So, when the nomads come through and see our terrace farming. Do you think they'll imagine us having literally built the hills? Because I could see that happening and I would find it hilarious.
 
So, when the nomads come through and see our terrace farming. Do you think they'll imagine us having literally built the hills? Because I could see that happening and I would find it hilarious.

They all probably have seen the northern settlements at one point or another, and they probably know us as really good at farming. It wouldn't be a huge shock for them, at least intellectually. Seeing what we've done is another matter, though.
 
Lowlands rampage
Returning to Wendtikwos, Feygurthyn said, "There is one thing our High Chief would ask of you, if at all possible. To the south, beyond our hills in a hot and flat land, there is a group of people we would very much like dead. They are for the most part too far for us to fight effectively, given that we must return home for supplies or to drop off any loot we might acquire. They are also ferocious warriors for those without horses, and most definitely a worthy target of your axe. Should you find it of interest, we would offer you safe and free passage through our territory to these lands."

Wendtikwos considered this for a time, the gleam in his eye as he thought while also considering his completed star axe one of consideration. It was obvious that he was being asked to go defeat someone's enemy on their behalf and the idea clearly didn't sit entirely comfortably upon his honour, but on the other hand he had probably heard tales of the southerners and the possibility of attacking people without fast attack units was undoubtedly appealing to him. After a time he shrugged and said, "You would use your favour to unleash us like hounds upon your foes? Very well, you have framed it well enough, but other than the warriors of the Ymrri we fight and loot whenever and wherever we want."

Feygurthyn suppressed his wince and frown at what the reaction of the other groups might be to this move, but if the wind didn't change direction and blow sparks in their face, the logic of the High Chief was sound: pit one of the most pernicious and ferocious forces they knew of against the Dead Priests and hope the nomads won and either wandered away or that the two hostile groups mauled each other into irrelevance. Now, hopefully the damage to the Western Confederacy and the Spirit Talkers would not be too bad, although Feygurthyn knew that there were many within the People who were of the opinion that the only thing the Spirit Talkers were good for was killing Dead Priests.

Of course, while bringing the nomads through the territory of the People was something of a worry, especially with so many new settlers from the lowlands already making things uncomfortably crowded and rations uncertain, the High Chief had somehow managed to arrange a redistribution of supplies and warriors that made sure that there was always a considerable escort group and party waiting for the thousands of nomads and their livestock at every major stop as they took a season to get their entire group down through the hills and valleys and badlands and out into the lowlands, where the nomads seemed to distinctly perk up at seeing this new territory where they had been told to "Have fun in" by the people who had shown them such a good time. Donning his Crow mask, Feygurthyn would also be one of the Blackbirds joining Wendtikwos in the lowlands to help them scout and let them know about the land so that they wouldn't get caught up in swamps or pressed up against rivers during flooding season, or anything like that.

As for the effect...

---

Xixibhur had marched out of his village as part of the muster, thinking that he would find glory in victory or feed the gods in death. Like all who served, he had told that excellence in performance would bring rewards like slaves - both young geldings and nubile virgins - and honour jewellery that would make the powerful families back home want to marry their good daughters to him. Thus far those promises hadn't really been lived up to, outside of the slaves owned by the priests and nobles to do work around the camp, but part of that was that they were mostly just showing the club to the eastern tributary villages rather than in the thick of fighting and looting in the west. While this obviously meant fewer chances to prove himself, something he was sure he could do, it also meant that there was little to no risk of facing off against the demons. He was pretty sure he could take one demon, but everyone knew that they came in packs and that the gods demanded someone be fed to them in the task of taking down such large groups, and he rather liked everyone in his group of fellow warriors.

Unfortunately, it turned out that the Beast Folk had gone missing from the northwest for several years, not because they were cowardly or had collapsed in the face of the onslaught of the People, but because they had apparently been building up their strength, because they had erupted out of their northern hills like pus from an overripe boil. Their ugly beasts and rickety carts gave them an unfair, cowardly advantage that let them run away from a proper fight, but thus far it had been assumed that they didn't have many of them. No one knew what the status of the Capital was, but the fact that Xixibhur was now cowering behind his shield with the rest of his brothers in arms, arrows and javelins smacking into their defenses, suggested that at the very least the Beast Folk had managed to swing around the Capital in their rampage to hit the regions that had not known actual war in generations.

Fucking Beast Folk...

---

They had seen the infamous Wall of Bones, and while the fields that surrounded them were not protected by the stone and bone edifice, there had been enough resistance that the nomads had simply gone around. The People had no idea where the bulk of them were anymore, but the western lowlands were basically just a graveyard at this point as most people had either fled, been killed, or been carried off by one raider or another. And, while the People were most pleased by the show of strength their High Chief had managed to display in sending the nomads to go kill the Dead Priests for them, none of their other neighbours were particularly happy. The Western Confederacy was furious at the combined gobbling of so many of their people and the unleashing of the nomads, who had finished off the survivors in the lowlands, and the Spirit Talkers were pissed that the nomads were so indiscriminate and were attacking their war bands.

What exactly the Dead Priests thought wasn't known, but it probably wasn't complimentary.

Due to repeated Admin criticals, this generation's High Chief has been revealed as a genius, leaving a valuable legacy for his successor. Choose a bonus...
[] Improve stability (Increases Stability, decreases Econ)
[] One additional Secondary action (This turn only)
[] One Random Administrative upgrade

Black Soil - Production is now regular and huge amounts of trash are turned to black soil every year, but there's always room for more production [Shapers] [King]
Build Wall - Long experience with retaining walls has lead to the idea of a settlement wall for protection (Coastal village and northern settlements completed)
Build War Carts - This design has completely supplanted use of the older war wagons, but more of them could be useful on flat lands
Establish Annual Festival - A yearly harvest festival brings entertainment and stability by reminding people of the good things in life, and there are other important times that can be marked in the year, so can the same success be repeated?
Expand Farms - More land required, build new settlements
Expand Fishing - The places that can be safely fished have been tapped out. Taking this action will not increase Econ unless there is a technological breakthrough (possibility each time this option selected) or if there is a new coastal village built to expand the safe region boats can travel
Expand Forests - The People have knowledge of how to regrow and repair forests, which extends to bringing them to places they have never been, with considerable effort
Expand Pasture - More land required, build new settlements
Expand Places to Spirits - The current places dedicated to the spirits and wisdom are nice, but they could be bigger and grander, especially after seeing the Spirit Talkers...
Expand Snail Cultivation - While now more reliably grown and harvested, the snail domestication has only managed to hold environmental changes at bay rather than increase production. More investment would increase cultivation
Expand Warriors - More men can be inducted into the ranks of the warriors every year and not face major food shortfalls
More Blackbirds - Elite scouts and woodsmen, the Blackbirds are a potent force, if not exactly mainline fighters. More of them could prove useful
New Settlement - There are a few new sites that could have new settlements placed on them: at the confluence of rivers leading to the coastal village, a new settlement along the coast, or just past the cataract that divides the valley from the lowlands
New Trails - The People are well tied together, but improved trails to the groups that are traded without could ease the flow of goods and ideas
Restoration of Harmony - The people are uncertain, and into that uncertainty bad behaviour can flow. Send in the warriors to reassure people and root out corruption and dissent, restoring the proper function of the People. [Harmony+Sacred War] Kicker: Can increase Stability more than normal
Sacred Warriors - The Blackbirds have proven effective scouts, spies, and killers, but are there other ways to combine the knowledge of spirits with the skills of a warrior?
Study Forests - The holy site within the sacred forest is the repository of lore on the forests and the things within them, but could the shamans learn more?
Survey Lands - Foreigners have discovered strange materials within their lands, are these materials perhaps also found within the lands of the People?
Trade Mission - Sending a major caravan to another large group can bring new opportunities and find out more about the outside world
War Mission - You can send raiding parties against groups that have declared themselves hostile.

Mega-Projects - Mega-Projects can require many generations to complete, take an unknown amount of time to do so, and drain Econ while active, but can produce massive benefits once complete. Once chosen, the occupy the Main Focus slot until either completed or stopped early. Early stopping once started does not refund any of the investments and increases social strife. To reduce confusion, mega-projects are not listed as part of the voting project list and must be "written-in".
Grand Canal - The hills between the valley and the sea are rough and the rivers there fast and wild. In one man's dream there is the vision of an artificial river cut through the land, tame and managed [Shapers][King]
Great Dam - The river can run wild and dangerous when the rains come strong, but could it not be controlled by the same principles by which the water on the hills is channelled and contained, merely on a larger scale? [Shapers][King]
Choose one [Main] focus and two [Secondary] focuses (three if extra Secondary chosen as bonus for turn). The Thunder Horse Tribe is currently [Unified] and actively warring in the lowlands, War Missions against the Dead Priests are currently Extra Effective

[] Black Soil
[] Build Wall
[] Build War Carts
[] Establish Annual Festival
[] Expand Fishing
[] Expand Forests
[] Expand Places to Spirits
[] Expand Snail Cultivation
[] Expand Warriors
[] More Blackbirds
[] New Settlement
[] New Trails
[] Restoration of Harmony
[] Sacred Warriors
[] Study Forests
[] Survey Lands
[] Trade Mission
-Target Options: Spirit Talkers, Western Confederation, Northern Nomads, Thunder Horses, Into the Wild, Into the Wild (Metal Miners)
[] War Mission
-Target Options: Dead Priests, Northern Nomads

Villages for projects: Valley, lower valley, coastal, northern hills, waterfall
Holy sites: Waterfall, sacred forest, northern hills
 
[X] One additional Secondary action (This turn only)
[X][Main] Grand Canal
[X][Secondary] New Settlement - River Confluence
[X][Secondary] Survey Lands
[X][Secondary] War Mission
-[X] Dead Priests
 
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[] One Random Administrative upgrade
Stability can be gained by other means, this lets us have a better administration, which is a lot rarer. Like FML I am going to orgasm.
An additional secondary is helpful but temporary, and thus worse in the long run.
[X][Main] Grand Canal
[X][Secondary] New Settlement - Lowlands
[X][Secondary] Survey Lands

I wanna jump on establishing a settlement in the lowlands while we have an advantage. Like, it ruins our plan for having nice development internally and I'll be prone to changing it but rn it just seems like a good idea.

Survey lands for setting up for the canal. Annual Festival for the stability. Tempted to drop survey lands and do festival as a secondary so we can main the canal.

Edit: Wait, we're already at stability 0? Nvm on AF then.

Edit 2: Edited out my bad language...
 
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Our econ dropped to 7 and our diplomacy dropped to 3.

Our stability got raised to 0?

If we choose a random admin upgrade, it'll basically creating writing (as early writing is in the admin tech tree).
 
So Stability is back at 0, Econ at 7 and people din't like what we did, so Diplo has gone down as well. All things considered, not the worst outcome.

Now on to choices:
There is no need to improve Stability right now, so either tech or action. I would say
[] One Random Administrative upgrade
works the best right now.

For planning:
We are running out of land and we have a lot of Econ. We are not at war. Time to grow and Megaproject?

My plan would be something like:
[][Main] Grand Canal
[][Secondary] New Settlement
Not sure where, either Lowlands or Coast

If Lowlands Settement then the second action is
[][Secondary]Build Wall - Lowlands
If not Lowlands, then

[] Study Forests or [] Survey Lands or [] Trade Mission- Into the Wild (Metal Miners)

Thoughts?
 
Fucking Beast Folk...
>:3

[X] One Random Administrative upgrade

[X][Main] Establish Annual Festival
[X] [Secondary] Build Wall - Lower Valley
[X] [Secondary] New Settlement

Get plus stability just in case(We're already at 0 so just go for it). Build Wall in case they decide they want to try coming at us and New Settlement, we are getting super crowded.
 
ok we need to decide where to build a new settlement if we are going to build it, don't we already have a coastal village? what was the problem with our fishing action again? I remember something about a problem about distance.
 
Shouldn't we choose [Main] Restoration of Harmony instead of festival? Our stability is neutral, so we can handle a worst case scenario if the roll is shitty. Restoration wouldn't cost econ (which we need for the canal) and has a chance of bringing us to +2 stability.

Also, we need a new settlement and maybe a trade mission to increase our diplo (maybe to the metal miners).

Edit: Expand Fishing description has changed, so read all the options.
 
[x] One Random Administrative upgrade

Given that war actions on the dead priests are super-effective this turn, I'd favor a War Mission as a secondary regardless of anything else, if for no other reason than to capitalize on the opportunity.
I'm also not opposed to a mega-project.

Edit:

[X][Main] Build Wall - Lower Valley
[X][Secondary] New Settlement - Coast
[X][Secondary] Expand Forests
 
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>:3

[X] One Random Administrative upgrade

[X][Main] Establish Annual Festival
[X] [Secondary] Build Wall - Lower Valley
[X] [Secondary] New Settlement

Get plus stability just in case(We're already at 0 so just go for it). Build Wall in case they decide they want to try coming at us and New Settlement, we are getting super crowded.
Our allies might come at us but DP won't. If ST comes at us they might come to the north, cus they know that entrance alrdy. But that part is walled. If WC comes at us... well, they know where we are but we also have close enough ties that they probably won't. It would be better to send a trade mission to them (though we rly need to send a mission to the metalworkers alrdy like...)

So Stability is back at 0, Econ at 7 and people din't like what we did, so Diplo has gone down as well. All things considered, not the worst outcome.

Now on to choices:
There is no need to improve Stability right now, so either tech or action. I would say
[] One Random Administrative upgrade
works the best right now.

For planning:
We are running out of land and we have a lot of Econ. We are not at war. Time to grow and Megaproject?

My plan would be something like:
[][Main] Grand Canal
[][Secondary] New Settlement
Not sure where, either Lowlands or Coast

If Lowlands Settement then the second action is
[][Secondary]Build Wall - Lowlands
If not Lowlands, then

[] Study Forests or [] Survey Lands or [] Trade Mission- Into the Wild (Metal Miners)

Thoughts?
Coast doesn't help anything other than maybe enhancing fishing. Lowlands or River Confluence is a better duo, as the latter speeds up the canal's construction time. We don't really need a wall on the lowlands settlement atm, as the nomads promised not to raid us and are currently suppressing DP. If you want to prevent an attack or otherwise forestall future trouble a Trade Mission to either ST or the WC is better.

Do we want to include an expand fishing option? Also where is our settlement going to go?
ok we need to decide where to build a new settlement if we are going to build it, don't we already have a coastal village? what was the problem with our fishing action again? I remember something about a problem about distance.
Expand Fishing isn't useful atm, we've already done it a bunch and should focus on other things in the short run.
The problem with fishing is that our boats can't reach a far enough distance to get more fish. We either need to make a new village or get better boats. The action gives a chance to get more boats. If we make a new coastal village, that will create more people who will provide a larger pool of new-boat-inventors, making the boat action likely to be more successful. (Also, arguably, the different fishing environment might have different requirements for boats. Like, our current village is by the river and if it was just by the ocean or bluffs or something maybe we'd develop different boats to deal with that. Rly debatable & speculative tho.)

Build the village either @ Lowlands or River Confluence for now. The former is a land grab, the latter makes the canal faster and thus stems Econ loss.

Edit: Risk w/ Lowlands is that it will piss off our allies even more, of course.
 
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[x] One Random Administrative upgrade

Given that war actions on the dead priests are super-effective this turn, I'd favor a War Mission as a secondary regardless of anything else, if for no other reason than to capitalize on the opportunity.
I'm also not opposed to a mega-project.
It would have a high chance to lock us into a sacred war again, which would cost us an action slot for multiple turns.
 
[X] One Random Administrative upgrade

I'm sure on this, unsure about the others, so I'm just voting this for now. In case I forget to vote later.
 
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ok we need to decide where to build a new settlement if we are going to build it, don't we already have a coastal village? what was the problem with our fishing action again? I remember something about a problem about distance.
Expand Fishing - The places that can be safely fished have been tapped out. Taking this action will not increase Econ unless there is a technological breakthrough (possibility each time this option selected) or if there is a new coastal village built to expand the safe region boats can travel

River Confluence Settlement is best for Grand Canal Project, and since people are jumping on that

[X] One Random Administrative upgrade
[X][Main] Grand Canal
[X][Secondary] New Settlement - River Confluence
[X][Secondary] Survey Lands

@Umi-san sure, if we're going to go full on, then River Confluence Settlement would be best, especially since Survey Lands would help finding the best place and helps having a settlement close to the new project.
 
@Academia Nut Will we suffer a stability drop if we don't build a new settlement in a turn or 2? Also, now that the Thunder tribe is down south, are there any raider nomads in the northern steppes or are there now just trading nomads?

One more question. Since we know approximately where the metal miners are will a trade mission into the wilds looking for them be more successful now?

Edit: I lied...one more. If we start the Canal now...will our genius admin give us a bonus towards it's development?
 
[X] One Random Administrative upgrade
[X][Main] Grand Canal
[X][Secondary] New Settlement - River Confluence
[X][Secondary] Survey Lands

MEGA-PROJECT, GO! We got lucky on our rolls so let's go all-in on making that project.
 
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