Just clicked for me that the helot-hunters are called ‘fugitive-hounds’ lmao
8 Likes
Two more question 
- Just saw this while going though some old posts and I saw this
Does the rival part means that they will be unfriendly to any mc who has done “some” violence even if they have super high compassion 
- Plus I’m curious did you change your mind about this on purpose or was that just how the code turn out and you didn’t want to change it?
Also not a question but
That’s probably where my main will end up going towards in the runs where their compassion doesn’t go into freefall
4 Likes
Chapter 1 and the FAQ for the build is done!
- Is this the only way to succeed with a 2COM/1INT “Red Bars” Build?
No. Ledd (who I consider the best XoR player) has a structurally different Winter strategy from me, including doing the Owlscap Protection Racket. But our builds get similar results.
- So why don’t you do the Owlscap Protection Racket?
I feel that it straightjackets Winter runs, and you learn less about rations/recruiting/raiding management if you do the Protection Racket every time. And it cannot be done on a 2COM/1CHA build anyways.
- Wait, you said I can do this with 2COM/1CHA?
Sort of. If you go 2COM/1CHA, your build will actually succeed at stopping the post-Harrowing looting. This will require you to run a different Winter strategy, though the same principles apply. Also you use Elery to help you plan the Architelone raid. Also remember that 2COM/1CHA can fight the Theurges in Ch4 without losing Kalt!
- Can I do a 2INT build with a structurally similar Winter?
No, at least not in a way that’s RNG proof. I have tried. As I said before, Intellect builds are more brittle than Combat ones. Please see my “Savage Goete” guide, also on Steam, for a successful minmaxed Intellect build, though it cannot kill Horion and show off his body.
- Do I need to set the traps?
No but you should, because otherwise you’d have to find arms for your extra rebels. Or they may get spooked in Chapter 4, and persuaded to run to the camps by Breden.
- Will you update this build for Book 2 when it’s out?
I certainly will, but I would add that Book 2 does not have anything as math and planning intensive as the Winter in Book 1. In the beta at least, it’s a much more narratively driven book, so there’s much less need for a guide.
So you should focus more on having fun there. The goal of this guide is to maximize your options for a fun Book 2 experience.
7 Likes
Thanks to someone reminding me to ask in the discord will the flag for tracking if you got the child name after you scene be retrospective or are we going to have to wait for the update to the first game (or edit it in to our saves) or have you changed your plans to add one
3 Likes
If MC save Charles as cosmopolitan helot, can MC meet him again?
Also, will notoriety stats check appear in this book?
7 Likes
I know beating the Archons army doesn’t increase anarchy mechanically, at the end of game 1. But I do wonder if it will increase anarchy in reality.
Like it should be a massively destabilising event right? At least for the rim and maybe western Shayard as a whole.
7 Likes
Well, it COULD lead to more Anarchy. Or, as happens to Irduin, it could lead to everyone rallying around the flag and trying to preserve their order.
I wouldn’t worry about it too much. By this point, the culture of the XoR community has evolved to a point where victory in the battle, particularly with an inferior attribute combination, has come to be seen as the true test of a build’s merit (because it’s the most mechanically complex ending to achieve). So winning the battle gives you street cred if nothing else.
I do hope it will have gameplay benefits in Book 2 and beyond, though!
7 Likes
We’ve been told that Notoriety will have positive effects in the future. And defeating a Phalangite invasion makes you look like the definition of a swiving badass.
6 Likes
It’s a pretty insignificantly small force, a few hundred out of a single garrison of 10000, defeating it doesn’t actually accomplish anything tangible even to that single garrison town and I assume the cover-up will be quite significant.
It’s just bragging rights at this point.
7 Likes
Interesting prospect if our MC goes heavily in to theurgy, will they be able to create their own plektos. Also I am personaly looking foreward to/dreading meeting a human based plektos
3 Likes
Hello! new to the forums but someone suggested to also post these here. Recently re-read Choice of Rebels and really liked the descriptions of the Plektos hound, and wanted to try my hand at drawing them.
Wanted to get them to look like wolves, but also have a little of that horse-like sturdiness to go with their size and intimidation factor. Tried to also emulate the mange some wolves get, on account on them being (partly(?) hairless. It was really fun to attempt it.
Also curious-- how did you all imagine/visualize the plektoi when you were first reading? or now? I remember back when i first read them i pictured something like a really big bulldog, haha.
37 Likes
Welcome, Abessive, and I love your Plektoi. Thanks so much for bringing them over to the forum. I’d also be interested to hear how people first visualized/imagined them on their readthroughs.
I don’t think I’ve shared his before, but this was the original draft sketch I was sent of what would become the XoR cover art:
If I’m honest, its abstraction appeals more to me than the final cover art did! 
But Abessive definitely has the most book-faithful version, and my fave so far.
29 Likes
iirc Herne mentioned that the losses the Phalangites suffered could very well delay the next Hegemonic incursion on Sojourn, so the effects of the battle had to have been a lot more substantial than what we’ve seen so far.
I think its worth noting that the Hegemony lost more than just Phalangites. There were Alastors and noble retainers supporting them as well, both of whom also suffered heavily, not to mention all the Theurges a 2INT MC can kill. The political consequences of those kinds of losses cant just be shrugged off. Definitely not the huge credibility boost our rebellion got from inflicting them against so superior an enemy force, if not in a place like Irduin then undoubtedly in the closer and more regressive Rim.
It’ll help with recruitment, if nothing else
10 Likes
To be honest the political consequences are the only ones that matter. When it comes to numbers then its a nothingburger of nothinburgers to the Hegemony. They have a lot of other alastors and phalangites.
9 Likes
NGL this sketch is better than the final product. The plektos in the cover always felt very… small, to me. Like the artist just heard “magic wolf” and not “abomination of bioscience”.
11 Likes
This goes back to the suggestion that losing 7-10 Theurges is probably a bigger deal to the Archon than the loss of a Tagma.
The Hegemony really is just a state run by mad scientists.
10 Likes
True true. The losses arent anything that can’t be replaced. But regardless, from my perspective, there is still something of a material dimension to the Hegemony’s defeat. It had lost the army it had specifically formed to fight the rebellion, along with all the planning and supply organization that force went into the Whendward with, and decisively so at that.
It’ll undoubtedly need time to organize a new one, and time still to absorb the lessons at High Crag to ensure a similar defeat doesnt happen again. This doesnt necessarily mean it will be will be passive in that time, but it does mean that the chance of another concerted attempt to decisively crush our rebellion like at High Crag is, for the moment, abated. More so than in the Evasion path, at least.
In military jargon, the Hegemony has effectively yielded the strategic initiative to our rebellion, so even if we never plan on fighting a Hegemonic force on similar grounds again (at least while we’re still in the Rim), we could still use the opportunity such a defeat created to substantially shore up our support and improve our position in the Rim. In that aspect, I feel like the Battle path is really the most efficient path in putting our rebellion “out there”— a conduit of sorts, giving us the tools we need to employ more diverse tactics in resisting the Hegemony, rather than the end-all be-all battle-to-end-all-battles of our rebellion.
8 Likes
The MC’s internal monologue thinks of it as an army. It was just a Tagma. Closest thing to that in our contemporary military organization would be a battalion. That means that it’s something that the Archon doesn’t care that much about in the grand scheme of things.
MC is a smalltown boy/girl and that does mean that some things seem more significant to them than they actually might. The biggest thing I think it does for the MC is make us famous which could be helpful when we get in contact with other rebel movements. Also, it will mean that control of the Rim by the Hegemony is weaker.
The Hegemony’s problem isn’t us in isolation. It’s that things like our revolt are now happening with much more frequency. From slaves to regime elites like Sarcifer and Cerlotta, people are losing faith in the Hegemony which makes it squeeze harder and that makes people lose faith more. It’s in the beginning of a death spiral.
That’s going a bit far. We had to run away into Xaos. We are still reacting to what they are doing or what we think they might do for the moment.
Edit: FYI
So the Hegemony has approximately 1.2M men and women under arms excluding the navy.
8 Likes
“How important was High Crag?” is a fun question. From what we see in Stormwright, it generally seems like outside the Rim it’s not something people take seriously. Within the Rim, it seems to have the authorities panicked, as we here them begging for a proper garrison in Rimmersford, but even as relatively close as Irduin (or the mountain village in Xaos) the consensus seems to be “the rebels got lucky and jumped a force that wasn’t expecting it”. It’s definitely something that makes people go “oh ok these guys are serious”, but not a world shaking defeat. The conversation you can have on the yeoman right with visiting phalangites is most illuminating I think, their take is mostly that the local commanders underestimated the MC and their tactical home turf advantage, and tried to skimp on how many they had to actually send while over-relying on local auxiliaries. Inasmuch as there will be a doctrine shift after you destroy one thirtieth of the fifth largest garrison in the Southriding, it’ll be “send a proper force of coordinated phalangites next time, on a field that we choose”.
Something that I think is more interesting, and ought have the powers that be more concerned, is if the MC has been demonstrating capability as a Theurge killer. It’s possible that a notorious MC who gets the drop on the Theurges at High Crag is in the double digits at this point, which is a fairly serious accomplishment for any rebel.
(1 at Rim Square + at least 7 with the Phalangites + the 3 plektos handlers >= 11. @Havenstone if you’re looking for a number at which the MC should be specifically recognized as “someone good at killing Theurges” I think >5 is a good line, assuming you want it accessible. That means at bare minimum killing two Theurges in the battle proper, which should be doable on every path if easier on some than others, more if you don’t execute the Theurge at Rim Square or end up killing every plektos handler.)
EDIT: I think my math is bad actually, looking at it double digits seem to be impossible, as while you can face that many theurges you can’t kill them all in one run. Maximum Theurge kill count looks to be 9 (1 in RS + 5 in the battle as a secret Theurge + 3 handlers).
There are two Theurges present in Rim Square. Chirex gets away, but the second is killed in all outcomes except a successful pacifist revolt. He’s who you pull your initial Aetherial blood off of.
You’re correct, I didn’t think about martyrs because I was thinking of the MC personally doing or participating in the killing but yeah, double digits is totally doable for an open Theurge who has S in the band, along with Eclect or Inner Voice and is willing to off them.
16 Likes
You can’t kill Chirex, the Theurge in Rim Square
Edit: It is possible to kill all the Theurges that are with the Phalangites while being a Theurge by asking Elery or De Firiac to sneak into their camp.
Edit 2: Elery needs to become a kenonist to sacrifice herself, which is impossible without the 2 charisma that is necessary to achieve kenosis. Also, the protagonist needs to have either declared themselves to be the Eclect of the Angels or convinced their band to believe in the Inner Voice (the latter necesitates having 1 Charisma + Breden or 2 Charisma)
6 Likes