Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

Yes, but only generic ones and only at the beginning of the game

5 (38.5%)

Yes, but only for the first few Seasons

1 (7.7%)

Yes! We need help!

1 (7.7%)

No Hints, please, I'd rather figure it out on my own

4 (30.8%)

Other

2 (15.4%)

Total Members Voted: 12

[Mephansteras]

Spring Wrap-up

The farmers bring in a meager crop of quick growing plants, eggs, and the like.

Dariush harvests 2 Food
Toaster harvests 3 Food
micelus harvests 2 Food
Scelly9 harvests 2 Food


The Laborers bring in valuable Resources to help the Clan build up proper settlements.

Dariush Gains 2 Stone
Toaster Gains 1 Wood and 1 Stone
micelus Gains 2 Wood
Scelly9 Gains 1 Wood and 1 Stone


All players feed their Populations 3 Food. No one went hungry this season.


Summer arrives

Event: The sky is a clear blue and the sun a hammer pounding down on the Earth. With such meager rain, the Farmers tell you that it will be a Bad Harvest this Season.
  All Farmers will produce 1 Fewer Food this Season

The Raider track is now at 2.

A group of Laborers has arrived to aid Dariush. His people greet their Kin warmly. He will now need to choose where to settle them.

It is now the Action Phase.


I've also updated the Map, rotated it, and added in a grid system. Numbers down the side and letters at the top. Hopefully it's easy enough to figure out.

[Dariush]

1) Every farmer or all farmers? I.e. if I have two farmers, do they produce 2 less or 1 less food?

2) Why can't we explore D column?

3) Am I stupid or Farm building isn't listed in the building list?

[Mephansteras]

1) Every farmer or all farmers? I.e. if I have two farmers, do they produce 2 less or 1 less food?

2) Why can't we explore D column?

3) Am I stupid or Farm building isn't listed in the building list?

1) Each Farmer will produce 1 less food than they normally would. So if you would produce 2 Food from two farmers this Season (total 4 Food) you will produce only 1 Food from each of those two farmers this season (total 2 Food).

2) You can if you really want, I just haven't put any tiles down there yet.

3) Oh, a Farm isn't a building. That's just wherever a Farmer population is sitting.

[Dariush]

Huh. In that case what happens if I build a Fence and then relocate the farmer somewhere else?
1) Will he take the fence with him?
2) If no, will it get destroyed?
3) Will I be able to build another one at the new location?
4) Can I build Stone Fence without building Fence first?
5) If yes, will it take an additional 1 wood?
6) Does one Fence cost 1 wood or does one action of building Fences cost 1 wood (i.e. one Fence costs 1/2 of a wood)?
7) Is it only me or is there no reason whatsoever for the first player not to use Call for Kin special action, since two other actions require Goods which cannot be obtained until the second spring (without using Call for Kin) and the third one isn't very useful in the first year?
When do Stone Houses/Fences give Respect? Once, immediatly after building it or periodically?
9) Is it possible to build one house and one fence in the same turn?

[Mephansteras]

Huh. In that case what happens if I build a Fence and then relocate the farmer somewhere else?
1) Will he take the fence with him?  No, the fence stays on that tile. You lose any respect gained by that Fence, but should you put another Farmer there later you will regain that Respect. The same applies if you change that Farmers type.
2) If no, will it get destroyed?  No, it just sits there.
3) Will I be able to build another one at the new location?  Yes
4) Can I build Stone Fence without building Fence first?  Yes, you can
5) If yes, will it take an additional 1 wood?  No, while you may upgrade a Wooden Fence to a Stone Fence, stone fences do not require a Wooden Fence to be build first.
6) Does one Fence cost 1 wood or does one action of building Fences cost 1 wood (i.e. one Fence costs 1/2 of a wood)?  Each Wooden Fence costs 1 Wood to build.
7) Is it only me or is there no reason whatsoever for the first player not to use Call for Kin special action, since two other actions require Goods which cannot be obtained until the second spring (without using Call for Kin) and the third one isn't very useful in the first year?  That's pretty much correct. In later years the choice of which Special Action to take is a it more fluid, but in the first year Call for Kin is almost certainly best. However, there are situations where you can get a fair amount of Goods in the first year, so it depends a bit on the Tales Cards you have as to which strategy is best.
When do Stone Houses/Fences give Respect? Once, immediately after building it or periodically?  Immediately after building it. If you move that population away, those buildings stay on the tile and the respect is lost until another appropriate population moves in.

[Toaster]

7) Is it only me or is there no reason whatsoever for the first player not to use Call for Kin special action, since two other actions require Goods which cannot be obtained until the second spring (without using Call for Kin) and the third one isn't very useful in the first year?

There are ways to get goods in the first year.  I can do the summer one this year if I want to- I traded for a Good.

[Dariush]

PPE notice, and also imagine what would have happened had I not been here and you would have received all those questions by e-mail after publishing your game.

PPE: 9) Is it possible to build one house and one fence in the same turn?

Also, what does 'changing Farmer type' mean?

No, while you may upgrade a Wooden Fence to a Stone Fence, stone fences do not require a Wooden Fence to be build first.

I don't like this mechanic. If the player chooses to upgrade, does he keep 1 respect gained from Wooden Fence AND gets 2 respect from Stone one or 1 respect gets REPLACED by 2 respect? If the former, it makes it pointless to build stone fences without wooden ones. If the latter, it makes it pointless to ever build wooden ones, since it basically wastes wood.

[Mephansteras]

9) Is it possible to build one house and one fence in the same turn?

No, you can build 2 Wooden Houses or 2 Wooden Fences in a turn but not both in the same turn.

Also, what does 'changing Farmer type' mean?

Using the Reorganize Action you can change a population to any type you want. So you could change a Farmer into a Crafter, for instance.

If you upgrade a Wooden Fence into a Stone Fence you now get 2 Respect instead of 1. The idea is that wooden fences are faster to build, so it's easier to get them out there. Stone Fences are slower, so you have to plan more. The upgrade options are there for cases where you went for the fast option first and later on decided that you had the time and resources to go for the Stone option.

Yes, it's wasteful. It's supposed to be.

[Dariush]

But, due to the pretty high bar of 100 respect required for winning there is no point in gaining it early on as opposed to using the action (and resources) you would use for fences for some other project. The solution for this problem would be, IMHO, giving people a set percentage of their current Respect every year (5-10% seems decent to me). This would encourage early building of buildings that give Respect instead of having people pour everything into resources and then building fences/halls every turn in the late game.

Also, when a building 'replaces' some other one (i.e. Grand Hall in place of Long Hall), do we need to build the building being replaced before building the replacing building?

Also also, do winter-specific events get added to the global event pool with the equal probability of being drawn, or do they happen independently from other events?

[Mephansteras]

Well, part of this is testing how well all that works. In theory, the 25 Respect per player is quite doable. In theory the max each person could get is somewhere around 50, although that would require some major luck to accomplish.

There are supposed to be 3 Major ways of getting Respect: Goods, Buildings, and Combat. You're expected to do all three, but most players will focus on one more than the others.

If you go the Goods route, you're relying on Gifts and Festival of Lights. That should net you 7 or 8 respect if you maximize those. With the right Tales cards, you might get 10 out of it.

Buildings are going to provide the most points in general. It's not that hard to get 12+ respect out of buildings, and if you really maximize the use of Stone you could probably get 20 respect. As for buildings giving Respect each year, that's what the Long/Grand Halls are for.

Combat is riskier than the others, since it is really luck based, but if you win a lot of the battles you should be able to get 7-9 over the course of the game. With fantastic luck you could get 15+ out of it, although I doubt that'll happen in the vast majority of games.

The overall intent of the game is to give a feeling of settling the frontier. The first few years should feel like you're really working to survive, while the last year or two should feel like you're really building up the settlements and thriving instead of simply surviving.

[Dariush]

The overall intent of the game is to give a feeling of settling the frontier. The first few years should feel like you're really working to survive, while the last year or two should feel like you're really building up the settlements and thriving instead of simply surviving.

That's good, but the current way the Respect works gives just a way too linear feel. And your post still doesn't illuminate the problem that wooden fences are pointless at all and all fences are pointless in general until late game.

Just a quick question: Can I place my new Laborers after doing this turn's actions?

And another quick question: is there any limit on how I can trade with other players? I.e. can I trade with Scelly on the other wide of the map without either of us having road and there being both uninhabited regions and regions settled by other players between us?

[Mephansteras]

The overall intent of the game is to give a feeling of settling the frontier. The first few years should feel like you're really working to survive, while the last year or two should feel like you're really building up the settlements and thriving instead of simply surviving.

That's good, but the current way the Respect works gives just a way too linear feel. And your post still doesn't illuminate the problem that wooden fences are pointless at all and all fences are pointless in general until late game.

It's all about planning and reacting. Wooden fences aren't useless, the fact that you can build 2 at a time could be quite handy.

Keep in mind that there are only 12 build actions available in the entire course of the game, and that's if you actually build every single turn. If you're going for Military buildings, you may not have the time (or stone) to build a bunch of Stone Fences everywhere, but you could throw down a few Wooden Fences quickly.

As for fences being useless until late game...yes, they are. They're a luxury, not a requirement for survival, and are treated as such.

Thinking about it, though, having a bonus at the end for having all of your farmers with Fences sounds like a good idea. Makes Wooden Fences slightly more useful.

[Dariush]

Keep in mind that there are only 12 build actions available in the entire course of the game

How come? You didn't mention any hard limit, apart from the 100 respect one.

Why not make wooden fences generate like 0.5 respect per year and stone fences like 1?

Also, you missed a bunch of questions:

1) When a building 'replaces' some other one (i.e. Grand Hall in place of Long Hall), do we need to build the building being replaced before building the replacing building?
2) Do winter-specific events get added to the global event pool with the equal probability of being drawn, or do they happen independently from other events?
3) Can I place my new Laborers after doing this turn's actions?
4) Is there any limit on how I can trade with other players? I.e. can I trade with Scelly on the other wide of the map without either of us having road and there being both uninhabited regions and regions settled by other players between us?

[Mephansteras]

Keep in mind that there are only 12 build actions available in the entire course of the game

How come? You didn't mention any hard limit, apart from the 100 respect one.

You can only Build in Spring, Summer, and Winter, and the games goes for 4 years. That's 12 build actions (not counting anything you get from Tales Cards). So it's a built in limit, not a hard rules limit.

Why not make wooden fences generate like 0.5 respect per year and stone fences like 1?

I'd rather give them some Farming bonus instead, if I was going to do that. But to an extent I want to keep things simple. Lots of complicated rules makes a boardgame unwieldy.

Also, you missed a bunch of questions:

1) When a building 'replaces' some other one (i.e. Grand Hall in place of Long Hall), do we need to build the building being replaced before building the replacing building?
2) Do winter-specific events get added to the global event pool with the equal probability of being drawn, or do they happen independently from other events?
3) Can I place my new Laborers after doing this turn's actions?
4) Is there any limit on how I can trade with other players? I.e. can I trade with Scelly on the other wide of the map without either of us having road and there being both uninhabited regions and regions settled by other players between us?

You keep editing without me noticing.

1) A 'Replaced' bulding just means that if you had one of those, it's gone and you just have the new one. So if you had a Long Hall and build a Grand Hall, you lose the Long Hall. You don't need a Long Hall to build a Grand Hall, though, and generally it's a waste of materials and time to do both.

2) There aren't any Winter Specific Events, although some Events will make more/less of an impact depending on when they show up.

3) No, you have to place them before the Action Phase (so, no, you can't Explore first and then place them).

4) No, no limits on trading with other players. They're not that far away, in the grand scheme of things. And unlike trading with the Homeland there are no limits on the amount of stuff you can trade between one another. (Well, between Food, Goods, and Resources)

[Dariush]

the games goes for 4 years

But... but why?! That's like no time at all!

I'd rather give them some Farming bonus instead, if I was going to do that. But to an extent I want to keep things simple.

Farming bonus is even better than my idea.

Lots of complicated rules makes a boardgame unwieldy.

'Fences give respect and a farming bonus' isn't a complicated rule. 'There is a building which is absolutely pointless to build and is a waste of materials' is.

2) There aren't any Winter Specific Events, although some Events will make more/less of an impact depending on when they show up.

? o_0

Winter brings with it two special events; Checking for Shelter and Food Rotting

4) No, no limits on trading with other players. They're not that far away, in the grand scheme of things. And unlike trading with the Homeland there are no limits on the amount of stuff you can trade between one another. (Well, between Food, Goods, and Resources)

Limits on amount of trading with Homeland weren't mentioned either. All the rules say is

Food/Resources can be traded for Food/Resources at a 1:1 rate.