I managed to complete on tutorial(it turned out that tutorial is short length game :P Dunno if it was on easy difficulty or not though) so I decided to have war clan easy difficulty long length game and started with Elmal's temple, bonus to combat, thralls, elves as enemy and as big land as possible(which turned out to be pain in ass because I don't have enough guards to prevent people cattle raiding me constantly)

So anyway, I've managed to get myself into situation where everyone seems to hate me for some reason and I can't keep cow amount above 700. I plan to finish this as war clan, so uh, hints? I can't really do anything because I'm too poor to do anything and everyone seems to be against me. I don't really plan to quit, but have I ruined this game already?

Also, how the heck I can raid those darn elves? Heck, I don't care whether I get good hints about how to continue without switching to balanced or peace(which seem to be easier than being war clan :P I guess I shouldn't have allied myself with all my neighbors earlier. I don't know how the heck they all dislike me(including apparently by tribesmen) with only one feud) as long I can get hints on how to get back at those.

This first, same as with trolls, dragons, praxians and whatever, you might have some chance to strike back at some point. But generally speaking you can't do anything about them, consider them a force of nature, not something to rage against.

And yeah, warclan is tough. Big tula is tough. Everybody hates you because you don't give them gifts and feasts, which you cant afford, being broke.

The neighbors won't gift you to keep you happy, totally unfair. But so it is.

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Try to send emissaries with gifts to some neighbors. Raid the pants off some tribe and send emissaries demanding constant tribute. Cattle raid others. Explore, sacrifice for mysteries, do heroquests.

But heck, your probably toast. I end up in a disaster most of the time.

Managed to somewhat salvage situation, but not very well =/ Probably still doomed... Anyway, I'm kind of annoyed that my trickster died almost right away after starting the game(he was 60), in retrospect they turn out to be much more useful than just few random high risks high yields choices...

A bright side to that is you'll get a fresh trickster sooner than later and he or she'll last you a long time. That is, unless one of those high risk missions goes bad.

Yeah, I got new younger one now.

...Though I think I'm gonna give up on this one. Mainly because my amount of cows seems to keep being at 500 now :P I'll just start again with same settings and be smarter next time, especially now that I know that allying with every neighborhood doesn't actually help in tribe making -_-; Its just frustrating to keep hearing this game's "Wah wah waaah" music, its kind of depressing when everything keeps going wrong :P And game over seems to be far away... I guess I could still salvage this game if I did something smart, but its so frustrating that I think I just slaughter all my cows and see if that ends the game. I may return to this game later if I feel like trying to see if anything can be done(or just want extra challenge)

Speaking of which, "Clan dispersing" game over text is pretty nice too. Whats with epilogue for clan leaders about where they went to after clan was disbanded.

Number one hint: read the manual. And pay attention to the part about roleplaying.

We’ve also put a bunch of specific tips on our site at http://a-sharp.com/kodp/tips.html

Ive never played this game before, however, I did download it and played it. This is one tough game. Almost everything you do is a dice roll so my suggestion is always save at Sacred Time, Always save before hero uests and always save before you raid. I always had 2 saves per game, one was called Sacred time and the other is called avoid random stuff. lol

Anyways I learned that the food problem can be solved by making more land into crop land. Even though your advisors will say stuff like "We need more cattle" or "We dont have enough farmers" You will always get maximum food this way. However doing this keep in mind of the harvest number as it will go up to a number and basically not go any higher, the rest of the land you will make into pastures and I always keep at least 10 more than my cattle require then make the rest into wild lands.

As a war clan I would attack the people I feud with as much as possible until they come for peace then I ask them to pay 10 in tribute anually. They always accept any more and I found they usually refuse. Then you will be at peace with them for a while until they quit paying. Then if you successfully raid them again they will continue paying.

At the begining I always did the hero quest Ernalda feeeds the tribe and always chose the crop yield one http://kodp.wikidot.com/hero-quests.

doing this early will make it much easier when you plan to raid and whatnot and dont want to run out of food. Also I never cattle raid becuase you seem to always get a low number of cattle when you can just plunder them and get alot more if you succeed (Remember to save just in case you fail) you dont have to play the save reload if something bad happens game, but in games that it is always a dice roll thats what I do.

Hey, I did actually read the manual and know how you are supposed to play this game :P I completed game on tutorial, it isn't THAT easy considering its only "Do what manual says, after that its free game" type one, its just that its win condition is being king for 10 years and having done particular hero quest :P

Also, save scumming is kind of cheating, unless you are at that point in the game where you lose if you fail that manual mentions.

You can't raid those dang elves, but as you've mentioned that you made them your clan/tribe's enemy, you can learn the "Summons of Evil" spell from your Ancestors on the Magic screen, then invoke when you are ready, and they will come to you. From the game manual: The Summons of Evil draws some aspect of your ancient enemy upon you. Defeating your enemy gives you magical benefits, and other clans respect.

Might just kill two birds with one stone, ehh?

I tried it, it seems to trigger elf event. So yeah, its kind of useless with elves unless there is some hidden event where you can fight them.

Like Civilization and many other games of strategy, it pays to start over when you start bad. I started over many times King of dragon pass until I was comfortable with my early situation. Things to be on the lookout:

- Death of an important advisor early on, like the trickster or a very good chief, is a good reason to start over or load an earlier save.
- Losing too many battles is trouble, it makes you poor and besides, the unrest starts to escalate. But some battles are much worse than others. For example, if they take too many captives from my clan, I load the game because that simply ruins business.
- To be honest, I don't see a big problem in a bad clan mood. That varies wildly over the game, and in my games it comes mostly from random situations handled with the customs of the clan in mind.
- Magic and how you handle it is VERY important. Having advisors from seven different gods gives you magic. Having a chief that follows the clan primary god gives you magic. Take that magic and save it for specific situations. I generally always start my years saving 9 points of magic if possible, and use three points for each fight. Blast those elves away with four or more points of magic, kill as many as possible, keep their horses, enslave the captives if you will. Raids can become profitable that way, and improves general mood.
- If you don't have cows, trade what you have for cows. If you never have nothing to trade, try again next year, and if it happens again start over.
- I don't know about about the easy setting, but having a large territory early on is useless in my opinion. That only makes it easy for enemies to raid you, and being raided without spotting your enemy always ends in a sorry mess. Start over with a slightly larger territory than you need to grow into.
- War clan is ok if you raid your neighbours regularly and profit from it. Try to raid always the same bastards, that prevents you from making too many enemies.
- Make friends, try allying with other clans and keep them close. They're useful, if at times costly. I didn't advance in the game enough to start a tribe, but I hear alliances are mandatory for that end -- military force alone won't do it.
- In the beginning of each year, when you must allocate magic, pay attention to what your god-talkers say. If they say you must explore a distant land, go there imediately. If they say you must go on a hero quest, spend points in quests and go in the same year. If they say harvest will stink, prepare to buy food from neighbours. It's the way of the world.

All this said, I'm not doing great in this game myself. I have these things figured out, but there's always someone very powerful becoming an instant enemy and bringing my clan to its knees sooner rather than later. I only played it for a while now.

I didn't go VERY far into the game, but I tend to never rush my enemies into my clan. If they come, I blast them with magic, if they burn my clan to the ground I know I did something very wrong and I start over. So if there's a ritual that brings my old enemies around, I just ignore it. They'll come sooner or later, and it'll be bloody, it's part of the game. Enemies I have a feud with, I don't go after them unless I want to enslave them or destroy them. If it's just to piss them off, I'm better off letting them come when they want, then blasting them away with magic and stealing their horses.

Yeah, I like trying to build up a little magic reserve when I can as well. Notice how when you do, often some pain in the ass clan emissary drops buy to remind you that your clan owes his a favor, and of course wants a nice chunk of your magic in re-payment? Damn Stickpickers!!

I find building a temple to the god of death Hunmakt very useful. for the true sword blessing. Making your weaponthanes fight with the strength of two weaponthanes. Along with a temple too Issaries. Useful for trade and making some more silver to gift others with. These goods you make, can be used to gift, bribing off others or trade for stuff you truly need. Along with other things. Which is also the reason i try too set up trade routes quickly as i can at the start of a new game. For all the things you can do with a few goods. Normally takes a while before someone says yes i wish to trade with you often.