Eurovision is filled with all sorts of weird things that Sweden gets bitter when they do not win, All the Scandenevian countries get bitter if they do not vote for each other and sing about everything. Everything. :3
Eurovision is filled with all sorts of weird things that Sweden gets bitter when they do not win, All the Scandenevian countries get bitter if they do not vote for each other and sing about everything. Everything. :3
Eurovision is filled with all sorts of weird things that Sweden gets bitter when they do not win, All the Scandenevian countries get bitter if they do not vote for each other and sing about everything. Everything. :3
Okay, that's a good backlog. They actually did save our asses, even if it spawned too many TC's.
As long as we maintain EE always above 8-10, so that we hover at ~5 TC's, maaybe 6, it's fiine.
Infra x2 would definitely be welcome, Infra x3...depends on what's our fuel status. Remember: even during plague Heroic King went for kilns instead of more wealth. IC hero/genius kings are really really hesitant to lean too much on our forests reserve.
Heaven's Hawk's gold mine is both awesome and worrying, since additional gold production coupled to a general population crash and the cessation of international trade may lead to inflation.
Barring the Crown buying up all the extra gold into storage.
[X] Whoever surrenders may join the People (-1 Stability, -1 Legitimacy, -1 RA, 2 temp Econ damage, -2 EE, +2 Light Cavalry, Additional Disease Roll, ???)
Uvothyn considered things and spoke with his advisors for a time, before he sent out a series of orders. Whoever surrendered to the People would be accepted, but there were some stipulations. Civilians from the Mountain Horse and from their own territories could settle in the east, but those from elsewhere would have to settle in the north-west, well away from the fighting. For the warriors surrendering, not only would they have to settle far from where they had fought, but they would be remanded to the priests for monitoring and education in the ways of the People. The horse riders especially would be made to join up as penitents with the Spiritbonded, both because those would be the best facilities to keep their horses, and because they could better integrate their knowledge of horse riding in war. These edicts were sent out, and as king Uvothyn braced for the outcries of these decisions.
As it was, while there were many who were not happy, there was no major fundamental disagreement that the king had made the wrong call. Rather, it was generally agreed outside of a few vocal extremists that when an enemy surrendered it was simply good sense to take him up on the offer. It stopped the fighting faster, and that was really what people wanted, and especially for the civilians there was a general sense among those in the know that it wasn't like they really had a choice in the matter. Of course, when it came to who had to feed and house these former enemies there were more problems, but there was no discontent over the fact that someone should.
The opportunity to find out more about the spread of the plague was also rather appealing to the doctors and medically minded, who also made a few insinuations that perhaps the newcomers would be used for testing.
[Main] Study Health
[Sec] Enforce Justice
[Sec] Improve Annual Festival
[Sec] Support Subordinate – Thunder Horse
[Sec] Palace Annex - Shrine
[Guild – M] Build Glassworks x2, [Guild – S] Efficient Charcoal Kilns
Provinces – [Main] Expand Econ, [Main] Study Health, [Sec] Study Stars, [Sec] Study Alchemy, [Sec] Plant Poppies
Policies – Redshore Bath (1/6), Significant Walls (33/64)
FC – Redshore Bath (3/6), Redhills (Vassal Support), Valleyguard (Vassal Support)
Religious Settlement – New Settlement (boundary hills)
As it was, a combination of a concerted effort to study the plague (and health in general) along with subsidies to the alchemists who occasionally found interesting ways to make new medicines, the dedication of a new shrine expansion in the palace to praise the gods, and a festival of thanksgiving to the gods for saving them from the ravages of the nomads soon bore fruit. With the stories of the nomads and their slaves it soon became obvious that the progression had gone very differently among the Mountain Horse than the People. For the People the plague had been bad in the cities but had caught the countryside surprisingly hard - elsewhere the cities had been largely abandoned in short order, and the plague had likely burned out relatively quickly in comparison to the banditry and war and general disintegration, and while there had been some of the plague away from the cities before the nomads began burning everything. Also, it was realized that the Mountain Horse tended to keep more sheep and goats than cows, and while prized horses were relatively rare. Further, for a variety of reasons, there were not terribly many cows in the eastern lowlands - enough for the Sacred Warding, but far fewer than in the west.
It had taken years, but it seemed that shortly after the nomads started running off with non-sacred cow herds and the horses of the People in large numbers, that was when they got sick. Avoiding jumping to conclusions, Uvothyn ordered and extensive but quiet study. The dynamics didn't make sense to him, but eventually the puzzle pieces fit together.
The plague was grossly less lethal than initially thought. Like, still terrifyingly lethal, but where most people assumed that if you caught it you had a 1 in a 100 chance of survival, it actually seemed that you probably only had something like a less than 1 in 10 chance of dying. It was just that most people who got it only had minor symptoms and they fought the curse off, it was just somehow even more transmissible than initially thought, and could dwell within the lungs of cows and horses with some success, although there the animals rarely got particularly sick. In the People's cities, paranoia about infection and the fact that the slaughterhouse and leatherworking industries were isolated in their own district for being obnoxious meant that they had been able to enact a successful quarantine, while out in the countryside people kept passing the disease to their animals and then mysteriously catching it again. With most people who got it probably being invisibly sick...
With just a bit of work the plague was soon entered into the general background of illnesses the People had to deal with. Good washing and good quarantine practice had done wonders, and by not spooking everyone with the revelation that the large animals in rural areas used for labour and milk could catch it too they prevented a second wave of panic. It was still going to be a problem going forward, but it could have been far worse.
Halted Trade -> Halted External Trade - You have no external trading partners. All Diplomacy income and Wealth from external trade is shut down. Expenses still must be paid. Isolated Economy - Taking temp Econ damage equal to the number of True and Free Cities each phase, and Econ gain from taxes suspended. Plague Rotted Economy - Taking random amount of Econ damage each phase Rural Plague should end on its own in a turn or two
The absorption of the nomads and their slaves also brought other benefit, in that just before they had died the Mountain Horse had made a new advancement that had been taken up by the nomads, and from there to the People... and probably everyone on the steppe at this point. Essentially the Mountain Horse had learned of the ringed armour the People used, but lacking the infrastructure to mass produce the wire they had focused on what they could do with skilled smiths. They had come up with a way to make smaller and lighter but stronger rings by doing tiny, precision work to rivet them together. It was stupidly expensive because of the sheer labour required - only the most elite of the nomads had any ringed armour at all - but it pretty quickly caught on among the smiths and elite warriors of the People. The increased number of cavalry for the patricians to command - and apparently the pasture for them to manage too! - also had them spending money on their precious horses by equipping them with bits of chain to protect vital areas.
Additionally, while it had originally just been a means to revitalize confidence among the guilds while also ensuring that the alchemists had plenty of glass jars to break (they went through expensive equipment at an alarming rate), somewhere along the way the alchemists and artisans working with the new kilns had stumbled upon a way to make an immensely appealing glass almost as clear as water. Lucky breaks all around!
Unfortunately, amidst all this good news, there were definitely problems brewing. The two big ones were that the western colonies were... well, they were only sort of taking edicts from Valleyhome as suggestions, and had decided that after locking all their settlements down for the plague they were going to drag their feet on resuming the pay of taxes, continuously citing issues of needing to reimpose quarantine. It was obvious that they were sort of half-heartedly looking to see if they could break away without getting in trouble, or if the king would actually give a crap. Fortunately Redhills and Valleyguard were both pouring effort into relief of the eastern lowlands, and thus Uvothyn had been able to send more than a few rather pointed messages that let the western colonies know that he was paying attention to them.
The other problem was his predecessor deciding to take all the refugees and shuffle them into the countryside, away from the cities and other settlements. Combined with large numbers of surviving half-exiles being kicked out of the cities and the issues with the One God worshipers being similarly kicked out and told to go where outsiders went... yeah, there were now enclaves of People who many thought of as being universally tainted, and it was going to be a massive headache to disentangle the issue. Somewhat fortunately Uvothyn was at least able to keep a lid on the more passionate priests by being able to argue them quiet adroitly into silence, his extensive spiritual knowledge letting him see through their tricks and tripping them over their own tangled logic... but he wasn't sure about whoever would follow him. Fortunately he was already working on some of the problems...
Also, the religious settlers in the border hills had planted some nice poppies, so there was that.
Yeoman Quest Reward: Sec Plant Poppies (No costs, all rewards)
Enclave Problems
[] [Enclave] Remove the settlements (-2 Progress for Internal Reorg, -6 EE, -2 Econ, -1 Stability, ???)
[] [Enclave] Crack down on the monotheists (Main Hunt Troublemakers, ???)
[] [Enclave] Increase Connectivity (Main Build Roads, ???)
[] [Enclave] Clean up lower courts (Main Enforce Justice, ???)
[] [Enclave] Attempt to reconcile issues (-1 Stability, -4 Mysticism, -6 Culture, ???)
And then the messenger from the east came with news from the former Mountain Horse territory... a new chieftain had united the tribes scattered by the Pure in the last generation and absorbed the damage from the plague, and was now moving his people into the hills and passes of the Mountain Horse territory, as well as claiming stewardship of the semi-mythical Salt Sea Route.
There was another great nomad chieftain within the same lifetime?
"Seriously?" Uvothyn demanded to know.
At least this one seemed open to the possibility of trade.
Patricians (6) - Power: Add or subtract their faction power from factions they are supporting/opposing. Objective: Build 0/4 Great Hall Annexes within 3 turns Reward: Government upgrade Guild (5) - Power: Half faction power added to Max Wealth. Objective: Have a level 3 Ironworks within 3 turns. Failure: -1 Stability Traders (2) - Power: Add or subtract faction power modifier to all innovation rolls. Objective: Have Naval power 3 or above within 2 turns. Success: +1 Naval [1/2] Yeomen (2)- Objective: Have 30 EE within 3 turns. Failure: -1 Stability [1/2] Priests (2 {8})- Power: Adds faction power to RA. Objective: Have a new level 2 temple somewhere within 2 turns. Success: +1 RA tolerance. Failure: -1 Stability Urban Poor (4) - Power: +1 Max Legitimacy every 3 full power. Objective: Have a Level 2 market and a Level 1 market in another city within 2 turns. Success: Grand Bazaar Megaproject completion, no faction power increase These counters iterate at the next midturn. The numbers in brackets indicate the general faction strength.
Because of Heroic Admin King, choose three ways to react to the situations
[] [React] Greet new nomad chief (Main Targeted Salt Gift)
[] [React] Restore confidence after the plague (Sec Restore Order + Sec Proclaim Glory)
[] [React] Contact closest neighbours (Sec Trade Mission to Freehills and Harmurri)
[] [React] Contact more distant relations (Sec Trade Mission to Highlanders and Western People)
[] [React] Attempt to get the western colonies in line (Main Influence Subordinate - Starts with Western Wall, x2 also goes to Greenshore, x3 goes to Tinshore)
[] [React] Expand Redshore market (2xSec actions to 0/6 Redshore Market)
[] [React] Expand Palace (2xGreat Hall Annexes)
[] [React] Expand fleet (Main More Warships)
[] [React] Farm (Main Expand Econ)
[X] [Enclave] Attempt to reconcile issues (-1 Stability, -4 Mysticism, -6 Culture, ???)
[X] [React] Restore confidence after the plague (Sec Restore Order + Sec Proclaim Glory)
[X] [React] Attempt to get the western colonies in line (Main Influence Subordinate - Starts with Western Wall, x2 also goes to Greenshore, x3 goes to Tinshore)
[X] [React] Expand Palace (2xGreat Hall Annexes)
[X] [PSN] Main Plant Hemp (-2 Cent + Costs)
Might as well say why.
Try to stop a religous schism before it gets worse
Get everyone back to work now that the plague is passing
Try to keep our western colonies on our side instead of letting run off to another Empire