I’ve always gone with “eat the same as the rest” and had no problems as I keep rations at sustinence until week 6-7 when I can afford to bump it up to healthy for the rest of winter. Do you know if there is some bonus to the leader eating healthy or hidden negative to eating sustinence? I am aware that if you eat below sustinence you get sick but I think as long as you keep decently fed you’re good, and I think there is a minor morale penalty to eating more than everyone else judging on the text.
You can’t, I’m afraid. There is no plausible way within the gameworld that a helot has that negotiation with Calea – no basis for the strained family trust that underpins the aristo-Calea bargain, or any measure of trust at all.
There are other gameplay aspects that only a helot gets, notably the return of Carles the jongler; and as we’ve discussed above, in future games male helot characters may have a Calea romance that no other type of character gets.
While I’m crushing hopes and dreams: I’m not planning Cerlota as a playersexual or genderflipping character. Female MCs may be in luck (though with more difficulty if you’re a Theurge yourself); male MCs will have to be satisfied with a Platonic relationship.
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Clearly I chose well having a skeptical nationalistic noble public Theurge…
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grins The thing is, Choice of Rebels really does a pretty good job of letting you play the character you want, and survive. I would be the first to encourage people to play what feels right in their gut, especially the primary MC.
However, if one wants to explore other avenues, or say get all the Achievements, then that’s where the min-maxing comes in…such as my suggestions on how t beat the Phalangites. That said, you can still succeed with a skeptical nationalist…the public theurge pretty much leaves the option off the table 
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Does male breden not want children too or is it just the female?
Breden in general (female/male) doesn’t want children.
Though male Breden might be easier to bring around eventually (as in post-rebellion), considering he doesn’t have to carry the pregnancy or breastfeed them. 
My mc on the other hand, if he truly needs an heir or apprentice at all would be looking, reluctantly, at adopting older teenagers or even young adults.
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@Havenstone Oh well lol, now I’m just hoping we can be friends and she doesn’t end up getting in my way and I end up killing her in an epic theurgic battle
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Hehe indeed. I was able to get to the end on my first try by running away like a cowa–I mean, like an astute leader, which, though perhaps not as astoundingly successful of a conclusion as others have had, was rewarding enough for my character. We’ll see how things go for her in the next chapters. There must be something redeeming about her haha.
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Now, I haven’t looked at the code, but I think people with a better diet may also fight better. If not, that might be a nice touch to include.
Actually, running away but keeping your group intact (not lurking back to the helot camps) is probably the best choice.
If you face the Phalangites, even with having maximum sort of troops, you will suffer 66-75% losses, even in victory, at least for the adult portion of your band. At this point in time, the MC can’t really afford a war of attrition.
I know I’ve done a lot of ‘beat the Phalangites’ goal talk lately, but that is just that…a personal goal. My primary MC was just happy to wipe out the baggage train, the Plektoi (with accompanying Theurges) and running for the rest.
I mean, 4-5 dead Theurges, and 3 Plektoi…as well as 200+ losses (associated forces) from the traps will garner the attention of the Thaumatarchy…while leaving the majority of her rebel band still alive.
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Just a general question for @Havenstone: Does Plektoi hide retain its hardness/durability after death? I mean, skin/armor that can turn aside iron/steel…
If so, I admit, I could see an MC trying to have armor crafted from Plektoi hide (assuming you could get a blade in their to separate it).
Yeah, I was thinking if one beats the Phalangites…but I also figure that Plektoi would be off-limits in Part 1 (party needing to run from Theurges seeking blood, etc.)
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Belatedly: I’d rather people took their cues from how people are responding to them. Several of the key NPCs have relationships with the MC along multiple dimensions, not just a single axis of like-dislike. I don’t think a relationship meter would do them justice.
I am however taking your and Haresus’ suggestion that I replace the 0-2 stat scale with written descriptions.
Thanks! I don’t want it to be too challenging – or rather, I want things like non-violence, non-stealing, and standing and fighting to be very challenging, but I want there to be lots of less challenging ways to get to a satisfying ending.
No; the traps-to-followers ratio now drops a bit at 150 man-weeks, but never becomes 0.
“Highfalutin de Shayarin” is Kalt making fun of your olde-style Shayarin name, i.e. that you’re not a Somethingatou. It should be echoed up a page or three later, when you’re considering whether or not to change your name to something more cosmopolitan. Sorry if this is a bit obscure.
Him calling you “lord lady,” however, was a bug rather than an imputation of genderfluidity. Fixed that for the next version.
I’ll try to tweak it so Week 8 is the last time that a mutiny can happen.
No MC has ever heard of one.
And per your suggestion, I will be adding a few Bethune options so Korszata and Bjel aren’t the overwhelmingly superior option for Game 1.
The game is not designed so everyone gets the same combination of advantages, and I’d defend “free intel” being available for story reasons to characters with a particular type of relationship with a given NPC. That said, an INT 2 aristo should be able to imagine and pursue the option for a negotiation with Calea even if they dislike Hector, so it’s not limited to aristos with a crush.
It does. But you can’t get a non-Theurgically-enhanced blade to cut it for armor-crafting purposes, and it’s also super heavy; your suit of Plektos armor would weigh as much as full plate, and be harder to manufacture. Still, might be worth having as an option for future games where you don’t have to quickly and stealthily leave the site of whatever Plektoi corpses you produce…
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With Therugy it seems to me that the base material for any change is the less important consideration, unless you are just trying to make the change easier. Since Plektoi are already changed to a significant degree I would think a suit of armor made from their skin would be more symbolic than anything. An enemy theruge could easily change it back into dog hide right? Obviously, not all your enemies will be theruges and the symbolism could be just as important, but it seems tactically impractical. A changed thing “wants” to revert to its natural state, that’s what determines the cost of a change in blood and concentration, right? Making a flying mountain fall should be easier than putting it up there in the first place.
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Can we rout the Phalangites with a known Theurge?
And, regarding romances, will we be able to get scenarios like “Oh, X and me are very close, but for a now we’ve begun to drift apart”?
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Yes it does echo like that but I only saw so after I had made the report. Once I saw that I was able to figure out what happened after a few moments of pondering, it was mostly the ‘lord lady’ comment that had me befuddled. If you just change the ‘lord lady’ you should not need to change anything else to make it more clear imo.
Cool; I have no problem with some characters being more effective in a situation than others, but in this case, I do think Bethune could take on a side-group of Phalangites if nothing else.
I know it does make more work, and that wasn’t my intention. It was like my suggestion to maybe have Etthenia (if you get the Disbelievers) to recommend something on the fight/run/head to the camps circle.
Which also makes it a good thing the Tagmatarch ran back with their Theurge forged sword then
More seriously, as a future game option it could be a really neat scene. Many people in RPGs do like to deck their characters out in armor…this would be sort of the same idea.
The only thing I could answer to this is that when the Plektoi is done, the change is ‘permanent’…that more blood isn’t needed to retain its armor (not unless the Theurge is doing something else). So, undoing that ‘final’ change could still be costly…maybe not as costly as making the Plektoi in the first place, perhaps, but still cost prohibitive to change back into base components.
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Who’s Cerlota Viore?
Did you manage to get Horion to tell you why he was travelling through your neck of the woods in the first place? He reveals that he was going to Wiend in search of an escaped Theurge…that’s Cerlota Viore
You find her name if, after successfully fleeing/dealing with the Phalangites, and choose to head to the Pan’s place at the very end.
Oh, right! I just remembered. It lived in my head as “the secret Theurge”. Thanks, Lys.