Ymaryn Successor Quest (Paths of Civ AU)

[Kiba]

Here's the options that I see for making money that doesn't involve subduing provinces:

1. New Product Lines. Depending on the state of technology, we could sidejump into new product lines. If we already woodblock printing and art, we could potentially invest in printing press technology, and sell books to the Kus, for example. Or reduce the cost of books and make the economy within the core stronger. Might require money to invest though.

2. New Trading Partners. Who do we really trade with anyway? Maybe some of the Kus would like to buy our cannons. Or maybe we could find new trading partners further south, like Magascadar and South Africa. They might be stone age tribes, but at least they will be new customers. If we want large trading expeditions, though, it faces the same problem as everything else: money to invest. That being said, it shouldn't require a lot of money to sponsor a printmaker to work on the printing press, large sum of sunbwyls, not anything that the state wouldn't notice.

3. Mines. Royal mines or even pilgrimage sites promote intra-trade. Uncertain and random, but it is possible we might find something, like coal! We should have coals within Georgia.

4. The Games. This is a long shot and also require money we don't have. We could once again act as technological supercharger engine. The Artisan games were supposed to do that but AN said they shut it dow due to cost, and with people coming to see The Games, it could be profitable for the kingdom, as we already have the infrastructure in Redshore set up for that.

5. Administrative upgrade. Simply put, putting the Kus numerals to work may save enough money to be effectively considered income.

 

[Fouredged Sword]

Yeah, we could burn a few actions surveying our lands in an attempt to increase our income. In fact, any actions not spent subduing our lands should be spend surveying our lands for new resources. Over 5 turns we need to generate our negative income in profitable actions. This isn't impossible and if we can stall long enough we can get our income positive.

And once our income is positive and we hold Trelli we can build our navy in a perfectly safe bathtub that nobody else can touch and send it out to do whatever we like in Yllthon Mor. We would be the only power in that sea who's dockyards are hidden behind a channel fort.

 

[Oshha]

One thing we CAN do is once the army takes Trellli we turn them around and send them to the hills to say "Taxes are not actually optional."

Click to shrink...

The Hill and Tinshore are equally profitable, and Tinshore is probably much easier to subdue. Even if we were to subdue all but Western Wall, it wouldn't give us enough income to call up a levy to invade Western Wall or pay for any investments.

Click to shrink...

I think @Kiba is right that Tinshore is the correct next move - sending the army to try and subdue a province that was specialized into a defensive frontier sounds like a recipe for a slog.

Click to shrink...

We need to get Trelli first so we can get trade income from that and so we can integrate Hathytta. After that, the next choice is Tinshore. Meanwhile we can hopefully diplo-integrate the Hills while we are getting Trelli and Hathytta, but we may need to do it by force and we don't know how viable it is to get the Hills before 1600 until next year. And while we don't know how strong Tinshore is, its small size means that it is certainly the next weakest successor state as Western Wall has been quote hulking out unquote on the breadbasket that is Not!Ukraine while we will need nothing sort of a Mass Levy to stand a chance of retaking Thunder Plateau from the Black Sheep. We could make a swing at Styrmyr to liberate Greenshore, but Tinshore is almost a certainly easier target and taking Tinshore would give us land access to Greenshore.

Thunder Plateau means waiting until we got enough money to afford a Mass Levy or something else to change the playing field while we need to wait for Western Wall to exchange enough of its long term advantages for short term ones that we have a chance at taking back the former Ymaryn lands even if all of Western Wall is beyond our reach.

 

[Fouredged Sword]

We need to get Trelli first so we can get trade income from that and so we can integrate Hathytta. After that, the next choice is Tinshore. Meanwhile we can hopefully diplo-integrate the Hills while we are getting Trelli and Hathytta, but we may need to do it by force and we don't know how viable it is to get the Hills before 1600 until next year. And while we don't know how strong Tinshore is, its small size means that it is certainly the next weakest successor state as Western Wall has been quote hulking out unquote on the breadbasket that is Not!Ukraine while we will need nothing sort of a Mass Levy to stand a chance of retaking Thunder Plateau from the Black Sheep. We could make a swing at Styrmyr to liberate Greenshore, but Tinshore is almost a certainly easier target and taking Tinshore would give us land access to Greenshore.

Thunder Plateau means waiting until we got enough money to afford a Mass Levy or something else to change the playing field while we need to wait for Western Wall to exchange enough of its long term advantages for short term ones that we have a chance at taking back the former Ymaryn lands even if all of Western Wall is beyond our reach.

Click to shrink...

I am not talking about taking the Thunder Plateau. Thunder Plateau is Afghanistan, the graveyard of empires. We are not retaking the Thunder Plateau from the Black Sheep by force.

The West Wall is north of what in our world is the black sea. It has nothing to do with the Thunder Plateau. We can march there from the core by going around the coast to the north.

I think we have a shot at taking the West Wall if we send troops soon before they can finish bulking out. If we let them bulk out they will become their own nation and refuse to join us ever and thus put a long term rival in our backyard. They can't be building a gunpowder army out of Ukrainian nomads and farmers. If take only the easiest target next we give the more powerful states time to grow and we die to income loss because we never take the really valuable lands we need to survive. For the same reason the West Wall is growing in military strength taking them will open up profitable actions to settle the Ukrainian breadbasket. Those actions will buy us the income we need to send our military out to take the rest of our lands.

Our biggest bottlenecks are income and army actions. We need to be efficient in both. We need to take the actions that generate the most income per action rather than the actions that have the lowest DC. That means starting not at the easiest target like we have all the time in the world. It means punching out the hard targets first and relying on them to keep us alive financially while we mop up after.

If we go too slow we die. If we fail too many rolls we die.

 

[Kiba]

Bedwyr: "So, you got a number of interesting books."
Kus merchant: "Yes, yes, we do. I thin-"
Bedwyr: "Would you be interested in a joint effort to sell these books? We just found a new way print more books. I found the books on zero to be the most useful."
Merchant: "Actually, the reading public would be more interested in....*nervous glance*.."raunchy books."
Bedwyr raised his eyebrows: "Oh?"
Merchant: "Action and romance, you know? And that sort of stuff!"
Bedwyr: "Whatever makes money and doesn't offend our trading partners."

We need to get Trelli first so we can get trade income from that and so we can integrate Hathytta. After that, the next choice is Tinshore. Meanwhile we can hopefully diplo-integrate the Hills while we are getting Trelli and Hathytta, but we may need to do it by force and we don't know how viable it is to get the Hills before 1600 until next year. And while we don't know how strong Tinshore is, its small size means that it is certainly the next weakest successor state as Western Wall has been quote hulking out unquote on the breadbasket that is Not!Ukraine while we will need nothing sort of a Mass Levy to stand a chance of retaking Thunder Plateau from the Black Sheep. We could make a swing at Styrmyr to liberate Greenshore, but Tinshore is almost a certainly easier target and taking Tinshore would give us land access to Greenshore.

Thunder Plateau means waiting until we got enough money to afford a Mass Levy or something else to change the playing field while we need to wait for Western Wall to exchange enough of its long term advantages for short term ones that we have a chance at taking back the former Ymaryn lands even if all of Western Wall is beyond our reach.

Click to shrink...

All they are is conquering people and settling out the nobility and the city folks, right? What they are doing is securing a food supply among an indefensible plain, most likely roamed by nomads. Population growth is long term.

 

[Aranfan]

Turn 3 (1596 Andyidh Dyadorn)


[x] Accept (Khemetri gain King of the Hill, possible delay in guild industry recovery, -1 Authority, unlikely +1 Influence, probably take Trelli next year)

It rankles. To accept such humiliation is excruciating. Yet you must. As great as the People are, their might has waned, and they cannot beat back the barbarian Syffronites alone. So you humble yourself and your kingdom before the Khemetri, and in return you get their naval support for Dafydd's pushes on western Trelli. It hurts in the moneypouch as well, for word quickly gets out and the favorable trade deals you had enjoyed as the preeminent power of the area shift around to give succor to the Lords of the Djeb.

Still, you need Trelli. If this gets you Trelli, then it was worth it.

(-1 Authority, -.5 Income)

Available Dice: 5 Influence, 3 Authority
Committed: 2 Influence, 2 Authority
Total Dice: 3 Influence, 1 Authority


Martial:

War Mission, MoS: Send the army to crush the rebels in Memory of Spirits. (100% 1 year. Success and length of campaign rolled separately. Possible influence gains or losses depending on result.)

War Mission, Western Wall: Send the army to crush the rebels in Western Wall. (100% 1 year. Success and length of campaign rolled separately. Possible influence gains or losses depending on result.)

War Mission, Greenshore: Send the army to crush the rebels in Greenshore. (100% 1 year. Success and length of campaign rolled separately. Possible influence gains or losses depending on result.)

War Mission, Tinshore: Send the army to crush the rebels in Tinshore. (100% 1 year. Success and length of campaign rolled separately. Possible influence gains or losses depending on result.)

War Mission, Black Sheep: Send the army to crush the Black Sheep and liberate the Thunder Plateau. (100% 1 year. Success and length of campaign rolled separately. Possible influence gains or losses depending on result.)

War Mission, Hathytta: Send the army to Hathytta and bring them back into line. (100% 1 year. Success and length of campaign rolled separately. Possible influence gains or losses depending on result. Possible -Hathytta Loyalty)

War Mission, Hellas: Send the army to retake Trelli from the Hellas, as well as the other land they have taken. (100% 1 year. Success and length of campaign rolled separately. Possible influence gains or losses depending on result.)

Lord's Loyalty War Mission, Hathytta: Send the army to Hathytta and put it at the disposal of the governor. (100% 1 year. Success and length of campaign rolled separately. Possible influence gains or losses depending on result. Possible +Hathytta Loyalty)

Lord's Loyalty War Mission, Txolla: Send the army to Txolla and put it at the disposal of the governor. (100% 1 year. Success and length of campaign rolled separately. Possible influence gains or losses depending on result. +Txolla Loyalty)

City Levy, Western Wall: Conscript some of the excess population of the cities and send them to crush the rebels in Western Wall. (95% 1 year. Success and length of campaign rolled separately. Possible influence gains or losses depending on result. Expensive)

City Levy, Greenshore: Conscript some of the excess population of the cities and send them to kick the Styrmyr out of Greenshore. (95% 1 year. Success and length of campaign rolled separately. Possible influence gains or losses depending on result. Expensive)

City Levy, Tinshore: Conscript some of the excess population of the cities and send them to crush the rebells in Tinshore. (95% 1 year. Success and length of campaign rolled separately. Possible influence gains or losses depending on result. Expensive)

City Levy, Hathytta: Conscript some of the excess population of the cities and send them to Hathytta to bring the province back in line. (95% 1 year. Success and length of campaign rolled separately. Possible influence gains or losses depending on result. Expensive. Possible -Hathytta Loyalty)

City Levy, Hellas: Conscript some of the excess population of the cities and send them to retake Trelli from the Hellas, and to free the other lands that the Hellas have taken. (95% 1 year. Success and length of campaign rolled separately. Possible influence gains or losses depending on result. Expensive)

Lord's Loyalty City Levy, Txolla: Conscript some of the excess population of the cities and send them to the Txolla governor to use as he sees fit. (95% 1 year. Success and length of campaign rolled separately. Possible influence gains or losses depending on result. Expensive. +Txolla Loyalty)

Lord's Loyalty City Levy, Hathytta: Conscript some of the excess population of the cities and send them to the Hathayan governor to use as he sees fit. (95% 1 year. Success and length of campaign rolled separately. Possible influence gains or losses depending on result. Expensive. Possible +Hathytta Loyalty)

Activate The Mass Levy!: Arm and mobilize up to a million soldiers. The earth quakes at your approach. None can stand against the might of The People. (90%. 1 year. Success and length of campaign rolled separately. Possible influence gains or losses depending on result. Unsustainably expensive)
-Write in Targets, may choose as many as you like

Construct Warships, Yllython: With unified control of the Yllython shattered, there are going to be pirates and rebels in the sea closest to the core. The people need to build warships to suppress pirates and fight enemies. (75%. 2 years. +Warships. Expensive)

Construct Warships, Salt Sea: You now share a sea with the Black Sheep. They will surely send foes by sea as well as land if they wish to achieve their ambition of displacing you. (75%. 2 years. +Warships. Expensive)

Construct Warships, Harmurri Gulf: Do you really need warships on the Monsoon Sea? The trade there is quite civilized with much less piracy than on the Saffron Sea. (75%. 2 years. +Warships. Expensive)

Adopt Gunpowder Weaponry: Now that you have been making it for a couple of years, you have a good enough understanding of basic safety procedures to begin adopting into your armies and issuing these weapons to your soldiers. It will take a long time to fully integrate these weapons into your doctrine, but after the Great Khan, none can deny their effectiveness. (90%. 10 years. Firearm and Bombard Adoption. Provides bonuses while in progress. Expensive.) In progress

Found Banner Company: The storied mercenary companies of the Melkut Ymaryn were ancient institutions, that played important roles in both martial and diplomatic matters. Having a banner company at your beck and call, able to be loaned out to allies or against enemies, it is a powerful tool. An expensive one though. (100%. 3 Years. Expensive, -.5 Income, potentially profitable)

Control the Hills, Martial: The Hills of the Kingdom are in rebellion, bring them to heel. (???%. ? years. Requires Authority. Profitable. Mutually Exclusive with Control the Hills, Diplomatic.)


Diplomacy:

Honor of Elites, Western Wall: Demand the rebels surrender and swear fealty once again to their rightful lord! (1%. 1 year, +Influence, Casus Belli if failed)

Honor of Elites, Tinshore: Demand the rebels surrender and swear fealty once again to their rightful lord! (1%. 1 year, +Influence, Casus Belli if failed)

Rage Against The Steppes!: Demand the Black Sheep savages surrender and abandon their oppression of the people of the Thunder Plateau. (1%?. 1 year. +Influence)

Personal Stewards of Nature, Styrmyr: Demand that the Styrmyr return the lands of greenshore to your rule. (1%?. 1 Year. +Influence. Casus Belli if failed)

Diplomatic Overview, Saffron Sea: You have no knowledge what barbarian powers are important in the realm of the Syffronites. In your current position of weakness that ignorance could be deadly. (90%, 1 year. Overview of Saffron and Saffron Sea powers.)

Diplomatic Overview, Monsoon Sea: You have no knowledge of what barbarian powers are important in the Monsoon Sea. In your current position of weakness that ignorance could be deadly. (90%, 1 year. Overview of Kus and Monsoon Sea powers.)

Deepen Diplomacy, Khemetri: The Khemetri are a major power in the Saffron Sea and a known player in the Monsoon Sea. Becoming closer to them may be valuable. (???%. 1 Year. Unlocks Opinion Guage, unlocks interaction options.)

Diplomatic Contact, Highlanders: What have the Highlanders gotten up to in these last thousand years? Do you even care so long as they stay in their hills? (???% 1 Year. Possible -Influence)

Diplomatic Contact, Styrmyr: You are most displeased to find that the Styrmyr have decided to immediately conquer Greenshore upon the cessation of the Games. Still, Greenshore were rebels, so maybe the Styrmyr could prove reasonable? (???% 1 Year.)

Diplomatic Contact, Berba: Who are the Berba and what do they want? (???%. 1 Year.)

Diplomatic Contact, Euskal: Who are the Euskal Herria and what do they want? (???%. 1 Year.)

Diplomatic Contact, Ruma: Who are the Ruma and what do they want? (???%. 1 Year.)

Diplomatic Contact, Vynta: Who are the Vynta and what do they want? (???%. 1 Year.)

Control the Hills, Diplomatic: The Hills are in a state of partial rebellion. Send in diplomats and priests to bring that back into the fold. (???%. ? Years. Requires Authority. Profitable. Mutually Exclusive with Control the Hills, Martial)


Admin:

Math Reform: The Kus have made advances in the notation of mathematics beyond the wildest dreams of the people. Not to mention the substance of math. "Zero"… it will change everything once people get a handle on it. If you were to institute reforms that changed the Melkut Ymaryn to the superior Kus system of math, then there would be immense savings simply from more precise ability to keep track of things. Of course, until the bureaucracy got a hang of the new numbers, it would be pure chaos. (5%. 5 Years. Extremely Expensive, -1 Authority immediately, +1 Income)

Reestablish Administrative Control, Hathytta: Restore the mechanisms of control over Hathytta. The flow of taxes, orders, and information must be restored. (???%. 1 year. +1 Influence, Profitable, +.5 Income)

Survey Homevalley Province: Homevalley has been surveyed many times, but technology and the skill of surveyors is always improving. It might be possible to find something of use in the hills. (???%. 1 Year. Resources?)

Survey Memory of Spirits Province: Memory of Spirits has been surveyed many times, but technology and the skill of surveyors is always improving. It might be possible to find something of use in the hills. (???%. 1 Year. Resources?)

Survey Txolla Province: Txolla has been surveyed many times, but technology and the skill of surveyors is always improving. It might be possible to find something of use on the floodplains. (???%. 1 Year. Resources?)

Resettle Northern Core Areas: Stonepen, Blackmouth, Phygriftwin, and many other areas in the north have been destroyed by the Great Khan. But the Khan has left, and the mechanisms of state work again. It should be possible to resettle the refugees back on their own lands. Many new gentry and nobility will need to be raised to manage the famland brought back into cultivation, but the renewal of those tax incomes will greatly help the state. (95%. 3 Years. Profitable. +.5 Income) In progress





Mysticism:

Touch the Cow, Do it Now:, Txolla: The Sacred Warding in Txolla is in shambles. Order some of the priests to do their best to repair it. (???%. 2 years. +Txolla Loyalty. Possible +Influence) In Progress

Touch the Cow, Do it Now, MoS: The Sacred Warding in Memory of Spirits is destroyed. Order some of the priests to do their best to restore it. (???%. 3 years. +MoS Loyalty. Possible +Influence) In Progress.

Praise the Sun: The Khem have had an upsurge in their old sun worshiping pagan communities recently for some reason. Should you bother to find out why? (???%. 1 year.)

Damn Fool Apprentices: An apprentice has made a mess of things, but their master thinks the result might bear looking into further. (???%. 1 year.)


MEGAPROJECTS:

Greenhouses: The Kings of old built a number of grand greenhouses to tend exotic plants from far away, so that they could be studied and for their own enjoyment. Most of these greenhouses were smashed by the Great Khan. Restore them. (Authority + 90%, 20 Years, -1 Treasury Status every four years)

Signal Towers: One of the issues that always plagued the governance of the Thunder Plateau was how far away and difficult to reach it was. It would be possible to set up signal relay towers along the way, which would greatly speed up messaging between the Plateau and the Core. It would take a lot of precision glasswork for the spyglasses, however. (Authority + 75%, 20 Years, -1 Treasury Status every four years)

Reform THE LAW: It has been a very long time since the last time the Law was compiled and streamlined. There has been much accumulation of loopholes, drifts, and patching as the times changed. The current law is confusing and difficult and in many ways outdated. It should be simplified, updated for the current age, and recodified. (Authority + 90%, 20 Years, -1 Treasury Status every four years, +1 Authority on completion)




Personal Action (Choose One):
[] Work Overtime (+1 temp Influence, +Stress)
[] Relax with Family (-Stress)
[] Catch up on the latest plays and theological debates (-Stress)
[] Attend to a particular action personally. (Provides bonus to action)
-[] Write in Action



Voting is by plan.
Two Hour Moratorium.

Note: You MUST spend a point of Authority on one of the two "Control the Hills" options.

 

[noliar]

I think @Kiba is right that Tinshore is the correct next move - sending the army to try and subdue a province that was specialized into a defensive frontier sounds like a recipe for a slog.

Click to shrink...

Not to mention that the shores have their local bureaucracy intact, intact ships both military and merchant, more primary resources - they're called Tin and Green for a reason, the mouth of the not!Danube and hence trade with the north western interior and bringing them back into the fold massively cuts down on Ylthon piracy. The immediate tax yield from the hills may be the same but in terms of getting the overall economy up and running quickly there's no contest.

Once we're ready to deal with or do a deal with Maximillian to get the silk road flowing the hills get more important but we're nowhere near that yet.

 

[Fouredged Sword]

[]Control the Hills, Diplomatic - Our army is busy so this is the best option here.

[]Survey Homevalley Province: Homevalley has been surveyed many times, but technology and the skill of surveyors is always improving. It might be possible to find something of use in the hills. (???%. 1 Year. Resources?)
- Roll dice for money

[]Survey Memory of Spirits Province: Memory of Spirits has been surveyed many times, but technology and the skill of surveyors is always improving. It might be possible to find something of use in the hills. (???%. 1 Year. Resources?)
- Roll dice for money

[]Survey Txolla Province: Txolla has been surveyed many times, but technology and the skill of surveyors is always improving. It might be possible to find something of use on the floodplains. (???%. 1 Year. Resources?)
- Roll dice for money

[] Attend to a particular action personally. (Provides bonus to action) - Control the Hills, Diplomatic - We need income so we want to roll high.

Our army is busy with Trelli and we can't afford to raise the levi, so military is out.

 

[Kiba]

[] Plan: Kushian Science
-[] Authority: Control the Hills, Diplomatic - Our army is busy so this is the best option here.
-[] Influence: Diplomatic Overview, Monsoon Sea: You have no knowledge of what barbarian powers are important in the Monsoon Sea. In your current position of weakness that ignorance could be deadly. (90%, 1 year. Overview of Kus and Monsoon Sea powers.)
-[] Influence: Damn Fool Apprentices: An apprentice has made a mess of things, but their master thinks the result might bear looking into further. (???%. 1 year.)
-[] influence: Survey Homevalley Province: Homevalley has been surveyed many times, but technology and the skill of surveyors is always improving. It might be possible to find something of use in the hills. (???%. 1 Year. Resources?)
-[] Attend to a particular action personally. Damn Fool Apprentices.

Keep looking into the Monsoon Sea again.

I know I am chasing shinies, but we need new product lines. I just hope it isn't terribly expensive to invest in.

 

[Fouredged Sword]

[] Plan: Kushian Science
-[] Authority: Control the Hills, Martial: The Hills of the Kingdom are in rebellion, bring them to heel. (???%. ? years. Requires Authority. Profitable. Mutually Exclusive with Control the Hills, Diplomatic.)
-[] Influence: Diplomatic Overview, Monsoon Sea: You have no knowledge of what barbarian powers are important in the Monsoon Sea. In your current position of weakness that ignorance could be deadly. (90%, 1 year. Overview of Kus and Monsoon Sea powers.)
-[] Influence: Damn Fool Apprentices: An apprentice has made a mess of things, but their master thinks the result might bear looking into further. (???%. 1 year.)
-[] influence: Survey Homevalley Province: Homevalley has been surveyed many times, but technology and the skill of surveyors is always improving. It might be possible to find something of use in the hills. (???%. 1 Year. Resources?)

Click to shrink...

I think this redirects the army from their work in Trelli. We can't afford to not take Trelli after spending so much buying the aid of the Khus.

 

[Oshha]

Control the Hills, Diplomatic: The Hills are in a state of partial rebellion. Send in diplomats and priests to bring that back into the fold. (???%. ? Years. Requires Authority. Profitable. Mutually Exclusive with Control the Hills, Martial)

Click to shrink...

We need to take this option. If it succeeds within the next four years, we can survive past 1600 even if we fail to take Trelli.

Speaking of which, @Aranfan is there anything we can do to make taking Trelli more likely?

 

[Aranfan]

Speaking of which, @Aranfan is there anything we can do to make taking Trelli more likely?

Click to shrink...

The Spirit Chief recommends sacrifices to the dicegods.

 

[Kiba]

I think this redirects the army from their work in Trelli. We can't afford to not take Trelli after spending so much buying the aid of the Khus.

Click to shrink...

Fixed.

 

[Oshha]

[] Plan Oshha
-[] Authority: Control the Hills, Diplomatic: The Hills are in a state of partial rebellion. Send in diplomats and priests to bring that back into the fold. (???%. ? Years. Requires Authority. Profitable. Mutually Exclusive with Control the Hills, Martial)
-[] Influence: Diplomatic Overview, Monsoon Sea: You have no knowledge of what barbarian powers are important in the Monsoon Sea. In your current position of weakness that ignorance could be deadly. (90%, 1 year. Overview of Kus and Monsoon Sea powers.)
-[] Influence: Deepen Diplomacy, Khemetri: The Khemetri are a major power in the Saffron Sea and a known player in the Monsoon Sea. Becoming closer to them may be valuable. (???%. 1 Year. Unlocks Opinion Guage, unlocks interaction options.)
-[] Influence:

Here is my current plan. We need to diplo the Hills to get the best chance of surviving past 1600 while I am going for better relations with the Khem whilst once again trying to find out what is going onto our east. I am unsure of what to do for our personal action or the third Influence. I am favouring more diplomacy by either seeing what is going on in the north or poking one of the other successor states to see where we stand with them such as Tinshore or Styrmyr.

 

[Fouredged Sword]

Personal action should be
[] Attend to a particular action personally. (Provides bonus to action) - Control the Hills, Diplomatic

If this roll passes we likely survive. If this roll fails we need to scramble to try to make it work or find a new action that will let us survive.

 

[Fouredged Sword]

[] Plan : Hustling for money
- [] Authority: Control the Hills, Diplomatic
-[] Influence: Survey Homevalley Province: Homevalley has been surveyed many times, but technology and the skill of surveyors is always improving. It might be possible to find something of use in the hills. (???%. 1 Year. Resources?)
-[] Influence: Survey Memory of Spirits Province: Memory of Spirits has been surveyed many times, but technology and the skill of surveyors is always improving. It might be possible to find something of use in the hills. (???%. 1 Year. Resources?)
-[] Influence: Survey Txolla Province: Txolla has been surveyed many times, but technology and the skill of surveyors is always improving. It might be possible to find something of use on the floodplains. (???%. 1 Year. Resources?)
-[] Personal: Attend to a particular action personally. (Provides bonus to action) - Control the Hills, Diplomatic

 

[sunrise]

[] Plan : Surveys and diplomacy
- [] Authority: Control the Hills, Diplomatic - Our army is busy so this is the best option here.
-[] Influence: Survey Homevalley Province: Homevalley has been surveyed many times, but technology and the skill of surveyors is always improving. It might be possible to find something of use in the hills. (???%. 1 Year. Resources?)
-[] Influence: Damn Fool Apprentices: An apprentice has made a mess of things, but their master thinks the result might bear looking into further. (???%. 1 year.)
-[] Influence: Influence: Deepen Diplomacy, Khemetri: The Khemetri are a major power in the Saffron Sea and a known player in the Monsoon Sea. Becoming closer to them may be valuable. (???%. 1 Year. Unlocks Opinion Guage, unlocks interaction options.)
-[] Personal: Attend to a particular action personally. (Provides bonus to action) - Control the Hills, Diplomatic - We need income so we want to roll high.

Damn Fool Apprentices might lead to new tech and that is always useful and a 1 year action.
Deepen Diplomacy, Khemetri i hope the interaction options have a way to earn money
Survey Homevalley is another route to more money if we find something useful.

 

[Kiba]

Here is my current plan. We need to diplo the Hills to get the best chance of surviving past 1600 while I am going for better relations with the Khem whilst once again trying to find out what is going onto our east. I am unsure of what to do for our personal action or the third Influence. I am favouring more diplomacy by either seeing what is going on in the north or poking one of the other successor states to see where we stand with them such as Tinshore or Styrmyr.

Click to shrink...

I don't see what we gain from poking north unless they can trade with us directly, such as access to the Yllython Sea(and one that isn't in the hands of rebels). Kus seems much more promising as they have ocean access, bigger customer base, and the fact that Kus merchants are coming to our ports.

Working with the Khem could lead to more profitable arrangement. No idea what that could be, since we don't have anything to offer at the moment.*

* Except gunpowder.

 

[Oshha]

I am not talking about taking the Thunder Plateau. Thunder Plateau is Afghanistan, the graveyard of empires. We are not retaking the Thunder Plateau from the Black Sheep by force.

The West Wall is north of what in our world is the black sea. It has nothing to do with the Thunder Plateau. We can march there from the core by going around the coast to the north.

Click to shrink...

And I was talking about how best to go about our Revanchism, not just the Western Wall.

I think we have a shot at taking the West Wall if we send troops soon before they can finish bulking out. If we let them bulk out they will become their own nation and refuse to join us ever and thus put a long term rival in our backyard. They can't be building a gunpowder army out of Ukrainian nomads and farmers. If take only the easiest target next we give the more powerful states time to grow and we die to income loss because we never take the really valuable lands we need to survive. For the same reason the West Wall is growing in military strength taking them will open up profitable actions to settle the Ukrainian breadbasket. Those actions will buy us the income we need to send our military out to take the rest of our lands.

Our biggest bottlenecks are income and army actions. We need to be efficient in both. We need to take the actions that generate the most income per action rather than the actions that have the lowest DC. That means starting not at the easiest target like we have all the time in the world. It means punching out the hard targets first and relying on them to keep us alive financially while we mop up after.

If we go too slow we die. If we fail too many rolls we die.

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I think you have no basis to think we have a shot at taking Western Wall. When we were still recovering from the Great Khan, Western Wall was fully intact and began to hulk out while we were scrambling not to die. They had the better part of the decade to grow while we are still struggling not to die. Talking about hitting them before they finish hulking up is pointless because that ship has already sailed. They might still be hulking up, but they have already hulked up.

Furthermore, they might not have a gunpower army, but neither do we. We still got another seven years before we do and right now, I strongly suspect they got better armies in either quality or quantity than us due to their new fertile lands and their intact if degraded Ymaryn bureaucracy. Taking the most profitable action means nothing if it doesn't succeed. There is no easy target to increase our profits. Even the easiest target of Tinshore is still uncertain.

I don't think you understand how weak we currently are as one of the Ymaryn Successor States. We might be the largest, but we have only put together the weakest parts of it and we are barely keeping that afloat. Western Wall has not only got a headstart on us, but it started out from a better position than where we currently are. We have survived the Collapse, but we are still in the stage of trying to keep everything from falling apart.

 

[Oshha]

Personal action should be
[] Attend to a particular action personally. (Provides bonus to action) - Control the Hills, Diplomatic

If this roll passes we likely survive. If this roll fails we need to scramble to try to make it work or find a new action that will let us survive.

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@Aranfan Are we able to give a bonus to an Authority action? Also, is there any basis to this idea that we can get more money from doing surveys? Because it keeps popping up, but I'm not seeing the basis for it beyond people asserting that it will let us make more money somehow.

 

[Fouredged Sword]

@Aranfan Are we able to give a bonus to an Authority action? Also, is there any basis to this idea that we can get more money from doing surveys? Because it keeps popping up, but I'm not seeing the basis for it beyond people asserting that it will let us make more money somehow.

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The whole point of surveys is to find resources that we can trade. I think it's a crap shoot if we get anything, but for all we know we could crit and strike literal gold. It feels to me like a longshot, but if we have an influence point to spare it's likely the best option available.

 

[Kiba]

[] Plan: Deepening Customer Relations
-[] Authority: Control the Hills, Diplomatic - Our army is busy so this is the best option here.
-[] Influence: Influence: Deepen Diplomacy, Khemetri: The Khemetri are a major power in the Saffron Sea and a known player in the Monsoon Sea. Becoming closer to them may be valuable. (???%. 1 Year. Unlocks Opinion Guage, unlocks interaction options.)
-[] Influence: Damn Fool Apprentices: An apprentice has made a mess of things, but their master thinks the result might bear looking into further. (???%. 1 year.)
-[] influence: Diplomatic Overview, Monsoon Sea: You have no knowledge of what barbarian powers are important in the Monsoon Sea. In your current position of weakness that ignorance could be deadly. (90%, 1 year. Overview of Kus and Monsoon Sea powers.)
-[] Attend to a particular action personally. Control the Hills, Diplomatic

I like @sunrise plan, but can't help but feel uncomfortable with the dice roll that is surveying our land for resources. We could get very lucky or could get nothing. Figuring out the Kus ocean gives us an overview of trade partners, and more likely to provide us income.

With the Khem, we need something to trade other than just our gunpowder and cannons.

 

[Oshha]

The whole point of surveys is to find resources that we can trade. I think it's a crap shoot if we get anything, but for all we know we could crit and strike literal gold. It feels to me like a longshot, but if we have an influence point to spare it's likely the best option available.

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Except we already have active mines and the like in our territories. I don't see how finding one more is going to give us meaningful income. What good is a single mine going to do when a fully developed and populated province only gives us +0.5 income? If we need strategic resources, then sure, surveying is good, but if we want to make money, the economy isn't simulated down to that degree. Unless a gold mine is capable of producing income comparable to successor states like Tinshore or Greenshore, I don't see how getting one benefits us right now.

 

[Oshha]

[] Plan Oshha
-[] Authority: Control the Hills, Diplomatic: The Hills are in a state of partial rebellion. Send in diplomats and priests to bring that back into the fold. (???%. ? Years. Requires Authority. Profitable. Mutually Exclusive with Control the Hills, Martial)
-[] Influence: Diplomatic Overview, Monsoon Sea: You have no knowledge of what barbarian powers are important in the Monsoon Sea. In your current position of weakness that ignorance could be deadly. (90%, 1 year. Overview of Kus and Monsoon Sea powers.)
-[] Influence: Deepen Diplomacy, Khemetri: The Khemetri are a major power in the Saffron Sea and a known player in the Monsoon Sea. Becoming closer to them may be valuable. (???%. 1 Year. Unlocks Opinion Guage, unlocks interaction options.)
-[] Influence: Damn Fool Apprentices: An apprentice has made a mess of things, but their master thinks the result might bear looking into further. (???%. 1 year.)
-[] Attend to a particular action personally. Deepen Diplomacy, Khemetri

Here is my updated plan. Until we got confirmation that we can add a bonus to an Authority action, I'm going to trying to improve the chances of getting better relations with the Khem. Beyond that, I am going for the apprentice thing just to see what it is.

 

[Kiba]

Damn Fool Apprentices: An apprentice has made a mess of things, but their master thinks the result might bear looking into further. (???%. 1 year.)

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Only thing I can think of right now is some sort of alchemical product, or the perfection of a gunpowder recipe. Would be nice if someone got the idea for a printing press, but I don't think that's amendable to an eureka moment. Anyone cares to speculate?

[] Plan Oshha
-[] Authority: Control the Hills, Diplomatic: The Hills are in a state of partial rebellion. Send in diplomats and priests to bring that back into the fold. (???%. ? Years. Requires Authority. Profitable. Mutually Exclusive with Control the Hills, Martial)
-[] Influence: Diplomatic Overview, Monsoon Sea: You have no knowledge of what barbarian powers are important in the Monsoon Sea. In your current position of weakness that ignorance could be deadly. (90%, 1 year. Overview of Kus and Monsoon Sea powers.)
-[] Influence: Deepen Diplomacy, Khemetri: The Khemetri are a major power in the Saffron Sea and a known player in the Monsoon Sea. Becoming closer to them may be valuable. (???%. 1 Year. Unlocks Opinion Guage, unlocks interaction options.)
-[] Influence: Damn Fool Apprentices: An apprentice has made a mess of things, but their master thinks the result might bear looking into further. (???%. 1 year.)
-[] Attend to a particular action personally. Deepen Diplomacy, Khemetri

Here is my updated plan. Until we got confirmation that we can add a bonus to an Authority action, I'm going to trying to improve the chances of getting better relations with the Khem. Beyond that, I am going for the apprentice thing just to see what it is.

Click to shrink...

Your plan converge with mine, with the exception on authority.