With regard to the usefulness of social actions:
It is possible that the skaven combes will come up with something relevant to our expedition -- they might be interested in taking a shot at the convoy, or then again they might just be focused on fighting the Chaos Dwarves. It is definite that Ruprecht Wulfhart, who sits on the expedition council and commands a significant portion of the fighting strength, will be relevant to our expedition, especially if there's a social showdown near the end.
I don't blame people for wanting adventure, excitement, or the chance of high rolling. I just think that we need to keep our eye on the end goal and make sure we're in good political shape by the time we reach Karag Dum. This requires meeting all the leadership, and may require meeting some of them multiple times (as we are doing this turn with Borek). I have a clear sense of what we stand to gain by visiting Chaos Vegas, but the combes are explicitly a "poke around and see if something randomly turns up" option.
And I value opportunities where we're taking concrete action in pursuit of a specific goal (like gaining social ground with our fellow leadership, or even Chaos Vegas) over pure gachas.
I'm going to try and convince you.
Political instability is a serious problem in any military campaign.
We should be trying to avoid it at all costs.
Just from this last battle we have several groups who put together a solid display, kept most of their side alive, killed demons and we are worried about their mental state regardless.
That is a military victory, that preserved our forces, preserved our strategic assets and was close to the best we could have gotten out of it.
We are still mostly united in going forward and getting better.
But the thing that causes real instability isn't those minor differences, it is what happens if we lose.
- If the Urmskaladrak gets taken out, or some of the other wagons.
- If our cavalry force takes massive casualties in an ambush we weren't prepared for.
- If a plague in the area takes half our forces and puts them down.
So what are our weaknesses they can exploit to effect that.
- Our steam wagons are irrepairable in the field, and have exposed wheels
- We are foraging off the land.
- Our mage contingent is highly visible for assassination.
- There are probably others, just getting this out quickly.
The combes are a major military line for Clan Moulder, they will have.
- Their own troops, a horde of mutated monsters like Rat Ogres, and possibly bigger. They can tear through the wheels of our wagons and mission kill this entire expedition.
- Their allies troops, Skryre have lots of artillery that with a suprise attack can start out b punching a hole in a steam wagon and mission kill the entire expedition.
- Their allies troops, Eshin assassins that can aim at our mages out in the field.
- Possibly a Grey Seer.
- Even without Pestilens, they may have taken plagues from them. They can try and poison the land we are foraging off and try and wipe out our cavalry.
We have plenty of insight into Skaven tactics we can put to getting them to focus on their own forces.
We have knowledge we can use to disable their artillery if it is anything like the ratling gun.
We know queekish and can write it, and fake orders to send them in the wrong direction. Like orders to attack the Chaos dwarves if they move against us.
The Combes are not a mystery box, they are hedging against one of the major militaries of this region launching an attack at the force moving through their backyard.
If they don't we may have wasted an action.
If they do attack us when we are unprepared, we will see a lot of political instability in short order, without ever reaching our destination.
Pulling an army together after a major defeat is the stuff of legends, mostly because normally your army just deserts.
On the lucky side we may even get benefits for ourselves from this adventure. But the main point of it is always going to be stopping the Skaven War Machine crushing us for intruding on their territory.
That is something noone else on this expedition has the experience to carry out, and that is why we should be going to the Combes, which are the Skaven front line for this stretch of their territory.
