You need to plunder noble estates in Rim Square after stopping harrowing. Of course you need to be aristo.
Then you loot some aristo houses and your own family home.
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Exactly, and plundering the aristos unsurprisingly makes them like you less. But the challenge states you have to do an Uprising Start and overcome this, and overcome forgoing the +20 Noble Faction boost that can only be obtained in Jailbreak Starts, to get the Nobles to help you!
How can it be done? Perhaps in this scene, intentions matter more than consequences…
Select “The nobles and merchants are your own flesh and blood” while playing a build with zero Charisma (or where you didn’t build any Helot cred.) Making that statement alone boosts Noble and Merchant cred a bit. Because your Charisma is so bad, you’ll fail to stop the plundering, so you’ll get your sword. But the minor relations malus is no big deal, and easily recoverable with smart play.
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How do you get zvad to stay, and how do you get Mikal Rose assistance
If Zvad is leaving, it’s usually either if Breden’s your deputy and you’ve acquired Sybla’s training, or you’ve successfully convinced the band to Stand and Fight. The only way to convince him to stay is as the Angels’ Eclect, and that you’re being sincere about being the Angels’ Eclect, will make him stay. But I don’t remember if you also had to be a CHA 2 (or at least CHA 1), and if he’ll leave no matter what as long as you chose the battle route. You’re better off just letting him go on good terms at this point.
As for Mikal de Rose’s assistance, you’ll need a high enough reputation with the Nobility. This is only possible as an aristo MC, due to a helot MC’s massive deduction penalty with the nobility’s starting reputation, and even if you did all the options that can boost noble reputation, it won’t nearly be enough to get to that point. And it makes sense lore-wise too; Mikal de Rose wouldn’t go out of their way to help an ex-Keriatou helot rather than a disowned Keriatou cousin.
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Right. Helot options are more circumscribed; they can obtain merchant assistance, but the aristos will want nothing to do with you. And be warned: an aristo player who played nice with the nobles will face an enemy army about half the size that a helot player that brutalized the de Merre faces. Aristos can be a good friend or a terrible enemy.
That said, when I play helot, I like to go ham and raid people viciously…and with a properly run Winter, you will still beat Archon with all lieutenants alive (and an extra Bleys).
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Here
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So on the Discord, we were working on ways to do the following:
- Uprising Start
- Lost Not A One Achievement
- Nonviolent Resistance Achievement
Ledd did it the legit way, albeit it was a RNG-dependent run.
I am a Slytherin at heart and found a loophole in the code: if you’re an Arrogant Noble, then you cannot control your Helots even if you’re 2CHA. So even if you tell them to disarm and run to the woods, they’ll murder people and loot the town. But because you did not give an order to commit violence, it does not count as Violence for achievement purposes. But it does mean you start with 11 mules and the extra loot, which makes a Pacifist Winter much easier.
Bug or working as designed?
(Ledd taught me how to do it legit and I eventually accomplished it.)
There was another possible error found: Aletheia says you brought down 3 Plekoi even if you only took down 1.
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What happens when you go too ham in the Winter.
While befriending Helots, I pissed off everyone else…and am now facing 1517 enemies. I have 330 rebels myself, and will obviously run away rather than face the foe.
Anarchy is 84.
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Impressive!
Working as designed, in that case. I’ll check on the 3 plektoi.
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Thanks! I got stuck at about 75-80 Anarchy and 1300-1400 rebels for a while. Then I made a paradigm shift to break 1500 by doing the following: start off with a large Breden recruitment run, then LATER scout and raid. You only need to hit Nobles twice or so to knock down the cred stats to minimal levels. Raid two temples, a garrison or two, and ofc Architelone. Also brutalize Yeomen, and I even went Cosmopolitan just to make Yeomen dislike me more by avoiding cred boosts in the nationalist path.
On a less…anarchic note, the Discord and I were coming up with character archetypes for XoR, similar to what Infiniverse does. We had fun, and think we came up with builds that are fun to roleplay and encompass a wide variety of XoR’s stories and experiences.
The Honorable Paladin
• 2COM/1INT Aristocrat
• Comp/Dev(E)/Cosm
• Uprising Start
• Low Anarchy
• Hated by Helots (but hopes to win them back)
• Supported by Nobles/Merchants
• Defeated the Archon
The Honorable Paladin treats people with compassion and an open hand, and envisions a peaceful order where upright nobles rule over contented subjects all across the former Hegemony. He is a nonpareil swordsman and strategist, but is held back by his poor charisma and the disdain the helotry have for him. (This is the “good boy” version of my Low Anarchy 2COM Noble runs).
The Savage Warrior
• 2COM/1CHA Helot
• Ruth/Skep/Home
• Uprising Start
• High Anarchy
• Hated by Nobles/Merchants
• Defeated the Archon
An indomitable helot rebel who sees his cause as a war against both the Karagonds and all the wealthier classes, not to mention the priesthood that buttresses them. While a skilled warrior who has been able to reach large chunks of the helotry, he is not very bright or farsighted, and may discover that there are limits to what pure rage can accomplish. (This is actually a quite strong build and can take down 1000+ armies with no lieutenants lost.)
The Clever Theurge
• 2INT/1CHA Aristocrat
• Comp/Skep/Cosm
• Jailbreak Start
• Low Anarchy
• Supported by Nobles/Merchants
• Escaped the Archon
Sort of the opposite to the above build, the Clever Theurge is…exactly what it says on the tin. This nobleman discovered theurgy from a friend’s book, and while not particularly brave (he didn’t stop the Harrowing), he is able to use his allies and his new tricks to evade the Hegemony, and face them later when his powers have grown. (Yes, you can get attribute bonuses for Comp/Skep/Cosm on a Jailbreak run, but you must go out of your way to boost Comp in Winter, as well as set up an Apella).
The Vicious Goete
• 2INT/1COM
• Ruth/Skep/Home
• Uprising Start
• High Anarchy
• Hated by Nobles/Priests/Merchants
• Escaped the Archon
For the Vicious Goete, magic’s primary benefit is not sharpening weapons or weighing down armor, but the ability to inspire the helotry and appall everybody else. Unlike the secretive Theurge above, this Goete used his powers since the Harrowing itself. (This build absolutely CANNOT defeat the Archon, so don’t even try. If you do it but stay a secret Goete, it’s very difficult to win as a High Anarchy Helot, but possible.)
The Radical Idealist
• 2CHA/1COM Aristocrat
• Ruth/Dev(V)/Home
• Uprising Start
• High Anarchy
• Supported by Helots/Nobles/Merchants
• Defeated the Archon
We now move to the 2CHA builds, each being a charismatic creator of their own religion. The nobleman is an idealist dreaming of a return to a glorious Shayard, back in the days where Nobles sat in their rightful places and there was no blood magic or Karagonds to speak of. This character has a deep personal hatred of the priesthood, and uses his radical ideas of the “Inner Voice” to circumvent the Karagonds and facilitate his goal of creating a Shayard both old and new at the same time.
The Pacifist Prophet
• 2CHA/1INT Helot
• Comp/Dev(V)/Cosm
• Uprising Start
• Low Anarchy
• Supported by Helots/Yeomen/Merchants
• Sent Rebels Back to the Camps
Pretty standard pacifist build. And we’re going to be genuine, kindhearted pacifists…not the faux-pacifists that kill off Alless by keeping rations for sick lower so they can get more recruiting runs in.
—-
I will not be writing premades for failruns, because let’s be honest: which player wants to be called “Child Killer” and not have anybody to talk to because he lost 5 lieutenants in an ill-fated battle?
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Hi people. I originally played this game 2 or 3 years ago. Now i am thinking of buying some CoG on steam, just wanted to know before i buy if there has been any significant story update since then.
Don’t want any spoilers please.
No story update, but if you haven’t bought this game already, you have to. It’s a magisterial work and the standard-bearer for the interactive fiction genre. It combines epic fantasy with robust gameplay and roleplaying.
I have put 200 hrs into this game and I STILL encounter new strategies. (Eg I finally figured out how to score flawless victories as a High Anarchy Helot Goete.)
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Hey, discord server owner here! Going to attempt this challenge today, and I’ll post my results and ( hopefully victories ) on the server. People have already more or less spammed this thread with invite links to it, so if you want to join just scroll up a bit.
I’ve lurked for a long time here, but I don’t know if this has been addressed yet: I’ve always found it odd that when I conduct more than one raid on the noble Houses, the amount of loot I had from before gets replaced by another set number.
For example, after I do the second House raid, I come back with 9600 drachems worth of loot, when bringing all ten mules. I spend a bit of it over the weeks for grain. Then I initiate the Architelone raid, which bumps the amount of loot right back up just a little bit. Now, when Week Ten comes and I do the final possible House raid, the max loot I get is 14400 drachems worth of loot. All well and good, but the problem is, it seems to have erased about 8000 drachems worth of loot that I haven’t touched yet. It’s obvious the number has been replaced rather than added to the rest of the loot, because the loot number is flat zeroes, as if it were rounded off.
This problem also relates to the first to second House raids, in which even just a small 1400 drachems worth of loot, gets replaced by a flat 9600 drachems worth of loot. So far, I got around the problem by purchasing a mule for 1400 drachems every week. It still means I lose 700 drachems per mule though, but it’s better than letting 8000 drachems dissappear.
Perhaps this is just an error. Raiding the nobility should be profitable as it is satisfying. My current mule strategy saves enough for me to raise up to 60K drachems, but it could have an extra 10K more if the House loot was stacked over the rest of the loot. Again, I still don’t recall a post about this, but I think it bears bringing up.
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Hey! So after being a rebels fan for well over 3 years now, I’ve finally decided to make my own steam guide! ( link: Steam Community :: Guide :: The 'Backcountry Plot' guide )
The guide revolves around the Backcountry Plot, a noble run where you conspire with/are helped by not one, not three, not five, but six different nobles, really driving home that noble conspiracy, haha. Took me a good 4-5 testing runs before I grasped it entirely. Any review of it is much welcomed!
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I think it’s a bug, and the idea was to get 4800 gold per Noble Raid, which is decent. Still, I don’t like to raid Nobles much beyond the De Merre’s (which also gives food and recruits, and cements the kind of run you are doing).
Great guide! I like the theme of the run, and the fact that it works great. 
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@Havenstone Greetings and salutations, Glorious Leader.
I was contacted and asked to investigate the The Inner Voice achievement. It was either previously possible to unlock this achievement with Charisma 2 - but since patched - or I made a mistake in my original guide (it’s possible!).
Therefore the only method presently available is to have Charisma 1 and use Breden’s assistance (in addition to some other minor requirements).
I’ve made inquiries into the text and my impression is that this is intended due to Kalt / Kala’s passionate reaction to Breden’s speech. This reaction is not present when the MC gives the same speech with Charisma 2. My guess is that Breden has “Charisma 3” or happens to have a naturally strong relationship with Kalt / Kala.
Could you please confirm this or otherwise elaborate on the circumstance? The practical effects of Charisma 1 + Breden vs Charisma 2 are identical except for the unlocking of the achievement (and increasing Breden’s leadership rating), so I’m interested as to how this came to be.
Many thanks, as ever, for your hard work and excellence.
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Can I ask how old the MC is during this book?
This is great stuff but I have a couple nitpicks. In the guide you say that the architelone raid will be on week 7, and the theurge attacks will be on weeks 4 and 9. This is far from certain. The architelone raid can be any week from 7-9, and theurge attacks occur randomly once in weeks 4-6 and once in weeks 7-9. At least, that’s my understanding of it. Anyway great work.
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thanks for the nitpick, actually! that is true, but if you look in the guide when i was referring to the architelone raid i said you must have 40 rebels by week 7 of winter. So if the raid is another week due to random RNG, the person following the guide would be prepared regardless. Same with the theurge raids, the figures i used in my guide were the worst case scenarios. ( worst case scenarios that are dealt with in full. )
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