Paths of Civilization

ctulhuslp · Apr 9, 2017

Okay, point for Trails: one of our settlements is sitting without damn road for several generations. That's kind of meh.
Also, we are dangerously low on Centralization when compared to Hierarchy.

tenchifew · Apr 9, 2017

[X] [Secondary] New Trails
[X] [Secondary] Trade Mission - Highlands Kingdom

Omegahugger · Apr 9, 2017

Romv said:
@Academia Nut You have forgotten to add a Megaproject to the list!
The Great Gift - There must be a way to deal with the Dead Priests once and for all, if only there was a way to breach their infernal wall ... Master gift-giver Twythulmyn proposes a project involving a great - curiously hollow - Crow made from the People's best lumber and a crack team of our best, yet smallest Blackbirds. [Shapers] [Diplomatic King] (4-5 action commitment, -1 Mysticism per action, -1 Art per action)

IIRC Mega-projects allow write-ins.

tryrar · Apr 9, 2017

Omegahugger said:
IIRC Mega-projects allow write-ins.

Still not sure doing the Trojan thing would be the smartest use of our resources. We first need to invent actual armies rather than raiding groups, for one.

Edit: Plus, If I were running the quest I'd disallow write-ins dictating costs, and I'm fairly Sure @Academia Nut feels the same.

zamin · Apr 9, 2017

[X] [Secondary] Trade Mission - Thunder Horses
[X] [Secondary] Trade Mission - Highlands Kingdom

I don't really feel in the mood to write up an analysis tonight, so have another omake.

Negaverse Omake: Silencing the Spirits

Scholarly Seed said:
Your shamans had worked feverishly, calling upon every spirit they could muster for this day. After years of decline and hardship, your people would finally rise again! Truly, your High Priest had been wise to take advantage of the comet's arrival.

Thanks to his actions, most of the nomad clans had been cowed. Only the Thunder Horse clan and their allies refused to bend their knee, incensed at your theft of their sacred weapon. Their chieftain, young and arrogant, had declared that he would reclaim his ancestor's birthright, even if he had to slaughter every one of your people in order to do so.

Hmph. He was welcome to try.

Though the Thunder Horses were as proud and respected as ever, their strength had waned greatly ever since the death of mighty Wendtikwos, their army a mere shadow of the great horde that had once swept through the lowlands. Your Sacred Warriors alone would not have been able to stop them, but the minor nomad clans that had recently sworn themselves to your cause would be more than enough to destroy the wretches once and for all.

However, as the day of the meeting arrived, your priests realized that there were far too many carts heading in your direction. The Thunder Horse chieftain had arrived, but he had not come alone.

They called him Bynwyn, High Chief of the Valley People. The man looked frail and harmless, his hair grey and back bent with age. Yet the very sight of him struck anxiety into your priests' hearts. This was no warrior chief, come to clash against the might of the few knuckles of Sacred Warriors still loyal to your cause. Before he had received his position, Bynwyn had been renowned as the greatest shaman the Valley People had produced in generations, a reputation he soon put to good use by coming forward alone to challenge your priests to a test of faith and mystic might.

Fortunately, though Bynwyn was indeed skilled, your priests once again showed the power of their spirits. Despite his best efforts, he could only stall their magics, merely delaying the inevitable.

Even as your people were distracted by the Valley People's High Chief, a group of masked men crept into your camp, intent on stealing the star-axe for themselves. Had your Sacred Warriors not been so vigilant, they might even have succeeded in their treacherous task. Infuriated by the Valley People's trickery, your Sacred Warriors surged forwards, intent on taking Bynwyn's head as punishment.

The moment they realized what was happening, the Valley People's own warriors charged forwards to save their leader. Your Sacred Warriors strode forwards, facing their enemies fearlessly. However, despite your commands the nomad clans that had sworn themselves to your cause refused to fight, claiming that they would not interfere in a battle between spirits.

The battle was bloody and fierce. Though they could not match the strength and fury of your Sacred Warriors, the Valley People fought desperately to save their leader. Each of your warriors slew at least three enemies before dying, but in the end that was still not enough.

With all your fighters busy, there was nothing preventing the Thunder Horses from moving around the battle to strike at the heart of your camp. They cut down your defenseless leaders, slaughtering all in their path. Blinded with fear, one of the lesser priests seized the star-axe and attempted to flee, leading the Thunder Horses deep into your territory... where they realized that you didn't have any more warriors to stop them.

For a week, they rampaged through your lands, massacring your people and putting entire villages to the torch. Your remaining priests fled into the Sacred Cave, only to be trapped inside as giant boulders were rolled over the entrances. The holy relics you had gathered through the years were destroyed or stolen, taken away in the nomad's bulging saddlebags.

By the end of the month, your entire civilization was reduced to nothing more then dust and ashes. The Spirit Talkers would never rise again.

Bad End!

Your Civilization has been destroyed by the Thunder Horse Nomads!

Alwaysafanfic said:
NOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooo

Mr. Umi said:
Fuck.

Citnavis said:
GODDAMN VALLEY PEOPLE! WHY THE HELL DID THEY SHOW UP?!

shoggothalp said:
*Sigh*

And we were so close, too. If those stupid Valley People hadn't appeared out of nowhere, we'd have been able to kill the Thunder chief and control the nomads completely.

Vaakia said:
Holy shit. What the hell just happened? Did we roll a bunch of crit fails in a row or something?

Scholarly Seed said:
The Thunder Horse called the Valley People for help. Unfortunately for you, they decided to send everything they could spare, including their only Hero Unit.

To be honest, you actually did quite well in the beginning. You stalemated the Mystic Hero that the Valley People had brought in specifically to counter your priests. Then you actually managed to stop their spies from sneaking off with the star-axe, which I didn't think was possible.

After that, however, everything fell apart. You failed to convince your pet nomads to interfere, which meant that your Sacred Warriors too busy fighting to stop the Thunder Horse from swooping in to steal the star-axe for themselves. Then the nomads went deeper into your territory and realized that you didn't have any more warriors left (0 Martial), which pretty much sealed your fate.

KFC lover said:
Goddammit, I knew we should have gotten some normal warriors instead of spamming Sacred Warrior all the time.

Redscale78 said:
Oh hey, a new updat- oh.

Um, GG, guys?

Infinitevoid said:
So what now? Do we take control over a new faction or something?

Akamaru said:
Can we try playing as the Western Confederacy? They seem to be pulling themselves back together. I'm sure that with us in control they'll be able to become a powerhouse again in no time.

Malevolo · Apr 9, 2017

[X] [Secondary] New Trails
[X] [Secondary] Trade Mission - Highlands Kingdom

DocMatoi · Apr 9, 2017

zamin said:
akamaru said:

Can we try playing as the Western Confederacy? They seem to be pulling themselves back together. I'm sure that with us in control they'll be able to become a powerhouse again in no time.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

kek

tryrar · Apr 9, 2017

[X] [Secondary] New Trails
[X] [Secondary] Trade Mission - Highlands Kingdom

Flip Flopping my vote like a champ!

ctulhuslp · Apr 9, 2017

DocMatoi said:
kek

I mean...if they get their Diplo in order, Highlands can rise again, soo..
Of course, starting trade with them will probably attract the attention of Dead Priests, but they are a bit busy and we were planning to Main Expand Warriors anyway. At least I hope we were planning to do it.

Although Restoration of Harmony is long overdue too...ugh. At least Provinces system means we are not obligated to do every little thing ourselves.

BlueFlamingWings · Apr 9, 2017

Alright, while I'd prefer going to the Metal Miners a trade mission is a trade mission:

[X] [Secondary] New Trails
[X] [Secondary] Trade Mission - Highlands Kingdom

Entropy Engineer · Apr 9, 2017

[X] [Secondary] Trade Mission - Thunder Horses
[X] [Secondary] Trade Mission - Highlands Kingdom

ctulhuslp · Apr 9, 2017

@Academia Nut , can local Chiefs Restore Harmony locally on their own and/or accept refugees locally, or are all those still the purview of the whole civilisation?

Basically, what are the actions local chiefs can do on their own? I assume making new settlements, surveys and studies, expanding economy and, with sufficient economy, expanding army?
Or, if it's easier: if possible, what are the actions local kings cannot possibly take even with Econ and Diplo 6+?

Also, is this '6+' requirement modified by the number of provinces, something else or just static?

CatOnTheWeb · Apr 9, 2017

tryrar said:
Not according to my tally. This is why I don't use the forum tally, it has no function for merging mis-formatted or misspelled votes

hmm, fair point, I thought Expand Trails was still an option that I missed. So yeah, those who voted for it probably meant for New Trails, which means it is in the lead.

Reader of all · Apr 9, 2017

Correct me if I am wrong but wouldn't letting the thunder horse's peace treaty end mean that once again the nomads will raid the people resulting in a secondary action being locked?

tryrar · Apr 9, 2017

Not necessarily, they could choose to raid other people. Plus a diplomatic mission is not guaranteed to do anything about the deadline anyways(though it probably would help quite a bit)

ctulhuslp · Apr 9, 2017

Reader of all said:
Correct me if I am wrong but wouldn't letting the thunder horses deadline end mean that once again the nomads will raid the people resulting in a secondary action being locked?

Nah, it means that they are not obligated to not raid.
And, given that they are fucking nomads, trading caravans may provoke new raids ('hey they are filthy rich why should we pay for it if we can take it?') just as well as calm them down.
That's why everyone who historically bordered nomads passionately hated them and yet could do shit all about those assholes. Before Russia came and made them shut up and sit down in the 1500+, the best way to deal with them was Chinese Great Wall, and even it did fail in the end.

Academia Nut · Apr 9, 2017

tryrar said:
what is the chance that the Redshore governor hits the New Trails button once he can take actions?

It's possible, but Redshore is somewhat less likely to do so due to most of their settlement sites being along the coast and thus they are less affected by that problem than other provinces.

ScreenWatcher said:
You didn't answer me before (maybe i wrote the wrong way), but i was wondering if we can vote on the titles used by our ruler and their spouse in a mini-turn instead. I even had a great idea that many seemed to like on page 579.

Ehhh... basically there's an issue in that I'm reserving a lot of the hero names for the time being as they will be used to form the names of major spirits/gods and the like in the nearish future. Gwygoytha is already seen of more as a mythic figure than a person, and Crow has straight up lost all connection to the original person (Cwryl actually, not his grandfather, is the primary inspiration there). Also, the names are changing with linguistic drift so I'm basically applying the translation convention and just going 'King', although a new term may eventually be introduced.

ctulhuslp said:
can local Chiefs Restore Harmony locally on their own and/or accept refugees locally, or are all those still the purview of the whole civilisation?

No, that is the purview of the King.

ctulhuslp said:
Also, is this '6+' requirement modified by the number of provinces, something else or just static?

Somewhat modified by provinces, in that the number was chosen so that theoretically the chiefs couldn't completely fuck over your budget plans by reducing your Econ down below 4.

EDIT: Also, derp, forgot to say in an update to thank @colah for making a much less stupid way of organizing the options

DocMatoi · Apr 9, 2017

ctulhuslp said:
Nah, it means that they are not obligated to not raid.
And, given that they are fucking nomads, trading caravans may provoke new raids ('hey they are filthy rich why should we pay for it if we can take it?') just as well as calm them down.
That's why everyone who historically bordered nomads passionately hated them and yet could do shit all about those assholes. Before Russia came and made them shut up and sit down in the 1500+, the best way to deal with them was Chinese Great Wall, and even it did fail in the end.

This. Besides, the thing about these nomads is, there isnt an actual leader for them. They ARENT A UNIFIED GROUP. If one groups stops raiding us, the others will just come down harder on us.

Kiba · Apr 9, 2017

DocMatoi said:
This. Besides, the thing about these nomads is, there isnt an actual leader for them. They ARENT A UNIFIED GROUP. If one groups stops raiding us, the others will just come down harder on us.

Still less people to deal with.

Omegahugger · Apr 9, 2017

DocMatoi said:
This. Besides, the thing about these nomads is, there isnt an actual leader for them. They ARENT A UNIFIED GROUP. If one groups stops raiding us, the others will just come down harder on us.

Actually, for each group not raiding us we will have more resources dedicated to the ones that do, making us a less delectable target overall.

Not that a single tribe is a significant factor in this, unless we somehow convince them to try and protect us.

Kiba · Apr 9, 2017

Omegahugger said:
Actually, for each group not raiding us we will have more resources dedicated to the ones that do, making us a less delectable target overall.

Not that a single tribe is a significant factor in this, unless we somehow convince them to try and protect us.

It is possible for our shamans to cow some of the nomads into not attacking you. Look at the spirit talker.

Reader of all · Apr 9, 2017

ctulhuslp said:
Nah, it means that they are not obligated to not raid.
And, given that they are fucking nomads, trading caravans may provoke new raids ('hey they are filthy rich why should we pay for it if we can take it?') just as well as calm them down.
That's why everyone who historically bordered nomads passionately hated them and yet could do shit all about those assholes. Before Russia came and made them shut up and sit down in the 1500+, the best way to deal with them was Chinese Great Wall, and even it did fail in the end.

I see but if we ally with the strongest nomad clan i.e the thunder horses wouldn't that keep them in line?

DocMatoi said:
This. Besides, the thing about these nomads is, there isnt an actual leader for them. They ARENT A UNIFIED GROUP. If one groups stops raiding us, the others will just come down harder on us.

I do not know about that the thunder horses seem to have a pretty good hold over the nomads if they politically and spiritually control them

Academia Nut said:
Political and spiritually the people of the northern plains follow the Thunder Horse once again, who have declared that for our assistance none shall raid us for this generation or the next.

No7sHere · Apr 9, 2017

They followed them 2 generations ago, who knows what they're doing now, nomads are fucking annoying.

tryrar · Apr 9, 2017

Oh, speaking of neighbors, @Academia Nut since the Metal Workers count as neighbors now, do we have a sense of what their culture is like, as well as what they actually call themselves?

Omegahugger · Apr 9, 2017

Reader of all said:
I see but if we ally with the strongest nomad clan i.e the thunder horses wouldn't that keep them in line?

I do not know about that the thunder horses seem to have a pretty good hold over the nomads if they politically and spiritually control them

They are only the strongest clan currently, those things change with time rather easily.

I still support a trade mission, but that's because I want to ensure that we keep a friendly nomad clan while they still remember us being decent.

Paths of Civilization

Inattentive Idiot

The Watcher in the Dark

Theoretical Lover of Girls

Theoretical Lover of Girls

Inattentive Idiot

Inattentive Idiot