Let's play King of Dragon Pass, just as our ancestors did

Two hundred years ago, in the shadow of the mountain at the center of the world, our ancestors fought a great war against the dragons.

Our ancestors lost.

The dragons ate every warrior who marched against them. They ate every magician who supported the warriors. Then they ate everyone else.

Let's Play King of Dragon Pass

We are mortals living in a magical world. The world is alive. Every river and rock has a spirit, as does our clan. The greatest of these spirits sometimes share their magic with humans. The very greatest of the spirits are the gods.

Our gods are the source of nearly all the advantages that let our clan survive and prosper. Without the blessings of the gods, our crops will fail, our herds will dwindle, our traders will make stupid bargains, and our warriors will fall beneath enemy swords.

We worship the Orlanthi pantheon, the group of gods headed by Orlanth, King of Gods. Orlanth is the god of moving Air, of life-giving Rain, and also of devastating Lightning and sudden Change. He is the unpredictable god of the Storm.

We live inside Time, separate from the timeless realm of the immortals, but able to join with our deities through rituals and quests. Our god-talkers perform rituals to gain divine blessings for trade, farming, and war. Our mightiest leaders heroquest to the Godplane to perform the gods’ original mythic events anew, returning with gifts from the time of Creation.

Table of Contents

• Intro: You're looking at it
• How to play
• Clan formation and Sacred Time 1229 voting
• Interlude 1: Music
• Year 1330: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5.5 | 6 | 7 | 8
• Interlude 2: The Gods and Their Blessings
• Year 1331: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
• Year 1332: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7
• Interlude 3: Art
• Year 1333: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
• Year 1334: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7
• Year 1335: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
• Year 1336: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
• Year 1337: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7
• Year 1338: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
• Year 1339: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7
• Year 1340: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4.5 | 5
• Year 1341: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

What is this game?

King of Dragon Pass is a low-fantasy civilization simulation. You are charged with raising up a fledgling clan in a hostile new land. Your goal is to unite neighboring clans into a tribe, then become the king of that tribe. You might just unite your people long enough to crown one of your own as king or queen of Dragon Pass... that is, if you can keep your clan alive long enough to form a tribe, and your tribe can stay together despite internal political disputes and external threats.

Oh, and the land you've settled on is rife with undead, beastmen, elves, dwarves, and lots of other critters who would dearly love to see you dead, to say nothing of your neighbors.

This game was briefly LPed by Aerdan, who has since fallen off the edge of the earth, or at least the Talking Time portion thereof. We'll be starting fresh. (For whatever reason, his LP never made it into the archive.)



Let's make a clan

In order to start up our clan, we need to fill out a questionnaire. The game takes place in an established fictional setting, and the lore is way too much to get into. What I'm gonna do for you guys is put the starting questionnaire into a format you can understand, even without having played the game. If you want the flavor, click on that link.

Question 1: Who is our primary god?

We worship the Orlanthi pantheon. Of these, we have the option of three major gods to serve as the patron deity of our clan. We will start the game with a shrine to this god, and our choice here will affect our clan leader (we want someone who worships this god to lead our clan).

Elmal is the god of the Sun and Horses. He is a good choice if we want to make war early on, though he can provide blessings for our crops as well. The manual mentions that winning as an Elmal clan can be significantly harder, but I haven't found that to be true.
Orlanth is the big daddy god. He provides a variety of blessings that can be useful in times of peace or war. The manual mentions that the game is slightly easier for Orlanth worshippers, perhaps because many of our neighbors will also worship Orlanth.
Ernalda is the earth mother, and her blessings mostly help you stay fed.

Bear in mind that we can choose to worship all three of these gods later on, and we may well want to do so.


Question 2: Early history

We get a little backstory here. What was the first important event in our clan's history?

The Battle of Extinguish Field. This gives our leaders a bonus to Combat skill.
The Hundred-Day Hunt. This gives our leaders a (presumably smaller) bonus to Animals, Combat, and Plants.
Jested's Settlement. This boosts our leaders' Bargaining.
The Procession of the Animals. This gives our leaders a bonus to (you guessed it) Animals.
Barntar harnesses the oxen. This boosts our leaders' Plants. Why? Because oxen.
Ernalda goes to the Hidden Place. This boosts our leaders' Magic.
Lhankor Mhy uses the marking bone. This boosts our leaders' Custom (i.e. knowledge of traditions).
Pella makes a pot. This allows us to use more crafters, who make Goods, which are Good.
Roitina performs the Clan-making Dance. This boosts our leaders' Leadership, a good quality in a leader.

This is probably not an especially important choice.


Question 3: Thralls

Our ancestors were given stewardship over the Nalda Bin, or "Stick Farmers." Did they adopt them as thralls (i.e. slaves) or as family?

This is one of the choices that shape how our ancestors will expect us to behave. Whatever we choose here, our ancestors will expect us to choose similarly in the future. If they adopted the lowly stick farmers as family, then they'll get mad at us if we ever adopt human thralls (demihumans may still be OK).

I have never tried thralls, so I don't know what the practical implications of this choice are.


Question 4: Our bitter foes

We have a lot of enemies, but one in particular was the archenemy of our ancestors.

The trolls are countless, but not too tough.
The beastmen are powerful, but not too plentiful.
The elves are, you know, elves. They love them some trees, but they can fight well.
The praxians are humans that like to ride animals like ostriches. They do not worship the Orlanthi pantheon, the savages. They live far away from us, making this the easiest enemy to handle.
The Salty Lord of the Sea will call upon his floods to drown us, killing people as well as crops and animals. Doesn't sound like fun.
The ice tribe will try to kill our animals, but selecting them helps us fight in the winter.

Our ancestors will expect us to uphold their hatred of the ancient foe, and failure to do so will make them very angry. Additionally, we have the option of sacrificing to our ancestors in order to provoke our favored enemy into attacking us. Why would we do that? I don't know!


Question 5: War and Peace

This question makes little difference in the long run, since you can change it literally every single turn in the game. (That's a dumb idea. Don't do that.) What kind of clan are we? War, Peace, or Balanced?

Our selection here will influence how we are able to allocate our magic during Sacred Time, which is something I'll explain later. Don't fret too much about this choice; War clans don't have to be warmongers, and Peace clans can still fight, and like I said, I can change it as soon as the game starts in earnest.

This is a good time to point out that combat is unavoidable. Even if we managed to mollify all of our human neighbors (note: we won't), the forces of chaos and our inhuman enemies will require us to have an active military.


Question 6: Secondary god

Here's another question that matters little in the long run: we can start the game with a shrine to the god of our choice. If we choose the same god we picked in question 1, the shrine gets upgraded to a temple.

Each god has some number of blessings he/she can provide to us. A shrine will make one of those blessings permanent (we can change which blessing anytime we want), while a temple allows two permanent blessings.

Our options for this question aren't comprehensive, but they're pretty good.

We can pick Elmal, Orlanth, or Ernalda, as described in question 1.
Urox the Storm Bull helps us ward against the forces of chaos, such as the undead.
Odayla the Hunter gives us blessings for our hunters, and can help prevent food spoilage or bless us to track things.
Issaries the Talking God helps us trade and negotiate. We'll build a shrine to Issaries sooner or later, but it doesn't have to be now.
Lhankor Mhy the Knowing God helps us resolve disputes, especially legal disputes, and will answer divination requests.
Chalana Arroy the Healing Goddess can cure or heal us.
Uralda the Cow Mother gives us cow-related bonuses. Cattle are the primary measurement of wealth in addition to their practical uses.
Our ancestors are another option, and they'll bless our clan with protection (or summon our ancient enemy to fight us if we sacrifice to them. Why would we do that? I don't know).

Shrines and temples require a yearly upkeep. We don't want to maintain too many; we'll have to strike a balance between permanent blessings and temporary blessings provided through sacrifice.


Question 7: Dragons

Hey, remember the dragons? Well, before they ate everyone, they came and talked to them, offering them great promises of knowledge. How did our ancestors respond?

Hostile - We fought against them. A natural reaction, but remember that the dragons would win the coming war.
Negative - We would never believe a dragon. The dragons had always been hostile, or at the very best, utterly uncaring.
Neutral - We didn't go along. We don't want to make them angry.
Positive - We joined into their dragon knowledge. If you're gonna be killed by the dragons either way...

Our ancestors will expect us to maintain this attitude towards anything vaguely draconic we end up encountering.


Question 8: Georgian economics

Eventually, the dragons disappeared without a trace, and due to a really bad political situation, our clan fled the Heortland for Dragon Pass, finding it mostly uninhabited. We made a land claim.

Just enough land, and no more. Clan Lichtenstein.
Land enough to grow into. Think of the children!
Lots more than we would probably need. Suck on that, neighboring clans.
Far more than we'll ever need. Now we're just greedy.

Land is a limiting factor in how much food we can produce. More land is not always better, though: it means more borders to patrol, and more sneaky surprises inside them. "Enough to grow into" is probably the best choice.


Question 9: Name the clan

In Aerdan's LP, we named our clan Foot. This is a splendid name, but maybe you have a better one. We have a strict 10-character limit.


Question 10: Difficulty

Confession time: I've only played the game on Easy. Presumably, the game was pulling its punches, and Normal is the intended challenge level. Of course, if you want to see how quickly we can crash and burn, we can always try Hard.


Question 11: Game type

In the Short game, you win after ten years of being king. The Long game requires you to be king and perform the heroquest for seven additional gods.

Screw you guys. I'm not playing the Long game. This is gonna be long enough as is.

Make us a clan.

I'll keep voting open for like a week.

When the Clan of the Red Fist, lead by Elmel, lost the Battle of Extinguish Field and adopted the stick farmers as Thralls, our bitterest enemy, the Salty Lord of the Sea declared War, attempting to destroy our Temple to Elmel, aided indirectly by Hostile Dragons, reducing our lands to Just Enough, leading to a Hard and Short reign which most likely ended in death for everyone involved.

Q1: Elmal
Q2: The Battle of Extinguish Field.
Q3: as thralls
Q4: The elves
Q5: War
Q6: Elmal
Q7: Hostile - We fought against them.
Q8: Far more than we'll ever need.
Q9: Gutsland
Q10: Normal
Q11: Short

Sun and horses.
Procession of horses.
Fambly.
Silly praxians! Ostriches are not horses!
Balanced: sun and horses.
Elmal again.
Join in dragon knowledge.
Land to grow.
Clan Destine.
Normal difficulty.
Short.

How do I play this thing?

This is a good question. The interface can be generously described as unfriendly to first-time users, and if you don't take a peek at the manual, the game does little to introduce you to its mechanics. Fortunately, there is a tutorial, and if you're playing for the first time (or playing the demo, available here -- see the paragraph that starts with "Or try the tour"), it's probably a good idea.

Incidentally, this game was rereleased mere weeks ago for iOS. If you have a compatible device, it's generally considered the better version. The developers have not mentioned any plans to update the Windows/Mac desktop version, which is the one we're running here.


The seasons

The game is divided neatly into years, and each year is further divided into seasons. Each year begins with Sacred Time, which is almost totally unrelated to Talking Time. During Sacred Time, you allocate your clan's magic towards a variety of objectives. We'll look at Sacred Time in more detail as soon as the game begins.

After Sacred Time, the year begins in earnest, and you have five seasons in which you can perform two actions each, for a total of ten actions per year. The seasons are not merely for show; they play a large role in the actions you should perform.

Sea is a spring-like season. In this season, your farmers are sowing the fields. The farmers constitute the vast majority of your clan, including your standing army. Because the farmers are all busy during this season, your advisors will recommend against raids.

Fire is a summery season, and it is the de facto season for raids. Your farmers are free to pursue military efforts, since the sowing is done and the harvest is yet to come. Beware of enemy raids during Fire season.

Earth is the harvest season. Your farmers are busy again, and as your advisors will tell you, only a desparate clan raids during Earth.

Dark is a deep winter, during which it is very difficult to do anything that requires leaving your clan tula (the lands owned by your clan). Exploration, raiding, trading, and diplomacy are all likely to fail during the Dark.

Storm is the nebulous fifth season between the hard freeze of Dark and the good Sea weather. Battle-hungry clans will find this the next best season to raid after Fire.

After ten actions, the year ends, and you return to the Godplane to perform the Sacred Time rituals. So important is Sacred Time that no one dares to take any other action during these two weeks.


The actions

OK, you've started your game, made it through Sacred Time... now what?

This is the part where the game tosses you in the deep end. There are a lot of actions available, and doing well in this game requires more planning and foresight than a new player can possibly have. Let's take a look at each of the actions you can take.




Farm screen

This shows you the status of your herds, crops, and food. This tab usually takes care of itself; it offers options that are below the micromanagement threshold of your average player.

While we're here, let me explain the screen layout. The top portion of the screen shows the season, your clan name, and the navigation (currently we've selected the leftmost icon, the cattle, corresponding to the farm screen). At the very bottom, we have the clan ring -- the seven people in your clan who run the show. On any screen where they're available, you can click on them to ask their opinion of things. Just above them, the game shows our inventory of various important statistics. Above the status line is the main content of the screen you're on. The obelisk in the center of the screen shows any blessings that are relevant to that screen.

The most obvious action available on this screen is to slaughter animals. Your farmers automatically handle the routine slaughter of animals for food. This option is for emergencies.

Second, you can change the composition of your land. Cropland is the fields where you grow your crops. Too small, and you won't have enough food. Too large, and your farmers and oxen will be overworked. Pasture is where your herds live, and wildlands is where your hunters hunt. Because wildlands are uncleared land, they offer a tidy route for invading enemies. Try not to have too many wildlands.

Third, you can change the composition of your crops. This option is unavailable during Fire and Earth, when your crops have already been planted. You usually don't need to touch this, but occasionally your god-talkers will warn you during Sacred Time that one of the crops is likely to fail.




Relations screen

This screen allows for various sorts of diplomacy. You can use this screen to check in on your relationship with other tribes, such as who's feuding with you. As seen here, a Eurmali (worshipper of Eurmal, the trickster god), will almost always recommend you ask other clans for food so you can have a feast.

The only option available on this screen is to send an emissary to another clan. There are various reasons you might do this:

• To call on a favor, asking for cattle, food, information, or magic.
• To demand tribute of a weaker clan. This will hurt relations, whether or not it works, but if you're trying this, it's because you're not afraid of that clan. Oddly, this is the option you select in order to end tribute from another clan, which will actually improve relations.
• To give gifts to another clan, showing your greatness and magnanimity.
• To propose an alliance. It's a good idea to send gifts when trying this.
• To end a feud. Feuding is the Dragon Pass equivalent of war in Civilization, except that other clans don't usually propose peace. It can be expensive to end a feud, and it can be useful to have a punching bag.

Trade screen

Very similar to the Relations screen in that there's exactly one action available that has a lot of associated options. This screen also shows you the tribes with which you have a permanent trading agreement (which generates a small amount of goods) and any treasures you've accumulated (artifacts that usually have beneficial passive abilities). The "Market" line tells you how often you hold a market, which determines how often you get goods from your trade routes. The more trade routes you have, the more often you'll hold market.

The sole option here is to send a trade mission. When you do this, you are trying to either establish a permanent route or to sell to and buy from the target clan. You can sell cattle, food, goods, or horses for cattle, food, goods, or horses; or you can sell and/or buy treasure.

Trade caravans and emissaries are both subject to banditry and other perils. You are therefore recommended to escort your precious goods with some portion of your standing forces, but remember not to leave your tula defenseless.




War screen

Several options are available on this screen, related to attacking enemies or defending your clan. Also seen here: the clan ring recommending against war during Sea. They're serious about this.

Your army (or fyrd) is composed of footmen, who are hunters and farmers, and weaponthanes, who are basically knights, riding into combat on horseback. Weaponthanes are mightier than footmen. Clicking on weaponthanes allows you to recruit more of these guys, so long as you have enough horses.

You can also change your patrols. If you're not patrolling your tula, then enemies will take you by surprise, reducing the forces you can muster to battle.

A cattle raid is a noncombative option for taking cattle from a neighboring clan (the clan must be a neighbor). Cattle raids are a custom in Orlanthi culture, like a friendly punch on the arm. You can even perform cattle raids on allies without any fallout, though clans with whom relations are already strained may take exception to the practice. An alert clan will notice your cattle raid and send forces to drive you off. This is more likely if you take a large number of forces on the raid.

A raid is a combat effort against a clan. It will hurt your relations with that clan and may cause a feud. On the other hand, raiding for plunder can be more lucrative than cattle raids, and raiding neighboring clans is the only way to increase your land.

You can also construct fortifications from this menu. You start the game with a ditch (and if you're playing on Easy, a stockade) and you can pay goods to add more of them.




Clan screen

This is the screen into which you're thrust after every Sacred Time. From here, you can monitor the status of your clansfolk as a whole.

Clicking on weaponthanes does the same thing here that it did in the War screen. Similarly, clicking on crafters or hunters lets you convert farmers to or from that profession. Crafters are your main source of goods, while hunters are a secondary source of food. The crafters action also lets you assign your crafting efforts.

Clicking on farmers is similar, in that you're recruiting farmers, except whereas you can change a farmer's occupation into any of the others, the only way to acquire additional farmers is to recruit externally.

Clicking on thralls presumably lets you get rid of thralls; it's not like you can just recruit them. If your thralls-to-clan ratio gets too high, you can expect a slave revolt.

The reorganize button not only lets you change the clan type (War, Balanced, or Peace) but also the composition of your clan ring. You can put any seven thanes onto your clan ring, but it's a good idea to make your chief (the leftmost slot) a worshipper of your patron deity, and it's a good idea to ensure you have seven different gods represented on the ring. Reorganizing your ring is usually the first action you'll take in a game, and we'll discuss it in detail soon.

If you want to improve your clan's mood, you can throw a feast. In exchange for some food, you can make everyone a little happier, and if you want to, you can invite neighboring clans to join in. If your clan ring contains a Eurmali, he or she will almost always recommend throwing a feast. It's usually a good idea not to listen to your Eurmali advisors.

Finally, you can give gifts to your farmers or weaponthanes. My experience is that the weaponthanes are usually happy, but the farmers are quick to claim that the weaponthanes are getting preferential treatment. Giving Goods to one or both groups can improve relations, and it's easier to recruit when the group is already happy. (Though farmers' number one discontent is often that they're spread too thin, soooo...)




Magic screen

On the Magic screen, you can keep track of your worship. You can freely change which blessing you're receiving from a god -- I'm fairly certain this doesn't require an action. But first, you need to learn the blessings...

To do that, you have to sacrifice. When you sacrifice, you have the option of choosing a blessing to receive temporarily, but more often, you're sacrificing to learn Mysteries. A successful sacrifice for Mysteries will either teach you a new blessing from that god or give you their heroquest myth.

Some blessings can only be attained via sacrifice, but most can be made permanent by building a shrine or temple to the appropriate god. Building a site of worship has a large one-time goods cost and a smaller yearly maintentance of goods and livestock. If you are ever unable to pay maintenance on your structures, they fall into disrepair and are downgraded.

Last but not least is the quest action. By sending a thane into the Godrealm, you can perform a heroquest to imitate the great myths of the gods. Heroquests are not only beneficial in a number of ways; they're required to win the game. In the Short game, we'll need to perform The Making of the Storm Tribe before we can create a tribe, and we'll need to perform three more heroquests once we've got a king or queen.




Map screen

This screen shows the sum total of your knowledge of Dragon Pass. To expand it, you'll need to explore. Exploration is vital, and a clan who neglects exploration for several years in a row will suffer.

Early on, it's a good idea to explore your own tula. This not only reduces banditry against your emissaries and caravans, but can also reveal precious materials that your crafters can use for goods. Later, it can be lucrative to explore the outer reaches of Dragon Pass. Exploration is risky, though, and you might never see the party again (making this a good option if you desperately need to kill off some of your thanes).


Lore screen

The last two screens have no associated actions. The Lore screen allows you to read up on game world lore. It's a very good idea to read up on the details of any heroquest you are planning to perform, but otherwise, this is all flavor.


Saga screen

The final screen lets you view the entire history of your clan; every important event is recorded here.


Whew.

21 actions, and you get ten per year. The good news is that if you've made it through this wall of text, you now have a basic idea of how to play this game! You might not believe this, but it's actually fairly intuitive once you've played a bit.

Keep those clan votes coming, and we'll see you in a few days when we talk about our starting strategy.

1: Orlanth
2: The Hundred-Day Hunt
3: Family
4: The beastmen. (Those guys are always assholes whenever I play, even when they're not my archenemies, so we might as well cut to the chase.)
5: Balanced
6: Lhankor Mhy
7: Neutral
8: Enough to Grow Into
9: Earth
10: Normal
11: Short

Q1 - Orlanth
Q2 - Lhankor Mhy uses the marking bone.
Q3 - Thralls
Q4 - The Salty Lord of the Sea
Q5 - Balanced
Q6 - Odayla
Q7 - Positive
Q8 - Lots more than we would probably need
Q9 - of the Cave Bear
Q10 - Normal

The ducks are awesome, though!

Ernalda, Ernalda, Family, Praxians, Balanced, Issaries, Positive, Enough Land to Grow Into (how are you going to decide votes if they're all different?)

The natural followup to Foot is Feet, so...how about Proudfeet? And Normal sounds good.

1: Ernalda
2: Procession of the Animals
3: Thralls
4: Praxians
5: Peace
6: Uralda the Cow Mother
7: Positive
8: Far More Land
9: Foot (it was my idea the first time! I count that as the first time anyone listened to me on TT)
10: Normal
11: Short

Hopefully this is not too difficult.

I don't know how that happened. But, it has been corrected.

If a vote wins by supermajority, I'll take it; otherwise, I'll do a lottery. For example, our patron deity votes are 3 Elmal, 2 Orlanth, 2 Ernalda, so Elmal has a 3/7 chance to win, and Orlanth and Ernalda have a 2/7 chance each. This is probably the fairest method for questions with many options.

1. Elmal
2. Pella Pot
3. Family
4. Salty Dog (I mean Lord)
5. Peace, let's be hippies
6. Uralda
7. Positive
8. Lot's more than we need
9. I like Gutsland
10. Normal
11. Short

I think your "Relations" screenshot got mixed up with a copy of the "Farm" one.

How about that! Thanks, fixed.

If you want to vote on our clan, do it quickly! I'll kick things off tomorrow if I don't get any more votes.

1. Ernalda
2. Procession of the Animals
3. As family
4. Trolls
5. Balanced
6. Chalana Arroy
7. Neutral
8. Room to grow
9. Sure, Gutsland sounds good.
10. Normal
11. But but but Long is where the only proper ending is ;_;

Q1: Ernalda
Q2: Roitina performs the Clan-making Dance
Q3: as family
Q4: The elves
Q5: Balanced
Q6: Urox the Storm Bull
Q7: Positive
Q8: Enough to grow into
Q9: Destine
Q10: Normal
Q11: So we don't actually get to pick this one?

Okay, let's kick this off.

Voting results

1. Primary god

Elmal had just as many votes, but Ernalda won this category.

2. Important event

The votes were really spread out on this one. In the end, Lhankor Mhy ended up using the marking bone, giving our clan leaders more Custom skills.

3. Thralls

The vote was nearly tied, but the coin toss landed in favor of Family. No slaves for us!

4. Ancient foe

With only one vote, the Beastmen are the unlikely winner(?) of this category.

5. Clan type

The votes were overwhelmingly in favor of a Balanced clan.

6. Secondary god

A wide vote spread lands us with Odayla, god of Hunting. This doesn't give us any combat advantage. Odayla is about killing wild animals.

7. Dragons

By overwhelming majority, we've decided to take a Positive attitude to dragons. This is not bad at all; a Hostile attitude often gives you a choice between making a dragon angry and making your ancestors angry.

8. Land

We have just enough land for our needs, which is probably for the best. This clan is going to have a hard enough time defending.

9. Name

We shall henceforth be known as Clan Destine.

10. Difficulty

We'll be playing on Normal, since only Guild wants our suffering to end quickly.

11. Game type

No, you don't get to pick this.




Our tula



Here's a nice picture of our land. You'll notice that we aren't at capacity, despite having chosen "just enough" land. Key features:

• The big mound at the north end of the tula has a symbol on it that indicates we worship Ernalda. Just above it is our shrine to Ernalda, which is granting us the Bless Crops blessing.
• On the far east, just next to our cattle, there's a weird-looking structure that's our shrine to Odayla, which is currently providing the Tracking blessing. This blessing will help our explorers find things when they explore.
• The purple building is the weaponthanes' hut, and the building with the wacky roof is the clan hall, where our clan leaders preside.
• We have a ditch digged around our homes, which is our only fortification. At the top, a weaponthane on horseback patrols the inner tula; you can see another weaponthane patrolling the outer tula on the bottom left.

Hey everybody, it's Sacred Time!



At start of the game and the end of each year, you have the option to allocate some or all of your clan's Magic to rituals that improve your performance in certain areas. These are:

• Children, to make your womenfolk fertile as the bountiful plains. It takes fifteen years for a child to come of age, and a quick player can beat the Short game in that much time, so I don't put points into children.
• Crops, to make your farmlands fertile as the bountiful womenfolk. Always a good option unless you're just overflowing with food.
• Diplomacy, to make your people talk more good. If you plan to talk to other people this year, this is a good bet.
• Health, to make your people die more slowly. It prevents sickness in addition to speeding the recovery of the sick and wounded.
• Herds, to make your livestock fertile as the bountiful rabbits. Always a good option; you can never have too many cows.
• Hunting, to make your hunters bountiful as the fertile livestock. A good option if the crops are destined to fail or if you're really hard up for food. Hunters don't bring in the big bucks (oh ho, the puns), generally speaking, so Crops is usually better.
• Mysteries, to make your god-speakers godspeak more good. Improves your success when sacrificing for Mysteries, imagine that! The bonus decreases with each successive use in a year.
• Quests, to make your heroquesters quest harder. Only the first heroquest gets any benefit from this, but the benefit is substantial, and heroquests can be tricky even if you're a scummy savescummer.
• Trade, to make your trading more good. Diplomacy seems to be more important for setting up a trade route.
• War, to make your enemies more dead. Gives a bonus to every battle in that year. If you go several years without performing a raid, War magic becomes ineffective.

In addition, there's some juicy information on this screen. In the center, we can get a good idea of our reputation. In a feudal society like this one, the way to be kingly is to be generous: invite neighbors to feasts, give lots of gifts, and so on. Performing successful heroquests also helps.

On the left, we get a forecast for the year. The forecast can be really important. If you forget what it was, you can look it up in the Saga screen. We've got a bad forecast: a poor harvest and stingy trading partners.

Your clan ring will tell you where you can stick your Magic, but you shouldn't feel compelled to listen to them. They will uniformly recommend hanging onto a point of Magic or two, which is something we won't be doing for now. I've allocated our Magic as seen above.


Time for a reorg



As Rostakos (face obscured) is quick to point out, our current chief needs to go. The first thing we want to do after Sacred Time is give some of these thanes the boot. Let's give ourselves a new clan ring. Clicking on Reorganize gives us this busy little screen:



At the bottom is the clan ring that the game gave us. The game does not give you an optimal clan ring, and reorganizing your clan is almost always the first action you should take.

At the top right, we see details about whoever we've currently selected. This shows us the thane's name, age, deity (also indicated by the icon in the lower right), and skills; the thane will also have something to say about the situation (generally "Put me on the ring" or "Keep me on the ring").

Here are some tips for choosing the composition of your ring:

• The chief of your clan is the one who occupies the leftmost slot. The best choice for this is usually the thane with the highest Leadership who worships your patron deity, and that seems to be who the game starts you with.
• Don't repeat a deity within your ring. This can be tricky, because you want to...
• Have someone with a high rating in each of the skills. Conveniently, there are seven: Animals, Bargaining, Combat, Custom, Leadership, Magic, and Plants. The iOS version makes this more difficult, since it adds hybrid skills (e.g. Strategy = Combat + Leadership). If a skill isn't listed on a thane's profile, that means the thane has no proficiency in that area.
• Keep an eye on the age of your leaders. They'll kick the bucket at around 60, and that can hurt your clan's mood in addition to making you scramble for a replacement. Old thanes tend to be highly skilled, but it can be worthwhile to invest in a younger candidate. Skills can be trained.
• Representing a deity on your ring gives you an extra slot for magic allocation during Sacred Time. For example, a Humakti (worshipper of Humakt, the death god) allows you to put an extra point into War.
• Your leaders will often suggest putting a Eurmali on the ring. The trickster is not only the only worshipper to give you extra Quest slots, but also provides you with some trickstery options in dealing with events and "helpful" suggestions.
• Ernalda and Barntar give you an extra Crops slot. Chalana Arroy is the only god that boosts Children and Health. Uralda is the only god that boosts Herds. Crops and Health are nice to have; Herds is very nice to have.

With all of that in mind, let's look at our candidates. Note that while I'm listing their noteworthy secondary skills, those aren't nearly important as having the primary skill in good measure. Except as mentioned, each of these candidates has Excellent skill in the relevant category.

• Yerestia, pictured above, is the best candidate for our chief, and that's where I'll be putting her. She's the only Ernalda worshipper in our entire clan. Good thing her Leadership is decent.
• We don't have anyone with better Animals skill than Very Good. Our best choices are Beneva (age 29, Uralda, Very Good Magic), Rostalos (age 42, Barntar, Very Good Combat), Valensta (age 48, Chalana Arroy, Excellent Leadership; Very Good Animals, Bargaining, Custom, Magic, and Plants), and Harran (age 48, Orlanth, Excellent Leadership; Very Good Animals, Bargaining, Combat, and Magic).
• Our best Bargaining thane is Harvar (age 37, Issaries, Very Good Combat). The next best is Harran, mentioned above, and no one else is worth mentioning.
• Our best Combat thanes are Farad (age 60, Odayla, Very Good Plants) and Insterid, the redhead on our ring (age 25, Vinga, poor secondary skills).
• Our best Custom thanes are Orlaront (age 36, Lhankor Mhy, Very Good Leadership), Iskalli (age 39, also Lhankor Mhy, Very Good Magic). Valensta (mentioned above) is a distant third.
• Yerestia, our chief, will be representing the Leadership skill.
• Lismelder (age 28, Uralda, poor secondary skills) is tied with Valensta, Iskalli, Beneva, and Harran (all mentioned above) for Very Good Magic.
• In Plants, our best thanes are Harmast (age 60, Barntar, Very Good Animals) and Arene (age 32, Uralda*, Very Good Animals). Valensta and Rostalos (mentioned above) are a step down, but could handle the position.
• Our lone Eurmali is Heortarl, who is age 32 and is Very Good at Bargaining and Combat, and merely Good at Animals, Leadership, Magic, and Plants. Not a great skillset, but we should find him a place on the ring if we can.

Again, we have no one with Excellent skill in Animals or Magic, and if we want to put our trickster on the ring, we'll need to double up on another skill. The best candidates for coverage are Valensta and Harran. They're old enough that one or both of them might die before the end of the game, but by then, we'll have a fresh batch of nobles itching for a spot on the ring.

Besides Yerestia, Insterid is also an obvious choice, and I'm mandating her onto the ring in order to give us a fighting chance at fighting. Farad is too old and offers no real benefit for his age. We should also put Heortarl on the ring. That leaves four spaces, and we need Animals, Bargaining, Custom, Magic, and Plants covered by those four. What say you, Talking Time?

*Arene's profile says she worships both Ernalda and Uralda, which I've never seen before. Her icon indicates she worships Uralda.


Let's plan



After reorganizing, we have nine actions left in the year. Here's a list of things we might want to do this year.

• Allocate more crafters. Crafters produce goods, which are basically our currency, since cattle are too valuable to throw around. We use goods for trade, sacrifice, and negotiations, and we start with a pathetic 10 crafters. We can do this in any season.
• Sacrifice for Mysteries. We're going to do this, possibly more than once, since we need more blessings. Who's the lucky god(dess)? We can do this in any season.
• Build more fortifications. A guard tower costs 10 goods and will help us muster forces against invaders. We can do this in any season, but it's slightly more valuable before we have an opportunity to be invaded.
• Recruit more weaponthanes. Ten is not enough. We can do this in any season, but it's slightly more valuable before we have an opportunity to be invaded.
• Build a shrine. Once we've learned a new blessing, we can gain permanent access to it. We can do this in any season after we've learned a new blessing.
• Explore our tula. This can give us treasures or valuable crafting materials. We can do this in any season (except maybe Dark), though we should try to do it before allocating crafters.
• Explore distant lands. This can give unexpected bonuses, but it's risky to do this before we have a shrine to Vinga. We can do this in any season but Dark.
• Perform a raid or cattle raid. We start the game with a couple of feuds, and cattle raids are fun for the whole family. We can do this in Fire or Storm.
• End a feud or propose an alliance. This can be expensive, so we won't be able to do both. We can do this in any season except Dark.
• Attempt to set up a trade route. We didn't allocate points to Trade or Diplomacy, and the forecast mentioned stingy trading partners. Sacrificing to Issaries first might help, but we might also just want to wait until next year. We can do this in any season except Dark.
• Expand our croplands. This will give us more food and decrease our odds of being raided. We can't do this in Fire or Earth.

There's a strong chance that we won't be able to do all of these, even if we only end up picking nine -- unforeseen events can change our priorities, or losses in battle might require us to recruit more soldiers -- but go ahead and vote for one or more of these (as many as you like). If you want to vote for something that's not in the above list, go for it.

On the gods



We need to pick one or two gods this year. My recommendation would be one of the following:

• Humakt, god of War and Death, or Elmal, god of the Sun and Horses, to help us in combat.
• Barntar or Orlanth, to help our farming.
• Urox, fighter of Chaos, who will help us detect and combat evil forces.
• Uralda the Cow Mother, to give us more cowbell.
• Vinga the Adventuress, who will help our explorers and questers. We will build a shrine to Vinga soon, but it doesn't have to be now.

Not listed: Chalana Arroy the Healer; Issaries, god of Trade, Travel, and Concilliation; Lhankor Mhy, god of Lawspeaking and Knowledge; Odayla, god of Hunting; and Maran Gor, goddess of Earthquakes. We can sacrifice to these gods and build shrines, but they probably aren't worth prioritizing at first.

Not listed on the not listed list: our Ancestors; Eurmal the Trickster; and Malia, goddess of Disease. None of them has any Mysteries for us, and Eurmal and Malia do not have any permanent blessings and therefore do not support a shrine. Malia is also an unholy god, and sacrificing to her will make our people unhappy.

Not listed on the not listed on the not listed list list: We don't have the option of sacrificing to the other members of the Unholy Trio (Daga, god of Drought and Thed, goddess of Rape -- it's a long story). There are also lesser gods that we may encounter on our expeditions, and there are gods and even entire pantheons outside the Orlanthi gods that we don't know or care much about.


Voting time

Vote for some or all of the following:

• Our clan ring needs seven members.
• We have nine other actions to perform.
• We need to decide on one or two gods to petition for Mysteries.

Round out the ring with

Beneva
Harvar
Iskalli
Valnesta

Focus on building up before the troubles start

build fortification
recruit weapon thanes
explore our tala
allocate crafters
expand croplands

Sacrifice to

Uralda (because moo)
Odayla (he is supposed to be our secondary god)

Valnesta, Harran, Insterid, Iskalli, Arene, and Heortarl should round out our ring. They have a pretty good skill spread among the lot of them, and none of them are in imminent danger of death (or are they?)

I second the exploration and building cropland motions.

And sacrifice to Uralda.

While you're busy with that mammoth update, how about an interlude?

Interlude 1: Music Break

"What's so great about King of Dragon Pass?" you ask. Today, the answer is music.

We're in the season of Sea. Let's listen to the theme for this season! It is fantastic.



How can you listen to that and not be happy? You can't. It can't be done.

A little more muted but still happy is the theme of the Fire season.



And after that is my absolute favorite song in the game, the Earth season theme.



Great song. The Dark season's theme is suitably downbeat, but carries the wonderful harmonies from Earth. Did the Orlanthi have saxophones? I don't know.



The pace picks back up with the heavy drums of the Storm season. The Orlanthi saxophone is back in action, too.



Keep your votes coming. The previous update is the last enormous infodump for the foreseeable future, so if you can make it through that, it's smooth sailing. I'll close voting Sunday evening, so try to vote before then.

I'd like to add Farad, Heortarl and Instarid to our circle, we definitely need more fortifications and weaponthanes, and I feel it would be prudent for us to petetion Humakt for the strength of our warriors since I'll be pushing for slaughter at every opportunity. Just call me Warmonger.

I see where you're going with this, and I like it, but I'm not entirely certain there's any advantage to doubling up on skills within your ring outside of the rare situation where one of the leaders is away* or incapacitated.

*Avoid sending your clan leaders on away missions, no matter what you may have learned from Star Trek.

I have taken your dissent under advisement and have decided to kill you and make you a thrall in response. It is what any strong leader would do.

So hey, did you guys know you can't save the game during special events? I'm going to have to reassess my technical approach to this LP, which may cause minor delays. While I'm figuring that out, here's the first part of the year.


Year 1330

Sea 1

Our first action will be to organize our clan ring. I mentioned that Yerestia, Insterid, and Heortarl would have a guaranteed spot on the ring. Besides them, you wanted to see Iskalli and Valensta on the ring. That's five of our seven, and between them, we have Leadership, Combat, and Custom at Excellent and everything else at Very Good.

Because our coverage is already complete, let's fill the last two slots with thanes that have Excellent skills. Harvar will represent Bargaining and Arene will represent Plants. We don't have anyone with Excellent skill in Animals or Magic, so this is about as good as we can get.



The relations screen shows us that we're feuding with two clans, Heran and Ogosi. The letter N after a clan's name lets us know that the clan occupies land neighboring our own. We can expect a raid from the Ogosi this year. On the other hand, we're allied with the Eagle clan. We owe favors to six clans, and nine clans owe us a favor.


Sea 2

We could rearrange our land allocation in this season to allow it to affect this year's harvest, but doing so would distract our farmers from what already promises to be a poor harvest -- they'd be clearing wildlands when they should be sowing fields. Instead, let's recruit weaponthanes.


Above: Eurmali wisdom.

We can only go up to fourteen. Apparently you can't take more than four additional weaponthanes at a time, because I can go into the weaponthanes menu and recruit four more right away.

I chose to take the weaponthanes from our carls, the upper-class farmers. This means we have four fewer farmers, which is not a huge deal. We also paid 12 goods to recruit these weaponthanes, which is a good price for the value they provide. Also of note is that each weaponthane requires an upkeep of one good per year. This can hurt if you're already short on goods.

The other options allow us to take in strangers as weaponthanes and/or offer our new weaponthanes an additional good each. Bringing in strangers means you don't lose any farmers, which the farmers will be happy about, but it might upset your weaponthanes. Giving gifts will make your new weaponthanes happy, but it probably makes someone else angry.


Stay tuned! King of Dragon Pass will be right back.

OK, I think we're good to go now.

Year 1330, part 2

Fire 1



We built a watchtower. This sets us back 10 goods, but gives us better defense -- specifically, more of our troops will show up to face attackers, since we'll be able to see raids coming.


Fire 2



To quench Guild's thirst for battle without risking death among our new troops, we'll attempt a raid on our most bitterest enemies, the Ogosi. I've invited our allies, the Eagles, to join in the fun. This means they send some soldiers and expect a cut of the plunder.





Here's what it looks like when we get into a battle. The options that are available to us will vary slightly depending on the circumstances. Note that we're slightly outnumbered. I could have sent more men, but I didn't want to leave us completely defenseless. (This would be more of an issue if we weren't raiding an adjacent clan.)

We have the option of spending extra Magic on the battle, if we have any remaining. This is added to the magic we allocated to War during Sacred Time. We can then sacrifice to Orlanth and/or Humakt for success in battle. Each sacrifice costs a cow, and each one takes some time to perform. If you attempt both, you are likely to get rushed while you're still sacrificing, which negates the effect of the sacrifice. The manual has the following to say about these sacrifices:

Sacrificing a cow to Orlanth improves your odds of coming out on top in the initial clash.

Sacrificing a cow to Humakt improves your odds of winning the melee, and hence the entire battle. Sacrificing to Humakt also reduces the effectiveness of the enemy’s auxiliaries.

Of course, if the battle never reaches melee, then Humakt has no effect.

We can then choose an Objective for our combat. This looks much different when we're on defense. I've chosen Plunder as our objective, meaning we'll try to take cattle and goods from the Ogosi. (If we were on the verge of starvation, we would also try to steal food.) It also has a higher chance of success than the other objectives, though those are more debilitating in the long term.

Finally, we choose our Tactics. "Skirmish" means you're poking at the enemy from a distance, avoiding close combat. If both teams Skirmish and/or Evade, then they will never enter close combat. "Maneuver" attempts to move your army into a more favorable position before attacking. It's more effective on your own land, with which you're more familiar. "Charge" is a straighforward rush into battle, and it gives you the best odds of winning the melee. "Evade" attempts to avoid combat entirely, but if you fail, then you are at a strong disadvantage in the melee phase. Since we're trying to plunder, I've chosen to Charge.



Occasionally, you're given a choice during battle that centers around one of your thanes. This one centers on Rostalos, who you may remember as the completely forgettable thane we didn't choose for our ring. He's Very Good at combat, though, so we're happy to have him around. The scenarios vary and the options aren't always the same, but it usually boils down to "chicken out," "march forth and conquer," and "get wrecked."

Naturally, I choose the second option.



It ended more poorly than usual, with Rostalos taking heavy wounds. He wasn't slain, but he'll be out of commission until he recovers.



We have mixed results. On the one hand, we weren't able to plunder. On the other, we emerged as the clear victors, and our weaponthanes made it out unscathed.

Suddenly



A special event! Once or twice a year on average, you're treated to a scenario with a decision. These choose-your-own-adventure vignettes give you a chance to establish your clan's character, to gain fortune or to lose it.

As with nearly every screen where your clan ring is present, you can consult them for their opinions. Yerestia recommends option #2, which is highlighted in blue when we select her. Here's what everyone else thinks:

Harvar: I have heard of these outlaw women. Every now and then they kidnap fine young men and have their way with them! No recommendation.
Insterid: If we fight to drive them off, we risk less, but will get the same result when we succeed. Recommends #5.
Iskalli: The kidnapped men are married. If they dally with these outlaw women, they commit a grave offense! Recommends #5.
Valensta: We must learn the motives of these outlaws before we decide what to do. Recommends #1.
Arene: Every good cow has a right to choose a new bull. Recommends #2.
Heortarl: Do nothing, and they will soon be home. They will be sheepish with their wives, and proud among the men. Recommends #2.
Mogri: Divinations can be very useful, but in this case, we already know the motivations of the women thanks to Harvar. As Heortarl says, we can do nothing and the men will come home safely; on the other hand, as Iskalli (our Custom guy, remember) mentions, Ernalda frowns on adultery. If we choose to take action, Insterid (our Combat leader) wisely points out that we're safer going for a rescue mission than an assassination.

Judge ye, Talking Time!

I vote 5 but if there's a way to recruit these outlaws I'm more for that.

I'm proud of you for listening to Rostalos' suggestion (?) to attack in spite of the outcome.

Send a war party to rescue the men. Can't have Ernalda getting mad at us.

Oh man, looking at the screenshots, I just realized that I totally raided the wrong flan. Ooooops.

Do nothing!