The only thing really missing from the leader board, and the map, are the Bitter Water Tribe, who were mentioned as a foe yet we don't know what their status is nor where they are on the map even though they are technically closer to us than Catseye or Roundstone. Any reason for this
@Redium ?
The Bitter-Water tribe are 100% on that leaderboard.
So what exactly did we roll for us to get the Aurora Borealis so far south like we did this turn? Was it just a general war roll or a weather roll
@Redium ?
The Aurora is simply a weather roll. It doesn't have any effects beyond being extremely obvious and spiritually significant. It tends to be really important when everyone contextualizes their actions, however.
So I get that warfare and fighting at this stage is mostly a one on one affair with skirmishing being preeminent, however, I'm curious. When it says that concentrating force is unusual, what is the maximum number of warriors that are generally used? When it says they are dispersed does that mean there are no formal things like garrisons or barracks?
How exactly were warriors organized during this?
Warriors generally fight in small groups of twelve warriors.
What happens is that when the army moves into an area, they'll generally set up a series camp where half the army will reside temporarily. The other half are then dispersed into the countryside, up to a week distant in some cases. Each camp serves as a hub where supplies can be stored and prisoners or the wounded looked after. Organization in the field tends to be sparse beyond: 'Go five days travel in that direction and kill anyone who isn't one of us.' or 'Secure this river or region of lakes to prevent the enemy from securing supplies.' Bands of warriors cycle in and out of the camps, constantly patrolling around them.
A huge part of the war is in attacking the supply points of the enemy. Warriors try and hit hunting grounds or fields of crops. They want to steal food and kill enemy stragglers. That's the most effective way to fight a war in the current era. You grind down the enemy with attrition and starvation until they can no longer resist you.
However, warriors have started to notice that not all targets are equal. Sure, killing an enemy hunter probably means killing a skilled combatant and does noticeable damage to the enemy, but it's not hard. Hunters tend to be loners or in small groups as a matter of course: easy to ambush. Non-combatants on the other hand... there's much more prestige in killing or kidnapping them. A potter rarely leaves their village's central settlements, sneaking into a position where you could kill them is
hard. Kidnapping a beautiful woman who would be well guarded by her tribe goes a long way to demonstrate an Elite level of skill; the gold standard for signalling skill in fact.
Is this Priit thinking about the Phylai Warfare we are implementing now or something else
@Redium ?
Yes, he's thinking of Phlai Warfare.
So out of the spirits, I think, mentioned, how do they relate to the spirits you mentioned much earlier in the Quest?
The Three-Fold-Stag are Alvar's children. She-The-Snow and First Bear are both derivatives of the Fingersmen original warrior woman. She's edged back into mythology as a heroic figure due to descendants of the Fingersmen rehabilitating her image. She-The-Snow is a devil figure in the People's mythology. It isn't known that both stories are derived from the same person, but there's a certain acknowledgement that bears are bad news, as bad as orkers.
The orker isn't actually human at all. It's a primordial enough beast that it's elevated to godhood on its own merits.
I'm curious, though, before it was said that curses were laid out by the spirits, but now it seems like curses can be man made, or at least that humans can influence the intercession of the spirits in order to lay down a curse. Is this a new belief?
It was always known the humans could intercede with the spirits and potentially sway them to their favour. That fact being used as a weapon of war is a new development.
Will the strife caused by Priit's warrior faction go away now? Or are there still things left to do like the Code of Law?
@Redium
You'll get both of those in 19.0.
How badly did the Peace Builder's roll in this war, and what is their current status?
For the most part, I'm going to stop answering these types of roll questions. I'm not sure how much they add and they might give away information I don't want to reveal yet.
I wonder if this is related to the Cracktooth's tribe magic of beat, which could allow them to indoctrinate these children to use as psychological tools in this war?
Beat here specifically refers to percussion instruments.
Who exactly are the Bitter-Water Tribe as they are not on the map or leader board?
@Redium
The Bitter-Water tribe is 100% on the leaderboard. You do have enough information to figure it out.
These are their slingers. However, considering how sub-optimal slingers are in this war and in this environment, this makes me wonder if they developed these slingers for a war against a different foe in a different terrain.
Slings evolve for one reason: they're
extremely cheap. The ammo can be any stone picked up off the ground compared to arrows and javelins that would take hours of work to make a single shot. There's a reason that slings tended to be extremely important in warfare even if bows were better. Bows are
expensive. Until you get widespread adoption of iron tools, good war bows are simply too expensive for most people.
Is this including their dependents as well?
The warriors who are reassigned? Yes.
The second option also seems like an option that would boost elitism and our flat arrow outlook as it would promote excellence as it would give a goal to strive for for promising warriors. How exactly would this work out
@Redium ? Would the tribes we found now be permanent or will it be a case by case basis, with tribes fluctuating, coming and going as prominent warriors come forth? Because if its the second I can see some warriors potentially using the tribes they form as a basis to essentially become Big Men in their own right by using their tribes to support their ambitions.
New tribes would be recognized based on new warriors becoming prominent. Once they win enough honour and glory to attract a small, informal following of warriors, that following would then be fully recognized as a distinct tribe. It's meritocratic, but there would be a lot of churn as tribes are carved out of old one, grow, and are eventually wiped out.
Quick question on the first option here
@Redium ? If we took it, would we lock down expand agriculture for corn as this would be taking this option three times, or does it need to be three times in a row? If so, I say we take it as while it may seem to encourage slavery, due to Priit still being among the living I'm pretty sure he would be enough of a voice to keep that from spreading. Getting more agriculture locked in will give us more options economically as strategically as we will have to spend less options per turn on food.
It would not lock in corn. You need to take an action in three subsequent turns to lock it down.
When it comes to the trail option, I am curious.
@Redium Will the x2 Trails essentially mean two actions worth of trails? Either way, I don't see trails as too necessary at this point.
Yes.
We aren't going to develop granaries without the impetus to do so. Losing food to waste is one such impetus.
You have granaries: you couldn't function without them. You need to store roughly four months worth of food for every winter; that has to be put somewhere.
Typically, each longhouse will store most of its food on shelves located in sealed pots above everyone's sleeping spaces. Anything that doesn't fit is stored centrally in a longhouse that only stores food. Typically the tribute that each Big Man taxes is stored like that while anything collected above the minimum tax is privately held.
We currently have a massive amount of food. A +4 surplus means that the corn expansion will produce large amounts of wasted food if the Mountain Clans break or stop starving, and we get their commitment back.
Noting we do not have the technology to store a larger surplus, so basically taking Corn will be wasting food until people either notice thats not right or people get used to wasting food.
It's true that going Agriculture x3 would result in some food being wasted. I just wonder what it would trigger within the People that, for the first time
ever, they could eat without having to worry and carefully ration every morsel of food.
