Then we would need to think about the goal of our light cavalry. Are they for tying up enemy's mobility for us number and equipment to crush them, or are they large enough to finish a battle on their own? Calvary is a lot more expansive in food and upkeep than foot soldiers and their supply wagon afterall.
Need to be aware of the political power large cavalry affords priests and nobel faction too.
Hmm, that's a good point. Our ability to field cavalry compared to a real horde coming from the steps is pathetic. Where as we might be able to manage 20-30 Cavalry if we really push it, a real nomadic horde would be at least 50, and could have a very real chance of getting above 100.
I don't think the Patricians/Priests are going to be too much of a problem, though it could very easily create some relatively minor fires we'd have to deal with, so not something we should just write off.
So what we need is to make invading us hell and not worth it compared to trading with us. This means a general anti-nomad strategy would have the following:
Enough Light Cavalry to catch and harass out of position troops.
Immensely defensive terrain to lessen the advantage of both horde mode and an major reliance on mobility. This means the following:
Lots of forests to physically disrupt and confuse nomads along avenues that aren't roads. (Always plant forests, the Triangle Canal Megaproject)
Very secure fortifications with large stockpiles of food. (Walls and trying to unlock forts)
An advanced courier system with redundancy in case of failure. (Lots and better roads and horses)
Heavily fortified choke points. (Our new bypass megaproject, Spirit Channel March, and a general settlement of the range of hills/mountains along our northern border.)
Enough forces to deploy in multiple areas across the state and its vassals without stretching ourselves too thin. A minimum of 3 Merc groups at the moment, one for west, one for central, one for east. Will probably want more to put on permanent duty to defend critical areas. Maybe even assigning multiple to said permanent areas.
Diplomacy to encourage trade:
Regular trade missions to see what the nomads are acting like. I truly miss when we had our marches do this for us.
Invite all polities that appear friendly to The Games. This will create a loos pseudo alliance against all other polities that would threaten the group. Make sure to encourage this by giving increased respect to anyone who attends the games, even if we have to grit our teeth in doing so. That's the nature of diplomacy.
Hmm, that's a good point. Our ability to field cavalry compared to a real horde coming from the steps is pathetic. Where as we might be able to manage 20-30 Cavalry if we really push it, a real nomadic horde would be at least 50, and could have a very real chance of getting above 100.
I don't think the Patricians/Priests are going to be too much of a problem, though it could very easily create some relatively minor fires we'd have to deal with, so not something we should just write off.
The right stance for this is to aim for just somewhat unbalanced spread.
At the end of the day, it's to be noted that Priests and Particians are indeed two factions, not one and the same. These factions will have differing opinions on how the kingdom should be led - and there lies the catch. Whereas most RL-kingdoms had the knights be only under the ruling caste's command with some smathering of holy orders in the priest-picket, the Ymaryn seem to have a larger quantity of priest-led holy orders than then.
Just keep these two balanced and one cannot go abso-bonkers without the other moving to assist the sane parts of the kingdom with trimming the wrongdoer.
As tech develops and we get heavy cav, we can start creating small cav-militias/professional soldiery for light cav duties and leave the heavies for the aforementioned, allowing the urban poor/yemanry to further prevent a situation of "I have all the cav, submit!".
All this talk of the 5 Mercenary Companies idea has me thinking.
In my opinion we ether need 5 Mercenary Companies or we need to spend our next baby boom on Defence Policy.
If the nomads rolled just a little batter on Disease then all our Mercenary Companies would have die in the next war turn. We need to ether have to be able to always win in the field with more Mercenary Companies or be able to take the lost of all of our Mercenary Companies with a lot more Defence Infrastructure
I will vote for ether of those plans but I think we need to do one of them.
I think our real problem isn't numbers, it's leadership. What we really need is to create a command structure that can compensate for the occasional king with poor Martial. Because we're not going to stop wanting Administrators anytime soon.
I think our command structure is quite satisfactory, to be honest.
We mostly just have our war chief deal with things while our admin king feeds them material and bodies.
Better war chiefs and lieutenants are always welcome, of course. So long as the army doesn't grow too attached.
The important thing is to make sure that the soldiers' pay isn't given to them or controlled by the war chief or such, but instead comes from the crown directly.
I would like to note that we've seen that we don't get a guaranteed average martial chief if our king has terrible-poor martial. It has been stated several times that such kings aren't able to differentiate the truly capable from conmen. Mechanically, I'd bet that we roll with our king's stat as the low limit, and either "average" or "good" as the high limit (depending on whether academy and PK kicks in) to determine how good our advisor is.
Hmm, that's a good point. Our ability to field cavalry compared to a real horde coming from the steps is pathetic. Where as we might be able to manage 20-30 Cavalry if we really push it, a real nomadic horde would be at least 50, and could have a very real chance of getting above 100.
I don't think the Patricians/Priests are going to be too much of a problem, though it could very easily create some relatively minor fires we'd have to deal with, so not something we should just write off.
So what we need is to make invading us hell and not worth it compared to trading with us. This means a general anti-nomad strategy would have the following:
Enough Light Cavalry to catch and harass out of position troops.
Immensely defensive terrain to lessen the advantage of both horde mode and an major reliance on mobility. This means the following:
Lots of forests to physically disrupt and confuse nomads along avenues that aren't roads. (Always plant forests, the Triangle Canal Megaproject)
Very secure fortifications with large stockpiles of food. (Walls and trying to unlock forts)
An advanced courier system with redundancy in case of failure. (Lots and better roads and horses)
Heavily fortified choke points. (Our new bypass megaproject, Spirit Channel March, and a general settlement of the range of hills/mountains along our northern border.)
Enough forces to deploy in multiple areas across the state and its vassals without stretching ourselves too thin. A minimum of 3 Merc groups at the moment, one for west, one for central, one for east. Will probably want more to put on permanent duty to defend critical areas. Maybe even assigning multiple to said permanent areas.
Diplomacy to encourage trade:
Regular trade missions to see what the nomads are acting like. I truly miss when we had our marches do this for us.
Invite all polities that appear friendly to The Games. This will create a loos pseudo alliance against all other polities that would threaten the group. Make sure to encourage this by giving increased respect to anyone who attends the games, even if we have to grit our teeth in doing so. That's the nature of diplomacy.
In short term goals I think trying for better movement to and from the lowlands is a good idea(but we're already trying for that), eventually we should be able to supply every settlement along the rivers from positions too far behind our lines to easily strike at, I agree with triangle canal work, and Planting forests instead of expanding Econ every time we get the free action has my vote, so long as we're not starving.
I've been thinking of long term defensive mega-projects after that, maybe we could put a wall in each of the far western passes?(once we're actually over there)(this would probably create the idea of forts as a side effect) Some of the cities and settlements in the core (Valleyhome, Valleyguard, associated settlements) are awfully close to one another, I bet that by the modern age urban sprawl will cause them to merge(if they're still there), maybe once we're much bigger we could get a megaproject to completely reorganize living and farming districts there, so we have a massive defense in depth spanning the whole valley, with huge numbers of low level walls sectioning off large farming districts and better walls around habitation districts all down the length of the valley. We'd probably need to understand concrete first, but the Romans had concrete,(as a side effect of a volcanic natural wonder) it doesn't actually require a high tech level, and our work with stone bones is a step in the right mental direction.
I think our command structure is quite satisfactory, to be honest.
We mostly just have our war chief deal with things while our admin king feeds them material and bodies.
Better war chiefs and lieutenants are always welcome, of course. So long as the army doesn't grow too attached.
Looking back, I'm sure there was a track for valuing the most competent in command at the beginning, but to take it we probably wouldn't have gotten Honor in Humility or more importantly An Eye for an Eye if we went that way, ultimately between an early introduction of law and getting the people on the coast on our side I think it was worth it.
In short term goals I think trying for better movement to and from the lowlands is a good idea(but we're already trying for that), eventually we should be able to supply every settlement along the rivers from positions too far behind our lines to easily strike at, I agree with triangle canal work, and Planting forests instead of expanding Econ every time we get the free action has my vote, so long as we're not starving.
I've been thinking of long term defensive mega-projects after that, maybe we could put a wall in each of the far western passes?(once we're actually over there)(this would probably create the idea of forts as a side effect) Some of the cities and settlements in the core (Valleyhome, Valleyguard, associated settlements) are awfully close to one another, I bet that by the modern age urban sprawl will cause them to merge(if they're still there), maybe once we're much bigger we could get a megaproject to completely reorganize living and farming districts there, so we have a massive defense in depth spanning the whole valley, with huge numbers of low level walls sectioning off large farming districts and better walls around habitation districts all down the length of the valley. We'd probably need to understand concrete first, but the Romans had concrete,(as a side effect of a volcanic natural wonder) it doesn't actually require a high tech level, and our work with stone bones is a step in the right mental direction.
If we really want to have a defensive perimeter, then creating the triangle canal would seriously hamper nomad-attacks from the north, as well as allowing us to supply more forest-space. That would take time yes, but it would clearly help us to defend against them - at the very least it would seriously hamper them in arriving without warning as they have to push through forests.
The general sentiment seems to be that we cannot trust our mercenaries to have a higher combined martial score than our central polity. The logical conclusion of that sentiment is that we cannot trust our landed subordinates if they have a higher combined martial score than our central polity, doubly so if they have a higher martial score than our central polity and all of our mercenaries combined.
I did not include the cavalry score as it was not a consideration when we were discussing whether the mercenary companies could be trusted to have a higher martial score than our own.
I consider the difficulty of our subordinates coordinating against us, the logistical difficulty for us to attempt suppress our subordinates, and our stability loss from subordinates declaring independence to mostly cancel each other out.
The logical conclusion of that is actually that you want a balance of military power. So, lets look to our military:
-Mercenaries are paid with coin by the state. However, Marketplaces allows large Free Cities(and thus the guilds) to potentially pay for their own mercenaries in times of low centralization by coopting the taxes.
-Holy Orders are maintained by the priests, who are under the state but not part of it. They are part of base Martial and also our entire Cavalry stat.
-Military elites that are part of the administration is the base martial.
-Rural military are the Ploughshares Martial, which are based off the Economy.
-Levies are drawn from the cities via Marian Mode. Their value varies by our economy.
-Navies are currently maintained by the Guilds and Traders functionally.
So we've split the power a lot, but rather than demonizing any particular faction of military power, we want some kind of balance between them OR give the nobility supremacy(aka Feudal model).
We currently have:
-Mercenaries 16/30(Crown, potentially contestable in future by Free Cities and Rich Provinces)
-State 7/37(Crown, fractions contestable by provinces, fractions contestable by priesthood)
-Yeomen 7/11[9+2](Rural)
-Levies 25[15+4+6]/55[27+22+6](Crown, fractions potentially contestable in future by Cities)
-Light Cavalry 3/?(Priesthood)
-Naval 1/?(Crown, contestable by Guilds and Traders)
Which is somewhat safe, mostly because anyone getting So lets look at each circumstance:
-Mercenaries - Safe. We pay them directly out of crown treasury, and they will stay safe as long as we do so. We can currently support a 4th Mercenary company without risking the balance of power, but note that the COST itself is imbalancing. We already learned this during the last plague crisis. Mercenaries are expensive.
-State - Higher would be better, but our base state Martial should probably be most comfortable around 25-30
-Yeomen - Nothing we can do about this, but we want to keep our State martial above the Yeomen martial.
-Levies - Safe for now, but assuming an even split across cities, Redshore currently commands 8 Martial on its own, and can command up to 18(in theory, in practice we'd have spawned more cities and split it up wider).
-Light Cavalry - Safe for now due to being very few, but advanced stats are different.
-Naval - Safe for now due to being very few, but advanced stats are different.
Obviously there are other complicating factors here in that the Levies and priesthood generally don't want to fight, but as always, balance helps keep things from getting to a point we can't tilt back.
Ah, so someone gathered up all of the nomads that the anti-settlement nomads scattered to form this new nomad group. Probably a nomad from the east who didn't like the disrupted trade.
Not quite. Cavalry wins field engagements, but sufficient fortifications allows us to remain standing even after being flattened in the field as long as we have the base martial to hold walls(and we do). Military solutions to nomad hordes are more often than not just the ability to tank a siege long enough for them to get bored.
As such, while cavalry is valuable. Towers and Walls are essential. Observe the Mountain Horse's fate: they never got to USE their fortifications because the invaders moved faster than their messengers. They never got to use their Yeomen-equivalents because the invaders got there before anyone knew they needed to be called.
Thats what watchtower networks are for. It is literally impossible for even the fastest nomad army to outrun a smoke or fire signal conducted along towers.
With watchtowers giving prior warning then, it'd be possible to kill the momentum of the initial horde sweep, which prevents the horde from turning into an avalanche.
I think our real problem isn't numbers, it's leadership. What we really need is to create a command structure that can compensate for the occasional king with poor Martial. Because we're not going to stop wanting Administrators anytime soon.
We already have it. With the Academy we're spawning minimum Good Martial on non-hero Kings(who tend to be savants that dump Martial because it's the only stat not needed to actually BE a part of our system).
We even have a system to ensure that the War Leader is of minimum competence, the problem is that the King at low martial times cannot recognize political vs practical appointments.
So in practice our military ability is Good(normal king) or Average(Hero king with bad Martial).
The important thing is to make sure that the soldiers' pay isn't given to them or controlled by the war chief or such, but instead comes from the crown directly.
We're doing that. It's always down to one of the following:
-Army is too hard to pay for, but we want to keep the giant army -> Lets have the armies supply themselves locally -> Army is more loyal to the local body than the state
-Army is expensive, we should turn them to profit -> Lets invade/raid someone so we can make them pay for it. -> Expansionism/enemy creation produces bigger army demands OR enemies are wiped out and you can't pay them anymore.
-Army is expensive and we hadn't used it in a century -> Army downsized
-Army is expensive, good warriors demand good pay -> Lets pay the army something else other than money -> Land/Debasement, etc -> More expensive than money? Who knew?
-Army is expensive, good warriors demand good pay -> Lets pay them in social status/honorable fulfillment -> Militarization -> Military adventurism needed to rise in social status
-Army is expensive, grow economy to pay them -> Army fragile to trade, plague and economic disruptions
We aren't getting out of this pinch really. Modern militaries solved it by taking the last option and then combining it with a Nationalism concept to cut costs.
Modern militaries ALSO puts a lot of the military power into equipment that can be mothballed to save on upkeep costs(though it does mean deployment can become ruinous and burn through your reserves very quickly)
If we really want to have a defensive perimeter, then creating the triangle canal would seriously hamper nomad-attacks from the north, as well as allowing us to supply more forest-space. That would take time yes, but it would clearly help us to defend against them - at the very least it would seriously hamper them in arriving without warning as they have to push through forests.
The Triangle Canal is less about having a perimeter so much as an unbreakable by nomads(well barring capture of Blackmouth and commandeering the ships) hardpoint up in the north, forcing them to split their forces to cover two directions if they want to avoid being pincered by a river deployed unit.
Need better cartography tools. We're still at the level of maps of coasts being surprisingly rectangular on maps.
The logical conclusion of that is actually that you want a balance of military power. So, lets look to our military:
-Mercenaries are paid with coin by the state. However, Marketplaces allows large Free Cities(and thus the guilds) to potentially pay for their own mercenaries in times of low centralization by coopting the taxes.
-Holy Orders are maintained by the priests, who are under the state but not part of it. They are part of base Martial and also our entire Cavalry stat.
-Military elites that are part of the administration is the base martial.
-Rural military are the Ploughshares Martial, which are based off the Economy.
-Levies are drawn from the cities via Marian Mode. Their value varies by our economy.
-Navies are currently maintained by the Guilds and Traders functionally.
So we've split the power a lot, but rather than demonizing any particular faction of military power, we want some kind of balance between them OR give the nobility supremacy(aka Feudal model).
We currently have:
-Mercenaries 16/30(Crown, potentially contestable in future by Free Cities and Rich Provinces)
-State 7/37(Crown, fractions contestable by provinces, fractions contestable by priesthood)
-Yeomen 7/11[9+2](Rural)
-Levies 25[15+4+6]/55[27+22+6](Crown, fractions potentially contestable in future by Cities)
-Light Cavalry 3/?(Priesthood)
-Naval 1/?(Crown, contestable by Guilds and Traders)
Which is somewhat safe, mostly because anyone getting So lets look at each circumstance:
-Mercenaries - Safe. We pay them directly out of crown treasury, and they will stay safe as long as we do so. We can currently support a 4th Mercenary company without risking the balance of power, but note that the COST itself is imbalancing. We already learned this during the last plague crisis. Mercenaries are expensive.
-State - Higher would be better, but our base state Martial should probably be most comfortable around 25-30
-Yeomen - Nothing we can do about this, but we want to keep our State martial above the Yeomen martial.
-Levies - Safe for now, but assuming an even split across cities, Redshore currently commands 8 Martial on its own, and can command up to 18(in theory, in practice we'd have spawned more cities and split it up wider).
-Light Cavalry - Safe for now due to being very few, but advanced stats are different.
-Naval - Safe for now due to being very few, but advanced stats are different.
Obviously there are other complicating factors here in that the Levies and priesthood generally don't want to fight, but as always, balance helps keep things from getting to a point we can't tilt back.
Not quite. Cavalry wins field engagements, but sufficient fortifications allows us to remain standing even after being flattened in the field as long as we have the base martial to hold walls(and we do). Military solutions to nomad hordes are more often than not just the ability to tank a siege long enough for them to get bored.
As such, while cavalry is valuable. Towers and Walls are essential. Observe the Mountain Horse's fate: they never got to USE their fortifications because the invaders moved faster than their messengers. They never got to use their Yeomen-equivalents because the invaders got there before anyone knew they needed to be called.
Thats what watchtower networks are for. It is literally impossible for even the fastest nomad army to outrun a smoke or fire signal conducted along towers.
With watchtowers giving prior warning then, it'd be possible to kill the momentum of the initial horde sweep, which prevents the horde from turning into an avalanche.
We already have it. With the Academy we're spawning minimum Good Martial on non-hero Kings(who tend to be savants that dump Martial because it's the only stat not needed to actually BE a part of our system).
We even have a system to ensure that the War Leader is of minimum competence, the problem is that the King at low martial times cannot recognize political vs practical appointments.
So in practice our military ability is Good(normal king) or Average(Hero king with bad Martial).
We're doing that. It's always down to one of the following:
-Army is too hard to pay for, but we want to keep the giant army -> Lets have the armies supply themselves locally -> Army is more loyal to the local body than the state
-Army is expensive, we should turn them to profit -> Lets invade/raid someone so we can make them pay for it. -> Expansionism/enemy creation produces bigger army demands OR enemies are wiped out and you can't pay them anymore.
-Army is expensive and we hadn't used it in a century -> Army downsized
-Army is expensive, good warriors demand good pay -> Lets pay the army something else other than money -> Land/Debasement, etc -> More expensive than money? Who knew?
-Army is expensive, good warriors demand good pay -> Lets pay them in social status/honorable fulfillment -> Militarization -> Military adventurism needed to rise in social status
-Army is expensive, grow economy to pay them -> Army fragile to trade, plague and economic disruptions
We aren't getting out of this pinch really. Modern militaries solved it by taking the last option and then combining it with a Nationalism concept to cut costs.
Modern militaries ALSO puts a lot of the military power into equipment that can be mothballed to save on upkeep costs(though it does mean deployment can become ruinous and burn through your reserves very quickly)
The Triangle Canal is less about having a perimeter so much as an unbreakable by nomads(well barring capture of Blackmouth and commandeering the ships) hardpoint up in the north, forcing them to split their forces to cover two directions if they want to avoid being pincered by a river deployed unit.
So are you up to spend our next baby boom on Defence Policy? I don't think we have long into then, as our people to Infrastructure ratio has never been higher because of the plague killing alot but not destroying alot of our Infrastructure
if we ever want to get some defence Infrastructure Innovations we need to do this as we know that the passive defence policie does not give Innovation rolls.
Need better cartography tools. We're still at the level of maps of coasts being surprisingly rectangular on maps.
The logical conclusion of that is actually that you want a balance of military power. So, lets look to our military:
-Mercenaries are paid with coin by the state. However, Marketplaces allows large Free Cities(and thus the guilds) to potentially pay for their own mercenaries in times of low centralization by coopting the taxes.
-Holy Orders are maintained by the priests, who are under the state but not part of it. They are part of base Martial and also our entire Cavalry stat.
-Military elites that are part of the administration is the base martial.
-Rural military are the Ploughshares Martial, which are based off the Economy.
-Levies are drawn from the cities via Marian Mode. Their value varies by our economy.
-Navies are currently maintained by the Guilds and Traders functionally.
So we've split the power a lot, but rather than demonizing any particular faction of military power, we want some kind of balance between them OR give the nobility supremacy(aka Feudal model).
We currently have:
-Mercenaries 16/30(Crown, potentially contestable in future by Free Cities and Rich Provinces)
-State 7/37(Crown, fractions contestable by provinces, fractions contestable by priesthood)
-Yeomen 7/11[9+2](Rural)
-Levies 25[15+4+6]/55[27+22+6](Crown, fractions potentially contestable in future by Cities)
-Light Cavalry 3/?(Priesthood)
-Naval 1/?(Crown, contestable by Guilds and Traders)
Which is somewhat safe, mostly because anyone getting So lets look at each circumstance:
-Mercenaries - Safe. We pay them directly out of crown treasury, and they will stay safe as long as we do so. We can currently support a 4th Mercenary company without risking the balance of power, but note that the COST itself is imbalancing. We already learned this during the last plague crisis. Mercenaries are expensive.
-State - Higher would be better, but our base state Martial should probably be most comfortable around 25-30
-Yeomen - Nothing we can do about this, but we want to keep our State martial above the Yeomen martial.
-Levies - Safe for now, but assuming an even split across cities, Redshore currently commands 8 Martial on its own, and can command up to 18(in theory, in practice we'd have spawned more cities and split it up wider).
-Light Cavalry - Safe for now due to being very few, but advanced stats are different.
-Naval - Safe for now due to being very few, but advanced stats are different.
Obviously there are other complicating factors here in that the Levies and priesthood generally don't want to fight, but as always, balance helps keep things from getting to a point we can't tilt back.
Not quite. Cavalry wins field engagements, but sufficient fortifications allows us to remain standing even after being flattened in the field as long as we have the base martial to hold walls(and we do). Military solutions to nomad hordes are more often than not just the ability to tank a siege long enough for them to get bored.
As such, while cavalry is valuable. Towers and Walls are essential. Observe the Mountain Horse's fate: they never got to USE their fortifications because the invaders moved faster than their messengers. They never got to use their Yeomen-equivalents because the invaders got there before anyone knew they needed to be called.
Thats what watchtower networks are for. It is literally impossible for even the fastest nomad army to outrun a smoke or fire signal conducted along towers.
With watchtowers giving prior warning then, it'd be possible to kill the momentum of the initial horde sweep, which prevents the horde from turning into an avalanche.
We already have it. With the Academy we're spawning minimum Good Martial on non-hero Kings(who tend to be savants that dump Martial because it's the only stat not needed to actually BE a part of our system).
We even have a system to ensure that the War Leader is of minimum competence, the problem is that the King at low martial times cannot recognize political vs practical appointments.
So in practice our military ability is Good(normal king) or Average(Hero king with bad Martial).
We're doing that. It's always down to one of the following:
-Army is too hard to pay for, but we want to keep the giant army -> Lets have the armies supply themselves locally -> Army is more loyal to the local body than the state
-Army is expensive, we should turn them to profit -> Lets invade/raid someone so we can make them pay for it. -> Expansionism/enemy creation produces bigger army demands OR enemies are wiped out and you can't pay them anymore.
-Army is expensive and we hadn't used it in a century -> Army downsized
-Army is expensive, good warriors demand good pay -> Lets pay the army something else other than money -> Land/Debasement, etc -> More expensive than money? Who knew?
-Army is expensive, good warriors demand good pay -> Lets pay them in social status/honorable fulfillment -> Militarization -> Military adventurism needed to rise in social status
-Army is expensive, grow economy to pay them -> Army fragile to trade, plague and economic disruptions
We aren't getting out of this pinch really. Modern militaries solved it by taking the last option and then combining it with a Nationalism concept to cut costs.
Modern militaries ALSO puts a lot of the military power into equipment that can be mothballed to save on upkeep costs(though it does mean deployment can become ruinous and burn through your reserves very quickly)
The Triangle Canal is less about having a perimeter so much as an unbreakable by nomads(well barring capture of Blackmouth and commandeering the ships) hardpoint up in the north, forcing them to split their forces to cover two directions if they want to avoid being pincered by a river deployed unit.
What makes you think that the Priests are not part of the state?
They've been a state organ for most of their history.
Hell separation of church and state/clerical independence where never practiced in Ymar.
The king determines theological orthodoxy, doctrine, and rules on minutiae. Any clerical development requires royal approval or is discarded. All relegious building is done by the state, relegious training is done by the state, they don't have an independent source of income, holy orders are only at state behest... Etc.
The only honest to God independent action the priesthood has is the newly minted relegious settlement. And we've got no idea what that action even entails, but likely them setting up a a monastic community in caves and subsisting on the wilderness.
Eh? They're temple apprenticed and maintained/expended at the behest of the king. From the very beginning it was priests and shamans who taught them, and those come from the temples.
The current problem we have is that there's simply too few temples and too few holy orders, that maintenance of skills is becoming harder, not to mention inability to cover anything but major sites.
Eh? They're temple apprenticed and maintained/expended at the behest of the king. From the very beginning it was priests and shamans who taught them, and those come from the temples.
The current problem we have is that there's simply too few temples and too few holy orders, that maintenance of skills is becoming harder, not to mention inability to cover anything but major sites.
The only honest to God independent action the priesthood has is the newly minted relegious settlement. And we've got no idea what that action even entails, but likely them setting up a a monastic community in caves and subsisting on the wilderness.
It's explicitly farming communities, they might even do an independent expand Econ if for some reason it's necessary and we can't spare the actions, they still answer to the Crown though and only get walls if we build them.
What makes you think that the Priests are not part of the state?
They've been a state organ for most of their history.
Hell separation of church and state/clerical independence where never practiced in Ymar.
The king determines theological orthodoxy, doctrine, and rules on minutiae. Any clerical development requires royal approval or is discarded. All relegious building is done by the state, relegious training is done by the state, they don't have an independent source of income, holy orders are only at state behest... Etc.
The only honest to God independent action the priesthood has is the newly minted relegious settlement. And we've got no idea what that action even entails, but likely them setting up a a monastic community in caves and subsisting on the wilderness.
You are most likely right that Watchtowers are more important but I want to unlock a defense Megaproject and we do not know what Technologies we need for that.
I would like to let the defense policiy "AI" pick some actions to give us some hints.
Thaat's not what I was saying. Or rather.
My logic is that everything will eventually lead to problems, so mashing any button too hard is unadvised. It's not like I am arguing for disbanding current companies. Wouldn't mind adding one more either.
But, well, 6 of them? Too much IMO.
And our mercs have beem loyal because we don't use them willy-nilly and are always conscious of how loyal they are.
I mean. The only things I see which do not have potential of becoming problem are forests, watchtowers, expand econs(?), surveys, and, once we are over half-saturstion, roads. Maybe docks.
This concludes list of things which cannot backfire if overused IMO.
Religious Settlement – Prophet's Home Temple (3/3)
"We need a canal to traverse the Great River Cataracts to promote further trade," the Admin Chief said, bringing forth the intentions of the king to the Chamber of the Survey in the Royal Archives.
Not even needing to look at the surveys, the clerk there said, "There are a number of spots in the badlands that could be redone into a series of short canals and pools if there was a stable reservoir above them. Because of seepage at that volume of water, if you want to divert enough water you're going to have to anchor on stone, which means building in the cataracts, which means damming the entire Great River."
"You've already thought about this," the Admin Chief notes.
"Initiation for the post! Every Chief Surveyor has made the Senior Assistant Surveyors figure out how to go around the cataracts, which involves working out how to dam the entire Great River," the man says cheerfully, going to a shelf filled with parchment scrolls. "There are tablets in the rear that discuss similar practices that suggest this has been going on since before the gods taught man to read and write. Like, the first proposals might have come in the time when the gods dragged their trowel through the earth to make the Valleysnake Canal, such have been the stalled ambitions."
"Wow. Actually, now that you mention it, any idea why the Sacred Canal is called that?"
Shrugging, the surveyor said, "The oldest records suggest that the river used to be called the Snake River, so it was probably just named after how it connected things."
The Admin Chief considered this before he said, "Weird. Anyway, I will take efforts that have been assembled to the king so he can approve what he thinks is best."
"We'll want to do a fresh survey of the region as part of all of this, but we can probably begin setting down some preliminary cofferdams during the next dry season to get started on a few pilings," the surveyor said with some confidence.
As it was, not only was the site chosen quickly and expediently, but decisions elsewhere began to pay out for the dam quickly. Guild expansion of dye production mostly just expanded the ancient and traditional cultivation fields along the Redshore coast, but the increased number of stone pilings being made allowed for the expansion of the number of stoneworkers with aquatic expertise, who knew they would have a job after the expansion was done and only a few of them would be needed for maintenance. While the increased dye production was merely useful, the dye-alchemists had something more to play around with, and while those experiments did not pan out, a few of the attempts at using various ashes and residue from the glassworks as mordants produced new forms of mortar instead.
Meanwhile, as the guilds were pleased by all the dyes coming in and the new king was making efforts to better connect the core and the lowlands, Redshore's market was expanding from all the trade and raw population coming in. More than just a little expansion though, the squares opened up for merchant stalls soon expanded beyond what the planners envisioned, and tall new buildings filled with storehouses and display fronts surrounded the new markets. A raucous mercantile culture emerged, and the very concept of what a marketplace was began to change.
Megaproject Completed! Grand Bazaar
This overlarge example of a market serves as the cultural archetype of what a market is, forcing all others in the kingdom to step up their game. All markets have their effects increased as if they were one level higher, and can build markets one level higher than city level would normally allow, at double cost. System Note: Level 1 Markets now convert 100% of city Econ input into Wealth, Level 2 Markets additionally convert 25% of Econ input into Culture, and Level 3 Markets will give Merchant Actions.
Choose a Megaproject Bonus
[] [MP] Trade Excitement (+10 Wealth, +1 Stability from Guild demands)
[] [MP] Royal Investment (+1-2 Free Progress to Dam Project)
[] [MP] Expand Market Further (Redshore Level 3 Market 6/18)
[] [MP] Attract More People to City (Redshore Level 2 Block Housing 6/6)
[] [MP] Spread the Wealth Around (All Subordinates Receive +0-1 Loyalty)
The increased activity from the bazaar also brought increased trouble, but fortunately the mayor had been keeping an eye out for that sort of thing, and had leaned on some external contacts to follow up a few leads. It seemed that while Uvothyn had clipped a number of burgeoning issues with the enclaves in the bud, some of the more radically puritan priests were still causing problems. In particular some of the most extreme adherents were covertly attacking people. The majority of these attacks were on marginalized and vulnerable groups like half-exiles, prostitutes, and anyone suspected of harbouring One God sympathies, but they also occasionally went after petty merchants, who they saw as encouraging greed and sin. That they had a tendency to target those who were involved with foreign trade more than internal trade was duly noted, as well as seeming to go after rumours of impiety among the shipbuilding artisans more often than in other occupations. It was obvious that these puritan radicals felt that outsiders brought disharmony and sin and felt that the People would be fundamentally better off alone and isolated.
Unfortunately, the outside definitely had interest in the People. While performance at the Games was relatively lacklustre for several years, they served the purpose of keeping key figures from outside coming to the People and thus keeping the People in the loop about events outside their borders. The Storm People had stumbled in their expansion and were "consolidating", which sounded a bit like they were suppressing rebellious conquered tribes. Freehills had a few years of poor performance in their conquest of the Tin Tribes, before a new general emerged to begin wielding the warriors of the growing 'republic' with devastating adroitness. Trade missions to the Forhuch kept in touch with them, and essentially reassured their terrifyingly competence king that the People just wanted trade.
Born in a tent, the King of the Forhuch had already reclaimed a city and had established a system of courier relays throughout the Horse Mountains to keep in contact with the far flung tribes he was settling in the area while making sure the riders stayed sharp. The Pure before him had cleared out the region, turning it into a place ideal for nomads to settle their herds and flocks, but had also left the mines mostly intact, so with the wealth from the Salt Sea trade and access to the skilled slaves the Storm People provided he was able to rapidly revitalize the militarily significant industries. Remarkably clever, the Forhuch were also experimenting with taking chariot archers and mounting them directly on their horses, and while there were a number of issues from what was reported back, if anyone could take the one off freaks who might have the skill and connection with their animals to do such an absurd thing as fire a bow from the back of a horse, it was the nomads.
The Western Colonies were also... well, perhaps not coming around to the king's point of view, but at least were less enthusiastic about the thought of going independent or joining the Storm People. The confused issue of Amber Road had been resolved as well, as it had become evident that a combination of pressure from primitive tribes that wanted their iron and fantastical goods without trading for them, and fear over the Horseman's Plague shutting down any interest in trade had lead them to becoming isolated sort of by accident. With a resumption of trade enough trips were being made that they realized that the world was not ending and they could get back to business.
And then there were the Harmurri, who on their own weren't a problem. They were, however, getting rather freaked out by the fact that the Highlanders had come boiling out of their hills and had begun gobbling down minor tribes the Harmurri had put in place as a tripwire in case of aggression by the Highlanders or People. For their part, the Highlander priesthood had apparently usurped their king and whipped their people into a frenzy to attack and conquer. Khemetri colonies had apparently been the first course, and the lowland minors a palate cleanser, because it seemed that their next target was the Harmurri. While not directly threatening the Harmurri or People yet, the unease was obvious... and the Highlanders had been sending out agents to contact the One God followers within the People's territory to attempt to get them to 'rise up against their heathen oppressors'.
While some of the One God followers had expressed interest, the same agents that had caught onto the puritan priests had also caught onto these foreign agents, and the memory of Uvothyn was still fresh and many of those affected by his efforts were of the opinion that their single God was a universal deity rather than the god of the Highlanders and thus saw no theological problems with siding with the People rather than the Highlanders. This loyalty was assuredly contingent on the kings continuing to protect them and not interfere with their strange worship and rituals, but still, the early warning either way was of significant use.
Internal Trouble
[] [Int] Expel the One God followers before they can betray you (-2 Intrigue, +1 Stability, reduces potential enemy Intrigue actions, ???)
[] [Int] Ignore the situation (???)
[] [Int] Crack down on the puritans (-2 Intrigue, -1 to +1 Stability, ???)
[] [Int] Attempt to tear out these maniacs, root and branch (-2 Intrigue, -1 Stability, -1 Legitimacy, -1 RA, ???)
External Trouble
[] [Ext] The Storm People could use mercenaries, and you have some
-[] [Ext] SY: Red Banner
-[] [Ext] SY: Dragon Banner
-[] [Ext] SY: Blood Rain Banner
[] [Ext] Freehills could use mercenaries, and you have some
-[] [Ext] FH: Red Banner
-[] [Ext] FH: Dragon Banner
-[] [Ext] FH: Blood Rain Banner
[] [Ext] Find out more about what the Highlanders are up to (Main Trade Mission)
[] [Ext] They are an obvious threat to you and your Games partners (Main War Mission)
-[] [Ext] Change to Offensive Policy
-[] [Ext] Change to Mass Levy Policy
[] [Ext] Keep sending treasure to the Forhuch (Main Targeted Salt Gift)
[] [Ext] Stay home, farm (Main Expand Econ)
React
[] [React] Expand Great Hall (2xGreat Hall Annexes)
[] [React] Improve Navy (Main More Warships)
[] [React] Improve Horse Valley Temple (2xSec Temple Actions)
[] [React] Improve Soil Quality (Main Black Soil)
[] [React] Need more scouts (Sec More Blackbirds + Sec More Spiritbonded)
[] [React] Farm (Main Expand Econ, cannot take with switching to Mass Levy)
Patricians (6 {12}) - Power: Add or subtract their faction power from factions they are supporting/opposing. Objective: Build 1/4 Great Hall Annexes within 2 turns Reward: Government upgrade Guild (5) - Power: Half faction power added to Max Wealth. Objective: Have a level 3 Ironworks within 2 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 1 turns. Success: +1 Naval [1/2] Yeomen (2)- Power: Adds faction power to secondary Martial Objective: Have 30 EE within 2 turns. Failure: -1 Stability [1/2] Priests (2)- Power: Adds faction power to RA. Objective: Have a new level 2 temple somewhere within 1 turns. Success: +1 RA tolerance. Failure: -1 Stability Urban Poor (4) - Power: +1 Max Legitimacy every 3 full power. Objective: Have 5 or more Free Cities within 3 turns. Success: New Social Value slot These counters iterate at the next midturn. The numbers in brackets indicate the general faction strength.
Ok. So, the Highlanders have gone all crusade-y on us. Greaaaaat. I'm hoping that we can make contact with them through trade and get them to cool off. If not, and they attack the Harmurri, then we can come to the Harmurri's defense, but they haven't attacked us or our friends yet, so...
And we have some really nasty puritans. I definitely support cracking down on them hard. I assume that's what "tear out root and branch" means, and Uvothyn suggested taking legitimacy and RA damage to counter Purity's erosion of our core values anyway.
I think we've built up enough contact with Forhuh that we can invite them to the games next turn, too!
[X] [MP] Trade Excitement (+10 Wealth, +1 Stability from Guild demands)
[X] [MP] Royal Investment (+1-2 Free Progress to Dam Project)
[X] [Int] Attempt to tear out these maniacs, root and branch (-2 Intrigue, -1 Stability, -1 Legitimacy, -1 RA, ???)
[X] [React] Need more scouts (Sec More Blackbirds + Sec More Spiritbonded)
[X] [Ext] Find out more about what the Highlanders are up to (Main Trade Mission)
[X] [PSN] Main Expand Econ (-2 Cent + Costs)
