TBH, that seems like a good reason to use the Son + Skirmishers against the spiders this autumn... We can use the Blades + Sara with absolutely devastating effects against the Eyevines and the Devourers, but for the Spiders we need the finesse that we cannot get with the blades, and if we have the Son + Skirmishers booked out for this next year it makes sense to deal with the Spiders ASAP so that we can use them for something else next year...
The Spiders are low risk. Even regular Workforce dice just have to avoid rolling below a 10, whereas for the Eyevines it's more like below 20. This, combined with their low Progress costs, means in my mind that even with the issue of needing to roll relatively high to make progress, we could send in Workforce dice against them without much actual worry. In fact, we could probably even retask the Militia to hunting the Spiders if we really wanted with an expectation that they'd do a decentish job (better than regular Workforce dice anyway) without any real worry.
And like I mentioned above, the Spiders don't have anywhere near the same growth rate risks as the Eyevines do, so we can afford to take our time or wait until the Skirmishers are freed up.
Anyway, here's my own preliminary plan draft.
[ ] Plan Pest Control
Fields
-[ ] Harvest [Task] (3(4?) Dice) (1 Colonist die, 1 Unhardened Colonist die, 1 Native die, 1 ?? die)
Wilds
-[ ] Rebuild the Peaceful Wilds
--[ ] Further out [0/100] (1 Colonist die, 1 Native die)
--[ ] Sulfur Paths [0/75] (1 Colonist die)
-[ ] Gathering Expedition [DC 20/80/120] (1 Colonist die, 1 Native die)
-[ ] Purge the Vermin [Away With the Pests] [Risky]
--[ ] The Tower of Eyes [Vermin][???]
---[ ] Strike down the Node (Risky) [0/75] (1 Warrior's Son die, 2 Son's Skirmishers dice)
--[ ] The Devourer Kingdoms [Vermin] [???] (2 Silent Blades dice, 1 Personal die)
Town
-[ ] The Food Traps [0/25] (1 Native die)
-[ ] To protect animals [0/75] (1 Colonist die, 1 Unchained die)
-[ ] Train the Militia against monsters [Militia]
--[ ] Spread and Regroups [10/75] (1 Militia)
-[ ] Remember the Fallen [0/70] (1 Mourner)
Crafting (7 Craft Points)
-[ ] The Great Mending [2 Craft, 1 unit of Fabric]
-[ ] Lordskins Clothes [2 Craft, 1 unit of Excellent Leather] (Will trigger a quality roll)
-[ ] Lordskins Clothes [2 Craft, 1 unit of Excellent Leather] (Will trigger a quality roll)
-[ ] Concentrated Fireberries [1 Craft]
Raids, Expeditions and Diplomacy
-[ ]
Knowledge
-[ ] Free the Enslaved [21/100] (1 Failure Die)
-[ ] Heal the Wounded
--[ ] We shall patch the wounds of their vessels and ensure the trees are healthy [DC ??] (1 Colonist die)
---[ ] Write-In: Set aside a unit of Excellent Bark to be expended in this if it is deemed beneficial.
-[ ] What are the Freed ? [Freed] [Dead] [0/75] (1 Mourner die)
The Council
-[ ] Captain, Officers and Priest [DC 20/50/70/??] (2 Council dice)
-[ ] Funerary Practices [DC 25/75/ ???] (1 Council die, 1 Andreyas die)
Death Singing
-
Sara Smith, the Mourner
-[ ]
Dice Remaining: 1 Colonist, 1 Native, 1 Unchained, 1 Dead, 1 Alexandre, 2 Personal
Note that this plan assumes that we get at least 1 Council die from Expand the Council. But if not well, a Personal die can sub in, or we can maybe decide that 1 die is "good enough" on Captain, Officers and Priest (though I'd prefer to have 2 dice.)
Anyway, in Fields we're bringing in the harvest (I wonder if the Harvest will also bring in the Flax. Flax takes about 100 days from sowing to harvest, so it should be ready sometime this turn.) I wanted to do the Razorweed Hedge, but I found it difficult to spare the dice, especially if we plan on starting our campaign against the Tribute-Takers in the Spring.
In the Wilds, Further Out is part of that work, since it was mentioned as being very beneficial to infiltration and exfiltration of our people if we decide to Burn the Lesser Pit. As such, I assume it will at minimum provide narrative benefits, and possibly other, greater benefits, if we have it complete by the time we start launching our raids on the Tribute-Takers. Sulfur Paths meanwhile, is just our standard "minimum one die working on the gunpowder industry", with the hope that if there's any overflow from Further Out it will spill into it.
Additionally, there's 2 dice on the Gathering Expedition for herbs and new plants, since we are limited to once a year on that, so we want to do it before the year ends. Plus, Gathering Expeditions are currently the only way we can actually replenish our stocks of fireberries, since we can't grow them normally (yet.)
After that, it's Purge the Vermin. The Son and his Skirmishers on the Eyevines, the Silent Blades + Sara on the Devourer Kingdoms. Theoretically, I'm wondering on putting additional dice. The Dead die on Eyevines for example, could give us a reasonable chance of clearing out the Eyevines entirely provided the later Nodes don't require more progress (3x 75 Progress = 225, just about reachable with the Son's Skirmisher + Son combo and one more die.)
For the Town, we're doing Food Traps, and I have 2 dice on Protect Animals (might go down to 1 depending on how much progress was done by house overflow.) The Militia die is currently on more training, this time on big monsters. But like the currently unassigned Dead die, it could be swapped over to purging as well, this time probably the Devourers, provided we have confirmation by QM that progress on the initial fighting will overflow into the cleanup part of dealing with them.
The Remember the Fallen is another one I'm waiting to see if there was any overflow towards, but if not, I'll probably need to reassign another die. Patterns of Protections is also probably on the docket to do, but I'm waiting to make sure that nothing else is more pressing before I throw 2 dice at it. A Mourner die + Omake has an ~50% chance of completion after all.
Crafting is fairly simple. The Great Mending to fulfill the Mandate, the 2x Lordskin Clothes so we can have everyone in Winter Clothes and (provided the Quality Dice don't screw us) the entire Militia in the Winter Clothes that double as armor, which I bet will be really useful during Winter turns in particular. The final Craft goes on getting those Concentrated Fireberries, since Fireberries in the past have provided both Heat and Knowledge.
Knowledge-wise, we continue trying to figure out how to free the Tribute Taker slaves. I wanted to put one die on Heal the Wounded because I just had the idea of using some of the Excellent Bark we had to help patch the wounds (and getting rid of their open wounds
before Winter comes seemed like a very good idea to me.) The 2nd Mourner die is currently on studying the Freed. Alexandre is waiting until we see what options the hospital has unlocked.
The Council is fulfilling promises made last turn. We want to sort out the official position of heroes because we have an increasing number of Heroes with increasing amounts of influence through their duties, and we want that sorted out. 2nd is Funerary Practices to synergize with Remember the Fallen.
And I've got a bunch of dice waiting to see what new projects show up and which projects are considered the most pressing.
----
Okay, so with my plan draft out of the way and explained, let me go over issues I'm seeing with my draft, specifically things that are currently not being done that we likely want done, or at least have a notable opportunity cost for
not doing.
-Deadport/Galleon: We wanted to work on Deadport, or at least get the Galleon somewhere where it can be protected before Winter hits. That's gonna take a die, 2 dice if we want to be sure, 3 dice if we want to finish Deadport (which has a description that at least implies that compelting it might auto-protect the Galleon.)
-Razorweed: The intent was for us to start the 2nd Razorweed hedge this turn, so that we could finish setting it up in the Spring (and thus, it would be ready to go next Winter.) That's unlikely to happen unless we can dedicate at least 2 dice to it this turn. I suppose as a compromise to get some amount of Razorweed utilization out we could put a die onto Pit Traps, but that's not really the same.
--Mind, I have multiple dice waiting in reserve, so there's nothing stopping me from putting 2 dice onto Razorweed Hedges right now. I just chose to wait for the moment, particularly waiting until we see just what it is that feeding the Husks to the Razorweed brought us.
--Another thing that could be done is to swap the Militia action from Spread and Regroup to the Razorleaf one. It's Risky and would need more progress (and is I think unlikely to complete with just one die), but it would likely provide more benefit for this coming Winter.
-More Allies: One thing I really wanted to do at least as an experiment was see if we could spare 2 dice for contacting the Mistmen. A Sara Personal die would be recommended here, since it was hinted when we first encountered them we'd want Sara to talk with them. But with so many other projects needing our attention before Winter, that's unlikely to happen.
-War in the Woods: Something that occurred to me is that there may be a certain synergy to doing the Strike From Behind subaction for the War in the Woods. Strike From Behind specifically targets the Voices that are wounded and recovering. However, at the moment there is an entire die's worth of Blood-Loving Woods that are recovering from injuries. It's possible that a successful Strike From Behind might either prolong their injured status, or even outright destroy them. This is a very big if though.
--It's also worth nothing that Strike From Behind is
not a Risky Project. Which means that we could likely do it with regular Workforce Dice without fear of them risking major injuries before Winter. But it is a project that would require 2-3 dice, 3 if we want to be safe that it finishes.
-Champions: If we happen to get 2 Council Dice or some other dice savings, one thing I would like to do is put Andreyas and/or the Unchained dice onto setting up Militia Champions. If we do this though, then I definitely want 2 dice on the "figure out official status of heroes", since this would be giving Andreyas a great deal of influence over our military.
