We now border the Southern Hill People, who seems to be a bunch of Greek(a guess) city-states. We need at least towers there.
The Highlanders are having trouble with their law. We may help them out with a salt gift, or we could instead use our King's charm offensive to prevent wars against us.
Maybe send a trade expedition to the HK and a salt gift to the SHP?
To everybody blaming observance for our new debilitating trait and demanding/hoping for an upgrade:
No.
Getting sick at the same time something else happens and blaming that something else doesn't require observance. People do it all the time with anything and everything. HK did it with their law megaproject. We happened to have a main metal action, so metal was blamed. Leave observance alone!
Observance is what our new Hero was using when she noted that MW were less sick. Observance is what we're going to need on our side to point out that working with metal doesn't get you sick the same way working with corpses does. Stop blaming the first thing you see when something goes wrong. That's what our copper-age tribe does. Be better than that.
Hello and welcome back to another episode of "zamin over-analyses everything"
[] [Main] New Settlement - Southern Shores
[] [Secondary] Copper Mine
[] [Secondary] Copper Mine X2
[] [Kick] The Garden
Provinces - Megaproject x2
Stallion Tribes - [Main] New Settlement, [Sec] Build Walls, [Sec] New Trails
The People had kicked disease in the head before, had pushed back against the demons of the underworld and the lowlands, and had struck major blows against two of their ways of plaguing humanity. As such, was it any surprise that the demons would concoct something new? Something terrible and insidious in its method of killing?
So the demons sent a cough. A painful cough that lingered and lingered, such that it could not be adequately contained by quarantine, not without crashing the economy as everyone stayed isolated from everyone else. It killed adults to be sure, their bodies sometimes wracked with coughs so potent as to break ribs, but as the disease spread through the population, the brunt of the reaping fell upon the most vulnerable, and there seemed to be no way to stop this latest iteration of a killer. Where for generations the shamans had fought to keep three out of six children alive, it was now more like two out of seven or even eight that made it to adulthood. It wasn't always the new cough, just as often it was the old familiar killers, but now there was something new that the People couldn't fight to weaken tiny bodies and leave them susceptible to something else.
So even after all our precautions, we still get hit by a plague?!
This seems to be whopping cough, which is bad because our people won't be able to develop a proper vaccine for it until much, much later on.
Where for generations the shamans had fought to keep three out of six children alive, it was now more like two out of seven or even eight that made it to adulthood. It wasn't always the new cough, just as often it was the old familiar killers, but now there was something new that the People couldn't fight to weaken tiny bodies and leave them susceptible to something else.
This part in particular makes me sad. We were doing so well, too...
As such, while the completion of the new changes to Upper Valleyhome was met with much praise over how it definitely improved things, it was ultimately still a bittersweet moment as many were left to weep at tiny graves. For Magwyna, the newest and most vigorous Artisan Chief, the opening of the gates and the flowing of water was marred by the taste of ash in her mouth from the loss of her two youngest, a rambunctious girl of seven and a bright boy of four. Her face was stone for she had already cried out her tears and needed to focus on the project that had first brought her to prominence in the first place. Work had begun when she was a child and her father a stonemason - now an elder enjoying his retirement whittling and telling new stonemasons what to do - and she had discovered a talent for organizing and directing the work. She had simply been able to see the patterns of movement among the workers, the rhythm to it all and where things got snarled and how they could be smoothed. Then she had precociously charmed her father and the other workers into following her advice, and after they started to recognize that she had good advice they had realized that they had a born administrator on their hands.
By the time of her being declared a woman she had an assignment from the Artisan Chief with royal backing to travel to the Green Hill and apprentice under the clerks and chiefs doing the process of expanding the quarry into a mine and smelting site, transforming the coloured stones into shining copper and poisonous wastes. She had thrived there and got the mine up and running early, and had also met her husband Yldod, a potter, there, and had soon found herself sent on to the new Southshore settlement, where they not only needed a skilled admin but someone who could handle the fact that there were people from the Southern Hill Tribes - now being called the Hathatyn after the city that seemed dominant in the overall region, Hathaya - who were also starting to settle the region. Through adroit diplomacy she had managed to keep the fighting to a minimum; mostly just interpersonal things that would have happened regardless of language or beliefs, but she kept it from spiraling out of control into anything larger conflicts, for the time being.
And then she had returned to the place of her birth to see the project coming to fruition, and for the new disease to begin its outbreak. If only the gardens could help with the coughing plague, but as it was they "merely" helped prevent other infections and gave people a greater chance of fighting it off without picking up something else along the way. It was a remarkable piece of work too, consisting of both an elevated ramp and watertight sections of brickwork that allowed the water to move uphill. The outflow was at the top of the hill, and then it cascaded down through more canals to water the whole city, including large areas with trees and bushes to provide shade and bring healthy spirits of nature into the city. Waste water was also carried away with a section of the outflow, taking it to fields where lined pits and specially selected plants slowed down, collected, and filtered the waste. Upper Valleyhome would create less black soil the traditional way, but the farms and forests throughout the province rarely needed a fresh infusion, and burning off winter top cover before planting seemed to adequately renew it anyway.
- On the plus side, we now have a female Hero, which is something we haven't seen in a while. She's got heroic levels of Admin and Diplomacy, which is frankly perfect for most of our needs
- Looks like we plopped our new settlement down just in time! If we'd waited a bit longer, someone else might have grabbed that prime beachfront property
- The Southern Hill Tribes are now calling themselves the Hathatyn and seem to have their own city near our new settlement. Luckily, Magwyna was able to defuse tensions before they got too high
- The Gardens got built, which is nice. It adds more disease prevention, makes the city a nicer place to live in, and generally improves our people's quality of life
Megaproject Completed! The Garden
Through the careful channeling of water, the People have created a garden within a city, a well watered domain of pleasant shade and efficient sewage disposal. Unlocks the aqueduct extended project, provides an aqueduct for the city (increasing available living space). Opens up the True City status
Local Copper Supply Acquired!
Econ cost of all megaprojects and extended projects reduced. Opens up new innovation possibilities.
The Gardens unlocks aqueducts and True City status, which both sound great. And thanks to the new mine we no longer need to rely on imported copper, which makes our civ that much more independent even as it reduces the cost of all our big projects.
Unfortunately, while no one quite knew what had caused the coughing plague - most of their sedentary neighbours were also suffering from it, although no one could be sure who had it first - many people were quite convinced that they knew what it was: the mine. Many were now convinced that the superior qualities of metal was because it was the remains of the weapons of the gods, slung across the sky and buried in the ground ages ago. Since gods fought with the primal forces of the world like thunder, storms, the unsteadiness of the earth, and of course the unleashing of demons of plague. The People knew that metals and their wastes could make people sick, but many were now convinced that playing with the weapons of spirits and gods was fundamentally unsound, and while none could deny the utility of having metal tools, many were now against anything to do with the production of those tools.
Baby Boom Ended!
Due to an increase in infant mortality from new diseases, growth rates have stabilized back to near equilibrium levels. -1 Stability due to these new mortality rates not being considered normal
Debilitating Belief Gained! Weapons of the Gods
Metal and things that come from the heavens are cursed! While the People will use that which is already present or trade, metal mining and open study now costs Stability.
> No more free Econ every turn
> Lose 1 Stability straight away
> The Ymaryn think metal is cursed
RNG, plz.
Well, it could have been worse? If we'd picked the trading options last turn our people might have decided that trading with foreigners was responsible for the plague, which would have fucked us over just as bad.
I think the new Debilitating Belief is a side effect from our 'Observance' trait, which is annoying. We need to get rid of this ASAP. While it's not going to hurt us too much in the short term, in the long term it'll cause us to lag behind everyone else once metal tech starts becoming commonplace.
Magwyna was obviously opposed to this belief, but she felt that was because it didn't make sense to her given that the metal barren Xohyssiri seemed to suffer from more plagues than the metal rich people to the far west. Unfortunately, given that she very much had an involvement in setting up the mine, pretty much everyone assumed that she wanted to downplay things for political reasons, which was frustrating given that she was already having problems on the council relating to her relative youth and gender. While the chiefs of Valleyhome and Southshore personally knew and liked her from before her appointment as Artisan Chief, the chiefs of Northshore, Stonepen, and the Stallion Tribes seemed to have a grudge out for her, probably because Attrikwyn, the chief of the Stallion Tribes seemed to have a bug up his ass about her. He liked to cast her ways of being charming, personable, and persuasive as being 'seductive' and challenged the legitimacy of her advice and achievements. Everyone else on the council seemed to have more complex and mixed feelings, but it made getting her points across harder. Some accused her of going after the kingship, and while originally she hadn't, she was now tempted to do so just to clean the situation up. It would be a hard struggle though, especially since Attrikwyn seemed set on the .
- Superstitious people are gonna be superstitious. Could we fix this by reducing our Mysticism? Or have I gotten the cause and effect all mixed up or something?
- Magwyna is facing discrimination due to her youth and gender, especially from the Stallion Tribe guy. I'll be honest, even if she weren't a hero I'd be tempted to take her side simply because he's coming across as a douchebag.
- The last sentence seems cut off.
And, of course, with a new disease on the scene - and the Thunder Speakers and Xohyssiri getting their faces kicked in by the Eastern Thunder Horse - the lowlands were in chaos. The Highlander king's attempt to unify their laws and bring about changes had also annoyed some of his chiefs, who had taken the coughing plague as a sign of displeasure by the spirits. While it wasn't a complete rupture of order, an group roughly equivalent to a province was trying to break off, resulting in just one more bit of chaos in their southern neighbours.
In foreign news...
- Thunder Speakers and Xohyssiri are getting their asses kicked by the EasternThunder Horses
- Highlanders are facing internal stability issues because some rebellious chiefs are using plague as an excuse to run off and start their own kingdom, which of course only adds to the clusterfuck that is the lowlands.
Centralization: 5 > 4 (No longer on the borderline)
Art: 5 > 7 (The perks of completing a Mega Project)
Mysticism: 8 > 10 (Lets start spending this soon, yeah?)
Prestige: 6 > 7 (Look at our shinies! Look at them and kneel in awe!)
Debilitating Belief Weapons of the Gods
Metal and things that come from the heavens are cursed! While the People will use that which is already present or trade, metal mining and open study now costs Stability.
The Garden
Through the careful channeling of water, the People have created a garden within a city, a well watered domain of pleasant shade and efficient sewage disposal. Unlocks the aqueduct extended project, provides an aqueduct for the city (increasing available living space). Opens up the True City status
I'm glad we finished it, but why does victory feel so bittersweet?
-----------------------------
CHOICES
Choice the first: Free Bonus!
Select a bonus
[] Random Admin tech upgrade
[] Random Construction tech upgrade
[] Free holy site expansion (+2 Mysticism)
[] Reassure the People of their safety and prosperity (+1 Stability)
Option A: Female hero with two heroic stats (Admin and Diplo), which I didn't even think was possible. However, we do lose one stability from picking her, which is a bit annoying.
Option B: Stallion Tribe guy. Decent all rounder, improves our relationship with them, but throws our efforts to ensure gender equality down the drain.
Option C: The "boring but safe" option. I'm sorry, nameless administrator, but the Hero is just too shiny to resist
Choice the third: What should we do now that we've finished the Gardens?
Choose a midturn project
[] Grand Sacrifice (-3 Econ, +2 Stability)
[] Study Metal (-2 Mysticism, -1 Econ, -1 Stability, chance of new discoveries)
[] New Trails (-1 Econ, +1 Diplo, +1 Centralization, other effects)
[] Focus on Growth (+2 Econ)
Option A: Grand Sacrifice to keep our Stability up. Note that we don't have the baby boom anymore, so we'd need to make up for the Econ loss the hard way. If you want to take in a lot of refugees, it's probably a good idea to grab this as well.
Option B: Study Metal to try to convince people that our copper mines aren't cursed after all.
Option C: New Trails so that the Stallion Tribes don't feel quite as isolated. If we pick Magwyna as our new king, we should probably grab this as well so that we can keep an eye on our northern province.
Option D: The boring but safe option of just boosting Econ.
Choice the fourth: Our neighbors are messing about again, so we're about to get another refugee wave. How much do we take in?
Refugee policy
[] Take in some (Chance of stability loss, +2 Econ)
[] Let it be known that you have room (-1 Stability, chance of further loss, +4-5 Econ)
[] You have lots of room (-2 Stability, chance of further loss, +6-8 Econ, chance of further effects)
[] Encourage people to come to a safe place (-3 Stability, chance of further loss, +8-11 Econ, further effects)
[] Everyone can come on in! (-4 Stability, chance of further loss, +11-15 Econ, further effects, chance of over crowding, Upper Valleyhome attains True City status)
One day, we will be in a secure enough position to grab the biggest option and laugh as we suck all the Econ from our neighbors. Unfortunately, today is not that day. From what I can tell, the Stallion Tribes are trying to influence all our northern provinces. If we let our Stability drop too low, they might decide to declare independence or something, which would be really painful to deal with. For now, I'd urge everyone to play it safe with the refugees and try to stay at positive Stability.
My vote for this turn:
[X] Random Construction tech upgrade
[X] Magwyna (-1 Stability, other effects, [Poor Martial, Heroic Admin and Diplo])
[X] New Trails (-1 Econ, +1 Diplo, +1 Centralization, other effects)
[X] Take in some (Chance of stability loss, +2 Econ)
Option C: New Trails so that the Stallion Tribes don't feel quite as isolated. If we pick Magwyna as our new king, we should probably grab this as well so that we can keep an eye on our northern province.
If we do New Trails the stability might fall from 2 -> 0 during the start of her reign. That seems extremely inadvisable to me.
Do GS now, and the following plan after:
[Main] New Trails
[Secondary] Change Policy: Expansion
[Secondary] Extended Project - Aqueduct
This uses our new Hero's construction expertise (though not as well as the Dam), gives us the desired trails, and leads to a new Province (or two) as well as new settlements (ideally in Stonepen and Southshore). The aqueduct improves our cities.
My vote for this turn:
[X] Random Admin tech upgrade
[X] Magwyna (-1 Stability, other effects, [Poor Martial, Heroic Admin and Diplo])
[X] New Trails (-1 Econ, +1 Diplo, +1 Centralization, other effects)
[X] Take in some (Chance of stability loss, +2 Econ)
On thinking thing through, I'm fine with -1 econ to stay at high stability. So I'm reverting to my previous vote since I'm fine with it helping the bandwagon, and this is more optimal overall (even if people aren't going to vote for it)
[X] Random Admin tech upgrade
[X] Magwyna (-1 Stability, other effects, [Poor Martial, Heroic Admin and Diplo])
[X] Grand Sacrifice (-3 Econ, +2 Stability)
[X] Encourage people to come to a safe place (-3 Stability, chance of further loss, +8-11 Econ, further effects)
I'm pretty sure Observance made it worse. Mind, it also gives a clear upgrade path for observance- disprove the correlation and create a rudimentary scientific method (the idea of testing against the null hypothesis). We should just wait until we don't have a heroic bonus in other areas though.
@Academia Nut
Are province actions affected by our king's stats?
Can you give a full listing of the levels associated with the stats? I thought it was poor->mediocre->average->exceptional->heroic but now we've apparently added "good" as well. (presumably between average and exceptional)
[X] Random Construction tech upgrade
[X] Magwyna (-1 Stability, other effects, [Poor Martial, Heroic Admin and Diplo])
[X] Grand Sacrifice (-3 Econ, +2 Stability)
[X] Let it be known that you have room (-1 Stability, chance of further loss, +4-5 Econ)
It was brief, but we can proudly say we had +3 stability. Also, if people stop sticking a rod up their backside that would be great. Stop arguing against a hero!
[X] Everyone can come on in! (-4 Stability, chance of further loss, +11-15 Econ, further effects, chance of over crowding, Upper Valleyhome attains True City status.
[X] Random Construction tech upgrade
[X] Magwyna (-1 Stability, other effects, [Poor Martial, Heroic Admin and Diplo])
[X] Grand Sacrifice (-3 Econ, +2 Stability)
[X] Let it be known that you have room (-1 Stability, chance of further loss, +4-5 Econ)
Kinda want the 2.5 or even 3.5 refugee option, but I'll take 1.5 as compromise with the bandwagon.
Has provinces gain +1 action, for a total of 4, i.e. 2 main actions, one of which will be doubled by The Law. Thus gives us 2 main Study Health actions rather than 1.
Well, I am in the minority here, and you're not really helping me out. If we gain an admin tech, we are likely to gain a hierarchy point, which will put us into yellow again.
You mean for these two to be separate comments, yes? We could always do a Progress + Main - EH settlement + Aqueduct action, but that leads to a lower centralization than preferable imo. But, since I value Stability quite a bit more due to it being our HP and reducing the negative effects of electing the female Hero opposed by the Stallions, I'd rather do Expansion + New Trails and keep our centralization at 4 and our stability at 3.
She will still have an effect, and WILL likely be directly involved in the relevant projects. She won't be the immediate supervisor but she'll be a supervisor, and one with construction knowledge.
[X] Random Admin tech upgrade
[X] Magwyna (-1 Stability, other effects, [Poor Martial, Heroic Admin and Diplo])
[X] Study Health (-1 Econ, greater chance of new discoveries)
[X] Let it be known that you have room (-1 Stability, chance of further loss, +4-5 Econ)
This does leave us at 0 stability, but Main Grand Sacrifice & Main Improve Festivals next turn will bring stability back up to 3.
But 1.5 doesn't get any of the bonuses. It trades 1 stability for 2.5 econ, which is the going rate, and no other effects. It's effectively a purely neutral option. Going to 2.5 or 3.5 lets us get those additional refugee effects we've wanted (3.5 guarantees) and improves the efficiency of the options. (4.5 has a chance to kill us if we also grab the hero though, we shouldn't do that)
Study Health - What secrets of nature can be used to improve the health of the People?
* S: Potential new discoveries
* M: -1 Econ, improved odds of success
In retrospect, we really shouldn't have been surprised at this. I mean, we all know that the Ymaryn are elves, and Iron is the standard weakness of Fey.
Do note that "Study Health+Metal" might in fact further entrence this suppostition. If we roll poorly and everyone gets sicker while we study metal, it would be further "proof" that playing with the weapons of the gods was evil.
Honestly, I'd almost rather abandon our own metal production for a while and rely on imported goods. We have the Saltern, a Diplohero and a great Econ-generating Trait, so it should be possible.
She will still have an effect, and WILL likely be directly involved in the relevant projects. She won't be the immediate supervisor but she'll be a supervisor, and one with construction knowledge.
Yes... specifically, construction organizational knowledge, that can then be transferred into the field of scientific study. Direct access to the researching means a good chance at a legacy bonus that upgrades the current science trait.
Subcontracting the plague research lowers the chance of a useful trait upgrade.
