -[X] Pretty Good Swords: You've struck up a friendship with the Champion of the Greatswords and have discovered a talent for wielding them. Continue to cultivate this.
    -[X] Enchantment: You've finally got the equipment, now you've just got to unpack it all and set up your laboratory. (NEW)
    [X][Information Network] Consolidation: You currently have a patchwork of useful contacts. Backfill so that you can rightfully claim to cover entire towns.
    [X][Stirland Watch] Hire administrators and clerks from Altdorf and Nuln.
    [X][Actions] Plan We're Never Going To Get To Do Magic
    -[X] Expand the Watch into the rest of the County of Wurtbad.
    -[X] Use a Personal Action to perform another Organizational Action; can be taken once per organization.
    --[X] Openly expand your information network into the military in the form of an Intelligence Attaché (Second Division)
    --[X] Ranald's Blessing
    -[X] Pretty Good Swords: You've struck up a friendship with the Champion of the Greatswords and have discovered a talent for wielding them. Continue to cultivate this.
    -[X] Diggy Diggy Hole, Remixed: You're getting sick of having workmen tramping in and out of your abode. Recruit an entire team and personally oversee them to clear out all of the reachable portions of the Palace-Shrine and be done with it. (-personal gold)
    -[X] Undead Research: This is Stirland. Time to bone up on your knowledge of the Undead, this time with the addition of Van Hal's personal library.
    -[X] Free Time: Snooping
    [X][Actions] Plan: The Guns of Stirland.
    -[X] Expand the Watch into the rest of the County of Wurtbad.
    -[X] Expand the Watch into the Barony of Purgg.
    -[X] In Wissenland, there are a number of techniques in use to derive saltpeter from urine. It would take a great deal more effort than selling to tanneries, but saltpeter could be exported to Nuln for fantastic profit, or used to start gunpowder production in Stirland.
    -[X] Enchantment: You've finally got the equipment, now you've just got to unpack it all and set up your laboratory. (NEW)
    -[X] Undead Research: This is Stirland. Time to bone up on your knowledge of the Undead, this time with the addition of Van Hal's personal library. (NEW-ish)
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Adhoc vote count started by Seventeen on Feb 12, 2018 at 3:54 PM, finished with 55 posts and 4 votes.
  • [X] Plan Constant Vigilance!
    -[X] Consolidation: You currently have a patchwork of useful contacts. Backfill so that you can rightfully claim to cover entire towns.
    -[X] Seek out a new leader for the Watch.
    -[X] Investigate the possibility of adding a River Warden branch of the Watch. (Additional)
    -[X] Expand the Watch into the Barony of Purgg.
    -[X] Expand the Watch into the rest of the County of Wurtbad.
    -[X] Formalize and organize the payments people make for the Gong Farmers to perform their service, as well as having the Watch start enforcing existing laws against dumping human waste in the street or the Stir. (Additional)
    -[X] Pretty Good Swords: You've struck up a friendship with the Champion of the Greatswords and have discovered a talent for wielding them. Continue to cultivate this.
    -[X] Enchantment: You've finally got the equipment, now you've just got to unpack it all and set up your laboratory. (NEW)
    [X][Information Network] Consolidation: You currently have a patchwork of useful contacts. Backfill so that you can rightfully claim to cover entire towns.
    [X][Stirland Watch] Hire administrators and clerks from Altdorf and Nuln.
    [X][Actions] Plan We're Never Going To Get To Do Magic
    -[X] Expand the Watch into the rest of the County of Wurtbad.
    -[X] Use a Personal Action to perform another Organizational Action; can be taken once per organization.
    --[X] Openly expand your information network into the military in the form of an Intelligence Attaché (Second Division)
    --[X] Ranald's Blessing
    -[X] Pretty Good Swords: You've struck up a friendship with the Champion of the Greatswords and have discovered a talent for wielding them. Continue to cultivate this.
    -[X] Diggy Diggy Hole, Remixed: You're getting sick of having workmen tramping in and out of your abode. Recruit an entire team and personally oversee them to clear out all of the reachable portions of the Palace-Shrine and be done with it. (-personal gold)
    -[X] Undead Research: This is Stirland. Time to bone up on your knowledge of the Undead, this time with the addition of Van Hal's personal library.
    -[X] Free Time: Snooping
    [X][Actions] Plan: The Guns of Stirland.
    -[X] Expand the Watch into the rest of the County of Wurtbad.
    -[X] Expand the Watch into the Barony of Purgg.
    -[X] In Wissenland, there are a number of techniques in use to derive saltpeter from urine. It would take a great deal more effort than selling to tanneries, but saltpeter could be exported to Nuln for fantastic profit, or used to start gunpowder production in Stirland.
    -[X] Enchantment: You've finally got the equipment, now you've just got to unpack it all and set up your laboratory. (NEW)
    -[X] Undead Research: This is Stirland. Time to bone up on your knowledge of the Undead, this time with the addition of Van Hal's personal library. (NEW-ish)
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Alliterate said:
How much would setting up a school cost, @BoneyM ?
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One teacher will cost 10g a turn, and will result in 20 literate and numerate graduates a turn. If you only have one you could run it out of the Information Network's townhouse, for anything larger you'll need to start thinking about premises. Scale solves itself; pick out a candidate from each class with the right personality and a good grasp of the material and you can double in size every turn.

Stirland's army is 40,000 men; posit a twenty-year tour of service and an even distribution and you get 2000 retirees per year; you can filter out those that die in service but you also have to add back on honourable discharges due to maiming and it's a wash. So if you really want to teach every single veteran literacy and numeracy on their way out, you've got 1000 a turn to take care of - fifty teachers, five hundred gold and trying to find a campus that can hold one thousand students. Hmm.

Okay, you're not going to talk a tripled budget out of Van Hal any time soon, so there's two possibilities that jump out at me:
a) Sell it as military benefits to improve recruiting, and have the army pay for the veterans to attend literacy school; it'd cost a few percent of the current army payroll to maintain and it'd theoretically mean that veterans get a leg up in society. Not only can recruiters mention it as a sweetener when trying to round up men, but you also have veterans visibly doing well in their post-military life, making the military seem a more attractive prospect.
b) Sell it to the veterans - or at least, get the payroll officer to mention it as a possibility as they're being released from service. They just got their retirement bonus, they can afford it. That cuts down your enrolment by half to two thirds right from the start, which is a shame but it leaves a much more manageable student body, and it means you're not draining Stirland's coffers to make it happen.
 
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chocolote12 said:
This not-being-literate thing is actually really annoying, and, you know what, we can change that pretty easily.

Because tutors might charge a premium for this sort of thing, but you know who doesn't? Some army man who just got his ABC learning payed for by the Elector Count of Stirland for the express purpose of turning around and making sure that all his buddies can read too. (A simplification. You understand my intent, though.)

And then those soldiers come back home after their terms and guess who they spread the knowledge to? Their kids, because learning is a valuable skill and they can pass it on for free. And we've seen what happens when everybody gets a valuable skill; it doesn't make the skill less valuable, it makes everybody more prosperous (it makes teaching the skill less valuable, yes, but not any of what you can do with the skill).

Our enemy isn't the feasibility of the teaching itself, it's all the political opponents of the concept.
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If that logic holds, and Stirland wanted to drive up enlistment, we should persuade Van Hal and Gustav to include literacy and numeracy in basic training.

Edit: Ninjaed by the QM. You could do both- recruitment tool (but we don't get access to them for decades), but retiring veterans will have missed out on that change.
 
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BoneyM said:
a) Sell it as military benefits to improve recruiting, and have the army pay for the veterans to attend literacy school; it'd cost a few percent of the current army payroll to maintain and it'd theoretically mean that veterans get a leg up in society. Not only can recruiters mention it as a sweetener when trying to round up men, but you also have veterans visibly doing well in their post-military life, making the military seem a more attractive prospect.
b) Sell it to the veterans - or at least, get the payroll officer to mention it as a possibility as they're being released from service. They just got their retirement bonus, they can afford it. That cuts down your enrolment by half to two thirds right from the start, which is a shame but it leaves a much more manageable student body, and it means you're not draining Stirland's coffers to make it happen.
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What about a half-and-half? The army picks up half the cost, and the other half from the retirement bonuses? It's more palatable to the budget than the first one, because some of the cost is passed down to the veterans, and more palatable to the troops than the second one, because it takes less of their retirement from them.

I'm sure there's a downside, but aside from something about it maybe being considered a half measure and treated accordingly nothing logical's coming up.
 
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[X][Information Network] Consolidation: You currently have a patchwork of useful contacts. Backfill so that you can rightfully claim to cover entire towns.
[X][Stirland Watch] Hire administrators and clerks from Altdorf and Nuln.
[X][Actions] Plan We're Never Going To Get To Do Magic

This is the best plan on the table right now by a significant margin. Improving our grip on our current areas is sensible, hiring administrators is essential if we don't want to be stuck managing Watch bureaucracy forever, and this puts in work toward both our Van Hal and puppetmaster directives so that everything we need to do is properly covered- which is more than any other plan currently written can say. The puppetmaster orders are important and neglecting them is simply unacceptable.

I'm not a huge fan of Diggy Diggy Hole but the logic of "don't let a bunch of peasants go mucking about in your base full of expensive equipment; instead, get the peasant work done and then use the expensive equipment" is very sound. I'm probably just bitter over the fact that setting up our home has eaten so many actions.

I would rather social someone- probably Gustav- than snoop on Van Hal, but snooping seems likely to turn up something interesting so I'm not going to fight it. (Edit: Though it occurs to me that Van Hal has a paranoid trait so there's a significant risk that he would have something in place to catch people poking about, which could end very poorly.)
 
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Seventeen said:
Plan Constant Vigilance! and Plan We're Never Going To Get To Do Magic have both chosen that option, if you're looking for something to vote for.
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Humm… on the one hand Constant Vigilance looks like it will take us down the road to a Stressed or Overworked trait. On the other… it has enchantment.
Never Going to Get To Do Magic is not getting to magic. But there is something to be said for finishing the foundation before moving to refinement. Deal breaker however is the snooping. We have no reason to snoop on our boss, no reason to think doing so will get us anything and risk much if we are discovered.

For the moment:
[X] Plan Constant Vigilance!
 
BoneyM said:
One teacher will cost 10g a turn, and every turn will result in 20 literate and numerate graduates. If you only have one you could run it out of the Information Network's townhouse, for anything larger you'll need to start thinking about premises. Scale solves itself; pick out a candidate from each class with the right personality and a good grasp of the material and you can double in size every turn.

Stirland's army is 40,000 men; posit a twenty-year tour of service and an even distribution and you get 2000 retirees per year; you can filter out those that die in service but you also have to add back on honourable discharges due to maiming and it's a wash. So if you really want to teach every single veteran literacy and numeracy on their way out, you're looking at a thousand gold a turn and trying to find a campus that can hold two thousand. Hmm.
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I think you're mixing up years and turns here?
 
DarkLight140 said:
[X][Information Network] Consolidation: You currently have a patchwork of useful contacts. Backfill so that you can rightfully claim to cover entire towns.
[X][Stirland Watch] Hire administrators and clerks from Altdorf and Nuln.
[X][Actions] Plan We're Never Going To Get To Do Magic

This is the best plan on the table right now by a significant margin. Improving our grip on our current areas is sensible, hiring administrators is essential if we don't want to be stuck managing Watch bureaucracy forever, and this puts in work toward both our Van Hal and puppetmaster directives so that everything we need to do is properly covered- which is more than any other plan currently written can say. The puppetmaster orders are important and neglecting them is simply unacceptable.

I'm not a huge fan of Diggy Diggy Hole but the logic of "don't let a bunch of peasants go mucking about in your base full of expensive equipment; instead, get the peasant work done and then use the expensive equipment" is very sound. I'm probably just bitter over the fact that setting up our home has eaten so many actions.

I would rather social someone- probably Gustav- than snoop on Van Hal, but snooping seems likely to turn up something interesting so I'm not going to fight it. (Edit: Though it occurs to me that Van Hal has a paranoid trait so there's a significant risk that he would have something in place to catch people poking about, which could end very poorly.)
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@BoneyM Did the trait used to be Paranoid, or are we all projecting? Because it's now Suspicious.

@Seventeen I'd also rather social Gustav (especially with the attache thing happening) than do the snooping. It does seem a risky abuse of hard-won trust. What are you hoping to find? I mean, the man just told us about his secret children, something only shared with (a near-paranoids) trusted allies. Rather not throw that trust away.

Otherwise, I like the plan, with much the same thoughts/provisos as darklight.
 
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Why are we even considering snooping? As far as I can tell, it's purely curiosity, which is a terrible thing to risk destroying trust over.
 
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