Hey, I'm really enjoying this game, but I've been confused. I'm having trouble getting a sense of feedback. I don't always expect a game to be transparent in its relaying of info, but yeesh, I'm stumped.

An example. I'm told that we won't have enough food, so we should slaughter cattle. When I go to slaughter cattle, my advisers tell me that we're not short on food, unlike what I was just told.
So:
1) How do I tell how much food I need? When I see "Food: 300", to me it just means "Food: something".
2) And about cattle. Are cattle really just currency, backup food, and sacrifices?
3) If that's the case, then aren't goods pretty much just inedible cattle? That was an odd question.

Even for being confused, I'm finding it a fun game.
There's a lot more questions I thought about asking, but I'll just leave it at that.
Thanks!

I can help with some of this but I am certainly no expert at this game.

1. Food - How much you need depends on how many people you have. I think the manual may say something about how many people one unit of food will feed. Generally, put at least a point or two of magic in crops during sacred time, don't raid during sea and earth seasons, the occaisional sacrifice to the appropriate gods and you'll be ok on food. Also, War clans don't have as many farmers as Balanced and Peace clans so....

But do NOT slaughter cows unless you are absolutely desperate! If you're short on food try to send out a trade mission for food (sell goods ideally) or slaughter pigs.

2. Cows represent wealth. But they also contribute some to the game's calculation of how much food your clan is producing (i.e. dairy products and some meat). I'm not sure how exactly the math works out on that though.

Generally speaking, you want to be gaining cows and not losing them. Of course, generosity is the sign of a prosperous and powerful clan so you want to have enough to hand out during random events where appropriate. My goal is usually to aim to float between 700-1000 cattle - that way I can improve relations with other clans as I need to do so. In the meantime I am always looking to get more (small cattle raids are expected in Orlanthi culture, even between allies).

3. Goods - To paraphrase GrimithR (excellent youtube LPer of this game) - "Cows represent wealth but goods are how sh*t gets done." Use goods for most sacrifices and transactions when possible/appropriate. It's ok to get low on goods as your clan will always produce more assuming that you have people assigned to be crafters. Establish trade routes to help get more goods. Also explore your own tula to find special craftable resources to increase goods production (a lot in this game is random but I have never NOT had special resources on my own tula).

I would recommend watching some LPs of this game on youtube. I would recommend Kikoskia and GrimithR specifically. I learned a lot about the game from watching them.

There is still a lot I don't know about the game myself but I hope this helps.

Surely the manual does: it is 1. 1 Bushel feeds one person for a year. (We chose that number so it would be memorable.)

Wow, a phone even (rather than an iPod touch or iPad)! That is a commitment!

Enjoy the additional content when you get it. Glad you’ve enjoyed it so far.

Cool thanks for the replies! That's some helpful info. I think I might watch Kikoskia do a LP. I used to watch his stuff awhile back. He's pretty funny. I suppose I will forgo any further questions until I watch a bit.
Also, I concur, great game!
I think one mark of a great game is even if you're not really good at it, or don't understand it, you keep playing anyway. It's still fun! Once I get to understand it better, I will probably find it even funner.
Thanks!