Redshirt Army Feedback
I've been poking at
my previous speculative turnplans some more, and I think I've cooked up something spicy:
Turn 43
1: Morbs
2: Foundation Prototype?
3: Invite Damsels (Father)
4: Waystone Nexus - Forest of Shadows (Father)
5: Orodreth Negotiations (Father)
KAU: ???
EIC: Insert agents in Nordland
SERENITY: AV Book 1/2
EIKE: Negotiations, Bretonnia (Carcassone), Tradecraft with Hochlander
Rationale: Between likely not needing a followup apparition action and splitting the AV Book across two Serenity turns, it's possible to dig out enough free actions that we can do the Morbs and start on AV on a Father turn. We do lose the potential safety net of Gambler on Morbs, but I think it's worth it?
I'm choosing to be pessimistic in turn planning about there being a followup foundation action, but if there isn't we can just start creating the waystone here.
We probably do want to keep the book fully written by Mathilde - I was more open to involving Max back when I thought Thorek was already a contributor, but the power of the flex of slapping the book down with only Mathilde's name on it compels me.
I do want to do the Orodreth negotiations. Even in the "fail state" where the Father side of the coin doesn't apply, they're still a house open to integration that hasn't yet found a personal niche in contact with the Empire, and helping them will stabilize the political situation in Laurelorn in our favor - plus we'll gain a data point about whether Lileath is a daughter, which when combined with data about whether the Lady is a daughter generally will help map out the web of relations of the gods.
I think the other commentators have made good points.
- Doesn't take advantage of Father to poke around Kislev's gods
- Doesn't account for apparition training and spellmaking
- Deals with Brettonia at an awkward point for Waystones (Personally I think we should wait to deal with Brettonia until we either have a confirmed waystone working and sell it to them or until we need help from the damsels and recruit them to make one).
I'm also a bit unclear on what we're negotiating with Orodreth about. Sure it's about integrating them more, but that doesn't really seem like a concrete plan to me.
The only thing I would add is that I believe Laurelorn worships the same gods as the other Elves (although to different degrees and aspects). So if we spend time poking everyone in Laurelorn we should be able to discover if any of their gods are Ranald's daughter. I'm not sure how that would work out as an action though. So instead of focusing on just Orodreth I'd like to consider investigating everyone. Maybe something like [] Investigate the people of Laurelorn for ways to integrate with the Empire.
I'm sure someone can think of something better though.
Turn 44
OW: Assemble Waystone ?
1: Druchii Negotiations
2: Johann: Punch Sylvania (Protector)
3: Max, Johann, Egrimm: Map Tilea, Estalia
WEB: Egrimm: Lothern Negotiations
4: Elfcation 1/3 (Protector)
5: Elfcation 2/3 (Protector)
Rationale: This is the moment where Redshirt truly began cooking and became Heisenberg.
We're going to be using the Protector anyway, so why not do the Dammerlichtriter legend-building on the same turn as the Elfcation? Egrimm is a Lord Magister, which I think makes him a better candidate for coming along on the trip to do some negotiations in Lothern, since the few Dip points he loses compared to Johann he makes up for by having a slightly higher status and ability to negotiate on behalf of the project. Plus Egrimm is likely to take being invited to Elfland to do important project negotiations better than he is being dragged to Sylvania to help Mathilde build her legend.
And if we're using a Johann action and an Egrimm action, it just makes sense to set things up so the remaining WEB-MAT action is also useful. I think mapping Tilea and Estalia fits the bill - it's useful, because it means we'll have a full map of the Old World's connections to Ulthuan (minus Albion) ready in time for negotiations with Ulthuan. It makes sense in-universe too - the ship we charter to Ulthuan can sail out of Estalia, so we can do a Tilea-Estalia route, mapping as we go, and ending at the port, with Johann and Max then doing follow-up to flesh out the map details while we're gone.
And in terms of flexes... here, Mathilde drops a working Waystone, Morbs, and the AV Book, and then fucks off to the south, and then from there to Elfland, before anyone can corner her about it. It's practically the fabled OmegaFlex.
KAU: ???
EIC: Orodreth followup?
SERENITY: AV Book 2 / 2
EIKE: Sailing, Task in Lothern
So I have no objections to going to Ulthuan and rocking Protector while we do it sounds fine.
The other actions also seem pretty fine but I think we should consider not doing WEBMAT this turn and just using personal actions.
So for example instead of sending Johann out to punch vampires, Mathilde can do it herself which is more obviously going to boost her reputation.
Turn 45
1: Elfcation 3/3 (Protector)
2: Waystones: Something in Kislev
3: Waystones: Something in the Karaz Ankor
4: Waystones: Something in Bretonnia
5: Ulthuan Negotiations (Gambler/Deceiver?)
KAU: ???
EIC: ???
SERENITY: ???
EIKE: ???
Rationale: This is about the best possible setup for Ulthuan negotiations we can manage. We'll have a working waystone. We'll have an understanding of the connections to Ulthuan. We'll have buy-in from almost every meaningful polity in the Old World, which we can highlight with immediate work prior to the negotiation. We'll have the potential negotiations with the Druchii as a backstop. We'll have whatever Egrimm and Mathilde manage to accomplish while in Ulthuan personally. And we'll have a refreshed Coin to use on it, either the Gambler or the Deceiver. I legitimately think that we can get the codes out of Ulthuan with this kind of a diplomatic setup.
Thoughts?
Seems solid to me. Build up a strong reputation then use the Druchii as additional pressure on Ulthuan. Don't forget how much we can get out of the Druchii though, they're liable to give favorable deals just to spite Ulthuan.
Although all those waystone actions are pretty obviously dependent on being able to action successfully build them and I'm not sure why the Empire isn't included there. Mathilde is basically the Empire's waystone person so she should definitely be leading the charge for getting waystones placed in the Empire.
Other locations like Laurelorn and Kislev should have their own people to implement their waystones programs as long we create the waystone designs and give them access (which they should since they're in on the project).
LawsOfRobotics Feedback
I was inspired to throw together some prototype plans to see what it would look like to go on Elfcation next turn. It would mean not doing Orbflex on Two Gifts Day, which would break my heart, but I want to share what I came up with.
There is one plan for if we can make a Waystone prototype to include it in the flex:
[ ] Plan Time for an Elfcation, Waystone Prototype version
-[ ] Create Orbs of Sorcery solo
-[ ] Write a paper: (Aethyric Vitae part 1)
-[ ] Waystone prototype
-[ ] [ ] Travel to Nagarythe at the invitation of Ambassador Daroir, and join their eternal war against Naggarothi invaders for three months.
-[ ] COIN: The Protector
-[ ] EIC: Gather as much Ithilmar from throughout the Old World as possible to resell to the Eonir for a one-time profit
-[ ] KAU: Seek an exchange arrangement with another Library or a Karak's archives to be able to make copies of their corpus (Karak Vlag Archives)
-[ ] SERENITY: Aethyric Vitae part 2
-[ ] Eike Actions: Explore Lothern while we are in Nagarythe
My preference is not to spend an action on writing the paper and rely on Serenity. It delays the publishing of the book but I think a delay can add a bit of mystery which for an Ulgu wizard is a good thing.
My other preference would be for Eike to either hang around the Grey College or spend time with her grandmother rather than stay in Lothern alone for such a long time. I'd be more tempted to leave her there if we also had WEBMAT action for Egrimm to be doing negotiations so he can look out for her.
This plan also fails to account for the apparition.
As to the Ithilmar trade there have been previous comments on how it might not be a good look to be trading the valuable material to Laurelorn and profiting off it (I don't recall if any conclusions were decided there so I'm unsure if the problem was dismissed or if it's a possible issue). I'm pretty indifferent on this action myself though.
And there is another plan that skips Waystones for a turn to use WEBMAT:
[ ] Plan Time for an Elfcation, WEBMAT version
-[ ] Create Orbs of Sorcery solo
-[ ] MAX: Receive dictation (Aethyric Vitae)
-[ ] JOHANN: Involve yourself in the Eastern Stirland pacification masquerading as the Dämmerlichtreiter
-[ ] EGRIMM: ???
-[ ] [ ] Travel to Nagarythe at the invitation of Ambassador Daroir, and join their eternal war against Naggarothi invaders for three months.
-[ ] COIN: The Protector
-[ ] EIC: Gather as much Ithilmar from throughout the Old World as possible to resell to the Eonir for a one-time profit
-[ ] KAU: Seek an exchange arrangement with another Library or a Karak's archives to be able to make copies of their corpus (Karak Vlag Archives)
-[ ] SERENITY: Aethyric Vitae part 3 to make sure we get it perfect, or results from Lustrian stuff
-[ ] Eike Actions: AV Book, Explore Lothern while we are in Nagarythe
I just put these together to explore the option, so I am not actually advocating for either plan.
I'd prefer to leave Max off the Vitae actions.
- First Mathilde has come this far without aid so I'd like to finish it alone as well.
- Second this is pretty important stuff that I expect to get classified pretty highly and there's no reason to spread it further than it needs to go even if I completely trust Max.
For the Egrimm actions you could have Egrimm go to Lothern here with Eike to negotiate for waystone information. This admittedly gives us a weaker negotiating position than if Mathilde finished her time in Nagarythe or if we had the threat of Druchii negotiations going on as well.
Conclusion
Wooh, that was a lot of feedback. but it did give me inspiration for a plan of my own.
[ ] Plan Go to war
-[ ] Create Orbs of Sorcery solo
-[ ] Waystone Prototypes
-[ ] Apparition training/spellcrafting
-[ ] [ ] Travel to Nagarythe at the invitation of Ambassador Daroir, and join their eternal war against Naggarothi invaders for three months.
-[ ] COIN: The Protector
-[ ] EIC: Found an auditors division, to make sure the ledgers are in order.
-[ ] KAU: Seek an exchange arrangement with another Library or a Karak's archives to be able to make copies of their corpus (Karak Vlag Archives)
-[ ] SERENITY: Aethyric Vitae
-[ ] Eike Actions: Waystone prototypes, Orbs of Sorcery
-[ ] Eike Study: Spend time with her grandmother, learning about the EIC while Mathilde is in Nagarythe. (If possible Learn Sounds spell while Mathilde is around).
This plan is focused on going to Nagarythe and completing our ongoing tasks. Which admittedly takes all our actions.
For Eike I think spending time with her (aging) grandmother is a good idea. She can spend time with family and learn more about the business she's inheriting in ways superior to what Mathilde can teach.
Additionally while I'm not sure if we can split her time like this I'd like her to learn sounds while Mathilde is around if possible. If that's not possible then it's fine to drop learning sounds and just spend time with Wilhelmina.
I'm pretty indifferent about the EIC and KAU actions. Any convincing argument (or just being asked politely) would be enough to get me to change them.
