Cult Creator - The Pilgrims Journey

karmaoa said:

that I'm not sure what this is. Is it shaped like a lizard? A cuirass made for a lizard? Made out of a lizard?

Huh, so every city has it's own Adventurer Guild, instead of there being one big Adventurer Guild.

And the Engine isn't dead. Wonderful.

@HeroCooky A few questions.
1. If we take Seek and Train Volunteers can they finish training in one turn?
2. Would our volunteers get the bonus from Build A Training Field if we finish it on the same turn we do Seek and Train Volunteers?
3. Would our volunteers get an advantage if we research Firebombs?
3. Could we use Eureka! (Write-In) to research better weapons? Crossbows, specialized swords, smoke bombs?
4. Would getting equipment for our volunteers be cheaper if we mine iron and had the Blacksmiths Abode?
5. Would our volunteers get a bonus from War Lessons?
6. Could we use Buying Stuff from the Herbalists to get our volunteers some medical supplies?
7. Could we give the volunteers extra equipment if we finish the action this turn?

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

A. It is armor for a war-lizard.
B. The Adventurer Guild has local branches in every city, independent, but linked to the main hall in the capital.
C. It is dead. All flesh was burned to ashes, the metal has been melted into slag, and both have been buried deeply.

1. Yes. If you succeed, you can spend the next turn training them further, to increase their survival chances.
2. Only for this war. Though you will have an option to turn the survivors (if there are any) into a 3/6 Unit if you do.
3.a. Yes. Lobbing liquid flame at someone trying to murder you is very conductive towards your survival.
3.b. As long as you can justify how a Pilgrim got the idea, anything goes. Though no coil-/railguns, you barely have an idea what the concept of guns is. For now.
4. Yes. Less so for the Camo-Cloaks, but still a reduction.
5. Yes.
6. Yes.
7. Yes.

RebelYell said:

Wonderfull Marty has a Yandere and it looks like she's holding an axe with Selen's name on it

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Then she's probably gonna wind up with Martyris's spear through her 'noggin'.

EyeOfSauron said:

Or she might try for a threesome.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Most likely not gonna happen. If she'd wanted a three-way, then she should've either not attempted to drug and rape Martyris (or at least taken his newfound poison resistance into account and brought in someone else).

Also, HOLY SH*T are Martyris and Selene head-over-heels for each other!

martyris: ''great,the crazy one likes me''

i love the idea of strengthening our bonds with the mercenaries and heroes guilds
nothing like an individualistic yet noble ideology for the free swords

@HeroCooky A few questions:
1. Are we able to apply for another loan from the merchants or do we need to wait for the existing one to be repaid first?
2. Can we stretch out paying for the volunteer's equipment over two turns? I.e. build Armored Camo-Cloaks for half of the group this turn, then build cloaks for the rest of the group next turn?
3. Would House Mirn be able to assist with training our volunteers if we contacted them? For example by providing temporary usage of their facilities instead of us building our own training field?
4. Is the expedition action locked on preparing the existing expedition, or can we spend it on something else this turn?

[ ] Plan Training and Income
-[ ] (Faith) Of Books And Pilgrims
-[ ] (Diplomacy) Get The Permit
-[ ] (Martial) Seek and Train Volunteers - (Choose Equipment)
--[ ] Equipment: Basic Melee, Basic Ranged, Armored Camo-Cloaks
--[ ] Delay supplying half the Armored Camo-Cloaks to next turn
-[ ] (Learning) Firebombs - (Weapons/Chemicals)
-[ ] (Exploration) Continue expedition prep
-[ ] (Tree of Knowledge) Daycare
-[ ] (Tree of Knowledge) Digging Holes - Jewel
-[ ] (Personal) Too Much To Do - (Tree of Knowledge)
--[ ] A Farm For Starters - (Ashleaf Trees - Extremely Fertile Farmland)
-[ ] (Personal) Contact House Mirn and ask for help with training our volunteers
-[ ] (Personal) Lead By Example
--[ ] Seek and Train Volunteers
-[ ] Merchants - (All Are Free Actions)
--[ ] Buying Goods In Bulk - Storerooms
--[ ] Selling Artifacts - Lizard Cuirass

We're currently earning about 8-9 materials per turn on average. The Jewel mine yields (3d4+8) which averages out to about 15.5 materials per turn. This would nearly triple our income so I think it's vital that we build it as quickly as possible.

EyeOfSauron said:

-[] Merchants - (All Are Free Actions)
--[] Selling Artifacts(Parfume, Glaive, Destroyed Crossbow, Rusted "RIOT" Shield, Serrated Ax, Reinforced Shield, Burnt Breastplate-Schematic, Lizard Cuirass)

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

I'm not sure about selling the crossbow and both shields. The crossbow is our only ranged weapon artifact. Having at least one shield artifact would be useful if we try to research better shields.
The body armor and melee weapons don't matter as much since Armored Camo-Cloaks are a reasonable substitute for the former, and we'd still have a rare melee weapon (Armor Piercing Ax) in storage.

HeroCooky said:

A. It is armor for a war-lizard.
B. The Adventurer Guild has local branches in every city, independent, but linked to the main hall in the capital.
C. It is dead. All flesh was burned to ashes, the metal has been melted into slag, and both have been buried deeply.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

... A war-lizard. What kind of monstrosity was that, that they used it alongside Knights and Walkers!?
Anyway, if the Plague Engine is dead it's probably some other machine in the ruins. Maybe whatever the Plage Engine tried to reach in the Pit?

1. Yes. If you succeed, you can spend the next turn training them further, to increase their survival chances.
2. Only for this war. Though you will have an option to turn the survivors (if there are any) into a 3/6 Unit if you do.
3.a. Yes. Lobbing liquid flame at someone trying to murder you is very conductive towards your survival.
3.b. As long as you can justify how a Pilgrim got the idea, anything goes. Though no coil-/railguns, you barely have an idea what the concept of guns is. For now.
4. Yes. Less so for the Camo-Cloaks, but still a reduction.
5. Yes.
6. Yes.
7. Yes.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Ugh, I screwed up the numbering.

It sounds like we could stack quite a few bonuses on our volunteers. While Daycare and Beautification would be nice, they only save us 2% Piety this turn. Given the example of possible Piety loss by events we have from the Mutated children(-29%), letting the volunteers take heavy casualties or even worse, losing them all, would probably be worse and we should do whatever we can to avoid that.
Although; the other religions probably have special rules to prevent Piety loss from military casualties. It would fit with how they don't spend many resources on training their volunteers and with what we saw in the Salvation Lost, Salvation Found Sidestory.

@HeroCooky 3b was more a question because the Military tab lists slings/bows as Basic Ranged, so I'm curious if we have to research crossbows to get them.
1. Also, could we research smoke bombs based on Firebombs? Instead of causing fire, they would cause a huge smoke cloud, allowing our scouts to escape.
1.a. If we can research smoke bombs, can we do that now or would we first need to develop Firebombs?
2. Would our volunteers get the casualty reduction from Bloodbark if we plant it this turn?

Anyway, I think we should focus on getting as many bonuses for our volunteers as possible. That way we can avoid any Piety loss from casualties, avoid the Goodwill cost for more Units, and can make a Unit with the Training level: Trained out of the survivors. We also need a better income stream to finance stuff like We Are One People!, in the future.


[] Plan: Military preparations
-[] Of Books And Pilgrims
-[] Get The Permit
-[] Seek and Train Volunteers - (Basic Melee/Basic Ranged for training, other equipment next turn)(1.1 Materials)
-[] Firebombs (1 Material)(Parfume +5 to Chemicals)
--[] Smoky Sneaking (1 Material)
---[] +5FF
-[] Prepare an Expedition (WO-04)(Turns 3)(House Mirn support: N)
-[] Digging Holes - (Jewel)(4 Materials)
-[] A Farm For Starters - (Fertile Farmland) - (Bloodbark)(8 Materials)
-[] Merchants - (All Are Free Actions)
--[] Selling Artifacts(Shattered Robotic Arm, Lizard Cuirass)(+7.57 Materials)
-[] Too Much To Do - (Build A Training Field - (Basic))(5 Materials)
-[] Too Much To Do - (A Bloody Mess)(Serrated Ax)
-[] Too Much To Do - (Digging Holes - (Silver))(4 Materials)

Ok, this should get as many bonuses for our volunteers as possible. The Ashleaf Trees and mines should also give us more Materials, which is important because the turn after the volunteers leave we have to repay the Merchants. I will probably switch (Digging Holes - (Iron) for (Digging Holes - (Jewel) if we don't research new melee or ranged weapons. What we have is so cheap that we don't need the extra price reduction from the ironmine.

I might switch Digging Holes - (Silver) for a Learning Action, depending on what HeroCooky says about the research projects. Silver would be nice because of the Medikits, but I think we could also get them from the Herbalists.
Learning Actions depends on what we want our volunteers to do. Firebombs and smoke bombs would be great for saboteurs, while better weapons would be more suited to ambushers, the crossbow, in particular, would be great for ambushing people.

I might also switch a few things, depending on the answers to Bomrek's questions.

Edit: Switched (Digging Holes - (Iron)) for a Learning action (A Bloody Mess). Next turn we can then get the crossbows and smoke bombs.
Edit2: Switched the Ashleaf Trees for the Jewel mine. That should give us enough Material to buy everything we need next turn. I also added one more Artefact to be sold and one Artefact+our Faithful to boost our Learning action.

Bomrek said:

@HeroCooky A few questions:
1. Are we able to apply for another loan from the merchants or do we need to wait for the existing one to be repaid first?
2. Can we stretch out paying for the volunteer's equipment over two turns? I.e. build Armored Camo-Cloaks for half of the group this turn, then build cloaks for the rest of the group next turn?
3. Would House Mirn be able to assist with training our volunteers if we contacted them? For example by providing temporary usage of their facilities instead of us building our own training field?
4. Is the expedition action locked on preparing the existing expedition, or can we spend it on something else this turn?

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

karmaoa said:

@HeroCooky 3b was more a question because the Military tab lists slings/bows as Basic Ranged, so I'm curious if we have to research crossbows to get them.
1. Also, could we research smoke bombs based on Firebombs? Instead of causing fire, they would cause a huge smoke cloud, allowing our scouts to escape.
1.a. If we can research smoke bombs, can we do that now or would we first need to develop Firebombs?
2. Would our volunteers get the casualty reduction from Bloodbark if we plant it this turn?

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

@Bomrek

1. Yes, though your interes-rate would go up to 50% due to the outstanding loan.
2. Yes.
3. No. House Mirn may think you are valuable, but your relationship with them is still too young and weak for them to consider supporting you in military matters.
4. Locked on organizing the expedition.

@karmaoa

I am unsure what you are asking about, but if you mean getting access to crossbows, then yes, you have to research them. Doing so will be easier if you have bought a working example from either the merchants or the military.
1. Yes. Will add that once i am home.
1.a. Doing it now would raise the DC to 50 due to the time-crunch. Doing it next turn will be easier since you will have experience with such a weapon/equipment.
2. Yes. Bloodbark will be provided by the military, though not enough of it to matter.

Smokebomb option now added.

HeroCooky said:

I am unsure what you are asking about, but if you mean getting access to crossbows, then yes, you have to research them.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I meant do we have to research them if we want to equip our volunteers with them. But that clears it up, thanks.

HeroCooky said:

Doing so will be easier if you have bought a working example from either the merchants or the military.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Would a working example that we bought count as a separate bonus from the broken Artefact Crossbow or can we get only the bonus from one crossbow?

Anyway, so we need our own training field, want to plant some Bloodbark to reduce our casualties, and we have to decide on how we want to equip our troops.
The only thing we could make, right now, that we can't replace with something better soon are the Armored Camo-Cloaks.

Basic melee weapons could be replaced with serrated axes if we use the Artefact to research them. Maybe even armor-piercing axes, but that's something for dedicated melee fighters. If our stealth focused troops have to fight heavily armored enemies in melee something went wrong anyway.

Basic ranged weapons could be repaced with crossbows if we buy one or use the broken Artefact one we have, to research them. They could be useful for ambushes because they can be loaded beforehand and are pretty precise.

The Flamebombs and smoke bombs would be useful for sabotage and escape.

We could get all of that if we spend two actions researching them this turn and two next turn, + saving some Material to buy/make stuff. That means either giving up the iron- or silvermine.
The iron mine would make the equipment cheaper, but we would need to get the blacksmith next turn.
The silver mine would get us more material and Medikits; another bonus against casualties.
The Jewel mine would get us tons of material to pay stuff, but that's just 6 materials more than the silver mine without any bonus we can use right now.

Yeah, I think I'm going to replace the iron mine with a Learning action to get serrated axes as melee equipment.

@HeroCooky Is there a mechanical difference between serrated axes and armor-piercing axes? And do we know which would be more useful while fighting against Starlight's standard troops?

Also, would these two actions work as a write-in for Learning actions?

[ ] A Bloody Mess
While simple melee weapons are enough for peace times and the occasional mutant, war requires better weapons. Use the Serrated Ax the Pilgrims found in the Forest of Rust to develop better axes for your troops.

[ ] Get To The Point
The best-ranged weapons the Pilgrims can give to their volunteers are currently bows and slings. That's enough for self-defense but not enough for a war. Use the examples of crossbows you have, to develop your own.

karmaoa said:

Would a working example that we bought count as a separate bonus from the broken Artefact Crossbow or can we get only the bonus from one crossbow?

@HeroCooky Is there a mechanical difference between serrated axes and armor-piercing axes? And do we know which would be more useful while fighting against Starlight's standard troops?

Also, would these two actions work as a write-in for Learning actions?

[ ] A Bloody Mess
While simple melee weapons are enough for peace times and the occasional mutant, war requires better weapons. Use the Serrated Ax the Pilgrims found in the Forest of Rust to develop better axes for your troops.

[ ] Get To The Point
The best-ranged weapons the Pilgrims can give to their volunteers are currently bows and slings. That's enough for self-defense but not enough for a war. Use the examples of crossbows you have, to develop your own.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

A. It would lower the DC to produce your crossbows; the Artifact would give you the bonus. Making your crossbows would be you giving them a personalized spin. Otherwise, you could buy a Units worth from the merchant/military.

B. Serrated Axes are used against biological targets, while Ap Axes against armor. Starlights forces are roughly the same as those of the empire; ultra-heavy infantry backed by chaff, with Knights giving them the breakthrough, while war-lizards are ambushing and tearing apart the rear of the enemy.

So, both, kind of. Though the serrated ax would be much more useful in most scenarios if caught by regular troops and can't escape, you are dead.

C. Added them in the new misc—research tab in learning.

HeroCooky said:

A. It would lower the DC to produce your crossbows; the Artifact would give you the bonus. Making your crossbows would be you giving them a personalized spin. Otherwise, you could buy a Units wort from the merchant/military.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

The decision if we buy them or make our own can probably wait until the next turn, but some crossbows developed for stealth could be useful. Heavy crossbows can be pretty loud.

HeroCooky said:

B. Serrated Axes are used against biological targets, while Ap Axes against armor. Starlights forces are roughly the same as those of the empire; ultra-heavy infantry backed by chaff, with Knights giving them the breakthrough, while war-lizards are ambushing and tearing apart the rear of the enemy.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Huh, so war-lizards are a thing. I wonder how the control them? Anyway, we're probably better of with the serrated axes. I think it would be best if we get them this turn because training with them will take some time.

@karmaoa The taming of war-lizards depends on whether or not they are an alpha.

If not, then the rider feeds them personally, which imprints them into the lizards mind as the alpha whose commands they follow.

If they are an alpha, the rider beats the shit out of the lizard, whereupon they (the rider) are now the alpha. The lizard is usually restrained. Usually. It should be noted that any intentional damage done to the alpha after the taming/imprinting is punishable by up to and including death. The beating is done once, and then never again, unless the rider dies.

A war-lizard is about the size of two mini-vans behind one another. An alpha is a third of that size again.

HeroCooky said:

If not, then the rider feeds them personally, which imprints them into the lizards mind as the alpha whose commands they follow.

If they are an alpha, the rider beats the shit out of the lizard, whereupon they (the rider) are now the alpha.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Sounds inefficient. If a rider dies in the field it's lizard becomes useless until you have enough time to have it imprint on someone else. Except if an alpha can control smaller lizards to some extend.
In that case, they would probably start any war with several smaller lizards with riders that work independently and then gather in packs lead by alpha's as the number of dead riders rises.

Anyway, I hope this is my last question for this plan. If we develop new weapons/equipment next turn with a Learning action, can we still equip our volunteers with that new equipment before they leave? Assuming we have enough material left, of course.
I'm thinking about getting the silver and Jewel mine this turn, then using two actions next turn to get smoke bombs + the serrated axes, and to buy enough crossbows for our new unit.

Your volunteers need three months of training to familiarize themselves with any equipment. Creating them next turn wont give you the ability to outfit them with it.

And yes, you pretty much hit the doctrine for war-lizards spot on. Though riders dying is a bit rarer than you think, seeing as they have an armor rating of 25.

I guess "any equipment" includes firebombs and smoke bombs.
It sounds like we probably want to take Firebombs+Smoky Sneaking even if it lowers the success chance to 50% because that gives our new unit two new tools. That also means we have to either decide between serrated axes and crossbows or buy crossbows to equip our volunteers.

Anything we buy can wait until the next turn, but anything we develop needs to start this turn.

Voting may now commence.

[X] Plan: Military preparations
-[X] Of Books And Pilgrims
-[X] Get The Permit
-[X] Seek and Train Volunteers - (Basic Melee/Basic Ranged for training, other equipment next turn)(1.1 Materials)
-[X] Firebombs (1 Material)(Parfume +5 to Chemicals)
--[X] Smoky Sneaking (1 Material)
---[X] +5FF
-[X] Prepare an Expedition (WO-04)(Turns 3)(House Mirn support: N)
-[X] Digging Holes - (Jewel)(4 Materials)
-[X] A Farm For Starters - (Fertile Farmland) - (Bloodbark)(8 Materials)
-[X] Merchants - (All Are Free Actions)
--[X] Selling Artifacts(Shattered Robotic Arm, Lizard Cuirass)(+7.57 Materials)
-[X] Too Much To Do - (Build A Training Field - (Basic))(5 Materials)
-[X] Too Much To Do - (A Bloody Mess)(Serrated Ax)
-[X] Too Much To Do - (Digging Holes - (Silver))(4 Materials)

Ok, I edited this a lot.
The idea is to get as many positive modifiers and casualty reducers for our volunteers as possible, so we avoid a big Piety loss from all of them dying in the war. Because of that, I focus on developing equipment (because they need 3 months to familiarize themself with it) and getting more sources of Material (so we can buy any other equipment we need next turn).

The action with the lowest success chance (50%) is the Firebombs action, which is why I stacked our Faithful and an Artefact on it.

EyeOfSauron said:

[X] Building up Connections
-[X] Of Books And Pilgrims
-[X] Get The Permit
-[X] Seek and Train Volunteers - (Choose Equipment)
Basic Melee = +0.5 Materials
Basic Ranged = +0.6 Materials
Basic Shield = +1.16 Materials
Armored Camo-Cloaks = +16.6 Materials (DC of 65 to be spotted)
-[X] Firebombs - (Weapons/Chemicals)
--[X] Smoky Sneaking
---[X] +5FF
-[X] Send Out The Scavengers To The Wounding Nightmare
-[X] A Farm For Starters - (Ashleaf Trees - Extremely Fertile Farmland)
-[X] Merchants - (All Are Free Actions)
--[X] Selling Artifacts(Parfume, Glaive, Destroyed Crossbow, Rusted "RIOT" Shield, Serrated Ax, Reinforced Shield, Burnt Breastplate-Schematic, Lizard Cuirass)
-[X] Too Much To Do - (Diplomacy)
--[X] To Bid Welcome
-[X] Too Much To Do - (Diplomacy)
--[X] A Grand Step
-[X] Too Much To Do - (Tree of Knowledge)
--[X] Daycare

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

The Archeology action is locked to preparing the expedition.

[X] Plan: Military preparations

I tried updating my plan to include the new weapon research options, but ended up with one quite similar to karmaoa's. As such I'm voting for his plan instead of proposing a variation on it.

[X] Plan: Military preparations

This plan has most of what I want, so I'll support it.

Honestly, I would like to take Send Out The Scavengers To The Wounding Nightmare. As a Personal action, we would even get a 15+ bonus so the risk is very small. But it would take a Personal action and I don't think 1d3 Military Artefacts, with another dice roll deciding the quality, is worth it.

The silver mine gets us medikits and 3d4+2 Materials per turn.
We probably could get medikits from the Herbalists too but 3d4+2 Materials are a lot of Materials. With the Jewel mine, we get 6d4+10 Materials every turn. With an average of 2 for 1d4 that would be 22 Materials -2 Upkeep= 20 Materials each turn.
That alone is enough to buy the Armored Camo-Cloaks, with 3.4 Materials left over.

Then we have the Learning action, A Bloody Mess.
Our volunteers need a turn to familiarize themself with any equipment, so if we want to give them something we developed we need to research that now. We could send them off with basic melee weapons but that would leave them with limited options if they have to fight the enemy meatshields. This would be a shame because with the better training, the extra damage against biological targets, the bonus from War Lessons, and the free attack from the Camo-Cloaks if they are stealthy enough, they could do a surprising amount of damage.
Of course, they could meet some heavily armored enemies, but that's what the crossbows and the smoke bombs/Firebombs are for.

Last we have the basic training field.
That is important because it changes our volunteers from Untrained(-10) to Militia(-5). Reducing the malus on every dice roll they take from -10 to -5 could be pretty important, especially if the bulk of the enemy army is Untrained(-10).

I guess I could switch the training field into the Military action and wait with recruitment until next turn, but that would leave the volunteers with only one turn to train and the training field would be finished sometime into that turn. I don't think we would get the training bonus with that.

So yeah, I don't think I can free up a Personal action during this turn. We have to hope we can still loot the battlefield next turn.

Voting is now closed.

Inserted tally

I need 5 1d100 for your Actions with a DC of:
50
70, rolled with a +10
65
50, rolled with a +5
75

The first failure is re-rolled
All others have a DC of 50 for Goodwill roll.

Further Rolls:

Hidden:
1d100

Piety:
1d6-2

Faithful:
(1d100) DC of 61

Income:
3d4+1

The first rolls that are complete are taken as official.
I will roll on the 08.07.20 at 17:00 CET if there are no other rolls present.

Here you go