While getting a better feel for the world outside of our immediate area would be good, it wouldn't change our situation with our immediate neighbors very much. The WC would still have more land than everyone else, the ST would still be annoyingly Holy, and the DP would still be assholes. This situation has persisted for a long time, and it's not going to change in any way that we could call "favorable", unless we do it ourselves!
It's not going to be painless, but neither is "Surprise, Persians!" Or, if we hold out for long enough, "Hello! Rome calling!"
They're going to mount a conquest of the Ymrri valley civilization, which have fuck high density and unfavorable terrains, with rangers irregular in every inch of the forests they step in, high centralization and organization, as well being a naval power to boot?
Even if we take the lowlands, we're always gonna have shitty neighbors.
If we just build a dam, which would render the western lowlands drier than usual (read: desert), then it'll deprive the DP and ST of a huge portion of viable land near us.
The dam would cause the dissolution of the WC (most likely, or atleast 1-2 stability hits), triggering our LoO and letting us assimilate them. It would also give us an artificial lake, and near-immunity to droughts.
They're going to mount a conquest of the Ymrri valley civilization, which have fuck high density and unfavorable terrains, with rangers irregular in every inch of the forests they step in, high centralization and organization, as well being a naval power to boot?
Yeah, that's not going to stop an uber-empire. After a certain point, "Throw more Manpower at it" becomes a valid solution. Or do you really think we could fight off ten-thousand career soldiers, backed by a civilization that would consider such a deployment negligible?
Admittedly, that's pretty far down the line, but if we don't stay on top of things NOW, how long until we end up that badly outstripped?
If we just build a dam, which would render the western lowlands drier than usual (read: desert), then it'll deprive the DP and ST of a huge portion of viable land near us.
Much to his shock, Bynwyn found himself being elected the heir to the high chief by a massive margin, even as the rest of the chiefs drew up plans to bring the war carts out of the hills and up into the fishing villages to attack from an unexpected angle. The construction of enough boats was expensive, mostly in that the rush building inflicted considerable opportunity costs. Expert woodcrafters and weavers were brought in from all over the territory of the People to work on the boats, meaning that they weren't working elsewhere, meaning that due to a dozen little things no longer being optimal the harvests were a little poorer that year, and the growth of the People would be slowed somewhat as clan heads were asked to actually gently ask people to exercise a modicum of restraint in having children for a few years, just to allow stockpiles to remain at a stable and full state.
The actual attack came at an awkward time as the High Chief proper fell ill and passed away during the final preparations to attack, which while not ideal at least meant that the majority of military decisions that Bynwyn could screw up via inexperience had already been made. As it was, the attack went off... mostly without a problem. Several tribes were caught with their civilian populations completely wrong oriented to be prepared to receive an attack from the direction launched, but unfortunately it did not quite have the morale shattering effect that the People had hoped. Instead, it just made the nomads angry, although fortunately the fact that the People didn't really raid for slaves meant that the War Chief on site simply negotiated ransom for pretty much all of the hostages and much of the livestock the People could not directly carry off with them. While that for the most part avoided the infliction of blood debts of revenge upon the People, it wasn't enough to actually secure any sort of truce. Raids on the People and those they traded with would continue as they had before, even if several of the nomadic tribes that had attacked them were severely diminished as a result. Fortunately, whenever they could make it work they had kept or demanded as ransom militarily important goods like war carts or horses.
It left Bynwyn discomfited even as he began to speak with the other shamans on what would be needed to actually make the warding ritual work for everyone for all time... and then talk with the other chiefs about some of the staggering costs implied by the discussions.
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. Further work might also work out how to make the improved version used by Wendtikwos Establish Annual Festival - A yearly harvest festival and a planting festival brings entertainment and stability by reminding people of the good things in life. People are pretty happy right now.
Expand Farms - There is territory around the new village that can be resculpted to have farms
Expand Fishing - With the new boats starting to propagate out and the new settlers along the coast, further fishing areas can be expanded to increase productivity
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 Holy Sites - The current places dedicated to the spirits and wisdom have accumulated interesting objects and tellers of stories, but they could be made a bit better
Expand Pasture - Some forest could be cleared near the new settlement to pasture livestock
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
More Boats - The things are expensive but oh so useful, so having more of them will increase your capacity for trade, travel, and fishing
New Holy Site - With a shaman in charge, the possibility to put a holy site at every major settlement has been unlocked, with one new site built per action devoted to it. Special: Will remain open in order to complete Scourge Warding if megaproject is activated
New Settlement - There are a few new sites that could have new settlements placed on them: a new settlement along the coast (can go north or south), just past the cataract that divides the valley from the lowlands, blue stone quarry
New Trails - The new coastal settlement is supported mostly by boats and the expansion of the limited trails there would be of great utility
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?
Sailing Mission - With the new boats, it might be possible to outfit an extremely long range expedition to learn more about the world along the coasts of the sea
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?
Study Health - High Chief Hewthyun responded quite well to the methods the shamans applied, perhaps more widespread application of these methods might have additional benefits?
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".
The Garden - The canal has greatly expanded the People's knowledge of controlling and directing water. A smaller but more personal project has been proposed to improve Valleyhome [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]
Scourge Warding - It has been discovered that there is a way to ward people from the scourging disease, but wide scale implementation will be exceedingly daunting. (Additional Requirements for Completion Known: 3/7 Holy Sites, 0/3 Expand Pasture) [King] [Harmony] [Protective]
You have one [Main] action and two [Secondary] actions or one [Main]x2 action and one [Secondary] action. Due to being attacked, at least one [Secondary] action must be devoted to War Mission - Northern Nomads in order to account for defensive measures and limited counter-attacks
[] Black Soil
[] Build Wall
[] Build War Carts
[] Expand Farms
[] Expand Fishing
[] Expand Forests
[] Expand Holy Sites
[] Expand Pasture
[] Expand Snail Cultivation
[] Expand Warriors
[] More Blackbirds
[] More Boats
[] New Holy Site
[] New Settlement
[] New Trails
[] Restoration of Harmony
[] Sacred Warriors
[] Sailing Mission
[] Study Forests
[] Study Health
[] 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 (Valleyhome), lower valley (Lower Valleyhome), central coastal (Redshore), northern hills (Stonepen), waterfall (Mistyhome), river confluence (Mistysnake), northern coastal (Newnet)
Holy sites: Waterfall (Rainbow Trail), Sacred Forest, northern hills (Horse Valley)
>Economy 4
It's gonna be close, we might not be able to make it. @Academia Nut
What does the "additional requirements for completion" mean? Does that mean that we need to do those actions separately, or that those will be automatically done while working on the Megaproject?
---previous discussion:
The way I see it, we should play the "nice" people game. Grow where there's less resistance. We can pack people in pretty tightly, and so we don't need anywhere near as much space as our competitors to grow the same amount of population. Establish trade and get our reputation for "no one is ever hungry" spreading so that we can just straight up consume the smaller communities and have whole villages defecting to our side.
Basically, go for a culture victory. Do our best to become what the ST were in the early game but with a secure food supply and less war. No matter what our neighbors are going to be shitty- heck, we've been moderately shitty neighbors to them (stealing their population, unleashing the nomads, etc.)
We definitely need to be able to grow, there's no question there. But growing along the coast seems like the safer option since it won't bury us in a multi-generational war like going into the lowlands will. Plus, we have lots of space within our borders that aren't settlements- we can grow a significant amount more.
The Garden - The canal has greatly expanded the People's knowledge of controlling and directing water. A smaller but more personal project has been proposed to improve Valleyhome [Shapers] [King]
Scourge Warding - It has been discovered that there is a way to ward people from the scourging disease, but wide scale implementation will be exceedingly daunting. (Additional Requirements for Completion Known: 3/7 Holy Sites, 0/3 Expand Pasture) [King] [Harmony] [Protective]
Sailing Mission - With the new boats, it might be possible to outfit an extremely long range expedition to learn more about the world along the coasts of the sea
Scourge Warding - It has been discovered that there is a way to ward people from the scourging disease, but wide scale implementation will be exceedingly daunting. (Additional Requirements for Completion Known: 3/7 Holy Sites, 0/3 Expand Pasture) [King] [Harmony] [Protective]
Oh you've GOT to be kidding me. There are requirements for this?! Our Shaman hero is going to die before we finish this in time to even start the Mega Project! We might as well have gone with the warrior chief!
I think we might want to focus on setting up more holy sites and making new trails with pastures in the mix. By making new trails we would be better able to transport the cows needed while expanding the holy places are required in order to meet the requisites. Also potential early hospital ho!
Yeah, assuming scourge warding doesn't go away next turn, I'd like to arrange for a ccombined sailing and trade mission to the metal miners. If scourge warding does go away however, I'd suppor tdoing that and expanding warriors so we can knock in some nomad heads quickly and get them to back off.
