Long Term Planning
I wanted to see what everyone thinks of our long-term plans. Currently we don't see a way of getting back to our homeland as such it seems reasonable to assume that we are trying to create a place for our Dawi to prosper for many generations to come. In my mind this includes the following:
- Food & Shelter
- Safety
- Production & Research
- Trade
Food and Shelter
Food and shelter seems fairly easy and we have most of this in place and we will add more as we gain more people. Here we should make a plan to diversify our food-sources so that we are not at risk in case of plagues or droughts. We should create some way of storing water as well. Currently we have or are building:
- Western Extensive Farms (Noldor Vegetables) *
- Eastern Extensive Farms (Dawi Grain) (Maybe we can rotate Dawi and Noldor Crops here?)
- Northern Goatherd
- Orchard *
- Guest Shelter in Kazad Urbaz *
- Guest Housing in Surface Hold *
- Riding Grounds in Kazad Urbaz *
- Stables in Surface Hold *
- Crop Storehouse in Surface Hold
- Ale Storehouse in Surface Hold
- Sulphur Storehall in West Hold *
- Under- Cropstorehall in Nothern Peak Underhall (Tear down and create Underway Hub?)
We need to have a look at our storage and move it around a bit to make the best use of the space we have and to have the storehalls close to our resources.
Safety
Safety can be split up into three main branches.
- Armies
- Fortifications
- Force-Multipliers
In regards to armies our main goal will be to increase the amount of able-bodied Dawi and to equip them, this we will be able to do once we can smelt our iron and have our Runelord work his Runes.
In regards to fortifications we already have quite a lot but we are missing artillery and ideally more big runes, this should be our primary goal once we have our Engineer Hall, in part as a normal defense but primarily as dragon-defense. I would like to see a barracks and armory in every Hold to make sure we can react to a threat from any direction and can fall back to any position in the Karak. We should also look into creating a safe route to any outposts we create like the Sulphur-Outpost, for example beacons like the beacons of Gondor and regular checkpoints. This would not only protect us but also enable a safe route for trade. Maybe look into creating an underway that can be used as an escape route. Currently we need an armory and barracks in Kazad Urbaz and the West Peak. Ideally in the Surface Hold as well but I don't think we have room.
Force-Multipliers is where we can really shine, we have access to things this world has never seen in the form of our Runes and Gunpowder. It is imperative that these secrets do not fall into the wrong hands. Can you imagine an army of Orcs with guns or what Sauron could do with perverted Dawi Runes? It would spell our doom for sure. As such I propose that we never trade these technologies but to our most trusted allies and only if there is no other alternative. We should focus our research and production to create static defenses with Runes and gunpowder first before we equip our throngs so as to minimize the risk of these technologies falling into the wrong hands.
Production & Research
We are well on our way here, we are creating many of the halls we need and we mostly lack basic resources like iron or wood but we are working on that. Once we have a steady supply of resources we can work on advanced arms, and once we have more Runesmith apprentices we can work on creating more runes/rune-combinations.
My main proposal here is that we diversify our holds, create a theme for each hold. For Example: The Western Hold is quickly becoming our hub for Engineering and Guns, we could probably move our workshop, smelting and forging here as well. The main risks of doing this would be that in case we loose on hold to an enemy it could cripple our economy/production capability. It could also create tensions and groupings among our clans but since we are the only Dawi here I see this as a small risk.
If we decide to separate the holds by theme, I propose an additional vote
@Warkeymon to decide what goes in which hold.
I also suggest we move the housing of each clan to the respective holds as well as having some food/water storage and a tavern in each hold.
Trade
This is also well on its way, but I suggest doing more work in Kazad Urbaz to create a flourishing hub of trade. My main goal here is what I already described in "Safety", create a safe route where merchants can travel that goes through our hold, we can thereby lure traders to us that originally want to trade somewhere else simply because the safe roads go by our holds.
Conclusion
My main conclusion is this:
- Separate holds by theme
- Guard or force-multipliers
- Focus on setting up artillery and big runes to guard against dragons
- Move storage to make the best use of our space
- Create a safe route for trade and our outposts
- Make a list of halls that we want in every hold
I was going to suggest an underway, but i thought you'd think I was mocking you.
Digging an underway, even a tiny one, over several hundred miles with a few hundred dwarfs is not feasible though:
Assume a dwarf walks 3 miles an hour for 10 hours a day, seven days a week, for three weeks (several weeks). That's 630 miles.
Haha I wouldn't think you were mocking me but yeah, once you put it that way it's clear it's too big an undertaking now, we will have to revisit it in the future.
