Olwen's Kingmaker campaign

Game Master Olwen

This is the kingdom building discussion thread for our Kingmaker campaign so we can speed up kingdom building during the sessions.

The goal of this thread is to play a few months of kingdom building ahead of time, before the actual game sessions, so I can mesh it with what happens in your kingdom without the mechanics slowing actual gameplay. In some (probably rare) cases, we may have to backpedal a bit of a major event happens that make you change your mind for what you'd envision doing in the next months of kingdom building.

Do discuss your choices in this thread, but I'll ask of you that you make an effort to reach a consensus (which you would usually do fairly quickly, so I think that should be fine).

There should be two checks that need to be made each round: a Stability check at the beginning of the round, and an Economy check at the end of it. To do those, just use the forum dice roles (you type [*dice] 1d20+25[*/dice], for instance, removing the * everywhere). I'll generate the magic items and such things.

I think you already have an idea of what you want to be doing for the next few rounds, so let's start right away. Fill in the following!

Abadius 4712 AR
Economy: +27
Loyalty: +20
Stability: +24

DC: 29
Unrest: 0
BP: 18

Upkeep phase
Stability check: add dice roll here
Consumption list how much you've paid
Magic items: I'll fill that in when necessary
Unrest: higher than 11? royal assassin?

Improvement phase
Changes in leadership: I anticipate 'none', changes will be roleplay
Claimed Hexes: where? (with cost)
City improvement: new city? what improvement in which city? cost
Roads: where? (with cost)
Farmlands: where? (with cost)
Edicts:
- Promotion: currently Standard (+2 Stability, 2 BP)
- Taxation: currently Normal (+2 Economy, -2 Loyalty)
- Festivals: currently 6 (+2 Loyalty, 2 BP)

Income phase
Deposits/withdrawals: I anticipate 'none' in most cases
Magic items: which ones are you trying to sell, role an Economy check
Income (economy check): add dice roll here

Event phase
1d100 ⇒ 65 -- nothing worth mentioning happens in your kingdom during this cold and harsh month of Abadius 4712AR. Everyone is wintering…

My thoughts:

1) I am happy to continue doing the Kingdom rolls, if people like.

2) For next month, I propose:

a) Claim Candlemere, prepare the land for a city (after we clear it out in game), build a road in that hex

Also either:

b1) Build a brothel, accepting the +1 unrest temporarily

b2) Build a brothel and a house, or

b3) Turn Oleg's hex into a city, and get the free Stable, while also building a new farm in the available hill hex

And finally:

c) Adjust our taxation level downwards until Consumption is 0

Notes: By "Taxation" I of course meant "Taxation and Festivals". Drop down to 1 Festival a year for a while. Light Taxes would be fine, although our economy is high enough that No Taxes is a good option -- switching to No Taxes and One Festival would be -2 to Econ and +2 to Loyalty, vs. -1 to Econ and Loyalty remains constant the other way.

I am personally leaning towards a House & Brothel, although Brothel alone is a good option if we are trying to count our pennies.

If no one minds my taking the Kingdom building up through just before we head out to Candlemere, it would be:

Upkeep phase
Stability check: 6; makes DC, add 1 to BP
Consumption: 0
Magic items: N/A
Unrest: Loyalty check for presence of Kobolds -- 16. Makes DC, Unrest remains at 0.

Improvement phase
Changes in leadership: None

As it has been voiced that Hêmael should note his intentions on how the Kingdom should evolve, here are his thoughts:

1) He thinks that hexes close to the capitol Stronghold should be claimed, as in this way it is much easier for him and his army to defend the Kingdom
2) He thinks that founding a City in the North (i.e. Northgate) would help to strengthen our relation to Brevoy, such that we can both get military and monetary support and better trade options
3) Only when we have secured and evolved the heart of our kingdom, we should add new territories and found cities in the south
4) For Stronghold (or other cities later) he would like to build the following buildings (in this order)
a) Arena
b) Shrine for Kurgess
c) Barracks
d) Garrison
e) Stable
f) Temple (Kurgess, could live with Erastil)
g) Shop
h) Brewery
i) Market (or Black Market, there is really no difference to him)
j) Tavern or Inn

(this is independent of the boni these buildings give)

1) I am unable to look at the Excel sheet, so I am not sure which hexes immediately around Stronghold remain unclaimed.

2) Lilac agrees that a city in the north is an excellent idea. (She is still pulling for "Svetlanasburg" as a name, or perhaps "Leveton".) She believes it should be one of four additional cities we found in the very near future (along with Candlemere, Dancing Lady, and Thornford.) She recommends the Northern city be founded when we can easily claim a plains hex at the same time, to make it easier to replace the farmland; current projections place the best time for it within the next 4-5 months.

3) Current plans are to build cities mostly in the West and North; Candlemere is somewhat to the South of Stronghold, but not the far South, and its resources are too important to ignore.

4) All excellent suggestions; Lilac believes all of these should eventually be built, although priorities may necessitate other buildings coming first at various stages of city growth. Hemael's order preferences should definitely be taken into account.

Regarding the rest of the turn (some of this must be taken as Lilac's suggestions rather than fact):

Claimed Hex: One hex will be claimed. Good possibilities include --
- The "Mad Hermit" hex as a first step towards founding the city at "Dancing Lady" (cost 1 BP, +1 Command DC, no net consumption increase)
- The "Mud Pit" hex for the economic bonus (Cost 1 BP, +1 Command DC, +1 Econ bonus, +1 Consumption)
- A plains hex for the cheap farmland (Cost 1 BP, +1 Command DC, +1 Consumption) so that we may found our Northern city immediately

City improvement: Either no city founding or founding our northern city immediately (we should claim the plains hex if we do this) at a cost of 1 BP to receive an immediate city.

If it is decided not to build the Northern city immediately, Lilac recommends that the buildings this turn be a House and Brothel in Stronghold, placed in the same city block as the Barracks (Cost 7 BP, +1 Economy, +2 Loyalty, +1 and -1 to Unrest for net increase of 0.)

If it is decided instead that the Northern city should be built, a House and Stable should be built instead in that city; the house is necessary for the stable (Cost 3 BP, +1 Economy, +1 Loyalty, +500 city base value)

Roads: A road will be built in whatever hex we claim (Cost -- 2 BP for "Mad Hermit", 1 BP for "Mud Pit" unless it needs a bridge which would double that, 1 BP for plains)

Farmlands: A farm will be built in the newly claimed plains hex if and only if we go the route of founding the Northern city (Cost 2 BP, otherwise 0)

Edicts: Lilac suggests that Taxation be reduced to None and Festivals be reduced to 1, unless the "Mad Hermit" hex is claimed, in which case she recommends that Taxation be reduced to None and Festivals be left at 6, as the "Mad Hermit" hex will no increase consumption. (This assumes I am correct that these changes will keep Consumption at 0.)

Income phase
Deposits/withdrawals: None

Magic items: None

Income (economy check): Economy roll -- 17. This will result in a score of either 45 or 46, depending on which choices we make. Either will provide a net BP increase of 9.

LILAC'S RECOMMENDATIONS:
Tough call here. There are basically three good build choices:
1) Plains/Northern City/House&Stable/Farmland (Total Cost 8 BP, gets us new city, +500 base value, +1 Econ, +1 Loyalty)
2) Mud Pits/House&Brothel (Total Cost 9-10 BP, gets us +2 Econ, +2 Loyalty)
3) Mad Hermit/House&Brothel (Total Cost 10 BP, gets us +1 Econ, +2 Loyalty but with effective additional +1 over other plans due to edict adjustments, puts free castle "Dancing Lady" in closer reach

LILAC'S RECOMMENDATIONS, CONTINUED:

After due consideration, Lilac is going to recommend that this turn we claim the plains and found our northern city.

Then, next month, we claim Candlemere and build our brothel while the land is being cleared for a city.

Then start building towards Dancing Lady (will we be able to claim 2 hexes a turn by then? Hope I'll be able to see the spreadsheet again soon ...)

Thoughts?

After due consideration, Lilac is going to recommend that this turn we claim the plains and found our northern city.

Actually, we still have a claimed but unfarmed hex where the crypt lies (F2). We could turn that into farmland (Cost 4 BP) and claim a forest hex (I2?), since the former does not require new claiming and the latter does not require farming.

I agree with Hêmael's and Lilac's motion to build a city at Oleg's. I find the idea to honor Svetlana nice, but dislike the name Svetlanasburg. I like Northgate and Leveton, the former possibly streamlined into Norgate.

Then, next month, we claim Candlemere and build our brothel while the land is being cleared for a city.

Agreed. I'd be fine with not building a new House for the Brothel. I think we can keep the Unrest down. When exactly does Mikmek's Unrest reduction happen?

Speaking of Houses, I don't think we need to build an extra one in Northgate, since Oleg's is basically a free (= fully functional?) Stable already.

Then start building towards Dancing Lady (will we be able to claim 2 hexes a turn by then? Hope I'll be able to see the spreadsheet again soon ...)

Sounds good.

3) Only when we have secured and evolved the heart of our kingdom, we should add new territories and found cities in the south

I agree that we need to add some "bacon" to the bones of our heartland. However, Iaurinn finds that starting the magic item economy and claiming our free castle in the West is too important right now. After we own Dancing Lady, he agrees that more of the hill hexes around Stronghold should be secured, more for strategic reasons than economic ones.

Immediately:

Claiming the plains hex will save us 2 BP.

Claiming the "Mad Hermit" forest hex will (effectively) allow us to keep our Loyalty higher by keeping consumption down.

Looking ahead:

I suggested the former because, the number of cities we plan to found soon, we are going to need more farms and it'd be good to keep a farmable hex available anyway.

The main advantage of claiming the forest is it gets us closer to Dancing Lady (but with out being able to claim two hexes/month soon I'm not sure we'd actually get to it any faster by doing so.)

What would your preference be?

(And how about "Svetlanagrad"?)

(Oh, and it actually saves 3 BP, I'd forgotten the increased forest road cost. We will claim that hex eventually, of course, but do remember we are trying to make sure we can afford the Caster's Tower, and we are cutting it SLIGHTLY close there.)

(Oh, and it actually saves 3 BP, I'd forgotten the increased forest road cost. We will claim that hex eventually, of course, but do remember we are trying to make sure we can afford the Caster's Tower, and we are cutting it SLIGHTLY close there.)

Could we just claim the hermit's wood hex without building roads for now...? Is there a limit on the number of roads one can build in a turn?

The number of roads you can build in a turn is equal to the number of hexes you can claim in a turn until your kingdom reaches size 101 -- at which point you can build *fewer* roads than you can claim hexes.

Given the many benefits of having lots of roads, I'd hate to start falling behind. I would argue strongly against claiming a hex but not building a road at this point unless we are in a financial crisis.

We can still claim the hex and build the road and *almost* certainly afford a caster's tower ... I'd just feel that much safe saving the three BP, especially since we will need more farms soon anyway.

Serious question, though -- do you actually have a preference for claiming the forest, or are you just exploring all options? 'Cause it'd be nice to get this done with.

Should I go with claiming the plain hex? And should I follow Lilac's suggestion for the edicts?

I'll update Abadius tomorrow morning.

Serious question, though -- do you actually have a preference for claiming the forest, or are you just exploring all options? 'Cause it'd be nice to get this done with.

I'll go with your gut instinct on this. Let's take the grassland hex and worry about Dancing Lady later.

To sum up:

Turn 9 ending treasury: 13
Building resources salvaged from troll lair: +4 BP
Successful Stability check: +1 BP
Claim Hex D: -1 BP
Build roads in Hex D: -1 BP
Turn Hex D into farmland: -2 BP
Urbanize Hex A (Oleg's): -1 BP (immediately ready)
Build House in Hex A: -3 BP --> get free Stable
Economy check: +9 BP
Turn 10 ending treasury: 19 BP

Looking good!

Should we also build a Brothel in Stronghold? We have the House in place, and we haven't used up our building slot this Turn...

For some reason, Svetlanasburg is starting to grow on me. It sounds a lot like St. Petersburg, which gives it a certain gravitas. :)

DM, what about the House to go with Oleg's Stable? Is it necessary?

Abadius 4712 AR
Economy: +27
Loyalty: +20
Stability: +24

DC: 29
Unrest: 0
BP: 18

Upkeep phase
Stability check: 6, +1 BP
Consumption 0
Magic items: none
Unrest: 0 (Loyalty check for Kobolds -- 16 -> no impact)

Improvement phase
Changes in leadership: none
Claimed Hexes: hex D (-1 BP)
City improvement:
- urbanize Northgate(*) (-1 BP; immediate)
- House in Northgate (-3BP)
- Stabbles in Northgate (free)
(*) working name for the moment
Roads: hex D (-1 BP)
Farmlands: hex D (-2 BP)
Edicts: I'm not too sure this is what you want, here, can you confirm?
- Promotion: Standard (+2 Stability, 2 BP)
- Taxation: Light (+1 Economy, -1 Loyalty)
- Festivals: 1 (+1 Loyalty, 1 BP)

Income phase
Deposits/withdrawals: none
Magic items: none
Income (economy check): rolled 17, +9 BP Nice roll! :)

Event phase
1d100 ⇒ 65 -- nothing worth mentioning happens in your kingdom during this cold and harsh month of Abadius 4712AR. Everyone is wintering…

DC: 30
Unrest: 0
BP: 19

DM, what about the House to go with Oleg's Stable? Is it necessary?

I think it's required, yes, even though the stables are free. There needs to be housing for those taking care of the hourses after all! ;)

Did we want to build a Brothel in this turn too? We have the capability and the money... and it would fit with Lilac's fluff text. :)

Did we want to build a Brothel in this turn too? We have the capability and the money... and it would fit with Lilac's fluff text. :)

If you agree to that, I'll update the stat block tomorrow morning.

We did use our Building slot, didn't we? On the free Stable? And the rules say pretty clearly that a Stable must be adjacent to one house ...

I re-tweaked the edicts with keeping Consumption at 0 being the highest priority, and increasing our lowest stat (Loyalty) being the second highest. With those tweaks and new construction, we ended up dropping economy and stability by 1 to raise loyalty by 3. This may seem like little change for a lot of fuss, but our Consumption remains at 0 despite quite a lot of Consumptive building this turn, and we are also getting +500 base value and a new city district to sell magic items in, which will ideally happen sooner rather than late and be a good economic boost when it does.

Anyway, here's what I've got then:

Abadius 4712 AR

START:
Economy: +27
Loyalty: +20
Stability: +24

DC: 29
Unrest: 0
BP: 18 (NOTE: or 17 if the Magister is correct)

Upkeep phase
Stability check: 6 (success; +1 BP)
Consumption: 0
Magic items: N/A
Unrest: Loyalty check for presence of Kobolds -- 16. Makes DC, Unrest remains at 0.

Improvement phase
Changes in leadership: None
Claimed Hexes: Claim plains Hex D (cost 1 BP, Consumption increases by 1, Command DC increase by 1)
City improvement: Clear land for city in Hex A (Cost 1 BP, Consumption increases by 2 with loss of farm); Immediately found city in Hex A (Consumption increases by 1); Build House in Hex A (Cost 3 BP); Build Stable in Hex A (No cost; +500 gp base value, +1 Economy, +1 Loyalty)
Roads: Build Road in Hex D (Cost 1 BP)
Farmlands: Build Farm in Hex D (Cost 2 BP, -2 Consumption)
Edicts:
- Promotion: Reduce to Token (-1 to Consumption, -1 to Stability)
- Taxation: Reduce to None (-2 Economy, +3 Loyalty)
- Festivals: Reduce to 1 (-1 Consumption, -1 Loyalty)

Income phase
Deposits/withdrawals: None
Magic items: None
Income (economy check): Roll of 17 yields 9 BP

Event phase
1d100 ⇒ 65 -- nothing worth mentioning happens in your kingdom during this cold and harsh month of Abadius 4712AR. Everyone is wintering…

END:
Economy: +26
Loyalty: +23
Stability: +23
Consumption: 0

DC: 30
Unrest: 0
BP: 20 (NOTE: or 19 if the Magister is correct)

NOTES:
Tentative name for new city -- Svetlanasburg or Northgate (can be decided in game)
Placement of House/Stable: Suggest central square of bottom row, in bottom two quarters.

UPDATE:

Just saw Olwen's last comment. Apparently I am incorrect and the free stable, being pre-built, does not count as our building for the turn! I think building a brothel this turn is a fantastic idea, and as we are also building a house this turn for the stable, it will not even increase our unrest.

A brothel costs 4 BP and will add +1 to Economy and +2 to Loyalty. If we keep all else I put down the same, that yields:

Economy: +27
Loyalty: +25
Stability: +23
Consumption: 0

DC: 30
Unrest: 0
BP: 16 (NOTE: or 15 if the Magister is correct)

I think this is a good place to be, as surprisingly, Stability is our least important stat right now; it becomes far more important when there is Unrest, and we have been vigorous about keeping Unrest down (and our Stability still isn't all THAT low given the DC.)

We did use our Building slot, didn't we?

Why? We didn't have to build Oleg's, it was already there?

I agree with the shifts in Edicts. Loyalty is more useful to us than Stability right now. If I recall correctly, though, failing Stability by more than 2 points results in +2 Unrest... so we should get our act together there.

We're only spending 2 BP on Edicts now. If we take Candlemere, our Consumption will rise by 2. We will need more farms before we expand towards Dancing Lady.

Lilac, how do you arrive at 18 BP as the starting point? We ended Turn 9 with 13 BP in the treasury, according to my Excel sheet. What's wrong with my calculation above?

(Oy, the posts never come and then they fly thick and fast while I'm typing another one ...)

To simplify, the only changes from what Olwen already posted:

Built a brothel in Stronghold
Reduced Promotions to Token and Taxation to None (To keep Consumption at 0 and increase Loyalty)

All else stays the same.

(Oy, the posts never come and then they fly thick and fast while I'm typing another one ...)

To simplify, the only changes from what Olwen already posted:

Built a brothel in Stronghold
Reduced Promotions to Token and Taxation to None (To keep Consumption at 0 and increase Loyalty)

All else stays the same.

Got it.

I'm getting Economy +29, though...

Uploading the new sheet now.

Iaurinn --

1) I assume nothing is wrong with your calculation. Olwen listed 18 BP rather than 17 at the top of this thread, so I simply posted both numbers rather than make any assumptions at all.

2) We get unrest if we fail Stability by 5 or more, so at present we need a 1 or 2 on the roll to get that - fairly safe. But yes, as our DC goes up, we will need to shore up stability, and should probably look into that over the coming months.

3) But since we claimed the plains hex, we now can build farms in F2 next turn -- that was my whole point about needing the extra farmland soon. :)

After that, we are planning to expand into the woods in a way that will not increase our overall Consumption on almost all turns, as our woodland will roughly keep pace with our city districts.

Regarding Economy -- if Olwen did not take into account the effects of your and my ability stat boosts in his initial kingdom stats on this thread, that would account for the 2 point difference in the Economy scores.

Regarding Economy -- if Olwen did not take into account the effects of your and my ability stat boosts in his initial kingdom stats on this thread, that would account for the 2 point difference in the Economy scores.

It seems that Abadius is sorted out, so let's move on to Calistril 4712 AR.

I was using the numbers from the Excel sheet the was sent around a few days ago, so these numbers might be outdated. I'd trust your numbers more, Iaurinn. :)

Iaurinn, could you just copy Lilac's summary of Abadius, updated to reflect the numbers on your sheet, that would be great. Just so we know exactly where we start for next month.

Calistril is now the month we are planning to claim Candlemere. Should we wait until clearing the island of evil is played out in game to do so?

Regarding other choices during Calistril -- preplanned hex claiming and building of roads, farms, and city site clearing will cost us 8-9 BP (does the hex require a bridge be built, or are there no river crossings?)

We can reasonably count on making at least 6 BP, although the actual number will likely be slightly higher.

So, assuming no disasters or great boons, if we build no buildings we will likely start the next month with at least 12-13 in the Treasury. We can count on making at least 6 BP that month as well, but our magic item economy will not produce that month. So, we can reasonably count on having at least 18-19 to comfortably spend.

Planned hex claims, road building, and construction for that month will cost us 21 BP.

Now, there is no real reason for concern; we are likely to make more than 6 BP a turn (we made 10 in Abadius), and might easily pass 21. And if we only make the minimum, we can claim only one hex instead of two the month after Calistril and save ourselves the requisite 3 BP right there.

However, Calistril may be a good month to forego building a building, just to be absolutely sure we have enough to build the crucial caster's tower.

(Note -- e-mail comments imply that we may proceed with this month here before clearing out Candlemere in game. I need to head out right now, but when I return in a couple hours, I can do the rolls and post the claims and purchases then, assuming no great debate springs up regarding what we should do.)

Calistril is now the month we are planning to claim Candlemere. Should we wait until clearing the island of evil is played out in game to do so?

You can do Calistril, or at least plan it. I have faith in your ability to clear Candlemere. :)

Regarding other choices during Calistril -- preplanned hex claiming and building of roads, farms, and city site clearing will cost us 8-9 BP (does the hex require a bridge be built, or are there no river crossings?)

Putting roads on the Candlemere hex requires bridges, so is a bit more expensive.

So for Calistril, the plan is:

- Claim Hex O2 (1 BP)
- Build roads in O2 (2 BP)
- Urbanize Hex O2 (2 BP, takes a month)
- Build farms in Hex F2 (4 BP)

Total cost: 9 BP.

Right?

Wait, where the hell did my write-up of Abadius go? I had it posted already and now it's gone?!

Another try...

Abadius 4712 AR (Turn 10)

START:
Economy: +27
Loyalty: +20
Stability: +24

DC: 29
Unrest: 0
Treasury: 13 BP

Upkeep phase
Stability check: 6 (success; +1 BP)
Salvaged resources from troll lair: +4 BP
Consumption: 0
Magic items: N/A
Unrest: Loyalty check for presence of Kobolds -- 16. Makes DC, Unrest remains at 0.

Improvement phase
Changes in leadership: None
Claimed Hexes: Claim plains Hex D (cost 1 BP, Consumption increases by 1, Command DC increase by 1)
City improvement: Clear land for city in Hex A (Cost 1 BP, Consumption increases by 2 with loss of farm); Immediately found city in Hex A (Consumption increases by 1); Build House in Hex A (Cost 3 BP, -1 Unrest); Build Stable in Hex A (No cost; +500 gp base value, +1 Economy, +1 Loyalty); Build Brothel in Hex Z (Cost 4 BP, +1 Economy, +2 Loyalty, +1 Unrest).
Roads: Build Road in Hex D (Cost 1 BP)
Farmlands: Build Farm in Hex D (Cost 2 BP, -2 Consumption)
Edicts:
- Promotion: Reduce to Token (-1 to Consumption, -1 to Stability)
- Taxation: Reduce to None (-2 Economy, +3 Loyalty)
- Festivals: Reduce to 1 (-1 Consumption, -1 Loyalty)

Income phase
Deposits/withdrawals: None
Magic items: None
Income (economy check): Roll of 17 yields 9 BP

Event phase
1d100 ⇒ 65 -- nothing worth mentioning happens in your kingdom during this cold and harsh month of Abadius 4712AR. Everyone is wintering…

END:
Economy: +29
Loyalty: +25
Stability: +23
Consumption: 0

DC: 30
Unrest: 0
Treasury: 15 BP

NOTES:
Tentative name for new city -- Svetlanasburg or Northgate (can be decided in game)
Placement of House/Stable: Suggest central square of bottom row, in bottom two quarters.

I've taken the liberty to do some rolls for Turn 11 (Calistril):

- Stability: Rolled 14 + 23 = 37, succeeds against Control DC 30. +1 BP.
- Loyalty: Rolled 19 (saw the 3 there for a moment!) + 26 = 45, succeeds against Control DC 30. No lynched kobolds.
- Economy: Rolled another 19 + 29 = 48, succeeds against new Control DC of 31. +9 BP!

By the way, I raised the Festival Edicts to 6/year to compensate for the extra farm. Candlemere does not count as a city district yet. Next turn we'll have to cut that Edict again.

This leaves us at 17 BP at the end of Turn 11. Anything else we have to worry about? What's this month's event?

I've uploaded the new Kingdom sheet with Turn 10 and a provisional Turn 11 filled in.

Sounds good! So that would be:

CALISTIL 4712 AR

START:
Economy: +29
Loyalty: +25
Stability: +23

DC: 30
Unrest: 0
Treasury: 15 BP

(NOTE: Iaurinn, your numbers for Abadius on your most recent post appear to me to be off; I think you may have been copying the before-and-after numbers from outdated posts)

Upkeep phase
Stability check: 14 (success; +1 BP)
Consumption: 0
Magic items: N/A
Unrest: Loyalty check for presence of Kobolds -- 19. Makes DC, Unrest remains at 0.

Improvement phase
Changes in leadership: None
Claimed Hexes: Claim Candlemere Hex (cost 1 BP, Consumption increases by 1, Command DC increases by 1)

NOTES: Our Kingdom is now size 11. From this point on, we can claim 2 hexes per turn, and build up to 2 buildings and 2 roads. We are still restricted to building at most 1 farm and founding at most 1 city each turn.

City improvement: Clear land for city in Candlemere Hex (cost 2 BP)
Roads: Build Road in Candlemere Hex (cost 2 BP)
Farmlands: Build Farm in Hex F2 (Cost 4 BP, -2 Consumption)
Edicts:
- Festivals: Increase to 6 (+1 Consumption, +1 Loyalty)

Income phase
Deposits/withdrawals: None
Magic items: None
Income (economy check): Roll of 19 yields 9 BP

Event phase
1d100 ⇒ ?

END:
Economy: +29
Loyalty: +26
Stability: +23
Consumption: 0

DC: 31
Unrest: 0
Treasury: 16 BP

(NOTE: Iaurinn, your numbers for Abadius on your most recent post appear to me to be off; I think you may have been copying the before-and-after numbers from outdated posts)

Thanks; corrected.

NOTE: Treasury is 16 BP rather than 17 because clearing Hills for city costs 2 BP, not 1 (currently incorrect on spreadsheet.)

Don't mean to nitpick, and thanks for all the work you put into this. In redundancy there is strength!

NOTE: Treasury is 16 BP rather than 17 because clearing Hills for city costs 2 BP, not 1 (currently incorrect on spreadsheet.)

Thanks, I realized that reading your Turn summary. I just hadn't uploaded the new sheet yet. It will just take another minute.

In redundancy there is strength!

New state motto? Nah...

Looking ahead:

The plan for the month after Calistil likely is pretty set (build the caster's tower, claim hexes towards Dancing Lady.) After that, though ... things get a little more interesting.

The Magic Item Economy from the Caster's Tower is going to be a huge boost monetarily, even at this early stage. It's true that, on a ludicrously bad but possible day, it could earn us as little as 2 extra BP. On a ridiculously good but possible day, it could earn us as much as much as 15 or so extra BP. The month-to-month reality is likely to be somewhere in the middle.

The current plan is to put a bit away each month for eventual big ticket items, while putting up enough smaller construction at the same time to keep pace with the increasing DC of our expanding Kingdom.

Basically, each month we ideally build a cheaper building that shores up a weak point (early on, this might be Stability and some Defenses for the two Castle-less towns), and then once every few months we put down something Big -- which will in turn make a number of other buildings then cheap enough to be feasible.

The balance here is obvious; the more we can save, the faster we can put up bigger buildings. But we can't scrimp so much we screw over our Kingdom stats. We should probably pick an amount to try to save each month; adjustable based on the big-ticket item we want to build next. For example, while we are saving up for the half-price castle, if we can save up 6 BP a month, we'll be able to buy it when we want it. When we go for something more expensive, like a Cathedral, we should have a pretty good handle on whether it's wisest to save more or wait longer.

A couple of further notes: There are some in-game (XP) advantages to concentration most of our new construction in Stronghold early on rather than spreading it out. And new city districts, because they share defensive structures with older ones, also have a slight advantage over whole new cities if all else is equal. However, it's not always equal -- I feel that the Lesson Of Oleg's Trading Post is that it's a bad idea to look ANY gift horse in the mouth. We should plan for eventual cities at the Temple of Erastil site and the Pier site.

And we should get the rest of the map explored come the spring.

Should we start planning Turn 12?

The way I see it:

Indisputables:
- Candlemere becomes a city. Yay!
- Build a Caster's Tower on its ruins: 15 BP
- Iaurinn claims the title "Lord of Candlemere". :)

Discussables:
- Claim Hex I2: 1 BP
- Claim Hex A2: 1 BP
- Build roads in Hex I2: 2 BP
- Build roads in Hex I2: 2 BP
The forest hexes add to the Control DC but cost no Consumption, because we have 3 city districts to provide with lumber.

Total Cost that month: 21 BP. This assumes we make the Economy check! A 1 would cause us lots of trouble. If we want to avoid this, we basically have to stop after the Indisputables. DM, can you confirm that we are not allowed to spend Action Points on Economy checks?

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Then for Turn 13:

- Claim G2: 1 BP
- Start urbanization of G2: 4 months (takes 2 months! does that mean we don't get the Castle yet?)

Turn 13 and 14: Build some buildings to shore up our lagging kingdom stats. Build two farms to support Dancing Lady (probably in the plains to keep things affordable).

I suggest building another Monument in Dancing Lady. How about a larger-than-life replica of the original Dancing Lady statue, to serve as a source of pride for the brave souls who man the lone castle in the woods?

Not sure why you put two farms -- a single farm will support both Dancing Lady and Thornford, since they're in woods hexes, won't it?

If you want to build a monument at that time, it will need to be in Candlemere, as Dancing Lady will not be ready for building yet. However, I think we should take a look at our stats and DC around then before deciding definitively what we need most at that time -- stability, loyalty, economy, or defensive structures in our two all-but-defenseless towns (this CANNOT be neglected.)

On turn 14 we should also claim and begin urbanizing Thornford. No reason to delay.

You're not going to like this, but I might advocate a turn or two of non-expansion while we wait for Dancing Lady to be cleared for settling. Most of our stats are going to lag behind the DC by 10 points at that time. With the kobold rolls and the possibility of epically failing the Stability checks, we could get into deep s+## quickly. If, instead, we spend those two turns building buildings in Stronghold and/or Candlemere, by the time the Castle will fall into our laps, we'll be ready for more expansion.

Expansion is not our one and only goal. If anything, I would say prosperity is. Expansion is good for prosperity when it is affordable, but not a goal of its own. If we expand too greedily, our people will pay the price in chaos and suffering.

Not sure why you put two farms -- a single farm will support both Dancing Lady and Thornford, since they're in woods hexes, won't it?

I think Nicolas specified that only forest hexes without cities count for the purpose of lumbering?

However, I think we should take a look at our stats and DC around then before deciding definitively what we need most at that time -- stability, loyalty, economy, or defensive structures in our two all-but-defenseless towns (this CANNOT be neglected.)

If you're worried about defense, we definitely have to slow down our expansion. Building a complete city wall for Candlemere takes 4 turns and 16 BP, for example. This will eat up BP and building slots without helping our other stats.

On turn 14 we should also claim and begin urbanizing Thornford. No reason to delay.

Here's a reason: We might need some time to save up for the half-priced Castle, and until we have that money, an urbanized but unused hex only brings us drawbacks?

I think Nicolas specified that only forest hexes without cities count for the purpose of lumbering?

Ah, if that's true, then I see.

Er ... who said anything about throwing up a full set of city walls around two cities RIGHT NOW IMMEDIATELY? I was talking about, like, a watchtower in each. Adds to defense and stability. All good.

If we are successfully able to save 6 BP a turn, which should be entirely possible if we are thoughtful about it with the magic item economic boost, we will be able to build the castle right then! Exciting, no?

CALISTRIL 4712 AR …

All good according to me.

Event phase
1d100 ⇒ 21, something happens! (41,83)

You're not going to like this, but I might advocate a turn or two of non-expansion while we wait for Dancing Lady to be cleared for settling.

I am certainly willing to consider it. Let's see how we're doing then, shall we?

Kyrademon wrote:

CALISTRIL 4712 AR …

All good according to me.

Event phase
1d100 ⇒ 21, something happens! (41,83)

Is this going to screw up our plans for the following months? Should we stop the kingdom building here until we've acted things out it person?

DM, can you confirm that we are not allowed to spend Action Points on Economy checks?

I confirm!